The Oscars !

Oscar the Knight

I have always been intrigued by this magnificent statuette, made of gold-plated britannium on a black metal base, it is 13.5 in (34 cm) tall, weighs 8.5 lb (3.85 kg) and depicts a knight rendered in Art Deco style holding a crusader's sword standing on a reel of film with five spokes. The five spokes each represent the original branches of the Academy: Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers, and Technicians. What is the significance or the idea of having a statue as this for The Academy Awards ? How does a NUDE KNIGHT, covering his modesty with a SWORD, fit in?

For instance, the APPLE symbol, i have always thought it as the forbidden fruit. And, everyone would like to have it. And APPLE products have carved a niche place, desired by many !


While there is no harm in dreaming about the red carpet and flowing gowns with a speech ready, to hold this honor- one has to put in some effort to make the dream come true too. But, how to make this dream true ? Not in my wildest of dreams i can imagine myself to be there even by the age of 82 like Christopher Plummer, who won for his role as an elderly widower who comes out as gay in 'Beginners.' Standing Ovation for his achievement !

OK, back to my dreams. Looking at the statue, it definitely gives me an idea to have a slightly altered form. Oscars, please don't sue me. I am just imagining. A knight rendered in Art Deco style holding a crusader's sword in one hand as it is now.While the other hand holding a pen. And this would be for the players of Realm of  Empires, a medieval-themed Massively Multiplayer Online Real-Time Strategy Game - MMORTG.

You start with a small village, grow it into a mighty fortress, struggling to dominate the realm playing with and against real people. It's a game of DIPLOMACY, STRATEGY and WAR. A unique game for people, inspiring them to be great leaders!

This statue with a sword and a pen describes the core concept of the game ! The GOLD plated statue depicts the magnificence of  great leaders who have the attitude to bring people together, to overcome any situation and WIN. To achieve this, two strategies are adopted. The SOFT POWER or/and the HARD POWER.

Proposed design of the sword at one end having a pen at the other end

THE SOFT POWER : The use of PEN i.e initiate diplomacy. Try to resolve the situation with talks, communication - even if it means compromising sometimes, to maintain peace. The world needs leaders who can bring people together and make this world a better place to live in.

THE HARD POWER : Well, there are situations when things just don't work out ONLY with the pen. Now, is the time to lift the SWORD !
But, always remember the statue. When you lift the sword it bares you completely.The magnificence of the statuette is completely gone. Now stands a man exposed. Not a worthy site ! Wars, only cause destruction leaving people bare and exposed.

This unique game Realm Of Empires, essentially teaches you to maintain a balance between your WORDS and SWORD to achieve success. So, i guess we have the RoEscar awards ready. Just waiting for the design of the proposed statuette to be approved :)

Realm Of Empires

Life's greatest lesson - Experience through Game Mechanics

EXPAND YOUR VISION !

Are you wearing Blinkers ? Have you limited your vision by CHOICE and have accepted it as destiny ?

One of the biggest things that we need to learn in life is the importance of expanding our vision in life.

This is an example from a leading game, Realm Of Empires, an online real time strategy game. You can almost play, the entire game, from the map. The MAP comes in various sizes varying from 7X7 to 45X45 ingame and a RoE mapper power tool which i prefer calling as the STRATEGIST TOOL.

 Let's analyze the 7X7 MAP. I call it the beginners guide. Its like having a glass of wine, just taking in the aroma, twirling it round and round- but not getting to taste it. So the 7X7 map, just gives you an idea of  the basic features. You can keep moving around to see the entire realm, each time by clicking on the side bars, twirling it round and round. The game can still be played but it is limiting. LIMITING ? Did i just say limiting? How can it be limiting when it allows you to play the game ? It is because you have limited your vision to a small part of a vast reality that is available to you. Your are ONLY believing in what is in front of your eyes and nothing beyond it. 

Understanding concepts

In this 7X7 map you can see only a few neighboring 15-16 villages of the 30000 villages. Analysis shows,players using only this map interact with the few around them. Usually, it is noted that success factor is not as fast as compared to players using 19X19 map, the LARGE MAP

 

Setting Goals for yourself

Let's see the benefit of 19X19 map. It gives you a larger view of the players around you. Gives you a clearer picture of who your clanmates are in green shields, your opponents in red shields.Performance of players using this map improves tremendously.

Setting Goals for the team

 

Looking further at the GIANT MAP which gives you 45X45 map. I have always believed that there is one characteristic that sets leaders apart and it's the ability to see possibilities that can be uncovered, having a logical foresight to broaden the scope of finding more opportunities. This is exactly what is aimed at, by giving this map.This map gives an expanded view, allowing you to make strategies, finding more opportunities for yourself as well as your team or clanmates. 

When you believe ONLY what your eyes see, then your vision is limited to a small part of a vast reality that is actually available to you. This limits your experience to a small part of a much larger potential that you are capable of. To expand your vision always look out for multiple paths available to you. Depending on what you allow yourself to know, you will learn and  grow, transforming your life.

Defining Your VISION to achieve the Mission !

