What people think of ALFA

[Mikayla]

fluff:

I think letting HDMs have the authority to unilaterally ban individuals from their servers was pretty critical in emphasising that problem players can be removed without denying everybody else content.

I agree - and as its election season (for me) I would like to point out that this policy was (formally) approved by ... me.

OK, so I am not particularly modest. Its ELECTION time folks.




p.s. Is it too late to claim I invented teh internets?

[Souvarine]

What i have heard the most often is the following:

Elitist hardcore rp'ers on a witch hunt.
Permanent death sucks.
Empty servers.
Rampant favoritism.

There is a discrepancy on the ALFA experience its member get during their stay. For those who get a dm, it's awesome and you are immersed far beyond what a pnp game could do. Those that don't, get rather lost in the emptyness of a lonely chat room. Add to this the very obvious fact that alfa is far more deadly and far less profitable without a dm than with one, and you get whole different picture. That leads to the favoritism/powergaming accusations and then translate to the feedback discrepancy that alfa gets.

The people bashing alfa on the other forums are often old (and current) alfeans themselves who got frustrated/bored/alienated/etc, not many kicked jerks do it...except when on a vengeance crusade (which doesn't get much credit anyway)

So how do you change the image of a monster that is a shapeshifter?
Well, you can't, because every opinion is a valid perspective of the beast and the next guy to join might experience it in a totally different way, so unless you go on propaganda tricks...you need to change Alfa for the image to follow.

Alfa sucks for some people because it sometimes really does, it's no faerie tale. Those who are left around the project to this day more often than not saw the "brighter side" of it and want to get more. I've seen the crappier part far more often than the better and had 101 reasons to leave, but in my mind i still think it's worth it.

Regardless of my opinons, i'd say it doesn't matter much these days. Alfa as adjusted its scope to the audience it really catters to, the visibility of the project is still high, and that's a good thing even if people bash it.

We -are- elitist hardcore roleplayers...there have been witch hunts in the past, there was/are/will be empty servers and you can witness a difference in character progression (which makes people think it is favoritism). So what's the problem with our image?

The best reply we can give to those who are interested is "try it"...the rest is up to themselves, but when asked i certainly don't paint it as paradise online.

P.S. Mik, is there anyone running against you in that "election"?

[JaydeMoon]

I agree, Souvarine. One of the things I tell Apps on the OAS is that ALFA is not BETTER than other PWs and communities out there. For those that like it, it is the best, for those who do not match with the style (not who aren't good enough or mature enough or cool enough, etc) it is not as fun and there are other PWs that they will probably have a better time in. And I list a few.

Permadeath is not for everyone.

Hardcore RP is not for everyone.

I find that after explaining this, the response I most often get is: "Thanks, I'd like to try anyway." (Those people generally get in and excel)

A few times I have gotten, "Thanks for the heads up, I guess I'd probably like to check out one of those alternatives."

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Stormbringer, those uber kobolds and schtuff... same thing with items and XP. We've learned, things are coming back. We just got done removing a whole crapload of uber orcs in SD, took them right out of the palette. Also toned down several NPCs to more realistic levels (a level 8 human ranger with 15 feats, 3 out of class 'class' feats, and two racial feats). We're looking for others, I'm sure they are in there.

I'd like to personally thank the standards team, they are doing a bang up job of making sure the DMs have the proper guidelines of XP, loot, spawns, etc.

[Rick7475]

Just wanted to comment on the empty server and DM favoritism stuff.

Statics help with the emptiness a little, but what gets people to play is regular DM stuff happinen.

DF had tons of players when we had regular DM's, then when we had tech issues, people went where the other DM's were.

** We need lower player / DM ratios to solve the emptyness. A server can be butt ugly with one rat to kill, but if there is DM lovin, then players appear and you get the 20+ everytime.

As for DM favoritism, let's be honest, it happens, but not because DM's are jerks, because of their knowledge of your PC, how to play them, and how many PC's they can juggle in a session. For example, I suck at DM'ing a PC who follows Mask and wants to build an underground black market smuggling babies for slavery, but angel_caller is really good at it Likewise, I am very good at running military or knightly orders with quests to find virgins in distress, and can DM PC's like that. Hell, I don't know a thing about drow but I am knowledgeable about medieval cities and trades and stuff. Point is, each DM has their area of expertise and comfort with playing a PC. Not all DM's can effectively or comfortably play a particular PC (and there are some real imaginative backgrounds that require very deep knowledge of Faerun from obscure sources). So, again, you can call it favouritism, but it is a reality. The solution, of course, it:

** We need lower player / DM ratios to allow different flavours of players and DM's to get together to avoid favoritism.


Also, one more thing, HDM's are like principals (sorry, teacher here), they have a lot of admin crap to deal with that takes away their DM time, so we can't go expecting HDM's to be as available to DM as ADM's. Access to the server needs to be shared for all ADM's for updates to storylines, but if the HDM is involved in a lot of plots, the admin stuff get's put down the list, and bottlenecks happen. We have to expect that the main DM lovin is coming from ADM's. HDM is really a part time DM.

Anyway, some stuff

[Lusipher]

One thing I hope will happen with our NWN2 servers is seeing more players on at a time. I agree a lot of players who tried ALFA said one of their biggest complaints was no one was on the servers and ALFA was one big chat room sitting around a fire instead of building up suspense, adventuring, etc.

We need to have HDMs who are avaliable and dont dissapear off the map for long periods at a time (TFN anyone?) We need to allow our ADMs more training and give them more responsibility. I personally remember when I was a N00b DM on TVS that Sareena sat me down one night and we actually went through the DM client together and he showed me somethings I actually didnt know we could do like moving multiple mobs at once. Our DMs will get better with practice, but we need to continually make sure their getting the knowledge they need to excel.

