theworldofdreams.com

I hate to see the sorry state of the Golda expedition, so I decided to look for more clues in the Golda's old books. I didn't find anything pertaining to her treasure, but I did find a lot of interesting information about different planes of reality. I intend to try to achieve a different state of consciousness, letting go of the world as my brain creates it and crossing into the infinite realm of the soul. Uh, let?s see what it says in that book again...
*reads the book*
*begins to meditate*
*eats some poison*
*doesn't look like he is present anymore*
The Ghost of Phillip:
This is Phillip's higher self speaking. Though Phillip may be cowardly and naive I decided to become that way to serve a specific purpose in life. As Phillip I am not even aware of my own power or the things that I do. The truth is that I was responsible for these quests all along.

I summoned the dragons to Moonglow giving them my halberd and forcing myself to forget about it that I might bring about the hero in my fellow players.

I created the hallucination of my teacher Golda that I might awaken the treasure hunter in the people around me. That I am a player makes the quest I have made no less real. The monsters were real and the LOOT is real, for those who choose to seek it.

This brings us to the current predicament. The key to the chest is lost and there is nothing any player can do about it. I spent many days (weeks?) waiting for the GMs to answer my pages. All to no avail. I re-queued requests for help when I saw staff were online, so that it would pop up on their screen, but that wasn't working. I imagine they are just way to busy with all the new players.

Eventually I just gave up and said forget it, but since people are showing some interest I'll try again. If nothing happens after a few weeks I'll send a formal complaint to Player Relations.
Also, whoever has the chests could page the GMs. Apparently Siobhan told someone that I was a player responsible for the quest, so just ask her to pop the "Golda's Loot" chest next time you see her. I really don't care about it anymore.

Yeah, I guess the quest was a big failure. I definitely should have made copies of all the keys before giving them out to monsters and chests, but when I was making the quest it seemed like it would be an easy, foolproof task. The first and lost key that the brigand "stole" from me would have opened "Golda's Loot" where the key to "Golda's Prized Possessions" was hidden.

Really though, I have to say I am unimpressed with the treasure seeking drive on this shard. I thought that shortly after my post a group would go to the brigand post and retrieve the first book and key. (I saw the brigands loot both the book and key with my own eyes so where the heck did the key go?) I figured that the party would then and there follow the coordinates in each book, leading them on a trail across the world to expediently uncover the treasure.

Well after a day someone had found the first book, but not the key. A few days past and no one had bothered to follow the coordinates. People started finding the books by chance and after a few weeks a good amount of them had been stumbled upon including the chests. Many of the books were eventually reported in the forums, but people could have done better sharing their information and not everything was reported. That set back the people who had enough sense to do a little arithmetic and follow the resulting coordinates.

BTW, the reason I had to have keys and books is simply because I don't have GM powers. It would have been easy to make a few treasure maps, one leading to the other, but I had to make due. Each book tells the coordinates of the next book, but you need the book before it as well. That prevents someone from accidentally finding the last book and getting all the loot right there.
When the key never turned up it didn't matter for a long time, as no one was following the books anyway. If no one ever gets those boxes open, I'll just have to tell myself "oh well, I can't say they really deserved the phat lewt."

Well there you have it. If there are any questions left I'll answer them. I'll try to make my future quests not involve any adding/subtracting skill and just focus on stuff that'll kill you (hope those ophidians were fun btw.)
*Phillip passes out*
Phillip
*time passes*
UOOOOGGGGBLEEEAAAAOUUUUUUFFFFF
*Phillip throws up*
UGh what a stupid idea. I can't remember learning a single thing about the treasure and now my head feels like its going to explode. I'm think I'm going to be sick again.

just a quick note. All keys on wod are newbiefied. That means they can not be looted off of a corpse. So even if you drop the key on the ground and the brigand looted it from there, it wouldn't show up in his loot. Because it is also newbiefied for the mobs.

So that there is no misunderstanding, we chose not to respond to the help pages. Since the issues weren't bugs, but normal parts of the game, it wasn't an issue a GM should be involved in.

This quest was a player run event. As such, it was inappropriate for a member of administration to become involved unless there was a bug or some other technical problem that interfered with the event. Since there was no such issue we chose not to involve ourselves.

