Preach It Sista: June Survey Results

[Alan 1815]

Hey everyone,

 

As many of you know, 30326 departed from the GM Team not too long ago, hence why you are hearing the results of the most recent survey from me and not him. Even though that is the case, I will also state now that everything is said and done that the survey was nonetheless created by me this time around, as there were a few things I wanted to know aside from the usual collection of information. Rather than the sole purpose being to gain feedback and hear suggestions and propositions, this survey aimed to test knowledge and consistency against the actual answers players put; that is to say, the survey judged whether or not their opinions were founded on logical happenings or merely on foundationless and potentially contradictory cases. A lot of those that responded to the survey fell into this trap, though admittedly a lot fewer than I had expected. However, before I get into that, let’s begin with the usual display of graphs and general information.

 

To hit this off, I’d like to let you all know that a whopping 236 unique individuals participated, which is almost 100 more than past surveys! Here is the raw data:

 

June Community Survey (Responses)

 

Nothing special with this question, though I’d love to know what 4 people are living in the ocean (or Alaska, but we all know Alaska doesn’t actually exist).

 

Pretty straight-forward question and self-explanatory. Nothing special here.

 

The graphs themselves were pretty expected, but something of interest is who voted differently for what. After counting, 18 players (plus or minus 1 or 2 in case I counted incorrectly) that stated they preferred “Mechanics” for roleplay in the previous question also stated that they prefered RP combat in small scale battles, while 26 that preferred “Emotes” for roleplay stated they prefered PvP combat. Also, 145 players that prefer RP battles in small battles instead prefer PvP in large ones. Essentially, very few players fit in the “hardcore” category that has been greatly generalized for both sides of the “PvP-RP” argument, as the majority of our players have multiple stances depending on the situation.

 

As you can probably tell, answers weren’t straight-ticket all the way through. Individual players had different ideas regarding raid restrictions depending on what settlements are offered. The average overall vote that something should be restricted is 75.4%, so needless to say it is very unlikely that raids will go completely unrestricted again. However, if anything these results show that discussion regarding fixing raid rules needs to remain open.

 

PS- Soon I plan to gather a bunch of Staff members AND players that have proven they know what they’re talking about regarding these changes (not necessarily Nation Leaders, in fact probably not NLs), and I will set up a conversation with everyone involved so we can work out a proper system. I will not dwell on this for now though, so onwards to the next results.

 

Average Staff rating: 5.66

Average playerbase rating: 5.11

 

I could make a point out of this, but I only know what discussion would result. I’ll just leave the results above for everyone, Staff and playerbase alike, to think about.

 

I’m not going to sugar coat anything. For months if not years, the relationship between the Staff and the playerbase has been atrocious and has needed fixing. However, all of this time the ones that have been looked to in order to fix this apparent issue has been the GMs and Admin; if anything, the first question shows how this is not how it should be. We’re responsible for fixing the issue, but so is the playerbase, as agreed upon by the majority (78%) of the server. Also, the second question was worded poorly and probably shouldn’t be considered, but it was basically asking whether or not you thought that the current state of the relationship was causing problems for LotC. The most popular answer to that was that it is indeed causing problems, with the majority (79%) believing it’s definitely not helping. Feel free to leave responses to the thread suggesting ways to work towards fixing this issue, though I’ll say now that any real solution will take a while.

 

And lastly, the most important question and the only one that I did not write. Thank you 30326 for coming up with such wonderful options, and thank you those that responded for the hundreds of tissues you made me waste crying myself to sleep. :(

 

(Btw, correct answer was Clocks. 30326 posted it in a status update a few days in a row ^^)

 

Now onto the free responses. Most of the questions will not be publicized not only because they were meant solely for Staff to use as feedback (AKA there’s nothing worth showing), but more importantly because responses were so varied it would be impossible to logically or efficiently display them. With that being said, there were a few trick questions that I’d like to take this time to share.

 

“Do you consider actions which rely on mechanics or plugins (using a fishing rod instead of emoting fishing, for example) roleplaying? Why or why not?”

 

“Do you consider PvP fighting roleplaying? Why or Why not?”

 

First, I shall apologize for the names in the second section of the survey which asked questions about “PvP” and “RP” combat. In any other survey I would have used the terms “mechanical” and “emote” fighting, but in this case I admittedly used their improper names on purpose; I did it to hide the fact that I asked the same question a couple times (*points to the above two questions*).

 

Notice the above bolded questions. One asks if mechanics are roleplay, and one asks if PvP (AKA mechanical fighting) is roleplay. Before I get into it, note this: “Roleplay” by its very definition is really nothing more than just doing something in the shoes of a character, so even if little to no thought is put behind an action that is occurring, so long as the character is doing it and not the actual player, it is roleplay. For instance, it’s roleplaying for my Druid character to turn a log into 4 blocks of wood, because even though it might not make realistic sense for such a thing to happen, my Druid is the one performing the action and not myself IRL (because I’m sitting at a computer screen and not actually making wood). This is why I asked as our first question “What is roleplaying”, because people seem to have warped the definition of roleplaying to the extent that it is no longer “being someone/something else”, but rather it’s only literally expressing the fact that you’re being someone/something else. For the record, most people answered the question right only to answer the above bolded questions based on a different definition.

