Very interesting thank you Estarra.
Would you please clarify about an admin that orders their members to do a thing then possesses a organizational mob with great authority like Crow/Maeve or something to repeat the same order to the citizens of an organization at large?
Would that be considered interference?
Very interesting thank you Estarra.
Would you please clarify about an admin that orders their members to do a thing then possesses a organizational mob with great authority like Crow/Maeve or something to repeat the same order to the citizens of an organization at large?
Would that be considered interference?
I don't know, it would depend on circumstances-feel free to contact support with details.
If a denizen is talking, I'd advise to flow with the RP. There could very well be an event going on or seeds being laid for an event. Trying to second guess motives of a particular divine who may or may not be possessing the denizen is probably not productive.
I'm split on my opinion for this. On one hand, I think the divine are ICly only there for support/Opinions/whatever, and should stay out of politics. Lusternia is after all "player driven politics", and while I realise the divine are players as well, I don't think that's what the designers meant. I'm also against emailing support complaining about this sort of thing unless the divine in question is physically keeping an org from doing what they wish in regards to politics, IE dropping their org leader into some inescapable place or muting them so they can't speak.
On the other hand, I wouldn't think highly of a divine who didn't at least voice opposition to the things we've mentioned. They have to keep to RP, and I don't see Lisaera throwing her hands up and deciding she doesn't mind hanging with Fain just because her followers and his are working together.
It's a fine line to walk, and I can understand the frustration on both sides, mortal and divine.
Everiine said: The reason population is low isn't because there are too many orgs. It's because so many facets of the game are outright broken and protected by those who benefit from it being that way. An overabundance of gimmicks (including game-breaking ones), artifacts that destroy any concept of balance, blatant pay-to-win features, and an obsession with convenience that makes few things actually worthwhile all contribute to the game's sad decline.
Lisaera actively blocked the Seren Council from meeting with me as Warlord. That is definitely interfering when you didn't need to and was far too over handed.
On a side note, I don't know why anyone would listen or follow their God blindly. These are Gods that lost the war twice over that mortals won. They are not infallible and are self centered.
This is one of the very rare moments I will agree alongside Silvanus. My character personally, would love nothing more than to ship all the gods back where they came from, because he seems them as nothing more than squatters that came back when all the fight was done and seem to assume they deserve a throne in the new world. Get the firearms boys, time for a Clash of Titans revolt.
As to Celina's comment about Administer RP, frankly I feel a God can show their RP without needing to go to such extremes. I find Viravain to be a nuisance I never want to have to deal with again and will attempt to avoid any form of interaction with her now and in the near future, simply from her actions which I find crossing lines.
Frankly, @admin, you say that you dont care and you are simply doing your jobs with neutral bias, but time has shown us how often that is not the case. Can you honestly say you dont develop general feelings towards the orgs you govern? I find that hard to believe. You may see your actions as just 'following through with RP', but it can go overboard several times, and has, as history as shown us.
Sup Hajamin (extreme case I know, but still relevant)
This is truly an enormous waste of energy if your first comment demonstrates you didn't even bother to read that I don't fault you causing chaos in the Court.. I fault you for blaming the Court for being chaotic or "inconsistent" when you were among the chief components of the problem you were having.
I'm not dwelling on anything. It's called having a memory relevant to the accusations you are making. Turns out, I'm not a goldish, I remember shit that happend a few months ago without "dwelling" on it. I also had a really gross cherry beer in the Naval Yard in DC around the same time. Am I dwelling on that too or are you done trying to misrepresent things I say to score points.
I'm wondering why other people are saying, 'lol Glomdoring,' when all that I have done most recently is work on just getting alliances done and over with so we can actually have a fun time playing. I don't know why that's funny, but it is exhausting, and all the more irritating when other people go 'lmfao, you guys, look at them floundering about.' Whoever has been sharing crap with you in general, obviously doesn't get that Glomdoring has problems to work on, so why is that funny? Especially if there has been player stress over it? There's people that left the org who have been not easy to work with - But for the sake of trying to improve the org, I've gotten over it. Who knows, maybe they just want to be negative? Or deflecting? Politics IG, especially when people say OOC: 'Wait for me! I didn't get a vote! I didn't log in because of xyz.' Is hard too, even though we all have lives, there are still some things in IG that still go on. It takes a while, and it takes a while to communicate the right information, especially when if I don't or someone else doesn't they get their ass handed to them for saying the wrong thing.
