A discussion of current IC activity and OOC plans, with an extended conversation about how to get new players more engaged from the outset.
BoD—Nymeria - Friday, September 13, 2019, 8:57 PM
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Nymeria says, “And the clock strikes 9 for us, so I think we will get started. We are logging and will get this up on the web once cleaned up.”
Nymeria says, “First off, thank you for coming! Given that it has been very slow of late, we weren’t sure what sort of uptake a meeting would have, so this is encouraging now that the game is at a crossroads of sorts with the death of Baelor and also the external factor of the end of the TV show. We need to look at what we can do moving forward to a) keep existing players active and happy and b) recruit and more importantly retain new players. Without a) there is no b), so that will be the initial focus.”
Balerion says, “We do apologize for the degree to which the lack of activity is our own fault. This turned out to be our busiest summer of all, and combined with a bit of burn out it’s led to us not being able to focus ourselves on the game as we ought. So we’re very aware of the fact that this is a big factor for why things have been quieter these last months.”
Balerion says, “That said, we want to talk about ways to not have the game so dependent on our constant presence at the staff level, in particular as it relates to new player recruitment and retention, which we think is definitely an important thing going forward. At the same time, we want experienced players to know they’re valued and we want to try and help make sure everyone can develop their characters’ stories.”
Balerion says, “A part of my focus over the next couple of weeks will be trying to get through jobs again—I know they’ve been piling up, for which I apologize. I will say that if anyone knows of a job that is no longer necessary and should be closed, or if it needs updates in terms of responses to notes from us, anything you can do to help either get those closed or updated would be useful in helping me!”
Nymeria says, “It is also important to add the caveat that while we will be at home for most of the autumn, our time will never be quite as plentiful as it used to be (two dogs and a horse may have something to do with that, in addition to work ;) so we do need to find ways of making the game run a bit more smoothly. :) But I think that we could start with posing the question to players—what do you feel you need help with to be able to develop your characters’ stories? What do you want to be able to achieve?”
Burton says, “Well, on my part, I can say there is one +job, 9872, that is now unnecessary, and another, 9897, that could be handy and I think we could discuss today, but I wouldn’t want to mess up the conversation :), you decide when we get there”
Loreon says, “I’ve been largely offline for the past 12 months, mostly due to illness but some OOC bits as well. I feel a bit of a hypocrite for getting involved, but here we go. I feel that whenever we chat, both of you (Bal and Nym) are super friendly, approachable and I think very highly of you both. We as a playerbase know how busy you are and in some ways I suppose I’m a bit intimidated by that, feeling like I’m wasting your time. I think that things could move on a lot smoother if there were ‘captains’ in place that could help facilitate small TP’s within a set of guidelines that doesn’t require us to bombard you with jobs.”
Balerion says, “Thank you, Loreon. We’ve been pondering this as well, making it easier for people to run smaller events without needing us to sign off on everything. Often the issue is as simple as not having props or puppets easily available.”
Loreon nods.
Balerion says, “Our biggest concern in the past about this sort of thing is simply not having people keep records of events. We love that we have a persistent history and enviroment, and it’s always a shame when we’ve had people roleplay cool, important things that they didn’t note down, they didn’t log, and now they’re lost to the ether. But if we could come up with a way of getting people to easily submit event updates and so on, especially for any NPCs involved in a plot, I think that would help a lot.”
Burton says, “I’m in line with Loreon, in the sense that my characters are achieving some basic goals, but both being very courtly, require more activity for their stories to branch out (and myself to get more experience in plotting, which I think I lack in a certain degree). It is crucial that things move more smoothly.”
Melianne says, “As a LARP runner, I’ve made google forms for people to submit storylines and synopses of scenes that they’d like to have repercussions for. Could we do something like that?”
Josella says, “also agreeing with Loreon. :)”
Burton says, “Yes, indeed :). Mayhap those captains that, in my view at least, are to function as sort of junior staffers on rotation (for lack of a better description) could take that up”
Nymeria says, “One thought could be to work out a plot guideline document that details what is needed for running and documenting a plot. I’ve started a few times, but never had the chance to complete it. Really, a big hurdle now that our original staff is mostly gone is that there is no documentation for staff. Its all in our heads.”
