Due to personal technical difficulties preventing my moving more than a few blocks at a time for much of the event after the summoning, I was (for the most part) confined to shuffling about after everyone else and praying that I'd catch up with chat whenever it so kindly decided to unfreeze.
Thanks, Minecraft.
However, it
did give me some insight into what other folks were doing and not doing throughout the event, so hopefully I can use that to lay some qualms to rest. Please be aware I'm not baring my teeth and beating you down - this isn't in any way, shape, or form an "official" or "staff" response. I'd just like to offer you an alternate perspective on a few of the things mentioned.
Let us begin!
I found the event, the three hours I stuck around for, to be extremely repetitive, and boring, within those three hours there was limited development in rp, and this is something that I feel needs to be looked at, as huge event timeframes can't become the norm, especially when plenty of people have other things to do besides spend 5 hours at one event.
Time frames may well be something to be considered, as it is admittedly a very long time to run a large-scale RP. Chat gets confusing, those not acting as DMs (who, in my eyes, did an
incredible job) are liable to lose track of what's going on, and in general it is very high maintenance to run such a concentrated event for so long.
Trouble is, in order for things to more swiftly and still run according to the variable outcomes, people have to do stuff, risk stuff, try stuff, and... not a great deal was being tried. There were
lots of weapons left over, there were lots of people hovering. I speak from experience both of myself and others when I say that people who happen to be on the staff team are often very,
very uneasy about taking action in events for fear of being persecuted for "running the show", when most of the time (as is the case in this campaign), we have no more idea than the players of what is happening and how to respond.
This leads me nicely onto this:
Furthermore, I very much felt like someone watching a play, particularly between Michcat and Naelwyn, wherein my actions were preordained, and it felt especially drone like to be told exactly what to chant, where to stand, how to act.
Actions are never, ever preordained in these events, hence there being a DM, in order to respond to what people do according to the numerous potential plotlines and highly possible deviations from such. As for Naelwyn, I'd like to clarify a few things. Firstly, if nobody else is going to act, it makes sense for certain characters to do so. The number of times certain staff members have gone
out of their way to ensure their character isn't involved more than
absolutely necessary for things to stay canon is... really a bit upsetting. There's only so long inaction can be sustained purely to give others a chance, and if nobody else acts, what choice is there?
Now, the chanting. It wasn't terribly difficult through research in-character to discover that those proclamations, en masse, were an ideal way to begin weakening Harateth. I
know this because in the first few weeks of the campaign, my character began finding people, finding information and trying to piece together what the Gods are and how they "work". The fact it was Naelwyn leading it, to me, makes very little difference;
it could have been anyone who tried.
The event itself could have been much more player involved, perhaps we have to solve puzzles, fight mobs, explore a dungeon to complete it, instead of observe a summoning which we truly know nothing of how it was completed.
"Three Harateths appear, we have two weapons to inflict serious harm, and several more to sting. Throw in some horrifying Corrupted powers, and off we go!"
In my own view, I was quite pleasantly surprised
by the surprising nature of the puzzles involved. PvE was actually heavily criticised in the last event, so I would assume this was more trying to find a balance to suit people who were previously dissatisfied. Again with the summoning, information was very, very much available in-character.
I felt that the 'plan' we spoke of in Hound Ru, an event which came down to staff dominated roleplay yet again, really was just left in the dust as Michcat and Naelwyn conducted us to move along in specific ways.
Again, please don't take this as a stab at what you are saying, I'd like to think this is clarification more than anything else.
Let me start by saying I knew nothing of this campaign OOC. Literally zero. Character did research, saw successes, saw failures, learned things. A number of others did the same, staff and players alike. Through a series of letters and meetings between people who had joined their resources in-character, information was pooled, and the foundations of the plan set out.
We eventually assembled a small force of personal, in-character allies behind the scenes (*tips hat* you were one of 'em) so that our characters could be sure of support when the time came to announce the plan. Not all were aware of each other, not all were aware of everything - some things were deliberately kept under locks - not because any of those involved were meanies who like hiding things from people, but for reasons specific to roleplay.
