Author Topic: The Way Forward  (Read 53165 times)

Tom

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The Way Forward
« Topic Start: August 18, 2013, 09:20:04 AM »
I'm trying to sum up past discussions and my thoughts and want to invite you to join me to find the best way to move forward.


Locals / Roleplaying Forum
There are a number of good ideas here:
http://forum.battlemaster.org/index.php/topic,5022.0.html

...as well as scattered over other topics.

The basic gist is that we should have a board to discuss in-game events, but it needs to be moderated so that it does not take gameplay away from the game.
For roleplays, that is fairly easy, the requirement would be that you may only post stuff that has been posted in-game, and only after it has run its course in-game (i.e. other people have reacted, the event is concluded).

I propose to rename the "roleplaying" forum into "gameplay" or something similar, and merge the locals boards into it. This way, we have one place where all in-game discussions take place, giving it less of an impression of being a closed circle, opening it up more since everything mixes with everything else.

This way I think we can satisfy both those who want to spread the in-game events that make them happy to a larger crowd and the many silent players who would rather just play the game and still be sure they don't miss anything.



Island Closing
It's become clear from the discussion that all islands are loved by many people, and closing any will upset people. Yet we must. The game was always designed with a certain player density in mind and the additional game world (we started with one island once!) were always opened in response to increasing player counts. The only logical answer to dropping player counts is closing an island, at least temporarily. I would love there to be another way, but there isn't.

It's also clear a forum discussion won't give us a result, and on such an important point we really need to ask all players, not just the 10-20% that frequent the forum.

I propose (and will discuss the details with the dev team) to run an in-game survey, so we get everyone's opinion. Then we will make a decision, and it'll be one of the toughest ever made. One thing I know for certain is that whatever island(s) gets the axe won't be deleted, but frozen. Should player counts increase again, it will be opened up again. There will also be some kind of option for whole realms to move collectively so they can keep their culture and community.



Penchant

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Re: The Way Forward
« Reply #1: August 18, 2013, 09:25:27 AM »
So a small aspect of what you are saying I would like to disagree with for now, which is labelling it gameplay, because that would IMO add to the impression that the forums is necessary to be done/that gameplay actually happens there, when the title of the board is gameplay.
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Zakilevo

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Re: The Way Forward
« Reply #2: August 18, 2013, 09:26:45 AM »
Gameplay: Sounds good to me.

Island Closing: Yes. Ask everyone. Everyone should get a chance to express their thoughts on deciding which island to close. I think it is important to ask people how they want to move as a collective group as well. The only problem I have is, if people do move collectively doesn't that force a certain group to move to another continent? What I mean by this is, what if your group in lets say Beluaterra decides to move to Atamara and you already have two characters there. Do you get a third one or are you forced to leave your group and join some other continent by yourself?

Kai

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Re: The Way Forward
« Reply #3: August 18, 2013, 09:59:11 AM »
Surely the way island freezing will work is a few weeks notice to let people immigrate if they want, and then indefinite pausing every remaining character and stopping the turn script. I don't see why you need to think about "moving collectively".

Re: character limits, I think response will be "tough !@#$".
« Last Edit: August 18, 2013, 10:02:46 AM by Kai »

Tom

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Re: The Way Forward
« Reply #4: August 18, 2013, 11:12:58 AM »
So a small aspect of what you are saying I would like to disagree with for now, which is labelling it gameplay, because that would IMO add to the impression that the forums is necessary to be done/that gameplay actually happens there, when the title of the board is gameplay.

True, that. Better suggestion?

Tom

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Re: The Way Forward
« Reply #5: August 18, 2013, 11:14:08 AM »
The only problem I have is, if people do move collectively doesn't that force a certain group to move to another continent? What I mean by this is, what if your group in lets say Beluaterra decides to move to Atamara and you already have two characters there. Do you get a third one or are you forced to leave your group and join some other continent by yourself?

Character limits will remain in effect. But there will be enough warning that you can also move one of your other characters elsewhere.

Jaden

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Re: The Way Forward
« Reply #6: August 18, 2013, 01:33:32 PM »
I still think its a bit weird merging the Roleplay and the Locals. The roleplay sub-forum have always been more of a place for reading and archiving; while the locals are more participatory in nature.
Maybe we could have an Game Discussion forum and then divide it into the roleplay and the non-roleplay subforum. Or would that defeat the purpose?
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Tom

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Re: The Way Forward
« Reply #7: August 18, 2013, 02:52:13 PM »
Yes, it is weird and that is exactly the point.

Both are, essentially, about what's going on in the game. They both should move closer to each other in style. The roleplaying forum could do with a bit more participation, to give posters feedback. The locals forums could do with less discussion and hatred and (thinky veiled) in-character fighting and more reading and watching with a bit of (emotional) distance.


