Plan for the rest of the year

[Firejack]

Just had a conversation with Theo over Xfire and its the 3rd of 4th time the point of some sort of plan needing to be put together for the rest of the year has been raised. We clearly seem to be lacking any real motivation or targets for the rest of the year as a lot of energy seems to of been sapped out of the Community and particularly the forums in recent weeks.

Progress Reports
To start off I think we need some sort of update from the major divisions within the Community. They are numerically the biggest driving force in the Community but people outside of those division have no idea of what they are planning for the rest of the year.

• So what are our friends in EvE upto these days? A long time since we heard any news. What you guys doing? Planning on expanding into your own Corporation or continue as a group of friends who keep in contact over multiple Corporations?
• Are SCUM planning on sticking around for the WotLK WoW expansion or spreading out into new games. Maybe shifting from PvE to PvP content. Let us know.
• Now NO have completed the PvE game (well done by the way!) are you planning to move towards PvP or just plan on preparing yourself for the next Raid content patch and the expansion?
• Terra Nova Company I'm fairly clued up on what there plans are. Mainly the idea is to developed the French Nation as a mighty Economic and Military force. Would be interesting to hear any expanded plans.
• And we can't forget Starwolf. You guys still camping the Gen room or have you finally turned in your Lashers?

New Divisional Requirement
An idea I'd like to suggest at this point too is a new requirement for all divisions. Each division should have a Community Liaison whose responsibility to to make people in their division aware of the Community and also inform the wider Community of process. A newsletter style article on the Portal every 3 months would be perfect. Just some way of updating members and letting us know people are still alive.

Formulating a plan
In terms of what the Community can do. Theo has pointed out we now have a fair bit of cash from the donations. The best thing to do with this money in my opinion is rent ourselves a server for a month when the next big game which we need a dedicated server for is released.
Instead of trying to get enough people signed up and leading to lengthy process that ends in complete failure like BF2 and Quake Wars were we didn't have enough people to rent a server. We should go out and get the server first to build up some interest and momentum. Then after we are setup and rolling we could start to think about how we are going to pay for the following months.

We simply cannot let the opportunity to advertise ourselves a little go by again. We need to have a visible presence in the latest games to open up ourselves to some fresh recruits. In the last few months alone we have missed this opportunity in;

• Unreal Tournament 3
• Quake Wars
• Crysis
• World in Conflict
• Medal of Honor: Airbourne
• Call of Duty 4
• Team Fortress 2
• Frontlines: Fuel of War

all go by. These are big games that are focused on teamplay which is the core principal of our Community. It is madness that no effort to establish ourselves in any of these games has been made. I bet everyone who reads this has probably bought one or 2 of those games listed and if we all got together we could put together a fairly capable team in any of those games if a little effort to get organised was made.

Looking forward
Those opportunities have gone now. We need to look forward. Fortunately we are blessed. This year looks like being even better then last year as this golden age of PC gaming continues. Listing some games coming out in the near future I'm tracking:

• Age of Conan (MMORPG) - I'll be the first to admit I was wrong about this game. No jokes can be made about this game being all fancy Directx10 graphics and no real purpose. The ability for us to build our own city in the game world as a Community and defend it against other Community's is a fantastic prospect.
• Warhammer Online (MMORPG) - A probable WoW-killer by all reports. The RvR (Realm Versus Realm) PvP system in this game is absolutely immense. Yes its Elves and Dwarfs again. But put that aside for a moment and take a serious look at the teamplay this game offers. We can be fighting alongside each other and raising our Community's flag on our latest conquest.
• Empire: Total War (RTS) - Apart from the unfortunate incident that led to the departure of Imperial Legionnaires. We almost made ourselves felt in the Total War Community. This time we should make a determined effort to get together and form a Clan. There is the interest. We've had 10 or more people in the Community play this game together now. If we get setup in the new version we can enjoy the epic battle nights once again but this time get a few new faces in to fill up the teams.

Those are the big 3 which I'd say we should target to get established in. Apart from those though there are a vast number of titles coming out. I'll just concentrate on listing the games focused on new (no expansions) multiplayer games for now.

