Idea to Organize the Faction

[Anonymous]

i love the idea, great idea, the only problem i have is level problems, a lot of us arn't level 50 yet, obviously, i personally would enjoy being on the PVP side of things, but im only lvl 14 and running missions doesnt work unless im with someone who is at least 10 levels higher than i am.  Its not that i can't do it by myself, its because the mission sends me out to bum fuck nowhere with at least lvl 20's running around the streets.

So that leads to my other point, which is lack of help, everytime i get on, i ask "is there a mission team running? or Anyone wanna help me run some missions," of course there are always a few that are like yah give me 2 mins and ill help, but the majority of the time, its silent, not saying that collecting the "letters" and whatnot for the event isn't important or protecting morph's body isn't either, but taking 23 hours of the day to do that and not helping your clanmates is a little extreme.  I have to wait for the "usual" people that would be happy to help the lower levels gets on.  I just thought i'd let people know, since this is a "reform clan" thing.  like most of the lvl 50's, i only know one who has actually helped and others who weren't lvl 50 but were more than happy to help, of course this is just from personal experience, some lvl 50's do help, i think i saw broin and gillette help out ppl, but of course at the same time i know a lot more 50's that dont do shit either. just thought i'd let ya guys know my opinion

[Eroz]

FYI, I voted for "Yes, let's do it, but make it completely volunteer-based!"

I hope that if need be it will be easy for people to do the others job if need be, as well as will be done if need be.

I also assume captains will have to take on both roles. Correct?

[Tbone]

We will start trying to implement this soon now that the live event is over. The faction is pretty divided as to whether or not we should require this or not.....

[Anonymous]

If it is required then I feel people again are being forced to play based on what the faction what rather then how they want to enjoy the game....so I still think volunteer is the best way to go. It'll be fun either way

[Tbone]

If it is required then I feel people again are being forced to play based on what the faction what rather then how they want to enjoy the game....so I still think volunteer is the best way to go. It'll be fun either way

Maybe, but the current issue is lack of motivation. The point is to give people something to do. The choice is made to log on or not log on. We can't control that. Organization requires...organization. We require you to wear the Furious Angels tag in game. We require you to join one of our ships. We do require that you maintain a certain level of maturity while you represent us. Being in any group means adjusting to the group's needs.

Here's the issue. We make it volunteer and have 10 people sign up for one group and 10 for another. They're never online at the same time and never get the chance to accomplish goals because anyone they ask say "I'm not in that group". We require someone to sign up for one group or the other and we increase the chance of activity and productivity, but sacrifice the freedom of not participating in the faction. My concern is that if it is purely volunteer it just simply won't work. If we center our faction around it, though, and it becomes a primary function of our group, it could be very successful. That's my own opinion, though.

[Anonymous]

I have to agree with T on this for the following reason:  If you sign up to participate in the group that best fits your game play, then what are you really being "forced" to do if you already  play in the manner of the group you sign up for?  Wouldn't it just be more of the same, but in a more organized manner?

I guess at that point you have to ask yourself if you joined this faction to actually participate, do what benefits the faction and interact with your fellow faction mates, or if you just came to join up with a popular/infamous Zion faction and wear the much coveted "Furious Angels" tag.  

/shrug.  Those are my thoughts.

[Anonymous]

wait wait wait... there's more to this faction than the cool tag and uniform?!?!? damn! I've been schtooped!

</kidding>
but yeah, im still kinda half and half on this one, best thing I think it to just roll it out, see how it goes, and go from there, maybe make a separate 'grey area' so to speak where members can go late in the night/early morning when numbers are scarce.. heh. *shrug*

[Anonymous]

^

I feel that some people may regard some events as story-related, but may not be.

True. Storyline events won't take place outside of the time set aside on the Live Events calendar. Events that repeat ad naseum, such as the Assassin running around in the street, don't really constitute a top priority event.

Is a storyline event not absolutely anything which may move part of the naritive forward? while it may not play as grand a part as say, morpheus' death, it still does have a chance to effect real change within the story if proper leveraging techniques are applied.

[Anonymous]

Agreed, Fallout.

[Anonymous]

no fallout, i dont think so. what you have to realize is that "events" not within the scheduled live-events time frame, aka the asassin running around in the matrix, while they might possibly have an impact in and of themselves, usually a precursor to a real live event, will not be impacted by the participation of any individuals or factions, namely ourselves. despite the "you have a chance to impact the unfolding storyline of the matrix" and the "how does the story end? you tell us." bullshit that the devs have been feeding us, they are still very much in control of what goes on, and if we get any real choice at all, its usually an A or B situation. nothings going to happen that the devs dont want to happen, and so far, anything anyone has done has seemed inconsequential to the storyline when you think about it. if they want morpheus dead, by god morpheus is gonna bite the bullet and theres not a damned thing anyone can do about it. chasing around after the assassin isnt going to get him killed. the devs arent going to want that at that point. furthermore chasing around after the assassin isnt going to get anything done at all. and the same can be said of any other "event" that doesnt happen during scheduled live-events time.

