paradisaooc | HOW'S THE GAME?

HOW'S THE GAME?

It's been awhile! It's time for another round of Game Discussion, also known as "How's The Game?"

Here we come together to discuss the game, its plots, the settings, and just about anything we can think of that we'd like to talk about, expand upon, improve, change, etc.

This is not an HMD for players and their characters; this should be about the game's function as a whole and not the people in it. If there is something you feel is absolutely necessary to address that involves a specific person, please IM a mod first to discuss it. We can be reached at terraqueous orb (Kayla), end title (Fudgey) or a great fanfare (Jenn). (Though Jenn is on hiatus right now because her laptop is broken, so Kayla or Fudgey would be best for right now!)

Anonymous will be left off for this round (see first section).

Here are the sections that we've come up with. Add your own and we'll edit it into the list.

Anonymous: Why is it turned off?
What do the mods/helpers do, anyways?
How is my activity being monitored?
Activity check changes
Applications/turnover rate
→ Test Drive Comm
Abilities on the application
Villains & Heroes
→ Recent Villain Activity
→ Upcoming Villain Activities/Plots
Death
World Plot/Paradisa Lore
→ Concrete Resolutions, etc.
Canon Updates
Mini-plot Planning
Changes since last HTG
Plots in General
Regular Plots?

How's The Game will now be held quarterly, in order to avoid excessively long stretches in which there is no outlet for discussion.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Agreeing with accountability to hard! I've contacted about 90% of the villains over the last few days to get their feelings on the hero/villain accountability thing, and the feedback from them was basically this:

Happy with having their villain caught
Happy with having them fail/be defeated
Happy having them start something and be held 100% accountable!

...Only thing is, they've scarcely been contact for any such thing ): Very few of us have been approached by heroes looking to resolve or start something! Which makes us worry that we might be doing it wrong/being inapproachable.

Thoughts?

I think the issue is one for both sides.

On one hand, I think it can seem overwhelming (from an OOC perspective) to have the heroes have to rush to action every time something bad happens. This is why superheroes generally have no lives, or only superficial ones in canon. They have to be willing to drop everything and go. Which is great in theory, but we as player are not heroes and it can be frustrating to have to commit yourself to investigating things when you'd rather be playing out a day in the season's room or silly times with friends.

That said, if you're playing a hero character, that's part of the bargain. And no one hero has to be involved every time. That's why I think it's great the Peace Patrol is getting more organized and dividing into patrols and units, so we actually have a way of delegating. The Bats won't have to follow up with everything, because Clark might handle one situation, or Kara another, or Booth and Brennan taking on the more mundane investigations. There's no need for one character to shoulder all the burdens.

On the villain side, I think the biggest flaw is communication. Secrecy and surprise are great assets to the bad guys, and they can be fun for people involved as they learn alongside their chars. But in a game this big, secrecy has two big downsides:

1 - no one knows about it. The villains are going to be quiet on purpose, but the muns really need to be talking more on the ooc comm to explain what's going on. If we aren't talking, there aren't any outlets for interaction. Aside from RL stuff that's been hitting everyone, I think the Legato kidnappings are a great example of how this can be done WELL. We were informed people were going missing and had been for awhile. People have been gathering clues (not a lot, but enough that it's getting talked about). Certain people who know Legato have figured out what's happened and he's been forced to adapt to deal with them, while others are still trying to put all the pieces together to form a coherant picture. Eventually, once everyone has more time, I have confidence that the rest will play out. That's how I'd like to see more villain plots go. The secrecy is all IC, rather than OOC.

2 - Even if the players know something is coming, they don't know what is coming, and that makes it really hard to plan. Are there days they should be setting aside? Are there things they should be getting involved in early? Are there things they shouldn't be doing early so that they don't upset the plot?

I know people have been upset in the past about the "Please don't catch them now, because-" clauses...but I don't think they need to have such a stigma. If things are already in motion for Hero A to take down the villain, it makes sense that the mun of Hero B would come up with excuses for why they don't intervene too early. Like Jenn having Clark sleep through some events so others could have a chance to shine.

I think the communications issues with the villains will improve if we can get the ooc notices up and running. Like the peace patrol arrangements, I think our biggest weakness is making sure we're talking to each other, rather than just plotting individually. I really don't think this rivalry needs to exist, OOCly.

To agree with #1. We need to stress having more OOC posts when people are doing something that might cause a ruckus. Not just with villains but our heroes are not picture perfect as well. Damian and Mindy rewired the elevator not too long ago and they made an OOC post about it -- so I don't know why it was glossed over. Is it because they're children? I've noticed a lot of things happen in game where people can be generally aggressive toward each other and no one notices (because of the lack of OOC posts?) or they choose to not get involved, which also baffles me.

REGARDING LEGATO

This is completely my fault so everyone is free to throw rocks at me. I dropped the ball here and am picking it up again on Monday, if I can. (It's just a pain to initiate anything on the weekend for me sob.) I originally planned this with Red to be something anyone can jump into (but I couldn't ignore IC stuff like Karen keeping this away from bad people in game) but I failed there and then certain things happened ICly there was no way to keep it as a slow investigation. She actually commented in Yuan's post too and I was hoping others would notice it.

I SWEAR I'll make a proper post about it. This was due to me not feeling my own muse and being... generally sucky about it.

Edited 2011-05-15 00:08 (UTC)

Pfffff.....

Red's been sick, and I haven't been able to do anything with what Jilly knows either, since I've been on hiatus, and I'm sure plenty of other people are swamped by RL stuff. I'm pretty sure a slow investigation suits all of us right now.

And I really meant that to be an example of how everyone is doing it right! Sure, it's slow, but we're all communicating. :)

Edited 2011-05-15 00:13 (UTC)

This too. :( I've been hesitant to approach her because I'd rather her be in bed and resting. (RED, I'M LOOKING AT YOU RIGHT NOW...)

But yes, I just wanted to mention that the Legato event is my fault strictly, in case people were frustrated by it. :(

HOW'S THE GAME?

no subject

really long, but....

quickly jumping in here

Regarding Legato

no subject