State of the Game

[tabularasa_mods]

State of the Game As many of you have likely noticed, the game has seen a large number of drops in February and March. Tabula Rasa is a small game that is reliant on player submissions and character activity by design, so this has obviously had an impact on not only the remaining playerbase, but also on the game itself. Fewer characters and players in the game means less overall variety and activity in threads, and we also understand that seeing close CR drop can have a negative effect on morale. We as a mod team have felt this as well.

We are not planning to close the game. We want to reassure everyone that the current mod team is fine with running a smaller game compared to where we started, so please don't be concerned about us closing the game prematurely. For all of you that are still interested in staying in the game, we see you and are willing to put the work into keeping Tabula Rasa alive for as long as those feelings remain. Despite the low frequency of new applications, we are getting new players, and we also want to give these players a fair chance at playing in the setting as well.

We also realize that the sudden drop in characters and morale during February and March may make it difficult for some players to hit their AC minimums. As this is an exceptional situation and we would much rather keep interested players around, activity for March will be waived and strikes taken in February will be lifted. You may still submit your regular AC for influence points, but any player who checks in this month may remain in the game. This will be a one-time deal, though we will be monitoring the game’s size and activity over the next couple months in case any adjustments to the current AC may be needed.

In light of this situation, we want to touch base with everyone and see what we can do to improve the current situation. Part of this post will be our personal assessment of the situation, but you can also consider this an open feedback post. We would greatly appreciate to hear the thoughts of any current, previous, or potential players - if there's anything that you feel the game is lacking, or if certain mechanics have been difficult to engage with, or if there are parts of the game you think we should focus more on, we want to hear it! We will be responding to all feedback on this post so we can all have a discussion on how we’d like to move forward.

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Applications & New Players
Firstly, some positives! TR is a game with a small player cap, so any chain of drops can have a huge impact on the game. Despite the large number of drops, our rate of new apps has actually stayed about the same since October 2020 (about 2-4 apps each month), and the game has stayed very close to its maximum player cap from its launch in July 2020 all through January 2021. We rarely received apps while the game was at cap and the initial launch of the game garnered more interest than we were able to accommodate, so we're optimistic that the player slots can be filled up again given enough time.

We'd like to step up on getting the word out now that we have an abundance of open slots, so we'll be looking into ways to improve our TDMs and extend our advertising to reach more players.

Player-Mod Communication
We'd like to take a moment to address one of our own concerns: a lack of communication regarding feedback and player concerns. As players ourselves, we occasionally see conversations among other players in the game bringing up personal concerns and issues with the game's mechanics. However, we want to stress that we cannot respond to feedback and concerns that are not given to us directly. We do not have every player added on our personal accounts, and it should never be assumed that a mod has seen something because you posted it on your personal plurk. Moreover, we cannot respond to personal plurks in a mod capacity, so we cannot offer any solutions to your problems.

We can't force anyone to talk to us if they don't want to, but as mods it's been at times frustrating to see concerns shared on plurk that we could very easily fix, only for the player to drop sometime later without having approached us at all. Please, talk to us! We don't hold it against anyone for choosing to drop - sometimes a game just isn't the right fit, and that's fine. If it's something you feel could be improved or that someone else might struggle with, though, we want to hear it!

Plot & Engagement
We have asserted from the very start that TR is a game without a metaplot - this is something that remains true. However, we also feel that we haven't been able to properly convey what our vision for the game is, and that this has led to players feeling that their character's actions don't have meaning or that there's no possibility of any long-term game plots. We've tried to address this a couple of times now, but as the same issues have continued to come up we'd like to try one more time to explain our perspective on this and how we've been handling things on the back end.

Tabula Rasa is meant to be a game that focuses almost entirely on character actions and input. When we have said “this game does not have a metaplot,” what this means to us is “we do not have any predetermined plan or storyline for this game to follow.” This seems to be the sticking point for a lot of people - the impression we've gleaned is that some players see no reason to explore, investigate or experiment within the setting because they as a player know that we haven't hidden any mysteries for them to find. However, this has never been the impression we intended to give. We do want players to explore and interact with the setting, and we want players to feel like their actions have an impact on the game, and that these actions may ultimately build up to larger plots and storylines.

