World event alert

[Southpaw]

maybe the infested are attacking another settlement, maybe the cultists are sacrificing each other outside the city walls, maybe a 400 foot tall skeleton made out of regular sized skeletons is stomping through a forest somewhere. Maybe a notification on the announcement channel in Discord would be a boon!
Lots of us can't stay connected as much as we would like to and personally I would find it invaluable to have a little heads up that an event was either beginning or just about to begin. I have a lot of commitments and my days are usually crazy so I can't be on consistently but if there was a little notification that something Particularly exciting was happening I could make time for it.
Surely I'm not the only one that would find something like this useful and surely there's others that would probably hate this idea. Either way I'd love to hear what people think.

[verel]

I'd personally like this idea but I understand why people might hate it. I could totally use something like this so I could choose to go in and be apart of the event or regret how busy I am due to college and do the mature thing and stay out due to writing papers. But it'd be a really neat idea.

[RoyceArty]

I second this! (And considering discord reactions, so do other two people at least!)

I have limited time per week and I cannot afford to be around all the time, not even AFK. So having some sort of hint on OOC channels (or maybe semi-ooc) regarding upcoming events would be glorious in so many ways, allowing people to make time for it.

There's also the issue of timezones: I can prepare myself for a late night session, but otherwise *all* events that happen on usually normal time are bound to catch me sleeping, only to wake up to see the game chat and say, "Huh, something cool must have happened."

To me personally is not that bad as most combat oriented events won't fit in with Tandor's playstile, but there are several players on surrounding timezones who have been and will continue to share this problem. I feel like further debate on the topic of how to accomplish this without "divinating/future-telling" everyone what is going to happen would be of everyone's interest to keep the community united. Mostly because I don't speak on its behalf, but also because of how incredible this could be.

[Rias]

I think something like this would be good, though I'd probably want it to be done sparingly. One potential worry is that people get trained to only log in when there's an announcement, and leave the world a ghost town otherwise. Definitely my "see the worst case scenario" side shining through there, but it's important to consider potential unwanted side effects. But a good idea for festivals and merchant/alteration events and the like, and the occasional big or random world event!

[artus]

One possibility I can think of is save the notification to actually really, really major events or merchants or something that doesn't happen often and keep something like minor invasions or random dog fight in character so at least people who don't have much time can find out something happens that really, really matters so they can join, or follow up when they can't join.

I personally prefer to keep stuff ic though because taking a sudden ic event ooc is just weird, like you're some sort of seer who just magically knows stuff happens somehow, but it's just me. One exception is when events need to be arranged in advance. But I can see both sides.

[RoyceArty]

...But a good idea for festivals and merchant/alteration events and the like, and the occasional big or random world event!

Yeah! The ones that I feel would make a lot of sense would be the kind of events people could hear about during their daily lives. Like, at least I feel like if there is something like a festival being prepared people would be eager to let the word spread about a week before or more.

It's the negative and the non-manmade events that are troublesome to be talked about in advance. Some could be explained IC as subtly foretold by specialists related to them, some bigger ones could be foretold by ominous sensations echoing around the lands...

There is no denying that people who wouldn't connect otherwise will connect to the event if they are able to, in a way that's the point of these notifications. And this opens up a plethora of points of view, such as: "Well, that means more people get to experience the fun part of the game regardless of their timezone" or "I don't have much time/inspiration/etc to play these days, but at least I can join in whenever something interesting happens and be together with everyone else, making the most out of my time in clok"

IC it would also make a lot of sense that people come out of their homes whenever there is a lot of noise outdoors. This, paired together with extremely vague event warnings, would keep the surprise factor while allowing more people to experience them.

...I personally prefer to keep stuff ic though because taking a sudden ic event ooc is just weird, like you're some sort of seer who just magically knows stuff happens somehow, but it's just me. One exception is when events need to be arranged in advance. But I can see both sides.

It is actually a really good consideration to make all these IC "excuses" for the OOC event warnings actually available IC, if not only available IC in the case they are fully discarded OOC.

It would be menacing in some situations, it would encourage checking with certain NPCs to tell if something is going to happen and when approximately in others. It would even promote investigation work to try and pinpoint these things, from each of the factions. There are many ambience emotes that would most certainly fit the bill, as well as a million other small ideas I could write ten posts about.

In short: it is worth considering reasons for this IC, it could even add more fun for everyone!

[Southpaw]

I understand where you're coming from but I don't see it as being a seer. I view it more as, I live in Shadgard, and if an invasion happens, there's a really good chance I'll hear shouting and chaos. It wouldn't be unusual at all for that sort of noise to awaken a small town or outpost.
If it did just end up being an alert for major events I'd still be very happy though.