Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
- 6.2K All Categories
- 3.1K Everything Achaea
- 1.5K North of Thera
- 26 Archives of the Terraformer
- 257 The Matsuhama Arena
- 885 The Golden Dais of Creation
- 299 The Scarlattan Theatre
- 149 The Blank Canvas
- 2K Getting Help
- 412 General Questions
- 258 Quick Class Questions
- 1.3K Tech Support
- 313 Client Help
- 486 Curing Systems and Scripts
- 841 Off-Topic
- 255 The Wander Inn
- 586 The Universal Membrane
- 298 Class Discussions
- 298 Individual Class Sections
- 20 Alchemist
- 9 Apostate
- 30 Blademaster
- 9 Depthswalker
- 14 Druid
- 4 Infernal
- 20 Jester
- 19 Magi
- 34 Monk
- 11 Occultist
- 8 Paladin
- 7 Priest
- 29 Runewarden
- 18 Sentinel
- 26 Serpent
- 20 Shaman
- 9 Sylvan
Comments
I also agree that those sorts of writing requirements should be optional, either by offering alternatives or by having multiple paths/sects/whatever that don't all require writing.
I don't think that it's such an inherently terrible requirement, though. I see the "essays" as about 50% flavour (such as reinforcing that you're joining a scholarly house), and 50% filler (a short, easy assignment just to fill out the novice tests a bit). It may be somewhat pointless (almost as pointless as most writing assignments in school), and personal interaction is obviously preferable (though not always practical, in small houses), but it doesn't seem like the writing requirements are at all difficult or unreasonable. And I say this as someone who generally hates writing and is absolutely terrible at it, and even in school just skipped most of the writing portions of assignments/tests/exams no matter how much it hurt my grades.
You are not responsible for your character's actions, your character is responsible for his or her actions, but you can stop whenever you want on an OOC level.
-
One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important
As for griefers, the only logic I've ever heard them apply is 'I like griefing.'
@Idelisa: I'm all for mentor/protege interaction, but this would only work if I didn't have my record of having the lot of them suicide. Also because I can't assess them further for Quaero etc if they're my proteges…at least one of them is still alive!
Losing their light in the glorious sun,
Thus would we pass from this earth and its toiling,
Only remembered for what we have done."
That being said, I don't necessarily think there's anything wrong with having some required written pieces for House tasks (as long as you're not actually requiring them to do the aforementioned five-paragraph/dissertation monstrosities) because in a text-based game, required reading/writing in some format is basically unavoidable. The onus is always on the House, however, to make sure that the requirements, whatever they may be, are some combination of entertaining, useful, not terribly burdensome, and serve some sort of RP purpose. Approaches encouraging people to sit down and think about their characters' backstories for ten minutes or so while integrating references to the House's ideals are always good, I've found (e.g., 'drawing on your experiences of life before the House/Flame/etc., what do you think about <House ideal>?').
DISCLAIMER: I have no idea if anything I just wrote was already covered because I read about halfway through page 2, got bored, and skipped to the last couple posts. Thanks.
The soul of Ashmond says, "Always with the sniping."
(Clan): Ictinus says, "Stop it Jiraishin, you're making me like you."
(Mostly joking. Mostly.)
That love soon might end You are unbreaking
And be known in its aching Though quaking
Shown in this shaking Though crazy
Lately of my wasteland, baby That's just wasteland, baby
The soul of Ashmond says, "Always with the sniping."
(Clan): Ictinus says, "Stop it Jiraishin, you're making me like you."
<I hate the weakness everywhere even though I'm only 20.>
<I hear you have true Strength over there, which again, I have determined in totally insignificant amount of time playing.>
As for the entire "Well, games can't be fun all the time." thing. That is a silly way to justify requiring mandatory writing requirements. We require newbies to bash to level twenty despite it being boring as hell because you really can't do much at level one. If all the newbies started spawning at level twenty, we'd do away with that requirement. I've always personally detested the Naga explorer ranking requirements because I learned next to nothing, and was bored out of my mind.
Then another friend of mine joined up with the Congregation, approximately a year ago. It was all good, until someone asked him to write an essay. He dropped the game then and there. I asked him why (because I needed an ent to spam impatience/weariness) and he said:
"I don't like writing and I don't have any cool skills. The newbie requirements are a headache to understand and I get lost a lot. Thus far everything hasn't been better than a regular video game, and I don't want to write the essay for more of the same?"
But yeah, I understand where he is coming from. Frankly speaking, Achaea is really boring when you start out. Credits aren't cheap, you don't know if you're going to stick to the game, and every boring requirement at that early level is just confirmation to a new player that the game sucks. You are not thrown into a world of wonder and epic fantasy, you're thrown into a world of punching imps and kicking pixies. Add some essays and geography requirements in there, and it's easy to understand why Achaea has such a low true novice retention rate.
What I'm trying to say is I hate Minia.
http://www.nodiatis.com/personality.htm
What do other Houses beyond Mojushai use as their requirements? We have a lot of essays and...well, that's about it. I want to try and fix everything there, but as it stands we have the least culture of any House and we're more just an OOC method of embracing class and then people never leave cause we never put any pressure on them.
I'm not quite sure what you're basing the "a lot of essays" on. The term "essay" appears a single time in the requirements from HR 3 to HR 5 and even there it's an optional requirement. There's absolutely no writing (save for a personal description) required for getting HR 2.
