My take on the latest event...

[Bonedaf]

First off, I'm not trying to start any sort of argument or controversial post, but I'm trying to let the community know maybe a few things that could make events better in my opinion. And I encourage discussion. I know there has been a lot of posts about events but most of them are aimed at the GMs or Devs....I want this one to be aimed at the players. What can we, ourselves as individuals, do to make it more fun?

Stop trying to win events! Stop trying to be the hero and just have fun! Play your character as your character and how he/she would fit into the event IC. It seems to me that everyone just wants to be that person who dominates the event, solves the mystery, and wins the event. Stop it! It's not fun for other people and any RP or fun potential the event had is ruined by you trying to rush to a solution.

Treat GM events as player run events/RP! Your character wouldn't know the difference. I understand that GM events are fun and everyone wants to be involved but you can still play your character. And sometimes that means your character observes what is happening rather than always interacting. What I've seen is that everyone wants to have their character get physically involved in the situation that it doesn't really make it fun. There is a million chat pieces to read through, half of them get overlooked and the other half take a while to respond to. But before you can respond to actions/talk there is a bombardment of more text to read/respond to. Everyone is in such a hurry to speak it creates a pretty unfun environment...for me at least.

The GMs put a lot of time into events and I feel bad when they turn out poorly for me. Now I am not looking for the GMs to make this change over night because I know they cannot do much about it. It's how we, as a community and as players, play that is the culprit to why GM events aren't really fun. So instead of asking the GMs to change, I ask the players to! Play your character, not the event. And realize that the adventure is more fun than the solution. You don't have to be the person who "wins" the event.



 

[Bodier]

Thank you for your insight and bringing this out,  as a relatively new GM, I find it hard at times to interact with everyone at the same time during events, I've seen remarks  that we  don't reply fast enough, that  we override someones  take  on rp'ng  within the event, on these points sorry trying to do the best we can, but  trying to deal with everyone's ideas and ideals, just wont mesh, if we missed you, sorry /me shrugs   not on purpose, we do the best that we can  with luck we'll get better ( pretty new team here)  but  until everyone realizes that  one person interacting to  a mass amount of questions, or actions, will never be able to connect with everybody at the same time

[Illysia]

I wasn't at the event so I don't know what happened, but I can imagine. The best solution sounds like it would be to have smaller player run "events" more often so that people don't swarm the GM events so hard.

[Bonedaf]

The problem is, is that people look at player run events and GM run events differently. The enthusiasm and attendance show that. People see a blue name that's talking and run towards it, within minutes there's a crowd. Everyone is competing for the RP. Perhaps GMs should think about disguising their names as green and see if that might change a bit of the perception (although that isn't really the problem again, the problem is how players see a GM and instantly want to RP with them but will pass up half a dozen other RPs with players -event or spontaneous).

I know that one of the main attraction to events, aside from the feeling of not missing out, is the reward. I even heard people making comments about how there was no reward this time around. It seemed like all players want is some sort of special/unique item to collect. Perhaps we could not come to expect these of events? And perhaps we should look at the IG economy and rethink how we value money IG. For most players who have maxed out skills and stats they have an abundance of money and not really much left to do. So events are the only thing left further to explore, with their rewards being the only thing left they haven't gotten yet. I think we need to eliminate this mentality in a larger portion of the player base.  If not, we are not going to be able to retain a solid community.

[Illysia]

The problem GMs doing differently is and has been that anytime GMs deviate from the recognized pattern someone complains about how unfair it is that they missed out. So, there isn't much that can be done on that count. However, you are right about the mentality needing to change. But that has been the mentality for so long I just assume that everyone will reach that realization when they do. Bringing it to their attention is not enough to spark a change of attitude.

However, very well run player events can eventually develop the reputation of being fun enough to compete with GM events and you will see players go out of their way to join. It's just that those events tend to be plots and not get togethers as many player events are. But there are or at least were certain names that could just pop up and people would line up just to see what those players were up to.

[iridia]

We created a guild for players so they can do events with the GM's and everyone who has an idea for an event is welcome to submit it to us.

[gonger]

Hello Bonedaf,

Thank you for this very good post. You certainly have some points there, and the reactions show that you made people think.

But I believe it is not only the wish to present yourself during an event, language problems certainly also play a role. I read very fast, I type very fast, and my English is fluent, with a large vocabulary. (I am German, but read almost exclusively books in English. My private library is larger than Jayose's.  ) Unfortunately some people with very good ideas concerning the event are less gifted when it comes to languages, so they take more time to participate actively. This may cause events to be dominated by players with better English.

This is in no way meant to be offensive towards those whose English is less good, it is simply a fact that not everybody speaks English equally well. In the long run, people will improve their English by playing PlaneShift, and this should make it easier for them to play their roles, not only, but also during events.

And I will try to type a bit slower during the next events! 

Greetings,

Gonger.

[bilbous]

What would really throw people for a loop is to develop turn base events. Each turn the players are polled with a popup as to what they are doing, it should be on a timer which generates a pass if ignored, be extended if the player starts typing, have the order randomly generated each turn, and have the actions published as they occur.

Naturally I will not hold my breath waiting for this to be implemented.

[Nedes]

It is not really my place to form an official opinion about this but here is my personal one
You are right about the „follow the GM” feeling, lack of RP on events, simply too many interaction attempts to follow and that some might expect more than fun time from events IMHO. Now, I understand GMs won’t stop or drastically change that style due to its popularity / simplicity and also they can’t do much about certain aspects only try and aim for a certain balance. Meanwhile players+GMs could try shifting towards player initiated plots / events. I for one am open to involving my guard character or any other blue-named for a certain scene plot until we can maintain settings integrity.