paradisaooc | HOW'S MY DRIVING?

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HOW'S MY DRIVING?

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I know a lot has been said about the Riful plot, and it's had it's own post thing and whatnot, but I would just like to give a piece of general crit that sort of relates to it, but isn't specifically about it. (Wow, that sentence just got confusing and weird).

Basically, I think you need to find a little better balance between the excitement of suspense, and the necessary communications. I know you put a call out lots for people to come to you about Riful stuff, but it was always (from what I can recall) a general 'If you want to be involved in something cool/big/in the future then IM me'. I'm not saying all the details should have been given away, as that's no fun, but perhaps when specific things happened - for example, Riful taking the townsfolk to experiment about death - there could have been a very clear OOC note that this had happened, so that all the people who had characters supposedly watching over the town would be in the know. If this DID happen, and I missed it, then I'm sorry for missing it like a failure.

However, I think this is something that doesn't just apply to Riful. The Alexstrasza canon bump mini plot, for example, is assumed to involve all the dragonsworn(?) simply by nature of them being sworn to her. Was this discussed with them before they had to make the IC decision? I realise this doesn't effect me personally, it was just something that vaguely concerned me tying in with the vague communication.

All of this aside, you are an amazing writer and all your characters are very distinct. I just don't want this to be a wall of crit, when you do a lot of things right as well. I hope this comment made sense and wasn't too rambly.

Thanks Ena♥

On the note of 'experimentation on death'--this was never actually conducted on townspeople (since they never come back anyway) and was in fact conducted on a PC that left paradisa with that mun & her CR's permission :) And it was more of a fluke than anything else--she never intended to find a way to perma-kill people. She just lucked out with Arthas' sword.

As far as going after townspeople in the early part of the year for experiments--this I did want to draw attention to, but at the time I was told by the mods not to focus on the townspeople because it had been "overdone". I did try to get numbers up in an ooc post (http://paradisaooc.livejournal.com/3312033.html) when people started asking but I know I should have gotten one up sooner ): There is however a catalogue (http://paradisawatch.livejournal.com/868.html) of all her villain-esque activity available for viewing!

And re: Alexstrasza! I phrased it is "Krasus, Malygos, Nozdormu and/or her eventual Dragonsworn" purposely s that it wasn't set in stone who would be doing what, if anything :) I haven't gotten around to planning anything besides the basic concept of what's listed in the miniplot there so at the moment? It's just a bare idea of what might/could happen. Once the Riful Plot is finished I'd be contacting her Dragonsworn/the other WoW dragons to see what they'd like to do/be interested in doing (although I have contacted several of them to see if they'd be interested).

Alexstrasza's plot differs from Riful's in that it's not Heroes vs Villains. In this case there's always a horrible bleed-in of OOC & IC, even if people don't try to. When I started planning this last year it was with the intent to keep as much of that from happening as possible so I didn't release much information when things happened (since I figured if people were interested in what Riful did they would simply follow her in Paradisa--a mistake on my part!).

A good example of what I mean is some of the recent comments I got on the plot: if the kidnappings were too soon people would notice & automatically blame Riful since she's done this in the past before. However when Colette was assumed missing & several others vanished during the therapy loss (people whom Riful was known to have interest in) no one ICly jumped and made the connection to Riful because OOCly they knew that it was a loss.

In an attempt to slow things like that from happening (and because I was told not to focus on townspeople deaths that had been going on) I just didn't bother to make OOC posts when she had Legato take people or when she herself & Arthas did things--for this I apologize and know I probably should have done more ):

But overall yes, I do get what you're saying :) I'll do my best to be more informative with things in the future!

I'd never plan something or assume involvement from anyone intentionally♥

As you've mentioned that you noticed yourself that there was some OOC communication fail in the townsfolk and whatnot, for a variety of reasons, then that's all cool. It's something to bear in mind for the future =)

Okie dokie with the Alex thing, I guess I read it wrong and thought the Dragonsworn were automatically involved, that's my bad.

Yis *^* I'll get better at ittttt--as soon as I have a list of general events going on in Para/the evidence crews worked out, I'll put it up in Paradisawatch/the ooc comm for everyone to see.

AND NO WORRIES♥ I always contact al my CR/people involved before making commitments.

"this was never actually conducted on townspeople (since they never come back anyway)

And it was more of a fluke than anything else--she never intended to find a way to perma-kill people.

As far as going after townspeople in the early part of the year for experiments"

Question! It's a game fact the NPCs do not return to life when they are killed. Why did Riful conduct these experiments in the first place with that knowledge? You contradicted yourself with Riful's goals. She was experimenting on NPCs/PCs on death but it wasn't her intention at all to find a way to permanently murder PCs? I'm confused.

