What if you had a personalized scheduling book available in the UI of Pantheon. In this book, you could schedule events and share them with your friends and guildmates, and then the game would remind you when those events were about to occur. Three examples:
In my book, I might schedule "Halnir's Caves Group, Monday at 7 pm" and then share that event with oneADseven and CanadinaXegony. All three of us would get a (configurable) reminder on Monday that the group we had planned was coming up that night.
1AD7 could schedule a "Raid Night" to happen every Tuesday at 9 pm, and then share that with his guild, so that everyone in the guild had the raid night in their personal calendar.
I might create an event in mine for Saturday Morning called "Do harvesting!!" simply to act as a reminder for myself.
I realize that this is something that can also be done with guild websites and shared calendar apps (if you can get people to use them), but humor me for a moment. If this were a feature in the game client, and showed up in the game UI so that it was easy to use, would you use it? Do you think it would make it easier to coordinate with your friends and guildmates? Would it help you to get reminders when something was planned?
And if not, why not?
It stand alone, I think I would ignore it.
But it, imbeded into what Brad has already described I think would be great. Have you read Brads blog on such things?
One of the few things that I like about WoW is that each server has a designated time zone and there is an in-game calendar on which guild events (such as raids) could be scheduled. It removes a lot of the confusion and displacement associated with players being in different timezones.
I would like to eventually see a similar system implemented in Pantheon. I feel as if it would make raiding more accessible by establishing a universal timezone (server time) and allowing raid events to be set up in advance on the in-game calendar.
I would also like to see a guild message of the day system set up as well. One of my biggest pet peeves when acting as an officer in a guild is when people say "Well, I didn't know there was a raid today.". It's really annoying when the raid was posted a week in advance, and the guild message of the day had a reminder for the past five days.
I am all for giving guild leaders and officers more ways to effectively communicate with their guild members, and more systems that place some responsibility on the players within the guild.
It's been a long weekend (not in a good way) so this response might be more direct and less diplomatic than usual for me. You'll have to forgive me for that.
Why I posted this:
I was thinking about this last night because I think that coordination is something that MMO players have forgotten how to do. As a guild leader, I have to interject in chat constantly with things like "You know, so and so needs that too" or "Why don't you guys plan a run for tomorrow night?" - and I have to do this because people literally don't think to do it themselves. It's not a generational thing, many of these people are older than me and got their start in EQ. Maybe it's gotten to where it is because people aren't used to having to wait to do things in games anymore, but for whatever reason, it's a gigantic stumbling block to enabling group content.
Even back in 1999-2000 it was more common for people to go sit in a zone and shout for a group than it was for them to proactively plan to try and do something with their friends or guildmates, in my experience.
For guild scheduling, many of us have used websites for years to try and do this. I don't know about anyone else, but I have found that it is harder and harder every year to get people to actually pay attention to the website. Half of the players I meet in different games only pay attention to Discord because it's on their phones, and some can't even be bothered to do that.
Thus, the thought occurred to me: What if it was part of the game UI? Would people use it more? Not just for guild raids, but for setting up groups or social events or reminders or anything else?
As for why this might be important: If we want Pantheon to be a game that's about grouping up with others, and we also want it to support people who have shorter play sessions without abandoning the idea of things like meaningful travel and so on, then we need to start thinking outside the EQ box. We need to give players tools to coordinate their activities, to plan ahead, so that they can make the most of those limited play sessions. This feels like something that might be relatively easy for VR to do, and that doesn't actually affect gameplay, but still helps with that goal.
Zorkon said:It stand alone, I think I would ignore it.
But it, imbeded into what Brad has already described I think would be great. Have you read Brads blog on such things?
Can you say more about why you think you would ignore it? Or maybe the better question is what is it missing that would get you to use it? Are you simply thinking of this in the context of an LFG system?
And yes, I have read that blog post, and referenced it in many discussions as well.
Baldur said:One of the few things that I like about WoW is that each server has a designated time zone and there is an in-game calendar on which guild events (such as raids) could be scheduled. It removes a lot of the confusion and displacement associated with players being in different timezones.
I would like to eventually see a similar system implemented in Pantheon. I feel as if it would make raiding more accessible by establishing a universal timezone (server time) and allowing raid events to be set up in advance on the in-game calendar.
I would also like to see a guild message of the day system set up as well. One of my biggest pet peeves when acting as an officer in a guild is when people say "Well, I didn't know there was a raid today.". It's really annoying when the raid was posted a week in advance, and the guild message of the day had a reminder for the past five days.
I am all for giving guild leaders and officers more ways to effectively communicate with their guild members, and more systems that place some responsibility on the players within the guild.