Anaris

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Re: The Way Forward
« Reply #8: August 18, 2013, 03:10:18 PM »
While I agree with your statements of what each of the boards could use, I don't think merging them is a realistic way to get it.

Specifically, I think what is most likely to happen is that while the RPs posted there would get some more attention, and some replies, overall, the tone of the board would stay pretty much the same as the Locals. And yes, I think that means that some comments posted on the roleplays would be nasty. I certainly don't see people writing less on topics that are not roleplays just because the roleplays are intermingled. At worst, I see people bitching and moaning about having to sift through roleplays that "no one really cares about" just to read the topics that are important to them (though given the volume of the RP board in the recent past, I doubt that will be much of a problem).

Relatedly, I would like to ask you to clarify something: Are you proposing to merge all the separate continent boards into one Locals board, with the RP in it, or separate continent boards, with both discussion and RP for the continent to be posted there?

(As for naming, I'm not sure there is a better name than simply "locals" or something similar for a board that is explicitly both IC and OOC, and because of that dichotomy, I'm really not sure it will have anything like the kind of positive effects you hope for...)
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Foxglove

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Re: The Way Forward
« Reply #9: August 18, 2013, 03:29:36 PM »
True, that. Better suggestion?

Events and Analysis?
News and Commentary?

I'm trying to think of a wording that implies that a degree of detachment is the norm, rather than "we hate realm X".

Geronus

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Re: The Way Forward
« Reply #10: August 18, 2013, 03:54:52 PM »
Yes, it is weird and that is exactly the point.

Both are, essentially, about what's going on in the game. They both should move closer to each other in style. The roleplaying forum could do with a bit more participation, to give posters feedback. The locals forums could do with less discussion and hatred and (thinky veiled) in-character fighting and more reading and watching with a bit of (emotional) distance.

I'm afraid this would blur the line between IC and OOC maybe a bit too much. I think the RP board should at the very least remain its own separate subforum within the large "Gameplay" board (or whatever we call it).

Indirik

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Re: The Way Forward
« Reply #11: August 18, 2013, 04:09:15 PM »
Why not just call it "OOC Discussion"?
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Re: The Way Forward
« Reply #12: August 18, 2013, 04:42:02 PM »
I propose (and will discuss the details with the dev team) to run an in-game survey, so we get everyone's opinion.

From an end user perspective, the most effective way to survey all players would be at the login page, rather than in-game. Once the player logs in, they can be re-directed to a survey page, then given the option to either take the survey or skip it. If creating a survey page is too much work, you could use a third-party service like Survey Monkey, which is very widely used and might even be free.

Sacha

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Re: The Way Forward
« Reply #13: August 18, 2013, 04:57:59 PM »
I have an idea to hopefully prevent the need to freeze an island, through a game-wide effort by all to improve player retention.

What if a game-wide announcement was posted, for everyone to see, asking all players to come together to make the game more appealing, lest one of the islands be closed. I think we could solve a lot of retention problems if there was just a bit more chatter going on around realms. Right now, out of the three realms I play in only Riombara has any semblance of people talking outside of the usual realm affairs. In Sorraine, 95% of messages i got the past 7 days are either turn reports, scout reports or reports of TOs being helped. Astrum is a bit better, though for a realm with almost thrice the number of nobles as Sorraine, I wouldn't call it much of an improvement. Rulers could make extra effort to act as the figurehead of their realm, rather than sit quietly and let their subordinates do the work. Lords could make extra effort to just talk to their vassals and make them feel like they're more than just estate occupiers. Especially newer players would feel more inclined to keep playing and possibly even invite some of their friends to the game.

Making your realm interesting can be as simple as a few letters going up and down the chain of command, beyond the usual orders and reports. Right now in many places BM is just a strategy game, and there is almost zero roleplaying going on (and by roleplaying I don't just mean narrative RPs, I mean nobles interacting among eachother). To me, the reason I've been playing BM for over 8 years now is that it was an entirely unique game, but it's lost a lot of its flair recently. But I don't think that the problem will be (or even can be) solved by adding or removing mechanics. I get the feeling that a lot of players are expecting Tom and the dev team to come up with solutions, but to say it with a huge cliché: true change starts with one's self.

The community is what makes BM unique, so the community bears a responsibility to keep it that way. If enough of us put in a little bit of extra effort, I think it will create a snowball effect, involving more and more people until the game is back to the level of activity it had years ago. And it really can be as simple as just sending a few letters here and there.

trying

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Re: The Way Forward
« Reply #14: August 18, 2013, 05:37:16 PM »
True, that. Better suggestion?
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