The Indigo League (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
indigo_league) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
the_plateau2017-11-02 09:23 pm
indigo_league) wrote in the_plateau2017-11-02 09:23 pm
Entry tags:
MOD ANNOUNCEMENT 5-EVA: that's one more than 4-eva
Hello, trainers! September and October were both wild months, but we hope this announcement finds you all well! No point in beating around the bush, so let’s just get right to it!
HOUSEKEEPING:
Here's the latest in our ongoing revamp/update/condense of the FAQ pages!
RIDE PAGERS:
At long last, a decision on Ride Pagers outside of the Sevii Islands has been reached! First off, we'd like to apologize for the long delay on this particular mechanic. We had intended to have this announced way sooner, and hadn't expected as many urgent things to crop up when they did. But regardless, now Ride Pagers will again be ICly available throughout all regions, though Johto and Kanto will operate under slightly different rules than in the Sevii Islands!
While the majority of the votes were in favor of abolishing the mechanic outside of Sevii entirely, some very productive discussion sprung up in the comments of the poll, and a lot of people seemed to really like the idea of being able to summon their characters’ own HM Pokemon in areas where HM moves are necessary, rather than the rentals that were previously available. So after reading all your ideas, here's what we wound up going with!
AUGUST EVENT POLL:
Now that October's event is wrapping up, it's time for us to start planning events for the future!
With that in mind, it's also time to make some decisions regarding the Dog Days event in August. Many of you took time to let us know what you thought of the event, meaning we got a lot of valuable feedback that we want to keep close at hand while planning future events. The most frequently-expressed concern was that players felt let down by the abrupt ending and confusing characterization of the Legendaries, which left a lot of questions unanswered and felt very anticlimactic after everything that the characters had done during the lead-up. We agree! As we mentioned to several of you while responding, it was a very experimental plot for us, and it's clear that some elements worked and others did not.
We had a bigger story, involving the Legendaries and how they relate to one another, to tell than we wound up ultimately having time for. Our timeline was a little too ambitious, and we really dropped the ball in that regard. But in the interest of hopefully satisfying peoples' lingering curiosity, we also stated that we were going to offer a poll on what will come of the Dog Days event as it pertains to the game's running continuity.
There are a couple of ways we could take it, and we'd like to know what you, the players, think would be best!
Please let us know which option you think would be best over here, and we'd like to thank everybody again for your patience and passion for helping us make the game a better place. Your feedback is important!
THE ENABLE ME MEME
Last but not least, a quick little note! As per an excellent suggestion from a player, we will be starting to utilize enablemeplz as advertising for the game! We’ve put a post up over in ohmyarceus for people to put in requests for characters they’d like to see, and plan to make including those requests in the ad a regular occurrence.
HOUSEKEEPING:
1. THE AURORA LEAGUEAfter struggling with how to properly incorporate the Aurora League information into the main badge request page, we’ve decided to simply give the Aurora League and all related materials their very own page. This page has information on and links to all existing Aurora gyms, as well as details on how these gyms work and how to submit for one! All future Aurora League gym requests should be submitted here, and not on the Building Request page, where they were previously located! The Badge Request page has also been updated to include a link to the Aurora League page. We'd love to see more sparkly new Gym Leaders, so if any characters with sixteen badges have been eying the Elite Four lately, go get 'em! We're rootin' for ya!
2. TEAM ROCKETAs the third major Trainer Class, Rockets now have their own corresponding Rockets 101 page! It's located on the main navigation post (right under Breeding 101) and contains all the information formerly split between Rocket section of the Main FAQ and the extended Rocket FAQ. Now existing and incoming Rockets will have all the information they might need all in one place. Accordingly, the Rocket Missions page has also been updated for greater clarity to match. If anything listed on the pages severely contradicts the way you've been playing your Rocket character, don't worry! Just let us know and it should be fine.
3. NON-PLAYER CHARACTERSThe NPC page, previously located on the Extended FAQ, has now been updated to be a more comprehensive and informative list of characters that your characters share the world with. Included is information on everyday NPCs, Gym Leaders, the Elite Four, the Pokemon Professors, Rocket Admins, and a variety of others. This page will likely continue to be updated with NPCs as they become relevant.
RIDE PAGERS:
While the majority of the votes were in favor of abolishing the mechanic outside of Sevii entirely, some very productive discussion sprung up in the comments of the poll, and a lot of people seemed to really like the idea of being able to summon their characters’ own HM Pokemon in areas where HM moves are necessary, rather than the rentals that were previously available. So after reading all your ideas, here's what we wound up going with!
Ride pagers have been brought to the mainland! In Johto and Kanto, characters will be able to purchase one of these devices for P50,000. Expensive, but that's the price for convenience. Thanks, capitalism. Each Pager will have one registration slot corresponding to each HM. Trainers will be able to register a single Pokemon (which knows that HM) to each one-- unlike on the Sevii Islands, the summoned Pokemon will be their own, not rented Pokemon belonging to a service. Once the Pokemon are registered, the pager will be able to summon that Pokemon from the PC to wherever their trainer is! This will temporarily allow for a trainer to have seven of their Pokemon with them while traveling, so long as the HM in question is actively in use. So when your Hariyama is finished moving that huge boulder with Strength or you get off your Wailmer’s back when you reach land after Surfing, they’ll return to the system. These Pokemon will not be able to battle while they have been summoned by the Pager. Unless returning to the system would actively endanger the trainer's life (ex: encountering a flock of wild Wingulls while flying on your paged Fly Braviary 50 feet in the air), the start of a battle will trigger the paged Pokemon's immediate return to the system. In the event of an emergency like in the example, the Pokemon will remain, but will refuse to battle and instead focus on reaching a location where it can safely return to the system without landing its trainer in trouble. In the interest of not devaluing the Breeder perk of being able to use HMs without badges, Trainers utilizing the Ride Pager will still need to earn and outfit their Pokemon with the HM move in question before being able to use that slot on the Pager. The Pager will be for summoning Pokemon, NOT granting the ability to use the HM at all! For those worried about what this means for characters who have not yet earned the requisite badges, or who do not wish to train Pokemon that can learn the HMs: ferries are still available in most areas that require Surf and have no alternative routes, and are much cheaper than the Ride Pager! Likewise, the Warp function is still available to everyone who visits a given town regardless of what HMs they do or don't have the ability to use. Befriending other characters whose Pokemon can already use HM moves and traveling/hitching rides with them has also been a time-honored practice for newbies who can't yet use HMs themselves (many a new trainer has reached Goldenrod City by clinging to their friend's Pidgeot for dear life). Other than that, we still expect Trainer-class characters to take on the Gym Challenge in order to earn their HM moves!
