College faction!

[Polar]

Patients is a virtue until that same line is repeated over and over again, Then it becomes annoying. At least a reason for the lack of exams would satisfy most players. The lack of communication between SLT and the community is what's driving players to these sorts of posts.

Paitence is a virtue. 76% of unverified statistic turn out to be true!

 

[Yume_]

I've been reading the replies and holding my tongue for a little bit, for the record, although I am staff, i am NOT slt.

However, I feel as though there are some critical flaws in the exam system like Eco mentioned. The college is a major roleplay avenue that I use alongside many of my friends. It's okay to have imperfect systems, especially in such a large community. Perfection does not exist. That doesn't mean you can't improve a system so it operates more smoothly and effectively. I'd like to list off some ideas here on the forums to see player input on it, as they're the ones who are effected most by it.
The structure of this will be problem : solution since I feel that's an effective way to communicate. This means things will be stated bluntly and may require some nuance i swear on my life none of it is meant to sound mean it's just really direct.

Notable flaws in the exam system:

- New exams have to be written, simply change this. Maybe use a repeat exam? It's minecraft, it's not the end of the world if people google the answers or something. At most have 2 variations of the exams you cycle through. Make the exams a little less serious, the player age on srp is from like the 8th grade to graduates.
- Shorten exams. We don't need more than 40 questions on a test to give the "exam experience" so I think the exams should be shortened. They'll take less time to write that way.
-Better scheduling, one of the CRITICAL flaws of the current system is that it softlocks players out based on timezones. If a player decides they don't want to stay up late, or wake up at 3am to do the exam, they cannot progress on SRP. Perhaps have 2 exam sessions at 12 hour intervals or implement a "private exam" that a professor or someone non-slt can supervise.
-Automation: 7 months is too long for the average player. Like those in the thread before me have mentioned, players are willing to be patient and work with the staff. They don't harbor any malice when they ask "where's exams?" they just want to progress. Even if they can be patient, they shouldn't have to be 7 months patient considering the damage the 7 month wait has done to the college faction itself. (College decays player count wise due to progression)

This feedback thread isn't just about exams though and I don't want exams to become the spotlight of it. Exams are not a magic fix.

Fostering roleplay and progression in the college itself:
Roleplay opportunity is the BEST incentive you can give on a roleplay server.
- Because the college is a smaller playerbase than the highschool, we should take advantage of that and try to foster connection between the players to incite them to roleplay with each other more. What better incentive to join the college than to be able to engage in roleplay? (There's lots but for the sake of argument, humor me here.)

What are players -- and by extension YOU -- interested in when they join the college? (pls reply) What motivates them to want to take the exam in the first place?

- Add in roleplay structures specifically for the college, this would require players to actually participate which is a known struggle. Also really draining if no players show up. Stuff like idk a study group or something, somewhere players can go to roleplay daily. NOT an event.

uhhh i may edit this section later and flesh it out some more or just make a second post.

also addendum on roleplay: the college needs a stronger sense of identity, what makes a spartan a spartan? (rhetorical)

 

[ErikFinster]

I don't think there is a big problem here. We already heard that exams have been sparse because staff was busy with lots of other updates. As soon as exams are being held more regularly again, we should see an influx of new college students. I'm looking forward to the exams.

edit:
I heard that people who attend college are already very experienced players and have a track record of performing good detailRP and are generally responsive. I think that's already a good incentive to advance into College.

 

[Arocatula]

Perhaps have 2 exam sessions at 12 hour intervals or implement a "private exam" that a professor or someone non-slt can supervise.

This is actually a good idea, but I’m confused about the “professor or non-slt“, because I don’t see there being too much of a difference between SLT and non-SLT supervising private exams.

 

[RexLobo]

The exam system is fine as is. Understandably there's been a lack of them over a few months, but that's not related to the system. Shouldn't be issues going forward.

They'll never understand... nobody will know the pain....

 

[astri]

lets be real here, waiting 7+ months to age up from 18 to 19-20 and 21-22 on a minecraft roleplay server set in a fictional island in japan is some next level dedication

as a college kid who got the role back in may like last year, it is SO boring to play on my col char bc there’s practically nobody anymore to rp with thats also in college and i think others can agree college is boring as hell since literally a small percentage of active players have the role

What are players -- and by extension YOU -- interested in when they join the college?

i think most of the playerbase only really care about the age up (19-20 in particular) since well, who wants to be a grade-12 all the time! there’s individual reasons yeah but most just want to be actual ‘adults’ that are in college in a sense and i swear its not just me who thinks that

 

[Ecocide]

Thank you to all the players and staff who have taken the time to actually read and reply to the thread. It's nice to see so many care enough to give an opinion on the situation

Thank you for actually going back to fact-check it choi lol

Notable flaws in the exam system:

I agree with all of what Cloud said, again exams are lovely on paper but not the best in practice. I understand why they feel the need to change the exam every time but I think that kills the quality at the end of the day i also know the system now is a buffer, rewriting the test over and over every time can't stop people from cheating but it helps stop people in the future from cheating. A Minecraft roleplay exam should not be this stressful to get done just so people can age up their characters at the end of the day, if anything keep PHD exams the same since PHD roles can get into any faction without an application so it makes sense it be a bit harder to get, but HS to College and Bachelors to Masters should not be this stressful I feel.

I don't think there is a big problem here. We already heard that exams have been sparse because staff was busy with lots of other updates. As soon as exams are being held more regularly again, we should see an influx of new college students. I'm looking forward to the exams.

I agree completely when we finally get exams there will be a big influx of college and this problem can be ignored for a bit longer but the fact remains that the current exam system isn't practical anymore for the staff team or the growing player base. We have 300+ to 200+ players on average most days and almost all of those players (like screenshots have shown) are in HS leaving the College tab looking like the city tab which I never thought I'd say lol.

They'll never understand... nobody will know the pain....

we're fighting so we both know TRUE pain :fist:

This is actually a good idea, but I’m confused about the “professor or non-slt“, because I don’t see there being too much of a difference between SLT and non-SLT supervising private exams.

Having more SLT or Trusted players to do exams is also another great idea, the problem comes in where it's hard to trust players of any faction with that. especially after the last group of SLT leaked the entire exam which is EXACTLY why we're running into this issue now

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it really sucks THAT GROUP which most people reading this thread will know about still continues to 'curse' the server and cause these ongoing trust issues where most players can't be trusted with the responsibility because who knows when we'll have a repeat of that time. I say that but completely understand why it may be a fear. (I could be completely wrong about this but still, I think theres an effect somewhere deep down..)
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lets be real here, waiting 7+ months to age up from 18 to 19-20 and 21-22 on a minecraft roleplay server set in a fictional island in japan is some next level dedication

as a college kid who got the role back in may like last year, it is SO boring to play on my col char bc there’s practically nobody anymore to rp with thats also in college and i think others can agree college is boring as hell since literally a small percentage of active players have the role

Similar reason here as to why I started the thread, I'm mainly on my KPD account but I recently started logging on to my 'old' college account to see how roleplay was. there were so many highschool tags and barely anyone with a college tag besides the few team members around?? I had heard college was basically dead but never thought it was that bad, it's really demotivating to see so I can't imagine how college teams or professors feel.

 

[Polar]

Similar reason here as to why I started the thread, I'm mainly on my KPD account but I recently started logging on to my 'old' college account to see how roleplay was. there were so many highschool tags and barely anyone with a college tag besides the few team members around?? I had heard college was basically dead but never thought it was that bad, it's really demotivating to see so I can't imagine how college teams or professors feel.

I remember when tryouts would be hosted for col teams there would be at least 10, these days scholarships have had to be pushed more with players using i a a loophole to progress. I can't blame them either and its not like the scholarship thing is easy anyways

 

[KimiNoUso]

Reviewed
Thank you for your suggestion!

Overall, we're doing what we can behind the scenes and are in the process of making the next exam's paper which will feature some teacher/professor-submitted questions at random. A lot of changes big and small are happening behind the scenes, however we don't divulge until we're confident we've got a solid system in place to prevent letting the community down.

We've been planning this upcoming Autumn Exam for the last month or so in preparation for the Graduation System & School Planner's completion, we're happy to announce that they will be happening on the 25th of November at 9pm GMT! To cater to other time zones, we'll be hosting another set of Highschool to College exams in the middle of December which will be during most countries school breaks at a much earlier time; if you didn't pass in November, try again in December!

About automation
We've been working extensively to setup a more robust Exam System that we can repeat easily. You may have noticed the brand-new 'School Planner' in your inventory instead of the Netherstar, with that update we added a new Graduation System which will take a lot of stress off of us as Admins (and SLT) when it comes to completing grading and progression after the exams have been completed (see spoiler below).

Spoiler: GRADUATE COMMAND

The exams plugin we developed earlier this year, is effectively 'automated' in the marking process and collection of responses which makes announcing the results possible within 24 hours of the exam concluding. Nevertheless, we still have to: Find the perfect time to host an exam, have SLT write the questions (which is changing), as well as other developments to focus on outside of events like these. A good example of development which halted the exam is the Character Profiles (/character) added in June which meant we weren't able to host a Summer Exam due to complications with dealing with multi-profile graduation and other bug fixes around the server. If you're interested in helping out and becoming a Developer for SchoolRP, you can apply on the forums!

Why not remove or change exams?
If we were to favour a system like applications or player-initiated exams, we would be taking out a lot of roleplay from the School Faction. We're going to be including exam topics and other fun stuff in classes soon, along with Tutoring which will effectively prepare you In-Character for an exam. Not only that, we feel that the exams are a good 'barrier to entry' for College and allows us to give players who are active roleplayers and join in on classes the chance to progress into College Bachelor, Master, and PHD.

We are considering alternative methods to progressing into college, such as scholarships, however you can also get into College Bachelor by joining a Faction and contributing to it for 2 months or more!

About swapping faction leads around
Along with this, as stated above in some responses, staff members are offered/given factions which myself and the Administration feel would suit them in both management style and their passion for the server, e.g. I wouldn't give Yonio who is very clearly passionate about the Police Faction something like Clubs/Council Faction. It's not all about passion and motivation a lot of the time, every one has a life outside of SchoolRP and as some of the staff get older, their commitments outside of the server change and we try to delegate/balance workloads for faction leads where possible, e.g. Sports now has 2 leads again, rather than 1.

Moving forward
This month, myself, MuffinCat, and RexLobo have carried out feedback from our Professors and Teachers to make classes more interesting and add even more ways for you to effectively pass the exam (or be offered a scholarship before exams take place), even if you score something like a 30% and have 5+ detentions. Along with this, as I've mentioned above we'll be getting help from faculty with future exam questions with at least 2 from each section being faculty-written which will ease the stress of getting all of the questions ready on time from the team.

We will soon be discussing factions taking on those that graduate with a College Master's Degree the option to join a faction with an extremely reduced application, though we'll announce more on that once we've got something concrete.

We will be doing College Internships at some point after the exams for the new College Students to partake in.

We're still planning to do more than 4 exams a year, though unfortunately it wasn't possible this Summer.