InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Your business expertise"

MarinaNova Mods (marinanova_mod) wrote in marinanova_ooc,
@ 2015-01-11 19:07:00

Entry tags:

mod: info

Game Discussion
Dearest marinanites.

As some of you might've noticed, the pace of Marina Nova has changed over the past year or so. We've gotten smaller and slower. Our newbiedays aren't the parade of fresh faces as it used to be and our mistletoe mingles no longer break the comment limit. In addition to this, both of your mods went and got themselves busier offline lives which, to be quite honest, is terribly rude but probably also inevitable.

Because of these changes, we thought it was time to sit you down and have a chat.

We would like to hear your thoughts on the game. Where you'd like to see it go and what changes you want to see. What would make it easier for you to be more active? What would make it smoother for new people to come in? Marina has always been built on player participation — how can we make this more accessible to you? Do you want to keep the game the way it is, or is it time to downsize it?

We're eager to hear your thoughts and have an honest, open discussion about the future of the game. One thing is certain — this isn't ending, only changing.

(Post a new comment)

amarsmellow
2015-01-11 07:02 pm UTC (link)

I wish I had an actual answer to give? :|a I mean, I've got a pretty bad case of RP burn out right now, so I can't really think of anything that would help me be more active. (The drop in AC to 20 comments certainly made it a lot easier for me to stick around!)

I know a lot of people these days don't much care for slice-of-life games, which sometimes makes it a hard sell, but I personally really like the slice-of-life-ness so I wouldn't want that to change. (I've got a lot of problems following/maintaining big meta plots.)

I will try to think of more stuff. :|a

(Reply to this)

notrosesshadow
2015-01-11 07:22 pm UTC (link)

Hopefully my thoughts come out pretty clearly...

I actually don't have a huge issue with this game. In fact, it is by far my favorite out of all my games. I feel like there's a decent balance between plot and non-plot - meaning stuff happens in between the plots.

Something about this game works for me. People tag pretty decently... I don't feel like I can't move forward because I'm waiting on threads or anything. In fact, all issues I have with the game are completely personal issues of my tagging/plotting mojo being unpredictable.

I don't know how helpful this is as basically I'm saying I really like the game the way it is.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

notrosesshadow
2015-01-11 07:25 pm UTC (link)

Wanted to add... since I don't know if I made it clear enough, the ability to have slice-of-life, and the fact that peopel here are amenable to it, is a huge selling point for me. I honestly despise meta plots which might be part of why my RP left for a while? Aside from being pregnant, all my games went super meta at the same time and people legitimately stopped doing anything slice-of-lifey. And my problem with meta plotting is at least one of my characters would be SUPER involved with meta plots, but I don't have the time or the desire to get involved in that. And I hate playing my people OOC.

This game is the closest to slice-of-life I have, and that's where I tend to excel. So yes, please keep that if possible.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

foreverjack
2015-01-11 08:33 pm UTC (link)

I know it's not much help, but I am very happy with the game as it is. It's the only game I'm in so I don't have anything else current to compare it to (except the few memes/PSLs I have going, all of which except one or two are extremely slow-moving, as in maximum of one or two tags a week), but obviously I have noticed the membership dwindling and fewer new people and characters joining. And obviously this is of concern, as to my mind it's definitely the players who make the game, which is the reason I joined this game and have stayed so long, because I love playing with the people in it. But I don't know that there is anything we can do about it. Al and I were both mods in our last game and that gradually just died out too, whatever we tried to do incite interest. It seems to me that all games seem to have a shelf-life, however, sad that is. People just run out of anything new to do with their characters, and the interest dies out.

That said, I am just as interested in the game as I ever have been, I just have even less time available to play, mainly due to changes in my RL. When I started role-playing, seven years ago, I would spend hours every day playing, partly because it was new and exciting, and partly because I was incredibly depressed and needed an escape. Now I'm getting on my better in my RL, and that means I *want* to spend more time doing other things outside RP, however much I still enjoy RP. I have whole days at a time when I don't tag anything, and whilst I still feel guilty for keeping people waiting, for myself I'm happy with that pace.

So perhaps the *only* thing I would personally change about MN is the pace, because I am not a fan of having to start threads before you've finished the last ones and with the one week = one day system and my own pace of play, I find I absolutely have to. On the other hand, I think it's very possible that if you did slow that down, e.g. to make it two weeks = one day, you would probably lose people who got bored waiting for something to happen, so I'm not really going to even suggest that. There's just about enough opt-out with this game that I can manage even when I don't have time to get Jack involved in something he certainly would do given the chance.

