Community Team Update - Jan 2024 (+plus a review of 2023)

[SaviourMeme 694]

 

COMMUNITY TEAM UPDATE

[Posted Jan 2024]

 

 

INTRODUCTION - @HogoBojo

 

Howdy everyone, I hope that everyone is having a great 2024 so far. 2023 was definitely a busy year, with lots going on. Today in this update, we’ll show some of what we’ve been up-to the last few months, as well as give a look-back at applications for the entire year of 2023. I am very appreciative to the team for their hard work, and hope that this post displays some of what’s going on. Thus, without further ado, I’ll let you get onto the update.

 

 

CURRENT ROSTER

 

 

INTRODUCTION - APPLICATIONS

 

Applications are a very crucial part of the server, as it serves as the gate which new players must pass through to join the server. Throughout the previous year of 2023, the team has worked hard to review thousands of applications. In the previous year, sometimes large influxes caused by various reasons would cause some applications to build up, but despite that, the team worked through it and got it under control. Quick response times are important, and we know that– and that is why we will continue to work towards improving and keeping application review time lower as we move forward into 2024.

 

With that being said, please find below a years worth of application data for 2023.

 

Please note that the Racial & Timezone Data provided below will only be shown for accepted players.

__________

 

APPLICATIONS - 2023

 

During 2023, we saw a total of 3418 applications submitted and reviewed. Out of these, 2037 new players were accepted! Our accepted/denied percentage ratio last year was around 2037/1381.

 

Please note that the Racial & Timezone Data shown will only be shown for accepted players.

 

 - Accepted/Denied Ratios - 

 

- Race-Specific Data - 

- TimeZone Data - 

 

- Raw Application Data -

- Racial Data -

- Humans -

Total: 986

Adunian: 65

Heartlander: 90

Highlander: 151

Farfolk: 91

No Subrace: 589

 

- Elves -

Total: 617

Wood: 174

Dark: 179

High: 182

No Subrace: 82

 

- Dwarves -

Total: 183

Cave: 39

Mountain: 68

Forest: 20

No Subrace: 56

 

- Orcs -

Total: 190

Orc: 143

Goblin: 47

 

- Halflings -

Total: 61

 

- Timezone Data -

Oceania: 170

America: 1329

Europe: 47

 

- Accepted/Denied Ratio -

Total: 3418

Accepted: 1195

Pending-Accepted: 842

Pending-Denied: 1048

Denied: 333

 

APPLICATION MONARCH

 

The title of Application Monarch for 2023 goes to @Smol

 

With the most applications review this year, Smol is our reigning Application Monarch of 2023, followed by @AnimeWolf0080 and @Blake0205
 

 

COMMITMENT UPDATES

 

Media Team
GENERAL OVERVIEW

With the Media Team, we’ve implemented new members to hopefully bring forth more content then before. TikTok has somewhat been halted in terms of efficient production as we are leaning towards more professional content, aiming to get more videos out on the main channel.

The foremost issue confronting our team is the occurrence of team members generating innovative ideas, initiating action on these ideas, only to subsequently forget about them. In response, we’ve made a task list that all team members can access. This task list serves as a centralized hub of current projects and tasks, allowing team members to stay notified about what needs to be done. Furthermore, it promotes collaboration by enabling members to assist with existing projects rather than initiating new ones independently.
 

A couple of the team members that produced videos this past month were @Blake0205 and @Smol. While the current war began between nations, Blake produced the storyline between the Haense King and the Veletz leader within his first video to then use live footage from War Claim battles to produce fantastic hype videos for both sides of the war. He has continued his hard work and continued to pump out videos after each warclaim, showcasing them all off. All of the videos were massively hits in showing how fun and exciting it is to be a part of large-scale wars. Another YouTube video was produced to showcase one of our oldest and strongest races… The race intro for Dwarves pt. 2! This amazing video was filmed by our very own Smol_ who worked tirelessly to show how unique and enchanting Urguan can be. Thank you to @Blake0205 and @Smol for such amazing videos in December!

 

Something else you might notice as you peruse the Youtube channel is the brand new intros, one regular intro and one for the holidays, created by the one and only @SaviourMeme! Watch our latest videos to see these new additions to the channel. Regarding other social media platforms, @poki  created four TikToks which used trendy music combined with creative short films to introduce Lord of the Craft to more people. We are so excited to see more work from Poki and to see how many players they can bring in through TikTok.

