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]

I think this is where the confusion begins. The beta readers aren't put there to help the app team make our lives easier, they are there for the pure benefit of the players. If anything, putting the new process and the beta-reader system in place might make our jobs a little harder or more fast-paced given the amount of work and coordination that we are taking on ourselves, but they are put there to make it easier on the applicants most of all -- nowhere on this post is it mentioned that the beta-reader is supposed to help the app team, so I am not sure where you got the idea. On top of the guidelines, the detail in the new app form, and the test drive meme, the beta-readers will function as another helping (and OPTIONAL) guide for the applicants to make sure their apps pass current game standards. If you think that the beta-readers may pose more problems for you as an applicant, then by all means, you can skip them.

The app team is integral in the revisions we just stated above. They know all the issues of the previous app process and are important voices in helping us, the mods, figure out what changes needed to be made and how to best divide the tasks between ourselves. I'm not quite sure where the issue is if you only wanted answers to your questions -- the answers would have been the same coming from a mod (and maybe the mod might be less coherent, if it's me...)

Pardon my cutting in/hijacking here

[shiromadoushi]

It was mentioned a few times in various replies that it was believed that the betas would make the mods/app teams job easier, so I think it's a common misconception, or one that was just adopted when seen because it made sense.

And I think part of the confusion of who was replying in what capacity, because I felt a bit similar, is that as a newer player, I at first had no idea that the mod and app teams were separate teams and also had [and still have!] no idea who is on the app team. So answers seemed to be coming from fellow players rather than the mods, since there's nothing to indicate who's an app-team member the way the mod account labels the reply as an "official" type reply hence a lot of at least my confusion.

[soul_mods]

I'm actually not sure why it makes sense to people when there's no correlation between the two aside from the both of them needing to interact with the applicant. The beta-readers have nothing to do with the app team unless the app team member decides to split his or her time with beta-reading prior to the app cycle. When you say a 'common misconception', how common is common? We're going to work on making this clearer in the revisions we are making to the app form and the guides/reserves pages, etc.

Regardless of whether the reply comes from the mod or the app team, the answers to all the questions related to this post would also be the same. I understand what you're saying regarding the confusion (we've forgotten to update the app team list, which is on the profile page, but we'll get to that in a moment and move it and the pertinent information to the mod contact page), but I also don't understand why it matters if a fellow player who happens to know what's going on behind the app scene, has the agreement of the mods to answer things for them when they can't, and is willing to help out, can answer the same thing and in faster time. At any rate, this may be a discussion that should be left in another avenue, since it's already rather out of topic in this post. The information should be updated in the mod contact page soonly.

[shiromadoushi]

I'd have to tally it up to be sure but I did notice it being mentioned a few times in different responses to this entry and in various discussions about it. Sorry I don't have anything more specific.

And I think it's more that you don't know if someone IS coming from a position of knowledge or is just putting forth what they believe is true. There was a lot of misconceptions, different reading of things and a lot of differing opinions, and without any knowledge that the person who was speaking was actually involved or in the know, it came out as just another voice in the crowd, if that makes sense? Having something be clearly marked as coming from someone who DOES know what's going on I think goes a long way to clearing up confusion.

Sorry for the off topic.

[soul_mods]

We apologize for all the confusion and stress this has caused -- we've already taken action to remedy this in the mod contact and reserves page (still under construction, but changed significantly to make some things clearer). Thank you for your patience and understanding, and we hope to fix things in the near future for everyone!

sorry for jumping in, this should be my last comment

[lionborn.livejournal.com]

...but I also don't understand why it matters if a fellow player who happens to know what's going on behind the app scene, has the agreement of the mods to answer things for them when they can't, and is willing to help out, can answer the same thing and in faster time.

has the agreement of the mods to answer things for them when they can't

But if nobody ever says this important part, how are we supposed to know that they have your agreement to speak for you? :( It was never mentioned or brought up anywhere as far as I know which made it look as if the app team members were suddenly trying to do the mods' job without any reason or justification to do it to me. Hence my confusion and question about it. Sorry if I'm missing something really obvious.

Re: sorry for jumping in, this should be my last comment

[soul_mods]

Yes, we see where the mistake in the matter is, now! We're already making revisions to some of our mod pages as we speak to reflect this information, so people aren't confused in the future. We apologize for any stress this particular confusion has caused -- but thank you very much for being understanding!

[lionborn.livejournal.com]

No need to apologize, especially not for you. You guys have handled what has become a nasty mess in a way that's really awesome to say the least and I can only marvel at your patience in dealing with all of this. I hope it didn't look as if I was trying to shift the blame or make excuses for myself when I asked about the relationship between mods and the app team since I really didn't mean it that way. All I wanted to do is to explain one of the reasons why I now owe a huge apology to several people, which also includes you.

Sorry for being hasty and expressing things in bad ways.

[soul_mods]

It's really all right -- regardless of us headbutting here and there, we have at least resolved things and this is very important to me and to us. Let's just agree to forgive each other and continue enjoying the game!

[lionborn.livejournal.com]

Yeah, thanks for clarifying this since it IS confusing to think about. My problem with it was that I saw it repeatedly come up as an argument for how the new beta-readers would be good and make things easier for the mods, app team and players as well and that people shouldn't make a fuss, but nobody expanded on how it ought to help the mods and app teams since it indicates more work for them rather than less. Repeated often enough and with enough conviction yet no explanation given it was no far jump to make you want to wonder if there actually is some way that having beta-reads could make the load of those checking the apps less heavy to a considerable amount and then run with what seems the next logical conclusion - no matter how unlikely it'd be considered on its own - as an option for a worst case. Being worried, the lack of exact information and having enough time to come up with worst case scenarios is no good breeding ground for calm logic, I fear. Thanks for explaining this for once and all.

As for the betas, I already said that I think that it is a good idea although it may still have some details to consider like what to do if somebody really blames and lashes out at their beta if their application gets rejected after all (this is the internet, it CAN happen). Other people brought those things up as well and you replied to them in a positive manner, so I think we can consider this point settled, I hope you agree.

[soul_mods]

The new review system (for the character information section) was what we were constantly referring to when talking about the change being easier on the mods and the app team, not the beta-reading system, but we see where the confusion could have come from. We'll be clearer in the future and thank you for your patience in letting us clarify these things!