Brainstorm: The Next Evolution of Alfa

[CloudDancing]

The world around us is changing.

Over the last few months I have been formulating a proposal which I am presenting to you, the membership, to be discussed and brainstormed about. I have discussed this proposal with the other four admin and received their feedback which I used to develop this rough draft.

Based on the information below and the facts in front of us, my hope is that we can use the idea of Alfa evolving into a social networking site for hardcore roleplayers to preserve and protect the legacy Alfa has built over the last twelve plus years.

So I am presenting this rough draft with the understanding that it is a working idea to preserve and protect ALFA. And I must assure you that no changes will be made without the cooperation and input of all the the members of ALFA (players, non-players, alumni, members.)

I want to hear what you think about this proposal in a reasonable, factual, and respectful manner.

The core values we discussed are:

1. Dedication to immersive RP and hardcore RP.
2. Dedication to providing and/or supporting persistent environments to roleplay in with other dedicated players.
3. Maintaining social bonds, friendships, and the past legacy of Alfa as a evolving organization.
4. Providing a fun, friendly place where people who like to roleplay seriously can find friends, a group to partner with, and a place to network with each other.
5. Using NWN 1 and 2 to maintain at least ONE collective, collaborative gaming environment for our members.(i.e. ALFA NWN1 and NWN2 will continue to function under the "pillars" as our main foundational platform until NWN3 comes out or better.)
6. Providing a place to enjoy and discuss hardcore roleplaying via IRC and via the forums (and sometimes even Skype.)

The reasons for change are:

1. Demographics: NWN1 is 12 years old and NWN2 is nearly six years old and the population is dwindling to around 300-250 players on a populus night. And Alfa is not retaining new players. We are loosing players to other platforms that feel if they don't play our NWN content, they can't be a member of the community.

2.The game is functionally broken for the new buyer without someone to direct them to a somewhat complex process to make it work.

3. Many Alfa players/members have moved on to other platforms or play multiple platforms. Some have even developed new platforms for gaming. Many would like to play these games with their Alfa friends. Many would like to share ALFA with their new friends.

4. Many Alfa "alumni" still float around for social reasons and even sometimes comment on Alfa policies. Their need for a social space to connect with old friends and talk about roleplaying needs to be recognized.

5. Alfa is a space for creative roleplaying and the many expressions of creative RP. Our players take themselves and their roleplaying seriously and they deserve to have a place to express themselves fully in that capacity. AND they deserve a place where they can discuss and talk about their pastime without ridicule.

The changes I propose:

1. Amend the charter to extend our dedication to hardcore RP to all player/member designated platforms. Adjust the mission statement and PR accordingly.

2. Add a section to the forums called "Platforms" and then add forums for player designated games as directed by the players. Add a section for "ALFA NWN2" and "ALFA NWN1." Add a section for "ALFA Alumni."

3.Present this all in a positive manner which promotes inclusivity and shows that it respects both the history Alfa and its future as a social group and network.

4.Promote a entire section of the wiki to discussion of immersive hardcore RP and a forum dedicated to that discussion.

5.Promote the use of the Wiki to develop social networking profiles which reflect and respect roleplayers of the past and present. Encourage players to develop their own wiki profiles.

6.Extend our Alfa our applications process to new members (who want to promote/discuss hardcore roleplaying) who are referred by current members. That could include removing the boundaries of D&D based responses in the applications and writing a broad, RPG based application.

Possible Outcomes:

1. Increased membership (though I don't expect an enormous influx of people since it will be via player-to-player word of mouth and application controlled.)
2. Increased participation on our main platform servers of NWN 1 & 2
3. Returning of Alumni who have moved to other platforms
4. More live Alfa events/meetups organized
5. Preservation of a great organization as it matures with its players

[kid]

Not trying to be an ass or anything...
But...

What are we changing?

[Zelknolf]

Should note that this is a proposal, not a policy change, as Cloud says at the beginning of her post.

That said, perhaps a more-specific question could be asked if something is unclear. Given that this comes from the LA and includes ammending the charter, I would be hesitant to provide any digests or summaries and hope that people still form reasoned opinions from it.

[Rumple C]

So essentially kid, its a change of mission statement. From "Alfa is about playing in FR via nwn2" to "Alfa is about hardcore RP'ing on any compatible game".

Its about turning Alfa from a mechanism to play NWN2 into a RP club, no?

(Also hardcore rp'ing maybe also be interpreted as cybering.)

[HEEGZ]

I am 100% for formalizing a shift in focus for ALFA from a NWN1/NWN2 RP community to a more generic, not NWN-specific RP community. I have already tried RPing/playing with ALFA members in other formats besides NWN and I think this is the future for ALFA after we give up on NWN. There are potentially other gaming platforms not released yet as well, which would replace the hypothetical NWN3 as something that could actually happen.

