Cloud's Nomination Question Thread: Lay on!

[CloudDancing]

So here is where you can tell me why Velian is better than me OR complement my nefarious plan to nominate myself JUST to make people scream that someone else should apply so I don't win by default!

Also Velian has a girlfriend (those time sucking female leeches they are) and is German! German I say!

With my lack of a parastic signifigant other and my self-righteous platform that people need to prove themselves to receive priviliges I might have an edge!

With that in mind, I don't give a flip about standards when our servers are empty and Dms are not dming on a regular dependable basis. Standards and little teeny problems which never REALLY come up because CvC is rare as a plus +2 sword, are just not a priority.

Making our servers a persistent fun place to play IS.

Finally, I do care that people who have dropped Alfa like a unwanted stale donut or never play are making all the decisions still have more clout than someone who does the work, says steady, and always keeps their promises.

So question away as I most humorously run against a good and amusing compatriot of mine that I never intended running against!

[Heero]

Can I be your bouncer?

[Zelknolf]

Finally, I do care that people who have dropped Alfa like a unwanted stale donut or never play are making all the decisions still have more clout than someone who does the work, says steady, and always keeps their promises.

If you win LA, how will you solve this issue?

The position doesn't seem to have the power to make any decisions; perhaps I miss a grand scheme (and I may! Seven years is not long enough to learn ALFA's politics, I think), but LA seems to mostly have the power to polish turds (and polish you must! Until we can see our reflections!) and make decisions made by others not happen.

[CloudDancing]

Oh yes and ban everyone that had remotely cheated in the last year!
*hires bouncers*
Ban them all!
I know who you all are you p-chest peeping spawn finding, goblin-holocaust making people!

Also unlike Velian I support nude haks for adult gnomes. Just for adult gnomes.

[hollyfant]

How do you intend to curtail possible DM favouritism, when you loosen the reins?

What would you introduce to bring more fun into ALFA? And what would you completely drop?

Where can we find more Clouds?

[thinkpig]

what is your position on the two characters argument? the xp script increase idea?

[CloudDancing]

How do you intend to curtail possible DM favouritism, when you loosen the reins?

What would you introduce to bring more fun into ALFA? And what would you completely drop?

Where can we find more Clouds?

Hmm..Dm favoritism has never really been an issue honestly Holly. All the dms I have interacted with in positive and negative ways never have said "ooo I love so an so and im ONLY going to dm them and give them stuff."

Wynna designed her big (last) adventure for a group specifically that did not include low level characters and did include ones she knew. I felt a little twinge when my RP friends went off to happy magic dragon land, but I got over it. JLM tried to fit everyone in but still found time just to do one and one with Corio. Again..I thought that was great.

I for example can only DM in my time zone. So people who naturaly play in my time zone and on my server are about 4 people. So I DM those 4 people as long as I can stand them.

What concerns me more is two fold:

1. DMs and HDMs who seemingly hate players and simply hate people (in the past, I don't see that currently now.) I think this leads to them not DMing and being disconnected from players needs and current trends thus leading to not meeting those needs, and not retaining players interest. They make jokes about killing people's characters. They do not admidt their mistakes. They are calloused in ways that IF it were them, they would cry for an AR.

2. Players who actually sit around, aware of the fact Dms are in certain time constraints, know the DMs have scheduled event times, and still sit around and cry they are being ignored.

I will admidt there are players that proven un-dmable to me and other DMs. Really its a matter of a lesson I learned from Asian folklore.

When a teacher leads the students and students follow, they are bound to make mistakes. but ultimately the teacher is the leader and knows when a student means well. The good student comes to the teacher with a intention of humbleness and is contrite.

HOWEVER if the student is rebellious, argues with the teacher, refuses to bend under their rules, enters into the teacher/student (aka Dm/PC) relationship with an air of arrogance and disrespect, argues with them, and does not acknowledge that they supremely control the learning environment TO teach them the teacher is faced with this thought.

