11-02-2022, 10:03 AM
I wasn't sure if this was the right place to put this, but given that the sign-ups were posted here, I figured I'd put this here too.
During the Z-Day event we did fantastic, and if the site mechanics and a few dedicated twerps hadn't gotten in our way we would have done better. However, this thread is not about breaking down the site mechanics or yelling at people about the bad decisions they made during the event (which I say with all fondness, now that the event is over I hold no ill will towards any of you who tried to sabotage us).
These are my thoughts, as someone who was in the thick of it calling shots, on how we can do better next year... and at the end, potentially a way to make the event more fun for all involved.
1.) Start Planning Sooner And Be More Organized
The Z-Day Task Force Thread was posted on 10/10, and then the Z-day Discussion chat on discord was not opened until 10/26. If planning had commenced earlier we would have had more time to chat and discuss things, and possibly could have predicted, planned for, and gotten out ahead of some of the issues I'll be talking about later in this post.
The Z-Day planning chat should be opened at least a week before the event next year, or given that we don't know exactly when the event will be, the Z-Day planning chat should open on the 20th.
In addition to planning happening sooner, there needs to be more organization. It felt like there was nobody in charge of our planning, and I'm not certain that the suggestions and ideas we came up with were ever handed off to the government to be executed (at least the parts of them that needed someone in the government to execute them). To this end, there should be a Zombie Czar (working title, I just like the Z sounds) appointed to lead the planning efforts in advance of the event. It should be this person's job to not just lead and oversee the planning, but to ensure cooperation between the executive government and the planning committee.
2.) Outreach Needs To Happen, And Happen Early
I know from being in the planning chat that outreach was suggested as early as the 26th, with things like a telegram explaining the event and event related additions to the WFE's of both regions being suggested. Neither of these methods of outreach were used.
In the lead up to Z-Day 2023 we should update the WFEs of both The League and Concord to reflect regional policy on the event; this should ideally take the form of both a written addition to the WFE saying Research The Cure! Do Not Eliminate! Do Not Embrace! or something along those lines, as well as a dispatch outlining why we've chosen to cure, or even just making it further clear that not following regional policy will have repercussions during the event, up to and including banjecting those who do not follow it (as several people were during the live event).
Also leading up to the event at least one, but ideally two telegrams will be sent out to both regions. The first should be sent out at least a week before the event informing people of what the event is, and what regional policy is regarding it, and then another telegram should be sent out once we have a concrete time when the event will be taking place, ensuring that people are aware of when it will be, reiterating our regional policy, and also telling people where and to whom they can look to for direction on the day.
3.) One Planning Committee, Two Task Forces
While it makes sense to coordinate planning between the two regions for what Z-day should look like, once we hit the event there needs to be a separation so that people are not confused. During the event as I was issuing targets to be cured, I kept getting messages saying things like "I can't cure them, they're not in my region," as well as people being confused as to whom they could look to for leadership during the event itself.
I stepped up and took control of the league, but I was never aware of exactly who was running things for Concord at any given time, and at no point, that I could see, were commands for Concord issued on Discord.
In the lead up, and this is something that perhaps we could have done had there been more time in the planning stage. We need to form two Task Forces, one for The League, and the other for Concord, these task forces both need to have separate discord channels where they can issue orders and answer the questions of people in the various regions. Perhaps the channels for each region could be hidden behind a self assignable role (like the z-day ping role but like z-day concord and z-day the league instead) so that people don't have to try to figure out where they belong once the day comes.
There should also be a Z-day Leadership role for each region, so that there is no confusion about who is in charge for each region.
Leadership also needs to be decided upon ahead of time, we need to figure out ahead of the event who is giving orders in each region.
4.) A Multifaceted Approach to the Solution
There is a lot going on at any given time during Z-day. At times I was watching for people moving into the region so that I could banject them if they caused trouble, I was calling orders on both discord and the RMB, I was assessing what the best target would be, I was curing nations, and I was trying to watch current targets (because there were various times when the RMB target and the Discord target were different) to ensure that nobody was without a target for too long.
It's a lot for one person to do.
There were times when people would move into the region and be in the region for long enough to do some real damage because I just missed them coming in, and was focusing on the other tasks.
