Regency Quest Feedback

[Sephone]

Hi There,

I want to offer some feedback about the experience of being part of the Regency Quest. I think the idea is a fantastic one, allowing players to take on a fairly powerful position, and having to earn it.

I have found some parts of the Regency Quest to be a great experience, such as the debate. I think that was really awesome. Other parts, not so much, and I wanted to share my thoughts, because I'm sure if I feel this way, there might be some other people who share the same opinion as myself.

1) Bid Influence: I know this is something Kinead has been passionate about and worked very hard on for a while, and I think the system is a great idea. However, one thing I do not at all like about the system, is when you log in and see six posts all slamming your character in a very negative fashion, especially where people are making very serious criminal accusations. We have a rumor system, and that at least offers the opportunity for both negative and positive feedback, the bid influence system doesn't. While I understand that politics is not all fun and sunshine, I think the bid influence system would actually be better used for being able to positively influence support. I don't think there should be a way to negatively influence people, past being able to remove your support and give it to another candidate. If you want to spread a nasty rumor about someone, do it. I think it would be better to use the bid influence system to post positive comments of support for people and I have a couple of reasons behind this.

- TI is a game, games are meant to be fun. Sure, there's always going to be rumors and people ICly backstabbing, but I don't personally think we need another layer of that. As much as we separate IC and OOC, there comes a point where, when you log in, and all you see is negative things being said about your character, and you have really no come back, it can be rather disheartening.

- I know for myself, I find RP a lot more fun when there's a balance of nice, happy fund RP, and conflict, bitchy, drama RP. I feel that, towards the end of the Regency Quest, it mostly turn into an IC witch slinging fest, that I personally did not find to be a lot of fun. Half of that also comes down to the time zone I live in, and working full time, I am not around when a majority of players are during the week to offer people a chance to meet my character, either and form an opinion past whatever is posted about her.

2) I think that those of us who started with NPC characters were at a massive disadvantage, due to not having a backlog of influence on us already. I know Hera has already pointed this out, and I would like to second it. I think next time, it would be more fare to average out the total bid influence of the existing nobles who are running, - maybe 10 or 20 points, as it's realistic that out of town nobles might have less influence anyway, but actually give us something to start with. I had to exhaust most of my meager QP to actually get any bid influence points at all.

3) Timeline: I find it personally very frustrating when events are posted with almost no warning (on the day, 2 days in advance even...). TI is an international game. Some of us live in awkward time zones, and have activities we participate in outside of work and RP that require our attention. So, when the next Regency Quest happens, I would like to see there being a schedule of events posted, a good week before the quest starts, so that time can be blocked out to attend the important events, so that those of us in awkward-land aren't disadvantaged by the short notice. This gives everyone plenty of time to schedule their RP time and social life (perhaps I'm a bit of a schedule freak) and not feel like we have to stay up until incredibly late during the week to make up for it. I think it would also be great if we could please keep the big events for these kind of quests to the weekends, as 6pm on a Wednesday night game time, is about 9am Thursday morning for me, and most of the time, I'm at work. I know I'm not the only person in a weird time zone, I'm mostly using this as an example.

4) The idea of the Regency Quest is great, but I actually think it would be better to run the quest with one big public forum, like the debate, and then give people a week to sponsor who they want as Regent. If people want to spread rumors, go ahead, if people want to positively bid influence, awesome, but the drawn out, scrambling to RP with everyone, I think was a little stressful, particularly on Hera and I being in an awkward time zone, and feeling the pressure to RP at ever chance we had to make up for that. Having a three week block where the choice is, "I can RP with people and try and become Regent, or spend time with my friends RL, go to a work training session," for that length of time, can become a bit draining.

I think that about sums it up. I do want to say, I think the staff have done and awesome job trying to make this quest as fun as possible for everyone, and I think everyone's been a pretty good sport about it. Hope to RP with everyone some more in future!

Cheers!

[Leech]

Personally I enjoyed negatively influencing the one bid that I did. While it may be disheartening to log on to only negative things about your character (trust me, I've been there), take heart that they are about your character and not about you. Just like I can at any time take your character and torture and kill them, I can at any time insult them in a public forum. We have a gritty theme. I don't want dirty public politics to go away.

It's a great alternative for those of us who ICly don't know who to throw our support behind, but know who we don't want in the position. Short of killing them, it's really the only way to negatively affect them other than going to each of their PC sponsors and threatening/blackmailing them.

That said, most of the bid influences were eye sores because the code smooshed words together, or because people didn't clean up their typos.

[Kinaed]

Thanks for the feedback. I thought I'd take a moment to comment.

- I agree existing characters, in most cases, probably have an advantage. In particular if they have a good reputation already. That said, I agree that NPCs should be given some influence points to start with next time.

