how's my driving?

[seafronted]

It's How is My Driving time! This is completely voluntary and not mandatory, but please consider it!

Rules of the Game;

1. Completely voluntary. Please comment with your nickname in the subject and a list of all your characters. One comment per player, please.
2. Please give constructive criticism in a polite manner! This is pretendy fun times on the

Comments

MOD THREAD

[seafronted]

Re: MOD THREAD

[seafronted]

I have serious concerns over the recent choice in mod. Again, a player with a poor OOC presence has been given a mod position and frustrated many of the players in the game. While Neth does seem incredibly enthusiastic and active - things I do admire - her behavior OOCly is largely immature, self-centered (and I'd like to qualify this with the fact she comes into other people's plurks to do it), frequently tactless, and, quite frankly, obnoxious.

While these behaviors are annoying in a player, they can be overlooked - not something that's really possible with a mod, nor is it desirable. Mods should not make their players want to avoid them.

This is crit for Neth specifically, but I also consider it crit for the mod team in general. This is the second time someone has been given a mod position despite displaying undesirable OOC behavior prior to being made a mod (and showing no improvement afterwards). This, in my opinion, shows repeated poor judgement in mod choice, which is really quite worrying.

Re: MOD THREAD

[nethera]

I apologize if I come across as immature, self-centered, tactless, and obnoxious to you or anyone else. I applied as a mod specifically to focus on more administrative issues rather than player issues, and, while I am perfectly open and willing to answer any questions or concerns a player may have, I will do my best to resolve the issue, regardless of who it is

Re: MOD THREAD

[seafronted]

I'm not going to direct you to the behavior as that would involve linking people's plurks, which is, if I recall correctly, against the rules in this game.

While I understand most of what you've said and thank you for such a reasonably response, I think you should keep in mind that as a mod your behavior reflects on the game as a whole - whether you consider yourself to be in that moment acting as a mod or not. I am not saying you need to stop being yourself, but that you should be aware that you are no longer a completely independent agent.

Saying that other mods can be contacted instead is also all fine and well, but as I personally know a lot of decisions and issues are dealt with by the mod team as a whole, it is not as cut and dry as that.

Re: MOD THREAD

[nethera]

You're allowed to link them to us privately/in the Player Complaints thread! If you're really concerned about a persistent behavioural habit of mine I would welcome it, and I am always open to being contacted privately over AIM or PM as well if anyone ever has concerns about any of my actions

[seafronted]

In addition to what Neth has said above, the number of mod applications we get is a significant factor in our decision. In the last round of mod apps, only two applications were received, including Neth's. In the round before that, only one was received. In both cases, the level of work that goes into maintaining Il Promenade meant that either waiting for more applications or simply electing not to choose any applicants at all was not an option.

If you have any other concerns, please feel free to either respond here or at our mod contact page.

[seafronted]

I had a suspicion that might be the case. I will withdraw that complaint, then.

Re: Pointless Riots and NPC Announcements.

[seafronted]

I want for the players and their characters to actually be able to have an effect on the so-called 'plot' of the game. We only have one example of a direct effect so far, which was the discovery of 'the voice' (which is pitiful all on its own, and felt a lot more like the resistance being tossed a bone for continuing to try and actually do stuff).

The rest of the time we are relegated to constant reactions or doing our own independent stuff within the environment (as long as we don't touch the NPCs or main plot), and any requests made to the mods to directly effect any NPC beyond the everyday citizens is met with stringent denial.

I am confident that there would've been several characters who might be more than happy to get involved in the rioting themselves.

Re: Pointless Riots and NPC Announcements.

[seafronted]

The initial rioting outburst was intended to be only the first of similar incidents to come, and also to show the kind of power the city and guard is still able to exert over the citizens and player characters. This power will come to disintegrate, however, and there will be opportunities for players to have their characters participate in the civil unrest and have a direct effect on plot and the NPCs in the near future.

Even so, we are taking all complaints concerning these recent events into serious consideration for future incidents.

[seafronted]

Sorry for the ridiculous length.

The recent event/announcement/whatever (with the fake Queen) was painfully limiting in a few ways, though one stands out easily. First off, players and characters both have little reason to care if the person ruling the city is secretly not some other person no one ever knew. Secondly, there was no provided outlet for action or response-- or no more than a "you can post here, but there will be no answer" opportunity. And third, and most importantly, the lockdown. Being told "something interesting has happened but you don't get to do anything with it" is just... more than boring. It's disheartening. Many characters would have stayed in during a riot. Others would have gone out, whether to help people or cause their own chaos. But they couldn't-- by godmode rule. And while I can understand why the city's rulers/enforcers might want to contain its newest and most belligerent population... that's not something they should have been capable of

[takhys]

Thank you so much for saying this. I've been writing and revising my own post about these very issues and you've captured it far better than I could.

[seafronted]

As was said above: The initial rioting outburst was intended to be only the first of similar incidents to come, and also to show the kind of power the city and guard is still able to exert over the citizens and player characters. This power will come to disintegrate, however, and there will be opportunities for players to have their characters participate in the civil unrest and have a direct effect on plot and the NPCs in the near future

DA.

[seafronted]

Ok. This? Stop this. Stop simply explaining things away. You (general You) always do this. Shrug off concerns, say it will get better without actually taking responsibility for your mistakes. We see the same issues arise every HMD and you never do anything to make it better. If you continue just glossing over legitimate concerns, the game will not flourish like it should.

Re: DA.

[seafronted]

We're truly sorry if it seems that way, but we are not just shrugging off these concerns. We are taking them into account and have been actively discussing them.

Yes, in retrospect we should have mentioned in the OOC Plot Post that this event was meant to kick off the beginning of something bigger, to make you all aware of it. We should have let you know that this will be the start of something that will provide many opportunities for characters to get more actively involved, though we cannot provide any details. We know what the errors we made with this past plot are and will most certainly not repeat them, so please don't worry

Another Anon

[seafronted]

Discussing is great, but these same issues keep coming up and you keep discussing but never doing anything.

Would it have really damaged the tone of the game if characters had been allowed to participate in the riots? It's boring to have a character unable to interact with their environment, unable to affect the world around them -- if I wanted to sit back and watch a story unfold, I'd watch a movie or read a book.

Roleplay is engaging because it's interactive storytelling.

same anon as DA

[seafronted]

But it wasn't just the last plot. Every plot that's had to do with the overarching plot has been handled terribly, and you keep saying that the plots will be better, that crits on them will be taken into account, but it never happens. It's why the same issues have come up on HMDs since the game began. If you continue running the game this way, it will die. Roleplaying is intrinsically an interactive art. If you don't want the players to affect the plot, then you should go write a book.