Having had discussions elsewhere already with Verad and others who share similar concerns, I find it understandable that folks are apprehensive, pessimistic, negative, etc., especially when so much of the language surrounding this event perpetuates the feeling that there is an agenda to this event beyond a simple get-together.
Before anyone starts on about how "there is no agenda," allow me to define what I, personally, mean by that word:
The organizers and several key attendees have proposed, explicitly or otherwise, that they have identified a number of supposed issues and that they are seeking to effect change by congregating and coming to a consensus on how to approach these "problems".
Hopefully no one disagrees with this notion, since I can openly quote the original post to debunk any naysayers:
This, in my opinion, is a valid cause for concern, since it amounts to a communal straw-man. "We have an issue." (What's this "we"?) "This is a problem." (Says who?) "We need to do something about this." (Why?) "Let's meet up and do something about this." The contention on the part of the concerned is that these are perceived issues, not real issues.
A quick look at the one explicitly mentioned perceived issue:
Lack of Spontaneous Open-World RP
This is the idealist's dream: to walk into any corner of the open world and stumble across folks roleplaying there. The MMO is suddenly an open, breathing world.
I used to think this was an issue with Balmung. I know from hearsay that it's a bit of an issue with Gilgamesh, but that owes itself more to a small population of roleplayers. Why did I used to think Balmung had this issue? Because what little amount of time I wasn't spending on PvE, I was spending roleplaying in the Quicksand and in the housing districts.
If you're a groundhog, and you spend all winter in your hole, and you peek outside for a single day during that winter, and you don't see any activity and decide to retreat back into your hole, that doesn't mean that there's nothing going on outside. That doesn't mean that there aren't other groundhogs out there. It just means that you have a skewed perspective. You have a problem, i.e. restricting your roleplay to certain areas because you assume, based on a few halfhearted glances, that there is no roleplay elsewhere. And because you have this problem, you assume everyone else has this problem.
In my time since getting back into the game early this March, with a new FC that wasn't shy about getting out and about, and a new FC storyline that allowed us opportunities to do so, and more time that I allowed myself for RP, I've:
I could keep going, on and on, but I think that's sufficient to make my point: this is a perceived issue, and the solution is as personal and reliant-on-the-individual as the issue is.
There are other reasons for concern, and they've already been raised and, in a few instances, handwaved/brushed aside. New rifts in community as a result of attendance/non-attendance, individual- and company-level tensions, a grass-roots fear of "Big Business" except substitute "Free Company" for "Business", etc.
I can almost guarantee you that if the title of this thread had been "Server-wide RP FC Meet-and-Greet" and the original post limited to "When would work best for you?", you wouldn't have seen any of the aforementioned apprehension, pessimism, or negativity.
I can also almost guarantee that if this summit wasn't to have such rigidly parliamentary proceedings, there'd be less animosity and more acceptance. After all, who's determining in what order the representatives are speaking? Who's going to be going first? Who's going last? Whoever ends up at or near the end is going to get shafted anyway courtesy of flagging attention/interest. Why can't this be more of a swap meet? Pick a really, really large area and have FCs set themselves up throughout, as if they had "booths", with enough distance between them so you wouldn't end up with chat spam.
So, to my eyes, there's a lot of room for improvement as far as the format and the intended purpose of this event are concerned.
EDIT:
This entire post is not something I would have been able to fit into the allotted speaking time allowed to me as a representative under the formal structure proposed for this event. So take that. *drops mic*
Before anyone starts on about how "there is no agenda," allow me to define what I, personally, mean by that word:
The organizers and several key attendees have proposed, explicitly or otherwise, that they have identified a number of supposed issues and that they are seeking to effect change by congregating and coming to a consensus on how to approach these "problems".
Hopefully no one disagrees with this notion, since I can openly quote the original post to debunk any naysayers:
(03-17-2015, 04:20 PM)Erik Mynhier Wrote: The goal of this Summit is to bring together active Free Companies of Balmung to meet, interact, story plan, settle issues, and foster cooperation with other FCs for larger activities (raids, airship building, exc). As the FCs and housing areas took hold, our once mixed server has begun to retreat into itself. More and more rp is being done and planned by FCs only and restricted often times to the housing areas. This Summit will seek to change all that. This is an effort to bring the server together, so help me do that.
This, in my opinion, is a valid cause for concern, since it amounts to a communal straw-man. "We have an issue." (What's this "we"?) "This is a problem." (Says who?) "We need to do something about this." (Why?) "Let's meet up and do something about this." The contention on the part of the concerned is that these are perceived issues, not real issues.
A quick look at the one explicitly mentioned perceived issue:
Lack of Spontaneous Open-World RP
This is the idealist's dream: to walk into any corner of the open world and stumble across folks roleplaying there. The MMO is suddenly an open, breathing world.
I used to think this was an issue with Balmung. I know from hearsay that it's a bit of an issue with Gilgamesh, but that owes itself more to a small population of roleplayers. Why did I used to think Balmung had this issue? Because what little amount of time I wasn't spending on PvE, I was spending roleplaying in the Quicksand and in the housing districts.
If you're a groundhog, and you spend all winter in your hole, and you peek outside for a single day during that winter, and you don't see any activity and decide to retreat back into your hole, that doesn't mean that there's nothing going on outside. That doesn't mean that there aren't other groundhogs out there. It just means that you have a skewed perspective. You have a problem, i.e. restricting your roleplay to certain areas because you assume, based on a few halfhearted glances, that there is no roleplay elsewhere. And because you have this problem, you assume everyone else has this problem.
In my time since getting back into the game early this March, with a new FC that wasn't shy about getting out and about, and a new FC storyline that allowed us opportunities to do so, and more time that I allowed myself for RP, I've:
- Roleplayed with my FC out at the Sepulchre, at the Forgotten Springs, and at the Burning Wall in open channels (/say, /yell, /shout, /em, etc.)
- Witnessed and interacted with two complete strangers who were roleplaying in the Coffer & Coffin before my friend and I strolled in to do likewise.
- Attended the Grindstone, which while isn't spontaneous, is certainly an open-world roleplay opportunity.
- Randomly ran into Sounsyy Mirke almost getting into a street fight with some stranger of a Miqo'te, all while Franz looked on.
I could keep going, on and on, but I think that's sufficient to make my point: this is a perceived issue, and the solution is as personal and reliant-on-the-individual as the issue is.
There are other reasons for concern, and they've already been raised and, in a few instances, handwaved/brushed aside. New rifts in community as a result of attendance/non-attendance, individual- and company-level tensions, a grass-roots fear of "Big Business" except substitute "Free Company" for "Business", etc.
I can almost guarantee you that if the title of this thread had been "Server-wide RP FC Meet-and-Greet" and the original post limited to "When would work best for you?", you wouldn't have seen any of the aforementioned apprehension, pessimism, or negativity.
I can also almost guarantee that if this summit wasn't to have such rigidly parliamentary proceedings, there'd be less animosity and more acceptance. After all, who's determining in what order the representatives are speaking? Who's going to be going first? Who's going last? Whoever ends up at or near the end is going to get shafted anyway courtesy of flagging attention/interest. Why can't this be more of a swap meet? Pick a really, really large area and have FCs set themselves up throughout, as if they had "booths", with enough distance between them so you wouldn't end up with chat spam.
So, to my eyes, there's a lot of room for improvement as far as the format and the intended purpose of this event are concerned.
EDIT:
This entire post is not something I would have been able to fit into the allotted speaking time allowed to me as a representative under the formal structure proposed for this event. So take that. *drops mic*
![[Image: 1qVSsTp.png]](http://i.imgur.com/1qVSsTp.png)
