MODPOST 1/2

[soul_mods]

Attention, Soul Campaign!

We’re opening reservations in a little over a week, and the mods would like to make some announcements regarding changes being made to the application and reservation process. These changes have been in planning for a long time, and is one of the reasons why we went for the break.

Reserves Page and Application Cut Off
The reserves page will open on November 1, 2011 as planned. The application cycle will be from December 16 - 23, 2011. Cut-off for next cycle will be December 15, 2011, 11:59pm EST.

Changes to the application form
We made some changes to the application form, which you can see here. The sections remain the same, but the text explaining these changes have been revised to make them clearer and more streamlined. We’ve included a secondary reference page linked in the application, which includes guidelines that will hopefully make the application easier for players to fill and the application cycle/process much faster than what we’ve been doing before.

We changed the weapon section so that weapons will only have one general ability. There will be a separate post to detail how this will affect current weapons (but don’t panic, we’re not going to make you change yours if you don’t want to).

Last, a summary of the events in the game since its beginning up til the Europe event has been posted in this page.

New revision process for the applications
Starting the next cycle, we will no longer entertain revisions for the Character Information section of the application. This section includes the character’s history, personality, abilities, and weaknesses. We feel that players who know their characters well should be able to write their applications in a manner that makes this section understandable to the application team. Any application whose character information section the application team finds lacking will immediately be rejected.

The other sections (SC-only section, meister, weapon, soul description, samples) will go through the usual revision process if necessary, since they are all sections unique to Soul Campaign.

Beta-reading system
However, since we will no longer be allowing revisions for the character information during the application cycle, we will be offsetting this with a beta-reading system to help players make sure that their applications pass the standards of the game.

How will this work? In the reserves page, the applicants commenting on it will have the option of asking for a beta-reader from SC’s pool of current players. You can volunteer to beta-read theirs and help them with their applications by replying to their reserve comment.

We’d also like to minimize the risk of applicants asking for a beta-reader and not getting any -- to do this, the mods will be collecting names of people willing to be included in a pool of beta-readers every cycle, and we will assign them to a lonely applicant.

If you’d like to volunteer, please reply here, and indicate any preferences (or non-preferences, for that matter!) on series or canon that you have. We appreciate it! App team members may also volunteer, but this doesn’t guarantee that the app will pass.

Test drive meme
We will also test something for next cycle. We will put up a Test Drive Meme in Soul Skirmish, to be linked to the reserves page. This will give the prospective applicants and the current players space to tag each other before the application cycle, to give the applicants a taste of the game before they come in.

The meme will include several scenarios that the characters can play out, depending on their choice. Some will be serious, while some will be more light-hearted. Soul Campaign is a plot-heavy game that depends on consistent relations and interactions between characters, as well as emphasis on world news and events; we’d like the applicants to be more aware of this as they app into the game.

Please note that threads in this meme will not be accepted for Activity Check. Sorry. :c

Whew!
So that’s it for changes! Please note that the new revision process, beta-reading system, and test drive meme are all still under testing for now, and we may adjust them depending on how December pans out. We appreciate your patience!

The second mod post will be up soon after this, so make sure to check it out, especially if you have weapon characters.

For questions about this post (and its links), you can ask here or email us at soulcampaign@gmail.com. (Don't worry if some questions take a while to answer, a couple of the mods are going on a short vacation for a couple of days. Thank you for your patience!)

Comments

[soul_mods]

We're smoothing out a process for the beta-readers as we speak, and we hope this addresses your concern at a later time.

Would it be possible to elaborate on why you were intimidated by the app before and why you are intimidated now? Is it only the no revisions clause for the character information section or something else? The applications did not become harder with the change, since we are requiring more or less the same information minus redundancies and with the additional benefit of more comprehensive guidelines, so we'd like to know why it's still intimidating to some players. The new rule is there not just to make the app team's work easier -- it is there to protect the players from unnecessary calls for minor revisions and other such nitpicks. In the past and using the old form, there were plenty of holes for these nitpicks to fall through because of the lack of clearcut guidelines -- the new process allows the app team and the mods to focus on the content of this section instead of focusing on other unnecessary details. It's often these minor details that used to make the app team before ask for revisions pertaining this section, if this section required revisions at all.

[soul_mods]

But FM, even the dictionary says they are different words. >:(

Re: flee it's me

[calledloony.livejournal.com]

Meisters don’t require a guide; they choose from a list or create their own power on a case-by-case basis (which then gets added to the evolving list).

I think a short guide on how to come up with or choose a meister ability would still be helpful! I know when I've apped Meisters my main reason for choosing abilities was because they sounded cool, not because they fit into the SE universe. I've never had my Meisters use their abilities either, and part of the reason for that is definitely because SC doesn't have very in-depth info about how they work (unless there's something buried somewhere?). I realize that Weapons are a more unusual concept and require more explanation, but right now it kind of seems like Weapon appers have tons of info and Meister appers still have to make stuff up as they go along.

