[Miller - Vanu Outfit] "Purple Giraffes of Awesome" awards for awesomeness

[Cooper]

The "Purple Giraffe of Awesome" awards for awesomeness
Rock, Planet, Shotgun's (ir)regular / ad hoc award for outfit members as judged by outfit members.

(Awards were being given in a number of different threads, and weren't always being given with images attached. This means they were losing visibility. They exist as a means of publicly recognising awesomeness. It's nice to be told you are awesome, but if the awards get buried, people won't see them. Hence the new thread.)

What is a "Purple Giraffe of Awesome" Award?
We are awesome. Sometimes it's nice to recognise this. In [RPS] this recognition is in the form of awarding a "Purple Giraffe of Awesome".

The awards serve as a means to encourage and acknowledge those actions, large and small, that make things better for everyone. They also offer a warm fuzzy feeling to those who send and receive them. (Quite unlike actual giraffes, which are smelly creatures you would not want to cuddle).

What are the awards given for?
Anything that is deemed awesome (or fun, or funny, or brilliant, or amazing, or fucking hell that was mental, or ace, or a bloody good show, etc.). Absolutely anything that has made your evening playing with [RPS] more fun and enjoyable.

From leading platoons to superb victory (or particularly spectacular / amusing defeat) to providing much needed backup 'in the field' to being a particularly amusing drunk to being an outstandingly decent person. We like those.

How do I give an award?
The most important thing about a "Purple Giraffe of Awesome" if that it can be given by any member of the outfit. This is not about a select few deigning to recognise the feats of others but is about all of us taking the time to recognise the important role others play in making Planetside 2 a fun game.

Steps to award a "Purple Giraffe of Awesome"
1. Make or find a picture of a purple giraffe. (Or, if you like, a giraffe doing something specific that is related to the reason for the award.)
2. Post a reply to this thread that contains
- The image you made / found Use image tags: [img]www.imagehost.com/imagename.jpg[/img]
- Who the award is for
- What that person did that you thought was particularly awesome

Awards can be given to named individuals (which is always nice to do) and for particular groups hich worked well as a whole (e.g. squads).

A record of awards recieved can be found on the roster page of the outfit website over at:
www.rockplanetshotgun.com/roster

(Note: Posts without images will not get picked up for the record of awards recieved over on the RPS website. Awards to groups won't either.)

Note: If you have given (or recieved) an award that is not counted on the roster above and / or has not been copied to this thread, please let me know.

Also: If someone wants to try their hand at a better "Purple Giraffe of Awesome Ribbon" for the outfit website, please do.

You are all awesome! This is not a race or a competition to see who can get the most. We love all of you, awards or not!

(All awards from the old "outfit organisation" thread are being copied over to this thread.)

(Below first award copied from old thread as it appeared before the first thread I posted on this thread...)
-----------------------------------


Purple giraffe of awesome: Awarded to Rotekian for that time he helped me check the tyre pressure on my Sunderer.

[QuantaCat]

Awarded to Arthur for being a great squad lead.

As for everything else: I dont care about ranks and so on, but I think the platoons should be a bit more structured, and I think, to be honest, that they were too large last night. I think we could have gone for 3 and completely taken over huge parts of the map, instead of losing them shortly afterwards anyway.

Also, I think we should start forming squads by type; ie. infantry squads, vehicle squads, air squads. Though this obviously isnt always applicable; especially if you get shot down and have to wait a bunch for vehicle/resource respawn.

[Jesus_Phish]

Ranks - I don't care if they come in or not. If people want or think it's useful to put another symbol on their name then cool.

Squads - I was the one talking about the LAs on flashes. I think if we have enough members we can very easily have squads of varying degrees of organization from "lets zerg and find adventure!" to "lets sneak around as a small squad and blitzkrieg the outer bases as a distraction". We can all work together anyway!

I think the comment about being too large is true. I don't think we have too many players, but I think we might have too many players in one place at one time. We should spread out, not too thinly, but enough that we're still powerful enough to hold a good fight, but not clumped up too much that we're just taking a base and moving on only to lose that base five minutes after we're gone.



Awarded to Cooper for organizing this whole thing and his "amazing" sundy driving skills

[DeVadder]

I am all for more organised events (not on wednesdays of course). I think with the current size, we should easily be able to put together at least one squad for any level of serious-business-ness with some before notice.

For ranks, i am not entirely sure. The Eve player of four years says 'Of course, without making clear who has proven that is able to lead a squad, someone will get us all killed.' Then again, this is not Eve Online and getting oneselves killed is the norm and has no big drawback.
So i believe they are not needed for organization, we do not need to designate responibilities because everybody can do everything with little to no risk. And i believe for people who want such responsibilities to be assigned, there are other outfits.
However, i think that they could be a nice way to acknowledge peoples work. If someone spends insane amounts of certs in creating the best sunderer possible and goes out of his way to make it available for forum-organized squads, some recognization does not hurt.
Or spends time to organize this whole mess, but i believe we cannot promote Cooper any further...
Have this instead:
Attachment 2248

[protorp]

Yesterday eve's direction from PL / SLs / various other experienced folk was really good - there was always quick assesment and decision (brief discussion followed by clear orders - best bit of all!) on new objectives and angles of attack which made things flow very nicely.

I don't know if you found it a bit frustrating working hard on this with the number of people in chat, stragglers not on chat, random unrelated interjections about things in the real world, but this silent grunt for one really, really appreciated the effort command peeps went to last night. So here you are for being awesome (and occasionally slightly angry):

[Najarana]

Just wanted to say that my ps2 experience with all fellow giraffes has been awesome, I found this game to be confusing as hell solo just a week ago. Now I enjoy myself immensely whether we're goofing around or going hardcore tactics. Thanks everyone for being awesome. Cya tonight.