And finally, we have recently established a set of guidelines that outline the minimum requirements for maintaining our standard of video quality. Our intention with this is to encourage the creation of higher  quality videos for our main channel, as well as giving our new members an idea of what we’re aiming for.
 

Wiki

NEWEST UPDATES

Yoyoyo everyone, here to update you on what's been happening with the wiki side of the community team. As per usual we have been keeping the wiki in a general state of accuracy, looking back at some of our long term pages and making sure that the data within them is still accurate. As well as updating and creating new pages as the need arises for them, based on the events of the server as a whole, and working on a number of larger projects. Some of these bigger projects have been the constant creation and recovery of wiki accounts for community members who wish to contribute as well as monitoring changes to prevent malicious actors. We’ve also been on the last stages of the new Magic Hub with amazing art work created by @CombatRolePlay, a full rework and update of the settlement guides pages, updates for pages on Aenguls and Daemons, keeping track of any ongoing wars or political rivalries as well as updating any old ones with as much information as possible, remaking the map on the homepage with links to each realms page, as well as a myriad of other minor fixes throughout the entire wiki.

 

WIKI TEAM GOALS

Although much progress has been and continues to be made on the wiki, we see it as a never ending project. The server is constantly changing and evolving, and thus the wiki must be constantly updated with the most up to date information. Whether this be simply updating pages, or remaking them in their entirety. Some of these spots that we have noticed that we plan to update in the near future are finishing up the final touches of the magic hub, updating any existing settlement guides as well as making any we are missing, we also plan a rewrite of the New Player Guide, The Wiki Guide, and The Wiki Rules. The latter two hopefully aid any future wiki contributors. If you are interested in contributing to the wiki, head to the wiki account request channel in the main LOTC discord.

 

 

Community Services (Map Art, Capital Pastes)

Heyo everyone, providing a quick update on the state of Community Services. With the change of paid-LC being favoured over general wide-spread pastes, the Community Services duties now cover Realm Capital Complete Pastes & Map Art. Since the start of the map, we’ve processed a total of 218 pieces of map art, with an average turnaround time of roughly one week. We are happy to be able to provide players with access to beautiful custom art within the game itself that enhances the roleplay experience.

 

Events and Arts Contests

After a wildly successful, albeit on a smaller scale event for Halloween (shoutout to all those who had a chance to have some fun with Mr. Skelly and Mr. Pumpkin) we just wrapped up one of our largest scale events for the Holiday Season. For more information please visit: LINK. Thank you @annabanana1014 for all the hard work you put into leading the charge on the holiday events for December!

 

The holiday events began with the immediate decoration of a multitude of realms and our very own Cloud Temple by Anna. Snowmen, candy canes, and lights around every tree could be seen from all over! Soon enough, Smol posted her joyous server-wide secret santa which had about 90 participants! Thank you to all who joined in on the festive fun and thank you to Smol for organizing such a massive event! Throughout the joyful holiday, there were a few Monk helpers that spread laughter and fun with their Community-Signed gifts. Shout out to @KaptainScarletfor making such fine gifts for the player base!

 

Now onto the ever loved Community Arts Contest, our previous contest ran throughout the month of September and most of the prizes have been given out to the winners (if you have yet to receive your prizes please reach out to @saviourmeme on discord). And with the holiday season upon us, we swang right into our latest Arts Contest. If you are interested in participating in our current ongoing Arts Contest, or seeing the winners of the previous one please head over to our new “Community Team Arts Contest: Krugsmas Returns” post.

 

CT Project

Guides

Over the last few months the Community Team has been undergoing an extensive project of writing and updating a variety of guides on the forums, in hopes of helping more new players and old alike. If you have not had a chance to read these guides, follow the link and let us know your thoughts. (LINK) If anyone has anything they would like to see become a guide, or notices an older guide that needs fixes please message (Anime_Wolf0080) in discord as we begin to wrap up the final few stages of this project. 

 

Retention

Another smaller project we have begun working on is a small analysis of the effects of how new players start on the server. The question of player retention is an important one to the server, and improving our part of keeping new players around and enjoying their time here is something we are eager to explore. In the coming weeks, you might see an occasional CT member doing things a little differently from the others as we try to gauge the effectiveness of various techniques.

 

 

TEAM DIRECTION & CONCLUSION

 

- Goals Over the Last Few Months -

We’ve had several goals over the last few months. One of them was establishing some Media standards, tools, and support behind the scenes, as well as getting more content up and going. We’ve done relatively well with this, with the one point of contention being us needing to upload some more Tik Toks and short content. Another was the return of Community Events every now & then on occasion. We did this several times & I’m happy with the Community's reaction & how well they went. Thirdly would be improving Application wait time, which I mentioned earlier.

