saveyourselves | Game-wide HMD

This comment is intended to serve as a "How's our driving" for the game as well as for the individual mods in their role as mods (please go to their player hmds for non-mod-related concerns).

We're especially looking for feedback on why players find it hard/easy to get involved with plot and how we could improve everyone's opportunities for that and what our players think about pacing, AC and the direction that the plot is taking, as well as give us ideas re: how to advertise the game. But we are of course open for all suggestions, ideas and crit!

If you would prefer a different setting, the mod contacts are here: Unscreened and screened and you can also message

theearth

Head Mods: Louise · Kira

Helper Mods: Aave (apps) · Bookie (echoes/apps) · Fae (NPCs; new) · Len (AC/lists; currently on hiatus) · Mark (AC/lists/apps; new)

So you guys have made a lot of changes that haven't been properly announced, if they've been announced at all. The new AC still says "there's no minimum" but then declares a minimum of five comments. The new minimum wasn't announced before it came into play, and a good chunk of the game ended up having to take a strike or needing more comments that they didn't have.

Now Sandy's not a mod and nobody knew about that until you announced that you have new helper mods. But it doesn't seem like helper mods are what the team needs in the first place. The plot is suffering, repeating and boring and most of the announcements or plot points come far later than they were originally planned. Have any of the player plots or NPCs been approved from the page that was set up in May? There's no contact between the mods and the players. With the two mods that are left being originally announced as PR mods, that speaks volumes.

You've moved another point in the story into play and yet there's still almost nothing for characters to do in Vegas aside from introductory points and small group activities. There's nothing for any of the characters to do on a large scale. There's nothing for us to react to for more than a minute or two, which is a complaint that has yet to die and has been going around since April. You guys need a mod who can actually handle plot and find ways to make it interactive and all-encompassing. At least the police affected everyone involved in the beginning, but the cultists don't affect anyone more than the small number of characters in Vegas, and even then they mostly just do some existing. Since most of the characters in the game can't stay in Vegas for more than a few weeks at a time, the new group's focus doesn't matter to a core group of players. The mafia seems like a joke and no one even knew they were supposed to be part of the plot overall until they started attacking people which still feels boring and stale because it's consequence-less action.

Nothing our characters do actually matters. There was a huge riot in Vegas that a lot of players didn't even know about and had no impact on the plot whatsoever and didn't even get talked about in plot-context until weeks after it happened. Now we're being told it's important for the Numbered to watch themselves or... what? Nothing will happen?

The same characters seem to be involved in every plot making it tiring for other people to look at. No one has any part except for the same ten to twenty characters in a game of 100+. The game no longer seems like a game that's open to everyone, but a sandbox of the same people being heroes while the actions of everyone else not mattering at all.

Applications since the mod turnover seem to focus on unimportant details that cause revisions in an already tedious process and have taken way too long to be addressed. The applications also now ask players to justify their involvement in a game that has lost ten times the amount of players it's gained all summer, the busiest time for RP. The apps page is a giant mess of "too complicated," with three different application types that are redundant and overwhelming. It seems like the only things that consistently get addressed in a timely manner are the echoes, which are handled in a big way by the helper mods as opposed to the actual mods.

Protip: It's looks really bad when you say you can comment anonymously and you don't check your settings.

Hi! You've made some valid points, but I'd like to address a few of them, if that's alright!

Since AC has always been noted as being threads "of reasonable length," we figure that five comments was (if anything) lowering that requirement. We also lowered the number of threads required by one. Fifteen comments per month doesn't seem like the most stringent of things to ask.

Sandy has been removed from the mod contact list until we can find out what happened to her, since she has been completely AWOL for the last two months. Kira and I have strived to be on time with things during that period, and (I believe) we have succeeded despite the increased workload and a bunch of personal issues on my part that I'd rather not address in public.

With the advent of the teleportation system, the Vegas/Locke divide is no longer of much concern - something we've done deliberately to facilitate location crossover as more locations open up over time. Hopefully it will pan out as intended!

I'm not sure what you're getting at in regards to the mafia. They've been a lurking presence in the plot since the deaths of Karson and Avery months ago, way before the mod turnover (it was just after Wise Snake's defeat, if I'm remembering correctly). Now that their actions are starting to affect more people, they're a joke...?

