Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 14, 2015 22:05:58 GMT -8
I'll preface this suggestion with the fact that I enjoy the GM events and I'm happy that they're a regular thing here. However, I've noticed that, although the GM events on weekends are still regular in that they happen every weekend, I still notice some degree of inconsistency in when exactly they're held. Which brings me to my suggestion. I think having any sort of schedule, whether it be under "announcements" or "events" would be both beneficial and convenient for everyone. What I would suggest is some sort of schedule which would detail at which times (approximately) the events during Friday, Saturday, and Sunday will be held. My reasoning is two-fold: - For one thing, it helps give some degree of consistency and predictability. I do not enjoy fighting Zakum's second body, only to see a global notice that "Today's event will (spontaneously) be held in ten minutes in FM." If there's predictability and planning in advance, however little or inconsistent it may be, there will naturally be ways for us to plan around it. If people have a general idea of when these events will be, then they are less likely to go bossing or do party quests or other such things which cannot simply be cancelled in favor of a GM event.
- Additionally, because of the fact that Noble is comprised of many players from many timezones, being able to keep some sort of schedule on this sort of thing would help everyone have an idea of what time it'd be good to go to sleep and whatnot. I think the system is currently a little unfair to the European players, who would have to get lucky and login around 5 AM their time in order to simply participate.
Then, of course, it'd be nice if everyone could settle on a time which would be convenient for everyone. Seeing that we have players from the USA, players from Europe, and players from Australia (and others which I haven't listed), we'd have to strike a balance and find a decent time during the weekends during which all three of these various people-groups would be online. That'd be hard for me personally to decide, but I think it might be possible. In the very least, a schedule would be nice, and if there's no agreeable time for everyone of every timezone, then perhaps you could vary up the times a bit, and have some held at times during which PSTers are asleep, have some held at times during which European players are asleep, etc. |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 14, 2015 22:22:48 GMT -8
The way we used to hold events (I can't speak for last 3 months as I've been MIA) is to have the events during times that vary, and example being:
Friday 6pm PST
Saturday 12am PST
Sunday 2pm PST
This gives the opportunity for all players to at least attend one of the events on the weekend. This is how the events time were developed over time, this can all be variable depending if GMs will be available or not. However the GMs who hold events do not have access to the website homepage to post event times there, they can post in the event section of the forums. I will see if we can start doing this.
Thanks for the suggestion!
|
|
|
|
Post by SdwSlyr606 on Feb 14, 2015 23:09:48 GMT -8
It's probably a good thing I'm retired now lol, or else I'd probably write a book on why I'm against scheduled times and why scheduled events don't work out.  Though since this stuff isn't up to me now haha, if the others are up to it then maybe 3rd time's the charm.  Sadly since roughly about 85% of the playerbase is located in North America, events tend to happen when the Europeans/Israelis are asleep most of the time. I've always said if we get a decent European time-zone playerbase then we could do 2 events a day, but it has never happened and it's usually a ghost town during those times. At least when I was around, I'm not sure about now and that might have actually (finally) changed. If so then they could try said 2 events a day idea, though the events will likely need a bit of reworking beforehand. |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 15, 2015 0:35:51 GMT -8
Ghost town isn't the case from what I have noticed. Although I don't check where all the players are from we still have 20+ players during the "euro-asia" active times. That's quite alot compared to a year ago.
|
|
|
|
Post by SdwSlyr606 on Feb 15, 2015 0:47:59 GMT -8
Holy crap, 20+?  Well looks like it has finally happened. |
|
|
|
Post by June on Feb 15, 2015 1:34:44 GMT -8
Looks like you need to come back ^
|
|
|
|
Post by SdwSlyr606 on Feb 15, 2015 1:41:12 GMT -8
Looks like you need to come back ^ |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 15, 2015 1:50:10 GMT -8
The way we used to hold events (I can't speak for last 3 months as I've been MIA) is to have the events during times that vary, and example being: Friday 6pm PST Saturday 12am PST Sunday 2pm PST This gives the opportunity for all players to at least attend one of the events on the weekend. This is how the events time were developed over time, this can all be variable depending if GMs will be available or not. However the GMs who hold events do not have access to the website homepage to post event times there, they can post in the event section of the forums. I will see if we can start doing this. Thanks for the suggestion! I like that system, personally. Anything would be fine, but I've been noticing that lately, some days (like yesterday, Saturday) we'll go without doing any events at all. I don't want to be hasty and misattribute this to a lack of planning, but I can't help but feel that if things were scheduled or posted out in some way, shape, or form, then more people would benefit. But I can't speak for anyone, although my general sense is that most people whom I know would like some sort of idea of when to log in for GM events. If this is not the case, then it'd be nice to hear other contrary points of views being expressed. My ideas aren't always perfect and it's good to hear any flaws pointed out. I understand that trying to adhere to a more regimented schedule could possibly be more taxing on GMs, though, so I appreciate that my suggestion is getting some consideration! It's probably a good thing I'm retired now lol, or else I'd probably write a book on why I'm against scheduled times and why scheduled events don't work out.  Though since this stuff isn't up to me now haha, if the others are up to it then maybe 3rd time's the charm.  Sadly since roughly about 85% of the playerbase is located in North America, events tend to happen when the Europeans/Israelis are asleep most of the time. I've always said if we get a decent European time-zone playerbase then we could do 2 events a day, but it has never happened and it's usually a ghost town during those times. At least when I was around, I'm not sure about now and that might have actually (finally) changed. If so then they could try said 2 events a day idea, though the events will likely need a bit of reworking beforehand. As June said, you should come back! Hehe. I see you a lot on forums (to the point where I simply refer to you as "Nicolas Cage" due to your forum name being tough for me to remember...), so it would seem that you have at least something invested in this game! Heck, I don't even know what your IGN is. Is it something like "NOTTHEBEES?" lol I think what you said about most of the playerbase being in North America has validity, but I will say that I've been seeing a sizeable amount of players from the Europe-Asia timezones. And I also don't know who else is logging in while I'm sleeping, hehe. I wouldn't mind missing out on a few events here and there if it means that others across the world are benefiting from it--as it stands, my impression is that the Europe-Asia timezone people are sort of getting skunked, and I feel bad for them when I'm benefiting indirectly from it. |
