I joined FC because I wanted to make friends and have fun playing Halo. I feel like we may have lost our core values of fun and respect recently.

People are leaving the community because they feel disrespected (allegedly, I don't have first hand experience with any of these cases, but I've heard plenty of stories to believe that we might have a problem with respect.) Even hearing speculation about this is a huge warning flag that things need to change. This shouldn't even be brought to the table as a possible issue. If people don't feel like they are being respected or if an individual feels like they are isolated from the community we have a problem.

Then we have a lack of fun. This past war was by far my least favorite. Several things contributed to this, but I have no intention of being a part of this community if I have a repeat experience. I'm not here to suffer. I'm not in this community for battle nights that feel like a chore. Too many times I contemplated not showing up to Battle Nights because of the issues, problems, drama, or simply the lack of fun I would have. I'd like to think that I'm a pretty dedicated community member who has remained in this community through some pretty awesome times and some pretty terrible times, and if I, as a veteran community member, am questioning my attendance at a battle night what are the newer members thinking?

A huge part of my perceived lack of fun this past war has been the even more religious drive towards cut throat competition in the community. Winning is important, but I don't think winning should take priority over fun or respect. Obviously there is competition structure here (two armies attacking each other), but I think we may be taking it too far.


My dream for this community is that at the end of every battle night, I can ask any member from either army and they will respond that they had fun and felt respected during this evening. I honestly don't think that is the case for the majority of the community right now, and to me that is the biggest problem we face retaining members and recruiting new members into the community.


Now for the suggestion:

Moving forward, I would like to see a system in place where each community member is given the opportunity (and encouraged) to respond to a short survey at the end of the battle night.

Example:
0) Name/GT (Optional)
1) Did you have fun tonight? (Yes, No)
2) Did you feel respected tonight? (Yes, No)
3) Do you have any suggestions for improvement (Short Answer)

That will take less than 5 minutes to fill out, but the information collected would provide valuable insight into the state of the community. Then the HC/FM/WC/WD can use the results to hopefully improve the experience for the next week. This kind of continuous integration of changes would hopefully allow the leadership to better and more quickly address the concerns of the community throughout the war.

The results of this kind of survey might create some unease with people in leadership, and that is okay. Guiding this community to a better state may not be easy or simple at first, but ignoring these issues should not be an option.


One interesting possibility with this type of survey is that the statistics could be published with the battle results. It would be very interesting to see how the results improve as the leadership makes decisions to hopefully address concerns. I think you could inspire a lot of people at the lower levels in this community if they could see the progress as changes are implemented.