There have been no events and let's talk about that.

Like it says on the tin. We haven't had any real proper events in an age. We've had things come out that are unfinished, races released without much fanfare (and without languages) and nothing to drive the narrative of the world forward.

Forgive me for assuming, but it seems a lot like being someone who crafts the store for a text game is a lot like being a DM at a table. You create story and plots for your characters to chase down and then they even interact with eachother without your influence. Those moments have weight and are special BECAUSE the world around them is taxing them and bringing them closer together.

Aetolia has no such thing. If this were a table, we'd have all packed up our dice and left the game by now. We don't, likely because a lot of us know what this game can be. It can be intense rp and meaningful npcs and suspense. It hasn't been in a very long time and, let's be real, it's killing this game.

I understand that writing story doesn't make people buy credits (I'd argue it does, but I'm sure I'd be told I'm wrong) but this game needs a plot, it needs story and it needs engagement. I would much rather have a world wide event (and a good one, not some halfassed race drop) than a new, useless minipet. I'd much rather have ANYTHING AT ALL happen in the world than watch another artifact cart go up with some new artifact that will arrive to the people who purchased it buggy.

We need a place to talk about it? Let's talk about it. Let's talk about what's killing Aetolia.
SryaenTetchtaNaosValorieArchelausIllikaalAyastia
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Comments

  • TetchtaTetchta The Innocent
    I hope this thread doesn't get deleted, because this is a conversation we should be having as a community.

    NaosArchelausSeurimas
  • ZeheiaZeheia Immortal
    Tetchta said:

    I hope this thread doesn't get deleted, because this is a conversation we should be having as a community.

    There are more positive ways to address this point. Let's start off on the right foot, please!
    She/her but also responds to they/them thanks to chilling as Somebody or other.

    If in doubt, please refer to the Forum Rules! If in more doubt, please reach out to a moderator.

    Act as you would wish to be treated.

    "It costs you nothing to assume that we are acting in good faith."
    TetchtaRijettaSeurimasBoz
  • Sorry for the long post. These comments are both in general and pointed towards the Admins.

    It doesn't even have to be big, grand world-changing events, if you ask me. Medium sized events are fun too. I don't know how many people are around that remembers the Gates on Mostyn event. It mainly involved the order of Arion, but with the help of Enorian. In short, a gate bursted open and spewed out living shadows and while the combatants fought them off, the non-coms would be out gathering amethysts. Once we had enough (which would take several rl days, iirc), a Luminary forged a chain (cause they were the only ones able to handle the heat of the forge) which was used to seal the gates. Combatants got to fight off both darkies and shadows, non-coms could gather commodities. But above all, people RESPECTED that the event wasn't about THEM.

    These days people are so thirsty for any kind of event or action that it doesn't matter where it pops up, they will go there and get as involved as they can. Someone makes a small guild-related event for the Ascendril? I am pretty sure there are Lochians who would try to get involved. If there is a big world-changing event like the Kerrithrim event, sure, then everyone can get involved, but we need more SMALL events too. Perhaps even run a couple of them in tandem, so people don't get involved in other's businesses.

    And then there is another struggle, at least for parts of our community. Those of us living in Australia or Europe have a smaller chance to be involved in events where everything needs to be monitored and under control by Admins, since most Admin are american. For as long as I can remember, events usually happen around Howling, which is excellent for americans (early to late pm) and pretty good for Aussies (mid am) but in the middle of the night for Europeans. Put it earlier and it wouldn't work for the Aussies, put it later and it wouldn't work for the americans. If there were to be an event where a task can be performed without supervision, like finding the amethysts and fighting off shadows, then more people would at least get to FEEL like they were involved. They were there and did SOMETHING, even if they weren't part of the actual rp of the event.

    Just my two cents here. I really want the game to just.. be more fun again. And there are so many areas that could get a fun little event to become more exciting. I am sure there are lots of people with lots of ideas. Why not make use of it? Why not ask those with ideas on how to develop areas to send in the ideas they have, either small, undeveloped ideas, or big, well-thought out ideas, doesn't matter. And if they are used in any way, offer some credits in return, like you do for builders. I think it's been mentioned before.. We have mortal builders building areas, why not have mortal event-builders? We have a lot of excellent brains that would be able to give you lots of great things to work with. Give people a chance to help make the game interesting and fun again.
    BenedictoRasani
  • ArchelausArchelaus Alaska
    edited April 2021
    Yeah, I started playing Aetolia back in August. I've been very disappointed by the lack of events or any movement with the larger story. I remember when I first started playing and reading the events posts about Bamathis and the Albedi Gods and being like "Oh, this sounds so awesome! I wonder how all of this will turn out. This is such a cool time to come to Aetolia!".... but, nope, nothing. Nothing at all has happened with this story. Or any story at all really.

