(no subject)
IMPORTANT CRAP LISTED BELOW. PLEASE READ.
Okay! So basically, this is our Post of Stuff That Needs Addressing-- an apparently long-awaited acknowledgment of concerns and complaints that've been either brewing under peoples' skins, or actually brought to our doorstep via formal complaint. It's high time this post comes about, and as per usual, we will be looking for your input and reflections on what's discussed here. If you want to comment, comment. If you want to IM privately, you know where to reach us. Email, smoke signal, carrier pigeon... whatever you want, if you feel like you need to say something. We want it so we can talk about it, use it, laugh in your face, debate it... you get the idea. If we don't have muns, we don't have a game, so your contributions are sort of important here, y'know? ♥
Ready? Let's get to it.
Purg vs Crack
One of the major issues brought to us has dealt with the amount of crack in here. Some of you don't even realize it's happening, while many, many others are more or less ready to quit because of it. This is why it has to be addressed; we don't want to lose what apurgatorium was when it started. I myself joined just over six months ago, and when I got here, it was a serious-with-a-little-bit-of-crack game, where dramah would occur and people would die/be kidnapped/etcetera, everyone would be traumatized, and then the Gods would stage a bizarre event so we could all cool our jets. It was nice, and worked out well. As time went on, the amount of crack sort of... devoured everything else, and we were getting complaints from the muns of villains ((how we love them ♥)) that while they were trying to get srs plot going, their posts were being drowned out and missed altogether by random crack or spontaneous drama that'd last a couple hours, and be concluded with cutesy-wootsie fluff. That's fine in moderation, but it was getting to be an every day norm. :/ Someone would post something that had to do with the plot they were trying to get moving, and it'd be shoved to Second Page Status in half an hour with one-line, mini-drama posts. Again, those are fine... in moderation. We love that some of you guys exceed beyond the "one post a week" thing -- sometimes posting three or four times a day -- but we do ask that courtesy be applied here ((this can actually tie in with complaints about Purg moving really freaking fast)) and that you don't post every time your character has a new thought.
I'm straying from the topic here... what the hell was I talking abo-- ...
Ah. Crack. Yes, crack's fine and fun and good, but to be frank, this isn't a crack game, and never has been. Crack games exist, and they're loads of lulz if that's what you want, but it's become a trend in this comm for crack to overshadow serious plot and real, natural character development. It's become a problem, and we're hearing more and more everyday from people who are craving a shift back to old-school Purg. I understand that we all love to see how our characters react to certain scenarios and Three's Company-esque situation comedy, but... well, this leads right into the next issue:
OOCness
Yeah. No one likes to hear about this, but unfortunately, we have had it brought to us on numerous occasions as an issue. Sometimes the complaints are frivolous, and we can see that plainly, the complainant is just holding come kind of weird little grudge. Complaints of this stratum happen, and we let it slide, but some complaints are justified. :/
We won't be pin-pointing, and in the here and now, we will not be contacting the people who've been complained about. We're going to give you the chance to take responsibility for your characters into your own hands, and come to your own conclusions. All we ask is that you work with us on this. We'd like you to look very carefully at each of your characters, re-read your apps, maybe re-watch episodes or re-read manga, watch movies again, read fics-- get back in touch with your characters, and evaluate yourself. Are you playing them ICly? Do you really understand their motivations, their wants and needs? Do you know what makes them tick? Do you understand their mannerisms, their nuances and the itsy-bitsy things that make them who they are? Are you doing them justice? We have an amazing group here, and it's up to you to do this. Your choice. We have the utmost faith in everyone in this community, and everyone is more than capable of handling their kids. Everyone. Don't sit there and mope about how you don't think you play someone right. You can. We just want to make sure people know where they stand, canon-wise.
We're going to leave the OOC matter in your hands... but rest assured, if we start getting complaints again a month from now about characters being OOC, we'll have to take it to the source, and deliver the complaint to your doorstep. :/ But we figure this is the fair way to do it, in lieu of gathering the complaints we have right now and tackling down muns. No, we want to give everyone the chance to re-evaluate themselves, and see what they find.
OOCness and crack belong in communities where OOCness and crack are the foundation of those communities. Please keep this in mind, and make a conscious effort to take care of yourselves. We'll be there to strangle you if you decide to bring in Rambo and play him gayer than Elton John, but for now, we trust you to do what's right. If it means restarting characters, well, do it.
