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Report time. Lots of stuff to talk about in here, so bear with me.<p>

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It's been a quiet month for the DB. This happens on a cyclical basis.... usually we have slow periods after vendettas (great jedi wars and rites of supremacy) and during the summer... This year, we had a war that ended right before summer started, so it's been looking dead around here. The good news is that it is only a cycle, and is perfectly natural. I've seen our website statistics go up, which means that we're getting more and more people checking us out... and that's a good thing. I encourage everyone to seek out the things that they enjoy most in the club, and continue to do them, as well as try a few things that you may have tried before and wasn't too keen on. A lot has changed over the last few years, and you may find that the other stuff is more fun now.

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Our ad in DragonCon's Progress report went through. We got a nice, full page black and white ad that was placed across from the track listing for the SciFi literature stuff. I didn't request that, but it seemed to work out. Click here to see it. Hopefully, this will help draw new blood in and get people interested in what we have to offer.<p>

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So, what's been going on?<p>

Actually, there's a lot that's been plodding along. There's quite a few projects that require a lot of work and time to accomplish, but progress is being made. I'll cover the broad strokes here.<p>

Independent Houses I began permitting independent house proposals a while back, accepted on Exodus day and the Day of the Fox. Our first Independent house petition was recieved and approved by way of House Revan. While we are still ironing out the kinks, like getting them displayed on our news page and getting them to be set up properly in the member transfers and Dark Fury databases, they have still been growing admirably. As I have said before, Independent houses permit a greater level of flexibility in our structure and are a big tool in helping us stay dynamic as a club.<p>

Rite of Supremacy VI: Spoils of War Planning for a vendetta starts many months ahead of time, with us trying to take the lessons learned from the previous vendettas and trying to tweak things to how the Brotherhood operates. There will be significant changes to how we do vendettas as a club compared to how we have always done them....changes that will make the events a lot less harrowing than they have been in the past, and hopefully, a lot more fun. We're in the early stages here so far, but Paladin (project lead on this) has been doing a great job sorting through all of the things we've learned, while keeping an eye on what we do that people really enjoy. More details as they develop. <p>

RPG One of the things that kept getting brought to my attention over the last few years is a lack of role-playing in our club. While we do have the ACC and the forums, those were set up in ways different than what these people wanted to be involved in. The ACC is combat-centric, and the Forums are, in general, wild and uncontrolled as it pertains to realism. As more and more people asked for true DB RPG, I decided to retask the Tribune of Fiction (that I call Loremaster, because it sounds cooler :P) with creating a society for RPG in the DB. This will run on IRC for live events and on the forums for slower-paced things. Ludy has been working up a system for it with her staff (and yes, the system varies based on if it is on IRC or on the forums) and has been training up staff to serve as 'judges' for the RPG stuff... they'll basically be like dungeon-masters for the rpg. It's a pretty cool system that they're working on, and I think this will make a lot of people happy, when it comes out.<p>

Shadow Academy projects In our recent drive to grow our club and retain more members, the Shadow Academy has been high on our target lists, due to the high level of interactiviy that they have with our newest members. Aabsdu has recently shifted the way we do business over there and consolidated many of the courses under 'Professors', who will handle almost entire campuses over there. These more high-activity instructors have proven to be a lot quicker on grading exams and are a good step forward in keeping new join interest high. Another thing that we are doing over there is working on my 'Grind path', which will consist of several automated courses that teach the basics of how our club operates, navigating the site, getting connected to other members, and the very basics of brotherhood lore. With these automated courses being tied into journeyman promotions, we will have a drastic improvement over the slow and plodding system we have now. In this day and age of MMOs and console gaming, people do not like having to wait for a human involvement to get what they have already earned... and while our club operates differently than that, a Grind path will hopefully teach the new members what we are, how we operate, and still give them enough early activity and promotions (without human involvement) to hook them. I know that this is a sticky issue for a lot of people who will say "Ohnoes, but I EARNED my promo to Protector!" and yes, you did... but a system like this is meant to encourage new members to stay involved, and if we don't do that, our club will be an empty shell, and your rank will be worth less. Besides, if we get even one new member to stay on per hundred with this new program, it'd be worth our efforts, especially considering how we're ramping up advertisement.<p>