TR doesn't have a predetermined story to tell, but it also didn't come with a setting, either. Instead, we built a setting out of what players gave us - through imprints, as well as through character actions and interest. The plot is meant to work exactly the same way: we look at what characters in the game are doing and we create a response to those actions. The world giving itself a name and identity (“Kyo”) is a direct result of character actions, for example, and would not have occurred if characters hadn't decided that an entity was in charge of the world. This is a relatively minor development, but larger plotlines could be created in the same way, simply through characters asking questions and coming up with their own theories.

To give another example, not too long ago a number of characters in the Persona cast decided that Mementos was a suspicious location and that something must be hidden there. We took note of this and built our April event around the idea of something being down there that characters would need to investigate. The continued earthquakes have also been a part of that.

All of that said, we realize that this isn't just an issue of players misunderstanding things. We want changes to the setting to be something of a surprise, but it would be difficult for us to throw together a fun and satisfying event on short notice while also balancing imprints and keeping the queue from falling behind. This means that we've had to sit on ideas for months at a time before being able to reveal anything, and it's understandable that it would appear that character actions aren't having any impact due to this. While we can't always speed things along, we can communicate better about what we've seen and what we have plans to respond to. We hope that this would also encourage players to come to us with plot ideas or share what we may have missed.

What's Next?
Moving forward, we have a few options. This isn't a formal poll, but we'd like to hear our players' thoughts on how you'd all like to proceed, so please feel free to let us know if there's a plan that works best for you or if you have any suggestions.

• Option 1: Keep the game open. The game will continue as normal with the current playerbase, and we'll make further improvements to the game as we go. We'll plan out our current plot to conclude around the game's 1-year anniversary in July, after which we will re-evaluate the situation with everyone to see where we want to go next. This way we can give players a satisfying ending point if needed while still leaving things open to continue if interest is maintained.
  
  After this re-evaluation, either the game will continue on as planned or we'll look into option 2.


• Option 2: Put the game on hiatus with the intent to reopen later in the year. TR has a lot of unique aspects to it compared to more traditional DWRP games, and while we're proud of what we've managed to create with everyone, we've also realized over time that we could've organized things or built certain mechanics in a much better way. Changing up these parts of the game would be very difficult to do while it’s still open, however, so we would need to put the game on hiatus to restructure. We would also be able to use this time to build on the game's shortcomings and prepare an actual plot in advance, so there would be something substantial for everyone to look forward to upon TR's return.
  
  We do have some ideas for this that we'd be willing to expand on, but we also realize that putting the game on hiatus could cause it to lose steam. Still, we'd like to keep this idea on the back-burner for now. We think there's still a lot of potential in TR's concept and the setting that we've all created, so we don't plan on giving up on it until we've exhausted our ideas.

As we said before, we're not looking at closing the game right now and we're happy to continue running things as long as there's player interest.

Finally, thank you for taking the time to read this post, and thank you to everyone that's supported and contributed to Tabula Rasa thus far! A game can't exist without players and we're incredibly grateful for all the wonderful people we've brought together. As we said before, we'll be responding to all feedback here so please feel free to give us your thoughts so we can have a discussion together as a game on where to go next.

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Comments

[forwearemany]

Man, I'm super hoping the game stays open and doesn't hiatus.

Other than that, I'd say communication is a big issue: it's not just a problem with clearing things up, there also seems to be a sentiment among players that it doesn't feel like you guys are making meaningful changes.

Which like, I've noticed changes that have been made but there's so little communication and some of them are so slow to really take effect that it can just feel like nothing has happened.

Another thing: you ask for feedback but there's no permanent feedback post? Only the occasional state of the game/mod request for feedback. This can make feedback feel awkward and unwelcome, as there's no easy channel for it.

[tabularasa_mods]

Communication is definitely something we'd like to work on! We're thinking of expanding on the "upcoming events" part of the start-of-the-month announcements to include a list of things the world has taken notice of over the month, but we're open to other suggestions as well.

Regarding a permanent feedback post, feedback and suggestions have always been welcome through the mod contact page. As we are reluctant to add an additional permanent post solely for feedback for various reasons (notifs have been known to go missing in the past, and it's easier to keep track of player contact when it's all in one place), perhaps we could relabel the page to make it clearer?

[forwearemany]

Both of those sound like excellent ideas to start with.

