Ahee. So I'm starting to figure out the part about people trying to "fix" me. "Go start things up and see if you get any interest", right?
Welcome to
this thread. Where the original post ended "So... who wants to build a world together?" It's working already, isn't it?
Could it come to conclusion that none of described extremes is good, but good balance between "strategy" and "rp"-ing is what can bring quality of gameplay?
Yes, in terms of "the perfect game", this is absolutely true. But when it plays out, the games that try to cater to all styles end up muddling around in mediocrity with all of them. As I mentioned before, the game
has to be a simulation. The various player styles pulling it gamist or narrativist is to be expected, but knowing it's virtually impossible to completely please them all is fairly important.
And look, I know the value of "winning" (no Charlie Sheen joke intended... until just now). With my old account, I would sometimes, just for fun, direct some of my more "narrative" action just so I could hit another more elusive point of fame. I certainly love(d) me some tactical battles, as should be clear in my recent suggestions for combat features. But take the "game" out of the "story" and I would still survive. For others, taking the "story" out of the game would be just fine. That's just the way people are wired.
I've been working on some changes that should return more narrative to the game for a long time now.
Unfortunately, over the years the BM codebase has become a pretty horrible mess. We're working on cleaning that up now, which is a requirement for some of the more interesting changes to actually ever be finished.
Awesome. I still don't know how you've managed to balance everything all these years, but I salute you. I tracked down my old Titan resignation email because I felt like I shared something similar then. It still seems to hold true now: "Never lose sight of what originally made it so appealing. It wasn't the features or the functionality. It was the feeling of a close-knit community. Continue to make that an integral part of the game and it can only get better."
I'm not the biggest codemonkey, but if there's anything I might be able to do to help, just yell.