Message from the Fist

Aloha, DB Gamers! Short report this month, only have a couple of things to touch on.

Here’s the TL;DR.

1. The New GMRG, One Month In
2. The GMRG Invitational (Coming 3rd or 4th Quarter)
3. Hearthstone update (defining the baseline)
4. ESO Test – In Process Assessment

The New GMRG, One Month In

The GMRG Leaderboard is already seeing a bit of a shakeup with the new scoring model. From my current vantage point, it looks like the system is working the way it is intended. Placement in Fist sponsored competitions is the gold standard for moving up in the leaderboard. Clusters are still earned at the normal rate, and appear to absolutely have an effect on where members will wind up placing.

As this first quarter continues, I will pay particular attention to a couple of things: which supported games and the type of non-traditional (mobile/flash) games we utilize for these competitions.

For supported games, I’m watching activity submissions for the most CURRENT popular games in the club. Shockingly, SWTOR has seen a rise in popularity over the past couple of months, hence the running of two SWTOR focused events for the GMRG leaderboard. It’s also free to play, so that is an added bonus. I’ll say this to be as transparent as possible: not all of the gaming competitions will utilize free to play games. We have a large library of games we support, and if a large number of members are playing them, I’m going to highlight them in GMRG competitions.

For the non-traditional stuff like mobile and flash games, I’m going to scrutinize what we use a little harder. Moving forward, I have put a hard ban on any mobile games that provide micro-transactions that benefit gameplay. In short, if it’s pay to win, it won’t be allowed for any competition I run. It’s easier to find flash games that are free and do not provide an avenue for members to spend real money than it is mobile games, and I am definitely taking that into account moving forward.

For those of you that aren’t rank X yet, keep pushing. If you hit rank X before the end of the quarter, all crescents and clusters earned during the quarter will automatically be calculated into your score. You could very well go from not being on the leaderboard to winning it outright!

I will provide actual metrics and analysis once the quarter closes out at the end of March.

The GMRG Invitational

This is still in the planning phase, but I want to give you all some insight into what we are planning for later in the year.

The GMRG Invitational will serve as the replacement for the Brotherhood Gaming League. How invitations are doled out is still in the works, but current thought is to offer invitations for the top five members from the Q1 and Q2 GMRG Leaderboard. Clans will receive additional invitations to select two or three members to compete.

The planned event structure is a bracket, with seeding priority to GMRG placement (scores for each quarter will be taken into account), and then to the clan invitees (random seeding).

Each round of the bracket will focus on a different gaming model. For example: Round 1 is a flash game, Round 2 is a mobile game, Round 3 is a metric from a supported game, etc. The finals (as of now) are a multi-event gauntlet that will have a separate scoring model. I will not use any cluster races for this event, as I want this to focus as much on skill as possible.

My hope is that the end product is something new and exciting that will be as well received as a vendetta or GJW event.

That’s about all I can share. This will continue to develop over the coming months, and once I’m certain of how I want it to look I will pitch the final concept to the DC and then socialize it with your Consuls.

Defining the Hearthstone Baseline

From day one, the intent for Hearthstone was to provide a game to replace Pazaak that had a (relatively) low barrier to entry and low learning curve. When setting this up, I asked the member base what decks existed that provided the most level playing field, and “Classic” was the overwhelming response.

It appears that was incorrect. There is an even more basic option: “Basic” Decks.

Basic Decks are the cards granted to all players when they start playing the game. Utilizing these cards appears to neutralize any card advantage that may exist from already active players.

There are 46 Neutral (not belonging to any class) cards, of which you are gifted two copies for 98 cards available for all 9 classes. This is more than enough to fill out a player’s deck. There are also five class specific cards that are earned through normal gameplay that are awarded just for unlocking a class. Again, you are awarded two copies each for a total of ten additional cards. That’s 108 cards for doing nothing more than playing the game.

Moving forward, Basic decks are the standard for all official DJB matches. Just like Pazaak, members can agree prior to the start of a match to use the basic decks or more advanced cards if they choose. Both parties must agree to use anything other than the basic deck. If a member refuses to use advanced cards, the basic deck will be used.

I will update the wiki to reflect this change.

I want to give a shout out to Scudi (better known as Kelly Mendes) for providing the background and information for this change. I have awarded her a Steel Cross in thanks for providing this update. So congrats to Kelly!

ESO Test – In Process Review

The ESO Test is still live. Frankly, I’m a little surprised at the low level of interest, considering the high interest level in the DB Gaming poll in January.

Right now, only six members have participated, with only a handful of screenshots actually submitted.

The rules are defined in the competition description. To participate, you simply need to do the following:

• Play a dungeon (PvE) or a battleground (PvO) with at least one other DB member
• Ensure your ESO name is on your dossier
• Take a screenshot that clearly shows all participants.
• Submit screenshot through gaming portal. Make sure you select the ESO Test competition for ALL members on the activity before submitting
• You can submit multiple screenshots for submissions. No more than 10 per submission.

That’s it.

Test runs through 14 Feb. If there aren’t 20 unique participants, the game won’t go any farther in the support process. There were more than 20 people that expressed interest, so I know that there are enough of you out there playing to meet that requirement.

Admin and Policy Reminders

All current Gaming and Fist Policies can be found on the Gaming Information page. I suggest that all members read this page as it has some great info. I will make sure this page stays updated to reflect all current office policies. I do not want to confuse anyone, especially with what is and is not allowed in the DB Gaming Telegram room.

Other items of note:

• The staff has 24 hours from the time you submit gaming activity to approve it. If your submission has been sitting for longer than that, there is a problem. If it hasn’t, there is no problem. The staff do their best to process gaming submissions as quickly as possible, but they are real people with real lives. I do not expect them to sit behind a computer processing gaming submissions all day, and neither should any of you.

• Solo submissions are never acceptable for Clusters of Earth/Fire. My staff and I will reject any that come in. You must play with at least one other DB member, no exceptions. This is not changing any time in the near (or far) future.

• Pendants of Blood are not acceptable for submission to cluster-counting competitions. If we see them, we will remand the request.

• Reminder: Feel free to run Gaming competitions DB wide. Gaming is a slightly different community, and is one of the few that consistently brings club members together outside of the competitive environment. Most of the people I currently game are all in different clans. By opening up your event DB-wide, you increase the pool of possible participants, which could allow for a crescent upgrade!

• Reminder: While I sincerely appreciate having proposals/great ideas sent to me via telegram, please email the staff list (email is at the bottom of this report). I ask that your House and Clan leadership take a look at your proposals before you send them up. This isn’t to add a layer of bureaucracy, it’s because I’m sure they’d like to know how you are trying to help the club improve...helps with award and promotion recommendations and all that. Feel free to cc them on your email to me and my staff.

Helpful Links

• [DB Gaming on Telegram - Log in to view join link] on Telegram. Come be part of the discussion in the one and only official gaming channel of the Dark Jedi Brotherhood!

• Send us an email at [Log in to view e-mail addresses]

I’m eagerly awaiting the release of Anthem. The demo was enough to convince me to purchase it at launch. I know some of you are holding fast to see how it plays out in the first month or two. I invite those of you that play to discuss the game in DB Gaming. Do you like it? Do you not? Anthem appears to have viability for support, but I’m not going to provide launch support for a game that people aren’t 100% certain about. I’ll save that for Star Wars games.

As always, thanks for reading and keep on gaming.

-Dracpool, out.