[(Anonymous)]

Former player here:

Part of my issue with the game was that lack of metaplot. It might have been a misunderstanding, but that's still how I understood it: that it was entirely SoL. I honestly have no plans to re-app the game but clarification on that point would have been nice to have had instead of events just seeming random with no connecting thread.

A lot of my other issue was a lack of communication with the mods. You say we were welcome to reach out to you but I personally also felt like the mods were frequently condescending and dismissive of issues players were having. It could have just been a matter of "tone" not translating through the internet but I personally didn't feel comfortable reaching out, and I felt like there was some micromanagement going on, too, that made me uncomfortable with how the mods were running things.

I wish you all the best of luck with the game.

[tabularasa_mods]

For your second point, could you give us an example of this tone or micromanaging? This definitely isn't how we intended to come across, so we'd like to know where we need to improve on that. If you'd prefer not to share details publicly, you can leave a comment on the mod contact page or send us a PM through a sock as well.

Regardless, thank you for taking the time to leave us a comment, and we're sorry we made you uncomfortable during your stay here.

[pragmatism]

Former player here. Just a very personal opinion but I think it would be better if you increased the amount of imprints, maybe species and locations per month. Double would be a nice number. A lot of my problems engaging with the game was that there wasn't enough material for me to think about something to do for my char that wasn't slice of life.

Also that having a roadmap for what imprints are for what month (in the future) would be good. If you told the Persona cast they were going to get a cast-sourced event maybe they wouldn't have dropped as fast. Putting up more clear guidelines on organic imprints/making it easier to make threads that qualify for organic imprints would also spice things up a bit -> making characters feel like their attempts at teaching the world actually work.

[tabularasa_mods]

Unfortunately, increasing the number of imprints isn't something we could do very easily. As we rely on player submissions for imprints, the fact that the playerbase has shrunk by half means that we'll likely have to reduce the number of imprints each month to avoid running out. We also want to avoid overwhelming the playerbase with too many things happening at once, as well as ourselves as mods, so we think a quality over quantity approach might be better.

Would you be able to tell us what you felt was lacking in the imprint options while you were in the game? Such as a lack of detail in certain aspects, or something you would've liked to do if more imprints facilitated it.

[pragmatism]

After reading what the anon concrit and the Kaiba player said I'd like to +1 them both since they explained what I would have said in reply to your comment.

I felt like I had more to do during the months where concept imprints are introduced. Species imprints (and to some extent location imprints) aren't as helpful because they're just... There. To have some sort of motivation to seek out these things and interact with them would be nice.

[anciently]

Former player here! My drop was unfortunately a total issue of timing, as some big IRL changes are taking place throughout March-May for me, and so I've had NO time/drive to do RP of any kind. As such, my drop had absolutely nothing to do with anything specific to TR, and, in fact, I plan to reapp during the summer after things have calmed down.

I always really liked TR from the start; I knew there was more of a tone of slice of life to the game and found that to be an opportunity for exploring what my character would do during that downtime, and spend most of it exploring new locations, interacting with new species, and meeting new characters (or nurturing her relationships with people she'd met before). I thought this was a refreshing change of pace, as I'd recently tried a much more "lore heavy" atmosphere and found it totally untenable for my current RP style and preferences.

I never had an issue with the mod team and adored the other players in the game, feeling like the environment was very chill and drama-free. I'm not sure what caused all the recent drops beyond some people maybe realizing their characters weren't necessarily a good fit for a more SoL game (which I understand) and then many others following suit in a domino effect, but...

tl;dr I only dropped due to RL stuff and REALLY enjoyed the game while I was in it!

[tabularasa_mods]

Thank you for your input, and we're glad that you had an enjoyable time here! We do want to add that we know the past few months have been rough for a lot of people, which of course added to the number of drops; we mainly wanted to focus on the issues we can improve upon, since, unfortunately, we can't do much as mods about IRL situations (if only!).

We do want to continue supporting the SoL playstyle in addition to giving options for more plot-oriented players, so we hope that we'll be able to stay open long enough for your return!

[cislunar]

Former Leo player here! First of all, I wanna say that in my experience you guys have been really receptive to both player feedback and suggestions. If there was a voiced problem, I always thought you guys were at least consistently fair in addressing it. This is proof of that! Also, seeing the Void refer to themselves as Kyo made me so unbelievably tired oh my god

That being said, I did end up dropping due to a combination of factors. Some of that was due to RL circumstances which ended up hitting RP motivation, but I won't lie and say that the some aspects of the game didn't contribute to that! I think it's definitely something on both sides though, because I absolutely could have submitted more things to the organic imprints page and tried to facilitate more interactions with the setting, but at times it felt like the results of that wouldn't move things much. I think it's partially a misunderstanding on my part of Tabu's meaning of "metaplot", like you said, rather than a lack of one -- but I also feel like it's a matter of pacing.