AUGUST EVENT POLL:
With that in mind, it's also time to make some decisions regarding the Dog Days event in August. Many of you took time to let us know what you thought of the event, meaning we got a lot of valuable feedback that we want to keep close at hand while planning future events. The most frequently-expressed concern was that players felt let down by the abrupt ending and confusing characterization of the Legendaries, which left a lot of questions unanswered and felt very anticlimactic after everything that the characters had done during the lead-up. We agree! As we mentioned to several of you while responding, it was a very experimental plot for us, and it's clear that some elements worked and others did not.
We had a bigger story, involving the Legendaries and how they relate to one another, to tell than we wound up ultimately having time for. Our timeline was a little too ambitious, and we really dropped the ball in that regard. But in the interest of hopefully satisfying peoples' lingering curiosity, we also stated that we were going to offer a poll on what will come of the Dog Days event as it pertains to the game's running continuity.
There are a couple of ways we could take it, and we'd like to know what you, the players, think would be best!
1. One option is to take the unused/unrevealed story elements of Dog Days and build on them during future plots. This could help alleviate the lackluster feeling of the story's end a little (since it would be less of a conclusion and more of a 'To be continued'), and let us work on revealing things at an organic pace that we weren't able to achieve with the event as it was. We've already got a few future events in mind that could easily tie in to what was going on with Lugia and Ho-Oh, and would love to try our hand at doing them if you, the players, are up for it!
2. Then there's the second option: We know there were some strong opinions regarding this event, and we also know that for anyone who was left with a sour taste in their mouth, having this event drag on further might not be particularly fun. So in the interest of not harshing anybody's good time, we can also simply write a basic summary of the plot details that didn't wind up coming out in the duration of the plot (ie, what was really going on between Lugia and Ho-Oh, why the Beasts were acting so bratty, etc) and move on to other ideas with the lessons we've learned from both our successes and failures with The Dog Days of Summer.
Please let us know which option you think would be best over here, and we'd like to thank everybody again for your patience and passion for helping us make the game a better place. Your feedback is important!
THE ENABLE ME MEME
enablemeplz as advertising for the game! We’ve put a post up over in ohmyarceus for people to put in requests for characters they’d like to see, and plan to make including those requests in the ad a regular occurrence.
no subject
Question: Can one Pokémon be registered to multiple HM slots? Or is it a one 'mon for one job deal like the traditional pagers?
no subject
But the Swanna outfitted with all that Surf gear wouldn't be able to stop Surfing and use Fly while summoned instead, even if it technically knew both moves.
no subject
no subject
This is something we're VERY open to changing and probably will once we dig deeper into how perks work for all the trainer classes, but with the rule having been in place for such a long time, we didn't want to yank it out from underneath anybody who was doing a lot of breeding with their Rocket characters without warning!
no subject
no subject
However, it's taken literally months for many, many things to get done. The solution of registering a trainer's own pokemon for the Ride Pagers was offered as a player suggestion back in the poll post in MAY. Now, I'm not expecting an overnight decision on something like that, a month, or maybe two (presuming new announcements/updates happen at the beginning of each months and the mod team would want more than 2 weeks to look into the feasibility of it) but we're talking six months ago. Half a year. For something that required no effort on the mods' part to implement beyond establishing a few basic rules and doing a quick writeup to add to the info pages.... and the latter of which could probably have been done with the assistance of a player volunteer if the mods were busy. (Speaking as the person who actually offered the suggestion in this case, I absolutely would have been more than happy to help.)
And it's not just that, either. We've been promised page overhauls, which is nice and fine and dandy, and believe me I know how long it can take to code a page if there's any sort of fancy formatting... but while we wait, important updates are being shoved aside, answers to Q&A inquiries are inconsistent with information posted elsewhere or that has been stated in the past, and that's when any answer has been given at all! Badge requests have fallen behind periodically, with some people waiting several weeks to a month or more for their badges.
Again, if something's come up and the mods are busy, like a sudden disaster in the life of whatever mod was handling a specific project, well, that happens. But players aren't being informed of this. If the badge request mod needs to suddenly hiatus because of an emergency and the other mods can't immediately fill in the gap for other preexisting reasons, a simple announcement post of "hey guys, due to unforeseen difficulties requests are going to be delayed, please contact us directly if you urgently need anything" would suffice. It would keep players informed and, perhaps most importantly, make it clear that yes, the mods are working on things and not just failing to fulfill their basic duties. Because the thing is, that's what it looks like when stuff like that happens with no explanation.
Overall, the housekeeping side of things has seemed to be very patchy at best, and frustratingly lacking. Frankly, I don't care if it takes a year to repair all the broken links and weird formatting from poorly copied over code, so long as the relevant information is being kept up to date. I'd rather have a plain-looking but informative list of items and prices than fancy tables. The Aurora gym page could have been created months ago with a more spartan layout and basic information, most of which could be copy/pasted from elsewhere (other page descriptions, comments from question and answers from the players establishing said gyms, and of course the fact that the players themselves are already required to provide their own gym info for easy copy/pasting) and slapped together with a note that it's to be cleaned up and formatted nicely later as time allows. But it would have been there. Instead we seem to be stuck on a long trend of form over function, where making things look pretty is being emphasized over getting the most basic information up to date and available for players, which is incredibly frustrating.
Granted, this may not be the intent at all, and I realize that, but that's how it's coming across and frankly, the history of actions (or lack thereof) of the mods is all I have to go on. Neither I nor anyone else can just magically know what the reasons for the delays are, just that there's been delays. Lots of them. To a frustrating point.
And the kicker to that is that there are players willing to help. I know from talking to people that more people applied for the mod openings than were selected as mods, which means that there's at least a few players who were interested enough in helping to have applied in the first place. There's no reason that resource can't be tapped into. Yet for all the delays (which was, frankly, one of the big reasons people got so upset/frustrated with the previous set of mods, let's be perfectly and utterly blunt here) there's been no requests for help, no acknowledgment that there even are delays, nothing. This doesn't exactly help inspire confidence or boost game morale.
To address events in particular, while events are fun and good and people enjoy them, the last couple months have seemed like it's become very hit or miss. That scenarios aren't being thought out, or if they have been, that execution is poor. It's not that the concepts are necessarily bad, just the execution. When running a game as a GM/DM/whatever you want to call it, and that absolutely applies to running events like this, it has to be geared first and foremost with the players in mind, not the plot. What bait will ICly lure characters and OOCly attract players to participate? What main plot will keep them occupied/interested? What conclusion will provide a suitable payoff for that participation?
