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Post by Bob on Nov 28, 2010 22:28:30 GMT -8
Hey, kiddies! (that's you). Mallboro is going to see some changes, and Fleck and I have come to the following conclusion: WE NEED YER INPUT!
I don't want to say too much because I'd like to hear any ideas you all have for the RP, but I will throw out my ideas, and hope you'll all do the same. The other day, Fleck gave me words of wisdom, which were basically that at this point, nobody else is going to join the RP. If they do, that person will likely know one of us, so we can update them or whatever, but it's time to just assume that we are Mallboro, so we've gotta make changes that WE like and stuff.
So here are my ideas. I hope to hear not only feedback on my ideas, but ideas you have.
1. Apartment updates. I'm thinking of limiting apartments like crazy so that more of us are forced to live together. Basic idea is that all apartment types will only have ONE unit available. Only player-characters can live at these apartments and no characters can take a house unless they are living with the exact number of allowed occupants. In almost all cases, max occupants = number of bedrooms, so if the unit has 2 bedrooms, you need two player-characters living there. This means there will only be a total of 20 apartments, so space will be LIMITED.
2. No more managers! This would be a huge one, so I really want your opinions on this. I'm highly considering doing a NORG post where he is going to take over all businesses in the mall and demote all managers to at LEAST assistant manager. Even Jecht's store! Yep, NORG is going to take a store with an employee's name and rule it! Mwa ha ha! It'll also have a change in each store's total number of hires. I figure the mall is probably low on business, so it's an easy change to factor in, since NORG loves money. I'm wanting to make this change, but if it'll make everybody sad, then I won't do it, but I think it could really change some of the dynamic in the mall and re-stimulate some of our creative juices.
3. Find Juice and tie him to his computer so he has to come back to us.
4. Now I'm at my "hey, I just had a fun thought!" ideas. For this one: mall employees and those saving the world are different. Some characters are just not into all the mini-games and saving the world and such, and I don't want them to feel like they're missing out. Fleck pointed out that each of my mini-games could spawn its own RP, really, so we've got like 6 RPs in 1, which is 5 too many. BUT maybe we can change some of the dynamic and kind of turn it into a couple separate RPs that are in the same world. So basically, not all characters are required to work at the mall. I can lower the SP amounts for apartments, since everybody needs housing, then if anybody is interested in being an exclusive Quester, they just need to live with somebody that makes enough SP to provide, y'know? (if y'don'know, say so).
I'm afraid of this suggestion to say the least because I don't want all of us to suddenly play "let's save the world!" and leave like, Seph and Squall in the mall going "where is everybody?" (Squall might be rejoicing, but now's not the time for this!), but I think it could be a neat element because now certain people will drive plot while some will drive mall fun. And then there's no worrying about "wait, when they go on hunts, are they still working? do they still come home? what's going on!?!?!"
5. This is kind of an addendum to #4, but basically, some mini-games were hard because they were just too big with too many people. Like blitzball. I dunno how Count did it before, but 12 teams is just too many. But it might be cool to start up like, leagues. SMALL leagues. Only played-characters allowed, and then maybe only 3 teams: Calamity Chaosians, Prosperity Pumpernickles, and Cynosure NORGs! (not really those names, but city teams like pro-leagues). We made some tough (NPC?) competition for Calamity and Prosperity, then play them. And like with #4, blitzers can be exclusive. It's their job!
6. As a further addition to this separation idea, we could allow for more than just 5 characters, if this is the case, but might need to make a restriction or something. . . .
Anyway, these are some of my ideas! I swear I had more, but I'm stopping there. Anybody have any ideas for some fun Mallboro changes to make? Also, as a quick disclaimer: I'm not positive, but I think combining all of my ideas would lead to pure chaos, so I'm hoping you'll say which you do and don't like and suggest your own ideas in addition.