Albyn nods at the captain idea
Melianne says, “Yikes, yeah, that’s a problem.”
Josella says, “I think people logging events on their characters isn’t all that unlikely - but would a player-submitted Tidings post be the best thing in these circumstances?”
Albyn says, “Any idea if we can get the original staff back in play?”
Edmure should add that major characters should have those powers within their group anyway. That could be part of the application process for certain major characters.
Nymeria says, “I am afraid RL has eaten them.”
Albyn says, “Personaly i’ve always missed the strife between the Great House for favor of House Targaryen”
Rayne says, “It’d be super helpful to have a guideline like that available, Nym”
Nymeria says, “Josella—I think it would need to be roleplay posts, and then notices to staff to collect into Tidings, since players can’t post to the web archive for Tidings.”
Albyn says, “Following on the idea of captains, I’d suggest staff members to take up the role of head of a Great House. Not in actual roleplay/scenes ( or maybe sometimes if necessairy) but by steering their subject to certain goals”
Burton says, “Agree. Perhaps that document could be enriched with summaries of well-played plots. To further make a point.”
Loreon says, “Thanks Burton, I don’t mean to interrupt your statement, but in response to Bal’s statement I have an idea. Could we have something like the google forms Melianne mentioned, a paragraph or two about major happenings that are collated and sent out in a monthly email to those interested? It keeps a record of what’s going on and will remind those who slip away from the game that there’s things going on that they may wish to get involved with, including a list of upcoming events. This could always be player-run as a trial.”
Durance says, “On running smoothly… as someone who has (tried) organizing/running plots here, I’ve found that aligning individual character plots/goals with something more inclusive is difficult. Largely due to folks not being certain of what currently happening with others or how to play together… I think the captains idea could help here… and a guideline would be great”
Balerion says, “I like that idea, Melianne and Loreon. Melianne, we’ll pick your brains a bit about that later! But it would help us a lot if we could get players to provide us pithy, detailed information of events that have happened to then use for regular tidings posts.”
Melianne says, “I am always available for brain-picking. I think it might be helpful to have a document on negotiating plots as well. I know I sometimes struggle with that.”
Nymeria says, “Burton & Albyn—With Baelor out of the picture, we really want to push for the courtly intrigues. Its ... tricky, in the sense that we have a court full of NPCs that people need to interact with. We’ve had some thoughts on using SP and XP to gain favours with NPCs, but its a solution that needs a coded backend.”
Josella says, “And we could use that to resurrect the Chronicle on the website too”
Balerion says, “Right now when I work on a Tidings post I’ll glance at any Roleplay posts and also events on players to try and pick out things to mention.”
Balerion says, “The Chronicle isn’t so bad in the sense that we do have all these events on players that can be used, it’s just ... well, very time-consuming to actually do.”
Burton says, “Nym, this brings me to job 9897. In short, it deals with the question of the Hand. A top position vacant after decades excuses some strife.”
Balerion says, “Possibly if a player or group of playuers wanted to start filling the gaps, perhaps in a Google Doc, Nym and I could then use that to update the Chronicle.”
Nymeria says, “Ah yes. We had, quite honestly, forgotten completely that it needed to be filled!”
Balerion says, “If anyone is interested in that, maybe talk with whoever you think might also be itnerested and then job to let us know. We’ll have to work out some guidelines regarding Chronicle style and sort of level of notability needed to reference an event there.”
Nymeria says, “So thank you for pointing that somewhat embarassing slip out to us, it would have been awkward down the line. ;)”
Josella says, “Would definitely be up to filling out the chronicle :)”
Burton says, “The thing is, for the nonce, we’re a player base spread thin across court fields/groups. What can bring us together is some “crisis”, atm, plotting. With some nudges from you factions could form to indulge in intrigue in the race for a most important appointment”
Burton says, “Me too :)”
Balerion says, “As far as staff playing heads of Great Houses, we basically already do that—we just tend to need to be nudged by players regarding what they think is or should be going on with their region/family/house to help guide us. But we’ll ponder a little bit and perhaps provide a kind of very loose document explaining where the various Houses are now that Viserys is king.”