In the future, if a player chooses to attempt a quest or some other event, plan to be accountable for any and all difficulties that arise. Blaming administration for problems in your event will not solve anything.

Thanks Wings. I think that must explain it. Pretty stupid of me for not realizing that before.

Sebastian: I also paged asking if for a GM to simply tell me if they would do it or not. I don't think it would be beyond a GMs jurisdiction to tell me to stop wasting my time. I wasn't blaming you for losing the keys, I just wanted help recovering the key and was ignored.

So, I guess there is no way to open a locked chest once the key is lost. You can keep the chests as a keepsake I guess :/

Let me see if I have the facts in order: you designed a quest, set up the quest as a series of books, chests and keys and because YOU forgot that keys are newbiefied EVEN FOR MOBS (or never realized, or didn't know, or didn't bother to read the WoD Manual or even ask someone), the quest didn't work.

Several players that I saw VERY involved in this (Rocks, Malakim and Dragonan) and a couple of others who were also working on it (Genji and Kale) followed the directions YOU laid out and found the books and chests YOU placed but again, because YOU made a mistake about the keys, the chests can never be opened and that is somehow the shard's and the GM's fault. And your only response is, "When the key never turned up it didn't matter for a long time, as no one was following the books anyway. If no one ever gets those boxes open, I'll just have to tell myself "oh well, I can't say they really deserved the phat lewt."

Nice placement of the blame there Phillip: not on the person's shoulder who made the mistake but instead on EVERYONE else. I have no idea who you are in game, but here on the boards, you are arrogant and egotistical. Blaming others for your shortfalls isn't dignified or even FAIR, Philip. No one screwed up the keys but you.

And as to this little gem of a comment: "Really though, I have to say I am unimpressed with the treasure seeking drive on this shard."

I have a question for you: how many quests have YOU been on? I have been on a countless number of ones, and all of them involved some kind of deductive reasoning. A quest usually begins with a passer-by whispering something about someone or somewhere and with the combined knowledge of the lands and WoD's history, the players figure it out.

And finally, there's this one: "I'll try to make my future quests not involve any adding/subtracting skill and just focus on stuff that'll kill you (hope those ophidians were fun btw.)"

How dare you suggest that we can't follow simple directions? How dare you, the one that made the "key" mistake in the first place, suggest that the players here can't add or subtract? Who do you think you are? True, most "legitimate" quests involve a lot of blood-letting, but EVERY one I've been on has required us to use our brains too.

To suggest that all we can do is kill things is demeaning, and in my opinion you owe this entire shard a VERY BIG apology.

*wishes Dirk was still around because he would REALLY let this guy have it*

Yeah, it is my fault that the key was lost. It is my fault that you have been wasting your time for something you can never get. I would have told you it was a waste sooner but I was ignorant and had some hope something could be done to make it right. I tried, to the limit of my abilities, to fix the key problem as soon as the key was reported missing.

I don't really feel like making an apology though. I tried to do something nice for other people by making this quest. (It's pretty difficult when you are just a player, if you have never tried it.) I guess it's pretty hard to appreciate the time I put in it though, when there is nothing to show for it.

Well, its true that the chests weren't found for a long time. If you have very keen treasure seeking senses as you say, then it must be my fault for making a confusing quest. If the quest was too confusing I'll let you draw your own conclusions about how difficult my quests should be in the future.

I learned a lot from this experience, I'll try not to screw up so bad again. I hope those who followed the books had a good time despite the problems.


Please note: do not try to get at the contents of the chest by letting the chest decay. Though an unlocked container drops its contents when it decays, a locked chest will only destroy its contents.

Sebastian wrote:So that there is no misunderstanding, we chose not to respond to the help pages. Since the issues weren't bugs, but normal parts of the game, it wasn't an issue a GM should be involved in.

This quest was a player run event. As such, it was inappropriate for a member of administration to become involved unless there was a bug or some other technical problem that interfered with the event. Since there was no such issue we chose not to involve ourselves.

In the future, if a player chooses to attempt a quest or some other event, plan to be accountable for any and all difficulties that arise. Blaming administration for problems in your event will not solve anything.