With regards to "the same characters" being involved in plot: the last few big plot events (rescuing Petunia and stealing Project Jump being the latest) were open to anyone. There were no limited numbers. People who asked for ways that their characters could be involved were given help to get involved. Plot posts are there to be used, and unfortunately if you aren't willing to work with us then I'm not sure what we can do to help you.

You completely missed the point on the AC thing. There was no announcement when you put it into play. You just started telling people there wasn't enough without any warning. This was even brought up to you on the page, that no one was informed. You brushed it off and said they still needed the comments. We still weren't informed that there was a mod change at all until long after the point, and you could have easily addressed it saying that Sandy was currently no longer a mod in a quick, quiet announcment instead of just brushing it off and now saying that she's AWOL like it's some casual thing. And just because you believe you succeeded despite the increased workload doesn't give you an excuse for not bringing someone else on who could better handle it in quicker time, with better efficiency to lighten your workload instead of bringing on more helper mods who can't actually do the bigger things.

The teleportation device still isn't enough when there's still no pressing reason for people to be Vegas at all. There are... cultists? Who have kidnapped a person who is a disposable NPC unrelated to the Numbered. The game is being fragmented and there's not enough to do anywhere. What happened to the aliens? What did the car have to do with anything? What's the point of echoing giant mountains or buildings or anything if we don't know why and everything is just fragmented? The mafia is a joke because, as I stated very clearly, there are no consequences. There's no reason to take them seriously. You have one group of currently underpowered goons with guns against a small army of overpowered magical teenagers, giant robots and transforming monsters. It worked well with the police because the Numbered were hidden, they weren't powered up, they didn't have giant robots they could whip out because there was nowhere to hide them. Now they have healing powers, protective shields and armor and giant robots that could potentially squash mafia HQ if they really put their minds to it. The mob just isn't a credible threat.

So as much as you say there's valid points in the first response it sounds like you're just making excuses for things that have been stated over and over again. And you haven't responded to about the NPC plots page that we have been waiting for three months to hear back on.

I seem to still be missing the point on the AC thing, since anyone who needed more activity under the new requirements would also have needed more under the old ones. The new requirements didn't affect anyone. They are lower than the previous requirements. I can only apologise for how things with Sandy have been handled, but I'm sure that you can understand that Kira and I were (are) worried about her and felt it would be distasteful to make a big deal of it. Should anything similar happen again, we will be sure to do things differently.

I would like to point out that - as far as I can recall - we haven't missed any deadlines over the last two months. Plot posts have gone up on time. Plot events have happened when we said they would happen. Echoes have been dealt with promptly. Player questions and plotting concerns have been processed swiftly too - usually within a day. Our largest sticking point has been slow tagging on NPC threads (on my own part, not Kira's), and this is why we recruited a helper for that purpose. If we've been late with anything else recently that I haven't addressed, do tell (this isn't me being snippy, this is me genuinely not remembering).

WRT aliens/the car: this is an entirely valid point. Sandy was in charge of this plot, and when she disappeared this fell by the wayside. The aliens will be becoming relevant again shortly. Ditto NPC guest star plots - this is, again, something we're going to pick up now that we have helpers in place. Thank you for bringing it to our attention.

Finally: I'm sorry, but since plenty of characters (powered and not) have faced consequences from the mafia (beatings, threats of being "outed" as Numbered, property destruction, kidnappings, murdered/threatened family members) I think we'll just have to agree to disagree.

http://saveyourselves.dreamwidth.org/228418.html?thread=6083650#cmt6083650
http://saveyourselves.dreamwidth.org/228418.html?thread=6083906#cmt6083906
http://saveyourselves.dreamwidth.org/228418.html?thread=6086210#cmt6086210
http://saveyourselves.dreamwidth.org/228418.html?thread=6091842#cmt6091842
http://saveyourselves.dreamwidth.org/228418.html?thread=6094146#cmt6094146
http://saveyourselves.dreamwidth.org/228418.html?thread=6096706#cmt6096706
http://saveyourselves.dreamwidth.org/228418.html?thread=6096962#cmt6096962
http://saveyourselves.dreamwidth.org/228418.html?thread=6078786#cmt6078786
http://saveyourselves.dreamwidth.org/228418.html?thread=6082626#cmt6082626
http://saveyourselves.dreamwidth.org/228418.html?thread=6081602#cmt6081602
http://saveyourselves.dreamwidth.org/228418.html?thread=6098754#cmt6098754
http://saveyourselves.dreamwidth.org/228418.html?thread=6101826#cmt6101826
http://saveyourselves.dreamwidth.org/228418.html?thread=6104130#cmt6104130

The posts state there is no minimum. You created a minimum thread count without informing anyone in the game. There are more than a dozen people who were either unaware of the minimum or favored relevant, longer tags to short back and forths.

