soul_ooc | May Activity Check

Bad flight - no biscuit.

I have a question: with AC gone, does this mean that there will be no more love meme/hmd, either? I've always felt like love memes were an awesome way to break the ice, especially with newbies, and we did get some fresh blood this time around!

Also, regarding AC changes-- I can't help but worry that, with so few of us still left in the game, ending AC for good will make it even slower than what it already is. :c Whether we like it or not, ACs have always served as an extra motivation for people to thread more; I know I've done that kind of thing in this game a long time ago.

(I apologize if this is not the place for this kind of feedback, but I thought that leaving this here would make it possible for other people to see and give their two cents, too!)

...I hadn't considered that. I think I'll keep up with the love meme, Maybe have it again in July.

We discussed this and, actually someone on the mod team had this exact concern. However, during the last AC, a lot of players that have always consistently been able toi make AC have had to take strikes because of how slow the game's gotten. More than the possibility of lowering activity further, it seems more of a problem if people end up being kicked out for not having activity especially for those who really want to stay until endgame.

That was our reason for deciding this anyway.

(And don't worry, this is a perfectly fine place to bring it up!)

I touched on the other reason why we're not doing AC here.

Which basically boils down to: there's actually only one AC left out of the three that makes sense because one would happen in September for August (so after the game is closed) and the other in August for July (and it's probably safe to say that anyone still around by then are here to stay).

Thank you (since I forgot to say it the first time) for taking the time to comment and share your opinions.

Terribly sorry for being so late to reply to this, but I've had a ton to study for three exams yesterday and I think my body is still recovering from sleeping only 2 hours, sob.

Anyway, I'm replying to this comment to say that I've read both replies you gave me-- I'm definitely not ignoring them!-- and although I am going to reply again, I will do so on the comment you linked me to, for the sake of keeping all my arguments in one place rather than just going around the other threads in this post.

I agree with Devil about AC stimulating players to tag and make posts, which keeps the game alive in return. I know the game is ending, but AC would give players that are still left chances to keep interacting with those beyond their current CR.

My opinion is that AC should still exist, but at least cut in half. I don't think it's hard to provide one proof of activity through three months left.

I'd second this opinion. While I do agree that AC is really important to help maintain the game's over-all player activity, I can see why many are finding it difficult to keep up with the usual demands. So yeah, I think keeping AC but cutting down the number of proofs needed would really help.

I touched on the other reason why we're not doing AC here.

Which basically boils down to: there's actually only one AC left out of the three that makes sense because one would happen in September for August (so after the game is closed) and the other in August for July (and it's probably safe to say that anyone still around by then are here to stay).

Thank you for taking the time to comment and share your opinions.

I guess my question is why would AC give chances to keep interacting beyond your CR beyond what you would do without AC?

My statement, that ties into the question, is that if AC is cut in half, you only need a single thread to pass AC. Which would essentially be made by a thread with your current CR.

I guess I should explain my own stance. As a mod, my personal thoughts were to get rid of AC. Did I believe that activity may be impacted? Certainly. But I believe two things.

1. AC, as a function, helps weed out inactive players.
2. The game is slow enough that even active people have trouble making activity.

In short, I believe that an AC's primary function is gone. If someone can't pass activity at this point in time, then they cannot rejoin the game period. Which, I think, is far more unfair.

I also believe that reducing it would not promote activity because, at that point, it simply becomes a slave to whom you can tag with the fastest. Which often ends up being people who tend to tag with most. So nothing would honestly change.

Edited 2014-06-05 04:56 (UTC)

Because AC tells you "you needs X interaction for the month" and you search out for that interaction; when you don't have that interaction, it leads you to post on an open log, or make a post. I disagree the activity check is solely to weed out inactive players; I believe it's also important to keep the players in a game interacting at least enough to pass it.

And I also don't understand something. You do realize that activity may be impacted; don't you think it's counterproductive in a game that is already so slow?

And to say "who can tag the fastest" is also not completely true. For example, by cutting Ac to half you need THREE comments on a log through the whole month. Just three. In 30 days. That's one comment each 10 days.

