riverviewooc | mod post: monthly state of the game

monthly state of the game

Hi everyone! Welcome to October's State of the Game post! This one is pretty important, since it contains information on GAME FOCUS related to mod-posted mingles, UPDATED GAME CAP information, and adjustments to the normal game schedule with a HOLIDAY SEASON TIMELINE including a one-month delay on finalizing the Branching Out exploration mission.

game focus: mod-posted mingles

First off, I'd like to give a big thank you to everyone who responded to the mini state of the game poll about game theme focus that I put up a couple of weeks ago. Whether you voted on one of the themes mentioned, asked a question, or provided other feedback, I really appreciate your effort in responding and I have read it all and taken it all into consideration.

What I understand from the responses I received is that players find it very important for the game to have aspects of both exploration/action and slice-of-life or character development opportunities, but that exploration and action plots require more mod guidance and detail while slice-of-life is easier to self-direct; I also understand that the holiday mingles have become a little stale and repetitive, and that many players are interested in seeing prompts like the ones used for the Test Drive Memes be integrated into the game.

In order to address feedback about monthly mingles going forward, rather than posting four prompts on the monthly mingles with holiday traditions, I will be posting one prompt with a list of the usual traditions, one prompt with a new slice-of-life and/or character development focused prompt that may or may not be related to the holiday itself, one prompt that reiterates what was posted on the most recent TDM, and one prompt that continues that TDM story going forward. Hopefully, this will generate a wider variety of things to do on the monthly mingles to make them more accessible to all playing styles.

The overwhelming majority of votes were to have more focus and mod-directed detail on exploration and expansion of the city, and development of the setting. To facilitate this, I will be continuing to create more in-depth Exploration Mingles, which will be posted on every second month, with detailed thread rewards for completion of mission threads. These mingles will start to have a more noticeable impact on the game's setting and day-to-day gameplay in that setting, and I will make sure to have prompts that can be joined in on by less action-inclined characters, and include aspects that can be used to encourage character or CR development in these mingles. On the 'off months' where an Exploration Mingle is not posted, I will create a list of smaller, tighter, more individualized missions with more specific objectives and concrete in-game consequences/rewards and post them on the OOC community to be signed up for. These missions will have deadlines and comment count requirements similar to (but not the same as) the Exploration Mingles. Hopefully, this will make the exploration aspects of the game more accessible and easier to plot out.

Monthly State of the Game posts will be posted at least every second month (when an Exploration Mission 'expires') to include a quick rundown of how the setting or situation in the city has changed during the month(s).

game cap & applications

Because of the shift in focus to mod-directed and curated plot and missions, I will be lowering the game cap from 175 characters to 125 characters, as I would not be able to maintain these changes with a larger playerbase. If I am going to be curating plot on a more in-depth way, making bigger changes to the setting, and personalizing rewards and missions more frequently, I would rather limit the size of the game.

As it is, even with a tighter game cap, the game has gotten quite a bit smaller, so I will be leaving applications open from October 1st until December 7th to allow potential players to apply as time permits; reserves will be swept when applications are received.

holiday schedule

With the holiday season coming up and real lives becoming more hectic and demanding, I am going to change things up a bit over the next few months. The schedule will go back to normal after January.

Rather than closing the Branching Out exploration mission on October 15th as anticipated, I will extend the timeline for this mission until November 15th to allow more players to complete threads, tag in, reach the objectives, and sign up for thread rewards.

A new Exploration Mission will be posted November 15th. This particular mission will be a little more low-key and character/CR development related rather than action packed.

December's Activity Check (which will be posted on January 1st) will be check-in only, as it was last year.

Here is a quick timeline:

October 1: Activity Check begins. Applications open; reserves close.
October 7: Activity Check closes. Reserves are swept and re-opened. Applications remain open.
November 1: Activity Check begins. Applications and reserves remain open.
November 7: Activity Check closes.
November 8: State of the Game post with limited information on the new exploration mingle for plotting.
November 15: Deadline for thread reward submissions from the Branching Out exploration mingle; new Exploration Mingle is posted.
December 1: Activity Check begins.
December 7: Activity Check closes. Applications close; reserves are swept and closed.
January 1: Activity Check opens, check-in only.
January 7: Activity Check closes.

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mod post: monthly state of the game

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