What do we want from this guild?

Hi everyone! If you're here, it probably means that you've enjoyed being in Magitech, or at least that Magitech did something for you that no other guild could do. For me, it was roleplay. I'm the kind of MMO gamer who really needs to roleplay. Trion has given us a shiny world with pretty toons and an interesting lore. ... a PATCHY but interesting lore. The concepts are cool, in any case.

Let me get to the point here: I've loved playing with all you Magitechers. I don't want to see any of you go off into the sunset. I shall selfishly hoard all the good rpers to myself! ... unless you've decided you'd rather raid or PvP hardcore or whatever ... That's okay just, gimmie a poke so I can add you to my friends list eh?

I started this topic so that we can discuss what we want out of the guild I'm putting together with a contingent of Magitechers who want to stay. So tell me what you want what you really really want and we'll talk about it. There's no way we can please everybody but hopefully we can please everyone ENOUGH that you'll like it here.

Here's what I want:
An RP guild. First and foremost. We can do other stuff but each and every member has to be a roleplayer. I hate having to poke people to see if they roleplay or not in my own dang guild. Magitech's guild chat is IC and I wanna keep it that way.

Magitech, but more relaxed. Let's face it we were heavy on the "tech" portion of the name. The Reds had nearly nothing to do because we were NEVER attacked outside of the Trollblight or Fatal Alliances rp. Well, my character has been several times but there were never any Reds on to answer the distress call. A lot of us have had plotlines squashed by the Plot Team. Not fair. No I don't like baby drama either. Yes, if you get possessed more than once I'm gonna kick you in the nuts unless there's a real compelling reason not to.

Let me tell you what I was told about the Plot Team. I was told they were there to keep an eye on everyone's storylines and help draw people together to play so no one gets left out. What they actually ended up doing was deciding on a guild "spine plot" that we would all branch out from nicely and gods help you if you did anything unexpected.

I call for Roleplay Facilitators as an official rank in the guild AND the responsibility of each and every member from initiate on up. The kind of people who leave breadcrumbs and drop hints and yes hook other players to make sure everyone's involved and having a good time. NOT for disciplinary action. I want to do as absolutely little of that as possible.

Most of the guilds I've run, and Lighteyes can tell you the same, I've done them very hands-off. I like player-driven content. I believe that we are all big enough people to share the spotlight. I believe that it is not impossible to organize among ourselves when our characters are going to have major plot development. For example, let's say Sotiris gets kidnapped. Okay, Hannon might want to wait for a week or so for that to get resolved before he has a big showdown with evil mage from his past or something. It makes sense on a personal level too, because if Hannon wants our attention him to be undivided, he's going to WANT to wait until nothing else is going on.

Simplification. Magitech's guild structure was too complex. The brass took on more than they could handle and it was unnecessary. It is NOT that hard to keep 30 people together and interested. It is not that hard to keep 50 people together and interested. Yeah, we may not all want to rp together at the same time cause FUCK those gatherings were scrolling hell! Couldn't do anything let alone expect someone to respond to your hello before it got swept off the screen.

No, our little forum her will probably not be as intricate or flashy as Magitech's. You know what? I don't want it to be. I'd like clarity rather than complexity.

Member responsibility and delegation. Yeah, unless I sleep in or I have somewhere to go, I'm online. But, I also don't get paid for this and I wouldn't want to because then it would no longer be fun. Ideally, I'd like us all to share the load of running the guild and keeping things fun and interesting so that we can all spend time doing the stuff we love. For me? I plan on spending most of my time roleplaying like I usually do. I just have the added hitch that people can poke me when they need something. That's how I'd like it to be for everyone. If you wanna do lots of raiding and you're also an officer? Raid comes first unless it's an emergency. The person can either wait or poke someone else who's not busy.

It's up to all of us to support each other. I have given other players plat for new mounts, mats for new gear especially when they've just dinged 50, I've run noobs around starting areas guarding their asses and power-leveling them, I've filled spots in people's dungeon runs when they couldn't find a healer or needed a replacement dps who's not a derp, I've bought costume pieces for other players, I've given people a loan when the amount they needs was especially big. I feel it's important for everyone to do things like this. Help your guildies and tell them to pay it forward to the next noobs who come along and need help. People did it for you when you were struggling through the leveling. You pay us back by helping others.

Quality RP. Yep. Let me just get my Elitist Bastard badge on here ... I hunted this server for 47 levels before I decided on Magitech. I watched people roleplay and noted their guild tags. I saw the most literate, most interesting roleplayers were Magitechers. I don't want to be in a guild for beginner roleplayers. I'm not thrilled with the "he just needs a little bit of help and then he'll be an awesome roleplayer."

