Message from the Fist

Aloha DB Gamers! The Rite of Supremacy is over, and now it’s time for a little rest and recovery as we move into the holiday season. There is a lot to cover this month. 2019 holds some pretty big changes and I want to make sure everyone knows what is coming before these changes go live.

Here’s the TL;DR.

1. Fist 2019 Roadmap
2. GMRG Score Calculation Change
3. Gorefest Changes
4. Supported Games: Nerfs, Buffs, and Additions
5. Rites of Combat Review
6. DB Gaming Telegram Chat
7. Rites of Supremacy Analytics
8. Future of the Brotherhood Gaming League

Fist 2019 Roadmap

2019 has some great stuff in store for all of you. The below chart highlights the tentative plan for events over the course of the next year. It’s not all inclusive; I will be updating this throughout the year as events are solidified, new games are announced, and tests are conducted.

As you can see, we have the normal gaming competitions spread out across the entire year. These competitions will factor into the GMRG score calculation (I’ll detail that below). You will also notice a reduction in the number of Gorefest competitions. That is not a mistake, and I will go into the reasoning for this a little later in this report.

The main thing I want to highlight is the tentative GMRG Gaming Invitational. This event will be held in lieu of the Brotherhood Gaming League. It will be slightly different than any event we have run in the past. I won’t go into details now, because everything involving this event is still just scribbled on a napkin in draft form. I’m pretty excited about the draft idea, and I’ll release more info as the concept start to solidify.

One thing to note for all of the WoW enthusiasts: World of Warcraft will be tested for full DB support in January. This test will be different than the ones I have run in the past. Zip files and image dumps are now a thing of the past. You will be able to submit for this competition normally through the gaming portal. The competition details will drop closer to the end of the month, so keep your eyes peeled. As always, the members are 100% responsible for proving that a game warrants support. It will take 15-20 participants in the competition for me to consider WoW for addition. Without the support from you, the game stands zero chance of being added.

GMRG Score Calculation

This change goes live on 1 January 2019.

I gave most of the details for the GMRG score calculation change in my 24th Report. I have had a few questions in DB Gaming about how the competition portion of this will work.

Competitions

Only specific Fist-led competitions will be eligible for the GMRG score calculation. There will be a minimum of four each month that will run for three weeks. The shortened timeline will afford me and my staff time to ensure that events are graded prior to the site calculating the final score.

Points are earned for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. Participation will not earn any points for the leaderboard. While I do want people to take part in the events we run, I also want the leaderboard to be a competitive environment. Participation will net you credits and stats for promotion. If you want points for the board, you need to bring your A game and play to win.

Something you all need to be aware of: these competitions are NOT limited to members of the GMRG. All members of the DJB can participate in and win these events. IF a non-GMRG member or member below GMRG rank X wins a competition, those points will not count for the leaderboard. If you rank up during an active quarter, all CFs, CEs, and Fist-run competition placements earned during that quarter will be calculated. I hope this gives some of you incentive to work towards GMRG Leaderboard eligibility!

Clusters

Nothing is changing in terms of how clusters are earned. You’ll still be able to earn clusters through normal gameplay. The only difference is how clusters factor into the score. CFs are valued higher than CEs, and therefore have a higher percentage modifier associated with them. CFs earned in a quarter will be multiplied by .02, and CEs will be multiplied by .01. If you tie that to the points earned for placement, 1000 CFs or 2000 CEs will equate to a first place finish.

Changes to Gorefest

As you no doubt noticed in the 2019 Roadmap, Gorefest will be less frequent than it has been in years past. I view Gorefest as a sort of XP boost. It should be a special event, not a regularly scheduled one. So for 2019, there will only be four Gorefest events. These Gorefests will run as follows:

1. Three Days in duration. Runs from Friday to Sunday to afford maximum participation during weekends.
2. Winner based on total clusters earned. PvP model has seen low to no participation over the past year.
3. Crescents will be awarded, but will NOT count towards the GMRG Leaderboard.

As always, only members of the GMRG will be eligible for Gorefest. Becoming a GMRG member is simple. Just take the GMRG History exam in the Shadow Academy, pass with a score of 80% or better, and you are all set!

Gaming Updates

The nerf hammer is out. These changes are based off data culled during competitions and from regular gaming.

Diablo 3

Nerf: Reducing cluster values for all activities by 25%. Modifiers will remain unchanged. This is based off the average rift times I have seen over the past year.

Destiny 2

• Nerf: Crucible reduced from 2.0 to 1.5.

• Nerf: Leviathan Raid encounters reduced by 50%. Leviathan now awards a max of 15 CEs. (note: this includes Eater of Worlds and Spire of Stars raid lair encounters).