Do you see this only being a guild thing? While I think it would be helpful for guilds (as you've pointed out), I also feel like there's an opportunity to enable people to coordinate with each other outside of guild raids and events. For example, people on your friends list.
I very well might use such a scheduler. While I communicate outside of games via discord and other methods, there are some players I have no way of getting in touch with outside some of the games I play. This would be a nice way to stay in touch and coordinated with everyone I wish to in game.
Nephele said:Zorkon said:It stand alone, I think I would ignore it.
But it, imbeded into what Brad has already described I think would be great. Have you read Brads blog on such things?
Can you say more about why you think you would ignore it? Or maybe the better question is what is it missing that would get you to use it? Are you simply thinking of this in the context of an LFG system?
And yes, I have read that blog post, and referenced it in many discussions as well.
General participation for the most part.
I was looking to in game voice chat as an example. Most games have it. And In my experience I have never seen it used. All guilds I've been in, all groups iave ever joined, use external sources for VoIP because "X has this option not available in the ingame chat" or "Y has this option not available in the Ingame chat". I would expect the same from a calendar/schedule. There are better calendars out there already, that they can check while offline on PC or phone, that can send them reminders, that can set reoccurring events, that are built into the premade Guild Web sites. Now unless VR drops Game building completely and takes to Calendar/schedule building I don't see them being able to replace those that do.
NOW, as per my suggestion of having it included as part of there "Match Making" system. In this way I would think they could offer more than what these other calendars offer. Part of your LFG search. Exactly how it could be implemented I couldn't even begin to do justice I think VR could do with it. But I'm thinking you could everything you said+
Create an event for Saturday, send invites out to 5 friends, two decline, offers come in for pickups that will be online at the time. It can have options n the event for
[ ] Will be Attending
[ ] Might be Attending
Yea, love the idea, just think as a stand alone, there are better out there that everyone will choose to use. UNLESS it's an integral part of the rest of the LFG.
An in-game calendar would be a great communication and organizational tool. It is a fairly simple app that could be built into the UI (arguably after launch). A schedulable calendar fits in nicely with the group finder / match maker system as one of the keys to that working is going to notating when you are available to play. If you go that far already then just make a calendar with invites similar to what is in outlook with tabs for personal-friends, guild, server, caravan, all and all-server.
If this calendar and a text messenger system can be accessed outside of game then it could facilitate group making while people are at work, school, or traveling and there by increasing the amount of time spent in game actually playing rather than waiting for a group. The server calendar could also become a magnet for player hosted events and or server raid share scheduling. Steps will need to be taken to limit content and number of entries to the calendar. I could see actual live auctions scheduled under said format.
My general philosophy is that no 3rd party apps or sites should be used or needed. Any functionality that is being serviced by a 3rd party app needs to be moved in system. Tabbing out breaks immersion and causes a lot of distracted play. For IP protection and keeping players safer from scammers and third party identity phishing I would actually be very restrictive on what in-game images and details can be shared outside of official channels. It will help keep the mystery higher, longer, than if everything can just be data mined, posted and wikied.
I too don't see a real need for development time/effort to be spent on something which everyone already has access to by any number of out-of-game choices.
But, if there would be something like this there are a few things that come up I'd like addressed.
1. The actual calendar. Terminus isn't earth. It shouldn't have the same name for months or days. The likelyhood that is has the exact same orbital/rotation parameters as earth would mean that it would not have the same months in a year or days in a month or days in a week or hours in a day, etc. So if you want an in-game calendar, make it conform to the actual calendar used by the game.
2. How would this information actually be communicated? Frankly I think you should need to physically meet up and compare your calendar notes. Yea, we have /tells, etc that work across the world so there is the 'magic' aspect of communicating.
more options aok. wow(how the mighty have fallen) implemented a guild calender a while back. most sentiments were negative upon release, but grew nicely on the player base over time. its very useful for guild masters and people coordinating guild events.
out of game choices:
discord
google spreadsheets
a guild website
let's be real. most guild members won't spend the few seconds it takes to look unless it's in their faces in game(mostly because out of sight out of mind and this is suppose to be leisure not a full time job). then they say 'oh i didn't know there was a raid today.' when it was scheduled 3 weeks in advance with it being spammed every day in gchat and talked about.
i do agree with vandraad and keno here, that this convenience feature could be on the back burner.
implemented later? i'd welcome it, just not right now when we would like the game rolled out sooner rather than later with a calender.
Vandraad said:1. The actual calendar. Terminus isn't earth. It shouldn't have the same name for months or days. The likelyhood that is has the exact same orbital/rotation parameters as earth would mean that it would not have the same months in a year or days in a month or days in a week or hours in a day, etc. So if you want an in-game calendar, make it conform to the actual calendar used by the game.
