InsaneJournal

With a return comes announcements
This might turn out to be very long, but bear with me and read the whole thing please, everyone.


I've been gone a few extra days more than planned because I was trying to come up with some ways to solve some issues in CU. I decided that we need to return to seriously attempting something I failed to properly implement a long time ago. Extending each day in CU to equal four real time days.

This might make it sound like the game will slow down some and yes, that is partly the point. While I encourage all of you to be active players, some are noticeably more active than others and sometimes others just don't have as many opportunities. Not having your character do anything for one day can get them stuck and cut off from others easily. I will be posting a calendar to clarify the date changing somewhat on the Malfunction Day page tomorrow evening with a list of the upcoming Malfunction Days for the next three or four months.

The intention is that if everyone abides by this, then it might be a way to give everyone a chance at having their character do something. CU shouldn't simply be a goal-orinented "I did this, I did that, we won points" type of game where we rush to finish tasks. It's my job to try and make it less so. This game should provide characters with opportunities to explore themselves and those around them, and extending the days would also give people more time to interact with characters they SHOULD have interacted with long ago, or give them more opportunitiy to do things in a day. With one day extended into four, people will be able to have their characters do several things in one day, if they have the time, and spend a lot more time bonding with other characters and less time sacrificing some attention for other things.

This certainly doesn't have to be a permanent change if after a few months of seriously trying it, it doesn't work. But we have to try it. Simply telling people to slow down doesn't work. With a game so focused on events and tasks like this one is, having one day equal just one day doesn't give people enough time to bond. Especially with the vast number of characters we have - no one should be ignored and everyone should matter, but with the rush we have to sacrifice some for others.

Slowing things down this way will, hopefully, make it muhch less that way and provide more opportunities to interact.

Mentioning the issue with the population of characters brings me to my next topic. I am officially closing applications for all characters. Aside from the characters who have currently been applied for (like Tohru-player's upcoming character), no one new will be able to enter the game. Even if you drop a character, you won't be allowed to apply for a new one unless there are some kind of special circumstances that you've talked to me about directly. I do not want to sacrifice quality for quantity, and with each character that joins us, combined with the rushing things along, means that every character means a little less than they should. If the amount of characters should ever diminish incredibly, then I would open applications up again - for a short time, and only to accept very few.

Everyone should matter just as much and have a part to play in events in some manner if they so desire. I hope that these decisions will make the current cast matter more and encourage a lot more interaction and less stress without ruining the fun of the game.

Also, I will be clamping down on inactive characters much more strictly from this point on. If you are inactive for longer than a week or two with no notice or explanation, your character will be dropped from the game and you will receive an email afterwards. Should your circumstances make the action unjust, explain to me in an email why you couldn't even give notice and you might be allowed back in. If you were unconscious in a hospital for three weeks I am not going to make you suffer for it, as long as you tell me. Please take note that this is only if you are absent without notice for more than a week or two, I do not care or mind if I hear or see no activity for a few days. Life happens and people get busy, but for a week or longer I really do want to see hiatus notices.

I myself am dropping Lina Inverse as a note, so that I can focus much more on cleaning up the game and making it better and more fun for everyone, instead of just writing a bunch of characters. Lucifer and Metatron really will be much more active from this point onwards, and Lucifer will be continuing his giving out of tasks like earlier.

Also, I bring an offer - is there a kind of plot arc in CU that you would like to see? This question does not guarantee that what you bring up will show up, but while I am considering a lot of overreaching, long plots to bring into the game, I'm also interested in knowing what you, the players, would like to see.

There will also be another trial near the end of August or in the beginning of September.