The difference between Tabu and other games is, obviously, that the players completely construct what the game is and what direction it takes, and I think that's one of its most interesting points. But I also think that's one of it's weakest points too, because when you're starting with a blank slate it makes the build up feel very, very long. There's long stretches of time where it feels as if there's not many prompts to work with... You have to wait for player input, then integrate that player input... Then juggle that with imprints and setting changes in the queue (that the players save up for, so that's at least two months of waiting time just to get the opportunity to have your idea implemented... and that's another month, at least), which meant everything came out in a trickle. Personally, I felt Tabu was a game that would be incredibly fun to play with later on down the road -- but a little bit tedious to begin with. Also, all the different directions a game like this could take means it's difficult for progress to be streamlined in one singular direction. I'm sure what Tabu is means a lot of different things to different people, and I know that this confusing identity is one thing that made potential applicants hesitant.

I understand that a game like this takes a huge amount of work, because you're essentially constructing the game in real time based on player input. I agree that smaller hints about what you're plotting or what you've taken in would definitely help keep players engaged so they're aware of your direction, but I also think smaller, more minor changes to the world on a more frequent basis would be nice. Taking a nice example that you did previously... the small hints of a voice in the Void near Leo's scores were something I really enjoyed, because it gave me the general idea that a concept of Void sentience was being developed. It facilitated discussion on Leo's end. I preferred these kind of minor developments, rather than the various amount of setting and species imprints... and I'm of the opinion that metaplot is better distributed through minor changes like that, rather than one giant dump of an imprint or change that would end up being bi-monthly. It can still lead to that, of course -- the timeframe between relevant events just ended up being difficult for me to keep engaged with. Again, I know that's a tonnn of work... it was just how I ended up enjoying the setting most.

This is all my personal experience, of course! I enjoyed the time I did have in the game, and I appreciate all the work you guys put into it, and the work you continue to put into it. I wish you the best of luck!

[tabularasa_mods]

Thank you for the detailed feedback! We agree with a lot of things you've shared here. We've already talked a bit about communicating upcoming changes better, but we do also think focusing more on the smaller details is a good idea. Now that the game's setting is more established and we have a much smaller queue of submissions to go through, we're going to try giving more attention to organic developments in the world like the ones you mentioned.

[bridge_princess]

So, I've been sitting down to think on the matter of the long term viability of the game, and I've realized that in many ways I've simply been comfortably rolling with whatever comes to me as a player here. This means that my opinion should be taken with a grain of salt in that I am probably one of the easier players to please overall right now, despite the fact that I sometimes send complicated imprint questions your way. I'm pretty much ok with whatever comes.

That said: I do have a strong preference that we attempt to play through to the 1 year anniversary if that is possible. However, I would yield that this preference is entirely a selfish one, as I suspect that I would lose any semblence of Parsee's voice during a game hiatus of that length and there are plotlines I would like to continue.

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So, I am going to largely +1 what Legion's player and the anonymous concrit have listed. What I have encountered among those who hve commented about concerns is that there is 1) a light metaplot [I perceive there to actually be one, but it is very much in the background], making the game very heavy on Slice of Life elements with a small cast, 2) that mod communication is intermittent.

Again, from my personal perspective, I have encountered few if any problems. However, I also tend to be fairly pro-active in contacting the mods about what I think might become issues. As such, I know that direct contact with you is responded to in a timely fashion.

However, if you address the concerns as described by Legion and the anon have addressed them, that may help the overall perception of the game by its current playerbase and hopefully future one. I apologize that I can't really offer a lot beyond that, mostly because I myself am, as I said, just kind of rolling with whatever happens.

However, as a quick caveat, I have had a wonderful time in this game, loved my many interactions with various characters and have had a fun time. I hope to see things continue.

[tabularasa_mods]

We'd like to keep as many current players around as we can, since you've all decided to stick with us this long already, so we don't think that's a selfish opinion! Thanks for letting us know about your preference and perspective. As things currently stand, we'll likely be moving forward with plan A unless there's another large chain of drops.

