Monthly Update

Members of the Dark Brotherhood-

Relatively short report this month. Normally I post on the first of the month, but I’m in the middle of two overseas business trips, so I’m posting earlier than normal. In case anyone was wondering, it is a very long flight to Korea. Jet lag is real.

This month’s topics:

T:SWTOR Position is filled! Call for Applications: Magistrate to the Fist Wiki and Policy Update: Pendants of Blood Update on GMRG Society/Leaderboard Changes

Game Updates

After a lengthy application period, I have decided to hire Blade as the SWTOR Tribune. Blade’s current presence on the pub side and her successes in building a successful casual community there made her the natural choice for this position.

We are ironing out the way ahead for the DB’s official guild (the one on the Imp side), so expect a post from her sometime in the middle of December with the first series of updates and events to help us rebuild a thriving community there.

The SWTOR Tribune is a unique Tribune position in that it reports directly to the Fist, but I intend to give Blade a certain amount of autonomy to shape and build that community in a way that benefits the club.

Everyone say congrats to Blade!

Call for Applications: Magistrate to the Fist

I have three Magistrate positions on my staff. I treat M:Fist positions as six-month gigs, so that means every two months, a position will open up. I made the conscious decision to keep all current staff in position a little longer in order to keep some continuity while I readjusted to the role of Fist. As I am now comfortable with how things are going, it’s time to start bringing some new folks in to get some experience working on a DC staff!

Koji’s position is the one up for grabs. Koji has been with the team for about a year, and has done an excellent job building competitions and approving gaming submissions.

Now then, here’s what you need to know about the position:

Position Requirements

• Rank: None
• Active Gamer: Preferred, but not required
• Knowledge of the Rites of Combat: Required
• Willingness to Run and Organize Competitions: Required. Applicants will submit ideas.
• Team Player: 100% required
• Acknowledgment that while serving on the staff members are ineligible for placement in the GMRG Leaderboard

If you are interested in applying for the position, please fill out this google form .

Applications are due back to me no later than December 1st, 2021.

Wiki and Policy Update: Pendants of Blood and “Gaming Nights”

This came up in a discussion a few days ago re: Pendants of Blood for Gaming Nights. A little background:

Gaming nights were a set timeframe when gaming activity occurred in the DJB. With the advent of standard gaming (the way we do things now), the definition changed. Gaming is now pretty open as to when and how members are able to submit gaming activities.

Until recently (about a year or so), Pendants of Blood were awarded to the member with the highest PvP score for two timeframes: Sunday through Friday, and Saturday. There were some rules to how those Pendants were dished out: a certain number of qualifying PvP (read: 1v1) matches had to be played inside the given timeframe and the matches could not be specific to a competition.

As traditional PvP has waned in popularity for normal everyday gaming (outside of a specific competition), there simply have not been enough matches played to warrant the issuance of these special Pendants of Blood. I would have to go back MONTHS to find enough qualifying matches to award these, and honestly the juice simply is not worth the squeeze, especially considering how much easier it is to earn PoBs through regular gameplay.

This change went live a week ago, but consider this the official announcement:

I have removed the “Gaming Night” mentions from the Gaming information page on wiki. Additionally, Weekly and Saturday pendants of blood will no longer be tracked or awarded.

You all know me well enough by this point that when Drac taketh, he also has a tendency to giveth. I am looking at other alternatives to award Pendants of Blood. As this is a type of medal, it involves some discussion with the MAA and a very clear concept. Once I have something that works, I’ll let you all know.

But for now, Pendants of Blood can only be awarded for milestone achievements earned by playing supported DB games. The full list of available Pendants of Blood (30 of which can be earned by playing free to play games) is available here.

The GMRG as a SocietyUpdate

This is still a work in progress. The team is hard at work laying out the milestones and points values for all gaming related activities. I don’t want the GMRG society ranks to be so easy that members max out in two months, nor do I want it to be so arduous that maxing the GMRG is harder than making EL1.

Right now, you can only rank up through clusters and pendants of blood. That’s going to change. You will be able to earn society points from Clusters and Pendants, as well as organizing gaming competitions, serving on the Fist staff in any capacity, etc. I am considering gating the final ranks with Pendants of Blood and Clusters, simply because I think people in the Gaming society should actually, you know, play games. But at bare minimum I want GMRG X--the gateway to the GMRG Leaderboard--to be accessible to more people.

The goal was to have this done before Christmas, but I’d much prefer to give you all a complete solution rather than go off half-cocked just to get something out.

More on this as we work through the details.

Ask the Fist

Normally I just answer these in chat, but a lot of you asked me to include the responses in my report. So here you go!

Atra Asks: With the success of the Casual Gaming queue, how has this changed/confirmed your views on the state of gaming in the Brotherhood and how has this affected the path forward?

Answer: It definitely confirmed my belief that we needed to open the aperture a bit to allow people to play games they like that aren’t fully supported for credit. It also changed my viewpoint from Fist 1.0 time about not allowing “clusters for anything”. And that’s a good thing. As for the path forward, this give me a lot of options on how to test games for full support, and what games I can use for competitions, both in and out of a vendetta. That’s pretty exciting.

Zoron Asks: Follow up to Casual Queue- is there any plan in the works so that we can see what game is being played for that as well?

Answer: I actually had to get some clarification on this question and check some site things. I’ll talk to James about making the game played visible on the PvE history screen. I agree, that will help people figure out what everyone else is playing. For now, I strongly recommend using the matchmaking tool programmed into the Fist bot to build parties for games you are playing. More to follow.

Turel Asks: Any thoughts on a non-vendetta bracket like the Frosty tournament a few years ago?

Answer: Nothing like the BGL. That was a pretty big project that ended up falling flat. Transparency: Drac 3.0 kind of hates brackets. They are a pain to manage and I spend most of my time telling people to play their matches and stop holding up events. I’ll look into something down the road, but it won’t be anything like the BGL events. That just doesn’t work well for us.

Admin and Policy Reminders

If you haven’t joined the ranks of the GMRG, head on over to the GMRG-History course and pass the exam within the Shadow Academy. Get an opportunity to gain exclusive items, compete on the leaderboard to choose a Dark Council member to protect! (Get their accessory!)

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.

Helpful Links

• Gaming Information page

• Rites of Combat

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

I’m home for the next week, then it’s back on a plane. This time I'll be in Japan for a couple weeks. That’s the last trip for a while. Again, I am supposed to have email and internet access, but I'll also be on a very weird timezone. If you need immediate help, contact Aldaric or any other member of the staff and they can help. Or just send an email! I’ll respond while you sleep.

We have some great stuff planned for December (FISTMAS!). I’m excited to show you all what we have cooked up.

Until next time,

Keep on gaming!

-Dracpool, out.