Introduction

Another month has flown by and while I have some exciting news for those who love Star Wars games, I have steady progress to report on the rest of our initiatives. Great things take time but they are no less exciting. Let’s dive in!

Star Wars Games Cluster Review

I have been approached by multiple members regarding cluster values of our existing platforms and how some of the older SW titles, in particular, were not in line with newer platforms like Halo or Mario Kart. A member statement that stood out to me was something to the effect of “I don’t want to feel like I have to play certain games to be competitive in the GMRG or cluster races.” I’ve been an active gamer in the club long enough to know cluster values are a delicate balance but when I hear things like that it at least compels me to investigate.

I approached some key community and Fist staff members about getting some match data to adjust the Star Wars games values. Here are the values we arrived at after examining the data and some of our intuition as gamers that certain activities were in the “feels bad man” territory as far as payout vs time invested.

Game Title	Mode/Multiplier	Current Value	New Value
Battlefront 2 (PVP)	SWBF2 Blast Match	2	3
	Heroes vs Villains (BF2)	2	3
	Strike (BF2)	2	3
	Starfighter Assault (BF2)	2	3
	Galactic Assault	3	4.5
	Capital Supremacy	5	6
Battlefront 2 Co-Op (PVE)	Co-op	4	5
Jedi Academy (PVP)	1v1	1	2
	FFA	4	5
Star Wars: Squadrons Matchmaking (PVP)	Fleet Battles	4	5
	Dogfighting	2	3
	1v1	1	2
Star Wars: Squadrons vs AI (PVE)	Fleet Battle	4	5
Star Wars: The Old Republic Matchmaking (PVP)	Unrated	1	3
	Galactic Starfighter	1.5	3
	Rated	2	3
SWTOR Events (PVE)	Difficulty Modifier: Story or N/A	1	1
	Difficulty Modifier: Veteran	1.47	1.5
	Difficulty Modifier: Master	2	2
	Heroic Mission	1	2
	Uprising	2	4
	Flashpoint	4	6
	World Boss	4	5
	Operation	20	25

Because SWTOR PVE activities use a difficulty multiplier here are those activities broken out:

SWTOR Mode	Difficulty	Old Cluster Value	New Cluster Value
Uprising	Story	2	4
	Veteran	3	6
	Master	4	8
Flashpoint	Story	4	6
	Veteran	6	9
	Master	8	12
Operation	Story	20	25
	Veteran	30	37.5
	Master	40	50

Thank you to the staff and volunteers who provided the match data to help make these adjustments. I focused on the Star Wars games because we are a Star Wars club and as a matter of policy I’d rather err on the side of overtuning SW games. That being said if there’s another older platform that you feel needs a closer look please let me or the staff know.

These values are live on the site and can be viewed here.

The “Whiteboard”

As I introduced in my last full report, here is the whiteboard of the current ideas and projects that are percolating in the Fist office.

Live Events

Staff Members: All

Hosting live get-togethers and gaming sessions will continue using the Discord events feature. Admittedly finding the right time and activity can be a bit hit or miss sometimes but such is the nature of things. We continue trying out new ideas and hopefully you’ll see something in the coming month that grabs your attention. If you have an idea for a group event you’d like to see be sure to drop us a line. In the meantime don’t be afraid to stop by and say hi on discord while one of the events are going on.

The next area for exploration with events is tutorial or informative sessions in addition to the social events. Things like guides on SWTOR PVE content.

Multimedia Content

Staff Members: Turel and Nora

As the counterpart to live events, I would like to create multimedia content that members can view at any time. Site tutorials, funny clips, ask me anything, game tutorials, there’s a lot of possibilities there. I’ve been experimenting quite a bit behind the scenes with OBS and a facerigging program that will let me live out my dream of being a cringe v-tuber with a Tiger persona. Stay tuned! Be sure to like, comment and subscribe!

