Post by Dark-Girl on Jul 24, 2011 23:27:10 GMT -5
~~~~~~~~~~~Please note, this is not an attack on anyone or everyone. Some things are issues I've seen in the past, and contributed to hard feelings OOCly from player to player, and ended up causing the death of the server last summer. Some things are just ideas I've come up with that would also be bad, or good. Don't take anything personally if you feel something might apply to you.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This post is directed to everyone in our little community we call SotU. That includes the DM staff, and the normal player-base.
In the time that the server has been up for this summer vacation, I've noticed a few issues OOCly, both DM and player-base-wise. I hope nobody gets upset over this post, I just feel I need to get my opinion out, as one of the original members of the old community base.
I'm not saying that this is going on, this is just a suggestion (or, rather, a demand), that the DM staff does not see any favoritism towards one or another staff member. If this does occur, the entire community suffers. If this is going on, please stop; nobody wants it.
Obviously, we also do not want to see any absurd favoritism from DM to player, either. This removes the purpose of a reward system via plots and quests. That being said, -please- do not give people ridiculous rewards that would satisfy a dragon's hoarde, and -please- remember to reward all those involved. I have personal experience with being involved in event after event, and never having been rewarded by the DM in charge, while his close friends were given items aplenty. (Hopefully that part of SotU history is just that- history). Trust me, it makes you feel like you've wasted -lots- of time. Again, this is just a suggestion (demand), not a problem I've seen recently; just keep it in mind.
If a DM wishes to punish a player/character, please do so fairly. Here are a few examples that I would like to bring up, whether or not there are currently any problems with this, I feel like it should be voiced to avoid any incidents. If anyone else has any thoughts on these or other things, please list them;
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alignment: If a character does something out of alignment, ask that player to leave the party, and shift the character's alignment
-accordingly-. Do not quickly and suddenly, without precident, completely modify their alignment. (This is especially important for characters that have abilities/spells that depend on alignment.) If the player doesn't agree with the shift, speak with them in a civil manner, explaining your opinion~ That said, DO NOT FREAK OUT AND GET PISSY WITH THE DM. Their word is final, but that doesn't mean that they don't make mistakes. If you think they're wrong, give your side of the story. Listen to theirs. Be -reasonable-. We're all capable of being mature, please do so.
OOC Chat: Being the small bundle of friends that we are, we do tend to get a little carried away with OOC chat. I personally don't see a problem with it getting "carried away", as long as it's in party chat. If it's really bothering you, you can at least turn that off in the chat window. However, players, -please-, when a DM is running a plot, try to tone it down. The party system is used often enough during a plot that it's inconvenient to have to turn it off, and the DM can get a bit overwhelmed by chat spam. If you're asked to BIC, BIC. You can talk to people in private tells if you're so desperate to talk to them.
-------Please refrain from the absurdly "adult" chat. Sure it's funny in small quantities, but too far is too far. Aso, there are young eyes on this game; remember that. Everyone is here to have a good time. (You know who you are.)
Hopefully this hasn't happened yet, but if a DM is planning on punishing a player for OOC matters, or due to an OOC opinion of the player/character, Do. Not. Do. So. Via. IC. Matters. Unless a player is trolling a plot/quest/event, or trolling other players beyond the funny level, nothing should be done to that player/character. If you have a bias against someone, keep OOC matters OOC. For example, if someone is doing something stupid, a bad choice for punishment would be doing something like.. say.. removing items that the player has spent time working for. Or gold, that the player has spent time earning. This is not only stupid in IC terms, it's very unfair to the player, and will cause tention.
Please remember that we are all here to have a good time, and we -are- a small community. It isn't necessary to be a dictator nazi towards anyone and everyone. If you're planning on doing so, the players probably don't want you to be on the client. If they don't want you on the client, then you probably shouldn't be.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It is my personal belief that the DM staff should be run as a democracy, not a heirarchy. I'm not exactly sure how things have been going lately, but I know we have had problems in the past with previous staff (that is no longer with us). Please, our wonderful staff, include the -entire- staff when making decisions. We do not need tension between DM members over a video game. If someone disagrees with you, bring it up with them. Civilly. Come to an agreement.
