ＭＥＡＤＯＷＬＡＲＫ ＭＯＤＳ (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
larkers) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
meadowlarkooc2018-11-21 03:02 am
larkers) wrote in meadowlarkooc2018-11-21 03:02 am
Entry tags:
STATE OF THE GAME
| > SOTG #001 |
Hello, Larkers! Before we begin with everything we have to cover here, we want thank you for your enthusiasm and response since the game opened. The interest and engagement has really been more than we could have possibly expected, and we're continually blown away by how much you're all doing and the ideas you're coming up with in this little game world of ours. Our primary goal with this State of the Game is to more clearly communicate our vision of the the game, help clarify some of the game's mechanics, and look a little towards our plans and goals for the future. Meadowlark is meant to be an open-world game with a plot that's malleable according to what characters decide over the course of the game. Part of the reason why it's 2:1 is so that players have enough time to explore plot points, and they never feel like they desperately have to play catch up to chase a lead. If something has not been followed up on, it will never be too late. We want you to feel like you have the space to both explore the plot, as well as dig into your characters and their arcs. With that in mind, we also set up this schedule so that we can have some leeway to develop plots for our players. This leeway helps us have the time to create and implement leads or develop directions based on the player plots and queries brought to us. We want people to feel like they can explore any path they want to take, rather than trying to do a paint-by-numbers of trying to figure out our plot. We want you to feel like you can independently come up with ideas, and then come to us so we can help facilitate them. On our end, our world plot is meant to be uncovered over a long period of time. We have a framework of the game in mind, but beyond that, we have nothing set in stone for how the world will proceed. We intend to adjust plots based on how people interact with them, rather than foist them on everyone to deal with while going about their other RP. That said, the speed and length of the game we have in mind will have impact on our answers and facilitation of plots - certain core questions of the game, such as how characters got here and who was holding them, are going to take a very long time to dig down to the roots of. |
| > PLOT ENGAGEMENT |
> HOW TO USE THE POST Everyone is doing great with our plot engagement post! The range of questions, ideas and general enthusiasm have been really amazing for us to experience on our side. That said, now that we're four months in, we would like to clarify some things with this post so that people can better explore the plots that they would like to do in game. We know a lot of you are feeling out what is and isn't allowed, so we hope we can help with that. The plot engagement post is meant to be a transparent means of communicating about the plotting going on in game. This post allows for players to reach out to one another about plots, especially when they intersect. When it's less obvious, we're glad to make the connection for you, so that people can choose to plot together if they'd like. You can feel free to read other players' plots, and you can use them as a guide for your own plots. Please feel free to come to us with precise questions, fully realized plots (game-wide plots, mini-plots, or plots open to only a select few), questions on job and career advancement, and more. The more precise the question (how they got a piece of evidence, how they managed to pursue something, how they intend to go about it), the more we can help make your plot viable. The more precise the better—we need more information on the plot as a whole and what your character would be looking for in it. We will always tell you if a plot doesn't lead to the information you're looking for in game. As an example: If Bob has a feeling that the public transport drivers in New Amsterdam have something going on, don't ask us if they do. We won't know what you're referring to when you ask. A better way to phrase it is that Bob is contacting the public transport's driver's managers to see if they're missing work in a pattern, and if any of them have been acting strangely. Telling us how they would get that information would help, because we could tell you if it's viable in the first place. Precise questions help us: what are they asking about these drivers? For general questions about the world in general, please bring it to the FAQ. This includes questions on what types of clothing are available, what alcohol is available, and more. > OUR RESPONSES We try to ensure a turn around of a week on questions, but sometimes our responses take more time as we try to do research to deliver a more believable answer based on the plot you've brought, or try to create a new aspect of the game for you to explore. For this reason, if a lead won't come up with anything, we're more than happy to tell you. That said, sometimes a plot will involve some trial and error, as we may slow down certain aspects of it so that we can uncover it more slowly as the game goes on. |
| > OOC PLOTTING |