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Post by Fleck on Nov 28, 2010 23:38:58 GMT -8
The other day, Fleck gave me words of wisdom, which were basically that at this point, nobody else is going to join the RP. How come every time you paraphrase me, you make me sound like an ass? I, in not so many words, said that we keep leaving lots of open space in case more people join, but that history indicates that it's unlikely, and that setting out thirty plates when only five people are coming to dinner is just a waste of time. I know it would be nice if we had a lot of people join, but unless we all go out and start promoting, it's not going to happen on its own. Which is.... basically the same thing..... BUT NICER! I'm a nice man with happy feelings.... ALL THE TIME! Also for the record, I am a proponent of ideas 1, 2, and 3, and a little sketchy on the others. I want to point out that Bob and I have gone back and forth on a lot of ideas that have not been expressed in Bob's list. I don't necessarily endorse any of these ideas, but I feel it's only fair to mention that we've brought them up before and considered them. Just so you guys know. 1: Currency. I know Bob really, really hates the idea of having money, but I personally find it hard to tie together the various aspects of Mallboro without some uniting concept of currency, even if we just expand the SP idea. After all, the central concept of Mallboro is "peeps be needing money and they're working for it" so... how can we do that without money? We've gotten by on vague ideas of "more money" and "less money" but attaching real values to these concepts seems only logical, if difficult to maintain. 2: Ending the mall as we know it. I'm surprised Bob didn't mention this, because it's been a frequent topic for us. Instead of merely transitioning between Mallboro 3.0 and Mallboro 4.0, we should totally have a giant apocalyptic battle that draws this story arc to a close. I'm in favor of this (enough to where this idea alone could bring me back to playing again), because I think it really opens up options for our characters, even if only for a while. Think about it, generally, all of our characters have been restrained to some degree. Even in the weekly events where panic and disorder reigned, all our characters still knew that next Sunday things would be back to normal, so it was best to not go TOO crazy. I want to see how everyone would play their characters if there was no tomorrow. That interests me. 3: Making the Arena program one of the central ideas of Mallboro, not just a mini-game. Think about it. We're playing a Final Fantasy RP and somehow combat has been reduced to a mini-game? I know that the idea of Mallboro is that people who usually fight their way through their problems have to now work like normal people, but I think we've mined that concept for all it's worth. This is just a basic idea right now, one I suggested quickly in one chat with Bob, so it's not really developed much, but the idea is that your Arena stats are your real-life stats, not your stats inside a program. So this would free up characters to pick fights, defend themselves, whatnot. Of course, if people don't like the Arena program, then this kills all of Mallboro for them. But it's just an idea. 4: Bringing back Clans. I keep forgetting to bring this up to Bob, but I think the idea of Clans as "freelance mercenaries for Mallboro" would be kinda neat. The old clans were "join us and get stuff, then go out and earn glory for the guild and get more stuff" but this new idea would be that basically Clans would quest with each other and act...well... more like Guilds from other RPGs. With new clans, you would join one, then go out and quest as a team. Or hell, maybe we could even have Blitz teams that were solely composed of members of the same guild. Or Triple Triad teams. Or what have you. It would invite a LOT more interpersonal action (which we really need), since not only would you have your coworkers to deal with, but also your clanmates. I'm generally always in support of any idea that makes people talk to each other more and basically RP. All our characters are too damn anti-social. And umm.... that's all I can think of right now. IDEAS? COMMENTS? ANYONE?
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Post by Bob on Nov 29, 2010 8:33:42 GMT -8
Heh, I was just trying to say it in as the fewest number of words possible. But you've elaborated, so there we go.
Currency is definitely something I'd like, but I think we're all too busy to keep track of it. I'd consider it more if I knew enough HTML to have a site that I could calculate and change the amounts dynamically and could therefore let any of us change the values...if that makes sense. But basically, I can't keep track of it myself. HOWEVER, if we somehow combined this with the revised Clans idea of yours, then we'd have fewer numbers to keep track of, which would be a bit easier, since we could say "Clan Ooga Booga has 50 gil." But I don't know what we would buy anyway. Weapons/armor are taken care of with The Arena and I don't think people are going to play Sims and buy couches, servant robots, and pink flamingos for their yards...
Yes, the "destroy Mallboro" idea has been discussed, but I have no ideas for changing it and I think the idea is too central, which is why I'm now thinking more about revising the way it's used and having NORG take more control so that characters can be more....reactionary. For all we know, Seph's business is going great. But if Seph is demoted and told how to manage his business, he can talk about more when the new manager buys an assload of porno magazines and destroys the integrity of his bookstore, or whatever.
