RPC -- Who are we?

[Zane]

I still strongly believe that all cross-guild conflict should be first handled by the effected guilds by what ever means they decide to utilize, and then if that breaks down, and more than half of the guilds involved (If 2, then both guilds, if 3, then 2/3 guilds, if 4, 3/4 guilds, etc.) agree to have the RPC intervene, neutral members of the RPC high council who do not have membership in any of the affected guilds work with the representatives of said guilds to reach an amicable situation.

 

The only time any cross guild arguments should be brought forth to the public for voting/action should be guilds that have permeated so much of the Role-Playing community, Neutral ground has all but vanished (Let's hope a situation like this never arises.) In which case, I believe Zarik's opinion on bringing the matter to the public is a sound one.

 

As for the time limit on voting, I would agree with Dyterium, but instead of 24 hours, maybe make it 48 or 72? Sometimes and ill placed event could mean an officer may not even hear about an issue during the said 24 hour period, as well as people's heads might still be hot if they're voting on a particularly sensitive topic and might not think rationally when casting a vote. 48 - 72 hours would give all officers ample opportunity to cast their vote, and all to think the situation through to cast their vote appropriately. There's also the matter of a situation blowing over within that time frame. Regardless, as we've seen first hand, a time limit would help sort out problems in a timely manner.

[Kylin]

I'll reword "powers" to "abilities."

 

In regards to section III-F (the RPC intervention stuff currently being discussed), I've so far reworded it as follows:

 

F) To act as a mediator in guild* conflict only when absolutely necessary for the continuation of the overall roleplay community. If the RPC representatives deem it necessary by majority vote, the issue in question can be brought up for public discussion and then a public vote. Generally, all guilds* are asked to handle conflicts between one another with each other rather than bringing it to the RPC. If this conflict begins to encroach the entire roleplay community in a negative fashion, the RPC may have to step in for the sake of the communityâs well being. Extreme cases of cross-guild griefing, harassment, godmode, and so on may warrant RPC intervention.

 

The process for handling the above is as follows: First, at least two representatives from two different guilds must approach the rest of the RPC Council. They will then discuss the issue and whether it warrants RPC intervention or not. If it does not, it will be dropped there. If the Council does agree to RPC intervention, the issue will be brought to the general RPC public, discussed, and ultimately voted on. The length of time and number of votes required to take the issue to the public will be decided on a case-by-case basis, depending on the number of active RPC representatives available at the time.

 

I'm not sure how much more I can add without completely watering down the entire thing. I think people should just put some faith in the RPC Council. Each guild is going to select their two most highly qualified members/leaders and I doubt any of them will take the position lightly. If a silly problem crops up, I'm confident they'll push it away and tell the involved parties that it's not the RPC's problem. In regards to gathering votes and the amount of time, I understand that concern (hence the "case-by-case basis" section). This is also where we'll need to trust the individual guilds to a) get in touch with their RPC rep via email, in game, or however they can reach them in order to get swift votes or b) letting the guild simply temporarily or permanently replace the rep if he/she is MIA for too long of a period.

[Nanapariri]

I like the rewording I think it addresses all of our concerns and is very clear.

[Guest]

I'm a bit late in getting in on this discussion, but everything looks good so far. Keeping the decision making power in the hands of the event organizers is definitely the only way to go. As far as intervening between guilds goes, I don't think it would really be possible to do more than encourage both sides to just drop whatever issue they had with each other by closing any topics they used to argue on our forums. If they continue to stir up trouble between each other on their own sites and in-game, there's not much we can do about that. At least, nothing I can see that would be effective. If they're that adamant about keeping their grudge going, I doubt they will care whether or not we allow them to use our forums, since they'll quite likely just end up associating us with whoever they're fighting anyway. We can still of course offer additional services, and just the fact that we made an attempt to peacefully settle the matter is important by itself, regardless of the outcome.

 

About Castiel's proposal; I'm wondering exactly what being the "liaison between the roleplay community and the general public" would entail? I'm not sure if it would be best to claim that we speak for the entire community on any issue. If a situation were to ever arise where such a function was necessary, it might be better to decide how to proceed at the time when it presents itself. Perhaps I'm just reading the passage incorrectly though, and if so I apologize. Also, is the idea of communicating with SE itself hypothetical, or are there plans being made to attempt to contact them? I think we're all familiar with SE's track record when it comes to communicating with the fanbase, so I'll assume that passage was added just for the sake of completeness.

 

As far as any revisions go, rewording it a bit to read less like a formal document and more like what it is, just a statement of intentions by an informal group of individuals with similar interests, might be worth considering. Like Tyriont said, the tone and style of the language used can make a huge amount of difference in how the massage might be perceived.

[Kylin]

In order to stay on schedule, the voting will have to start today. So no time for rewording or anything like that now >.>. However, it's not set in stone and we may end up reexamining it before the game actually launches.

 

In regards to the liaison part: That basically means that the public would come here to see where we stand on specific things, if they are interested in knowing that is. It's also a minor reference to the whole public events concept that we'll hopefully have once every month or two. Those would be open to the entire public (things like competitive sports, talent shows, etc).

 

I do plan to -attempt- contacting SE in a variety of ways in order to persuade them to add the RPC to their "premier" site list. Nothing may come of it, but it's certainly worth trying. I won't try to do this until we're probably halfway through open beta testing. By then, we'll likely have a much better looking site to impress them and a much larger RPC roster. I would love partnering up with them for little things from time to time. I recall Zam having a pumpkin carving contest and SE awarded the winners those giant pumpkin furnishings. I could see the RPC having writing contests or something and would hope SE supports it in a similar manner. For example, I remember on Sylph when there was a contest about writing up why/how linkpearls had visual capabilities. SE never really gave that info in game so we decided to do it ourselves. It would be awesome to have these kind of little writing contests to help fill in the gaps left by SE and have them actually implement the winning idea. I may be shooting a little too high but it is worth at least trying.

[Guest]

In the early days of FFXI, SE actually supported those sorts of player-run events. That's actually what the first Summerfest was, a more-or-less impromptu party. I'm really hoping they do more of that sort of thing in XIV, since as everyone knows there was pretty much zero interaction between SE and the players. I can't remember where, bit I remember some developer saying in an interview that they're looking to be more involved in the goings on of the players or something to that extent, so hopefully that means they might be willing to recognize and support player-run organizations.

[Keir]

Cas, I know several others have offered their expertise on the site. Just tossing out there my Photoshop, HTML, CSS, Javascript, and Flash knowledge if you need help making the site look pretty. (Associates Degree in Web Design.) Otherwise, I'll be busy working on the site for the Stormguard.