Re: FC:Res2.02 Battle Results (07/30/16)
Let's see if I end up actually posting what I want to say lol
I have been here for a while, maybe not as long as some of you here, but I like to think of myself as quite a chill and cool person to get along with, I have gone through a lot in this community from being in HC (if just briefly) to just sticking with the flow of things, but I feel like what I have to say is somewhat necessary, please dont take offence to it as it may seem a bit rude, but trust me, this is just what makes me sometimes not want to tag along and to a degree turns me off about the community.
So, let's begin:
-I really didnt enjoy the way the elections turned out, not in the sense of who got elected but in the way that they were handled. The amount of shadiness involving bringing inactive members to vote and limiting the polls (i.e. Not letting Wez, Wolfpack, etc. run, seemed a bit rigged) I understand I was not involved in the background and might be missing some key factors, but from a recruits perspective it seems like a rigged election where my vote didnt really matter since there were so many innactives that came back just to vote. As a result, I felt unmotivated to help a community that from an outside view seemed corrupt.
-Another thing I have not enjoyed as of late is the amount of "Strict" leading that has been going on, perhaps its just me but I feel like leaders (At least from a REDD perspective) are being a tad too strict for the situation that the community is going through, I understand we are trying to get things done and sometimes being strict works, but when people are not motivated and feel like the community is dying, perhaps being strict is the wrong approach as it just results on them caring less, instead perhaps being more involved and interactive and fun would help, and talking to the veterans of the community that have put at least a tiny bit of effort to show up and thank them personally, maybe this would help with some of the retention, and would earn you the help of those people, even though they might not be able to help as much as they would like, at least they will want to participate more if they have the time.
-Recruiting, well....I dont know much about that but if a recruit were to join right now, it would feel like the place is crumbling lol Seriously though, if we change the community environment to feel much more welcoming and relaxed it will be felt by anyone who joins, to a degree we are giving off this negative energy we got going around to people that join or want to partake more in the community and that enhances the lack of motivation from all parties.
Anyways, those were just my 50 cents lol OH! whoever is reading this, please dont take it personally, I just felt like I should say something since I do tend to stay quiet and let things roll but I do this out of the love and care I have for the community, even though I have not shown it as of late, it still is a part of my life and have met a lot of friends because of it.
Thank you,
Dark Remalf
PFC - Truth and HONOR Founder
Re: FC:Res2.02 Battle Results (07/30/16)
Re: FC:Res2.02 Battle Results (07/30/16)
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Legendary Nova
I think the biggest issue right now is that people are trying to decide between retention or recruitment, or one then the other. That's not what it should be about at all. There needs to be a dedicated effort to both at the same time. Yes, we do need to focus on recruitment to bring those numbers up, but these recruits aren't going to mean anything if all we've got is 8 members total at the BN from a list of at least 10 per side. And yes, we do need to focus on retention but if there are no recruits coming in then who are we trying to retain. That's why we have to do both at the same time.
On the retention side, squad leaders are going to be playing a big part. You guys need to work your asses off to make sure the people in your squads are attending events and socialising with one another. You are there as the means to encourage your squad to do things. If you're an enlisted and you don't show up to things, please think about why you don't. If it's unavoidable, that's cool, but tell us. If it's an issue you have with something, that's also cool, tell us and we can work to fix it. If it's just that you don't feel like it or something else like that, sorta not cool, but... (guess what) tell us. We need to know as Squad and Army leaders what we can do to improve the situations you're in.
On the other side with recruitment, everyone can play a small part, but the people who step forward and commit to recruiting members are encouraged and rewarded. Literally anyone who plays Halo can recruit for FC. All you need is a few games played, a recent player list, and a few minutes to type up something nice. If you're feeling real ballsy, turn on your mic in game chat, see who's talking, make some friends and invite them to FC. Even if you don't do it constantly, any amount of recruiting helps towards the community. And like I said before, if you decide to take up recruitment as a 'full time' thing, for lack of a better phrase, you're going to get noticed. For one, if two people want to make a new squad, you can bet I would be much more supportive for the person who went out of their way to try to make FC better beforehand. There's a lot of other stuff that goes along with recruiting too, like what Nervy said about watching a recruit grow being it's own reward. Think about it though, if every current member in FC sent a message to just the players from their 2 most recent Arena matches, we would reach 60-70 people just like that with basically no effort. As long as everyone is giving at least a little bit, we're going to accomplish a lot.