Burton says, “That would help certainly, given the lack of (major) GH members in play.”
Josella says, “Maybe there should be more of long-term players being ‘OOC Heads’ for certain houses and having the limited power to decide things for their house? Still with limits, of course”
Nymeria says, “I wonder if that should go on the House pages or if we should do a separate document. That’s the eternal dilemma, where do we document all these things? Maybe a companion document to the State of Play, or expanding the State of Play to indicate important factions.”
Nymeria says, “We have wanted to avoid the OOC heads all along. We never saw anything good come from it on other games.”
Nymeria says, “It has some advantages in that it takes some work away from staff, absolutely, but it was always a major source of player-related issues on the various Wheel of Time games.”
Balerion says, “That said, we’re always open for suggestions from experienced players of what they think their house may be interested in vis-a-vis the court.”
Nymeria says, “I am not sure we will attempt to refresh the conflict web for the court, though it was a neat idea. But very labour-intensive. Some simple guidelines to the political climate might work better.”
Balerion says, “Yeah, the conflict web crossed my mind. I’ll take a look at it as well and see if it’s maybe easier to do then I remembered…”
Burton says, “You know best. I just want to underline, from the perspective of a major courtier like Burton and considering the small numbers of active players atm and that we’re spread thin, that to push forward this could be a good element in promoting more substantial relationships, be them friendships, alliances, rivalries. Courtly intrigue that is.”
Nymeria says, “Very true. I think we’ll put the plot guidelines as a priority, in addition to refreshing the recent history & state of play to account for the changes with Baelor’s death. And yes, working out some intrigues in relation to the hand position should be our next plot focus for King’s Landing. It also reminds me that we need to update some more characters for the end of Baelor’s reign, like his sisters and their Maidenvault companions. We do have the option now of having female players take different allegiances by seeking out the various princesses.”
Balerion says, “Yep. We’ll have to think a bit more about how Viserys sees it to develop that idea, Burton, but should be doable.”
Albyn says, “I asked this before but in my memory there was alot more martial activity when the +melee code was still open for all”
Loreon says, “The final idea I wanted to bring to the table was from the world of tabletop roleplay where we generally have overarching plots run by a GM. I know that some players, Durance being an example really want to run plots. A couple of players could volunteer at the start of a ‘season’, have a meeting with you both where the main plot for the coming 3 months or whatever are discussed. Where the playerbase is currently smaller than it has been I believe we can create some fun stories that get everyone involved and for now, embrace what could be a period where we can all flex our creative muscles and enjoy some time in the spotlight.”
“For example, the Great Houses are desperate to put one of their kin in the Tower of the Hand and one of them (probably House Tyrell) has a low down dirty scheme to bring House Lannister back down to earth with a bump to ensure one of the majestic lions doesn’t get the nod, meanwhile the merchants in flea bottom have been buying smuggled food/drink that’s been evading the tax-collectors in the docks, also so-and-so is trying to broker a betrothal with this house. It ensures that both of you have a handle on the direction of the game at any one time and those who wish to run something are able to as they know what they can do without mucking anything up. If we’ve also got these overarching stories going on it should be more inclusive as we’ll know where to go for the person running it at the time and hopefully we’ll all be drawn together more in-game. If there’s a period without volunteers we can go back to normal slice-of-life but I’m sure people would like to try and help.”
Melianne says, “Oh, I love a good Session Zero!”
Balerion says, “I think we had a little too much martial activity at times, with people seemingly not doing anything but fighting. We need to strike a balance between providing outlets for that RP and encouraging people to do, well, other things. But we’ll definitely consider doing something, especially now that Baelor is gone and Viserys doesn’t frown on tourneys the way Baelor did…”
Josella says, “and melees”
Melianne says, “Speaking of that, I have a note on my experience playing a female character in both Dorne and KL when we have a moment.”