Yeah, it's getting really tiring talking about it, doing it, and basically logging in on the forums to see that we are being accused of withholding information. I spend my whole time logged in now dealing with politics, and while I signed up for that, it's not all that fun when I'm hearing all of the trolls under their bridges crawling out and pointing fingers again. I'm done with @Kethaera kicking up a storm, you have a new organisation now. If you want to make a positive contribution to the forums instead of poo-pooing all the things that made you upset in Glomdoring you could talk about how Serenwilde has some of the same problems, you could advocate for Serenwilde, you could try to improve their problems. If you would like to have me address the problems OOCly as CL, then message me. But do not keep taking it out on players in the forums, it's honestly a waste of thread space and emotional stress that we all don't need. It's really starting to hurt my feelings, because you're saying regardless of what I do that it was never good enough in the first place. When it's a collection of people I answer to on a regular basis, it's going to take a bit to properly communicate the right material. When the Court wants to announce things, they will. And I will be the one to write it, usually, taking time out of my work schedule now to do it.
As CL, yes, I do not want this sort of soap opera, telemundo thing happening, so that is why I asked @Davos for a basic framework of Hallifax's legislation articles. @Eliron, @Rancoura, @Xenthos and myself redid it in the image of Glomdoring so we could have a structure to pass legislation @Maligorn. We had no way of determining proper votes before, so that's a way to alleviate arguments and drama that happened in the first place. What's so funny about being organized? Nothing. It relieves tension, and it makes it not as easy for people to cause drama for drama's sake when there is a political system in place. I am solving this the best way I know how, which is the way that seems most common sense to me. Well, if you think that's funny, take that elsewhere because every organisation goes through these times where it's difficult, where it's hard even to log in or do things for the organisation. @Lerad may not be on the inner circle of the Court, but communication does happen, it does take a long time, as he has said to make sure everything is understood and everyone gets it. Which again, is all about RL time differences between schedules. If you have problems, if you have questions, people will ask me. I check up on people if they are too quiet when they log in. If anyone would have had a problem with the way I communicate about things up until now, people would have actually approached me in a polite, non-intrusive manner as usual.
tl;dr I am doing my god damn best, the Court can only move so fast. I cannot move as fast as I want to because I have to take into account other people and time differences RL. You have issues with the Court or how Glomdoring is run, message me. But stop taking it to the forums like that's going to have a positive impact because it doesn't. If you want to laugh, do that, but it's no longer constructive.
The apple is cold, crisp, and sour as the juices fill your mouth. As you consume the fruit, you glimpse, for a moment, a massive, shadowy figure, Her snow-white hair framing a perfect, icy-eyed visage. Beneath you, a vast, perfect web of silken strands lies - and, for a moment, you realize that you too are part of it, weaver and strand both - and home.
Everiine said: The reason population is low isn't because there are too many orgs. It's because so many facets of the game are outright broken and protected by those who benefit from it being that way. An overabundance of gimmicks (including game-breaking ones), artifacts that destroy any concept of balance, blatant pay-to-win features, and an obsession with convenience that makes few things actually worthwhile all contribute to the game's sad decline.
Enjoy your Conference. Or try. At least enjoy the food. Generally that's good.
Due to circumstances, I wasn't able to enjoy any food, which may have been a reason for why I was such a d-bag in my last post. My response was, frankly, unprofessional and I apologize to everyone, especially @Arcanis and @Silvanus, for the way I handled my response. You deserve better than that from the administration/forum moderators and I expect better from myself.
In response to the question @Arcanis raised, I don't think admin are perfect but the admin don't have the sectarian divisions that the playerbase does and we work much differently. While I appear on forums and in game as Zvoltz, half the admin call me Rob (my real name). Mysrai and Zvoltz hate each other but I go to dinner with Mysrai's player when we manage to be in the same city and we talk to each other about deeply personal things when we are on Skype. Zvoltz the character does not like Gaudiguch but I've done a large amount of admin work for them including a patron request from the Illuminati, random stuff for the Minstrels opening, the event for pyrochemantics, some of the Gaudiguch ikons, and a Gaudiguch themed building project. I've also done two Magnagoran themed building projects, and I'm currently work on a Glomdoring themed building project. There have been plenty of times where I have punished players in Hallifax due to an issue that was filed. I'm not unique here. While players always see us as only a god in a city/commune, we cross all the organizational boundaries behind the scenes. I don't expect people to know that stuff, because we keep it on the down low, but when you become an admin you're not a "Hallifax admin". We are all on the same team and we definitely do not "govern" our orgs.
