Fixing the Faction

[Polytonic]

I probably overstepped my authority today, but oh well. Lets discuss the whole Recruiting thing.

Now, I don't want to say "no, nobody can join", but on the other hand, I spent a whole chunk of time kicking dudes from FotW. My analysis of the reasons /why/ they were there was because they just wanted a place to sleep near some resources. In essence, they're just grinding, without actually aiding the faction.

Willynilly inviting anyone who requests one isn't really going to solve my concern with people not pulling their weight. Take the latest people who've joined. Of the six? seven? that have joined in the last week, only one of them has managed to respond to my FacMail and only one of them has even bothered to pop into IRC. I don't want to exclude people, but we honestly have no idea what they're using us for, other than as a free ride.




What I'd like to see is that we set the faction to "Open", but one of the parameters is that they must be a "Mortal" when they join (a little like what CCC has/had?). If they fail to show up in IRC or prove their worth by some level in T2-hood either through infusing, raiding, crafting or whatever, then we kick them and usher them onto another faction. If a T2 or T3 is interested in joining us, then they have to prove to us their contributions in terms of /what/ they will do (prior to joining the faction) and then we evaluate whether they actually performed during their tenure (if we do decide to take them on at all).

Finally, in a way to gather more participation out of the faction, I want to see Safe Access given in this way: Everyone is demoted to Doughnut, and they A) must prove their worth ; B) must post here, on the forums ; and C) send me a Memo on IRC.


I also think we should shuffle around our current leaders, given the fact that none of us possess more than a single crafting tree, and I think only one of us has Alchemy? I don't want to mandate this, but I think a few of us should consider stepping down (I'm considering it, but let's see how things go from here).



Comments?





Edit: I want to organize Departments...

Potential Departments:
• Human Resources (Helping to Train the Next Generation of Players -- Newbie, Ragged or Player Alike)
• Research & Development (Crafting, Enchanting, Alchemizing and Repairing things for the Faction)
• Public Relations (Be Our Spokesperson! Assist the Other Department Heads in Talking to Others Factions)
• Security (Help to actively protect The Wrench at home and afar through raiding and patrolling!)
• Maintenance (Help to actively maintain the stability of The Wrench by infusing and warding!)


Our current leadership doesn't really have all the right skills for the job... hence, why I think we should shuffle our leadership around and reward a few of our more participatory members for a job well done.

[Sorceress]

I think one of the reason most people don't seem to get involved in factions anymore is that they see all factions as being basically the same overall.

Sometimes I see a faction with an awesome description and I join, but once inside they're the same as anyone else really. It gets to the point where you stop actually seeing the faction as anything more than a generic stronghold with the occasional generic raids.

It's really hard to create an identity and culture for your faction and makes people want to be part of that identity.

Stronghold chatter certainly helps the faction seem more active, but it doesn't really create a sense of history. You don't judge Microsoft by the discussion it's employee are having at the water cooler.

I think the first step in creating a culture is peer pressure. You've got to make them think the culture is there from the start, and that they should want to be a part of it.

Forum posts in my opinion are a good start. Everyone who join the faction and find his way to the forum can read the old threads and get a feel of the faction and the personality of it's members. Stronghold chat, irc chat, they may have epic moments but they're gone by the time someone new joins, or even by the time someone log back on after sleep.

The problem is that people might visit the forum daily after just finding about it but if nothing happens in those first couple of days they'll write the forum off. It's not really hard to visit the forum once a day and make one small post, and it shows dedication to the faction. It shows that its members are interested enough in the faction to actually stop by and talk about it. And when you join a faction and see it's members are putting some visible efforts into it, it makes you more likely to want to make an effort too.

When you see people acting like they're actually part of a group, it makes you more likely to want to be part of that group too.

[Sorceress]

About leaders. The Coven is usually led by two leaders, me and someone else. In the Coven's lifetime I've often let basically unknown players become co-leader, and it has always worked out great so far.

Relatively new players are usually more motivated overall, and not having been leader in a dozen factions before they take their role more seriously. It's certainly not something casual to them. Plus they usually bring a fresher vision of the game with them.