We did consider it could impact activity, yes. But we decided that was worht the risk compared to the possibility of AC continuing and forcing players to drop characters especially aince we're getting to the point where if they drop they won't be able to reapp. Again, last cycle I see a lot of players who have consistently passed AC taking strikes and that, more than anything was what prompted me to bring the possibility of removing AC to Caleb and Lady.

I'm not sure if I think AC is for booting inactive players or promoting activity. It's always been a thing that existed for me. What I do know is that I don't believe AC should be punishing players who are otherwise good about being active because there aren't emough things happening in game for them to tag.

I think, rather than AC, it would probably help more to modify the events of the next three months to make them more accessible to more charcters or give them more things to talk about via day change news articles.

We will discuss this amongst the mod team, however. Thabk yoy for your input and time.

This is Orange by the way...in case it wasn't obvious.

Edited 2014-06-05 10:17 (UTC)

I'm game for more accessible events so we can have more things to do without rehashing too many of the same things (because I've found that lately practically every post I can make on the network is almost always an Agency recruitment post, orz), but I'd like a system that can help us check up on people each month. Just to see if they're still around and not planning on idling out.

That's why I personally prefer more lenient AC. If we have more events and not bring the AC, people might be tempted to handwave everything instead, discuss among themselves, and not post. Not that I'm saying handwaving is a bad thing; we'd just like to see some tagging action so the game doesn't slow to slower-than-molasses slow.

We're definitely working on it! o/

Also I touched on the other reason why we're not doing AC here.

Which basically boils down to: there's actually only one AC left out of the three that makes sense because one would happen in September for August (so after the game is closed) and the other in August for July (and it's probably safe to say that anyone still around by then are here to stay).

While I understand your concern, I've personally never seen activity drop too much curing months where traditionally Soul Campaingn doesn't have AC (such as December and January). Also, luckily, logs are still required for event rewards, so I hope that would be incentive enough for people to tag.

Thank you for taking the time to comment! Also forgive any spelling mistakes or syntax error I might have made. I'm still awfully jetlagged. ;w;

I touched on the other reason why we're not doing AC here.

Which basically boils down to: there's actually only one AC left out of the three that makes sense because one would happen in September for August (so after the game is closed) and the other in August for July (and it's probably safe to say that anyone still around by then are here to stay).

Thank you (since I forgot to say it the first time) for taking the time to comment and share your opinions.

Edited 2014-06-08 02:35 (UTC)

I'll just stick this here then link it to the rest of you.

There is actually another reason why it was decided that it would be all right to end AC starting this month. Which is this: there actually aren't that many ACs left.

Theoretically, three months left in game should equate to three ACs. However, that's not actually the case.

August AC (which would have happened in September) is redundant because the game, more likely than not, won't even last until end of August let alone September.

July AC (which would happen on August 1st) I'd never intended to do because there doesn't seem to be much point in handing out strikes or anything of the sort when the game ends in August.

So that left me with May AC (happening in June) and June AC (happening in July). Since there were only two planned ACs, coupled with a larger than usual number of people getting strikes, I thought it would be all right to get rid of AC.

Since it's already been a week I won't be doing May AC at all (and May AC doesn't address your concerns about no AC lowering activity).

So if I do bring back AC there will just be the one which is the June AC in July.

That's another reason why I'm not sure I want to bring back AC at this point. However, that is not to say I'm totally against the idea! If you feel like it would be helpful then I could always do half AC next month. There is still time to announce it on this month's mod post, after all.

Also, I apologize for any mistakes or badly worded sentences. I'm sort of horribly jetlagged at the moment.

Okay, I am finally awake done with my reply to all of this. I apologize for the huge wall of text, but it was the only way I could get my point across more freely! And I apologize in advance for any typos or weird phrasings, but it’s almost 6 am over here and I’m in dire need of sleep.

I'm going to be mentioning things that have been pointed out both by mod replies and player replies to this post, and I’m going to mention other-- more general-- things that are also related to the subject at hand (especially the lack of activity).

