DM presence.
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I hate to say it once again, but we've all noticed that player presence is directly linked with DM presence. There's been little to no DM presence for a while now in game and i hate to say it, but the lack of it has been felt.
Just wondering what the situation is with our team :/
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Ah, the old times of Xfire chat:
A- Hello lads, it's at 25/40 now, not laggy at all, how about we grab someone else and do a nice Sewers - Hullack?
B- Sure! It's been some time since the last one
C- There are three DMs on…
A- Oh, fuck it then
B- Maybe tomorrow?
C- Going to bed disconnects
A- Seeya B!
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Puffys out for most of this week and i think Lizard has been less active the last few weeks due to work.
While Pol is out on a buisness trip.I also think players just got busy with RL. stuff should pick up again soon
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What Modiglian said.
Made me laugh for just how true it was back then.
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Verk summed it up, really.
RL is having its way with several of us.
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@Amy:
What Modiglian said.
Made me laugh for just how true it was back then.
Aye, the sad thing is that no-one listened to the warnings.
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We may be gathering more forces if necessary. For now, all of our DMs are busy with RL or building/fixing the server.
Tata.
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DMs are hardly needed to keep the server interesting. Just need players who can sow competitiveness through ingame means! The Banites, necromancers, werewolves, bandits, and apostates of late have done well to add a player vs. player dimension to COA. Players need to see villains as a way to spice up the game, not just as objects for them to fell as the "heroes". Extend OOC courtesy to your ingame nemesis and you'd be surprised how well it pans out.
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@KoP:
DMs are hardly needed to keep the server interesting. Just need players who can sow competitiveness through ingame means! The Banites, necromancers, werewolves, bandits, and apostates of late have done well to add a player vs. player dimension to COA. Players need to see villains as a way to spice up the game, not just as objects for them to fell as the "heroes". Extend OOC courtesy to your ingame nemesis and you'd be surprised how well it pans out.
Yep, several of the design elements for the new server version should have made low DM time less bothersome than they used to be. But people still need to get creative.
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C'mon guys, of course you need DM love to make the server rock and roll!
Plots, events, NPC interaction, spice, love, magic, sexiness! A PW without DM interaction is like a bacon sandwich without sauce, it's missing something.
I've noticed a massive drop in numbers recently, and I bet the two are linked.
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I will echo what Cake said. While having aspects that do not require dm supervision, a server without dms is dead. The dms can drive the server forward in ways no PC ever could.
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I've been slowly getting back in game and to full activity, how would players like my time spent in game? One off events and quests, longer sustainable DM plots, NPC interaction, helping player plots? I appreciate a mixture of the above is desired, but where would players prefer the bulk of DM time went?
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I'd say that aiding players with thier plots and progressing the metaplot are where players would like DM time to be spent ig.
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Thunder, I see a dm as "serving the server", not as "serving the players". As such, yes it is neat when dms are willing to help further a characters plot. But I see far more value being created by MOSTLY focusing upon furthering the server Metaplot. The first helps the story of a few, the later helps the story of all.
An example is when a dm helps a player faction do awesome shit. Too often I find such rarely influences the entirety of the server. The Bloodhound gang of evil crimelords may love the attention they receive when they conduct raids on Shadovar camps, or when they help them summon demons and provide them with awesome loot. But if that is where the story ends, which it is FAR too often in my personal mind, such does little to further the server.
Instead, focusing 80% of ones IC time running events, then the bloodhound gang can not only participate in those plots, but they will be more focused upon how their own story is influenced by the main story. So their demon summoning is suddenly part of a larger scheme, their raids on shadovar camps are done to help faciliate a larger story than merely their own.
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I wasn't saying DMs arent needed in game by the way, I was just talking about some of the stuff we made, we made bearing in mind sometimes DMs wont be about. Course DMs are needed in game.
Would love to be in game playing, just not practical for me. Best I can ever do right now is minor events, and possibly 'DMless' plots, though those actually take a lot of time anyway.
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Good pointers, I'm working on something that I hope to get running with IG over the next few months.
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I'll echo Olouth here. While i really like that player factions and player plots can get a lot of support i also enjoy big metaplots like the Ashby plot and civil war that ended v3 for example, of course people should be able to do thier own things that dont tie in with the metaplot as well but a overarching story ties things together nicely
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I played briefly on efu and I can tell you that one of the reasons for them keeping a decent player-base is due to DMs making metaplots and other stuff that influence the server as a whole and not just a few factions here and there. Also, the current big events open for everyone have been too cozy and too dm reliant making the progression slow and ppl got bored of them.
Ex: Goblins in hordes gather outside Arabel -> Adventurers go to smash them then learns they came from somewhere. -> Now some riddles here and there are given by an npc as they head toward the place (but the sentences aren't pre-made by the dm so ppl wait for the typing and get bored, or there's some transitions not working as they should). After a long walk and intrigue started amongst the pcs and the big group becomes half. The dm who is busy planning ahead or spawning stuff can't support the intrigue the players make on the event. And in any case it obstucts the big goal of finding the big mystery which the dm is about to conclude.. In the end ppl can't rp their char but jsut want to finish the long long event that barely had much purpose but but… THE LOOT
I've seen this coziness many many times.. DM events where suddenly the warlocks and serial-killers work alongside the goodies of town and nothing happens because.. It's a cozy dm event and intrigue and rp isn't on the first row but the end goal of ridding off the threat that the dm provided. INSTEAD DMs should make it more open to take sides on such events (It worked wonders on efu and rly forced ppl to take sides and stop the coziness and suddenly there was much more to it than loot and xp.) The end of the shadovar war event had a bit of that feel, though the start was a bit meh where it was basically npcs vs pcs but later it got to npcs + pcs vs npcs + pcs. That's when it was rly getting fun imo.
Suggestions:
1: Support the intrigue conducted by players on these events, screw the big goal. Make it clear if they don't act on the intrigue and/or role-play from some pcs then the whole group will never reach the end of the event.. Or jsut make it a race between the opposing factions who're both trying to gain the big loot at the end of the road.2: Spend less time on the pc-factions unless they rly prove to gather many ppl (like the whole server). Rp some npcs that gather the syndicates to pillage the Citadel or goodies who are to confront the increasing threat of easthaven the evil rogues and necromancers in old town instigated. In the end there will be pcs who will take up leadership of the sides and the dms can spend more time on spawning and preparation, staying more in the background etc..
3: Make the exploring events shorter as well.
4: More scheduled events preferably with some advertisement or pre-warning/spoilers.
5: More activity with events of big size (From what I can tell watching the player-base there're always more online when big event unfold.)
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EFU maintains a steady playerbase not because of DMs, but because they've stratified the character base among different lines. The very nature of EFU with its static factions forces those who join them into conflict with competing factions. So they're encouraged to quest/innovate new ways of getting the upper hand and to seek out their enemy pcs. All without the need of a DM. Though static factions cause a bit of loss in player agency and creativity. Finding the balance between static factions and player factions then drawing lines in the sand between those factions towards the others would be a great help to encouraging players to spend more time in game.
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Server runs fine without a DM, but every time we've seen a long absence of DM presence, you see player numbers drop -every- time. Let's not kid ourselves, our server needs its DMs. If none are about, maybe it is time to recruit once more :/