In Darkness - OOC

First, I meant to do this ... a while back (like, a month and a half ago. Where did the time go?) when the discussion first arose in regard to acceptable fandoms and abilities. So my apologies for the timing of this particular rule.

And without further ado ... we have added a rule in regard to accepted fandoms on the rules page. It is as follows:

Fandoms, Realism, and You

While we do accept most fandoms, there are some characters (predominantly anime and comic characters) whose abilities cannot be translated as realistically as we would like. Therefore, all characters from anime, comics, and cartoons are reviewed a little more critically in regard to their abilities and the translation into the level of realism we desire for this game.

At this time, we do not currently accept webcomics or rock-operas/musical albums as playable fandoms.

If you have any questions about this, don't hesitate to let me know.

Hey guys.

This is a serious post and I am requesting that everyone comments (comments are screened) to acknowledge that you've seen and read it, even if you have nothing else to say about it.

We have discovered a serious oversight in our current activity rules. The way the rules are phrased now, it essentially allows any person with one character to remain inactive for most of the month but still remain in the game with a thread during activity checks.

This is not really what I want to see for the game.

That said, we were having a little bit of trouble coming up with exact parameters to define activity requirements. After dicking around and discarding ideas and finding flaws in all the ideas, we've come up with this. We honestly think it's the most fair way to ensure the game stays active, that people are not simply idling in the community or sitting on characters for the majority of the month, and that we have maximum player participation.

If you don't feel that you will be able to keep up with the new requirements, we'd like you to consider that ID might not be a good fit for your particular schedule or style of play.

We have a sliding scale of activity

What this essentially means that, if you have one-three characters, we will be requiring somewhere in the neighborhood of 3-5 threads a month (collectively, not per character) + optional network activity. If you have 4-7 characters, we'll be looking for a minimum of 5 threads a month (collectively, not per character), plus significant network activity from any non-threaded characters. If you have 8+ characters, we'll be looking for something closer to 1-2 threads a month per character + optional network activity. Regardless of the number of characters you have, all characters must have some form of activity each month.

If you have any questions or need this clarified or have any other thoughts on it, comments are screened (and signing in is required).

So, in a modly discussion over twitter (not ... even gonna lie. It's all there for the world to see XD ), we've decided to break up the OCs by fandom-based and original to help further balance things out.

Essentially it just means there are now two OC "fandoms" listed: fandom-based and completely original. OCs still count toward their own category and not the fandom they're based in.

The cast list and by-fandom page have already been adjusted to reflect this change, but I thought I'd give you a heads-up anyway in case you were considering an OC but saw we were near capped and didn't want to be the one to cap us. :) (Which is silly. You totally should).

As always, if you have questions, there're five million ways to get in touch with one or both of us mods, so fire away.

Thanks guys!

Also, if you haven't signed in to the activity check and want to stay in the game, don't forget to sign in with your threads!

We actually meant to address this ... sometime last month, I think? And life got distracting and we got distracted, so we never finished hashing it out.

But as the rules currently stand, there's some big hoops about prior canon, and I swear the rules made sense when I wrote them up, but now it's kind of turning out to be more of a hassle than not.

So rather than linking to the in-game canon of characters who have been played and dropped, we're just going to have a list of previously played characters to explain the "hey, haven't you been here before" sorts of situations, but we're eliminating the rigmarole regarding keeping prior game canon and versions and whatnot.

So every canon that has already been played and then dropped will be clean-slated when reapplied, unless the player would prefer otherwise, in which case we'd discuss it on a case-by-case basis. We will be adjusting the FAQ to reflect this sometime tonight.

Does that make sense?

If not, you know the drill. :)

Hello, hello!

While I am staring at my phone and waiting for the vet to call and tell me what's up with Goblin ... I thought I'd do something productive.

I have updated the activity rule for clarity, and so that everything is there in black and white so that all players are aware of requirements and consequences.

Copy-pasta for your convenience:

Activity

All players are required to maintain activity with all characters they apply for. We are requiring at least one completed log a month per character. Network participation is encouraged and will count toward activity as well, but we do want to see threads.

Threads that are in-progress and still being worked on (as in, there has been a reply within the past week) will be considered threading activity. Stand-alone narratives will count toward threading activity, as will open posts that were not replied to.

Players who do not sign in to the activity check, or who have not met the requirements, will be removed from the game. Checks begin on the second Friday of each month, and run until the third Friday of each month. Activity will be counted as long as it is posted prior to the end of the activity check.

Players who consistently meet the bare minimum requirements may be asked to leave the game or to drop characters until their activity levels improve.

If you have questions, concerns, or need further clarity on this issue, do be sure to let me know. Nothing's changed; this is how it's always been (well, with the exception of the thread requirement, but you were given advance warning on that change), but we've spelled it out so it is there and citable if need be.

