Small scale GM events. Spun off Octarch complaint thread

[bilbous]

Dung-on-it, I mean, Doggone it, you have spread the first load Zanzibar!
My experience here and elsewhere is that events are most often brought low by the Fearsome and Invulnerable Lag Monster. keeping them small scale and more frequent may not supply a suitable amount of pomp and circumstance for your tastes but at least you do not need to battle through the impenetrable fog of F.I.L.M breath!

May your Snarks always be hunted!

Uh, what are you going on about?  I'm always talking about the merits of small scale GM events and quests.  What you just posted is a mix of personal attacks, off topic chatter, references that only you understand, alice in wonderland logic, and denial of what's been posted.

What am I talking about...Well aside from my feeble attempt at humor (fertilizer->dung->you crapped on my idea after I asked to be spared)

My comment was about how it would be possible to avoid the lag associated with large event and still try to be fair to all players interested in such things. I suggested sign up sheets with waiting lists so that all such players would have a chance to participate in a meaningful manner and it would not be a matter of whoever was lucky/smart enough to be in the right place at the right time. It would also enable limiting of the number of participants per session.

Does anyone have any ideas as to how else this could be accomplished? I know that one of the bigger problems with the idea is that it would require more time commitment from the GMs and probably a bigger team. That alone probably rules it out. One thing that I think would be in its favor is that it would direct more traffic to the official forum where the players are supposed to receive their orientation. A sign up sheet could be little more than a posting on the hydlaa or ojaveda message board with a request to pm or email your name to the poster. It could be mostly in context. I haven't put too much thought into it and I am sure it shows.

The main point is to try to get some ideas flying around in the hopes that some good will come of it.

[Zan]

I'm still for getting rid of 'events' in their narrowest meaning. GM interaction by use of NPC's or whatever else should become as normal as seeing jack and joe duel around Hydlaa. Anyways I've said this several times before so I won't repeat myself too much. If you make GM interactions a more constant thing, people will become accustomed to it and the huge (OOC) crowds will stop forming. On top of that we get a more interesting and interactive world.

[Cebot]

My 2 cents about GM events:

Fact is: they bring fun to those who participate and encourage RP.
What I personally don't like about them is that people crowd around a RP chars just because he's got a shiny Name Tag above their heads. If it was possible for the GM's to set their label to a player label during the events (maybe with a /gmevent command?), then less people would crowd together there. With the mentioned command the GM's could keep the GM-Power they need for the events, still would appear as normal players who RP.

People would not know that it is a GM event and would either RP to help the GM's on whatever they need, or would just leave them be and move on.

Though the idea about the events is to bring as much fun as possible to the community, but the amount of people who only come there because of the shiny labels and the possibility for a reward is kinda huge.

Some people would even do something what is completely out of their characters personalty, for example would lawful characters help to steal something and so far. That also would not happen if the GM's would not have such shiny labels during the events


As mentioned before, it's just my 2 cents, feel free to discuss and argue about it

Cebot

PS: I'd like to keep the events and would love to see more events, most of them are great fun

[Duraza]

Some people would even do something what is completely out of their characters personalty, for example would lawful characters help to steal something and so far.

This is very true. To tell the truth my first time in a gm event I went completely against my character and decided to help out (not with Duraza  ). Why? Because I saw the shiny label and thought that by helping I'd get a rare reward. It takes a while to learn constraint to stop yourself from joining gm events. I still can't help but wonder about events so usually I follow to try and find out whats happening. I just had to learn how to play by my character and insult the gm and try and give them a rough time IC. 

I realize there is probably some really long reason for why gm's have different labels but the fact is when a player sees the label and decides to investigate that is extremely OOC. The only thing that would be sad though is if when the labels were changed people wouldn't pay any attention to events and they would be pointless for lack of people who care...

[Raa]

What do GM labels look like?

[Rayken]

*sigh*...I have certainly spent a lot of time thinking about this issue.  While GM events are certainly a lot of fun to run, it does seem incredibly OOC to be suddenly swamped by hundreds of players asking if you need anything as soon as you appear in a public place.  I cannot fault the players for this as events are so rare, I would likely be a part of the swamping were I not the one being swamped.  Maybe Zan is right and when we are able to have events more consistently it won't seem like such a huge deal.  I have seen players opting out of events due to it not being right for their characters, which I respect probably more than they realize.

Personally I would like to be able to turn off the label.  Not sure how that opinion would sound to the devs, though.

