A Land Far Away

Who I am . . .

I have been a member of of ALFA for many years, survived through the first major Quake during NWN1 era, Was a builder and DM on the Waterdeep server during that time. I disappeared right after NWN2 came out, for a number of compounded, personal reasons. I came back to ALFA about a year ago now and have been a fairly active member of the community since then. I am the Current HDM of Moonshea Isles Server.

My life now is such that I only work part time and have time to spare, particularly during the winter months, for ALFA business.

As I see it, LA's job consists of:

Being an arbitrator should there be disagreement between different Admins as to what belongs to their domain.

Has the power Veto decisions made by any other of the Admins within 30 days of the decision.

Is responsible for making sure elections are held in a timely manner and that they are fair and impartial.

If there is a tie vote, LA's vote is the tie breaker.

LA is the only Admin that can make a formal proposal for changes to the Charter.

And Primarily it seems LA is in charge of Public relations.

There are a few other things as well but the above pretty well sums it up
http://www.alandfaraway.info/wiki/Lead_Administrator



I understand that we have a nearly 10 year OLD game platform and that our player base has dwindled away to almost nothing. I know we have tried a few things to tease back old players , which had limited success, for a short time, on player base numbers.


Not going to make fancy promises that cannot be kept because the position doesn't have the power to affect them in the first place.

What I can promise is:

To be a fair and honest LA.

To attempt to increase our Player Base, not by leaps and bounds, but by slow incremental numbers. I feel at this point in our history if we can double or even triple our current active players on at least one or two days of the week ALFA will have made progress in the right direction.

How? I am sure you will ask . . .
To catch the attention of today's younger generation you need to appeal to their sense of challenge as well as the idea that the character they play is part of a unique story being woven. When ALFA was conceived ..Oh so many years ago, most of us were still playing PnP games, we understood the concept of group adventure and RP with other LIVE players. Young people today think that RP is nothing more then what branch of a convo tree you follow in a single player video game, and the goal is to WIN rather than interaction with your fellow players, even in groups its still about who levels fastest and gets the most bad-assed gear first. What draws them to games is the Challenge first , then they learn interaction with other players can be fun. Perma-death, and slow level advancement should be presented as a challenge to succeed rather than an obstacle to fun.

We need to track down the Info we have already placed out on the Internets and update it , I have found many instances in Googling ALFA , of bad links , severely outdated information, and other things that make ALFA look like its either no longer in business or is so badly messed up that no one cares to give us a try . Our Image on the internet is suffering greatly and the internet is where people go in this day and age to find games to play.


I would work on getting our updated info out to as many places as possible, and presenting ALFA as a challenging environment for Group play.

Would I support allowing DMs to play where they DM? - NO
Would I support allowing Players to have more active PC's? . . Maybe
Would I support doing away with Permadeath? - NO

Hi Arianna, thanks for offering your time. And thankyou for the amount of time you've spent in game ensuring content on Moonshaesif only I had more time to play there!!!


1 Cheeky question - because it's not how you play the game, its weather you win or lose.
While it is unlikely to occur in your term, this question may come up in the future: What should happen first, trusted members able to play on a server they DM on, or ALFA ceases being used? Alternative framing may be, is the mission of ALFA more important than an internal policy of ALFA?


2 Trouble-making question
The charter names the position you are applying for the 'Lead' administrator, and gives it explicit responsibility for oversight of all administration activities as well as a bunch of other things. The charter also the lists a few specific responsibilities without limiting your actions under the bolded articles above.

As such, do you think that the lead admin should do more than PR and dispute resolution and actually set a strategy/agenda/direction, within which the other portfolios should work within, to:
a) maintain - when ALFA is robust
b) reform - when ALFA is slowly dwindling

Or should we suggest a charter change to adjust the name of the lead admin to the "PR and complaints" admin? ((just kidding...well...kinda))


3 Influence question
What is one substantial thing you will try to influence/cajol/encourage/threaten/trick each of the three other admin to do, or do differently, while you're in office to support your vision of an incremental increase in player numbers?

4 last question
Once you brings new players here they will enter the game. The few we've had currently wander about while seeing 2-3 players spread out in other servers and often leave as contact with other players is too hard. What changes would you lead to provide a positive first log-in experience?

Fewer servers? A newb hub and additional PCs so members can always have a level <3 at this hub? others?

Dorn wrote:Hi Arianna, thanks for offering your time. And thank you for the amount of time you've spent in game ensuring content on Moonshaes if only I had more time to play there!!!

Thank you, Having the time to play has always been one of the top issues for some of our members . . .. tis something we have no cure for unfortunately.

Dorn wrote:1 Cheeky question - because it's not how you play the game, its whether you win or lose.
While it is unlikely to occur in your term, this question may come up in the future: What should happen first, trusted members able to play on a server they DM on, or ALFA ceases being used? Alternative framing may be, is the mission of ALFA more important than an internal policy of ALFA?