I do agree, the Squad Leader is the most important figure in the Army. He is the person that deals with the recruits the most throughout the week and during battle night. A good Squad Leader really makes or breaks the Squad.
So I'd like to talk about Squads. I can only talk about REDD's as I know nothing about BLUE. So what I think really makes a Recruit still around is the Squad atmosphere. When I was building REDWATCH, I wanted to build an identity. Like a living breathing thing within the community. I really took inspiration from Eri Ri's Blackheart Battalion and when I first started the Squad, I even went to him for ideas. One of the most important things you can do for a Recruit is make them feel like part of something more. In REDWATCH, the Emblem wasn't just for show, it was a sign of the Unit you were apart of. People would recognize you were part of this close bonded Unit. And then we build the identity from there. We built a church in forge (at first for Eagle's wedding) which eventually became our post-battle meeting place, with a giant REDWATCH Emblem for people to see. We ran ODST Matchmaking nights. Hell, once we got large enough we even began Projects like Orion, Artemis, and Titan that were built around building team cohesion from the ground up.
Point I'm making here is REDWATCH had an identity and I dare to say that when a Recruit joined, it gave them a sense of awe that they were apart of something larger than they. It gave them a sense of purpose and I think that's what made us so successful. I look at REDDs Squad now, Primus. I really think it's just a placeholder text just to put in the statbook. Its just a jumble of people with no direction. I don't even think we have practice dates. What is a Recruit supposed to do when they are added to this Squad? They'll get bored and quit. I'm not saying make it function exactly like REDWATCH, but it really just needs a sense of identity. We really need to bring back something that represents the vast universe that has been created for us to work in.
As far as Recruitment goes, if nobody else is doing it, no offense but that lies on the leaders shoulders. Inspire the community guys! Its the WC job to keep the community afloat and right now it's sinking pretty hard. Talk with your members and run some recruitment nights. "Hey Lilith and I are going to be running some Warzone to try to pick up some fresh blood on Thursday at 6 PM EST if anyone is interested!" Something as easy as that. Try to communicate with your team, get someone new on your warthog and send them a message after saying what a good job they did. Wes and I did that all the time and made countless new friends to matchmake with. Even just messaging them to compliment them on a unique gamertag and then strike up a conversation with them. Again, it starts with you guys. Taking note of people who recruit and rewarding them is one thing but if no one is doing it, you need to inspire them to do it by starting it yourself.
Hope this helps, I'm not trying to yell at you guys or belittle you, only give you suggestions from my FC career because I want this community to succeed.
Re: FC:Res2.02 Battle Results (07/30/16)
I would like to take this moment to nominate either Donkey or Dark Remalf to replace me in Red HC.
I believe either of them would do a substantially better job than I.
Re: FC:Res2.02 Battle Results (07/30/16)
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Dark Remalf
-I really didnt enjoy the way the elections turned out, not in the sense of who got elected but in the way that they were handled. The amount of shadiness involving bringing inactive members to vote and limiting the polls (i.e. Not letting Wez, Wolfpack, etc. run, seemed a bit rigged) I understand I was not involved in the background and might be missing some key factors, but from a recruits perspective it seems like a rigged election where my vote didnt really matter since there were so many innactives that came back just to vote. As a result, I felt unmotivated to help a community that from an outside view seemed corrupt.
This is all I can really respond to at the moment, wolfpack was completely eligible to run for FM, however, under the new system you require a partner to agree to run with you, wolfpack was unable to get such a partner, and so we couldn't add him to the ballot. (otherwise we'd have one FM if he was elected and just an empty spot for the other army. would hardly end well.) If he had gotten a partner, he would have been put on the ballot.