As for deadlines, http://theearth.dreamwidth.org/7652.html this does count. You could have at least informed the people on it that you were looking into it. Sandy has been missing for two months. Which means it has taken you two months to take action on it. That's far too long, and if you say you're too busy to handle it, the point still stands that you need another head mod.

You're the ones who asked for crit. I brought you crit--it's hard to get involved in the game. It seems like the same characters doing things. The mods do not seem welcoming to new players. If you do not want to accept this crit, it's fine. Just don't ask for it, and do not expect people to be helpful. When the only point you accept as valid is something you can thrust onto another mod who isn't here to defend herself, it does not speak well for your character or your ability to take criticism.

I'm not saying we didn't change the AC requirements. I am saying that it didn't negatively affect anyone. If you look at this month's AC post instead of the one before, you'll note that anyone who did come under activity requirements was given slack because the rules were new.

I assure you I'm perfectly fine with receiving constrictive criticism. I'm less fine with a well-documented stream of non-constructive negativity coming from one player. I already apologised with regards to my oversight on the player plots. That remains the only delay, despite losing mod team members and going through some severe health complications. I'm also very sorry that you're finding it difficult to get involved in (completely open) events (that you didn't respond to the plot posts for).

Additionally - I'd like to ask you not to take such a disrespectful tone, please. Casting aspersions on my character for questioning your complaints is hardly appropriate. If I came across as blaming Sandy, that was entirely my error: I only meant to say that these matters were originally in her hands, but it was indeed me who missed out on picking them back up. It was an explanation, not an excuse, and I didn't mean for it to come across any other way.

I'm sorry you're reading my tone wrong but I'd really appreciate it if you stayed professional with criticism because you sound grossly offended and you did say you hadn't been late on anything to the best of your knowledge, and then when I pointed out that you were indeed late on things, your response was "that was Sandy's job."

Louise, excuse me for jumping in here, but I'd like to point out that you should watch your tone, too. Perhaps even leave this conversation here than continue and escalate it.

You're claiming to be "perfectly fine" with constructive criticism, but right now the tone of your writing is very aggressive and quite unprofessional. The excessive italics in your past couple responses, sarcastic descriptors ("well-documented stream" comes off as mocking), and especially your parentheses'd comments in the comment I'm responding to are all pretty aggressive ways to write to someone. Considering that you were first added to this mod team as a Player Relations mod, this is actually some problematic behavior and I'd like to ask that you take a step back and reexamine what you really mean by "perfectly fine."

Also, the fact that you're dismissing these concerns because it's just "one player" is concerning. Is it not a valid statement if it's only coming from one person? You already pointed out that it is, in your words, "well documented," meaning that this one player has evidence to back them up. Even if it's only one player who is speaking up, isn't it still a mod's job to take that into consideration? Instead of asking this player if they had any ideas how you could fix the problems they pointed out, you explained away to dismiss their every point and acted as if it was a done deal. No more concerns? It wasn't non-constructive until you reacted to them by brushing them off. Maybe there isn't any feedback from the playerbase because at this point it seems like no matter what anybody may say, this will be the reaction they'll receive.

Seriously, I'm not with the above anons for the most part. You didn't cover everything the first anon brought up in your first response, but I understand you were just trying to make everything else understood, and if they weren't trying to read as unnecessarily condescending in their next reply, they failed, so it's miscommunication overall. Nobody's perfect.

Also noting that the anon-enabled thing was just an easily made mistake, too, since this is the same HMD format that was first posted to the meme comm, where anon is enabled.

I will agree on one point, though, and that's that plot events are getting repetitive -- when the new plot post went up, one of my thoughts was "Vermedi again? When do we get to fight another Vermaxi?" I understand that you guys were probably hoping to get in touch with Sandy and weren't prepared to pick up the plot elements she was spearheading right before she left, and this is to tide us over, but to keep things fresh and brisk in any buildup stages or lulls in the main plot, adding some new monsters, bringing up in-your-face atmosphere effects of plot (e.g. "reporters may stop characters on the street to ask them what they know about Project Jump, if they would say anything please give us a quick writeup on the media digest post!"), having ways ready for characters to get out-of-context hints at what's coming next, and things like that could be neat.