• Huxley (MMOFPS) - Opinions are still a bit mixed. Might see an appearance towards the end of the year.
• End Wars (MMORTS) - My personal top target. Much promise planned. Just hope they can finish it up and get enough polish into the game to make for a smooth launch.
• Starcraft II (RTS) - Looking better and better the more details we get about it.
• Football Manager Online (Strategy) - This is a wildcard. Could be great or suck. I know a lot of us have played one version of another of this series though.
• Battlefield Heroes (FPS) - This will be a free ad supported Team Fortress 2 style game from the guys behind the Battlefield series.
• Guild Wars 2 (MMORPG) - Many of us tried Guild Wars in beta but decided to go with WoW. Could be worth another look in the sequel.
• Stargate Worlds (MMORPG) - I'm guessing this is going to slip into next year. Looks far from finished in the videos/previews I've seen. The lack of a FPS or hybrid FPS style of combat is going to be a disappointment to many of us I'm sure.

There are many games I've not listed. I'm still finding new games nearly everyday. The ones I've listed are just some of the games I've discovered so far. If you have a game that you are watching that you think would be a great addition to the Community please add it to this thread.

Spreading our influence
Another method for getting ourselves noticed is I'd like to formally adopt the framework Alastriona has put in place in Pirates of the Burning Sea. I'm a huge fan of what he is doing there. Basically he has positioned our Community as the hub for players in that game. This is being done by offering a few inexpensive resources (Teamspeak Channels, forums) but it opens us up to hundreds of potential new recruits. Instead of recruiting on a player basis Alastriona now has it so we are effectively able to recruit on a server wide basis. Great!

Ok enough of me. Time to turn this topic over to everyone else for discussion. What you all thinking?

[Alissa]

Wow, alot of really nice plans and ideas......
Love the idea of divisional reports, so as to get more connected as a group and have more understanding what each group is doing.
I'll make sure to inform the scum officers of this plan, 2 shortterm goals being killing lady vashj and kael'thas (pref. before the 2.4patch).
Looking around at the new games, Age of Conan does sound interesting and I might personally take a looksie into that (it being the type of game I enjoy ).

All in all, nice topic and some great ideas.

Greetz Alissa

[AmigaFan2003]

I WILL be playing Warhammer:Online but due to the problems I've had with MMO's in the past, I'm not going to have anything to do with the organisation side of things.

However, I do want to take the lead on Empire:Total War. I've a strong motivation to get a clan started for this game - hell, I almost managed it with M2:TW only to be undone by an outside influence. I even got a website up but for some reason, as a community we never quite reached critical mass to form our own clan, even though I've kind of been the defacto leader in this game.

I've some big plans for Empire:TW with battle ladders well nigh finished and I've got contact with other TW clans (Sith being the major one) - I'd like to see us compete in some major interclan ladders. Lets just hope we don't get undone by Gamespy again!

FJ - can I make a proposal - can we have the Total War forum with two subdivisions - M2:TW and Empire:TW?

[Alastriona]

Glueing the community together again

The problem with MMO's is that paying and playing more then one of them is often too expensive and time consuming. If your entire community only plays MMO's the chance people from different divisions will get to play together is very minimal.

I've spoken to you about this before FJ, but we need some sort of "glue" to tie this community of primarily MMO gamers together. The best glue would be non-MMO games with multiplayer capabilities that we can regularly organise events in. But even in that case not everything is suitable. The games best suited for this purpose should be:

- Free or cheap: We have plenty of students who generally can't afford to buy alot of expensive games, especially when they are already paying for an MMO.

-Easy to install: People won't bother if they have to download loads of patches and mods just to play the game.

- Easy to understand: People aren't going to bother learning a complicated game just to be able to play with the community.

- Plug and play: The games should allow you to jump in to play for 30 minutes to an hour without having to wait a long time before you get to actually play. Most people in the community don't have much time to spare, we aren't going to attract many people if we force them to give up too much of their time. Also, most games have scheduled events (Like WoW raids) and this will allow us to schedule short duration events without interupting raids/port battles/etc.