Balerion says, “To be sure, we generally have plotted out a year or two in advance in terms of what will happen on the game, but in the past we’ve largely kept that between staff. Maybe a new approach makes sense, if we bring in senior players a bit more early on to help give us new angles that perhaps ties better to players.”
Nymeria says, “Go ahead, Melianne.”
Burton says, “I’m in line with that. Well-involved with many as they are, they could provide a fresh perspective.”
Melianne says, “Something I’ve been finding a little difficult and frustrating is getting any RP beyond watching men fight and having quiet conversations about marriage. Mel has made some progress, Jessa has not, and while I am happy to support other people’s plots, I would like to be more ... involved? I don’t know.”
Melianne says, “It feels a lot like spectating other people’s play, which is fine IC but not so great OOC.”
Nymeria says, “It has been an issue from day one. We haven’t really discussed Dorne at all now, but yes, there should be more room for women there.”
Rayne says, “As a sort of follow up question to Mel’s point, One question that hangs in my mind is: what sort of story are we trying to tell as a group, as a team of players? With what is likely to be a small player base going forward, a getting a sense of what exactly makes this a satisfying place to come and donate time and creativity to in the midst of our busy RLs is really what drives a MUSH at the end of the day… there’s a difficulty trying to balance making plots flexible enough that people can come and go, and giving substantial enough tailored involvement to get invested. While I’m sure each of us has different parts of playing here that we enjoy, if there’s some common threadss we can follow, that makes blazing a path a little more clear.”
Nymeria says, “That’s a very good point, Rayne. Nicely put.”
Nymeria says, “Just to add in regards to women and the spectating issue, that’s one reason we don’t want to get stuck with too many martial plots or having that as the only go-to if its slow.”
Albyn says, “In my opinion, more couples would support the involvement of women”
Melianne says, “That’s why I brought it up, Nym.”
Albyn says, “*more pc’ed couples I mean”
Nymeria says, “We always lamented not having a queen that women could gravitate towards, but now at least we have four princesses. So I think we will make a bit more of suggesting to female characters that they should consider aligning themselves with one of them.”
Nymeria says, “It might, Albyn, but that’s hard to engineer. :)”
Melianne says, “I’d love to be in a PC couple, but a certain amount of flakiness combined with the general preconception in a LOT of RP communities that “RPing romance is not REAL RP” makes that hard”
Josella says, “I think political storylines is the best way to get everyone involved in something”
Nymeria says, “And there is so much that needs to work out in terms of players getting along, having similar hours, similar goals, etc. Not always easy.”
Burton says, “Nicely put indeed Rayne. But not easy to answer. Melianne, I agree with Nym and Jos. At this timeframe, the court is the main arena of women.”
Melianne says, “Agreed.”
Albyn says, “Nods. But it does drive rp”
Josella says, “The fact that there are not many political threads right now, I suppose, playing a female character can seem like mostly talking about the weather in the solar or what have you”
Edmure says, “Are those four princesses, the Hand, and several other high profile characters going to be staff run only? Because with limited time and with several thousand other chores, I see an issue.”
Edmure thinksa that with limited resources, we are back to square one.
Nymeria says, “With the features, we don’t have an option.”
Nymeria says, “That said, I think the idea has to be that they are not in play, per se. They’re focal points.”
Burton says, “It is true that involvement with the royals, from who Viserys will humor as Hand, to the circles of the Princesses, demands some measure of staff involvement. But I very much agree with the focal point reasoning”
Edmure brings me back to my point.
Burton says, “With some guidelines, the Princess’ parties, if anything could get to work.”
Edmure says, “Focal points require significant investment by staff…and how much time do you have? Once a week having a scene? Twice a month? Less?’
Edmure thinks that is why having all the Features be staff run makes things extremely problematic for you when there are two of you.
Balerion says, “Yeah, it’s part of our agreement with George. Features are not PC characters on the game..”