i know i voted for "volunteer setup" but primarily that was because i assumed signing up for 1 job meant you couldnt do anything in the other. however if we are allowed to do a little bit of the other when not currently assigned to the primary, then yes, i do think this should be an organized affair. there is no reason not to do it. the ppl who want to RP arent going to go and sign up for PVP, and the ppl who want to PVP arent going to go and sign up for RP so we absolutely shouldnt hear anything along the lines of "but i dont want to PVP right now. do i have to? i wanna go RP" when the order is going out to go gank someone. anyone who would say that is a moron and they should have signed up for the other thing instead, or should switch ASAP. you're going to choose one or the other, its A or B, not ABCDEFGHI... so by signing up, there is no not getting what you want(pardon the double negative). so, like i said, i dont see a reason not to organize it. and my past leadership experience tells me tbone is absolutely right and this isnt going to work if we dont organize it.

[Anonymous]

no fallout, I don't think so. what you have to realize is that "events" not within the scheduled live-events time frame, aka the asassin running around in the matrix, while they might possibly have an impact in and of themselves, usually a precursor to a real live event, will not be impacted by the participation of any individuals or factions, namely ourselves. despite the "you have a chance to impact the unfolding storyline of the matrix" and the "how does the story end? you tell us." bullshit that the devs have been feeding us, they are still very much in control of what goes on, and if we get any real choice at all, its usually an A or B situation. nothings going to happen that the devs don't want to happen, and so far, anything anyone has done has seemed inconsequential to the storyline when you think about it.

This goes into my proper leveraging techniques. You're correct the devs are trying to maintain control. However, if, as a collective and maintainable group we create a series of public events whereby we forcefully break their plans and then publicise our exploits to the point there is no way they can continue with the planned story without aggregiously breaking all semblance of continuty. Then we will FORCE them to change the story. As of right now the faction has fallen into an apathetic state because the proper techniques were not applied in the past and therefore the devs managed to have their way.

This requires several steps. Step 1: Decide the change, let's say for example, killing the assassin.

Step 2: Anylize target strengths and weaknesses. In the assasin's case he can use any ability he wants and can roll out of interlock and run through walls. He rolls very high in interlock.

Step 3: Create a plan to exploit weaknesses and minimize strenghts. In this case find a large open area to lure him to, have a large main team engaging with other teams waiting in the wings outside the main battle, prepared to catch an escaping assasin even if he were to go inside the building, and keep him occupied long enough for the main force to catch up and other teams to re-position.

Step 4: Make sure this explot is public. Take screenshots, bink videos, whatever. Get as many ways to expose people to this as possible.

Step 5: STRICT role-playing attire. no OC area chat, play your roles right and act within the boundaries of what'd be considered normal and acceptable language within the matrix. Those that cannot do this could simply choose not to speak outside of faction/crew/team chat and teamspeak. Speak before, during and after the event to weave it firmly into the fabric of the matrix lore. No character breaks can be tolerated, it must be air-tight to insure that no bullshit invalidations of said action due to it's non-rp nature can be taken place just as the live events team obviously doesn't respond to non RPing characters.

Step 6: Publicize said exploit, in an RP sense to ridiculous levels. Make everyone KNOW your character killed the assasin in the matrix, that it was a strike by zion authorized or whatever. Make sure everyone knows. Post in character on the forums, post the videos, screenshots, make sure it is absolutely everywhere.

Step 7:....PROFIT! The devs now cannot use the assasin again without breaking continuity (which they could not do due to their dedication to a firmly narative story that continues the matrix saga. A continuity break of this level would cause a lot of discord and put off everyone because they'd realize the bullshit about changing the story was false. This in short means lots of cancelled subscriptions and lost cash) This also means they would, if necessary have to re-write extensive portions of future story to accomodate for our exploits in it.

if they want morpheus dead, by god morpheus is gonna bite the bullet and theres not a damned thing anyone can do about it. chasing around after the assassin isnt going to get him killed. the devs arent going to want that at that point. furthermore chasing around after the assassin isnt going to get anything done at all. and the same can be said of any other "event" that doesnt happen during scheduled live-events time.[\quote]

The rest of your above quote is the exact attitude I was speaking of earlier. This sickly apathetic worldview which really just reaks of the same sorry apathy most humans have in the real world. If the devs want to play hardball, you play hardball back, and mind you we're not a corporation that has to abide by rules. We can one-up by getting the community rallied into a position whereby if the devs do not do as we wish a frenzy ensues.

