Anniversary Event Details / An Update on LJ & SP's Future
Kelly-mod here, with some good news: We're nearing our Year 3, SP!
I'd like to thank our founding moderators for laying such excellent groundwork for the game, and our full history of players, past and present, for being a part of the fun. To kick off year 3, here's an event that's starting on Jan 2nd, our game anniversary.
Homesick Yet?: An Anniversary Event
On January 2nd, just after morning sirens, there will be a light and strangely shimmering snowfall. A pulsating chime can be heard near the sector 4 baseball diamond, and when the sky is clear of flurries, the infield will be covered in a sea of smooth, glinting orbs.
After determining them harmless, the void guards will allow greeters to gather them off the field. Under direction of greeter Himawari Kunogi, they will be brought to the lobby of the Tower Apartments, and everyone will be invited to sort through them.
There is exactly one orb for every newcomer character that is presently in Port. They are roughly the same size and weight as a handheld snowglobe, and at first that's exactly what they appear to be. Strangely, they feel slightly warm to the touch. There are no other means of identification, no mark of whose is whose, beyond each snowglobe's unique contents.
It's very curious, you see. When you give them a gentle swirl to stir the 'snow', there just might be an intimately familiar place, or a world unlike anything you've ever seen before, nested within that swirl of settling flurries. Each orb has a 'true owner', and reveals a glimpse of memorable places, scenery from the former life that inspired its creation. "Back Home" could mean any location, after all- a bedroom, an office cubicle, the battlefield of a soaring victory or crushing defeat, a hospital room, a temple, a school hallway, a subway station. The significance maybe be of a fond sentimental value, or a bittersweet regret. Many places may be shown, or just a few, changing between shakes and tied to any host of strong emotions.
They cannot shatter if dropped or struck, no matter the force. When held by their true owner, they emit a faint glow, but anyone can see its contents.
So come, take a peek, and maybe you'll learn something about your neighbor, or a total stranger, while searching for your own. However, like most interesting things, they won't linger around forever. On January 9th, the orbs will lose their warmth, become cold to the touch like ice, then melt away into a strange, opalescent liquid which cannot be re-frozen.
To Participate in this event, you must 'fill' your character's snowglobe by Jan 1st.
We'd like you to make a separate post on your character's journal, for this. You can use pictures, or just describe what can be seen. You can add as many locations as you'd like, indoors or out, large scale or small, from canon or headcanon. These can be viewed as scenery, but not as full scenes or "movie" images from the character's past.
Things to keep in mind for the plotting meme (which goes live on the 27th this month)
- Link to your Orb post!
- As an OOC courtesy, please request permission from the true owner's player before claiming possession of someone else's snowglobe. (Meaning if it leaves the lobby with them. They can look over the collection all they'd like, in the open log we'll be putting up on the 2nd)
-New January arrivals will be coming in after all the orbs have been gathered off the field. They will not be represented among the orbs.
-Show and tell about home! This is a good excuse for random panfandom interactions, so use the opportunity to reach out openly across casts, have characters ask questions about what they see, or wonder about the origins of the snowglobes themselves.
-Is show and tell not really your character's gig? You are definitely not out of options. SERO and AGI, after hearing rumors of the strange orbs, will want to study them. Your character can be offered a pretty penny for one (or more!), OR if seen with them in public, some corporate affiliates may try other means of wrangling your strange, core-given spheres. City Locals will notice these orbs, and some may wonder about newcomer conspiracy. Will you feed the flames of these rumors, sell out for a quick buck, or steal orbs from all your friends to "keep them safe"? If you have any unique ideas for how the rest of the city might get involved, let us know!
Sound good? Any additional questions can go here!
An Update on the LiveJournal situation:
Because of continuing issues with release 88's commenting overhaul, LJ's refusal to 'rollback' these new features, a peek at future unwanted changes to come, and widespread dissatisfaction with how LJ is treating their userbase and handling consumer feedback, we will soon open the option of a community move to discussion.
We will put up a poll about potentially migrating to another host (dreamwidth.org or insanejournal.com) or sticking with livejournal, along with a place to give your suggestions, alternate options and concerns.
Modteam still needs to finish discussing all of our options and listing pros/cons, but we also have holidays on our doorstep, so this poll will be going up Tuesday, Dec. 27th and remaining open until Tuesday, January 10th, giving you two full weeks to give us your thoughts. Things may change within this timeframe, and we are looking to remain flexible and open-minded. Tentatively, a decision will be announced on Jan. 15th.
A potential move would not be happening until Feb. 1st at the earliest. However, Dreamwidth is allowing new accounts to be made without invite codes until the end of this month, so I do encourage you to create safety accounts for your SP journals over there, just in case. We already have our community and modjournal names reserved there, but this means nothing definite! We are only covering our potential bases at this time.
Appcycle will be running as-scheduled (right after PST rings in the New Year for reserves, Jan 2nd for unreserved application spots), but we will be tweaking layout on the mod account itself for easier commenting, in the meantime. We won't be cleaning our slate with a new app page for January, so you can keep the current link bookmarked. Because they are a prospective part of the community too, new players may also vote on the poll while their application is in the queue awaiting processing.
If there is a CSS code monkey among us willing to help us out with a more functional layout, or suggest additional workarounds, please use the suggestion box to contact us with your ideas!
Thank you again for your continued patience and maturity. Hopefully as we continue to transition through this, SP will remain the same strong roleplaying home it has been for nearly 2 years strong!