Drama
To keep this section short and sweet, I just want to reiterate-- take drama to us. Don't be afraid of the mods, alright? If someone is harassing you, trying to force you to take your characters a certain way, or making you generally uncomfortable even if they're not actually interacting with you, take it to us. Email us. Save chat logs, screen shots, whatever you think will help your case. We'll send emails, arrange chats, and do what we can to fix things. Drama doesn't START big, okay? It has to grow into a raging blob of non-lol, so don't give it the chance to. Nip it in the bud, and bring it to our attention. Don't panic, don't make it worse. Just say something. ♥ I firmly believe that any and all situations can be ironed out. It's just a game; not world democracy. Some problems take longer to handle than others, but this is where simple patience comes in. No complaint will go ignored, no bias formed, no child left behi--
... er, right. On to the next bit.
General Stuff
Gods
New Gods are coming, as promised, and they will not be as generous as the last ones. Purgatory is a place designed for redemption, lest we forget, so dishing out the supplies for a Sundae Shop and giving people a shitload of goodies so one character can give them to another for their birthday... it's not happening anymore, or at least not as easy as it used to. If you want something, you'll have to damn well earn it. You might earn favor with a God, maybe, but their graces don't come easily.
Death
Death has been abused and trivialized. Think about it... how much would it screw with your character's mind if their best friend in the whole wide world kept dying and coming back like, the very next day? It's been happening a lot lately, and honestly has to stop. :/ Death will come with a worse penalty now, in some cases, and you'll see what those are as we move along and handle deaths case by case. Also, if your character dies, they will not be able to return for three full days. After that? Longer; two days more than before.
Basically, if you have your character die tomorrow, they're gone for three days. They come back, die again, two days are added to the base time frame. That means they're gone for five days. They come back and die again? Seven days gone. If you have a question about this, let us know. Losing a memory is still happening, but as some people are running out of memories to lose, well, the Gods might have to do something worse. I would almost suggest using death as a means of going on hiatus, or putting one character on hiatus, once you're pushing seven days' worth of absence. |D; Point is, death shouldn't be something you do to your kid when you're bored. It's death. Make it mean something.
The Upper Level
The Upper Level is changing, people. Big time. It's still a part of Purgatory and is thus still a part of redemption. In that, no, there won't be amusement parks and movie theaters and whatnot there. No malls and no TV and nothing like that. :c It's a town, and still run-down, still dirty and generally unappealing. What your character will have up there in comparison to the Lower Level is running water, electricity, sunlight, and much nicer housing than the shanty shacks below. If you earn your way up there, you'll probably get a little more help from the Gods insofar as starting a business, and that really is a great way to give your character something to do, give other characters something to do, and have certain luxuries. You'll have a challenge opening shop, of course, but there's always a way to get things done. The only shops that exist up above are ones that sell your absolute necessities-- clothing, appliances ((not TVs or radios; we mean fridges and toasters)) and food. There are no Pizza Huts and no gourmet. Just groceries, and they're not the best. |D; As always, you earn money by working... unless someone gives you money, in which case you've made an excellent friend.
Upper Level privileges still take a month of good behaviour to earn. As per precedent, you can also still choose to live below with your evil little friends and have UL privies at the same time, BUT you will not be able to go up after dark. Likewise, people living on the UL who visit down below after dark will be snagged and punished. ): Not good. Be careful!
Uhm.
I think that's it.
As I really don't have a witty way to end this, I'll just say thanks for sticking with us. We want Purg to be a comm where people are happy, and where we don't see our kids popping up on Fandom Secrets for being blatantly OOC and over-ridden with drama. :/ We have a terrible reputation, and... well, we'd like to try to turn that around, for the most part. I know we can do it just from talking to you guys. You're a damn good group, you know, and we want to do what we can to make you enjoy logging in here, and not twitch in anticipation of what new drama has flooded into your playing space. ♥
So talk to us. Comment here with your concerns or questions, email purg.mod[at]gmail.com or contact a mod or co-mod directly. Our info is on the profile page-- Hoshino Masako for Katie, and gypsy savant for me. Our favourite little co-mod, of course, is Ferret. Find her at plum tengu.
