MAB Meeting- Thursday, April 21, 2005 (6:00 pm PST/9:00 EST)

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Location: MAB Clubhouse Then Moved High in the Sky
Moderator: Celtic
Minutes: amxscott
Attending: AllisonChains, Amxscott, Celtic, DocD, DreamWeaver, Geea, Ishmael55, Kally Lunch, malika, mrF1xIT, Nep, Oli, Uber Geek, ZachC, Monkey.
Staff: Alex, Jack, Vash, Baloo, Ania, Mackie
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#1 – Staff Announcements/Opening

Alex thanked everyone who helped with getting the special State of There address out on such short notice. Based on feedback they’ve received personally and seen in the forums, they feel that the address was well received. They assured us that all the staff are very happy with the changes and there are No Hidden Agendas. Everyone is looking forward to a great future ahead. Ishmael asked if we are going to see any immediate changes? Jack replied that nothing will immediately be visible; however, staff are busy working on the vision and mission for There, as well as making plans to recruit additional staff with a focus on engineering and art. Jack said that Vash, Alex and Baloo have been working on a new There website. It is coming soon and they are all really excited about it.

Alex answered questions about the upcoming MAB transition. She said that she will be announcing the new group tomorrow and thwarted all attempts to pry information about who the new members are.  :)  She talked a bit about the MAB selection process. She doesn’t select the MAB all by herself. Instead, they have a committee that reads and reviews all the info from the nominees. It’s a lot of work, but very worthwhile in the end, because they learn cool things about many different members. All the staff remarked on how hard the decision is with so many good nominees and only 16 spots. The main thing they want people to take away is that there will be many chances for MAB service, so those who aren’t selected this time should definitely try again in the future. The committee looks for members with good communication skills who represent a wide variety of interests across the service.

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#2 – Skill Incentive Ladder Modifications

Proposed Modification of the Skill Incentive System

(The following is the text of a proposal prepared by Ishmael55 – this was accompanied by a spreadsheet that the MAB and staff reviewed prior to the meeting.)

For some time it has been difficult to find a member of There that would say that they are satisfied with the current system that assigns gifts or rewards for leveling up in a given skill. As a point of fact, most members are quite disappointed, and in some cases even resentful when they have patiently engaged in a particular activity, honed their skills and watched their skill points accrue, and then been awarded with hair or some other makeup item that they will never use. Far from encouraging further activity, these experiences most often feel like DIS-incentives to further activity, and it could be argued that it would be better to simply give the recipient a hearty “Way to go!” and encourage him/her to continue their march up the skill ladders sans “gift”. That is, to most people a symbolic pat on the back is more reinforcing than a literal “bait and switch”, where an expected reward of potential value to the recipient is switched out at the last minute for that 2nd toaster that you really didn’t need or want. If one argues that the items are not meant as “incentives” to encourage skill activity but merely as “gifts”, one could counter with the argument that at the very least, the gift should be something that has a reasonable chance of being valued, appreciated and used. Otherwise, they simply make for unneeded clutter in one’s “closet”.

On the other hand, we understand the concerns and problems generated by the awarding of jackets (e.g., reselling) and other items that were apparently so attractive that it encouraged activities that added no value to the world (AFK events). We recognize that these activities can actually be discouraging to visitors to There, take up unneeded server capacity, and negatively effect new memberships and member retention.

We also recognize that the makers of There did not design this world to be a game, in the traditional sense, with a defined series of missions or objectives, leading to a “victory” and an end to the activity. In fact, There is open ended, with a focus on socializing and world building. Members are given tools, and are made responsible for much of the content”, either in the form of objects or activities, in the environment. To some extent, the skill ladder is actually counterproductive to these goals, as it introduces a game-like feature to the environment, in that by engaging in various activities members can gain “status” (at least in their own minds) and win “things.” It is this quality that has lead to many of the activities mentioned above that are undesirable.

However, it might be mentioned that There was the one that introduced this system, and whether it is desirable or not at the present time, it is unrealistic to build game-like aspects into an interactive program and then expect the participants NOT to engage in game-like behavior. In addition, it could also be argued that many members of There are long-time computer users and in many cases, computer gamers. Consequently, including some game-like elements to the experience does maintain members interest and motivation to continue their participation, and adds value to their experience. Bottom line, as in real life, people enjoy developing a skill, are excited by a sense of competition, and derive pleasure from a sense of accomplishment. Stripping There of this feature would probably be received coldly by most members, and cost the company more in lost membership than maintaining the current system.

Consequently, unless one proposes an end to the skill ladder and associated incentives, or neuters” it (as is the case at present), one is left with the challenge of modifying the current system so that it encourages meaningful activity and leads to the kinds of behaviors/activities that will help There grow and retain members, while minimizing undesirable behavior. To this end, we propose a series of changes that will serve a variety of purposes. The primary thrust of these changes will be to encourage more active world-building by members, and indirectly, enhance the commerce of There, better support the development program, and ultimately help There to grow.
If you examine the proposed gift system, one will note that cosmetic items are only offered at the early experience levels of the various skills. This is done in recognition of the fact that after a reasonably short period of time, most members have settled on a “look” they feel comfortable with, just as they do in real life, and seldom deviate from this except on “special” occasions. Consequently, while they may appreciate such items early in their stay in There, similar items given to them later are typically viewed and redundant, unwanted, and essentially useless.

