DarkMoonEnigma
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PERSEVERANCE IS STUBBORNESS WITH A PURPOSE
Sunday | August 21, 2016Many years ago, an author friend of mine said that consistency and dedication are the keys to success, and perseverance eventually pays off. He also said that it's not how slow you go, but that you keep going and keep pushing through. He always had some quote of wisdom to impart, but I always listened, because he cared more about helping and doing things for others than himself, and that struck a nerve with me.
My time in Entropia Universe has taught me many lessons, and has tried my efforts with challenges, but I have always been one thing if nothing, and that is, dedicated to bringing a fun experience to the community.
As Monria's Community Manager, and Chief Fun Officer (CFO), I continue to learn, but from a more involved perspective. If I don't get it right sometimes, I'll persevere until I do. I'm a consummate perfectionist, and while that serves a viable purpose, it can get in my way at times. I just want the best for our community, and I will continue to strive to bring you the best that I can, even if that means a stumble here and there.
I think I've said a few times that progress will be slow, but even I had to learn what that meant because along with being a perfectionist, I want things done quickly so that we can enjoy them as soon as possible. This is the first time I've been in an official EU role where I've had so much available to me to work with, and a partner in Anhithe who trusts what I do and want to do, and gives absolute support and backup without fail. This too is what keeps me going at a higher level of perseverence.
We may not be able to roll it out as fast as we would like to, but we will continue to persevere to make sure that we stay on course and work our road map to bring you the cool things that we have planned. As you know, the timing would be different if we were a full-on planet partner, but our agreement is different being the Moon, so we are dependent upon others to work with us to get our plans into play. We hope that you will be patient, even though we have our own problem with that at times, and continue to support what we do.
Now let's see what kind of progress we've made since May 31st. This will be more narrative than a bullet point list because I have more to say and I don't want to minimize the importance of the messages.
Official Monria Mentors Program
As with any of our programs, we continue to fine-tune elements for better efficiency. When something isn't working as well as we would like, then it's time for a change. This was the case with our Mentors Program.
Our official Mentors Program is very much tied into building our community from the ground up, and in order to do that, we need individuals who have a reasonable amount of time to put toward recruiting Monrian-born, but also participate as much as time allows in The Mentor Games and Mentor/Disciple team hunting to help build upon the experiences and progress of the Monrian-born.
Nowhere else is a Mentors Program offered like ours, where support from both a gaming and funding aspect help to promote community efforts in expanding and evolving our Moon family. It's a personal choice to believe in what we're doing, as well as get on board to promote the process. It's not for everyone. As such, we have reduced our number of official Monria Mentors to those who feel they have the time to give without taking away from their own pursuits. The list of our official Monria Mentors can be found here and here.
As a sidenote -- we have suspended adding more official Monria Mentors at this time to work with the team that we currently have in order to make the program more solid. At such point in the future that we decide to open up the program to more official Monria Mentors, we will make that announcement.
We are not in the market to farm Monria Disciples, but rather give our Monrian-born a genuine and more immersed experience with what's available to them, not only on the Moon, but elsewhere in our universe. We want their experiences to be broadened through our Mentors Program and The Mentor Games, as well as the field trips we are lining up at the hands of our newly-appointed Mentors Program Manager.
We want to give individuals within our Monria community opportunities to get more involved in our plans for the evolution of the Moon, and especially with our programs. Therefore, when we see that an individual has proven loyalty and dedication that would fit a certain role, we extend the offer to join us in our efforts.
This is the case with @RosaRaine Buns who we have appointed Manager of the Mentors Program. She also manages The Mentor Games and will continue to organize the Mentor/Disciple field trips to expand the experiences of our Monrian-born. She has been a tremendous help in freeing up some of my time to be able to work on other projects, and I am very appreciative. She's fantastic to work with, and quite proactive with things that we would like to accomplish over time. She has become an immense asset in many ways.
Thank you Rosa, you're always on top of things and we couldn't have asked for better.
The Mentor Games
As with any program, there are growing pains, and tweaking is necessary to keep things working with as much efficiency as possible. With feedback from the Mentors, as well as suggestions, we continue to make adjustments so that it fits within the time element available to the Mentors, as well as expand the depth of the experience to be more reasonable and functional.
A great idea posed by @Hovno (one of our official Monria Mentors) is to create The Disciple Games to work in tandem with The Mentor Games. His premise behind this is a good one, so we will be exploring what elements would work with this idea and see if we can elevate it to an actual program.
