Balance

[Delahada]

I don't care about DoM, I won't go play there if it's my only dueling option.

I've said this too, but I don't want to sound like a jerk about it when I say it. I don't care about Magic. I can't justify my character participating in Magic because he's not a spell slinger. Sal just doesn't have the ability, and despite the spells being "up to interpretation" I still can't make sense of how he could use the available skill set in his own unique way. if that ever changes and I do get creative enough to figure out how, maybe I'll change my mind, but that hasn't happened yet.

I tried Fists and liked it just as well as Swords, but the trouble is that I never know when Fists is being held with an available caller. I think someone said there's only one set night that it happens? I can justify my character participating in Fists, because over all he just likes to fight. preferrably with sharp pointy objects (Swords), but he likes a good physical brawl just as well.

Why should I, as a Swords player, suffer losing dueling on a Friday night just because you, a Magic player, wants DoM to have another shift?

while I can understand this sentiment, I can also sympthize with the Magic duelers. imagine, for a moment, if it were Magic that had the most number of days and player participation instead of Swords. what if a lot of people started really liking Swords but only had one day a week scheduled, not including fight night, when they were certain they could get in a match? what if they started liking Swords so much that they wanted to fight for another scheduled day of dueling and were receiving this kind of anti-sympathy from the Magic community?

even though I love being able to pick up a Thursday night to duel Swords with, as well as Friday and Saturday and Sunday, I don't really think it's going to hurt anyone too drastically to cut back on one of those days.

I think, statistically speaking, that weekends are the best nights for anyone to role-play. that's proven by the number of names showing as in the live chat rooms on places like dragon's mark's rdi site. on a Saturday there can be anywhere from 30 to 55 people, or even more!, chatting in the rooms. one night this past week I saw 30 people in the Inn itself and 20 people in the Outback! not sure precisely when that was, but I remember going o_o when I saw it.

the fact that all Swords nights fall on the weekends, Thursday through Sunday including fight night, proves nothing statistically other than "we chose the best days for role-playing period in order to support this one sport over the others." that may not be the intention, but it's pretty clear.

Swords has four set nights in a row available for participation and calling. Magic and Fists get mismatched and mixed together on the remaining three days of the week. I'm going to have to sit on the fence on this one, though, because as a Swords supporter I'd hate to see Swords losing any one of its nights. I like being able to duel as many days a week on my favorite sport as I can to work on improving my rank.

I'm sure that's the way the Magic duelers feel too, though. I just don't see how it's necessary to cut a day from any of the other sports in order to make room for the one. I think the best option is as was suggested. find a caller willing to regularly host another shift on another day of the week. so what if the sports have to compete? not everybody participates in all three sports.

the only other option I can think of, aside from fight night every night, is- what if the sports were a seasonal affair like in real life? what if Swords happened, say, in the fall. Magic in the winter. Fists in the spring. all of them in the summer? not that I follow real life sports all that well, but I do know that baseball and football aren't year round events.

[Michiko]

I tried Fists and liked it just as well as Swords, but the trouble is that I never know when Fists is being held with an available caller. I think someone said there's only one set night that it happens? I can justify my character participating in Fists, because over all he just likes to fight. preferrably with sharp pointy objects (Swords), but he likes a good physical brawl just as well.

Fist doesn't have a set caller on Monday night (RDI) But I have been covering that shift, hun.

Wednesday nights here is when Kheldar covers ( Misty is covering tonight I think)

[Misty]

Yes, I am covering tonight. I've been leery about taking a regular slot due to having to search for a job (Didn't want to make a promise that I couldn't keep up with).

But.

I've been discussing this with Topaz, and this is something I offer. I would like, on a trial basis starting in September, to run a Friday Night shift for DoM in the RDI.

The reasons for this are two-fold. One, I don't want DoS to have to shut down a night. Personally, I like having choices as to how I'd spend my evening. I know some people, like Jaycy and Sal said, greatly favor Swords over Magic. So, this way they don't have to give up a night of what they like just to humor me. So, this way whoever wants to duel in Magic can do so, and whoever wants to duel in Swords can do so, and they can even split the difference if they want. One or two each.

Two, I've been looking over some of the profiles in the RDI in my spare time (a disturbingly great amount of that, I'm afraid), and I'm seeing a whole lot of "really good with magic" this and "specialized in this kind of magic" that. So I thought, why not get a good draw from that pool going? I, being that type of person that likes keeping track of things, keep seeing room counts on Friday Night RDI shifts in the high 20's to low 30's consistently, and even upwards of 40 on occasion! It couldn't hurt to try roping new players in that way.

