Launch?

[Halden]

Well ****. I assume that whether we keep the RP we've done so far going or start over is completely up to us, yes?

[Zakilevo]

Not really. You can keep the character. Not the levels for your skills.

[Halden]

Not really as in, 'We should start over with our RPs', or not really as in, 'it really doesn't matter, you just won't have your skills anymore' ?

[Zakilevo]

As in we have to start over with our RPs and our skills.

[Halden]

Any idea on when the launch date is going to be?

[Zakilevo]

With Skryim sucking everyone in (even Tom), I doubt this will happen any time soon :o

[Tom]

With Skryim sucking everyone in (even Tom), I doubt this will happen any time soon :o

Skyrim is not the reason, my current mental state is. Skyrim is just a welcome distraction. The past year or so has been a horror trip for me, and I'm just now getting on my feet again, slowly. There have been times when BM coding was a great distraction, right now Skyrim is - it always depends on what's giving me energy at any given time.

[Zakilevo]

Oh so Skyrim might speed things up for the SM?

[Halden]

Hooray for video game therapy.

[Zakilevo]

Are you still working on this Tom?

I mean it seems you will become busier once everyone starts working on the beyond and other stuff like the fifth invasion.

[Tom]

I'm not currently actively working on SM3, no.

I don't think the game mechanics are the issue, I think there's spirit lacking. But I don't know where or what the problem is.

[Zakilevo]

I think people are just waiting for the game to start.

Testrun is kind of dead since whatever the character people built up during the test will be erased. People are probably thinking they will start once the game launches officially.

[Morningstar]

I'm not currently actively working on SM3, no.

I don't think the game mechanics are the issue, I think there's spirit lacking. But I don't know where or what the problem is.

There's too many new players who are looking for direction because it's a brand new concept for them. They seem to be looking for parameters and a how-to for going about the whole thing.  A lot of the things mentioned (like Councils and the like) are fairly integral parts of the game but unless you were a part of the original SM, you don't really know how that worked.

On the flipside, the old guard got excited and then stalled out.  Whether they, too, were waiting for direction from you (possible) or just got sucked into the world of real life (most likely), it got too unsustainable to run a single test thread predicated on GM interaction.  And yes, waiting to reset the skills and such may have had some people waiting indefinitely.

[Indirik]

For my part, I don't think the play style really fits what I'm used to. And I don't know if I can really get into it. From what I've seen, there doesn't seem to be enough GM involvement in it. There's too much of an individual player: 1) Creating a challenge for himself, 2) Casting spell to overcome the challenge he just created, and 3) patting himself on the back for how he chose to overcome the challenge he created for himself and then awarding himself his cleverly earned experience points.

"Kepler carefully opens the door, and sees a swarm Giant Ants on the other side. Before the ants see him, Kepler quickly casts Rapid Acting Insect Disintegrator. The ants all die. Kepler collects his 12 XP. Kepler continues through the door."

Umm... yay?

What I expected was a more interactive style of play, with more guidance from the GMs. Perhaps that would evolve over time. Or perhaps what we needed was more interaction between players. Or some overarching storyline or plot, or a beginning objective for players to accomplish.  Something to jumpstart it, and get the players going. If we can somehow get that critical mass going to the point where the players start generating their own storylines, then I'm pretty sure we can get it going.

But I think that we will still need a few GMs to resolve some actions. And some better defined rules for how RPs should be played and posted. For example, how spells are resolved. I don't think the system of people creating and then instantly overcoming their own challenges is going to work.

[Morningstar]

I only have our year-long short-lived restart of SM2 to go off of back when we did it on the RP list, but that was set up in a way that needed far less GM interaction and focused more on character interaction and development/self-discovery.  Granted, the mechanics never got developed to go with it, but the framework was that every PC was a new SpellCaster, so the going was slow, the spells were minimal, and the failure rate was high.

But what it did was allow for lots of growth together with other characters as everyone tried to start basically a new life for themselves (witch hunters were everywhere, and SCs were outcasts, essentially).  Tom had just a handful of posts, mostly for flavor, Loren had a character that I don't think ever ended up interacting with any other PC, and James' Jago started out as a statue and ended up a snarky old-timer imparting "wisdom" to all the newbies once we actually stumbled on him.  That's all the "GM involvement" we had.

No XP, no levels, no anything really, except the desire to build Story.  I'm not saying we have to, or even need to do the same thing again. But it did help alleviate a lot of the issues we are currently having. That time around, it died due to lack of mechanics. Now we have mechanics and no story/interaction/whatever.

Is it a different framework that's making the difference? Or a different group of players? Or something altogether different?