    The only event I've seen was the curse event. Which, was really cool, but got cut short. I was also expecting to see something more from Varach or something... but again nothing. The other major happening since I've been around was Abhorash's takeover of Bloodloch and the rebelling districts. I understand there were hiccups with this due to a volunteer having irl issues.... but at this point it has been MONTHs and several cool areas of the game are still just locked off.

    EDIT: Also... this isn't related to events, but something that really bugs me as a player about game transparency in general. When I first came to Aetolia, I saw a lot of negative comments about the administration I just kind of brushed off as being the normal player gripes. Then, they came out with a whole thread to clear the air and answer questions. I thought at the time it was really awesome the Admin were listening to players and willing to engage with criticism. But... after promising to answer those questions, the thread has been closed for like 5 months now.
    https://forums.aetolia.com/discussion/3709/announce-post-3136-question-thread#latest
    [Insert annoying gif here]
    Nonatea
  • @Nonatea I just wanna say I think mortal event builders/runners would be a fantastic start. They could even be heavily intensely vetted, but it would help us move the story along if it becomes clear admin don’t have any interest in doing so for us. 
  • @Brax I’d like to be very very clear about something:

    The onus to create a drive in the story does not fall in the shoulders of people giving their free time to the game. It is clear to me as a player, even a frustrated one, that volunteers are spread too thin, expected to carry a game that is not their duty to carry, and not given enough credit for it. 

    This falls squarely on the shoulders of people who are paid to keep this game enjoyable. I am sorry about your personal circumstances. I’ve been there, not during covid, but I have been in those shoes and it fucking sucks so you have my deepest sympathy. However this isn’t on you. This is a failure in management. This is a game no longer having a dedicated lore person and suffering for it. This is a game cutting costs and hoping people will just be happy with more credit deals. 

    And the thing is, this was clearly becoming a problem before covid. It proves it’s not the fault of the volunteers. Do I wish gods were more active? Of course, but this problem exists well outside of any one volunteer. It comes from the top and needs to be addressed by the people who put us in this situation. 

    Know that I know people are struggling and know that no matter how little you’re able to do right now as a volunteer, I appreciate it immensely. It’s not your JOB to do it. You don’t get paid but you choose to do it anyway. I don’t bring these things up to be cruel or mean. I do it because I want this game to be what it is capable of being, for all of us. 
    TetchtaAlelaNonateaArchelausEvelynNaosJaamir
  • SibattiSibatti Mamba dur Naya Amidst vibrant flora and trees
    edited April 2021
    Question: Why do events feel so exhausting to put on? Should they be?

    If they're this exhausting/difficult to pull off, wouldn't that point to being too much inherent pressure in the event itself, rather than the fact that at the end of the day, it's meant to be an avenue for storytelling?

    To me, an event should only require a goal, storytelling ability (a little ability to improv helps), and hooks for people to get involved. Yet somehow I get the feeling that there exists this massive checklist of 'Things To Do' that necessitates it being so much more. Progs, mobs, coding, rewards, fame lines, an area, etc. I could be wrong, but I feel like a lot of the pressure of world events equates to making all of the things on that list happen, and I don't know why. We don't NEED these.

    I think the problem is less that people don't have energy for events, and more that events are being treated as these things that can ONLY be massive, heavily-tuned movie theater experiences that are planned out down to the last line of dialogue.

    You're worried about being interrupted an hour into an event, I'd argue that an hour is more than anyone should rightfully expect to even BE at an event that's being led by an admin hand. I'd even go further to argue that building longer-over-time events with short bursts of actual direction would be even better, so people can get involved who weren't online for that one window where everything happened.

    Remove the pressure to make every event a massive lore dump, if you're dreading the inevitable nerds who come asking questions about Cool New Thing X. Have more regular NPC idiots showing up and running the show, rather than some ancient powerful thing/person with so many more implications.

