Mid-Month Announcement: February

[simpathis]

— 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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

Comments

GENERAL QUESTIONS

[simpathis]

APPLICATION QUESTIONS

[simpathis]

[workingon3]

I feel like, and maybe this is just me, shortening the application period wouldn't (or rather, shouldn't) result in the quality of apps going down? I mean, there's nothing to stop someone from starting on their application before they actually open, and just holding on to it until time to post it, right? Like, I knew I wanted a little bit of extra time for mine with Laurens, so I started on it before the week actually began. Plus currently there's nothing to stop someone from rushing to write their application out even with the longer window, right? Like, people can still procrastinate.

I feel like shortening it would just make everything feel a little... tighter, when it comes to apps? Like I feel the pros greatly outweigh the cons.

[spyrited]

If the issue is mostly the timing of characters actually physically entering into the game, what if you altered the app process so that apps can be submitted during a certain period (like maybe even the last week of the month) but aren't processed/ or even looked at by you even until the beginning of the month? A lot of the "rush" comes from when people see "hey there's an app for this canon I like maybe I should app a canonmate". If you could submit apps for a longer period you'd have time to look over what's been submitted and write your own, but it'd still keep the intros at the beginning of the month so they wouldn't interfere with plotting. And if you indicate that you're only even going to start looking at the apps at X date it won't give you extra modwork either.

[strategisch]

^this

Also, there's nothing stopping you from just moving the time when you accept applications to whenever it fits best within potential plots. It means you'd have to plan months in advance, but maybe that would be better for everyone?

[nolongerasleep]

To add to this I actually played in a game that had apps always open and accepted them throughout the month, but had a set date for when IC intros would happen along with a cut off for when you had to app by to get in on the next intro round. They never really closed apps, just controlled when characters showed up.

[spyrited]

Yeah I've seen games like that before too. The only thing about that would be that it might feel like more work for the mods if they were accepting apps all the time instead of only during one part of the month. But doing something like having all the apps in before actually accepting them would allow the IC influx of new characters to be more tightly controlled to the first few days of the month.

[shadowofpride]

I'm in agreement with having a set day for when characters ICly enter the game. You can probably still keep it to accepting apps on the fourth day and after apps closed, but no one will be able to ICly intro until said day. You'll probably have to switch/adjust around when app period is (I'm a little iffy about keeping apps open all the time), if you want people to be able to intro around the start of the month.

[notquiteangelic]

I mostly mentioned it because that is one way things can be done and the main thing would be to have a set time for intros. In the end it's up to the mods when apps are open.

[opportunitycosts]

Replying here since it's the starter—

I think I might be a little confused by what you're trying to say. To put some concrete numbers, in your example it would be, say, letting apps be submitted for the last week of the month, but none are processed until maybe the first three days of the month (so 7 days for apps to be submitted, 3 days for us to process) and the 4th day is the scheduled intro day.

What we're proposing kind of hits a few things that have been mentioned. Basically, there would be, lets say, 4 days to submit applications. We'll review them within that time frame, but we won't actually send out notices until the 5th day (we already review those that come in during the final day as they come in and then spend the following further reviewing if needed). So in that sense, our app review schedule isn't really changed. And then, the intro log is set up and everyone goes in at once. Since we link the intro logs in the acceptance notices, the log always goes up a few hours before we process. So it could be expected that the intro log would always go up on the 5th or 6th of every month assuming the app cycle is on a 4-day schedule.

Also, another reason why we're considering shortening the app period is because there may not really need to be a long period for applications. If anything, most of our applications actually come in on the first day, and I don't think this will change no matter how long the applications are. So we'll still have ample time to go through most apps. It's no different than how we already do the "first batch" apps, really—we're essentially just cutting the "batches" in half.

THIS IS ASSUMING I understood what you were trying to say to begin with. A set IC intro day isn't a bad idea, but that is essentially what we'd be doing regardless and what the shortening app period is helping with.

Oh, the other reason why we stick with applications happening at the beginning of the month is because AC runs at the end of the month. If someone idles out or drops, someone else can pick up the character fairly quickly if they wanted do. This wouldn't be possible in your current proposed system with applications occurring during the last week of the month.

[opportunitycosts]

I've done the "always open" application cycles before, and they work—but it highly depends on the game's size and structure. In Emp's early days, an open cycle would have worked fairly well. But as the game is right now with how we have plots that could run through at any time of the month and that we do have a decent sized population, actual cycles work best. It really has a lot to do with the amount of control over how applications and new characters come in, and for our purposes it's the most efficient and organized way to do it.

In addition, even if we only had a set timeframe for intros, players probably won't want to have their application sitting and waiting for weeks. So in that sense, it would be kind of unnecessary to have applications always open and just easier if there was a set schedule.

(I also realize I'm not on the mod journal, but this is mostly because these are also my own personal opinions ah ha.)

[spyrited]

The idea is to instead of having apps opening on the 1st and characters getting accepted on the 4th, to have apps open on something like the 26th and apps accepted on the 1st.

That pushes up the time that the intro log happens without actually shortening the amount of time you can submit applications. And if you still accepted apps for 2-3 or so days into the new month you could still quickly pick up those dropped characters.

[opportunitycosts]

Personally I don't think they would either—as I mention in another comment, most of our applications come around the first day. Then it's kind of scattered with a few more showing up at the deadline. But it's always a possibility since there is a sense of "tightness" as you mention, so it was mentioned as a kind of "covering all bases" thing.

[opportunitycosts]

Yeah, that's what I thought! (Or kind of figured out while I was typing everything, hah.)

It's not a bad idea, really. Although, because I have to, I now have to posit the situation of where our events occur or overlap into the very last week of the month. Leaving at least a couple of days in the beginning of the month free allows everyone to have a breather as well as lets us give everyone the "heads up" for the month.

ALSO YOU EDITED:

If that's the case, then what's the difference between just opening apps for those days at the beginning of the month? Since the other goal is to actually shorten the app period.

[gottacatch]

I'm interested to see what will be done in regards to the task board, and here's a thanks for the work put into making new ones each month!

[young_oldman]

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.