It's time for another GM report.

On doors, opening and closing.

Very often, I get asked a variation of 'How can I get promoted/noticed/positioned?' The simple asnwer has always been to do work. Some work is higher impact, and easier to see than others. Being a codemonkey or a gfxmonkey before you even get into the club is a great way to have a pretty laid out path to upper ranks, if you are willing to do the work. We all know that. It's the Brotherhood equivalent of being GREAT at investment banking. If you do hard work, you're going to eventually succeed.

But for many of us, neither of those 'career choices' are an option. That, on its face, limits our options. There's just simply not that many high-paying jobs in the real world for video-game testers, despite what ads on the side of your browser tell you.

That's just on its face, though. In reality, the number of non-gfx and non-code positions in the club vastly outnumber the jobs that do. The problem is that there's a lot more people competing for those gigs. There'a a Herald and a Seneschal, but there's also a Headmaster, a Justicar, a Master-at-Arms, Grand Master, Deputy Grand Master and Seven unit leader positions, and that's just on the voting body of the Brotherhood.

There is opportunity there. And the best advice I can give you is by holding one member in particular up today. Korras has been our Master At Arms for years now. He's been consistent, he's been unbiased. He's been calm and collected, even when we have given him plenty of reason not to be. He's been someone we can count on, someone I can count on.

More than that, he has drawn down the wait time on rewards and medals something ferocious. In the modern brotherhood, we have been spoiled. Utterly spoiled. Ask some of your clan mates how it was in the old days... how long it took for some promotions and medals to go through, how long it took for results to vendettas to be sorted out. Korras had a direct hand in that (and was one of my heavy graders before the crusade). He's pushed beyond just being a button masher. He's worked to streamline the process, documenting as he goes in most cases.

More than that, he's always been available to help people sort out what is appropriate, what makes more sense, how to write better reccs, how to get stuff done the right way. He's helped mentor a pretty large number of people, on his staff and not, on how to be better at this aspect of our jobs. He's been one of the people that I bounce ideas off of, to make sure that I am doing it right myself. He's been a solid member of the Dark Council, able to sit in on any committee, on any project without hesitation. He has no issues with other members, he has no political affiliation, such as it is in the club.

Do work, do it consistently as you can manage, be fair, be level headed, be available. Teach others how to be the same. That's how Korras has been over the past three and a half years. That is how to own a position, that is how to make a name for yourself without having to resort to dramatics, to start fights, to cause havoc for the sake of having havoc around.

Korras has been a model member of the DC for years now. And it pains me to have to announce that he will be retiring here soon. His real life just keeps getting better for him. And this is me talking about a guy who does rock concert photography as a side gig. His time for the DB has been diminishing as of late, and he's only been staying on because I've asked him to.

But it is time.

As Korras winds down his record owning term as MAA, I had to sort out what would work best for him, something to recognize the hard work he has done. Not just in his office, but in helping all of us in all the myriad ways he has done for the past few years. In the end, I decided to induct him into one of our oldest traditions.

Today, Korras stands among you as a Lord.

Opportunity doesn't knock.

It stands outside and then moves on if you're not paying attention.

Korras retiring leaves us with a Dark Council position to fill. It is not the easy gig that many think it to be. The Brotherhood doesn't have room for a button pusher on its Dark Council. There is so much more. There are dozens of projects, thousands of little details that need tending to, above and beyond normal duties. And there's a team dynamic that is absolutely crucial to getting things done at this level.

You not only have to be great, but you have to be able to work with other great people easily. You have to be a big fish in the big pond, to be able to see things from many points of view and be able to adjust on the fly. You have to be the rock that is unmoved by politics, drama and vitriol. You have to be able to deliver on promises. You have to be strong enough to get things done, to be the subject matter expert...and at times, be strong enough to acknowledge that you don't know, then go and find out.

I don't need a 30-60-90 plan here. I don't want pages of people telling me how cool you are and how much they'd like a friend in the MAA office. I don't want to read an abridged history of your entire history in the club since you were a battleteam leader in Aquillarum.

I want to know why I need to hire you. I need to know why me not hiring you would be terrible. I need to know how you are going to work with Solari, Raken, Sarin, Valhavoc and the rest of the studs I have assembled for the Dark Council. I need to know how you deliver on your promises. I need to know that I can trust you. I need to know that when you screw up, you'll own your screw-up and learn from it, and that you'll be more mad than I am about it.

