While there are a lot of problems with the OAM (or even the CoT, NLCC, etc) I feel that as the players we often fail to clearly see the line between feasible and wishful thinking when it comes to what we would like ARK Events to do.
Because of this I am going to address this Re-Thinking strictly in terms of Player and ARK Effort. This means only changes to Level of Effort and Policy. No special items, no special playfield, etc. While I believe the RP Community does need special items, and new or modified playfield, these requirement Development Time which for the purpose of this document we’ll assume is not possible to obtain at this time.
The First Big Problem: Attendance
This is by far the largest problem because it is impacted by many other problems. The result of each of the smaller problems compounds to create this issue, so, by addressing the smaller issues you will, in time, be able to reverse the negative population growth in these legacy meetings.
Sub-Problem 1: Things to do
I can’t speak for right this moment, but historically speak there have always been a low number of tasks compared to the number of meetings held and the number of people attending. I think the solution comes from Tasking the ARKs with having to come up with something to be done every month. These tasks can follow criteria similar to this:
- If you control a Legacy Leader you must come up with at least 1 task per month.
- If you control more than one Legacy leader you are not required to come up with more than one.
- If the task is for a particular department it will be offered to the affiliate(s) of that department.
- If no affiliates exist for the department the task was created for it will go into a Hopper.
- If a task is in the hopper it will be offered to the affiliates of the intended department if one is available, if none are, one or more task(s) from the hopper can be removed and offered as General Assignments to anyone in attendance.
With time, a surplus of tasks may build up and ensure that there is always something to do. These tasks do not need to be long, drawn out assignments which require significant ARK commitment but will provide players with more of an experience then simply staring at the Legacy Leaders who have no reason to be there.
Sub-Problem 2: Rewards
Very rarely in the past have Roleplayers received anything in exchange for our time beyond self gratification, and that often is a rare treat. Players who complete overly complicated tasks and get rewarded with a pat on the back may feel less inclined to commit themselves to such tasks in the future since the Effort vs. Reward pales when compared to other activities such as PvE or PvP.
With a proper rewards system in place players may be happy to complete things that may have been deemed menial in the past such as collecting items, gathering intelligence or even standing guard. According to Pheats ARKs can Issue:
- Some Items
- Some Credits
- Some Tokens
While they cannot issue:
- Experience points
- Victory Points
- Titles
While I do not know if the limitation on issuing things is a mechanical limitation or a policy limitation, but I will assume it is a policy limitation. If this is the case, I believe Kintaii should ease the restrictions on how players can be rewarded assuming the rewards are issued based on a set Metric. Use of a Metric will ensure fair distribution of rewards and allow ARK to easily discount claims of favoritism.
Suggested Metric:
- If the player is receiving disciplinary action all rewards are foregone for the month.
- If the player attends the meeting and does not contribute in a meaningful way they will receive the attendance reward.
- If the player attends the meeting and contributes in a meaningful way they will receive the participation reward.
- If the player attends the meeting and completes a special assignment they will receive the participation reward plus any items that were approved for disbursement at completion.
Suggested Rewards:
- Disciplinary Reward: http://xyphos.com/ao/aodb.php?id=268740
- Attendance Reward: http://xyphos.com/ao/aodb.php?id=152932
- Participation Reward: http://xyphos.com/ao/aodb.php?id=285612 + Credits
- Special Assignment Reward: http://xyphos.com/ao/aodb.php?id=285612 + Credits + Any Special Items
In my Opinion, this will ensure fair and equal rewards, scaled to the player’s level. This will make even the most menial of tasks have a fairly nice reward and may encourage outside the OAM Events run by the players which will result in Inbound Reports to the Directors which will provoke additional RP opportunities for all.
Sub-Problem 3: What’s RP?
This is a universal problem which has an impact on the OAM and every other element of RP; People simply do not know where’re here or what we do. The simple solution is to pound the pavement and make a solid effort to raise awareness.
I have two suggestions (formulated by a post I believe I read by UKBlizzard).
- Hold a series of OOC Events in popular places where members of the Events Team can come and talk to players about RP. Think of it like a more spontaneous ARK Expo but just for the Events Team. You can do them on the fly, or schedule Gridstream Productions to DJ and help promote them, but get the team out in an OOC capacity to engage the playerbase and let them know what they’re missing. Coordination between the existing RP Playerbase and the ARK Events team will be vital since crowds inherently draw people in.
- Hold In-Character parties. This can be accomplished by staying an OAM one month and instead having an Employee Appreciation Party. The Legacy Leaders could gather in Baboons or the Rompa Bar and engage the players in-character while being (forced) to be friendly and outgoing to everyone. Zone announcements can be made in All Omni-1 and Omni-3 zones so that people who are unaware it’s happening will have a reason to go and check it out.
Sub-Problem 4: The Wow Factor
This will be a summary of http://forums.anarchy-online.com/sho...d.php?t=573854.
When people go to the meetings you may want to wow them before, during and after the meeting visually. Currently only the inside of two rooms of the meeting room get NPCs spawned for the meetings and it comes off drab and boring.
If the meetings are moved to a playfield which ARK Events can decorate to their hearts content you may be able to attract and hold the interest of more new roleplayers. Much like new players to Anarchy-Online get turned off by the Graphics on the ICC Shuttleport, new Roleplayers may see bland environments as a lack of caring and be turned off.
Shifting the OAM gathering spot should be a simple policy shift which may greatly improve the meetings as a whole.
The Second Big Problem: Structure
Taken from another post of mine: