Stalkers Season 3 Post-Game Discussion and Feedback

[Neo Emolga]

I will say I do think that once again like season 1, certain individuals kinda took over everything. In the beginning we did well to work as a team but as the event progressed there was a lot of fighting going on. I mean, for crying out loud, I had to step in and give someone a warning at some point because they were purposefully antagonizing another user. That wasn’t fun for me! I don’t participate in Stalkers to babysit and increase my already high stress levels, I do it because I want to hang out with you guys. But the level of maturity shown by some of the users this round was just… awful. I was very disappointed because it was almost like they had forgotten this was a team driven game. Or just a game in general.

I honestly didn't see things that were extremely severe. Yeah, that was that one minor incident, but things were resolved quickly and even before I had an opportunity to step in. I'll be honest, I've seen many things go much, much worse than this.

Disagreements in team settings are very natural. Not everyone is going to feel the same way or believe the same thing, but the thing to do is just talk it out respectfully and politely. Rationalize the way you feel and detail why you feel this is the way you think things should be done. The more you communicate, the more people will understand your viewpoint.

And I’m not gonna lie, I was super mad that I’ve had exorcism for two rounds and only been able to nab one stalker because I wasn’t ever asked if I was okay with someone doing an exorcism. I specifically picked exorcism because I wasn’t able to get anyone in the second round and really wanted to make up for it here.

There was actually only one exorcism in Season 2 because we pulled the plug on that one early. We can't really consider that one in terms of distribution because that season just didn't complete, so please, I wouldn't even factor that in when it comes to contribution distribution.

Also, why "super mad?" Even just doing one exorcism is contributing a heck of a lot! Not everyone even has exorcism. With seven Stalkers, it wouldn't ever be an even split. Some people were in a better position and opportunity to pull off a second exorcism. No one is saying you didn't do a decent job just because you didn't get a second exorcism in like Tazz and Morzone did.

But, instead, I just interviewed a bunch of people. By the time I’d see the message it was already too late. I was really mad after Tazz went ahead with the first exorcism because I hadn’t been online to see it. I wanted to get that since I was the only one who had had it twice. Then Morzone called dibs on the second one and then we didn’t find anyone else until the end of the game so I only got one shot at it and it wasn’t even the stalker I wanted to exorcise! Tazz grabbed Franny because I jumped the gun because I was getting desperate to exorcise someone. And granted I had my shot with Yandil but I was convinced he was a red herring since we’d had bait and switches in the past. Overall, I just felt left out and useless.

Noble, this is not true. You contributed a LOT and you're really undervaluing all the good that you did during this season. Everyone contributed quite a bit in one way or another and that's exactly how this whole game is supposed to work. It's not going to be an even split every time. Some other members will be in a better position to go ahead and do it, and that's okay when there's other things everyone else can do to help out. Here, there were seven Stalkers, so there was never going to be an even split in exorcisms all the time.

I get that everyone would love to be the star of the show, but it's just not like that with a team effort. Everyone has to support each other and everyone is given the chance to contribute, whether they get information, items, or do what's needed to help the team win one way or another. The only way you "get left out and feel useless" is if you don't take any action at all. If you're unsure, it never hurts to search an unexplored location or interview a civilian that hasn't been talked to, yet. You never know what you might find and just taking that chance can still yield a payoff that helps the team in one way or another.

In any case, exorcism/assassination is being done away with in its current form in favor of making a combat/battling system that more people can get in on at a time.

After a while I wasn’t having much fun because it felt like every time I tried to do something I had to consult the person in charge to make sure it lined up with their plan. And since I was waiting around for the chance to exorcise someone I couldn't go searching places because of the risk of losing sanity. So once all the night interviews were done I couldn't do anything during the night anymore. I got to search... I think maybe two or three locations and that was it. After a while I just stopped paying attention to what needed to be done and went and did my own thing because I was so angry about everything and it wasn’t like there was anything I could do to help half the time anyway. So, overall, while I had fun for a little while, as the event went on, I started to not have as much fun because I felt like I was fighting my team rather than working with them.

Who exactly was "the person in charge?" I saw several people taking the initiative to propose solutions to problems and work out strategies to get things done. This is leadership. Nowhere did I see anyone say "hey, I'm the boss, you don't do anything until it runs by me first!"

Can you really blame someone for suggesting a next plan of action to get to the solution? In a lot of cases, that's what needs to be done in order to get to the bottom of things and to win it for the team. Yeah, you do need that element of communication in terms of "who can take care of this" and "what might this be for?" If everyone just does their own thing without talking it out, it's not going to be as effective and mistakes will be made. And sure, disagreements are natural in a team setting. Some people will believe in one thing and someone else may believe in another way, but that's natural. Talk it out, come to an agreement and work together!

I actually wasn’t going to initially say anything because I didn’t want to be a Debby downer but if this is going to happen every round, I probably won't participate in stalkers anymore. I don’t want to feel excluded. I don’t want to be the bad guy that has to crack down on people because they won’t get their acts together. I don’t want to feel like I’m not doing anything important. I don’t want to feel like I’m the only one not having fun. I don’t want to dread coming online because it means possibly increasing my stress levels. I already have enough of this in my daily life. I don’t come here to experience that as well. That’s… all I have to say.

HOW WERE YOU EXCLUDED!? I'll be honest, I thought you did a lot. You have to remember, there's only so much one person can do. Every action you take is doing something that at least attempts to put the team in a better spot than before.

I really don't get what you're saying because I think things were really fairly distributed and everyone pitched in one way or another, including you! It's everyone's little contributions that add up and make the whole team go forward, even though if you look at exactly what each member pitched in on an individual basis, yeah, the contributions are small in the overall scope. And sometimes yeah, there's a bit of a luck component and sometimes some people come across something more valuable than others or they just come across an opportunity that not everyone gets to experience. That doesn't make it wrong, though. Even if you were to do a search or an interview and nothing came up, hey, at least you checked it out just to make sure! At least you covered ground! When you have a search and rescue team of 50 people covering ground and only one person finds the missing person, it's not like the other 49 people were pointless to have around!

I really don't see how what happened would actually make you so angry to the point where you wouldn't even join next time. I'm a little worried you're expecting too much out of the game, out of me, and out of yourself...

Hm... He/she/they do(es) have a point... Plus, near the end, because it was a bit short on "stuff to do," ordinary folks who have full stats just sat around, doing skills or an aimless interview. It would be interesting if there were useful things to do at all time, like you mentioned money, so "Work Part-Time Job" could be an action, or more crafting stuff, that kinda jazz. Basically, a way for people to help when the team's waiting for someone particular to get done with a thing.

Yeah, at the end when we were in the last two days, things were wrapping up and there were just those last loose ends that needed to be tied and done. At that point, there will be the chance that not everyone will be able to help in that last process even though throughout the rest of the game, they were doing plenty of other things.

I will keep what you said in mind in terms of just having other things that could be done that still help contribute, but even those last interviews could still give information. As long as the game hasn't reached the ultimate end where all the Stalkers are gone, there could still be something out there.