This is for all of you, special mention to Cmaster for setting up my saron kills, and to whoever set up the "a rousing speech" joke for me a few days ago. Cheers!

[CMaster]

Purple Giraffe for all the team in that super-effective galaxy drop on Highroads. It didn't lead to a continent lock, but seeing them so completely wrong-footed by it, and a war of attrition turned into an instant cap was great.


Another for JG for being really helpful with comms and organisation throughout, and for leading the second squad to counter backcapping.


And finally to Laldy, for being so damn useful when I'm in command (spotting and dealing with important tactical stuff), and for leading effectively when I'm following.

Oh, and one little thing for those who fought so damn hard at that little sattelite-choke-point around Tumas:

[MrEclectic]

We actually got the third continent lock at last, around midnight GMT. Triple lock for the Vanu Sovereignty!

Yes, we did! On new year's they broke our cap lock on Indar, and we came back with a vengeance. Go purple, and go giraffes!

Purple giraffes all around, and especially to CMaster and JG. Thanks for the leadership and especially the patience, guys. The comms were crazy sometimes. And JG, I gather that you acted as communications liaison with the Vanu Accord.

[MitchK]

Well done to everyone last night, rolling round in JG's Sunderer of Horticultural Annihilation was a lot of fun!

Wish I had stayed on a little longer than I did to see the triple continent lock!



Bonus Purple Giraffe for the fellow (can't remember who it was, sorry) that offered up 'Balloon Lead' at some point in the evening.

[QuantaCat]

you mean, like a slap of a glove to the face?

Attachment 2419
For Mr Cooper. I had fun.

[BasicPauly]

I have to say, im never usually sold on the idea of ranks, as it does usually promote a kind of ego-fest. That said, I like the way this system is going, as its not so much an indication of "look at me" as an indication of "hey, im willing to do this job".

I think the problem ranking systems have, is that people are usually strict with who is what, generally ending up being a bit of a mess. As stated, im generally willing to fill in the position of squad lead and have now unlocked my beacon (again), so ill be looking forward to taking some people under my galaxy wing soon (though I am yet to think of a suitable name for her?).

So far i think everybody has been nominated that ive seen PL so far, so im glad to see they are being recognised in this small way.

Lastly, the following purple giraffe awesomeness award goes to two people:
-Cooper for his inspired squad of 1 man galaxies, taking it to the enemy nose dive style.
-JG man for his no nonsense attitude to us questioning his suicidal sundy and flash tactics against all odds.

[Dewi]

I'd like to apologise to Quanta for last nights shameless begging to take over as PL. I don't mind leading for a little bit in a small platoon, but I'm not confident enough as a leader to do it with a larger group for a prolonged amount of time, but still, sorry.

So here is a purple giraffe of awesome for you, for being awesome and putting up with my whining!

[Dewi]

I'd like to apologise to Quanta for last nights shameless begging to take over as PL. I don't mind leading for a little bit in a small platoon, but I'm not confident enough as a leader to do it with a larger group for a prolonged amount of time, but still, sorry.

So here is a purple giraffe of awesome for you, for being awesome and putting up with my whining!

[MitchK]

Seconded, good job on that tonight pal. Purple Giraffe thoroughly deserved!

[Wardancer]

Purple giraffe of awesome to LaKroy who did the most beautiful piece of magrider driving i have seen. I was sitting on a hiltop on esamir looking for enemy tanks to kill with my lightning when i saw Lakroy and his trusty gunner Ridebird moving up with a magrider. A mossie appeard behind them so shouted a quick warning. Lakroy simply spins around and blasts the mossie in the face, turns back around and keeps driving. How I wish I got that on film.
Attachment 2562

Another special Giraffe for Vanu on Esasmir tonight. We were warpgated by the TR and they were about to warpgate the NC when RPS, UBAD, MDK + a whole bunch of other outfits banded together and made an epic push south crushing all TR resistance all the way to their warpgate and then securing Eisa. We even had a small outfit jump into our platoon as dedicated burster squad. It was glorious.

Attachment 2563

[MrEclectic]

On what seemed another casual night on Amerish, Ridebird coordinated with the other outfits, and we soon were aiming to deny the continent bonus from the TR. At the end, not only did we achieve that, but we actually managed a continent lock. Cheaper aircraft all around!

Purple Giraffes of Awesome to Ridebird, the platoon, and to our allies who made it happen: UBAD, BURP and PVL who joined in our platoon, MDK, ISK and all the other outfits that coordinated so efficiently and effectively (sorry if I forget some names) and all those who fought alongside us. Let the cooperation only grow stronger.

Attachment 2607

[CMaster]

OK, so, Purple Giraffe and a nomination for Balloon Leader for BasicPauly, who seemed to do a pretty good job with the pick-up platoon last night.



Also Purple Giraffe to the new guy whose name temporarily escapes me, but seems a really good sport.

Also, we really need to hand out the Balloon Leader rank more. If someone has PLed, and you thought they did good, then please, come on here and nominate them. We bumped up a bunch more Giraffe Beacons last night, which is a start, but we really need those BLs.

[MrEclectic]

An oversight, and a delayed Purple Giraffe of Awesomeness to Wardancer for leading us last Friday on Amerish, along with the TVA folks.

And I propose we promote him to BL.

[laldy]

To Cooper and Esoteric for leading RPS and the Vanu hordes to an Amerish lock in only 2 hours:

Attachment 2726

[NickWhite]

Also.

A Giraffe of awesome for NovaWolfen(?) for his role as PL tonight.
Attachment 2815
(Pssst! That's me in his ear as comms officer tehehe)