(Untitled)

[fanfare]

Important Post and Discussion Opportunity
re: HMD, hostility and anonymous

At first this was going to be another mod post written from the sometimes-distant "we" that makes up the mod team, but I had a change of heart when I began to write it. Instead, I am posting this as a personal appeal, written as a mun, as a mod, and most importantly, as

Comments

[save_the_souls]

thank you for posting it. It was very well worded and brought up a lot of good points.

Mulling over the whole newbie welcome thing (since I've certainly been guilty of not replying to intro posts out of tiredness of repeating the same explanation) - maybe a good compromise is that either some character or some IC welcoming committee (they have existed in the past!) could make pamphlets that explains the basics about Paradisa and put them in every empty room? That way people have the OPTION of having their character read that (or be yelled at to read it by someone like Asuka whose voice I can hear right now...) instead of going through the intro thing (or they can use the pamphlet to have characters notice things that are not necessarily covered by the mun doing the introduction that the new mun/character might react more heavily too). That way their intro and the comments that go on can vary a bit more than someone lost and confused (or maybe some pamphlets have errors where they are as badly written as a VCR manual, WHO KNOWS).

And if people still want to do the Paradisa 101 talk, their character can easily be like "WHY CAN"T YOU JUST EXPLAIN IT TO ME?! THIS PAMPHLET LOOKS LONG AND DOESN'T HAVE EXPLOSIONS AND YOU'RE RIGHT THERE DISEMBODIED VOICE SO JUST EXPLAIN TO ME OKAY D:"

Plus that might fix the whole issue of those characters who are always like "I read the journal and got all the info before making my first post". Since this always confuses me since...each page is an entry so that would be about...oh 48,265 pages with no table of contents or markers to where the paradisa info is..../scratches chin

IDK, good idea/bad idea/gtfo?

[continuing]

Asuka would definitely yell at everyone to read and suddenly sound 80% more German.

I know an IC welcome committee has been brought up elsewhere (I think it was Boobs!) and I'm not sure if anyone's ever mentioned it before, but there can maybe be a monthly little HEY EVERYONE WHO LANDED HERE THIS MONTH, LET'S HAVE A LITTLE PARTY. Nothing huge, and it could just be a little party post (or IC meme sort of thing... WHAT'S YOUR NAME? FAVORITE COLOR? etc thing) that a welcoming committee member could toss up at the end of the month for some mingling, sort of like the host club stuff. There are lots of IC possibilities with this!

Committee members could drag/beg antisocial characters to show up at least once to get some CR rolling B(

[randomtology]

sadfjksdkljf WELCOME TO PARADISA, HAVE AN ANGRY GERMAN GIRL TELLING YOU TO READ THE MANUAL.

Oh yeah I've heard talk of it going on in chat sometimes! I know that muns in the past did it too but it tended to fade off as the muns dropped or whatnot. BUT I THINK THAT COULD BE COOL TOO. Something to make the newbies able to interact with people. I JUST WISH MY CHARACTERS WERE THE WELCOMING/SOCIALLY SKILLED TYPE.

And now I must flee...to German class. IRONY.

[continuing]

LEARN OF ASUKA'S PEOPLE.

Yeah, like Jenn said below it'd be hard to keep going because of reasons like that. Unless it was just a few characters making a blood pact to be friendly and awesome sidugbdsg. There is definitely some solution or innovation way in here somewhere B|

HAVE A GOOD TIME IN CLASS :3

[continuing]

Kayla has a good point about being a burden on muns/characters (especially if we have an influx) to hit up every post. I think in that case the monthly party post might be more viable, since anyone can toss it up and put up a few mingling sections.

And there's always Lois' info post too, though I imagine if someone tossed that at me right when I got here I would cry and shake in a corner. :>

[continuing]

HEY KARA ONCE YOU'RE NOT DEAD AND STUFF... ;~;

[continuing]

And pries Steph off of her.

[isthenight]

... So is it bad that I'm tempted to have a t-shirt show up in her closet while she's dead. She can wear it on her first day back. 'Cause it would have something written on it.

'I WAS KILLED BY A PISSED OFF EGYPTIAN GODDESS AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS T-SHIRT.'

[cricketycricket]

I love the idea of having a new residents party on a regular basis! LOVE it!

[fanfare]

I don't think this is necessarily a terrible idea, but I don't think it's a good one either.

Characters have made "welcome to Paradisa" sheets before but they never stick, and this solution is basically like saying "to solve the problem of people feeling unwelcome, we'll have them just learn about Paradisa themselves without having to talk to other people about it." Talking to others upon arrival is a lot more comforting/friendly/informative than getting it from a piece of paper, not to mention it opens up the first steps of CR.

It's nice as an option, but I can't see it as being one that sticks, just because of how impersonal it is. It's usually easier for new muns to learn about Paradisa as their characters do, as well.