→My Mudlet Scripts
Or maybe I'm just being bitter at this point.
→My Mudlet Scripts
Then I dragged him over to somewhere in Mhaldor and walked him through how to use block and evade, posing hypothetical situations where an invader was trying to get past him, or vice versa. I left him with a brief OOC note saying "Minia is boring, but it gets much better.". Demonstrating all the ways Achaea has amazing roleplay and an immersive world is the key, in my (not as humble as it should be) opinion.
I feel like that action like that makes it infinitely more likely for a newbie to stay around than throwing requirements at him. The standard Naga interview - and I imagine most Houses - consists of someone saying 'Read these.' and then 'Now go hunt and use HNT if you need help'. I understand some of this is due to some weary fatalism. "Why spend ages with this newbie if he's just going to leave?". That thinking does have some merit, especially since it's up to you, the player, on how you spend your time, but it also hurts novice retention.
Oftentimes I've argued against certain requirements, and heard "Well, if he really wanted to get in, he'd do them." or "Pfft, everyone else could manage them, why can't newbies?". Clinging to tradition can help a House in some ways, but think about how boring that made some aspects of Achaea prior to Sarapis coming back. Shake things up, make radical change. As for "If he really wanted to get in"... well, the House is there to make things fun for players. He's not there to do the House a service unless that service is fun. We have a word for that -- a job.
I have to say, my greatest and only regret from my time as Nagaraja, and a massive contributor to my stepping down was listening to people that suggested things should be kept the way they are, just because they've always been that way. I had a brief opportunity to turn the process of reaching HR 5 into something extraordinarily fun and unique, but let it go out of fear of breaking the ways things worked.
In short, if a requirement is boring to the type of player you're targeting change it. Roleplay, adventure and the occasional amusing mishap are the heart of what makes being an Achaean newbie so enjoyable (and indeed, established Achaeans too). I've never heard of a newbie saying how exciting submitting his essay was (save from the Mojushai and Ty Beirdd) but pop onto Achaean Raves and you'll see 80% of the Raves are directed at interaction between players.
Anyway I haven't made a joke in a while, so:
"Where does the general keep his armies?"
"Up his sleevies."
(Oh god this was longer than I thought, and that's what she said.)
The thing is though, almost every lesson that's given is only requested because they have them as requirements. And then another one is never given again.
→My Mudlet Scripts
I believe Ty Beirdd (ages ago, don't know if this still holds true) had some really interesting requirements for the Lore people. Since whatever area of history they investigated was up to them and unique, that addressed the problem of repetition and the mechanical regurgitation of something they wrote down earlier to pass their reqs.
On the other hand, the person inducting novices at the time had a talking pink flamingo, and while she had a lovely personality, I was promised epic adventure. Not talking flamingos.
@Iocun People are going to complete requirements simply because they are requirements, that's true. For an organization with an active, aggressive purpose such as the Naga I've no problem coming up with interesting requirements. For the Mojushai, I don't know. It seems to me that the requirements are exactly what they need to be for that kind of House (keeping in mind I don't have a character there) with all the advantages/disadvantages that brings.
I cussed about it at length on the rants page.
→My Mudlet Scripts
A lot of our requirements are stuff you end up doing passively anyway (get an honours line, get level X, go increase your explorer rank) but there's the ones that make people think on their feet too like with combat tests and stuff that prove whether or not you're totally reliant on a script to survive. I love RP'ing out the interviews on Nature vs their essays and making them really try hard in how their backgrounds affect their current outlook on life. It's not all pieces of paper, there's variety in our assessments. It's just up to the assessor to make do with what they got. Write the essays, but use that as a basis for a debate and watch 'em squirm
Losing their light in the glorious sun,
Thus would we pass from this earth and its toiling,
Only remembered for what we have done."
I have a few alts. The few times that I've joined a house immediately from the Flame, I get told to read half a library worth of information before getting to talk to someone. I think the sheer amount of knowledge that -new- players are supposed to absorb right away from an introduction like that is ridiculous. Most of the time, I feel like I have to rush through the process so I don't keep a novice helper waiting, One of those houses was the Sylvans, and the other, was the Mojushai.
I'd love being a newbie again if @Tvistor gave me my orientation. I think having the player interaction there right away is more important than reading half a dozen different help files, which aren't likely going to make a lot of sense. In my own experience, this made me not want to stick around because, in both instances, it didn't seem like anyone wanted to bother helping beyond "If you have any questions, use HNT <whatever> to ask". I know a lot of novice helpers get put off when the novices quit or suicide - but not everyone that is truly new knows what they want to be, if they are in the right city or if said house is right for them (assuming you get more than one choice). I can pretty much guarantee that those who -did- get the personal treatment, would have appreciated the time spent, more often than not, and would be more inclined to hang around.
I wrote a -lot- as part of my guild requirements but I understand that was part of having a class where Lore was a key foundation. I didn't mind those requirements, I know that others did. From my time spent as a Keeper, it was a mix of both theory and practical applications which cover the things you learn about as a newbie, both in terms of survival and learning about your class. Someone from the Wardens can probably correct me if the Novitiate requirements have changed that much, in which case I apologise. I couldn't bring myself to join a House. Tangents aside, I think my point was that player interaction fosters a lot more desire to stick around, complete tasks and contribute in return, but different people have different approaches.