Official QB Quarter 4, 2006 Nominees With Q&A Responses (in Contests)

I keep coming back to CB mainly for one reason: The Chat. I also love the forums, the discussion...I guess just the social interaction. I like people, I like talking, so I like talking to people. The best way I think to encourage others to play and stay is to be kind to them in chat and go to the new players - to take time out to talk to them. Not necessarily about strategies and whatnot, of course, but just to make them feel welcome. Even if they don't like the game itself, they may just stay for the Chat. Just taking a small portion of your time to go be friendly to the new players can make a huge difference.

Been there, plenty of items and changes get produced that don't necessarily help my strategy. I have no problem with that, and don't complain. If I think something is over or underpowered, I don't hesitate to express my opinion, but you'll generally see very few complaints from me.

Nerf my precious Unarmed Combat, though, and we shall see all hell break loose...~_^ I don't care if other people's strategies get augmented - heck, I'm liable to adjust my strategy so I can slip in a little bit of what they got - but don't touch my UC baby. xD

In no different way than I do now. I think I'll represent the community best through my personality - I know full well that I'm a fun person (irregardless of having, as Bast says, a 'break with reality') and I think that I help keep a fun, friendly atmosphere in Chat and am a welcoming personality to the new players I meet and the mentees I greet.

I try to keep playing CB from affecting my life at ALL. My girlfriend doesn't even know I play. I love playing this game, I love chatting, and I love fighting and strategizing; however, my life comes first, my friends, family, and studies. I've already tried playing CB hardcore, and I am just not willing to make personal sacrifices to do so. As of now my status as a CB player has absolutely NO bearing on my life aside from the fact that it is a very enjoyable way to pass my free time.

Because I am just better. Really now, look at these names and tell me which one pops out to you: jayuu, Johnnywas, novice, æ§ODDBIRD§æ, NightStrike, Pit Spawn, and Slayer. I sure know which one pops out to me. The hot one. *sizzle*

Hah, I'm absolutely 100% positive they would. I've got a picture up of myself on my user profile page constantly, so they'd recognize me by sight; and I yak and joke around just as much in real life as I do here. Any CB'er who met me in real life would instantly recognize me as a friend and we'd have a great time. Most of us, at least. Unless you hate me. Then it would probably be awkward.

I've been hanging around in CB for over two and a half years now. I enjoy building chars, thinking about strategy, but to be honest if that was all then I would have left a long time ago. It's all about the community. I don't do chat, but I have enough contact with people through forums and CM that I would really miss if I wasn't here. I've made friends from hanging around this funny little text game and I really would miss them.

How to encourage people to join? That's trickier. I've played other online games with much larger communities. But they appealed - deliberately mostly - to a much younger age range. If you made things flashier and trashier you might appeal to a wider range of people, but it would definitely not be CB anymore.

Ah. This was my question. Can I pass on this one? No? OK. There has always been a tendency following changes for people to whine and moan, simply because those changes didn't suit them. I've done it myself on occasion. But mostly I take the view that changes are good, even if they don't suit me at that time. For instance, I'm running a tank strategy right now. If the next major changes gave mage teams the advantage again I would simply try and work out how best to reduce that advantage. Change is good and nothing is overpowered!

Best represent the community? By being me, the same person I've always been. I like a laugh, some fun, some strategy talk/help and occasionally drifting off into flights of fancy. I don't deliberately go about trying to be the perfect CB community member or anything like that. I'm just me.

How does playing CB affect my life? It doesn't really. I'm not one of these people who sets their alarm to get as much BA in as possible. I do stay logged in all day at work, but because I'm not able to use chat at work it doesn't interfere with what I do there. And to be frank if I was to be in chat at home my wife would probably lose patience with me! The only effect it has had is some friends that I have made, that I would never have met if it weren't for CB.

I shouldn't be picked as QB. The last couple of months I've not been as involved in CB as I have in the past. I've not stopped fighting, but I've not been as active in the community as before. And as usual there are some excellent nominees that would be much better choices. *cough* Novice *cough*

"If another CB'er met you in real life without knowing who you were, would he/she recognize you from CB? Explain why or why not." Redwolf suggested this one this time, but, blowing my own trumpet, this was my question from the last round of nominations. So thanks to RW for bringing it up again. Two questions of my own to answer! You would think I'd know what to say here, but the other questions were easier.

I'd like to think anybody from CB meeting me in RL would recognise me. Mostly I'm the same, quite laid back about things, enjoying a laugh, loving my music. I think I'm a good friend to people I care about, I try not to let people down. Treating people how I like to be treated.

I'm not entirely Johnnywas in RL though. I let some things go in CB that I definitely wouldn't in RL. CB is a bit of an escape, a place to relax. So mostly I don't like to involve myself in arguments too much in CB, whereas the RL version would be there in the middle of it all. If I don't agree with something in CB I'll tend to make my point then leave it, but in RL I'm a bit of a terrier. I'll sink my teeth in and not let go until I really have to.

But mostly Johnnywas is me. I'm a bit older than most around here; I simply can't be bothered to create some persona to hide behind; it's a lot easier to be myself.