And yeah, I don't think I mentioned it, but I'm already kinda doing the "those are your real-life stats" thing with the Arena, just maybe not stressed enough. But that "kills all of Mallboro for them" is the reason I'm talking about having multiple types of characters. Some aren't interested in fighting at all, but some are interested more in that than malling, so we can just have both. Basically, I don't want Sephiroth to seem weak if he doesn't do Hunts and level up like a bitch and win fight after fight (again, Amy, Seph is my example character...must be because he's so sexy). So if he wants to just sit there and work at a bookstore, it really just means he's refusing to fight. Also I think of events like our big events being fun if half of the people are dedicated to defending the mall, while the other half are still just trying to push products on people.
"...all our characters still knew that next Sunday things would be back to normal, so it was best to not go TOO crazy. I want to see how everyone would play their characters if there was no tomorrow," said Fleck. I like that idea because yeah, people were always too complacent with the "look you're all hairy" because they knew it would end. Maybe we should start making events that need Quest-bound people to FIX them somehow so that there's some actual resolution? *shrug*
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Post by seflask on Nov 29, 2010 9:10:09 GMT -8
OK... I will get to some more specific things, but first, a bit of a rant. This goes for all of us, but especially Bob and Fleck: Please stop trying to tweak everything and start playing the RP! I know we all have lives outside of Mallboro and that things can get pretty busy sometimes, but if people don't post, then changes won't do any good. Is there nothing going on story or event wise? Then make something happen! It doesn't have to affect everyone or anyone for that matter, but just sit down for 2 or 3 minutes a few days a week and post.
Second rant: If you keep changing and tweaking things, how can we get used to what has been changed? We all know that true change doesn't happen automatically, so be a bit more patient and give some things time before deciding to change them. And please stop changing the Arena set up every time something happens. Can we have some consistency for us non math and practical people who just want to fight?
Now on to the ideas that have been suggested.
Bob's Ideas
1. Some of this borderlines on micromanaging. The apartment system is fine as it is. We can always find other ways to interact then forcing people to live together. That's what the mall and player post events (non Mallboro/NORG) are for. There's only so much you'd get out of forcing people to live together, especially if their characters don't want to.
2. No more manages would work better as a weekly event then a long term one.
3, Can we tie some other players up so they'll play more too?
4. No problem here.
5. Once again, more micromanaging. If Count can handle 12 teams, then great. I'd prefer 8 or 16 for playoff purposes, but I think 12 is a good number, though 8 might be more feasible since Wyvern is on hiatus. This whole Chaos/Cosmos/NORG thing shouldn't apply to Blitz Ball. Frankly, I'm not too big on the Chaos/Cosmos/NORG You Must Serve One thing at all, but that's another discussion.
6. I don't think the character limit is really an issue right now.
Fleck's Ideas
1. I liked the use of vague money ideas. It was a nice release from real world currency issues.
2.I think we all have our own "the mall has been destroyed" scenario, so we could play with those, though I wouldn't use mine since it entails the end of the chaos realm.
3. If we use the Arena more often, we need to stop changing and tweaking it so much.
4. No problem with Clans as long as they are not mandatory.
All in all though, we need to just stop talking about overhauls and changes and post more. All of us, me included. We have a vast world already out there to explore before we throw it all away again.
