I do not understand, help me out please

[Elf Emma]

What is the purpose of making the entire fellowship ambassadors and/or mages? This makes no sense to me. Does anyone understand this and can explain it to me?

Preview
I am in a fellowship in Sinya (fellowship of the dragon) where everyone is a Mage. It works quite well for us because everyone is committed to our success and helping each other play the game.

All decisions are made by consensus but the Archmage (or someone she appoints) takes final action after we have been surveyed.

This fellowship is very laid back and the only rule is to remain active. Most of us have been playing Elvenar for years and we work well as a group.

This model doesn't work for competitive fellowships with lots of rules. However, a fellowship can be successful under this model with the right group and leader.

 

[Deleted User - 593524]

Except for FA what difference does it make what your rank is. Our FS is number 1 in Harandar, Our AM has her set of Mages that help with the administration work, which for us is quite a bit. I am an ambassador. I play every day, help out with every tournament, FA, Spire. We have a great team with very little turnover. None of us care what our rank is as long as we follow the rules and make the FS better. I have seen other FS that have all mages or a couple and everyone else is an ambassador. So what? It is there FS.

 

[MichaelMichael]

This is how I use promotions. Fellows, mean you are on probation. Anyone that misses minimum requirements is a Fellow. If you are Fellow too long, you probably will be asked if you are still playing or coaxed to meet your obligations. Also most of the Ambassadors are dropped to Fellows during the Fellowship Adventure (FA). Inexperienced players often move on to the next stage too soon (mostly by accident). Mages can drop people, so you don't have too many of those. To me accepting new players is not a mistake people make so the big difference is the FA power than Ambassadors get.

 

[Kadhrin]

> Except for FA what difference does it make what your rank is.
It usually doesn't matter...until it does.

Recent example: perks.
I was in an all-mage fellowship where one person spent perks for the fellowship while thinking he was spending perks for only himself.

 

[Myne]

Except for FA what difference does it make what your rank is. Our FS is number 1 in Harandar, Our AM has her set of Mages that help with the administration work, which for us is quite a bit. I am an ambassador. I play every day, help out with every tournament, FA, Spire. We have a great team with very little turnover. None of us care what our rank is as long as we follow the rules and make the FS better. I have seen other FS that have all mages or a couple and everyone else is an ambassador. So what? It is there FS.

Very true. I just didn't understand the reasoning behind it. I understand a bit better now.

 

[Elf Emma]

Very true. I just didn't understand the reasoning behind it. I understand a bit better now.

I think it is a matter of objectives.

If the fellowship has specific goals that need rules, coordination and oversight then a small group in charge is needed.

If the fellowship just wants active players for trade, tourney, spire, etc without rules then there really aren't any "administrative" tasks except to replace members that have stopped playing. Everyone can be on the same level in that case.

At least that is my take on it. And mistakes can happen in both models, btdt, so it just depends on what works for you and how you like to play.

 

[Darielle]

Fellowship Adventures are 1 of the *BIG* reasons I keep mages and ambassadors restricted to experienced, trusted, long-term members of the FS. Have you ever come up with a plan for a FA, communicated that plan to the fellowship, and then had the entire plan disrupted because an overeager ambassador pulled the stage 1 or stage 2 flag early? I sure have! I will say I have never considered the approach you seem to be talking about, temporarily demoting your ambassadors to fellows for the week. I'll have to consider that.

I for one like when I'm demoted, along with everyone else (as long as I am returned to my normal status after the FA). There's a peace of mind in knowing that the flag won't be pulled by some id--- um, I mean, by some member. I've heard all the excuses. We've had the flag pulled early at least five times since I've been doing FAs, in several different fellowships. The worst part is, it isn't usually the newbies that do it. It's the players you assume have more sense than that. One said that she didn't realize she was pulling the flag. She had more experience points than I did, and I was no newbie. Another said that he was sorry, but he let his 12 year old play for him for just a few minutes. Another actually ... and I kid you not ... blamed his cat for jumping on the keyboard at precisely the moment he was looking at the prizes. What are you supposed to say to that? I know what I'd like to say, but I always wind up with, "aw, that's too bad" or some lame thing that makes them feel better. It may only be a temporary frustration, but it is real and very annoying at the time, particularly if you've only got one more item to put in a 1500 way point when that happens. (Yes, that's happened too.)

I have no problem whatsoever being demoted. I am glad to know that the archmage is taking care of all of us, to ensure that no one lessens the enjoyment of the whole group or causes any hard feelings between members. Whenever I run FAs for the fellowship, I do that myself, and make sure everyone knows that it is only to avoid accidents and to protect the members. I've designated one or two other people as flag pullers (making sure they were on different schedules from me so that no one had to wait too long to get it pulled) and everyone understood and were happy with it. The experienced players were usually happiest of all, having known a time or two when they had known that frustration.

I know some archmages say "well if you communicate well you shouldn't have to do that," but after you've seen it happen even in the best of fellowships, you know that all the communication in the world doesn't stop a cat from jumping on a keyboard (okay, I know it was probably bogus, but that was a high level player who heard all the instructions. What hope does an AM have if even the big guns do that?) Anyway, that's my 2 cents.

 

[Aritra]

I have accidentally clicked the flag trying to scroll and thankful I am only a fellow.

When I was a new member of the FS, I was given the honor of pulling the flag. But I couldn't do it. Ooops! Newbie was a fellow! haha

(I'm a mage now, one of few with permission to pull the flag if appropriate timing and the AM isn't around---but I get paranoid about accidentally pulling the flag--especially when scrolling! yikes!)

 

[Elf Emma]

LOL, truth!

My all mages fellowship just does a last call and waits a couple of hours to make sure anyone that wanted to participate gets a chance. Since we just want the paltry rewards, it really doesn't matter when the flag gets pulled. We are more focused on making sure everyone that wants the rewards gets a chance to place a badge so we can be done.

And that is why I think fellowships should state objectives. An all mages fellowship implies a less competitive environment in my experience.