Widen your prospective

Now, all these maps are available in the game and i call them the OPERATIONAL TOOLS. There is another tool to discuss strategies with your team, The RoE MAPPER - The STRATEGIST TOOL 

What is the need of strategic tool in a game or in any organization ? While operational perspective aims at achieving short term goals, strategic thinking helps in achieving the MISSION. Moving from a operational position to a strategic position sounds lucrative but is NOT easy. Often excellent performers, goal achievers fail when it comes to team management and taking strategic decisions. WHY ? because they have never exercised their strategic muscles ! 

This game aims to develop your strategic muscles, to prepare you for your real life ! 

Not only does it develop your social skills, broadening your perspective by dealing with people belonging to different cultures, traditions, standards but also prepares you to run an organization

• Identify what’s meaningful in the data. The data here is huge. The map shows you data of thousands of players. Filtering the unimportant is important
• Keep focused on what’s important and not be distracted by the huge visual content.
•  Build your thinking by practicing scenario planning. Practice the ‘What if’ scenario exercise. Go to Show campaign view under tools in the RoE Mapper. Basically it means, exploit the tools available. In the everchanging technological era, try out the latest technologies.
•  Have discussion with potential members of the team. Identify the benchmarks from current state to desired / future vision state. Communicate, communicate and communicate !
•  MOTIVATE the team to strive for those benchmarks.
• Revisit regularly and update the Mapper to see progress. Important for organizations for forward planning, removing the kinks , finding solutions to pitfalls on the way. ALWAYS remember, a good strategic leader is one who is unmovable towards the intent, but flexible in the path. Follow up is a MUST !

Success can come only when you take a risk to venture beyond the obvious boundaries !

Decision Making - My experiences at Realm Of Empires

The toughest part of my job has been to take decisions when players violate the Terms Of Use in the game. Typically, as in any other game, people hiding behind anonymity have nothing to lose by abusing each other, using derogatory language. Having looked at many games, it is usually observed, that such issues get ignored. However, at Realm Of Empires, we have strived to make the game an enjoyable experience for all by enforcing the TOU and have also tried to make the person realize his mistakes, giving him a chance to improve. HOW ? Read on...

The game, requires a lot of communication and to facilitate communication, there is

- Global Chat

- Clan Chat
- Clan forums
- In game messages
- And an outside forum

At present there are 23 Realms at Realm Of Empires and it is not possible to monitor all the modes of communication. Block feature has been provided to players but that too does not control some people. When such issues are reported, it is very very difficult to take decision on one or two instances and BAN or suspend the player from the game. It is a game of war and diplomacy and tempers run high. In the heat of the moment many things are said, that players realize, could have been avoided. However, some take the chance to get rid of players by reporting them, getting them banned.

WHY was Decision making difficult ? Because, to get the complete picture of  why it happened was not trivial.

Let me explain with a story.... This was something i learned at school. We had a workshop on developing life skills and the topic was Decision making.

Please, be honest when you read this and answer the questions as you read through.

First Slide : A man is cutting the branch of a tree on which he was sitting.

Question : Right or Wrong ? Give your views.

My answer was : What an idiot. Who wants to hurt themselves. So in my view, he was wrong

Second Slide : The whole tree is now shown. The man is vigorously cutting the branch and the main trunk of the tree is on fire, leaving him no way to get down from the tree.
Question : Right or Wrong ? Give your views.

My answer was : Oh, i had not thought of anything beyond what was shown to me in the first instance, so now i think he was doing it right.

 

Third Slide : An even bigger picture shows, that the tree was on a seashore.

Question : Now, do you think he was right or wrong ? Give your view.

My answer was : Of course he was right. Falling in the water would save him from fire and chances of getting hurt would also be lesser.

Fourth Slide : Now, the picture shows an aerial view of the whole scenario. There are two sharks approaching the shore.

Question : What do you think, was his approach to save himself right or wrong ? Give your views.

My answer was : Oh boy, he does not have time. He should have just jumped in the water and swam ashore before the sharks reached the place or the tree caught fire completely.

Well, all my answers were WRONG in the first instance, till i got the complete picture of the story. The lesson i learned was never take vital decisions based on partial facts.Take into account every aspect, each sides story before coming to conclusions.

Getting back to the original reason for this post. In the game what happens is people are reporting each other and it became difficult with the number of realms to keep a track, investigate and take decisions based on the ENTIRE picture. Banning players from the game was not a wise step, unless the complete picture was taken into consideration. Now, the question was what to do in such a situation. Then, it was decided NOT to take decisions as BANNING but just make it impossible for the person to use the mode of communication he has abused. For example, ban him from chat or ban him from sending messages. i.e even if he sends messages, it will not be sent.

A great improvement has been observed after this change. Earlier, players would come up with accounts just to harrass others and even if banned from game, it would not hurt them. Now, silencing them by banning them only from chats or messages has made it easy for us to manage and also makes the game an enjoyable experience for all.

Realm 23, released on 11th February,2012. Register at Realm Of Empires a unique multiplayer, online, real time strategy game, on Facebook - to join the fun ! It will teach you to handle every aspect of life !
Be it Diplomacy or War ; Forward planning with patience or taking quick split second decisions.