OotRB and YOU!

[Kozgugore]

In a very natural brainfart, I decided to set up this thread in order to see what there can be done for us to improve our members' playing experience even more. As of the past few months, we have seen a significant increase in active players, which is absolutely great to see. As Peter Parker's beloved uncle used to say, however, with great power comes great responsibility, so it falls to all of us to make sure to keep the playing experience a fun and ever-increasing one for us as well.

Therefore, I'd hereby like to ask all of you for feedback on the tribe. Was there something in particular that you liked during your time here? Is there something you'd like to see more often? Were there any particular cases that you -weren't- fond of? Anything that needs improving, or something you'd like to see added to the tribe? I know not a lot of people visit these forums regularly, but I'm still hoping some people would be willing to cooperate in all this, in order to make everyone's playing experience here even better!

[Greggar]

Hrm, I need more thought on this in order to give alot on feedback, but the first thing to come to mind is the RP focus, this is one of the most succesful rp creating things for the guild since we lack a permanent rp spot. And a very good step towards more random rp when no events are planned. However, during non event days random rp needs a big push in order to happen for alot of orcsies. I noticed that if 2 orcies are present at a rp focus without event, more will slowly follow. ( especially if high ranked orcs are) But not alot.

A suggestion of mine in general is to reintroduce more events for the tribe itself, I can remember not too long ago that we had alot of events regarding the tribe itself. Like weekly tavern drink, games every now and then. Some competitions and all that.

But I'm thinking about those things myself now though, just a bit occupied with upcoming exams.

[Garmegin]

Lets start off with the bad 'cos I'm a bastard like that. The only thing I can of in that regard is the lack of proper...how should I say it...interactivity? We need orcs to bond more easily than now. And more importantly we need orcs to take the initiative about things. From Garm's little talk with Koz I've come to think that's one of our aims. Now how to make that happen? The tutoring part was a good choice to make sure there's some bondin' between orcs but we need more than that. And it does little for inspiring initiative. My idea is this. Every once in a while, when there's no wars to be taken care of for example, the tribe can freely arrange itself into large or small groups. The goal of these groups is kind of sandbox. The idea is that they'll be able to travel wherever they want and do whatever they want. They could simply get to know each other and relax or they could strive to do great deeds for the tribe. Whatever they choose there should be bonding for sure. And these groups shouldn't just be led by someone high ranked. Everyone will be able to take the initiative for everything. People would like the group to get SOMEWHERE so they'll feel they should do something to make it happen.

I can't think of any other bad things right now except maybe the lack of proper use of tactics in battle. The battles in Ghostlands were mostly just rushing about head on. But just one event is probably not enough for me to judge something and that's not exactly a "tribe thing" but a "war thing."

Lets move on to the good. Alright this is a bit harder since everything else is good. The RP focus as already mentioned does wonders. But perhaps we could make it just a little bit more attractive? Not sure how. I know I strut about on our RP focus whenever I can tho'. There's very frequent events which is great. Oh, I know about the RP focus! We can have different tasks about reinforcing the place or doing something in the nearby lands! Right back to the other stuff. Hmm. Best moments with the Tribe must be when we charge into the enemy with worgs.

That's pretty much all. Oh! And! Need more BANNERS.

[Gnash]

I am pretty satisfied with how the Orcs of the Red Blade operate at the moment. I'm also pretty satisfied with the amount of random RP.

There's an idea I'd like to push forward, however. What about we give orcs a chance to form warbands? Let's say some individuals (a small number -- five at most?) affiliate themselves with a particular warband, with an own distinct nickname that relates to an accomplishment or a characteristic; let's say the 'Red Dogs' e.g.

In that setting, these 'warbands' have their own tasks and missions which I think could lead to some interesting role-play. All based on your own effort of course. This is just a way of instigating MORE role-play for those who have an interest to; so your warband's members should be responsible for that themselves.

Just brainstorming here. This actually just came to mind when reading some posts in this thread and the concern that there should be more random RP. This seemed a good solution.

[Greggar]

We already did something like that long ago, Gnash. Those were different groups inside the tribe with each their leader and type of classes. after a while they all became competitive towards eachother in very bad ways, and even hostile to the chieftain.

[Okiba]

I am pretty satisfied with how the Orcs of the Red Blade operate at the moment. I'm also pretty satisfied with the amount of random RP.

There's an idea I'd like to push forward, however. What about we give orcs a chance to form warbands? Let's say some individuals (a small number -- five at most?) affiliate themselves with a particular warband, with an own distinct nickname that relates to an accomplishment or a characteristic; let's say the 'Red Dogs' e.g.

In that setting, these 'warbands' have their own tasks and missions which I think could lead to some interesting role-play. All based on your own effort of course. This is just a way of instigating MORE role-play for those who have an interest to; so your warband's members should be responsible for that themselves.