I won't lie, I do root for Hallifax to be successful when they are doing wildnodes or village influence or whatever and I'm happy when they win, but that doesn't affect my administrative duties and it definitely does not cause me to have negative feelings against other organizations that compete with Hallifax. In fact, I find myself rooting just as often for whatever org is the "underdog" org at the time, because ultimately the concern of any admin is the overall health of the game and none of us like to see people being curbstomped constantly. When I logged in one day and Ieptix told me that Gaudi killed all the Continuum Spheres, my response was "good, it's about time we had an smob raid." I don't think I'm unique in anything I've said, either. While I can't speak for other admin, I see everyone on the team helping out with other orgs that they are not patrons of and building cool areas that are in no way related to "their" org.
That being said, while we appreciate constructive criticism and feedback (because that means you care enough to provide it and it gives us a road map to improving the game), it is not appropriate to come to the forums to directly slam an admin because in most cases we have no avenue to respond and even if we did, no one benefits from us coming into a thread and throwing our own logs in and then having it out in the court of public opinion. Whether you see that as "publicly restating information" or just want to throw Hajamin (an admin who hasn't been here in years and was gone before most, if not all, of the current admin even became ephemerals) in our face, it isn't appropriate for the forums. Estarra has been pretty clear about what the "rules" are for admin (whether or not you agree with them, that's what they are) and if you feel there is a situation that violates them, I encourage you to e-mail support@lusternia.com for resolution to your problem. If we are overstepping, we want that to not happen; the way to get action on it is through support. Most of us are volunteers. 90+% of your issues, quest bugs, help file updates, areas, RP events, and patron projects are done by people who receive $0.00 for the very hard work they do here. We don't ask for your gratitude or support (or even respect, but I hope
that we have that), but we do ask that you not put us in a bad situation
by coming here to publicly complain about us.
I really hope that this provides an honest look from an admin perspective. I'm backing out of this thread now except to moderate or to answer any questions that if would be appropriate for me to answer. Thanks.
I love you, @Zvoltz (Zorro). I just might have to make a character to come see what you are all about.
The apple is cold, crisp, and sour as the juices fill your mouth. As you consume the fruit, you glimpse, for a moment, a massive, shadowy figure, Her snow-white hair framing a perfect, icy-eyed visage. Beneath you, a vast, perfect web of silken strands lies - and, for a moment, you realize that you too are part of it, weaver and strand both - and home.
I think maybe with admin, the ones who seem to occasionally cause trouble are the ones we hear about most, and the ones who work their rumps off for people are always unrecognised. That's sort of the truth for a lot of things in the world, including religion and politics.
Everiine said: The reason population is low isn't because there are too many orgs. It's because so many facets of the game are outright broken and protected by those who benefit from it being that way. An overabundance of gimmicks (including game-breaking ones), artifacts that destroy any concept of balance, blatant pay-to-win features, and an obsession with convenience that makes few things actually worthwhile all contribute to the game's sad decline.
Divine do not control or direct player organizations unless there is an issue that requires admin interference. However, divine are advisors to orgs and thus in that role, they can express their opinion on anything they feel they should. Players can then choose ignore their advice or not. I'm not sure where all these accusations of admin interference or bias or whatever is coming from, but if you truly believe a divine is crossing some line, the appropriate course of action is to contact support and I'll look into it.
Also, I should be clear that with regard to a divine's own order, they certainly can be much more controlling over their order members and much more dictatorial (if it suits them). If you are in an order and your god or goddess says zip your lips and tells you who you can associate with or not, then you better toe the line. If a divine wishes to try to influence a city, commune or guild through their order members, that also is something they can do (that's what I did when I was an RP god!). If you don't like that, then don't be in an order! (Or find a divine more matching your RP.)
In any event, with cities, communes and guilds, they are ultimately advisors. If you interpret an expression of opinion of a divine as a direct order, then that is frankly your mistake. Divine aren't going to be muzzled from expressing opinions just because it may not be a popular opinion.