Several events have failed at one or more of these at various points. The August event failed hard at both the middle and last one, because there simply weren't ways for characters to obtain hints or make progress or otherwise interact in a meaningful way. Not without correctly guessing an obscure objective that wasn't really foreshadowed or hinted at in any way. It still could have been salvaged in theory even then though if the GM(s) handling the event had noticed the IC floundering and tossed some hints out there. A monk showing up excitedly with another scroll or making an offhand comment that the player characters could use to fill in the blank spots. A legendary seeker pratfalling and spilling a bunch of tabloid-esque fliers featuring a specific rumor about legendary quarrels. That sort of thing. But any time there's a plot-intensive event that ostensibly requires the players to be active participants in resolving it, whoever is running the event (whether a mod or another player) absolutely has to be attentive to what's going on and responsive, and even sometimes improvise a bit for the sake of keeping the plot going. It's this sort of thing that's been notably somewhat lacking.
The payoff has been a problematic matter as well. The IC items were brought up as an issue with the August event, as well as the lack of IC explanations for what happened and why. But event the October event, which definitely had an appropriate level of IC rewards for the style of event it was, ended up being kind of anticlimatic for all the build up. Sure, wild pokemon rallying is cool, but what was to stop all the trainers with their dark types from having banded together to do the same thing? Why do just the generic wild pokemon care so much, when Darkrai itself could have had a hand in telling off the presumptuous little troublemakers that are trespassing on its domain?
And sure, these things may be easier to see in hindsight, but it's also something that very, very much should be thought through before an event is even launched. I won't give specifics because that would obviously spoil the surprise, but I have a potential player-run event idea in mind I've been toying with, that I refuse to even do a full writeup for until I know exactly all those points I mentioned: what the plot hook is, what incentive there is to keep characters engaged for the entire plot, and what the payoff at the end is. Until I have a clear idea of all three, or at least enough to start working with, there's little point proposing the event at all. Even just having the beginning and and ending is a good place to start, but the ending just cannot be something that feels like it was tacked on as an afterthought, and that's the problem with some of the events here lately.
So what I'm saying is, I think that first, we need way more communication than we're getting. Sure, life happens sometimes and you can't do a thing about it, but when you're in a position that other people are relying on you to get things done, it's only polite to let them know what the delay is rather than leaving them in the dark. This goes for responding to inquiries and such as well. Respond to the Q&A questions, get on the game's official Discord channel regularly to address the questions that periodically come up there, etc, be visible and accessible.
Second, prioritize. As I said, fancy formatting updates are nice..... but ultimately unnecessary. What this game needs is information to be kept up to date and consistent, not one person getting a specific answer in one place and someone else being told a different answer elsewhere. This ties back into the first point, because communication with players is a GREAT way to catch inconsistencies, because believe me if a player made an inquiry and got answer A, they can probably find the thread where it happened for reference when it comes up again, where when you're the one giving the answers it can be hard to keep track, sure. Let players find and report broken links or out of date pages, and respond to and act on those reports to encourage that to continue, as it'd save the mod team enormous amounts of time hunting those things down for themselves as players stumble across that sort of stuff by accident all the time. Thus freeing the mods to focus on bigger issues.
Finally, maybe take a step back and reevaluate the hows and whys of what's made some events a roaring success and others a flop. Go look up online guides for first time DMs in D&D or other tabletop games for ideas and references of how to design a game/campaign/event that will engage and reward everyone involved. If needed, run an idea that's already been gone over to death by the mod team by a trusted player to get a fresh set of eyes on it. That sort of thing. There's obviously some really great ideas coming out here, but as the saying goes, no campaign survives contact with the players, and knowing how to deal with that is just as vital to structuring events in a game like this as it is for a game like D&D.
no subject
You seem to want this game to be something it isn't engineered to be and would not benefit from being. You cite D&D, but this isn't D&D, where a party is a much smaller and more manageable amount of players, play happens rapid-fire with a DM present at all times, and plots are crafted with each specific character in mind (something that simply cannot be done with a playerbase of this size, and if you think it can, you're kidding yourself). A DWRP game functions in a completely different way and telling the mods to go look up D&D guides is unhelpful at best and frankly condescending at worst.
You want a level of mod involvement that is ludicrous; during the Dog Days event, for a mod to have an NPC pop out and drop plot-relevant information in any given thread would require a mod to be combing every single thread daily for an appropriate place to jump in, not to mention hoping the characters involved were okay with being threadjacked. Even a murdergame, which runs on a much faster schedule and does indeed have plot days where mods are available at all times, usually requires players to note in their comment or under specific headers if they need immediate mod involvement. Players are encouraged to ping mods directly to be sure they see, because even in an environment where that is how play is structured things are possible to miss. In those games, the average amount of characters is 25 on the higher end. VR has a much larger playerbase which makes exponentially more work for mods if they try to give every single event the kind of babysitting you're suggesting -- nevermind that in those games, mods generally do not play PCs because balancing both workloads is nigh-impossible.
I will be blunt: have you ever modded a DWRP game before? Because I have, and many of my friends have, and I can tell you right now getting up new information is not as simple as just writing up a set of rules in an afternoon and posting them. I guarantee you that to get the ride pager information finished, especially considering the many conflicting suggestions regarding how best to proceed with them, there were many long behind-the-scenes talks in order to ensure a fair set of rules, coverage for any issues the mods could forsee, and closure of any loopholes players might abuse. And you can see that even with all that work, I still had to confirm how Pokémon assignment functioned, because mods are not psychic and cannot possibly know every question to anticipate before it's asked. I also had to wait almost a month for an answer to a question about available moves and TMS, and I waited patiently because I knew it was a finicky question that would likely require discussion, which more than likely requires all four mods to be around, available, and in the right mental space to tackle getting an answer worked out.
Furthermore, did not having the ride pagers for all this time inconvenience you in any way? Sion is a character who's been in the game for many, many years. I find it doubtful he doesn't have access to Pokémon who know the HMS, and I find it even more doubtful that he wouldn't know to plan ahead and bring one when it might be needed. Would I have liked this information sooner too? Yes, because I think it's a really cool mechanic! Did it cause me any problems not have it until now? No, which is why I didn't make a fuss about it and instead just quietly deducted P50,000 from Ford's account and dediced which Pokémon to assign to which slot.
