state of the mods + game

[modforged]

Let me start by saying that there will be no AC posted for the month of August. We would like to apologize for not getting this message out sooner.

At current capacity, we (the mod team) are unable to facilitate what is needed to keep this game running and floating. All three of us are struggling pretty hard through some life situations that are preventing us from typical upkeep (ie: keeping lists up to date, posting activity, running plots) as well as preventing us from encouraging community growth. Advertisement has run on a small scale, and there is little to encourage new players to come and join us here. We have gotten very small, and the general meta plot is moving much slower than we initially anticipated.

Currently, Mei does the majority of comm upkeep, while Saffy handles a good portion of our NPCing, and I (Kay) handle all plot movement, changes, and the rest of the NPCing. I am running at about 1/4th capacity between RL commitments, Mei has taken a hiatus from RP as a whole, as has Saffy.

Unfortunately, that leaves us as a game with some decisions to make.

I do not feel another mod would be able to fix the problems we are having with time management OR game interest, hence why mod applications have not opened. There is a lot that goes on with various lists that requires time I am not comfortable asking one person to assist with. Mei had a convenient schedule that allowed her to make updates to all of our pages without sacrificing leisure time. I do not believe the game is big enough to pull more than one mod from our community of players.

So, we have two options:

1. Allowing the community to fade into a sandbox, which will not see the same participation from NPCs (Dragon Mages in particular)

2. Generating a small end game for next month, and letting it close on that note.

I am going to open up this page for discussion. Some bullet points to consider from me:

- I spent nearly two years in set up to get this game ready to open, so I am not wholly comfortable passing it off to a new mod team.
- I am not opposed to trying to retool the game so it is easier to encourage more people at a later date (after I've moved out, for example) so feel free to offer ideas
- For the above reason, I am not willing to discuss the original imagined direction of the meta plot until I am certain of what the current playerbase wants for the game

We as a team would like to apologize for the incredibly short notice, but most of our personal agendas sprung up quite unexpectedly, suddenly and, inconveniently, at the same time. Both Saffy and Mei are currently unavailable to answer questions, but I will do my best to answer in their stead. If anyone has any suggestions, now is the time to bring them forward.

Comments

QUESTIONS

[modforged]

[theshadowkissed]

Even with the setbacks we've encountered, I still enjoy the game and the player base/characters we have. I don't really want to see it go away, but I do understand the situation we're facing.

I really don't have much of a suggestion other than perhaps to give us a handful of information we're allowed access to and let us essentially run on our own with the hopes that we'll be honest, mature roleplayers that communicate with each other until the mod team is able to give the game the attention they feel it deserves. Yes, I know that is assuming a lot on our part as players, but if we were able to still get answers to unknown questions perhaps from you, Kay, when they pop up, I think Warforged could keep afloat until the end of the year, especially considering how slow rp in general gets across the board come the holidays.

[telaari]

Yeah, I'd be in favor of letting us in on at least the first legs of the metaplot. I'd also back up Sin and say that I feel confident that those of us who are left are capable and willing to communicate effectively with each other, as well as treat whatever information you'd give us with respect.

This is the game that's gotten me back into DWRP, and deeper into OC RP, and I'd be sad to see it go so soon. Most especially so because the WF setting opens up lots of opportunities to explore Vas' character that no other game can offer, unless it copied WF wholesale. Where else would I find a world under attack by the Eredar? Where else would I go to play with this stigma against demons, and would it be nearly as satisfying to play a Draenei paladin in a game without it?

[modforged]

The game is essentially running on player power at the moment, so I would not be entirely opposed to this. On my limited resources, I have stuck to my DMing sort of role with player plots, which seems to have worked out alright.

I will be up front and say that I could not return to a full modding capacity until after I've moved, since its a cross country move uprooting much of my personal affairs, and that may not happen as late as March 2015.

[theshadowkissed]

Having done the cross country move myself before, I completely understand.

I think we'd be able to keep things going until then if some of the admin aspects were temporarily abolished like AC. Would it still be possible to keep apps open and you be able to do those during this time? Sure, we aren't exactly getting any apps right now, but there's always the possibility someone will come across us, hear about us from current players, etc, and if they see we're still active (even in a player-run capacity) we could get a few to bite.

[seesbosscrotch]

I'm worried that the game won't have the particular strength to run on if we go down that route. Activity has already nosedived, and that would also mean no new applications for months. As much as I want the game to keep going, I'm concerned that that's a recipe for people just losing interest and wandering off.