1/2 THE INTRO IS JUST THAT LONG.

[save_the_souls]

I WAS IN GERMAN CLASS, THUS WHY THIS IS LATE.

As for the pamphlet, it's mostly the first idea that popped into my head because I know the number one thing I would tend to dread when commenting on an intro post was not the fact of starting new CR (in fact I'm usually excited for that!) but the fact that I have to do the information spiel (and I've heard others say the same) . And I dread that part so much that sometimes I'm guilty of either hitting them up the second post or waiting until someone else does the info piece (and again I know others have done that). And there are several problems for both sides:

1. There's a lot of information: A "brief yet thorough" introduction goes like this: Welcome to Paradisa! There should be a journal in your room where my voice is coming from. This journal is used as a communicator for all residents within the castle. If you can also use it to filter to other people, groups of people or away from people. Back to topic, Paradisa is a different world from your own. People from many different worlds and times get brought here through means that we don't know, and we don't know why we get brought here. When a person gets brought here, they lose something. This can be an item, an ability, a memory, a sense or anything else that a person usually considers important. There are also temporary losses that are caused by the castle that can last a few days to a month, and can be any sort of thing from turning into an animal or going evil and slaughtering everything. Post a moving image if you have read this far. If a person is to die, they will return within two weeks and Paradisa can bring people here who were dead in your world. If people seem to remember you but you got no idea who they are, it is possible that you were here before! Because you see people here can get sent home at a moment's notice to the exact moment that they left and have their memories wiped of this place. There's no telling when this will happen and yet again we don't know of any way out besides that one. The stay here can be anywhere from a couple months to many years. Say a few lines from the first song that pops up in your head if you have made it this far. The room that you presumably woke up in is your room for your stay in Paradisa, the room number is on the door along with your name if you get lost. There's a city about ten minutes from here, and if you go far enough out there is the Dead Zone where powers and technology does not work. The castle is also prone to having "world changes" where the complete setting will change to places like New York. Invasions from zombies or aliens or demons can happen, and there are residents that are quite dangerous, but don't worry we got plenty of heroes too! The castle (the thing we blame for everything) is a rather cruel structure, but not without perks. While you stay in the castle, there are ghosts that will cater to your needs and you can wish for many things from the castle itself (except for weapons, live creatures and large items). You cannot wish for things out in the city, and the townspeople use a currency called caiso. There is a clinic and bar on the second floor and the kitchen is on first floor. Can you believe I left things out?
And sure people can leave things out (and do no surprise), but it tends reading like a syllabus after a bit which is neither fun for the new player or the old player.

[save_the_souls]

2. Tour guide syndrome: Remember those students at orientation for whatever school you went to that said you could always contact them? Do you remember NOT doing that? I often find that the person who gets stuck with the explaining will go through the syllabus and then the new character will...not have much to say to them after that or will be like "ok cool thx /runs off to find friends" and you'll be lucky if you see them again. Since after all WHAT do you say to a tour guide? Not a whole lot. It gets very discouraging for muns who are excited about potential CR to have that happen to them (believe me, i've been there). It's usually the intro posts that I comment to where I don't HAVE To do the information dump that I get people with lasting CR with, because we find other topics to talk about that's more interesting for the older character AND the new character sees that old character as more than a walking brochure.

3. Characters don't get a chance to talk to Jerks: Asuka (I pick up on Fudgey a lot) will never give the Info Dump to a new person. She isn't that nice or patient. Teresa wouldn't either. That leaves Fudgey with only Stephanie who would be willing to give the newbies the tour. This causes Stephanie get a very disproportionate amount of Fudgey's new CR and Asuka and Teresa amount of new CR suffers for this. This sucks for new players as well since maybe they really want to talk to Teresa and Asuka!

And there's other issues too that's problematic for both sides too.

Idk I don't think that the pamphlet is the only solution (I definitely see it's downsides and I'm totally open to something else!) but I feel like...something needs to change to make both sides happy and not have things go back to how they were before in a week once the guilt wears off like it has in the past. SINCE I CAN SEE BOTH SIDES OF THE ISSUE AND THEY BOTH GOT VALID POINTS.

[cloakand_danger]

All the cool kids keep enthusiasm rationed
Right down to the last explosive ounce
But I'd rather indulge my many passions
Even if my squaritude's a little too pronounced

...Instructions aside, I totally agree with this, and unfortunately, I really can't think of a way around it. I'm open to new ideas, but this post pretty much encapsulates my feelings on the matter as well.

In addition, although I can get Yuan to tag to newcomers sometimes, even ones he doesn't know, I almost feel bad for the ones who get him as their first and possibly only introduction, because he's really bad at taking the time to explain things all the way, and I'm sure he's not the only character like that. There are undoubtedly others who may try to do the explanation, but simply aren't good at it, in one way or another, and that too can really throw a newcomer off.