Update → Site Status + Services
Hello all! Today's update is about the TCG in general. You may or may not be happy with these news, depending on how you see it but after thinking long and hard, I've come to these decisions!
First Masteries: As of a few days, Yingyu and I have come to a decision that First Masteries will no longer be an official service. I originally thought of giving the camera as an extra bonus for working hard to master a deck first but it seems that all it has done has caused problems. Players have asked others to hold off on verifying masteries just so they could master it first, some players have taken to editing the badges themselves without permission if they didn't like it, logs and cards are missing from card posts due to the rush of being the first master, among other things and I didn't want any of that to happen. When I started this TCG, I wanted it to be fun and not a place where people would take advantage of services and other things just to one-up or spit another player. Compeition is fine and can be fun, but when you're doing it to intentionally hurt someone when say, you know they really love that character and you think they're okay but try to finish it first because you don't like that player, it's not nice at all and personally, I don't want players like that in my TCG.
With that said, First Masteries will now be an optional side thing, with no rewards besides a customized first mastery badge that will still use the original template I made. With this change, Yingyu will also be stepping down from running this service and a new mod (probably someone from the existing staff, sorry!) will be chosen for it.
Film Shop: I'm stepping down for this for now and Gil (barnaby) has offered to take over for me again, so if you see her responding to your purchases instead of me don't be alarmed! I'm also sorry to those who have waited 1+ days for their purchases! ;____;
General Site News: And for the second part of this update, I've decided that a week after this upcoming release, I will be closing this TCG down to re-evaluate and re-do many things. As the TCG is now, I am just satisfied with it at all due to it being so unorganized and rushed. I can't keep up with and run a Live Journal based TCG, so when I re-open this TCG it will most likely be moved to the regular website we already have. It's unknown at this moment whether I will keep the current cards and + topic for this TCG because although I don't want everyone to lose their hard earned cards and I do like the card template, I really like the new one I've been playing around with more. I also think that if I narrow down the subject for the TCG instead of something general like "characters from anime, manga, and video games" that it'll be easier to manage. I also have a lot of ideas for moving the TCG to a web site that I will add in addition to the original ideas I had for this Live Journal TCG. The TCG will stay with the same name because it took me forever to already figure out the name in the first place, though! So no confusion there...
Basically, thing of this past 1-2 months as a Beta version of the TCG and once I re-open it, it will hopefully be the real and better version! So I apologize to all the 45+ members the TCG has somehow accumulated for this sudden decision, but I am just mentally exhausted from running this and although it hasn't been long since Photos first opened, I think I have more information and a bit more experience when I re-open it. I still can't figure out how I even got past 10 Members in this TCG, so I really hope you all will follow Photos when we make the switch. If not, I totally understand too because I know some people don't like the idea of website TCGs and prefer LJ TCGs (maybe for the more connected community type feel?).
After I close this down, I will still keep up a front page on the main hosted site (http://www.photographs.moon-jewel.net) with running updates + list on the site's status, if you're interested in that. I'll also put up a chatbox for anyone to talk in :) And as of right now, there is no set date for the re-open, but I might have another pre-join event or some sort of event to commemorate the re-open.
I hope you guys understand where I'm coming from with this because I want nothing more for this TCG than for it to be awesome and fun, and something I'm proud of which I think will be achievable if I follow through on this plan.
Again, we will still go through with the release! Thanks, everyone<3
//EDIT: It seems that no one is happy, which I expected so I think maybe I will hand this TCG over. I don't want to hand it over to just anyone, but someone who will do a better job than I obviously did. I don't think running a Live Journal TCG is right for me, but I want to try running a website TCG to see what happens. So if you want to take this over, PM me.
First Masteries: As of a few days, Yingyu and I have come to a decision that First Masteries will no longer be an official service. I originally thought of giving the camera as an extra bonus for working hard to master a deck first but it seems that all it has done has caused problems. Players have asked others to hold off on verifying masteries just so they could master it first, some players have taken to editing the badges themselves without permission if they didn't like it, logs and cards are missing from card posts due to the rush of being the first master, among other things and I didn't want any of that to happen. When I started this TCG, I wanted it to be fun and not a place where people would take advantage of services and other things just to one-up or spit another player. Compeition is fine and can be fun, but when you're doing it to intentionally hurt someone when say, you know they really love that character and you think they're okay but try to finish it first because you don't like that player, it's not nice at all and personally, I don't want players like that in my TCG.
With that said, First Masteries will now be an optional side thing, with no rewards besides a customized first mastery badge that will still use the original template I made. With this change, Yingyu will also be stepping down from running this service and a new mod (probably someone from the existing staff, sorry!) will be chosen for it.
Film Shop: I'm stepping down for this for now and Gil (barnaby) has offered to take over for me again, so if you see her responding to your purchases instead of me don't be alarmed! I'm also sorry to those who have waited 1+ days for their purchases! ;____;
General Site News: And for the second part of this update, I've decided that a week after this upcoming release, I will be closing this TCG down to re-evaluate and re-do many things. As the TCG is now, I am just satisfied with it at all due to it being so unorganized and rushed. I can't keep up with and run a Live Journal based TCG, so when I re-open this TCG it will most likely be moved to the regular website we already have. It's unknown at this moment whether I will keep the current cards and + topic for this TCG because although I don't want everyone to lose their hard earned cards and I do like the card template, I really like the new one I've been playing around with more. I also think that if I narrow down the subject for the TCG instead of something general like "characters from anime, manga, and video games" that it'll be easier to manage. I also have a lot of ideas for moving the TCG to a web site that I will add in addition to the original ideas I had for this Live Journal TCG. The TCG will stay with the same name because it took me forever to already figure out the name in the first place, though! So no confusion there...
Basically, thing of this past 1-2 months as a Beta version of the TCG and once I re-open it, it will hopefully be the real and better version! So I apologize to all the 45+ members the TCG has somehow accumulated for this sudden decision, but I am just mentally exhausted from running this and although it hasn't been long since Photos first opened, I think I have more information and a bit more experience when I re-open it. I still can't figure out how I even got past 10 Members in this TCG, so I really hope you all will follow Photos when we make the switch. If not, I totally understand too because I know some people don't like the idea of website TCGs and prefer LJ TCGs (maybe for the more connected community type feel?).
After I close this down, I will still keep up a front page on the main hosted site (http://www.photographs.moon-jewel.net) with running updates + list on the site's status, if you're interested in that. I'll also put up a chatbox for anyone to talk in :) And as of right now, there is no set date for the re-open, but I might have another pre-join event or some sort of event to commemorate the re-open.
I hope you guys understand where I'm coming from with this because I want nothing more for this TCG than for it to be awesome and fun, and something I'm proud of which I think will be achievable if I follow through on this plan.
Again, we will still go through with the release! Thanks, everyone<3
//EDIT: It seems that no one is happy, which I expected so I think maybe I will hand this TCG over. I don't want to hand it over to just anyone, but someone who will do a better job than I obviously did. I don't think running a Live Journal TCG is right for me, but I want to try running a website TCG to see what happens. So if you want to take this over, PM me.