This student will not listen to me. This student is headstrong as a stone. This student has no respect for my instruction. Thus I will not extend myself and waste my time on this student. The heart of Zen teaches me that inaction is the best path, so I will treat this student with the principle of inaction untill this student becomes elightened or aware of the subtle wisdom that is being taught.

Otheriwise, this student is NOT my concern, but has become only their own concern and will remain so till they return to me with a attituide of humbleness and respect.

(it helps to note that *I* have been this yappy argumentative student who THOUGHT they were being helpful but instead was pissing off a busy DM. I also have been on the wrong end of gossip and misunderstandings in my RP with DMs. But mostly this was because I was a Dm and I had always had the mindset of a Dm even as a player, creating my own "events" and RP. Being of that mindset, I was a tough nut to Dm, especially when my DM senses were tingling with "illogical bullshit." But to my credit I have gone along with plots that were excessively improbable to help a DM train.

And in my time working with Curn, who likes the word "no" as much as I love the word "yes" (which is a nice allusion to the The Yellow Submarine Movie.) I never felt our arguements were malicous, It was more like the unstoppable force was banging on the immovable object. Occasionally the force would make a crack and a rock would fall off and she would run off cackling madly.

Then she would come back the the crack woud be healed up again and she'd start banging away trying to get purchase. After awhile of doing all that alone, it wore the force out. So the force found subversive ways to get around this immovable way that barely responded to her.))

[CloudDancing]

what is your position on the two characters argument? the xp script increase idea?

1. I like the two characters idea. I have four characters I play interchangably on another server and one on Exodus. It is fun and interesting and I am completely able to discern from one to the other.
*It is a constant temptation though to metagame what one knows and the other does not because the server is so inbred.
*As a DM it is a constant struggle to DM when I have an PC in the one PC environment because our core player base is about 15 people.
*I think it would be great to try out for a month and then decide if it should be permenant.

2. RPXP script increases
*I like it. I think it is a good tool to promote RP with no DM. But I also think we need concrete statics on every server to do the same job and get people moooooving around and socially interacting building valuable RP bonds as journeymates. That includes stock mining, fishing, and herbing.
*I would not want it withouth a daily cap
*I would not want it withouth an idle script that was fairly frequent (like every 10 minutes if idle it would turn off) that was based on text based RP
* I might even go as far as to say that it would be great if it only worked when two people or more were logged on to the server.
*I strongly believe you should not be logged into an alfa server alone and soloing for XP in a permadeath system. I know the bones of every server now and it is just foolish and a waste of time for what Alfa is intended to be. If you want an grindfest MMO, go play an MMO. If you want FR grounded RP with other player characters, log in here at the scheduled campaign times.

[I-KP]

Finally, I do care that people who have dropped Alfa like a unwanted stale donut or never play are making all the decisions still have more clout than someone who does the work, says steady, and always keeps their promises.

When I first joined ALFA I was surprised at how many people with 'clout' never play the game itself. I beleive one of the reasons that ALFA is glacial in its approach to change, sometimes even on issues that pull majority favour among playing/DMing community members, is largely due to this very issue. Accepting the undeniable fact that some of these non-playing people make a valuable and (im)measurable contribution in more ways than most people who play the game do, to what degree do you think that the active and playing/DMing members of the community should corner more legislative influence?

[Faeryl]

If you were given the authority to change any one thing in ALFA, what would it be?

If you found it necessary to mediate a dispute between two other Admin, would you be able to side with one over the other for the betterment of ALFA, even if you didn't fully agree with either party?

The letter of the law or the spirit of the law?

[danielmn]

If elected, will you be taking your medication regularly?

[CloudDancing]

If elected, will you be taking your medication regularly?

Yes all 20 of them! And the ones even my doctor didnt prescribe. And perhaps yours too.
with great genius comes great eccentricity and possibly muffins

[CloudDancing]

Finally, I do care that people who have dropped Alfa like a unwanted stale donut or never play are making all the decisions still have more clout than someone who does the work, says steady, and always keeps their promises.