Master at Arms projects Speaking of things we have learned, Kaek has been spearheading a project that is reviewing our promotion and medal policies and has been making recommendations to me about what he thinks we chould change, realign, and add. I've yet to see a bad idea from him, so that's going well. I think that everyone is going to enjoy what we eventually come out with when he's done.<p>

Herald projects While Shikyo has been strained as far as IRC time, he has been emailing me with progress on his work. He has been instrumental thus far with helping fill out the character image generator, a system where you will be able to create a customized character image for your dossier, with a whole lot of options.

ACC news Erinyes has recently recovered from her computer issues, and is working to get some tasty projects off the ground over in the ACC. One of the primary things she's working on is trying to make the ACC less of a daunting task for our members... historically, the ACC is a big jumble of rules, regulations, and exceptions that can make a lot of people's heads spin. She's been working really hard to alleviate that, and refocus the ACC on what it was originally all about: Writing a good combat. Look for details from her on new competitions and ladders as they develop.<p>

Seneschal stuff Orv has been battling RL goblins pretty hardcore lately, but he's still been popping in at times to handle little stuff here and there. Once his RL settles down a bit more, he'll be borking up a storm. We have a huge list of stuff to work on with him. ;)<p>

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In CNS, Bob Sadow recently resigned the position of Consul. It's a shame, but the RL gremlins started mucking up his computer, and he elected to resign rather than leave the clan with a Consul that would only be able to get online once in a great while. We thank him for his service and hope he enjoys his involuntary vacation from us. <p>

With Bob's resignation, Clan Naga Sadow needs a new CON. There are many resources which outline the duties of the job and how we expect applications to be submitted on our site. Paladin and I would like to have this position filled soon, so please get your applications to us before August 18th, 2009. <p>

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Speaking of new Consuls, Arcona Consul applications ended on friday, and the best fit for the job was current Proconsul Strategos Arconae. Well done, Strat, and we look forward to seeing what you can do.<p>

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Questions for the GM!<p>

Robin Hawk asks: What kind of things do you have planned for the future, in the respects to the DB?<p>

Well, that's a broad question. The idea is to get more visibility for the club, retain more mebers, and help ensure that teh DB is around for years to come. How we do that is a difficult equation. Our club was founded for the purpose of RP and to get people MP matches in games on the computer. This was back when you had to know who you were playing in a video game and dial them up to join the game. Nowadays, the way video games are set up, you don't need to know who you are playing against in order to play, so 'gaming clans' and clubs are on the downswing in popularity...unless they start offering things that no one else can... which is what we're doing, and what we continue to expand on. If your asking what projects specifically... well, we're working hard to make our site more interactive and create more instant meta-games to keep people coming back for more.<p>

Phoenix asks: why are you afraid of my AWESOMENESS?<p>

Because it burns.<p>

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As the buildup to the Knights of the Old Republic Bioware MMO builds to a fever pitch, it is not the only thing getting done over in LucasLand. There's heavy rumors that they may re-release TIE fighter in a digital download newer format, which would own, especially if they remake it, like they did with Monkey Island. <p>

There's also new DLC for The Force Unleashed coming out, based on the 'what if' scenario of Starkiller going dark side and replacing vader at the end of the game instead of the canon lightside ending. They're calling it the 'Ultimate Sith Edition' and there's a trailer for it here.<p>

There's also some leaked stuff about Battlefront II coming out. There's videos online, but they're pretty low quality. There's a few sweet design mockups though, like the dark side Obi Wan here that makes me drool.

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Wrap-up (TL:DR)

DCON ad wins

Rite of supremacy planning underway

RPG society being worked on

Shadow academy changes and working on grind path for noobs

Bob Resigns CNS CON, apply for it

Strat new ARC CON.

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shiny stuff<p>

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And that's all for this time. Any questions, or anything i can help with, pm me on IRC or shoot me an email. Have fun!<p>

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