Ask for opinions. Do not implement something without consensus (this includes you, Hoboz! I thank you for your dedication, time, and willingness to put so much into this server, but everyone likes things to be fair! Not saying you're not. Just saying. We'd like it to stay that way). In fact, you can even invite the players into your decisions; poll threads are a wonderful thing.
To the players..
Being the small community that we are, I feel bad whenever I see someone get upset over something OOCly, and decides to leave. Granted this has happened over something silly, or an IC matter, it's the OOC matters that I want to address.
There have been several players that have decided to leave the server, for one reason or another. This is a bad thing. The more players we lose, the smaller the community, and the harder it is to keep things going constantly.
Please keep IC matters IC. I've been seeing a -lot- of the opposite going on. I understand that some things might become irritating, but again, we're all capable of being mature. You know how we expect you to act in accordance to an IC matter. ICly. (Granted, if a DM is doing something ICly that the players genuinly agree is ridiculous, it shouldn't be taken seriously. You know who you are, Steve.)
Please keep OOC matters OOC, and civil. There is literally no reason for players to be sore with each other. We're all friends here. If someone is getting upset by something, then something is probably wrong with it. (Unless you're overreacting. In which case, please, tell the person they are acting as such, and give them time to cool off. ..And please, -take- the time to cool off.)
To those players who have already left, I invite you to join our community again, if you happen to read this post. We all welcome you back. No hard feelings. Hopefully everyone involved in our group will work on improving any issues they have, thereby contributing to the enjoyment of everyone else.
This is a personal request, by me. Please try to keep the vulgar language to a minimum. I have noticed a couple particular players tend to cuss and swear quite often, and I do have a bit of a problem with that. I know it's absurd to ask you to stop completely, so please, if you could, just tone it down.
I may add more to this later, but this is all I can think up right now. Please note, this isn't directed to anyone specific, unless of course, you were specified. This is just a bunch of things that I felt I needed to get out into the minds of the community, in hopes that things will not stray off the fun path. That's what we're all here for. Having fun.
This post is directed to everyone in our little community we call SotU. That includes the DM staff, and the normal player-base.
In the time that the server has been up for this summer vacation, I've noticed a few issues OOCly, both DM and player-base-wise. I hope nobody gets upset over this post, I just feel I need to get my opinion out, as one of the original members of the old community base.
I'm not saying that this is going on, this is just a suggestion (or, rather, a demand), that the DM staff does not see any favoritism towards one or another staff member. If this does occur, the entire community suffers. If this is going on, please stop; nobody wants it.
Obviously, we also do not want to see any absurd favoritism from DM to player, either. This removes the purpose of a reward system via plots and quests. That being said, -please- do not give people ridiculous rewards that would satisfy a dragon's hoarde, and -please- remember to reward all those involved. I have personal experience with being involved in event after event, and never having been rewarded by the DM in charge, while his close friends were given items aplenty. (Hopefully that part of SotU history is just that- history). Trust me, it makes you feel like you've wasted -lots- of time. Again, this is just a suggestion (demand), not a problem I've seen recently; just keep it in mind.
If a DM wishes to punish a player/character, please do so fairly. Here are a few examples that I would like to bring up, whether or not there are currently any problems with this, I feel like it should be voiced to avoid any incidents. If anyone else has any thoughts on these or other things, please list them;
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alignment: If a character does something out of alignment, ask that player to leave the party, and shift the character's alignment
-accordingly-. Do not quickly and suddenly, without precident, completely modify their alignment. (This is especially important for characters that have abilities/spells that depend on alignment.) If the player doesn't agree with the shift, speak with them in a civil manner, explaining your opinion~ That said, DO NOT FREAK OUT AND GET PISSY WITH THE DM. Their word is final, but that doesn't mean that they don't make mistakes. If you think they're wrong, give your side of the story. Listen to theirs. Be -reasonable-. We're all capable of being mature, please do so.
