Skype Meetings

Threads related to the general organization of the project.

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Gnomey
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Post by Gnomey »

The meeting is over. As expected it was rather short and relaxed. There probably won't be a summary, as we basically just chatted about random stuff.
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Post by Gnomey »

The date for the next meeting has come around again: assuming we keep to the usual schedule, it will be at 6:00PM GMT/UST tomorrow. And once again I post the reminder at pretty much the last moment. (I'll have to work on that...) I think we can discuss the [url=http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/old_forum/viewtopic.php?t=24847]Ashlanders[/url] this week, as had been intended for the last meeting, following the same rough agenda I proposed above. By now people have had time to familiarize themselves with the topic and formulate their opinions.

If we manage to nab Seneca, Arvisrend or Haplo for the meeting, I'll also want to bug them about the idea of making Internal Discussion publicly visible, among other reasons so that the non-devs who take part in the meetings can see this thread and the Skype Meeting Summaries thread!
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Gnomey
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Post by Gnomey »

Just a heads-up that the Skype meeting will start in 30 minutes.
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Post by Yeti »

Not sure if I can take part. Probably not. What I can do is continue to chisel away at that Hlaalu Skype summary I owe you guys. :v
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Gnomey
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Post by Gnomey »

The Skype meeting is over. It was a fairly short meeting, so hopefully the summary won't take too long; I'll be taking care of it this week. Along with the Ashlanders we discussed a few other current topics, like Dres architecture and House Redoran.

Edit: the next meeting will take place on May 16, at 6:00 PM GMT/UST. At the moment, dungeon distribution or House Redoran seem like possible topics, though as always it depends on what gets discussed over the next two weeks.
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Post by Gnomey »

Ugh, I'll take a while longer on the Skype Meeting Summary. The next meeting is coming up again, as scheduled in my post above. I may not be able to talk much during the meeting as I'll be getting some minor surgery done around my teeth tomorrow, but we'll see. I should be present and able to type at any rate. :P For a topic, at the moment House Redoran regions seems like the most popular choice, but I'm still not sure if we have enough on House Redoran to have an informed discussion on the topic. Might be worth taking a stab at it anyway.
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Post by klep »

I dont think I'll be able to add much to a Redoran discussion. At any rate I would prefer to see some summaries from the past two months rather than discuss more stuff.
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Post by Theminimanx »

I doubt I'll be able to join. I don't have a pc at the moment. I might be able to borrow a laptop, but I doubt it.
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Post by Gnomey »

Hm. I'm reluctant to let the meeting drop entirely, more or less from the slippery-slope angle of 'if meetings occur too irregularly we might stop having them at all again'. The meetings are also very effective at encouraging planning before implementation, which is very important, and we have made a lot of headway in planning -- and most importantly decision-making -- thanks to the meetings.

That being said, the decision-making only really works well when there are upwards of four people present, in my opinion, as otherwise the decisions either feel too authoritarian or too open-ended. Skype Meeting Summaries are another issue; I'm personally bad at taking notes, which is the main reason I take so long in putting together the summary.

I think we could probably get away with keeping tomorrow's meeting short and just discussing whatever strikes our fancies, though I'd probably want to bring up one or two broader matters, such as discussing Skype meetings and the forum and trying to figure out how to approach the Master Plan again and what needs to be done. We don't have to get in-depth with any of it, but I do think it's high time we get the ball rolling on the latter at least.
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Post by klep »

A Skype meeting on Skype meetings. A sound plan. Also discussing the approach to the master planning is an interesting topic to me.

Not sure if I'm the right person, but I could volunteer to take notes this time.
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Post by klep »

I must retract that. Something came up and I wont be able to make it.
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Post by Gnomey »

Thanks for the heads-up.

