questions on the feedback given to Phil

[Seattle_Dave]

My faith in the game as a whole has dwindled drastically over the last 2 years in regards to the quality of the game and as a whole I don't find a good reason to support this game.

This saddens me. Whoever you are, I do hope you find a way to give feedback to me or to Holly which we can use to address the reasons why you feel the game has suffered so much. What is missing for you?

With that said the problem with gamedays in general is that they are through away encounters. In the past with the exception of Phils Fell Gamedays, the gamedays have had NOTHING to do with any plot going on and were (perceived to be) treated by plot as something that they "had" to do instead of something they wanted to do. Perhaps if the mindset of the staff changes we can step in the right direction.

I know that the plots run at game days over the past couple of years have always had tie-ins to plot being run at events. None of them have been throw-aways from the plot team's perspective. That said, I also have heard feedback that sometimes it feels like the information tying things together is not always available. We are looking at this and trying to address the issue as best we can. Sometimes it is a matter of people not sharing information, sometimes it is otherwise. The latter is something we can address.

Secondly, there is NO REASON why the majority of us who show up for gamedays should for any reason be caught hanging out and ready to act to help E Random peasent who comes into town for any reason. If plot can be creative and think of innovative ways to get us in the same place for something then perhaps that is another step in the right direction.

This is an extremely difficult thing to address. Even events have this problem. Without some deus ex machina to force everyone into the same area, there will always be characters who feel they would not be available. Since you are the ones playing those charaters, I really do feel that working together with the plot team in off-time scenes and down-time actions would be best as far as getting your character's motivations taken care of. I would urge you to write to your plot team so they can work on this with you.

At the moment gamedays are a waste of time and money. For those of us who do show up there are no healers (and YES that makes a difference) and generally more NPCS then PCS.

I agree completely. We are attempting to make them more worthwhile. Unfortunately, without attendance it is impossible for us to solve the more PC's than NPC's or the healer issue (other than access to an NPC healer, which would not always fit the story). If we begin to have more people attend the game days, more healers will likely be available. I will state that it is my intention to begin playing game days unless I need to run a plot. My character is, in fact, a healer.

My recommendations: plot should target key players who can or do show up for gamedays. What I mean by this is set up an encounter that they know about ahead of time (like someone comes into town and makes an appointment to meet with X character). Plot should verbally and clearly articulate that characters who are not currently in the crossroads should attend because ___(insert answer here)___ and lastly showing to the player base that gamedays are not going to be a waste of our time by being on time & not treating gamedays like the bastard child of Alliance Seattle. You plot needs to make it lucrative to get players. Nobody likes wasting money, especially right now.

Thank you very much for your recommendations. I know that our new plot team is working very hard to make things more worth the effort to get there. We will discuss these recomendations and see if they are something we can implement. I also think more personal plot tying the characters to being in town would help. Would it be helpful to you if we were to work with you on thoise personal plot reasons?

With Brewer and I living a whole 5-10 minutes from the game day site and monster camp now being at my house, I know that at least the two of us will almost always be on time.

Again, thank you to everyone who has been giving feedback. Without knowing what you are thinking we cannot improve, and we really do want to make this game enjoyable.

 

[Saephis]

Secondly, there is NO REASON why the majority of us who show up for gamedays should for any reason be caught hanging out and ready to act to help E Random peasent who comes into town for any reason. If plot can be creative and think of innovative ways to get us in the same place for something then perhaps that is another step in the right direction.

This is an extremely difficult thing to address. Even events have this problem. Without some deus ex machina to force everyone into the same area, there will always be characters who feel they would not be available. Since you are the ones playing those charaters, I really do feel that working together with the plot team in off-time scenes and down-time actions would be best as far as getting your character's motivations taken care of. I would urge you to write to your plot team so they can work on this with you.

As I pointed out elsewhere, this was a reason behind the "What do you do when not AT a game?" questionairre thing.

We don't know what you're doing if you don't tell us. Thus, if we don't know it, and you're not telling anyone, your character is (effectively) sitting in the middle of nowhere doing so little that twiddling thumbs seems exciting.

 

[Mevima]

Now that I have a character, I can play either an NPC or PC at game days, whatever is needed.

 

[Saephis]

At the moment gamedays are a waste of time and money. For those of us who do show up there are no healers (and YES that makes a difference) and generally more NPCS then PCS.

