Improving Imperian - Playerside
Pretty straight forward. We have admin request threads to add/improve/fix things. We have lots of discussions about what's broken. What I'm curious about is what we believe we can do as players to improve things. Whether we are presenting issues that exist and looking for ideas to tackle them or presenting ideas for us to collectively work on.
Stuff I personally think helps build the game and make it more fun all around:
Stuff I personally think helps build the game and make it more fun all around:
- Fostering good community.
- Newb retention.
- Ease of entry into PK.
My ideas
- Newb retention.
- Ease of entry into PK.
My ideas
On community:
- Inclusive OOC spaces in game (hello, that ring conversation). If it's a place where a majority of an organization should be participating, like a Circle ring or an organization combat clan, keep it PC and pretend your child/mother is going to be reading it and act accordingly. There -are- kids that play sometimes. I actually discouraged my daughter from playing, when she expressed an interest, but some of her friends play other IRE games. 13-16 year olds. Keep that in mind.
- Welcoming forums, little stuff can make a big difference to someone getting their feet wet in the game, or looking to determine if they want to play at all. If all they see is complaints and rage, they aren't likely to sign up in the first place. I think we could probably use more discussions about what's good that's going on. Discussions of good organization development, player-run events, that sorta thing. Even if -we- don't need it, it gives a clear picture to potential new players about what they can expect, and which organizations might best suit their interests. I like something that Aetolia's playerbase does, with recognition on the forums for awesome things you catch other players doing. Props for good RP, good leadership, good participation, whatever. PKers have lots of bragging right opportunities, but other folks get less, I think.
Newb Retention:
- Holy crap, I have seen 2 newbies in the Bards in as many months. Those happened to be twins. I saw them twice. That was about a month ago. We need to keep every newb we can get. To that end, I think we should be making absolutely sure that our resources are all up to date in cities and guilds, make sure newbs are well-equipped, that we interact with them directly. In person. That we check up on them. That we drag them along for nifty things. That we reward them when they try stuff, even if they screw it all up. We need new players to keep the game enjoyable. We have to make sure new players stay whenever we can.
- See above: To -get- new players, we have to be appealing. If someone comes and is checking us out, wanders over to the forums, and sees a lot of vitriol and not much excitement, do you think they'll actually make a character?
- Welcoming forums, little stuff can make a big difference to someone getting their feet wet in the game, or looking to determine if they want to play at all. If all they see is complaints and rage, they aren't likely to sign up in the first place. I think we could probably use more discussions about what's good that's going on. Discussions of good organization development, player-run events, that sorta thing. Even if -we- don't need it, it gives a clear picture to potential new players about what they can expect, and which organizations might best suit their interests. I like something that Aetolia's playerbase does, with recognition on the forums for awesome things you catch other players doing. Props for good RP, good leadership, good participation, whatever. PKers have lots of bragging right opportunities, but other folks get less, I think.
Newb Retention:
- Holy crap, I have seen 2 newbies in the Bards in as many months. Those happened to be twins. I saw them twice. That was about a month ago. We need to keep every newb we can get. To that end, I think we should be making absolutely sure that our resources are all up to date in cities and guilds, make sure newbs are well-equipped, that we interact with them directly. In person. That we check up on them. That we drag them along for nifty things. That we reward them when they try stuff, even if they screw it all up. We need new players to keep the game enjoyable. We have to make sure new players stay whenever we can.
- See above: To -get- new players, we have to be appealing. If someone comes and is checking us out, wanders over to the forums, and sees a lot of vitriol and not much excitement, do you think they'll actually make a character?
PeeKays:
- We may have already, but... some kind of simple offensive system that people can build upon for Mudlet. Maybe one for the web-based client. That would be a huge help to drag people along for the first time. Having to code first, PK second dampens enthusiasm for jumping in for a lot of people.
- Each Circle needs to have people who know how to actually lead groups that include all levels of PK ability. I have no idea how true this is for the assorted circles, but from past experience, we've never been particularly great at assigning roles and target calling. We could do better. Doing better would make dragging along newcomers much easier. That doesn't seem like something that would be incredibly difficult to teach or write up. Maybe I'm wrong, but! I'm speaking from the perspective of someone who enjoys PK, hates coding, and hates the chest-puffing that can sometimes come along with it. I can't be mmphd to bother with it if it's going to involve a lot of coding work on my end or if I'm going to have to deal with over-inflated egos during the learning process or when group fights fall apart. (Note that I am not saying this is the case now, just that it HAS been the case in this game and others and is a detriment. I haven't PK'd in Imperian in over 3 years, so I have no idea what's what right now).
I'm personally working on ways to encourage and support folks who are interested in performance/artistic based RP in the game.
I purchased a clan to stick useful design/performance-based resources in, to organize events, to support people interested in watching or performing, and I built half my house up to serve as a backdrop for that sort of thing. I haven't done much with it lately, partially because I got a little burned out on the Kryss-invasions that were happening at like every performance, but also because hunting. <.<
Am I tremendously wrong? Anyone have other things they want to see us do? Areas we need to fix up?