OOC Chat: Being the small bundle of friends that we are, we do tend to get a little carried away with OOC chat. I personally don't see a problem with it getting "carried away", as long as it's in party chat. If it's really bothering you, you can at least turn that off in the chat window. However, players, -please-, when a DM is running a plot, try to tone it down. The party system is used often enough during a plot that it's inconvenient to have to turn it off, and the DM can get a bit overwhelmed by chat spam. If you're asked to BIC, BIC. You can talk to people in private tells if you're so desperate to talk to them.
-------Please refrain from the absurdly "adult" chat. Sure it's funny in small quantities, but too far is too far. Aso, there are young eyes on this game; remember that. Everyone is here to have a good time. (You know who you are.)
Hopefully this hasn't happened yet, but if a DM is planning on punishing a player for OOC matters, or due to an OOC opinion of the player/character, Do. Not. Do. So. Via. IC. Matters. Unless a player is trolling a plot/quest/event, or trolling other players beyond the funny level, nothing should be done to that player/character. If you have a bias against someone, keep OOC matters OOC. For example, if someone is doing something stupid, a bad choice for punishment would be doing something like.. say.. removing items that the player has spent time working for. Or gold, that the player has spent time earning. This is not only stupid in IC terms, it's very unfair to the player, and will cause tention.
Please remember that we are all here to have a good time, and we -are- a small community. It isn't necessary to be a dictator nazi towards anyone and everyone. If you're planning on doing so, the players probably don't want you to be on the client. If they don't want you on the client, then you probably shouldn't be.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It is my personal belief that the DM staff should be run as a democracy, not a heirarchy. I'm not exactly sure how things have been going lately, but I know we have had problems in the past with previous staff (that is no longer with us). Please, our wonderful staff, include the -entire- staff when making decisions. We do not need tension between DM members over a video game. If someone disagrees with you, bring it up with them. Civilly. Come to an agreement.
Ask for opinions. Do not implement something without consensus (this includes you, Hoboz! I thank you for your dedication, time, and willingness to put so much into this server, but everyone likes things to be fair! Not saying you're not. Just saying. We'd like it to stay that way). In fact, you can even invite the players into your decisions; poll threads are a wonderful thing.
To the players..
Being the small community that we are, I feel bad whenever I see someone get upset over something OOCly, and decides to leave. Granted this has happened over something silly, or an IC matter, it's the OOC matters that I want to address.
There have been several players that have decided to leave the server, for one reason or another. This is a bad thing. The more players we lose, the smaller the community, and the harder it is to keep things going constantly.
Please keep IC matters IC. I've been seeing a -lot- of the opposite going on. I understand that some things might become irritating, but again, we're all capable of being mature. You know how we expect you to act in accordance to an IC matter. ICly. (Granted, if a DM is doing something ICly that the players genuinly agree is ridiculous, it shouldn't be taken seriously. You know who you are, Steve.)
Please keep OOC matters OOC, and civil. There is literally no reason for players to be sore with each other. We're all friends here. If someone is getting upset by something, then something is probably wrong with it. (Unless you're overreacting. In which case, please, tell the person they are acting as such, and give them time to cool off. ..And please, -take- the time to cool off.)
To those players who have already left, I invite you to join our community again, if you happen to read this post. We all welcome you back. No hard feelings. Hopefully everyone involved in our group will work on improving any issues they have, thereby contributing to the enjoyment of everyone else.
This is a personal request, by me. Please try to keep the vulgar language to a minimum. I have noticed a couple particular players tend to cuss and swear quite often, and I do have a bit of a problem with that. I know it's absurd to ask you to stop completely, so please, if you could, just tone it down.
I may add more to this later, but this is all I can think up right now. Please note, this isn't directed to anyone specific, unless of course, you were specified. This is just a bunch of things that I felt I needed to get out into the minds of the community, in hopes that things will not stray off the fun path. That's what we're all here for. Having fun.
)