I think in general you could do with stepping back, taking a deep breath, and realizing that you are kicking up a gigantic fuss about something that isn't actually an inconvenience. I think you could also do with looking back on your past behavior and realizing that you have done this consistently at the very least for the past year since I joined the game. The Type: Null discussions come to mind, where you continued to argue against their inclusion in the game even though that wasn't an option and the mods made that very clear. You argued then that the game doesn't play fast and loose with Pokémon canon, and I direct you to how in canon, Pokémon only know four moves. Parents no longer pass down TM moves through breeding, and many of those TMs are oudated or unlearnable in the current generation. Most of the Pokémon we can catch in Johto, Kanto and the Islands are not native to those areas. If you want this game to strictly adhere to game canon, then you'll have to give up a lot of perks we currently enjoy because this is a freeform game that is designed to maximize fun, not to be a perfect reproduction of a videogame whose very format is not suited to a large playerbase and dynamic storytelling. I also find it strange that your argument then centered on Type: Null removing the mystique of the legendaries despite there being nothing in-game to so much as suggest Type: Null might be especially rare, and doubly strange that now you're arguing that Darkrai should have been involved in the October event. Do I think that would have been cool? Hell yes, but you can't have it both ways.
Your crit about Ditto also comes to mind, citing it as not useful to breeding in this game. Ditto is the only way to breed Pokémon you cannot obtain any other way because they are genderless, and in fact one of my long-term goals is to get Ford one so he can start breeding for more shiny Minior. It can also be used to create more of a specific breed of Pokémon for breeding together for that same-type advantage of passing on pretty much every move they know, which is more difficult to do with mixed-breed pairs. But presumably because you personally don't have a use for it, it isn't worth mentioning as a breeding tool. That critique baffled me then and it still does now. I don't understand what compelled you to type it up in the first place except for some pedantic need to complain about something.
And that is the impression I have had of you since I joined the game, which has made the OOC atmosphere in a game I otherwise love to death and enjoy being in uncomfortable at best and unnecessarily negative at worst. You mention the mods should be more present in the Discord; they post all updates to the game on the OOC comm and Plurk already, always on time I might add. If the mods were to move posting updates to Discord I would never see them because I stopped frequenting the Discord specifically to avoid interacting with you OOC. I won't speak for the mods because that's not my place, but I want to hazard a guess that the reason they don't keep you personally updated on every change in their schedule or every day when they're feeling low-energy and need a break from their work is the assumption you will come back with something judgemental and condescending.
This is a huge game with a million different things to do. It is incredibly easy to make your own fun. If what you want is a game that is fast-paced, has high one-on-one player to mod involvement and plots that are intricate and custom-tailored to every PC, this is not the game for you and frankly most of DRWP isn't either. Our mods are people and players as well as moderators. They deserve your understanding and respect at least in those areas, even if you don't always agree with their decisions as moderators (and believe me, I haven't either! But I recognize that this is a very large game and I, personally, cannot be catered too 100% of the time). I would also appreciate it if you would stop acting as though you speak for the playerbase at large, when you do not and I at least have no desire to be associated with your attitude. In fact I didn't chime in on a critique you left that I did agree with, about mothers passing on egg moves as well as fathers (which they do now as of recent generations, likely after the breeding FAQ was last given a real going-over). I agree that that should be a change made as it would open up new avenues for breeding, and have in fact been saying so since i joined the game, but I also recognized the mods have other work to do and they will get to it when they can. I didn't want to chime in agreeing with your comment and therefore put myself in a position of seeming to have the same sense of entitlement as you seem to about this game.
Mods -- if you want me to I will delete this so as not to start unnecessary drama. But it's been a long time coming and I will feel much better having said it.
no subject
I do believe that there are some legitimate critiques that could be directed toward the mods. I even think that Sion-Mun has touched on a few. However, when they are so wrapped up in holier than thou mannerisms, it makes everyone want to look away and distance themselves from those opinions. Honey goes farther than vinegar and all that.
no subject
1. This isn't D&D, but if you've ever run both any tabletop campaign and a journal or forum-based game (and I've done both) you'd know that the same basic principles apply. I use D&D as an example because it's old and has been around and discussed for literally decades, which means it's a great place to look for ideas and resources.
2. Yes, I have modded games, as well as run events in others, including extremely fast-paced and high-participation events. I've been around this scene a long time and done a lot, so I speak from first-hand experience.
3. It's a mod's job to keep game info up to date. This includes taken lists, info pages, and so on. There's a hierarchy involved yes because no one can do everything, but it's still a responsibility. Not even the drops/taken pages have been regularly updated, and that's vital to any game as that's where players go to see what characters they can app in the first place. Also, if there's going to be delays? A simple "hey, we're working on x, it won't be available for y time tho because reasons" suffices. Communication.
4. According to the latest activity check responses, VR has 35 players. Possibly 37 if the two on hiatus for last month didn't check in. 55 characters total are listed on the taken pages. So no, the game does not have "a much larger playerbase" and in fact easily meets EMP's criteria for a "Small Game".
5. I never meant to imply that Darkari had to be used. Just that it was a possible alternative to "oh, the wild pokemon for some reason are annoyed and doing things that not even the players' pokemon could". I offer suggestions because, as a rule, I don't believe in criticizing without offering possible solutions whenever possible. I'm not insisting they necessarily be used.
6. The Type: Null issue was a very specific matter that I was frankly very upset with how it had been handled at all stages for a number of reasons.
7. I only post comments like this because I don't believe in whining to friends and never telling people what I take issue with. It isn't fair to the mods for me not to speak up. My intent isn't to be negative, but the problem is, this was exactly the issue that upset many players (myself included) with the previous mods, so needless to say I'm not happy to see the cycle continue. Especially since, as I tried to make clear, I'm willing to help and I'm sure other people are. But there's no clear channels for communication, there hasn't been a general state of the game feedback post to use, so my options are terribly limited.
8. I completely understand where the mods are coming from in terms of being players as well. Hence why I try to offer a benefit of the doubt and acknowledge that I'm describing only what it appears to be. But, as I said, without communication, I can't know otherwise. So as much as anything I'm asking that the mods just be more open so that there's no need for players to start wondering and jumping to false conclusions. That's bad for everyone.
9. Again, this is a small game and I'm not asking that the mods do everything under the sun, just, y'know, be on top of the basic necessities. I want this game to work, but I have a very hard time recommending it to friends when there's so many inconsistencies and opaqueness.
no subject
The main point of the dreamscape event was the dreams themselves, the heavy CR-building possible, and the chance to write some really interesting threads because dream logic allows for a lot of weird shit. The ending was not the focus. It wasn't something the players needed to solve -- and frankly after the last event that the players needed to solve, I understand why the mods didn't make that something we needed to do this time. Probably because of people like you (and me!) who criticized how it was handled. A different ending could have been cool, sure, but the ending we got was inoffensive. Again, it comes off like nitpicking just to nitpick, and I'm not going to back down on that interpretation.
I'm not saying none of the points you raise are good ones. Basic info pages should be first priorities on updates, and timely badge responses would be nice (I've learned to anticipate them over the weekend)*. But when the mods consistently have to deal with criticism for the things they are already trying to do specifically to please you and head off more criticism, it creates a cycle where you're shooting yourself in the foot.
