Playability vs Gameplay

[Pew Pew]

Good to know

[Harmless]

reliable is probably the right replacement for that statement. Since playtimes do tend to build reliability, playtimes help. But not all with good playtimes are reliable in their roles. It's a ven diagram.

[BadSkeelz]

#1 criteria for sponsored roles is playtimes anyway. Staff don't care how good or bad you are, so long as you're online consistently.

Quite false.

[Is Friday]

= Said PC has actively begun to tinker with said object and is likely half-way down the path to using it.

- At this stage, the PC should've let something leak. They have another PC (or three) that were brought in for their experience/knowledge on said item to help (or hinder). If not, this is where staff generally need to step in. Where was/is the item stored? Did a guard see and whisper to another Noble/Aide? Does the thing radiate some sort of magickal power that a Templar may detect? Does it make people sick to be around? Something that would feasibly cause the thing to be known beyond 1 single PC.

= Said PC is about to use said item.

- At this stage, there has been time for 3-4 wagging tongues to whisper to their best-pals/concubines/aides and now 10 to 15 players know that something is up. If not, at this point staff need to start further spreading some sort of realistic push-back, while supporting said plot. Chances to be caught/discovered, that VNPC has now told his cousin over a bottle of Brown and that cousin works for a Templar who comes sniffing about. Rumor post, perhaps, to further show the ripple affect of said whispers. - Same outcome of various PCs 'in the know'.

Addressing the bolded parts. I have seen staff step in to "spread the news" when greedy leaders have attempted to monopolize information "unrealistically" or without regard to our theme. I have still many times had to deal with the blowblack of my PC or an ally receiving the criticism of "sharing information" when realistically there's no reason to hoarde information. Usually, there's almost no way to prevent people from inferring your plans if they just watch who you are meeting with, anyway.

Just as leaders or veterans want to criticize new players for not respecting the virtual world in regards to thievery, crime, or murder -- veterans tend to ignore the virtual population when it comes to plots or social activities. This leads to independents or others getting crushed for minor disrespect or flavorful disagreements, etc. E.G. Why are nobles involved in commoner politics without specific reason? What does a GMH leader care if some dirty indie is selling some half-rate swords?

[number13]

\Why are nobles involved in commoner politics without specific reason? What does a GMH leader care if some dirty indie is selling some half-rate swords?

Content. Conflict.

If the GHM doesn't care of some dirty indie is selling half-rate swords, it's then that indie can be an infinite money printing machine with no connections to the overall narrative. That's boring. You might as well just set up a program on your own computer that increments a number by 1 every 1/10th of a second, and leave it running. The gameplay loop is identical.

[Shabago]

#1 criteria for sponsored roles is playtimes anyway. Staff don't care how good or bad you are, so long as you're online consistently.

Quite false.

I dunno, I read the part that says "It's not #1 but it's up there."

As this needs further clarification:

Kindly do not be discouraged from applying to leadership roles if you can "Only" play an hour/two a day/night. If your concept and your ability to play the role compellingly and consistently is there, and you have some pretty attractive goals for Clan X - you're getting the role over someone who can play 10 hours a day.

Are play times important? Of course. Being able to be on/accessible and generate the plots/plans/goals that come along with said role for as many other PCs in the game world is obviously a plus.

App1:
I can play 40 hours a week!

Goal: Sit idle in the estate for 3 hours and maybe way two PCs
Goal: Mudsex for the 2 hours after that.
Goal: Randomly yell at a PC for not bowing for an hour.
Goal: Yell at a Merchant for somehow not producing 300 items inside 30 seconds for me.

App2:

I can play 15 hours a week!

Goal: Use this portion of the clan to further reach into Y area.
Goal: Operate with clan A B and C to get Z done/achieved in game.
Goal: Make contacts with Rinthers (secretly) - dirty commoners and noble alike to include each level of 'society' in storyline X and plan Y
Goal: Aim for the title of Lord/Lady <insert here> so that I can then start planning on the further goal of X down the road.

Guess who's getting the role?

[BadSkeelz]

In my experience? App 1 80% of the time.

edit: to be fair, I assume most apps that get approved are written much better than what actually makes it in to the game.

[Alesan]

App1:
I can play 40 hours a week!

Goal: Sit idle in the estate for 3 hours and maybe way two PCs
Goal: Mudsex for the 2 hours after that.
Goal: Randomly yell at a PC for not bowing for an hour.
Goal: Yell at a Merchant for somehow not producing 300 items inside 30 seconds for me.

App2:

I can play 15 hours a week!

Goal: Use this portion of the clan to further reach into Y area.
Goal: Operate with clan A B and C to get Z done/achieved in game.
Goal: Make contacts with Rinthers (secretly) - dirty commoners and noble alike to include each level of 'society' in storyline X and plan Y
Goal: Aim for the title of Lord/Lady <insert here> so that I can then start planning on the further goal of X down the road.

This just looks like one of those expectations vs reality things you see all the time, like when a burger looks delicious on an ad and then you order one and all the toppings are all sloppy and you only got half of what you paid for.

[DesertT]

This just looks like one of those expectations vs reality things you see all the time, like when a burger looks delicious on an ad and then you order one and all the toppings are all sloppy and you only got half of what you paid for.

Somebody's been ERP'ing with my character!!

[Barsook]

This thought creeped up in my mind for awhile, but aren't most of the coded clans niche role-based?

[Barsook]

Sorry for the thread nerco here, but I think it's related to this thread. Also, 'Sook is too polite.

I think the word playability isn't the correct term since it really relates code. I think the problem is more on the sustainability of roles and plots. The reason behind my thinking from what was said a few times on Discord about how the staff seem be playing it safe when it comes to plots because PC's die too quickly to advance plots. That's lack of sustainability rather than how playable a role/setting is for a plot. We might been talking about sustainability for all of this time.

[triste]

This just looks like one of those expectations vs reality things you see all the time, like when a burger looks delicious on an ad and then you order one and all the toppings are all sloppy and you only got half of what you paid for.

Somebody's been ERP'ing with my character!!

Sidenote: if magickers weren't allowed to smang this game would be UNPLAYABLE for me

[triste]

Why are people always posting crap in Ask the Staff that I care about? Maybe I should be staff.

In this thread I had a post last year mentioning pillories three times: https://gdb.armageddon.org/index.php/topic,55670.msg1045792.html#msg1045792

If we had a staffer who was a benevolent robot who honored what the players want, the answer from that staffer would be "Great idea, we'll look into this, and do our best to implement it if possible ." I recall last time this came up it was mentioned as being feasible given the existence of items like the cuddler but I will leave it to them to formally assess