When I first joined ALFA I was surprised at how many people with 'clout' never play the game itself. I believe one of the reasons that ALFA is glacial in its approach to change, sometimes even on issues that pull majority favor among playing/DMing community members, is largely due to this very issue.

Accepting the undeniable fact that some of these non-playing people make a valuable and (im)measurable contribution in more ways than most people who play the game do, to what degree do you think that the active and playing/DMing members of the community should corner more legislative influence?

Well, the problem I-kp, is that new people are locked out. The sense of entitlement of the older players from NWN1 is extreme and they have a bond of brotherhood, after riding out some seriously crazy and illogical lead admins, that is very much forged through a trial by fire.

TSM for example, as I experienced, is a shrine for all the players that have left and never returned. Their learning curved content, some messy and unrefined with the changes that have come in NWN2 over the last six years stand untouched. Many places are inaccessible to players, but taking up space as monuments to what once was good times.

It is complete in its serverness and perfect in the sense it is playable, provides repeatable content, and is grammatically correct.

Wynna was a great scripter! She has carte blanche to update and upgrade and gift to players things that would make most admins heads whiz in wild wonder, one of which lead to a CvC death and made for some awesome RP. But Wynna is gone and there is nothing that we can do about that.

The sadness of their passing echoes in these areas. They disappeared. They did not leave or quit or say goodbye. They simply disappeared leaving some poor bloke holding the bag and alot of unfinished promises and plot-lines.

So while the memorial stands, new DMs have no effect on TSM. New players wanting to add content have to have the tenacity of a wolverine and a DM backing them to get anything done. And while I was Dm for seven months, the constant needs of the
players, whether it was a simple request for a house of thier own, or a an upgrade to an area not canon, were denied.

Admin CANNOT claim to meet the needs of Alfa if they do not play the game in some respect.
Nostalgia and hanging out with your awesome friends from the old days IS fun and is wonderful and we have scads of forums and chat-rooms to do so.

They are holding a memorial to a time in NWN1 that seems more romantic and fair, when they well know people lied, cheated, stole, banned people, changed the rules to suit them, Erp'd considerably, exploited, and simply used jealousy to ruin other players fun. Nothing really has changed.

Except NOW we don't have 15 servers and 20 DMS and 15 HDMS. It was like bloody World of Warcraft back then. Now..we are on the brink here people.

New players are the KEY. They are the vision of the future of D&D style gaming. They hold the ways we can make this system vibrant and populated and diverse. We can revel in the newbishness and help train people to RP and deal with permadeath. We can encourage and collaborate.

We have this fantasic structure. All the rules and regulations are epically spelled out. There are NO grey areas.

But our worlds are empty (in comparison to the social environment standards that the well populated systems and MMO's have set for us to meet. Plus I don’t care how many people logged in and never logged back in honestly)

And stomping on new dms and new players fragile energy filled excitement with the game and with the world and locking them out is NOT the way to make this happen.

Now.

Giving adminstrative roles to people who have returned after long absences without playing the game or proving themselves a month or two as a soild character and contributor OR giving roles to those that completely and utterly abandoned Alfa is just a ludicrous business model that simply is defined as cronyism.

It is also demoralizing to people that have spent over a year contributing and arent even asked first for a choice in that role.

So far consistency and faithfulness to serving the player base, is not rewarded. Friendship and past events, long gone are valued more in the administrative roles.

So for a new player, they must snuggle in with the current admin and get to be their "friend" and compatriot socially as much as pay their dues. You just have to remember, after 11 odd years, the dues are rather expensive and that needs to be looked out more objectively.

If you were given the authority to change any one thing in ALFA, what would it be?

I think its time we open the server access to the public, even for a trial. Mind you I cant do that as Lead Admin, but I have done real research, not just sat around clinging tightly to a non-working business model.

And ignoring the simple market data in front us from successful servers that do so, is also utterly illogical.

