Rough Koster: Community Cookbook
Useful material for moderators of Picaba, Habr, urbanists, bureaucrats, colonists on Mars / Moon and all those who plan to rule this (or any other) world. Word of Rafa Koster, legend of game devil, Ultima Online, Star Wars Galaxies, gamification, author of the book “A Theory of Fun”.
With all these conversations about what the administrator or designer of the virtual world can or cannot do in terms of setting the tone and enforcing etiquette in the virtual community, we completely forgot about the community itself. So let's talk today about what you, your friends, your town, your playmates or your guild can do to become a stronger (and more fun!) Community.
First of all, communication is important. If your guild does not yet have a web page, bulletin board, newsletter, or email list, you lose sight of the most important factor in building connections in the community. A very good tactic is to choose the person who is always the first to tell about the latest gossip and make him responsible for maintaining the e-mail list. The great advantage of an e-mail list or mailing list is that they are not passive - they are looking for a member of the community and attracting it.
Bet on a demonstration of the contributions of participants on any forum that you have, whether it is a web page, e-mail or your tavern in the game. If you have in mind a person who plays with you all the time and is a good role player, ask him to place stories in the game books that will be in the tavern. If you have someone creative in the team, try to post new portraits of characters on the web page of your town every week. Solo lyric concerts in taverns or in the town square can be great events, and you can also make them competitive if you want. Until UO starts supporting music creation and drawing pictures in the game (which is actually the design goal), you will have to do it outside the game, but you can still provide pointers to web pages from in-game books and signs on homes.
')
If you are driving a web page, you can create more than just a list. The registry itself does not very well present your group to other people. A list of character stories — whether RP or not — will create a shared story for the group and help newcomers enter the context of the community. If you want to contribute to this, try to highlight awards in your group for the best profile or the best addition to the “group history” this week. Most cases of an excellent role-playing game are told only in the ephemeral media, on original electronic boards of honor, while in fact you need to create and enrich the context of the game world itself. (Hi guys, you're on the Crossroads of Britannia Tales board - would you like to make an in-game version of each of your stories and poems?)
And, of course, as soon as a stronger sense of belonging to a group appears, some form of “tribal distinguishing feature” helps a lot. The guilds of UO realized this very early and agreed on the color of their clothes. The guild system now supports displaying guild abbreviations above the name. Use both of these features as much as possible - even if it is just one spot of color on one small piece of clothing - because they serve as an instant identification of friends and enemies. If you want to go even further, create ritual greetings, passwords, etc., equivalent to "secret handshakes."
You must have group leadership functions. But since UO groups vary considerably in organization and type, I cannot describe too much specificity. One of the great joys of UO is to see how various social structures have evolved. However, whatever structure you are engaged in, it is important to somehow identify the people who play a leading role. Of course, the guild system allows the use of names, but for those groups that are not suitable for guilds, an identifier may possibly be a piece of clothing that only one person usually wears. A great way to unleash leadership potential is to ask people to help with recruiting and mentoring new group members.
It is very important for your group to have a mission statement, a code of conduct, a reason and a way to resolve conflicts. Many guilds break up because of unclear chains of command, disagreements about the guild’s basic philosophy and other similar problems that can usually be avoided with a strong leadership structure and a strong group identity. However, you also need to make sure that your structure can grow. Provide your group members with mechanisms to change the rules.
Everyone familiar with Fight Nights knows how incredibly valuable periodic events are. If you have a guild that plays regularly, or a tavern that works every night, and you don’t do something like that, you are missing a great opportunity. Here is what you should do:
Do not neglect the value of contests and competitions - the winners, of course, feel great, and this allows you to place another person on your webpage and specify another name or story in your newsletter, which creates even more links in the community. And, of course, if a player comes to your group, offering a possible event, work with him to try to arrange this event!
Along with this, rituals are very important. In the past, UO guilds have come up with some really wonderful initiation rituals (placing candles in a dark room in order, checking uniforms, ritual performances ...). But the forums can be much more. Consider the Beefeater rituals in the Tower of London with keys that are handed at certain times, and so on. Such things can be done in cities and not only. Be sure to perform a ritual to confirm the new mayor after the election! And if this can be realized, then try to create an initiation in the guild in your city, when a member of the community reaches a certain goal of mastery, on which he worked.
A very important ritual is, of course, holidays. Celebrate them! Do not think that you should be limited only to the real world. Holidays are defined in UO, which are displayed as events in the calendar. But you are not limited to them.
You should not, even if you are incorrigible roleviki, recognize only in-game events. Birthday is also an opportunity for the ceremony, arrange a party when a player gets married or when the player has an anniversary. Give in-game gifts, as well as voice your best wishes on the sidelines. Any goal-oriented player can come up with a reason that may coincide with a real date.
Here are just a few ideas on how to make your group stronger. As your group, guild, city, tavern or anything else grows, be sure to publish information about its existence and send your events and main news to news sites and in the official calendar of events. The power of virtual worlds is interaction, and people need to know about you in order to interact with you in any meaningful way. Collaborate with like-minded sites and, if you can, suggest placing character pages for group members. Also make connections with other groups in your game server as well as in other places, as you can exchange ideas and resources.
Some work is required, but you will find that the bonds that you form are very real, and the pleasure of playing will only grow with each passing day. Enjoy.
- Designer Dragon
1998
With all these conversations about what the administrator or designer of the virtual world can or cannot do in terms of setting the tone and enforcing etiquette in the virtual community, we completely forgot about the community itself. So let's talk today about what you, your friends, your town, your playmates or your guild can do to become a stronger (and more fun!) Community.
