Event Appetite Poll

[Dajoji]

What if my char doesn't want to join any event? ;-) No, I take that back, he might be willing to as he likes some excitement. But thing is - I don't want to join any event. And duh - he doesn't stand a chance to take part in one without me.

So do you want me to vote? Yeah, my char might enjoy an event or two, nothing too big, maybe the everyday stuff or just a "quickie". But seriously, I don't want to join an event. So I don't vote for anything as my char just can't act without me. No matter what he would like. Pood sod. So dependant on me... :-p

Why don't you want to participate in events? I'm curious. Not all events are the same so what may apply to some has nothing to do with others. I'm interested in your reasons to see if there is something we can change about them or problems we haven't addressed quite yet.

[Sangwa]

I only don't participate on events where it's completely obvious there's a "Do this, get this reward" thing. Makes things cheap.

[Eathon]

 I rather like "problem solving" events, as they fit my main character well, and to me, give more satisfaction than "fighting" events. I like the concept of events spanning several days, but I find it hard to get involved in an appropriate event due to the time zone issue, let alone follow up on it as my character most likely would.

[Prolix]

To me the whole idea of EVENTs is artificial and contrary to the spirit that should prevail. GMs should be no more than referees. What should take the place of events is to have a set of defined characters who have a significant role in the PS world and are sufficiently well described so that they can be run by anyone put in charge of them. Then you have a team of players recruited from the community that are put in charge of these characters subject to the direction of the story master. The stories that get played out should be developed by the settings crew.

What you would then have is a set of player run NPCs available in any time period and pretty much consistently in the game world. The players would of course have to be vetted by the game officials so as to ensure the characters are played appropriately. The whole idea of events is done to death, PS is supposed to aim for something a little different. I am thinking of the team playing out Birthright campaigns with the players acting the roles of the foot soldiers of the campaign, if you follow me. The settings team is broken into several different competing factions being the significant leaders giving instructions to their recruited players who play the characters who carry out the action. Players can then use their own characters to try to fit in to the ongoing course of history.

You would have three factions generally aligned along good evil and neutrality (not particularly new, I know) with maybe three or four team run Leaders per faction in a hierarchal order and maybe 5-10 player run important NPCs under them. You would use the forums, irc and email to coordinate among the time zones and have a continuing thread at all times of the day.

That is role play, None of this disjointed "What are we going to do for excitement today" stuff.

As far as having little events such as the past riverling thing goes I believe they are out of context. The riverlings were just implemented but they did not just enter the world, they have been with us all along as far as our characters are concerned. Why were they in the sewers to begin with and why did people have to act like they were entirely new to them when they have been in Yliakum hundreds of years? It was the same thing when the derghir were implemented, their town near Ojaveda sprang up overnight but it was really there all along even though it was unimplemented, was it not?

The desire for some fanfare for new content is understandable but I think it is a mistake.

[Toox]

Personally, I'm not a big fan of the history changing events. If they became too common, then the history will change a lot. I like the smaller, faster, more mundane ones. I would imagine small events for evil characters to be almost undoable, if a major public evil event only drew a handful.

But I hope that I haven't missed any events. I've walked away from people coming into the tavern starting an rp if it sounded forced, so I now found myself wondering if I really did walk out on an rp that wasn't planned out, or a gm event with a meh beginning.

Prolix, I think that players running npcs would be difficult to regulate, and a non-stop event would take planeshift into a whole new direction. I liked the events, those that I was in on. Often they seem to be handled in a natural way.

[Dajoji]

To me the whole idea of EVENTs is artificial and contrary to the spirit that should prevail. GMs should be no more than referees. What should take the place of events is to have a set of defined characters who have a significant role in the PS world and are sufficiently well described so that they can be run by anyone put in charge of them. Then you have a team of players recruited from the community that are put in charge of these characters subject to the direction of the story master. The stories that get played out should be developed by the settings crew.

