11-02-2020, 06:17 PM
I'm going to pre-face this with the fact that I've been a guard for a number of years now. What I say will be biased as a result. It's no secret that I've tried to bring change to how the guard function, though my thoughts were kept between myself, and the guards. I think this is a good opportunity to be more vocal about it in a public setting, though. I had previously written a rather extensive letter to Chaos, but almost nothing came from it. I don't intend to copy-paste it here, but I am going to re-use some of the points I made.
My opinion of the current guard system, is that it sucks being a guard.
At present, the First Squad is very little but a pile of sentient security cameras, with no sign of that changing anytime soon. We clock in, stand around, and clock out all via a Discord channel, and sometimes crime happens while we're online. Most of the time, it doesn't, and we're instead called to handle whoever decided to get a little too violent during a spar, or the latest case of 'The Exploding' the nearest orphanage/hospital/whatever has caught in the breeze. Seldom does the First Squad actually do anything important, and the job can largely be summed up to babysitting, as others has put it.
It's boring. Once you become a guard, you automatically join the faction at the highest rank you can be, which is First Squad, automatically denying all the possible potential your character had from growing through the ranks. It's instead replaced by a deep connection to OOC, because now you need to be picture perfect, with a kickass build, or you're letting the rest of the squad down. You're ICly, and OOCly supposed to be the best of the best. Your character is immediately expected to fall in line, and if you're not up to the task, the general consensus is to be disappointed with the individual.
The faction was originally designed to keep a handle on people trying to gank each other in the middle of cities, and that's what its current function is. But this practice, in its current incarnation, feels more OOC than it does IC, not only because of the previously mentioned expectations, but because of the OOC filtering that goes on prior to even signing up. I'm not going to pretend like I wouldn't personally want to keep certain people out of the guard-- because there are people that I don't feel any strong want to interact with, as much as there are people who feel the same towards me. People I personally perceive as unfit for the position.
But I also think this mentality is archaic, and wrong. It's a filter from a time when the faction required a number of 'Good' players to function. We have that number, and have had so for half a decade now. It's time to start swapping out all of the OOC, and replace it with IC, and for that I have a couple of suggestions:
Ranks, Growth, and Dynamic Progression
As I mentioned before, when you get through the trainee program, you're immediately put in as First Squad. I think this is a terrible example of the guard, both ICly, and OOCly. ICly it makes no sense beyond 'This person is stronger than everyone else', which isn't a great basis for holding office. Not unless you ask the Eternia crowd, anyway. And considering we've had both violent thugs, sadists, ex-cons, and what ever else terrible in the ranks, immediately promoted to First Squad, I personally think it would be better to create a proper, dynamic ranking system players can aspire to be promoted through. That way, we also catch people before they cause IC trouble.
For those of you that aren't aware, we actually do have other ranks than First Squad, which guard-players can create characters for. It has the backwards requirement of needing a First Squad character for it though, before you can make one, because a First Squad character is a requirement for every other incarnation of guard, including making guards in other nations.
We see the success of factions like the Blades, or the Dormehan Militia, and how they tend to handle their ranks, and I shake my head at the decision that the same cannot be done for the Imperial Guard. It would take some cooperation internally, but I don't think any of the current guards would complain about having actual reason to play that isn't just standing around, half tabbed out.
Dynamic Roster
It's absolutely no secret that some guards just don't play their guard-characters, and that's fine. They're dealing with something else, or playing other characters, or some third reason. Nobody is forcing anyone to play something they don't want.
However.
What isn't fine is that this, at present, also takes up slots that other people could be filling within a highly active 'Official' faction. Slots that, in my opinion, should be far, far more dynamic in who occupies them. This not only allows new blood to flow freshly into the decaying husk the Imperial Guard currently is, but it also allows people to experience something only really seen as an exclusive opportunity. Eight slots open maybe once every OOC year, and that's quite frankly ridiculous. The roster shouldn't be open to be joined at all hours of the day, but we should, in my opinion, always be looking to recruit new people the guard think might do well.
Player Agency
This is one is important, it's the very thing people want more of in the world. But as it stands, the Imperial Guard has all the other 'Guard'-factions in a stranglehold. We've only relatively recently started allowing players to hold the position of 'Commander' for the guardships in the other lands, but you're still forced to go through the Imperial guard to gain access to these, which currently keeps them completely locked away from other people who wants to join them, despite often being entirely, or nearly abandoned.
Obviously official factions should have some form of oversight, and grand decisions like executions need to be handled appropriately, but I think it's time to allow these factions to stand on their own feet, and do their own recruitment. Given how little activity the other nations see ordinarily, this might inspire more to happen there.