*Also to clarify: As far as I'm aware those pages ARE on a regular update schedule. I'm not agreeing with you that they aren't kept up to date. I don't believe they aren't.
no subject
And the thing is, mods in games like this are ultimately volunteers. Who can always put out the call for more volunteers at any time if needed. But that brings me back to the communication issue again.
But the long and the short of it is also, the mods will never know that players are frustrated if players don't speak up. And I am frustrated, because this isn't a new thing, it's been going on for some time, and there's no good, reliable means that I've yet to find, short of making a lengthy reply to the occasional modpost, to try to open lines of communication. I'd love to be able to rely on getting answers to questions promptly via the FAQ or mod contact page, but that hasn't been the case. And by "promptly" I mean "within about a month", so I'm not exactly talking about one-day turnaround.
no subject
How much more communication do you need than timely posts listing progress that the mods have made? Do you want monthly updates on the backlog of work? Bi-weekly? I could actually get behind that, but I think expecting it is silly when the much simpler solution is to understand the mods are working on their backlog because that's literally all they've been doing since they took over, in between answering questions, providing regular events and posting the calendar and AC regularly -- which is far more than the previous team of mods ever did. You were there, and you have to remember the months we legitimately didn't have AC because the mods were completely AWOL, and the calendar wasn't updated since August until the changeover happened.
I don't blame the old mods; they had their own reasons. But I think drawing comparisons between the two teams is insulting. I also think saying 'we can call for more volunteers at any time' is even more insulting when these mods are working their asses off both to do a gigantic game overhaul and deal with you shitting on them every step of the way.
no subject
But my suggestions are, primarily, based on my experience with other games. Including some very large games indeed. I've been in games before that have absolutely insane levels of detail and involvement from the mods--to the point where I don't know how those mods even pull it off. And I'm not expecting that here. But what I am expecting, and what I don't think is too much to ask for, is that the basics, at least be met.
Much of your argument hinged on the misconception that this is a large game. As I pointed out, it's not. We don't even necessarily have a new IC post every day, and not every month has an event that includes any mod involvement beyond putting up the info post and logs. None of this is inherently bad... but the fact is, that there's still tons of out of date information out there that hasn't been addressed in favor of doing shiny new formatting, and on the occasion of events that required NPC interaction, the consistency has been spotty. And so on.
So yes, obviously this is all my opinion, any sort of criticism would be so subjective. But I'm basing it, comparatively, on what I've seen in other games of a similar size or larger and have come to expect as the bare minimum needed to keep a game running and its players engaged.
As for the comparison, why is it insulting? The lack of communication and spotty updates really were the main things that bothered me most before. To a worse degree, yes, but based solely on what I've been able to see and verify here, there are unfortunate parallels. Why should it necessarily be insulting to point those out?
no subject
The basics are being met. Lists are being updated on a schedule. Important game maintenance like AC and the Calendar go up on time. I don't understand what more you possibly want. You're also frankly wrong about nothing being done in favor of shiny new formatting. New information has been added. New pages have been drawn up. Information only mentioned in old events predating this modteam has been added to pages, most notably the NPCs. Your comparisons are insulting because it is insulting to compare a mod team that is slowly but surely delivering work and also trying to do new and interesting things to engage the playerbase (even if they don't always work) and dedicating a good chunk of their time to addressing your concerns, specifically, to a mod team that pretty much did not exist at all. You have zero faith in or respect for our current mods and it shows very plainly.
I also want to address something you said earlier, about mods responding to questions in the Discord: that's probably not a great idea. Questions need to go where everyone can see them and reference them later, not in a chat where they're easily lost. And I know you response to that will be that FAQ answers aren't given in a timely manner, but the fact remains these questions should still be asked there. Again, as someone who doesn't use the Discord primarily to avoid you and your attitude, I would never see that information. In fact, in Ryslig the mods have a policy of directing players who ask questions on Discord or Plurk to the FAQ for exactly that reason. It's not unreasonable or unprecedented.
Mod Kit here
But because we aren't available to keep an eye on things here (I frankly don't like to discuss personal life details in a public venue, but because communication was brought up, it's important to mention that Mod Ieva is currently recovering from surgery, Mod Wolfy is visiting family, and we are literally not able to respond at length to anything for the immediate foreseeable future) tonight, I'm officially stepping in here just to firmly request that all parties involved be careful to keep things civil even while disagreeing with each other.
We all want the game to be a good environment for people to express their concerns in (which does include concerns about how other players voice their criticisms, both of each other and of us as mods), and there are a lot of important points being brought up. I can't be here personally to monitor how the discussion is progressing, so I'm trusting everyone to stay respectful.
Thank you!
no subject
I do want to reiterate that despite my not agreeing with every decision you have all made as mods, and while I'd like some things to happen at a faster pace than they do (makes eyes at that breeding overhaul), I still think your time as mods has been an overwhelmingly positive change for the game. Thanks for the hard work you're doing. I'm sorry this had to come to a head right now when it's not a great time for you all to have to deal with it.
no subject
I did that based on lessons learned from not just online gaming, but plenty of tabletop experience as well. That is what I'm talking about. Not treating a journal/comm-based game like a D&D campaign. (That would be an entirely different structure game in the first place, after all, because yes I've put thought into how something like that would work, too.)
I never said that no updates were being made. What I'm saying is that they're inconsistent, and a lot of it is terribly slow and spotty. It's clear due to player questions on the matter that we need a definitive answer regarding item availabilities, but my last question seeking clarification--made back in August--has never received a reply, not even of the "could you provide a link to the specific thing you're referencing?" variety. The fact that there is still out of date and inconsistent information is the problem, because it's been what, the better part of a year now? What if, instead of doing a lot of fancy coding, all the pages were combed through at once to correct the information? And the lists are up to date now, but while the mod team started with a clean slate as far as the taken lists go (thanks to a player who voluntarily combed through everything and provided updates) they then quickly fell into a pattern of spotty updates.
Or maybe there's some other hidden complication that's been causing all these hiccups and problems, but if there is the mods have not bothered to tell us about it. Which is why my very first point at my summary was communication. Because if the mods don't keep players in the loop, we as players can only go by what we see. And what I've been seeing doesn't look terribly good right now. You're free to disagree and say that it looks like sunshine and rainbows and the epitome of perfection, but that's not what I see.
Oh, and I'm not going to go into all my gaming history, but I've been in this game for nearly six years, and believe me it's been much, much bigger game before. I'm speaking from first-hand experience, not just of other games, but of this game itself and what it has presented as a standard that should be expected from it.