Not sure there's much of use there. Pretty much just my stream-of-consciousness thoughts, I'm afraid!

(Reply to this) (Thread)

Perhaps off topic...

cptn_tightpants
2015-01-11 09:17 pm UTC (link)

Well, the one thing this game has going for it that our other one didn't? A whole lot less drama and... personalities. And inflation. The character to player ratio was really off, especially considering the people who consistently didn't tag until the end of the month to make AP. And they often had the most characters.

Also, we were pretty much doomed the moment we split from the original game.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	wraith_7 2015-01-12 04:19 pm UTC (link)
	I do not know how you ladies dealt with all the drama last time around. I seriously do not. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	notrosesshadow 2015-01-13 02:59 am UTC (link)
	It's because we're awesome. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	stupidcuteshit 2015-01-13 03:55 pm UTC (link)
	Haha! Basically. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	Re: Perhaps off topic... foreverjack 2015-01-12 10:42 pm UTC (link)
	Good point, though I have to admit, I wasn't aware if there was any drama in this game or not since I assumed if there was any it was taking place on Plurk, where I am... not. I think we did pretty well with our game, considering, and I certainly enjoyed it, even with the drama. But life is a hell of a lot easier here! :-) (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: Perhaps off topic...

notrosesshadow
2015-01-13 03:02 am UTC (link)

Oh we did great with our game. I was looking over various threads, and the setting you, me, and Kate worked up was pretty damned awesome with some incredible potential.

I'm not aware of drama in MN either and I am on plurk. From my perspective, it's pretty drama free, people seem to be able to talk together, and the whole game is the most pleasant overall RP experience I've ever had I think.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Re: Perhaps off topic... foreverjack 2015-01-13 05:39 pm UTC (link)
	Well. Good, then! :-D Obviously we are all awesome here! (Reply to this) (Parent)

devine_braid
2015-01-12 12:44 am UTC (link)

I feel a little like we've fallen in a lack of post rut. I feel like people are relying more on the "reply to others" and "wait for a mingle" models of playing instead of balancing it more with a "post and reply". I encourage people to reply to others, definitely, but we need people to actually post so we have things to reply to. I'm not sure how to encourage that kind of balance.

I also feel like, as much as I hate to say it, being on IJ is becoming an issue. Personally, I prefer IJ to DW because of cost factors. I can save up money, buy a perm when they go on sale, buy a ton of icons that never expire, and bam. I'm done. However, I know some people don't like IJ's "insane" theme. DW has more features for paid accounts, if you're willing and able to constantly renew them. I recently had a DW paid expire, but I'm not in a position right now to renew it, so all those benefits are currently lost to me until I find the cash to renew again. It's frustrating at best. Plus, the default skin is like Pepto Bismol pink. Talk about painful on the eyes. I found a way to change it, but I don't stay logged in 100% of the time. When you're not logged in, you still have to stare at the PINK. However, if the game were to move because the general populous felt it was better over there, then I would go. The game is more important to me than the platform. I'd just whine about it on Plurk a lot as an outlet.

Another complaint I've heard is the translation of 1 OOC week equals 1 IC day. Personally, I'm happy with that. It's an even translation, not like every other day (which results in some weeks having two nights and some weeks having three) or other weird configurations I've seen. It's also not too slow. I think anything longer than a week would be a speed killer, especially when you have things that take time, like IC requests or healing injuries or anything that takes longer than a day. But, I think equaling us up to real time would make things hard and too fast. I don't mind real time games, but I find events hard to get involved with. They're spaced out and character development can be easier in that respect, but you have to wait sometimes six or more IC days to post a response because you're still finishing event threads, when normally your character might do something in response faster than that. I like the time measurement because I can take the time to finish an event thread and then post a response only one or two IC days later.

If there's also one thing we have going for us, we're very welcoming. I feel like we try really hard to make a new player feel welcome, and that's good. I don't think we've ever given anyone the cold shoulder in recent memory.

I'm just wondering if it's the fact that we're an "old" game? We have a huge backstory and sometimes that can be daunting for a new person. If we can find a way to tell people that the backstory, while important, isn't something you need to be heavily knowledgeable about before coming in, that might help a bit. I know that, when I see a game that has a huge backstory, I get a little intimidated.

I might have more to add later.