I would even go so far as to remove the pillars that are specific to D&D, and/or FR, and/or Faerun... or leave these in place for our NWN1 and NWN2 legacy support. For other platforms, I think a generic pillar of hardcore RP, and perhaps permadeath are desirable and realistic. I see no reason why ALFA can't officially adopt a policy of support for getting a heavy RP group formed on a platform that is not set in Faerun...

Anyways, I am here as much for social interaction as I am NWN gameplay. I probably spend double or triple my time here socializing as I do actually playing or DMing... Not sure how commonplace my view on this is, but to sum up, I already view ALFA as a gaming community of role players, and the actual importance of NWN to my involvement in ALFA is entirely secondary and not a concrete pillar for me.

[Ithildur]

One possible experiment that may prove useful and provide some entertainment regardless for the short run at least: download DDO, get with Zelk's guild, play hardcore RP/permadeath style, and see how that goes maybe.

It's free too. (well, as long as you stick to f2p content to see how it would go, eventually you may need to dish out like $15 to unlock all areas).

Problem with DDO or any of these other platforms: by it's very nature, it makes certain aspects of hardcore RP difficult. I mean, you could set up rules about not using/picking up certain kinds of items, not running around with permahaste boots, etc. but it is what it is, and it's why nwn was in many ways workable for us, because the game and ruleset were highly modifiable.

You certainly cannot have emphasis on DM moderated sessions with these platforms, which has been one of ALFA's hallmark goals/trademarks (at least in the past).

I'm also reluctant to support a shift away from/de-emphasizing current platforms when people like zelk, basilica, foam, ronan, acadius, etc over the years have put in enormous amounts of work to make our system work in a way that's much more compatible with our playstyle. The problem isn't the engine itself so much as lack of new content and new stories that don't fizzle out after 3 or 4 sessions; that's what new platforms would provide: new content, new stories (smaller, simpler stories, but at least they're self contained and finish out just fine even if DMs and players disappear), and novelty, though with rulesets and mechanics that are extremely unfavorable towards a hardcore style.

What we probably really need are builders for NWN2 and active DM staff/HDMs (and teamwork among the groups plus tech staff), and stuff not being so damn static. Maybe we need courage to break and reinvent what's in our sandboxes for the sake of the story sometimes, rather than looking over at the new fancy sandbox next door that's very shiny and slick but actually made of plastic and rigid/unshapeable, and in the end, probably even more static (though they do have people being paid to put out new content).

[boombrakh]

I don't like it. And here's why:

We're kidding ourselves if we think that todays ALFA is about "hardcore RP", regardless of platform. ALFA was about creating a visualization/representation of Faerûn, and in that setting promote an RP heavy style of gameplay. What we have today is an attempt at that on all levels and falling short on all fronts. Now, i'm not saying that ALFA is a failure, or that people have failed in ALFA, I'm only saying that we're not exactly living or striving towards our mission statement. Even today, we only uphold the pillars and mission statement on an arbitrary level. And again, this isn't a failure, it is a symptom of our community, showing that the need for this thread.

According to Cloud, two of ALFAs "core values" are:

1. Dedication to immersive RP and hardcore RP.
2. Dedication to providing and/or supporting persistent environments to roleplay in with other dedicated players.

Re: #1
The level of RP in ALFA has drastically decreased over the past few years. Aside from a small handful of people who enjoy being online and -not- bothered by a DM, practically no one is online outside a game session. And the general idea during a DM session is to cut RP to a minimum and get on with the session. This is enforced by DM and Player alike, and on more than one occasion have I been told to drop my RP and let people continue on their quest. ALFAs reflected core values are therefor (pun intended) "softcore RP".

Re: #2
ALFA isn't a persistent world. Nothing changes in ALFA. Player Characters are leaves on the wind, who fly through rather than to make an impact. This is something i've been talking about for some time now, much to great frustration. We are a Campaign Setting today, not a Persistent World. To me, either one is ok. What isn't ok, is being one and claiming the other because then you can't really excel at either. Now, again, this isn't a failure as much as it is a symptom- a product of the current state of ALFA.

Now, if we look at our pillars, we see that a shift away from NWN would break pillar a few of the pillars. Hell, we don't even have to make a shift to do that. But I think i've made my point already. I am fine with whatever direction you take ALFA, as long as you're being honest about what ALFA is. ALFA is living in the past, trying to be the future. It's neither. Today it is nothing but broken and honestly, I don't know if it can ever truly be fixed.