I think part of the issue is that we just don't have enough gods :P
The post quoted has mostly just reminded me of the recurring issue in Serenwilde where we seem to all clump together under the most active god, which then means if they say "jump", then the majority of the commune jumps. Then months/years later when we look back at why we did something, it's remembered as an order from a God, even if it was just a wish expressed to their order.
Though, if the claims that Gods are stating they will leave orgs if the org doesn't listen to them are true, that's a completely different thing.
A god leaving an org moves it to a level where it's diminishing/removing admin support from the org and to a player, especially those who have been through periods where their gods have been quiet, that can be a terrifying threat which can carry OOC repercussions on top of the IC ones that result from having that Elders presence withdrawn from the city.
The post quoted has mostly just reminded me of the recurring issue in Serenwilde where we seem to all clump together under the most active god, which then means if they say "jump", then the majority of the commune jumps. Then months/years later when we look back at why we did something, it's remembered as an order from a God, even if it was just a wish expressed to their order.
Though depending on your IC perspective, you may perceive an Order acting like they run the Serenwilde as an extension of the Order, which might cause these problems :P (And to be clear, this is an IC PERSPECTIVE, not an OOC one, and said somehwat tongue-in-cheek!).
Everiine is a man, and is very manly. This MAN before you is so manly you might as well just gender bend right now, cause he's the manliest man that you ever did see. His manly shape has spurned many women and girlyer men to boughs of fainting. He stands before you in a manly manerific typical man-like outfit which is covered in his manly motto: "I am a man!"
Daraius said: You gotta risk it for the biscuit.
Pony power all the way, yo. The more Brontaurs the better.
Though depending on your IC perspective, you may perceive an Order acting like they run the Serenwilde as an extension of the Order, which might cause these problems :P (And to be clear, this is an IC PERSPECTIVE, not an OOC one, and said somehwat tongue-in-cheek!).
This. This happens all the time.
Everiine said: The reason population is low isn't because there are too many orgs. It's because so many facets of the game are outright broken and protected by those who benefit from it being that way. An overabundance of gimmicks (including game-breaking ones), artifacts that destroy any concept of balance, blatant pay-to-win features, and an obsession with convenience that makes few things actually worthwhile all contribute to the game's sad decline.
You made a point to cause turmoil in the Court, to perpetuate a division that lead to drawn out and often non decisions, and you're criticizing other members of the Court because you were getting different answers about Glomdoring political stances? If you were sick of hearing contradictions, stop playing the devil's advocate. However, if you are going to make a point to be the source of a schism in the Court (which I don't fault you for), you can't then fault the Court for being indecisive and not transparent in its inability to not arrive at decisions. That's absurd. You don't get to complain about stepping in the shit you made.
Viravain, Lady of the Thorns shouts, "And You would seize Me? Fool! I am the Glomdoring! I am the Wyrd, and beneath the cloak of Night, the shadows of the Silent stir!"
I laughed at suggestions that people in Glomdoring are keeping information secret to maintain control or whatever. Everybody should know that Glomdoring is the place of secrets, and everybody should more importantly know that the most powerful people aren't the ones with the official titles in any secretive place. And if they are, somebody is roleplaying wrongly
His name is Grima Wormtongue, (Wyrmtongue?) not Tidy Wormcrown
It looks like we may still have a 4v2 except with the organization compositions switched around a bit. When I first heard of the Tea Time Alliance I thought it was a slight exaggeration...but maybe not? )
As far as the whole divine in politics thing, I really do think the issue is less divine being pushy and more mortals being pushovers. IC divine statements are not inviolate canon, but there's this weird idea going out there that if your character does not agree with everything your organization pantheon says, they are objectively incorrect. Elder gods can be mistaken! Its 100% canon that this is the case. And this is known in character to pretty much every character. Even if you're a fanatic, your character should probably at the very least be ready to admit that the other side's Elders are wrong. I always find it weird and disappointing when people crumple and do an about face the second an Elder disagrees with them. Get some backbone, yall!
@Zvoltz it's times like this I consider if Gods (the characters) should become in-game characters that are aspects of the story (which would also allow for more flourishing of storyline since each god would not need to be connected to a person, and the IRL problems arising when that person needs to leave), and admin simply remain in admin roles. I find the lines can easily get blurred between the job, and the role.
