A Land Far Away

Rick,

I see little in your platform regarding NWN1, only a few references implying that it needs little guidance. With your acknowledged challenges of "dual-hatting" as DMA and HDM and your primary focus on NWN2, how would you deal with NWN1? We still have an active player base, a monopoly on Live servers, and day-to-day issues that still require attention. How long could we expect official sanction (and vault access) and what kind of support would we have until that point?

Cheers,
Valdimir

Valdimir wrote:Rick,

I see little in your platform regarding NWN1, only a few references implying that it needs little guidance. With your acknowledged challenges of "dual-hatting" as DMA and HDM and your primary focus on NWN2, how would you deal with NWN1? We still have an active player base, a monopoly on Live servers, and day-to-day issues that still require attention. How long could we expect official sanction (and vault access) and what kind of support would we have until that point?

Cheers,
Valdimir

Heh, I my NWN1 DM client still works!! I plan on fully supporting NWN1 DM issues until the last NWN1 DM calls it quits. I also wouldn't mind dusting off some old NWN1 mods for some special sessions if the current DM's want to try something and expand their plots. I would also like to make it easier for DM's in both NWN2 and NWN1 to cross over and DM on other servers (if the HDM of a server is favorable). NWN1 can continue as long as the DM's want.

As for the Dual hats, yep, that is an issue that I acknowledge. However, there have been many DMA's that were also DM's or HDM's before when there were 15 or so live servers, so I feel I can handle it with 1 or 2 live NWN2 servers and a few NWN1 servers.

As for the implied statement that NWN1 needs little guidance, well, I should clarify that NWN1 servers will get the same DMA attention as the NWN2 servers.

Thanks for the reply, Rick. Maybe I'll take you up on some CR15 gnolls from DF for Sembia...

Hi, Rick,

Thanks for stepping up. I have a question.

You wrote:2. Streamlining some standards and processes. No, I am not suggesting a free for all. I want to review all the standards and practices pertaining to DM'ing, Server requirements, and standards. Which ones? I am not sure just yet, but I want to make sure we are not shooting ourselves in the foot and scaring away players, DM's and builders by top-heavy administrative procedures. After all, there are other RP'ing PW's out there with standards as well, and they are up and running.

My question is in two-parts:

1: You state you aren't sure which standards, practices, and requirements. Indeed, you are merely stating you want to review them. Is this just something you want to do for the sake of doing it (and getting all of your ducks in a row) or is there an acute incident that has brought your attention to this matter? That is to say, are there existing standards, practices, and requirements that you want to study in depth?

2. If it is the latter, can you give us a few examples?

JaydeMoon wrote:Hi, Rick,

Thanks for stepping up. I have a question.

You wrote:2. Streamlining some standards and processes. No, I am not suggesting a free for all. I want to review all the standards and practices pertaining to DM'ing, Server requirements, and standards. Which ones? I am not sure just yet, but I want to make sure we are not shooting ourselves in the foot and scaring away players, DM's and builders by top-heavy administrative procedures. After all, there are other RP'ing PW's out there with standards as well, and they are up and running.

My question is in two-parts:

1: You state you aren't sure which standards, practices, and requirements. Indeed, you are merely stating you want to review them. Is this just something you want to do for the sake of doing it (and getting all of your ducks in a row) or is there an acute incident that has brought your attention to this matter? That is to say, are there existing standards, practices, and requirements that you want to study in depth?

2. If it is the latter, can you give us a few examples?

A lot of peoople complain that ALFA is top heavy with standards or beauracracy. I hope to streamline or remove redundancies. So, yeah, getting the ducks in a row is part of it. But there are other issues, and a big one for me is the DM App process for DM's that have already DM'ed in ALFA before. I think this is a waste of time and several DM's have mentioned to me that they don't want to jump all those hurdles again when they've already proven themselves.

One incident that in the past sort of stymied several DM's and players is that we wanted (that is two former HDM's and several former DM's and current active DM's and a handful of players) to bring Daggerford back up to finish a really cool dungeon but we were informed we couldn't because we weren't current DM's in ALFA at the time, this being a few months after Daggerford shut down. We could do it on our own time, but not with ALFA live players. I feel that former DM's in good standing should be given better consideration and once you are a DM in good standing in ALFA you should be part of a pool of potential DM's that can be used if an HDM needs extra DM's or for special one of events like the one mentioned above.

There are also a few things I don't like about the "getting to live process" that I feel are redundant or just plain old extra paperwork, which is also run of the reasons I am running to dtreamline this process so more servers can go live without the headache and hassle of over lofty unrealistic expectations. An example of this is a server review document or spreadsheet to be provided to the server review team. If you want to make sure the server is following standards, you'll be checking the items, scripts, conversations, etc quite thoroughly in the toolset and a review sheet is just window dressing the real review and a waste of time.

Currently, the DMA only has authority to remove a DM from his position, if he is behaving inappropriately. The PA still has to apply any in-game censure for their actions as a DM.