First of all, communication is important. If your guild does not yet have a web page, bulletin board, newsletter, or email list, you lose sight of the most important factor in building connections in the community. A very good tactic is to choose the person who is always the first to tell about the latest gossip and make him responsible for maintaining the e-mail list. The great advantage of an e-mail list or mailing list is that they are not passive - they are looking for a member of the community and attracting it.
Bet on a demonstration of the contributions of participants on any forum that you have, whether it is a web page, e-mail or your tavern in the game. If you have in mind a person who plays with you all the time and is a good role player, ask him to place stories in the game books that will be in the tavern. If you have someone creative in the team, try to post new portraits of characters on the web page of your town every week. Solo lyric concerts in taverns or in the town square can be great events, and you can also make them competitive if you want. Until UO starts supporting music creation and drawing pictures in the game (which is actually the design goal), you will have to do it outside the game, but you can still provide pointers to web pages from in-game books and signs on homes.
')
If you are driving a web page, you can create more than just a list. The registry itself does not very well present your group to other people. A list of character stories — whether RP or not — will create a shared story for the group and help newcomers enter the context of the community. If you want to contribute to this, try to highlight awards in your group for the best profile or the best addition to the “group history” this week. Most cases of an excellent role-playing game are told only in the ephemeral media, on original electronic boards of honor, while in fact you need to create and enrich the context of the game world itself. (Hi guys, you're on the Crossroads of Britannia Tales board - would you like to make an in-game version of each of your stories and poems?)
And, of course, as soon as a stronger sense of belonging to a group appears, some form of “tribal distinguishing feature” helps a lot. The guilds of UO realized this very early and agreed on the color of their clothes. The guild system now supports displaying guild abbreviations above the name. Use both of these features as much as possible - even if it is just one spot of color on one small piece of clothing - because they serve as an instant identification of friends and enemies. If you want to go even further, create ritual greetings, passwords, etc., equivalent to "secret handshakes."
You must have group leadership functions. But since UO groups vary considerably in organization and type, I cannot describe too much specificity. One of the great joys of UO is to see how various social structures have evolved. However, whatever structure you are engaged in, it is important to somehow identify the people who play a leading role. Of course, the guild system allows the use of names, but for those groups that are not suitable for guilds, an identifier may possibly be a piece of clothing that only one person usually wears. A great way to unleash leadership potential is to ask people to help with recruiting and mentoring new group members.
It is very important for your group to have a mission statement, a code of conduct, a reason and a way to resolve conflicts. Many guilds break up because of unclear chains of command, disagreements about the guild’s basic philosophy and other similar problems that can usually be avoided with a strong leadership structure and a strong group identity. However, you also need to make sure that your structure can grow. Provide your group members with mechanisms to change the rules.
Everyone familiar with Fight Nights knows how incredibly valuable periodic events are. If you have a guild that plays regularly, or a tavern that works every night, and you don’t do something like that, you are missing a great opportunity. Here is what you should do:
- Taverns can arrange concerts, pun championships, board game tournaments, concerts, literary evenings, etc. On certain evenings every week. In the real world, bars organize such events for a reason! Mike's open poetic presentation every Thursday evening may interest people.
- Fighting-oriented guilds should arrange special adventures on certain nights. A guild can serve as a venue for any number of activities, from training to competition and more complex things. There is a guild that organizes competitions on the principle of “runaway man”, where one person is appointed “loot”, and the rest of the guild must hunt him down and kill him. If he lives to the expiration date, he receives a prize.
- City officials can try weekly trade fairs, parades, civic events such as elections, city meetings, candidates' speeches, and the like. As it turned out, communications crystals (communications crystals) create a very effective system of local broadcasting.
Do not neglect the value of contests and competitions - the winners, of course, feel great, and this allows you to place another person on your webpage and specify another name or story in your newsletter, which creates even more links in the community. And, of course, if a player comes to your group, offering a possible event, work with him to try to arrange this event!
Along with this, rituals are very important. In the past, UO guilds have come up with some really wonderful initiation rituals (placing candles in a dark room in order, checking uniforms, ritual performances ...). But the forums can be much more. Consider the Beefeater rituals in the Tower of London with keys that are handed at certain times, and so on. Such things can be done in cities and not only. Be sure to perform a ritual to confirm the new mayor after the election! And if this can be realized, then try to create an initiation in the guild in your city, when a member of the community reaches a certain goal of mastery, on which he worked.
A very important ritual is, of course, holidays. Celebrate them! Do not think that you should be limited only to the real world. Holidays are defined in UO, which are displayed as events in the calendar. But you are not limited to them.
You should not, even if you are incorrigible roleviki, recognize only in-game events. Birthday is also an opportunity for the ceremony, arrange a party when a player gets married or when the player has an anniversary. Give in-game gifts, as well as voice your best wishes on the sidelines. Any goal-oriented player can come up with a reason that may coincide with a real date.
Here are just a few ideas on how to make your group stronger. As your group, guild, city, tavern or anything else grows, be sure to publish information about its existence and send your events and main news to news sites and in the official calendar of events. The power of virtual worlds is interaction, and people need to know about you in order to interact with you in any meaningful way. Collaborate with like-minded sites and, if you can, suggest placing character pages for group members. Also make connections with other groups in your game server as well as in other places, as you can exchange ideas and resources.
Some work is required, but you will find that the bonds that you form are very real, and the pleasure of playing will only grow with each passing day. Enjoy.
- Designer Dragon
1998
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/449158/
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