Tweaking of Rules-Set-Stuff
As some of you may or may not know, I've been a little discouraged lately by the recent spate of character turn-over here at the game.
The result of this has been research. I've spent the last two weeks looking at lots of other games 'out there', as well as engaging in AIM conversation with other players, and even applying for a few games, myself, just to see what was what. I have found a number of interesting things, all of which helped me feel much better and more focused and content with how we choose to run Fiery Inception.
1. Most 'big' games with 'lots' of characters have equal or fewer actual players than we do - they simply have players who play lots of characters at once - some of whom play upwards of ten to twelve characters at a time!
2. Most of the posts found in these games when skimming through are scarcely a paragraph or less. Many, particularly the GJ-based games where many icons are allowed, rely heavily on the icon-image to 'demonstrate' how the character is looking/thinking/feeling, rather than writing it out. Indeed, some of the players involved told me, directly, that writing descriptions was 'boring'.
3. The majority of the players range in age from 16 to 19, with mid-20's being considered the 'older' players of the games.
4. The players, themselves, neither want nor expect to be involved in a game longer than 4-6 months. They freely admit to 'losing the muse' within that time, and rarely stay 'interested' in a game longer than that period.
5. The quality of writing, given the above, is unsurprisingly fairly mediocre. Not awful, by any means, and people are clearly having fun, which is the main point to any game, but certainly not up to our writing standards here at Fiery Inception.
6. By far the majority of the focus of these games is 'shipping' - the standard almost-high-school-ish-feel of 'who likes who', and 'do you think he likes me' and 'don't tell him I like him', and/or borders on crack and fluff in some other extent.
So.
The conclusions I have made from all this is that I do not want to change or diminish the standards we have here at Fiery Inception. Every game has different focuses, different pros and cons, and no game can hope to be 'perfect'.
Our 'good' players, our 'core' players all meet and exceed those standards and have come to expect in our game. What will change is the targeting of my advertising runs, and also a few relatively minor tweaks of our rules and application in order to make our focus and intent more clear for this game, so as not to attract the short-term sorts of players.
This is not meant to be derrogatory toward other gaming formats and styles. I have absolutely nothing against that choice and that playing style. It is simply different than our choice and focus, HERE, and to admit and encourage those sorts of character applications simply makes us vulnerable to the kind of turn-over we have suffered recently.
I just wanted to share these findings with you all, and let you know our continuing plans. We will continue to grow and develop our plots and story-lines as we have always done. We will get 'world plots' out there at regular intervals, modified as necessary by what our players seem to be wanting to do and as the interest is present for this or that story-line. No matter what happens or who comes-and-goes, JL, Adrianne and I are here for the long-term and will continue to play in and run the game for anyone who is here playing with us. *grin*
The thing is, I was honestly taking this recent spate of turn-over quite personally. Additionally, every time someone complains that they are 'bored' or that they have 'nothing to do', I take it as a sign of personal failure - this is my own hang-up and not anyone else's, I realise, but there you are.
For my own sanity sake, I am quite done trying to push-and-pull people into plots and activity in the game. The plots are here. The potential is here. People who do not play and meet activity requirements will be removed as per our game-rules, and our game will continue to focus on the high-quality, creative, pro-active writers and players who know what they want to do with their characters and have a plan to get there. Personal plots can be done at your own pace-and-time. Plots that affect the broad-game will need to have a committed start-and-end date, and players involved will be held accountable to hold to their commitments.
I love you guys. I love Fiery Inception. I am totally committed to game health, growth and fun. Please read the revised and up-dated Game Rules so we are all on the same 'page', and happy playing!
Cheers!
Lisa