InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "I can't get no satisfaction!"

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.

(Read comments) - (Post a new comment)

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)

(Read comments) -