Tabula Rasa Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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tabularasa_ooc2021-03-21 06:04 pm
tabularasa_mods) wrote in tabularasa_ooc2021-03-21 06:04 pm
Entry tags:
State of the Game
State of the GameWe 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.
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.
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.
walks in late with starbucks
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.