"A good example of what I mean is some of the recent comments I got on the plot: if the kidnappings were too soon people would notice & automatically blame Riful since she's done this in the past before. However when Colette was assumed missing & several others vanished during the therapy loss (people whom Riful was known to have interest in) no one ICly jumped and made the connection to Riful because OOCly they knew that it was a loss."

I don't think that's true. I know it happens at times in Paradisa but Colette's disappearance could have easily been blamed on First Gens who have made it known they aren't afraid to get close to the castle, other villains like Legato, Joshua possibly, a loss, etc. I don't believe it had anything to do with the OOC knowledge it's a group loss.

Experiments:

Ah, that's because she wasn't experimenting on them with death in mind! She wasn't ever trying to find a way to murder PCs permanently. She lucked out with Joan (Nita volunteered her) and Robin was another luck-out thanks to Arthas' sword. Riful's original intent when experimenting with townspeople was to see if she could "make" her own allies like the Organization would back in her own canon (by inserting the flesh of a Yoma/Awakened Being into a human)--it of course has no effect on townspeople whatsoever, and would not affect PCs either.

Kidnapping:

I'd like to think what you're saying is true! I just think that despite best intentions if people knew OOCly that Riful had done something to Colette people might focus in on her more ICly as a result. Not intentionally but just because it's in the back of their mind. But you did put up a lot of other good reasons & I could be a bit jaded :) I'll try to be more optimistic about stuff in the future.

Question. How is Amoretta so fucking cute. She can barely flirt with her anymore.

dklgfskgs *^* it's just how she do ehe

/loooooves CR with Isabela

alskdjfal <3

Yeah. Okay. Amoretta's getting some cutesy nickname. Like Bunny. Or something.

There's a lot that's already been said on the initial plot post for the Riful plot and I hope that post-events, you will keep everything that's been said to mind the next time you want to do another plot involving your characters. I admit a lot of disappointment on my end because of the way this plot is set to happen and how many players' concerns and attempts to do anything about the plot has been for naught. Now that I am getting more e-mails from people regarding the plot, I've noted how many of them have said they now have permission to speak freely about it. This is not the first time I have heard about this. Please understand I am not trying to paint you in a bad light; you do a lot more for this game than anyone might notice and you're a good listener as a helper. Your attempts to make this game a fun and safe environment for everyone are always appreciated and I'm glad you are on the helpers team.

As for the Riful plot, I cannot say the same. It was pushed back for months it isn't your fault there however, you have had Riful free and untouchable since last summer and besides Pharos, no one has been able to take her down because of "something in the works" reiterated by you and those involved in the plot. You've talked about wanting to create a villain no one would be apathetic toward anymore in Paradisa, as its nature is to forgive (sometimes) and forget, IC and OOC. This is a big burden you took on yourself and I commend you for it, but it went down the wrong path. Plots look well on paper but sometimes don't turn out the way we want to when put into action. What I don't understand is why you thought the original outline for it with everyone's actions being dictated/godmodded was okay in the first place. I highly doubt the villains would appreciate a plot where God or one of the other huge godmode heroes decided to take down all the villains without your say in it.

My problem lies with the fact you were tightlipped about your plot which affects the entire game and told others to also keep a code of silence otherwise it was best for them not to participate. The secrecy around the plot made it near impossible to deal with other villains in game; plots to catch them or even out them as villains were futile because "something's coming in summer" and it has basically godmodded the hero types into looking the other way or not bothering out of fear you would be upset with more events stalling your plot. I understand, it's your efforts that haven't been put into motion and anyone who wants to do a plot would grow frustrated. But when you said no one ever approached you to take down Riful, you never made it so that Riful was someone anyone could take down. Instead you blamed everyone else (I don't beleive it was your intention, but that is what happened) for not coming to you when you didn't bother to meet us halfway. A simple OOC post asking for a group of people to take down Riful while she was out in the town would have sufficed. What this all comes off as is you not wanting anyone to defeat Riful until your plot happened. You didn't leave players with much of a choice because of how secretive this plot was. No one wants to jump into something blindfolded and then screw up another person's efforts.

Carrying onto your other events and plots, what were you angling for, having Leroy murder some (less than) innocent townspeople and having him thrown in jail? Now he's in jail and that adds another burden on the Peace Patrol which is still on the verge of making a comeback. You have another plot coming up in some time that revolved around another one of your character, Alexstrasza. To be blunt, I don't understand its goal. The plots you constantly throw at the game orbit around your characters and they come so close to each other it makes me hesitant to nab CR with you when your characters are going to be involved in stressful events.

I've been put off from trying to RP with you because in the past couple of months, you've come across as pushy and demanding when dealing with your characters. You have insisted you are more than eager to compromise with others and that you are open about concerns and opinions, but this plot of yours throws out all the concerns many of us have and you continued to drive it forward for months before letting us in on what was going to happen. It's very upsetting and disappointing to not know what to do for another month in game.

