User

30 minutes ago, Wrynn said:

Why I Left

I suppose you could perhaps say that I became 'Jaded' for lack of a better word, with the server. Things that I enjoyed became routine for me and I began roleplaying less and less, I started to forget that I was a player and simply look at the server from an Administration perspective.

This is what separates you from other admins still currently on the team. It takes a competent person to recognize when they have that 'Jaded' feeling. It also takes a competent person to recognize that they should step aside if they know they're not giving maximum effort. Things can only progress if motivated people continue to step forward, but when you have someone like the "Chairman" just chilling there halting progress it prevents others from having equivalent authority to push whatever is needed to better the server, it's extremely counter intuitive.

4 minutes ago, Dewper said:

The server is an absolutely pathetic state and the admins are delusional and have been quoted and recorded over the past few days saying how much of angood state the server is in - no progress will be made whatsoever while the admins remain incharge because they don’t see the root of the issue because they’re delusional and blind to all of the issues and would rather contest and whine than actually agree and try to resolve.

 

Eventually LOTC will be dethroned by another server because it’s getting to the point the Admins are pushing the playerbase too far.

Honestly it doesn't help that there's two dudes with ultimate authority just sitting there above everything @Telanir @Tythus. Severs usually only progress when the owner is actually passionate about what's going on within the community.

@501warhead

6 hours ago, 501warhead said:

 

- We're currently attributing the retention issues to issues getting new players involved in the community (either through getting lost on the roads or not being interacted with by people), new players not finding anything to do, or new players not really getting into roleplay properly. The monk project was a big effort to try to resolve that which should hopefully start up again and get traction soon, being in-game people to guide folks and teach them the ins and the outs of the server. Then trying to promote community activity with a bunch of stuff so that they can find people to interact with. I think it's a pretty good summary of the retention issues.

 

- We have a general idea for media team director but there arent exactly people chomping at the bit, the team is very small. You'd be surprised at how few really want to do this, it's been like pulling teeth.

 

- Running rules like that would be a headache. Maybe a live stream? I'm not sure. We should do more community reviews though.

- In response to retention, I offer you this. Based on what I've witnessed, new players are literally gold for Kingdoms and groups that want to succeed. I know people that actively brought new players to our ranks the moment they saw "Welcome New Player to LordoftheCraft!" broadcasted to the server. I also know people who actively hire new players and fully dedicate their LoTC experience to giving them something to do, a good example of this being @ChumpChump who you'll find hiring and giving jobs to new players on every map. I genuinely believe without a doubt that if you treat nation leaders, as well as people like ChumpChump, as player retention solutions then the problem would most definitely be addressed on a more intimate level. Some sort of bi-weekly meeting with Nation Leaders on an official capacity to check on their status, how their cities are doing, what they think the issue is if they're not doing well, how they think you can help them, what you think they could do better, plugins they think would make their management easier, plugins that support assigning tasks to new players, the list goes on and on. At the moment nations are treated as some arbitrary group of players with no real significance, treat the leaders of these nations as the official representatives of player groups that they are. There should always be an active discussion with them, they're the ones that truly interact with players on a much deeper level. I'm confident that you'll see the issue of player retention in a different light if you do this actively. The issue of player retention won't be your burden to bear alone, or the 2 other active admins you work with.

- In response to the lack of media team director candidates: I am without a doubt guaranteeing you that if you make an official server post asking people to submit applications with the criteria that I previously listed, there will be countless people who are both capable of editing videos and capturing footage. I looked around the forums briefly and haven't seen any official attempts at searching for someone with these skills. You never know what kind of skilled people you find when you widen the search to the hundred or so people that frequent the forums.

Edit:

1 minute ago, 501warhead said:

 

 

...What? We've accepted 1,600 people this year. 1,500 have joined and 200 of them are still playing, our retention rate is actually going up, currently at 28.5%. What is this flat line you're talking about? Do you even know what you're talking about? Because right now, looking at the numbers, it doesn't really agree with you. That rate can and should be better but we've been rapidly bringing in new players who are enjoying the server - while the retention is garbage it's not this so called "flat line".