The partnership thing in itself is in a way a sort of "qualifier round", it proves that you have support from other veterans and/or officers, who think that you'll do a good job at the job.
HOWEVER, wez/donkey i believe was a pairing that never showed up when it should have, and i'm extremely disappointed in how that was handled by the WD's. I do not think it would have changed the result of the elections though.
As for bringing back inactives, or getting new people registered just to vote, etc, etc. those kinds of things have gone on with every single election. it's a horrible practice, and there SHOULD be rules about it, but at least from my experience WC was never able to come to an agreement on how to handle it. Hopefully they'll have better luck now, as the partnership elections were designed so that there will be a more unified approach to things, which will ideally let things get done a lot quicker.
And BLUE is pretty laid back, we have set practice times, stuff like that, As an aside.
Re: FC:Res2.02 Battle Results (07/30/16)
Quote:
Originally Posted by
silversleek
HOWEVER, wez/donkey i believe was a pairing that never showed up when it should have, and i'm extremely disappointed in how that was handled by the WD's. I do not think it would have changed the result of the elections though.
Neither of them ever messaged me to tell me they wanted to run... >.>
Re: FC:Res2.02 Battle Results (07/30/16)
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mythonian
Neither of them ever messaged me to tell me they wanted to run... >.>
xD
Re: FC:Res2.02 Battle Results (07/30/16)
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mythonian
Neither of them ever messaged me to tell me they wanted to run... >.>
this ^
Re: FC:Res2.02 Battle Results (07/30/16)
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mythonian
Neither of them ever messaged me to tell me they wanted to run... >.>
Well that bit of info is the straw that broke the camel's back for me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Dark Remalf
I really didnt enjoy the way the elections turned out, not in the sense of who got elected but in the way that they were handled. The amount of shadiness involving bringing inactive members to vote and limiting the polls (i.e. Not letting Wez, Wolfpack, etc. run, seemed a bit rigged) I understand I was not involved in the background and might be missing some key factors, but from a recruits perspective it seems like a rigged election where my vote didnt really matter since there were so many innactives that came back just to vote. As a result, I felt unmotivated to help a community that from an outside view seemed corrupt.
As it was stated before, every single FM election has had this happen. So pointing this past election out on it doesn't really mean a thing. Why is it suddenly now an issue for people when it has happened for as long as I have been here and it is only now really being brought up. As for you feeling the election was shady, it was and you are missing several key factors that you didn't/don't have access to because you are not WC. Again why is this suddenly an issue when it has been like that as long as I have been here. Shady shit happens during an election and the people who are pulling the shady shit never make FM or don't last long as FM.
Quote:
Another thing I have not enjoyed as of late is the amount of "Strict" leading that has been going on, perhaps its just me but I feel like leaders (At least from a REDD perspective) are being a tad too strict for the situation that the community is going through, I understand we are trying to get things done and sometimes being strict works, but when people are not motivated and feel like the community is dying, perhaps being strict is the wrong approach as it just results on them caring less, instead perhaps being more involved and interactive and fun would help, and talking to the veterans of the community that have put at least a tiny bit of effort to show up and thank them personally, maybe this would help with some of the retention, and would earn you the help of those people, even though they might not be able to help as much as they would like, at least they will want to participate more if they have the time.
If you do not agree with the practiced style within your army, you are more then welcome to PM your squad lead or higher, instead of making it an open thing which doesn't actually help the situation. Leadership can only do so much and they are not here to hold people's hands. Ultimately it is up the individual to actually show up to practices and battles. As long as I have been active in FC I have been in a leadership position and I can tell you from first person experience, you can not make everyone show up no matter how hands on you are. We are not here to thank you personally for showing up to the thing you signed up for. If you show up, cool thanks for showing up, if you didn't, well there really isn't a ton we can do if people just straight up choose to not come. As for talking to the veterans, we do talk to the veterans who show up and actually take part of the community. Why in the world would we waste our time talking to vets who have left the community due to personal reasons or just not feeling FC anymore. They are not involved and are not in a position to provide advice. We have a rank for long time vets who provide WC with advice. It is called Precursor.