[soul_mods]

Sure! I'm a little puzzled on why people have begun assuming that they are the same thing. The app team isn't an unfair group who would reject people based on because they can't understand an app, when a simple clarification that may not even necessitate change is an option.

[shiromadoushi]

Not every app team works the same way and previous experiences will always colour current ones, unfortunately.

[socialbutterfly]

Can do. Actually, after this application snaffu gets dealt with, next on my plate is a primer dealing with Soul Eater concepts like 'Resonance.' That should help also.

[soul_mods]

We were planning on putting samples up from the start, so we hope that will address your concerns!

For the rest of it -- thank you for the support. The new system is supposed to address the unavoidable inevitability of minor revision requirements for the entire app that stemmed from using the old app. We streamlined all the sections to make them clearer and to provide more clear-cut guidelines, and then we're simply doing away with revisions in the character information section and just judging it based on pass or fail. Ideally, any character information section that shows a solid grasp of the character will get accepted despite minor nitpicks from the app team within ourselves.

You have a good point about the beta-readers, and we're smoothing that out as we speak! Hopefully we can come out with material to help the beta-readers in the next few days.

[calledloony.livejournal.com]

Thank you, that would also be a huge help!

[soul_mods]

Personally (and this is Yukeh, LJ login seems to have died between my going on a short vacation), I feel that it's rather unfair to be constantly judged or monitored based on the actions of the app teams of other games. I understand that this is unavoidable, but it does cause confusion when constant adjustments and contingent plans have to be made for things that we don't actually even do.

[soul_mods]

THANKS, ANIKI. Maybe I shouldn't have taken that vacation, eh?

[shiromadoushi]

Yeah, I can understand that. But when people have little idea what things are really like it really is unavoidable because there's not much else that can be put in it's place. It is one of the downsides when the app process is utterly out of sight. All that can be really done is just try and make things transparent/explain things so people know how it works here.

For what it's worth, I do appreciate both mod and app teams putting up with the flailing over this and being willing to listen.

[socialbutterfly]

I'm glad someone does, haha.

[soul_mods]

Hi, thanks for giving your input. Perhaps this comment can put some of your worries to rest -- the new app process is actually put there to make the app easier for people by removing the need for quibbles and requests for minor revisions, and putting up clearcut guidelines on how certain sections should be done, what we expect to see, or even what we assume that the applicant already knows (this is particularly relevant in the SC-Section). The problem with the old app form (and system) is that too many things were vague and there were plenty of holes to fall into. The new apps and process (and the upcoming guidelines) will allow the app team to focus on the content of this particular section, thereby letting us judge whether a player has a decent grasp of the character or not without getting distracted by the smaller details. This makes the process faster, less painful (with less suspense for the players), and hopefully, the beta-readers will help minimize rejections. Our usual acceptance rate is about 90 - 95%, and we don't expect it to decrease significantly.

We understand your concern about the being rejected, but the app team thinks that this is unlikely to happen as long as the character information has the core information that we look for in an app, details that let us know the player knows their character well. This will be detailed in another guideline going up soon-ly (a HOW TO guide!).

[soul_mods]

True enough! We'll make sure to compile all of the input in this post and make adjustments as necessary/post clarifications for everyone, so thank you for speaking up.

[shiromadoushi]

I'm sure most do! There's just a lot of flailing and anxiety to get through.

And thanks for bearing with my awkward attempts to explain things. I know I'm not the best with words at times and am stubborn as all hell, so really, thanks. :)

[shiromadoushi]

And thank you for listening! As said, it's really appreciated!

[socialbutterfly]

I'm the same way. I'm sorry if I came across as harsh to you--hard to tell with the text medium, but I usually speak (type) dispassionately. I wanted to follow the logic the entire way across and you let that happen. Thank you for your patience.

[r-a-m-1982.livejournal.com]

That's good, thank you for taking in consideration our worries.

My app didn't need revision but I asked different betas to give it a look before I submitted it because in the app page there was no example of what exactly the mods wanted to know in every section and a few of them sounded confusing or repetitive. The app asks for a lot of details and, while I think that is a good thing, not all chars have a canon that gives that many details (The chars from Inception, as example). So, people have to figure out those details and it means that certain sections of the app end being very subjective.

I think that it would be better if player had at least 1 opportunity to submit a revision rather than reject them immediately for something that perhaps only needed a better wording.

The problem I see with the chance is that it doesn't really benefit the player and it makes the mods look lazy. I know the mods are anything but lazy, you all really put a ton of effort in make the game work but this it's how some people might see it.

[gunsmokeangel.livejournal.com]

Question!