Just brainstorming here. This actually just came to mind when reading some posts in this thread and the concern that there should be more random RP. This seemed a good solution.

that warband idea is rather nice actually gnash, i'd personally love something like that. like a sub regiment thing. the mongols did a similar thing and split their forces into groups of 5000 riders each, called a 'tuman'. worked great for them!

however greggar may be half right. perhaps if each is led by an officer, and rivalry is avoided somehow, and each group is just a warband, not a specialised group. it could work.

[Gnash]

They wouldn't be specialized at all. And they shouldn't have a decisive presence in tribe affairs, since they're just warriors organized in subregiments and not a political organ.

Maybe it's a good idea to restrict them to non-officers only; only Nag'ogar and Oathbound can be a part of these warbands, and any Nag'ogar that gets promoted should leave his/hers. This would cancel out any too destructive role-play.

EDIT: And I don't think incorporating officers in this is a good thing. Like I said the size of these warbands would be quite small. I was personally thinking of about an average size of five orcs. Firstly, that kind of special attention of any given officer would be too much. Secondly, officers becoming the leaders of these warbands would let them fall into the pattern of a power-struggle, because the officers are so high up the hierarchy. With low-ranked members this wouldn't be an issue since they still have a very clear hierarchy of people above them to whom they need to answer to.

[Okiba]

well put Gnash :>

i like the idea then.

[Gnar]

The warbands idea is interesting - but would it become a bit isolation-ist?  As in, only really interacting with your warband and treating the rest of the tribe as less?  That's where I think it might lead to a bit of friction - if warband A goes on more interesting missions than warband B, then it might cause a bit of OOC drama.

As a new blood, its a bit difficult to suggest ideas - because I'm not sure what's been tried and what hasn't, what the tribe has done and hasn't.

One issue I have seen, which only affects the minority, is that a lot of the focus in the last month or so has been on world PvP (which don't get me wrong, is excellent) - but the issue is that anyone sub-80 struggles to play a part.  You could be roleplaying a veteran warrior who is tough as old boots, but because you have 6k health instead of 26k, you go down in less than 2 seconds every time.  Obviously that's an drawback of the game and world pvp - but at the moment it's often a 50-50 decision whether I'd be better using my time not roleplaying and instead questing to get to 80.  I wonder if there's potential try to arrange a seperate (at the same time though) battle for those who aren't 80.  I know the most recent event hasn't been run by red blade - but I thought that might be an idea.  Or arrange a patrol of the non-80s for a distraction mission to another local area that they can fight in (without being constantly attacked by the local mobs from miles away). 

For example, in the recent plaguelands campaign, the sub-80's could have gone on a scouting mission down through Silverpine or Alterac.  The sub-80s from the other side could have gone on a similar defense mission of Southshore or whatever.  If no opposing patrol was arranged, our sub-80s could just roleplaying "winning the hearts and minds" of locals (i.e. cutting our hearts and chopping off heads of anyone who crossed their path).  Or just gone to set up supply lines from the "local" Orc town of Hammerfall.... which leads me on to my next idea.

Another thought I had was whether Red Blade has ever done other avenues of interaction with guilds - trading, for example.  Restocking on items such as bandages, food, ammo, etc - but IC.  Something like a quartermaster or two for the tribe.  A "Jim'll fix it" who is sent to get things sorted and obtain goods - this could be a natural position for a willing oathbound below 80, perhaps.

Finally, an IC presence now and again in Durotar wouldn't be bad, in my mind either.  Not a recruitment event, as the tribe obviously doesn't need that.  But just something like a fortnightly or monthly patrol of durotar and the barrens.  A bit of relaxed "checking on defenses" type RP.

[Gnash]

Regarding the warbands, like I said these would be mainly self-reliant. The general idea is that the MEMBERS of these warbands come up with missions themselves. I don't think Kozgugore or any of the other officers will discourage that. This will pretty much cancel out that drama factor you've mentioned.

I agree with some of your ideas, but again I'd like to encourage a bit of initiative. You're in no way not able to rally some orcs yourself. If you ask the officers if it's okay to go  on a scouting mission with some low-leveled orcs, I don't think any of them will say you can't. Secondly, it's stressful to officers that EVERY single role-play initiative is expected to be theirs -- they are players too and I can imagine them wanting to blow of some steam from time to time. Anyway, if you just ask around for some orcs yourself to join your event, a lot will be there.

And the W-PvP overkill is pretty much a result of pre-determined events that have been initiatives by other guilds. Not that I mind, but I just wanted to point out that it's not all directly in our hands.

[Claws]

Ok My two pennies worth.