We mentioned this on an earlier plurk, but we would like to repeat it in an official arena. We would prefer that OOC plotting begins on OOC event posts so that players don't feel pressured to add one another on plurk or discord. The first event got a lot of traction because people got together on the OOC post and had an idea about what everyone was doing. The second event had very little public plotting, which not only left a large number of people in the playerbase in the dark, it also left us unsure of what you were all doing or how you were engaging with the event. We do our best to tailor the aftermath post according to what has happened in the event itself. Knowing what's plotted and what's been carried out can help us craft a more unique outcome according to player actions and developments. We know that plurk or discord are often faster and more convenient plotting spaces, but we strongly believe that if everyone makes the effort to go old school and use the comments on the OOC event posts, it will help Meadowlark be a better, stronger game. |
| > MORNINGSTAR |
Aside from what we have on our setting page, we realize that we have not transparently telegraphed everything with how Morningstar works as an OOC mechanic. Morningstar is meant to be full of NPC assistance to help characters while they establish themselves in the world, but is also an independent, functioning organization in the world. They're the equivalent of that mentor or guide NPC at the start of an RPG, but once your character starts branching down their own paths, their choices may take them out of their favor. That said, we'd like to make a few things clear when it comes to Morningstar. ◉ If your character has expressed interest per the plot engagement post, we are assuming that your character is involved and beginning to do odd jobs. We do apologize that we have not been clear on this. If you mentioned your character expressing interest but later decided your character would not join Morningstar, please return to the plot engagement post to let us know!If you have any other questions about Morningstar, please feel free to bring them to us below, the plot engagement post, or even the FAQ! |
| > NEW GAME POSTS |
In order to facilitate information and help you feel comfortable with the game as a whole, we plan on introducing two new posts to our game navigation. ◉ JOBS POST: We hope that this will act as a guide for you to know what jobs are available in game, as well as help us organize on our end so that we can create plots or NPCs in those sectors. Once this is up, we will need you to reply with your character's job. There is no need for this job to be legal, on the up and up, or anything like that.We hope to have these up within the next couple of weeks! |
| > DECEMBER |
By our bimonthly event schedule, December would be our next event month. However, with holidays being a busy time of year for everyone, we would personally prefer to hold off until January. We don't want to leave you twiddling your thumbs with no plot for two months in a row, so we'd like to open the floor to discussion on this - if you'd prefer to have an event for December, would be happy to wait until January, or perhaps have some third (or fourth!) potential idea. To be clear, if we do have an event in December, AC would proceed as normal. However, if we hold off until January, December AC will be a check in only (and anyone taking a strike in the current month would have to submit 40 comments for January's AC). |
| > MISCELLANY |
◉ ACTIVITY CHECK OPTIONAL ACTIVITY SUMMARY: On our next AC post - whether it's a check-in or full AC - we intend to include a new section so that you can summarize your character's activities. This will help us know who's doing what when we're helping facilitate plotting via the plotting engagement post. ◉ TAGGING IN meadowlark and meadowlarklogs: Everyone can make their own tags in these communities! The format is series name: character name. Some series names have been shortened for the sake of space.◉ NEW FAQ UPDATES: We have added a clarification to the FAQ under the AC section so that it will be more apparent that inboxes can be used for AC, and that tags for AC can be taken from any time on the 20th to any time on the 19th - 9pm UTC is purely the AC check posting time. |
| > SOAPBOX |
These State of the Game posts aren't only intended as a space for us to talk about our side of things, but also to open the floor to hear any ideas from you! Please feel free to leave us any thoughts about game structure, ask any questions, or talk amongst yourselves about aspects of the game. And thank you all, once again, for giving us such an amazing first four months of Meadowlark! |
| > NAVIGATION |
soapbox #1: december + mini-event suggestion
personally, i think having no event in december would be better than having an event - i'm still playing with the fallout of the last event and figuring out how to chase plot leads (as visible by my
increasingly thirstycomments on the plot engagement post), so i'd be happy to have more time for that.i think that might be nice, however, would be to have a kind of mingle log that isn't a plot related event but maybe something that capitalises on the december holiday spirit? i realise it isn't actually december in new amsterdam, but some kind of festival could be fun? something with lots of candles, something that captures some kind of holiday spirt (or the spirit of various holidays), something for characters to bond over and ... maybe even enjoy and appreciate? this might result in half-ac in december instead of no ac at all, which i think would also be fair.
