Social spot

[Azulfae]

I've played on many servers where the central meeting point was an area near the middle of the server map and around a campfire and very near lots of shops and NPCs.

Surprise!

I always hated trying to RP with people whilst sat in the rain on a bench in the open at night whilst there is always a wizard reading a book for some reason, IN THE RAIN! IN THE DARK!

Unfortunately we all go there 'because we all go there!' It's like a downwards spiral of, not being able to do what we do at that campfire, anywhere else.

Can't a giant come and knock the big rock over onto the benches and the fire or something?

I think the Exigo area is being used because it borders the city environment and the wilds. All the rangers and druids can justify being there cos it's outside and not in the city and all the city folk justify being there because it is well set up with trade and guards and lots of content.

This we won't get away from but sitting outside in the rain is just silly.
Maybe if when people met outside, the general concensus could be to move inside the actual guild hall.

I think this would be happening if the hall itself was a little better set up for this and the campfire outside was less set up for this.

What it needs:

Get rid of the fire! Literally get rid of the fire and the benches. Put a load of horse pens and parked up caravans there.

Now people will gather but there is no settling down point. I mean look at that fire and benches, they say, come sit down around me and meet everyone here. If it's gone, people will disperse into the area, people will meet here but will be moving around.

Inside the Exigo trade guild house place, make the chairs in the middle of the room sittable. Put in a good barman and a food vendor and some belly dancers.

Nothing gets guys in armour to gather around and loosen their buckles like a fit elven chick spinning around a pole.

The prophet has spoken, you may praise me later.

[Rhifox]

People go where people are, simple as that. When I played more often I saw several occasions where the hotspot was 'two-zones-away'. Both Crossroads and Jimmy's were hotspots for a good deal of time (in fact when I played, Crossroads was the hotspot far more often than Exigo).

With a bar, characters can gather around in the same location without necessarily being next to everyone. The evil people can lurk in a corner table while the good people sit down at the bar, etc. So that prevents 'big-happy-circle' syndrome.

People would be willing to cross two zones if people were there. If there is a conscious group effort to switch social spots, it will happen.

[Zoberraz]

Before Exigo, the hot spot was the campfire at Viridale in the fort.

I remember, pre-wipe, that the Viridale border camp was indeed fairly popular. Actually, I think I started the trend by having my PC hang out by one of the campfires, and my PC was a faction leader at the time, so, it became fairly crowded quickly enough and that regardless of if the people gathering were friendly to elves (because that was the elven player-made faction spot ) or not... eventually, we just had to accept that our gathering spot had been highjacked. ^_^;

Post-wipe, I could imagine it happened again before the crossroad and Exigo camp were added in. On the bright side, the Viridale Border Camp is a much more feasible interaction spot to settle in between trips in the forest for mid-level characters because Sundren scouts can easily come by and make a report to an officer, whom then can go around and offer jobs for loitering adventurers and the like. There can even be something as mundane as an officer coming around, grumbling about being short-staffed and shoving a job on adventurers in the manner of "patrol and bring back any news of import" - effectively sparking opportunity.

[Urithrand]

Much as we enjoy having dozens of differently worded posts containing the same point of view (j/k) and seeing Azulfae blunder through with his half-orcish tact, I think we've exhausted this line of conversation. Things are happening already to combat this situation, and we're working on lots of ways for you guys to have fun away from the campfire.

As an incentive to keep people away from the campfire, and also as an anti-carebearing measure, I'm going to increase my RP rewards over the next week! If I see people going out of their way to be obnoxious, wandering alone through the forest stalking a deer or even just having a drunken conversation with the non-responsive barman, I'll be rewarding that person with copious (read: not ridiculous) amounts of exp for doing so. Can't say much fairer that that.