Consistent Player is MIA

[Tink 12]

I'm sure some of you have encountered this and we're looking for advice. We have a player that was very consistent, playing daily for over a year and a half. Very involved with the game and great contributor. Early in January he just stopped. No notice, no warning. We are very concerned for him and would love to be able to reach out to him but of course, that's not possible.
Wondering how other teams handle this situation?
thanks, Tink

 

[crackie]

Something similar was posted on EN forums in the past. I would ask support. They said they can’t give out the contact info directly, but can assist with contacting them. Good luck!

 

[Yogi Dave]

Yes, that is disconcerting. One of our members disappeared. I noticed they were active in an FS in another world and asked the AM if they knew anything. In that case, a member of that FS personally knew the player and we learned they had to quit the game without notice but was okay. It's good to know support may be able to help in a limited fashion.

Edit: Unfortunately, support can't help.

 

[Tink 12]

I was going to try support but figured there's nothing they could do. Will definitely open a ticket with them. TY!
This player is only in our world, Ceravyn. And I've checked Elvenstats almost every day in case I missed him logging in.
Thank you both

 

[crackie]

Hello, fellow Ceravyner!

 

[Henroo]

@Tink 12 The situation you describe, where an active player suddenly and abruptly stops playing, is the one which always worries me. There are some cases where a player might play in a sporadic fashion for a few weeks before finally quitting. When this happens I usually assume they were getting tired of the game and then quit for good. But when an active member suddenly drops out of sight, I always worry something happened to them in real life.

One other suggestion is that if you have any members with known, serious health issues then try to set up alternate means of communication outside the game such as email, text, or Facebook. That way if they stop playing for awhile you have some other means of trying to reach them. It can be a terrible thing when one of your online friends drops offline and you literally do not know if they are still alive or not.

 

[helya]

Unfortunately, there's really nothing Support can do, we can't share contact information or tell you if they're logging in due to privacy laws, and we can't contact the player directly.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Once in a while I will see someone post in the Facebook groups about having their computer die and can't play on their phone and have no way to contact their fellowships to let them know or have a sudden medical emergency that did not give them enough time to log in and warn everyone.

 

[Lelanya]

Aww this is a tough one. I prefer alternate means of communication where possible, and have been where you are now, @Tink 12. Everything said above is true, here are some anecdotes of mine.

One fellow had warned his work was getting busy; we were talking about exchanging flowers, actually. Luckily I had his phone number and called. He had stopped playing, no word, no notice.

For those who are following, my friend with the heart condition got very depressed, and just cut off all contact with the outside world. 20 months later I found him asking for sentient goods on the trader, and reached out.

My dear friend with cancer had his organ surgery get infected, and was in and out of hospital during the first and second wave of the pandemic. Once he finally recovered, he said he felt too well to sit in front of a computer playing a game, life is too short to waste a minute.

The sad part is, with equipment failure, problems can occur. Tell your fellows, to AVOID using a third party log in, such as Facebook. Always know your password and stay on top of which email you have given Elvenar.

Good luck.

 

[quin629]

Someone with a login issue can often post a message on an open FB group, though. And 27 people will then reach out and tell the FS about their missing member.

The ones that are highly engaged and then simply vanish overnight are the ones that make us all sad. And it happens in all FSs. If someone is incapacitated or dies their family may know the game was important to the player but they do not - maybe can not - realize how important the player was to all of us who are left behind to worry.

 

[Tink 12]

Thanks for all the feedback, I knew we wouldn't be alone in this. I did open a ticket with support before reading the rest of the replies (not anxious or anything!) and they confirmed that even if they did contact a player, they can't share any info. We are super concerned because his piece of the globe had some extreme flooding in early January and then a very high Covid rate. We are going to wait a while yet because we know if he can come back, he will.
We have talked about setting up some means of communication beyond the game and will pick that one up again to see how our group feels.
But thank you all - it's nice to know I'm not the only emotionally attached one here!

 

[crackie]

We have talked about setting up some means of communication beyond the game and will pick that one up again to see how our group feels.

It seems like some groups run their own discord channels. I was hesitant to join at first (how many dang apps do I need to install for messaging!), but I have found it very useful. It also lets me stay in touch with people not in my FS anymore.

But thank you all - it's nice to know I'm not the only emotionally attached one here!

You are def not alone. I prob need therapy for some of the stuff that’s gone down.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

There are a LOT of elderly people who enjoy this game, so getting 25 people to all agree on yet another newfangled tech or app or website to use to stay in touch is tough. lol

Private Facebook groups are common or just simply exchanging emails and having an email chain is also done a lot.

 

[Yavimaya]

I'm sure some of you have encountered this and we're looking for advice. We have a player that was very consistent, playing daily for over a year and a half. Very involved with the game and great contributor. Early in January he just stopped. No notice, no warning. We are very concerned for him and would love to be able to reach out to him but of course, that's not possible.
Wondering how other teams handle this situation?
thanks, Tink

I see on the Elvenar Offical Facebook page that a person recently had an issue and is missing their fellowship or having a problem and couldn't figure out how to get in contact with them to explain what is happening and that they are trying to get back in and contact them. It might be this person bc I saw it last night. Other people are trying to help by asking their game name and fellow members names to try to contact them for them.

 

[Yavimaya]

I see on the Elvenar Offical Facebook page that a person recently had an issue and is missing their fellowship or having a problem and couldn't figure out how to get in contact with them to explain what is happening and that they are trying to get back in and contact them. It might be this person bc I saw it last night. Other people are trying to help by asking their game name and fellow members names to try to contact them for them.

I've seen it last month too. On occasion people run into tech issues. I saw another post where someone just wasn't in their fs all of a sudden and nobody knew what was going on.

 

[Tink 12]

Thanks so much, I have applied to join the official group (I'm hardly on facebook) and am anxiously waiting approval to see if that's our guy. Does anyone know how long that might take? I'm not the most patient person, it's been less than 24 hours but I thought it might be a quick thing??

 

[mikeledo]

Drop them and move on. Maybe they just got a life or a wife. Think that something good happened to them like they hit the lottery.

 

[Lelanya]

Thanks so much, I have applied to join the official group (I'm hardly on facebook) and am anxiously waiting approval to see if that's our guy. Does anyone know how long that might take? I'm not the most patient person, it's been less than 24 hours but I thought it might be a quick thing??

I think the coordinator is in a European time zone, so hopefully soon.

 

[Tink 12]

Drop them and move on. Maybe they just got a life or a wife. Think that something good happened to them like they hit the lottery.

We may need to do that but this is one of the founders of our group who has been totally engaged for a very long time so we don't want to give up on him yet!

I think the coordinator is in a European time zone, so hopefully soon.

Thank you Lelanya, I'll check again tomorrow

 

[helya]

Thanks so much, I have applied to join the official group (I'm hardly on facebook) and am anxiously waiting approval to see if that's our guy. Does anyone know how long that might take? I'm not the most patient person, it's been less than 24 hours but I thought it might be a quick thing??

If you're not approved yet, please send me a DM with your FB name and I will go look for your request.