As for Discord, I suggest it because 1) it was created by the mods in the first place and advertised as the game's official discord channel, so mod presence would be good and 2) because then rather than other players linking pages and FAQ inquiries and saying "well maybe this answers it...?" mods could potentially say "such and such page should have the answer, go see that" or "please leave a comment here with your question". Which mind you, fellow players already do, but I've seen at least one instance of a player getting chewed out by the mods here for linking another player to the answer to a question that had been given in another comment, so a mod presence absolutely wouldn't hurt.
And, y'know, it's a great, quick way to start a conversation, since it allows for private group chats and doesn't require account registration to use, for the people who don't have plurks or who otherwise need a quick way to ping a mod in private.
no subject
Do not tell me to Google something like I'm a child. I didn't say that in response just to that last part of your first comment, I said it in response to your general seeming expectation for player-to-mod interaction and mod interactivity during events.
We are in agreement about the Discord though. That was precisely my point, that people could be directed to the FAQ instead of expecting to have questions answered there where nobody else would be able to find them again. It's a fine program for what it does, but it's not a tool for organizing game information. That's all I meant.
This is not a dick-waving contest about who's been in more games and for how long, and it's my fault for turning it into one. The important point is what's good for this game, at this size, right now. I'm not saying it's perfect. In fact I've brought up multiple times the critique I myself have left, and the problems I have had, and the wait times I have dealt with for answers. My point is not that these problems don't exist, it's that your amount of vitriol is disproportionate and offputting. You're so stuck on fancy coding when there is no fancy coding. There's just information arranged on a page with a couple of bold headings. The stupid bullshit I spent a day coding for my roster is 'fancy coding'. Combing through to correct information requires discussion, especially when many FAQ answers and decisions were originally made by another mod team entirely and will need to be revisited. It is not a thing that can be done in an afternoon. It is not a thing that can be done all at once, no matter how much you whine that it should be. You are being willfully ignorant to what the actual brunt of the work is in favor of propping up your own narrative about what's been going on.
Again, I ask you what kind of communication you would like to see. I suggested regular updates on the state of the backlog, recently-finished work and currently ongoing projects. I am being serious here. You can't just say you want more and better communication and not explain what you mean by that beyond vague talking about how the mods haven't been doing it enough. You say you always have a solution in mind when you make these comments but so far all I've seen is you asking for more without any concrete explanation of what kind you need and how you would like it to be delivered to you and the game at large. Do you need a heads up any times the mods may be a little off schedule for personal matters which, by the way, they are not obligated to disclose to you or anyone? Do you need confirmation of when the lists were last updated, like a little 'updated on x date' at the bottom of the page? That might be helpful for mod housekeeping purposes too! This is an open floor discussion in a public post, which you invited by putting your critique here. Ultimately the goal is to find solutions to the perceived problem, even if we think it's one of wildly different levels of urgency.
But again, as I said, this is the last time I'll respond since the mods have asked us to step back a little.
no subject
I understand that it takes time to revise things, but if discussion takes that long, it's probably a case of too many cooks: most rules clarifications boil down to a matter of "was there an answer given to that? Okay, what was the answer?" and little more. Most contradictions that need to be ironed out aren't exactly things of huge grave importance in the grand scheme of things, like one comment saying items can be found along routes while an older comment or two state that no items of x class are obtainable if they're not listed. Or setting a price for Ice Stones to add to the shop list. I'm not seeing how things like that require months of discussion. But it still affects everyday gameplay in a pretty significant way. And that's what the majority of this stuff is.
Things like trainer class overhauls? That's gonna be a big deal, and we can wait for that to be perfected. But having new 'mons made available without the means to evolve them? That's a bit problematic.
So yes, the big things need to be discussed and the mods can and should take their time. But that doesn't mean neglecting the relatively little but still important bits.
As for communication, the lazy answer would be "more than what we're getting". A more precise answer would be more disclosure--what's being worked on, a place for players to drop in comments if they notice something missing or a broken link, being able to actually count on getting answers to inquiries within a couple of weeks.... And having those answers match up with what's already been stated in the rules/info/prior inquiries.
Instead, we get things like the Ride Pager poll, where there was some great discussion and a few new suggestions tossed into the mix.... And then absolute radio silence on the subject for, quite literally, months. And while Ride Pagers definitely aren't a high-priority thing, as I said at the start, since it was my suggestion that ended up being used, if the problem had been mods being busy, I'd have been perfectly happy to go do a proposed writeup or two for the mods to use!
I suspect--at the risk of venturing into speculative territory--that part of the problem we're seeing may be due to a notion of "the mods HAVE to do everything or they aren't doing their jobs". Which isn't exactly true. Things like apps and approvals and updating the actual pages need to be done by the mods, sure, but there's another option for some of the grunt work, and that's farming it out to volunteers. Back in the old Route 29 days, the game usually had about 2 main mods, and then 2 or so "helper" mods. The main mods ran the show and did the big stuff, the helpers did the mundane little details like the list updating and such to allow the primary mods to focus on the big things without worrying about it. But even then sometimes players would volunteer to do things--I myself once went through the entire Q&A post at the time (with the mods' help for getting the text of some inquiries as all of them were automatically screened at the time and some got left that way) and compacted it into a clearer, categorized Q&A, with some nice basic formatting, and passed it back to the mods to post, which I did. Granted, half my motivation was because I got tired of manually digging through the replies for info I needed and a compilation was much handier, but it's still an example of how players can save the mods time on things. Could the mods have done it all themselves? Sure. But why bother when there's a player who's conveniently willing to take the time and do it themselves?
My point being, there's nothing wrong with this. Players, generally speaking, offer feedback/suggestions/offers of help because they want to help the game. Do I want to be a mod? Not particularly, I have other projects I'd rather devote that time to. Would I be willing to help out in that capacity if the help were needed? Absolutely.
But we can't reach that point if no one stops and says "hey, I think this is a problem and I'm frustrated and here's why..." in the first place. The mods don't have to agree with me, and I don't have to agree with them either, but an open dialogue, even a "thanks for the offer, we actually are mostly done with that thing already" would be worlds better than the radio silence that we've all too often been getting.
no subject
no subject
no subject
I have already answered your question about game size. I have stated that what I meant was it is a large size for the level of mod involvement you are suggesting is necessary in terms of monitoring events and providing NPC threads. I don't know how much more plain I can be or how many more ways I can restate that. I also should think it would be obvious I meant DWRP style murdergames like Foolish Mortals and the original Dangan Roleplay, not whatever 'teamnesia' is. If 55 people all post to an event, even if they all pair off with each other for one thread per person, that's still over 25 threads a mod needs to be constantly monitoring, and given the pace of this game and how long events stretch for that means having to check every single thread daily just on the off-chance they can post whatever plot-solving key info you want. I don't now how many more times I can explain myself or restate this. This has nothing to do with workload in terms of overhaul or list updating or any of your other gripes. It is a discussion point purely relating to event handling and frankly at this point I'm willing to let it go because the event's over and done with and it doesn't even matter anymore.