Burton says, “Princesses*”
Nymeria says, “Focal point not in the sense of being played in scenes but rather as someone a group of players are associated with.”
Josella says, “I think going off something like Melianne’s ball is a good idea. E.g., maybe setting it up with staff that a feature could be around, and having some sort of party in their honour, but still making the scene about our characters rather than the Targaryens.”
Nymeria says, “Exactly.”
Edmure is certainly happy not playing a feature anyway. A lot of responsibility. :)
Burton says, “I think that under these circumstances, the role of these royal women doesn’t need much figuring out; if anything, because, with the exception of Elaena, their impact is limited. I think it is excusable enough that Daena attracts anti-Dornish, Naerys pacifists (at least in appearances) etc.”
Josella says, “So I could host a few Mariah events, and then the Veiled Ladies could do something for Naerys (although I haven’t seen Reyna and Jyana active). There are also no current Daena, Elaena, and Rhaena groups. And then there is the question of how we get the ball rolling from the smaller events into bigger plots”
Nymeria says, “Yes, I don’t think we’ll be seeing much of either Reyna or Jyana.”
Burton says, “But at any event, I think the focus is events that will force our few characters out of their superficial pleasantries into something more substantial and intense, if you wish, at a wider scale. The rest will follow more easily”
Nymeria says, “I am entertaining the idea of writing a pseudo IC court guide for women (maybe men as well) that gives a sense of who’s who at court and advice on who to align with. It would not need updating very often, which is very important given how much else we have to update.”
Nymeria says, “But that might help guide both new and current players.”
Melianne says, “I like that idea, Nym.”
Albyn says, “idem”
Josella says, “I suppose at this time, the mistresses of Aegon will be growing in importance now he is crown prince. Barba’s elevation to mistress could be something to maybe work wiht, somehow.”
Jonas I would appreciate something like that. I will admit that so far I’ve been feeling a bit lost when it comes to getting involved in anything other than simple socials scenes.
Balerion says, “Oh, yes, we need to do a visit to Dragonstone soon.”
Burton says, “Another thing I would like to add is that mayhap there should be some form of prioritization, for lack of a better phrasing. That is, with busy RL in the way, and since both zones are quite inactive, we take one step at a time and focus on getting one to pick up steam before tending to the other, that can run on slice-of-life in the meanwhile”
Nymeria says, “It could be a nice companion piece to the state of play, on more of a character level. Then we just need to help new players find their way there while at the same time not overwhelming them with stuff to read! But I think new player recruitment and retention will have to be on hold until we get some of these improvements for new players.”
Josella says, “That could be good. A lot of people have fun on court visits, and this wouldn’t be one with a huge travel time.”
Rayne says, “Might it be worth exploring how we can center events less on canon chars and events and more on the PCs themselves, or NPCs in their direct peripheries? Develop a little more where the slate is blank?”
Burton says, “So that our plate is not too full. And agree :)”
Albyn says, “Nym. Are we talking a list of pc’ed names with common knowledge?”
Nymeria says, “Mostly the features plus major court npcs.”
Nymeria says, “Yes and no, Burton. In the sense that for your admin to be energized, they need some roleplay at times, and they have most of their own stuff going on in Dorne. ;)”
Burton says, “Heh, I can understand ;)”
Balerion says, “We do have Aidan and Aisling back in KL, of course, so we’ll be trying to get them out there as well. But Dorne’s a special area for us, and I think for a few other players, so we’ll work on Dorne as well. But because the biggest events happening right now are in KL, we’ll start with an initial focus on getting these NPC details and overall plots rollign there. Right now, anyways, the big news in Dorne is probably adjusting to Viserys as king (not too much of an adjustment I think) and Maron looking for a wife, which he’ll probably soon settle on.”
Jonas says, “Is it possible to have a new player guide that focuses on options for them getting involved and who to talk to/how to do it?”