honestly tho, i'm easy. i love this game and the direction in which it's developing so
+1
otherwise i'm chill with whatever, i can make my own ruckus if i have to ;)
+1
+1
no subject
no subject
+1
no subject
I would also love a mini event, especially with something with some plot hooks as Tifa mentioned! People from the November and December app rounds might have a hard time getting involved out the gate otherwise.
no subject
Thank you for the suggestion! We primarily aim to incorporate "mingle" type events in our arrival logs, so that they can be immediately available for newbies to take advantage of to get CR with existing characters, so we would likely try to have something along those lines for our December arrival log anyway. Taking your suggestion in mind, we may try to extend or expand this into something a little more substantial - we'll see what we can cook up!
soapbox #2: engagement
Since I saw a few people discussing it and then referencing it on their HMD comments, I think it's worth looking at why people are struggling to come up with ways to use the plot engagement — or feel like they are using it ineffectually and not having success.
I'm not sure if this would look like a guide or model of what the mods are looking for in that for other people to take cues from, or stronger hints in events/calendars for what might make for valuable potential follow-up, or a proclamation of willingness on the mods' part to brainstorm with people from a less specific place, or what. But it looks to me like several players are struggling with it and expressing frustration on their end, even if it seems like a successful way of distributing information on the mods' end. This seems particularly true of non-science/spy types.
I was also wondering if there was some way to incentivize the threading out of ideas/plots brought to the engagement post because currently it looks like most of it gets handwaved except for the delivery/dispersion of information resulting from it to the group at large.
no subject
I think more plotting on the OOC comm when players have an idea and then get info from the mods could help us all, since more input could help us figure out how best to RP things out instead of handwaving it. Stronger hints would also help a lot, since I'm terrible at thinking up things to ask about, but that could just be a me problem, idk.
+1
no subject
We are going to emphasize using the OOC community for plotting for events for now, and see if that helps clear up some of the issues that arose during our second event. A lot of the player plots that have been brought to us on the plot engagement post were developed via IC action and plots. We plan on revisiting this if it seems to continue to be a problem in the future!
no subject
Thanks for the input. We did write up the information included in this state of the game post so that people would have a better starting point on how to approach the plot engagement post, rather than feel corrected in how they've utilized it thus far. We're very sorry if it came across differently, as everyone has done a stellar job of using plot engagement so far - we're really just trying to smooth out the few bumps we've experienced before they get bedded in. To that end, we do intend to take the guidelines and examples provided here and put them on the plot engagement post itself.
As for brainstorming, we would prefer that players feel like they can independently come up with a plot. We don't want anyone to feel like they have to brainstorm with us to get the right answer, as we aren't seeking "right" answers - we want you to explore what you feel is fun for you and your character and have always intended to reward player proactivity.
Along those same lines, we don't intend for anyone to feel like there is a correct answer for our worldbuild and moderator plot. We have put in more pieces of worldbuild fallout and aftermath, but that is never intended as a "hint" so much as a piece of information players can choose to engage with. The last thing we want is anyone to feel like they have to grapple for the "right" answer; if we don't allow a plot to lead to a specific piece of information, it's because it's not available through that route or we would prefer to reveal it later. The open world nature of the game is intended to allow players to explore many different plot lines, and while it's our intention to make sure they all fit in the same tapestry, that freedom and flexibility is a core piece of how we've built the game.
Finally, we made a conscious decision to exclude incentivization for activity. Our hope is that people feel that they can be proactive in the way they feel most comfortable, as some of what comes to us on the plot engagement wouldn't be as fun to RP out. A lot of what's been brought to us has been getting logs, development, and more, so we would prefer to continue to leave this up to player discretion.
We hope this has cleared up some things for you!