• Nerf: Removed Hard Mode modifier for Vanguard Strikes (Hard Mode no longer exists)

• Add: Last Wish Raid = 30 CEs for a full clear (4 encounters at 7.5 CEs per encounter)

DB Gaming Telegram Chat

I have updated the DB Gaming Telegram Chat Rules on the site. I have decided to relax the moderation outside of major events. The gif, sticker, and image ban remains in effect.

• Topics in DB Gaming Chat need to be gaming focused. You are welcome to discuss non-supported games, sales, hardware upgrades, thoughts on upcoming games, game lore, etc. Members may post links to gaming competitions they are running. All other tangiental discussions should occur in DB General Chat.
• This chat is text based only. This includes links. Upon joining DB Gaming, an admin will manually change your posting permissions to text posts only. You are not restricted from posting links, provided they are related to gaming. Posting a link to a sale, competition you are running, official announcement on a new game, and things like that are absolutely OK. Posting a clickbait article or one filled with spoilers is not allowed. Don’t spam links. See if someone else has posted it within the last few hours.
• During large scale events like GJWs and Vendettas, DB Gaming will be restricted to matchmaking posts only. This helps keep the room clear for members to find people to play games with/against.
• While members are encouraged to post links to their streams, repeated solicitation of viewers is not allowed.'''
• No “console war” posts'''. PS4 is not better than XBox, or vice versa. Consoles are not better than PCs. Those are opinions. Play on the system you like.
• Keep the language clean. Vulgar language will not be tolerated. Members who violate this rule will have their post deleted and receive a warning. Continued violations will result in the Member losing all posting privileges (a hard mute) for a week. Any further violations will be forwarded to the Justicar.

Rites of Combat Review

One of my listed duties as Fist is to review the Rites of Combat annually to ensure that it is still relevant and up to date with how gaming operates in this club.

During the Rite of Supremacy, there were a handful of cases where a rule or restriction from RoC was not clearly understood. There were no RoC violations during the event, and each mistake was handled without involvement of the Justicar. That said, if enough people are confused, the RoC needs to be looked at. The RoC is not a secret Fist document that I use as a weapon to punish people. It’s supposed to be a clearly understood document that ensures gaming is FAIR for members. This review will attempt to remedy any confusion that the current document causes.

I’m looking at this revision as less words and more of a list of “dos” and “don’ts”. Expect this revision to come sometime in January or February. Until then, the current RoC remains in effect. To avoid any issues, here’s some of the things that confused people:

1. All PvP must be set up in DB Gaming. Members may not set up PvP matches in Clan chat, House Chat, BattleTeam chat, War Room Chat, Private Message, PS4 Chat, Xbox Live Chat, etc.
2. Same Household Gaming: If you live in the same place, you are probably using the same IP. If your family member or roommate are club members, you must inform the Fist and the Justicar prior to engaging in any club related gaming activities with them. Failure to report this will result in any matches being rejected.

Rite of Supremacy Analytics

Overall, I’m pleased with the turnout for the gaming events for the Rite of Supremacy. The numbers were pretty impressive:

Phase 1:

• Galaga Wars: 101 Submissions

• Overwatch Zomnic Kills: 30 Submissions

Phase 2:

• Destiny 2 Crucible: 12 Submissions

• X-Wing Flash Game: 104 Submissions

Phase 3:

• OW PvP Ladder: 8 Submissions

• Slither.io Flash: 91 Submissions

Event Long:

• Jedi Academy Bracket: 42 Matches

• Heroes of the Storm Bracket: 26 Matches

• PvP Battles Ladder: 39 Matches

• Diablo 3 Solo Rift: 15 Submissions

Total Gaming Event Submissions: 468 (Awesome!)

Large-scale club events are a great way for members to come out and compete, but they are also a great tool for me to look at the kinds of events our gamers like. This in turn drives the kind of events I run for future events. As you can clearly see, low entry requirement events like mobile and flash games are great for competitions, as they require a relatively low bar for entry. The more niche events (PvP gaming, Overwatch, Diablo 3) have a slightly higher bar for entry and competitiveness (you have to own the game, and you kind of need to play it regularly in order to be remotely competitive). I’m comfortable with that. The bins method ensures that everyone can get full credit for participating, and it also allows me the freedom to use the full depth of our supported games library for events.

I was surprised by a couple of things, though. I fully expected the Overwatch 1v1, Diablo 3, and Destiny 2 events to have slightly higher participation rates. They didn’t, and so that will play a part in my decision making process when I run future events. Just because there is a higher bar for competitiveness and entry doesn’t mean I’m going to run competitions that have low turnouts (see: the lack of Diablo 3 Season 15 competitions for an example).

