Discovery Gaming Community

Hey all, it's that guy who stopped playing the game three weeks ago. No, I'm still not playing, and I'm not necessarily saying I am going to be playing again. But if I do, I will be taking back leadership of Core|. This is not a coup. This is something the HC, the members and the overall community has been desiring for a long time. This stupid, petty and harmful restriction needs to go. Whilst I was gone Implosion kept the faction on life support and motivated the rest of the members with the promise that once I was back things would be like the old days. Unfortunately at first there was much turbulence, which caused him to burn out and demotivate himself completely. Eventually the ban was lifted, but it came along with a restriction that pretty much shut down the party before it even started.

But I've been reading things on Skype, people are bored/unhappy, and looking at both Core and general activity levels and I've had a spark of motivation to creep back onto the forum and make a statement after talking to Lambda. And after all, I did create this faction.

In the past month I've been out of touch with how Omicron activity is. When I was still 'around' things were pretty dead and stagnant. People are telling me that it's still the same. I've noticed people making events in Omicron Xi which is good. However, speaking from experience here, purely event based activity is an indicator that a region's activity is unsustainable.

There's something that I like to call the "three levels of activity generation":
*Level one is organic, sustainable, ambient activity created via a player's own willingness to log without a third party motivator. For example, a player logging to mine ore out of his own volition, not because someone told him to. This is the most ideal and healthy form of activity generation. Omicrons lack this heavily.
*Level two is spontaneous activity created via motivators and leaders yelling at their members or other players through Skype chats etc, creating a point of interest in a system, whereby another faction/leader would suddenly notice a cluster of ships in that system and then alert his or her members about it. This activity is somewhat artificial, and somewhat sustainable, but dangerously reliant on that individual(s) being present and motivated in order to continuously sustain that activity. The benefits of this activity generation is leaders can weave in diverse and interesting RP context into each encounter. The potential downside is that it's almost all PvP related activity. This is how, classically, the Omicrons worked. "waa waa this is metagaming" - the other alternative is a dead a region? It was a system that worked incredibly well in the past with the old forum playerlist, but unfortunately the near-sighted complaints of a few caused the restructuring of an entire framework that had more negative consequences than positive benefits.
*Level three is when activity is created almost purely through events. This can create great bursts of activity, however it's not consistent and not entirely sustainable. It feels very artificial, as the activity is pre-planned. This is not an ideal form of activity generation as it lacks longevity.

I'm going to be brutally honest here. This faction lapsed into a coma with a Heavy Decision. TBH this mod began to die with a Heavy Decision. I'll do 2 cents on that another time though, Core is the topic here.

Core and the Omicrons were at their APEX before I was banned. Yeah I know some of you kiddos are going to crawl in here and say "neeeeeeeeeeeh lyth ur wrong omicorns wurnt active cus of u DX". People, the proof is in the flipping pudding. Just look at activity graphs or even the playerlist itself in a comparison from when I was leading to when I was not. Me and my peeps were maxing out the player count. I mean previously I was trying to be modest as to not trigger people, but it's time to administer the cold hard facts. My coordination and motivation tactics, combined with the help of eager and motivated members and individuals turned one of what used to be the least active region in the mod to the most active. One of the deadest factions into one of the most active. When I made Core people told me it was a useless effort and it wouldn't go anywhere for aforementioned reasons. It makes me chuckle when I look back on that. Core| itself was a heavily driven and motivated collaborative effort that turned the norms on their head and created bountiful amounts of activity.

And what was my reward for going the extra mile with the blue name? A ban, followed by very critical demonization of myself personally and achievement wise. I put in blood, sweat, tears and time into the mod and the community, in order to promote and cultivate it's longevity, and my reward for my hard labour was being shown the door and quite frankly being treated like crap. People wonder why so many leaders in this community turn bitter and sour, and why they especially become so demotivated. There is NO REWARD in working as a leader. You (can) work harder than any other coloured name and do a stellar job but your efforts will never be praised at an official level. I've never had an admin tell me I've done a good job. Speaking to other leaders, they haven't told me they've been praised for what they do by the staff either. It's mostly constant scrutiny and lamentation. The biggest hypocrisy is how other coloured names like to remind people they are doing 'volunteer' work, and as they are not being paid they shouldn't be held to any accountable standards. Yet leaders have the spotlight on them 24/7, and if they make even one small slip up they're suddenly dragged into a green room and threatened with a ban, all their faction assets being obliterated, and so forth.

But then you ask, "why do we do it?". Our unparalleled love and dedication for our faction and our members is what motivates us and keeps us going. I barely cared about my own experience and would log even when I didn't want to because people in my faction wanted something to do. I cared, simply.

Our system in regards to leaders needs reforms, but like I said previously I'd prefer to touch upon this later as this is about Core.

I would like to help create change and revert this horrible overall stagnation and decay that has afflicted this community in the past year, starting with reviving Core| and the Omicrons. I want activity back in this mod again like days of old. I want to undo all the toxicity that has sprung up recently and make the community something for people to be proud of. But to do that, I will need the help and assistance of the community and leaders and players in that region. Egos and grudges need to be put aside for the sake of longevity and health. I have been brainstorming a programme to help create structured and engaging activity that tries to make use of all three activity levels, and I would like other local groups to get involved. Things are dying but I think with the right internal work there could be a positive change to reverse that status.

We are cogs in a greater machine design to promote the longevity and health of this mod and community. We all have a special purpose. Mine was creating activity and scenarios for players to partake in. If I cannot meet that purpose, then what is the point in my existence here. I want to help, but there is only one way I can help. Otherwise, what is the point. I might as well play for myself or, y'know, follow the trend these days which is trying to collect as much pixel power for yourself as you can before the ship finally sinks.

The difference between a good faction and a bad faction is that in a good faction, the members pick their leader.

#makeomicronsgreatagain