Open Question to ALFA about DMing

White Warlock · Post by **White Warlock** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 3:55 pm

Were i to Rummage through my rather large list of PMs, spanning years, from disgruntled players/dms encouraging me to continue the fight, I can provide some perspective on things beyond my own experiences, but I'm going to stick with me and my reservations, since they fill a small book all on their own:

My reservations on DMing in ALFA:

* Only one layer of DMing. See this thread here -- http://www.alandfaraway.org/phpbbforum/ ... p?p=477412

* Lack of familiarity with the DM client.

* Players not on when i'm available to DM.

* No orientation received on a server area.

* convoluted standards (needs to be automated, so i can focus on dming).

* lack of familiarity with the toolset, to create new content.

* the tendency for this community to listen to the whining kiddies over the rational adults ( "oooo, he has more gold than i do! Ooo, he has a better sword than i do!" So friggin' what?!? It's about RPGing, not PGing, get over it Steve Jobs ).

My reservations on Playing in ALFA:

* #1 issue --- see this thread here - http://www.alandfaraway.org/phpbbforum/ ... p?p=477404

* The drama in the forums (and sometimes chat).

* My issues with an ex-dma and a few agitators, plus the abuse and character assassination attempts i endured from them.

* The lack of content in servers to entertain me with, should i want to do something other than roleplay. Let's face it, roleplaying is only ONE aspect of RPGs, and overemphasis on that ONE aspect has seriously undermined the playability of ALFA. We need crafting, traveling about harvesting ingredients for crafting, etc.

* Lots of NPCs with no dialogue.

* Insufficient servers.

* The lack of DMs / players online and the inability to maintain a schedule for playing.

* Crashes - Repeated hardware/software problems. In fact, i just lost a character to the fugue plane in TSM when NWN2 took a major dump. Hopefully i fixed the problem, but i still lost a character (and no, i have no idea how i lost that character, since the last i remember the character was sneaking up to get a better view of two goblins, and then I'm staring at my desktop. Ugh!).

* Elitism Hype - An over-expectation of roleplaying skills (not merely mine, but everyone elses). Others have a high expectation of my roleplaying skills (sorry guys, tabletop roleplaying just isn't the same as NWN, so i struggle), and i have a reasonably high expectation of everyone elses' roleplaying skills (and also sorry to say it's been a rare thing for me to be impressed by roleplay in NWN).

* Game Controls - The friggin' stupid-arse camera! (I'm with you on this one Danubus, i hate that thing) But also i struggle with other NWN2 controls. It's not as intuitive as NWN1.

Additional note: Although things have improved in some regards, it's still a bit hard for people to get off the ground in ALFA (I tripped on a few things coming in this last week, and I'm a veteran returnee). Things need to be streamlined just a tad more, the amount of information being presented to NEW PLAYERS needs to be at an ABSOLUTE MINIMUM, and the New Players Forum section needs to be grossly simplified (remove the sub-forums in that section as it confuses non-phpBBS veterans).

My reservations on Playing in ALFA's NWN1:

* To be honest, it being associated with ALFA2, and thus no players/dms. There are still many NWN1 players out there, but they're not going to go to ALFA because everything here is geared towards NWN2. Now that WorldGate is out there and provides assist for NWN1, i think it's important to have a separate website/forum. Granted, there's not a great chance of resurrection, but there's 'no' chance if you maintain the 'stale bread' status in ALFA2.

* The issues i presented above for DMing also apply to ALFA NWN1.

My reservations for Contributing to ALFA:

* The longtime problem of 'good ideas' presented by many persons in this community, some of which were accepted by a previous administration, repeatedly (and i think conveniently) getting lost in the scrolling of the forums. Cipher was one of the few that has put some stability to this issue, and i would seriously like to see all departments manage this with as much public documentation, so good ideas eventually become good implementations.

* The abuse/disrespect i received whenever i did contribute. Seems the only way to be treated with any respect around here is to NOT contribute, to not participate in the forums, to not participate in chat, and instead just be an inconspicuous player that stays within the standards.

* One of the biggest hits to ALFA has always been friendships. When people leave ALFA, they encourage their friends to leave with them. I have never done this, but clearly understand the motivations. In fact, it may be one of the reasons i continue to return... because some of my friends are 'still' here. Something to consider for the next time I'm inclined to "quit."

