Crown visitations - 2010/01/12 08:48Soooooo i noticed the schedule and realized that us southerners are getting dicked on Visits from the Empire. Now albeit, And i'm not to sure on whether or not Southgate is having issues with attendance, but we have been very low in numbers. I think less visit from the Empire would stifle what interest we get from the few of us that show up.When there is no light, there is dark; When there is no dark, there is light; When there is both dark and light, there is Bendu
Did they look like psychos? They were f%$#in' vampires. Psychos don't explode when sunlight hits'em, I don't care how crazy they are. - S
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Grendel
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Posts: 2000
Re:Crown visitations - 2010/01/12 14:34the south is getting dicked!
without Hannibal visiting, their interest is stifled!
If interest hinges on whether or not Hannibal goes to your park, then there are more issues involved here.
I think it's important we all look at our parks and ask ourselves, what am I doing to make things fun and exciting?
I mean, what does the Empire provide that can't be done at your park?
if having an A&S tourney like Dragonmaster, or fighting Weaponmaster, if those things will boost interest, then why not develop a "Battle of the South" tournament, where DM, CD, and SG all come together to have a big tourney.
maybe A&S one weekend in CD, then the fighting portion in 2 days, half in DM, half in SG?
if it's just a matter of having people at the park, then do things that will bring them there. if the Empire runs a fun game and that brings interest, what stops you from running a fun game?
If you do the things to bring in people, then more people will be interested and you'll have more people, more interested people. You have to show people that you are invested in the group to see results.
there's any number of ways to motivate, the current membership drive is a great thing to work for, the goals are already set up for you, all you have to do is reach them.
set a goal, if your goal is to increase interest, then fine,
Goal : increase interest at the park
then you need small steps to that goal, like building a wax dip candle. it starts with dipping a wick into wax. you do it once, maybe it looks a little colored. you do it again, you don't really notice a difference, but it's just one dip at a time. one more dip, one more dip. after 100 dips it begins to look like a candle, 200 dips you've got a candle.
but it starts with one dip. one step. you have to make that step on your own, you'll find you have to do that with everything in life. don't let the Empire be the thing that determines your failure or success.
the first step, come up with a fun battle game to play that isn't the regular old "2 groups kill each other" thing. hell, there's an IM Battle book that has lots of games, there's the AMT7 books that have tons of games to try. you don't even have to make one up yourself if you're not feeling it. take one someone else has written that looks fun. feel free to tweak components of it, is it overbalanced, too complex, not fun? then carve away until you have a nice simple game that everyone can understand and enjoy.
then you run that game. you explain the rules first, you see if anyone has questions. sometimes you have to people focused, I can't count the number of times someone has explained a game and then someone comes up to me, who was standing right near me and asks "hey what are we doing?"
get them focused, give them a reason to pay attention, or hell, make a game where they aren't given any info, they walk up, you tell them, your team is over there at that tree. and at the tree you have a little write up of the rules. as people show up you send them to their teams. that way the teams balance back and forth and the game might start with just 4 people, 2 on each team.
anyway. work step by step, drip by drip. the only way to get what you want is to work on it.
or, you know, fuck Hannibal. that's probably easier and doesn't require anybody to be responsible for themselves.Dragoon Strike First. Strike Hard. No Mercy. Hús Vetra Skald IMU
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Hoshi Akuma
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Re:Crown visitations - 2010/01/12 18:30Or maybe sarcasm disguised as advice will work. I'm not saying that it's Hannibal's fault we're a low attendance park. I'm saying the few of us that struggle to keep the park going enjoy when it's not just the same three swingin foam at each other. I'm saying that when the Empire comes to visit i like fighting better fighters.
Again your advice minus the flaming was very helpful but what do you do when all three parks are dwindling and the economy is in a rut? I am a little concerned that my park is getting a low visit from the Empire and i believe as a Monarch i have a right to voice my opinion.
So no not Fuck Hannibal I do take responsibility for my park attendance. But when we get one visit a reign after getting so many from previous reigns i think i have a right to raise a question. One that shoulda been answered from Hannibal not you Grendel. But again the advice is helpful.When there is no light, there is dark; When there is no dark, there is light; When there is both dark and light, there is Bendu
Did they look like psychos? They were f%$#in' vampires. Psychos don't explode when sunlight hits'em, I don't care how crazy they are. - S
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Hannibal Finvarra
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Re:Crown visitations - 2010/01/12 22:05Do you feel the Empire showing up 2, 3, or every month helps the empire as a whole, or your park's attendance?
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Talisin
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Re:Crown visitations - 2010/01/12 22:27Hoshi Akuma wrote: One that shoulda been answered from Hannibal not you Grendel.
I would point out that if you only wanted answers from Hannibal, you would have been better off sending it to him privately. Post it in public, the public will generally respond.