    All that you (should) need to do with an event is make the world feel engaging and alive, and get players talking about something truly interesting. Not flash in the pan stuff. Remember that an interested playerbase is going to do a lot of the work for you, if appropriately engaged. Play with that energy and build from there.
    RasaniTetchtaAlelaLinIllikaalValorieTeaniEvelyn
  • BraxBrax Immortal
    Sibatti said:


    To me, an event should only require a goal, storytelling ability (a little ability to improv helps), and hooks for people to get involved. Yet somehow I get the feeling that there exists this massive checklist of 'Things To Do' that necessitates it being so much more. Progs, mobs, coding, rewards, fame lines, an area, etc. I could be wrong, but I feel like a lot of the pressure of world events equates to making all of the things on that list happen, and I don't know why. We don't NEED these.

    I think the problem is less that people don't have energy for events, and more that events are being treated as these things that can ONLY be massive, heavily-tuned movie theater experiences that are planned out down to the last line of dialogue.

    A lot of the stuff has some key plot points/goals that want to be dropped in, but there's definitely no overarching script planning. The latest events for Revenants and Wardens are a pretty solid example here; there were some goals "They're going to go through these 3 trials, these are possible outcomes, we need to end with class being given" and the rest was improvised.

    We had to set up new spaces for the crypts, new mobs to do the trials, prog a boss fight, etc. That was for a one-night event that most players since have called a small event.

    Even if we do skip progs, extra mobs, and new areas, the possibility for things to spiral from there always exists. I can't think of any events in recent history (even small ones) that didn't require some on-the-fly progging or item making if not simply because it wouldn't make sense not to have it during a scene that was going on/players steered the story into that being a necessity. And that's awesome! The flexibility is part of what makes them so fun.
    Sibatti said:


    You're worried about being interrupted an hour into an event, I'd argue that an hour is more than anyone should rightfully expect to even BE at an event that's being led by an admin hand. I'd even go further to argue that building longer-over-time events with short bursts of actual direction would be even better, so people can get involved who weren't online for that one window where everything happened.

    It usually takes up to 20 minutes just to get enough people to show up to the event to do something about it and participate! If we'd try to cram it into an hour, it'd likely be full on cutscene mode with little interaction, since part of the events is wanting players to contribute with their own emotes and ideas.

    The Warden event, again regarded as a small event, took I think like 4 hours? My little newblani event that was one mob, a teeny tiny prog, and some emotes went on for about 2 hours in total.

    It took roughly an hour during the Revenant event just for people to discover the mechanic of the wall, which was needed to drive the plot forward.

    I'd definitely challenge people to try and time their next RP scene with a friend and see how long it goes on. You don't quite notice it while it's happening, and that's usually just waiting on one person to emote; trying to make sure all participants get a chance to be involved absolutely stretches it much longer. Failure to do so causes bitter feelings by people that can't type as fast to keep up.
    Tetchta
  • TetchtaTetchta The Innocent
    edited April 2021
    I really feel like "yes and" is something we don't see a lot of in roleplay and events coming from on high, when they do happen. The few things that do happen feel a lot more like a cutscene than an event. I know that choice is an illusion in a lot of organic roleplaying games (DMs do eventually want you to meet the BBEG), but I also think a lot of the beauty of just possessing a character who has a backstory and goals and seeing where the ride takes you has been lost.

    I will say, for all the fraught emotions tied up with the Bloodloch city structure that surrounded it, the actual Rebellion Arc in Bloodloch was a huge exception to this. I know that that event started as something that was just supposed to be a little bit of a goofy roast of the city's citizens, but it morphed into a big, like, noir story and an outright military campaign. It got dropped for a lot of understandable reasons, but I think it's worth emphasizing that I don't think any of those reasons were because the event itself was bad. At all. Honestly it kinda freakin' ruled. And I think a lot of the game would love to see more stuff like that.