I've heard calls about stepping up, and this is my answer to that. Any arguments? Suggestions? Thoughts about possible complications? Please feel free to let me know.

[Michiko]

The only concern I can see is that DoM does not have a night on RoH.

Both nights would be RDI...

As for the settings issue, I can understand the concern of them being deluted and all that, but having them on RDI is already leading to that issue, plus other issues of people not adhering to the setting...

What if, back to Eijah's suggestion, We rotate the regular Fight nights through the settings and leave it required to hold challenges in the appropriate rooms?

Also, TO help with the Dueling arenas being used for RP, I've put my app in the Great Helm.

[Locke DVestavio]

the only other option I can think of, aside from fight night every night, is- what if the sports were a seasonal affair like in real life? what if Swords happened, say, in the fall. Magic in the winter. Fists in the spring. all of them in the summer? not that I follow real life sports all that well, but I do know that baseball and football aren't year round events.

I don't believe this would work, unfortunately, for a couple of reasons. I think some of the duelers who are dedicated to one sport (be that Swords, Fists, or Magic) aren't going to be happy if they can't participate year round. Secondly, I remember hearing/reading on these boards a while back that certain times of year are less busy than others; namely, the November/December holiday season. I would guess this is because people are visiting family, going on vacation, etc. etc. and aren't around or just aren't interested in dueling. Again, the potential for resentment increases if one of the Duels is forced into a season when the player base is smaller.

[Amaltea]

Perhaps this needs to be explained again.

Our current group of callers are volunteers, people that have volunteered their time to a specific sport because they like it, they want to support it, pick a reason. We do not require of them to know all three sports. They are volunteers after all and they will work where they want to be. Not because they do not care for the other two, but because that's their favorite.

Players will go to the Arena if their favorite sport is DoS, or the Outback if it's Fists. But if a player is not interested in DoS they will not go to the Arena regardless of what day they are open. You cannot force participation by closing one in favor of the other.

If your favorite sport is suffering from lack of participation or from lack of officials and you want to see it thrive, either promote it in your roleplay or volunteer your time to call duels. I know the Coordinator and myself will be grateful for your help.

[Elijah]

I think Jaycy said it best, find people and build it. If there is interest in a given sport for there to be active participation on a given night and a willing caller to volunteer that night, then there is no reason why that sport shouldn't put the night on the schedule for their venue. Regardless if there is another sport on the active schedule for that night or not. If you kill a night of Swords availability that is getting duels for a sport that wasn't getting duels on another night, what do you think the result will be? Less dueling overall in the whole community.

I think the crux of the issue is simple with a simple fix. The sports should schedule regular active dueling and special events/title bouts whenever they want regardless of what is going on in the other sport. The only real exception I see to that is not scheduling Overlord and Baron challenges when there is an AM tourney or a DQ tourney going on. Once Swords was Wednesday through Sunday, with Fists and Magic both having 3 nights of active evenings of duels during the week. Heck we had overflow rooms with the results of like 20 rungs scrolling the screen to the point of insanity at one time. We don't have that anymore, do what you need to survive, but not at the cost of others.

[Michiko]

Well, the first thing I can say is get the word out there, because the biggest weakness of all three sports is promotion and Advertising.

I have the Permission of Ehzoteric on Mutual Endeavors to post event on her calender. ME has had a few lively discussions where people were asking questions to clarify misconceptions.

I have people coming up to me commenting that they wouldn't know about tourney's and stuff if I hadn't promoted it. Delahada's confusion on DoF nights should be a big red flag.

The coordinators need to promote their sports more or get help in doing so... Hades bless, I don't mind continuing what I am doing, but we need to increase visibility and we have the resources to do it.

[Amaltea]

If anyone besides Mart sent in an application, please resend it. We had problems with the Application form.

Thanks.

[Maranya Valkonan]

Okay, I get the fact that there are a lack of volunteers all around.

I also did a quick headcount of the callers who are qualified to call Magic. That's Topaz, Michiko, Misty, Ceriora, Wyh and Guill.

Of those six, at least four are qualified to call all the sports, as far as I know. That's Michiko, Misty, Wyh and Guill.

Those four, however, tend to get scheduled to call Fists or Swords for the most part, though Michiko, Misty and Wyh do also step up to call Magic on a regular or semi regular basis.

Something that has been lost in this discussion is this. Not everyone focuses on a single sport. There are those of us who play more than one. In the case of myself, I play them all.

Let's look at the options for play this way.

For those who play Swords, they have Thursday through Sunday to get their game on. Four days.

