So, the results of activity check: we did lose two players who did not sign in and haven't shown any signs of life in a few weeks. I did send out sign-in reminders to two people mid-week; I will not be doing this next month for anyone.
I would like to remind everyone to please pay attention to the OOC comm. Track it, watch it with a journal whose F-page you check more frequently, bookmark it, whatever. It's updated nearly every day, and I really would like feedback on various plot elements. I don't mind coming up with plots on my own, but I really like hearing what you guys would like to see in game; I'm all about making this fun for you. I like to know what you think of things. If you think something sucks, don't hesitate to say so. Just ... do it nicely, and if possible add a twist that would make it more appealing to you. Concrit is love; telling me something sucks without telling me why or how I can make it better helps no one. Some of you might have noticed a trend in characters chosen for activities. While the rolls are random, "inactive" players are sometimes rerolled; if you were selected for an event and did not participate without letting me know why, the odds of one of your characters being selected for the next one is lowered. If you don't want to play in something, please at least acknowledge that you've seen the event and tell me your character will not be reacting. That way I at least know you saw and acknowledge that you were chosen. There are several private ways to get in touch with me if you don't want to leave an unscreened comment somewhere. I'm really, really big on open lines of communication for this game, given the nature of it, and I'm really pleased by how much you guys are communicating.
That said, we are going to be doing a pheromone thing the first week of August. There was a pretty decent positive response. We are going to be "making up" some pheromones as well, because ... well, variety is fun, and this is the future. They totally invented it by now. If you have any specific desires for your characters, please comment to the drop box or e-mail me to discuss, and we'll see what we can work out; not everything has to be about attractants. ;)
For an idea of what sort of thing to look for, there will be pheromones to cause attraction, to cause distrust, to trigger the "flight" reflex, to incite rage, to bring about empathy. If there are other variants on emotions you'd like to play with, don't hesitate to suggest them. At this point, the only ones set for anything are Lily, Tyler, and Jaime, because Sam thinks they're too cooperative and she wants their little trio broken up. So she will be injecting them with pheromones to incite mistrust and fear. Further details will be forthcoming once the date get closer. We won't roll for this one, so pretty much anyone who wants to play will have to volunteer somewhere.
We'll also be doing another lottery type event soon; since those are actually related to the game's solution/end-point, those will only be held monthly, and will be limited to small, randomly rolled groups.
As always, if you have any questions, comments, concerns, or praise (especially praise ;) ) don't hesitate to let me know. Drop me an IM, an e-mail, a comment on the drop-box. I'm pretty reachable.