Dunno though. Ask GL. He'll tell you. (GL, by the way, is exactly the same in RL as he is here!)

That's my lot. Thanks to whoever it was that nominated me; and best of luck to the other nominees. ;)

Obsession, and as to the and question. I think we need to encourage word of mouth, because the people that play CB are special, and we know which of our friends might be interested, and those that might not. Maybe we need to have a pledge drive with a prize, the stipulation being you have to actually know the people you bring in, so it's not just a newb flood. Winner and his flock, get prizes.

I can't tell people what to do, but what I can say is that no pandering in forums, no matter how carefully crafted is going to get past everyone. Anything else I say would be too easy to call me out on for the pot calling the kettle black.

Because I'm honest, as as someone who trys to be honest I can say anyone else would be a better face for cb me than me, I'm not shiny.

It offers a world of options for time filling, and keeping my mind busy, and keeps me from playing counter-strike, which I would play 12 hours day otherwise.

Isn't this question dead yet?

If someone saw me in public by myself likely not, as I would be trying to slouch and be quiet enough as to not be noticed, but if they saw me out with friends, I'd likely be talking and laughing and saying something so horrible that I'd be known in a second.

Well, like most people on CB, I can attribute my coming back everyday to the great community here. If I didn't know anybody here, I doubt that I would be playing after almost two years of C-Enter.

Encouraging new players to stay, that is a bit harder. CB2 already hands new players pretty much everything they need to be a competitive player on a silver platter. (NUB) However, that is not really enough to keep someone playing, what I have noticed working pretty well are the goals. I see a lot more of my mentee's sticking around long enough to at least finish most of those, so long term goals may be of some use in retaining new players. One thing a lot of new players ask when they first come into chat (if they talk at all, that is) is, what am I supposed to be doing? I think, as the last page of the tutorial, there should be a sort of statistics page, it would be something like this; While playing Carnage Blender, there are many things you can specialize in, you could become a forger for other players, you could try to create the largest character in all the realms, you could even save up your money and start a lucrative loaning business giving loans to other players! If any of these interests you, or you want to know more, ask your mentor on how to achieve your goals here on Carnage Blender!...So yeah, enough of my half baked ideas, on to #2.

Change month. Yay. Well, my awesome mage just got nerfed you say. Not so much of a problem now, with the free retraining, but if I was for some reason unable to utilize free retrains, I would probably do as I usually do. Complain (whine?) in chat and let it die at that. I don't post in the forums much, I read pretty much every interesting thread in there though, so if I was whining, you'd have to be in New Players to hear it. :) In the end though, adapting your strategy to stay competitive through good and bad changes is the fun part of the game side of CB. So no complaining on my end.

I'm friendly, helpful, and I'm around a lot, just like everyone else on CB.

Well, I play a lot of CB, that's for sure, but for the most part, I haven't really changed my habits for CB. No waking up every three hours to burn BA, though I have taken to logging on during third period at school every now and then. Even though CB takes up a lot of my time, my school performance hasn't changed at all, and I never really had a social life to begin with :). Before I found CB1, I was still an avid gamer, as I still am today, the only difference between CB and almost every other game I've played, with one exception, is that CB is the only game I've played continuously over a long period of time. Now and then my activity on CB2 may drop off because of a new game, but in the end, I always seem to come back to CB :)

I know this game well, and I try to help keep it alive by training any newbie who asks for help to be a future veteran of CB! That's the plan, at least.

A few people might know it was me if I was talking to them, but the majority would not. Probably not because I act differently in real life than I do here on CB, but because I tend to keep my opinions to myself in both, so there aren't really too many people they would be able to connect me with here on CB.

Good luck to everyone!

That's a very ironic question considering the timing and placement -- it's the first question, and it's after a bit of a forced hiatus. In no particular order, I can say that it's mostly because of miandrital, oddbird, sefton, opvines, sutekh, gentlemanloser, johnnywas, novice, ranger, shade, etc etc. See, the game has nothing to do with it. There's tons of games out there, all with varying levels of entertainment. Even strictly text games are much more expansive -- I could load up an old version of LORD with 81 IGMs (that's for all of you old BBSers out there..... all 2 of you) and be thoroughly engrossed for a long time.. But playing LORD by yourself is rather disturbing.

The allure of an online game involving real people is that the time that you are investing is worth something. What's the real reason people get so upset over a breakup from a long relationship? It's the realization that you just wasted the past X years of your life pouring time and energy into something that fell flat, like a bad investment. Computer games are similar in that they provide temporary entertainment, but no lasting substance. When all is said and done, you've spent time into a bit of a black hole.

With an online game, the community aspect opens a door into a world where you can enjoy the entertainment factor while building something that has meaning and will last even beyond when you tire of the game itself. Understanding that is the key to creating an environment that encourages newcomers.

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Given that creating the welcoming, enriching environment of a community is the answer to getting the average weekly user count to increase, I have previously come up with several examples of how best to cultivate a user community. I have in the past used the example of a bar or usual hangout, but the basic idea is that when a new person arrives, he must feel accepted within a very short time. Typical things to avoid include trashing some new player's ideas, giving orders with no advice and no reasoning ("Go single fireball mage" was a long standing tradition), and my own personal pet peeve, being administration nazis. When people feel like they have to walk on eggshells, when people withold participation out of fear of some "punishment", there's a definite error in judgement.