I find myself at times wondering why these individuals whom choose to take on duties of administrative governing and coding, are given RP roles to fill out alongside it. Why is this extra aspect which has such game influencing effects, put into it? Wouldnt it be far easier for admin to remain as admin and Gods remain as characters of the game? It certainly would make the story less awkward when admin leave and Gods mysterious disappear or have to be killed off or other strange coincidences. Truth be told, at this rate, it seems the mortal players are longer lived than the gods themselves.
I suspect the admins get Divine roles because 1) they were players, too, and if I were them I'd like some way to 'play' the game, even if it is through a limited role of a Divine, and 2) it's a good idea to have some semblance of current game knowledge when making things like events, skills, etc.
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If you want to play a game without gods, @Arcanis, check out Imperian. The admin decided to do what you're describing but by destroying the gods completely.
The roleplay aspect of a godrole seems to me to be the one reward admin get in an unpaid admin position, though. I find it difficult to think as many people would apply for ephemeral without some reward in sight.
"Oh yeah, you're a naughty mayor, aren't you? Misfile that Form MA631-D. Comptroller Shevat's got a nice gemstone disc for you, but yer gonna have to beg for it."
If you want to play a game without gods, Arcanis, check out Imperian. The admin decided to do what you're describing but by destroying the gods completely.
The roleplay aspect of a godrole seems to me to be the one reward admin get in an unpaid admin position, though. I find it difficult to think as many people would apply for ephemeral without some reward in sight.
How can the one reward and pull be to gain a godrole, and imperian still have an active administration, yet no gods?
I think you're blowing it out of proportion. I believe there are many satisfying things an administer can gain by their duties, without having to play 'My Order'. In fact, I think it would actually make the depth and gameplay more interesting if the gods were characters rather than roles filled by admins that have to live by certain regulations of DOs and DON'Ts.
For example, I would personally love if the invulnerable untouchable omniscient aspect of the God characters was removed, simply because if history has shown us anything, they arent untouchable, and are frankly killable. However, by regulationally speaking, we shouldnt be allowed to go and try to beat on a God-Admin, simply because it is unethical in terms of Gameplay mechanics.
Tl;dr: The god characters shouldnt be Admin imo, because the two together provide limitations to both roles.
"Oh yeah, you're a naughty mayor, aren't you? Misfile that Form MA631-D. Comptroller Shevat's got a nice gemstone disc for you, but yer gonna have to beg for it."
3
Cyndarinused Flamethrower! It was super effective.
No, im suggesting the idea that God characters to be as NPC characters for the sake of story, and not be held back by Administrative regulations, as well as player (the god) RL implications. Let's bring up some random points.
- No god would technically be 'inactive', and would be part of the lusternian storyline (here's looking at Serenwilde's large list of patrons when not 1 was active once upon a time).
- God storylines can be fleshed out more without the implication of "they arent around". Consider what would be if Eventru was still around, if Isune actually picked up and left for Hallifax when it appeared, rather than several years down the road when there were barely any in her order (imagine that tense event). If Fain was still around (nuff said there)
- For any event where players would for some reason be against a God, they could actually fight against it (smob concept?) in a realistic concept. I think one of the best events I can remember in Achaea was when players actually began to fight with Sartan when Mhaldor first came out.
- God deaths and consequences of leaving/returning can be far more strategized and unique, rather than the current: God player went inactive (has vanished from the realm). God has died (administrative reasons/random). God player returns (God was in the void/ trapped somewhere).
Uh, in Lusternian lore, players fighting against a God would not be an "smob fight". It would be "instant annihilation". That right there is a no-fly concept. Gods are intended to be (and are) far beyond mortals in terms of power. They may not be all-powerful and all-knowing, but they are to you as a human is to a fly.
Comments
If a denizen is talking, I'd advise to flow with the RP. There could very well be an event going on or seeds being laid for an event. Trying to second guess motives of a particular divine who may or may not be possessing the denizen is probably not productive.
On the other hand, I wouldn't think highly of a divine who didn't at least voice opposition to the things we've mentioned. They have to keep to RP, and I don't see Lisaera throwing her hands up and deciding she doesn't mind hanging with Fain just because her followers and his are working together.
It's a fine line to walk, and I can understand the frustration on both sides, mortal and divine.
This is one of the very rare moments I will agree alongside Silvanus. My character personally, would love nothing more than to ship all the gods back where they came from, because he seems them as nothing more than squatters that came back when all the fight was done and seem to assume they deserve a throne in the new world. Get the firearms boys, time for a Clash of Titans revolt.