Shalom~
Okay! So basically, this is our Post of Stuff That Needs Addressing-- an apparently long-awaited acknowledgment of concerns and complaints that've been either brewing under peoples' skins, or actually brought to our doorstep via formal complaint. It's high time this post comes about, and as per usual, we will be looking for your input and reflections on what's discussed here. If you want to comment, comment. If you want to IM privately, you know where to reach us. Email, smoke signal, carrier pigeon... whatever you want, if you feel like you need to say something. We want it so we can talk about it, use it, laugh in your face, debate it... you get the idea. If we don't have muns, we don't have a game, so your contributions are sort of important here, y'know? ♥
Ready? Let's get to it.
Purg vs Crack
One of the major issues brought to us has dealt with the amount of crack in here. Some of you don't even realize it's happening, while many, many others are more or less ready to quit because of it. This is why it has to be addressed; we don't want to lose what apurgatorium was when it started. I myself joined just over six months ago, and when I got here, it was a serious-with-a-little-bit-of-crack game, where dramah would occur and people would die/be kidnapped/etcetera, everyone would be traumatized, and then the Gods would stage a bizarre event so we could all cool our jets. It was nice, and worked out well. As time went on, the amount of crack sort of... devoured everything else, and we were getting complaints from the muns of villains ((how we love them ♥)) that while they were trying to get srs plot going, their posts were being drowned out and missed altogether by random crack or spontaneous drama that'd last a couple hours, and be concluded with cutesy-wootsie fluff. That's fine in moderation, but it was getting to be an every day norm. :/ Someone would post something that had to do with the plot they were trying to get moving, and it'd be shoved to Second Page Status in half an hour with one-line, mini-drama posts. Again, those are fine... in moderation. We love that some of you guys exceed beyond the "one post a week" thing -- sometimes posting three or four times a day -- but we do ask that courtesy be applied here ((this can actually tie in with complaints about Purg moving really freaking fast)) and that you don't post every time your character has a new thought.
I'm straying from the topic here... what the hell was I talking abo-- ...
Ah. Crack. Yes, crack's fine and fun and good, but to be frank, this isn't a crack game, and never has been. Crack games exist, and they're loads of lulz if that's what you want, but it's become a trend in this comm for crack to overshadow serious plot and real, natural character development. It's become a problem, and we're hearing more and more everyday from people who are craving a shift back to old-school Purg. I understand that we all love to see how our characters react to certain scenarios and Three's Company-esque situation comedy, but... well, this leads right into the next issue:
OOCness
Yeah. No one likes to hear about this, but unfortunately, we have had it brought to us on numerous occasions as an issue. Sometimes the complaints are frivolous, and we can see that plainly, the complainant is just holding come kind of weird little grudge. Complaints of this stratum happen, and we let it slide, but some complaints are justified. :/
We won't be pin-pointing, and in the here and now, we will not be contacting the people who've been complained about. We're going to give you the chance to take responsibility for your characters into your own hands, and come to your own conclusions. All we ask is that you work with us on this. We'd like you to look very carefully at each of your characters, re-read your apps, maybe re-watch episodes or re-read manga, watch movies again, read fics-- get back in touch with your characters, and evaluate yourself. Are you playing them ICly? Do you really understand their motivations, their wants and needs? Do you know what makes them tick? Do you understand their mannerisms, their nuances and the itsy-bitsy things that make them who they are? Are you doing them justice? We have an amazing group here, and it's up to you to do this. Your choice. We have the utmost faith in everyone in this community, and everyone is more than capable of handling their kids. Everyone. Don't sit there and mope about how you don't think you play someone right. You can. We just want to make sure people know where they stand, canon-wise.
We're going to leave the OOC matter in your hands... but rest assured, if we start getting complaints again a month from now about characters being OOC, we'll have to take it to the source, and deliver the complaint to your doorstep. :/ But we figure this is the fair way to do it, in lieu of gathering the complaints we have right now and tackling down muns. No, we want to give everyone the chance to re-evaluate themselves, and see what they find.
OOCness and crack belong in communities where OOCness and crack are the foundation of those communities. Please keep this in mind, and make a conscious effort to take care of yourselves. We'll be there to strangle you if you decide to bring in Rambo and play him gayer than Elton John, but for now, we trust you to do what's right. If it means restarting characters, well, do it.