[lightningbearer]

For what it's worth I can say that I'm personally TOTALLY up for doing plot-things, I've just had terrible luck with trying to get in touch with like-minded people. XD

speaking of SORRY FOR ALL THE SLOW on our threads, man

[seesbosscrotch]

Yeah, but... to use you as an example, how much tagging is your latest open post getting? How much activity have the comms seen in general, lately? And how much plot energy do those of us who have been active in the plotting actually have to sustain the games?

To put it another way... let's see how many people respond to the post here, and judge from that how much energy is left.

[lightningbearer]

To be fair, my post is admittedly kind of lame. It was one of those ideas that sounded GREAT at the time and then the next morning was quite a bit more "...ehhhh".

I think though if we can round up another few players interested in a plot-heavy game (I'm particularly eying people who're the tabletop types like a few of my friends) it's doable though.


SUPER BELATED EDIT but I forgot to mention that the bit in my comment below about pacing I think would also make a HUGE difference in peoples' ability to keep up with the plot. Right now, time in-game is passing FAST relative to peoples' rate of posting. If you throttle that time and only have a day pass when people want/need it to (and allow a degree of flexibility in backdating posts, etc) it becomes way, WAY easier to tag into things and keep up with plots because you're not left thinking "well that thread that isn't finished yet took place two weeks ago now so how does my character react??" and thus passing on dealing with new posts.

[lightningbearer]

Here's what I've been thinking, honestly from pretty much the start of the game: essentially, because of the nature of the game, it requires a LOT of nitpicky little updating. Not just taken lists and such, but updating setting info and every reputation lists on the fly. There's a LOT of information going into this setting, and that's one of the things that makes it so appealing! ....but it's also what makes it so bogged down and delayed in mod attention to things, too.

So why not, instead of just adding another mod or several mods or what have you, have helpers to do the grunt work? This may require shunting some posts off to a new account if there's sensitive info in the mod journal that a helper shouldn't have access to, but if you had a helper (or two) who ONLY does all that mundane list updating and such it might make a big difference.

For example, have a post where the mods can make comments saying "x needs to be changed to y" and the helper can check that, do the update, and mark it as done. Or what have you. I appreciate that it IS tedious and time-consuming work, hence your hesitation to unload that onto someone, but speaking as someone who's been on both sides of the player-mod fence, if there's someone willing to volunteer to do it, then don't look a gift horse in the mouth!

And, for that matter, I was actually planning on asking whether you guys DID need help with it and offer to help with at least some upkeep if needed. This coming month is going to be kinda busy for me, but given how much time I already tend to spend looking up information and re-reading lists and so on, with as small as the game is tossing in an update while I'm there probably really wouldn't be much of a burden.


WITH ALL THAT SAID here's another thing that I've been thinking about for a while: IC pacing. The game is small and the plot is big and a lot of time passes with people ICly not doing a whole lot. So why not changed the IC pace to NOT correlate to OOC days? For example, for the "when" in a post it would say "day x" or so on, with an established rule for advancing days (say, at player discretion, but no more than 2-3 days per OOC week). That way players can be more comfortable paying a lot of attention to older and slow-paced threads without worrying about falling behind on plot things, and it gives more TIME to OOCly work out plot things.

I've been in a very plot-heavy game that did exactly this before and let me tell you, it worked FANTASTIC for that game, at least. So it might be worth giving it a shot here, I think. :|b

[theshadowkissed]

I'd also be willing to help maintain lists and update reputations. I have greatly reduced by rp levels as of late due to another game I was in closing, so I definitely have time for the helper kind of things.

[telaari]

Since she's not feeling well enough to post herself, Macha wanted me to say she'd also be willing to act as a helper.

I wish I could help out myself, but I can't quite say how often I'll be around. One of my classes still hasn't met yet, so I don't know how heavy my weekly workload will be.

[riku]

I'm late to the party cause I wasn't sure if I should post or not, but as a mod in any capacity I suppose I ought to.

I helped Kay and Mei work on this for ages, so I do feel some reservations about setting the whole thing free, but I know that's sentimental. From the beginning, I knew I wasn't really up to full time mod duties (I modded at Rekindle and disliked it), so I stuck to NPCs, art things, mod discussions, and minor things like judging apps; as such, I'm not sure my opinion means a whole lot.