As to Celina's comment about Administer RP, frankly I feel a God can show their RP without needing to go to such extremes. I find Viravain to be a nuisance I never want to have to deal with again and will attempt to avoid any form of interaction with her now and in the near future, simply from her actions which I find crossing lines.
Frankly, @admin, you say that you dont care and you are simply doing your jobs with neutral bias, but time has shown us how often that is not the case. Can you honestly say you dont develop general feelings towards the orgs you govern? I find that hard to believe. You may see your actions as just 'following through with RP', but it can go overboard several times, and has, as history as shown us.
Sup Hajamin (extreme case I know, but still relevant)
Tangental but I do recommend the Cherry Beer from the makers of Fat Tire. Good with chocolate, decent with peanut butter http://www.newbelgium.com/beer/detail.aspx?id=00cfadd6-4eef-4c24-afd4-6c1f3bc86687 If this was the one you didn't like we cant be friends.
Yeah, it's getting really tiring talking about it, doing it, and basically logging in on the forums to see that we are being accused of withholding information. I spend my whole time logged in now dealing with politics, and while I signed up for that, it's not all that fun when I'm hearing all of the trolls under their bridges crawling out and pointing fingers again. I'm done with @Kethaera kicking up a storm, you have a new organisation now. If you want to make a positive contribution to the forums instead of poo-pooing all the things that made you upset in Glomdoring you could talk about how Serenwilde has some of the same problems, you could advocate for Serenwilde, you could try to improve their problems. If you would like to have me address the problems OOCly as CL, then message me. But do not keep taking it out on players in the forums, it's honestly a waste of thread space and emotional stress that we all don't need. It's really starting to hurt my feelings, because you're saying regardless of what I do that it was never good enough in the first place. When it's a collection of people I answer to on a regular basis, it's going to take a bit to properly communicate the right material. When the Court wants to announce things, they will. And I will be the one to write it, usually, taking time out of my work schedule now to do it.
As CL, yes, I do not want this sort of soap opera, telemundo thing happening, so that is why I asked @Davos for a basic framework of Hallifax's legislation articles. @Eliron, @Rancoura, @Xenthos and myself redid it in the image of Glomdoring so we could have a structure to pass legislation @Maligorn. We had no way of determining proper votes before, so that's a way to alleviate arguments and drama that happened in the first place. What's so funny about being organized? Nothing. It relieves tension, and it makes it not as easy for people to cause drama for drama's sake when there is a political system in place. I am solving this the best way I know how, which is the way that seems most common sense to me. Well, if you think that's funny, take that elsewhere because every organisation goes through these times where it's difficult, where it's hard even to log in or do things for the organisation. @Lerad may not be on the inner circle of the Court, but communication does happen, it does take a long time, as he has said to make sure everything is understood and everyone gets it. Which again, is all about RL time differences between schedules. If you have problems, if you have questions, people will ask me. I check up on people if they are too quiet when they log in. If anyone would have had a problem with the way I communicate about things up until now, people would have actually approached me in a polite, non-intrusive manner as usual.
tl;dr I am doing my god damn best, the Court can only move so fast. I cannot move as fast as I want to because I have to take into account other people and time differences RL. You have issues with the Court or how Glomdoring is run, message me. But stop taking it to the forums like that's going to have a positive impact because it doesn't. If you want to laugh, do that, but it's no longer constructive.
In response to the question @Arcanis raised, I don't think admin are perfect but the admin don't have the sectarian divisions that the playerbase does and we work much differently. While I appear on forums and in game as Zvoltz, half the admin call me Rob (my real name). Mysrai and Zvoltz hate each other but I go to dinner with Mysrai's player when we manage to be in the same city and we talk to each other about deeply personal things when we are on Skype. Zvoltz the character does not like Gaudiguch but I've done a large amount of admin work for them including a patron request from the Illuminati, random stuff for the Minstrels opening, the event for pyrochemantics, some of the Gaudiguch ikons, and a Gaudiguch themed building project. I've also done two Magnagoran themed building projects, and I'm currently work on a Glomdoring themed building project. There have been plenty of times where I have punished players in Hallifax due to an issue that was filed. I'm not unique here. While players always see us as only a god in a city/commune, we cross all the organizational boundaries behind the scenes. I don't expect people to know that stuff, because we keep it on the down low, but when you become an admin you're not a "Hallifax admin". We are all on the same team and we definitely do not "govern" our orgs.
