Message from the Fist

Happy Holidays, everyone. Welcome to my 3rd report as your Fist! Over the past month we’ve been hard at work continuing to refine and change our systems, some of which have already gone into effect. The most notable change was with the rank structure of the GMRG. As you all saw in my mid-month post, GMRG Ranks XI and XII are now permanently awarded. Thresholds for those ranks are listed on the GMRG wiki page. The quarterly GMRG leaderboard remains unchanged, and all members (with a small caveat that I will discuss in a moment) Rank X and above are eligible to compete for the top 10 spots! This change brings the GMRG in-line with the other societies, and will help make the Possessions system much easier to manage for the Regent.

Another big change to the GMRG leaderboard is the eligibility of the Fist staff to compete. Effective next quarter, the Fist staff will no longer be eligible to compete for the GMRG Top Ten. I did not make this decision lightly, but I firmly believe that the Fist office exists to provide activity for the rest of the club. We should not benefit from the system that we manage. This change will not go live until 1 January, because I won’t take away from the gaming efforts that some of my team have put in already for placement for this quarter.

Finally, I have decided that in order to provide experience working on a DC staff, two of my Magistrate positions will have a six-month term limit. The SWTOR Magistrate will remain as a permanent position due to the complexity of managing a MMO. This change has the potential to benefit the entire DB by showing members how we review and approve gaming submissions, and how we test and implement new games. This policy will be retroactive to when I assumed the office, so all of my current magistrates have four months left (end of next quarter). Once a magistrate’s term is up, I will allow them to re-apply, but I want to provide this experience to all members of the club. This prevents stagnation of ideas, and it also gives the sitting magistrates the chance to focus on their own gaming.

I do have one open Magistrate position now. I’d like to thank Aexod for his efforts over the past three months. Job requirements will be mentioned below.

Other admin notes:

• New gaming modes for currently supported games will be tested/validated by the Fist office before they are implemented. There is no exception to this. If a new game mode opens up that has the potential for support, feel free to bring it to our attention. We will validate the new mode, test it, and determine values if it is supportable. Not all game modes will be supported. If a game mode is not popular by a majority of players or it does not fill a need for the club, I will not add it.

• Friendly reminder that the Teamspeak Server has changed. See announcement here. I’ll say this again, because apparently the message isn’t getting through: We are not moving to Discord. Please stop asking.

• Ernordeth posted a new gaming digest. Lots of great games and updates out there for you to add to your gift wish list!

Now, on to the good stuff!

Pendants of Blood, Explained

I’ve had a lot of questions in regards to Pendants of Blood. For all games that award Pendants of Blood for specific milestones, the maximum number of Pendants you can receive from those games is six (6). If the level cap is raised or the milestones change and you have already earned six, you will not be eligible to earn any more.

• Example 1: A member has earned six pendants of blood for achieving Max Level and Light Level by playing Destiny. These pendants were earned using the level caps that existed in The Taken King expansion. The level caps are raised with the introduction of a new expansion. The milestones are updated to reflect the newer level caps, which are beyond the caps the member earned his/her six pendants for. This member is not eligible to earn any more pendants of blood.

• Example 2: A member has earned five pendants of blood for achieving max level and paragon levels by playing Diablo 3. These pendants were earned prior to the recent change in paragon level requirements. This member will not be eligible to earn a sixth pendant of blood until they meet the newly established paragon milestone.

There are other ways to earn pendants of blood outside of what is essentially single-player gaming. I award a pendant of blood for weekly and saturday PvP gaming to the member with the highest win/loss ratio. The rules that govern the weekly PvP Pendant of Blood can be found here.

Gaming Updates

Destiny

Not an update, but more of a clarification. In my last report, i mentioned that Pendants of Blood would be awarded for both a Full DB Clear of Normal and Hard Mode Wrath of the Machine. It was brought to my attention that for past raids, we only awarded for the first clear of the raid, regardless of which difficulty it was completed on.

Therefore, I retract my previous statement. I will award a Pendant of Blood to the first verified Full DB Clear of Wrath of the Machine. It can be done on normal mode or hard mode. I will not award pendants for both. I apologize for any confusion.

