On Fri, 31 Dec 1999, Karen Cravens wrote: > Well, I guess you'd call it a mission statement. It's the thing that > appears in the web page descriptions and at the top of the index page. It > needs rewriting. > > "The Phoenyx is an Internet listserver dedicated to serving the > roleplaying community online. It offers free mailing lists and archive > areas for gamemasters wishing to run online (play-by-email) roleplaying > games." How's this for keeping something in my mailbox for a long time before replying? I've been thinking a lot about the Phoenyx "mission." A few GM's and prospective GM's have heard my refined philosophy about what the Phoenyx is trying to accomplish, but I thought I'd share it with all the gamemasters, see if we can refine it some more, and then incorporate it into the stuff our prospective GM's read. Here's the way I view the Phoenyx... Our "customer" is the player. The service we provide is a selection of high-quality games to play in, with the technical benefits of the Phoenyx software being secondary. This might be confusing to the gamemaster, who sees the Phoenyx as a service that provides him with tools to host his game... that is, sees himself as the customer. While the Phoenyx does provide a lot of handy features for the GM and a venue of good repute to showcase his game, the gamemaster isn't our customer... he's our partner. The Phoenyx has no life without gamemasters. We need you, but that need is as a business partner and not as a customer. We are, of course, highly dedicated to supporting our gamemasters... we want you to have the right tools and knowledge to provide the customer the best game possible. In return for the support we give, we expect a level of commitment and dedication from our gamemasters in serving our customers. It is by that criteria of player-as-customer that we choose gamemasters and games. That's why we generally reject games that are already full... if there are no openings for new players, that game has nothing to offer our customer. (A really good game may be worth offering to lurkers.) It's why condescending attutudes get otherwise talented gamemasters rejected... we don't want a condescending business partner annoying our customers. And it's why we reject certain kinds of games... we serve a specific segment, not the entire player populace. We want a reputation for certain kinds of games, and those games emphasis story and character over game mechanics and combat. I think it's important for GM's to understand this view and see their position in the Phoenyx as one of partner, not customer. Thoughts? -- -------------------------------------------------------------- Listowner tools are found at http://www.phoenyx.net/listowners