ALFA's mission is to provide an immersive persistent world for the purpose of high-quality online role-play using the D&D™ game system within the Forgotten Realms™ setting.
The Mission Statement as Stated would not be affected whether DMs were allowed to play where they DM or not. What I believe Would happen if DMing where you play was allowed, is a further sundering of our members, as you have as many or more, against such as you have for it. There are long term members, who will happily bring up the time or two it was allowed and the unpleasantness that followed. Would allowing a DM to play where they DM attract new players or bring old ones back? Its possible, but I doubt it. ALFA has already dispensed with the wait time between when you DM and when you are allowed back on the server with a PC, it only requires a server reset now, but by stepping down to play you must then reapply to the HDM to come back and DM again, Though you must still have any current PCs off the server before you can DM there again.
I cannot speak for others here, but I would personally Cease my involvement in ALFA, if ALFA broadly allowed DMs to play a PC , on the same server they DM on. In my opinion a DM IS playing on their server when they DM, they play all the NPCs, and creatures, they are just not gathering personal loot.

Dorn wrote:2 Trouble-making question
The charter names the position you are applying for the 'Lead' administrator, and gives it explicit responsibility for oversight of all administration activities as well as a bunch of other things. The charter also the lists a few specific responsibilities without limiting your actions under the bolded articles above.

As such, do you think that the lead admin should do more than PR and dispute resolution and actually set a strategy/agenda/direction, within which the other portfolios should work within, to:
a) maintain - when ALFA is robust
b) reform - when ALFA is slowly dwindling

Or should we suggest a charter change to adjust the name of the lead admin to the "PR and complaints" admin? ((just kidding...well...kinda))

Certainly a good question.
At one time in History ALFA had a Lead Project Administrator as one of the Admin positions whose job I think included setting the direction of the project. Unfortunately, that was also during the time when Admins held unequivocal power with very few checks and balances. I do not know what happened during ALFA's reorganization nor why that responsibility no longer seems to be in any Admins portfolio. Currently LA's portfolio seems to mostly be the check and balance of the other Admins and PR.
I certainly think project direction should be a duty of Lead or have its own position, with suitable check and balances in place to prevent stupidity.

Dorn wrote:3 Influence question
What is one substantial thing you will try to influence/cajol/encourage/threaten/trick each of the three other admin to do, or do differently, while you're in office to support your vision of an incremental increase in player numbers?

Influence / encourage perhaps, I am not the sort to cajol/threaten/trick people.
I don't see player numbers as being the sole responsibility of Admin either, ALFA as a community needs to work towards increasing its numbers.
I would like to see the player application process done away with, I think at this point in time it is simply a stumbling block for adding new players, raise the "you must be a member to level" mechanic from 3-5, by that point DMs should have seen the player and decided if they are suitable ALFA material. Its not LA domain but it could be put on the table for discussion.
I know IA is working on a new website for ALFA , which I hope will be up and running soon.
Other then that I would strongly encourage each department to make sure anything pertaining to their department is fully updated in the Wiki and on the various websites ALFA employs

I would like to challenge each player/member/Admin to bring in One new player or bring back One old player, and regularly play with or DM them.

Dorn wrote:4 last question
Once you brings new players here they will enter the game. The few we've had currently wander about while seeing 2-3 players spread out in other servers and often leave as contact with other players is too hard. What changes would you lead to provide a positive first log-in experience?

Fewer servers? A newb hub and additional PCs so members can always have a level <3 at this hub? others?

LA doesn't have the power to put into place over arching decisions regarding our servers.

Currently ALFA has 4 servers , 2 open and 2 that require a pass word to enter from the game listing. Transferring from one server to a pass word server doesn't seem to require the password to complete the transfer. WHL is pretty dead , while BG/ MS/ TSM are somewhat active depending on the given time/day. However, That being said, I see WHL being used as the Server to park the spare PC on currently. While deleting the server would lessen the load of TA, it would make it harder for players to juggle the PCs they have. A possible alternative I have been thinking about, but not sure how to implement yet is each server having an OOC parking spot for PCs. Basically a room where you can park, but not play your PC while you are playing with a different one .

My current approach on MS has been to implement more static content to keep new players busy and Being on the server to DM regularly on a set day.

If ALFA were to cut down to ONE server Which server, is the question, everyone has their favorite for various reasons. Would cutting out someones favorite server make them move to the one that is still active or would it make them leave ALFA too? I don't have the answer to that.

I would certainly support either BG or MS becoming a Password required server so that new players would have to congregate on one server to start with. I would encourage play at particular time/days as well. Our active member base being what it is we are spread out time zone wise making it difficult to congregate over 3-4 players & a DM at any one time.
I would support players being allowed additional PCs , as long as something is in place to remove the temptation having multiple PCs share the stuff.

Thankyou for your well thoguht out answers

A note about the operation of one of our systems--

Arianna wrote:Transferring from one server to a pass word server doesn't seem to require the password to complete the transfer.

The membership flag stored on the database is used to determine if you're allowed to transfer to a passworded server. It should be the same one that determines your level cap, though those two systems were written at different times and my memory is a bit foggy. Your GSID is authenticated with your unique CD keys, and then your GSID has records of where you're allowed to play.

Thanks for stepping up Arianna, nice to see a new hat thrown into the mix.

I support Arri for this position and have withdrawn.

Best of luck Ari.