I'm just sayin'.Tal
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Hoshi Akuma
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Re:Crown visitations - 2010/01/13 02:16Hannibal Finvarra wrote: Do you feel the Empire showing up 2, 3, or every month helps the empire as a whole, or your park's attendance?
I believe their one in the same. Any park within the Empire deserves to be helped an in turn help another park. I don't think I'm being unfair here seeing as how every other park except for SG has at least three visits to their park during your reign.
Summer is the most important time to recruit and an increase of our numbers at any park helps immensely.
And Talisin I WANT advice from the public on the situation. What I don't want is to be flamed for standing up for something i view as a wrong. I never said "Fuck you Hannibal U don't love us". I just wanted to know why it was this way. If it's to better the empire then fine, but our blight is no secret. You see the attendance we have here. And yes when the Empire visits it does help with our attendance because other parks will make more of an effort to come down and make the game look better than three dudes beating each other with foam swords.
Look whatever excuse me for trying to understand why WE (being SG and CD) only get one visit while other parks get 3.
Post edited by: Hoshi Akuma, at: 2010/01/13 02:17When there is no light, there is dark; When there is no dark, there is light; When there is both dark and light, there is Bendu
Did they look like psychos? They were f%$#in' vampires. Psychos don't explode when sunlight hits'em, I don't care how crazy they are. - S
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Korderellin
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Re:Crown visitations - 2010/01/13 02:17I'm sorry you feel slighted by the fact that the Empire has not decided to make this a travel heavy reign, as has been had in previous reigns. The reasons for this were made clear at the planning meeting, and at the time, none of the representatives present at the meeting for the respective groups indicated any problem with the idea. It is unfortunate you were unable to make it to the meeting yourself to voice your concern when the schedule was being created.
First, the Crown Lands and Northern Holdfast have been having attendance problems for quite a while now, and have made a special request that the Empire assist in focusing on driving attendance in these groups to stop them from shutting down entirely. The NH downgraded from Duchy to Barony in recent history due to attendance issues that have still not been resolved, and the Crown Lands felt it necessary to basically remove our status as a group so that we could continue to help ensure the smooth running of the Empire. Hannibal reluctantly agreed to shift focus while still trying to assist the other groups with attendance through such initiatives as the recruitment contest that Guy is sponsoring. In fact, the Crown Lands no longer has a monarchy; the group is directly under the purview of the Emperor, and only has a single record keeping officer at the group level itself. How well would your park do if its monarchy was constantly anywhere else but at the group level, helping to promote the group and bolster attendance?
Second, unfortunately, it is just not economically feasible to expect the Empire to be able to maintain the same sort of hectic travel schedule that has been in effect for the past few reigns. In the past, monarchs have been known to spending in excess of $3000 during the course of their reigns, much of it on gas and other travel expenses due to a heavy travel schedule. I know I dropped about $2500 myself during my reign back in 2005, when gas prices were cheap. I don't have the money to be able to fund that sort of schedule, and I can almost guarantee that our Emperor, being 21 and working a $10/hr job, can't afford that kind of investment, and I assume that most of the people in the IM currently can't really afford it either.
Unfortunately, the Empire is not currently in a position to be able to supplement travel expenses for the Empire, either. Our current coffers are sitting at just over $4000, with 100% of that pretty much earmarked toward Rakis, which is anticipated to cost almost $7000. The Empire has not received taxes from any group except Darkmoon for the past three terms; the last entry I show for taxes from any other group was from September of 2008. Unless we come into a major windfall of funds, pretty much anything that a monarch wants to do at this point is going to require them to fund it personally.
Thirdly, as Grendel indicated, it should not be the responsibility of the Empire to maintain your park's attendance. Having the Imperial level visit your park really has no effect on long term attendance. While it may help to placate those members who are regulars, or increase the number of people attending on a specific weekend, it does nothing to help your attendance as a whole. Attendance drives must be done at the local level, by people who are going to be there regularly to help people feel welcome long term. The Empire can assist by giving motivation (as the current attendance drive contest hopes to do), but if you are relying on the Empire to help drive your attendance, it'll only last so long as the Empire can continue being at your park regularly.
Finally, while I understand the intent of recent monarchs to travel extensively, I think that, in hindsight, they (myself included in this group) may have overdone it in many cases. It saddens me to see that, instead of Imperial visits being a rare and welcome change from the ordinary, they've now become an expected occurrence, and groups have begun to feel they are entitled to them. Now, when monarchy tones it back down to what should be considered an acceptable level, it causes people to think they're group is being "dicked" over.Kord
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Hoshi Akuma
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Re:Crown visitations - 2010/01/13 02:21Thank you Kord that's all i wanted to know is why. R&U (Read and Understood for those of you not Military Brats).When there is no light, there is dark; When there is no dark, there is light; When there is both dark and light, there is Bendu
Did they look like psychos? They were f%$#in' vampires. Psychos don't explode when sunlight hits'em, I don't care how crazy they are. - S
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Hannibal Finvarra
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Re:Crown visitations - 2010/01/13 03:18I'm sorry you feel you are being dicked out of anything, but I've tried to please an many as I can with this land schedule. I had held a land meeting to discuss the reign and travel plans, and follow up emails which were sent to all the monarchs, which did include you... I got your E-mail from the Ork.
