Rallying Cry for Part Time Players Rights!
The AO community has had the benefit of many proffesional and semi proffesional players making valuable contributes to the community at large... i.e. the development of websites, how-to guides, tradeskill spoilers, maps, tools, bots, etc...
I tend to view these in 2 catagories:
1) Patron Saints... i.e. no conditions attached to the use of thier wares... they provide them 'as is' with no conditions attached for the enjoyent of the community at large. These guys rule! Virtually every full time and part time player ingame has benefited greatly from thier efforts...
2) Sided Patrons... i.e. they provide their wares... but conditionally require they be used in a manner that best supports what they think benefits their faction (at large) best... Without a doubt this provides valuable benefits to the community... but tends to favor Zerg guilds / full time players vs. Non towered guilds / part time players... (The recent 'community' decision to shut down Bnet during 140+ tower battles being 1 case in point... Point based rolls vs. Flat rolls being another...).
Why I am so concerned with being an advocate of what benefits part time players best? Because I think the ingame content can support Both full time and part time players... because I think that the part time player base greatly out numbers the full time player base... and because I think that it is important to help provide content to the part time player bases... to encourage New Blood to join the community... so that the AO community does not stalemate and eventually die.
Face it... at some point when new PAID subscription rates declines below the 'magical' cut off... then we will be a dying community and the Servers Will Be shut down. Period. They are already starting to pipe Paid Advertisements ingame to milk out the extra $$$. It is not a question of if AO is profitable... hell... profitable business are shut down all the time because they dont' make a Premium Profit... It is all a question of what FC decides is an exceptable amount of profit... Only time will tell if the new $$ angles (like ingame advertisements) will make a serious difference...
But in the meanwhile... I think it very important to ensure that content is made available to new / part time players... and they should be given the benefit of access to content ingame regardless of what the zerg guilds are doing or if there are tower battles going on... to this end I think that the 'Patron Saints' contributions are more valuable that the 'Sided Patrons' in the grand scheme of things...
For a long time I've been a cheerleader of community rules (in associaton with the use of bots, conduct during raids, guild policing of its own members, etc) for the benefit and enjoyment of the community at large for fair access to game content.
But recently I have been disturbed by ingame trends that conditionally restrict player access to content. No, I'm not talking about the timeshare agreements that have come about... I favor timesharing... as in the grand scheme of things timesharing makes it Easier for full and part time players to have access to content. And no... I'm not whining about griefers, trainers, ninja looters being banned from a raidbot... I fully support banning A-holes that grief a raid... if you grief a raid... then you should be banned from the bot... and at least get an FC enforced 1 week vacaton from the game...
What I am talking about is the existing Zerg Guilds / players / raid leaders / Patrons (that develop, provide, and host various tools and bots) restricting access to game content if the (part time) players don't do things their way...
People pay to play the game to have fun. Not everyone has the same idea of what is fun (granted... that tends to change on a day by day basis...) and not everyone has the TIME ingame to support their faction in all its endevours...
Case in point: Say some part time players only get to play about 10 - 12 hours a week. The highlight of gameplay that they have been looking forward to the past several days is Friday / Saturday night when they get to spend 3 - 4 hours ingame. (Kids are at grandmothers, wife / hubby is watching a movie or out with friends, and they Finally get to have to peace to themselves and play the game... {No... not married, don't have kids... so don't be a jerk with the silly flames} That part time player is about to spend 1/3 to 1/2 of their total weekly game time online Friday or Saturday...
Now... they log in... and they REALLY Want to do a Pande raid... they have been trying to get T3 glyphs... because as a part time plalyer they can never afford to buy em off the forums (unless they bought credits off of ebay... another EVIL!) and they have been trying for a several weeks now to get T3 loot...
Now... they have logging ingame and joined the raid... and BAM half way into the raid the bot is shut down to 'encourage' everyone to go pvp in support of a 140+ base... And a good chunk of their gaming time has just been shot to hell...
Can you see the point I'm trying to illustrate? It is not about PvP vs. Lootwhoring. It is not about side xpbonus... It is not about supporting your facton... It is not about Zerg guild vs. Non towered guild... It is not about flat rolls vs point rolls... Although ALL of These Things Are Impacted by It...
It is about the inheriant conflict of the interest of part time players vs. full time players...
If New / Part Time players keep trying for several weeks on end to play the game... but keep hitting their head against the proverbial brick wall... then the time comes when it just isn't fun anymore and they cancel their subscriptions or opt not to become a paying subscriber...
And that is part of the reason I went on a rant in other threads recently saying that content is content is content, and that taking part in Any given content shouldn't be conditional on what is happening with Other content ingame...
And it is also part of the reason I got my feathers ruffled about the idea of members / patrons of the zerg community playing god... and having a SERIOUS impact on the game play of EVERY paying member of said community...