1. First of all, I think it would help matters significantly if this was brought up in a different-- and more visible-- mod post. I almost missed this post the first time, and even when I tried to find it again on Near's reading page, I often scrolled past it, and I’m sure that that must have happened to other players, too. Besides, creating a post for the sole purpose of discussing this matter would most likely make others more comfortable with discussing it: by making a post that is basically saying "hey guys would you mind telling us what you think about x and y?" you’re opening up room for discussion and asking explicitly for feedback, whereas people probably wouldn't want to reply to an announcement like the one in this post out of fear that it's not the right place to do so. I felt that way, so much that I apologized when I initially replied to this, but I thought it was too important not to reply, so I did.

Player feedback/suggestions can make a huge difference, especially about something like endgame. I remember that the last time the game hit a slump, Picaro's ooc discussion post helped a lot, and I have no doubt that asking SC's playerbase’s opinion would once again have very good results. Cager's post about continuing to log Morning Training is a perfect example of that.

2. AC shouldn’t be about punishing players who are usually active because there aren’t enough things to tag.

I’m going to use a medical analogy here to help make my point clearer: by cutting off AC, you are only eliminating a symptom, not the disease. There can be a lot of reasons for the low activity in a game that used to be a lot more active previously, like a lower playerbase/number of characters or fewer things to react to, and SC is definitely suffering from those two factors, yes. What can we do to keep people in the game and bring back former players? Well, we can keep the ones we have at the moment, for starters, because drop trains aren’t exactly the most motivating thing to see when you’re rping, but I’ll be touching that point later on.

Game events would definitely help, yes, but Auste had a very good point: with events happening but AC not being required, people might be tempted to handwave things instead of logging them. And handwaving is allowed as long as we provide summary proof, which, the last time I checked, made said summary a valid proof for the soul tally.

The game may be slow enough that even active people have trouble making activity, but with endgame coming up there should be event logs happening from time to time, and you only need three tags per character on a log post to make one AC proof, like Juu has already mentioned, and I’m going to have to quote her on this: “Just three. In 30 days. That's one comment each 10 days.” You don’t have to be fast to get at least one AC proof in a whole month, not at all.

3. AC no longer has any use / there is no point in doing it anymore.

Sometimes, people idle out of a game rather than actively dropping because they feel bad about dropping, per se. Having AC still in place would give those people that opportunity, if they are no longer feeling the game, but it would also give everyone else an idea of who is still interested in the game versus who is no longer into it. AC doesn’t just help weed out inactive players: it helps the rest of the playerbase know who is still invested in the game and who isn’t, and that is a very valuable piece of information.

I fully agree that it is unfair for someone to not be able to re-app if they don’t pass AC. But maybe instead of eliminating AC altogether, a special pass could be created for those situations. Let me come up with an example to help make my point clearer:

- Player A takes an AC strike in one month
- Player A takes an AC strike in the following month

If I’m not mistaken, under normal circumstances this would mean that player A would have to go. Under endgame circumstances, however, maybe that second strike could be met with a mod reply asking them if they still want to stay in game, sort of like player A checking in, and if the answer is positive, they could be forgiven for that second strike.

4. What can we do to keep people in the game and bring back former players?

I really think that the key thing to answer this question would be asking the playerbase. Some of the most successful rps out there have a fantastic history of player plots or just being in touch with what the playerbase wants in general; the best example I can come up with is Asgard, which is also reaching its endgame. I know quite a few people who play or have played there, and player input and participation have been big things over there.

Again, I think a player discussion/input post would be a great idea, because we could all brainstorm what we can do to make the game better and to try to figure out what we can also do to keep our current player base + bring in previous players.

And regarding bringing in former players, specifically, I think keeping AC would help with that: if I were considering going back to a game I used to be in, I would want it to be like it used to before I left, including AC and cr/love memes.

Once again, I’m sorry for the huge wall of text, but I hope this was helpful in any way.

I just wanted to +1 all of what Dev said above because she worded it 495756968 times better than I could

May Activity Check

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No longer have LJ Login so please bear with me using a different account

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/sliding in here now that I'm at that hour where I'm less affected by jetlag

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