Meme Monday

 by the Meme Team

Home Questing: No Home Questing this Week

by Christopher "Janus" Donnelly

 Hi all,

Things have been keeping me busy this week, so there aren’t results this week, but they will come out soon.  In the meantime though, I am going to ask for some suggestions on tasks you would like to see people do or you would like to participate in.

https://forms.gle/UWbDPCj2R8oEBQvm6

See you next week!

Morning Coffee Break

Got your morning cup of coffee and a few minutes? Great! We're trying out a new feature at the View - we're going to be asking a series of questions and we want to know your answers! The question is posted below. So while you sip your morning beverage of choice, ruminate on this one:

In honor of the time of year when we make rules changes, show your age by telling us a rule that was around when you started playing but isn't around anymore.

Head on back to the Facebook post and let us know in the comments?

Some Notes on the Complaint Review Board

by Jason (Aeston) Rosa

Several years ago, in an unprecedented move, the Event Holders of the Realms put their heads together at a particularly contentious meeting and created the Arbitration Committee, making their best effort to address a glaring need in our community. At the time the decision was very controversial, but despite that I truly believed that heads and hearts were in the right place and it was a sign that our game was moving forward. I wrote about my perspective on the decision in a View post you can find here (the latter of the two articles).

So seeing as I went to such lengths to talk about that earlier turning point in our game, and seeing as well that I am one of the primary architects of it’s replacement, It seemed appropriate for me to introduce the Complaint Review Board and to talk a little bit about the purpose of the committee and my thoughts behind creating it.

First let me give you a basic understanding of the body. It won’t take long to explain, the concept is incredibly simple. The Complaint Review Board is a group of elected individuals who have the duty to receive complaints about rules and ethics violations from the player base of the Realms, much in the same way as the Arbitration Committee did. Upon receiving a complaint it is their responsibility to investigate all sides of it through the collection of evidence, interviews, and whatever other methods are appropriate given the situation. All throughout there are extremely high standards for maintaining the anonymity of everyone involved. When the investigation has been completed, the board creates a detailed report that collects all of the information they learned and passes it on to the Event Holders. At that point the complaint is adjudicated by the Event Holders either at the yearly EHC or at an emergency session of the EHC if the Event Holders decide that it’s a matter that has to be weighed quickly.

I’m sure it’s obvious at first glance what is similar and what is different between the Complaint Review Board and the Arbitration Committee. The proposal was long and it was mostly procedural rules, so rather than explain it all in excruciating detail, I’d rather try to express why we designed this new body and why I think it is a step in the right direction for the Realms.

First, please understand that I served on the AC for three of the five years of its existence. In the two years I was not on the committee I had very close friends who were, and so I was never fully detached from how it affected its members. I can tell you with no hyperbole that it was the most stressful and emotionally damaging duty I have ever undertaken for the community. It was time consuming beyond reasonable measure. It suffered irreparably from a lack of direction and established procedure. It created immense conflict and permanently damaged relationships. I say this pointedly and unapologetically. If you are under the impression that the Arbitration Committee was capable of doing what we as a community hoped it would do then you were not close enough to it to understand its glaring faults.

The Arbitration Committee was an experiment. It was a bold one made with the best of intentions. And when you run an experiment, especially for the first time, it is not uncommon that you fail. But in that failure there is always a lot to learn. 

Education (which as most of you know is my profession) is similarly a field that doesn’t have a lot of obvious right answers. It is a vocation that relies heavily on experimenting; trying your best to do impossible things, assessing what works and what does not, gathering evidence, and then using that evidence as best as you can to make the adjustments and assumptions needed to try again. It is in that spirit that I tried to design the concept of the Complaint Review Board. Yes, the Arbitration Committee did not work as intended. But it also produced five years of data and experiences which I and my co-writers tried to use to create something that would work better.

The AC started with no standardized procedures. At its inception we didn’t even know what we didn’t know about establishing any kind of norms or expectations. And without clear directions to follow, each year it felt like the group was making up the rules from scratch, sowing confusion and unintentionally creating unfair situations. The CRB, however, has every aspect of how it works codified as precisely as possible. The members of the board will not suffer from nonexistent direction but instead know exactly what is expected of them and how to fulfil their responsibilities. The AC was mired with misunderstandings about what they could or should communicate, leading to obfuscation, misinterpretations, and overall nurtured distrust. The CRB has clear instructions about precisely what they report, with a focus on both protection of the individuals in a complaint and also complete transparency with their processes. The AC made five people the judge, jury, and executioner, and expected them to mete out their own version of justice as best as they could, only to be met with anger and disappointment from the people they were trying to serve. It was too heavy a burden to place on so few people and it broke members of the committee in ways that they could not foresee. The CRB moves that weighty responsibility to a larger decision making body where a chorus of opinions and perspectives will be brought to bear to help reach the best and fairest conclusions possible.

