Celani Q&A!

Nicola

It's been a while since we've had one of these!

To go with the Celani call we've just opened, ask any questions you have about Celani-Godhood and being a part of the Garden!

Adrik

So, just to go with some questions that some people have..

How many hrs/week do you have to be online? Do you have to spend x amount of time interacting with players?

I assume that there is likely a simplified way to make denizens, etc... but is there a peer review process for making new room descs or denizens?

Do you guys have movie / Among Us night (if so, does Twilight often win?)

And, I suppose is sort of a 'major' one.

Does the Garden have Divine they would like Celani to maybe look at and see if they have interest in being.. or do they just train people up and then throw them to God chamber and tell them to pick whichever one they think looks cool. (Mostly just asking if there is any slight bias to wanting people to play a certain divine.)

Nicola

@Adrik

We consider 12 hours a week being logged in and awake the minimum, else folks get out of touch with general goings on. There is no hardline do x hours a week with players, there are basic tasks to complete and additional may be added based on our evaluation of progress or even Celani choosing and enjoyment.

All rooms and denizens are proofread by someone uninvolved in their creation.

We don't have a specific movie/game night because all nights are Achaea nights, and because night is a different time of day depending on who you are. We have garden folks from all over the world.

We have no preference or say in what divine a Celani wants to go for, it's up to them. Ultimately if someone isn't super passionate about their role and lore they're not going to play the role, so pushing someone into a specific role doesn't work and we don't do it. Demigods spend a lot of time researching their roles and discussing the ins and outs and history, pushing hard to get to grips with the roles so that they can best decide for themselves.

Asmodron

What's your opinion on new god-shells and roles? I might be recalling incorrectly but in the past it was mentioned something along the lines of there being several current unused/inactive gods, and before consideration for new roles can be given then those have to be filled. Is that correct?

How much leeway does one have in the creation of an event? Let's consider world-influencing events, does that have to go through several clearances?

What specifics do you look for in Celani applicants? What pros and cons weigh your decisions?

How does the decision process of who is selected take place? Is it a vote of the garden? Current god-players selecting who they want as assistants?

Stheno

Could we possibly have an admin-run clan for storytelling and story direction, similar to how ACC is for combat? Maybe it's something that Demigods or Celani shells could engage with, as Demigods are usually great additions to their factions for the short time they exist. Keeping this to email and Patron requests has left players in the dark, and it would be nice to see player-written content and initiatives receive the same love on the RP side.

There was a clarification made to HELP HARASSMENT on how to handle unwanted sexual attention. Are there any plans to update Achaea's harassment policy to be more modern and proactive, as you recruit new volunteers to the Garden? We've seen a spate of misogyny and sexual harassment in recent months, against female leaders and Divine both, and the current system seems to enable harassment rather than prevent or stop it. I've now heard from many players on this being a problem since the game's inception, but breaking the silence on it is hard. Are Celani offered training on how to handle these issues as they arise, or can they opt out?

Nicola

@Asmodron

The list of gods is freely available to the playerbase and celani in HELP PANTHEON. New roles have to convince us that they'll add something that the world is needing. Achaea in the past had a slew of gods created because the volunteer wanted to and that just ended up with 16+ roles not being played because they were personal characters that basically didn't translate to strong game concepts. Many unplayed gods is definitely not as good as a smaller core of played gods.

World influencing events are handled very carefully with a great deal of discussion from all of the team as they "influence the world" and the majority of the game isn't here to be fodder for one person's idle amusement. No event-scale change to the world occurs without this discussion and the signoff of Makarios and I.

See the application post for what we look for in Celani, it's all written out there.

All of the Garden has an opportunity to voice their opinion over applications. These comments, the application itself, and the history of the person applying are all weighted when Makarios and I make our decision on who to interview/take on. No God chooses someone for an assistant because the point of Celani is to eventually become a God in your own right.

Nicola

@Stheno

We're not going to have an OOC place for storytelling/direction discussion, these plots are enabled and lead in faction by your patron who has relative control over the storyline and lore for that organisation. Demigods and Celani don't have quite the free reign that everyone assumes and can't just pickup any story they fancy and dig on in. These are are training positions that are directed and overseen by the Gods/admin who are training them.

This is obviously not the venue to discuss harassment and game policies. I will say that no volunteer handles harassment issues/cases.

Tahquil

What have been youf favourite tasks assigned to fledgling celani far?

Aurora

Tahquil said:

What have been youf favourite tasks assigned to fledgling celani far?

I thought I'd just chime in here, as this is always a big'n: bouncing around ideas and designing items for the Itinerant Bazaar. In terms of initial tasks, there's nothing more exciting than the first time that you design something, create it in full, and witness players interacting with it and figuring out any fun little quirks.

Caladbolg

I might be late to the party but i've always wondered what it's like taking over an old god and having all these people who have memories of that god and what not that obviously wasn't the person playing and how you guys deal with that.

Like im sure the Aurora of the game isn't the same one that was around 5 years ago before I went dormant. and likely none of the gods are the same person.

for instance I remember.. probley 18 -15 years ago confusing Sartan with Santar and him getting a kick out of it. I doubt the Sartan of today would find it as funny since we're both not newbies.

Saonji

Caladbolg said:

Aurora of the game isn't the same one that was around 5 years ago before I went dormant.

Well, there's some news you're not gonna like hearing.

Argwin

Caladbolg said:

I might be late to the party but i've always wondered what it's like taking over an old god and having all these people who have memories of that god and what not that obviously wasn't the person playing and how you guys deal with that.

I'm pretty sure this was answered in the ATA (Ask Them Anything) thread.