Overwatch

New Mode

Overwatch 3v3 mode is live! Submit all gaming activities via the gaming portal. You have to select whether you played 3v3 or 6v6 mode when submitting, so be careful not to accidentally batch screenshots for both modes into a single submission. Both modes award different amounts of clusters. Check out the Cluster tables here if you are curious as to how each game and game mode awards clusters!

Battlefront

The new Battlefront DLC for Rogue One hits on 6 December! It’s a perfect time to jump back into the fray, kill some Rebels or Imperials and hype yourself up for Rogue One!

Shadow Academy Courses

GMRG History has recieved some much needed revisions. For those of you who have not taken it yet, remember that this course is the initial gateway into the GMRG! For those of you who have the exam in process, make sure you check your answers prior to submitting, as some answers may have changed.

DB-Wide Gaming Competitions

Rogue One Celebration Event

The DC is happy to bring you another series of events in preparation for this year’s film release! Main link to the container competition is above. Gaming events are as follows:

Rogue One Gaming A

Objective Return to the fields of battle in Star Wars: Battlefront as either a soldier of the Rebel Alliance or a stormtrooper fighting for the Galactic Empire! Form a team and fight to either destroy or defend the Death Star in Battlestation Mode!

How to Submit Submit all activity through the normal gaming portal. Only Battlestation Mode submissions will count for this competition. As a bonus, all activities submitted to this competition will earn double Clusters of Fire!

Rogue One Gaming B

Objective The holiday season is supposed to be a generally happy time of year, but let’s face it; it can be stressful as well. What better way is there to take out some stress than to go head to head against a friend (or enemy) in Player vs. Player combat? For this event, find an opponent and fight it out in Star Wars: Battlefront’s 1v1 mode! You can play normal 1v1 or Heroes vs. Villains.

Rules Team up with another member of the DB and duke it out in Battlefront’s standard 1v1 mode or Heroes vs. Villains mode. Follow all rules set forth in the Rites of Combat. Combatants must agree to which mode they will play. There is no restriction on characters in the Heroes vs. Villains mode.

How to Submit All matches must be set up and submitted via the Fist-o-Matic bot on Telegram. For any Fist-o-matic issues, please contact the Fist for assistance. As a bonus, all activities submitted to this competition will earn double Clusters of Fire!

Diablo 3 Season 8 Competition

Reminder for this event, as we currently have a pretty low turnout: This competition will run for the duration of Season 8, which ends on 21 December. The full list of events can be found below! Make sure you sign up for the container event as well...the individual with the highest overall score at the end of Season 8 will earn an additional Crescent!

Unless someone steps up, it looks like Val Cole, Fist Emeritus will run away with the top crescents for all eight events!!

December Gaming: December Flash Game Christmas Room Escape

The New Year is approaching! That means it's holiday season! For the occasion, the FIST staff has decided to organize a bunch of holiday themed events for you!

In this competition, you will be playing a Christmas themed Escape flash game! Upon subscribing, you will receive a link to the flash game in question.

Fastest time (endgame screen) wins! In case of a tie, the person who submitted to the site first wins.

December Mobile Gaming: The Impossible Test Christmas Edition

You all loved this one so much, I've decided to give you another chance this year!!! This month the mobile game is The Impossible Test: Christmas Edition. Players will take a screenshot of the completion screen and submit it to this comp. Member with fastest completion time wins in case of a tie for first the member who submits first (as in date/time not time taken) wins.

Each participant who submits a valid screenshot will earn 5 Clusters of Earth to be awarded after the end of the competition.

iPhone and Android

Rites of Combat

The Rites of Combat have recently received a hefty overhaul. I’d like to thank my staff and the members of the DC who took the time to review and comment on this throughout the revision process. I think these changes now place the RoC in line with all of our current systems. Key changes of note:

• All IRC-related language has been removed. Telegram, the DB Gaming Lounge, and the TG Fist Bot are now 100% official. The Shadow Academy courses will reflect these changes soon.
• Daily Match Limits and Challenge Requirements are now two separate sections.
• With the move to Telegram, idling is not something that can be controlled. Idling is allowed in DB Gamer Lounge.
• RoC Infractions section now reflects the changes in the newly adopted Covenant. Members are responsible for reading and adhering to the guidelines set forth in the Covenant.
• Match Dodging Policy remains unchanged.
  
