Best Of

Jolanthe said:

I can't remember by who or when, but at some point it was suggested that a five minute rule was a good wait period to go by: If you're fishing for divine interaction via mob and you don't get any response in five minutes, that's a good indication to move on. Would the proposed five minute rule still be considered solid in this current era?

Absolutely. Five minutes gives us plenty of time to grab the mob, briefly skim the mob's notes if we need to before we roleplay, and to type up a reply and hit enter. I think everyone in Havens has faced the curse of a drive-by "hello" where the player leaves before we can even finish typing for the NPC!

Aeldra said:

One thing, that I think I asked a long time ago, but am curious for the answer of todays divine is

1. how do you see prayers and how do you feel like they should be used?

Also a new, seperate question:

2. What's your favorite pet-peeve with us mere mortals?

1. When I released Lantra, there was a brief period of time where her prayers weren't set up correctly (Those of you who skim the changelogs may have noticed). Imagine my surprise to discover there were several "prayers" I had no idea about, many from players I hadn't realized wanted to talk to Lantra in the first place! Prayers open up opportunities for Divine to interact with you without worrying that we're stepping in where we aren't wanted. They also give us clear insights into how you want to approach us and why. I'd say any reason you want to contact a Divine is a good reason to send a prayer. Think of them as IC emails to your local deity.  

2a. "Pet peeve" isn't the term I'd use, but I notice how players view Divine visibility is not always the most accurate metric of our activity. When someone is "visible" and roleplaying, that represents only one part of an admin's online time. The other part is spent doing "invisible" labor such as handling reviews, bugs, and issues, or building new quests and areas (something I especially enjoy!). There's always a competing desire for players to regularly see Divine "visibly" and also for players to enjoy all the things that come from Divine doing invisible labor. Striking a balance between the two is something I notice every admin struggles with from time to time. Especially when our offline life gets busy.

2b. Now an actual pet peeve: please share your RP logs more! We love seeing them! It's so much fun seeing the cool things everyone is up to, especially in the orgs that we interact less with personally. Bonus points when we get to see what the other Divine are doing (and steal their ideas, shh).

Talking with Brilyn about costumes. Sometimes its the small interactions that are tons of fun!

Re: pet peeves. I'm gonna echo Mys on players often being impatient. I'm not sure I would go so far as to call it a pet peeve because that suggests a greater level of irritation than I actually have for it though. It's not irritation, more an observation. I understand why and how it happens, and that a lot of the time the source is something beyond the control of both sides. For example, how are players to know when we want them to RP out a solution and when to actually use some syntax to make something happen? It's very hard to signal that without outright saying USE ITEM. Different events will do this differently too. Coming back to impatience then, it's more that I wish players would not try to rush through things and take their time to hear denizens out, read their environment, and the clues provided. All too often though it very much feels like players rush just to be the first one to do something (like madly running through a new area). And again, it's not irritation, I get it. Everyone experiences things differently and gets something else out of new things.

Re: prayers. I love them. Send them about small everyday things, thoughts, feelings, inquiries, anything. It lets me feel up to date with things even when I otherwise can't be fully engaged and lets me get to know people better.