Albyn says, “What about the same for pc’ed chars. Everyone writes something for himself. Or even better: for one other. For example, if I should have to write for Burton I’d come up with: The King’s Scales and heir to Crakehall. Therefor a man with connections at court and through the realm. An amiable man which one can approach without much difficulty. Your man if you need an introduction within any courtly circle or if you aspire a role as factor.”
Albyn says, “So newbies know who to approach depending on their goals”
Edmure thinks that is actually a great idea.
Nymeria says, “The problem with that is keeping it up to date.”
Edmure nods and agrees.
Albyn says, “Maybe a google doc? People can adjust it when they like”
Albyn says, “or when necessairy”
Albyn says, “No need for one person to keep it up to date”
Nymeria says, “Maybe ... but I would prefer not to have too much off the game or off the website. It seems more like a note on a character, to be honest.”
Edmure hmmms.
Balerion says, “Jonas, I think a guide is probably difficult because it’s so dependent on what you want to do and how you want to do it. We do have a lot of guides about the court, though, and a simply thing is to start thinking of what sort of court position your character might want—assuming they want one—and from there you can either find someone who has something similar or alternatively just ask staff or other players. MUSHing is a game that really thrives on communicating with other players about what you want.”
Nymeria says, “Possibly encouraging players to set such a note on themselves and letting new players know to look for them would be one thing.”
Burton says, “I’ve been working on such a doc for both regions. Though mine is more of a wiki heh. Some tidbits about character and major events, a paragraph for each PC”
Balerion says, “A Who Am I note. Or something like that.”
Nymeria says, “I don’t want to add it as a necessary item in CG, but something optional.”
Albyn says, “I understand. But it’s easier for newbies to just scroll through a google doc and pick people out for themselves”
Albyn says, “Yes Bal”
Loreon says, “Do you have a rough number on how many active players there are at the moment?”
Edmure says, “Well, that is kind of what the boards are for right? Recruiting?”
Balerion says, “Certainly, if a bunch of players set such notes on themselves, it would be trivial for me to harvest them from the game and toss them up on the game wiki or in an article that I try to update every once in awhile.”
Nymeria says, “It is, but at the same time, when someone stops playing they won’t update that doc to remove themselves.”
Rayne’s gotta run. Later gang :)
Nymeria says, “Later, thanks for coming :)”
Balerion says, “Thanks, Rayne!”
Burton says, “The note could work but as a matter of fact, most newbies won’t be digging that far into others’ info for a while. I’m in line with the doc idea, which like the chronicles could be a shared responsibility of a set number of individuals”
Balerion says, “As I said, if people set them on the game, I can use them to update a document on westeros.org. The idea of having to keep track of Google docs, especially if someone decides to be funny and vandalize it, worries me a bit. But the basic idea is sound.”
Nymeria says, “We have had some thoughts about revising the CG to ditch the current background/persona setup in favour of something more ... concept focused, and the same would go for the public details. But its a code project so probably has to be set aside. Still considering if it is worth completing the status system, though.”
Nymeria says, “Having a google doc as a work environment for the Chronicle which is then moved to the website is one thing. Having a doc as an official source that we point to is a bit worrying, it would need more vetting.”
Balerion says, “Loreon, there’s 102 PC characters ATM, but some portion of those are alts of a single player or are idle. I’d say… maybe 60 or 70 PCs who’ve logged in at least one character in the last month? I don’t think we’ve ever had more than 200 PC characters at one time, though.”
Albyn says, “A google doc as base for the Chronicle is mayhaps better indeed. But that’ll require +jobs too to adjust stuff”
Balerion says, “Yeah, the Chronicle is one thing, because it’ll be a working group (or just a person) who will work on it.”
Loreon says, “That’s more than I expected you to say, Bal. That’s positive.”
Balerion says, “Whereas this is supposed to be a doc that everyone on the game uses… that, we’d rather avoid.”
Albyn says, “Agreed”
Balerion says, “We’ll think of a nomenclature for a note that people can set that I can then harvest easily.”
Balerion makes note.
