empatheias_ooc | Endgame Announcement

— ENDGAME ANNOUNCEMENT —

Hello everyone! We are timing this announcement now rather than at the start of March as this will likely affect future player decisions, especially with reserves opening tomorrow.

As many have probably already guessed from our recent changes, we are making the official statement: Empatheias is heading into endgame.

Back during the State of the Game last October, Laena made it clear that she would only be able to properly mod for another year and had given a possible timeframe of when endgame would be but without making anything official as we were going on a "wait and see" basis. So, many of you will most likely not be surprised by this. Judging by how things have been slowing down and the plot already heading towards a natural conclusion, we have decided to go ahead and bring the game to a proper ending since this is the best time for it.

This means the game will end August 31, 2020, which will pass the 7th year anniversary and give the game a full six year run. That's pretty impressive, and it has been a great six years!

Now that still leaves us with six months of things to do, and to give everyone a better idea of what to expect, here is a rough roadmap of the main highlights:

March: follow up of Fourth Wall February, tackling some of the Briarlan plotholes, and a Piphron related event involving rocks and a choo choo.
April: A very unusual Flower Festival set in different part of Elios's lands, and something related to rebuilding Peromei's home.
May: Big event involving Aiada's artifact.
June: Big event involving Sosyne's artifact.
July: Helisium with Daimonia at the helm and tying in with her artifact.
August: Grand finale.

Please note that this is just highlighting the main plot points and event focuses for each month and could be subject to change.

Because we know player mindsets tend to wane and focus more on wrapping up things on the personal CR front, we will be trying to structure things so that the final months focus more on using the setting while still allowing avenues for those interested in the plot. We may do a general survey to see the numbers again, similar to the one we did back during October's State of the Game, so that we know what we can work with and tailor events for better enjoyment. This is also the time for players to make any suggestions or requests for anything they have always wanted to play out in the setting.

As for what will happen to the game after it ends, although Laena toyed with the idea of leaving it open as a low effort structured sandbox, the problem of "modding" is still an issue. It also might be best to let the setting rest, so unless there is a lot of vocal support or volunteers, we will run the usual course of closing the game's doors. However, we'll allow players already in the game to continue finishing up their threads and anyone is free to use the setting for their own personal use. Should a group want to make a new setting based on Empatheias, feel free to contact us.

We would like to thank everyone who has been with us so far and welcome anyone who would like to return just for endgame. We also apologize for anyone whose spirits may be lowered due to this announcement, but like we said, we wanted to make everyone aware out of fairness. For any previous players interested in returning at some point, your app process will be as simple as just finding any old Emp app from any time and submit (no really, that is exactly how it'll be). We also plan to open the final month to everyone again, similar to the Fourth Wall, and will make the formal announcements for that once we get there.

If you have any concerns, requests, suggestions, or anything else you'd like to say, feel free to bring them forward!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'm not gonna lie, I am really sad that the game is ending so soon and had hoped I'd at least get a year out of it, but alas. That's on me for not joining sooner.

Anyway in terms of suggestions, while I'm not sure if you would be able to fit it in anywhere, but doing some kind of grabbag event where new characters experience things that happened before in the game's past (ex: the werewolf stuff last year or that fog turning people evil temporarily). It could be a nice way to celebrate the game's history.

~~Also part of me would love to do a power swap type of thing just for the purpose of doing Kwami Swaps, but I would need to ask my cast to see if they would wanna do that.~~

Otherwise I'm not sure what else to suggest.

I know, I feel bad for those who just joined and were thinking of coming, but we'll do our best to make the remaining six months as fun as possible!

As for your suggest, we can definitely try and do some of that as well as incorporate some of popular event themes from the past into the upcoming ones if possible. At the very least you'll be around to experience the other two popular events we have, Flower Festival and Helisium. Even though they'll have some..."modifications" so they're not just basic rehashes, we guarantee that they'll be fun.

If there are any other events that you've heard about that you thought were interesting, please let us know! Like we mentioned there will be a survey for a more official, "one place" venue, so you can use that.

Well it's not a deal-breaker if you can't fit in a grabbag thing. Sometimes things don't end up working out that way and you gotta cut out the fat.

Will do and I'll be watching for that.

It's still a good idea, though! We often go on nostalgia trips, and we do have a few places where we could fit something in without much problem (if anything it could help pad things a little if not overall improve things), so we'll see how it goes!

Regarding the sandbox idea, what about shuttering the main/"official" comms and making a separate one for the sandbox? That would probably minimize the need for much moderation, too, since there'd be less risk of someone bringing anything inappropriate to the original game comms...

It's less about worry over what happens to the original and more of just managing and upkeep (although a separate sandbox comm would have definitely been the route!).

Sandboxes are definitely more low-key compared to general public games, but it still requires at least the basic amount of moderation: keeping an eye on player behavior, updating lists, and depending on how active the sandbox should be, help provide extra events or things to keep players engaged. Of course compared to the current Emp, a lot of that would be a lot less (example, no task board but throw an event log of some kind of once a onth; alternatively, just the monthly task board). Minimal to no NPCing will cut out a lot of Emp's original load. AC would obviously be more lax, but you still have to run something to ensure it's not just full of empty journals. There's also a matter of how you want to "gatekeep" since the normal application forms is definitely overkill, but you don't want to just let anyone in.

So all in all, it's not bad, and it really just depends on who is in charge. I WOULD IF I COULD, but I know my limits alas. I'd gladly help and even play in a sandbox version, but when thinking about the future and what I already have on my many plates, full modding even on that level would be a little much for me.

I mean, there's definitely a lot of shortcuts around some of the upkeep stuff. Instead of having a formal "taken" list (especially if doubles are allowed, like in the 4th wall event) it could just be a post where people comment with the character they're currently playing and player contact info, and the comment gets deleted when they leave. Stuff like that!

Something to consider, at least, though of course it depends on whether there's anyone willing to keep an eye on things.

Endgame Announcement

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