ɪʀᴏɴᴡᴏᴏᴅ ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ ᴇsʜᴀɪ (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ironwood) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
tushanshu_ooc2014-05-26 08:39 am
ironwood) wrote in tushanshu_ooc2014-05-26 08:39 am
Entry tags:
More Changes! (AC/Endgame)
(I am so sorry to keep filling up the OOC comm with these posts, we're trying to roll the changes out as they're coming up.)
ONE. Effective immediately, we are removing the double activity requirement for applying for a 4th character and changing it to "having passed the last two consecutive ACs with your full roster". This does not include passes gotten by hiatus or by new character exemption. The strike policy (one per character every six months) has not changed. If this goes well, we may consider expanding to larger rosters in the future.
EDITED TO ADD: If you are on hiatus but have passed the previous two ACs before the hiatus, you can still apply for a 4th character. For example, if you passed January and February's AC normally and were on hiatus for the month of March, you could still apply for a 4th character in April.
TWO. Later in June, the modteam will be reviewing the proposed endgame that was put into effect last year, to see whether it still fits with the plan of the game -- specifically, we will be looking at removing it if that seems feasible. As such, we'd like to invite all our players to express their opinions on that potential change in this post.
Thank you!
ONE. Effective immediately, we are removing the double activity requirement for applying for a 4th character and changing it to "having passed the last two consecutive ACs with your full roster". This does not include passes gotten by hiatus or by new character exemption. The strike policy (one per character every six months) has not changed. If this goes well, we may consider expanding to larger rosters in the future.
EDITED TO ADD: If you are on hiatus but have passed the previous two ACs before the hiatus, you can still apply for a 4th character. For example, if you passed January and February's AC normally and were on hiatus for the month of March, you could still apply for a 4th character in April.
TWO. Later in June, the modteam will be reviewing the proposed endgame that was put into effect last year, to see whether it still fits with the plan of the game -- specifically, we will be looking at removing it if that seems feasible. As such, we'd like to invite all our players to express their opinions on that potential change in this post.
Thank you!
no subject
On the one hand, games that go on and on and are very specifically 'plot and setting' type games, and not sandboxes-with-consistency, can get very tired and plodding and just fizzle out. Postponing it and filling with other plots making the setting grow and not resolving Malicant--or not fully resolving--is definitely one way. Me, I'm not terribly invested in game ending or not; I'm very used to gaming styles with definitive ends, and yes, you're sad, but half the fun is in living through it and half the fun is in deliberately building towards an awesome climax, one you can tell stories about for years to come and have it never get old. Game ending? Could be awesome, guys. But it's up to us to make it so, and not just go 'oh but never mind.' Frankly, if that happened, that's on us.
I do not, however, think that the correct answer is 'yay defeat,' send them home, and then cycle through that again. That's stale in a different way: it just gets repetitive. If the only plot ever is 'and beat back Malicant,' well, find something new please? Besides, part of the continuity that people do like--and which I would also appreciate if it continued--is not just memories, but of lives built up. Uprooting everyone and starting over is, again, kinda a 'sigh and back to square one and go through the same motions again' thing. This seems suboptimal.
The other reason I dislike it is that it seriously cheapens accomplishment. This is kind of based on my experience with tabletops and LARPs. From an IC perspective, if they Win The Day!!! and then find out oh well maybe not that can get disgruntling.
A more balanced approach, which allows lots of 'hypothetically indefinite exploration' and one that allows for game ending on short notice if need be at some point in the future: they defeat him, but explicitly know at the time--maybe due to incomplete information--that what they've done is bind him but it isn't final, and they still need to search for how. Then other plots and things exploring this world and helping it grow and recover and, just maybe, prepare for the next big fight against him can fill plot arcs and growth. When some Malicant Fighting is needed, that can pop up as a recurring supervillain, but is not the constant primary conflict--and whenever game needs to end, well, they find the key to finally ending him and do so.
It would keep continuity of memory and life, it allows for exploring much wider areas, it allows for continuing on in this setting if we choose, it allows for reliable conflict when needed without requiring that one all the time (which gets repetitive), and has a set resolution whenever the time has finally come.