In accordance with the no 2 month waiting time frame rule, I had time to run a quest this weekend. On Saturday we had one person who was quest ready in the game. On Sunday we had 4. Then one left. I tried running a quest for the remaining 3. After 30 mins or so 2 of those 3 decided it was too difficult and quit. My sincere apologies to the one who remained and was willing to try on their own. You displayed the true spirit of the game as well as a great deal of courage and honour.

So, what this tells me is, what avatar quests are meant to test has finally shown it's true colors. Not everyone knows the game so well they can fly right through the quests. Quests are meant to test your knowledge of the game geography, your battling skills, your bargaining skills, and above all else, your devotion to your deity. Seems the Avatar list will not be growing much now unless each and every one of you work really hard. Since I can't put together proper combinations of talent now, success on a quest is no longer likely the first few times.

What I will start trying to do is post a time frame of a weekend that I know I will be around and capable of running a quest. You all need to take it upon yourselves to surround yourself with the proper talent and be knowledgeable of the game so as to ensure your own success. I also caution you all, that IF you set up a "team" of sorts to quest, make sure it is done IN RP as that is the only thing I will recognize as a true effort.

Good luck to you all.

The time frame will be a big help for people. I had, and I heard complaints of just suddenly deciding to run one. I do feel though, as many others do, you don't play, you don't quest. Tough luck. I almost missed a quest but I understood. I wasn't angry, just a little bit, discouraged I think is the right word that I didn't know exactly when the quest would run. That was a very challenging quest btw.

The lack of prior announcing it comes from the revoking of the 2 month waiting rule to quest. The staff worked very hard to arrange things fairly and equally when that was in play. With no waiting time as a rule there is no way to arrange things in advance. We figure, if you're playing, you'll know a quest is going to happen, you'll be there. So - if you want to quest, play... right?

So what this tells me is, it doesn't matter how we do it, we're still wrong. And people wonder why we have fewer and fewer staffers to do things.

If you want to quest, play right? Is what you said. I totally agree. There were people on that weekend, that due to schedule conflicts couldn't quest, and with their grumbling, they understood. Now people that hardly play, if even for a few minutes to see what's going on, when they're not here to quest, they don't get a tear of comfort from me. You want to quest, play.

OK, well don't interpret this as a flame in any way or a lack of appreciation of the hard work the staff do, but its just my thought on the matter.

A major thing that seems to have been omitted from the discussion of the 'play if you want to quest, and tough if you're not on when one is run' is the rather massive problem for many players of world time zones.
From my experience the quests that I've been on have taken some previous planning on my part to be present for being in London (i.e. arranging to stay up til 2am or so on a sunday night). I don't know if anyone else regularly plays til these times, but personally I find I have to head to bed at a reasonable time for work in the morning.

I personally feel that a little warning (even a week or so) would only be fair for the people who don't tend to be on at the same times as the bulk of the staff and would usually need to make special arrangements with playing times to be present.

I'd also say the announcement should be made without any room for discussion (to prevent people from complaining to the hard working quest staff about times, commitments etc.)

I'd say this would only be fair for people who really want to quest and find things tend to happen mostly when they are not around.

Also, I thought (and I could be wrong here) that quests were supposed to be a fun, challenging way for people who have put a lot of time and dedication into the game (hopefully voting constantly and building as I try to do) to advance their characters. I think that taking a hard line and saying 'tough if you cant make it, its your problem' is not a constructive way to keep people feeling that years of strong support for this game counts for at least something.

My 2 cents,

Bannik.

I understand about different time zones, and your point is heard. I have tried to run quests in the past at different times and days. I will continue to do that.

It also is not, "tough" if you're not on. We do care, truly, but it goes back to it doesn't matter what we do as staff, not everyone is going to fully agree with it. We do the best we can and that's all we can do. If the player base seems to more desire the 2 month waiting rule to be 'more fair' it is possible that it could be reimplemented.

Thank you for posting your thoughts. As always, they are appreciated.

I agree with Banniks time thingies. Weekends are usually difficult for me to stay up til 2/3am. Like someone said, you make time. Much love to all.

This really largely goes back to growing our player base. The bigger the community the more staff we'll have.

Maybe everyone who reads this should go search out people on the Internet who have e-mail addresses associated with Dungeons & Dragons or Fantasy Roleplaying typing games, then type up an e-mail about Distant Lands and send it to each of the e-mail address individually. Got a better idea? Your email might be something like:

Subject: Distant Lands - Fantasy Roleplaying Game

Hello!

I was reading through some posts on the Internet and your name came up associated with roleplaying. I thought you might find this free game (Distant Lands) that I play on interesting. Invite your friends and roleplay for free on your computer in this dungeons and dragons style fantasy roleplaying text-based virtual environment. For more information about it just go to: http://WWW.DL2.NET/

Hope to see you there.

Great idea ill start doing some thing like that right away i truley want more payer base here as i believe we all do. cudos to your great idea myrrima

How would i be able to find email address on the internet to send them emails i would gladly do it
if i can figure out how to obtain the email address