Closing comments: At 44+ years old, there really is no logical reason for me to participate in a community that treats members like juveniles; showing disrespect at every turn, an unhealthy lack of trust, and a disabling fear of the boogieman. To be quite honest, I'm here despite logic and common sense. I'm here not only because i want some entertainment with people i consider friends while i heal from my surgeries, but because there still are some friends here that 'hope' this project will get better and I think some of my input and assist 'can' make it better for them. The catch here has always been, does this community want my kind of assistance?

To be quite honest, if i think I'm going to receive undo disrespect again, I'll be moving on (as i have done many times in the past). Because, as you all know, there are plenty of NWN1 and NWN2 communities out there that do know how to treat people like something other than children.

Lusipher · Post by **Lusipher** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 4:02 pm

less long winded posts more Dwarf action. get to ze server and roleplay.

HATEFACE · Post by **HATEFACE** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 8:03 pm

* Elitism Hype - An over-expectation of roleplaying skills (not merely mine, but everyone elses). Others have a high expectation of my roleplaying skills (sorry guys, tabletop roleplaying just isn't the same as NWN, so i struggle), and i have a reasonably high expectation of everyone elses' roleplaying skills (and also sorry to say it's been a rare thing for me to be impressed by roleplay in NWN).

While the "elitism" in ALFA is mostly weeded out it still exists & can be problematic.' It's good to know that FI is stepping up as PA to pull the reigns on some of you fellas. My advice is just this:

Sir white warlock it's enough that you play and roleplay well. I'm not asking for freakin' shakespear here buddy but I sure as heck don't want "lol omg orcs, evry1 form up on m3 k." in some sort of strange alien internets moonspeak. Just do what you do and not worry about anyone else. So come'on to adventaur! Wahoo!

Mulu · Post by **Mulu** » Sat Jun 28, 2008 5:53 am

I think you worry too much Whitey; the only thing preventing you from playing/DM'ing/building is you. You also seem to be trying to pick a fight.

ww wrote:Because, as you all know, there are plenty of NWN1 and NWN2 communities out there that do know how to treat people like something other than children.

*shrugs* How is that raising the bar?

Anyway, on this note:
* Lack of familiarity with the DM client.
NWC runs regular DM 101 and 102 training sessions in NWN1 and now or soon in NWN2. They've also made a number of video training sessions. It's all at the University
But really the only way to get familiar with the DM client is to use it. I'm in DM client at least an hour a day. I DM my kid daily in five different mods I built or modified for her. Some of the tricks I've learned doing that have been used in my Sunday morning campaign.

Misty · Post by **Misty** » Sat Jun 28, 2008 6:00 am

I've not yet shown disrespect. But really, at 44+ years, you ought to know by now that one cannot demand respect based solely on age.

White Warlock · Post by **White Warlock** » Sun Jun 29, 2008 2:40 pm

I don't want this particular issue to undermine the information i posed above (which was requested by Danubus), so i will respond to Misty's post and discontinue further discussion on it.

Misty wrote:I've not yet shown disrespect. But really, at 44+ years, you ought to know by now that one cannot demand respect based solely on age.

It is not age that i anticipate a degree of respect. It is the efforts and actions committed by a person. I mentioned age to indicate a personal issue with me being in an environment where disrespect is given freely and without reservation... to anyone. An environment where civility and maturity seems to take a backseat to juvenile asshattery. Indeed, every single admin has received disrespect, as has almost every builder, scripter, artist, and web developer. If you participate in the forums, or in chat, you are likely to receive a dose of discourtesy and insult. The more you participate in said mediums, the more mistreatment you receive.

Let's face it. You cannot expect people to behave civilly when they can hide behind the internet. When face to face, people don't behave this way. It is the safety of internet anonymity that emboldens people to dismiss civility and respect. Why? Because there is no consequence.

Imposition of consequence, within this community or any other, returns people to being civil and respectful.

Thanks for reading
Roy

HATEFACE · Post by **HATEFACE** » Sun Jun 29, 2008 7:12 pm

Welcome to the internets white warlock. I'm glad you figured it all out.