 

- Future Goals -

Moving forward, there are several goals that I believe the team should work on. Firstly, as I mentioned earlier in this update, I want to continue working towards lower and lower app wait times each month. Secondly, I want to continue our hard work in the Media sector both behind the scenes and the public facing. Thirdly, I want the team to look at the new player experience overall and look how we can improve this… Are there any informative guides that need updating or writing… What are gaps that team members aren’t online where players may need help, and how can we patch them, and so on.

 

- Conclusion -

Overall, I believe that we’ve had a productive year, with a wide variety being accomplished during this time. I always believe that there is room for improvement for me, and the team, and thus we shall continue to strive to improve where we can and continue our hard work into the new year.

 

We will be posting a monthly Application Update post as well as a larger CT Update post every 3 months. If you have ideas for Projects the CT should pursue, please let us know.

 

 

Need help? Feel free to contact a community team member via the forums, Discord, or you can use the command /creq in-game and a member can help you out there!

 

Shoutout

@HogoBojo - Writing his parts and being community team admin

@annabanana1014 + @Blake0205 - Helping write and Proofreading

The Community Team - For their hard work over the past year and all the help they gave in writing this update.

[satinkira 5921]

excuse me

 

some time around january, the following was posted by hogo in what I presume was the CT section of the staff discord:

 

Spoiler

Statement

 

Our mission is two-pronged: to stoke creativity, empower players, connect new friends AND to bring glory and fame to LOTC. We must instill passion into players and stimulate minds to think bigger—and remember: this community is ALL WE HAVE. What we do is create spaces where friendships flourish, spaces where role-models are celebrated, and spaces where people can manifest fun. Enthusiasm, kindness, and inspiration are already there in each player and we can bring these qualities into the open. Let's build the respectful and fascinating kind of community that we are proud to share and shout far and wide.

 

As the Community Team, we have the potential to be the most influential and prestigious team on the staff. I believe we can get there this year. It begins with a reformed, new team.

 

Here's how we can transform fundamental perceptions of this server.

 

Key Reforms

 

- Every person will champion a distinct responsibility. What might that look like? We need:

- Engaging and productive community meetings

- Creative, ambitious, and rewarding contests

- Innovative and memorable media

- Fair and responsible advocacy for player feedback

- Informative and entertaining community newsletters

- We need to oppose stagnation—to electrify and encourage this community to produce new and awesome content and take initiative as players.

- We must empower the community to take action, not just desire the ideal RP experience but to MAKE it happen and bring glory to our humble corner. Change perceptions.

- We are in this together. There is no "ct plus". No managers or seniority. Each member on the team has an equal vote in the direction we want to take this server. And starting today, we will vote with our work and our actions — not our words.

 

For Myself

 

- Adopt proactive leadership, be a liaison into the admin world

- Empower CT to make lasting low-effort high-impact changes with meaningful duties

- Be there consistently for each member in my team

- Implement and wrap up CT projects, leave none in limbo

- Make time to chill in VC, especially during general work

 

This is a bet on the future of this team to take LotC to the next level. It may completely fail on me and I will take full responsibility for it. But, I believe we can do this and truly shape the Community Team into the most influential and prestigious team on the staff.

 

it's also important to note that after this was published, several members of CT were kicked due to Hogo placing a limit on the number of people who could join CT

 

i have a few questions about this. a year on, the effects of it haven't been obvious and CT seems to have continued, from outside player perception, as normal, with their tiktoks and YT vids and seasonal events. therefore, I ask:

 

what was the purpose of setting a maximum number of CT? from what I can tell the people you kicked from the team weren't exactly inactive, and were doing their applications like anyone else. what benefits has this yielded?

 

in your purposes, you list things like 'encouraging the community to produce new and awesome content' and 'empowering the community to take action [to make the ideal rp experience happen]'. how have you gone about this and would you say you've succeeded?

 

these questions are to Hogo:

 

how have you gone about being more proactive as an admin?

 

would you say the reform was successful?

 

why didn't you tell the players about the reform? 

 

thx, i look forward to seeing the player retention data

 

Spoiler

No doubt some will interpret this as a massive attack on all CT, kill them all, hate staff, but I ask these questions because when staff teams reform and nothing seems to come of it questions should be asked (especially if players aren't told about the reform in question!!) Transparency, I believe, is supposed to be one of the key themes of LoTC staff. I love CT members, they're all mostly lovely people, I'm just curious as to the mindset behind the decision made in January and its effects.