That said, here is what I suggest:

1. Remove all but two servers. Have one server act as the main server and the other one as a World Server, acting as a host for exotic far away lands and locations.
2. Remove the ban on DMing where you play. ALFA is a campaign world today, let people have fun together.
3. Remove the 2 PC rule.
4. Remove Permadeath for level 1 (and maybe 2), allowing new characters and more importantly, new players, to get a feel for how we want things around here without being scared away.

Of course, there could be more things added, but I think that's enough to get a general feel of what direction I suggest we should head in. All of the three suggestions above are connected, so it's not that I am opposed to the 2 PC rule as it is right now, but I fail to see a need for it if we were to go ahead with my proposed changes. As for having a main server, I'd suggest scrapping all the ones we have currently and focus on a hub (both IC and OOC) of sorts, such as Waterdeep.

The reason we have a player retention problem is because ALFA is unforgiving as balls. I might like that, but that is because i've gotten used to it. New players havn't. We're not recruiting from a 12 year old NWN player base, we're recruiting from a 12 year old player base. If we do that, we might have a chance at reclaiming our original mission statement, begin rebuilding a loyal player base and have people actually enjoy this place again.

[dergon darkhelm]

While I appreciate the thought process and wanting to expand our appeal there is a real potential downside here.

If ALFA is logging in to DDO or playing a few hours with the others on an RP WoW server there is a real possibility that our core platform will suffer. It could suffer from lack of players and from lack of attention in building, DMing and maintenance.

Think back to just the transition from NWN1 to NWN2. That at the time was enough to put splintering pressure on the community. Extrapolate that across numerous platform and it could lead to the death of primary platform over time.

[CloudDancing]

I appreciate the input so far, but the above post by Boom is a whole other discussion about what we should do with NWN2 and the current state of affairs on our NWN2 servers. Like I said, I think NWN2 should remain our prime platform and a place where everyone can come together and play.

I do see many of those problems that you stated. I think we have to recognize that as the player base has "grown-up" as adults we have less and less time to sit around and construct persistent world style RP. Looking back to 2009, things are entirely opposite of where we are now.

Then we had endless hours of player to player RP and were visited by a DM once or twice a month for just a few hours. Now we have scheduled DM sessions that allow players to login and have a DM guided adventure which both guarantees D&D party style, table-top style, gaming/rp whatever AND guarantees you will have other people to play with during that time.

So it would be best to pick up this discussion in: http://www.alandfaraway.org/phpBB3/view ... 66#p612066

So I totally agree that things have changed, but the question in this forum is should we/could we grow alfa into a broad-based social roleplaying community?

BTW I borrowed the term "hardcore" roleplaying from our LA. I remember it was a popular term in NWN1. It does not directly refer to adult content.

[CloudDancing]

While I appreciate the thought process and wanting to expand our appeal there is a real potential downside here.

If ALFA is logging in to DDO or playing a few hours with the others on an RP WoW server there is a real possibility that our core platform will suffer. It could suffer from lack of players and from lack of attention in building, DMing and maintenance.

I think right now our core platforms are suffering from just that problem in regards to players being distracted by other, newer games, and currently our HDMS and builders distracted and/or discouraged with building. Even the Tech Team is reaching a point where they can only spend so much time keeping things from falling to pieces on a regular basis.

Think back to just the transition from NWN1 to NWN2. That at the time was enough to put splintering pressure on the community. Extrapolate that across numerous platform and it could lead to the death of primary platform over time.

As much as I like NWN2, I believe the minute something that brings the toolset/world builder/multi-player format up to speed with our current technology it will immediately end our usage of NWN2 (and possibly faster than the transition from NWN1 to 2.)

As a community it is up to us to determine what exactly will keep ALFA together in the face of us ageing out of NWN2. Is it really NWN2 that keeps us all tied together? Or is it, as it called, the "B" game, the community itself that loves RPGs and roleplaying?

[dergon darkhelm]

As much as I like NWN2, I believe the minute something that brings the toolset/world builder/multi-player format up to speed with our current technology it will immediately end our usage of NWN2

I agree.

So let's set about finding the next platform that can sustain us into ALFA phase 3 and focus attentions there.... on one platform, whatever that may be.

[Zelknolf]

Eh. Folk figured out in the previous decade that it's not a very sound investment in games like Neverwinter Nights. People buy it once, handle their own hosting (often expecting that the resulting servers be indexed by the publisher and provided to clients for free for years), and play the everlovin' crap out of it. We're very unlikely to see the AAA market produce something we could use; the closest we're likely to see is Neverwinter and things like it (the "this is an MMO but you can use our tools to make instanced adventures that we own and host exclusively inside of our MMO" model seems to be pretty successful).