[blue_eyed_obsession]

I want to start off by saying that I have greatly enjoyed my time at Tabula Rasa, and I too would like to see it continue into the future. The players I have met and interacted with here have been fantastic, infusing the game with their creativity and with a unique cast of characters. I will also say that the mods have put a lot of work into constructing this malleable environment, crafting the various information pages, and supplying the regular updates and various events.

With that being said, I'm just going to go through the issues I've either seen or experienced in my time here in hopes that it might be of some help moving forward.
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First and foremost: I don't think a lengthy hiatus would be good for momentum. I'm fairly confident I could remember where I left off cr wise but I'm not sure who would stick around awaiting a reopening, or would just take it as a chance to move on to other games. I was also hoping we would make it to the 1st year anniversary as expressed by others before me.

Communication: This is definitely something that I feel could use improvement. Personally, I know I don't utilize the Mod contact/Faq page enough, or even something like the organic imprints. Plurk just feels easier to interact with since it's not only in real time but I'm able to converse back and forth with other players and hear their opinions on various elements. Mostly it's just is about things we would like to see, or thoughts on current events. I do get why that would be less convenient for the mods however and I never expected them to follow everything on that platform. I'm never really sure what is enough to either suggest for organic imprints or to submit for the mods to look over and weigh in on. I'm not sure why but I guess I feel discouraged to use the provided avenues because it's all very impersonal. I don't know who I'm talking to and how casual to be, or not be. I respect that the mods want to be anonymous, however it's more of a challenge for me to initiate communication under those circumstances if that makes sense? I don't want to waste anyone's time, or make it feel like I'm just spamming the page with inane content. It's different when you know you have a connection to someone and when you're unsure. Plus I do think there is benefit in being able to openly discuss any issues among the whole of the playerbase, so we can compare notes and be on the same page.

Plot: I was never someone that specifically required a meta-plot. I was also just going with the flow to see what cropped up and how things transpired- however some characters do need something a little extra to motivate them other than "How can I get out of this place and go home". Honestly, I am playing a character that has strong inclinations and reasons why he wouldn't want to linger here (since he needs to be caretaker of his younger brother, best his rival, and run his business) however some of the cr he's built here has made it more difficult for him to straight up want to pull up stakes and completely leave the void behind him. Not every muse found something to ground them here, those characters would need something to better anchor them.

I also will admit that there have been times when I felt like there was little I could do to contribute to the adaptations of the world, but again- part of that was because my aversion to posting things to the organic imprint page. Also for guarding my points like a miser- since I was a lone canon warrior at the time I had this like self-imposed pressure to be careful with what I asked for or I could miss other opportunities later (I also had an obsession with points gathering). I overthought a lot of things like "ok I would want this" but "what would everyone else want?". I shouldn't have let it consume me but I did. That's on me, but I think it does highlight an issue. I'm not sure how to go about it, but the way the system is designed can look discouraging to smaller casts. Although I can accept that maybe that was just me?. See, this is one of the concerns I've had but I'm not sure if it's actually a non-issue. Maybe no one else perceived things in this manner or felt like they were unable to keep up with some representation from their character's previous experiences. I've since found my chill, but it took me til January to get there.

I do think letting us know what might be in the works will have a positive benefit. You can keep some mystery about it, but dropping some hints can assist in psyching people up for what they think might be coming. Admittedly, I didn't know we could come to the mods with plot ideas.

Something else I think the game could benefit from is maybe having some events that encourage players to go to a certain location. I know a lot of the time the 'event' is the implementation of the imprints however there's not always a reason for the characters to look into these new additions. My character tries to stay on top of investigating changes because he's a wouldbe control freak he likes to remain informed but there could be some untapped potential better utilizing resources we do have. These could also involve temporary conditions not all of them have to be serious, some could be more humorous. A healthy mix would keep it interesting.

This next issue I have might also be a me thing. I don't know: I recall in at least one or two updates where only specific groups were really affected, and I struggled to find something to work with in those periods. The species system is an interesting one, but for plain, average, humans- it can be rough sometimes when that's all there is in an update and you can't directly use it for anything.