We need to find a way to better welcome New / Part time players into the fold... of ensuring Fair Access to game content to ALL players... and to unconditionally seperate ingame content (i.e. keep the various RK contents, NW contents, SL contents, and AI contents Seperate in how they are supported, and the access to content unconditional what other players / contents are doing) instead of having them all Lump Summed under one rallying banner called the 'Do as We Tell You or you will be Banned from Content... You LootWhore/Ganker/PvPWhore/Whatever...'.
I think it is that time of year again to review / revamp the community rules... to encourage guild mergers... to have a serious discussion of providing content to everyone without denying content to anyone...
By default... Bnet and the other tools bots should Remain the Primary Means of players having access to content... But if Bnet or other bots / tools are shut down, because a perceived 'majority' of players wish it that way... then we should have a Serious Discussion hammering out a means for the perceived 'minority' of players to have access to content regardless what everyone else is doing.
So... as part of that process, at a minimum, I think we need to develop some rules establishing what rights to content the 'minority' have... under what conditions Alternative Raids (and such) can be conducted when the Primary Means are shut down... and under what conditions Banishment / Penalties will be imposed for those that want to Raid or PvP when a majority of the community chooses to do otherwise...
I think that the ingame content and the player base community is large enough that Everyone can Play and Enjoy the game without infringing on the rights of other paying customers (i.e. denying them access to content)... Surely we can do something to ensure that all get to enjoy their time ingame...
/me prostrates herself and pays homage to the Patron Saints, Sided Patrons, Zerg Guilds, Raid Leaders, and all Guild leaders...
Please help...
Edit: Clarification for those whom get confused on the complexities of my position...
Bots / Tools ingame traditionally have and should continue to be used to ENABLE fair and easy access to content. However... due to the more and more powerful bots / tools being introduced into the game... there is a growing threat and potential impact of these bots / tools being used to DENY people access to fair and easy access to content.
New players / part time players / any player whom does not wish to be 'part of the herd' are at a serious disadvantage here...
If there are to be Gods ingame... then I prefer they be like the Gods of Old... i.e. Helpbot, Clicksavor, IGN, etc... I prefer my Gods to be Benelovent... helping the community at large by providing unconditional and unrestricted fair and easy access to content...Originally Posted by Fixerspy
At this point... the Fact is that Roedran and the Zerg leaders / Raid leaders now have God Power over virtually all of the contents ingame... and use player rules and contracts to justify Perma Banning anyone whom wants to use an alternative bot / tool to have access to content.
I have nothing against Roedran or other community leaders. I have no problems with timesharing. I have no problems with Bnet or any of the other bots / tools continuing to be the Primary Means to help enable access to content... but I do have a problem when the power they have can Deny access to content for the entire community and / or a group of individuals.
If members of a Raid wish to leave for PvP... they should be able to... and those whom stay to continue raid can LFM... if they don't find more... then they will automactically be forced to wait until more people are free to join / rejoin raid. Why shut Bnet down?
If someone wants to PvP during a Raid... why are you / have you threatened them with banishment from raidbots for daring to pvp whilst raid was ongoing?
If Bnet is Shut Down and NOT supporting Pande content... you still have the balls to threaten to banish Anyone that tries to Raid Pande anyways?
My apologies for picking on Roedran and Bnet... I have nothing against them and hope they continue to Enable access to content for a long time to come. However... I have been using the Bnet situation to illustrate the point I'm trying to make...
FC should be the only power that decides the how and whys to access game content. Gods in the player community have started to cross the thin line of being unconditional benelovent benefactors of the community... to the very real danger of becoming EgoManiacWhores that dictate how every paying customer must play the game. Power corrupts. Absolute Power corrupts Absolutely.
And when it comes to having your time ingame restricted on how and when access to content is granted to you By other Paying Players whom happen to be Gods... then the Part Time / New players are at a serious disadvantage here...
We need to review player rules... and we need to review ensuring Everyone has Fair Unrestricted Access to Content.
Using Player Rules to Justify Denying Content to players... in a manner similar to what the Bnet/PvP situation has become... is Unacceptable. It goes Too Far and crosses the line...
Let the majority of players enjoy the content they wish. But don't force the minority of players to join / log / sit and jerk off while waiting for you to give them permission to play the game...
2nd edit... Roedran has indicated in another thread that he hopes the Bnet/PvP situation is a short lived dynamic ingame. I'm looking forward to seeing if the Bnet / PvP rules are modified in a few weeks...
but... Bnet/pvp drama as an illustration aside... lets get back on track...
Lets do the annual review of part time vs. full time player conflicts... lets find a way to provide game content for Both... whislt being careful not to abuse the playerbase with the power of the new tools and contracts.
We've already had several massive exits from the game due in large part to complaints of FC screwing up delivered content. Lets avoid the mistake of creating a mass exit from the game by people fed up with other Players screwing up the content...
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