- We may have already, but... some kind of simple offensive system that people can build upon for Mudlet. Maybe one for the web-based client. That would be a huge help to drag people along for the first time. Having to code first, PK second dampens enthusiasm for jumping in for a lot of people.
- Each Circle needs to have people who know how to actually lead groups that include all levels of PK ability. I have no idea how true this is for the assorted circles, but from past experience, we've never been particularly great at assigning roles and target calling. We could do better. Doing better would make dragging along newcomers much easier. That doesn't seem like something that would be incredibly difficult to teach or write up. Maybe I'm wrong, but! I'm speaking from the perspective of someone who enjoys PK, hates coding, and hates the chest-puffing that can sometimes come along with it. I can't be mmphd to bother with it if it's going to involve a lot of coding work on my end or if I'm going to have to deal with over-inflated egos during the learning process or when group fights fall apart. (Note that I am not saying this is the case now, just that it HAS been the case in this game and others and is a detriment. I haven't PK'd in Imperian in over 3 years, so I have no idea what's what right now).
I'm personally working on ways to encourage and support folks who are interested in performance/artistic based RP in the game.
I purchased a clan to stick useful design/performance-based resources in, to organize events, to support people interested in watching or performing, and I built half my house up to serve as a backdrop for that sort of thing. I haven't done much with it lately, partially because I got a little burned out on the Kryss-invasions that were happening at like every performance, but also because hunting. <.<
Am I tremendously wrong? Anyone have other things they want to see us do? Areas we need to fix up?
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Comments
Not that I've always been perfect about it, because I've sure not been. There will always be risque content in these games, but we can minimize its expression in public spaces.
15.2 UNDERAGE PLAYERS
Imperian is a game oriented towards mature players. Any player above the age
of 13 is welcome as long as he or she is capable of conducting him or herself
with the required level of maturity. Immaturity is not a direct function of
age either. However, it is a sad fact that 95% of our 'problem players'
(generally those who do not have the emotional maturity necessary to follow
the rules and act like a member of a community) are teenagers, particularly
ones under 16 years of age. If you happen to be a younger teenage player,
don't worry. You will not be discriminated against based on your age. In fact,
many young players have conducted themselves with admirable aplomb and have
risen to prominent positions within Imperian.
No special treatment will be given to you if you cause problems. This is a
role-playing world, and real-life excuses for behavior are irrelevant to us.
You will be deleted and will not be put back if you cross what we view as a
very easy line to avoid (given that 99% of players never cross that line, it's
obviously easy to avoid doing it).
Examples of behavior we have seen regularly from young players that have
caused them to be deleted would include persistently ignoring rules about
being afk, sexually harassing other players, constantly shouting about OOC
things, or, and this is the most common, throwing a temper tantrum at Jeremy
or one of the other administrators. We work hard on Imperian, and while we
always appreciate input from the players, moaning and bitching annoy us, and
if you persist after we've asked you to quit it, you risk crossing the line
into deletion territory.
So, in summary, regardless of your real-life age, we expect you to act like
mature adults. If you are not capable of doing so, then please go somewhere
else. Remember that it is very easy for us to just type the delete command,
and ruin the hard work you have put into your character.
I specified the organization-attached combat clans and the Circle ring chat. I don't see -any- reason why we can't keep those PG-13.
If the organization wants to moderate their clan in whatever arbitrary way they see fit, that's on the org. Asking the admins to create equally arbitrary rules regarding certain forms of communication when self moderation is far easier and far more in the spirit of the game is just silly, especially when the crux of your last two posts seems to be "won't somebody please think of the children?"
I do not want something 'far stricter' than most Imperianites are used to. I want people to A) have reading comprehension and
I have repeatedly explained that I do not care what people do in private rings, nor that we should stop having combat/coding discussions, we just do it in appropriate places.
The -point of this thread- was so that people could provide their -own- ideas on how we could elevate the game with our own efforts as players.
The point of this thread was to generate -positive- discussion on what we, as players, can do to make things rock more. PK, newbie retention, RP, whatever.
Way to completely miss the point.
Edit: Asking the admins? Did you read the OP? What can we do -as players-? I love that absolutely nothing I'm being accused of I've actually said, once, anywhere. Anyone who has been in a private ring with me can attest to the fact that I am not trying to push a bloody RPI or family friendly language. My goodness.
"On the battlefield I am a god. I love war. The steel, the smell, the corpses. I wish there were more. On the first day I drove the Northmen back alone at the ford. Alone! On the second I carried the bridge! Me! Yesterday I climbed the Heroes! I love war! I… I wish it wasn’t over."
In terms of making the forums a friendlier place, perhaps that can be started by not aggressively jumping on people for offering their opinions, even if they're not 100% in the scope of the 'point of the thread'.
You are quite likely to have more current knowledge on the current situation with offense than I am. I am basically tossing up ideas to see what we can do. My combat knowledge is 3 years or more out of date, so I'm all about people who are on it contributing.
"On the battlefield I am a god. I love war. The steel, the smell, the corpses. I wish there were more. On the first day I drove the Northmen back alone at the ford. Alone! On the second I carried the bridge! Me! Yesterday I climbed the Heroes! I love war! I… I wish it wasn’t over."