 

[ThatFunkyBunch 2066]

Pls accept my app

[HogoBojo 3972]

Hey, I appreciate you taking the time to read the teams update, and to have the interest to follow up with some questions. I'm currently about to leave for work in a lil' bit so excuse if the answers are rushed, but I wanted to try my best to answer them with sufficient explanation cram in details now, rather than you feel it was ignored or not seen.

 

 

21 hours ago, satinkira said:

would you say the reform was successful?

I'm going to start answering this with a truth, even if it is considered somewhat of a cop-out. It depends on what metrics you measure success. Overall, I do believe that the removal of Managers, empowering team-members, and clearly outlining a direction has yielded great benefits. I found quite often previously that some aspects of the team would just simply grind to a halt without Managers taking the charge. I found that more often than not, team members just didn't take their own initiative, rather looking to their Manager to assign tasks and push them to do things. In the talks of Managers, in the past, some of my Managers didn't particularly get along and thus time was wasted with them internally bickering, instead of handling important team matters. Through removing them, and outlining/revealing the Team Mission StatementTM, I believe that it allowed for my team members to be able to peruse passion projects that were coherent with The Statement, rather than being stuck in bureaucracy limbo, awaiting approval from Managers. One project, which you actually mentioned in your other question, that of Player Retention is being worked on by several team members by their own initiative. I'm there to assist them, and provide anything they need to help with the project, and ensure it's success-- but besides that, it's a self-sufficient project, one which was started without having to run by a bunch of people. I believe by ensuring that team members are engaging in projects, but allowing them some freedom, so long as it is coherent of what we wish to accomplish, it's good for the team, and overall higher quality work will be produced due to their personal interest. I'll be completely truthful with you though, as well as the rest of the server as I do like transparency-- it can be time-consuming at times to be checking-up & helping everyone, as well as other duties I absorbed from Management, that of my Administration duties, and real-life obligations. Despite taking on a bit of extra work, the rest of Management duties have essentially been split up between the team. All-in-all, a bit more work for me to have team members take pride in their work, and have the opportunity to start new projects of their own initiative without un-needed bureaucracy is well-worth it. 

 

21 hours ago, satinkira said:

how have you gone about being more proactive as an admin?

Before, a lot of my time would be spent communicating with Managers, and they'd communicate with team members, often resulting in a break-down in communication from a game of telephone, as well as things taking longer than they should. By removing this middle step, I am able to be directly proactive and am able to reach out to team members directly to see if there is anything I can assist them with, and see if there are any issues that I can help them resolve. They are also able to reach out to me directly as well. A very brief and simple example would be the great content that @Blake0205 is producing surrounding the current war, with him producing a video for each warclaim. I assist him with feedback, some writing for transitions, and other matters per his request. Additionally, I ensure that he has various replays in-case one doesn't have everything loaded in, so he can utilize multiple replays to get all points of views, as well as to avoid the risk of one getting corrupted and all data being lost. I also will talk with him about his recent video and what we could possibly do to improve for the next one. An example of this would be my idea of hiding the armor on players, allowing their roleplay skins with various armors and uniforms to be displayed in the videos. I proceeded to do a ping in the Moderation Discord informing players what we wanted to do with 60ths blessing, so that we could get a better Media product. This is just one simple example of taking a proactive stance and reaching out to team members to help. There are other ways of course such as me just popping into various LotC Discords frequently and talking to the player base. Through talking to them, I often get lots of feedback in terms of what could be done to enhance the player experience and so on. Through doing this, this has yielded various projects that I believe has improved the server experience. I'd love to touch on more, but I've already made this quite long and unfortunately have to leave for work soon so I must continue with the other questions.

 

21 hours ago, satinkira said:

why didn't you tell the players about the reform? 

During my time as the Community Administrator, and even before that as Community Manager, I've invoked several changes in regards of reforms to the team. Some larger changes, some more minor. I honestly believed that for this change to go through, drastic action should be taken. Obviously Applications are important, but I wanted people who could also work on projects as well, as well as to take initiative. Each person I kept, and each person who was removed was for various reasons and honestly I can't really give you a one-liner to summarize why all of them were chosen as there were different reasons. 

 

21 hours ago, satinkira said:

thx, i look forward to seeing the player retention data

See my answer to your second question above, the answer is wedged in my behemoth of yapping. 

 

 

My DM's @hogobojo are open if you have any follow up, further questions, need any help, etc...

[VonAulus 2076]

Big things coming in 2024.