I'd like to thank our founding moderators for laying such excellent groundwork for the game, and our full history of players, past and present, for being a part of the fun. To kick off year 3, here's an event that's starting on Jan 2nd, our game anniversary.
Homesick Yet?: An Anniversary Event
On January 2nd, just after morning sirens, there will be a light and strangely shimmering snowfall. A pulsating chime can be heard near the sector 4 baseball diamond, and when the sky is clear of flurries, the infield will be covered in a sea of smooth, glinting orbs.
After determining them harmless, the void guards will allow greeters to gather them off the field. Under direction of greeter Himawari Kunogi, they will be brought to the lobby of the Tower Apartments, and everyone will be invited to sort through them.
There is exactly one orb for every newcomer character that is presently in Port. They are roughly the same size and weight as a handheld snowglobe, and at first that's exactly what they appear to be. Strangely, they feel slightly warm to the touch. There are no other means of identification, no mark of whose is whose, beyond each snowglobe's unique contents.
It's very curious, you see. When you give them a gentle swirl to stir the 'snow', there just might be an intimately familiar place, or a world unlike anything you've ever seen before, nested within that swirl of settling flurries. Each orb has a 'true owner', and reveals a glimpse of memorable places, scenery from the former life that inspired its creation. "Back Home" could mean any location, after all- a bedroom, an office cubicle, the battlefield of a soaring victory or crushing defeat, a hospital room, a temple, a school hallway, a subway station. The significance maybe be of a fond sentimental value, or a bittersweet regret. Many places may be shown, or just a few, changing between shakes and tied to any host of strong emotions.
They cannot shatter if dropped or struck, no matter the force. When held by their true owner, they emit a faint glow, but anyone can see its contents.
So come, take a peek, and maybe you'll learn something about your neighbor, or a total stranger, while searching for your own. However, like most interesting things, they won't linger around forever. On January 9th, the orbs will lose their warmth, become cold to the touch like ice, then melt away into a strange, opalescent liquid which cannot be re-frozen.
To Participate in this event, you must 'fill' your character's snowglobe by Jan 1st.
We'd like you to make a separate post on your character's journal, for this. You can use pictures, or just describe what can be seen. You can add as many locations as you'd like, indoors or out, large scale or small, from canon or headcanon. These can be viewed as scenery, but not as full scenes or "movie" images from the character's past.
Things to keep in mind for the plotting meme (which goes live on the 27th this month)
- Link to your Orb post!
- As an OOC courtesy, please request permission from the true owner's player before claiming possession of someone else's snowglobe. (Meaning if it leaves the lobby with them. They can look over the collection all they'd like, in the open log we'll be putting up on the 2nd)
-New January arrivals will be coming in after all the orbs have been gathered off the field. They will not be represented among the orbs.
-Show and tell about home! This is a good excuse for random panfandom interactions, so use the opportunity to reach out openly across casts, have characters ask questions about what they see, or wonder about the origins of the snowglobes themselves.
-Is show and tell not really your character's gig? You are definitely not out of options. SERO and AGI, after hearing rumors of the strange orbs, will want to study them. Your character can be offered a pretty penny for one (or more!), OR if seen with them in public, some corporate affiliates may try other means of wrangling your strange, core-given spheres. City Locals will notice these orbs, and some may wonder about newcomer conspiracy. Will you feed the flames of these rumors, sell out for a quick buck, or steal orbs from all your friends to "keep them safe"? If you have any unique ideas for how the rest of the city might get involved, let us know!
Sound good? Any additional questions can go here!
An Update on the LiveJournal situation:
Because of continuing issues with release 88's commenting overhaul, LJ's refusal to 'rollback' these new features, a peek at future unwanted changes to come, and widespread dissatisfaction with how LJ is treating their userbase and handling consumer feedback, we will soon open the option of a community move to discussion.
We will put up a poll about potentially migrating to another host (dreamwidth.org or insanejournal.com) or sticking with livejournal, along with a place to give your suggestions, alternate options and concerns.
Modteam still needs to finish discussing all of our options and listing pros/cons, but we also have holidays on our doorstep, so this poll will be going up Tuesday, Dec. 27th and remaining open until Tuesday, January 10th, giving you two full weeks to give us your thoughts. Things may change within this timeframe, and we are looking to remain flexible and open-minded. Tentatively, a decision will be announced on Jan. 15th.
A potential move would not be happening until Feb. 1st at the earliest. However, Dreamwidth is allowing new accounts to be made without invite codes until the end of this month, so I do encourage you to create safety accounts for your SP journals over there, just in case. We already have our community and modjournal names reserved there, but this means nothing definite! We are only covering our potential bases at this time.
Appcycle will be running as-scheduled (right after PST rings in the New Year for reserves, Jan 2nd for unreserved application spots), but we will be tweaking layout on the mod account itself for easier commenting, in the meantime. We won't be cleaning our slate with a new app page for January, so you can keep the current link bookmarked. Because they are a prospective part of the community too, new players may also vote on the poll while their application is in the queue awaiting processing.
If there is a CSS code monkey among us willing to help us out with a more functional layout, or suggest additional workarounds, please use the suggestion box to contact us with your ideas!
Thank you again for your continued patience and maturity. Hopefully as we continue to transition through this, SP will remain the same strong roleplaying home it has been for nearly 2 years strong!