The End Is Nigh!

No, I’m not talking about the Voidpocalypse. Not necessarily.

This post is a reminder that Part V: Hextech Revolution will officially come to a close when the fifth match finishes on Sunday, July 13, 2014. Match submissions will be accepted up until then. However, to add some suspense and discourage “gamey” behavior, I’m not going to update the scoreboard until then. In other words, you can’t really trust the current Balance of Power.

Who wins?

Zaun did not manage to insta-win today. Thus, whichever faction has the most points on the BoP at the end will win. That could be Zaun, or it might be someone else.

What will that faction win? Well, it’s going to depend somewhat on how the whole Voidpocalypse thing plays out. Basically, though, they’ll get a large share of the dark sand and will get to exercise some influence over how it’s used.

That said, part of the point of this arc has been to give each faction some cool stuff and a chance to shine. Valoran has certainly become a more colorful place, even if a lot of that color might end up being purple.

What then?

We will begin a lengthy intermission period that will run at least until August 1. It may run longer. I will not start the next arc until some key tasks are accomplished:

1. We finish up the concluding lore. There will also probably be an intermission edition of the Summoner’s Herald.
2. We go through all of the rules, procedures, and customs of Factions and talk them over. We revise as appropriate. We fix things that people find annoying. We streamline the quirky stuff. We add in requested features. This will be a big community discussion.
3. We’ll publish a Factions rulebook that lays out clear rules for all the stuff that we ended up deciding spur-of-the-moment this arc.
4. I will be appointing more staffers, and minimizing the number of tasks that depend entirely on me. That number was way too high this arc, and it resulted in all kinds of problems.
5. We’ll decide on next arc’s factions. This will involve a public vote, a vote by the Summoners from the winning faction, and probably also an internal staff decision to add in another faction.
6. We’ll come up with the next arc, and do all necessary planning. Of course, the very nature of Factions is that what happens depends on what players do, but we’ll try to plan out most possibilities in advance.
7. Then and only then, only when we’ve all agreed on the rules and procedures, and only when we have enough people on each task to ensure it gets done promptly and correctly, will we throw the switch and launch the sixth arc.

I encourage everyone to start jotting down notes on things they’d like to see added, removed, or changed. We’ll try to put everything on the table and talk it all over.

A few quick thoughts

Here are just a few preliminary comments.

1. This arc was crazy, mostly in a good way. We had all kinds of new events and features. We got really inventive. The community was very energetic.
2. However, we clearly suffered from a lack of clear rules and a lack of staffing. I had to make a lot of calls on the spot that really should have been decided well in advance. Why? Well, mostly because I was just too busy. I am determined to make next arc different, both by setting the rules ahead of time and by ensuring that each major area of Factions has several people working on it.
3. There was a bit too much salt. Some of that is on me, because ad hoc spur-of-the-moment rulings tend to feel unfair and promote discontent. As noted above, that will change. However, what also needs to change is attitude. I’m proud that for the most part Factioners are really chill and friendly. Maybe 80% of the time, people are supportive and amicable. That 20% needs some work. At the end of the day, we’re all in this together, enjoying a quirky game mode and developing a story. You can’t win every game, and a story can only really have one end. But let’s take it somewhat lightheartedly and have fun together.
4. Piltover’s roster. Oh man. Never again. I’m so, so sorry.

About CupcakeTrap

Caitlyn, you monster.