Activity Check Discussion Post + Contact List Update

[burningvigor.livejournal.com]

Hello, everyone!

While the game has been trucking along pretty nicely (I hope the military arc has been enjoyable for most of you!), recently there's been a lot of talk about people's waning activity. I do think that Damned is a place where you can afford to be slow at times, where you don't have to post to every shift -- this isn't meant to discourage people who aren't lightning taggers like some of us. It's already been mentioned a number of times, but there's little I can do as a mod to make people post faster, and yet there are a few changes that can be made to possibly work through this problem. I definitely want to encourage people to put their all into the game when possible and to play out some awesome plots, so here goes.

This issue was brought up over on the suggestions post, so this is mainly just meant to be a continuation of that. It was mentioned there that this is something that should be talked about by the game as a whole, and so this post is basically an open forum for people to give their thoughts and talk things out. Whether you're one of the people who's frustrated or someone who is on the slow side and looking to explain your side of things, feel free to reply and comment around!

The two solutions which have been brought up are as follows:

a) changing the requirements for the activity check
b) adding a "Posting Speed" section to the plot post form

The second option there would mainly be a way for people to know from the start what to expect from potential thread partners. It's not much of a change, but it would allow an open line of communication to be present from the start.

Changing the Activity Check requirements is something that is going to require some more thought, and so I'd like to start by polling you all on if you think it's something that needs to be revised.

[Poll #1781912]

So go ahead and fill that out, reply here with your thoughts, and we'll see what we can do about this! I'm sorry there's not more I can do, but hopefully this is a step in the right direction.

Additionally, some changes have been made to the Contact List in order to make communication easier for everyone. There's been a spot added for people to list their plurk names if they wish. It's in no way required, but if you are open to people contacting you/conversing with you through plurk then please feel free to list it. More importantly, a Preferred Method of Contact section has been added so that other players can know how you would like to be contacted. I'd like to ask for everyone to respond to the contact list with their response to that section if possible! Thanks a lot for reading all this, and have a nice night, everyone.

Comments

[heroesdontshave]

I was coming on to post my opinion on this whole matter when I saw this post. And now my opinion has changed a bit. :|

Speaking as a player who is most certainly slow and has been guilty of dropping threads myself, I'm fully aware that consistent activity has been a bit of an issue for some time now. However, I haven't felt like altering Activity Checks would do anything to solve this problem, seeing as they're essentially tools to cut out squatters and assure the comm that yes, you are here and know the game exists. I usually forget all about ACs until they're actually up, so it's never been a motivating factor. Altering ACs would only serve to get rid of squatting characters faster (not necessarily a bad thing).

I'm admittedly nervous regarding the idea of altering the ACs to something more strict, though, as I think myself and many other people are a bit more comfortable with the lax structure and would find it difficult to play in the game at all if it became strict. And the idea of using ACs as a sort of constantly looming punishment (you better post, or else!) also doesn't sit right with me at all.

All of that said, I think this is a wonderful suggestion.

A structured definite time of AC for every DS/NS Cycle would be beneficial provided it's consistently done at the same time, and your suggestion allows leeway for those who take hiatuses. That's really good as it's both fair and promotes people actually announcing hiatuses when they can't post for a while (which is part of the problem, as I understand it). Furthermore, the suggested structure feels more like an organized consistency check rather than a looming punishment. I like that.

The proposed requirements are also really awesome. It allows for people of all speeds to easily make Activity Check. More importantly, it promotes CONSISTENT activity rather than CONSTANT activity, so people who don't post to every single day shift wouldn't be screwed. It's also a really reasonable amount of expected activity.

I still feel nervous about changing ACs and don't know if it would or should be a solution, but I really do like this proposed shift in policy above all others suggested thus far.

[nest.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's totally understandable for people to give ACs the side-eye if they feel they're more like needless punishments or unnecessary hoops to jump through. They don't have to be structured that way, though, as long as we remember there's both sides to these issues, and that sometimes shit just happens.

Honestly, I think the two biggest concerns are lack of communication between players, and people biting off more than they can chew. This combination sometimes leads to long delays (like 4-5+ days, not 1-2), which I think can make people even more reluctant to get back to threads that are eventually dropped. I've been guilty of this myself in the past, which was why I tried to keep that perspective in mind while putting this idea together.

I'm glad you like this suggestion, though, and am happy to hear that the emphasis on consistency (and not ridiculous quotas) came through. Consistency and flexibility were what I was aiming for, and hopefully that comes across to people who read over it.

Anyway, thanks for taking the time to look at this and leave a comment. I really appreciate your input, Jax.