    If I were to give purely constructive feedback to the people who are planning things upstairs and are reading these threads and other instances of feedback, it'd be this:
    1. I actually disagree a little with @Sibatti.I think a lot of us are actually hungry for big, world-shaping events. But where I agree with her is that events don't have to start big. You don't always have to go in with a plan. You don't have to be like "Okay, this here is the Opening of the Mandre Portal that will lead the players to discover an entire new elemental plane and kill x,y,z mobs and unlock this new skillset."
    2. Instead, I think more effort should be made to spend time inhabiting semi-important mobs and interacting with players. Discovering their interests, motivations, power level, allies. And see where that goes. Maybe it goes nowhere! Maybe it's just a small thing where the guy settles down and learns the joys of provincial life! Or maybe it spirals and you take a few weeks away from him in order to build a bigger thing around it.
    What you open yourself up to here is a lot more perceived agency from the players--and on top of it you kinda sidestep getting decision paralysis trying to plan a huge campaign ahead of time--and if things do escalate into a larger conflict and/or event, you already have players (both PCs and NPCs) prebaked into it. You know that @Iesid is just looking for his next sidepiece and @Aisling wants his neck scratched and @Elene is looking for her next biggest recipe and @Mjoll wants a bigger hammer, and you know they're all invested in the character already. You sidestep worrying about whether there's player interest, because you already know it's there, and if things never get bigger that's actually still fine. You made the world more alive in the process, and that's a powerful thing.

    The game could probably benefit from a mix of Curse-style events and these more character driven narratives, but I can say from personal experience that some of the best roleplay in the game and the best stories in the game were all character-centric, not narrative-centric. I think that's because we're all predisoposed to like that sort of thing because, guess what, we're all playing characters already.

    Not having a game plan is scary. I get that. But, on the upside, unless you tell us, nobody will know who was posessing what mob, and you can just have them explode or something (I'm so glad you're ded Usham) and move on. And I also think the more and more we see just random characters possessed, the less we'll come to expect things from them, and the stakes will be inherently lower. I think all these things combined will lead to a more organic experience for both upstairs folk and downstairs folk, and to boot will give you more fodder for the bigger events when you need them, making them easier to execute. Just go into situations with the expectation to have no expectations, and I think you'll see a lot of the playerbase respond very positively to that.

    Edit: saw @Brax ninja'd me but yeah I'm gonna have to agree that events are gonna take two hours bare minimum even for small ones. Typing takes a lot of time and getting players gathered also takes time. I've literally MUDsex'd for five hours before, an event is a decent time investement. I think the Bloodloch Djeir race event even took almost an hour and that was a VERY "wham-bam, thank you ma'am" exchange.

    Edit 2: also, a thing I just thought of, but having areas prebuilt ahead of time that have no lore but flavor (maybe 3-5 areas, even small) just in reserve in case you suddenly find yourself in a place where you're like "okay let me show you something!" would also probably make things easier. I remember ages ago when I played Niuri I ran an event and I had to write rooms on the fly, which was, uh, invigorating but also incredibly taxing. I think what I learned form that is that a little prep time ahead, even if you have no idea what you're prepping for, can be a big sanity-saver. If you're posessing a drunk mob in a bar and he's rambling about some ancient ruin and someone's like "bullpucky" he can be like "I'mma showur azz sonneh!" and you can just quickly attach a room to the world and badabing, bada boom, you just saved yourself a whole lot of headache 'cause you already had "Ancient Ruin #29230" in reserve. Idk just a thought.

  • SibattiSibatti Mamba dur Naya Amidst vibrant flora and trees
    edited April 2021
    I was sorta in a rush and didn't explain well - what I'm mostly getting at is that a great way to avoid all of the pressure of an event is to have them look a lot less like this, most of the time:

    -> Nothing
    -> Obvious world mote/shout/whatever signaling a THING is happening
    -> wait for literally everyone to show up because everyone is bored and wants to be involved, even if their character probably isn't invested
    -> have NPC stand around awkwardly waiting for people to gather
    -> NPC then comments amazedly on how many people showed up, make a few kneeslappers as people inevitably start to pop off with random premotes
    -> NPC tells everyone to shut up and starts barfing exposition on you
    -> People hammer NPC with questions and it becomes a Q&A session
    -> (sometimes) NPC leads everyone to conquer The Challenge
    -> Possible call to action, or just NPC gets tired of doing all of this and leaves


    Yeah, that definitely takes more than an hour, sure. But do we really get any high quality interaction out of 90% of it? Not really.

    The simplest way I can try to maybe pass on the meaning of what I'm getting at here is that there are Obvious Mechanics and then there's story. If you make an NPC/item/puzzle/boss/whatever, that's an Obvious Mechanic. People will approach it with Obvious Mechanical Intent. They'll try to interact with it, use it, kill it, turn it, push it, stuff it into their cache, whatever.

