The Occuria (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
occuria) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
tidesofwar_ooc2012-10-22 01:27 am
occuria) wrote in tidesofwar_ooc2012-10-22 01:27 am
Entry tags:
IMPORTANT POST REGARDING MODSHIP CHANGING AND THE FUTURE OF THE GAME
Hey there everyone! We have quite a few things to talk about so bear with me.
This is Jessa here and due to extenuating circumstances, the Mod Team here is undergoing some big changes. As of now I will be taking over responsibilities as head moderator, and Ambi will be acting as co-mod/helper mod. Things are up in the air right now regarding more helper mods and we will definitely keep you guys updated as these things happen.
In my first modly act, I'm going to be pretty frank here for a moment and as all of us probably know, this game has a dwindling number of active players (and we love all of you!) and little in the way of new blood coming in. Ambi and I personally love this game and as long as there are people still willing to play, we will try and do what I can to keep this game going.
With that in mind, we'd like to open up discussion for the existing playerbase to get an idea of what you would like from this game: things you would like to see, things you think are working, things that you think could be changed. We're looking to change around some things to make the game more fun for everyone and hopefully attract more players.
An incomplete list of things we plan on changing/are considering changing:
-Adding an IC Weekly (so bi-weekly OOC) news posts. These basically serve as a catch-up for any major public plot-related happenings (such as the past raid event) as well as a city rumor mill that could provide springboards for player plots unrelated to the war effort. Basically these would cover any happenings going on from as small as significant weather updates, to covering major Archadian military movements.
-Accompanying these will be Open Posts set up by mods to be taking place in a certain location, much like this post from Vayne's arrival, to help facilitate IC interacts and get people mingling. These may be related to the current news items and will vary in degrees of significance.
-Plotwise, we will probably be moving away from following the plot of the original game of FF12 too closely and instead just using it as inspiration. It will help give us more freedom in terms of cooking up plots, and give players more freedom to take liberties with the plot.
-Regarding NPCs: unless we would be able to get more modly help in terms of running NPCs, we're not really planning on introducing a lot of NPCs though we have been playing with the idea of introducing a new Consul to take Vayne's place and act as the jerk antagonist controlling the Archadian occupation of Dalmasca. Also we'd like to stress that you guys are totally always encouraged to NPC townsfolk and soldiers and whoever as needed for your own plots and threads. This is everyone's game and we don't want fear of doing something wrong to keep people from playing.
-Some of the game information pages will be changed. We're looking to clarify the AU!Memory regain concept and mechanics, as well as making new, simplified canon info pages for new players/potential appers and those who aren't so familiar with the canon. (These will be in addiction to the in-depth ones we have now.
-In that vein, we'd like to add a plot thus far page to catch people up on ingame happenings.
This post is getting long so I'm going to turn it over to you guys for discussion. We want to know what you're thinking, any comments, concerns, ideas- throw them at us! Even if your opinion is just "let the game die" or "do whatever" we want to know where everyone in the game stands. Due to the important nature of this thread, participation in it, regardless of the contribution, will be counted as your AC for this month (of course if you don't participate, normal monthly AC rules will still apply.)
This is Jessa here and due to extenuating circumstances, the Mod Team here is undergoing some big changes. As of now I will be taking over responsibilities as head moderator, and Ambi will be acting as co-mod/helper mod. Things are up in the air right now regarding more helper mods and we will definitely keep you guys updated as these things happen.
In my first modly act, I'm going to be pretty frank here for a moment and as all of us probably know, this game has a dwindling number of active players (and we love all of you!) and little in the way of new blood coming in. Ambi and I personally love this game and as long as there are people still willing to play, we will try and do what I can to keep this game going.
With that in mind, we'd like to open up discussion for the existing playerbase to get an idea of what you would like from this game: things you would like to see, things you think are working, things that you think could be changed. We're looking to change around some things to make the game more fun for everyone and hopefully attract more players.
An incomplete list of things we plan on changing/are considering changing:
-Adding an IC Weekly (so bi-weekly OOC) news posts. These basically serve as a catch-up for any major public plot-related happenings (such as the past raid event) as well as a city rumor mill that could provide springboards for player plots unrelated to the war effort. Basically these would cover any happenings going on from as small as significant weather updates, to covering major Archadian military movements.
-Accompanying these will be Open Posts set up by mods to be taking place in a certain location, much like this post from Vayne's arrival, to help facilitate IC interacts and get people mingling. These may be related to the current news items and will vary in degrees of significance.
-Plotwise, we will probably be moving away from following the plot of the original game of FF12 too closely and instead just using it as inspiration. It will help give us more freedom in terms of cooking up plots, and give players more freedom to take liberties with the plot.
-Regarding NPCs: unless we would be able to get more modly help in terms of running NPCs, we're not really planning on introducing a lot of NPCs though we have been playing with the idea of introducing a new Consul to take Vayne's place and act as the jerk antagonist controlling the Archadian occupation of Dalmasca. Also we'd like to stress that you guys are totally always encouraged to NPC townsfolk and soldiers and whoever as needed for your own plots and threads. This is everyone's game and we don't want fear of doing something wrong to keep people from playing.
-Some of the game information pages will be changed. We're looking to clarify the AU!Memory regain concept and mechanics, as well as making new, simplified canon info pages for new players/potential appers and those who aren't so familiar with the canon. (These will be in addiction to the in-depth ones we have now.
-In that vein, we'd like to add a plot thus far page to catch people up on ingame happenings.