Things to keep doing include everything that people like GentlemanLoser, Johnnywas, Oddbird, et. al. do -- be *friendly*. There is a very prevalent atmosphere of basic unfriendliness and animosity present here. That is a pure detriment to building a community. Examples of how to act come down from leadership and are expounded upon by the community. For instance, a Frequently Offered Retarded Suggestion (FORS) list is a prime instance of setting a tone such that derogatory mockery is encouraged. It may be humorous, but there is a cost for that humour.

Eh... this game is founded on constant change. It's one of the methods that game designers can use to prolong the life of a MMORPG. Changing things up, turning a strat on its head, causing a commotion that brings about new ideas on strategy and new focal points to chomp through on the forums -- that's what keeps the machine running. As for being killed by a change in the game, MyFirstNCB was centered on the strength of a tattoo. After the second or third tattoo nerf during the life of that character, I gracefully retired it. No worries, as there will be more. That said, the tattoo nerfs were quite beneficial to the game. For starters, without one of them, the server would still think the year was 2006 given all of the lag. For the others, tattoos were, in all honesty, too powerful. Now they've evolved into a tertiary aspect of a character instead of a primary aspect. That's a very good thing, and I'm happy that characters are no longer tattoo-centric.

To answer the question more directly, I keep quiet about very little. That doesn't mean that I will complain about the change. Most likely, I will talk about ways to maximize it and adapt characters to benefit, knowing that the game dynamics in this world are in a constant state of flux.

I would do so just as I do now. You can't build a fire before you chop wood, you can't be a millionaire before you think like one, and you can't be nominated for a QB before you act like one. At least one person thinks I do, and that must count for something. The point is that nothing will change regardless of the title -- I will still be working hard at the wiki, helping anyone that asks for it, coming up with new ideas, contributing in the forums heavily, and being as much a part of this place as I am allowed.

It's an aspect of my life, as is much else. It doesn't neccessairily _affect_ my life -- not directly. I spend a large amount of time on the computer, and I usually have several hundred tabs open across a large number of windows. CB typically occupies ten of those (usually the homepage is open three times or so in various windows because I forgot where I opened it.) I just blended it into my normal state of browsing and computer use. I don't change my current life to revolve around CB any moreso than I do for another hobby. When you start going overboard, you start burning out. If you want to be able to stay for the long term, even throughout censuring, banning, what have you, you have to be able to separate everything in your head.

That said, how we act in any one aspect of our lives will affect how we act in all aspects of our lives. If I blew off everyone that asked me for a loan on CB, I'd be much more inclined to do likewise with someone asking a favor in real life. Further, if I rolled over and just accepted the things that I see as glaringly wrong in this community, I would be more prone to do so in real life where it has the potential to have far reaching effects. I can't be one of those people that looks at something and says "Yeah, that's wrong..." then goes to sleep. I take action. That's why I am where I am in the world today.

Ever have a great idea, and say to yourself: "Man, someone should really do that." Have you ever been the someone to do it? Why not? Start in small places like CB land, and you will find that it will influence, over time, how you act in other arenas. I learned that from reading Magic of Thinking Big.

I doubt I really should. I think Oddbird deserves a QB title and a subsequent promotion to Sub Admin followed by Full Admin. I think the reality of the situation is that it's not possible for me to become a QB. If Sefton couldn't do it after winning by a landslide during a time when Jon chose not one, but two people, then I have zero chance of winning even with 100% of the votes. He has made it publicly clear that he feels I am a troll, so I think this question, as well as the QB nomination itself, becomes quite moot. "Should" doesn't matter when "Could" isn't a reality. I will say that Jon's attitude towards me will not affect how I treat others, and I will stay the course regardless of what he does or whether I win.... unless, I suppose, I get banned entirely.

That would be expensive, I think.

I also think that it says something that given the massive amount I have at risk, that I would still stand up for someone when I see something wrong transpiring. I think it says something that I'm still here after being banned from chat and forum for speaking my mind. I thik it says something that I'm still here at all, given the tongue lashings I've received from various people. Miandrital and I had a conversation about that -- sticking around, that is. To be honest, I didn't have much intention of doing so until I started writing this. Maybe I still think that things might change, and that we will start to embrace new people instead of turning them away. Maybe I still believe that the community can grow despite the ever-dwindling active players over the past 4 months. Maybe I see value in sticking around a little longer.. or maybe I'm still secretly hoping if I stay around long enough, I'll get my money back from CupofJoe :)

Whatever the reason, I'm still here, and I will continue to fight for the newcomer, to help grow, to make things more attractive and interesting, and to be the only me I know how to be.

Most likely not. I retain quite a bit of anonymity on the net. Further, I am involved in a very diverse array of activities in life. Each "array element" can be likened to a universe of its own, requiring its own way to act, interact, live, and think. I'm multi-faceted, and I enjoy touching as many parts of life as I can. Would my friends at the drag strip recognize me if they saw me at a Linux Expo? Probably not.