Is the Complaint Review Board the best possible solution for what we need as a community? I can say with almost absolute certainty that it is not. Arriving at the best solution will certainly be a lengthy process of doing exactly what I’ve tried to do here. We will work with this new system, gather data about what it is capable of doing and what flaws it contains, and redesign it or reinvent it when it’s time for it to evolve. I am confident that this is a significant step in the right direction.

Years ago, in the article I linked above talking about the contention of creating the Arbitration Committee, I closed with this sentiment:

To some of you I seem like an old veteran player, but trust me, compared to many in that room, I am inexperienced and naive, so I probably lack the standing to express this. Nevertheless, I am truly proud that everyone there tried their best and showed one another that they deeply love the Realms and that they deeply care about one another and the community. Expressing it like that, in that moment, was a rare and special thing. I understand the perspective of those of you who can't agree with the decision or the method that came from that meeting, but please, if you can, try to be proud of them too.

Once again this change comes from people who deeply love the Realms and who deeply care about one another and the community. I am extremely grateful to the many people who contributed to the authoring and fine-tuning of this proposal, some more than me. Ryan W, Pat B, Pi F, Angie G, Tucker N, Alex C, Matt B, Justin M, and Renee B. I am deeply thankful to both the Players Meeting and the Event Holders Meeting for passing the proposal, both times unanimously in a fitting homage to how the AC was passed years ago. I am very proud of the eight individuals who were selected to be the first Complaint Review Board. On it are some young passionate Realmsies, both event holders and players, who the community will rely deeply on in the coming years. Joining them is a diverse cast of veterans who can utilize their wealth of experiences to help them accomplish their tasks. This job is likely not going to be an easy one, but I offer you my unwavering support and appreciation for your willingness to attempt it.

It’s no secret that as a large, loosely-structured, diverse game the Realms faces and has always faced challenges that sometimes seem insurmountable. I can only offer you the broadness of my experience when I tell you that I have seen the best us when we come together to try in earnest to solve those problems and create a place that we are all proud to call our home. 

In service,

Jason Rosa

Animal Companion Competition: Surprise Challenge

ACC Challenge C - Surprise (hey look, a distraction)

The third challenge our competitors took on...

Surprise Challenge: You’re at a feast with your person, and they have decided they desperately need an entire tray of the next hor d'oeuvres (ok, let’s be honest, it’s probably the soup tarts) for themselves.  They have given you the vital task of drawing the attention of anyone nearby so they can do so without being noticed.  (you’re getting a cut of the noms in exchange of course) How do you do it?

We had some truly surprising distractions sent in and you won’t believe what some contestants would do for the best food at the feast! 

First up, Kedol Maas has several distractions ready to go:

“I am best boy! So I be cute to distract while Janus gets noms! First, I find other dog, and have it carry me around! How can anyone resist Corgi-Wolf teamup!”

“Next, if that wasn’t enough of a distraction...I take something, but try looking cute at same time.  Something people don’t want me to take from them.”

“Finally, if that doesn’t work, I start howling in pain and acting sick! Nobody can resist this!  Also...maybe i’ll get bellyrubs this way!”

Cressida: I NEED to give bellyrubs to the best boy!!! Even if that looks suspiciously like my box of Thin Mints...

Cimone: Thin Mints… but puppy dog eyes… but Thin Mints… but puppy dog eyes… 

Next up is HelperPink:

Watch as HelperPink distracts Bright with a dance as DaniDanger grabs pancakes.

Cimone: Smooth moves, dancing and otherwise.  A solid distraction for a delicious heist.  (Can I have some of the pancakes?)

Cressida: I love dancing so this would work well to get my attention off the delicious pancakes being prepared. 