Yes, I agree about evolution stones. In fact, a question I asked about evolving Charjabug is still unanswered! I agree that there are little things that have fallen through the cracks and could do with a quick and dirty update, and I even like your idea about a 'goofs' page -- it would be incredibly helpful to have a centralized place for every inconsistency or point desperately in need of a quick addition, like the ice stone.
My main point here is and always has been your attitude and your general unwillingness to foster productive discussion in favor of nitpicking the mods to death and ensuring all the work you want them to do gets pushed back even more while they deal with addressing your nitpicking instead. Frankly if I were them I wouldn't ask for your help with this overhaul either in any capacity more official than posting to the suggested goofs page, with how you've been consistently so rude and condescending to them. It is great to want to help the game grow and improve, and I agree that it's good to voice frustrations and problems as they arise -- and I do, and have, and will continue to do so because the mods deserve fair and honest critique. But the way you go about giving your feedback is wholly unproductive and fosters a negative game environment OOC.
I think this is the point where we can no longer get anything productive out of this conversation. We're arguing about two different things and I don't think anything I say can reconcile that. I will reiterate my advice that you need to step back, take a deep breath, and realize that this is a game on the internet that people are playing in for fun. You are not owed anything. And if this game is frustrating you to the point where you need to behave in the manner you've been behaving, you may want to closely examine your reasons for staying at all.
no subject
But those games, as I said, skew to a low character to player ratio. We're dealing with fewer than 40 players total. And no one ever said the mods had to be monitoring each and every thread! I have no idea where you got this idea. Skimming threads at random, or having a check-in for people who want their threads considered, are entirely viable and recommended options. And in my experience from running participation-intensive events, it really doesn't take that much time to just periodically glance at the obviously active threads and pick a good spot to jump in. Part of event running typically implies that the person running either isn't participating, or is participating at a minimum, because their priority is, well, running said event.
That said, purely subjectively and based on past experience, monitoring ~25 threads or so for a time-limited event to occasionally pop in with periodic comments sounds downright easy. Easier for sure than having to actively be involved in about a dozen threads as some games I've been in before (such as IC Cry Wolf events) have required. So sorry, but I don't agree. At all. If the event is designed and intended to run without guidance? That's perfectly fine! But if the event requires NPC participation and interaction, it can't run without that part being done. If that's not feasible to do, then that sort of event probably isn't a good idea.
And yes, I've brought critique before. It's not meant to nitpick, but the problem is, many of the things that have been discussed before? Haven't been addressed. The bare minimums of game maintenance haven't always been met. I don't believe it's nitpicking to follow up on something like this, or to express my views if I'm particularly upset or frustrated with something, because if I say nothing, how will the mods know what their players feel? They aren't psychic, and I refuse to be that person who just whines in a personal journal/plurk/whatever about someone, without ever letting them know what bothers me and why or otherwise clearing up the situation.
And let me make it completely, 100% clear: I want this game to be successful. It's a great game that I've enjoyed for a long time, but it's also been suffering for a lot of reasons. Some of them have been fixed, others haven't. I don't think that staying quiet and suffering in silence is beneficial for me, or the mods, or the game as a whole. It doesn't guarantee that I'm necessarily right, but I can say for a fact that I know I'm not the only person who feels this way on the issue, as at least one player approached me in private about it after I made my initial comment.
I will note though, that while last night I was sleepy enough to shrug it off, looking back on this now, to be perfectly frank, your comments are coming across to me almost more like a personal attack rather than simply expressing disagreement. I'm going to go with the benefit of the doubt and assume that wasn't the intent, but I could certainly see it being construed as such. Again, my comments and feedback are ultimately directed towards the mods and no one else--others are free and welcome to add their agreement or disagreement to it and reasoning thereof, but it was only my intent to offer a critique and open discourse, no more and no less.
Mod Kit here, copy/pasting!
But because we aren't available to keep an eye on things here (I frankly don't like to discuss personal life details in a public venue, but because communication was brought up, it's important to mention that Mod Ieva is currently recovering from surgery, Mod Wolfy is visiting family, and we are literally not able to respond at length to anything for the immediate foreseeable future) tonight, I'm officially stepping in here just to firmly request that all parties involved be careful to keep things civil even while disagreeing with each other.
We all want the game to be a good environment for people to express their concerns in (which does include concerns about how other players voice their criticisms, both of each other and of us as mods), and there are a lot of important points being brought up. I can't be here personally to monitor how the discussion is progressing, so I'm trusting everyone to stay respectful.
Thank you!
no subject
I'd also like to join the same boat regarding Discord for two reasons:
One, I only ever use Discord for gaming and I don't check it that frequently. Two, until today I had no idea there even was a Discord for the game. And personally with how
things are with me as of late, things get lost incredibly easily on Discord so the OOC comm + plurk makes it easier to keep track of things.
no subject
Some people don't use plurk though, or try to limit the number of various social media/chat accounts they use (discord can be used without registering if I recall correctly, I remember someone in one server I frequent ending up with like 10 copies of himself because he kept joining the chat without bothering to log in to his account) so having access to the mods via a medium like that can be super beneficial.
EDIT: I'm an idiot and forgot to include a link, there's more info here for those curious.
no subject
There is a lot of back-end work when it comes to modding, especially a game that is run digitally. Even if you're not seeing progress, there's no doubt that it's going on behind the scenes. Think of it like a modern day video game. The publisher might release a number of patches time and time again, but most of these are going to be on the back-end that keep things running smoothly. Rarely do you get the kind of updates that are going to be considered newsworthy.
Also, the things detailed above are not the kind of work that's done over night. Trying to map out how an entirely new, player run league is going to be implemented is a hefty toll, especially when there are people like yourself in that batch who are criticizing whatever is done. Adding in Rocket Guidelines that are, most importantly, thematic doesn't happen in a day.
And mapping out every important NPC that may or may not have been touched on in plots that the mods may or may not have been involved with is a hefty task.
TL;DR, there's a lot of information to comb through, and as any college professor would tell you, that's not something you can do the night before.
no subject
But there really isn't terribly much backend when it comes to typing up a journal post with minimum formatting. Which is what I'm trying to make a point of: I'd much, MUCH rather see a simple, to the point page done promptly and overhauled later as time allows, than waiting for months and months for it all in one shot. Speaking in terms of programming, once you have all your fancy code done, copy/pasting the content that's already there into the designated spots is pretty fast, too.