Also, I would like to see events where players need to work together more, preferably with people outside their usual circles. It's been a long time since a randomizer has been employed. Sure, I'm not saying to use that gimmick for every event, but I would like to encourage some muses out of their comfort zone since some stubborn persons might stick to their usual circles when they can swing it.
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I know I'm probably forgetting something, and I probably should have heavily edited what I did get written out but, here it is. Plus, I know I have some things to improve on myself. Communication needs to be a two-way street after all is said and done.

I just want to restate, I love the game and the people in it and I wish only for it's success!

walks in late with starbucks

[menaretrash]

Hello! Mostly, I agree with everything everyone else has said. TR is an amazing game with a TON of potential.

That being said, I think going on a hiatus would do far, far more harm than good. I feel like with all of the drops, that would be the final nail in the coffin. I think dealing with the issue here and now and pushing on is definitely the correct step, and I'm really glad that you guys are open to hearing us out like this.

I know you guys mentioned seeing complaints and frustrations on other people's plurks, but you are unable to do anything about it. This isn't meant to come across as being mean, but as a legit question: why? If you know people are complaining, if you've seen it, even if they haven't come to the mods directly isn't that something to discuss regardless? Again, this is not intended to be a mean spirited comment, it's just a question because I'm genuinely curious.

The 'Kyo' thing is new for me, because I don't think I've ever seen it mentioned before, or maybe I've just missed something. On this note, once again I'll say that I agree with everything said here, but the lack of communication here is a huge issue for me. I feel like there has to be some way for mods to be more accessible.

A few weeks ago, I made a plurk about all of the drops, and a few outsiders commented to it. I won't give their handles or names, but I will copy and paste what they had to say:

For context here, they're referencing something that I brought up: there needs to be something to drive characters, because this setting does not work for everyone.

"you know as an outsider, all of the above is why i've been on the fence about tdming/apping here for like... ever... i hope you can get a lot of your concerns addressed because i'd still kinda like to partake but at the same time it's super uhh :|"

And, directly after that response, a second person chimed in:

"also an outsider, but I think the reason I haven't considered TR is because I didn't get what they were trying to go for exactly"

Take what you will from that, but I just wanted to add what a few outsiders mentioned to me personally.

The TL;DR of that is that some characters definitely need more of a reason to do things, not every character can be played in a setting like this. Sitting around and twiddling their thumbs, or only trying to find a way to leave just doesn't work for everyone. It's hard to find the want or need to make post or bother tagging out when there's hardly anything to do, despite the neat setting that you guys have graciously fleshed out for us.

I also think that the game would benefit from at least one NPC, even if it's just some sort of disembodied voice. Being able to interact with the Void, having it answer questions or whatever I think would also be very helpful. Even if that NPC just shows up every now and then. Something else to consider: a page for player run plots to be submitted. I used to be a mod, I know it can get hectic, especially with RL obligations. Player run plots, so long as they were submitted for approval to you guys, would also take some of that pressure off of you guys as well, at least that's what I'd hope for. Right now, as things stand, this feels like more of a sandbox with AC requirements than an actual game, and that really hurts because again, this game and everyone in it is AMAZING. YOU guys are amazing.

I'm going to cut this here 'cause this has already gotten really long and most everyone else has touched on the other things I wanted to bring up [but if i think of anything else i'll definitely edit this or post it in a comment below this if ya'll respond. Thank you for creating a lovely game for us, mods, and thank you for the work you put in. I love TR, and I want to see it not only make it to its first anniversary, but many anniversaries beyond this. I think this is just a little bump in the road that, if we all work together, we can push past and make this game the best. Thanks for taking the time to read this, and for posting this open discussion.

Edit: So, after a week, I have to add something else, please don't take offense, but I'm still not seeing a whole lot of mod interaction here still, and it feels like the game has sort of crawled to a stop? I'm not entirely sure what's going on behind the scenes atm, but the fact of the matter is that my drive for this game is now almost depleted and I find myself contemplating dropping as well. This is for the sheer fact that there's like... no mod-player interaction going on here. Nothing is happening, everything's at a stand still. It feels like we have no leadership, if that makes sense? The game is dying, and there have been no updates or anything since the state of the rp was posted. This is super discouraging, and the lack of response has taken it's toll for sure.

[starshower]

Hi mods! Former player here.

Most of the other comments have touched on some of the things I've felt about the game, so I won't repeat a lot of it, but I figured I'd weigh in with my two cents as well, since there were some things that did influence my decision to drop, as much as I loved the concept.

