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

[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.