(Reply to this)

tunapiano
2015-01-12 02:39 am UTC (link)

clearly we should make this into a ZOMBIE GAME and have everyone run around in an attempt to survive

but okay on a more serious note... like others have mentioned, slice of life isn't popular with rpers and marina is as slice of life as you can get. i think this is the biggest problem marina has when it comes to attracting new blood. i mean, i think it's chill, but after a while, it does get repetitive and it's very easy to get bored of the same "character is hanging out here, come make conversation" posts. it's not a popular opinion with the players already here, of course, because they're here for the slice of life, but it's definitely difficult to find people wanting to stick around with SOL for the long haul. rpers these days want their characters to drastically affect plots and settings. take a look at two of the biggest dw games right now, CDC and haven... those games are all about affecting the world they're set it and rely very heavily on their metaplot.

and!!! i know there's more under the surface of our game and there's an actual metaplot, but the fact that it's such a slow, gradual process (especially because of the ic day : ooc day ratio) just makes people not pay as much attention to it as they should. it's there, yes, but its presence is weak because it's being dragged on for so long and easy to forget about.

i recently rejoined because i needed a relaxed game that i was familiar with but if i were a complete newbie, this game would've flown right past me. on the outside, it looks like a sandbox game filled with close friends and years and years of gameplay already gone by. that and the pages and pages of information could be considered intimidating for new blood. it's a lot to read and process, you know? i don't mind it because i've been here, i know how marina operates, but it could be daunting to others.

honestly, i don't know if changing platforms or suddenly introducing a bigger plot will help. maybe it might, you never really know until you try. imo, i don't... think anything needs to be fixed or changed all that much? i think the slow down is just the result of being around for a long time. marina is old, so very, very old and it's great that we've got such committed group of players enjoying themselves, they're what keeps this game chugging along. we're happy with this game, we like the pace, we like the slow-moving plot, we like each other. a lot of the times, games just run until the last possible second with the dedicated few. i'm not saying to give up on attempts to attract newbies, but just throwing in my opinion that everything's fine here, but, like the jack player mentioned before, games do have a shelf-life and can't last forever, as much as we'd like them to.

(Reply to this)

reaction
2015-01-12 05:47 am UTC (link)

There isn't anything I'd like to change about the game. I love the platform it's on. I know a lot of people aren't fans of IJ, but the only issue I have with IJ is the inability to edit a post and that's not a big deal to me. I don't mind the fact that it's a small game with a smattering of characters and players. It's part of the reason why MarinaNova's been such a draw for me. I think it opens up plenty of opportunities for us to work on CR with every character here and really build on that. The 1 IC day = 7 RL days thing is awesome because we all have busy offline schedules and it allows for characters to not miss out on too much when hiatuses are taken.

I think you both do a great job at maintaining the balance of the game. We get the slice of life here, but we also get the event stuff happening that shakes things up from time to time and I enjoy that.

I'm glad this isn't a -- we might close the game post, but that you're both taking the time to see how we can change and improve the game. So probably with the introduction of a screened suggestion box post? Where we could throw plot ideas at you guys so you can have fun picking and choosing from there if you need it. Plus it allows you to see what players like and want. The ideas received could be tweaked, combined, etc so it'll be up to your discretion.

Also I agree with Sailor G with regards to lack of posts rut, so I for one, am going to work on that by making more open posts this year. NEW RESOLUTION. I finally have one. \o/

But yeah. Again, hats off to you both for doing such a great job modding this game. It's my favorite by far and I shouldn't forget to say this - I heart the SUNDAY SPEAKEASY posts because it contains useful information that helps me catch up with things that I might have missed out on.

(Reply to this)

wraith_7
2015-01-12 04:29 pm UTC (link)

I feel like everyone else posted everything I was going to say. Also I moved on Saturday and nothing is working and I'm exhausted and sitting here watching the dude fix my shower because I have no hot water and I haven't bathed since Friday so I'm low on coherency. You get bullet points.