Edit: right, I think we can do without a meeting this week after all, as there aren't too many people around anyway. I'll still be available on Skype if anyone wants to discuss anything.
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Post by Ironed Maidens »

I could later on today if there's any consolation in it. I've had a few ideas stirring up recently.
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Post by Gnomey »

Nah, it's probably better to leave it to next time. Due to timezones, it's already very late here. In a way the meeting being cancelled works out for me anyway; as I've indicated above I'm recovering from a minor surgery.
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Post by sasquatch2o »

How does one attend the meeting?
my opinion.
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Post by Gnomey »

I need to add you to the Tamriel Rebuilt Skype Meeting Group, and to be able to do that I need to add you as a contact in Skype. Just pm me your Skype address and I'll handle the rest.
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Post by klep »

Good to see this has moved public. I hope that more involvement in these meetings may result in more overal activity and understanding.
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Post by st.Veloth, The Repenting »

i don't have a mic, is it possible that we could do some sort of a group chat?

also, what are the guidelines to using mics here, i'm getting one next week
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Post by Gnomey »

Ah, a microphone is not strictly necessary, though naturally welcome. People without one can simply type in text; I tend to do a bit of a mixture of both anyway. There are no other real guidelines, at least that come to mind.
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Post by Ironed Maidens »

Is there going to be one this week?
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Post by Gnomey »

No, only every second week, so the next one will be on the 30th.
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Post by Gnomey »

The next Skype meeting is approaching. (Unless the schedule is changed, it will take place on May 30, at 6:00 PM GMT/UST). As far as I'm concerned we can discuss pretty much anything, but lately regions have been getting the most discussion. I'd personally like to try approaching the topic from the direction of the [url=http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/old_forum/viewtopic.php?t=24291]Master Plan[/url]; going by the current document we would mainly be discussing the third section, with a bit of the second mixed in.

The sort of questions I'd like us to address are very basic and broad, but I feel as though we're generally lacking in answers for them at the moment and, for us to make meaningful progress, that needs to change.

How does our Morrowind look like and feel like? Is it an untamed wilderness whose denizens struggle to survive on its surface, a civilized high culture under the yoke of a foreign 'barbarian' power, a somewhat backwards Imperial province? Naturally all of the above to varying extents, but I think we need to sort out the ratio. I especially feel as though there's a difference in opinion as to how wild Morrowind is which needs to be sorted out lest we give mixed messages (in a bad way).
How should the above be reflected in the landscape?
How should the above be reflected in the gameplay? If Morrowind is more-or-less an untamed wilderness, lots of critters and outlaws and combat would seem like the natural way to go. If we want the province to seem more civilized, though, or just want to vary things up a little, we may need to consider alternatives.

How do each of the individual major factions (Houses + Temple + Empire) look and feel like? What is their core identity? How much power to they have, in their territory and outside of it?
How should the above be reflected in the landscape?
How should the above be reflected in the gameplay within each faction's territory?

I hardly expect us to come up with concrete answers to any of these questions; I don't even think we should. Most of the questions really require lengthy discussion by themselves, rather than us breezing through them in one Skype session. I mainly want to get the ball rolling, as this sort of stuff should have really been sorted out months ago, and I'm not entirely comfortable with the approach of the currently ongoing region discussions, and as every now and then I like to point at the second paragraph of the [url=http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/old_forum/viewtopic.php?t=24286]Tamriel Rebuilt Structural Overhaul[/url] announcement and how we (myself very much included) haven't been following our new structure pretty much since it was implemented. (We are already improving on that end, but an extra nudge here and there doesn't do any harm).
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Post by klep »

I'm in.
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Post by Rats »

Damn it, I've been categorically absent from Skype meetings for the past few months and it seems I'll miss this one as well.

The questions are really important and interesting, looking forward to reading the notes!
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Post by Gnomey »

I should mention that an acquaintance I don't see often will be visiting on that day, but I should be able to join the meeting anyway. (They will probably come and go before the meeting starts).

And Rats, if there is a time in which you would be able to take part, please do say so; we may be able to shift this meeting or future meetings if the new time isn't too inconvenient for others. That goes for others as well; the time we're going with for meetings at the moment is one that we figured would be least inconvenient to most people; it is not set in stone, and can and should be changed if there's another time which would allow more people to take part in the meetings. If it's more a general matter of being busy or life otherwise getting in your way, that can't really be helped, though.