This post is getting long so I'm going to turn it over to you guys for discussion. We want to know what you're thinking, any comments, concerns, ideas- throw them at us! Even if your opinion is just "let the game die" or "do whatever" we want to know where everyone in the game stands. Due to the important nature of this thread, participation in it, regardless of the contribution, will be counted as your AC for this month (of course if you don't participate, normal monthly AC rules will still apply.)
no subject
My opinion that I voiced on Plurk is we need to do something to get people interested in the upcoming ATP in November, and we gotta do it before then. A reboot might be best, but I dunno. What do you guys think?
no subject
The modshift sort of happened all of a sudden, but Jessa and I are fond of the setting and the players and totally willing to try and keep the place going as long as there's people who want to play here. The catch is that we talked it over and if it comes to shutting the place down and rebooting entirely, we'll probably have to bow out. Not saying it's a bad idea, but if it's going to happen that way, then someone else is going to have to volunteer to step up and take the helm, (though we'd help where we could!) because the two of us really don't have the knowhow or the energy or the desire to reboot a game from scratch.
I think the ideas ToW is built on have a lot of potential. But right now it's future as a game really depends on how many people plan to stick around after AC, (which we don't want to spring on people unfairly early) and whether or not we can get people interested in apping in. I'm with you that we ought to try and pull together the new info pages in time for a round of advertising on ATP. (And, if you guys can help us out here by spreading the word, on ATP and otherwise, that would be great.)
We're not making any huge decisions right away, but knowing where you guys stand and hearing what you think will definitely help.
no subject
So I can certainly help with anything involving the FFXII plot and/or deviating from it.
Gabs, by the way, is totally open to being more of a pain and/or being more involved.
Also he says to all of you Dalmascans that he told you so, damnit it, and couldn't you have pretended to play nice long enough for him to at least get shipped out so you wouldn't get stuck with this asshole guy who is now sort of his boss....and I might app as Merry, from LotR, but idk yet, what with time and such.
no subject
Yeah, having your help on setting things would be wonderful and we'll keep Gabs in mind for plotting. I think our first step will be writing a simplified sort of "Ivalice for dummies" page for new appers. (One of the things we'd heard from potential appers was that the sheer amount of world info was a bit intimidating) so if you can think of anything vital that should be in there, let us know.
Like I said above, we're going to take a few days to decide exactly what we're going to do going forward, so we wanted to make sure you guys had a say before we did. Seriously, if anything comes to mind, let us know here.
(UNRELATED TO MODSTUFF: I'm sorry I've been slow on tags, I will get back to them asap.)
no subject
Also, I confess I am sort of excited about the possibility of Gabs not dying immediately endgame. All of the psychological fallout to deal with. :3
no subject
I like the idea of moving away from the original game plot of XII. I'm not sure but it seemed a little difficult to flow with. While we did have a lot of freedom as players within the plot, there was just something there that wasn't catching player's attention. Maybe it was the lack of NPCs? Maybe it was that the game itself was too close to the original game plot?
I don't think a reboot will help things much unfortunately, it might just kill off the game entirely if it leads to a reboot from scratch. Hopefully with the ATP in November people become more interested and it picks up. ;;
whoops sorry this post is kind of babbly.
Ambi and I are working on updating the profile info/faq/etc to hopefully be done by the time ATP comes up (as well as keeping up with posting plot stuff, which I believe the masquerade is tonight. Go figure my computer broke this week.) And we're going to advertise the heck out of it. So hopefully we can get some more people interested in the game! We'd love to see you come back someday too!
no subject
By breaking away from the letter of the source game, we're hoping it'll give everybody a little more freedom and confidence to roll with their own ideas. I'd love to see a FFXII cast back in the game, but we wouldn't want them (or anyone else!) to feel obligated to stick to a script, or feel like they need to check with us before feeling comfortable doing just anything with their characters.
Like Jessa said, right now we're thinking of trying to keep a fairly constant, periodic level of mod involvement. Not necessarily running big plots all the time, but providing open posts or news prompts so people can cherrypick the stuff that interests them and do the sort of things they want to do in-game. The great thing about an Ivalice game is that plots can run the gamut from war to adventure to slice of life and back, because the setting is so open. And who doesn't love a Final Fantasy setting, come on.
It's good to hear from you again! Thanks for taking the time to come comment and help us out. :)
no subject
As far as the plot and changes go, I'd really like to see some more info on the memory regains, as I'll admit I wasn't entirely sure how we were supposed to be working that into characters and how soon would be too soon to start having them 'remember' things.
In terms of the actual plot, would it be more like having our characters interjecting on actual game-important events like Giruvegan or The Pharos, or simply having those places open up for people to explore/visit as things progress?
no subject
Yeah, we've been working out the memory stuff, and changing around of how it's worded in the game information (as most players seem to have been treating it differently from what the original intent was, which is totally fine, but we want to minimize confusion), and yeah some clarification about working it into your character would be good to add /adds it to my list o' stuff. I know Ambi and I are pretty big fans of not micromanaging players, so honestly it will probably be left to the muns' discretion as far as how long is too long or too short, since everyone plays at different speeds.
For the plot, currently I'm thinking things will probably take some drastic changes from the original plotline, though places like Giruvegan or The Pharos will eventually either be opened up for people to explore/visit or be involved in important plot points that characters will definitely have an impact on, if that all makes sense? If there's anything you (or anyone else) would like to see plot or location-wise, be sure to let us know!