Would you want to change this and gain censuring authority over the domain? That is to say to gain the ability to place official strikes on ALFA members who are DMs and acting in the capacity of DMing?

Hi Rick,

Forgive me for my writing here, it's sort of stream-of-consciousness.

I'm curious first of how you see your management style. Do you see yourself as someone who regularly would involve himself within what a specific DM is doing (keeping tabs to make certain that DMs follow the proscribed standards, especially if you have suspicions that there could be impropriety) or would you trust the HDM of the server to take an active role in his/her DMs?

Do you believe in using the hierarchy of HDM and EADM first, before approaching the DM himself with any issues; I suppose relatedly how do you see the server-ALFA relationship? There have been problems before with specific HDMs being unresponsive and/or having issues with the DM Admin, and I'm curious what thoughts you have to getting any impasses solved. If it were deemed a necessity, would you sack a HDM or perform disciplinary action?

Thanks,

paazin

I'd like to review some of the roles of the DMA and HDM's. An HDM can ban someone from their server with the oft overused repeatable 24 hour ban.

But yes, I believe DMA's should have more discipline options than outright banning a DM. A DM should also have levels of discipline that are equivilent to PA strikes. One strike from either a PA or DMA counts as a universal strike for membership.

What extent do you plan to go to to make sure all the standards are located in one, easy-to-read, location? Currently, as I'm sure you know, they are located in different places, with no one source of authority (so to speak). I know this is something that HEEGZ was planning to fix during his term. Do you have any plans along this line?

Rotku wrote:What extent do you plan to go to to make sure all the standards are located in one, easy-to-read, location? Currently, as I'm sure you know, they are located in different places, with no one source of authority (so to speak). I know this is something that HEEGZ was planning to fix during his term. Do you have any plans along this line?

I'd to see everything in one big doc. Word or PDF. And separated into separate sections for easier downloading if you didn't want the entire doc.

Download | View: Entire Document Word | PDF

Download | View: Section 1 Word | PDF

Download | View: Section 2 Word | PDF

etc

Thanks Rick. Two quick followups:

What do you think of the wiki, as an easy updateable source?

How do you plan to get this done? From experience, if you want something done you need to do it yourself (or have some dirt on someone you can blackmail them with). Would you be willing to do such?

Rotku wrote:Thanks Rick. Two quick followups:

What do you think of the wiki, as an easy updateable source?

How do you plan to get this done? From experience, if you want something done you need to do it yourself (or have some dirt on someone you can blackmail them with). Would you be willing to do such?

I like the wiki. Every once and a while (perhaps quarterly) gather everything up in a doc as I mentioned above that members can download with a timestamp. That way, everyone has the option of viewing it online, having the doc on their PC, etc.

Putting all the info in one doc with cut and paste and converting it to a PDF would be perhaps an evening's work if I did it, since I have written several SUM's for big companies like IBM, Nortel, Litten, US Air, Army etc.

But I am also banking on the popularity of ALFA increasing as we put our NWN2 mod up So, hopefully that will mean more volunteers.

Rick7475 wrote:I'd like to review some of the roles of the DMA and HDM's. An HDM can ban someone from their server with the oft overused repeatable 24 hour ban.

But yes, I believe DMA's should have more discipline options than outright banning a DM. A DM should also have levels of discipline that are equivilent to PA strikes. One strike from either a PA or DMA counts as a universal strike for membership.

Thanks Rick, but I was wondering if you could explain more of how you see the DMA should work with the HDMs as well. It's been a thorny subject in the pasty and I'm curious on how you'd want it to be done

paazin wrote:

Rick7475 wrote:I'd like to review some of the roles of the DMA and HDM's. An HDM can ban someone from their server with the oft overused repeatable 24 hour ban.

But yes, I believe DMA's should have more discipline options than outright banning a DM. A DM should also have levels of discipline that are equivilent to PA strikes. One strike from either a PA or DMA counts as a universal strike for membership.

Thanks Rick, but I was wondering if you could explain more of how you see the DMA should work with the HDMs as well. It's been a thorny subject in the pasty and I'm curious on how you'd want it to be done

I don't see why we can't work together as a team. We all have a common goal and I think all the current HDM's:
HDM Chamu
HDM Legionnaire
HDM Castano
HDM Valdimir
are all fine DM's and I have no issues with any of them and in fact have DM'ed or worked with a couple and had good times.

The HDM of TSM, though, will probably be a pain in the ass, but I know his weak spots.



The DMA should be there as a mentor and an advisor. They should be there to help the HDM's carry on with their role of steward of a mod. If there are issues, all the facts should gathered and anyone "innocent" until proven guilty by as much evidence as can be gathered.


I also want to point out that I am a team player and I try and work together with people.

You might have already answered this, but do you think you'll have enough time to build/live dm/hdm/etc and DMA at the same time?