Protector Global Channels

From recent observations, Protector Vigilance has had the highest active player participation. But then, I'm not active in other channels anymore.

If if you'll bear with me a minute, any converging PW, PV and PTF has a lot of hurdles to jump.

[/history mode = on]
When I was in PW, situations occurred where I felt I could no longer be a moderator (1st one invited to be by the channel's founder) in there. Others had already left and created an alternative "monster watch" channel, which they called Protector Vigilance and I was invited to it. Later on, when the founder left the game, she asked me to become moderator in it.

It was only with the conclusion of the Praesidium coalition (which would warrant a chapter just to explain) that I turned my attention back on the Protector Vigilance channel, hoping to make it into something more aptly designed to serve the entire Protector population along with Blazing Blue, Arion Elan and more recently, Star Geek.
[/history mode = off]

Granted, the events hinted to for PW happened years ago, and I have complete confidence that the channel's current moderators have managed to resolve any issues since it's still operating. Please don't take my comments about PW to be disparaging.

But, Protector has a fickle population. Some will argue this is not the case, but my experience says otherwise.

We have dedicated channels like Jello Shooters with a casual "adult" theme which also has players with impressive game knowledge (*wink to Rasta). We have PTF (which I didn't even know was still active, to be honest) which specializes (-ed?) in organizing task forces and trials I'm guessing. Since the advent of ingame "zone event" messages being available, I can only assume Protector Watch has adapted like Protector Vigilance has had to by expanding their field of operation. There are countless SG channels that are also open for outsiders to participate in.

And I don't see that changing any time soon.

Protector has a very large percentage of Type A personalities. Many are "natural leaders" who, though kinship and shared interests, will attract others around them. This also has the opposite effect of completely turning off others. It's the nature of the beast, really. Can't be helped.

So while some will naturally congregate together in one channel, others will avoid that same channel entirely. A few (mostly those interested in keeping track of all happenings, or event organizers wanting to be able to reach as much of Protector as possible) will have all the main channels in their chat tab.

I've seen people avoid global channels because a person was in it or because they felt it was "competing" with other established channels they preferred (PW and PV are good examples, although I know at least one of the PW mods has joined PV in the past, and vice-versa). Some reasons could be seen as petty, but I tell you that for the people involved, they are not.

And so there we have it.

The ideal would be for Protector to have one single channel to cover everything. Protector Vigilance was intended to be exactly that. Our mods are interested in promoting all server events on the server, and relay the information as quickly as it is possible to do so.

We saw a need for such a channel, and judging by the sheer number of people joining others did too.

We did not plan to compete with other established channels out there, but our goals are definitely similar to those of other channels. Since the Protector population is smaller, overlapping occurs whether we want it or not.

Can we ask PW or PTF's moderators to promote PV as "the" channel to join and ask them to drop theirs? I know I can't do that. These other channels have years of effort invested in them as well. I will be the last to ask such a thing from others who have invested their time and effort in making Protector better.

50% more than what?

PV is the fastest growing channel on Protector since it was relaunched in December 2009 and I've been told it consistently shows higher active members online, so I'm wondering what numbers / channels you're referring to.

Given the nature of Protector it's impossible to think that PV will get everyone to join. As it stands, I think we're happy to be serving the largest segment of Protector's population as best we can.

Your supergroup is also a great place to get teams going, as well as the broadcast channel, though that's zone specific. As well, don't forget to add the 'zone events' notification to your tabs, so you can see when certain zone events/giant monsters spawn.

You can have more than 1 global channel; I think it's either up at 5 or 10, but I am not sure. Join all of the ones mentioned previously, hang out for a while and then pick the one that best suits your wants and needs. Or stay a member of all of them! Don't worry about the history of the channel, how long it's been around, who's the mod and who isn't. Pick a channel populated with people you like, and can talk to. The rest will fall into place easily.

Good luck and happy hunting!

Than PV.

Right now (Monday about 7pm EST), Channel Search says:

Protector TFs: 1154 members, 90 online
Protector Vigilance: 869 members, 75 online
Protector Watch: 1273 members, 50 online

"online" obviously changes by time of day, "members" does not. Hence my statement that Watch has more members, but isn't necessarily more active. Though technically, even more online members doesn't strictly mean more active - it's about who uses it.

Regarding the whole history, that sounds like the same story I've heard play out on other servers for why they have separate channels: personal conflicts which (no offense) the rest of the population doesn't care or even know about. All I want is someplace I can form an RSF, or join others when they're working on Jurassik.

So hey if Vigilance is the new place to be I'm fine with that. But then there's this:

So their "years of effort" isn't good enough to serve your needs, but is too sacrosanct for them to join Vigilance. Nobody's served by that.

I usually run my own SG as two I've belonged to have been drama filled. I know they aren't all that way, but I kinda like to be on my own in an SG.

I've gotten in on the aforementioned Protector channels as well, and some of my friends from a Guardian global are over on Protector too (which is why I chose this as a second server,) but they're not always on Protector. And I need to expand my friend base a little too, since my Guardian slots are nearing full.

Thanks again all!

I'm totally feeling ya there, man. Sometimes I think MMO's would be so much better if it weren't for all the people...

I'm not on nearly as much as I used to be, so my time is a little more stretched, but if you ever need help shoot me a tell and I will see what I can do! Global is same as forum name.

One thing to keep in mind if you're looking at the total member numbers is that prior to the launch of i17 there was no way to purge folks from a global channel. Old channels like Protector Watch, Jello Shooters, etc may have a thousand or more members in them, but that doesnt mean that those folks have even logged in in the last few years.

So, as Amarsir pointed out, you cant really judge the 'activity' of a channel based on total member numbers alone. The online number during a peak play time -- say 6-10pm est -- would be a much better data point.

On larger population servers I imagine that the channel ops have utilized the shiny new /chan_timeout feature to purge the dead wood so active folks can join. Here on Protector, that's never really been much of an issue. heh

And I wholeheartely agree with River, try out the different channels and just go with the one(s) you like/enjoy.

Sometimes its a pain trying to recruit for tfs across multiple channels, but heck it's a pain in general sometimes just trying to recruit for tfs at all.

I'm not sure what you mean with the quoted part here, but the tone seems hostile. I don't know why that would be, unless you misunderstood something.

Allow me to rephrase then.

I was saying earlier that we can't expect PW, PTFs to empty out their own channels in favor of PV any more than we could at this point.

If you were referring to my own needs, there are several reasons why I did not join the established channels. But what I proposed to Blazing Blue and Arion Elan at the time was something not present on Protector - at least not officially.

When we decided to relaunch Protector Vigilance in December 2009, there was no indication that other channels had the primary function we were wanting to cover: promoting all server events. We opted to do this in a channel moderated by people who were not close friends in game or otherwise previously so that it could be accessible by all.

Our membership has been increasing weekly and is active, since most of these players have joined in the last months. IIRC, there were less than 25 people at any given time in the channel when we relaunched it.

If the renewing of the PV channel contributed to other channels expanding their own field of operations, then it just confirms that we were right in our analysis of Protector's needs.

In the end, Protector still wins.

There's no need for competition between our channels. I see them as complimentary given the nature of Protector's population.

It might be easier for you, the player, to have a single point of reference to consult, but unfortunately that's not how Protector has evolved as a community.

And for a little humor, sometimes it seems like I broadcast out in one Protector channel, it echoes in a few others.

In seriousness, Protector Watch, Protector Vigilance and Protector TFs should cover just about all your tf/sf recruitment needs.