State of the game poll

[Fredd]

Define: Making yourself available?

Find an interesting person, who might be doing interesting things, get friendly, earn trust.

I, mr.SkullandDagger am not going to just invite my buddy I just made nice with to do my Hush Hush stuff with. That's a good way to get outed as Mr.SkullandDagger.

But if you earn my trust and show interest, hey, I bet it'll happen.

[Is Friday]

KW: Sometimes shit like that happens. You've got a few options available to you, however. I find the best way to go, if you want to continue on with your current PC, is to begin "making your own fun". Start defining some very basic goals and gradually turn them into crazier and crazier goals as there is less and less to do or people to interact with. Eventually, you'll either get killed or start having a lot of fun.

Basically--change your character concept a bit to allow more independent jollies.

[KankWhisperer]

Getting killed is a sweet sweet dream. But someone or something is going to have to earn it.

[Sam]

I feel like it is the same as it has always been.
If I sit there and expect things to happen to me, the RP will be infrequent.
If I sit there and encourage things to happen to me, the RP will be more frequent.

A lot less flowery emoters these days, for sure.

[Majikal]

A lot less flowery emoters these days, for sure.

I mostly consider this a good thing.

[Sam]

I don't consider it a good thing.

I also see people being more creative in their emotes in Tuluk and they get less flowery as you move south. (Shameless Tuluki product placement)

[brytta.leofa]

Creative's more important than flowery.

[Fathi]

I'm not sure I even remember what a "plot" is, but that's what happens when you can't play 2-3 hours or more a night. Arm's always been that way, and there aren't really any viable solutions to the casual player problem. I could post a litany of complaints about how I think the hands-off staffing policy has driven even more nails into the coffins of offpeak and casual players, but there's no real point.

I have a feeling that the people who are voting for the negative options are frustrated because in the age where players have to generate everything, it can be difficult to do when your personal situation, IC or OOC, is not conducive to lengthy planning sessions with other PCs.

[Is Friday]

I have a feeling that the people who are voting for the negative options are frustrated because in the age where players have to generate everything, it can be difficult to do when your personal situation, IC or OOC, is not conducive to lengthy planning sessions with other PCs.

There were a lot of times as a leader that I wished the staff would have had a bit more involvement and moved things forward without me, yeah.

Hear ye, hear ye. Players who can play 3-4 hours a day are not always the best leaders. I'm an equal opportunity player, and support the shit out of awesome leaders who only play 1h or less a night.

[Reiteration]

Action action action!

[chrisdcoulombe]

This is a pole on action or plots?

[Yam]

I've never needed the staff for plots I instigated as a leader. They were helpful, yes. But there are many ways to do many interesting things without the need for staff at all.

Arena events, massive parties, fashion shows, auctions, mass hunts, expeditions, etc call all be done without any staff involvement and are awesome.

[boog]

I don't consider it a good thing.

I also see people being more creative in their emotes in Tuluk and they get less flowery as you move south. (Shameless Tuluki product placement)

Huh...

[Sam]

The one MAJOR difference that I see now that imms don't push plots is if two leaders play different times, there is no great plot they can be involved in unless there is a middle man. With my last leader, I can only assume I played odd hours, because I never saw another leader PC that I was trying to find.

[My 2 sids]

I think there are many plots and certainly easy to get PCs sucked in (I think both the staff and the majority of players really feel strongly about opening up story lines to everyone) -- which is great and a real plus for the game.

However, after much thought I did vote "sorta stale".  There are enough plots, but the plots (to me at least) all seem to be on the same plane.  I guess I'd like to see further clans close and more social "layers" open.  An internal struggle between Byn groups,  a RPT that revolves around grebbing, a 2-bit street gang (instead of, say, the Guild) making trouble for the Arm.

[hyzhenhok]

It's easy to find plots. They're there.

But it's also easy to trap yourself away from plots.

If you're not having fun with the game, I suggest you look closely at what you're doing, and make changes. Yes, store and roll a new PC if you have to.

[Ami]

Badly stagnant at the moment, for me anyway.

[Fredd]

We just need a massive war of epic epicness.

Everyone enlist in my army! I'm going to war and um... Free Hookers!

Seriusly, a war would pwn, but I'm having fun.

[Synthesis]

I don't consider it a good thing.

I also see people being more creative in their emotes in Tuluk and they get less flowery as you move south. (Shameless Tuluki product placement)

The last time I was PK'ed around Tuluk, it was because I stopped to emote for a group of PCs, and they decided 'look' and 'kill' were just as good.  I guess you don't hang out with the mediocre players around Tuluk, or maybe people just get shitty when they're in a free-PK zone (probably the latter).

[Sunburned]

The player-driven plot system isn't working out, IMO.  A major policy change happened with no reworking of the clan structures (namely the GMHs) to make it more tenable, and for what structures were changed, they bend back to former shape because documentation hasn't been updated.  If leaders are in charge of their clan's fate, then they should have the documented authority to act confidently and have very clear expectations of what staff support will be given.

In the absence of more engaging conflicts, I think that we've began using magickers as a crutch for inspiring intrigue in our plots.
Not that it matters... but if I had my way ( )... all magickal guilds would be drastically limited, so that the focus of the game returns to the mundane, city-state and GMH focused plots.  Zalanthas is a desert world - the story should be about two men trapped on an island with only one coconut, not catch-me-if-you-can set on endless repeat.  Magickers spread a wide wake, and while I recognize they're supposed to be terrifying and punctuate world-changing events with flashy colors and seared flesh, wine is becoming water, to the point that encountering a rogue magicker in the wilderness is commonplace, instead of being the tense, thrilling experience it should be.

...IMO.

[Marshmellow]

Oh, nerfing the guilds you don't like is the way to advance plots.  Sure.  Or you could cope with the foul monsters IG like the rest of us.

[Sunburned]

There's a difference between nerfing and limiting available guild slots.  Nerfing implies that I think magickers are overpowered, which I don't, because they're supposed to be powerful.  I want magick to be rare again.

Or you could cope with the foul monsters IG like the rest of us.

Speaking for everyone can get dangerous, if unsolicited advice is your game.

[Marshmellow]

I'm not speaking for everyone.  I'm saying that we haven't done as you suggested, and thus we're all coping with it IG without lamenting it on the board.

Also, I'm against limiting people's options, if they've earned them.  If they're playing unrealistically in some fashion or another, report to staff.

[Fredd]

I havent encountered a rogue magicker in the wildreness in a good moment actually. And when i did, it was pretty damned scary.

[Sunburned]

Lamenting implies grief.  I've never lost a character to a magicker, nor have I, in the past two years, suffered any major ill from one.
My dissatisfaction is in having seen more than I care to count while taking even short-legged trips outside cities.  You're trying to read past what I actually wrote, and I assure you, I'm not the magick-hater you're pegging me to be.  

If people earn karma, they should have the options they've earned available to them.  However, its easy to recall periods when too many players decided to us their karma for elementalist roles.  Preservation of balance takes precedent over preservation of options, IMO, because balance is concerned with the maintaining the world, where options are concerned with the individual entitlement.

I'm not speaking for everyone.  I'm saying that we haven't done as you suggested, and thus we're all coping with the it IG without lamenting it on the board.

If you're saying that players still play, and therefore cope with the status quo, and that somehow disqualifies new ideas/suggestions being posted on the GDB... uh... I disagree.

If not, it seems as though you're generalizing.