    Obvious Mechanics are not the same as storytelling. Obvious Mechanics are a signal that a task needs to be performed, or a puzzle needs to be solved, within the constraints of what players know about Aetolia. In a way, an Obvious Mechanic is pretty anathema to storytelling, if you think about it, because it becomes a minigame at that point.

    I'm not saying Obvious Mechanics are bad, don't get me wrong - they're often very fun. I'm saying they're not the same thing as telling a story. Remember that Shakespearean plays were traditionally performed on a bare-bones stage, with very few props, if any. When I roleplay in D&D, I don't have to have an actual item that validates my character's choice to pray to the God of Justice and be bestowed insight on how to surpass her next challenge.

    There is so, so much content out there that already exists in Aetolia. Underutilized areas, forgotten story arcs, hidden gems. If you asked me for it, I could come up with a list of a dozen things, if not more, that would be interesting to see pick back up that are just in Duiran alone.

    Edit:
    @Brax re your specific example:
    "We had to set up new spaces for the crypts, new mobs to do the trials, prog a boss fight, etc. That was for a one-night event that most players since have called a small event."

    To me, this is an issue of effort versus payoff. I would say that the effort to do all of that wasn't worthy of the payoff. This isn't a criticism, I'm suggesting that you need to stretch that amount of effort over time so you have more overall engagement, even if it's small stuff, leading up to the big bang.

    It's a bad example because I know everyone was excited for the new class and to were chomping at the bits to get their hands on it, but you could have easily made that amount of effort pay off more by pivoting away from a one-shot experience into something that gradually and slowly unlocked over time.
    TetchtaNonateaValorieLinTeani
  • First off, @Brax, I am sorry you are going through such stress right now. I hope things will easy up for you and your family soon. And this is exactly why I promote mortal event-builders. Cause they could help put together little events in different areas (so long as they are given a few clues about the theme or lore of the area), build up expectations as well as a few different endings, should people not do as expected. They could write a description, reasons, few important emotes, the rest could be improvised. And they would not be able to be involved in their own event, cause that could obviously get biased. But mortal event-builders would take the load off of you volunteers a bit and provide you with something to work on for events that wouldn't have to last forever.

    Which leads me to why I don't like the world-changing events. Because they have to be so massive! It's exactly as @Sibatti wrote in her list above. There's so much waiting, everyone's gotta be there, and then all the questions and so on and so forth. It's not all that much event for being a huge event. That's why I prefer the smaller scale events. Only 10 people show up when you make your first emote? Fine! Start without the rest, they will have to ask someone else for an update. Move things along. If we had more smaller events, people would also, perhaps, not get involved in everything and actually respect that there are others who might want to be a bit of a hero for once. (Yes, I am one of those people. I never get to be the name in a story due to time zone issues and because my characters are not one of the big, well-known people everyone seems to love, buuuuuut anywho!!).

    I think something needs to be done overall to bring a bit more flavor to the game and I know there are a lot of people willing to help. Use them. Use US! We are willing to help more than you realize. Someone just needs to ask.
    Lin
  • TiurTiur Producer
    So this is moving quickly and I'm super busy, so I can't give you all the replies you deserve yet. I'm reading this, I've asked Celani who have strong opinions on bits to be honest, so hopefully we can keep the discussion moving.

    It's been six months since a world event, and that one ended so weirdly and harshly, I admit to being very burnt. I was doing most of that one, with some awesome Celani mpos help. It took a lot of effort and we'll need more for world things. That said, there are some planned, and we're having the same engagement problem we've had for the past year and change: People want to spend less time with things, and it's harder to get their attention. Keep your eyes out, because I know we've poked a few things and been having a hard time getting the hooks to catch.

    Smaller stuff I very much love. Is there a system like builders/orgreqs that could exist, avoiding the problems those two have? Builders snatch up any work and destroy it, which we love, but it does make a lot of people feel like there are 'never' things up there, as they don't get a chance. Orgreqs are huge amounts of work for small returns, and they are mixed in such a way that it's tough for me to do anything other than go through them in numerical order. We also get a disproportionate amount of work vs return... some guilds file a lot of them, some none. I feel like if I do some for the guild with a lot of them, it encourages them to do more, but further makes the guilds that never see any done feel ignored.

