HMD;; April 2011

[capemods]

FIRST OFF: INTERNET DRAMA AND YOU! And if this is your first round, you might want to take a look at HOW TO GIVE AND TAKE CRITICISM. Given those a read?

Good. Now let's start.

✖ HOWS MY DRIVING?✖

Comments

[anonymous]

this is for the whole team in general, which is why I didn't go to one specific inbox, but

it feels like the mods have generally given up on driving the game forward. There's no storyline or overarching plot anymore, and even Lachesis has been pretty much dropped as a useful NPC. She hasn't done anything since begging for help in the worldbuild plot almost a year ago. Aside from worldbuilding, has there even been a mod-run gamewide plot since then?

the game has become stagnant...not just lack of activity on the part of players who can get busy this time of year, but overall. There's nothing to do besides slice-of-life play in between waiting for Jesse to have a plot, and are we really going to wait for him to plot something every single time? His plots are amazing but I'm afraid of burning him out. the last game-wide plot brainstorming post was in August, and so little came out of it. Weren't there going to be more powerswap and time/AU swap plots in the meantime? I miss gamewide plots like burning. I miss Lachesis messing with everyone. Most of all, I miss the sense that there was something to do besides just exist. With the HIVE gone and Lachesis no longer actively participating in the world, there's nothing for superheroes to aspire to.

Player-plots are all well and good, but they're few and can be far-between. And they tend to lack the sense of urgency that a mod-run plot can bring simply by being mod-run, aka something you can't ignore even if your character isn't actively participating. The game has no plot anymore and I'd love to see that change rather than jump ship for greener pastures. Since, well, there really aren't any. :/ I love this game and I love being a part of it, but it's fallen on stagnant times and I'd rather see that change than give up.

thanks for listening.

[anonymous]

Anon, are you me? These are almost exactly my thoughts. Thank you for putting them better than I could.

[artoni]

Seconding the idea of Plotbox.

[anonymous]

There really hasn't been many openings for non-hero characters to make that upgrade, and no incentive. It's all well and good to OoCly want your character to start heroing, but there needs to be something IC to get them going. When there was the HIVE invasion, there was an opportunity for that bridge to be gaped, but that sort of plot has been pretty rare. It would be really awesome if there could be more plots like that, especially mod driven ones so there could be that push that heroes are actually needed.

[donttasemebro]

That actually sounds really cool and I agree with this comment wholesale \o/

[hotforbabyleg]

Obviously it needs to be run by the other (numerous) currently offline mods first, but I really like this idea! The basic concept would be similar to the plot brainstorming post last summer, I suppose, but consolidated in a little modbox so that it's long-running? This is something we'll definitely be considering, like this or in a modified form, and I can't think of any reasons it wouldn't be doable.

[hotforbabyleg]

In fact, this is something we've received other concerns about recently. We've been thinking about the overall arc this game has going and frankly? Your concerns are totally valid. We don't want C&C to become a sandbox, and this is becoming a problem for the game. A problem that we have been discussing, as mods. We're currently working as a team on drafting up more things to add to the overarching plot, and in many ways break through with an entirely new direction for the plot. We're optimistic about this changing in the near future because this is an urgent concern and one that we are taking seriously. There are some backbone flaws to the set-up that we are aware of, and we're fixing those flaws while maintaining the essence of the game we've all come to love.

As for Lachesis' fading visibility as an NPC, I'm commenting on this account because I need to admit that some of that is on me! Zero was the mod who most primarily played her, and now that she's no longer on the modteam, I've taken over writing for her... which I am not very good at, and I've frankly been scared of the prospect of writing her more. In combination with the fact that there has, as you say, just been far less of an overlying modplot in the last year or so, this has lead to her fading into the background. I love Lachesis, and she needs to be put into play more, so I'm just going to have to bite the bullet on a personal level and plan out ways to get her more involved in the City--such as a time, AU, or powerswap plot, which we do plan on doing soon--or something similar with a new twist! Given the plot calender, which is pretty swamped for May, this probably won't be feasible until June, but we definitely don't want you guys to think we're not also paying attention to this and working to get it fixed--and it's not like there aren't smaller ways to get the momentum of the game back up! Shadow Girls posts come to mind, and we encourage players who want a layer of foreshadowing to their player plots to utilize them--which is something we could make a post on their journal for and link to in the directory, now that I think about it!

tl;dr anon you are right and we're working on it, but although that hopefully means things will change soon, it's not currently manifesting itself, and we appreciate both the fact that you and others have brought this to us and your patience as we change things.

[anonymous]

as long as you guys are aware of it and working on it, that's a step in the right direction.

is there any reason (besides time or something mundane like that) that Zero can't be tapped to write Lachesis once in a while? Otherwise I'm sure you'll do fine, leah. :)

[anonymous]

as long as you guys are aware of it and working on it, that's a step in the right direction.

is there any reason (besides time or something mundane like that) that Zero can't be tapped to write Lachesis once in a while? Otherwise I'm sure you'll do fine, leah. :)

[hotforbabyleg]

That was actually something I thought of while writing the response, and if she weren't currently be-hiatused I would be popping the question, like, now. Regardless, I don't want to put all the pressure on her more experienced shoulders, so either way brushing up more on her and kicking the stagefright is something I need to work on! I'm sure it'll eventually get easier.

[artoni]

KICK IT LIKE A SOCCER BALL