empatheias_ooc | Mid-Month Announcement: February

— MID-MONTHLY MOD ANNOUNCEMENT: FEBRUARY —

A pretty light mod post this time around, but we do have an important poll regarding the future of application cycles and just some other little game things. So please read up on those!

» CALENDAR

Here are the dates you should know for the rest of the month. The main calendar spreadsheet can be found here.

2/13: CR Meme
2/16: Test Drive.
2/23: Activity Check starts; Reservations open.
2/29: Activity Check ends.
3/01: Applications Open.

» EMOTION TRACKER UPDATE

As always, it's kind of early to tell where the Emotion Tracker is going. Crystal still broken.

As a reminder, this is just a "mid-month" check to give everyone an idea of where the Emotion Tracker stands. If you haven't had a chance to submit your threads, don't worry! You can still submit and have it count for the final tally at the end of the month.

Here is a screenshot of the stats:

Huh. It's actually overall negative! What a rare sight. Wonder how long it'll stay that way though.

» TASK BOARD THINGS

This is just a quick little reminder that we are always open for Task Board suggestions! This is also a bit of a heads up that we'll be working to design the tasks to relate more to various canons represented with the game. We are even open to creating task board jobs that are targeted toward a specific character, whether it be some kind of "Wanted" poster (be it mistaken or legit) or perhaps more on the prank side (these will be handy come April...). If there's anything specific you may have in mind to get your character involved, feel free to come up with a task and submit!

Finally, we are also looking into possibly increasing the number of tasks on the board to help give some more variety. Again, suggestions are welcome, and hey. If there's someone out there who actually wants to help with coming up with task board prompts, you are totally welcome to do so!

» IC CAMPAIGNS

As a result of our last poll, IC campaigns are still on! And as expected, we timed it poorly. Our bad. So we're delaying it until sometime in March, which may work out even better considering recent plots that have occurred. However, we can only push this thing back so far before it gets a little odd. Sign-ups are still open, so if there are those still interested, just use this post. We do have at least three, so we're at slightly better spot than before!

» GATE OF TRUTH NOTES

Since there will be IC announcements and posts regarding the recent "Gate of Truth" plot, we're just giving everyone a heads up about what the public should already know. This is mostly to the benefit of those who weren't actually involved, but were somewhat interested in the going ons.

Through various newspapers, major headlines and topical gossip will mostly center on the fact that a large scale kidnapping case was solved, victims are recovering, and a culprit has been identified. However, all names of the involved, including the culprit, have yet to be revealed. More specific details will have to wait until ICly released.

» APPLICATION CYCLES: SHORTER PERIOD

The game has grown quite a bit, and while our current 7-day application cycle has been pretty good, we are more frequently coming across issues where the period where new applicants enter the game is conflicting with and hindering events and plots that would occur later in the month. We do try to plan the super major events closer toward the end, but there are times when scheduling would be better closer toward mid-month. (As an aside, we do have the option to close or reschedule application cycles if there is an ever an event that would require a lot more time and involvement, but that is not a situation that we foresee in the near future. We will be sure to announce it a cycle prior should it happen so there is ample warning.) In addition, there is the concern that those accepted later in the cycle may feel they have a "late start" on the Intro Logs. Currently, we process apps at around the 4th day mark and then the day after applications close.

Since our main concern is actually on the new players, as we do want them to have adequate time to get intros done and settle in a bit, we have considered shortening all future application cycles. Now there are certain pros and cons to this, and here's a quick list of what we thought about:

Pro: Reduction of "wait" time for application to be processed.
Pro: All applications processed at once, meaning everyone hits the Intro Log at the same time (no staggering).
Pro: Gain 3-4 more days for actual game play/settling in for new players.
Con: Less time to write up and turn in applications; potential for more "rushed" applications.
Con: Mods will have to look through apps more frequently to keep up pace and standard (translates to Laena shoving applications into everyone's faces and Trello beeping everyday).

It's kind of even, and some could say the benefits outweigh the extra stress. At the very least, we can at least try it for two or three rounds to see how it works, and if it doesn't we can revert back.

But before we make such a change, we want to run a poll through the gamebase to see how players feel about this. To be clear, if a change is accepted, it will not happen until April. The upcoming March cycle will remain the standard 7-day schedule.

Poll closes Sunday, February 21.

Poll #17311 Application Cycles

This poll is closed.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 34

Should we shorten the cycle?

Yes
7 (20.6%)

Leaning toward yes
12 (35.3%)

Neutral
10 (29.4%)

Leaning toward no
2 (5.9%)

No
3 (8.8%)

Select which app period would be okay with (you can select multiple).

3 days
15 (44.1%)

4 days
28 (82.4%)

7 days (current)
20 (58.8%)

Choose which app period would be your ultimate preference.

3 days
3 (9.4%)

4 days
21 (65.6%)

7 days (current)
8 (25.0%)

We will look at both the general preference option and the "ultimate" preference. A three-day app cycle would definitely be more of an app blitz, while a four-day is more of a "medium," as that's when we usually process our current first batch of apps. The original seven-day is also included as an option for those who would still prefer the current standard. Keep in mind that while the period to turn in applications could be reduced to 3-4 days, the time it takes us to process could actually be 4-5.

So please vote! And if you have any questions about this, ask them here.

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And that's about it. If you have any questions, concerns, or want things clarified, please comment here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Hello mods! I'd just like to know what's the current view of the Otherworlders by the Empatheians? Since the newspaper report on the Gate of Truth plot seems to imply that the Empatheians are quite negative about the Otherworlders, but I'm not sure if this is the view of the newspaper or an accurate reflection of the state of relations between the Otherworlders and the Empatheians.

Also, would it be possible that we can get a small update on the state of relations between Otherworlders and Empatheians every mid-monthly/monthly mod post? You guys do a great job already in terms of setting and lore, and I'd love to have this bit of detail just to augment my own plots and threads. It doesn't have to be anything massively long, just something succinct.

Mid-Month Announcement: February

GENERAL QUESTIONS

no subject