 

Consistency, folks. Consistency.

 

Back to those questions though, surprisingly a lot of people answered them differently. The most apparent example was one person that said to the prior question “Yes, because people can see what you’re doing rather than having to explain it”, yet they then said no to the latter bolded question because “It’s just mechanics”. The reason I am pointing this out is not to give lean to one side of the argument regarding the two styles of roleplaying and combat, but rather because I’d like to share the fact that a large amount of players that respond to controversial topics do so in an unfounded or contradictory manner. Players jump onto arguments others are making without stopping to consider their own unique opinions, or to consider why one thing is what it is and why something else isn’t. Not everyone does this, there are an abundance of players that know what they want and have grounds to push for it, and trust me we know who they are. Even so, if anything, use this little experiment as an incentive to take a step back when arguments are presented before you. Don’t just jump on one side of the train, but consider first what it is you think and come up with your own argument, because I can guarantee you that we are more willing to listen if a point is backed up by 100 unique arguments instead of 5 popular (and potentially foundationless) ones.

I apologize if this got a little preachy, but at least my point has been made. I’d like to thank everyone who took part in the survey, including Staff (who didn’t know my purpose behind it) and players alike. I can’t promise that there will be a survey next month, and if there will be one I can’t say at all what its content will be, but be on the lookout nonetheless.

 

For now, I bid you farewell, and happy roleplaying (whether through emotes or mechanics ^^)!

 

- Rittsy and 30326

[Huh 91]

Lovely results.

[Crayfishchris 751]

 

Holy crud. Staff hunger games.

[ℤ∃ʁ∅ 823]

Meep

[Ford 1996]

Noice

[Rhia 936]

Ah, good... I'm still "Worst GM" and "Bias" .-.  I have a reputation to uphold. I was worried I was starting to get soft. 

[bulldogsoccer88 40]

Liking it, sixth...?

[gam 386]

Ah, good... I'm still "Worst GM" and "Bias" .-.  I have a reputation to uphold. I was worried I was starting to get soft. 

ily 

[Fimlin 1997]

Meep

[Aedan The Bard 350]

Regarding the RP and PvP graphs, I had recently mentioned a small idea about finding a "neutral" point for RP and PvP Default. In essence, I mentioned it would be a lot better if RP were default for groups smaller than 4 people, and PvP were considered or enforced for groups larger than said number. However, note I'm talking about the initial group. The players who join should roll with whatever is taking place.
I also mentioned how in combat RP, people should learn to take turns. There's a system that I read about in a different server which, although seemingly complex, was quite simple and helpful to avoid the headaches brought by the spam of emotes.

The basic idea is that each player has an "Action". For each action taken against them, they're are allowed to "Defend". When all players involved have had an action, It starts again. That is called a "Round". This is repeated until there is a winner.
New players must join at the end of a round with their respective emote.

[Wolf Druid Ouity 1461]

Regarding staff: I have not seen an admin properly roleplay in months now, no, probably a solid year. That's not alt accounts, mind you. You can't build PR on an anonymous account. You guys gotta get out there, red names and all, and just wander from group to group to group. Find a reason to connect to the players. Go on adventures with them, help them build things. You can't say "yeah, we have to fix this" because this is very literally the only way. GMs have done a better job of connecting, especially when compared to their counterparts from Asulon who in my experience, rarely roleplayed at all.

[Birdwhisperer 1174]

B-but Rittsy, I wanna read all the answers like in the last few surveys! D:

[Aislin 4354]

 

p.s. you flagged a bunch of responses as "trolls" when they clearly weren't

 

p.s.s.

B-but Rittsy, I wanna read all the answers like in the last few surveys! D:

 bird_shout did you click the link....

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AvFrfLdnjB_jdG90LTJvRXBfaTNILUgtb3M1THBIRnc#gid=0

[Z3r05t4r 855]

I suppose I roll with Ouity on that. Rittsy, I want to see your character somewhen and PvP him (Evil, pvp-hungry Oren ;) ). In all seriousness, knowledge is best attained when directly touching things. Experience the harsh world of RP.

 

 

After reading through all staff suggestions thus far the majority (from what I can tell) stated:

 

More GMs, purge, Oren is at fault, Bias everywhere. More active admins please, remove urasept and Viper, make firespirit admin.

 

Yes, no, maybe, feelable. Yes definitely, that decision does not lie with me but re-evaluation is appreciated, yes.

 

In before you click on my signature links.

[DrakeHaze. 2524]

Ah, good... I'm still "Worst GM" and "Bias" .-.  I have a reputation to uphold. I was worried I was starting to get soft. 

One day you should add "sexual deviant" to that list and RP a Dark Elf caveman >.>