Strategic planning document

[Laughingman]

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=62280

Good stuff here. A few questions.

#1 Do new player guides mean volunteers willing to answer questions or a wall text type forum post or? I would gladly help the noobs but I cannot write well enough for the latter.

#2 I will assume horse mounts are for 2020-2022

#3 Do we need to raise money for an initial stock of t-shirts and such? I bet some of us work in various fields and could make some really cool things to offer on a store here at cost. Dice, 3d character minis, potion bottles, etc.

[Maecius]

I'm glad you enjoyed it! In many ways, it's an ambitious plan; but I think the goals should be achievable in the time frame we've set for them.

To your questions:

1) With the New Player Guides, we are currently thinking on a more mechanical level. That is to say, giving new players the opportunity to opt-in to a "tour" of their starting city, with introductions (preferably in a fun and entertaining in-character fashion) to all of the major points of interest and key locations. "This is where you go to get basic starting gear," "here's where you can get potions, they're a life-saver at low levels," "this is one of several quests," "this is the auctioneer/consignment shop where you can buy and sell items from and to other players," etc.

Ideally it'd give new players a solid grounding in their starting location's lore, setup, and key places, as well as point them at a "where to next."

One of the chief complaints we get from new players is that they're not sure where they should go, or how they should progress, as a new player character.

Naturally, community guides and community members who take new players under their wings are even more valuable than mechanical guides. Everyone who's been here a while now is encouraged to take on that role. It can make all the difference in the world in whether someone stays and plays here or leaves the game based on whether someone was nice to them, and made sure they felt welcomed here, and got them involved in the story and roleplay.

2) The trouble with mounts is that the NWN2 community has not yet produced an animator who is able (and willing) to make animations that allow for you to fight on horseback. There are mountable horses in the community vault, but you can't fight from horseback, which means they'd only be valuable at present in a no-combat situation.

If we opt to resolve the engine's memory problems by going for an overland map and getting rid of a lot of transitional maps, it's possible these non-combat horses might be valuable for the overland map (to better express distances between places by making overland movement faster if on horseback).

3) At the moment, we haven't started looking into merchandising. It's something we probably need to involve a legal expert in, since it's a tricky area when we're a not-for-profit server using a licensed franchise as our setting, on a game we didn't design ourselves. Once we better understand what we can legally do, the next step would be establishing a relationship with a company that could handle the production (and possibly the exchange/sale/shipping). The server would probably not benefit at all from it financially, since the idea would be to sell everything at the cost of production, but it would be a neat way for people to have permanent mementos of their time spent here with all of us.

[the_flame_of_anor]

3) At the moment, we haven't started looking into merchandising. It's something we probably need to involve a legal expert in, since it's a tricky area when we're a not-for-profit server using a licensed franchise as our setting, on a game we didn't design ourselves. Once we better understand what we can legally do, the next step would be establishing a relationship with a company that could handle the production (and possibly the exchange/sale/shipping). The server would probably not benefit at all from it financially, since the idea would be to sell everything at the cost of production, but it would be a neat way for people to have permanent mementos of their time spent here with all of us.

While the server need not profit from it, I think the community here will understand if there is a small mark-up involved which could go towards server maintenance, upgrades etc. It can be an additional source of funds besides donations.

[RaiderOne]

I've only been playing here for about 5 weeks and would be more than happy to contribute to a new players section. I was already making a list of things that I thought needed attention.

[kleomenes]

While the server need not profit from it, I think the community here will understand if there is a small mark-up involved which could go towards server maintenance, upgrades etc. It can be an additional source of funds besides donations.

Its not a question of what players are prepared to pay, more an issue of licensing and IP as Maecius suggested. Failures by companies to protect IPs from third parties profiting from them can mean rights lapse, and so even seemingly harmless IP use with a profit element is cracked down on hard these days. At least, that is my understanding, I'm not actually an expert. Its a rapidly developing area of law with significant jurisdictional issues too.

[the_flame_of_anor]

While the server need not profit from it, I think the community here will understand if there is a small mark-up involved which could go towards server maintenance, upgrades etc. It can be an additional source of funds besides donations.