I do agree with what Kosy said about the imprints, and I am +1ing all of that. As well as the comment on the game's identity.

Liz brought up a lot of what I felt was my own struggle with the game, but I'd like to expand on it from my own perspective. I understand that you reiterated in the past that there's no metaplot, and that's perfectly fine! Not every game needs one, and it was a breath of fresh air not having to worry about keeping up with one.

I know there are some characters who work for that sort of thing and others that don't, and maybe it was just a matter of my own character not being a good fit for it, but especially given that the world is a blank slate, I think the most important thing to me was that there could have been more to cater to those character types who need to be helping/influencing/making a change.

For example, more hooks to draw characters to the different locations, which I think has been discussed in the past, so forgive me if I'm beating a dead horse. I noticed that most of the time, characters would be drawn back to the same places because they had a reason to be there—Merlaut Apartments, Heavenly Blanc, MARKETZone... but the rest of the world felt more like a "one and done" sort of thing: character checks out the location, sees what it has to offer, and then never comes back.

It felt like the same thing month after month. The ideas that you guys come up with for these mashed up locations are really, really neat and creative and it was one of my favourite features about the game, but I noticed that many of them tend to go to waste after they've been implemented.

In the future, maybe some more exploration events could be added? With a sentient world, I think there's a lot of potential for crazy things to happen with the imprints, big or small. (Tifa thought that the world was confused and needed help/healing, for example...) The lack of exploration and means to really engage with the setting made me feel disconnected with the world.

Another thing I think the game really could have benefited from, as Liz said, is some kind of NPC life. With a small game that has a more SOL focus, I think it would really help in making the Void feel more alive and could potentially give people more room to engage with the world. This was brought up as a suggestion in the last state of the game post, and it was very discouraging to see it go completely ignored because I've always agreed that it's something that could help those types of characters who don't thrive as well in this kind of setting by giving them a means to help/influence someone else. These NPCs could be part of the hook that draws people to other locations, and they could be random people drawn from the worlds of the characters, or even better: void created NPCs. If characters can do something for them in some way, whether it's by helping with random tasks or stopping them from hurting the world/the people in it, etc., it might help with that feeling of not having a "purpose" or a reason for being there, if that makes sense?

Anyway, this got much longer than I wanted it to be so I'm gonna end it here. Maybe later down the road, TR will be a game I can bring Tifa back to, because I adore the idea and would love to see this game grow and thrive! For now, these are just my own suggestions based on my personal experience in the game, so I can only speak for myself but I hope it's been helpful in some way. Thank you for all your hard work!

[forceofnature]

Hello mods!

Thanks for taking the time to write this all out. I think the drop train is somewhat inevitable once a few key people drop so it's not necessarily your fault directly. From a personal perspective, Viridi has a grand total of three or four people she still interacts with at this point, which is pretty disheartening. If I drop now, it wouldn't really have anything to do with the game, per se.

In regards to issues, I'm going to echo a lot of folks and say that quite frequently, it feels like there isn't much to engage with. The setup of the game means that it takes months for change to occur, and it's often demoralizing to think that a concept you submitted might show up in the game two or three months later. Early into my stay here, I remember there was a poll done about having too many big events all at once. I was surprised that people wanted things to slow down as I was already feeling somewhat the opposite. Since then, it's kind of felt like not very much has happened at all in terms of game development.

Communication has been mentioned as an issue, and in my case, I frequently felt as if I were slightly out of the loop about certain things. I thought I read all the mod posts pretty thoroughly, and I had no idea about this 'Kyo' thing. The damage in Mementos being caused by Akechi also came out of left field, and I only knew the truth about what was happening because I coincidentally tagged in to Ren's top level. It might be helpful if you explicitly summed up ways that player interaction had changed the game each month - or gave us nudges or hints about things that we were accomplishing that we could more actively pursue.

I think there can be a happy medium between everything driven totally by players, which is a good idea but is difficult in execution, and having an over-arching plot decided upon by the mods. That is to say, you can give us a direction and we can supplement it. Also going to be honest and say that I haven't fully committed to staying on yet, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt!

I definitely don't think the hiatus would work, though; I think that would be a lot of effort only for not many people to return (I would probably not). What might work would be a reboot or reenvisioning, but that seems to be beyond the scale of what is being proposed.