I preface all of this with…. “in my opinion†so that I do not have to add that to everything.
First of all, what is this event? According to what I have read “an OOC event in game for discussion between FC leaders +1 about the state of community rping on Balmung.â€
Now, ignoring the ‘potential’ problems with the content of the event, what about the physical mechanic.
You are having 35 FCs discussing things so naturally you will need rules and what not of who can speak In game you are limited in size of post by 500ish characters and the chat window can only go so wide and resets randomly when someone posts. Mechanically it will be difficult to discuss things in game in a reasonable time for everyone. Speaking of time, some FCs are from different time zones so finding a time where they can attend the entire meeting. (If the meeting is timed to two hours very little will even be discussed with that many people.)
Going to the matter of ‘community:’ what is the RP community? By definition it is everyone that RPs on Balmung RPC or not. If you are recruiting for this meeting to be inclusive with the community you cannot exclude those not on the RPC. The RPC is optional and not required at all for being part of the Balmung community. You are also only including FCs, what about the folks who are not in FCs or in PVE guilds but RP a lot. They are part of the community. I understand the concept is there is a limited amount of space etc, but in reality the execution of the idea is looking to be more exclusive than its goal. Not to mention… a lot of events that are designed by folks are not actually led by FC leaders. Relying on the people who keep the cats wrangled to also provide the community ‘content’is honestly putting all the load on one donkey when you have three others tied to the first by leads that could also carry some of the load.
Also, the idea of having an IN GAME OOC EVENT is downright a waste of time regarding this matter. It will take more time and planning to find a time for OOC event than using the “RP DISCUSSION†forum right on the RPC. It would be easier to ask the thread to be heavily moderated and lay down posting rules than to try to get your 35 FCs into one place for 1-2 hours. Using the forums also prevents character limit on posts, less confusion as to what you are talking about thanks to quotes, a ‘permanent’ record of what transpired rather than logs and ‘recordings, and finally actually open for the community to see and interact with, because you could have folks message questions to be introduced to the discussion. The belief that anything can be accomplished in 2 hours with 35 FCs attending is downright borderline idiotic, pardon the bluntness.
The in game discussion about the community is like talking about stuff behind closed doors so even if harmless it will bear the undesirable scent of a ‘ruling body separate from the masses.’
In closing, making a formal-ish discussion about RP events and stuff is not a bad idea. The execution of it in a semi-private, in game, time limited, ooc discussion is a bad idea in my opinion and honestly a waste of time, unless the goal of it is to basically pat each other’s back in a mock ‘we are doing something for the community’ ego stroke. The medium the matter is taking place will prevent anything but that.
edit: lawl formatting
First of all, what is this event? According to what I have read “an OOC event in game for discussion between FC leaders +1 about the state of community rping on Balmung.â€
Now, ignoring the ‘potential’ problems with the content of the event, what about the physical mechanic.
You are having 35 FCs discussing things so naturally you will need rules and what not of who can speak In game you are limited in size of post by 500ish characters and the chat window can only go so wide and resets randomly when someone posts. Mechanically it will be difficult to discuss things in game in a reasonable time for everyone. Speaking of time, some FCs are from different time zones so finding a time where they can attend the entire meeting. (If the meeting is timed to two hours very little will even be discussed with that many people.)
Going to the matter of ‘community:’ what is the RP community? By definition it is everyone that RPs on Balmung RPC or not. If you are recruiting for this meeting to be inclusive with the community you cannot exclude those not on the RPC. The RPC is optional and not required at all for being part of the Balmung community. You are also only including FCs, what about the folks who are not in FCs or in PVE guilds but RP a lot. They are part of the community. I understand the concept is there is a limited amount of space etc, but in reality the execution of the idea is looking to be more exclusive than its goal. Not to mention… a lot of events that are designed by folks are not actually led by FC leaders. Relying on the people who keep the cats wrangled to also provide the community ‘content’is honestly putting all the load on one donkey when you have three others tied to the first by leads that could also carry some of the load.
Also, the idea of having an IN GAME OOC EVENT is downright a waste of time regarding this matter. It will take more time and planning to find a time for OOC event than using the “RP DISCUSSION†forum right on the RPC. It would be easier to ask the thread to be heavily moderated and lay down posting rules than to try to get your 35 FCs into one place for 1-2 hours. Using the forums also prevents character limit on posts, less confusion as to what you are talking about thanks to quotes, a ‘permanent’ record of what transpired rather than logs and ‘recordings, and finally actually open for the community to see and interact with, because you could have folks message questions to be introduced to the discussion. The belief that anything can be accomplished in 2 hours with 35 FCs attending is downright borderline idiotic, pardon the bluntness.
The in game discussion about the community is like talking about stuff behind closed doors so even if harmless it will bear the undesirable scent of a ‘ruling body separate from the masses.’
In closing, making a formal-ish discussion about RP events and stuff is not a bad idea. The execution of it in a semi-private, in game, time limited, ooc discussion is a bad idea in my opinion and honestly a waste of time, unless the goal of it is to basically pat each other’s back in a mock ‘we are doing something for the community’ ego stroke. The medium the matter is taking place will prevent anything but that.
edit: lawl formatting