[Induane]

Another option is to use the impersonate command more as GM's.  Instead of appearing as a GM character, take the place of one of the guards, or have a couple GM's take the place of a few guards, and perhaps one as a monster of some sort.  The two guards by the gate would be fun.  Instead of running up to them and using npc chat to ask for a quest, stand there as if nothing is out of the ordinary, then call to a passerby by name, and utilize that characters background to create a fun situation which will invariably rope a few more people in.  It will also add to the lifelikeness of the city since the "NPC's" will occasionally be a bit more animated and interesting Its a greater challenge to keep in character but I think that opens up good story and event possibilities.  Another fun one would be from the perspective of one of the priests in the temple.  This really would make the city come to life as opposed to GM's just appearing and running events.

[bilbous]

I am glad to see some serious discussion going on in this thread.
Having played The4thComing on and off for something like 6 years I have a little experience in what happens to GM events. Some of them really tried to have some kind of story to them but mostly the servers were not quite so focused on "Role Play" and while they tried to be original they really never took account of the settings. Certainly they did not use an event to introduce new content other than the odd monster or two. I played on a lot of different servers with different gm teams and server conventions but ultimately the events ground down to spawn a bunch of monsters in the town so people can get their drops. I do not expect that to happen here.

I think maybe what the team should do in the way of events is to have a stable of players that live in the town and go about their various businesses. I am thinking along the lines of the modern day historical re-enactment tourist attraction. No grand schemes, no uber rewards, no gm tags. Just some characters with suggested personality traits that a GM can assume to go about daily life. It might be that they have a distinct tag but no gm powers for the duration. I do not really like the idea of taking on the persona of an npc, because they have their own purpose and duties.

As usual I have not thought it through very much, constructive comments are welcome.

[Kieve]

I would LOVE to see GM control of NPCs once in a while (however infrequently).

. . .

Well, except for that one time I was chewing one out for not giving me a necessary quest item *cough*

[Raa]

I like Induane's idea! Once, in the Kada-El Tavern, a GM impersonated Allelia and told some guy to put away his weapons. It surprised me a bit.

[Induane]

Its also a good way of managing things within the confines of the setting itself.  It would have been very ooc for the GM to appear and tell you, and a /tell is, while less disruptive, still ooc for the most part.  On the other hand it makes perfect sense for the bartender to request you put away your weapons, citing the commonly known rule against such action.  Kudos to whoever did that, thats exactly how I think a lot of things should be handled.

I do not really like the idea of taking on the persona of an npc, because they have their own purpose and duties.

With better NPC AI this would be more prudent, but for now i don't see it as a problem so long as the NPC's character is well considered.  Another thing would be the ability to simply take a form of a commoner, guard, or similar that isn't already an NPC. That way they don't take over an NPC and also aren't as distracting to the atmosphere.  There are many events that could be subtly run from that sort of perspective as well.

[zanzibar]

I don't see why eliminating luck should be made a priority.

[bilbous]

Another thing would be the ability to simply take a form of a commoner, guard, or similar that isn't already an NPC. That way they don't take over an NPC and also aren't as distracting to the atmosphere.  There are many events that could be subtly run from that sort of perspective as well.

Well of course that is what I meant with this:

I think maybe what the team should do in the way of events is to have a stable of players ^charactersthat live in the town and go about their various businesses.

[LigH]

My opinion:

GM events guided me to roleplaying once. They can do that again.

But they are not the only farcor. I can still remember seeking part in roleplays I witnessed "accidently".

If I had good ideas about events, I'd enjoy to hold an event too.

But I remember, from "behind the courtain" talks with a few GMs, how hard it is to to keep an event up. Especially with the more features a Game Master is able to control. Like, placing unusual items, impersonating or even spawning NPCs, like it was possible once.

Without such control, the topics of "player events" may be limited. And the incentive they may give participants, even more. GMs simply have the better prerequisites to bring newcomers to the roleplaying. Players instead may enjoy that mainly more experienced players would join their plots...


Allow me to draw an analogy: The german economy is worried because they can't find enough trainees, on the other hand we have too many unemployed people, even already as school leavers. One of the most important reasons is that they often lack of founded basic school and vocational education.

We might need good roleplaying teachers. Complaining that someone has no clue about roleplaying is soooo easy. Show him what good roleplaying should be instead.


Miss you, Cha0s.

[zanzibar]

Sometime's, simpler is better.  And yes, his presence is missed...