 

I do want to take more of the media team into our hands though, but media producing takes a while. I did a few livestreams of the Territories plugin development a while back kinda low-key to see what it would be like and boy I was exhausted after doing such. It's hard balancing all that out. I want to pursue this though, if you're interested in helping out though I'd love to reach out to you non-ironically so you could help out if you wished. 

 

I kind of explained the admin thing, we can't prioritize activity heavily. It's nice, it's important, but replacing an admin (I've had to do this way too many times) is stressful, time consuming, and often takes away from our other projects. We gotta choose between hunting a 5th admin or writing war rules, hunting a 5th admin or increasing communication. It takes time to interview people, and it's time we'd rather just use elsewhere if the admin is going to be at least semi-present. It seems backwards but that's my experience.

 

The amount of people accepted this year and the amount still playing doesn't really disprove my "flat line" statement. I said if you were to look at a graph of the average amount of players online daily since 2012 it would be a flat line, you can't deny that. The averages were always similar to what they are now or higher, it's always been that way since Availer and Vaq were in charge with the exception of a few very low periods in 2013/14.  As you said, 200 actively playing since the beginning of 2018 is very good. However, if 1400 other people just applied and never looked back that most definitely is a problem.

My question to you is this, have you and the other admins actually sat down together and brainstormed why the retention rate is what it is? This is an honest question, I'm not implying that you guys don't do this. I have witnessed many reasons first hand countless times and can list all of them for you, I'm just curious to see if you guys have identified any of these things yourselves.

As for your response to my statements about the media team, all I'm seeing is a lot of "I tried this, I tried that". Why is it only you trying all of this? Of course it would be exhausting if only one guy is tackling it alone, it most definitely would be hard to balance out you're right. In order to achieve this you could make the criteria for being the Media team leader very very clear. For example:

"We are looking for a Media Team Director who can oversee and manage the following tasks:
- Showcase existing / upcoming plugins in the form of brief trailers
- Create war claim videos that highlight the story behind the battle as well as footage of the fight itself
- Manage the LordoftheCraft youtube account
- Create contests that allow them to submit their own videos, the winner has their video posted on the Youtube channel in addition to a reward"

I'm sure there are a lot of people that would jump at the opportunity. If they fail at doing this, fire em. If they get lazy, fire em. I'm sure you've done this before already but what's the harm in doing it over and over again? Something like this shouldn't just be scrapped indefinitely.

Another thing I'd like to point out is how rigid you guys are. Changes take a long time and most of the time when a new rule set is presented it's received the same way the last rule set was. The entire process seems extremely rigid. Why not create the rules with players live? What I mean by that is literally run EVERY single part of the rule by players in a public discussion thread, the players shouldn't be blind sided by anything. You might say that would take a long time but that's simply not true, if done efficiently and effectively it's definitely possible and is done by many other successful servers so it's not a new concept.

Lastly, why can't you prioritize activity? In my eyes that should be the most important thing next to the satisfaction of players. They go hand in hand.
 

Why do you have to throw 5k into thin air, makes no RP sense.

You guys are doing just enough to maintain what was accomplished 6-7 years ago at this point. The server isn't dying, but if you were to look at a graph of server player count since 2012 it would literally be a flat line. That's the main issue in my eyes, there's no real attempt at growing. The past few years on LoTC has just been a micromanaging fest. It's not hard to do things like advertise on your youtube account which has a decent following, it's not hard to promote the things that cause the server to break 200+ players for a single event (Wars). You guys practically shun wars, and you don't use your Youtube channel for anything useful whatsoever.
 