Just a quick reply--the Nightmare of the Life-Binder wasn't actually supposed to be on the calendar. When making the coding for the calendar's prototype I used that as an example!comment to help format the rest and forgot to delete it off the end when I posted the finalized draft in the ooc comm! So that was my bad--it's been removed, so thanks for pointing that out♥

I'll get to the rest of your concerns shortly.

I think the comments in Riful's personal HMD (http://nishimono.livejournal.com/5169.html) address a lot of what you've said here in your crit if you're looking for explanations on certain actions/circumstances. If I've missed something or misinterpreted it though please don't be afraid to tell me! It's been a long day and I admit now that I'm not at my best.

I'll admit that I stressed secrecy too hard over a concern of OOC/IC bleeding and I should have been more forthcoming with everything. I should have done more to make people aware of what was going on and I acknowledge this. I'm going to take more steps in the future to make sure everyone is on the same page about everything from now on.

I think the only slight issue I have is with the comment "Instead you blamed everyone else (I don't believe it was your intention, but that is what happened) for not coming to you when you didn't bother to meet us halfway. A simple OOC post asking for a group of people to take down Riful while she was out in the town would have sufficed. What this all comes off as is you not wanting anyone to defeat Riful until your plot happened. You didn't leave players with much of a choice because of how secretive this plot was. No one wants to jump into something blindfolded and then screw up another person's efforts."

I know I probably came off blaming people (which looking back on it now, I think I did a bit of--but you're right, I wasn't trying to do it at the time) and that isn't what my concern is over. It's the "not bothering to meet them halfway/why not make a simple ooc post". I'm not sure what you mean here--I've posted several times about aftermath & getting involved with Riful in all the HMDs/CR memes I've been able to reply to (links in Riful's HMD). Does that not fall under what you mean by "meeting us halfway"? If not could you explain to me what you mean? I don't want to misunderstand what you've said ):

On the "why not make an ooc post" bit I worry a little. It seems as though the boon of "hey guys get going" is placed more heavily on the villains in Paradisa. It's confusing to me as to why I should be the one to be obligated to say "my villain is here, come take them down" (which I've tried to do in the aforementioned HMD/memes) when it could easily swing the way of heroes simply asking me if they could do something.

Again I want to stress that even though this plan has been in the works for almost a year now, no other villains besides Riful and Arthas (and possibly Legato, but I can't remember exact dates on him) were involved prior to March 14th when I first contacted villain muns to see if they were interested in doing anything. It wasn't until April 16th that I even formerly emailed & explained the plot & its proposed details to the villain-muns.

Prior to March 14th there was a scrapped mini-plot (http://invinciboner.livejournal.com/622.html#cutid1) dealing with Riful murdering Player-Characters that would have happened somewhere between April 3rd~25th that would have sparked an earlier "take-down" by heroes. This was planned around January 2011. Following this miniplot here was to be no scripted "attack on the castle" as suggested in the current plot. The current incarnation of this plot did not come about until after April 16th, 2011 when I was able to converge with the villain muns and sort out a general flow.

On June 14th I sent out a draft of the proposed plot flow to all villains and it was only then that we had the first version of the Riful Plot (which has since been amended following an OOC post for discussion & concerns to be voiced & an AIM chat the following day with as many muns present as possible).

Basically although villains were told to hush for the summer, they didn't know anything was happening until March 14th, and didn't know what that "happening" was until April 16th. Up until March 14th I had no plans for Riful to do anything but provoke the residents into rising against her--there was no "Riful Plot" as you see it now until April 16th (planning stage) and June 14th (finalized draft details).

Prior to March 14th Riful was at large and free reign to anyone who wanted to do anything. I tried to be as open as possible with her & always welcomed people who were interested in doing something (Icecrown Manor raid, etc).

I know she's got this "invincible" air about her--and compared to the average resident, she could conceivably be as such. The majority of residents in paradisa probably couldn't take her on their own. Which is what I wanted to drive home (and perhaps did so too thoroughly). Riful is an enemy I wanted the whole castle to work with & deal together on--in prior years there had been concern over certain characters getting the spotlight and I wanted to try and help fix that.

But I realize now that the way I went about it wasn't the best for everyone involved and I think you're right. I need to work on my communication skills and I need to better gauge my audience. I can't always assume factors or viewpoints and I need to work harder at making myself more available to people. I don't want to be someone who comes off as "pushy and demanding when dealing with your characters." I want to be approachable and someone who's...well, liked.

So if you have any ideas or pointers on how I can improve anything you're worried about please tell me. I want to do better and I don't want to push people away. I want you to help me, if you'd be willing to.

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HOW'S MY DRIVING?

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/was at work sdkjgsk

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hotfix

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