There is not any dungeon runs done any more with just guild members for the fun of it.
I do not mean the normal couples / pairs / partys that play as one when they are on.
I mean the spur of the moment stuff like " OK who fancies a look around such and such any takers" type of thing were it is kept very light hearted and just enjoying each others company no ranks no yes sir no sir.
Keep it all RP but have a laugh when some body does a boo boo .
Give pay back to them end of level bosses that you had to keep hacking away at to beat and more often then not get wiped so many times you lost all interest in carrying on.
May be once a week set up a different dungeon take your low levels in to get the nice gear for them.

There is to much standing around as a tribe beating chests in the name of RP (Which is fun in its self at times) and not enough PLAYING the game as a group. 

My Veiw

[Garmegin]

Ah, I remembered one more thing. IC guild chat. Seriously, I want some sense to it. I got to have an excuse to think of scouts deep in enemy territory reporting directly to the Chieftain as anything else than meta-gaming. =/ This could be shamanism (some sort of "power center" that connects us?), engineering nonsense or we could nerf it to an around the campfire thing. Which means no scouts reporting while in enemy territory of course.

And on the topic of banners! As of writing this, my Trial of the Champion has unlocked and I'll finally be able to get an orgrimmar banner. So I hereby proclaim myself BANNERMASTER of the Tribe. I shall keep us always at 100% banner efficiency! I SHALL PLANT A BANNER WHENEVER IT IS OFF COOLDOWN, OUR BANNERS WILL FLOOD THE WORLD!

[Gorewolf]

Ah, I remembered one more thing. IC guild chat. Seriously, I want some sense to it. I got to have an excuse to think of scouts deep in enemy territory reporting directly to the Chieftain as anything else than meta-gaming. =/ This could be shamanism (some sort of "power center" that connects us?), engineering nonsense or we could nerf it to an around the campfire thing. Which means no scouts reporting while in enemy territory of course.

And on the topic of banners! As of writing this, my Trial of the Champion has unlocked and I'll finally be able to get an orgrimmar banner. So I hereby proclaim myself BANNERMASTER of the Tribe. I shall keep us always at 100% banner efficiency! I SHALL PLANT A BANNER WHENEVER IT IS OFF COOLDOWN, OUR BANNERS WILL FLOOD THE WORLD!

The IC guild chat is a spirit thing set up by the shamans, don't recall exactly how it works since I was half asleep at the time *smirks* but yes, spirit thing! would be good to let new players know about that since I didn't get it right away either.

[Kozgugore]

I was going to wait for more responses to show up in this thread, but since so many points have been brought forward already, I figure I might as well give the wheel a little spin myself.

Some very good points have been raised, and although I don't think I can address all of them in just one measly post, I'll do my best to try and do some of the suggestions some justice.

Starting with Gnash' idea of war bands. This is actually a concept that I've discussed with some old officers quite a few years ago, back when I wasn't Chieftain myself yet, I believe. The idea was that a party of about five orcs total, led by one orc of their own choice, would form one group and will be able to go out and do missions of their own choosing or, in times of events, whatever they're ordered to. This would, indeed, create more RP and form bonds between the orcs in those groups.

We eventually scrapped the idea, however. Not only because of the previously mentioned "tension" that might arise between different groups, but also because we simply had too few active members for such a thing back in those days. Not to mention dividing orcs into corpses or companies or such would be more of a human thing and not very Horde-like. With the recent activity taking a peak again though, we could consider making use of the opportunity and seeing whether or not such a thing will work out well. Perhaps some more ideas will pop up in this thread over the week.

I -do- want to add, however, that everyone has -always- been free to organize their own events, whenever they would want to. Regardless of rank, orcs are always free to pick up their own initiative and slap something on the calendar if they would want to. If need be, they're free to ask any officer for aid or such as well.

Another point I've seen coming back a few times here is the lack of "normal" events, and a lot of WPvP events taking place as of late. In my opinion, this is really a very situational thing, since we have had several months before this that didn't involve a single WPvP event. We had the Wetlands campaigns to take a break from all that, but against our expectations, we were called out for one campaign to the other by other guilds shortly afterwards. I myself wouldn't mind some more random RP again, and I've already promised to myself that the tribe will be returning to Durotar/the Barrens after this whole Plaguelands thing is over in order to "expand" the tribe, so to say. For example, the shaman of the tribe aren't very able to gather a shaman moot together with all this war going around. Heading back to Durotar will offer this kind of opportunities as well. Rest assured I'll try and organize some less war-like events in due time, though as I mentioned before, any member is always free to organize something of his own!

I know there's a lot more that's been laid down on the table here, but I'll lay off any more yap for now. I can see this reply is getting a little too big for anyone's reading pleasure as it is, but I'll make sure to give all ideas some thought.

[Moggrash]

I want more cookies...