I'm sure there are more criteria but these are the main ones we need to take into account. If we can find some games that fit the criteria and regularly organise events then we can hopefully encourage people to play together. If people play together they will have stuff to talk about, which means more forum activity!

Getting known

Another method for getting ourselves noticed is I'd like to formally adopt the framework Alastriona has put in place in Pirates of the Burning Sea. I'm a huge fan of what he is doing there. Basically he has positioned our Community as the hub for players in that game. This is being done by offering a few inexpensive resources (Teamspeak Channels, forums) but it opens us up to hundreds of potential new recruits. Instead of recruiting on a player basis Alastriona now has it so we are effectively able to recruit on a server wide basis. Great!

What you need to have to be succesful as a clan/society/outfit/guild in any game is fame. You have to be known in order to be able to get possible recruits interested. This is definatly something I don't regret doing.

The best way to do this in MMO's would be to make sure you have enough members interested. A larger guild can make more of an impact on the server. Preferably you start in beta, this way you can build up fame before the game even releases, and then profit from this when it actually does. You also need to make sure you pull attention to you guild, as Firejack said: position you guild (and thus the TNGC) as the hub for players on that server(a good example of this is curse gaming).

Secondly, you need to achieve for even greater effects (best example would be Nihilum). Nemetos wouldn't have gotten many new recruits if it failed to pull off succesful raids. Sure one may say that of 600 recruits Nemetos has had only a few have stuck around in the TNGC, but its like that in every game. You need to mass recruit lots of members, even though most might stick around after they get bored of the game, to be able to attract that one recruit that does stick around. I can already predict that half of the Terra Nova Company members will not stay after they leave the game. But I don't see this as a failed recruitment policy.

I'll conlude here, tell me what you think.

[allicorn]

Progress Reports.

Aye, bring 'em on. I used to really enjoy the periodic Eve progress reports. Lets insist that all Divisions provide a progress report a few times a year.

Games we "missed"

I think your idea of the lifespan of a game is maybe rather short. Many of those games are very active and will continue to be very active for months or years to come (UT3 will continue until UT4 comes out ). If we had some folks who wanted to throw something together in some of those games I see no reason why we couldn't do it. Thats a big "if" mind you, but hey.

A Plan

Since we have a little pot of cash, yes, it seems wise to invest in a server now and then, even if we only keep it for a month or two from its game's launch.

So, lets have an open call for posts in the TNGC forum - if you think an upcoming game is going to be a winner, and you're happy to do a bit of server admin - make a POLL in this forum asking for the TNGC to provide a dedicated server with options Yes/No.

We'll see if many folks approve of the idea. Can't say what the voting threshold might be, obviously, since I've no idea how many folks would vote at the mo

Spreading the Word

Certainly, what Alastriona has done in terms of creating a very significant name for the TNGC in PoBS is a really excellent idea. Somebody give that guy a medal

What we need, in other games, in order for this to happen again is - I guess - evangelists. Folks who are nuts enough about the game to dive in there on day one and start offering out services in terms of TS and forum space. It certainly seems like we might have a couple suitable candidates for when Warhammer hits. I can think of a potential flag-bearer or two for Conan too.

To the community as a whole, I guess the suggestion here is: if you're about to dive into a new game that you're really enthusiastic about - consider Alastriona's approach as either an extra or alternative to creating a Division. Talk to FJ and me, maybe we can organize a forum and TS service that you could start offering to a wide range of players in your new game, regardless of whether you're running a Division there yourself.

Alli

[Firejack]

....I think your idea of the lifespan of a game is maybe rather short. Many of those games are very active and will continue to be very active for months or years to come....

Hmm yes. I had a rather narrow minded focus on maximising impact of the server. Perhaps we can setup a server for one of the games then? I'm guessing UT3 and COD4 are the two most popular games I listed as they are the only ones I recall seeing people on Xfire play. No idea if they use the whole ranked server type situation or we just need to rent a standard dedicated server.

......So, lets have an open call for posts in the TNGC forum - if you think an upcoming game is going to be a winner, and you're happy to do a bit of server admin - make a POLL in this forum asking for the TNGC to provide a dedicated server with options Yes/No.


