Dragon Rising Community - Setting Expectations

[WhiskeySix]

This post is intended to set the course for Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising at TacticalGamer. It explains what to expect immediately following release of the game, how we intend to move forward, details on what's expected of you, the player, and what you should expect from your DR admins. DR has the potential to be a flagship game at TacticalGamer. Codemasters has provided a great framework in which we can share creative, team-oriented, objective-based, tactical gameplay; yet for it to achieve it's potential here, the server needs active support from you, the player (especially during the server's infancy). There's no reason that TacticalGamer can't have the very finest Dragon Rising server in the world!



The Gameplay Experience

The immediate week or two following release will be somewhat chaotic. What you experience on the server during this time will NOT be what you experience on the server in a month from now. Remember that the game server (players, rules, maps, weapons, etc, etc) you played on before Dragon Rising has had many months, or even years to mature!

You will be playing along side players with very diverse backgrounds, play-style preferences/expectations. Whether you're coming from ArmA 2 or the frozen future of 2142, remember that we're all here for the same thing!

It's also important to remember that this will be version 1.0 of the game, and hotfix patches will be forthcoming. There will be bugs; there will be balance issues; there will be weapons and vehicles that don't work like they "should"; there will be maps you love and others you don't care for.

Hopefully, if we go into it expecting a bit of a bumpy-road, that will help mitigate some of the potential frustration that would otherwise arise.

Community Responsibilities

During the days and weeks immediately following release, it is you, the player, that will shoulder the responsibility of making the server a success. The biggest thing you can do as a player is to remember why you first joined TacticalGamer, and pass that gift along. Specific things we need from all players:

• Have fun! This is at the top of the list for a reason! It's especially important during the initial 'break-in period', that we don't take things too seriously. Don't play with a "winning isn't everything, it's the only thing" type attitude. If you hang your hopes on a great K/D ratio or final score, you may be disappointed. Instead, during those hopeless rounds where the teams seem stacked or the map seems unbalanced, find a way to enjoy the small things in-game that make it fun. (Like golf - one amazing shot lets you forget about all the triple bogeys and lost golf balls)

• Have patience! Have patience with your fellow gamers as they learn the game, and bring their different expectations to the server. Have patience with the game itself, remembering it's an initial version. Finally, have patience with the [volunteer] admin-team as we work to support the community.

• Leave your preconceptions at the door! Dragon Rising is a game with obvious ties to the ArmA, CoD4, and Battlefield franchises, but we all need to remember that it is a completely new and totally separate game. Rules and SOPs from those other titles will not be directly imported into DR. DR is a new game in its own right, and we will all contribute to the development of rules that let us squeeze every last drop of objective-based, team-oriented fun out of this game.

• Give logical, fact-based feedback! We'll be developing server-rules after substantial consideration of all community feedback. If one person, after a bad day at work, has one bad in-game experience, in one moment of one round, it's not going to carry a lot of weight. On the other hand, when we see a trend, detailed by numerous, detailed, factual reports, we can begin adapting our policies. How did something spoil the gameplay? How often does that happen? Why does it happen? Are there any in-game counters?

• Educate and Build the Community! As you learn things, share them in the forums. If you perceive that someone is new in-game, give them a friendly "hey did ya know". When you find a tactic that works, don't keep it for your own advantage or share exclusively with the players in your IHS. We have no doubt that the TacticalGamer community will step up here - tactics, map guides, vehicle/weapon reviews, etc, are bread and butter of our experienced player base.

• Inspire! We want people to never forget the first time they play on TG's Dragon Rising server. Every time you play, you have the opportunity to make this kind of impression:

I always played on random pubbie servers during the vanilla BF2 days. The game consisted of the normal pub play with bunny hopping and never being in a squad. One night I was playing on a random server and 3 guys were in a squad. I joined and they were talking and actually playing as a squad. I remember that they got into a [jeep] and a there wasn't room for me. One of those guys got out so that we could run together for cover. I had no idea that level of teamwork existed in online games. I frequented that server but those guys never showed up again so I started doing the google search thing and came across threads talking about TG.

I joined a game here. The first round ended in the infamous river standoff. I had been playing BF2 for a long time and that was the first time I ever played in a coordinated defense. I was hooked from there.

I never saw those three guys again and still have no idea who they were but they totally changed the way that I looked at online games.

Admin Responsibilities

The Dragon Rising admin-team is being assembled of volunteers that are here to serve TG first, the DR community at TG (you) second, and themselves never. Our primary role as administrators is to police the server by enforcing rules in an unbiased and unemotional way. We're also responsible for translating community sentiment into codified game policy.

The admin-team is being assembled to have admins from diverse gaming backgrounds - to best represent the diverse player backgrounds that will be part of the OFP community here. As is the case with every other game at TG, if at any time you perceive that an admin is being intolerant, condescending, or disrespectful in any other way, please don't hesitate to let me know. Fortunately, we've been blessed with great volunteers stepping up, and I am extremely confident in their qualification and ability to do the job.