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Post by countlieberkuhn on Nov 29, 2010 9:57:09 GMT -8
I think a lot of the slump is due to our collective lack of creativity right now. We want something to happen to improve our creativity, but for that to happen, we need to interact, but interaction requires a reason to do so, and we need creativity to think of a reason. Catch 22. I liked Bob's recent quest things, but I kinda felt I was the only person really getting in on that action. I deliberately only concentrated on one area (jecht didn't count, I never had plans for him to do anything but party), hoping that others would lead expeditions to investigate other places, but as far as I know that didn't happen. Maybe not everyone likes quests, I dunno. The current situation can be resolved, but it REALLY requires all of us to think really good and interesting event, and make sure ALL of us (even fleck!) spend a week, making a post each day. It only takes 5-10 mins for most of my posts to be made, and I can imagine most others would be more or less the same. If we can all dedicate a week to getting our arses in gear and actually doing some good old-fashioned posting, we might be able to get out of our little slump. This would require a progressive event that doesn't end on a sunday to keep people interested though, and something that doesn't rely on Bob to keep the story on track. If we're all contributing to the overall story, it makes things more interesting. Part of this event could be mass demoting, which I wouldn't have a problem with especially - as long as there's a decent reason for it. I already considered the Arena to be making more of a shift to a central point of Mallboro, and I like that. If we can tie Arena-ness into an overall mallboro event, like having the mall become overrun with some militant race, and our little squad cornered at fountain 5 has to slowly retake the mall through strategic conflicts, store by store, that could be a good way to really tie in RP with the Arena. Uh.. anything else? Ah yeah, with regards to blitzball, the lack of posting has generally made me less inclined to do it. Wyvern was always the biggest blitzer, and was big on mini-games all round, so losing him is a shame. Although, if blitzball would get people going again, I'd be happy to do a new tournament, probably with a maximum of 8 teams. Same for mallboro hotties - I thought it was a fun idea, but it was being done over a long period of time, and people seemed to lose interest, which resulted in the same happening to me. In retrospect, I should have done 4 girls at a time instead of 2, since the list is pretty big. I might bring it back in that format if people still are interested in it, and getting involved in judging. Gotta say though, I love the new hunts. And the Arena seems pretty good right now, so I don't think anything will change beyond the occasional adding of new abilities or equipment, which shouldn't affect the fundamentals one iota.
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Post by Fleck on Nov 29, 2010 11:56:02 GMT -8
Like Count said, the main reason why I left (and continue to keep my distance) is that I really ran out of ideas for my characters, especially Squall. I felt like I was writing a sitcom that had gone on 4 seasons too long and I was reaching further and further for new ideas. Granted, Squall's character allows for me to go pretty far out, but the further I got from reality, the harder it became to come up with the next idea. It became a lot of work and I was growing less and less pleased with the overall results. It's no fun to spend an hour working on a Squall post only to not really like it at the end. Sometimes a hiatus will inspire me and encourage me to find new ground for my characters, but I think I've done everything I can with the characters I have and the current setting of the mall, which is the main reason I'm pushing for an overhaul of the system. I could, in theory, pop back in and just start hammering out posts every night, but as long as everything is essentially the same, I don't see me sticking around for long. This would require a progressive event that doesn't end on a sunday to keep people interested though, and something that doesn't rely on Bob to keep the story on track. If we're all contributing to the overall story, it makes things more interesting. Bob and I have been trying this exact thing for quite some time now. In fact, the whole Chaos/Cosmos whatnot was meant to be more interactive than it ended up being. I don't know if our ideas are too rigid/unclear and don't allow for enough improvisation or if people are too set on finishing the tasks to explore or what, but not many things have gone as planned ever since we went into this new phase of the mall. I'd love to see an interactive plot where people can change things and add details and shape the direction of the story, instead of having one quest master who is in charge of everything so... if anyone has any ideas... that'd be cool.
