Mod Announcement

[rubycitymods]

Hi there folks!

We'd like to come to you with a proposal to make a change in the activity check guidelines. Don't panic! This is by no means something that will happen, only what might happen if it's met with general approval by the game's players.

Up until now, the activity checks have required either a thread of fifteen comments total, or a log/post with fifteen comments total within it.

Double activity has either been one thread of thirty comments, two threads with fifteen comments, a log/post with thirty comments, or two logs/posts with fifteen comments.

What we are proposing is as follows:

1. Two posts/logs with at least one comment
2. One post/log with at least one comment plus a thread of ten (10) comments total
3. Two threads with fifteen (15) comments overall [To clarify, this is fifteen comments total, we're not going to suddenly ask for thirty!]

Double activity would then be:

1. Three posts/logs with at least one comment
2. Two posts/logs with at least one comment plus a thread of ten (10) comments total OR one post/log with two threads of at least fifteen (15) comments overall.
3. Twenty five (25) comments total spread over two to four threads.

As stated previously, this is not a certain change, and we're bringing this to you before we consider implementing it so that we can answer your questions, hear your concerns, and if it's shown that this isn't going to work, the proposal won't go any further and the activity check guidelines will remain as they are! If there's a good amount of discussion both ways, the decision may be put to a poll, which will be posted using one of the moderator's paid accounts.

Please keep all discussion in this post polite, and if you have a question which you think we may not see, please indicate in the subject line of your comment! Anon is enabled so that everyone feels free to say what's on their mind, but be aware that if this is abused we will withdraw anon commenting.

Thank you for your attention!
The RC Mods.

Comments

[threesecondslate]

You make a good point, but lax as it may be it is still hard to balance out if you had, say 3 or more characters prior to the AC update. Even if it may be adding one more additional post or 15 comments a month, it may still be difficult to keep up with the same characters a person might have had before the update.

I do agree that the way things are now, it's quite easy to just skeeve AC through with minimal effort and then idle out for a month once more, and requiring an additional thread beyond one's own post is an effective way to begin to counter that, but the issue might possibly still be that people will remain largely at the same level of activity, adding only a 15 comment thread with a close friend done in the nic of time to once again pass ac and return next month, though to be honest, the AC raise may be the only way to "filter" out, or so to say, the players that squeeze out AC at the last minutes. This is a problem that plagues all of DWRP, I think, and is the reason character sitters exist in every game, without exception. There's simply no right way to "filter" them out completely, not that I'm saying the behavior should be encouraged in the slightest.

Me saying that "having so many characters" that AC becomes hard to manage, though, doesn't infer directly to the amount, instead having to look at a case personally. Say a player played 3 characters prior to the update, and found it was the best amount that could fit in well with an already busy schedule with RL obligations, such as school, work, and such, and now finds that the game they applied to requiring one sample of AC now requires two, they might have to re-think how many characters they're able to keep around, considering how fickle a person's RP drive can be, and that this is supposed to be a more relaxed game in a hobby supposed to not be stress inducing, rather stress relieving, as hobbies tend to go.

I only mentioned the game HMD as a means of bringing up an issue with a player's conduct, since that's the point of it, in the end. Any other ideas would be nice to have, because personally I think that, despite only having been in the game for shortly over a year, raising AC would betray the easy going nature of the game slightly, and could possibly have more negative outcomes than positive, such as the game losing good players at that cost.

I apologize if I'm being repetitive in regards to my other post or even within this very own, this came out larger than I first intended it to be.

[timidtones]

Yes, it may well be hard for someone to keep up with the same number of characters they had with an increased AC requirement, but I don't necessarily see that as a bad thing. While yes, it's disappointing that they may not be able to play all of the characters they desire to, they would instead be able to focus more on the characters they have a stronger voice for. This leads to increased character development and more in depth and interesting CR because more time is being invested on one character rather than split between one and another or more.

Personally, I would rather have people play less characters and have a lower character count in game with characters interacting more and developing more than having a bunch of characters who don't do much at all just taking up space.

This is especially important in the the example you give in regards to someone having a busy RL. If instead of apping 3 to 5 characters they stick to one or two, they are more able to devote more time to developing meaningful CR past "oh where the hell am i" "it's nice to meet you" "how does this work again?". More often than not most players first month of activity is their intro post, if they're simply going with the minimum required. If they're required to have more proof of AC, they are then encouraged to explore the character more rather than having them step off the train and then be forgotten for a month.

So yes, it probably would cause people to rethink who they're playing in the game and who they really want to keep. I'm not denying that, I am in fact saying that may well be a good thing. There's no point in playing six million characters if you're not really playing them. If someone is actually playing a character beyond the point of the current absolute minimum, I do not think that this change in AC is going to affect them at all.

Also, regarding the HMD. They are a good tool, but unfortunately the game wide HMD at Ruby City is not formatted well for it to be effective. In my opinion, in order for it to be effective several things would need to happen. A) It would need to be monthly, B) it would need to be mandatory in regards to participation for players and mod crit alike, and C) anonymous comments would need to be turned on.

[threesecondslate]

While it's true that people dedicating more of their time to a smaller amount of characters would improve their activity with them, the issue is that this may very well go against some of the player's wishes.

