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integrating2016-07-13 06:13 pm
onemind) wrote in integrating2016-07-13 06:13 pm
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STATE OF THE GAME - JULY EDITION
YE OLDE STATE OF THE GAME
Hi friends! We've been tentatively planning a State of the Game for a while now, but given the concerns over the current mission log we thought it might be best to tackle this now. We want to hear what's going right for you with the game, what doesn't work as well, and any suggestions you might have both in the long and short term!
Further, if you want to jump in and skip past the rest of this to provide some general feedback, feel free to. The section below is some directed spitballing in reference to mission logs and general game mechanics that has been on our minds; while we'd love direct feedback in relation to this, don't feel obligated to work through it if you don't have the time or inclination!
As always, thank you for your enthusiasm! We look forward to your feedback.
THE LONG OPTIONAL PART
If you have Abby on plurk, you've probably seen some brainstorming and discussion happening there between us (Abby and Donna) and some helpful players. In general we feel the current mission log, while brimming with potential, hasn't quite managed to hook the response desired from players. In an attempt to build momentum and give Concordia a slightly more directed feel, we made the executive decision to largely handwave the IC planning stage of the infiltration and bout it out missions, prefering to leave organization to OOC brainstorming and coordination. In retrospect (and in casually talking to a few players), we feel that was probably a mistake on our part. While we wanted to emphasize that the mission was very open to interpretation and approach, we feel that especially with the Infiltration Objective we probably gave everyone too much freedom and that may have resulted in a lack of organization and made the objectives difficult to approach. Basically: OOC planning is boring for everyone involved and rather than expecting everyone to get their ducks in a row OOCly so we could jump straight to the action, it may have been better to give everyone time to work through these thoughts on an IC level instead.
Right now our thoughts for tackling the current mission are this: We'd like to do a slightly backdated IC 'network' thread instead of simply handwaving at the top of the log description as it currently is described in the mission log itself. Our current thought is a sort of 'check in' through the mental link from Carata and Nirad early in the day of the mission, giving characters a chance to discuss what they've learned, what they've done, and how they think they'd like to approach the missions from that point in character. This would gives characters time ICly to work through the plan and figure out who they're teaming up with, what they're doing and how to approach problems in a more dynamic, organic environment than asking players (and mods) to do it OOCly. We hope this will make the Infiltration end of things a little more directed and easier to play. For the Bout It Out end, we plan to top level Kun-Kun for the final round of the fight. Originally we intended to let the log play out longer and then eventually thread jack an existing top level for this, but think that simply top-leveling with Kun-Kun or his reps might be the more effective approach at this point.
All this said and done we definitely don't want to skip past the objectives because they have a lot of potential and we have a ton of faith in you, the players, for being creative and doing awesome things with them. If it comes down to needing to handwave and move on, that's understandable and workable, but we'd prefer trying to recalibrate and give it a little more time first. Given how many of our tiny playerbase have been on official or unofficial hiatus, this seems like the least invasive way to do things for now. We'll be doing as much patch work as we can to make this run, but we'd love feedback for how we can run objectives like this more smoothly in the future. Is there too much freedom? Would it be better to have events like this more strictly 'on the rails'? Would you prefer IC planning to OOC planning or would you just prefer OOC planning be more directed (ie ' this, this and this MUST happen' instead of 'you can do anything! there might be complications though!')?
In general, we feel like we've done a not great job at emphasizing the fact that players are more than welcome to make up and mess around with the world as they desire, including creating NPC randos of their own. We feel this failure on our part has manifested really strongly in this log especially. We've given you a huge world to play in and a lot of flexibility, but have done a poor job of making sure players feel comfortable with that level of freedom. Right now we feel like the mechanics we've set up instead are encouraging players to wait for mod-driven NPC involvement/direction as opposed to driving events themselves which is definitely not our intention. For one, it makes things boring for you! We want your characters to have the most agency in this world; two, we have rather limited schedules and don't want to limit your play on our availability.
So then the biggest question we have for you guys is what can we do to help you feel more comfortable taking control? Is it something we can do ICly or is it something better articulated OOCly? Should we provide you with more setting information? Less? Would it be good for mission runs to have a section of 'what you can learn' so you can more effectively interact with the world without needing to turn logs into massive ten character threads? By and large, we're committed to creating interesting framework for you guys to tell stories in but ultimately we want you guys to be driving the direction, action and momentum of them. We feel thus far we haven't been doing a stellar job of that. Anything we can do to help you tell stories more effectively is our priority, so if you've got an idea for this specifically please do share. Currently one option we're spitballing is the possibility of giving a bullet list of hard-fact current-mission relevant 'clues' your characters could get from NPCs, hacking, etc, that could be used in threads if you feel it's relevant to your character, but we're sure there are other ways to approach this too and we'd love to hear your thoughts.
