The DMs have received feedback about some feelings about the recent decisions with the server and the community. While some announcements were made in the past to address concerns, we wanted to elaborate on the reasoning behind some of these decisions and rulings in the hopes to give everyone a better understanding of the method behind our madness.
As a team, we are ever evolving. Like any group or organization, we learn as we do, and we make mistakes along the way. These mistakes help us learn and become better, like anything else. We are human, after all, and we all became staff after years of playing here because we enjoy the server and we want to make it better. We rely on players to give us feedback with how we are doing so we can adjust things like the server and our policies. While we ask for suggestions, we cannot realistically implement them all, but we do listen, and we consider. A lot of discussion happens behind the scenes between us and I can say wholeheartedly that our group is some of the best, fair, and caring DMs I have ever gotten to work with.
We understand sometimes our actions appear like we are targeting an individual or group, or that policy gets written based on the behavior of the minority. None of us operate like that because at the end of the day, we all want to log on and enjoy the server so we can interact with our players. All of our players. Just because our characters might have grievances with other characters does not mean we do not love the players behind them.
And as a DM team, we are always looking for new ways to be better at what we do. We will endeavor to be more transparent on things we do behind the scenes. We apologize if any decisions we’ve made have rubbed anyone the wrong way. We’ve definitely identified some flaws that we need to work on and we are actively looking for ways to fix them. We also understand that what we do isn’t always popular with everyone. All we can do is work with the data we are presented and make the best decisions we can.
Why We Had to Change the Peddlers
We’d like to address the concern about the sudden change to the Peddler, specifically to stop the essence exploit, and explain why it had to happen, as well as the history behind it. While the Peddler is the common NPC you can sell items too, it was never intended to be a major money-maker. Earlier last year, a staff member brought up how the exploit worked but it was also not a well-known exploit, so it was not on the priority list. There also wasn’t a simple fix. Essences were in the same category as other crafting components, so if we blocked one, we blocked them all. They also all shared the same global asset, meaning we couldn’t change any of it without a major overhaul of our crafting/enchanting system. New items would have had to be made and scripts would need to be updated. Since at the time it was not a widely known exploit, we left it alone until we could come up with a solution. It wasn’t a high priority then.
A few months ago, that all changed. Staff members started noticing the Peddler was being flooded with essences to the point it was creating lag. It needed to be fix more than ever, but there was no easy solution. Ignoring it meant the exploit would become the new norm, so we had to act. As a team, we came to the agreement that the only practical way to stop the exploit was to block the Peddler from buying crafting components. We also agreed that this is not the permanent solution and we are still talking about it. It’ll take time, so please be patient with us.
But why do we fix things the way we do? It comes down to visibility: what we see. We spot trends as they happen and discuss if anything needs to be changed. Things like changes to race, class, abilities, and the economy always go through our DM chat first and we decide as a team what needs to change.
We understand that the sequence of the events involving the essence exploit being corrected makes it appear we were targeting a group of players. We’re sorry if anyone feels that way and we have been actively talking about ways to be better at our transparency. While we can’t and won’t publicly announce exploits and when they will be fixed, we all feel we can do a better job at announcing hotfixes and when things change to prevent people from being caught off guard. Again, we apologize. It wasn’t our intent to make anything or anyone feel targeted.
EM Applications – How We Handle Them
Another issue that we’d like to address is how we pick Event Masters and what the process looks like. After an applicant fills out their form and sends it in, the DMs discuss it. A single DM cannot reject an application. It is a team decision. Individual decisions are based on their experience with the player and how other players feel about them. The process can take time since we all want to make an informed decision. Once that is settled, the applicant is accepted or declined based on the vote. If they are declined, a DM contacts the applicant and explains why. Applicants are free to reapply in the future.
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Phew that was a lot! Thank you so much for reading and I hope this help alleviates things. With that said, feel free to contact us directly of any concerns you have. We all want to have fun here and tell stories we are passionate about. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing some great roleplay on the server for the past several years and I hope to get several more. See you all in game.
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