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ɪʀᴏɴᴡᴏᴏᴅ ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ ᴇsʜᴀɪ ([personal profile] ironwood) wrote in [community profile] tushanshu_ooc2013-07-20 10:39 pm
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Event HMD | Powerdown & Malicant Plot | June 16th - July 13th

As before, and for anyone who may have missed it, at the end of every mod-run event in Tu Shanshu, we try to toss up an open dialogue post so that the events can be discussed. This is mostly to see if everybody's as happy as possible with the direction the game is going, whether or not the events could be considered a hit or a miss, that sort of thing.

This particular HMD covers the Meta Power Reduction & Malicant joint event.

What are we looking for?
Feedback of all sorts! Did you like what happened? Did the event run too fast, or too slow? Were you able to feel like your character contributed or made a impact on the event? Would you like to make more of a difference? Has there been too much 'downtime' for the characters, do you have any suggestions to make about future events, etc etc? Did the event run long enough for you? Would you like to see more NPC-driven events, or less? Did you feel that there was enough for combatants and non-combatants alike to participate in?

OBVIOUSLY if you have more comments, questions or concerns than those listed above you can add those as well! This is pretty much just a general list.

Do we already have a focus?
In part, yes. We've identified the following issues with the event and would love to foster discussion on these points:
> Team Structure
There were some players that had multiple characters assigned to a team and others that volunteered and did not make the final teams. This was an oversight on Alex's part and she apologises! That said, do you have any suggestions on how we could avoid such an oversight in the future? Should we limit sign-ups to one character per player?

> Multiple Options
Each team was asked to pick only one option per clue set regardless of their characters' proclivities towards exploring multiple options. This was to reduce administrative workload and tie-in with the reduction of powers. Do you have any suggestions as to how we could make taking multiple options feasible for any future event structured in this way?

Note: Alex here! One option considered and taken off the table would be preparing all of the possible branches off the options and clues before the event starts. This is because I found creating the sets during the event really allowed me to adapt the scenarios to suit the actions of each team in a really organic fashion. In summary, it let the characters further influence the event rather than being stuck on rails (see: swizard). I'd really prefer to find a solution that allowed mid-event creation of the clues without sacrificing the multiple options, tbqh.

> Outcomes
The pre-event survey concluded that players were okay with getting dead-ends for their characters actions and so this was included. Two teams had a major impact on the health of the turtle and a variety had other impacts that lessened Malicant's grip on Keeliai. Do you think we should have included more largescale impacts? Less? More impacts in general? More complete dead ends?

We'd like to emphasize that any and all feedback is welcomed and encouraged! These are merely some areas that we've identified as concerns from our standpoint and would like to hear your thoughts on.

Do we have a form?
Yes, in fact! This time, we're offering a quick text form to help provide some structure to the feedback received. This form addresses some of the concerns we noted on a mod level and tries to give as much freedom as possible to anyone that chooses to use it. Please note that you do NOT have to use this form! It's provided as an option only. :3



Please remember, ANON IS ON for this and IP LOGGING IS OFF so if you have anything you'd like to say but maybe you're more comfortable putting it forth anon that is a-okay! You can also feel free to PM us at this journal, or to toss a private plurk at either of the mod accounts (those being [plurk.com profile] vonnerdyce or [plurk.com profile] reignsdown) if that suits your fancy. Any and all comments are welcome, and though participation in this meme isn't required it's definitely encouraged if you're up for it.

Thanks again, guys, and happy turtling!

[personal profile] urbanmagic 2013-07-21 05:59 am (UTC)(link)
Did you have characters involved? Via teams or the independent investigations? Yup! In a team.

What did you like about this event? It was fun. It gave an opportunity for the characters to know other people and also show that the players can affect the outcome of a game. I don't see that a lot (usually it's just game does this, player reacts, rinse and repeat) so seeing that the characters doing something does help in the end is nice.

What didn't work out so hot? Actually had a bit of an issue with the multiple options thing, but I think that was on me since I figured by having that, we kind of already decided on a course of action so the characters more or less just end up threading for the sake of it? I don't know how to explain this. I admit I thought that the effect of the event happened too fast, like-- it's something that sounded like it resolved itself too quickly since I can see investigations like this taking a while longer. Again, perspective.

What would you like to see in the future? Expanding on investigations for the parts that weren't completely wrapped up. For example, drugs that may still be around, guarding areas that were compromised before, etc.

Do you have feedback specific to the team portion of the event? I think for multiple options, it might help if you do the one character per mun per event thing? In a game I was in previously, to avoid having an oversaturation of characters per event, what they do is that they have a sign-up form where everyone can comment and during an event, they will pick the first 20/30/etc and then the next event, the next 20/30 etc so that everyone gets their fair share. Noooot the best option I figure since it has the whole oh characters wouldn't be interested in this or that, so.

Alternatively I say just roulette it. Muns can sign up, but not everyone gets to be a part of the event. However, if the character passed this event, next event they cannot be used for it again? I don't know if that helps.

Do you have feedback specific to the independent investigations portion of the event? Nada!

Would you like to share any other thoughts, suggestions, or opinions about the event or game? It was fun! I enjoyed it, and sorry for not being very helpful ;;
Edited 2013-07-21 05:59 (UTC)

[personal profile] urbanmagic 2013-07-21 06:14 am (UTC)(link)
Nah, it's cool! That makes more sense to me.

I think a problem I personally had with the contents was that it gave you an idea of a start and a finish depending on the choice, and with that-- that's it. You know what happens, you wait for the next clue, so a thread would be pretty much just the conversation that happens in between. It's a problem I think with regular choice games because it makes people anticipate the results rather than the development, so I think maybe it would help if it wasn't overly detailed in the first place? That also ends up as a problem for the mods with the details since I figure this also means you're racking your brain harder than us which can't be fun.

But for what I meant up there, say... okay option a.) go here, option b.) go there, option c.) go there there. You give us the options first, then when we choose it, that's when you give the result? Because then we realize SHIT WE CHOSE WRONG and then we can have a different dynamic and it might not end as well. or it could be AWW YEAH WE DID RIGHT and then characters react accordingly, if that makes sense. Basically, since we already know what's going to happen if we choose something, we end up choosing too easily and not really thinking about the inbetweens so much. So maybe option first, wait for a reply, give the verdict, then characters can go SHIT OH GOD WHY and I will hope this makes sense.

And then repeat it for the next scene because now people are anticipating the oh how do we fix this for the mess and oh what's the reward if it works.

[personal profile] urbanmagic 2013-07-21 06:19 am (UTC)(link)
No problem! Glad to help whenever I can, and sorry for the rambling. You guys are awesome and I anticipate whatever future decisions you make.