Phineus · Post by **Phineus** » Sun Jun 29, 2008 7:53 pm

Inaubryn wrote:Just FYI for all you people that are referring to the time before standards. What you're referring to is the time before standards and after ALFA decided to loosen its, then, very heavy restrictions. With the exception of Mandosworld, ALFA was very, very, very, very low wealth, and magic. DMs gave out items sparingly, and no single PC was greater off than any other, unless you had a good stealth score and simply waited in TVS for throngs of MotoX PCs to be massacred there and then looted the thousands of corpses.

But, after the Quake, the brilliant admin and their advisors thought that we should loosen wealth restrictions, free things up a bit. That's like giving a drivers license to Ray Charles, and yes, I know he's dead. DMs lost their mind, and before you know it, shops sprang up with bins full of legendary artifacts at their Blue Continual Flame Sales.

And, once the proverbial dead horse had exited the barn, it was being chased about and beaten unmercifully in a futile effort to coax it back into its hay-laden dwelling. Ultimately, it was pummeled into submission by the intense shelling of artillery from Standards gunships ten miles off the shore of ALFA. But, nobody wanted to play with the mutilated, no longer recognizable, corpse of our beloved deceased equinian friend. So, other people decided to grab some red tape and wrap the poor horsey in that. As a matter of fact, they grabbed rolls and rolls of the stuff, waited to nightfall, snuck out and RT'd (red taped) the entire barn. After doing this, they grabbed water hoses and wet the whole thing down.

The end.

...Or is it?

For the record, I miss Mandosworld and the good old days of pre-quake ALFA.

Lusipher · Post by **Lusipher** » Sun Jun 29, 2008 8:01 pm

me too actually...least pre quake days. Was a lot better. Just some HDMs got their panties ina twist cause they had to obey some rules. OMG having to obey rules..new concept...

Agreed that TVS had a lock on the Admin positions but being friends with all of them I saw only quick communication and things getting done. Others just were jealous and saw a server blocking other people from wanting to do things that the project wasnt about...like being a campaign only server. ALFA has always been about being open servers with DMs staffed on those servers for all players not just a select few. Otherwise, why be a part of the project if your only going to cater to your friends or people in your "campaign".

"Oh noes, they put my server back in beta Im going to cry and try and overthrow the project"

but i digress...

Valdimir · Post by **Valdimir** » Sun Jun 29, 2008 9:10 pm

Danubus wrote:me too actually...least pre quake days. Was a lot better. Just some HDMs got their panties ina twist cause they had to obey some rules. OMG having to obey rules..new concept...

Hmm...and they say history doesn't repeat itself?

Lusipher · Post by **Lusipher** » Sun Jun 29, 2008 11:41 pm

funny how that is eh?

You also notice the ones who dont wanna follow the rules dont stick around long do they? Either that or they throw a coup

Vendrin · Post by **Vendrin** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 7:17 am

Danubus wrote:funny how that is eh?

You also notice the ones who dont wanna follow the rules dont stick around long do they? Either that or they throw a coup

*coughs* I think I've been here just a bit shorter then you, and I haven't actually been able to get a coup to work yet...

Lusipher · Post by **Lusipher** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 7:27 am

cause your CE

Akivaria · Post by **Akivaria** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 6:29 pm

As a former ADM, I will say that I was one of the "generous" DM's. Why? Because as a player, I'd go through a six-hour adventure, see two PC's killed as a result of DM spawns/spells (Not pointing fingers) and we'd get a whopping 50 gold to distribute amongst the survivors.

I won't even mention the exp we were awarded, but it wasn't consistent with the difficulty we faced.

In addition, I felt that the most satisfying DMing I did was letting the player drive, making the world react. Thrasy, Boom, and Pitlatch were very cool with this style, and it made things fun for me.

This is why I oppose standards. They give the hardasses a license to practice douchebaggery freely, and hamstring DM's who want to reward players for innovative play.

That, and the constant drama... but this is ALFA.

Now I build. (Or, rather, I will continue building once my musical is over in three weeks.)

HATEFACE · Post by **HATEFACE** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 7:01 pm

To many rules is one thing. No rules is another.