• Fist-o-Matic Policy has changed slightly. Punishments for repeated confirmation failures have been lessened slightly, but still exist. The Fist is now the sole approving authority for non-utilization of the Fist bot.
• Requirement for Xbox Gamertag, PSN ID, Steam Handle, Battle.net ID, or any other gamertag for the system being played on is now required for all Cluster and Pendant awarding.

November Weekly and Saturday Pendant of Blood Awardees

Congratulations to the following individuals on earning Pendants of Blood for the highest overall PvP score for the weeks/Saturdays listed!

Weekly PoBs

• 29 Oct-5 Nov: Ka Tarvitz
• 6-12 Nov: Hiset
• 13-19 Nov: Tasha’Vel
• 20-26 Nov: Tahiri

Saturday PoBs

• 12 Nov: Hiset
• 26 Nov: Edgar

Open Position: Magistrate to the Fist

With Aexod stepping down, I have an open magistrate position that needs to be filled. As mentioned before, this position holds a six-month term limit, and is designed to provide some experience in working on a DC Staff and with managing gaming at the Club level. Applications are open now, and will run through 16 December.

My magistrates are responsible for reviewing and approving gaming submissions, setting up and running monthly gaming and mobile gaming events, and assisting with revisions to the wiki and Shadow Academy gaming courses.

What I’m looking for in applicants:

• No minimum rank requirement. All may apply!
• Baseline understanding of the Rites of Combat
• Consistent Telegram presence and Email turnaround of 24 hours
• A positive attitude
• A desire to learn and be part of a team
• At least one idea on how to make gaming better within the club

Send all applications to me and Ernordeth by December 16th. I reserve the right to make a selection early if I see an applicant that really wows me.

Good luck to all!

December Gaming with the Fist

I had a great time playing Overwatch with some of our members during November’s Gaming with the Fist. For December, I’m going back to where I started out in this club: Xbox One!

December’s Gaming with the Fist will be on 10 December from 1000-1200 Pacific Standard Time. I’ll be playing Battlefront and Destiny, and will start with whatever the main group wants to play first. Word of warning: I will not take part in any Club first events. The Pendants of Blood for the Club First Wrath of the Machine Raid is still up for grabs, but as I stated before I will not take part in that event. Anything else is fair game!

See you all on the 10th! Come with ideas and questions. As with all Gaming with the Fist events, I will not make any decisions during these events. This is just a chance for me to take your questions and ideas back to the staff for further discussion.

Ask The Fist

Vyr asks: For the sake of us non-gamers, please explain the process you and your staff go through when approving new games or game mods for supported games.

First we look for overall interest in a game across the club. If there is enough interest in a specific game, we look to see if it is feasibly supportable. The game has to fill a need in the club and have some kind of definable metrics in order for it to be viable for support. Specifically, match or event completion screens. We need to know that we’ll be able to validate a member’s submission through the screenshot. Once we know we can validate the game, we usually run a competition to see if there is enough interest to warrant adding it as a supported platform. As a general rule of thumb, we look for at least 15 people who actively play the game. Based off the results of the competition, we’ll either support the game or we won’t. That’s pretty much the simple version.

While we monitor upcoming new releases for potential options for DJB gaming, we rely heavily on the community to bring potential platforms to our attention. Overwatch is a prime example of a game that had a lot of community support prior to its addition. It was feasible, filled a need, and is extremely popular with the member base.

Sometimes we support a game that goes in the other direction. The Division is a key example. It had a great deal of support and even became a supported platform. But it was almost impossible to validate screenshots, and the game itself became increasingly unpopular with the member base. It lasted about two months before it went from supported to unsupported.

Uji asks: What are the next platforms being considered for inclusion in the DJB? With many great games coming out around the Holiday season what can we look forward to being included/tested/updated for members to participate and play games together over the Christmas break?