Does this sound like a real job? Good, because it is.

And to drive the point home, I want you to send this to Korras, Raken and I before midnight EST sunday night (2359 EDT, 22 September). The right person can get this to me in time.

A little less demanding...

If Master at Arms is a bit too intimidating, I am in need of staff. I have a Praetor who has left me to go lead House Odan Urr (the filthy lighty), and a magistrate position that needs filling.

What do I need? I need people capable of doing research, skilled at writing, good at wiki. Someone who isn't afraid to troubleshoot problems and proofread projects. Someone who likes playing around in excell or with numbers, and can give feedback on a number of awesome programs (secret and otherwise) that I can trust not to spill the beans. Someone who I can give a little project to and let you wrench on it without me micromanaging you.

Does this sound like something you can do? Does it sound like the sort of thing that you'd like to trade for medals and promotions?

Email me.

A couple of noteworthy Field Promotions went through recently. The first was Rosh Nyine, from Naga Sadow. He had not only finished his knight trials in short order (after having been back for only about a month), but had finished writing a new Course for the Shadow Academy (he's working on two more) and scoring three gold novae in the last month of the Crusade. As a result, Rosh was Knighted and made an Equite in one fell swoop. Congratulations.

In Arcona, Atyiru has had a heck of a couple of months. She had been running hard in Arcona, and has become an MVP for the Arconan Special Forces, having accumulated 8 total novae in the past three rounds. That's pretty intense, considering the competition at the Special Forces level. She has joined the equites as well. Congratulations.

Show and Tell.

Finally, some questions from our members.

Andrelious asks "Given the costs involved, exactly what benefits does having a comic for a GJW or other vendetta bring over simply having text based fiction as used in the past (and for Dark Crusade)?"

More people read the comic than read the huge wall of text that accompanies it. This helps make the storyline more accessible to those among us who don't want to read a hundred pages of text. It's also a bit of an awesome incentive: You can get into a comic. Yes you. It's possible. In addition to that, It could serve as an awesome recruitment tool. Lots of star wars fans read star wars comics. Being able to come across ours can help draw people in, even aside from the whole 'I can be in a comic? How do I get in on this?' angle.

Also, one of the artists we are in talks with for the next comic is a PROFESSIONAL comic artist who HAS ALREADY worked on Official Star Wars comics.

Nyine asks a lot of questions! "Though I know that the main focus right now is to get the new ACC running, there is any information that could be revealed about the new SA society?"

Well, kinda. Solari and I (with coder help) have been investigating new and awesome ways to deliver new awesomeness for your dossier. That's all I will say for now, but I think you'll all love it.

Mirado asks "Any hints/tips/ideas that we can use to help recruit new members to the club?"

Show them the comic!

More Nyine "I'm pretty sure that this is at the bottom of the coding priority list, but is there any word on the return of the warbanners? Some dossiers look empty without them (like mine!)"

We're working on automating many of the requests. It's going to be awesome.

MOAR NYINE "In the posessions system, will we be able to buy a living place/office/misc.? Will we be able to decorate it, if the answer is affirmative?"

Yes. Customization won't be at first.

Vynn asks "With the release of the super secret link on the dossiers is there any timetable to when the possession system will be released?"

Not one that we are comfortable releasing. We don't really want to get stuck in one of those scenarios where we give a date and people get all angry when some bit of code skips town and we have to work a couple more months longer. But that said, serious work is being done on it, by very talented people. It's closer today than it was yesterday.

Ji asks "Do you ever sleep?"

Not a lot. I work two real life jobs, have a baby son at home, then do a lot of DB stuff. I honestly don't recall the last time I got 8 hours of sleep. Even as I write this, I am somewhat torqued off out by the fact that I have an intense schedule (7:00 am through 9 pm) for work tomorrow, as the new iPhone is coming out. My next genuine day off is in october sometime. Maybe. Sleep? Ain't nobody got time fo' dat.

Andrelious, Nyine, Vynn, Ji, and Mirado all get DCs for their questions. If you want a shot at the easiest DC available, watch for me to change my nick on IRC to 'AskTheGM' next month and ask a good question.

That's about all for this time. If you need anything, shoot me an email, look me up on TOR or PM me on IRC.