We'll see if many folks approve of the idea. Can't say what the voting threshold might be, obviously, since I've no idea how many folks would vote at the mo ......

Erm is this just an alternate to the counter productive and highly unsuccessful Quakes Wars template we we created a poll and then failed badly trying to get enough people to rent a slot?
I'm really trying to avoid any drawn out process. Basically it should be a case of for every new game there is any interest in we setup a server immediately for a limited period of say 1 month.

[allicorn]

is this just an alternate to the counter productive and highly unsuccessful Quakes Wars template

The difference is that we're just asking if there's any interest in having a server (how else are we gonna know?) rather than asking are you willing to pay for server from your own pocket?.

Say I want to run a Jet Set Willy Online server(!). I'd make a post, "Anyone interested in a JSWO server (yes/no)? If we get a moderate number of Yes responses, we look into renting one. If we don't get at least a handful of Yes responses I'm outta luck.

Alli

[Firejack]

.... are you willing to pay for server from your own pocket?....

Yes I am if I play that game
I've paid for the website on my own, I continue to pay for broadband from my current ISP even though I could get a cheaper access elsewhere because it gives us an ultra cheap teamspeak server.

Sometimes you just have to take that leap yourself to get some progress made.

[allicorn]

It was a rhetorical question. And going by the response, as you mention, to the ET:QW server issue, it sounds like for most people the answer is "no".

Alli

[ajoryen]

With having a gaming community you need to get feedback/ideas/involvement from members. What do you expect from members and what do they expect from the community. And is there a place for you, can you give the community something and what can you get back from it. this topic gives some nice ideas about what to do the rest of the year, what to think about, but....

Here is the dilemma for Scum (as a group, but can't really talk for an whole group):

the possition of scum:
We (as in scumofficers) are thinking/talking about our position within TNGC to see whether we are able to integrate into another gaming community or not, while being a close community (but only WoW gamers) of our own. We will get back on this soon.

scum activity:
Lacking activity from Scummies towards TNGC, only a few read this forum regularly and even less posts in it. (some of us where using this forum before scum joined officially TNGC and some were TNGC before they joined scum) As major spammer of our scumforum, I have not much to say that can contribute something to TNGC forum. WoW itself is idd timeconsuming in relation to chatting (ingame, on TS and on our own scumforum)

about playing other games:
I tried to start ET-QW, talked with Killer about it a while ago (when it just came out in the Netherlands), but somehow it doesnt get my interest to start playing it. Before WoW I played as much ET as I do now WoW, but ET-QW cant get my attention. Guess Im not the only one within Scum that is really not playing, or interested in playing other games then WoW atm.

Alissa posted our goals within WoW shortterm, can't see us going towards pvp looking at longterm, me personal will leave WoW before I go pvp, don't know how long it will be until people start losing interest in that game and will be playing other games aswell. Some are playing other games, but Scum is about WoW.

As in getting more involved:
The whole idea was/is, when Scum joined TNGC: you leave WoW, go to another game, you leave Scum, we meet up at TNGC. Until now this is not the case yet.

[Darkarium]

I'm not good at long walls of text so il just say this on playing other games:

If a games has enough interest, then people will play it. Personally with ET:QW, i was not interested in it because i disliked the beta, I'm sure others felt the same way; you can't blame it on the fact that people aren't trying hard enough or not buying a server or whatever, if people don't want to play the game then they won't. An example of this is a game like BF2142, when that came out people just bought it and played it, there was one thread for listing your tags and that was about it, yet still people got together and played in a squad.

[Madtrillz]

Speaking of myself. I think the days of clan based matches in online fps games are over. for me. I still remember the good ol days of Counterstrike matches with Shandar and other mates, but I don't see that happening anymore with a new fps game soon. Can't really name a game that makes me want to have some matches against other communities/clans.
Huxley does look really great, considering I missed the era of mmofps, I might wanna try that one.

AoC, WAR online and Starcraft II are probably gonna be the games I will try and play (depending on how many in TNGC vote for AoC or WAR, I will follow the majority/the ones I know). Starcraft II I'll buy anyway, but I've never been that good in online RTS (I'm a slow builder ), so someone has to teach me