Two of the major reasons IM, NH, and HF are getting so many days is money and population. I don't make a whole lot of money to travel, and those are the 3 closest parks. I had planned a much more travel heavy reign at first but then I saw that a travel heavy reign was not needed, but more players are so I'm focusing on recruitment.
If you had wanted to just have me answer you, I've posted my E-mail and am more then willing to talk to anyone. I also work for a living and can't just shoot off a reply at a drop of a hat, same day is about as good as it gets.
Hope you see some of the reasons I've done what I've done.
In service, Hannibal Finvarra Emperor of the Iron Mountains
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Casca
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Posts: 243
Re:Crown visitations - 2010/01/13 04:00Perhaps, a physical presence isn't needed to resolve what is the actual problem here. What recruitment and retention efforts has your park been undertaking lately no matter how small? What plans are in the future, again, no matter how small? If we all know what is missing from all the parks across the empire, then we know what actions we need to take to correct this trend of decreased attendance. Are we not meeting people's needs of entertainment? Are we not meeting people's needs of community? There is no reason why all of the Empire's parks should not be thriving in their own regions.Casca Eruoy
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Hannibal Finvarra
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Re:Crown visitations - 2010/01/13 04:47Have you tried posting to CL or making a myspace and such? I spent most of my free time on monday working on meetup, CL, and other reign related things.
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Talisin
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Re:Crown visitations - 2010/01/13 05:08Hoshi Akuma wrote: And Talisin I WANT advice from the public on the situation. What I don't want is to be flamed for standing up for something i view as a wrong. I never said "Fuck you Hannibal U don't love us". I just wanted to know why it was this way.
Two points then:
Your first post didn't actually ask why. That might have been a good place to start.
You did start by talking about people being "dicked" out of something. That comes across as pretty aggressive and is more likely to get an aggressive response from someone.
Again, I'm just sayin'. It's up to you to set whatever tone you like.Tal
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Grendel
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Posts: 2000
Re:Crown visitations - 2010/01/13 14:17I apologize if I didn't take your message in the tone it was intended to convey.
the whole "the south is getting dicked" made me take your post a certain way, why wasn't this addressed at the imperial scheduling meeting?
and then with the "I think less visit from the Empire would stifle what interest we get from the few of us that show up." made me also think your tone was perhaps more aggressive than you intended.
it was an attitude that I wanted to address. also, your use of "the empire" as though it was some sort of 'entity' is depersonalizing. I hate that "the south" and "the north" crap. other people have used it before as a means to separate the empire, to group people into inpersonal factions. it's fucking bullshit and I hate it. (not you, the attitude)
I think it's important to realize that "the empire" is really 3 people in a way, but because we continue to have 3 people in those positions, it is more like a chain. the link in the chain right now is Hannibal and Casca and Kord (monarch, regent, pm)
so when you say the empire, you're talking about them. why not just use their names? if you're not talking about them, then talk about who you're talking about.
the only part of my post that was sarcasm was the beginning and the very last sentence, and this was more to address the attitude I was perceiving. I can only hear how "The Empire" is 'dicking people' so many times before I just lose all patience for it and begin mocking the crap out of the phrase. I'm sorry if you weren't aware that others have talked like that to create wedges between people, or aware of the impact that your post had on me.Dragoon Strike First. Strike Hard. No Mercy. Hús Vetra Skald IMU
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Hannibal Finvarra
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Re:Crown visitations - 2010/01/14 14:10Hoshi what are you doing to get the word around for your park? If we can turn this into something we can build off of, it will help.
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Hoshi Akuma
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Posts: 623
Re:Crown visitations - 2010/01/14 20:39I'm doing a lot of attempted recruiting at the College. The problem is we lost alot of our teen demographic when they all graduated. A little internal problems contributed as well. Basically i just need to get a hook back into the college and the High School. It helped when the Cochran twins were here because basically sex sells. Sorry if that sounds chauvenist but it's true. We also had a large number of other girls at the park and now they've all either moved away, outgrown, or just don't come to amtgard anymore.When there is no light, there is dark; When there is no dark, there is light; When there is both dark and light, there is Bendu
Did they look like psychos? They were f%$#in' vampires. Psychos don't explode when sunlight hits'em, I don't care how crazy they are. - S
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