If say, I put in an app at the beginning of the app period and it was rejected in a timely fashion, could I either resubmit the app before the end of the period or submit another, different app before the clock stops?

Then instead of the app team working with someone to clean up their app, betas could help, or the person could still get into the game with a character that they can app better. Might seem a little less intimidating.

[flowering_tea]

Late but some thoughts…

I think having the test drive meme on a regular basis is a good idea. I just joined in August but I’ve noticed that quite a few characters got dropped within several weeks, something which kind of surprised me considering the work it takes to write an application and set up a character journal. That would probably help people figure out if this game is right for their characters before they actually send in an application. Having the summary of what happened since the game started is good, too, so new people can easily see what to expect in terms of plots. I had browsed through the timeline pages before I applied but this explains much more clearly.

Could we possibly also have a post where people can bounce around preliminary character ideas OOC? Since it can be quite a bit of work to canon review and set up a character journal with icons if you’re not completely sure about playing someone yet. (Before this game, I hadn’t really roleplayed in years and not on LJ before so I don’t have any character journals set up besides this one.) I’ve had a few ideas but the one I’m leaning towards at the moment is really obscure and it would be nice to see if there’s interest in a character like that before I reread novels, take a lot of notes, and make a journal.

I’m a new player who joined in August and I wasn’t asked for any revisions. (But then I was trying to be super thorough, reviewed a lot, and wrote a 10 page application, including doing my own history.) So, I didn’t have any idea about how acceptance rates were or how often revisions were asked for. But if the new policy is meant to reduce nitpicking and make it easier to pass the character info section, it should be better explained on the application page. Because new people who are considering applying wouldn’t know that and 2 months is a long time. The idea of having to wait 2 months to try again if you mess up on the character section would likely seem very discouraging for some. Part of why I spent so long fussing with my application for Shuurei (I worked on it over a few weeks and was rather tired of writing it by the time I was done) was that I’d heard applications would be closed until December and I’m not sure if I would have waited that long if I hadn’t gotten in. I actually stumbled on this game completely by chance when I did a LJ search for Saiunkoku and found that someone had just joined from that series. And decided to give it a try after finding that there were a few other characters here from obscure fandoms I liked.

[aoshifangirl.livejournal.com]

And I think it's great you guys are changing the review process! But, you do realize that the main reason people are jumping all over this the way they are is because you don't say anything about changes to the review process itself in this post? All you say is that revisions to those sections will be eliminated. Maybe it was obvious to the mods or people the mods had talked to that a change in review process would go along with that, but those of us just reading the post have no way of knowing that. To us it just sounded like you were going to keep exactly the same system, but cut out the revisions, and I think that's why so many people responded to this so strongly.

A lot of this confusion could have been eliminated if you'd explained that the process itself would be undergoing some change in the post as well. Because I honestly had no idea that was the case until other people started replying and insisting that obviously this was the case, and if I'd known that my response to this probably wouldn't have been nearly so harsh.

[2ollux.livejournal.com]

Sup. Signing up.

Fandom preferences include, but are not limited to:
Homestuck
Air Gear
The SMT series (Persona 3 + 4, Nocturne, DSRK 1 + 2)
KHR
Bleach
Supernatural (up to season 4)
Final Fantasy 8-10
.hack

actually, if in doubt, don't hesitate to ask. the list goes on. and on and on.

Re: VOLUNTEERS for beta reading!

[betterrockets.livejournal.com]

Sign me up!

I'm happy to look over characters from Advance Wars, Trauma Team, Pokemon (Anime, Game and Manga), Ouran Host Club, Professor Layton, Kirby, Bleach, Sengoku Basara (Anime), and Super Mario. Also anything with a script available 8I

[neverbeenworse.livejournal.com]

VOLUNTEERIN'! I'm most familiar with the below listed canons, but I'll be willing to give anything a look-over if needed!

- Anime/Manga: Katekyo Hitman Reborn, Gintama, Nyanpire, Hetalia, D.Gray-man, Air Gear, Nurarihyon no Mago, Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt, DRRR!!, Baccano!

- Games: The Star Ocean series, The World Ends with You, the Pokemon series

[cake-and-dreams.livejournal.com]

Thank you, that is much more clear. I might still hold off apping for a cycle like some of the others are doing just to see how things go, but I don't feel nearly as horrified about it as I did when this post first went up.

it would be a pretty brazen applicant to have your 'balls busted' for offering your help when you're certainly not required to.
This is the internet. It's totally possible.

There was one other thing. I was talking to another player and they mentioned maybe letting us see some numbers from this cycle would be a good idea, and I happen to agree with that. It could be more comforting to see how many applied versus how many got in. I can crunch my own relevant statistics from there, I just think it would be nice to see or maybe track for a few app cycles. /shrug