Nymeria says, “That’s where I sigh again and wish we could harvest the whole CDB and have online, so people could get used to looking at ANY public char info on the web ;)”
Balerion says, “I mean, it’s probably doable…”
Albyn says, “Go to the cloud? ;)”
Balerion says, “It’s not the cloud, it’s that we’d want to fit it into our CMS. I’ll ponder it as well, I mean, should be doable…”
Josella says, “If time consuming. :) I think maybe posting the ‘chronicle project’ to the public bulletins is a good idea :)”
Balerion says, “Yes, good idea.”
Balerion says, “I will note you as contact person, Josella, for anyone else who’d like to help contribute to it.”
Burton says, “Agreed. Chronicle will focus on on-point insight, if anything”
Burton says, “I would, for one.”
Balerion says, “Cool. In the interim, before we start the project, I’ll see about providing a style guide for it.”
Josella says, “There are some newer MUs that have websites that are scarily linked to the games and automatically change when the MU rosters change. But I think it is more about servers etc and pretty impossible to entirely replicate here”
Nymeria says, “Yes, those are using entirely new MU servers”
Burton says, “And an optional monthly newsletter, in line with what was mentioned the other day, could be handy”
Nymeria says, “We’ve looked at them, but recoding stuff in a brand new language is ... not doable.”
Edmure chuckles. “Change is tough.
“
Durance quits his job and tries to catch up
Balerion says, “Unfortunately, the most promising oens—Evennia and AresMUSH—take fairly pro levels of knowledge of Django, Ruby, and Javascript, and/or Python… But, that said, we have some notions we may explore in the future.”
Nymeria says, “They’re doing som inventive stuff, but they are more mudlike as well. I like the web integration aspect a lot, not so much how they approach game play.”
Burton says, “So summarizing, where do we stand so far?”
Loreon is in a monogamous relationship with this game, so knows not of Evennia and AresMUSH.
Albyn says, “Same as Loreon”
Burton says, “Idem”
Durance says, “On this topic of gdocs and chronicles, I’m reminded that I started compiling logs in chronological order… there’s quite a few, and I have more… any plan for log submissions?”
Balerion says, “They’re just fresh takes on MU* servers rather than games. :) Log submissions… I feel like it’d be easier if we had an editorial team who’d look them over for us, because the big hold up there has generally been that we’ve been picky about stuff like messed up poses, no crazy non-canonical RP stuff that we don’t want to endorse…”
Balerion says, “We’ll ponder this as well, we’d love to get logs in, it certainly would make people realize that there’s been RP happening for hte last.. uh, five, six years since we last added a log? :|”
Josella says, “I suppose maybe a good solution for the website could be re-opening the profiles section. Anyone can edit there, so maybe some users could make pages for characters other than their own? Simply adding important events, public history, etc.”
Josella says, “Last log is just under 4 years old”
Nymeria says, “Profiles aren’t closed. Shouldn’t be, anyway!”
Nymeria says, “Unless the last update broke the wiki again.”
Josella says, “Oh, good - I think I was confusing it with something else. So it would be acceptable to, for example, add new Profiles for NPCs even if we have never played them?”
Josella says, “Assuming it is just a transfer of data from the game to the website, of course”
Nymeria says, “If they are CGed, sure.”
Albyn says, “Would it be better if we write ic letters to specific NPC’s which are replied by staff. Instead of common +jobs?”
Nymeria says, “Some players already do that via +jobs.”
Albyn says, “ok”
Burton says, “Profile update could use a working group too. With region or db number criteria to divide the workload.”
Nymeria says, “I think that can be more casual since players can edit it on the wiki. And like I said, it should be kept to CGed characters anyway.”
Burton says, “Yep, said it because there’s no shortage of them ;)”
Nymeria says, “If we were to be able to get the CDB info onto the web, then profiles would be more of an auxiliary info source. I guess that is the main concern with having players add for any character—we didn’t want profiles to be just a copy of cdb info, but something a bit more personal. And that is hard to do if it isn’t your character.”