As one progresses through the skill levels, it is proposed that members be awarded items that they can use in the course of their socializing or world-building. These items were all drawn from the There Shop, and are of lesser or equal value to the cosmetics currently awarded to members for level increases. In some cases, they are in some way conceptually related to the skill that they are awarded for (e.g., Moosehead for Renowned Sharpshooter). In other cases, they are designed to encourage ongoing activity in that skill (e.g., a book for Avid Author). However, for the most part, they are items that are unrelated to the skill in question, but still might be of value and use to that member. These include items of furniture, plants and flowers, and other accessories that can be used to enhance ones living space. A large builder PAZ is awarded for reaching Expert Socializer, as this is skill is reached by most members in a fairly short period of time, and can then be used to display other items that the member has been awarded. This will not only lead to increased revenue for There, but also stimulate the economy as members buy other items to supplement items that have been awarded.

Finally, at the highest skill levels, it is proposed that There makes use of the talents of the many developers in There, and hold contests in which developers can submit unique trophies that will be awarded to members for achievement of Legendary Status in a given skill. While many members still bemoan the loss of those “wonderful” jackets, the fact of the matter is that they were not that attractive, and perhaps because they could be worn, and so seen by everyone, they only seemed to stimulate the type of AFK skilling behavior that There wants to discourage. Trophies that are unique to a given skill (and non-transferable of course) would still be seen as desirable (perhaps more so rather than the generic jacket), but would also continue to generate revenue for There if the member wishes to display his/her trophies. To some extent, this might offset lost revenues due to server drain resulting from any increase in AFK skilling behavior/events.

As to the question of AFK events, we would propose that the best way to reduce the frequency of this activity is not to hamstring the attraction and value of the skill ladder system, but to devise and encourage unique, pay-for-participation events that are of value to members, and for which event hosts can derive some financial benefit that will help them offset the cost of zone rent and planning and event time. For instance, currently, several zone operators are discussing ways of hosting large events that are held over a number of zones, and for which a reasonable admission would be paid by members. The success of such endeavors would not only induce other zone operators and event hosts to improve the quality of their events to compete with these events, but would probably reduce the frequency and the impact of any remaining AFK events. These events could also include such features as “Bring a Buddy” to allow paying members to bring a new member so that they might sample the value of a membership in There. However, it is argued that the current skill gift system not only is of limited value in discouraging AFK events (look at Happening Now at any point in time), it actually discourages new members from meaningful activity, and in the long run, reduces member satisfaction with their experience in There.

Vash responded that this proposal, plus a proposal that he received from Georgiana, plus all the forum discussions from the past several months have given him great insight into this area. He feels that, yes, the skill rewards need to be changed. He also wondered - if new gifts are awarded, will people be upset because they like the new gifts better (but have the old ones already)? Uber suggested a kind of Skill Reward Shop – where upon leveling, if a person wanted to buy a former or new level up gift they could do so, but they would still not be tradable or saleable. Everyone agrees that the gifts should be appropriate to the area for which they are being awarded. Vash said he has made it his mission to pursue this area. We also discussed AFK skilling and if the elimination of the “better gifts” made any difference in the number of AFK events. It was felt that it did not, and people just seem to do it merely to level up.

The staff thanked Ishmael and team for the well written and well thought out proposal. They were all impressed by the work. Baloo said he was happy to have an official proposal that seemed to include a lot of thoughts from several sources. He gave Ishmael several points that he would like to see better defined in an additional draft, then he would be happy to take this proposal before the staff for consideration. On the subject of specific gifts, he felt that PAZ, Docs, and paintball targets were not the best idea for gifts.

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#3 – Wrap-up of some outstanding issues

1. Hoverboats showing up as hoverbikes:

The fix for some hoverboats showing up as bikes was traced to animated hover boats and this is being fixed.

2. Scores

Nep asked if scores can be reset. Baloo said they are looking at this right now. Also can banned members names be removed? This, too, is on their list to be looked at.

3. Invisible destinations

Doc brought up a question from AliV about invisible destinations. The question was about adding instructions on how to create a teleport link, including the doid numbers, to the invisible destination sign. Baloo said that this is not something they want to do, as it is not a supported feature. It can at times be confusing as to which is the right doid number and they felt trying to support this would likely cause too many calls to customer support. They are, however, looking at making it easier for members to teleport to their own items, such as signs or PAZ, in the future.

4. Member creations being added to world as permanent fixtures

Alex brought up her earlier proposal of Member Created Content as permanent in-world additions. The original proposal for the group’s consideration included a plan for a series of contests. After a lot of consideration, both the MAB and the staff came to the conclusion that this proposal would be too cumbersome over the long term. In a March meeting, the MAB gave the opinion that staff shouldn’t allow the possibility of perceived favortism or other adverse responses to stop them from doing things that they think are in the greater interest of the community. In other words, if the staff see something they like and want to make it permanent, they should just do it without getting bogged down in procedure.

Alex said they really took this feedback to heart. As a result, they will be going forward with plans to add some member-created content to the world permanently. There will be no huge process. They will just have a simple procedure without a lot of discussion - something we called “Just Do It”. In short, the staff will be watching out for items that are significant, outstanding, and/or create a sustained buzz in the community and consider adding those things permanently. They will work with the individual developers on a case-by-case basis. There are only a handful of things from the past year that they would seriously consider adding, so this isn’t something the community should expect to see happen every day. Also, some things might be added way after the fact. They have a couple of projects in mind already that they want to start with.

The staff said that they do not want the community creating objects with the sole purpose of trying to get them added permanently. Such items might be rejected for any number of reasons (quality, aesthetics, technical issues), in which case a lot of work would possibly be done for nothing. Developers should continue designing and building items “business as usual” – for special events, auctions, personal use, etc. - within the guidelines of the developer program. Oli called this announcement an idea that is “A Bull with Balls”.