Quote:
Recruiting, well....I dont know much about that but if a recruit were to join right now, it would feel like the place is crumbling lol Seriously though, if we change the community environment to feel much more welcoming and relaxed it will be felt by anyone who joins, to a degree we are giving off this negative energy we got going around to people that join or want to partake more in the community and that enhances the lack of motivation from all parties.
The only "negative energy" I feel at the moment is coming from people who make speeches about what is wrong with the community but don't actually step up and help the community. I know that in BLUE army, the officers are setting up practices and are communicating to make sure stuff gets done.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
VerbotenDonkey
I do agree, the Squad Leader is the most important figure in the Army. He is the person that deals with the recruits the most throughout the week and during battle night. A good Squad Leader really makes or breaks the Squad.
So I'd like to talk about Squads. I can only talk about REDD's as I know nothing about BLUE. So what I think really makes a Recruit still around is the Squad atmosphere. When I was building REDWATCH, I wanted to build an identity. Like a living breathing thing within the community. I really took inspiration from Eri Ri's Blackheart Battalion and when I first started the Squad, I even went to him for ideas. One of the most important things you can do for a Recruit is make them feel like part of something more. In REDWATCH, the Emblem wasn't just for show, it was a sign of the Unit you were apart of. People would recognize you were part of this close bonded Unit. And then we build the identity from there. We built a church in forge (at first for Eagle's wedding) which eventually became our post-battle meeting place, with a giant REDWATCH Emblem for people to see. We ran ODST Matchmaking nights. Hell, once we got large enough we even began Projects like Orion, Artemis, and Titan that were built around building team cohesion from the ground up.
Point I'm making here is REDWATCH had an identity and I dare to say that when a Recruit joined, it gave them a sense of awe that they were apart of something larger than they. It gave them a sense of purpose and I think that's what made us so successful. I look at REDDs Squad now, Primus. I really think it's just a placeholder text just to put in the statbook. Its just a jumble of people with no direction. I don't even think we have practice dates. What is a Recruit supposed to do when they are added to this Squad? They'll get bored and quit. I'm not saying make it function exactly like REDWATCH, but it really just needs a sense of identity. We really need to bring back something that represents the vast universe that has been created for us to work in.
This is something I spoke to WC about before we decided to do the draft which the majority of the community supported. I understand the bond created within a squad. But just because you don't play with those exact people for 3 hours on a Saturday/Sunday doesn't mean the bond isn't there and you can't continue to play with those people. I still play with Resistance members on xbox when I can and Resistance hasn't honestly been a real thing in years. The bond created by a squad is harder to create when the squad is drafted together rather then built from the ground up like the old days. That doesn't mean it isn't possible to do so. This honestly seems like some excuse to complain about something. Yeah we broke up the squads. I don't like it as much as anyone else who truly valued the bond a squad can create but that is what we sacrificed to help the very serious skill imbalance we had in the community. Look at the games so far. This week we have 2 games so close that it was the difference of 1 point that determined the winner of a game. I couldn't show up to those battles due to work but based off what I have read and heard, people had a lot of fun. So donkey what I ask of you and others is to allow time for the bond to form again between the new squads. Fighting it because it isn't a squad built from the ground up only hurts FC in the end.
Quote:
As far as Recruitment goes, if nobody else is doing it, no offense but that lies on the leaders shoulders. Inspire the community guys! Its the WC job to keep the community afloat and right now it's sinking pretty hard. Talk with your members and run some recruitment nights. "Hey Lilith and I are going to be running some Warzone to try to pick up some fresh blood on Thursday at 6 PM EST if anyone is interested!" Something as easy as that. Try to communicate with your team, get someone new on your warthog and send them a message after saying what a good job they did. Wes and I did that all the time and made countless new friends to matchmake with. Even just messaging them to compliment them on a unique gamertag and then strike up a conversation with them. Again, it starts with you guys. Taking note of people who recruit and rewarding them is one thing but if no one is doing it, you need to inspire them to do it by starting it yourself.
