Somewhat urgent 'suggestion' to Community GM. Long read.

[KingLutanius]

Now now, before any of u misunderstand i didnt get into any trouble ok? =p

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Anyways:

Im not quite a forumer, heck id rather be ingame leveling now but recent events in the server has prompted me to share with the GMs on an issue that has been plaguing us since even BEFORE beta....



Adequate notices.

Seriously. Updates are in place for this server pretty much every week which is a good thing, but it keeps occuring with frequent changes IN A GAME THAT LACKS A RELIABLE NOTICE BOARD. Now im not talking abt the job system, what im talking here are things such as ingame rules and the like. Now please do not say "It is the players fault for not accessing the forums and reading up on the rules" because the first step to having a GAME server crumble is lack of communication between the GMs and the players.

Infact, when SignPainter gave a confirmation date on the server going official, he did it in a forum TOPIC instead of putting it on the MAIN website! I just happened to come across the topic by -sheer chance-, what about other players who dont even bother logging in the forums?

On the recent drzipver9(aka DragonRaja.exe) issue, where the updater is no longer usable due to a change in the server host, i can almost bet u player number is going to drop by more than half (for the next few days) as the non-english speakers will assume the server is down for maintainance or dead since the updater is useless. All this while the 'solution' is only available IN THE FORUM! Please, update the damn homepage.

Keep in mind that a significant majority of players ingame -DOES NOT HAVE GOOD GRASP OF ENGLISH-. Sure, they are able to communicate in very basic "party?", "haha" and "thank you" but to assume that they will be able to understand the meanings behind a wall of text (even the frontpage) is nothing short of lazy.

DO NOT assume that by announcing in the server of any recent changes and the like, your job is done for the day. Infact despite the color coding of server announcements i dare bet 80% of the players who are in front of the computer doesnt even notice(or care) of the announcements up there. DR is a game that spams your screen with text in many ways, from spells to combat skills and even job-GM announcements -_-;;; hell, just think of players who are being attacked by a bunch of mob:

"Iam9incheslong has attacked you"
"RobCo has attacked you"
"KellyClarkson has attacked you"
"KingLutanius has casted Double Attack on KingLutanius"
"You have no life"

...simply multiply what i typed up there into x8-14, and thus imagine the confusion non-english speakers have with this game.

(I know some will be able to notice simply by the language differences of server announcements and their client language, but once again assuming EVERY non-english speakers have such a client is by itself lazy).

Oh, and on the homepage:

Note: server status not 'live' yet. Server currently in beta phase. <---wtf?

So to our new community GM,

I urge you to figure out a way to reach out to as much of the players as possible both ingame and out of it. Perhaps modify the layout of the homepage, or code an entirely new addon for an ingame notice board(moar work for signpainter fufu). Whatever you can within ur power. Its hard i know, but please do ur best. There ARE players like me who actually appreciate what the GMs do

[Tensu]

the update thing is a huge problem indeed. half of the ppl can't or dont want to dl from the link the gm's gave out cuz u need to dl an external program first to dl it.

then there's also the isseu of the ppl whoindeed dont even know they cant update this patch with the normal updater and they'll proly get hopelessly lost and maybe even quit within a few days cuz they arent aware of this patch

overall, the site needs a lot of fixing aswell to be more player friendly cuz the site we hv now isnt even done yet and has a lot of old info on it wich doesnt always aply to this server...

[GMSignBreaker]

Thank you for your constructive criticism and suggestion. I will definitely think about this issue and discuss it with the GM team on how to best tackle this issue. I agree with you in terms of the theory, but in terms of practicality, I am having a little trouble applying some of your suggestions. Website layout definitely needs to be changed. I will try to make announcements on the webpage instead of relying too much on forums. However, it is still up to the players to understand what has been announced. The only thing I can do is be as clear as I can be. Walls of text of in game rules are inevitable. Rules are just like that. There's no way to simplify rules when rules need to address ambiguity and complexity.

I have tried to address some of these issues with hot fixes by logging on the game and making announcements to players directing them to the forums and instructing them to read so and so. I realize this leaves a lot of players out since many won't be logged in and such, but like I said, this is only a hot fix. As much as this phrase is over used, I do have a life outside of being a community GM and I simply need more time to get adjusted to my new position (it's been two days, going on to three since I started as a community GM). I have announced in my introduction to the community that my first task is to set rules and procedures when dealing with the community. I quite frankly have not been able to do that. I have been putting out fires, answering questions, and engaging with the community and also simultaneously working on updating and clarifying the rules, in addition to my real life responsibilities. I am by no means complaining as I am enjoying this job immensely, and it cannot compare to the workload of the GMs working on the scripts and such. But I hope you will be able to understand the complexity we are facing.

I am never going to forget my perspective as a player and that is what drives me in my new position as the community GM. My goal is to be organized, open, honest, and transparent as much as possible and practical. So please give me a little more time so that I can get used to my new position and set up some procedures so that things can run smoothly. I can only ask for your patience right now, as I have only been appointed to the position with no time to prepare for the bombardment of responsibilities.

Sincerely,
GMSignBreaker

[LadyPhoenix]

SignBreaker: for an easy patch for the language barrier problem, most players who don't speak English well are part of a guild that consists of players from their culture or speak a similar language. Try to get into contact with the guild leaders of those guilds and see if they can direct you to a representative for their guild that does speak english semi-decently. Then you can give any announcements to those players to translate for you by sending guild mail or telling players in guild chat. If it's something such as game updates, ask these representatives for their forum ID and PM them any important announcements so that they can translate it and post it on the foreign language section. This won't cover all non-english players but it should cover a large amount of them. I personally do this with my guild because I know most don't check the forum or I simplify the english so that it's more easily understandable (my guild is diverse made of players from all cultures) and it seems to work quite well.

[SquirelTime]

what if forum langauge moderators were given the role of translatiing and posting server news in their respective langauge boards??? that would definately be a start and q quick one to implement

[KingLutanius]

Thanks for the quick and honest reply GMSignBreaker, i am well aware that coding anything new from scratch is close to a no-go, and ur dedication in hotfixing issues is quite frankly, commendable considering ur the only community GM atm @@;

LadyPhoenix and Squirel's suggestions are both the current most realistic method of bridging the language barrier between the GMs and the rest of the players atm. I support them despite the potential ingame political issues that may arise should the representative decides to be deceitful.