Nymeria says, “Then again, if we do get the cdb on the web (but don’t hold your breath, we have talked about that for 8 years), profiles may have played out their usefulness. I think it is important, anyway, not to needlessly duplicate info, it confuses people.”
Morland says, “My apologies for not really contributing to the conversation, but I have to depart for now. Intriguing ideas being put forth, will have to get the final notes from someone else.”
Albyn says, “Got to run as well”
Albyn says, “One last idea though”
Balerion says, “Actually, now that we’ve talked for a couple of hours and had a lot of great ideas, probably about time to start wrapping up. Any thing that we haven’t gotten to that people would like to discuss, or last questions? Go ahead, Albyn.”
Loreon says, “Durance, have you caught up yet?”
Albyn says, “Would it take alot of effort to +mail CG’ed chars like twice in a year with a challenge? For example: Albyn. Lately, when it comes to picking out representative for the Reach, the Hand looks at Dalton Florent to do so. Is there anything you’d do about this?”
Durance says, “I will have to read back a bit more, but I think a lot of great points were touched on and some good ideas came from them. Plenty to soak up”
Nymeria says, “Impossible, I am afraid. We had so many grand ideas for such regular updates and none worked out.”
Albyn says, “Would be up to the player to act or not. But it might drive certain rp.”
Burton says, “On the issue of recruiting that was partly addressed, I agree with putting it on hold until some in-game stuff are addressed. Just wanted to say, I highly suggest to everyone they make a wee bit of effort to replenish the wanted list each month so that it breaks through the max of like 12 entries. Ideally with CGed characters that will populate the court’s arenas”
Albyn says, “Gotta run now though”
Albyn says, “Bye!”
Burton says, “And Bal and Nym, on that topic, though it might as well not be quite doable, I was wondering, could we use nom mechanics on wanted?”
Burton says, “Buh bye :)”
Burton says, “That is, use the format of nominations for these votes or a portion of them, e.g. 1/3”
Burton says, “So that we are further encouraged to add characters whose IC presence and activity would be very on point at the given time, thus recruiting people more effectively, eventually”
Nymeria says, “I am not quite sure I follow how you mean?”
Burton says, “What I mean, is that when we nominate for XPs/SPs, we have to justify it, if shortly. Maybe that could be applied to wanted, wholly or with some ratio. I understand this may be not doable and unnecessary workload for you guys.”
Burton says, “But I thought that as a way for more spot-on advertisement”
Nymeria says, “Oh yes, we have discussed it, but not come up with a good way of displaying it. That’s why we suggest doing a +cdb/wanted add together with a post.”
Loreon says, “One last bit from me, is there anything we can do to improve your enjoyment? It’s just as important as ours.”
Burton says, “Agree with LL.”
Nymeria says, “Balerion has to duck out with the puppy again, but I am here for the last questions. And than you very much, Loreon. :) If people enjoy themselves, we enjoy ourselves, is what I would say. We wish we could squeeze in more roleplay for ourselves, but life happens, so we grab it when we can.”
Loreon says, “Anytime, we appreciate it.”
Nymeria says, “Thank you all for coming. Will get this cleaned up and posted under Transcripts tomorrow. :)”
Burton says, “Life happens, that one is sure heh. And perfectly understandable. One final question, if it’s not too much. A brief summary? What has been decided/strongly favored? Anything to awit intsructions/take action on in the short term?”
Nymeria says, “Oh sure!”
Burton says, “Thank you :) And it was a pleasure, participating :)”
Durance says, “Thanks, Nym. Bal. Was an awesome session. Looking forward to working towards some of these ideas :) Count me willing for whatever needs helping with, I’d be happy to help”
Nymeria says, “We will work on an update to recent history & state of play, as well as initiate the project to update the chronicle (starting with creating a style guide and other instructions). We will also work on the plot guidelines document to try to make player run plots easier and I will look at some kind of political & social who’s who. In terms of IC events, the Hand issue and other post-Baelor updates will be handled shortly.”
Burton says, “Gotcha. Thank you once again :)”
Josella says, “Thank you!”