Impressive. Quite a lot has been said on this thread, some of it true and some not. Some of it appropriate and some not. I've been purposefully silent for a couple of reasons. To begin, responses were coming in so fast that I could not keep up. They've remained frequent for quite some time, so in the interest of making sure everybody had an opportunity to express their opinions, I thought I'd wait until this thread cools down. It has. Somewhat. More like it's circular. Close enough.
Oh, boy is there a lot of misconception. Yes, the doors are locked, yes, if the Bastions are completed there's a particular order, and yes there are both OOC and IC reasons for all of this. The IC reasons are SPOILER. Yes, you need previous stones to get into the later Bastions. No, you don't need Clain specifically. Oh, and you don't have to run the Bastions at all. Wanna kill Clain? Try. Wanna fight Clain's cause? That's up to you. Don't wanna tell Clain you found a Bastion? That works. Wanna support Clain? Sounds good. Wanna start a war over whether to help him? All part of the campaign. Don't want to participate in the efforts to get to the stones? Fine.
We have given you lot the freedom to do these things, yet here I am listening to you guys whine about us not letting you. Did you TRY any of it? Nope.
Here's another grand observation. 6 pages, this thread is now 6 pages. Not ONCE did anybody ask me to clarify anything. You asked for transparency on a thread ABOUT transparency, but you guys never asked me to clarify anything. You all assumed that you couldn't do things, so you didn't try things. Guess what!? That's metagaming! You made an OOC assumption that you HAD to play along, but this whole time you've had the freedom to shape the campaign, you just didn't try it.
Of course, now that I've told you you don't have to play along with Clain likely means there will be more attempts on disrupting his cause, which in turn might cause his supporters to defend him. Gee, I wonder if that was one of the possible outcomes...
The point is, there's a LOT more depth to this campaign than you all are giving it credit for. Hundreds of hours have been spent preparing this thing. If I billed out my time alone, I'd probably be past a full time job. There are loads of files with instructions for all the teams, guides for how to play some of the characters, and contingencies and possible outcomes. We've put the work into making this a really rich story.
I'm appalled by the tone, the tenacity, the gall of this thread. I've read every comment, and quite frankly I'm ashamed. You don't trash-talk (some might put it more gently and say "nitpick") somebody's work like this, in front of them, without asking for their input. You want to give feedback on events? Fine. I've asked for constructive criticism (on a different thread). Not much of this thread is constructive. Most of it is misconception and what is perceived to be "wrong." I don't see much about what we can do to make it "right." What I do see is six pages of players being inconsiderate and argumentative toward each other, toward staff, and toward this campaign and by extension me.
We're lucky we even have a server campaign. Trying to make a lore-compliant campaign consistent with server goals in mind is worse than a root canal. Trying to keep all the spoilers, well, spoilers, is equally challenging. Staff was doing well and cooperating with each other toward a common goal. Then we get to a locked door.
A locked door. That’s what all this fighting is about. One group is mad because there’s an IC mechanism in place to stop people from completing Bastions without the rest of the server. The same group is complaining that it’s been 43 days since the last Bastion. They’re the same ones that bitched about the first Bastion, saying it didn’t involve enough people. They’re the same ones that inspired Altera Alive, a specifically interactive chapter of the campaign specifically designed to weed out the necessity of a quest giver.
The original campaign had a quest giver and no Altera Alive. The original campaign had a Bastion once a month and way less freedom. The original campaign was changed to meet the concerns of this community. We changed it because the community didn’t want a quest giver. We brought in Altera Alive because the community wanted to be engaged. Everything was working fine. Then, one group encountered a locked door.
And here we are, arguing once again about the direction of the campaign. People are throwing the kitchen sink at events, which means at me, and I struggle to think “If only I had done it my way instead of listened to community feedback.” But it was my choice. The buck stops with me. I made a decision to strive to provide a better campaign. I was transparent. I asked for criticism. I listened. I made adjustments. And we got to a locked door.
The full details of the campaign are behind a locked door (more like a locked google folder). I kept the full details secret, except for those who needed to know. Much like actors and support staff in a TV show don’t know the ending, so do most of the staff not know the end of the campaign. There’s very good reason for it, but I’m at a situation where I’m not at liberty to share the end. Just wait and see. Once the whole thing is over, you’ll understand.
But the information stays locked. The door stays locked until circumstances lead to opening it. There’s IC mechanism to explain it all. The attempt to complete the second Bastion is coming, though. Just be patient. The answers you seek are coming.
Some of you have asked for things to be “fixed”. I don’t really get how it can be fixed in the way you desire. If we let small groups open and explore the bastion and get stones, then it’s not inclusive in the way you want. But if we don’t let small groups open and explore the bastions and get the stones, then apparently Altera Alive is a waste. Except it’s not a waste because the Bastions are being found and the next Bastions can be explored if we get that far.
To say the journey to finding the Bastions is a waste is like saying that Tolkien’s The Two Towers is a waste because while they walked toward Mount Doom they didn’t get there yet. If you read The Two Towers by itself, it is pretty pointless. But it’s thankfully part of a trilogy, and that trilogy has an ending (looking at you George R.R. Martin).
Wait for an ending. Read Return of the King. Wait for the context before you pass judgment. Speaking of passing judgment and offering feedback. Do it with a bit more tact. Turn it into an intellectual discourse. Show some respect to the people who work their asses off for your entertainment. If you don’t want to do those things, then be sure to accept the consequences of your actions.
That’s really pretty important, to accept the consequences of your actions. What’s even more important is to think about and accept consequences even before acting. The consequences of shit-posting volunteers is making said volunteers feel like shit. And right now I feel like shit.
It makes me not want to help you. It makes me not want to try to “fix” things. It makes me want to walk away. Which is what I’m doing. You asked for a fix. Here you go. I hereby resign from events. I can’t fix this because it’s not broken. Our community is broken, and I’m tired of trying to entertain people who are ungrateful and rude. To borrow from a colleagues’ statement, if I conjured heaven you’d turn it to hell.
I'll turn over the planning files to the new coordinator, whoever that is. Som and Cherry also have access to it. Though its a distinct possibility that the whole fucking thing gets voided and all that hard work goes to waste. For all of our sakes, I hope that doesn't happen, but that's not my call. Seems like the loudest contrarians think our work is already going to waste, so maybe it doesn't matter.
If we're going to be sustainable, not just in events but as a community, then we can't be abrasive like this anymore. That's not how the world works and that's not how this community should work. If it's not events its war rules, its consent rules, its alt rules, its revive rules, its promotions and demotions. We need a paradigm shift away from a culture that accepts shitposting as the norm, away from a community that views it acceptable to openly criticize staff's hard volunteer work to keep you lot entertained. We need to turn into a community that is grateful for what it has. Right now we're far, far from that.
I'm not the only staff member who's tired of this. The current toxic attitude of some in this server is literally tearing this community apart.