Drama
To keep this section short and sweet, I just want to reiterate-- take drama to us. Don't be afraid of the mods, alright? If someone is harassing you, trying to force you to take your characters a certain way, or making you generally uncomfortable even if they're not actually interacting with you, take it to us. Email us. Save chat logs, screen shots, whatever you think will help your case. We'll send emails, arrange chats, and do what we can to fix things. Drama doesn't START big, okay? It has to grow into a raging blob of non-lol, so don't give it the chance to. Nip it in the bud, and bring it to our attention. Don't panic, don't make it worse. Just say something. ♥ I firmly believe that any and all situations can be ironed out. It's just a game; not world democracy. Some problems take longer to handle than others, but this is where simple patience comes in. No complaint will go ignored, no bias formed, no child left behi--
... er, right. On to the next bit.
General Stuff
Gods
New Gods are coming, as promised, and they will not be as generous as the last ones. Purgatory is a place designed for redemption, lest we forget, so dishing out the supplies for a Sundae Shop and giving people a shitload of goodies so one character can give them to another for their birthday... it's not happening anymore, or at least not as easy as it used to. If you want something, you'll have to damn well earn it. You might earn favor with a God, maybe, but their graces don't come easily.
Death
Death has been abused and trivialized. Think about it... how much would it screw with your character's mind if their best friend in the whole wide world kept dying and coming back like, the very next day? It's been happening a lot lately, and honestly has to stop. :/ Death will come with a worse penalty now, in some cases, and you'll see what those are as we move along and handle deaths case by case. Also, if your character dies, they will not be able to return for three full days. After that? Longer; two days more than before.
Basically, if you have your character die tomorrow, they're gone for three days. They come back, die again, two days are added to the base time frame. That means they're gone for five days. They come back and die again? Seven days gone. If you have a question about this, let us know. Losing a memory is still happening, but as some people are running out of memories to lose, well, the Gods might have to do something worse. I would almost suggest using death as a means of going on hiatus, or putting one character on hiatus, once you're pushing seven days' worth of absence. |D; Point is, death shouldn't be something you do to your kid when you're bored. It's death. Make it mean something.
The Upper Level
The Upper Level is changing, people. Big time. It's still a part of Purgatory and is thus still a part of redemption. In that, no, there won't be amusement parks and movie theaters and whatnot there. No malls and no TV and nothing like that. :c It's a town, and still run-down, still dirty and generally unappealing. What your character will have up there in comparison to the Lower Level is running water, electricity, sunlight, and much nicer housing than the shanty shacks below. If you earn your way up there, you'll probably get a little more help from the Gods insofar as starting a business, and that really is a great way to give your character something to do, give other characters something to do, and have certain luxuries. You'll have a challenge opening shop, of course, but there's always a way to get things done. The only shops that exist up above are ones that sell your absolute necessities-- clothing, appliances ((not TVs or radios; we mean fridges and toasters)) and food. There are no Pizza Huts and no gourmet. Just groceries, and they're not the best. |D; As always, you earn money by working... unless someone gives you money, in which case you've made an excellent friend.
Upper Level privileges still take a month of good behaviour to earn. As per precedent, you can also still choose to live below with your evil little friends and have UL privies at the same time, BUT you will not be able to go up after dark. Likewise, people living on the UL who visit down below after dark will be snagged and punished. ): Not good. Be careful!
Uhm.
I think that's it.
As I really don't have a witty way to end this, I'll just say thanks for sticking with us. We want Purg to be a comm where people are happy, and where we don't see our kids popping up on Fandom Secrets for being blatantly OOC and over-ridden with drama. :/ We have a terrible reputation, and... well, we'd like to try to turn that around, for the most part. I know we can do it just from talking to you guys. You're a damn good group, you know, and we want to do what we can to make you enjoy logging in here, and not twitch in anticipation of what new drama has flooded into your playing space. ♥
So talk to us. Comment here with your concerns or questions, email purg.mod[at]gmail.com or contact a mod or co-mod directly. Our info is on the profile page-- Hoshino Masako for Katie, and gypsy savant for me. Our favourite little co-mod, of course, is Ferret. Find her at plum tengu.
Shalom~