Mod Post: Status Update!

[wordspell]

This is an important post! The game has noticeably slowed down, and I'm sure those of you whom are left have been concerned or frustrated about the activity, as are we. Unfortunately do to various circumstances, mostly personal/RL and miscommunication, us mods haven't been doing the best jobs either and we will totally take the fall for that. And I will be upfront, we may need to look for another mod or two soon-- or even just helper mods.

Nonetheless! While this post is not an AC, it is checking in on people who want to stick around and are still interested. There is a high likelihood we will be temporarily closing the game for the summer to restructure and replot. We unofficially went over some of this on plurk, but it's about time for an official announcement!

Additionally, if you don't have a plurk but/or would still like to contribute to the discussion of what you would like to see anyway, please feel free to leave feedback here in this post.

To give you a brief idea of some things we're taking into consideration:
- Slightly different AC
- Different app system
- More done with the anomaly (and closing for the summer may be taken as an "anomaly" event too)
- IC vs RL day system
- More face-to-face/action logs encouragement. Though this doesn't mean the network will be going entirely.
- NPCs will stick around, but there will be less reliance on them to drive things. More player impetus!
- Much more OOC info, of course. Especially re: setting.

If you have any opinions, or even just want to vent frustrations, please feel free to do so here!

Comments

[alchimia]

i'm def interested in sticking around! i've always loved the premise and really hope the game can keep going. i'm not sure what i can add in terms of plotting and such, but i would love to see more ooc information given for world building purposes.

[alkahestry]

Still interested. Very interested.

As much as I understand the reasons why the game might close over the summer, I can only hope it doesn't hurt the game or the CR we've already developed.

Question: If it does in fact occur would all of us who want to stay around be unable to post until the game re-opens at the end of the summer?

[kirijowner]

I really don't have much in terms of feedback at the moment, but I have enough interest to still try sticking around.

[bethroned]

I know my activity has been horrible/non-existant lately, but I'm still interested in sticking around.

[catfood]

Miku-mun and KAITO-mun will decided to stick here a little longer. I don't have feedback but I would say it's still fun to play.

[roadkilled]

Popping in real quick to confirm that I'm willing to stick around as well.

I do have a bit of feedback, but I'll add that here later (when I get a chance to sit down for a second, sob).

[roadkilled]

Okay! After reading over that plurk, I agree with a lot of what's been said. I particularly agree with Sarah's suggestions and issues with the event(s). I'll just note some things that kinda tripped me up while playing here. Apologizes if it's all disjointed; I can't quite organize it very well right now.

I don't know much/anything about Loveless, but I do like the premise and the idea. I agree with Sarah, I think the school + Loveless thing can work out well. It's just a matter of how it's presented. The posts need to be a little more defined and structured. What are they learning in classes, both regular and mandatory? How often are they practicing in the mandatory classes? Are there repercussions for skipping regular classes all the time? (If there are none, then what's the point of 'punishing' the snooping group by preventing them from testing out?) How far along in their Wordspell skills are they? I guess, what I'm saying, is that I feel like there was a big jump from learning about Wordspell to THERE'S AN INVASION GRAB A PARTNER. To be honest, during the Invasion log, I felt like I was just handwaving maybe 1-2 months worth of classes/potential development in order to go with the flow.

Speaking of classes, I noticed we might have an uneven number of Fighters and Sacrifices. In that case, why not mix it up by getting some of the player characters to teach their peers? Fighters can group up with Fighters and practice 'sensing' each other or maybe exchange some Wordspell tips. Sacrifices can chat about what to expect and how to command their Fighter around. Not only will this prompt characters to mingle, it'll also get people active during 'class' without use of NPCs.

[roadkilled]

Okay, back to the presentation of the game. On the 'Locations' page, the school is described as being suspiciously heavy duty. This seems like it was intended to inspire some suspicion in characters. I think we had a good, 'what's going on...' tone going months earlier, but I feel like it's lost now. Maybe some events can also help with that? I thought we might've been on the right track with the Invasion, but it was followed up somewhat poorly. (Not that this is completely the mods' fault - I think the players kinda fizzled out after the log as well.) Instead of just cameras installed, why not get the whole town suspicious of the characters? Rumors of the Anomaly spread somehow, and now the native Gora residents could start eyeballing the characters or regard them suspiciously. It'd get characters to start feeling like outcasts and (hopefully) encourage them to learn more about the Anomaly. As it is, the sudden appearance of the Outliers and the Anomaly were kind of like. Uh. Surprise! \o/

I highly encourage manipulating the environment rather than the NPCs to get characters moving. Those evacuation drills sound really interesting! Or there could be a school festival, just like any other school... but maybe it seems to be heavily guarded and no one is allowed to skip the festival. Or maybe they're barred from re-entering the school. Something like that, anyhow. I don't know how plausible it is to do, since I don't know Loveless canon or the direction the game is going. But my point is that it's totally possible to do school stuff while still giving off a tense or guarded atmosphere. I would absolutely love to see more of that.

[roadkilled]

lol never believe me when I say "a bit of feedback". sorry for the length.

I also think we definitely need some communication going. On Plurk, Sarah mentioned ZEROs being untrustworthy. But KAITO never got that message at all (I app'd in later than that log) and he's never had reason to hide the fact he's a ZERO. It's just never come up since his arrival. Maybe, during application week, there could be an NPC announcement to 'welcome' the newcomers? Something like, "Welcome to Gora, other people from other worlds are here, we're trying to figure stuff out, please try to attend the classes, oh btw ZEROs are shady bastards, have a nice day."

Not only could this be used in lieu of intro posts, it would also bring some tension to both ZERO characters (to hide their identities and worry about who/what they are) and non-ZERO characters (if they're friends with a ZERO or wary of them). So we'd get some potential conflict between player characters as well! I think it'd be a pretty neat dynamic.

Finally, and I know you guys are probably already aware of this, but the game needs some overall organization. The Taken List is incredibly outdated, which prevented me from pimping out the game to my friends. OOC plotting posts seem like afterthoughts at times. I also recall someone asking you guys on Plurk how long we had to tag the event post before new people wouldn't get responses— this is something that needs to be mentioned on the OOC event info post. If there's a deadline, please let us know so we can participate on time! I also highly agree with the concern about pacing. Sometimes the mods' pace just doesn't seem to match up with the players' pace, and it can be frustrating when there's a clash.

ANYWAY WOW this is tl;dr, but I really would like to stay with the game and see it improve. I don't know if anything I've mentioned are good ideas, but I hope they help. Good luck with whatever you guys decide to do!

[imprints]

Just stating that I'd like to stick around.

Oh, and I did think that AC should probably run the whole month instead of a break during the first week of the month. And I think the apps themselves are fine, but it might be best to open them up for the whole month instead of having app cycles. Especially when a game is this small.