TK an opinion

[lightsage]

The treasure keepers (TK) are an alliance with one main purpose:

[indent=1]- To sponsor appropriate rewards to player made quests.[/indent]

The only word open for interpretation in this sentence is in the word ‘appropriate’. What is an appropriate reward and what would be the criteria for determining this?
There’s several criteria to be considered in my opinion when deciding on a quest reward:
1. How much of an achievement is it to complete the quest?
2. How good is the quest?
3. Can the quest be won by cheating?
4. Is the quest educational?
5. Who can participate in the quest?
6. No profit for quest creator?
Some explanation on how these criteria effect the rewards and why they should in my opinion.
1. The greater an achievement it is to complete a quest, the higher the reward should be.

2. How good the quest is isn’t directly related to how much of an achievement it is to complete it. A very easy quest might be a lot of fun. In order to encourage more people to have this fun giving out more rewards might be appropriate.

3. Imagine a quest with cipher clickables as we used to see a lot of. Now imagine the quest creator put no checks in this so only the final word at the last clickable is required to win. The possible 2[sup]nd[/sup] and 3[sup]rd[/sup] place reward for this quest should be lower because it should be discouraged to cheat by working together (I am indeed implying this is not allowed by the quest creator) or even worse, selling the solution. In addition to this this should encourage quest creators to make their quest more cheat proof as to get a higher sponsorship.

4. A quest that for instance teaches RP 101, MDScript 101 or how to write a story is educational. These quests teach the community skills that help MD grow and become a beter place. Participation should therefore be stimulated and slightly higher and slightly more rewards would be appropriate.

5. Let’s say Chewett makes a quest for the members of SoE and asks TK for sponsorship. I don’t think it should be given because the target audience is way too small. The smaller the target audience the lower the reward. With restrictions on land or alliance I don’t think the TK should sponsor.

6. If the quest creator gains more from the quest than he puts in, I don’t think the TK should sponsor. Let’s say for instance a quest creator decides to make a lottery where participants each have to put in a silver to participate and there’s a single prize of 90% of this silver. A TK sponsorship would most likely result in more participants and more silver that remains for the quest creator. Another example would be someone commissioning artwork.
Of course, quest rewards will still be open for interpretation and it’ll never be an exact science. A reputable quest creator and/or someone who’s shown their quest to TK is more likely to get the benefit of the doubt. Internally if in doubt TK members would be able to use the private forum to discuss.
Other than deciding on the right reward, TK needs to actually make sure they find the quests to reward. In order to do this they’ll need to be active around the realm and reach out to quest makers who’ve created a quest. If quest makers seek out sponsorship before putting up their quest or if they somehow go unnoticed (or are very impatient) they can contact TK. I’d suggest keeping track of quests as follows: Create a separate public forum with all the quests in the following template:
[quote]

Topic title: “playername”, “quest number by player”, “quest name”
Content:
Quest name: “quest name”
Quest status: Planned to start at “date”/Running/Pending Winners/Pending Rewards/Finished
Rewards pledged by TK: “rewards pledged and conditions such as something being intended for first place”
Rewards pledged by other “rewards pledged by others and their conditions if any”
Further information on quest: “forum link to quest topic” / ”place to start in game”[/quote]

This will help in keeping track of active quests and where they’re at as well as providing an overview of the active quests. A very transparent overview of what TK is doing. If the quest creator posts the winners, the public can see how long it takes TK to wrap the quest up. When the status becomes finished the quests would be moved to another subforum. Some quests might be a bit more secretive than this, should the need arise the topic can be hidden. The intent would be for posts such as “I will sponsor this quest with x” to be in this topic.

These topics help quite a bit in making what TK does more transparent. I’d like to go one further and show what the TK is working on in bigger lines themselves. An example of a post you might see in this case would be (this would for example be one if I were to become next TK leader):

[quote]

Setting up forums:

Request sent to Chewett, awaiting reply could take some time Chewett busy.

Speaking to current TK members:

50% done, planned for next day or two.

Writing topic concerning what quest creators are and aren’t allowed to do with sponsored rewards:
Planned for this week.

Writing topic regarding what rewards are based on and how to improve your odds of getting higher rewards:

Planned for this week.
[/quote]

Once upon a time Wish Points (WPs) were intended as a reward for those who excelled at a quest beyond the expectations of the quest creator. For some quests it might still be an appropriate reward for the first place. TK should, in my opinion, only give out WP codes to quest creators who’ve made a good quest and ran it well. This can be easily tracked by the quest topic. It is then up to the quest creators to grant the WPs as they see fit (within the game rules).

TK also have some additional obligations such as arranging the rewards for some advertisement related offers. This is quite simple to arrange: You do what the council says. If the council said give 10 silver ITCs to BFH, that’s what you do. If the council says give BFH whatever he wants, that’s what you do. The same goes for any other official role that might require part of the TK’s treasury.

Opinions on the topic or things I might've missed are welcomed. I do refrain the right to rebut

[Seigheart]

Nothing against you, or anything, Lightsage...

But you have only posted the extreme obvious about the TKs and their role. There is a LOT more behind being the leader than just delivering rewards. Nothing I will go into, nor will I reveal because the public isn't supposed to know.

But you have some good ideas here. You should talk to the next TK leader, and see what you can do to help them.

[dst]

[quote name='Seigheart' timestamp='1353957965' post='126511']
. There is a LOT more behind being the leader than just delivering rewards. Nothing I will go into, nor will I reveal because the public isn't supposed to know.

