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Guide List

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Aug 25, 2006 Snax_28 link
Hey guys n gals,

I was hoping it would be possible to get a sticky posted with a title such as this outlining the current list of Guides.

I did a search and I couldn't find a comprehansive, up to date list of who's in and who's out.

Anyway, yeah, well, thanks eh?
Aug 25, 2006 sarahanne link
'who's in and who's out" makes it sound like project runway
Aug 25, 2006 zamzx zik link
Lemming, Sherpa (whistler) Asp, erm, Sarahanne, the devs...others...yeah...
Aug 25, 2006 MSKanaka link
Devs:
Incarnate
a1k0n
raybondo
momerath42

Guides:
Whistler (Sherpa)
ctishman (Ku Genin)
RelayeR [JahelaJ] {edit-RR}
Suicidal Lemming
Kuvagh (Asp)
sarahanne
Eldrad
FiReMaGe
Aug 25, 2006 roguelazer link
I still wonder why Luis doesn't have über standing...
Aug 26, 2006 zamzx zik link
Lmao. I dont even think he has an account. (I guess he has to do a lot of work before he can play ;)
Aug 26, 2006 Snax_28 link
Thank you Miharu, I must say I wasn't aware of who the developers were.

More to the point: I'm requesting an official thread, stickey'd by said developers, outlining who is an active guide.

For instance, Eldrad, Kuvagh (Asp), Whistler (Sherpa), Suicidal Lemming have all been very sporadically active lately (some verging on or completely inactive).

I'm also going to take this opportunity to request that the current Guide membership be updated. Specifically I personally would like to see some of the more contemporary, post release, uber-active players promoted to Guide status (I'm not going to name names as they speak for themselves). This is one aspect of the game that I feel is quite lacking at this moment in time. Not only is it sometimes difficult to find a guide online (which IMO it should not be), but none of the guides are post-release. Given that said alpha and beta guides are hard to find, I think it is quite obvious that some new guides need to be appointed.
Aug 26, 2006 zamzx zik link
Yeah, I think the way they did it before was log on (an hour each day, or something like that, to find diffrent timezones) and pick nice, mature, responsable people. That said, peoples lives change, and it _HAS_ been two years. I think Snax is on to something.
Aug 26, 2006 roguelazer link
It might be an interesting study for some enterprising post-releaser to take the official #vendetta stats (somewhere on FiReMaGe's server) and compare the number of hours that the guides have been on IRC to, oh, say, the combined number of hours of every post-release player combined...
Aug 26, 2006 MSKanaka link
Snax: Sarahanne is a post-alpha guide, technically, and momerath's a post-release dev.

Some of the guides have been busy with school or other obligations recently--I know Lemming in particular is starting his senior year in high school, and I've seen each and every one of the guides ingame in the past month or so, either on their main character or on an alt, with the exception of Eldrad.
Aug 26, 2006 Snax_28 link
I've also seen a couple of them once or twice in the last month.

What I'm saying is that I think that there needs to be more of a prescence where guides are concerned. There's been numerous occasions when I haven't been able to locate a guide.

I'm not saying I think the current guides should drop what they're doing in real life and get back ingame. I'm just saying that maybe the guide ranks should be bolstered.

Unless I'm wrong, Eldrad was the last player (as opposed to dev) to be appointed.
Aug 26, 2006 MSKanaka link
All of the current guides were "appointed" at the same time, I believe--sometime around beta.
Aug 26, 2006 moldyman link
Hello.... arguing about nothing and drifting off topic here...

I agree with Snax. The current guides are great, but they're only human and almost only enough to count on one hand (*almost*). No one says make a guide population explosion, but add two or three very actives on to help.
Aug 26, 2006 TRS link
I think there should be some provision for the guides to be able to actually play the game, instead of spending %100 of their time stamping out fires. If I was guide, I would insist on a free account, just for guide characters.
Aug 27, 2006 Whistler link
I was the first and only guide for quite some time. Eventually I was asked to come up with a short list of those who I thought would be good guides (stable,fair, active, optimistic, intelligent, etc..). The devs also made their own list. There was some discussion, and then new guides were invited in dribs and drabs. I don't recall the order or timing, but Sarahanne was indeed the most recent and did become a guide post-release.