Malcolm Mallard had some clever ideas this week to make sure the noms were achieved:

“For this challenge I have two ideas. Pretty much every feast will support at least one. The first is that there must be some sort of sweet bread, or biscuits, and well, I am a mallard, and I like bread. Steal some off of people's plates, and along with my previous demonstrated noise making, I do a great distraction. If somehow, there is not any bread, then there must be some sort of soup or punch (Though I would prefer it not to be poisoned) that I could turn into a bird bath, and while I am more refined than either of these, occasionally it is fun to make the bipeds freak.”

Cressida: Bread and punch are staple food/drink items at any feast so I think both ideas would work very well. Just be careful around the punch at Black and White!

Cimone: Maybe go for a single bowl of soup? You don’t want to court the wrath of a Feast-O-Crat by messing up an entire pot of soup. Although watching an angry cook is very distracting.  (just a bit more dangerous to you than I think you realize)

Aara has a trick up their chainmail for this challenge that is sure to get them the best noms:

“A distraction, you say? Who can resist these puppy-dog eyes?”

Cimone: And the wolf one two punch strikes again.  (my, what a big snoot you have Aara)

Cressida: *Stares into eyes* Yes Aara is best pupper. Take all the food. 

Jharru mulled over this challenge and came up with several somewhat approved of solutions:

“Make a distraction so Aranel can get food? Alright, sounds easy enough. And for a worthy cause too, Aranel has trouble finding food to eat at feasts sometimes, so if there's something that won't upset her stomach for once, she deserves all of it! So, I figure I have a few options here, but I'm not sure what to choose... It might depend on the room and the people in it, you know?

Plan A would be to just be really cute and try to talk to the people around the food table and get them to look at me not at her. I'd try to strike up a conversation with whoever might be watching, making sure to be *extra* cute so they pay attention to me. Aranel says I have big expressive eyes and it's easy for me to manipulate people with them if I wanted to.

Plan B, if no one fell for my cute routine, would be to make up an emergency to get all the adventurers to rush out of the tavern. I heard there's a little girl in a nearby village that needs rescuing! *wink* By the time everything got sorted out, I'm sure Aranel would be able to eat her fill.

Plan C, which Aranel says she does *not* approve of, but who cares, is to do what dragons do best, and light things on fire. What?? Don't look at me like that, my human needs food!”

Jharru giving his cutest expression:

Jharru practicing his fire making skills:

Cressida: Gonna agree with Aranel here, fire starting is frowned upon in the feast hall, but if an emergency arose outside the hall I would be out there ready to help and far from the food.

Cimone:  … could your fire plan turn into getting someone to do a hibachi show?  That seems less destructive and equally distracting.

Our final challenge response this week comes from Cleopatra in her pursuit of Soup Tarts:

“SOUP TARTS SOUP TARTS SOUP TARTS I WANT SOUP TARTS!!!!!”

At the mere question of “do you want a soup tart?” Cleopatra immediately proceeds to run into the middle of the room while screaming about soup tarts. Onlookers are confused about how this tiny handmade-looking lion cub can scream so loudly or run so fast. She manages to trip a few servers, who are stunned but uninjured. Hildegard, in the guise of helping a server or healing a limb, manages to grab a tray for her table. Neither she nor her companion has ever had a soup tart, but Cleo will go nuts for any kind of food.

(For those wondering, the foiled dish in the video is cottage pie.)

Cimone: Meep, everyone quick, pay attention to your feet not the sideboard so you don’t get knocked over.  The fact that she doesn’t know what the food she’s yelling about even is makes it all the better.  

Cressida: The concept of yelling about the item so loud and running around haphazardly through the hall is quite the strategy. I wouldn’t be looking at the tarts when I could be knocked over any second! 

We were shocked by some of these surprising distractions, but truly all of them would succeed in diverting our attention so a certain someone could sneak away a fresh tray. But it's not what we think that matters, it’s what you at home thinks! Which of these distractions would take you by surprise? What would you steal an entire platter of at a feast? Let us know in the comments!

Make sure to return next week for the ever important Talent Showcase!

Meme Monday

 by the Meme Team

Home Questing: The 25th Task

by Christopher "Janus" Donnelly

Here is the form for you to enter for trivia:  https://forms.gle/5sWxNahPWRrfc2WC7

If you would prefer to send something to me directly rather than uploading to youtube or some other video hosting site, please email it to techiemikey@gmail.com.

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Transcript:

Hi all, Janus here and welcome to Home questing, the 25th task.  This week I’m asking you to answer some trivia.  You have until Friday at noon to sign up, and your time starts now.

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