Quite frankly, this is the only current way we can ever truly hope to have any impact on the story. It requires a LOT of dedication and a LOT of organization, but it can be done. If people were actually ready to do this and not demonstrative of the sickly apathetic attitude above I would probably be logging in more often, as whenever I do nobody wants to do anything except boring mindless nothingless (and even then not of the kind that'd help a lower level player reach higher tiers of character development)

[Anonymous]

ok lets say for one second, it was PHSYICALLY POSSIBLE to kill the assassin, which, and what im saying so that there is no confusion, is that it is NOT physically possible to kill the assassin.  you are saying that

A: we should piss off the devs intentionally to ruin the storyline.

to that i refer you to the COUNTLESS instances where players have attempted to do something that any particular MMOs developers were not willing to do. case in point, SWG. somehow some ppl managed to exploit the game where they could duplicate currency. it was quite a while and this counterfeit currency got spread all over the place before teh devs realized what was going on. rather than start an investigation to see who the culprits were who were doing this, they decided to ban everyone found to be carrying this counterfeit currency. in game players reacted by forming a massive in game protest. what did SoE do in responce? they started teleporting ppl into space. now i wasnt their to witness this personally, i just read this off of a few sites, PA, i think Slashdot and 1up, but this is a perfect example of what happens when the devs do or not want to do something. when the players get the devs to do something its not that they MAKE them do something, its that they presented the devs with an alternate way of doing whatever it was that they were doing, and they decided, hey the community is right thats better. like the petition to extend the preorder graceperiod right here in mxo. noone FORCED the devs to do it. they wanted to.

on top of all that, the only thing you're going to solve is get us in trouble with the devs. possibly get a few people banned, and overall make FA look like the very thing we've been trying to fight, a bunch of assholes out to ruin everyone elses fun. personally I would never approve of that, and i dont think either Tbone or any of the other captains would either.

B: Our actions can force the devs to change the storyline by throwing them a curve ball. Again, lets say it were PHYSICALLY POSSIBLE to throw the devs said "curveball" take killing the assassin for example again. its real simple. We didnt kill the Assassin PERMANENTLY. he restored his RSI and came out of another hardline. then they write a short workaround and post it on mxo.com so that they counter all of our press on what we did and they continue their story EXACTLY as previously planned. you aren't giving the writers enough credit. they are professional writers and they can shoot the bullshit and think up stuff to anything we would try to do their storyline and counter our attempts 37 times in the time it takes me to blink. this is fiction, not reality. in reality if A happens it is safely logical to assume that B will follow. they can write their way into anything they want in a fictional world.

anywho as for killing the assassin, how's this for your 7 step plan? the moment the assassin realizes he is in trouble and he could actually die.... he turns off PVP. they can do that you know. turn their PVP flags off on a hostile server. there goes your 7 step plan right out of the window. im not being apathetic, im being realistic. you need to accept that mxo is a world of creation, and like creation, it has gods. the devs are those gods and in their world, what they say goes. if you want to try to impact the storyline i suggest you stick to the script or at the very least think up more logical/feasible means of doing so. if you want them to make better scripts, then hit the forums and suggestion box. those are the only options we really have.

and PS i was only using the whole chasing around the assassin thing as a reference that that is not a real live event and should not receive the attention of such.

[Ketamininja]

Fallout, I have to admit, that is some nice planning there.
The whole event that you have outlined there is something very very nice that we should really be doing.

Point number 7 can fall down, if the Devs just decide to continue with the story anyway, in OUR mind this would not create continuity.... if nobody actually read the information we posted, it wouldn't affect them either....

I totally get your point tho, and I really like the scene you painted. I think we should get some of the strike teams working in this capacity; even if the devs don't act on us changing the story line, we can get the word out that we are heavily involved in creating atmosphere within the game.

edit: Likwidneo, whilst your points are still valid, participation MAKES the game, MAKES the storyline. Although we would be hard pushed to change the events that have been prewritten by Andy 4 years ago, we can contribute more to the community by trying to interact with the storyline.
We can make a valiant effort to stop the story, but at the end of the day, the Assassin can still survive. But a great story- The Angels try to stop the Assassin, beat him to an inch of his life, and he escapes!

[Anonymous]

thats kool and all, but i dont see how it impacts the storyline directly. i understand teh frustration we have and our eager desire to impact the storyline, thats why we are all here. but we have to admit that when we heard the whole line of "The storyline is going to progress through a series of live events of which the outcome and future storyline will be impacted and progressed by the players themselves." all our minds went wild with the potential of what we could do to the matrix, only to have to sit here and follow a fucking script theyve laid out for us. these live events, while 10x k00ler than anything else ive seen in another MMO, to date they have not been what the devs promised us. face it. so far theyve used the old bait and switch on us. i dont know. at least thats how i feel.

dont get me wrong tho, if someone can think up of someway to logically and feasibly impact the storyline without pissing the devs off to all hell, then im all up for it.

[Ketamininja]

Well, remember that we are now only at live stage... what I mean is, we had already gotten to this part of the story in beta, so there have been no surprises, so far. I would also suggest that this first starter storyline is essential (Morpheus death leads to fourth faction... REQUIREMENT in the game I believe). Once the fourth faction is available, I think we shall then see more interesting developments.

I'm not sure we piss the devs off... after all, we are just playing the game the way they allow us to (oh wait, that means no invisibility in mission areas, right ) On one side, we are continuing the beta stance, and reporting and testing things (eg like trapping the assassin). On the other side, we are creating our own environment inside. Making them take notice of us, is what we want. I don't think we need to piss em off to do that!

The storywriters created the story - the devs play it out. They should have instructions to get involved, and we can see this by the Assassin running around. We got to interact with him, and make our own directions from there. The devs did not need to do this, and therefore could have just released the movies showing Morpheus die, nothing we could do about it.

I think we will see more involvement soon. I dunno.