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Post by Bob on Nov 29, 2010 13:03:48 GMT -8
Yeah, I hear ya, Skullboy, but to echo all of Count and Fleck's points, we're all struggling for creativity. The reason I mentioned shrinking apartments and such is all of our characters are very anti-social, so this would be a bit of forced interaction. For some, anyway. There ARE a lot of one-bedroom apartments. That and the no-managers idea of mine may seem micromanagey, because well, it is. And I think it would inspire a lot of people. People might have more meaningful posts if they're not so "life is grand, la-de-dah!" I'd really enjoy reading about two people that hate each other. One is clean, the other is messy. Y'know, the Odd Couple. And I'm not saying that's what has to happen (hence the topic of this discussion), but too many of us post things that are completely irrelevant to all other players (see: anti-social). I think of all currently active characters, Loz might be the only one that replies to any other posts even occasionally because we're all so disjointed. So the "micromanage" is intended because NORG IS a micromanager, and it might unite our characters more. NORG has really been made out to be a good guy as of late, and he's umm, not. Not really. . . . We're all kind of making the same point, and that's the "sit down and friggin post, everybody!" point, but what you need to understand is that for Fleck and I at least, we've been playing this for about five years. There was a break, yes, but still, the idea is old. We're trying to make changes because you can only do a "everything is the same" post so long before you're tired of writing it. We created Chaos/Cosmos to provide a new atmosphere for the world, and while some ideas were tried out and failed (like the allegiances stuff, which was officially dropped a few months ago), we're keeping with the main idea because it has the potential to be a good plot. Currently, like Count was saying, we DO have plot-progressing ideas set up. I'm in charge of them as a quest master, but all I have planned out are a few "do this and this will happen" results, but it's up to everybody else to figure out what the "do this" is. And right now, Count is the only one who has done anything. I think MY problem so far has been that we're not SHOWINg this very well. You have to know to click those old links in the "Current Events" section to find what's been going on, and I'm still brainstorming ways to keep this updated. I have an idea for that, but I'll get to that in a minute. What I'm saying though is that we have the potential to drive plot, which also creates inspiration, which creates posts, but we need people to see that there's SOMETHING going on. And as a quick aside to Skullboy, The Arena has been the same for quite a while. The problem I think a lot of people had was that a few people never understood how it worked. The only recent tweaks have been some new accessories added and those level-up packages. Other than that, it's the same. My only FUTURE tweak planned is to make the status-prevention accessories actually PREVENT statuses. I recently figured out how I could program that, so I'll factor that in. Things like the abilities-issue that Cid was having recently was just that I apparently didn't make the AP process clear enough. I'm working on conveying that through some quick tutorials, but I haven't had the time to make very many. If you're curious though, this is one: arena.goatpen.org/images/ap_tutorial1.gif (it's an animated gif, so it will start moving after a few seconds). =============And now for my big idea============= That tutorial inspired an idea I was thinking of speaking to Count and Skullboy about privately, but hell, may as well put it all out there! I'm thinking that maybe Mallboro Maniacs will be employed to help mini-games as well as plot. I've always written MMs to keep people updated on a large-scale plot point, but I think we could maybe take the magazine even more central. It's up to Skullboy and Count, but I was thinking that maybe Locke could write about the current events and be a full-fledged reporter in that regard. What you'd do is basically read through all of those "Calamity" "Prosperity" "Northern Ruins" "Southern Ruins" and even some Hunt stuff and more, then write an article summarizing things. Because at a certain point, people don't want to read 500 replies to know what's going on. But if they could read a couple paragraphs, that could be cool. So then all we'd have to do is after something happens on certain threads, Locke can write about it (with Skullboy improvising some details in as well, since as I said, I have the current plot set up for a user-defined plot), post up a Mallboro Maniacs (with his own name like Current Mallboro or something), then hit "Post a Comment" on the thread he used to write that up to kind of be a cutoff. So he can post a "All previous entries have been summarized in Current Mallboro: Volume 3." This way, people can jump into the plot at that point without reading a million things to catch up. Count could do the same with Ellone, up to him, but I think Count is my right-hand man when it comes to mini-games, so it might be fun to have him write up some tutorials for those. Something that explains in few words (or at least fun context) how things like Level-up Packages and AP and BP work with The Arena packages. Not only that, but he can write up interviews for say, Ba'Gamnan (though I may drop him, but I'll have SOME character at The Arena at all times) about more specifics on how abilities work. Some sort of "Today's article: why the hell does Chakra suck when Selphie uses it, but kick ass when Loz uses it!" and there'll be some in-character (though very fourth-wally) discussion about how it's based on your strength stat. Something like that. I might convert EoM Cafe into a strict magazine company in the mall (though it's not far from that already, but it seems central to the "bakery" idea right now) to focus more on these articles. And in the same regard, I'd be willing to "hire" more player-characters so that other players can write articles as well, if they'd like to. I think the magazine is a good way to really promote the plot, which promotes posts, which promotes fun, which promotes love, which promotes peace, which promotes love and peace! *Vash stance* ============End of big idea============ And finally, blitzball. I think we all really like blitzball to be going on, but there is DEFINITELY a focus on it when it happens. Pretty much all anybody says is "blitzball blitzball!" like some sort of Pokemon (which would, of course, be the Blitzball pokemon "blitz blitz?" "Ball! Blitz blitz ball!"). Which is fine for a while, but personally, I think we could do with shrinking the league. Maybe to an 8-team maximum or something. Or maybe an "each player only gets to captain one team" thing. I'm not sure, but this is mostly just me looking out for Count. It takes quite some time to update things, since I'm not the best programmer. Thank Bob I figured out how to work the updates into a word document, eh Count? No more compiling for you! But still, it takes time. Arena does, too, hence the changes that I've made. They've mostly all been for simplicity's sake. But I really leave all that up to Count. I just suggested the really small league because it'd be easier for Count. If he can handle the big craziness, then I think we should tie him to a computer and make him give us some blitzzzzzzz! Anyway, to wrap this up (directing this mostly toward Skullboy), we (especially me and mostly Fleck) want to post more, but we've done it too long. As he said, we're a sitcom that's gone on 4 seasons too long. Something needs to change so that we don't just keep churning out the same old penis jokes.