Next year, we should have someone, or a small team of people, who are assigned the job of watching for people moving into the regions, identifying threats, and notifying those with the power to remove them. I think there should be a pingable role on discord for people who are assigned the power of removing incoming threats so that their attention is easy to get.
In addition, there needs to be people, other than whomever is giving orders, that understand what our response is and how the event works that can answer the questions of people on both the RMB and on discord. Especially at the start and midpoint of the event it can be slightly overwhelming if you're trying to do everything I listed above as well as answer the question "What option should I choose? Oops I chose killsquads what do I do?" for the 50th time in a 30 minute period.
Basically the more things we can outsource to various other people, the more people feel like they have a stake in the event, and the quicker responses can be had as needed, the more engaged I feel like our citizens will be in the event itself.
5.) Dealing with the Dedicated Twerps
A problem that arose a lot during this event was our own citizens refusing to follow directives and either embracing, or more annoyingly exterminating, the zombies. I was given parameters for who I could and couldn't eject from the region which made dealing with people who are stubborn and steadfast in their refusal to comply with regional policy difficult.
We need to come up with an acceptable way to deal with these people that makes it clear that they can't just sabotage our efforts for the lols.
Now for something completely different:
6.) A Split Regional Policy
I love curing on Z-day, I really do. It feeds that need inside of me to help others and provide acts of service that was drilled into me back when I was a young catholic. However, it might be fun next year if one of our region's takes on the regional policy of embracing the zombies. It could be either The League of Concord, but I feel like it would add some well needed variation into the event to do something else, and as we have two regions we could easily have one choose to embrace and one choose to cure.
If we make it clear which is which ahead of time it gives people time to decide which they want to do and shuffle their nations around accordingly, and giving them the choice of either Embracing or Curing while still following a regional policy might just help prevent people from choosing to killsquad entirely.
So those are my thoughts on it, I welcome your feedback and reflections as well.
And just want to say again; thank you to everyone who took part. It was a lot of fun. I'm sorry if I was a butthole to you during the event.
During the Z-Day event we did fantastic, and if the site mechanics and a few dedicated twerps hadn't gotten in our way we would have done better. However, this thread is not about breaking down the site mechanics or yelling at people about the bad decisions they made during the event (which I say with all fondness, now that the event is over I hold no ill will towards any of you who tried to sabotage us).
These are my thoughts, as someone who was in the thick of it calling shots, on how we can do better next year... and at the end, potentially a way to make the event more fun for all involved.
1.) Start Planning Sooner And Be More Organized
The Z-Day Task Force Thread was posted on 10/10, and then the Z-day Discussion chat on discord was not opened until 10/26. If planning had commenced earlier we would have had more time to chat and discuss things, and possibly could have predicted, planned for, and gotten out ahead of some of the issues I'll be talking about later in this post.
The Z-Day planning chat should be opened at least a week before the event next year, or given that we don't know exactly when the event will be, the Z-Day planning chat should open on the 20th.
In addition to planning happening sooner, there needs to be more organization. It felt like there was nobody in charge of our planning, and I'm not certain that the suggestions and ideas we came up with were ever handed off to the government to be executed (at least the parts of them that needed someone in the government to execute them). To this end, there should be a Zombie Czar (working title, I just like the Z sounds) appointed to lead the planning efforts in advance of the event. It should be this person's job to not just lead and oversee the planning, but to ensure cooperation between the executive government and the planning committee.
2.) Outreach Needs To Happen, And Happen Early
I know from being in the planning chat that outreach was suggested as early as the 26th, with things like a telegram explaining the event and event related additions to the WFE's of both regions being suggested. Neither of these methods of outreach were used.
In the lead up to Z-Day 2023 we should update the WFEs of both The League and Concord to reflect regional policy on the event; this should ideally take the form of both a written addition to the WFE saying Research The Cure! Do Not Eliminate! Do Not Embrace! or something along those lines, as well as a dispatch outlining why we've chosen to cure, or even just making it further clear that not following regional policy will have repercussions during the event, up to and including banjecting those who do not follow it (as several people were during the live event).