So sometimes I think it's worth it to name newer players as leaders.

[A Playful Otter]

Sorry - Sorceress, but I *had* to correct a spelling error that was driving me crazy. Didn't touch the rest of your post. chrrr! -- otter

[A Playful Otter]

On to business: pastebin.com/m6e2d4d36 states: " Crafting new stuff is no longer "contributing". " Fair enough, but - there are times when crafting is needed and wanted. Just a bit further down in the same post, AWT requests someone to craft more rifle ammo. Perhaps we should make an exception for ammo crafting? I can't imagine we'd reach a point where we have too much ammo, at the rate it gets used up, but if we ever do we could change things then. Until that point, we want to *encourage* ammo crafting, not discourage it as 'non-contributing'.

Infusion map: are there any objections to our maintaining an infusion map somewhere like Google Docs, where anyone given access can update it? It might keep our map more current if folks can put in what they've done right as they've done it.

[Dergones]

So, these are my thoughts.

I was never a leader in FotW, so was never that involved in the perceived problems that that faction faced, but it seemed to me that they made a pretty good job of maintaining the fort after the vast majority of the RP left. I was however a leader of the RP and LoE at times and was part of the discussion to disband the RP for the reasons that you are talking about. Which were basically too many grinders and an un-defendable size to combatant ratio. We were becoming a favor farm for the evil factions in the Nexus.

To combat those problems the RP was dissolved and most of us more "active" people went on to form The Legion of Error. We were a way more efficient faction finding raiding much easier and more fulfilling and also managing to punch above our weight as far as claiming territory was concerned.

But there was definitely something missing. I think most of us would agree that our time as the LoE was not a patch on the fun we had had as Ragged Philanthropists. There was something about the sense of adventure and community that you felt from being a Ragged. And in our haste to be more efficient we lost some of that.

One of the things that created that sense of community was our liberal recruitment and open door policy. Yes we got lot's of lazy types, but we also met some astonishing characters and nurtured still more great people. Most of whom we would have never met if using stringent recruitment polices.

So whilst I understand the current leaderships desire not to become an unwieldy faction again I must question the act of resurrecting the Ragged Philanthropists in name if then not in spirit.

D x

[Kandarin]

I agree with Dergones, but the previous comments do have merit.

As the Raggeds, our openness to new members wasn't a weakness, but our defining strength. We cared if you were committed and willing to have fun, not if you were an optimized character - and most of us weren't optimized. We weren't the perfect raiding faction because raiding wasn't what we were all about, and if we try to become the perfect raiding faction we won't be the Raggeds anymore. We gained more optimization and understanding of raiding in our long exile, but let's not make that our pure focus.

At the same time, our location means that we do get a lot of parasitic involvement. A lot of people are just looking for a place to sit and grind. They do not contribute and can actually be detrimental (though not, I think, as much as some suspect). How do we balance our need to be welcoming and our need to function?

I'm wary of setting the faction to Open. That invites some attention that we don't want, as we found out in the old Raggeds' last months. We should, however, encourage free and open inviting of those that Raggeds see as having potential or interest or just a good theme. I'm not sure whether Samaritans should have inviting power, but Benefactors definitely should. As for involvement after, we need to try to get them involved and reward them well when they do (including leadership). Ejecting nonparticipants en masse isn't something I'm sure about, but making true involvement a necessity for Samaritan status is something we certainly should do.

I'm not sure what to say about the abilities of our leadership. I've started this thread so leaders - and others - can post their "Nexal Resume" and show what they can and can't do. More information never hurts.

[Sorceress]

I agree that we don't need the most optimized characters, I think what matters is their motivation in being involved with the faction.

But I like the idea of the faction being closed. Why? Because then what is the point of the barricades and the wards? Isn't the goal of the fort so people can find shelter? If they join us and sleep inside then what is the point of the fort? I like all these guys sleeping on our doorstep, protected by our members.

And I like that we have to go outside the stronghold to protect people. If all they had to do was come inside we would become more passive in our cause, all we'd have to do is sit inside the stronghold all day, grinding. Our only real contribution would be to exist as a ward for people to sleep behind.