I won't lie, I do root for Hallifax to be successful when they are doing wildnodes or village influence or whatever and I'm happy when they win, but that doesn't affect my administrative duties and it definitely does not cause me to have negative feelings against other organizations that compete with Hallifax. In fact, I find myself rooting just as often for whatever org is the "underdog" org at the time, because ultimately the concern of any admin is the overall health of the game and none of us like to see people being curbstomped constantly. When I logged in one day and Ieptix told me that Gaudi killed all the Continuum Spheres, my response was "good, it's about time we had an smob raid." I don't think I'm unique in anything I've said, either. While I can't speak for other admin, I see everyone on the team helping out with other orgs that they are not patrons of and building cool areas that are in no way related to "their" org.
That being said, while we appreciate constructive criticism and feedback (because that means you care enough to provide it and it gives us a road map to improving the game), it is not appropriate to come to the forums to directly slam an admin because in most cases we have no avenue to respond and even if we did, no one benefits from us coming into a thread and throwing our own logs in and then having it out in the court of public opinion. Whether you see that as "publicly restating information" or just want to throw Hajamin (an admin who hasn't been here in years and was gone before most, if not all, of the current admin even became ephemerals) in our face, it isn't appropriate for the forums. Estarra has been pretty clear about what the "rules" are for admin (whether or not you agree with them, that's what they are) and if you feel there is a situation that violates them, I encourage you to e-mail support@lusternia.com for resolution to your problem. If we are overstepping, we want that to not happen; the way to get action on it is through support. Most of us are volunteers. 90+% of your issues, quest bugs, help file updates, areas, RP events, and patron projects are done by people who receive $0.00 for the very hard work they do here. We don't ask for your gratitude or support (or even respect, but I hope that we have that), but we do ask that you not put us in a bad situation by coming here to publicly complain about us.
I really hope that this provides an honest look from an admin perspective. I'm backing out of this thread now except to moderate or to answer any questions that if would be appropriate for me to answer. Thanks.
This. This happens all the time.
And if they are, somebody is roleplaying wrongly
His name is Grima Wormtongue, (Wyrmtongue?) not Tidy Wormcrown
I find myself at times wondering why these individuals whom choose to take on duties of administrative governing and coding, are given RP roles to fill out alongside it. Why is this extra aspect which has such game influencing effects, put into it? Wouldnt it be far easier for admin to remain as admin and Gods remain as characters of the game? It certainly would make the story less awkward when admin leave and Gods mysterious disappear or have to be killed off or other strange coincidences. Truth be told, at this rate, it seems the mortal players are longer lived than the gods themselves.
How can the one reward and pull be to gain a godrole, and imperian still have an active administration, yet no gods?
I think you're blowing it out of proportion. I believe there are many satisfying things an administer can gain by their duties, without having to play 'My Order'. In fact, I think it would actually make the depth and gameplay more interesting if the gods were characters rather than roles filled by admins that have to live by certain regulations of DOs and DON'Ts.
For example, I would personally love if the invulnerable untouchable omniscient aspect of the God characters was removed, simply because if history has shown us anything, they arent untouchable, and are frankly killable. However, by regulationally speaking, we shouldnt be allowed to go and try to beat on a God-Admin, simply because it is unethical in terms of Gameplay mechanics.
Tl;dr: The god characters shouldnt be Admin imo, because the two together provide limitations to both roles.
- No god would technically be 'inactive', and would be part of the lusternian storyline (here's looking at Serenwilde's large list of patrons when not 1 was active once upon a time).
- God storylines can be fleshed out more without the implication of "they arent around". Consider what would be if Eventru was still around, if Isune actually picked up and left for Hallifax when it appeared, rather than several years down the road when there were barely any in her order (imagine that tense event). If Fain was still around (nuff said there)
- For any event where players would for some reason be against a God, they could actually fight against it (smob concept?) in a realistic concept. I think one of the best events I can remember in Achaea was when players actually began to fight with Sartan when Mhaldor first came out.
- God deaths and consequences of leaving/returning can be far more strategized and unique, rather than the current: God player went inactive (has vanished from the realm). God has died (administrative reasons/random). God player returns (God was in the void/ trapped somewhere).