It also holds true that not a very large amount of relentless dedication is needed to make some excellent cr in the game without being extraordinarily active or sacrificing characters! Personally, I'm a bit of a slow RPer, with a mildly busy RL, but between that and the four characters I have in game it has never stopped me from finding some very engaging cr for all of them, as well as personal character development.

Really, the biggest problem with the AC rise would be how it affects players who enjoy their CR and their development at a pace fit to the AC to which they originally subscribed to by applying, since playing at a slower pace doesn't exactly mean that a character is devoid of everything beyond "what am i doing here/how did i get here/where am i" etc etc, and I think that's how most established players feel.

For example, if I suddenly came across something in my RL that would hinder my playing ability and put me at a slower pace, I'd be able to keep up should the AC maintain itself, but were it to rise, I'd hate to feel like I'd have to drop someone to keep up with the game, which is intended to be slow paced to begin with.

The thing is though, the rise of AC in order to bolster activity and CR is sort of odd, in my opinion. If people are in this hobby, it should be because they enjoy writing actively with other people and developing their characters within the setting on their own volition, which is why they wrote an app for the character in the first place. Having to force people to do what they signed up voluntarily to do in the first place seems sort of weird, personally, since the only reason the people who would post and let their characters be forgotten for a month would get more cr/development would be because they're being forced to, and not out of their own will as it should be in the first place.

Of course, logic implies that these people shouldn't be playing in the first place, but that's also a core issue with character sitters, because there's no way to push them out of the game except with methods that affect the entire game such as raising AC, which, I think, would certainly reduce their population, but at what cost? I feel like the possible loss of good players isn't worth the disposal of people who are just sitting there waiting for ac to come and fumble around for five minutes before scraping something up to pass. It's certainly true they're an unwelcome presence, but in the end their existence is really only consequential should people want to play said character/want CR with said character, which, actually, is quite a common thing if the character in question is well known.

I don't know what much else to add, except that I see both sides of the ordeal, and don't really personally want to see AC being raised in an otherwise slow and relaxed game for the sake of giving a push to not very active people who don't do much all month until it's activity check time, not when many of the players play here because it's simply that, it's relaxed and chill, so they can just play in a relaxed form without much stress, (while it is true that the new activity is not out of this world, but I approached that in a previous response) and that it'd be not so nice if regular players were affected by the rise not as a motivator, but more as a necessity that previously came much in a much easier and accessible manner fit of a slow game such as Ruby City.

[timidtones]

First, the moderators are not going to arbitrarily increase the AC unless it does prove to be what the community's majority wants. This has been clearly stated in this very post. Unfortunately the only fair way to go about something like this if there is enough interest is a vote and then going with what the majority decides. That will mean that some people will be unsatisfied with the end result, you cannot please everyone. Ultimately I would be happy with the AC increasing, or even staying the same even though I feel that the increase would be beneficial rather than detrimental.

However I will continue to disagree that increasing it would be a detriment to the game. It would certainly change things -- but Ruby City is not exactly the small slow paced game that it was a year+ ago. It has grown quite a bit larger, and sometimes, like with the way applications have been changed, things need to adjust in order to fit growing pains. It's certainly not a fast or even upper middle paced game, but it's definitely growing and speeding up even on its own.

The applications and activity have already changed once in the past. Originally the game required only samples in order to be approved and had no activity check at all. This was changed once the game had established itself and it was shown that character squatting was an abundant problem. In order to resolve some of these issues the moderators at the time (one of which happened to be me) implemented these changes with the best of the whole in mind. At the time we didn't poll the group, and while that was not the best choice in the end the decision helped the game grow more from its starting point. In this instance at least, if the moderators decide to put forth the idea of an AC change, they plan on polling the populace, as I stated before.

In the case of your example:

" if I suddenly came across something in my RL that would hinder my playing ability and put me at a slower pace, I'd be able to keep up should the AC maintain itself, but were it to rise, I'd hate to feel like I'd have to drop someone to keep up with the game"

I would like to think that in a case like that should you talk to the moderators something could be worked out for you, or anyone else who was having a problem. This is why communicating with moderators is essential no matter what happens to be going on at a game.

I'm not sure why you're so certain so many people will wind up dropping the game over a small increase like this, as it's coming across that you think people will drop off like flies.I also continue to be confused how this particular level activity change is one that suddenly makes the game unrelaxed and stressful. I can see how that would be an argument had the moderators brought forth the suggestion that the AC be 30 comments+ or 3 posts or even more than that. But if you read the AC proposed one of the options is pretty much the same as what we have now, except it's stipulated that the activity be spread out over two threads rather than just one.

3. Two threads with fifteen (15) comments overall

That there is the option I'm talking about specifically. Once again this is less than half a tag a day a month, even with three 4 characters you're essentially required to do two tags a day, but with the requirement that it's over more than just one thread. People who are truly busy could take this option for AC and still manage to pass with the same number of comments they currently do while spreading out their AC at the same time. To me, this implies that the moderators are more concerned about players tagging out than they are with bolstering the number of tags they put out in total. I do not see this as a particular added stress to the players who are looking for a slower pace as it's essentially the same pace, just required that it is spread out a little bit more.

[threesecondslate]

This really goes to show I should read things better before jumping in with unbased opinions, I didn't really notice you could stack up comments from different threads to reach the necessary number!

It really does sort of invalidate most of my concerns, so this AC system does sound like a good change, especially considering it promotes multiple threads instead of one long one, even if it isn't absolutely perfect!