I agree completely. We are attempting to make them more worthwhile. Unfortunately, without attendance it is impossible for us to solve the more PC's than NPC's or the healer issue (other than access to an NPC healer, which would not always fit the story). If we begin to have more people attend the game days, more healers will likely be available. I will state that it is my intention to begin playing game days unless I need to run a plot. My character is, in fact, a healer.

This is a problem for more people than you think, also. The value of a dedicated healer is hugely under valued by many people right now. This is why there's so very few (Near-none, depending on how you classify it) right now in game. I see it and experience it when I PC, and I see it just the same now on Plot.

The only thing I can say is I'll respond to wants and needs as much as in game actions of players respond back. There used to be several Healer-Oriented PC's, think long and hard about where they went and why before the same mistakes happen again.

I almost deleted the above paragraph, because yeah, it's a harsh way to put it, but I'm a big fan of people paying for their mistakes just the same as they benefit from their sucesses.

Give Healers a reason to Heal and they might just do it.

 

[jpariury]

(Just for the record, I am not the anonymous contributer)

The only thing I can say is I'll respond to wants and needs as much as in game actions of players respond back. There used to be several Healer-Oriented PC's, think long and hard about where they went and why before the same mistakes happen again.

Generally, I feel that healers are unnecessary because Plot will, more often than not, lighten up on the PCs when they start getting harshed due to a lack of healers, or otherwise compensate the players (potions, acti-lifes, random wandering NPC healer guy who arrives just in the nick).

There is often a feeling that players should only die when they screw up. But what constitutes screwing up fluctuates from person to person, and encounter to encounter. Failing to bring someone who can cast healing might be the screw-up, or relying on a healer rather than production resources might be the screw-up. As long as you're not statting your monsters to be immune to everything the players have and killing them with every swing, my feeling is that if you "lose", you screwed up, plain and simple.

 

[meltedwing]

Generally, I feel that healers are unnecessary because Plot will, more often than not, lighten up on the PCs when they start getting harshed due to a lack of healers, or otherwise compensate the players (potions, acti-lifes, random wandering NPC healer guy who arrives just in the nick).

This is very similar to how I have often felt as a boom caster. If I cast lots of magic, plot will just conjure more bad guys out of thin air because it was "too easy". If I don't cast magic, then plot feels that they harshed on us a bit and then we don't face another wave of bad guys.

This kind of mentality just makes people feel that doing more, or expending more effort, will only cause more harshness to come from monster camp. There was an example of this a long time ago where an unlimited number of wolves were pouring from an open rift one night and it didn't matter how many of them the PC's killed, there were always more wolves and no real way to close the rift.

As long as you don't have finite numbers of things and at some point just say "ok, they've been beat on enough, no more waves" then you'll always have people who feel like it doesn't matter that they were there, in fact they will often feel that the group got punished because they were there.

Even if I liked game days, I wouldn't show up with my character because it would likely mean that the rest of the players will get the snot beat out of them from the ramped up bad guys. That or the plot people will just make the monsters "immune to what he's throwing".

I think the key here is that someone in a position of authority needs to offer some real solutions to this stuff, and I absolutely congratulate you guys for bringing this out and trying to find out what peoples issues with things are. That's the only way you're going to know that your solution is fixing the problem.

As a side note, I have an interesting idea that a few of you are going to smack your foreheads about and say "duh", but here goes. How about picking an upcoming game day to publicize heavily. Talk about it a lot, pump it up, make it so people truly feel informed about what is going on regardless of their attendance at game days lately, or events for that matter. Then request that everyone who can show up, does. Bring some friends even!

Maybe we can have a barbecue (I'll help out with it) and make a big deal. Steak, veggie stuff for veggie eaters, sodas and tea, maybe some corn on the cob. We could maybe have a good 4 to 6 hour game day and then afterward have a "town hall" meeting about the game.

Thoughts?

 

[Renner]

I like that idea, sounds like it would be a lot of fun.

As for some of the things said here, I have been to almost every game day for a very long time and have played alot of different characters threw them. From what I have seen, if you show up and actually play the game day it actually does tie into the main plots.

As for the no healer problem, like Dave said, he will be playing his healer, and I am currently playing an earth templar, there are people there that can heal if you show up.

I for one like the games, I just ask people to show up for them and give them a chance, you never know, you might like what you get.

Renner