Does this mean it's in place for my workshop thread, so that all the nice folks who contributed will get something other than my short-lived gratitude?
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Thanks Christoph! I’m going to try to be as helpful as I can in answering these questions.
1.) Decent rewards for Workshop participation (I'd like to see the means for resolving battles in the Workshop as well, but that can wait unless someone has a good idea for that already);
Rewards for the Workshop will be given to all serious participants with a small level modifier. One participant per thread will be chosen as an exemplary contributor and will receive a larger reward. A judge will be assigned to distribute this as well as post a condensed rubric in order for the author to get his earned rewards. There isn’t a set method for handling battles, though (and this is just me thinking on the fly) I’d suggest allowing for commentary along with each participant suggesting who they think is the winner. The judge in charge of the thread would then post the rubrics for both combatants. While it’d be the judges discretion on who won, if the commentary was one sided and for good reason, then that particular participant would be the winner by default. Again, that’s just an idea. As with all trial runs, we can’t know what will work until we’ve tried. I’ll be posting in the current workshop tonight and everyone will have a much clearer understanding of where we are with this facet of Althanas Judging.
2.) Revision or removal of the GP and Bazaar system
We’re working on an revision of the GP and Bazaar system, including OOC options to gain and spend GP, Black Market, Auctions, additions to what the Bazaar can offer and lots of other ideas that are being hammered out.
3.) The implementation of Wealth as a character trait and the merging of character equipment and intrinsic attributes when considering profile approval
I’m unsure as to whether everyone was in agreement about the wealth trait topic. As many people posted in this thread, they already treat their characters as though they live at a certain level as wealth. Some write their characters as wealthy adventurers that live in the finest inns and tip more than typical. Others write their characters into poverty. What would this new wealth trait give writers the ability to accomplish? I think I asked earlier in this thread, but would someone wanting to play the part of a prince have the ability to tap into the wealth of a nation’s royalty? Would he have the opportunity to claim the family’s prized and heavily enchanted sword as his own? That’s an extreme instance, but a plausible one. At the moment we are working on the aforementioned GP changes.
As for the merging of character equipment and abilities, I like that idea. We are currently working on how to make equipment and abilities more inline with each other. Its still somewhat vague in my mind however.
4.) Giving a little more leeway to level zero characters and/or allowing for modestly faster advancement.
A draft to clarify the rules of RoG approval is being worked on. It should hopefully help new members with the whole being a pipsqueak issue.
Also, see number 6
5.) Removing or vastly reducing thread length minimums.
We haven’t hit this topic yet, though the judging staff has been lenient on this topic already in the past. I’m sorry we haven’t tackled this as hard as everything else.
6.) Fixing the EXP formula to even out the per-post value between long and short threads (note, if done well, this would fix half of No. 4 and prevent abuse that could possibly result from No. 5)
Well, I just reloaded the page and saw that Zook answered too. So there’s no point in typing anymore on the EXP. He clarified that pretty well.
Yes. In fact Amaril is going to do the scoring for it as soon as he is able, as he has already read your quest. Ulysses has been decided, unanimously, to be the top contributor.
Godhand, the rare item auctions are also among the discussed options, and your support of the idea, as well as anyone else's support for it, will go toward helping in bringing it to fruition.
Thanks for the update. I just have a couple questions. One, can reviewers opt to use the full rubric if they want (I probably wouldn't but some people might want to)? Two, what counts as a meaningful contribution, and what are the criteria for Top Contributor? Three, can a reviewer critique certain areas of the thread in more detail while glossing over others, to take better advantage of their specialties (that is, if Person A is good with technique and the finer points of prose, he could spend much more time there, while not saying much in the areas of character development, where he feels less confident)? Four, maybe I'm asking for too much, but could a contributor opt out of the gold and just get more EXP?
That's fine, really. An official Wealth trait might be too ahead of its time. Just make it clear that characters can be rich or poor regardless of their GP count.Quote:
There is an in-depth revision of the Bazaar and other uses for GP taking place at the moment. It's too soon to really say anything more about it than that there are quite a number of options on the table, including allowing people to buy artwork from resident artists on the site and selling items and enchantments between players via a black market.
Nothing has been said regarding the Wealth trait, as we've opted for the increased importance of GP on the forum. If you want to play your character as if they were rich, then go right ahead. There will be numerous ways in which you can earn gold out of character. If you want to play your character as if they were poor, as well, you can go right ahead.
That shouldn't be a problem, really. Score should always be a larger factor than length, so long crap threads still won't get too much. I'm just glad that it's being worked on. Just make sure it happens!Quote:
We're currently in debate over how to go about modifying the current EXP formula. As said before, there was a simpler formula on the table, but upon closer scrutiny it did not hold up, giving thousands of EXP to low-scoring threads of insane length. But don't lose hope, we're still working on it!