But you have some good ideas here. You should talk to the next TK leader, and see what you can do to help them.
[/quote]

And does the next leader of TKs know all the "behinds" ?

[Fang Archbane]

[quote name='dst' timestamp='1353958451' post='126515']
And does the next leader of TKs know all the "behinds" ?
[/quote]

She will, once she needs to know.

Emphasis on She.

Edited November 26, 2012 by Fang Archbane

[Seigheart]

I am always available to help guide the next TK Leader.

[ZenTao]

While I am not opposed to transparency, I have been under the impression Mur did not feel the TK was supposed to be transparent in all of it's workings.

[quote]. Again, tk internal business is none of your concern, and i will ask seigh to be more clear about things to avoid misinterpretations[/quote]-Mur

[quote][color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]The treasure keepers (TK) are an alliance with one main purpose:[/font][/color]


[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif][indent=1]- To sponsor appropriate rewards to player made quests.[/font][/color][/indent]
[/quote]

[font="helvetica, arial, sans-serif"][color="#282828"]While this is one of our main functions we do more then just this.[/color][/font]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Here is another of Murs [/font][/color]list of rules for the TK
[quote]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Must:[/font][/color]
[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]- constantly look for interesting ongoing quests or events and sponsor the creators. tk doesnt have to spot all good quests, but needs to spot at least one constantly. If there are no interesting quests it means md population got dumber and tk will still sponsor existing quests (adapts to what is)[/font][/color]
[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]- avoid sponsoring repeatedly same creators to avoid favoritism, even if some really deserve much more sponsorships than others[/font][/color]
[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]- keep a clear and dated list of all rewards given. preferably if this list goes public periodically[/font][/color]
[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]- follow an internal directive ( i wont discuss it here) regarding rewards given for certain forum posts[/font][/color]
[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]- dispatch any goods me or council asks, even if the request does not have a stated reason.[/font][/color]
[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]- dispatch promised/awarded sponsorships/rewards within a decent time. nothing like me or council. By decent i mean fast enough not to hear any complains, usualy a week tops is enough in my opinion, anything over is not good.[/font][/color]
[/quote]

We are not the rule makers- TK leader can't impose rules that have not been at the very least, approved of first or requested by some higher authority like "The Counsel" or Mur. Again this job is about a service we provide while still being governed by a higher authority.
IE Mur and Counsel

[lightsage]

First of all, this topic is titled an opinion for a reason. It is my opinion even if mur or council do not agree. I don't believe I've put anything in here they've blatantly stated they disagree with. Probably some things they haven't voiced an opinion on.

Now, your post comes across as a bit of an accusation to my lack of knowledge or my views in their entirety not matching with the quotes by mur so I'll rebut

Concerning the transparancy:

I'm not suggesting TKs to be transparant in all of it's workings. I'm suggesting a rather extensive fulfilment of the one of the requirements you quoted:

[quote name='Mur'][color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]- keep a clear and dated list of all rewards given. preferably if this list goes public periodically[/font][/color][/quote]

As well as status updates on things that have at that point already been announced publicly. The third and last thing would be the quest criteria in the big lines. In my opinion there should never be a table publicized (or used) with this sort of quest with these attributes will receive this as a reward. It doesn't work that way because it'll always have a personal touch ('feeling it'). It's just meant to give quest creators a general idea of what the rewards are based on.

TK is certainly not supposed to make all information public(imo). Publicizing what's in the treasury for example would be quite the spoiler. As would the way in which the rewarded topics are selected for people would start to attempt to create these topic. The reasoning behind allowing quest creators to know the rough criteria is because in my opinion we should want quests that match them. This is because this'll have a positive influence on quest quality and relevance.

[quote name='ZenTao'][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif][color=#282828]While this is one of our main functions we do more then just this.[/color][/font][/quote]

I am aware that TK does more than just that which can be concluded from the following phrases for example:

[quote name='I']
[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]The treasure keepers (TK) are an alliance with one [u][b]main [/b][/u]purpose:[/font][/color]
[/quote]

[quote name='I']
TK also have [u]some additional obligations such as[/u] arranging the rewards for some advertisement related offers.
[/quote]

[ZenTao]

I just wanted to point out those few things. Otherwise I find your ideas personally well thought. If I came off rude I apologize,

[VertuHonagan]

If this is an opinion topic on TKs then may I make an opinionized suggestion?

I suggest doing away with a clear "leader" of the TK's. Rather than having a leader, that makes all final decisions for the TK's and has full power over all the workings of the TK role, make all members of the TK alliance propose ways of rewarding quests, running the alliance, etc. and have all members within the alliance agree on what the best choice of action to take depending on the situation. In this way I think it would promote the alliance to work together more fully and prevent any excessive charity/rewarding that could upset the balance of the market within the realm.

[Seigheart]

Vertu, having a clear leader is to make it easier for Mur to organize things. He can always go to a single person, and he knows everything that goes on with the TKs. Otherwise it would be done as you have suggested.

[Curiose]

if I may...

tks were made to help me with murs work originally. I was swamped in real life, losing focus in md, so I asked for aid. mur orchestrated everything. the original purpolse was not just to give out rewards. it was based on altruism, that mostly in murs doing. do any of you know how many random gifts i gave out?

it was a group of members meant to be tiny secretaries. but it seems that has changed. tks now do whatthey do, because mur saw quests in need of aid, or sponsored his own crazy things.

I guess what i mean to say is, tks are not a crutch. before they came along, you. people had the ability to sponsor your own quests and things. hard,yes, but doable. forsaking this makes people dull and uselelss and makes the tks linear and overall not appreciated.