GMRG Overhaul

Staff Members: All

While community building remains our primary focus as a staff, something that’s bothered me for a long time is the theme of the GMRG. It’s long past time for an overhaul of the theme and rewards of the GMRG as a society, much like what recently occurred for the Shadow Academy society. With the advent of #OneBrotherhood and the club-wide lore becoming more path neutral it’s a good time to revisit the GMRG.

This project has three areas of focus:

• Theme - Currently, the GMRG is based thematically around the crimson bodyguards of Emperor Palpatine and Snoke. As someone who joined the club with a Jedi character I’ve always found this a bit limiting. My current thinking is the name GMRG stays but instead of being bodyguards the “Grand Master’s Guard” are the elite warriors of the Brotherhood who get called upon for daring strikes and raids behind enemy lines. The characters are living their lives in their home clans and get calls for the “avengers level threats,” so to speak that require an A-team style group to do a raid. So more of an elite commando theme with the items and lore than the red bucketheads (no offense to any of our emperor’s guard enthusiasts). This is all in early workshopping. The awarding of GMRG accessories tied to Councilors would continue but instead of guarding them a character could be said to have performed some daring mission for their Councilor that got them the Councilors trinket.

• Society Rewards - Part of overhauling the GMRG will include coming up with a character sheet perk and some new possessions items that tie into the theme we’ve been working on. For the CS perk I picture something like what the Shadow Academy did with the extra lore slots. Something neat and great for flavor but not game breaking.

• How One Ranks Up in the GMRG - With PoBs now gone I’d like to revisit how we rank up the GMRG. Eliminating or replacing the GMRG history exam to become a member (get a gaming cluster, you’re in the GMRG now). Possibly making CFs and CEs equal for society purposes. These are all things we’re looking at.

You may be thinking all this is a lot of fiction-y stuff, or too Krathy as Howie would say, for the gaming society. Members who game and members who do RP and fiction are not mutually exclusive. So as long as the GMRG exists as a society that has lore and in-character perks in our system I’m going to make sure it’s as “cool” and approachable as possible for members to integrate into their personal characters as little or as much as they want or not at all. That’s the beauty of societies.

Advanced PVE Goals

Staff Members: Bentre

Benny still intends on spearheading efforts to help members who want to progress through harder content in games like SWTOR. This ties into the live events project. So watch for separate reports from the Praetor corner in the future.

Gaming Incentives

Staff Members: Uji (lead) with Bentre

This is related to the GMRG overhaul but still distinct. Cluster reviews are part of this but also more fundamental questions of how we recognize gaming as an activity. This also includes things I’ve talked about before like recognizing tournament winners, club first achievements for groups and a “Fist challenge” leaderboard. This is still very much in the brainstorming phase but still moving forward.

The Fist Office Needs Your Help!

As I’ve said before, the Fist staff is a small group and we need your help to build up the community. Last time I talked about submitting games to the casual gaming queue. Today I want to highlight the party finder tool on Discord. Many of you used this during the war because you had to and it’s my hope that it became a habit. We all have those times where we just want to casually game with one or two close friends and not necessarily make it public. That’s fine. My public service announcement for this report and maybe think about advertising your gaming a little more often. Put yourself out there a little, you may not always get a nibble for the game and time you’re playing but a good chunk of the time you will. You never know who will come out of the woodwork to join an active party.

Don’t be afraid to start a gaming party on discord. You might meet your next regular gaming buddy.

Competition Spotlight

• [FIST] Card Shark! (Star Wars: CCG submissions only) - Double clusters for SW:CCG rounds! For all of labor day weekend. Now is the best time to learn.

• [FIST]Mario Kart 8 Trials Tournament - Bentre is running a tournament competition for Mario Kart 8 to celebrate its addition as a supported platform.

• [FIST] Gorefest September 2022 - September 16th-18th

• [FIST] Squadrons - Stay on Target!

• [FIST]The Old Republic: Conquest

Closing

I hope one of the things you take away from this report is that this tiger doesn’t bite. I want to hear from you. The cluster value adjustments in here are from member feedback I’ve personally received.

Until next time gamers!

Rajhin Cindertail aka Turel

Fist of the Brotherhood