GM events

[LARAGORN]

One succesful event just finnished, and I had a great time. The RoofWalker, is now behind bars.
I thought it was a well thought out and run very well. A good turn out of over 20 or closer to 30, I'm guessing, and seemed like everyone enjoyed themselves.

So Thanks GM's for the time and effort, it paid of

[Gharan]

Sounds like a missed a good GM event. 

Oh well I was involved in half of it and I enjoyed it. Keep 'em coming GM's 

[Proglin]

Thanks for the mnor support in this thread people! *wink wink nudge nudge*

Soon, without the (tm) More large scaled events will appear, and now I'll stop teasing.

[Idoru]

May I ask that now that you have run your poll Proglin, and those who could be bothered to reply were in the GMT to GMT+2 timezones, is it likely that the events will be aimed at a more appropriate time for people in this kind of timezone? It just appears to me that if that GM event finished around 2AM it would be difficult for people to attend. Especially if they have things that mean they cant be around at that time (like jobs or school or families). I was around at the start of this event, and I believe it was started well after mid-night aswell. I had to leave (partly due to server crash) but mainly that it was 3am and I had work in 4 hours time. I know the usual answer about events are run when there are GMs available, but it seems a little odd if they are run when the majority of players who care about them are unavailable.

This is not be trying to be a pain in the ass, its just an observation of the current situation.

[Proglin]

Your observation of the current situation is a pain the ass

There are some reasons as to why the events are hosted at the times they are. Allow me to try and explain why that is. First of all, you were right, it is because most of the GM's are available on and about 1am GMT. Then there's another thing, where being a GM-event hosting or participating GM requires a good knowledge of the English language. The majority of the english native speakers live in the US. Currentely the scale is better balanced and we really are trying to host the events at points where the european part of the comunnity is treated the same as the US part. Truth is, that will be tough for some time to come. It's easier for lill ol me to adjust and stay awake until 3 am then it is for 80% of a team to do so.

Also, not unimportant, is that most activity occurs at that time. As a GM-event orgainser, the highest activity is appealing ofcourse. And once again, an increase at native english speakers also appeals to the GM's since communication is then easier for most.

However I do not think of any one of these reasons to be valid. There should be more events at a wider variety of times, so every time zone has a chance to participate. But... to show you how this goes, I shall give you the times on whch the latest 10 events were hosted;

22:00 GMT
23:00 GMT
23:30 GMT
10:00 GMT
02:00 GMT
00:00 GMT
15:00 GMT
00:00 GMT
16:00 GMT

As you can clearly see, the times are mainly suitable for US players for now. But whenever the possabillity arises to do one for the European players, we do so. Now it's a matter of increasing the chances we get to do so.

Hope I made sense,

Yill.

[Idoru]

Thank you kindly for your in-depth reply.

It does raise another thing though.

Looking at that list of the last 10 GM events. Even those that are during normal waking hours for those in a GMT-ish timezone, would normally be times that people would be at work or school. I understand what you are saying entirely about the restrictions on GMs available time and the fact that they are needed to be very good english speakers.

I personally dont know what the soloution to this predicament would be other than to recruit more GMs from europe who have decent english skills, although I am guessing I am over simplifying things.

Anyway, I still look forward to being online to catch one in full

[Zwenze]

Seems that in the last time I do not only have a bad luck straw when it comes to mining. So far I catched two gm events and one dev event in the entire time I play (since oct 2006). And I play PS often. Is there a secret board or what am I doing wrong ?

[Caarrie]

We try not to recruit people to be gm we want people that want to be gm, and not all poeple that want to be gm get to be a gm at the lvl that they can run events. [only gm4 can run events]. Right now we have it looks like 3 gm4's that are active and 2 of them are in the gmt or gmt+1 time zone the other one lives in the US so if the other gm4's need him for an event they have to wait for him to come around as he is not in the same timezone. The rest of the gms can take part in events in some way but maybe not be able to do as much as some of the other gms can do because of their level. So right now yes it would be nice to get more gm4's so more events can be run in different time zones but that does not mean if we get more that it will help as when people apply to be gm we dont ask what time zone so we might get more gms from time zones that dont help with this problem [not that we would not like more gms in any time zone]. So for now we need to see what changes can be made in the team to see if we can get the currect team to be able to do more events at other times. But please remember just as you guys play when  you have time we gms gm and do events when we have the time.

[Idoru]

Seems that in the last time I do not only have a bad luck straw when it comes to mining. So far I catched two gm events and one dev event in the entire time I play (since oct 2006). And I play PS often. Is there a secret board or what am I doing wrong ?

Dude, thats actually a good number to catch, unless you live in the US

In reality I have attended 2 in full and seen the beginings of several but had to leave or  not even start to get involved because I cant be up 'till 4 am on week days. Anywho, ive already said that before so nevermind.

I do want to clarify that I have noticed the number of GM events increase signifigantly since I started playing and that can only be a good thing. Which I and many players do appreciate btw. (I dont want anyone to get the impression I am organising a lynch mob for GMs just because they have to do things like have lives and jobs and sleep and cant be on PS at our convenience)

[EDIT]

Ahhh, see, proves I over simplified matters Caarrie, I was unaware that only lvl 4s can run events. I assume that this is down to GM abilities but I would think that most f the GM actors wouldnt require any really special things like becoming other characters and awarding PPs or Trias. Would it not work that the lover level GMs could act as 'background' characters and not actually be responsible for the other elements of the RP? I dont really know what im talking about, im just throwing some ideas about so I can find out how it all works

[Caarrie]

[EDIT]

Ahhh, see, proves I over simplified matters Caarrie, I was unaware that only lvl 4s can run events. I assume that this is down to GM abilities but I would think that most f the GM actors wouldnt require any really special things like becoming other characters and awarding PPs or Trias. Would it not work that the lover level GMs could act as 'background' characters and not actually be responsible for the other elements of the RP? I dont really know what im talking about, im just throwing some ideas about so I can find out how it all works

Other gms can help in events and play background parts like you say but depending on our lvl that will tell us how much of a role we can play in these parts. Lower lvl gms [gm1 or gm2] can not speak unless given specific guidelines telling us what we can and cant do. GM3's can play speaking roles but can not impersonate other npcs. Only GM4's can run events and impersonate npcs so if we have a fairly large event we would need many gms in the game at the time of the event.

[Idoru]

Lower lvl gms [gm1 or gm2] can not speak unless given specific guidelines telling us what we can and cant do.

That seems a little odd to me. I am curious as to the reasons behind this policy. These guidelines, by the sounds of it are quite rigid. I would have expected the lower level GMs would be given slightly more relaxed guidelines considering they are generally picked for the role of GM due to good RP credentials.

[Proglin]

I'm affraid I can not give a statisfying answer to that. But the Role-play event GM's are GM3 and GM4. the moderating is done mostly by GM1 and GM2. All support all, we are a team after all.