ETA: One more thought on apps, actually -- if anything has to be changed, I don't think anyone would shed a tear if you nix second character per canon screening. I'm assuming it was meant to strike a happy medium between the original policy on characters per canon and the logic behind the second one, but I don't think anyone liked the second ruling. It should be easy enough to police any blatantly playercesty Echo trigger abuse without formally pre-checking, and if anyone wants to check if it'll be possible for two characters from a canon to stay away from each other, they could probably run it by you on the FAQ.

Edited 2014-08-19 07:58 (UTC)

Hi!

These are all excellent suggestions! We'll definitely look into shaking things up, variety-wise - and smaller plot prompts (like being approached by reporters and such) seem like they'd be beneficial to boosting player involvement, too! These are absolutely things we'll try to start working in immediately as new plot posts go up.

I'm leaning towards thinking you're right about the second character pre-app, too, though that's something that will obviously have to be run by the entire team. Thanks bunches for your input - this is all fantastic advice, and hopefully we'll be able to do your efforts justice as we implement these things!

And wrt vermaxi: soon. Ohohoho. >83

Player: Blue
Character: Anthony Janvier | Anthony | Eternal Darkness |

scramasax
Character's HMD: Here.

Player: Toss
Character: The Doctor | John Smith | Doctor Who |

gobybessie
Character's HMD: Here.

Player: Kira
Character: Ymir | Blaine Frost | Attack on Titan |

siesinddasessen
Sweden | Siiri Pulkkinen | Axis Powers Hetalia |

hustru
Floweregg | Floweregg | Axis Powers Hetalia |

notbloody
Thorin II Oakenshield | Þórir Þráinsson/Thorir T Thorsson | Middle Earth/Hobbit |

disdainfully
Character's HMD: Ymir Sweden & Floweregg Thorin

Player: sabriel
Character: Fili | Filbert Phineasson Darrens | Tolkien (Middle Earth) |

moreweaponsthanyou
Character's HMD: Here.

Player: Merav
Character: Hamel | Emil Fiedler | Violinist of Hameln |

abhero
Character's HMD: Here.

Player: Josh
Character: Ruby Rose | Robyn Lyre | RWBY |

onecream_fivesugar
Character's HMD: Here.

Player: Aave
Character: Eren Yeager | Alan Hunter | Attack on Titan |

wirsinddiejager
Character's HMD: Here.

Player: Joysweeper
Character: Yuuya Sakazaki | Julien Sakazaki | Hatoful Boyfriend |

espigeonage
Character's HMD: Here.

Player: Jessica
Character: Dante | Anthony Sparado | Devil May Cry |

oncedevil
Character's HMD: Here.

Player: Gail
Character: Randolph Lyall | Randall Lyall | Parasol Protectorate |

professowolf
Character's HMD: Here.

Player: Drizz
Character: Rakka | Rakka Yoshitoshi | Haibane Renmei |

charcoalfeather
Character's HMD: Here.

Player: Angel
Character: Tieria Erde | Eugen Lambert | MS Gundam 00 |

buildyourworld
Character's HMD: Here.

Player: Lills
Character: Tauriel | Ariel Boisvert | Tolkien/The Hobbit |

sylvanguard
Character's HMD: Here.

Player: Airdra
Character: Hajime Aikawa | Kamen Rider Blade|

chalicejoker
Character's HMD: Here.
Character: Arthur Curry | Aquaman | Batman: The Brave and the Bold|

italktofish
Character's HMD: Here.
Character: Torin | Voltasaur Sentai Kyoryuger|

radiantchicken
Character's HMD: Here.

I'm completely canonblind to all your characters, but they are all super fun to play against/stalk, mostly because their actions are, while stringent, always to some degree surprising and things never get boring. Torin and Arthur being so colorful in their behaviour/appearance certainly help, but I think it's your general playing style, too. Keep up the good work!

Aw, thanks, anon!

Player: Mio

Character: Anna of Arendelle | Abby Perkins | Frozen |

sjokolade
Character's HMD: Here.

Character: Katie Evans | Kaede Kaburagi | Tiger and Bunny |

mimicery
Character's HMD: Here.

Player: Rex
Character: Umbrael | Oswald Doyle | Original |

umbrael
Character's HMD: Here!

Game-wide HMD

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