Even Exodus has taught Alfa a great deal. First, that a Dm can play on their own server and players can Dm their fellow players and do so in a trust based environs with complete transparency.

Second, Baldur's Gate the Sword Coast and Dalelands has taught me that having an application process in such a small hobbyist community is an utter joke. They manage their HUGE 80 person open servers with grace and aplomb and ban whomever breaks the rules and STILL keep a happy population that sets the standard for RP persistent worlds.

It is simply embarrassing that we can't do the same. AND if you go visit there you will find people RP at par with Alfans and some are even better than the worst of of the rule-benders here desperately trying to grasp for scraps of gold and xp.

Haven has taught me if you add repeatable crafting statics and create an economy, people will hang around a server with five areas and 20 interiors for 24 hours a day role-playing without a Dm and have a ton of fun. It also has taught me that Dms are not needed IF you have a vibrant steady population.

The reciepe for success and an vibrant well populated community is right in front of us.

If you found it necessary to mediate a dispute between two other Admin, would you be able to side with one over the other for the betterment of ALFA, even if you didn't fully agree with either party?

We have a wonderful system of rules and a wonderful log reporting system. Between those we can solve nearly any problem with the data at hand IF we look at that data and do not respond with our own personal emotions and prejudices.

I personally know that cheating is caused by a desperate sense of entitlement and self-centeredness that is from both feeling one is a victim and their persecution justifies them exploiting the system because they some how deserve it. It comes from both a poverty of self worth and a deep hunger of needs unrelated often that arent met in their real life.

Most posturing in nonprofits comes from a deep sense of low self-esteem. To fight over rules for example that limit and handicap players from functioning in our servers is not a fight FOR the players, it is fight for ideals and literally someone crying "look at me, I have a right to exisist, give me attention".

One thinks that "Life is hard, and MY vision is a gritty knee scraping Faerun where death grips at you like a harsh wind." The other thinks "Man, I want it be like the old days, and it was like this back then with Dm so and so, and we should just let things be."
Others think "DON"T TOUCH MY STUFF! AIIEEE YOUR TOUCHING MY STUFF!"
And so on.

So really with my pragmatic look into human development and my undergraduate degree in management, and my experience administrating three fantasy based organizations AND three non-profit ones..I think I have a certain edge in developing dialogs and building consensus.

But I admit, even I have had my bad days. And I feel that moderation of any activity is a simple cure. That and I quit drinking Monster Irish Coffee in December.

(btw I spell really badly so hopefully spellcheck finally fixed all my weird mistakes)

[Thangorn]

I'm terrible with this politics stuff. Could you explain what qualifies you more for this job than the other two candidates?

[CloudDancing]

I'm terrible with this politics stuff. Could you explain what qualifies you more for this job than the other two candidates?

Well nothing does exactly honestly. Depends on what the players want to get done.

1.) Velian knows ALL the rules and is a congenial fun person to play with. I Dm'd him and find him a paragon of RP skill. I wish he got more Dm time. He has been cockblocked by the admin before in things he wanted to do that he thought would make Alfa better. AND he has the benefit of being both consistently in Alfa AND a member of the NWN1 contingent with NO strikes on his record. Go him!
Con: He's been around a long time. And I don't worry over standards as much as he does when there are so very few situations and players to apply standards too. Also who will keep up standards?

2.) Blindhamster I have also Dm'd. He is a damn fine Elf roleplayer and a purist as far as Elven RP goes. He tries to help others learn. Even if it isnt always well recieved. But he is trying to help. He made crafting work on TSM and that did a great deal for the crafting movement. He also has been one of those that felt disempowered by the poverty of XP and gold on our servers and inclinded to struggle vainly against the system to make it work for his characters success.

His only con, not long ago, not sure if before or after KMJ quit, Vendrin suddenly removed one of his strikes from his past mistakes SO he could run for an admin position.

I don't think that one should go from two strikes directly to Lead Admin in a matter of days. I think he needs to find something a little less influential like working as an Dm first.