Wow, interesting spin on it. And not without merit. Talk about immersive, and I'm all for immersion. But how would anyone have any idea when the event is scheduled or when they are scheduling one in real time? It would almost have to incorporate some kind of time zone converter Terminus to Real World
Trasak said:An in-game calendar would be a great communication and organizational tool. It is a fairly simple app that could be built into the UI (arguably after launch). A schedulable calendar fits in nicely with the group finder / match maker system as one of the keys to that working is going to notating when you are available to play. If you go that far already then just make a calendar with invites similar to what is in outlook with tabs for personal-friends, guild, server, caravan, all and all-server.
If this calendar and a text messenger system can be accessed outside of game then it could facilitate group making while people are at work, school, or traveling and there by increasing the amount of time spent in game actually playing rather than waiting for a group. The server calendar could also become a magnet for player hosted events and or server raid share scheduling. Steps will need to be taken to limit content and number of entries to the calendar. I could see actual live auctions scheduled under said format.
My general philosophy is that no 3rd party apps or sites should be used or needed. Any functionality that is being serviced by a 3rd party app needs to be moved in system. Tabbing out breaks immersion and causes a lot of distracted play. For IP protection and keeping players safer from scammers and third party identity phishing I would actually be very restrictive on what in-game images and details can be shared outside of official channels. It will help keep the mystery higher, longer, than if everything can just be data mined, posted and wikied.
Exactly what I was thinking.
Integrating this tool would add much more than its small development time might subtract.
Whilst I understand there are, of course, third-party tools to do things like this, I would think there are guild/friend-related things that, if in game, would make a huge impact on the #CommunityFirst impact of the game.
Also, if there are in-game things for scheduling, LFG, maps, guild organisation, etc then they can be consistent, focused, appropriately limited (especially things like maps so as to be useful, but not have spoilers) and can maintain look-and-feel and make the whole experience feel good.
It would be fantastic not to end up a few weeks after release with 'needing' to be ALT-TABing through 5 web pages and 3 apps while playing.
No, I don't want VR to 'waste' development time, but I remember a quote from Brad I think, that said something like, re. guild tools, they will be providing "everything you could want and more", so it's in scope already and, come on, I'll bet you a diary tool is pretty much off-the-shelf these days.
I don't mind it, but I don't need it - I doubt I'd even use one if such thing existed. I'd rather have option (eg. with help of craftable item) to allow players (namely raid/guild leader etc) to "shout" (message visible in the middle of our screens) to remind us about such events. I never use callendars and I'd rather put the note in my in-game/rl notebook. If such thing will be implemented I hope it's pretty far in the "to do" list.
Nephele said: ... If this were a feature in the game client, and showed up in the game UI so that it was easy to use, would you use it? Do you think it would make it easier to coordinate with your friends and guildmates? Would it help you to get reminders when something was planned? ...This is the only QoL feature we want, in addition to guild bank / guild permissions, in any game our guild plays.
More of a post launch feature for a UI/web developer would be an almost facebook style webpage for your character. Really just steal most of the facebook functionality. Guilds, family clans, and maybe caravans could have their own pages moderated by the players. These pages and communication tools could be linked in game through a browser UI that could both read and write the content on the page network.
Calendars, News, organizing events and even high ticket item trading could all be handled through this medium. It could go a long way towards really creating a connected community rather than just solo players joining this evenings pug.
Before the poo poo ers say “don't waste development time on X function I do not find personally interesting” any developer working on something like this would be using a different skill set than the world builders, content creators or game coders. They will need a few Web/Front end people on staff no matter what and this could just be one of their ongoing tasks.
If someone is on your friends list, I think it would be neat to have the ability to pull up a schedule that they set. It would work well with guild integration as well.
This is a great example of a QoL feature that doesn't break the core game tenets.
So what if I schedule friday to be my crafting day. If my guildmates need help I shall aid them!
I Don't know if I would use this particular system much, but I'm not against it.
Over the years I have come to the feeling that I DON"T want out-of-game and 3rd party reliance for things if it isn't necessary. So more in-game systems is good with me.
Every out-of-game resource will need a login, which is just more crap to bookmark and remember, and make a point of visiting, etc.
My life is full of websites, logins and passwords, and some are getting ridiculous, one recent was 15 character min, and had the upper, lower symbol and number requirements and you couldn't have more than 3 of any type of character consecutively. Needless to say, I have had to log into that place 2 more time since created, and I have to reset my password each time.
I think it's a great idea. Some consideration on HOW it is implimented into a guild UI is needed. If you have a few proactive people using this then there will always be someone crying about being left out and others are receiving special treatment because a guild UI implies some kind of guild leadership approval. Maybe use different color font to show a distinction?