Now, before you storm off, I'm not running this thing alone. I don't intend on making the decision to let someone in or not let them in by myself. If you wanna be a good facilitator for a new member, take them under your wing and they're willing to learn from you, awesome. If they don't improve, well, shit happens. If they don't fit in, well, shit happens. I think we're all big enough people to say OOCly "You know, I'm really not enjoying this roleplay. It's just not my thing. I'm gonna go do something else." and pretend your character has had an urgent call to be elsewhere.

What I'm saying here is: I'm not against training newbie roleplayers. I'm not against instructing "poorer quality" (for lack of a better word) roleplayers to better their skill. What I am saying is that I personally do not want to do that training. I feel it would be too draining to do that and organize a guild at the same time. I am a no bullshit kind of person and if I am bored or unimpressed with a roleplay, I make it clear so that people don't end up wasting their time.

If an applicant comes along who clearly would not fit in, I will be the bad guy and say 'no.' I'm used to that. I will tell them precisely why, and if they want to rework their character and try again, cool. If they don't want to compromise their artistic vision of their character, also cool. Just find another guild.

Test-driving! I don't think that big Gatherings are good for applicants. You don't get to see how they actually roleplay. You don't get to see how anyone actually roleplays because of scrolling hell. I think we should still have people apply to the site with a simple character sheet just to tell us who they are, maybe hook us a little. And have some rp facilitators or people willing to fill that role play with them a few times. I think it'll not only be more of an indication of how they play and whether or not they'll get along with us ICly and OOCly. Plus, I think it would be more fun. We will see if they can rp by GASP! having them rp. Duuur.

I'm not keen on interviews. I don't mind being introduced to and chatting with new players but I don't think that an IC interview tells you much about the character or the player. Just like a job interview doesn't really tell you if the person can do the job. Just if they're good at interviewing.

Now I have talked for way too long. I'm sorry. I may edit this later so it's less rambling, LOL. I just think it's important for us to all get our wishes out in the air so we can have a good concrete view of what we want by the time we form up. I want to make this as seamless and painless as possible so we can go on with enjoying our RP after this interruption.

I agree, I'd like a less structured RP environment, you raise some good points Soti, and I think give ample ground for discussion here. I can't see anything I disagree with.

I hope that we can remain together since I lub all of you.

Trying to figure out the forums now. I made this for your RP with Soti, but now it seems it will have a bigger purpose.

Oh, this is Zurhya. Probably need to try to fix my nanme or get an avatar pic. Also this blue text for moderators is hard to read on this skin.

oh le sigh

As Sotiris and I have spoken about this and with others. I am willing to do whatever I can to see this happen. I think he'd laid-back enough and level-headed enough to do this and he has the time. I agree with a lot of things he said. I love this name, the people in the guild and I think it's time we just continue forward with our own thing.

I will be offering my services as an officer as my schedule is entirely too crazy to allow anything but. I think we can make this something great guys!

I've been talking to Soti irl, and since I'm not the best person for weaving plot, I want to help in the ways that I am skilled with.

I would like to get a PVE squad (The Planar Onslaught), dungeons, raids etc.

I want to be 100% clear, BA is to be an RP guild first and foremost, I just want to offer the option for those who want to RP and raid on the side. Never expect TPO to be a contender for server firsts, heck with the rate Trion pumps out new content we will have to push just to catch up.


What I want TPO to do is help those who want to run T1's, T2's and Raids to get the gear by gifting gear, or running dungeons with fresh 50s / players who want to gear up a new role.

I'm not sure if this is coming across how I want it to (recovering from being sick), but yeah.... I want to RP, but I dont want good RPers who also want to raid to have to find a home elsewhere.

I would also love to see a PVP equivalent, I would like to get into PVP but, well, I end up eating more dirt then your average batch of worms... and having someone to show me the ropes would be awesome!

I would love to help run dungeons or do raids. I know Zurh has a way to go with her gear too, but getting us ready to do some of the content that is out there would be immense fun.

No desire to be server first here either, or raid full time, just to see a bit more of the game.

I have a few tips here. From the perspective of someone who ran an RP guild in an MMO.

IC interviews are key. Not only do they allow you to find out if the person actually knows how to roelplay, but you can also find out ICly and OOCly what kind of character they have. There are also questions asked on both sides that will help clarify things. Inviting someone into the guild without this is a good way to degrade the RP.

I also have no problem teaching people how to RP or giving them a basic understanding of it. Not only does this generate more RP, but it also puts our name out there as people who are nice. Which is something people want in a guild. We are a great bunch, but if we act elitest, we won't get many RP'ers wanting in the guild.

I have to head to work, but I'll post more later.

Toodles!

Hummm, good point. Alright, interviews might be done, though there's no way I'm putting in as much time as the old guard and I don't expect anyone else to either.