Its not a question of what players are prepared to pay, more an issue of licensing and IP as Maecius suggested. Failures by companies to protect IPs from third parties profiting from them can mean rights lapse, and so even seemingly harmless IP use with a profit element is cracked down on hard these days. At least, that is my understanding, I'm not actually an expert. Its a rapidly developing area of law with significant jurisdictional issues too.

I get that. I was commenting upon the premise that once legality has been addressed, charging a small mark-up is no biggie (to Maecius point about charging only the costs of production). But of course, if legality entails that we should only charge the costs of production, then that's a different story. Still, determining the costs of production is not as simple as it sounds; how do you determine and charge for the man-hours involved etc.

[Laughingman]

Still, determining the costs of production is not as simple as it sounds; how do you determine and charge for the man-hours involved etc.

Not our concern. We would not be making it. The server contracts another company to and they cite a price. The only question of man hours would be addressed by that third party.

The real question is whether wotc will let us sell items that are based on their IP. We can't argue it isn't based on the forgotten realms. I doubt we can use anything that shows the games graphics. At least not without permissions from the devs and current liscense holders.

Is there any chance if we do get into contact with them that we could maybe see about getting the game back on steam?

[the_flame_of_anor]

Still, determining the costs of production is not as simple as it sounds; how do you determine and charge for the man-hours involved etc.

Not our concern. We would not be making it. The server contracts another company to and they cite a price. The only question of man hours would be addressed by that third party.

Not quite. People running this server have to source for the production companies, probably compare quotes, do quite a fair bit of liasing between the supplier, the server admin, the customers, not to mention bookkeeping of all the financial transactions that go on if we assume that customers are not buying from the production company directly...

C’mon guys, the people who run this place are volunteers, yes, but there is a monetary value and an opportunity cost to their time!

[Maecius]

I've only been playing here for about 5 weeks and would be more than happy to contribute to a new players section. I was already making a list of things that I thought needed attention.

We'd love to have your feedback, RaiderOne! It's always very helpful for us to hear from new players, particularly with regards to what we can do to improve the new player experience.

Many of us have been here so long that it's hard for us to put ourselves back into the "new player point of view."

C’mon guys, the people who run this place are volunteers, yes, but there is a monetary value and an opportunity cost to their time!

Thank you for recognizing that, as it's certainly true. We have a lot of talent working for us who could probably pretty easily monetize their talents if they chose to, or at least spend their time on more self-indulgent ventures.

Many of them do free work for us that would cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars if we were to contract those jobs out to third parties.

They do what they do out of love for the server, the game, and the community.

But I think there's something to be said for the fact that the community is wholly volunteer-driven, both in terms of its financial health and its development. I feel like changing that would take away more than it would add. At the moment, we're not having trouble paying the server bills thanks to the server's donors. I haven't had to pay for the server directly out of pocket since setting it all up. Endelyon and I covered expenses at the very beginning (first month or two maybe), but after that the community's pretty much supported itself.

[RaiderOne]

We'd love to have your feedback, RaiderOne! It's always very helpful for us to hear from new players, particularly with regards to what we can do to improve the new player experience.

Many of us have been here so long that it's hard for us to put ourselves back into the "new player point of view."

Who, what, or where is the best place to send/put it?

[Maecius]

We'd love to have your feedback, RaiderOne! It's always very helpful for us to hear from new players, particularly with regards to what we can do to improve the new player experience.

Many of us have been here so long that it's hard for us to put ourselves back into the "new player point of view."

Who, what, or where is the best place to send/put it?

After you've been here a while, you'll probably want to send suggestions to the staff group that manages the area you're recommending changes or improvements to:

DM Team: Suggestions for server rules changes; for events or event management changes; for the server's annual campaign;

Associate Dev: Suggestions for changes to maps; server layout; new scripts or mechanical features;

Moderator: Suggestions for forum rules changes; improving the forum or its organization;

Quality Control: Suggestions for new classes/items/spells/etc.; rebalancing monsters or areas;

Media Team: Suggestions for new cosmetics.

You can also post public suggestions here: viewforum.php?f=443

Since you're still pretty new to the community, however, if you want to just give your suggestions to me I can make them available to the appropriate staff groups so that you don't have to worry about it. I'll shoot you a PM.