whats wrong with alfa?

[Analogkid]

Obviously something is screwed.

Even after what happened to my former PC's story and other things, I still try to stick around. What do I see though? A couple of PCs on, the same ones who are usually on come hell or high water of course...but outside of that...its dead. Honestly though, the only thing worthwhile to do are statics right now, and of course I won't bother any of the DMs who stick to their favorite players and won't bother to DM the one player who happens to be on doing something.

Whats wrong here? has the decision been made somewhere to say screw you to the non "core" PCs and players?

Something's got to change here

[Rumple C]

This is kinda realted to the other topics of "where are all the players". Low season. I can think of some who are away but will be back. As for dm's and players... well thats a bit of a different issue.

I have been seeing less casual dm'ing around. But that probably related to "low season". You and LC seemed to get good character dm'ing time back with CD in MS from memory AK, IIRC.

I think where we (alfa) could improve is in matching up dm's with players/groups. Regular timeslots and such so folks do have a reason to log on, and something to look forward to. Regular dm slots are awesome. Casual ones can be hit and miss.

If we could get new players into these times then it serves two purposes... one they remain engaged with Alfa, and they learn the ALFA norms (no running, close the bloody doors!, teamwork, dont solo etc).

If one is a lone wolf (either through chance or design), then I as a DM have less motivation to spend my time (reguarly) on that single PC. Yes, i do like to do meaningful personal stuff for them (if i know there is something they want to do), but I am also very aware thats a high input/low out result for my time vs player hours. Better to save it for a group. Even better a regular group where there is a story that keeps me engaged.

There is no conspiracy at the DM level. Offcourse we would say that, wouldnt we?

[paazin]

As we have an increasingly static playerbase, people partition out into cliques of those with whom they will or will not play; it's pretty destructive behavior but it's always been present. Reminds me of the final days of the NWN1 stuff.

[t-ice]

Not to mention that people are automatically partitioned by timezones and servers. I find it very frustrating that we have 5 players and a DM on, which could obviously lead to a great game, but no more than 2 are at a given server, which means no game.

[maxcell]

CD has stepped back from the casual dming for a bit. Riot posted many, many times about dming on MS and was quite available, but no players they were all still sitting on BG or TSM. I have no problem when the DMs take a break by only doing their campaign group. It is better than them burning out. Plus some have stopped DMing to work on building as well.

be calm.

[Heero]

They are trying to see how far they can push us before we revolt. Rise up, ALFAns, rise up to throw off the oppressive yolk of your oppressors! Its time to take back our ALFA.

[Ronan]

The most active DMs over the last year were: JLM, paazin, Ronan, kid, cd, viigas, and Darkmystic. How many of them are still DMing? Kid is a bit, but far less than he used to. Me and paazin are, though I'm trying to wind my stuff down.

One thing I can't figure out is why its so hard for DMs to find US-timed players on MS.

paazin I would say the cliques have always been present on BG since I returned to ALFA. I really don't think they're any worse now.

[wvincenti]

There are a handful of US timezone Players on TSM but I think most of us have enough irons in the fire to keep us fairly busy in game. I can always ask around and see if anyone wants to try to work out the logistics of getting over to Moonshaes, but I've got no idea how the rest of the Players would feel about doing so or if the timing would work out.

*returns to working on a longbow*

-Bill

[danielmn]

I don't think the problem, at least with dm's, includes MS too much, as the dm's currently there as far as I have experience with, have no problem including players in what they are doing. A vast difference from previous dms on MS, whom seemed to focus on two or three favorites, the OP included. The server on the whole has gotten less activity when no dm is present of recent which is a shame, but I would chalk that up to RL.

[Regas]

AK, would you consider DMing on any of the current servers?

I'd say lack of DMs is our biggest challenge. As for cliques, I suppose they will always exist- but personally you are always welcome to play with me on BG, or come to SM and I will try and DM you. In fairness though I know I need to do more DMing on SM, it just seems as though there's always something else to deal with elsewhere. Also, consider we have three types of players in Alfa: persistent players on all the time; time zone players that are on in the same time slot 15 to 20 hours a week; and session players, usually playing fewer then 10 hours per week. Alfa's community is trending more toward a session based game style.

I certainly believe we can improve things in ALFA and should try to do so. I welcome your or anyone else's input on how to do so. As for what you can do to have the most immediate impact on the problem- fill out and submit a DM app.

[FoamBats4All]

Our most dire problem is that Xanthea isn't in charge of everything. If we want to survive as a community, we must fix this.

[Adanu]

I'd say lack of DMs is our biggest challenge.

I'd love to DM on TSM, but I was more or less rejected.

[Stormbring3r]

I have noticed a lot of the New DM's would rather play than DM. And I understand.. When I DM'ed back in NWN1 I tried to split my time up evenly. I understand, but if you would rather play don't volunteer to DM.

We have a good Player base on TSM just as BG does. MS has a few peeps. Mainly that whiney Wolf guy

The problem is we do not have the PB to be on every server. And why do we not have them?
#1: Game is Outdated and hard to get
#2: RL Sucks *ss most of the time
#3: Its a resource hog
#4: Not having enough Mid level encounters available
#5: Nerfing the Servers to the point of PC's can only travel from point A to point B
#6: Not having enough Static Content so when DM's are not Available the PC's have something to do.
#7: NWN2 Is still Buggy
#8: 99% of the servers have nothing to do.

Any other thoughts?

[danielmn]

#9 - there will always...ALWAYS....be percieved problems with ALFA, and there will always be people to point those perceptions out. No matter the changes, ALFA will never be good enough, no matter how much work time and effort the volunteers put toward the community.

[Xanthea]

There's any number of things ALFA could do to improve, so I'm going to talk about the single biggest problem there is, playerbase splitting.

While no doubt some people are happy to only log in for DM sessions and play with their group and rarely interact with anyone outside of that, that's not what the point of a PW is and isn't a way to build a successful one. The point of a PW (and the way that you can actively recruit more players) is to have a vast array of diverse characters around to interact with, the more the better. And the more people you have logged in even when there isn't a DM event going on, the more attractive the server is to new players. Nobody wants to join a ghost town. It really sucks to be a new player who can't find anyone to talk to or do anything with.

There's two major reasons ALFA falls flat in this department:

1) The issue of multiple servers, obviously. The more there are, the bigger the playerbase is spread out, lessening interaction. Maybe this worked in days passed when ALFA had the playerbase to support this, but it doesn't any more.

2) The fact that not all characters are compatible. Evil Steve and Gertrude Good are rarely going to have an IC reason to interact with each other (beyond, perhaps, a final climatic showdown!) And that's fine and IC, but it still doesn't help anything that there's typically going to be large sections of the playerbase that are largely off limits for interaction.

The way to solve both of these problems at once is for ALFA to allow multiple PCs, but only on different servers. If an option existed to have one PC per server then instead of people finding themselves spread out on different characters on different servers, they could both log in to their MS group, for example, and benefit from more people to interact with then there were previously. Players who couldn't interact before, because their PCs were not compatible, now have multiple different options for making ones that can work together.

Mechanically it could work something like with DM rules. You're only allowed to travel to servers where you don't have a DM account or a second PC. A trade off between having wider access to travel for one PC or having multiple PCs.

The other benefit to this is that sometimes people just don't really feel like playing their current PC for whatever reason. It's totally understandable, but there are very few options for doing anything about this other than simply playing less, which isn't good for the server. Multiple PCs encourages more play time by allowing people to play something else that they might feel more like doing instead of just doing other things with their time.