    Not that I'm capable of debating orgreqs/builders atm. I just wanted to express my issues with them, and an interest that any system like a theoretical eventreq should avoid those same problems. Maybe an interest rating? Effort ratings? Expiration dates? I dunno.

    Anyway, I apologize for being stream of thought, but I wanted to reply sooner than later. I will come back to specifics later on, when I can. But I express that I am interested if a system of some sort would help, and what you'd like to see out of it. I did meet with Rasani and I largely think we agree in regards to need of world things, if not the current state of the game entirely.
    IesidLegyn
  • TetchtaTetchta The Innocent
    I'm pretty tired and don't have the energy for a big nuanced post, but I don't think the Curse is the kind of event people are talking about, and it's been much, much longer since we've had an event that wasn't a game like that but rather a narrative we could engage with.

    ArchelausEvelyn
  • we've poked a few things and been having a hard time getting the hooks to catch.

    I don't understand this, the other night there was a clear, concise "LOOK OVER HERE" global emote out of Sterion, AT LEAST 6 people showed up and found the mob. I caught some feels over what felt like getting chastised in a pmote about a joke on web to fill the time waiting for other interested parties to show up so took the earliest chance to bounce, that being the NPC saying "you wouldn't understand, why are you even here, go away" in a few more words, and from all accounts it wrapped up ten minutes later without having done anything else. Six people is TEN PERCENT of your online player base that's HUGE engagement! Take into account the AFK idlers who are just keeping their vote weight and a facade of activity and you probably had most of the actually there and playing players show up to your one-off, no consequence event, and you even chased off one of them!
    Toz says, "Dishonor on you (Mjoll), dishonor on your family (Seirath), dishonor on your cow (Bulrok)"
    TetchtaArchelausGhatzhjiaSibattiNonateaEvelyn
  • TetchtaTetchta The Innocent
    edited April 2021
    Honestly deadass if only one person shows up just go with it like dang you'll make that person's day. Why do we need a huge crowd for absolutely everything?

    TeaniArchelausSibattiNonateaEvelyn
  • SibattiSibatti Mamba dur Naya Amidst vibrant flora and trees
    edited April 2021
    The problem with citing the curse event is that it isn't the kind of event that actually promotes plot movement and world/character development.

    It had a lot of overtuned systems that, for the most part, didn't have a huge story impact.

    In fact, the weird OOC handwave-y "you can't be accountable for your actions!" explicitly made it THAT much more unimportant, lol.
    GhatzhjiaLinTetchta
  • My gripe definitely isn't with the volunteers who give their time to the game for free. Ivoln's Order is awesome, my interactions with him have been some of my absolute favorite moments in Aetolia. Slyphe showed up just to RP tasting a pizza Archelaus to them, which was also super cool! I just don't get why there hasn't been any progress at all with major plot lines. To me, Aetolia feels really static and quiet.
    [Insert annoying gif here]
    TetchtaJaamir
  • LinLin Blackbird The Moonglade
    edited April 2021
    Sibatti said:

    The problem with citing the curse event is that it isn't the kind of event that actually promotes plot movement and world/character development.

    It had a lot of overtuned systems that, for the most part, didn't have a huge story impact.

    In fact, the weird OOC handwave-y "you can't be accountable for your actions!" explicitly made it THAT much more unimportant, lol.

    It was the Halloween event, too. I cannot think of a time where we've ever considered a holiday event a story milestone for Aetolia.
    ArchelausTetchtaTeani
  • TeaniTeani Shadow Mistress Sweden
    edited April 2021
    Some responses and thoughts here:
    Tiur said:


    It's been six months since a world event, and that one ended so weirdly and harshly, I admit to being very burnt. I was doing most of that one, with some awesome Celani mpos help. It took a lot of effort and we'll need more for world things.

    As has been mentioned, that event was very outside the scope of being lore-building. It was a side-event at best, which was entertaining for most of the people who were engaged in it. For those who were not very involved, it had literally no impact on their lives or futures. When we (or most of us) say world event, we speak of events that make the game feel like it is moving forward with those storylines that are connected to -ALL- guilds and -ALL- organizations. Things that are connected to the Dreikathi Empire, things like Jox or Kerrithrim, things that impact the game and how we move forward.