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Post by bloodfestbutterfly on Nov 29, 2010 13:25:26 GMT -8
Frankly, a massive overhaul doesn't sound appealing to me at all. Count's right in the thought that it's slumpage here, but I'm of the opinion that over-complicating the system is just gonna dissuade me.
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Post by Fleck on Nov 29, 2010 15:16:51 GMT -8
I don't think anyone's really suggesting a massive overhaul, even if it seems like we are. Mostly, Bob and I are just looking for new territory to explore in a five-year-old idea. I don't want to get away from the core concept of Mallboro but consider, the core concept of Mallboro is "Sephiroth owns a bookstore now and Squall works there!" and how long can you post about working in a mall before it starts feeling like actual work? I know for me, there was a long stretch where I was posting because I felt obligated to, not because I wanted to. We can post every night until our computers explode, but if no one's having fun then really it's just a job we don't get paid for.
So I guess we should rephrase the question. What would you guys like to do that sounds fun? Something not too complicated, but big enough for us to build on, so that the idea doesn't up and die after two weeks. That's really the problem, I think. We can't seem to strike that balance.
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Post by Bob on Nov 29, 2010 15:45:55 GMT -8
Yeah, we're kind of casually suggesting a massive overhaul, but definitely looking for a better solution than that. I've been in that "obligated to post, not for fun" situation before, too. And that's kind of where I'm at now. The only thing I can think of doing for post-inspiration is pursuing my own plot, but I really can't since I know where it's going, so my guys are mostly around to join the quests and be led around (like when Selphie followed Gray to Prosperity).
My thing is that I want to keep Mallboro intact because I know some people really like the mall, but it's become too complacent. Everybody is working where they want. There hasn't been any job swapping, no new stores, no anything new. And I'm not saying that people need to change their jobs or anything, but just that I don't know what to post about. And I think a lot of us are in that boat, hence the lack of posts. And honestly, I can just keep churning out Arena Hunts and such, and I likely will do something similar, but that doesn't help most players.
The biggest change I think we could make is doing away with weekly updates. Instead of a weekly lol that nobody can reply to, make something that people need to think about and try to fix. Hard to do in weekly journals, but most weekly events have turned into "Great, a week with no lips. Can't wait for Sunday." Or a week with no hands where nobody can type, so everybody posts as if they had stumps for hands. "zx .,kxdZm,l" kinda stuff. That's why I'm liking the idea of kinda breaking up Mallboro into an RPG and an RP. We can have an event and people of the mall (the RP) suffer from it, meanwhile the heroes (the RPG) go out and save it, Arena-style! And the event isn't over until victory is achieved.
I'm not thinking over-complicating at this point. In fact, it's more the opposite. I'm wanting to shrink things down. That's part of why I like simplifying Apartments into only player-characters and only one model available. Maybe....hrm....I have an idea for an update. It might be fun, but some might be upset (can't think of anybody in particular that would be though....). Maybe I'll just do it!
