Special Discussion [PLEASE READ]

[cityship]

It has come to the mods' attention that there is a signficant chunk of players that have concerns about the health of the game and think it's dying. Unfortunately, this means that everyone's in a holding pattern waiting to see what happens and the problem with this is if we collectively do this as a game, we might not make it past rebellion.

So the mods have decided to address the issue head on to discuss it.

For our part, the mods want to encourage people to send in plots, tag around, invite people for June, and put up posts. We'd also like to take suggestions and answer questions and want to try to reassure you that we will do whatever we can on our end to make things fun. Our response times for plots and answering questions about things people can do in the game are down to only a few days (usually 3-5 for complicated issues/questions). Sometimes we can even get a response back the same day or just 1-2 for simple issues. If players want to run plots, we can definitely get an answer back to you very quickly, and in the case of milk runs, you pretty much have free reign to do those whenever or however you want. So now's the time for us to ask the question: what do you need from the mod team to have fun? What things do you want? What things might you want to see?

What things would players like to see from other players? This is also a good place to discuss that. As of right now, close to thirty people have posted for and made AC, which means that there are a good chunk of players that have have at least some interest in continuing to play. (Hopefully that will be reassuring to those of you worried about mass drops.)

At this point, the game is really only what we make it, and while there were a lot of problems over the last year, we are very dedicated to working on the ones that were on the mod end. The game can be made fun again, but now that the backlog of work and mod duties have been caught up, it is definitely something we need to discuss and cooperatively work on and confront head on as a group.

So discuss away, and please plurk and replurk this to your heart's content, point other players you know to it via AIM, etc. It really is something we need as many eyes seeing as possible.

EDIT: Please keep commenting, even if the mods don't respond to each of your individual comments. We're incorporating all the player feedback into our discussions about this in modchat.

EDIT 2, EDITINING: The mods are going to have a big modchat on Friday the 25th to iron everything out and probably have communication go up then or over the weekend.

Comments

[punchedoutdestiny]

Wingus here - and well, it does look a little shaky now. I've had dropping thoughts now and then, but I've kicked them back. I'm sticking with this thing to the end - whether that's the actual end, or the death of the game.

However, I ain't gonna do it sitting down.

Come ATP, I am going on an enabling frenzy. For one, I'm putting up an ad to try and draw in more robot pilots and pilots in general for Starfighter Command. I know there's a number of people out there that have giant robot pilot characters that wish they had a place to take them where they'd be able to keep their mech and actually be able to use it. And with the apps going totally open alongside ATP, and the new character introduction system not locking players down for upwards of a month, enabling should be a lot easier.

And other than that, I am gonna barge through the player post and try to grab anyone who has fitting characters. I encourage others to do the same.

It looks bad, but it's gonna take a lot more than this to finish us.

[morphitudinous]

Agreed. I'd really like to. A crew of pilots and hot-blooded heroes? Not that I want us to be all of the game, of course, but having a squadron again would be pretty cool.

There's nothing we can really do about this directly, so I guess I'll just explain why I don't put much effort into enabling. We're an old game. The 4th anniversary is coming up in a few weeks, and it's even longer if you count the first incarnation.

By now, most people who've been in RP for a while have already decided whether they'd ever consider joining or not, and our rep, especially over the past year, has been bad. We're cliquey, we don't want anyone new, we're dying anyway so why bother? That's really hard to overcome when trying to sell a game to someone.

---so I've been discouraged by a lot of failures, is what I'm trying to say. But there has to be a better way to sell it without looking like a tryhard. Hmm.

[punchedoutdestiny]

Yeah, it's gonna be tricky with our age and rep, but it's still worth a try. Worst people can do is say no or ignore the comment when it comes to ATP. If anons wanna peg me a tryhard, let 'em - it ain't gonna bug me. Gotta show some enthusiasm if we want people to get enthused, after all.

To sorta spin off what you said in your post - gotta have fun with the enabling. Yeah, the enabling is to help get more players and crew for the game to work with - but it also needs to be about fun. That's why I'm giving a focus to the robot pilots. They're a fun lot to have around.

[splendid_roman]

I definitely think it's worth a try. I looked at T9 about a year or two before I joined, I think. I got as far as thinking about it, got distracted, then never joined. So even though people might have heard of it, they might not have thought properly about joining or something.

And not everyone knows T9's rep - I don't. I just go by what I can see in the main and OOC comms.

[sawedoffgenius]

Hey, I just want to say that this is not necessarily true. I've been in LJ/DWRP for six and a half years, judging by the creation date of the oldest RP journal I have. Before Eileen invited me here I had only ever heard of T9 in passing. Which is to say, I only looked at it six months ago and obviously had not previously made a decision about it, as evidenced by the fact that I joined right up!

One of my previous games, Polychromatic, was once one of the biggest games in journal RP. I used to play exclusively CLAMP characters and, from hanging out on anon memes, ATP, and RP!S I thought that everyone had heard of my game and specifically my cast - it seems like such a small fandom, after all. Yet, even on ATP and RP!S I would run into people who had never even considered Poly and certainly didn't know about my cast. Hell, I would run into other CLAMP players who had never even heard about the wank in that fandom's thread on anon comm (which was seriously stressing me out back then). As I realized, journal-based RP is a lot bigger than I thought it was.

And, hell - Poly is older and bigger than T9. How many people here have ever seriously looked at it?

Whatever the case, anyone who has been in RP this long knows that entire games change drastically over the years through simple evolution - not just as a result of changes in management (although that happens a lot) but as different batches of players cycle in and out. I dropped Poly less than a year ago, but I couldn't tell you anything about the player experience now. I know it's changed - it changed before my eyes while I was there, and will continue to change.

Trans 9 has just been through a major transition, both in playerbase and in modship. We aren't the same game that I joined six months ago, and in another six months we will have changed still more. What has driven us through all of these transitions has been the unique personalities and playing styles of everyone here. Everyone here has a say in how this game is played - not just as far as written rules go, but as far as conventions and the OOC culture of this game. Often, whether or not players fit into that culture is ultimately what determines whether they stay or go. Those who have dropped - or never joined - have no bearing on that. This game is what its members make it, and will become what its future members create.

If anyone asks, that's why they should bother.

[morphitudinous]

That's true, yes. And I hope you're right and people start to see that.

It's just hard to accept that it's out of our control sometimes, that's all.

[soulinherfists]

Yeah, I know finding newbies is tough, but I think the rolling AC will give us a much better chance of getting some lasting new blood. I'm going to be trawling ATP too for people to fill in the spaces that need filling.