|
|
|
Post by Kimberly on Feb 15, 2015 2:03:47 GMT -8
Scheduled events cause people to only login during event times. It sucked 1 year ago and it would suck now.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 15, 2015 2:11:06 GMT -8
Scheduled events cause people to only login during event times. It sucked 1 year ago and it would suck now. It would also provide, as I phrased it earlier, a degree of consistency and predictability for those who do play regularly. Also, I'd like to ask you, is there anything intrinsically bad about people logging in only for events? I can understand the concern if, for instance, creating a schedule would cause a decrease in server population, but such a consequence is not demonstrable nor does it hold much power speculatively. The only other concern would be if a dramatic spike in population would cause the VPS to crash, but in order to ground that hypothesis, you'd have to prove or give sufficient evidence for both the prospects that 1)there will indeed be such a dramatic influx of players and 2)that this specific amount of players will indeed cause a server crash or significant lag. My postulation is that, at worst, some people would log in only for events, while the rest of the players benefited from this aforementioned degree of consistency. |
|
|
|
Post by Lalaloopsy on Feb 15, 2015 3:25:07 GMT -8
just my 62 cents from my Spongebob Wallet:
It's hard to settle for a specific time as to when an event should be held. Let me explain why (from my point of view):
1) Staff members, like players, have irrational times as to when they are online (because of other factors such as 'I have to go out for groceries' or 'it's sunday i have to do chores' or 'going out of the house'.
2) Having the events at a scheduled time (e.g. server time 7pm), or any other time would be hard for certain players to participate in them. Because of the vast diversity in time zones for players, any other person will be unhappy/unable to attend a scheduled event (if we schedule it at X time).
3) Unless all the current staff members can faithfully stick to their roster (if we do come up with a schedule), one of us will eventually have to cover for the other when it's their turn and they can't.
4) With a schedule comes a pattern; and that brings cruise control to the GM events. For example, if I would rotate 1 of the many events we have, such as RR, it will eventually start to feel like it's always been RR at 'X' time. And then we'd be back at square one, where we're having a schedule just to have a schedule.
However, with all of that in mind, I do believe we should host events at around the usual time that we normally do. Maybe giving a notice like an hour beforehand, or a day or two beforehand would work.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 15, 2015 3:26:48 GMT -8
There was something that needed to be fixed immediately today so that's why there wasn't an event. I'll make up for it tomorrow with 2 events throughout the day.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 15, 2015 10:18:14 GMT -8
just my 62 cents from my Spongebob Wallet: It's hard to settle for a specific time as to when an event should be held. Let me explain why (from my point of view): 1) Staff members, like players, have irrational times as to when they are online (because of other factors such as 'I have to go out for groceries' or 'it's sunday i have to do chores' or 'going out of the house'. 2) Having the events at a scheduled time (e.g. server time 7pm), or any other time would be hard for certain players to participate in them. Because of the vast diversity in time zones for players, any other person will be unhappy/unable to attend a scheduled event (if we schedule it at X time). 3) Unless all the current staff members can faithfully stick to their roster (if we do come up with a schedule), one of us will eventually have to cover for the other when it's their turn and they can't. 4) With a schedule comes a pattern; and that brings cruise control to the GM events. For example, if I would rotate 1 of the many events we have, such as RR, it will eventually start to feel like it's always been RR at 'X' time. And then we'd be back at square one, where we're having a schedule just to have a schedule. However, with all of that in mind, I do believe we should host events at around the usual time that we normally do. Maybe giving a notice like an hour beforehand, or a day or two beforehand would work. I always enjoy hearing from your Spongebob wallet.  1 and 3 are fair points, but I would think that with the current amount of GMs, it wouldn't be too much of an issue, would it? As for #2, this is precisely why I think it'd be a good idea to have events at different regular intervals, i.e. hold one at a time during which us PSTers are asleep, and another at a time during which you Aussies are asleep. Plus, considering the different Timezones of some of the GMs, wouldn't it help to have events at different times, so that one particular GM won't get burnt out hosting all the events? For #4, I don't think that'd be much of an issue unless certain GMs only know how to host 1 or 2 events in total. Or is this the case? I've noticed that there's a sort of limited pool of events from which you and Dogust draw, and this may be why. It never occurred to me before. Your final statement sounds fair, I think. I'm not demanding something planned weeks or months in advance, but an hour or a day's notice in advance would certainly seem beneficial, at least to me. |
|
Sadly since roughly about 85% of the playerbase is located in North America, events tend to happen when the Europeans/Israelis are asleep most of the time. I've always said if we get a decent European time-zone playerbase then we could do 2 events a day, but it has never happened and it's usually a ghost town during those times. At least when I was around, I'm not sure about now and that might have actually (finally) changed. If so then they could try said 2 events a day idea, though the events will likely need a bit of reworking beforehand.
Sadly since roughly about 85% of the playerbase is located in North America, events tend to happen when the Europeans/Israelis are asleep most of the time. I've always said if we get a decent European time-zone playerbase then we could do 2 events a day, but it has never happened and it's usually a ghost town during those times. At least when I was around, I'm not sure about now and that might have actually (finally) changed. If so then they could try said 2 events a day idea, though the events will likely need a bit of reworking beforehand.