I haven't discussed his plans regarding this recently, but I do know that Inc's long-range plan was to do away with the guide "system" (which is kludgey and inconvenient at best) in favor of a much more integrated player / mentor system (not at all the mentor system we have now). I don't know that there are plans to recruit new guides.

As for myself, I'm still around as various characters. I don't currently play daily due to things being in a state of flux since the beginning of the year for me and my family. My wife has changed careers and, while things are great, I feel like we've been doing a spinning-plate and juggling act as we maneuver her into her dream job. As a result, I'm currently not omni-present in game the way I once was, but I do come on late at night PST fairly often. I'm happy to report that there are relatively few fires to be stomped out at that hour. I'm still scanning the forums a few times a day usually.

I've also made some changes in my relationship with the VO community: I've retired the occasionally arbitrary Forum Moderator character, and I don't maintain a deterrent presence as the character Sherpa anymore (though I still have both, so don't bother with impersonations). Frankly I was tired of those roles, and the VO community neither needed nor wanted them anymore. Whistler continues on as a player character, and the other characters have their own private lives...

As for the free account, I'm happy to pay. Someday Guild can throw me a bone if they want, but for now they need every penny to keep the rapid development going.

More to the point: What is needed from the guides, and when?
Aug 27, 2006 Snax_28 link
While I agree that the guide system might be a bit clunky, and that a newer system might be nice, it doesn't take into account the fact that not only is said system not in place, but given the incomplete and ever evolving nature of the game, people with the power to make on the fly decisions and alterations to ingame issues is currently necessary.

For instance:

http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/7/14741

Mystic could not find a guide to make this event work properly, and as such there were participants who were invulnerable to other participants. This is something that will presumably be fixed by the faction system changes, but until then, guides are needed for these situations.

If there was perhaps a temporary boost in Guides, at least until a newer system or a more ironed out game is in place...
Aug 27, 2006 yodaofborg link
Oooh ooh, pick, me! I'd love to be able to spawn samo and type /oper /kill Gavan every time he;s online :P (kidding, of course)

I kinda see both sides here, I sometimes wish there were no guides, and maybe just people to report back to the dev team about abuse to others, breaches in EULA, ect. The player base has already proved it can police itself at times if needed, and i'm pretty gutted that guides (a guide) feel the need to lock people to channels. Theres an /ignore feature for personally selecting the people you wanna chat to, and a /vote mute feature for when the community as a whole thinks someone being a bit much. As for events, some of them couldnt possibly happen without guides. I personally don't think guides a) will be enough of a help when theres 500+ players online (unless at least 100 of them are guides, not a practical option) or b) are not really any use while the player base is this small.

As for events, there was some discussion about *event managers* in the past, that have some guide like powers (the ability to spawn stuff, change faction standings, but NOT kill or mute players)that could help out. More guides is NOT the way to go.
Aug 27, 2006 davejohn link
Erm , Obsidian is a Guide as well. I had a brief chat with her when she popped ingame recently . She is busy in RL but hopes to spend more time in game soon , organising convoys and mining events.

Ecka
Aug 27, 2006 Snax_28 link
I agree Yoda, something like an Event Manager would be an excellent situation.

What I'm proposing is a short term temporary solution. Said guides could be made ex-guides just as much as the current ones could be whence better game play mechanics are in place.
Aug 28, 2006 TRS link
The /ignore command works, and works well.
The /vote mute isn't very democratic, and is generally worthless.

Almost of referances to the EULA are biased, to say the least. Asking a guide to resolve a player conflict is often akin to hiring a referee after some one is already face down on the mat.

An event that requires a guide is called a guide event, not a player event.
I am in favor of having guides.
I don't think you should expect guides to be available on your schedule, jump when you say jump, or always take your side in a conflict.
Be a plyer foremost, and a guide second. If you can't be both, be a player. To me, some one that plays the game is worth more than a dozen guides.