Thanks guys!

Edit Apparently IJ is having some notif-fail. So I'm going to assume that means it's having tracking!fail as well.

As some of you have guessed, I'm cleaning out the drop box and generally doing my Thursday night maintenance now. Because I had a lot of tags last night, and maintenance could wait. XD Tags are better than maintenance, always.

That said, I did update the FAQ to include the bit about the moon for any werewolf characters coming in. Or for anyone who wants to notice the moon.

My character is a lunar-governed werewolf. What's the moon situation?

The moon on the island is a false moon. It doesn't follow any proper phases or patterns; it is full one night, and new the next, or a half moon for three consecutive nights. There is no true moonlight in the game, so if your werewolf is of a canon that needs to be exposed to direct moonlight, they will be free from shifting. If your character is of a canon that simply needs to feel the full moon, we're adhering to real-time full moons. A schedule can be found here

Additionally, Mandy came up with a tweak last night on the posted conversations plots. Because she was apparently channeling Matt. Idek.

But after they've posted a few real conversations, they're going to start splicing together unrelated conversations. ::Slow nod. devious grin:: oh yeah. Because the Heads? are twisted sons of bitches. And we love them.

That said, if you want to start submitting false conversations, do be sure to label that they're false. They probably won't be posting any more after tonight (I'm going to post Spike's tonight. Act surprised when you see it ;) ) because of the upcoming plot, but there will be other slow plot weeks that they'll be posting. I'll also add this to the post that the drop box links to for instructions, so it will always be easy to find.

Oh, and if you do forge a conversation between a character you're playing and a character you aren't, please please please run it by the player(s) it might affect. We like some IC angst and whatnot, but I really don't want to force angst on someone not inclined to play with it just then. So, even if you were going to twist a canon conversation, just make sure the other involved players are fine with it.

Okay. I need to go ... finish getting ready for work (yay Friday), but you know the drill. If I'm being opaque like I tend to be, don't hesitate to ask for clarity. Things work fine in my head; it's the brain-to-fingers translation that mucks it up. :)

All right.

First, we've eliminated the "duplicate PBs are discouraged" rule that was on the holds page. I'm honestly not sure why it was up there to begin with, because both Mandy and I are fans of mistaken identity.

That said, if you really and truly object to one or more of your PBs being reused, do let me know and we'll write up a restricted doubles list. We've done that before, and I certainly respect the wishes of people who don't enjoy the mistaken identity game, and would rather be the only person with that PB in game.

Second, we've officially and permanently converted room 216 into the infirmary. It's on the cast list and everything. XD

and this is more a question than an update, but since I've got your attention (I have your attention, right?), we're tossing around a few ideas for next week's plot.

But before we decide anything, my question is: Remember how we had an "all kids show" week (...actually, most of you active folk might not have been around for that ... )? Would it rub any of you players (not characters) the wrong way if we ran an "all adults show" week? Not necessarily all pr0n all the time, but ... pr0n, violent shows, and shows with lots of swears (South Park comes to mind ...), and generally things not appropriate for minors and would offend the sensibilities of the more old-fashioned characters?

So right, you know the drill. Comment with your questions or comments and we'll let it devolve into chatting XD

Edit

Something that came up a while ago but we never carried through with due to lack of response at the time. But! We were going to have the Heads randomly broadcasting conversations they'd recorded that had taken place in the hotel between the characters. Generally things that the characters wouldn't want people than the ones they were speaking to to hear, personal revelations, difficult topics or things about their life back home.

Does this sound remotely appealing to anyone?

Okay. I have officially redone the cast list.

It is still here. I thought this way, we had a better visual idea of who's on what floors and who had who for neighbors and who's across the hall from who. There will be a text cast list by fandom that that cast list will have a link to for easy access, since the fandoms aren't listed by each character.

I did run through the links and they all work, however, I really need you to give it a look over and make sure:

1) your character is there
2) everything is spelled right

Go ahead and comment here with anything that's not right. I was going off the database, and after the activity check/deaths in game, may have removed someone accidentally, so please, please please let me know if I goofed.

Also, we have only viewed in in firefox, and it looks fine for us. I'm not promising compatibility with any other browsers :)

Edit

After some discussion, Mandy and I have opted to add something to the rules so it is there officially in black and white rather than just assumed a known fact. The new rule is copy and pasted here for your ease of finding. If you have any questions about that, please let us know and we'll explain, clarify, or justify as needed. :)

Realism

This is meant to be a realistic (as opposed to crack) game. That said, in-character actions will result in in-character consequences. This is not to say there will not be "silly" plots, but we do expect characters to remain in-character and grow as the environment is changed to test their limits.