The Mentor Games Reigning Champ is --> @Superraine raine r456 and his Monria-Astroraines team who claimed July with the most Globals. Each Mentor has a registered team name for team hunting with their Disciples. The reigning champ in June was @StarDrifter and his Monria -=Drift 'N' Swirl=- team. We added a couple more rambunctious official Monria Mentors who are hell bent on grabbing the title and forum banner.
This program will grow over time, and with @RosaRaine Buns leading the team, we're going to see more activity in the near future, as well as more refining to make the program work better for all.
Monria New Arrivals Tutorials (MNAT)
The MNAT Tutorials are coming along slow but sure. Both @Hovno and @Noz have submitted valuable information in our private working area. It's down to me finding enough time to create more based on their information, so that's on me. I think the current MNAT Tutorials that we have in play right now will be more than sufficient to at least give a Monrian-born an opportunity to see why starting their experiences on the Moon would be most beneficial for them, especially having an official Monria Mentor.
Again, I ask that if anyone sees a Monrian-born, please direct them to the MNAT Tutorials here so they have an opportunity to gain some knowledge about the Moon prior to making any decisions about their experiences and what they want to do from that point forward. Thank you.
Monria Space Travel Program
Under the management of @Eric Shade Avenged who stepped into the role of General in the TKoE society (the official crew of the Yamato), the program continues to work more efficiently, but we will be adding more Yamato pilots to make sure that we have our weekly travel schedules covered.
The following individuals continue to step up to make sure we fly with professional craziness:
@Eric Shade Avenged
@Leodolfr Leon Stronghorse
@Superraine raine r456
@Gatekeeper
Their dedication to piloting and making sure our service runs efficiently is immensely appreciated. We have a few pilots on reserve as backup should time be available, but we will be adding more pilots.
Reserve List
@sidekick069
@zircote
@Xander Zan Catman
A huge thank you also goes to @Leodolfr Leon Stronghorse for keeping our Yamato Repair Skilling Program running, as well as the many who support our program as crew.
Other Monria News
There never seems to be a dull moment on Monria, and the community keeps Monria chat rolling like a teleprompter -- you just have to be quick enough to catch it all or you'll be scrolling chat half your time in the game to find out what's going on and what you can learn. Our community is very helpful, and will answer any question you pose, even if the response is so off the wall you say --> Wait, what?
We have fun, and that's what it's all about. Our motto is --> Have Fun & Expect the Unexpected.
As such, we have had some crazy times since my last progress update:
Monria's Independance Day Event -- Shogg & Yog Want Independence
Cthulhu's Revenge | "Element of Surprise" Event
The Deep Dark Abyss is Rumbling -- a lead up to the next event
Monria's Round Robin Tournament -- a 5 week event currently in play
Then there's always the random and spontaneous craziness that keeps us in the fun zone:
Wow What a Day
Not Your Ordinary Moon Day
We also have community members showcasing their real life hobbies and business involvements:
-= Drifter's Den =- | Gallery & Lounge -- by @StarDrifter
Red Wizard Hat | Heroes of Amarii -- by [FONT=Arial]@E8ty2nd[/FONT]
As a sidenote -- we are about to engage in a very unique Monria marketing campaign with E8ty2nd and his Red Wizard Hat team. We are excited about this and will share information when we can.
And speaking of @E8ty2nd -- he started the Monria Donation Center -- it's a great community program.
We do our best to provide an entertaining environment, and will continue to persevere to elevate the options that are available to you. Time is a valuable commodity, but with time, patience, dedication and working the road map that we have developed, we are confident that we can bring more to our amazing community to support their need for engaging experiences.
The community's support is also very valuable to us, as is your feedback. We have a Suggestions section where you can let us know what your ideas are, and what would work better. We will always listen, but of course we can never guarantee that we can do what you request.
We want to continue working in partnership with the community to prioritize what you would like to see us bring into the mix, but we also have our own surprises that would definitely advance community engagement beyond just the hunting, mining and crafting.
If you like what we're doing, please continue to support our efforts by getting involved in our events and other activities, and even create your own events like @Noz has done with his TT Hunt today, August 21st.
I wanted to give a special thank you to @Gatekeeper for working our Sweat Buying Program where 75% of our funding goes to our Monrian-born, and 25% to others. @RosaRaine Buns also has a funding budget to work strictly with our official Monria Mentors to purchase sweat.
@Gatekeeper also runs a regular loot buying service, including mining materials, as does @sluggo when he is available to do so. You might want to friend list these two Monria community members.
Thank you very much to all of you for being an amazing community. We really do appreciate you.