Perhaps we can have some volunteers to help people improve their RP skills? Don't care what rank, just as long as the role gets filled.

Hi all!

I just wanted to throw my 2 cents in.

I am staying away from the game right now, just to avoid the "end of Magitech" drama. Because of my health issues, I have to be extremely cautious about adding emotional stress, I am already carrying a very full plate of emotional stuff to deal with. (What I have revealed is only the tip of the iceberg.) So... that's why I am laying low and letting things settle. Please don't mistake that for not caring, I very much do.

First, Zurhya, the website is coming along nicely! I am impressed with how much more a "real guild" website it looks like, in only a day or so! Nice banner, nice theme!

Soti, I think your synopsis of what to keep, and what to change, is spot on. You seem like a very experienced leader in that you understand that delegation is paramount to success. It also fosters a sense of ownership, and camaraderie, among the members. I feel that I can get behind you in this enterprise and give my full support to BA.

I agree with Shyn though, about interviews. The interview is simply a roleplay test. The format of the test can be something less formal than an "interview", but there should be tests of both one on one and small group roleplay. What I liked about what we had in Magitech is the in depth story arcs that people were able to interweave because they had made in depth, developed characters. The role play test should make the person show whether they have a fleshed out character, or their application was the first and only thought they gave to what to say, in-character. To be honest, I would have failed such a test, but I would have come back better prepared if they hadn't let me in ;-) First rule is... if you want people to be committed to your guild RP, demand the effort from them from the get-go. People are always more committed the more they are asked to strive for great things.

I agree that the leadership style of magitech was more heavy handed than I prefer. They wanted to run a 30 person guild the way you would GM an 5 person roleplay campaign. I agree that less is more, sometimes. I agree with letting go, and trusting people to be good roleplayers, good members, and valuable assets. I think that too much leader involvement creates more conflicts than it solves... that for a MMO type guild group, the level of leader participation should be at the "gentle guiding and minimal policing" level, vs "be involved directly in every persons story and resolve every conflict personally for whats best for the guild." level.

What I want from BA is the sense of family I had in Magitech, before things went to hell in a handbasket. I want to enjoy the time I spend with you. I want a vital, vibrant community. I want people to look forward to coming home from work and logging in to the game for the chance to RP with their guild mates. I listed in the other "get involved" thread, what I am willing to do to help with that.

*huggs*
Jaydhe

*hugs Jaydhe* I've missed you terribly, BTW.

I think you raise some great points about IC 'interviews' and we at least need a good long IC talk with a prospective member about their history. If they are the IC type to be secretive then they can RP that out, but I too like the idea of seeing if they are a fully fleshed character, or if they have the tendency to be inconsistent with how they play their character. I've had experience with ones who's character seemed to change daily on the ooc mood of the person, mixing ic/ooc, etc and that is never fun to deal with.

Maybe an interview and a few small group interactions are needed. I think the large gatherings are impressive from a 'wow, look how many peeps!' view and are fun that way, but they really are not a great gauge on how good of an RPr someone is or how compelling their character is, either. The scroll is simply too fast to allow that. Also, if a person who is applying is encouraged to RP a few times with us, we also get to know how serious they are about participating.

Thank you for the kind words about the site so far. I'm going to keep plugging along at it. The artwork above isn't mine, but I'll be working on an original banner soon - probably later this month.

*hugs*

Zurhya

Thanks for the input Jaydhe. I too have missed you very much. I understand about the stress thing. A few years ago I had to take meds for such things. Thankfully, it got better. Or at least I learned to get a handle on it. Sometimes life throws us curve balls. And sometimes it jumps up and drop kicks us in the goddamned face. Yeah. I understand.

I guess what I was worried about with the interviews is it eating up a lot of time. But if we're good about everybody pulling together and nobody getting a MUST DO EVERYTHING attitude, it should be alright. We may have to limit how many applications we take at a time. I hate that notion because people will see it as being elitist but sometimes necessity has to come before image.

I really like the notion of test-drives in small groups. The evil part of my brain says "Yeaaah haze the newbies!" Ahem. Let's um ... give them the mostly sane characters to interact with?

What about more activities for the casual RPers who'd rather do quests, dungeons and or raids? RP immersion is always a fantastic idea that can be easily woven into a story line. Im a great idea man, however, i'm terrible at making anything out of em, so you need some story hooks that requires a cool idea, i'm here!

Perhaps have a Dungeon/Raid officer that can coordinate dungeon runs across the level tiers? Alot of us have alts all over the place and setting up a run for someone's main who is lvl 25 could be a great way to include some of the lowbies.

thats it.... for now...

Good suggestion.

I believe Tyreal volunteered for raids at least. And I believe we have some other volunteers. If you wanna come up with some stories for the dungeons etc, awesome.