'lo!

This has nothing to do with the plot, but in light of us realizing oversights as the game progressed (hey, we is human too), we have added a question to the application for future applicants. It is as follows:

What weapons/items of note beyond clothing/photos would you like your character to appear with?

And it also includes a disclaimer about the number of weapons allowed as well as the fact we might not allow them. Can't make it too easy, right? ;)


There will be a longer, plot-relevant post later. Mandy and I were trying to fine-tune the specifics of a "how" without making things suddenly not make sense. ;) I am dealing with a not-well ferret so plot update will come ... eventually.

Edit

So, we had to put one of our boys down. Mental state = about what one would expect. I'll try to hit things in the morning, but no promises.

Hello, hello!

So, in order to incite activity (lol, let's see if this really works ;) ), I've shifted the activity requirements slightly. This rule will NOT apply to the August activity check, but WILL be in place for the September one. So for utter clarification, if you haven't met the new activity requirement by the August activity check deadline, no worries; the old one's still in place for that. However, starting after the August activity check is completed, we will expect to see the new activity rule adhered to.

While I did update the rules page, here it is for your convenience:

"Activity

All players are required to maintain activity with all characters they apply for. We are requiring at least one completed log a month. Network participation is encouraged and will count toward activity as well, but we do want to see threads."


"In progress" logs will count as long as they are actively being worked on. I know some people can genuinely only tag a few times a week - and that's fine, as long as we see that you're still here and active. Narratives will also count as a log/thread. Open posts that receive no response will still count toward your activity.

That said, we'll be starting the August activity check on August 13th, so everyone has a heads-up to start getting your ducks in a row. Like last time, you will be required to sign in with a link to your activity; failure to sign in will result in removal from the community.

If you have questions, comments, or concerns, don't hesitate to hit me up.

Thanks guys!

As mentioned earlier, we have updated the rules to reflect our canon puncturing rule.

For convenience, I'll paste it below.

I'd also like to remind everyone to please title their posts in the Logs community. That's in the rules as well. You guys have been fantastic about tagging your entries, and I definitely appreciate that, but don't forget the titles, too.

Canon Puncturing

While we are aware that a lot of panfandoms allow (and even encourage) canon puncturing, we do not. We would strongly prefer that characters do not inform other characters that they are fictional. There should be no reading of books/watching of movies/googling of selves among the characters and discovering their stories. No YouTube videos of clips from movies should be posted in the network.

We are also aware that some canons do have knowledge of other canons (for example, the Covenant boys are clearly familiar with Harry Potter), we are asking that it please not be brought up in a canon-puncturing way.

In this same vein, "look-alike" references are fine. For example, someone could tell Mal he looks like Castle, or someone could tell Jaime she looks like Rory Gilmore.

Hello, and how is everyone this fine not-a-Monday?

As I sit and ponder future plots, thought I'd run something by you guys, so input is appreciated, and comments are screened.

Next week, we'll have an open plot (no specific characters chosen) and the week after that, is a 15 character plot/event. (As always, suggestions are more than welcome - here, the drop box, my e-mail, wherever).

But the question I had was: what are your thoughts on playing with pheromone-induced attractions between characters for the week? I will emphasize that nothing HAS to happen. If the characters never encounter each other, that's perfectly fine; I'm not big on "forcing" events on anyone. Anyone can opt out of anything, and that's fine.

But I also think there could be a lot of fun to play with awkward induced by something like this. Like, Dug stalking someone because they smell nice. Lots of blushing and stammering because Swan suddenly finds someone very attractive and she doesn't know why. And so on.

But if there's majority protest, I am definitely capable of cooking up something else.

Open lines of communication, we has them.

Also, so you have a heads up now, I am going to introduce a rule regarding canon puncturing since we don't have one and I'm just glad it hasn't come up yet XD silly me. I will pop up another post once I've gotten that settled, and you're more than welcome to share your thoughts on that here as well.

It occurred to me just earlier that I had not actually quantified our activity requirements. We're not crazy about people apping and never playing, so I have provided our activity standards.

They can now be found in the rules section, though they're pretty straightforward:

Activity

All players are required to maintain activity with all characters they apply for. We are requesting at least one log a month or two entries/replies to entries in the network community per month.

We'd definitely like to see more activity out of everyone than the minimum requirements, and people who hover at the minimum will be spoken to regarding their level of activity - especially those sitting on characters highly relevant to other characters.

Obviously, this rule is suspended when a player is on a hiatus that the mods are aware of.

Edit

To clarify the hiatus rule:

Hiatuses

Mods must be informed of any player hiatus, either via the drop box, the OOC community, or an e-mail. Frequent extended hiatuses may be grounds for removal from the game, at the mods discretion.