The low number of PvP matches is a pretty good indicator of where the club is/has gone for preferred gaming. The vast majority of the club seems to prefer playing in a cooperative setting. Because of this, I’m looking at ways to create competitions that lean more to that playstyle. That doesn’t mean I’m killing traditional PvP; there is no better showcase of skill that going one on one against another member. But it does mean that I’m going to work more cooperative stuff into our competition rotation.

The biggest surprise was the number of forfeits in the JA and HotS tournaments. Forfeits bother me. I understand that real life and Murphy show up when you least expect them to, but at the same time when you sign up for an event like a bracket, you are committing to it. When you withdraw or forfeit a match after you have played and in some cases advanced, you have essentially taken a member who would have liked to continue out of the running for a medal. I am going to work rules into the next series of brackets to attempt to mitigate things like this. Specifically, if you withdraw and you have advanced, I will move the individual you defeated forward so they can play. I will also put hard deadlines on matches. I made the incorrect assessment that the major hurdle was the opening round and that once that was complete, matches would free flow just as they did during GJWXII. So expect a tighter timeline and some very clear rules on forfeits and late withdrawals from event from bracket events.

With all that said, I sincerely hope that you all enjoyed the gaming events. Running large-scale events like this takes a decent amount of work, and seeing that many gaming submissions makes it all worth it.

Great job to all during the Rite of Supremacy, and get ready for everything to come in 2019!

The Future of the Brotherhood Gaming League

I’m not going to beat around the bush here. Alaris has done an exceptional job managing the BGL over the past year. He’s pushed activity as best he can, and I couldn’t have asked for a better person to be my “Commissioner” for the inaugural BGL season.

That being said…

I’m not happy with how the event has unfolded. I think we went a little big out of the gate. Four games with multiple competitions over the course of a year is a tough thing for you all to keep up with. This gets to a comment I made earlier though: If you signed up for it, you committed to it. But again, this was a very ambitious event that just ran out of gas midway through.

The current BGL season will come to a close this month, and titles and trophies will be distributed to the winners as promised. After that, the event as it stands now will be mothballed in favor of something a little different.

I teased this above, but the planned GMRG Gaming Invitational is the event that I will replace the BGL with. I’m not going to give any major details, because it’s not ready for prime time just yet. I will tell you it’s still relatively ambitious, so I want it to be right before I release it to the club at large. The DC and CONs will get a preview of the concept sometime in the next few months. Until then, we will have plenty of competitions to keep you occupied!

Admin and Policy Reminders

All current Gaming and Fist Policies can be found on the Gaming Information page. I suggest that all members read this page as it has some great info. I will make sure this page stays updated to reflect all current office policies. I do not want to confuse anyone, especially with what is and is not allowed in the DB Gaming Telegram room.

Other items of note:

• The staff has 24 hours from the time you submit gaming activity to approve it. If your submission has been sitting for longer than that, there is a problem. If it hasn’t, there is no problem. The staff do their best to process gaming submissions as quickly as possible, but they are real people with real lives. I do not expect them to sit behind a computer processing gaming submissions all day, and neither should any of you.

• Solo submissions are never acceptable for Clusters of Earth/Fire. My staff and I will reject any that come in. You must play with at least one other DB member, no exceptions. This is not changing any time in the near (or far) future.

• Pendants of Blood are not acceptable for submission to cluster-counting competitions. If we see them, we will remand the request.

• Reminder: Feel free to run Gaming competitions DB wide. Gaming is a slightly different community, and is one of the few that consistently brings club members together outside of the competitive environment. Most of the people I currently game are all in different clans. By opening up your event DB-wide, you increase the pool of possible participants, which could allow for a crescent upgrade!

• Reminder: While I sincerely appreciate having proposals/great ideas sent to me via telegram, please email the staff list (email is at the bottom of this report). I ask that your House and Clan leadership take a look at your proposals before you send them up. This isn’t to add a layer of bureaucracy, it’s because I’m sure they’d like to know how you are trying to help the club improve...helps with award and promotion recommendations and all that. Feel free to cc them on your email to me and my staff.

Helpful Links

• [DB Gaming on Telegram - Log in to view join link] on Telegram. Come be part of the discussion in the one and only official gaming channel of the Dark Jedi Brotherhood!

• Send us an email at [Log in to view e-mail addresses]

This is probably the longest report I’ve written in a while. I tried to address the questions you asked in DB Gaming and DB General Chat in the report above, rather than in a Q and A session at the bottom.

As of today, I have served as Fist for 26 months. I still have a few more things up my sleeve before I hang up my nerf hammer. Stay tuned, folks. Lots of (hopefully) great stuff on the horizon!

-Dracpool, out.