(To be read light-heartedly, in case silly writing style is being aggressive.)
When someone inevitably called an emergency meeting of Alterans at Hound-Ru, it didn't work because it was "staff-run"; it simply wasn't. It worked because we were ready, had resources, and had been preparing the inevitability for some time.
As for being "told what to do", again, it comes down to initiative. It had got to the point at which Naelwyn specifically could no longer legitimately keep his character away from the effort, and (once more) all of Naelwyn's knowledge and subsequent behaviour in this event was entirely and legitimately in-character. And, frankly, if no-one else is going to act, I fail to see why others shouldn't if it makes sense for their character to do so.
Now, let's say, if Arken had been staff, indubitably he'd have been met with the same response. But the real fact of the matter is that
nobody but Mich and the sub-DMs knew any of the campaign backmatter.
You, me,
everyone had a chance equal to Naelwyn's to take a similar role. And I am constantly aggrieved that people should feel guilty to do so
even when nobody else shows any inclination to.
It's
by no means a case of putting oneself in the limelight; it's a case of waiting as long as is legitimately possible to stay away from it,
hoping upon hope that someone else is going to take initiative before it becomes inevitable that the character act as they would and should under the circumstances.
On to this:
Not everyone has to be the hero that slays a God, but you can certainly be the person who fends off the monsters attacking them. The vast majority of people ended up standing around while a few people actually acted.
Here, I agree with your point that there were a lot of people standing around, though I'd be interested to know firstly
why you think this was and secondly
what you think could be done about it.
(Gah, insert genuine tone here, not intending to seem sardonic.)
Heck, I was
one of the folk standing around, though I have
my damnable toaster laptop to thank for that.
Although, with the sheer volume of people at the event the evident inaction actually really shocked me. I was... honestly expecting utter pandemonium as everyone
swarmed to do everything all at once.
Weirdly, people decided to be cautious and gauge the situation first.
Again, unless the DMs literally had kicked every individual up the backside until people start acting, there's not a lot can be done here. The whole effort of the event was to overwhelm, so I was vastly, vastly surprised when lots of people held back and didn't seize any chance they could get to batter everything that came at them.
Next!
On the weapons themselves, rather than explain them in the roleplay channel, their powers were explained in the weapons channel, which for me, was extremely immersion breaking, again I felt I was extremely limited in how I was supposed to act.
I believe, though I could be wrong, that this
was explained a good few times in roleplay, and that the weapons channel (while, I agree, likely not an ideal medium for roleplaying) was solely intended to keep track of goings on for the DMs. Perhaps too daring a system for an MC-based roleplaying game on such a scale, but I'm glad, at least, it's been tried.
Harateth himself in my opinion was a very 2d character, he appeared a generic villian and I just didn't feel like his true character, even corrupted was properly encapsulated. In the end he just seemed like a characture of a demon.
Mrah, this bit's pretty much just my view: cackle-y business aside, I was rather pleased with Harateth as a character. As I've said, the appearance of multiple projections or illusions of such was something that I had not
at all been anticipating, which made for a welcome change of pace.
You'll recall in other events, there's been a prevalence of antagonists going with the good old "lock 'em in a small area and torment them a bit" tactic. This, while certainly very intensive in-character, gets a bit old hat, so I was glad things were spiced up with a relatively open field.
In a sort of mish-mash conclusion of my own opinion of the campaign: for me, it's been really enjoyable due to events demanding communication and cooperation with lots of people my character may otherwise have had very dry or limited contact with. It's enabled lots of minor but very specific developments for my character, and the formation of some very interesting relationships with others. In all, loaded with RP opportunities.
Now, Axex, back to the somewhat meandering point/not-point! This is paaaartially a response, partially me being a lazy sod and stealing your template to evaluate certain aspects of the event and surrounding campaign myself. As to the sections I had specifically wished to reply to, I
think I've covered everything, and I'm more than happy to take a look at replies. I'd rather things were addressed from all viewpoints rather than left unspoken.