Armageddon Staff & the Request Tool

I was never a fan of writing a lengthy character report. I always felt like, they should be like legwork for your "plots" and that's about it. Because before it was like you'd write all this stuff that'd amount to "Ja'lyssa is going to investigate the disappearance of Lord Fluffybutt in Allanak by doing XYZ" and you'd get a response like "great!" So now you're thinking you're on the right track to something happening and get nothing. That was frustrating. I still feel like the feedback you get when you try to involve yourself in the things that are going on is lacking, but this looks like it's a turn in the right direction.

Really I think you should just be able to wish up, "hey I'm about to go kill a bahamet with my crew, can I get an animation?" and get some kind of response before you go out and attempt it. Then it's either feast or famine, you get nothing or now your crew is facing two bahamets!

But I like that they gave a simple outline of what they are looking for from both leaders and minions. But we'll see how it works out. That's definitely important that they established guidelines for that since it's tied to how you get karma.

There are many other games, mushes and muds out there, which use a request tool for just about everything, (from building, to spending XP, or whatever) and which have far fewer staff than Armageddon, but which use it to the considerable advantage of the game. Because the process is usually extremely transparent, and with a kind of +jobs system, let's everyone know what's going on. Players can check on the state of their jobs, and such, in game.

Armageddon's request tool, by contrast, is somewhere between the local DMV and throwing a penny in the wishing well, in terms of efficiency.

The worst part of Arm's staff culture, is how it's been afflicted by Nyr's obsessive makework...when it all just amounts to throwing a pillow around a room.

Nyr, Adhira and Ness remind me of those Dark Ages villagers who ripped up the old Roman roads and monuments, like Hadrian's Wall or the Coliseum, to use as bricks for their pig-pens or shitty little huts. The biggest 'changes' they've wrought, has been stuff they've taken away from Armageddon, rather than anything they've meaningfully added.

What they have added has been done in such a way, to be maximally inefficient, and to make them more important. A good example would be the extended subguilds. Any sane person would have built those extended subguilds into the pre-existing character generation. Just like when choosing a class or a race. But they handle it through the request tool instead, making yet more work for themselves.

SOI is currently going with a similar tactic, with a website-based ticket request feature that they want to funnel all requests through, in an effort to reduce the number of petitions (in-game requests) and forum PMs for their staff. IMO, it just makes for a slower, more bottle-necked system for requests. The only advantage that it holds is in archiving an ongoing conversation (which PMs also accomplish) through email.

They've also added an in-game 'set status' feature for requests, so that when an admin types 'who', they see all characters' statuses. You can 'set status Looking for the elvish ghost with group' or whatever you want the staff to know. My problem with this feature, as opposed to petitions, is that you have no idea whether or not any admins have seen your status, or are present to help you out.

Petitions in-game, and forum PMs out of game, should be all that you need. Encouraging email communication, ticket/request tool systems, and status systems just mean more upkeep work for the administration, and these systems are just less efficient than the old fashioned way of communicating/collaborating with players.

The reason they set up all the hoops is they have trust issues and want to make sure things are "Just Right" when "whatever it is" is going to be just fine with the amount of enjoyment added to the game as a result of not having to deal with all the bureaucracy being more of a benefit than having everything people are jumping through hoops for adhere to the narrow and limited view they are imposing on the game world. Sometimes I think staff are a little too strict in limiting what goes on, sure things can and do get out of hand so it takes time to find a middle ground so the hoops are needed but maybe there don't need to be so many.

That was actually pretty funny.

Don't forget clayworking. That's been in development for over thirty years!

i'm at a pretty big loss of why there even needs to be character reports in the first place. like it would make sense of the imms were actively involved in the day-to-day things of players: building necessary objects/rooms, animating NPCs, making the world react realistically, etc.

but as it is...they aren't and haven't been for some time. so wtf is the point of reports? seems like a huge waste of time on everyone's end.