As always, we also wanted to take the time to thank you for your patience and enthusiasm. We love this game and love everyone we've had the opportunity to play with. We feel like Station 72 is a pretty unique experience and despite the learning curve and the challenges of running such a small, tight knit game, we've ultimately found it incredibly rewarding. You guys are awesomely creative, super enthusiastic, and have been very patient with us as we figure out what the hell we're doing. This has been a great, collaborative experience so far and we look forward to coming up with ideas together to make it even better for everyone.
Thanks all!
CONCORDIA MISSION: OVERVIEW • DAY :008 - :013
NAVIGATION • PREMISE • FAQ • RULES • GLOSSARY • SYMBIOTIC SKILLS • ABILITY POINTS
NAVIGATION • PREMISE • FAQ • RULES • GLOSSARY • SYMBIOTIC SKILLS • ABILITY POINTS
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Also, I have always felt that July/August are terrible RP months because most people are either on holiday or just want to go out. And then during Autumn/Winter they come back like bears getting ready to hibernate.
With that said, I acknowledge these are small excuses that have a small impact to what is happening in the game right now. As mentioned above, with a small game like S72, it is strikingly obvious that people are missing/busy. It is one of the cons of a small game - but the pro is that you know well the player base and that can be used to your advantage and how to tip the scale in your favour. I want to make clear that this is what _I_ feel, I don't want to speak for anyone.
I will go a little bit against the flow and say that I feel there is "too much freedom". What I mean is, there are way too many variables, I find, and always too much information and too much to do and you end up not really knowing what you should do and if what you do has any meaning/impact - which, for a game like this, is kind of a big deal. I'm not saying people want a "main character role". I'm just saying most things here feel like they might have a big impact but they always feel-- I don't know, vague and kind of "ehn"? I think the biggest problem comes from the fact that while this would work well if it was a real life, face-to-face kind of game where your actions get their consequences/answers right away, it doesn't really do well in an online RPG, where you have to wait for an answer and the time can vary due to multiple factors (timezones for me, for example, are hell), which can lead to a lack of interest. Again, I'm speaking for myself, but if I'm pumped and end up having to wait 2/3 days I end up kind of lazy. I'M NOT SAYING YOU GUYS ARE SLOW, BY THE WAY. You're pretty quick and prompty and that's pretty cool, but answers generate more questions and you end up getting stuck in a loop of OOC developing and no IC write up. Personally, I am not a fan of overplanning OOCly. In fact, I really hate doing it, lol. I'm saying this 'cus I'm very comfortable with you guys, and I know you know I don't mean any ill by it, and I respect you guys so I want to be completely honest and don't want to give any bullshit. Anyway, OOC planning isn't really RPing for me. It's not fun, it's boring and I'm not really playing a game of chess where I need to plan ahead and draw out strategies for what my character is going to do. It kills the fun aspect of RPing which is actually playing it out and seeing the consequences happening in real time. Obviously, if this is a thing that everyone likes going forward I'll just have to rethink my situation since I don't want to impose on others, not really my style.
Also, for all the OOC bullshit I hate doing, I always do respect the OOC =/= IC rule and so sometimes I struggle on how did my character get this information/knows what to do without being too farfetched. Again, this is my problem rather than the games, but I like being open and honest with y'all. I guess I'm not 100% alone on that because of the request for IC info post but tbh a goat would object to information being passed on via mindlink but a goat will climb on rocks when told not to, so a goat will not have her opinion considered (what I mean is, I WILL FIND A WAY).
I think the first step should be assigning roles. Like, have one/two options people would like to be involved in (or have an open "randomize" option), split up the people and give them their mission objectives. I feel that sometimes there is too much to read through and there ends up being a lot to do, but nothing to actually carry on without, again, extensive Q&A and it just gets kind of repetitive. Again, speaking for myself, and I know this has NOTHING to do with the game except space, but I still have to shake off That Game (tm) fear of "if I do one thing that is not in the expected zone, I'm fucked" and that is definitely on me, but it doesn't help, I feel, that there is no guidance. I mean, there's a big difference between getting spoon-fed and getting a helpful shove in the right direction. Know what I mean?
But I understand people love this freedom. I think there should be a middle ground for it. I don't think it will cut anyone's fun to have assignments, because at least everyone knows what they're doing. When giving information, you should have fixed options, but if people want to veer away from those, leave one open to "what if my character, instead of punching McDick in the face, kicks him in the nuts?". I had a really good idea about how to go around for it, but I literally just forgot it and I've been staring at my fingers for (84) years and cannot remember. I'll... get back to you on that.
I don't have any solid opinion on NPCs, to be fair. I really like Prince and Cathaway tho, but I'm greedy and I want them as regular characters.
Uh. Sorry if this sounds confusing, I'm pretty knackered right now. Hit me up if I don't make sense. I'm really tired. I love you guys. I love everyone in this bar.
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