It's clear that the past few renditions of the Media team have totally failed, so just take matters into your own hands. Make small videos showcasing the increasing amount of well made plugins on the server, make videos of events that literally happen every day, make videos of war claims with BACK STORY to show people that it's actually a dynamic server (even though that's debatable). Hire someone on Fiverr or something with the donation money to get a nice trailer narration voice. DISPLAY these videos on the front page of lordofthecraft.net. The videos, as useless as they are, still get a good amount of views. They would get even more views if you showcased more than just builds.

Another very obvious thing, the fact that people need to ask "What does X admin even do" is such a massive red flag. Admins should be actively involved, actively improving, actively making feedback threads, actively asking what the players want, actively trying to do things. If all of these things were being done then people would know who they are and exactly what they do. It goes without saying that discussing things in a discord chat a few times a week while having zero presence in game or on the forums is most definitely not good leadership.

Look at Shiftnative's forum activity when he was server lead, I'm not saying he was perfect but if all Admins had that kind of passion and level of effort the server would be a booming environment.

I haven't mentioned competency at all but that seems to always have been a massive issue on LoTC as well. Not everyone is meant for leadership roles, and you guys seem to have a problem with being bias and reacting emotionally to things.

Edgie steps up and speaks.

On 7/8/2018 at 11:59 PM, Tox said:

"The font on this flyer makes my murderous tendencies resurface.." Muttered Sarrion.

Edgie and his wife approach Sarrion.

"Come, join us!!"

1 hour ago, Shuggie_ said:

you're brain is so ******* large, holy **** you absolute savant 

thanks! ❤️ ^.^!!!
 

dude you're so fuucking retarded

hey this is a powerful underrated media tool that could potentially draw in players!

https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLordOfTheCraft/videos

"you're so cringy..." says Kal'Loritho Mali'Orilahe second of the sun maiden

yeah in that profile pic? thats a no from me, fix your profile pic and i'll reconsider.

Hmm! Vey interesting concept! COUNT ME IN! ?

the server is nothin like when u played, everything u enjoyed would result in a ban today. turn around while you can brother, edgies took over

you were the chosen one

@Harold how did u guys sit down and think this was a good idea

rodrick slaps the cup out of morugs (the character played by @dsdevil) hand

rdorick says "bah"! and spits.

saturday and sunday 2 hours each of this battlefield concept of yours. Winner gets siege the following week.

One thing that is extremely overlooked on LOTC is the "state of war". LoTC rules have notoriously done a good job at making sure wars dont feel like wars outside of the Saturday war claims. Make raid rules between two warring nations less restrictive, make people think twice before engaging in a war with someone stronger than them instead of being able to rally a PVP army for their 1 day of conflict.

Also, this system should be scrapped entirely. Easily one of most unnecessary things I've seen on LoTC, the literal definition of excess waste.

7 minutes ago, TheCritsyBear said:

I'm not really that into the whole war part of the server but this seems pretty cool for the people who like it!

more people who dont like war should have your mindset, good job

stuff like this will always happen until theres a plugin to automate it, every system that requires GM oversight is bound to fail

good man doing what most are too afraid to, if ya do the same as admin you will go down as legend

Here is some beautiful religious music to further attune your mind.

2 hours ago, z3m0s said:

 

Ha

Why must you dismiss their opinions my brother, please. Peace and love for all. As we enter the holy month of Ramadan we must reflect and truly understand what's important. With blue power comes responsibility, and that also includes respecting every individuals right to their opinions. Those two brothers must now wake up to a red notification of a blue power man LAUGHING at their opinion AND FOR WHAT? FOR WHAT? The shaytan is locked away yet these sins are still committed!

I am sorry for raising my voice please join me in reciting dua'a as we begin our fast in this holy month. Please remember that your intention when fasting is to bring yourself closer to what is most important to you. Please repeat after me:

وَبِصَوْمِ غَدٍ نَّوَيْتُ مِنْ شَهْرِ رَمَضَانَ

Wa bisawmi ghadinn nawaiytu min shahri ramadan. This means "I intend to keep the fast for tomorrow in the month of Ramadan."

Now I will leave you with a Nasheed that expresses my love for all people and my beliefs.