I created the dragon mages (minus Krasus of course) specifically so that other mods could play them. In that way, they are very 'what you see is what you get' in terms of motivations and personality. I didn't want to make a super complex character no one could understand but I wanted to give them that illusion. First and foremost, they're there to be the mouthpiece in dragon conversations, whether it's advocating for the 'sworn or passing down Aspect decrees, so there is a lot of repeating info that happens. I am willing to hand them over if that's necessary, but I think it would be interesting and more sustainable OOCly if we didn't. There's a lot of weirdness that comes from taking over someone else's NPCs. I did it in Rekindle and I was never comfortable getting involved in the same level I was in Warforged. It's like wearing someone else's jeans and they're sort of itchy and it's concerning. If we do continue the game in a similar fashion to now, it's worth considering making new NPCs, or just taking out that middle-man entirely.

As for my personal opinion on the game's future, I'm honestly not feeling the game or the characters I have here anymore. Whatever you guys choose, I'm out regardless. It's nothing personal, and I'm sure to check in if it does continue, but I'm dialing back my commitments for personal reasons-- and Warforged is a big one.

[beholdthedrums]

I really do enjoy this game, even as small as it's gotten! There's more I feel I should say, but stringing the words together isn't going to happen right now. I just wanted to acknowledge that I've seen this before I disappear for the weekend.

[lightningbearer]

You know, this comment just made me think, that small isn't necessarily a BAD thing! The game may need to be retooled a bit in order to work better with a smaller playerbase, but not every game has to be large to be interesting. I think that as long as the game is welcoming to the occasional newcomer it's perfectly fine to be a small little niche game, too.

[stormcalling]

I'm still not recovered so this might not be the most coherent thought.

I like this game, so much and all for different reasons. I like the idea of not a huge, super fast paced game. The character diversity, the plot, and much more that I'm not quite able to express. I would very much like us to be able to work out something with some part of the plot, maybe until we have the mods back on their feet? As pyr said for me, if we do leave it in helper hands I would more then willing to help with any lists or organization required. Part-time job so I got plenty of time on my hands. My main concerns would be if we'd still welcome the new players, how we'd do so and making sure it's a game we want to see open. Open with continuing the plot. Moving forward with it and so on.

[wilder]

Sorry I've taken so long to comment, I've been on vacation.

I do enjoy the game, even if it's small and slow. If it's possible for it to continue, I would like that as well. However I admit I am concerned any sort of sandbox type deal because in my experience - transforming a game into a sandbox/musebox is, more often than not, a slow death sentence as activity and interest fades into oblivion. Maybe I'd be wrong this time, and it sounds like people are interested in at least being helpers until we can figure out what to do about modship- but I don't know.

Other than that I don't really have any strong opinions or ideas. My hours have been reduced for the fall, so I can offer to help out if there's still help to be needed? But besides that I'm pretty neutral and would probably go with whatever everyone else decides.

[seesbosscrotch]

This is pretty much my concern exactly.

(And for the public record, as much as I like this game, I have been a mod before and I know that the duties of a helper mod are where I'm absolutely worst.)

[modforged]

Since it sounds like folks are willing to wait it out, I am fine with taking on a helper or two and will open up the floor for volunteers in the next week or so. Dialing back the day ratio is worth considering, but that adds more work on top of mods when it comes to keeping calenders and time which is why I have never been a fan of another other than 1:1. I'm terrible at math and timekeeping in general.

You will need to give me guidance as far as what you want to see with "retooling". As I said earlier in this post, about two years went into the making of this game, and my personal experience shows that micromanagement of mechanics is the fastest way to drive a playerbase nuts. The setting is open on purpose, the restrictions are few on purpose as well. As far as keeping posts updated, one of the challenges with reputation posts was that they needed to be monitored by the person NPCing the character, which quickly got overwhelming (especially for me, playing three aspects at once).

With that said, if we would like NPC presence to continue, I may need at least one more assistant mod to step up and help with that.

[lightningbearer]

Just want to mention, my suggestion for NOT using 1:1 time wasn't actually intended to include any fancy maths or calendars stuff, just a general guideline of "don't advance time faster than x" or such and letting it flow naturally. I've seen it done that way in another game (here is an example) where all posts were tagged with a tag that indicated what set of days they were to make it easier to navigate posts by IC timeline. When in-game events were announced people would inform when it would occur OOCly (e.g. "this Friday") and occasionally give an IC date if something time-sensitive were going on (e.g. "on Day 200 there will be a thing so DO NOT ADVANCE PAST 199") but otherwise just assign an IC day to the post as appropriate.

So unless months and seasons are of particular importance to the setting this is the model I'd recommend using. I've seen it in action before and it made it REALLY easy (at least from a player's perspective) to keep track of what was happening when.