Also leading up to the event at least one, but ideally two telegrams will be sent out to both regions. The first should be sent out at least a week before the event informing people of what the event is, and what regional policy is regarding it, and then another telegram should be sent out once we have a concrete time when the event will be taking place, ensuring that people are aware of when it will be, reiterating our regional policy, and also telling people where and to whom they can look to for direction on the day.
3.) One Planning Committee, Two Task Forces
While it makes sense to coordinate planning between the two regions for what Z-day should look like, once we hit the event there needs to be a separation so that people are not confused. During the event as I was issuing targets to be cured, I kept getting messages saying things like "I can't cure them, they're not in my region," as well as people being confused as to whom they could look to for leadership during the event itself.
I stepped up and took control of the league, but I was never aware of exactly who was running things for Concord at any given time, and at no point, that I could see, were commands for Concord issued on Discord.
In the lead up, and this is something that perhaps we could have done had there been more time in the planning stage. We need to form two Task Forces, one for The League, and the other for Concord, these task forces both need to have separate discord channels where they can issue orders and answer the questions of people in the various regions. Perhaps the channels for each region could be hidden behind a self assignable role (like the z-day ping role but like z-day concord and z-day the league instead) so that people don't have to try to figure out where they belong once the day comes.
There should also be a Z-day Leadership role for each region, so that there is no confusion about who is in charge for each region.
Leadership also needs to be decided upon ahead of time, we need to figure out ahead of the event who is giving orders in each region.
4.) A Multifaceted Approach to the Solution
There is a lot going on at any given time during Z-day. At times I was watching for people moving into the region so that I could banject them if they caused trouble, I was calling orders on both discord and the RMB, I was assessing what the best target would be, I was curing nations, and I was trying to watch current targets (because there were various times when the RMB target and the Discord target were different) to ensure that nobody was without a target for too long.
It's a lot for one person to do.
There were times when people would move into the region and be in the region for long enough to do some real damage because I just missed them coming in, and was focusing on the other tasks.
Next year, we should have someone, or a small team of people, who are assigned the job of watching for people moving into the regions, identifying threats, and notifying those with the power to remove them. I think there should be a pingable role on discord for people who are assigned the power of removing incoming threats so that their attention is easy to get.
In addition, there needs to be people, other than whomever is giving orders, that understand what our response is and how the event works that can answer the questions of people on both the RMB and on discord. Especially at the start and midpoint of the event it can be slightly overwhelming if you're trying to do everything I listed above as well as answer the question "What option should I choose? Oops I chose killsquads what do I do?" for the 50th time in a 30 minute period.
Basically the more things we can outsource to various other people, the more people feel like they have a stake in the event, and the quicker responses can be had as needed, the more engaged I feel like our citizens will be in the event itself.
5.) Dealing with the Dedicated Twerps
A problem that arose a lot during this event was our own citizens refusing to follow directives and either embracing, or more annoyingly exterminating, the zombies. I was given parameters for who I could and couldn't eject from the region which made dealing with people who are stubborn and steadfast in their refusal to comply with regional policy difficult.
We need to come up with an acceptable way to deal with these people that makes it clear that they can't just sabotage our efforts for the lols.
Now for something completely different:
6.) A Split Regional Policy
I love curing on Z-day, I really do. It feeds that need inside of me to help others and provide acts of service that was drilled into me back when I was a young catholic. However, it might be fun next year if one of our region's takes on the regional policy of embracing the zombies. It could be either The League of Concord, but I feel like it would add some well needed variation into the event to do something else, and as we have two regions we could easily have one choose to embrace and one choose to cure.
If we make it clear which is which ahead of time it gives people time to decide which they want to do and shuffle their nations around accordingly, and giving them the choice of either Embracing or Curing while still following a regional policy might just help prevent people from choosing to killsquad entirely.
So those are my thoughts on it, I welcome your feedback and reflections as well.
And just want to say again; thank you to everyone who took part. It was a lot of fun. I'm sorry if I was a butthole to you during the event.
Raziel El-Shaddai
They /Them
Lord of the Castle of Dark Illusions
Wielder of the Swords of Revealing Light
They /Them
Lord of the Castle of Dark Illusions
Wielder of the Swords of Revealing Light
Warzone Legend - Defender Moralist
██████ ██████ ██████
██████ ██████ ██████
██████ ██████ ██████
██████ ██████ ██████