If the EXP formula gets sorted out, it shouldn't be an issue, but that's fair.Quote:
As for thread length, I think we're all in favor of axing the idea. If it becomes a problem, however, we may have to implement it again, albeit in a much more reasonable form.
The more I think about it, the more I would suggest not worrying about merging equipment and abilities if the staff is dead-set on making GP more important. It would be impossible to balance without upsetting players who worked hard for their GP, only to be limited on their abilities because of the stuff they bought with it.
I'll reserve judgment until I see it.Quote:
4.) Giving a little more leeway to level zero characters and/or allowing for modestly faster advancement.
A draft to clarify the rules of RoG approval is being worked on. It should hopefully help new members with the whole being a pipsqueak issue.
It wouldn't be hard. Just announce, "hey, remember that rule about 10 posts or 10,000 words? Yeah, it doesn't exist anymore. Have fun!"Quote:
5.) Removing or vastly reducing thread length minimums.
We haven’t hit this topic yet, though the judging staff has been lenient on this topic already in the past. I’m sorry we haven’t tackled this as hard as everything else.
You say tomato and I say to-mah-toh!Quote:
Originally Posted by Godhand
You say potato and I say po-tah-toh!
You play level zero as incompetents, I don't play them as incompetents. I could go and dissect your post one sentence at a time as well, but for two reasons. I'm at work now so I don't have the time, and I really don't see the point since some people see what they want to see.
Letho: Your description of a level zero character goes way over the heads of new members. There's no way any of them will think the way you do, and if you want them to think that way then it needs to be very VERY clearly outlined in the RoG FAQ. I did enjoy the thought of a knight being a 'powerful' character on Althanas, which is just silly and you know it.
As for the Writing Workshop, what the hell happened in that one thread? There was some commentary, then I look at the second page and there's some scores. Where did those scores come from? Does a judge still have to do a judging, but just leaves the commentary to the other people? I would totally be all over that if in addition to the Workshop, I had what appeared to be a normal judging as well, but then again that may be my narcissism talking. I don't want to do anything I can't take back and get a lower score than if I did it the other way or something. I think ideally if all judging was replaced by the Workshop I'd feel like someone other than one judge was reading my thread, so of course I'm all over that and am considering submitting my next thread there (should take another 1-2 weeks).
I would like to consider the workshop a sort of internship for up and coming judges, to test out their commentary skills before being accepted into such a role. At the moment, all I can glean from the requirements are "be active", which stops applying if you've been here long enough apparently. Actually requiring some sort of experience would be a big step up.
It was a rudimentary example that shouldn't have been taken word for word, but it obviously was. All I know that back when I was starting out Letho was not very different from that very example, save for an additional combat ability that improved him stats a bit for a short while. All he had to his name was a sword, a breastplate, a pair of gauntlets and the clothes on his back. Yet in my first finished thread I wound up tackling a huge Chimera beast with Sword-for-hire, and in my second Letho fought a whole bunch of mercenaries on two occasions with two more people on his side, and he held his own in both cases. Got his ass kicked a bit, but held his own. So while he was not 'powerful' (and no character at level zero should be, regardless of what anyone says), he was, dare I say, competent?
I agree with your assessment of what a level zero is capable of (after all, it's up to the writer unless it's a battle thread... and with the other's approval even that doesn't matter much).
My discrepancy was that new people don't make that sort of assumption. They think they're supposed to be crappy, y'dig?
Getting changes made always appeared to be the most difficult part of being a moderator. I was never one to suggest changes and write them out in detail, but I supported a lot of things that certain members (okay, Findelfin and like two others) suggested. He'd write out these ideas in just the right amount of detail, and all but two or three people would agree with them, but actually putting them into practice never seemed to work out.
Max once mentioned that Althanas needed an administrator who simply implemented changes that were mostly agreed with, rather than getting everyone on board with them. I believe he felt we needed a "doer" who sometimes did what was necessary. It wasn't a very popular thought at the time, but it's clear to me that it's important to have someone who makes the final decision on changes. People will always disagree with those changes, though, so it's not like people are lining up for the position. It's very very difficult to put new ideas into practice, here.
As for the RoG debate, I always tried to balance new characters as if they were an outstanding member of any of the regions' militia, in terms of battle abilities. Like they were the equivalent of one of Radasanth's most notable soldiers, besides important generals or whatever. Someone who could best a typical soldier one-on-one without much hassle. But it's important to approach each new profile with an open mind.
Edit: Getting some RoG moderators on the same page about this sort of thing and then posting it as a general rule in the RoG forum would be pretty good, though. Maybe as the #1 rule on top of the outline so that people aren't so overwhelmed by details, and have an idea of what is acceptable without reading mountains of detailed text.
And RoG mods should be as non-dickish and personable as possible. I did not always apply this thought to my RoG days :) I can see how important it is now, though.