Also, just to talk on the Aurora League specifically, virtually all the details of how it worked were worked out when Sion and Ryner's gym was applied for. I'd have to go digging for the link, but Ryner's player and I ended up with a ton of questions as we did our writeups because, well, it was new and a new thing and no one had done it before. Those were all very thoroughly answered at the time, and as I recall the actual page now didn't have any particular new information on the subject.
no subject
-With regards to general housekeeping being updated: While the occasional FAQ or mod contact query has slipped through the cracks (ex: the Charjabug question was missed due to being posted on a page which we do not check for questions rather than on the FAQ itself, and we’ve since contacted the player to clear up the confusion) and some questions take longer to answer than others, the vast majority are answered. The Taken List was at one point out of date due to a miscommunication between tech mods, but was fixed when brought to our attention two months ago. Badge approvals fell behind specifically in August/September as a side effect of being overwhelmed by the Dog Days event/aftermath (a topic which we’ve already discussed extensively with players), and have since resumed their weekly schedule. To our knowledge, neither has fallen behind since.
-Mechanics decisions: Announcing new game mechanics unfinished (Sevii, the warp pads, Type: Null, etc,) for the sake of doing it quickly was an issue with the previous mod team that caused problems we are still catching up with today. Details were announced but not listed anywhere outside of said ooc announcement, leading to confusion and extra work down the road. This is a mistake we have perhaps been TOO cautious about avoiding, but consider vital to have learned from. With regards to the Ride Pagers specifically, the decision-making was made more complicated by the fact that the poll results directly contradicted the discussion taking place in the comments, and by the fact that there were several people putting in ideas that would need to be combined/refined to make them workable in game. In our July announcement, we publicly announced and accounted for the Ride Pagers as they operated on Sevii, and then stated that we would be spending more time on the mechanic before officially re-implementing it elsewhere. We are not denying that the final decisions took longer than we would have liked, and we hope to roll things out more quickly in the future, but the issues in August and September demanded more urgent attention and pushed back some things meant to be decided on sooner. The time issue here has not ever been writing up the pages themselves, nor were we opaque about the fact that we were working on it longer.
-Volunteers: We’ve approached some people about potentially joining or helping our team to speed some things along and improve on the aspects of criticisms we’ve received. However, we do not plan to call on volunteers to write up whole pages at any point, unless there is something about the page we’re really not able to do ourselves, as we would still have to take the time to go over all their work. For the time being, “goofs” can be pointed out in the Mod Contact/FAQ, or when asked for in an announcement.
-Formatting: It might help here to explain our goal when it comes to the ongoing page revamps: accessibility. A major problem with the game’s information as we inherited it is that the pages are jumbled, scattered, and (from a basic design standpoint) confusing/difficult to read. This has been pointed out to us many times by existing players and has even turned possible newcomers away from the game entirely. The old layouts are an active deterrent to people trying to find the information they need, and fixing this is important to the wellbeing of the game going forward.
We utilize simple HTML in our formatting: < b > and < big > for headers to sections help break apart things more easily for the eye, and both < dd > and < blockquote > to indent the information under the headers. For lists, we use bulletpoints (< li >). Sometimes, we repurpose pre-existing tables from past information pages (ex: the table from the Item Availability page was reused for the Berries and Apricorns page for the same general purpose). This is the extent of the formatting on the revamped pages, and we frankly aren’t sure how any of it qualifies as “fancy”. Once we have brought the page’s content up to date, formatting it to meet standards takes comparatively little time.
-Event decisions: We designed the October event with all the crit we got from the August event in mind. The findable prize items were listed upfront, as was the fact that this was not a ‘win conditions’ style event where players would be influencing the end one way or another (and while Darkrai was considered during planning, we decided not to utilize another Legendary so soon). We created an event that was within our OOC means for October. Not every event will have win conditions, be influenceable, or have heavy mod participation--which allowing for a big player battle would have necessitated. In regards to player engagement, the participation level for this event was enthusiastic and ongoing. Obviously no one event will appeal to everybody, but your claim that we are failing to engage players and should look into “beginner DM guides” for ideas doesn't hold up when actually considered alongside the overwhelmingly positive majority feedback this event received.
As for the IC standpoint, lots of friendly wild Pokemon coming together to help people in need is no more unrealistic than lots of less friendly Pokemon coming together to take advantage of them. The helper Pokemon were at full strength and in massive numbers, so they could do what the much smaller number of by-then exhausted trainers and their teams couldn’t. And, again, ultimately the purpose of this event was not overcoming the threat, but CR-building and creative, player-made nightmare scenarios.
-Discord: We have no plans to use the Discord channel (which was made by the former mod team, not us) to make announcements or answer questions. Our reasons for this are: it is not used by more than a few players, none of the mods are frequently online on Discord, and the format makes it extremely easy for things to get lost. There are already multiple on-site avenues for players (the game’s OOC comm, the FAQ, and the Mod Contact page) to contact us.
Plurk is the only off-site social media we use to make official statements to our players. It is our (and most of the DW gamesphere’s) personal preference and we are not changing it, although as always, nobody is required to make a Plurk account. Nothing is announced there that isn’t also on the OOC community. While we sometimes answer simple, quick questions asked to us directly through our personal accounts, anything more complicated we still direct back to the FAQ.
We have spoken to you personally many times through all on-site avenues as well as private messages through the mod account, so while there has been the occasional player question that got buried or lost, we know that you know these are valid ways of contacting us.
-The bare minimum: We aren’t perfect, and have never claimed to be-- we’re people with jobs, lives, and issues just like everyone else in DWRP. There will always be ways in which we can improve or deserve critique, and we’ve accepted many of those critiques and done what we can to learn from them. There will always be times when hiccups or unexpected circumstances will happen and cause delays, but expecting us to announce everything that might be going on in our lives is unreasonable. We understand that the concept of “bare minimum” is subjective, and it’s fair that we may not be meeting your personal standards, but we are in fact meeting the standards of most current DWRP games.
Since stepping up as mods (February 2017), we have provided a monthly event calendar, monthly Activity Check, answered questions, processed apps and badges, updated lists with the exception of the period of miscommunication, posted state of the game announcements every few months with news/new features/progress on the ongoing revamp, and asked for player input/discussion on multiple topics. While you might see a “parallel” when we make mistakes or things aren’t done as quickly as you’d like, to compare us to the moderators who literally ghosted the game for almost six months is both insulting and an exaggeration, even taking our own issues as a mod team into account. As you said, we are volunteers. We do this for free in our spare time, because we love the game and we want to.
-With regards to general tone and the discussion that happened above, we will be messaging both you and Ink privately.