Introduction

While everyone is taking a breather from the war I wanted to post a few documentation updates and get a start on the future of the Fist staff and gaming community.

Stay tuned to #gaming-chat on Discord because I will probably add a gaming with the Fist event some time in the next few weeks (probably after war grading is done).

Quarter 2 2022 GMRG Winners!

It may have got lost in the shuffle during the war but I wanted to acknowledge the winners of the 2nd quarter Grand Master’s Royal Guard rankings

Placement	Member	Guarding
1st	Bentre Stahoes	Fist
2nd	Tasha'Vel Versea	Justicar
3rd	Ryan Hawkins	Voice
4th	Thran Occasus-Palpatine	Headmistress
5th	Rayne	Regent
6th	Raistline Taldrya Majere	Herald
7th	Locke Sonjie	Grand Master
8th	Aurora "Aura" Ta'var	Master at Arms
9th	Sanguinius Tsucyra Entar	Seneschal
10th	Creon de Neverse	Deputy Grand Master

Their names have been inscribed in the litanies of remembrance.

The War

I and the rest of the DC are hard at work grading and double-checking entries. I will do a more detailed breakdown of gaming once the results are published but preliminarily I’m happy with what I saw during the war. I want to thank all of you for your patience as I muddled through my first war on the DC side and tried new things in a vendetta environment like casual gaming queue and requiring the use of the parties in the matchmaking tool.

It is my hope that you all had fun and within the realm of gaming maybe played some games with people you haven’t before. While the matchmaking tool is not mandatory outside of those specific competitions, I hope people got comfortable with it and will continue to use it for everyday gaming.

Oh, one thing I will release about the war statistics is the most played game for casual gaming queue was Mario Kart 8 for the Switch. So, as promised, the staff and I will start evaluating Mario Kart for official support and develop a proposal for GM/DGM approval. Letsa go!

Wiki Updates

I wanted to draw attention to two important updates I made to the Fist staff wikis during the war. These were in response to questions I received, so do know that I do pay careful attention to areas of member concern.

The first is overhauling the Grand Master’s Royal Guard accessories page to reflect all the past winners and to provide the possessions information for each item.

I added the possessions descriptions to each accessory and the accessory name now links to the item prototype in possessions for ease of purchase (you do have to actually buy GMRG items to have them in possessions, the dossier art is added to your selector by the Herald staff).

The second update was to New Game Approval and Game Removal sections of the Gaming Information page. These updates were necessary to reflect the addition of the causal gaming queue but also to provide some transparency in my thought process. Bottom line: if you want a game added for official support, get others to play it with you and submit to the casual gaming queue!

The Future of the Fist Staff

As I laid out in my first report

I will look at redefining the duties of the Fist staff to include things like hosting events and being more visible community ambassadors. This would apply to future terms likely starting with those hired after the GJW.

The work done by my predecessors, most notably Drac adding casual gaming queue, put the under the hood, site-based, aspects of club gaming in good shape. The areas for growth in club gaming going forward lie more in community building rather than systems changes like adding new platforms or adjusting the gaming society on the site. This requires a slight reimagining of what a Fist staffer does.

• Administrative duties such as processing screenshots in the queue, updating wiki documentation and recommending changes to supported games and their cluster values will continue as before.
• Content creation in the form of staff-run competitions will continue but the requirement will be broadened into new areas. Part of what the staff will work in the short term is other forms of content we can create for the gaming community: tournaments, streaming content, gaming guides, in-game glamour fashion shows for games like SWTOR, there is an opportunity to really expand into some new territory. I have some thoughts but I’m excited to see what ideas the staff and community can come up with.
• Community engagement will be the priority going forward. That will mean increased presence in gaming channels, supporting units who organize gaming events and hosting our own, and long-term looking at ways to reach outside our club channels to advertise for our great community. Gaming events can take the form of hosting a gaming night, in-game gettogether, a tournament or something asynchronous like a fantasy league (that’s gaming right?). Point is for those thinking of applying for staff in the future I’m flexible on what “host a gaming event once a month” looks like.

Now Hiring!

Before I get into specifics for this latest round of hiring, I want to pause to acknowledge the contributions of one of the longest-serving members of the Fist office.

Aldaric served the Fist office with distinction for over three years as evidenced by the recommendations in his two Sapphire Blades and Amethyst Kukri. He onboarded me and numerous other magistrates joining staff. Please join me in thanking Aldaric for his service to the gaming community.

As one era ends a new one begins. I will be hiring one magistrate for a six-month term and one praetor for an indefinite term. I am forgoing the google form for this application period.

Applications are due to me via email no later than site reset time on 11:59PM EST on July 22nd.

• Please indicate in the email if you are applying for Magistrate, Praetor or both
• Include any ideas you have for growing the DB gaming community and any thoughts you have based on your experience gaming in the DB. What are we doing well and what could we improve on?
• How would you describe yourself as a gamer? What kinds of games (supported and unsupported) do you play?
• Expect follow-up or clarifying questions to your application

Magistrate Position Requirements

• Rank: None
• Active Gamer: Preferred, but not required
• Knowledge of the Rites of Combat: Required
• Create at least one piece of content for the gaming community per month (this can take the form of competitions)
• Willingness to regularly interact with the club gaming community in gaming channels and host one community event a month.
• Team Player: 100% required
• Acknowledgment that while serving on the staff members are ineligible for placement in the GMRG Leaderboard

Praetor includes all of the above requirements but is a special position because it is not term-based like the Magistrate slots are. Prior staff experience is not required, I can teach you all the administrative ins and outs of the office. What I am looking for is a partner who shares my vision for growing the DJB gaming community. Community engagement are the two big words I want to emphasize so your presence, or lack thereof, in the gaming community is something I will consider and probably ask you about. It’s not an automatic disqualifier if you haven’t been blowing up the cluster charts but be prepared to explain to me how you want to be a part of the gaming community and grow it.

Closing

Make sure to fill out the war survey when it comes out and don’t forget about the Fist Comment Box for anything gaming related that’s not necessarily war-specific.

Until next time gamers!

Rajhin Cindertail aka Turel

Fist of the Brotherhood