- I know it is disheartening to receive negative influence hits, but I think it should be expected to happen, and I agree with Leech that it has its place on TI, esp where effective alternatives are murder. From just the perspective of hard work to make an opinion known, murder is extreme. I think it can be hurtful, but (as kindly as I can possibly say this) it's a matter of responsibility and maturity to step back divorce the pain. It's happening for strategic reasons rather than personal ones. A fight for the crown on any game or in any book isn't going to be all roses and sunshine.

- I am unsympathetic to the issues of timezone. Hera and I share your timezone as do a handful of other players. It is harder, but it'd be the same on any MUD simply because the world's population of English speakers is skewed to those parts of the world. There are a lot of players in the US/Canada that have the same dilemma of choosing if they want to have dinner with their family or to spend an extra hour questing on TI, regardless of timezone. The question of how people personally choose to spend their time on the game is an icky one that I don't see TI's staff successfully addressing anytime soon.

- On Events, there were only two events held for the Regency Quest, The Baronial Council and The Debate.There was a schedule placed up that gave a week's notice for the council, and though I don't know the notice period of the debate, I do know both events were held on the weekend, Saturday and Sunday mornings our time. In short, I think we did do as you suggested there, so I'm thinking either that is inadequate, or perhaps you truly have time restrictions beyond the average, which I'm not sure how much we should cater for.

- Overall, I was pleased with the course of events and how people played (though I was a little disappointed there was no bloodshed, but oh well!). I don't think we'll change the structure to one big introductory event, then campaigning as players can arrange that stuff ICly under the campaign arc.

Thank you for taking the time to feedback your thoughts. As you say, I'm sure many players agree with various points you made and it's good to consider them for inclusion to the game.

[Sephone]

* - I know it is disheartening to receive negative influence hits, but I think it should be expected to happen, and I agree with Leech that it has its place on TI, esp where effective alternatives are murder. From just the perspective of hard work to make an opinion known, murder is extreme. I think it can be hurtful, but (as kindly as I can possibly say this) it's a matter of responsibility and maturity to step back divorce the pain. It's happening for strategic reasons rather than personal ones. A fight for the crown on any game or in any book isn't going to be all roses and sunshine. *

I just wanted to address your and Leech's thoughts here. I don't take it personally. I know it's not about me, it's about the character, and people taking a political advantage, or trying to knock back someone else. That's not the issue at all. I've had characters die in hideous, horrible ways. What I was trying to say with my point, is that there's already a lot of negativity and backstabbing on TI. That is not always fun to play, not because someone might take it personally, but because when that's all the RP you're getting, it's not fun. RP should be a balance of negative and positive RP. We all have stress in our real lives, we all have negativity thrown at us RL, too. When we're logging into a game to have fun, then it should be fun. I think this is more a difference of opinion on what is fun to play, rather than my feelings being hurt.

[Leech]

For every serious, morbid Casimir I used to always make a happy-go-lucky jester to offset the types of RP I got, kind of in line with what you're saying. After a while, playing a psychotically morbid character gets a little depressing. It's a good tactic, and it worked for me. Just a suggestion!

[Voxumo]

Hi There,


2) I think that those of us who started with NPC characters were at a massive disadvantage, due to not having a backlog of influence on us already. I know Hera has already pointed this out, and I would like to second it. I think next time, it would be more fare to average out the total bid influence of the existing nobles who are running, - maybe 10 or 20 points, as it's realistic that out of town nobles might have less influence anyway, but actually give us something to start with. I had to exhaust most of my meager QP to actually get any bid influence points at all.

3) Timeline: I find it personally very frustrating when events are posted with almost no warning (on the day, 2 days in advance even...). TI is an international game. Some of us live in awkward time zones, and have activities we participate in outside of work and RP that require our attention. So, when the next Regency Quest happens, I would like to see there being a schedule of events posted, a good week before the quest starts, so that time can be blocked out to attend the important events, so that those of us in awkward-land aren't disadvantaged by the short notice. This gives everyone plenty of time to schedule their RP time and social life (perhaps I'm a bit of a schedule freak) and not feel like we have to stay up until incredibly late during the week to make up for it. I think it would also be great if we could please keep the big events for these kind of quests to the weekends, as 6pm on a Wednesday night game time, is about 9am Thursday morning for me, and most of the time, I'm at work. I know I'm not the only person in a weird time zone, I'm mostly using this as an example.

4) The idea of the Regency Quest is great, but I actually think it would be better to run the quest with one big public forum, like the debate, and then give people a week to sponsor who they want as Regent. If people want to spread rumors, go ahead, if people want to positively bid influence, awesome, but the drawn out, scrambling to RP with everyone, I think was a little stressful, particularly on Hera and I being in an awkward time zone, and feeling the pressure to RP at ever chance we had to make up for that. Having a three week block where the choice is, "I can RP with people and try and become Regent, or spend time with my friends RL, go to a work training session," for that length of time, can become a bit draining.