    In these events, each org will have their own way of reacting, and those are things Admin should be picking up on to create continued smaller events to help them build and move forward. Doing that would also prevent any kind of lose threads to be left dangling for too long, since Admin will continue to monitor reactions and come up with ways to tie them up (with or without help from the orgleaders, though I imagine orgleaders would be really stoked to discuss where to go with things after those kinds of events, and any contact from Admin would be enormously appreciated.)
    Tiur said:

    That said, there are some planned, and we're having the same engagement problem we've had for the past year and change: People want to spend less time with things, and it's harder to get their attention. Keep your eyes out, because I know we've poked a few things and been having a hard time getting the hooks to catch.

    It's nice to hear that some things are being planned! It taking time is understandable. These are trying times for everyone. What is needed, however, is transparency, and not only when prompted. May times when things stop moving, people have had to shout in order to get a response. Consider how the following approaches might be received:

    Here's how some prompted requests for updates have been handled: initially met with silence, followed by continued requests and questions, which likely feels like nagging after a while, followed by a vague response equivalent to "oh, this year, you know. It's tough.", which is followed by a request for clarification (more nagging), and suddenly it might feel like the response you get is someone who is so tired of the nagging that they're just about ready to rip your face off, even though all they did was ask when Vilimo might open again for the quests there.

    Here is an alternative after a prompted request for an update: Met with a timely response with what information can be presented. If there is not much that can be said, explain why and when a change or at least a better update can be expected (and then sticking to that promise of an update).

    Unprompted announcement: "For your information, we currently have X amount of projects going on (no details, they're secret), but due to circumstances we cannot control Y of them are on hold for at least a couple of weeks. We are aware of concerns regarding Z, Q, and W, and progress is slow. We apologize for this inconvenience. Update will come bi-monthly in order to ensure people are up to date on our progress." (and sticking to that promise of updates)
    Tiur said:

    Smaller stuff I very much love. Is there a system like builders/orgreqs that could exist, avoiding the problems those two have? Builders snatch up any work and destroy it, which we love, but it does make a lot of people feel like there are 'never' things up there, as they don't get a chance.

    There are very rarely things up for grabs when it comes to builder requests, because some people are very quick to grab them before others have even seen that they exist. At the moment, I don't log in enough to contend so for me it's not an issue right now. However, when I played more frequently I rarely saw any either, despite looking for them. The reason was mostly because they were all gone or grabbed before I logged in in the morning/afternoon in my timezone. Perhaps spread them out if you want more people to feel like they get to help out?
    Tiur said:

    Orgreqs are huge amounts of work for small returns, and they are mixed in such a way that it's tough for me to do anything other than go through them in numerical order. We also get a disproportionate amount of work vs return... some guilds file a lot of them, some none. I feel like if I do some for the guild with a lot of them, it encourages them to do more, but further makes the guilds that never see any done feel ignored.

    Not that I'm capable of debating orgreqs/builders atm. I just wanted to express my issues with them, and an interest that any system like a theoretical eventreq should avoid those same problems. Maybe an interest rating? Effort ratings? Expiration dates? I dunno.

    I imagine some organizations file less orgreqs because the ones they have filed before have been sitting there long enough for them to become obsolete, meaning no longer connected to what is currently going on in the guild. If things don't move on quickly enough on something awesome we thought up, and even wrote a lot of messages for, then how long will the next take? Why should we spend so much energy on that if it won't even get anywhere? is likely a question people might be asking themselves.

    Proposed change here is to add some more people to work on these org-requests, because they are what might bring more life to the organizations. This is what many of us mean when we ask for smaller events and smaller additions. We want something to build on that feels relevant to our orgs, something that moves us forward and helps engage the people we have around us. However, we don't want to wait 1-6 months for it to be implemented. In that time frame, people who were involved might even have side-hopped a few times and forgotten about it all. If this can be done, in some way, by mortal builders that would be amazing, but I suppose it might be tricky because it should perhaps be done by Celani.

    The HELP EDIT has hopefully seen more use since it was made a milestone. If there are some facts that no people seem to have answers to, but they exist in the game, it is difficult to get a response on them, though. I have asked about things on Discord without success, even though Admin have popped in to the Questions section and responded to other things. Perhaps it could be possible to add some kind of system where a help file can be tagged with a question for an update regarding something, and then people can look through those and see if they can help out?