Final Notes:
These are some of the finer points I've wanted through for many, many months. I'm hoping that this thread might actually bring some long-needed change. I have plenty of more points-- the original document was six full pages long, but these are what I'd like to see change the most, from a guard's, and a player's point of view.
My opinion of the current guard system, is that it sucks being a guard.
At present, the First Squad is very little but a pile of sentient security cameras, with no sign of that changing anytime soon. We clock in, stand around, and clock out all via a Discord channel, and sometimes crime happens while we're online. Most of the time, it doesn't, and we're instead called to handle whoever decided to get a little too violent during a spar, or the latest case of 'The Exploding' the nearest orphanage/hospital/whatever has caught in the breeze. Seldom does the First Squad actually do anything important, and the job can largely be summed up to babysitting, as others has put it.
It's boring. Once you become a guard, you automatically join the faction at the highest rank you can be, which is First Squad, automatically denying all the possible potential your character had from growing through the ranks. It's instead replaced by a deep connection to OOC, because now you need to be picture perfect, with a kickass build, or you're letting the rest of the squad down. You're ICly, and OOCly supposed to be the best of the best. Your character is immediately expected to fall in line, and if you're not up to the task, the general consensus is to be disappointed with the individual.
The faction was originally designed to keep a handle on people trying to gank each other in the middle of cities, and that's what its current function is. But this practice, in its current incarnation, feels more OOC than it does IC, not only because of the previously mentioned expectations, but because of the OOC filtering that goes on prior to even signing up. I'm not going to pretend like I wouldn't personally want to keep certain people out of the guard-- because there are people that I don't feel any strong want to interact with, as much as there are people who feel the same towards me. People I personally perceive as unfit for the position.
But I also think this mentality is archaic, and wrong. It's a filter from a time when the faction required a number of 'Good' players to function. We have that number, and have had so for half a decade now. It's time to start swapping out all of the OOC, and replace it with IC, and for that I have a couple of suggestions:
Ranks, Growth, and Dynamic Progression
As I mentioned before, when you get through the trainee program, you're immediately put in as First Squad. I think this is a terrible example of the guard, both ICly, and OOCly. ICly it makes no sense beyond 'This person is stronger than everyone else', which isn't a great basis for holding office. Not unless you ask the Eternia crowd, anyway. And considering we've had both violent thugs, sadists, ex-cons, and what ever else terrible in the ranks, immediately promoted to First Squad, I personally think it would be better to create a proper, dynamic ranking system players can aspire to be promoted through. That way, we also catch people before they cause IC trouble.
For those of you that aren't aware, we actually do have other ranks than First Squad, which guard-players can create characters for. It has the backwards requirement of needing a First Squad character for it though, before you can make one, because a First Squad character is a requirement for every other incarnation of guard, including making guards in other nations.
We see the success of factions like the Blades, or the Dormehan Militia, and how they tend to handle their ranks, and I shake my head at the decision that the same cannot be done for the Imperial Guard. It would take some cooperation internally, but I don't think any of the current guards would complain about having actual reason to play that isn't just standing around, half tabbed out.
Dynamic Roster
It's absolutely no secret that some guards just don't play their guard-characters, and that's fine. They're dealing with something else, or playing other characters, or some third reason. Nobody is forcing anyone to play something they don't want.
However.
What isn't fine is that this, at present, also takes up slots that other people could be filling within a highly active 'Official' faction. Slots that, in my opinion, should be far, far more dynamic in who occupies them. This not only allows new blood to flow freshly into the decaying husk the Imperial Guard currently is, but it also allows people to experience something only really seen as an exclusive opportunity. Eight slots open maybe once every OOC year, and that's quite frankly ridiculous. The roster shouldn't be open to be joined at all hours of the day, but we should, in my opinion, always be looking to recruit new people the guard think might do well.
Player Agency
This is one is important, it's the very thing people want more of in the world. But as it stands, the Imperial Guard has all the other 'Guard'-factions in a stranglehold. We've only relatively recently started allowing players to hold the position of 'Commander' for the guardships in the other lands, but you're still forced to go through the Imperial guard to gain access to these, which currently keeps them completely locked away from other people who wants to join them, despite often being entirely, or nearly abandoned.
Obviously official factions should have some form of oversight, and grand decisions like executions need to be handled appropriately, but I think it's time to allow these factions to stand on their own feet, and do their own recruitment. Given how little activity the other nations see ordinarily, this might inspire more to happen there.
Final Notes:
These are some of the finer points I've wanted through for many, many months. I'm hoping that this thread might actually bring some long-needed change. I have plenty of more points-- the original document was six full pages long, but these are what I'd like to see change the most, from a guard's, and a player's point of view.
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