How to Work a Plotline 6: How to Complain

Traceroo

Rogue
This month’s edition is about how to handle things socially at the game when something doesn’t go the way that you hoped it would. You want to let the game know in hopes of getting a better result next time. This edition is about: How to complain.

What I’d like to go over is this:
1. Check your facts before you issue a complaint.
2. Check yourself: Take personal responsibility for what you can change.
3. What do you hope to get out of this complaint?
4. How to frame a complaint


Check Your Facts
Raise your hand if you’re stunned by the shocking amount of misinformation and rumor that goes around a LARP! Keep your hand raised if you’ve ever heard incorrect storyline information get shared in the game. Still keep your hand raised if you’ve ever heard incorrect information about YOU or your character shared around the game.

Is it possible that you received incorrect information about the situation that you’re complaining about? Can you check these facts with your friends, participants, witnesses before you bring this to a member of the game staff? A little goes a long way in this regard, and it’s always appreciated by staff if we have to do less work correcting facts, and can focus on our main tasks at hand. Do what you can to get the right story before you bring your complaint to staff.


Personal Responsibility
Ultimately, your game experience will be affected far more by what YOU do than by anybody else.

What can you handle personally? If it’s a dispute with another player, have you tried speaking with them directly? If it’s a plotline that isn’t going the way you hoped, have you tried a different plan of approach? Have you compared notes with other PCs? If you feel like other players aren’t including you in the content that interests you, have you tried talking to them either in-character or out-of-character to make improvements? Did you prepare for the encounter in question as much as you could have, gathering all the right information, getting the right group, bringing the right materials with you?

If you’ve done your part, and there is more to this difficulty that is outside of your ability to affect positively, even with the help of your fellow PCs, that’s when it’s time to involve game staff.


What do you hope to get out of this complaint?
Important question: Is there something in this situation that game staff that actually FIX for you?

Is there something that Plot, or other game staffers, can do to make this situation better? Or do you just want to be heard? Watch this 2 minute video that will change your social life:


It’s Not About the Nail

Game staffers want to pull the nail out of your head.

If you tell us about a situation that didn’t go right, game staffers’ first instinct is to look to see if there’s a nail in your head, and if so, pull it out. If you don’t want the nail pulled out of your head, if you just want validation for your feelings about the nail… Respectfully, your friends may be the better sounding board for your feelings than a complaint sent to the game staff. We respect your feelings; your feelings about use of your time and entertainment are ALWAYS valid. We are not the appropriate parties to offer and discuss that validation, however – your friends and teammates are. We are here to pull the nail out of your head.


How to Frame a Complaint
This is an approach you can apply anywhere in your life from a complaint to a vendor on Amazon, to arguing with your partner about them leaving wet towels on the bedroom floor again, to trying to get better mod opportunities from a LARP Plot Team.

When something didn’t go the way you wanted it to:
1. State the facts objectively.
2. Describe what happened as a result of those facts.
3. Tell the other party what you want to happen now.


Examples:
1. A Plot Marshal told us to report to the tavern instead of to the mod building.
2. As a result, we started our mod 30 minutes late. It was a timed mod, and our party was penalized for the lateness.
3. I’d like a redo on this mod opportunity at the July event, when my full party will be present.


1. I talked on Slack about killing the King.
2. Someone took this IG, and reported it to one of the Barons. I got a letter saying I should report for interrogation on Friday night of the next event.
3. I’d like to meet with Plot before the event to clarify what legitimately was overheard IG and what may be metagaming. I could use a mediator.


1. I turned in a BGA marked “critical to my character,” and I did not get a response before the event
2. I didn’t get the information that might have led me to get in on the mod team for Saturday night
3. I’d like a response to the BGA, and will you consider giving me a special opportunity to get in on a future mod about this subject to make up for the missed opportunity?


Submit your complaint to the official staff email address
plot@alliancedencer.com
acarthiangm@gmail.com
owner@alliancedenver.com
tavern@alliancedenver.com
AcarthiaLogistics@gmail.com

If you put your complaint on Slack, on Facebook, at the dinner table at Rudy’s at Afters – we hear this. We hear your complaints. Maybe you think it’s “just venting to your friends.” To our volunteer staff, that venting can be just as hurtful. I’m not saying you can’t vent to your friends – I’m the Venting Champion of the Barony of Rivervale 3 years running! Vent. But be mindful that our staffers may see that, may hear it, and the method of your delivery affects that relationship, and your reputation. This is part of the personal responsibility section.

The people on the game staff are passionate, and most of us long-time LARPers. We get feelings of frustration. We get feelings of outright rage! We really get it.

We’re also hard working volunteers who dedicate most of our free time to making the game more awesome. Please be nice to us – especially if you’re upset. Count to 10 first. Don’t swear. Don’t be sarcastic. Don’t phrase your request as a demand. Don’t be a jerk.

Say please, and thank you. Express gratitude for what’s going right. Be willing to start a discussion, not lay down the law. Try to keep benefit of the doubt that even when things go wrong, we really wanted them to go right, and we’re willing to do what we can now to make things better.

But mostly – tell us what you actually want, don’t just complain to blow off steam.

If this hits home for you, please know this is a widespread message intended for an audience of dozens. This applies to most of us, sooner or later. This is not intended to single out anyone in particular.

Thanks for reading,
Trace Moriarty
Team Daedalus
2018 Acarthia Plot Team

 
And on a more general basis, for having these kinds of conversations there is a great book "Crucial Conversations" That also goes deeper into this sort of topic of how to have these sorts of difficult and often emotional discussions.
 
Also, speaking as a writer on anther lARP and a long time player. Your complaint will be better heard if you send it when you're not angry. After doing all of the steps Trace suggested, write out your complaint...and then leave it for a day, maybe two. Come back to it and RE-READ it before sending. What sounded reasonable when you were upset my in actuality be aggressive, hurtful and rude, which is a bad combination for getting a positive response from game staff. =3
 
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