And NWN2 is unsupported by its publisher now. We've got a few select people (who are slowly burning out) trying to keep things running, and we still miss most of the people who are first trying or recently coming back to the game. The majority of people who come to NWN2 see that the master server is down and assume there is no more multiplayer ever again.

[Rumple C]

Man, i'm going to be rp'ing while playing this.

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/about-the-game

Space ALFA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... 691aWqI9Es

[Adanu]

I don't like it. And here's why:

We're kidding ourselves if we think that todays ALFA is about "hardcore RP", regardless of platform. ALFA was about creating a visualization/representation of Faerûn, and in that setting promote an RP heavy style of gameplay. What we have today is an attempt at that on all levels and falling short on all fronts. Now, i'm not saying that ALFA is a failure, or that people have failed in ALFA, I'm only saying that we're not exactly living or striving towards our mission statement. Even today, we only uphold the pillars and mission statement on an arbitrary level. And again, this isn't a failure, it is a symptom of our community, showing that the need for this thread.

According to Cloud, two of ALFAs "core values" are:

1. Dedication to immersive RP and hardcore RP.
2. Dedication to providing and/or supporting persistent environments to roleplay in with other dedicated players.

Re: #1
The level of RP in ALFA has drastically decreased over the past few years. Aside from a small handful of people who enjoy being online and -not- bothered by a DM, practically no one is online outside a game session. And the general idea during a DM session is to cut RP to a minimum and get on with the session. This is enforced by DM and Player alike, and on more than one occasion have I been told to drop my RP and let people continue on their quest. ALFAs reflected core values are therefor (pun intended) "softcore RP".

Re: #2
ALFA isn't a persistent world. Nothing changes in ALFA. Player Characters are leaves on the wind, who fly through rather than to make an impact. This is something i've been talking about for some time now, much to great frustration. We are a Campaign Setting today, not a Persistent World. To me, either one is ok. What isn't ok, is being one and claiming the other because then you can't really excel at either. Now, again, this isn't a failure as much as it is a symptom- a product of the current state of ALFA.

Now, if we look at our pillars, we see that a shift away from NWN would break pillar a few of the pillars. Hell, we don't even have to make a shift to do that. But I think i've made my point already. I am fine with whatever direction you take ALFA, as long as you're being honest about what ALFA is. ALFA is living in the past, trying to be the future. It's neither. Today it is nothing but broken and honestly, I don't know if it can ever truly be fixed.

That said, here is what I suggest:

1. Remove all but two servers. Have one server act as the main server and the other one as a World Server, acting as a host for exotic far away lands and locations.
2. Remove the ban on DMing where you play. ALFA is a campaign world today, let people have fun together.
3. Remove the 2 PC rule.
4. Remove Permadeath for level 1 (and maybe 2), allowing new characters and more importantly, new players, to get a feel for how we want things around here without being scared away.

Of course, there could be more things added, but I think that's enough to get a general feel of what direction I suggest we should head in. All of the three suggestions above are connected, so it's not that I am opposed to the 2 PC rule as it is right now, but I fail to see a need for it if we were to go ahead with my proposed changes. As for having a main server, I'd suggest scrapping all the ones we have currently and focus on a hub (both IC and OOC) of sorts, such as Waterdeep.

The reason we have a player retention problem is because ALFA is unforgiving as balls. I might like that, but that is because i've gotten used to it. New players havn't. We're not recruiting from a 12 year old NWN player base, we're recruiting from a 12 year old player base. If we do that, we might have a chance at reclaiming our original mission statement, begin rebuilding a loyal player base and have people actually enjoy this place again.

You and I have very different experiences with ALFA, because almost all of what you're complaining about here (no changes? Yeah, no) I've seen first hand isn't true. The world changes from it's players, but there are many instances where those changes are not highly visible.

If you want to RP between sessions, log in and wait for other players. Oh wait, you're not patient enough for that? That's your problem, not ALFAs.

[thinkpig]

While I identify with the spirit of the proposal I believe it is too early for the change you propose.

I don't like DDO, and I am skeptical that we'll have another platform that will let us run our game acceptably. I don't think there is a very big market for tasteful storytelling collaboration out there. Members of our community are able to play other games together already. I am sure DDO and other games have their own forums. If we begin to encourage play of other games among alfa members I think we do so at the risk of hastening the erosion of our existing servers and their games.

While the overall NWN2 population dwindles, maybe we'll see some players from other PWs that lack our longevity join us. I cannot envision anyone recruiting people from ESO or DDO etc. to download our ancient game, mod it, etc.

When there is replacement software that we can agree as a community to convert to, or ALFA is otherwise near totally unplayed, I think it will be time for something like this. I just think we're a bit too early.