Like I said before, you can take the horse to the river but you can't make it drink. Recruitment has been an issue for years so pinning the issue on this leadership is extremely unfair. I know for a fact that we have some people trying to recruit. I try to recruit when I am on xbox and I am a terrible recruiter. But I still put the effort into it. Little pep talks and "come on guys!" isn't going to suddenly change everything. It all comes down to do people want to put the effort in.
Do not take my comments as attacks or me dismissing your statements. I am tired of reading speeches from vets who don't actively take part of the community anymore. I'm tired of people speaking on their high horse and I am done with soap boxes. Little speeches don't change anything, actions do. So if people want the community to be successful, then do something about.
Re: FC:Res2.02 Battle Results (07/30/16)
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mythonian
Neither of them ever messaged me to tell me they wanted to run... >.>
Okay if it wasn't apparent yet, the Wes/Donkey ticket was purely for lols. We weren't actually running because we would never willingly separate ourselves. <3
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Silko
This is something I spoke to WC about before we decided to do the draft which the majority of the community supported. I understand the bond created within a squad. But just because you don't play with those exact people for 3 hours on a Saturday/Sunday doesn't mean the bond isn't there and you can't continue to play with those people. I still play with Resistance members on xbox when I can and Resistance hasn't honestly been a real thing in years. The bond created by a squad is harder to create when the squad is drafted together rather then built from the ground up like the old days. That doesn't mean it isn't possible to do so. This honestly seems like some excuse to complain about something. Yeah we broke up the squads. I don't like it as much as anyone else who truly valued the bond a squad can create but that is what we sacrificed to help the very serious skill imbalance we had in the community. Look at the games so far. This week we have 2 games so close that it was the difference of 1 point that determined the winner of a game. I couldn't show up to those battles due to work but based off what I have read and heard, people had a lot of fun. So donkey what I ask of you and others is to allow time for the bond to form again between the new squads. Fighting it because it isn't a squad built from the ground up only hurts FC in the end.
Like I said before, you can take the horse to the river but you can't make it drink. Recruitment has been an issue for years so pinning the issue on this leadership is extremely unfair. I know for a fact that we have some people trying to recruit. I try to recruit when I am on xbox and I am a terrible recruiter. But I still put the effort into it. Little pep talks and "come on guys!" isn't going to suddenly change everything. It all comes down to do people want to put the effort in.
Do not take my comments as attacks or me dismissing your statements. I am tired of reading speeches from vets who don't actively take part of the community anymore. I'm tired of people speaking on their high horse and I am done with soap boxes. Little speeches don't change anything, actions do. So if people want the community to be successful, then do something about.
Okay bond wasn't really all I was looking for. Right now there isn't really anything going on at all in REDD. No practice, no custom games, no anything. :/ But that includes the Squad, nothing is going on with that either. Not so much that everyone is new to each other from the draft as it is all that's going on is show up on Saturday. Not much for a Squad.
I will give you guys the fact that battle nights are very balanced, I'm really happy about that. But again, when only four people are showing up for each side, should we be too happy about balance? And don't think I'm pinning years of inactivity on the current leadership, but in the end, it's up to the leaders of the community to keep the place running so recruitment really does stem from them. It's not the PFCs job to keep the community running. I did my part in recruiting. I hate tooting my own horn, but in my nine years here, I dare say that I've recruited more than any other person in FC. I'm 24 years old now though and I think my time for being an active part of the community is done (Especially cause I can't do Saturdays). There's a reason I didn't take a leadership position and that's cause I know I can't be active enough to help the community so I leave it up to someone who is willing to help the community. I'm not talking about doing little pep talks "hey lets go recruit" I'm talking about leaders actually stepping up and filling out the community again and hoping that other members of the community come help to. Will it work? Maybe not but I'd say it would do more help than not doing anything at all like right now and hoping more people just attend battle night.
