Have we seen enough of this event to admit that there is more here than first meets the eye? And that there is an appropriate place for coordinated responses from the players?
I'm sure that by now Neverax has gotten the message about the "Clickfest" interface and will take this into account in future Events design. Tedium is not content.
Also, I'm sure that the way Event information was deseminated from Neverax to the players will be reviewed and improved in future. It is in their best interests that these Events get off to a positive start.
But how about the player response to such Events? The usual wave of Naysayers, Trolls, Pepper Inspectors, and Turkeys swamped the boards with initial postings. There was also good constructive criticism of the Event. This was eventually followed by positive observations and slowly a constructive course of action is now unfolding.
These message boards can probably meet the needs for individuals and small groups in sharing ideas.
Can we improve on the initial information gathering process, the sharing of it, and the coordination of appropriate large scale activities? (Those that require more than small groups and individuals)
I have heard little in the way of Guild responses being planned and communicated, with open invitations for support from the player base. - or multi-guild responses that could involve all.
These Events are large scale, with small scale details. This requires both large scale, as well as detail, responses.
Two examples of this need come to mind;
1) Harvestors need to get to the Camp located behind enemy lines on a regular basis. A Task Force could be raised by Guilds to clear a path on a regular basis at set times of the day. This could be announced so that players could take advantage of this support and do the missions. This action would greatly support the raising of the NPC Guard Force. (Very admirably, I saw Whackyann providing this service for a while.
)2) There has been posted on these boards that a Boss Mob was sighted and killed in Zorai. There is also posted on these boards NPC in game comments of our need to locate and kill Boss Mobs. In view of the huge hoard of invaders, it would take a large force to comb through the whole invaded territory to search and destroy these Bosses. This action would be best implemented by a large guild, or a coordination of guilds.
I'm sure that there are many other such examples, and that if we had appropriate organization could accomplish many of them.
I'm suggesting a Guild Gathering, at least for each realm, and maybe for the server. The guilds could share large scale activity observations and ideas, and support their implementation. This would be a meeting of Guild GMs. This is gradually happening informally already on a limited basis. Expand it to include all interested guilds.
Each guild could then deseminate the planed activites and gather member support.
I realize that each guild has its own agenda, and they are welcome to play out their chosen roles. However, during these Events there is a need for a common coordinated response that only the coordination of these guilds can accomplish. Lets try to include as many guilds, and players, as we can.
Remember, one of the main reasons we chose to play this game is for these ongoing Events that make up the story line. We should chose the appropriate way to make the most of them.
Ort