We don’t have any upcoming games in the queue for testing. Titanfall 2 seems to be relatively popular, and I’d be interested in seeing if there is enough interest across the club to test it.

Uji also asks: As it may be relevant for my future gaming practices, I don’t believe we currently have any presence in EVE Online is that correct?

Not a significant presence that I’m aware of. I know a few people play it, but that’s about it. I always encourage people to game together outside of supported platforms. I’ve had a lot of fun playing Star Trek Online with members even though I’m fully aware (because I am the guy that makes these types of decisions) that it will never be supported. Sometimes, we just need to game for fun. The social aspect of the gaming community is what makes this club special. Clusters and pendants are just an added bonus.

Sparky asks: Will the PoB limit change now that the level cap on TOR is 70?

The only thing that will change is the PoB for max level will now be earned at level 70 instead of level 65. The Pendant of Blood page on the wiki provides a very clear answer. You can earn six Pendants of Blood for SWTOR. That’s it. No more. If you have already received the max level PoB under the old milestones, you will not earn another.

Kylex asks: What does the FIST do in canon for the brotherhood?

From the wiki: “The Fist of the Brotherhood is tasked by the Grand Master with oversight of the Iron Legion and Fleet. While the military is under direct command of the Grand Master alone, this position ensures order is maintained within the military as well as deployment and training. This also comes with the oversight of the Grand Master’s Royal Guard, an elite group of soldiers tasked with the protection of the Grand Master and the rest of the Dark Council.”

Esca (King of Hats) asks: Having played Overwatch a few times, who would you say are your top favorite characters?

I die less when I play as Reaper. So I’ll go with that.

Justinios Drake asks: Has EVE Online ever been considered as an official platform, especially now that it went partially F2P?

It hasn’t, and with SWTOR as our primary MMO (as bad as some people think it is), there are no plans to add any additional MMOs in the future.

Slagar Asks: Have you ever considered a Tier 3 of gaming platforms to offer general gaming support to random platforms?

This is something we’ve mulled over a few times. The major concern with allowing low-cluster (think fractional reward) activities for any and all platforms is the ability to validate them. My staff has to know what to look for in a submission, and if it is a game nobody is familiar with, that can cause errors and other potential concerns. Additionally, the Cluster of Earth and Cluster of Fire is, and will continue to be an effort based reward. As time is the only real metric we can generally validate, I am not comfortable with in essence de-valuing the Cluster in order to allow for non-supported platforms to be utilized for casual gaming. Finally, Clusters are now a path towards credits. As such, they will have to be managed extremely carefully to prevent spamming. So as of right now, if it isn’t a T1 or T2 supported platform, we’re not going to add what amounts to a 3rd Tier of gaming that allows for non supported platforms to be utilized for standard gaming activity.

The work-around for this is that we WILL support competitions based around non-supported platforms. These competitions do a few things. First, they provide crescents (which generate credits), they allow me and my staff to execute live tests of games that show potential for support, and (when run by the FIST office) they allow for incentive clusters (which generate credits).

Edgar Asks: Will the GMRG leaderboard awards be increased to reflect the new DC position and how does possessions change the accessories?

Absolutely. The Leaderboard will now include the Regent, which increases the number of available Dark Councilors to ten. What will change is the manner in which accessories are utilized. I don’t want to step on Evant’s toes with this, and frankly we’re still working out the full details on how that will look with possessions. Expect a solid answer soon!

Len Eode Asks: How is the MOBA testing going?

Frankly, it was an abysmal failure. Based off the tests of LoL and DOTA2, I’m not planning on doing any more tests for MOBAs. I have been made aware that there is a SW-based MOBA that will be available worldwide at some point in the near future, and we’ll probably take a look at that once it’s available. But for now, I’m dropping the MOBA testing due to overall lack of interest across the club.

TL;DR

1) Changes to the GMRG.

2) Changes to GMRG Eligibility

3) Changes to staff management

4) More about Pendants

5) I need a Magistrate

6) Really good questions

7) Rogue One!

Thanks for gaming. See you all next time!

-DDP