Introduction

Greetings Dark Jedi Brotherhood!

I want to start by first thanking the Fist staff. They have been through a slew of transitions these past few months and have kept operating like the professionals they are. This stability is also reflective of the leadership of my predecessor, and newly minted Elder, Kalan Amak, who I learned much from when I was on his staff. My time as a Magistrate under the almighty salt lord was highly educational and without this experience I wouldn’t have even have thought about applying for Fist, let alone feel like I had a chance to follow in his footsteps. Finally, thank you to Mav, Evant and the rest of the Dark Council for entrusting me with this responsibility.

Ok now that all that mushy stuff is out of the way, let’s get down to brass tacks.

Initial Expectations

Real quickly, let’s take one moment to appreciate that the in-character Fist of the Brotherhood now officially stands no larger than a human toddler and weighs the same as a small dog. #AleenaPower

I’m generally someone with low aversion to change, but that does not mean that the Fist office nor it’s policies will see any major updates as I settle into the role. For the very immediate future, the administrative policies of the Fist office will remain unchanged.

However, this doesn't mean that you should expect there to be zero changes over the next few months. There are some details on my long term goals below in #AskTheFist and they mostly revolve around community building versus administrative updates. Obviously, a large part of this process is on me and the staff to keep an eye on the data and metrics but I also ask that the members of our gaming sub-community take an active role in this growth as well. For gaming in this club to truly take on a community feel, we have to think of us all as stakeholders in its health.

Feedback is an extremely important part of assessing the health of gaming in this club. I have an “open door” policy when it comes to your feedback. I want to be clear though, sending me an email does not mean I can take immediate action, nor does it guarantee that a change will be made. However, without open an honest dialogue problems can go unresolved and wounds can fester. Email is the best medium for these types of discussions so I can give them the attention they need. I find that chat elicits quick responses but not always the most thought provoking ones.

In an effort to open these lines of communications, I am launching the first annual Gaming Engagement Survey.

Gaming Engagement Survey

Yes, I work in HR. Yes, “engagement survey” is a HR buzzword. But corporate-speak notwithstanding, I like them.

If you don’t like that I said “no immediate changes” then take the survey.

If you like that I said “no immediate changes” then take the survey.

If love gaming…

If you hate gaming…

If you are rogue…

If you are any person with an account registered to this club then take the survey.

Everyone please take the survey and be honest. When I send these types of surveys out I am more afraid that people will not be honest than I am afraid of criticism. Forward this to your friends, to your clanmates, even forward it to your sworn enemy. I want to hear from as many people as possible.

As long as I get a sufficient number of responses, 15 or more, I will share the results in my December report. If you are interested in participating, use the link below.

Gaming Engagement Survey

SW:TOR Update

Star Wars: The Old Republic has a shaky history but with the newest expansion now live I thought that it was time to update the activity submission form for SW:TOR. The form should now more accurately reflect the different activities in the game (Heroic Missions, Flashpoints, World Bosses, Operations and Uprisings) as well as the difficulty types (Story, Veteren and Master). I’ve also turned on the ability to submit multiple screenshots.

If anyone is interested in taking a look at the state of the game, you should find it easier to submit activities.

Upcoming Competitions

To celebrate the launch of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, the Fist office will be hosting a series of competitions. As this is expected to be a single player game, there will not be clusters up for grabs but the goal is to have various competitions available, some which will require owning the game and others that will not. These competitions will not count towards the quarterly GMRG leaderboard.

The first round of competitions will go live with the game on November 15th and will not require ownership of the game. A second round will become available after I have had some time in the game and can come up with some additional competition ideas. This second round will focus on playing the game and will require ownership of it. With information being very hard to come by in advance of the launch, I will need to poke around a bit in game first to come up with these competitions.

AskTheFist

Dracaryis/Kalan asks: How are you adjusting to the new position. Any big initiatives planned for your first 89 days?

Adjusting well, even having spent a lot of time on staff there is a lot to learn. As far as big initiatives in my first days, the most important one is the Engagement Survey. Which leads wonderfully to the next question.

Turel/Rajhin asks: How do you define success for your tenure as Fist? What do you hope to accomplish and how do you envision the state of the club's gaming community when you step down?

The overall state of the process and procedure side of the Fist office, all of the administration, is in top notch shape. Without much to do on that side, the theme of my tenure is going to be about taking the gaming community to the next level. I don’t think we have an unhealthy or toxic community but I also think there is room to grow the sense of “togetherness”. I want to focus on making changes that encourage people to play our supported platforms together. But, there’s also the threat of unintended consequence that we have to be ever vigilant of which is why I want to be very deliberate in any changes that are made. Much more to come on this topic in the future and if anyone is interested in discussing it with me, I'm happy to have email conversations about it.

Turel/Rajhin also asks: If a prospective recruit to the club asked you "what can the club offer me as a gamer?" how would you respond?

The Dark Jedi Brotherhood has expanded my gaming social circle tremendously and that is the strength of the club. “In the real world” none of my friends and acquaintances are gamers, not even causally. The DJB gives me not just other people to play games with but a group of like minded people to talk to about games and gaming. If you are an MLG hopeful, or are looking for the most elite level gaming experience, we aren’t going to be that. But if you want to spend some time with like-minded people and have fun gaming with them, this is your club.

Raiju Kang asks: With the recent expansion and your own personal interest in the game, have any plans for our TOR community?

Historically, we’ve been pretty terrible at guild management so I’m not planning on working on that within TOR. However, this is a great question to showcase what I mean about building up the gaming community within the club. The DJB has very strong communication and activity tracking methods which means we don’t require in-game guilds as a coordination tool. This is a huge benefit when it comes to growing our community base because it allows dual membership. Players can be members of two different communities, their chosen in-game guild and this club.

The challenge is, how do we reach out to players of these games to inform them that this amazing opportunity exists? More to come on that in subsequent reports... #Foreshadowing

Essik Lyccane/Tarvitz asks: May I ask if you have any immediate thoughts on the recently announced Blizzard games, namely Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4 specifically.

First, it was not cool that Sylvanas rolled need on plate armor in the Shadowlands trailer and then disenchanted it right in front of the tank! (MMO joke, sorry)

For Overwatch 2, the promise of cooperative story missions could be great for our club. There is a very long trend of PvE being much more popular than other modes so having another game in that category would likely lead to increased activity.

Regarding Diablo 4, I’ve watched both the cinematic and gameplay trailers and I’m very excited that the franchise is moving back towards its roots. But, all indications are that this game is so far from release that it probably won’t even come out during my tenure as Fist.

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Regards,