For those who play Fists only, they have Sunday through Wednesday by the current schedule to get their game on. Four days, and one day is a shared day with Magic.

For those who play Magic only, they have only Sunday and Tuesday to get their game on. Monday is not an option, since no one is there to call it. Two days, and one is a shared day with Fists.

Does anyone not see an imbalance here?

Moving on.

For those who play Swords and Fists, they also have the choice of dueling Fists on Sundays, then under the current schedule, duel Fists Monday through Wednesday.

For those who play Swords and Magic, they also have the choice of dueling Magic on Sunday, and Magic on Tuesday. Monday is not an option for Magic as it's not staffed.

For those who play Magic and Fists, they have the option of dueling both on Sunday. Then they have to choose, if you go by the current schedule, on Tuesday which sport they will duel in. Monday again is not an option since it is not staffed. Wednesday they get to duel in Fists.

For those of us like me who duel all three, take the Swords only player's options and add in the problems that the Magic and Fists dueler has.

Why should those of us who play something other than and/or in addition to Swords have to sacrifice our chances for character advancement because we have to choose which day to participate, or have less options to participate?

My original schedule proposal appeared to me to be the most fair and balanced treatment for all the sports. No shared days, and both sites have a presence for each sport.

Aside from the caller scheduling problem, what is wrong with that proposal? Why can't all the sports get equal time on the week?

Explain it to me nicely like I'm a six year old, because frankly I'm not seeing it.

[Tasslehofl Momus]

Ok.. I don't post OOC cause no one is going to like what I have to say..

So, if you don't want to hear things brutally, then stop now.


Ready?

You sure?





There is no DoM on Monday nights because.. THERE ARE NO CALLERS WHO WILL HAVE TIME FOR MONDAY NIGHTS.


If you want a Monday DoM, then get off your arse, submit an application, and BE THE CALLER for the Monday DoM Shift.




Capish?





*This broadcast has been brought to you by the letter 2.

[Neo Eternity]

I'd step up to do that, but I wouldn't really want to run a shift while everyone else is in another sport, leaving the shift deserted, like Wyh presently does.

Did you read Anya's latest post, Tass?

[Jaycy Ashleana]

Okay, back to beating a dead horse on here. I thought several hours of nonactivity meant it was finally over with, especially after Misty said she was opening a Friday DoM shift.

Why should those of us who play something other than and/or in addition to Swords have to sacrifice our chances for character advancement because we have to choose which day to participate, or have less options to participate?

How hard is it to get 2 duels in 2 sports done on one night? Let's see... there's an exit line involved, an entrance line, and a couple clicks of the mouse.

My original schedule proposal appeared to me to be the most fair and balanced treatment for all the sports. No shared days, and both sites have a presence for each sport.

Aside from the caller scheduling problem, what is wrong with that proposal? Why can't all the sports get equal time on the week?

The three sport schedules are and should be independent.

I don't care if DoM has a shift open 7 days a week, if they have the callers and participation for it. Just don't close another sport for those shifts.

Worry about your own damn schedules and staffing and participation and don't worry about everyone elses'.

[Jaycy Ashleana]

One very last thing:

I'd step up to do that, but I wouldn't really want to run a shift while everyone else is in another sport, leaving the shift deserted, like Wyh presently does.

You lose all credibility with this cop-out crap. "I want another shift but no one will show up so I won't bother. But really, what I was is to have the rest of you to give me your toys and then play the crap I want to play."

If no one shows up, there's no need for a shift. So stop bitching for one if people don't show up and if you're not willing to have the damn patience to sit in an empty room until people DO start showing up.

I'm so sick of your whining about DoS not catering to DoM because it's "unfair." LIFE is freaking unfair.

Starting in September, Misty is opening a Friday shift for DoM. Be thankful SOMEONE stepped up to do it, instead of whining that people won't show up.

[Natolii]

QFT, Jaycy and Tass. (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=QF T - Quote for Truth)

Here is the problem Neo.

1) You want another day for DoM.
2) You want Swords to give up a day
3) But you don't want an overlap
4) And you don't want to volunteer to call

(Michiko BTW, SWitched SN's so I don't get myself into trouble. Better to post on the flaming redhead)

Whereas, when I heard that Azjah had to leave, I jumped in to help.

Point of information:

I am primarily a DoM caller and have been stepping up to help elsewhere. My regular shift when I am feeling up to it starts at 8:30 on Tuesday nights on RDI.

I don't mind working the entire time.

==================================

The problem I see is that there are demands being made without compromise.