Edit: for the original meetings, we had someone who set up a [url=http://doodle.com/features/calendar-connect]Doodle[/url] calendar, allowing people to establish when they would be able to take part in meetings, and we'd just go with the date and time with the most overlap. We could try doing so again; we stopped for a while due to a mixture of laziness (the fellow who set up the doodles is no longer active, and nobody could be bothered to figure out how to do so, but on second glance it hardly looks complicated) and that a fairly regular schedule seemed like a good idea to try and make the meetings more of a habit as opposed to a random occurrence.
Last edited by Gnomey on Thu May 28, 2015 12:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by klep »

We could also shove this important and broad topic to a later meeting. Announcing it now for the meeting in two weeks would give plenty of time to discuss some relevant things on the forums as well as allowing people to make sure they can attend.
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Post by Gnomey »

I wouldn't be against that either. Or we could just devote two meetings to this topic; the first to get our feet wet, and the second which (while again not necessarily coming to any concrete conclusions) could be a little more thorough.
I'm not entirely sure what the best way to approach this topic is; I've wanted to do so for months, really, and have slightly in past meetings, but have never really committed. At the moment I have the impression that forum threads are more likely to either just die or derail, and as such that it might be better to first get us all moving in the right direction with a Skype meeting and then go from there.
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Post by 10Kaziem »

I would love to participate in a skype meeting about such things, especially since, as an artist, I can actually draw pictures on the fly and share them around through skype. I find that planning is enhanced by pictures.

However, I work on certain Saturdays, and I would be at work during the currently scheduled time for this meeting.
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Post by Theminimanx »

I'm not against using this meeting for just brainstorming/narrative thoughtcrimes, and leaving the actual decision making for sometime when more people can attend.
I myself should be able to make it though.
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Post by st.Veloth, The Repenting »

i'm in! how do i join the skype group?
my skype is Hankwstevens veloth s'jet, or karen s'jet
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Post by Gnomey »

@10Kaziem: are there any particular times which would be more convenient for you?
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Post by 10Kaziem »

I would be home from work on Saturday at 8:30pm GMT or any time after.
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Post by klep »

That would make it rather late for many of us. The meetings can last for hours and Saturday night is a night known for people to have places to be.
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Post by 10Kaziem »

Fair enough. 8pm GMT is 4pm local time for me. I just happen to work this Saturday or it wouldn't matter.
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Post by Ironed Maidens »

I'll be there tomorrow.
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Post by Gnomey »

You mean you won't be able to make it today? I'd be fine with rescheduling to tomorrow personally, but it might be a little too short notice at this point. There are only about five-and-a-half hours to go 'till the meeting.
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Post by klep »

Did it go through? I couldnt make it in the end.
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Post by Gnomey »

It did, yes. I'll be seeing to the summary. It sounds rather unconvincing to say it should be coming along shortly, but due to the open-ended nature of the meeting I'm finding it rather easier to summarize than past meetings have been.
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Post by 10Kaziem »

So when is the next skype meeting?
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Post by Gnomey »

It's scheduled for next Saturday, 6:00 PM GMT/UST, and once again I've been tardy with setting things up.

I'm not sure what best to discuss; House Redoran would be one option, but I'd prefer to see more discussion on them on the forums first. There are also a bunch of technical things to discuss about project and website organization, but I'm not sure if many would find that a very thrilling topic to delve into. I really want to start discussing the Temple, but I think there needs to be a good deal more progress on the forum end before we can properly discuss it.

As far as the organization bit is concerned, I would mainly like to discuss how we should handle promotions going forwards, both from member to developer and member to lead developer (and whether there's any need for the senior developer rank, which I don't think there is), as well as how to handle asset development, as I think the claims system doesn't work at all for that, and traditional showcases don't really work either, certainly with our current lack of willing/capable asset reviewers.
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