![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
MODPOST 1/2
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!)
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!)
no subject
I also understand why the mod team decided to change the app, but I think it will do more harm than good. I was a new player during this last app cycle and I was very intimidated by the app. I'm still quite intimidated by it, in fact. I wanted to app another char but now I feel very self-conscious again and I might not app at all. I think I am not alone in this, so I thought it couldn't hurt to put my two cents here.
I really love the game and the people here because everyone is really welcoming ad nice, but from an outsider perspective the first thing you see is the app and the rules, and how hard it will be to get it. And this new rule might put people off.
no subject
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.
no subject
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.
no subject
This is what the new app form changes, because it gives clearcut guidelines and detail on what we want to see, what we don't like seeing, and, for example in the SC Section, the power levels that everyone ends up at in the beginning. We will be putting up a general but helpful HOW TO APP IN SC guide in the future to walk people through the process.
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.
This is part of grasp of character, however. Inferring your character's personality/strengths/weaknesses (character information section) from nuances found in canon is part of building how one plays a character, and this is actually something we like to see. The apps are judged based on how the player shows how tight their grasp of the character is.
rather than reject them immediately for something that perhaps only needed a better wording.
Character information sections that are solid with some minor quibbles like needing better wording will not be rejected -- the point of the process is to reduce instances of quibbles in this section. At most, they will receive questions for clarifications (clarifications are not revisions; we are not rejecting people just because we wanted to ask questions).
The problem I see with the chance is that it doesn't really benefit the player and it makes the mods look lazy.
We're sorry if this is true and this is how the players see it. In truth, outside of making the character information section easier to go through, the entire app process is actually going to be a potentially more work for the app team and the mods than the other way around, given that we need to coordinate more things (and faster, too) while still reading and processing the same number of apps.
no subject
Clarifications are not revisions; we are not rejecting people just because we wanted to ask questions.
That's a relief, really. I think the reason people was panicking so much over this post it's because certain things like this one weren't clarified. We just care a lot for the game because we really enjoy playing here ^^'
no subject
no subject