What you would then have is a set of player run NPCs available in any time period and pretty much consistently in the game world. The players would of course have to be vetted by the game officials so as to ensure the characters are played appropriately. The whole idea of events is done to death, PS is supposed to aim for something a little different. I am thinking of the team playing out Birthright campaigns with the players acting the roles of the foot soldiers of the campaign, if you follow me. The settings team is broken into several different competing factions being the significant leaders giving instructions to their recruited players who play the characters who carry out the action. Players can then use their own characters to try to fit in to the ongoing course of history.(...)

What you describe there is basically what the GM team does already. We write scripts, XilliX or Talad approves them. We use event characters and impersonate NPCs. And, essentially, we are players that have been recruited from the community and put in charge of these characters. Save small variations, your idea is already implemented.

Creating long term factions players can join is in the progress. These come from settings though, not from events, at least for the time being. Events only make use of them.

I agree that we're still in need to find a way to balance things out so the atmosphere surrounding events does not turn into a "woot! event! rewardz!!! register me!!!!" frenzy. That's why we want to know more about what the players would like to see.

[eldoth_terevan]

I think that more smaller events with a shorter time frame would possibly allow for involving more players. The large events have been neat in the past... but there is a perception that comes into play here about how one wishes to use their online time.

Unless one has all the time in the world to stay logged in indefinitely, then one is going to be aiming for specific goals with one's chunk of play time. Whether it is stats, items or RP that one is focusing on, the player will have a goal in mind, something that they wish to achieve with their time on the system. When they cannot achieve even modest goals, disappointment sets in and sometimes turns to angst, as the variety of posts on this forum have shown.

The rewards thing... one can say it cheapens it, but players need positive reinforcement. If they do not get this, they will disappear from the game. I am not indicating a definite item or XP reward here, some of the players receive positive reinforcement from RP. I certainly have, but time is valuable and players need something that they can feel has been achieved. A game is all about rewards, no matter what form they take, it has to be perceived as a reward by the player, otherwise it is a demerit.

[Dajoji]

Also note that there's a difference between a brief event and a small one. We've had events with 1-5 people that have spanned over the course of 6 hours, and we can have events with 70+ people that are over in 45 minutes.

[Aro]

I picked Problem solving, Epicness, and Episodes for the event types I would like... 

Mostly because I think it would be very entertaining to see a small group of people that follow an episodal event use their brains in order to change something about Yliakum's history, or maybe even add something new, and that many players would enjoy being able to get their names in the history books for participating in such an event.  Also, such a reward of fame would make players feel as if they had an in character reason for participating in the event IMHO.

I mean, if your character could have a chance to be famous, and they would take it (I, Roleplayer...), wouldn't that be a worthwhile reason for participating in the event?

I think that if another poll choice had been available, I would've chosen Magic knowledge mostly because that would be an interesting break from the mundane that some people talk about.  (You know, if a NPC starts talking--even over a tiny thing--several people flock to them.  With a more magical base, the event would probably be a less run-of-the-mill sounding happening, thus justifying that flock, crowd, group, whatever.)

*Also note that I greatly appreciate the fact that the GMs take the time to ask us players what we want.  I feel like that's something that deserves praise, so thank you. 

[Arlaton]

I completely agree with Prolix on the idea of fairly constantly controlled npc's. Just a few characters, mostly significant political or religious characters should be accessible for the community to seek advise and aid from. ie. Amidison Stronghand and Sharven Xant-Areth or another Rector. I can see the problem of making them staffed regularly and consistently played properly, and the fate of the quests but I would love to see the more significant leaders actually be a part of the community.

[Prolix]

We write scripts, XilliX or Talad approves them. We use event characters and impersonate NPCs.

That isn't what I meant really. I suppose it is close enough. It just seems to me if you are following a script you are an actor, possibly improvising, rather than a role player. The main difference I see is that when you script there are all these points that you have to hit, stand on the mark so to speak, and even if the end result is not determined ahead of time it is usually a choice between two possible outcomes. What would have happened if the Riverlings had been exterminated? was it even possible? This is what I am talking about. I would much rather play in a world where the factions work at cross purposes and results are as unpredictable as the people involved.

In my scheme the GM's/settings devs play the important personages in the world and set things in motion but it is the players that are left to make things happen. The important people never get their hands dirty by actually participating. They are the Chess Players, we are the Pieces. Not only would this seem to be more interesting as nothing is certain it would also attract more players to apply for Player positions instead of remaining Pieces. It would also give incentive for them to improve their characters through the game mechanics in order to Play more significant roles.