See I would have thought a key disappearing because it was newbified would be a "technical problem that interfered with the event."

All blame aside I think it was uncool of the GMs to completely ignore me, especially when they knew it would affect many players beyond just me.

Phillip, I'm gonna throw my "unofficial" two cents in here even though Sebastian has already commented (and this is his area anyway).

I think it's great to see players taking initiative and trying their hand at running a quest. Even though this one did not go as planned, I hope you (or anyone else) is not discouraged from doing something like it again in the future. But if you take up the challenge of doing a player-run quest, you cannot expect the GMs to assist. We are busy and have our own responsibilites...it's not fair to expect special treatment because you are running your own quest. And if you make a mistake that you can't fix, chalk it up to a learning experience and move on. We have enough problems to deal with, we don't need blame for something that does not involve us at all.

Laephis wrote:Phillip, I'm gonna throw my "unofficial" two cents in here even though Sebastian has already commented (and this is his area anyway).

Thanks for commenting, I'd like to hear what more people think.

I think it's great to see players taking initiative and trying their hand at running a quest. Even though this one did not go as planned, I hope you (or anyone else) is not discouraged from doing something like it again in the future.

Actually, I feel that by not acknowledging my help page, WoD Staff was attempting to discourage me.

But if you take up the challenge of doing a player-run quest, you cannot expect the GMs to assist.

Oh, I thought I had everything in control on my own I assure you. Its not like people give keys to mobs all the time though, so I didn't know about the consequences.

We are busy and have our own responsibilites...it's not fair to expect special treatment because you are running your own quest. ... we don't need blame for something that does not involve us at all.

[/quote]

Staff Page wrote:The GMs handle the day-to-day operation of matters internal. In general, whenever something goes wrong for a player, the GMs are the ones to come make things right. Examples being: "I am stuck" and "I lost my only house key" and "I can't login!".

Special treatment? Would not a GM replace a key for a player in normal circumstances? Would not a GM normally tell a player that s/he couldn't if s/he couldn't?

I would say that if you try to run a quest you Will get special treatment. You will get the cold shoulder.
[/quote]

Helping you with your quest would have been interfering with normal gameplay and that is against the rules. Making yourself out to be the victim of some great mistreatment is just plain immature.

Well said. Lets move along people. lol

Seriously though, I would still like the chests to be opened for those who worked hard to get them. I would also like a better understanding of the GMs actions considering the points I have made. Preferably an explanation without name-calling, but whatever.

Laephis wrote:Helping you with your quest would have been interfering with normal gameplay and that is against the rules.

Uh, what do you think GMs do? They do interact with the normal game play, helping people who can't help themselves. People affected by bugs, people trapped, people who've lost their keys, people who need fences...

Sure newbified objects work as they are intended to in the code, but from some ideal of normal game play where no one ever gets stuck, what happened would be considered a bug. Solid objects don't usually mysteriously dematerialize when the holder is slain. So when it does happen that seems to be more of an interference in game play than if the resulting problem were to be fixed.

It?s long past a matter of "helping me with a quest". In fact all it ever was IMO was help with a technical problem.

Making yourself out to be the victim of some great mistreatment is just plain immature.

*sigh*
Its the quest participants who are really affected here. Couldn't someone unlock the chest for them? Doing so wouldn't be conceding on any imaginary matters of blame.

I do find some small mistreatment though. I think Sebastian's (the official) response here was groundless.
That the staff agreed not to respond to me at all I also think of as mistreatment. A simple .msg telling me that they would never undo the mistake would have shown more encouragement for my undertakings.

Well, I'm going off now. Another official response would be cool, not that I have my hopes too high.

*dbl post*

Atei wrote: And as to this little gem of a comment: "Really though, I have to say I am unimpressed with the treasure seeking drive on this shard."

I have a question for you: how many quests have YOU been on? I have been on a countless number of ones, and all of them involved some kind of deductive reasoning. A quest usually begins with a passer-by whispering something about someone or somewhere and with the combined knowledge of the lands and WoD's history, the players figure it out.

The word drive there means strong motivational impulse BTW. I'm not sure drive ever means ability. I have been on some quests if you really want to know.