I personally would love to see Dms be only Dms and players only players but thats a dead horse I know

[Lusipher]

On the point of DM favortism..we have unfortunately seen it happen in ALFA. I could make many points about it happening, but I wont as most of those Dms and players are no longer here. Our Standards team cracked down on items and we have a good grip on things now. We also seem to be heading in a better direction with our DMs and thats great. DMs will always have a certain "faction" "race" or "player" they enjoy Dming more than others, but we need more active Dms around to accomidate all our players needs. I think with this it will make things better for all players and Dms both.

One last point...I will say this about ALFA. A few years ago I got involved with Coach on Sembia. I learned about a secret society that was quite involved all over the ALFA servers. I found out about a ton of great players and Dms who actually were involved in Dming the group. We had a wonderful time and I was so surprised at how extensive our group and holdings were all over Faerun. We had tons of quests going on at any given time and the Dms were very helpful with us. That made my ALFA experience. Not having Dms tell you "no you cant do this" was great. They actually "wanted" to help the players to have a great experience and in some cases would "throw in monkey wrenches" to have our Pcs work our asses off to gain what we achieved.

I had to give up playing about a year ago because of RL issues and it really bothered me not to continue. You could not get the excitment and same kind of fun here as you could get playing a MMO or other game. Thats what I want to see again and hopefully achieve in our new incarnation. I came into ALFA as a n00b to D&D and roleplaying for the most part and I am here today as a person who loves the realms and would rather play in ALFA and have those experiences than ones you could pay 15.00 a month for and get really nothing to show for it.

[paazin]

Well, personally, I think that opinions are a dime a dozen.

[Stormseeker]

Mine is worth 25 cents a dozen.

[paazin]

Actually, to respond to what some people had mentioned before, trying to discourage people from playing/applying because it's "permadeath" and "hardcore rp" is a bit shortsighted. Many people (myself included) didn't like those concepts when they first started - if someone would have gone and explained to me how "serious" and "different" ALFA is I think I might not have joined in the first place.

But, as others have said, with NWN2 will once again likely arrive a surge of folks - as soon as the servers are up (and with the knowledge we've gleaned from the NWN1 servers) it ought improve considerably.

[Souvarine]

Those who mention the permadeath and "elitist" hardcore rpg are often used by non-afleans in the first place. Those are the two traits of alfa that are easily bashable for the "mass"...since it catters to a marginal audience. Typically they don't discourage people with these arguments, they just dismiss the project altogether as for freaks of nature.

As a side note paazin, what surge will hit alfa2? For some reason i don't think there will be a mass application hitting us for nwn2. Hasn't nwn2 actually filtered out the community a bit?

[paazin]

Those who mention the permadeath and "elitist" hardcore rpg are often used by non-afleans in the first place. Those are the two traits of alfa that are easily bashable for the "mass"...since it catters to a marginal audience. Typically they don't discourage people with these arguments, they just dismiss the project altogether as for freaks of nature.

Well I've seen some people here mention things like that, saying that new folks should be acquainted with it in order to not recruit 'bad eggs' - a foolish suggestion, I think.

As a side note paazin, what surge will hit alfa2? For some reason i don't think there will be a mass application hitting us for nwn2. Hasn't nwn2 actually filtered out the community a bit?

Eh, I'd say in the next some months when servers go online, maybe an expansion pack or two will be out and the game's multiplayer bit will become a bit more well-known.

[Lusipher]

I know from talking with a new player hes getting at least 6 or so of his buddies to join ALFA when we go Live so folks are going to spread the word and folks will come in. Its up to us to keep them here and interested in our project.

[ThinkTank]

if someone would have gone and explained to me how "serious" and "different" ALFA is I think I might not have joined in the first place.

[Mulu]

Just add some lesbian elves in that graphic and it would be perfect.

[JaydeMoon]

I'll clarify:

I'm not trying to discourage people from joining when I tell them that permadeath and hardcore RP are not for everyone.

If someone is on the OAS and they're kicking ass and taking names, I swing em over to the counseling section, tell em good job, make sure they know the rules and send em to a Live! server.

If someone is bumbling around and looks like they aren't ALFA material, then I have to sit down and talk to them, figure out what it is they are looking for. Most of these people haven't even looked at the website, or if they have, not in depth. Some of them are people who have heard other people bashing ALFA, particularly the permadeath rule and elitist RPers.

My talk about permedeath and hardcore RP not being for EVERYONE is not a discouragement tool and is rarely (if it ever has been) taken as such. It is a way of saying that we here at ALFA don't think our permadeath and hardcore RP make us BETTER than other PWs (to many of us it does, but I'm not trying to show arrogance to potential new members). And it also is a way to say to the app, if they don't think they would like it and decide not to pursue membership OR if they try but do not measure up to our standards, that I, and ALFA, don't think they are beneath us as RPers or players because they don't fit our vision, but that we understand there are lots of different ways to play NWN and lots of different ways to run a PW and no one way is better than the other.

As I said, only a very few people have ever heard my speech and said, "Yeah, I think I'll play somewhere else." And usually it was after two or three sessions of trying, but realizing that they just didn't like dying, or not running. A majority of those who have heard my speech are people who had no clue, running, farming sloanberries (because that's the only thing you can farm), who were instead inspired and went on to join ALFA.

My hope is that those few who didn't pass muster aren't inclined to bitch about how shitty I was to them when they were trying to join. But not a one of them left the OAS sounding bitter and resentful, instead they were like "Hey, thanks for explaining tings to me and trying to help me out."

So, perhaps it seems a bit shortsighted to you, but it seems to work well enough for me.