• 1 week = 1 day A+ don't change a thing
• I have always thought you guys do a fantastic job with events. There's generally at least one big event/mingle a month, they are always fun and creative and they do a great job of getting characters to meet each other and new characters to get involved. You guys handle this better than any other game I've participated in and it was what sold me when I got here.
• Getting new people is always hard. I have no solutions. I'm so tired.
• it can be a little intimidating joining a new game. I know when I first started here (Jesus like 2 years ago wow) it took me a month or two to feel like I was actually a part of the game and not just an awkward new kid. I think most of that was because Anna and Al and I all came in together and we'd been in games before (Anna legit is this our 4th game with them? Wow.) so I was naturally inclined to stick with them a bit. Once I branched out obviously everything was wonderful and I love you all. Again, this may just have been because I joined under weird friendship circumstances.
• this maintenance guy is taking apart my entire dryer. It's all in my kitchen now. Let me escape this apartment hell for imaginary underwater city nonsense thank you.
• oh god my dryer

(Reply to this) (Thread)

	wraith_7 2015-01-12 04:32 pm UTC (link)
	I posted everything from a laundromat last night. The dryer broke while in use and my inner Ianto cried. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	foreverjack 2015-01-12 10:48 pm UTC (link)
	hugs you I think this is actually our fifth game, if you count our move to IJ as a separate one! Though three out of the five were continuations of each other. But yeah, that still makes three separate storylines, and it means we've been playing with each other continuously for over four years now. :-) (Reply to this) (Parent)

	sadistfaction 2015-01-12 11:50 pm UTC (link)
	This wins for cutest thing I've seen on the internet today (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

wraith_7
2015-01-13 12:09 am UTC (link)

He brought me a whole new dryer and fixed my water and I showered. Everything has been wrong with this apartment. I literally went to the leasing office to try and turn in the list of problems and started bawling when I handed it to the leasing guy who it turns out started like last week and was visibly like OH SHIT HOW DO I HANDLE THIS? Also I told the maintenance guy how the bedroom was freezing and something was wrong and I was miserable and he solved by closing the windows, which, it turns out, were wide open. THIS HAS BEEN MY DAY.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	sadistfaction 2015-01-13 12:19 am UTC (link)
	oh god I am so sorry I hope all things get cleared up soon!! ): (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	stupidcuteshit 2015-01-13 03:55 pm UTC (link)
	Well it's going a lot better now that my windows are closed Iol. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	notrosesshadow 2015-01-13 02:59 am UTC (link)
	Oh my god that sounds like a nightmare. But your points are all on target with mine and might be even more coherant than mine. (Reply to this) (Parent)

sadistfaction
2015-01-13 12:17 am UTC (link)

Hi I've been in Marina since Day 15 so I have been around through everything ever aside from when I had dropped for a couple months in old Marina. BUT THEN I CAME BACK AND HAVEN'T LEFT SINCE!

It's funny because anyone who knows me knows I much prefer fast paced games aka what Marina was way back when. But despite that, I like it here. I feel like I should have CR with everyone by now and I don't which is exciting because that means it'll happen sooner or later (like that post I made recently with Sougo for the say everything on your mind whateverwascalled event and I got tags from people I don't often play with and/or never played with before. that was awesome).

I like the SoL aspect of it in the sense that it's not 100% SoL because we get fun plot things tossed our way. I don't always partake in those thingies because I am a butt but I like them being there. I agree with what others have said regarding "reply to others and/or wait on mingles" seems to be an issue but I'm not sure how that can be remedied especially since I kind of get it because I generally hate posting myself when I HAVE to. But having the choice to do so when I think of something is neat to have instead of ABSOLUTELY having to pull something out of my ass just to ~~make AC~~ because let's be real the worst posts are those that are clearly written just to make AC. I've been in games where that was a thing. I wouldn't want that to be a thing here too.

Like someone also said about ij I like it here. I'm cheap. When I join a new game on DW I am angry at it because ij has made me so cheap. I don't even care if I can't edit tags because whatever. Typos happen. Mostly IF IJ CAN DO 100 FREE ICONS AND THINGS WHY CAN'T OTHERS GDI ETC ETC

Man I don't know. I wish I had ideas that would spice things up and attract people but I dunno ahh

(Reply to this)

counselled
2015-01-18 07:39 pm UTC (link)

I am very late to this and my opinions basically boil down to I love the game but this is not the character to have here. My problems all stem from character voice issues and have nothing to do with the game. That said, I can see how a lack of posts would contribute to some of the issues and if I had a character I could stay on top of things with, I would absolutely be all over that.

I'm not really sure if I would say change anything. You guys have always been absolutely wonderful about listening to us and adjusting things as needed. Being here has never been a chore and since I came back with Helen two years ago (ohgod has it been that long), I've had such a fun time. I enjoy the events and I've liked the variety. I don't really know what to tell you about anything other than the fact that I really enjoy it here and I hope to bring in a character I can do more with someday. ♥

(Reply to this)