    Long post, but some food for thought, perhaps?



    ArchelausRhyot
  • ZeheiaZeheia Immortal
    Teani said:

    Some responses and thoughts here:
    The HELP EDIT has hopefully seen more use since it was made a milestone. If there are some facts that no people seem to have answers to, but they exist in the game, it is difficult to get a response on them, though. I have asked about things on Discord without success, even though Admin have popped in to the Questions section and responded to other things. Perhaps it could be possible to add some kind of system where a help file can be tagged with a question for an update regarding something, and then people can look through those and see if they can help out?

    Quick response on this part, but please just use TYPOs for this. It's been done before by others, and I'm absolutely fine with finding that in a typo and going in to fix it, as I am usually the one to deal with typos (and whatever else is involved in typo reports, which is definitely not limited to basic typos).

    She/her but also responds to they/them thanks to chilling as Somebody or other.

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    TetchtaValorieTeani
  • TeaniTeani Shadow Mistress Sweden
    Zeheia said:
    Quick response on this part, but please just use TYPOs for this. It's been done before by others, and I'm absolutely fine with finding that in a typo and going in to fix it, as I am usually the one to deal with typos (and whatever else is involved in typo reports, which is definitely not limited to basic typos).
    That's great, and really good to know! I just thought it would be neat if players could help out with that as well. There are many out there who know commands that they have no idea aren't common knowledge. Also, let's hope this doesn't happen, but what if you disappear! :cry:



  • edited April 2021
    People seem to think that the best answer right now is to create a mortal story-teller position for players to use, but that seems like a pretty average fix for the general problem. No one wants to ask the real question:

    WHERE *CLAP* ARE *CLAP* THE *CLAP* 80 MAN-HOURS *CLAP* A WEEK *CLAP* GOING *CLAP* RIGHT *CLAP* NOW.

    Because everyone is already pointing out the lack of story, customization approvals, housing requests, artifact fixes, etc.
    NonateaArchelausTetchtaRasaniAlela
  • TetchtaTetchta The Innocent
    Fwiw I don't think the mortal storyteller thing is a solution or a silver bullet at all to the overarching event and other customer service problems. I just think it's an objectively good idea that would make the game better. I thoroughly think we're still owed answers about everything else.

    ArchelausNonatea
  • Agreed. This is not to be seen as a replacement for admin storytelling. Mortal storytellers can't do that the game really needs, which is to push the world forward. However, I think mortal storytellers, hand in hand with active gods and an evolving world plot, will help the game stand apart and feel more alive! 
    TetchtaNonatea
  • At this point I'm wondering if there are any plans at all for the world plot. I haven't seen any movement on that since I've been playing. Is that even on the to-do list? Is it on hold until all of the mirror classes are out? The end of year 2020 post acknowledged that a decision was made to steer away from major plot lines that year... is this the same policy for 2021?
    [Insert annoying gif here]
    Tetchta
  • TetchtaTetchta The Innocent
    If it's on hold until all mirror classes are out, that is a nightmare scenario, because we're already ~478 days since the last world plot event, give or take, and waiting until mirrors would probably push that into a timeframe that would be measured in years, not days. But I honestly don't expect that to be the case. I'm not generally an optimist, but I can't imagine that's the actual plan. It's far too bad of an idea.

  • Hi not really an events guy here, though I was one in another game and this thread made me think a bit more about why I never really got interested in them here. Just wanted to make a few observations from the 1.5 years I've been here.

    1. Events here tend to be made for specific organisations or even people. There have been very few events that have been targeted at the game's population as a whole, and they have all still been a lot easier for specific groups of people to take part in. This has a couple of implications:
    a) I'm not really the type to try to butt my way into every event so if it's clear an event is not for me I'm not going to take part. 
    b) If it's my "turn" to get an event but I miss it for one reason or another it means I might not get another chance for quite some time.

    2. While events here tend to fit the lore, they rarely fit the narrative. In fact, I haven't really seen any narrative. Things happen, but not in a way that is really meaningful.

    3. Not every part of the greater narrative needs to be an event that spans multiple days and results in an area release or whatever. It could just be a one or two hour thing without much progging/building that reveals another aspect of the greater narrative. It could even be multiple of these between the "big" events.


    SibattiArchelausTetchtaNonatea
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