Who are the important personages that are commonly played by GMs? It seems to me that this would be common knowledge and the NPCs would even know who they are. That Octarchal Lieutenant who was germane to the shields event, is he still around? or has he faded back into the ether or die the permanent death. I believe that happened to both the wizards in that event so I am not asking about them. Was that Lieutenant, or whatever he was the same one who ran the various guild hall auctions? Where are they now? Will we ever see the leading men of the Unlawful Connections event after it finishes?

Continuity is a wonderful thing.

[Dajoji]

We write scripts, XilliX or Talad approves them. We use event characters and impersonate NPCs.

That isn't what I meant really. I suppose it is close enough. It just seems to me if you are following a script you are an actor, possibly improvising, rather than a role player. The main difference I see is that when you script there are all these points that you have to hit, stand on the mark so to speak, and even if the end result is not determined ahead of time it is usually a choice between two possible outcomes. What would have happened if the Riverlings had been exterminated? was it even possible? This is what I am talking about. I would much rather play in a world where the factions work at cross purposes and results are as unpredictable as the people involved.

Actually, we were going to go with either one of th paths, depending on what the players decided. In the riverling event, things went 50-50, so we actually went for both paths. Those who wanted to kill the riverling took a shot at it and killed their share, while those who wanted to save them followed a different path. Obviously, we couldn't tell half the players there that they had to leave the event because the other half won by one vote but in general we do try to anticipate possible outcomes and lay them out for players to choose. This does not mean scripting because it's mere logic. We develop situations where characters need to make decisions. If a significant majority of players chooses one thing, we play along.

Perhaps in the past, events and quests just had one way to be completed. As we move forward, we try to add layers to them and make them more realistic. There are limits to how far we can go in this regard since we need to make the event fun for players and balance out individual vs group actions, so it's kinda tricky. However, rest assured that we do anticipate the possible choices the parties are going to make and if they go for a different route we follow.

NPCs and GM characters do follow a script in order to create the situation that players will face but that does not mean there is acting instead of roleplaying.

[Luzino]

Why don't you want to participate in events? I'm curious. Not all events are the same so what may apply to some has nothing to do with others. I'm interested in your reasons to see if there is something we can change about them or problems we haven't addressed quite yet.

Why? It's all very personal and nothing you or any other GM could change, believe me. I don't feel like soulstripping here cause that's what I'd have to do to give you details. It's not about the way you set them up (however you do, I've never been in one) or what they're about or whatever else you might be thinking of. It's just my personal (dis)like to some part of the game.
I like the game without events. So why go out of my way? Nah... enough others like them so I wish you all a lot of fun and stay out of the way. After all it's great that everyone has the choice. I just thought the poll was a bit odd as my char and me "think" different there, though he probably would not even know it's an "event" if he would stumble into one...

[Mythryndel]

I have not participated in any events... and I am honestly not sure if i have observed any events going on. I like the idea of a storyline being started... that involves specific monsters or npcs. An example being if there was an uprising of Tefusangs in Ojaveda... Lots more tefusangs around, and npcs set up to offer reward for X tefusang parts and other npcs set up to buy crafted weapons for arming an offensive...

This would be going on for a week or two... with tefusangs being aggressive, not passive like normal during this time. After the couple of weeks, the GMs would look at the response to things and either tweak things or remove additional critters and NPCs. Another criteria might be (not publicized), but after X tefusang parts or Y crafted weapons, this chapter of the storyline is concluded.

I like this because it changes the landscape, even if only temporarily. Also because I don't have to be online at a specific hour of a week in order to participate.

This could also be done for puzzle type quests or even to hold an election in-game. I like the idea of getting players involved in-game as much as possible.

[EDIT] I also like the idea that it is not always "safe" when outside a city. People are likely to get injured or killed during the event who travel through the area, this is ok with me as a player... I can run away if needed... assuming I don't get bit by that pesky stamina bug...

[Prolix]

Hehe Dajoji! way to focus on the tree and ignore the forest. Oh well, I tried.