I have to partially agree with the Npc noble bit. Frankly I think it extends beyond just newer nobles.. This regency quest was essentially decided from the start. Nobles who had ic connections with powerful ic people were already guaranteed to have a majority of the votes. If ariel had ran I am fairly certain he would have been named regent due to his ic connections. I am honestly not sure what could be done to even remotely balance the playing field..

And this second part. I agree that perhaps the debate should have been done right off the bat instead of prolonged towards the very end. Debates are a great way to get to know your competitors and for the people to know what you character's view is. And perhaps instead of two weeks we do a week and like 2 or 3 days for people to nominate themselves incase they can not be their for the 'baronial' meeting

Also I just have to say I am perfectly fine with the negative posts and what not. It is part of the game. People should just be glad they didn't have characters die while in the running. I mean look at the Lundsend quest. About 3 people died during that including my character who was of the last two. That really affects the whole running.

[stratcat]

While I see the point about old players having an advantage, I am not sure if I'd actually want the playing field balanced that much. On one hand, I understand the need for fairness, but on the other—I feel that chars who have been around for a long time perhaps deserve a better shot at the position. Those players worked to get all that influence and support, and I imagine it would be disheartening if they then had to accept the fact that all they've done is effectively meaningless in the face of the regency quest. If they don't have more impact on major political decisions, then what did they gather their influence for?

I'm not saying that this is necessarily my stance, but I really wanted to offer this point of view since no one seems to have brought it up yet.

[Applesauce]

I feel that chars who have been around for a long time perhaps deserve a better shot at the position. Those players worked to get all that influence and support, and I imagine it would be disheartening if they then had to accept the fact that all they've done is effectively meaningless in the face of the regency quest.

The time that a character has been around is not accurately depicted by how long a RL player has been playing that character. I think that's where the discrepancy comes from.

Example: NobleA has been a PC for 2 RL years. NobleB was created two weeks ago for the Regency quest. Both IC characters are the same exact age, were born noble, and theoretically could both have desperately wanted to be King/Queen/Regent/whatever since they were teensy little toddlers. Maybe NobleB has even MORE ambition. But because NobleA has "existed" for much longer as a PC, they have a huge advantage when the voters are all other PCs. Essentially they get 2 years to campaign vs 2 weeks.

I'm not saying that we should code-bonus NobleB to make up for all the RP that never happened, but really there is 0% chance for a new char to play the same political game as existing chars play. Dunno what a good solution is.

[Voxumo]

I feel that chars who have been around for a long time perhaps deserve a better shot at the position. Those players worked to get all that influence and support, and I imagine it would be disheartening if they then had to accept the fact that all they've done is effectively meaningless in the face of the regency quest.

The time that a character has been around is not accurately depicted by how long a RL player has been playing that character. I think that's where the discrepancy comes from.

Example: NobleA has been a PC for 2 RL years. NobleB was created two weeks ago for the Regency quest. Both IC characters are the same exact age, were born noble, and theoretically could both have desperately wanted to be King/Queen/Regent/whatever since they were teensy little toddlers. Maybe NobleB has even MORE ambition. But because NobleA has "existed" for much longer as a PC, they have a huge advantage when the voters are all other PCs. Essentially they get 2 years to campaign vs 2 weeks.

I'm not saying that we should code-bonus NobleB to make up for all the RP that never happened, but really there is 0% chance for a new char to play the same political game as existing chars play. Dunno what a good solution is.

I must say I feel applesauce explained perfectly what i was meaning.. There is that unknown ic history of a new noble that just doesn't translate to current rp..

[Kinaed]

I feel that chars who have been around for a long time perhaps deserve a better shot at the position. Those players worked to get all that influence and support, and I imagine it would be disheartening if they then had to accept the fact that all they've done is effectively meaningless in the face of the regency quest.

The time that a character has been around is not accurately depicted by how long a RL player has been playing that character. I think that's where the discrepancy comes from.

Example: NobleA has been a PC for 2 RL years. NobleB was created two weeks ago for the Regency quest. Both IC characters are the same exact age, were born noble, and theoretically could both have desperately wanted to be King/Queen/Regent/whatever since they were teensy little toddlers. Maybe NobleB has even MORE ambition. But because NobleA has "existed" for much longer as a PC, they have a huge advantage when the voters are all other PCs. Essentially they get 2 years to campaign vs 2 weeks.

I'm not saying that we should code-bonus NobleB to make up for all the RP that never happened, but really there is 0% chance for a new char to play the same political game as existing chars play. Dunno what a good solution is.

I agree that it's true that some PCs have a better shot, but I think for others they have a worse shot because people have known them and perhaps know they wouldn't want that person to be their regent. I'm not sure what can be done to balance this. Herazade has a reputation and a history, but I also saw her work as hard as any other one of the contenders, so I don't feel that her success was based just on the fact that she existed previously. I also saw quite a bit of fluctuation early on where Kiana and Hera were neck in neck, it wasn't until around the debate time that Hera's lead became extreme and difficult to defeat.