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Post by seflask on Nov 29, 2010 15:46:41 GMT -8
Fleck, if all or even some of these ideas went through, it would be a massive overhaul for some of us since it would require too much change at once, especially for the serial posters.
If any of these suggested changes go into place, I suggest only adding one or two at a time instead of the cluster at the beginning of the year. This will give us more time to evaluate and get used to anything new instead of throwing both the player and characters in a panic instead of just the characters.
Bob: Finding a way to make the current quests and outside the mall events to be more noticeable and easier to find would help a lot. I've actually skipped posting on some days just so I won't bump the important stuff to page 2. Besides, who wants to see a page of nothing but Locke, Faris, and Cid?
The best thing to do might be to have two sets of events going on: One for the non-mall events (like the war and mini games, including blitz ball and arena) and one for the in mall events that some people prefer. Both need the same amount of attention though. I have no problems with the quests (I'll get to them once I remember how to make characters for them) but I also like the weekly events. We need balance.
If I ever made anyone feel like posting was an obligation, especially last year, then I apologize. It's felt like an obligation from time to time for me too, but I've also realized that the RP can be a great creative writing exercise.
I also apologize for helping to create the anti-social atmosphere in the RP. I've been a bit too paranoid about people doing things with my characters that I wouldn't have them (the characters) do and it's rubbed off on everyone else in some way. That, and I think many of us are somewhat anti-social by nature. I'm not and I've tried to not make my characters that way, though they may seem like they are anti-social.
Oh, and I have no problem with Locke doing "serious" reporting as long as he can still do some of his more usual kind as well.
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Post by Bob on Nov 29, 2010 16:49:04 GMT -8
Yeah, I'm linking all important things under the Current Events page, so don't worry about posting too much. The issue is mostly that people can't see if there's an update to any of those areas without clicking them and reading them. . . . But also, if you just go to the Mallboro page ( community.livejournal.com/mallboro/ ) it typically has all the recent important-stuffs, so yeah, no worries about them falling to a later page. One change I'm thinking we should make is the removal of the dungeon crawler type of quest with set job classes. It's fun, but I think the Arena stuff covers it well enough. Doesn't mean I'll remove it, at least not yet, but I don't think it's needed. And don't worry about the obligation thing, because that's not your fault. It's the RP's fault (and what we're trying to fix). It's not any one person making anybody post, it's that voice inside all of our heads that's saying "y'know, you're part of this RP, why haven't you posted in a long time? Screw lack of inspiration! We all have the same inspiration!" And the anti-social thing, yeah, that's kind of all of us. Problem is, a lot of us picked characters that don't socialize. So asking them to socialize would be asking them to be out of character. But...meh, we'll see. Yeah, he can still do his normal kind of reporting. Also, while his source would be serious, you wouldn't have to do serious-serious reporting. We all like to read the funny, so adding a funny twist to current updates would be preferred by at LEAST me. Basic idea though is that like, somebody could write up a report about the Prosperity event, where Gray and Selphie found the boy claiming to know about the resistance, but he made them fight a robot that kicked their asses (Seph's, too, because he came in to help). But I think that aside from Count and I, nobody even really knew about the current GUARDIAN situation, so that's why I think some "serious" reporting could be helpful. It's a talking point that nobody's talking about! Not even Selphie! So if Locke made the occasional "Gray led an expedition to find the rebellion and got his ass handed to him by a giant robot" post, I think more people would be interested by what's going on, because I'm pretty sure most people think NOTHING is going on right now, which is very false.
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Post by bloodfestbutterfly on Nov 29, 2010 20:08:10 GMT -8
*still hesitant* Well, okay... I definitely like the RP more that the RPG, but what the hell, I'll go with it as best I can.
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Post by Bob on Nov 29, 2010 20:11:32 GMT -8
Heh, well, what I'm trying to do is make it so that you don't have to settle for the RPG stuff. You can still do the RP stuff, I'm just thinking that maybe there will be certain characters that will do all the RPG goodness while some remain at the mall and RP.
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Post by bloodfestbutterfly on Nov 29, 2010 20:14:34 GMT -8
Appreciated!
But...I don't want to live with people!
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