The Atlas Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
atlasmods) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
theatlas_ooc2016-11-28 04:11 pm
atlasmods) wrote in theatlas_ooc2016-11-28 04:11 pm
Entry tags:
Player Survey
Hey everyone! It's been a wild first month here at The Atlas, and the mod team would like to thank everyone for hanging on while we got things rolling. There have been some ups and downs, things we've needed to work on, and some good fun had! We've done a bit of looking inward on our end, and now we'd like to look outward and see what everyone thinks so far in order to help improve and grow the game. To this end, we'd like all continuing players to please fill out this form with as much information as you'd like to share. Everything said here will be read and considered as we prepare to move into the next couple months and the next stage of the game. While we know we can't please everyone, we would like to see where we might need to fix or change things to make a game that everyone can enjoy.
1. The Overseer Drone 24-Hour Event
While there was a good amount of participation, the turn-out was much less than expected. Those who did participate, we appreciate your efforts and are working to figure out an outcome for you! Those who didn't, was there a specific reason? Were you not sure what you could or should do? Was it simply a bad time to run an event? Is this sort of event not fun or interesting? As the previous 24-hour event had gone rather well, we'd like to know what was on everyone's minds going into it.
2. Discoveries
There has been talk of revamping discoveries to make them less mechanical and easier to handle on our end. Are you happy with the current system? If yes, what do you like about it? If no, what would you change?
3. Pacing
There has been some concern about the game moving too fast, or characters not having time to settle. How is the game speed? Is there too much going on? Would you prefer less intense events to let characters relax and interact in non-stressful situations? What elements did you enjoy the most so far of the first month?
4. General
For now the game is taking place on Kharas, but soon enough it will be opening up in a big way. With that said, what sort of things would you like to see? What might be interesting or fun to engage with? What would make your playing experience that much better? As newer mods we are all learning as we go, and if things haven't been working we would definitely like to try to change that for a better mutual experience.
5. Concerns
Outside of these categories, are there any issues or problems that you've seen? Things that haven't gone as smoothly as you'd like? Matters that you feel need to be brought up on their own merits? There are a couple issues that have already been addressed (using a real world cipher instead of completely randomizing an alien language, and tone on mod/OOC posts for example), but if there is anything else that has been hampering enjoyment, please let us know.
1. The Overseer Drone 24-Hour Event
While there was a good amount of participation, the turn-out was much less than expected. Those who did participate, we appreciate your efforts and are working to figure out an outcome for you! Those who didn't, was there a specific reason? Were you not sure what you could or should do? Was it simply a bad time to run an event? Is this sort of event not fun or interesting? As the previous 24-hour event had gone rather well, we'd like to know what was on everyone's minds going into it.
2. Discoveries
There has been talk of revamping discoveries to make them less mechanical and easier to handle on our end. Are you happy with the current system? If yes, what do you like about it? If no, what would you change?
3. Pacing
There has been some concern about the game moving too fast, or characters not having time to settle. How is the game speed? Is there too much going on? Would you prefer less intense events to let characters relax and interact in non-stressful situations? What elements did you enjoy the most so far of the first month?
4. General
For now the game is taking place on Kharas, but soon enough it will be opening up in a big way. With that said, what sort of things would you like to see? What might be interesting or fun to engage with? What would make your playing experience that much better? As newer mods we are all learning as we go, and if things haven't been working we would definitely like to try to change that for a better mutual experience.
5. Concerns
Outside of these categories, are there any issues or problems that you've seen? Things that haven't gone as smoothly as you'd like? Matters that you feel need to be brought up on their own merits? There are a couple issues that have already been addressed (using a real world cipher instead of completely randomizing an alien language, and tone on mod/OOC posts for example), but if there is anything else that has been hampering enjoyment, please let us know.
no subject
1. The 24 Hour Event.
I would guess that the overall lack of turnout had a lot to do with it being Thanksgiving weekend for a large percentage of the game, plus November itself seeming to be busy for others for other reasons from holidays to political burnout.
However I was around to tag for a lot of the 24 hours and I really struggled to throw my hat into the ring due to feeling really anxious for the following reasons:
• Despite having a decent amount of threads and tags in the intro log, my character (both due to his fantasy setting and being new) had very little understanding of the aspects of the world necessary to be helpful — while I OOCly was aware of stuff people had discovered such as weapons, acid plants, energy pearls, the time slowing tree, I didn't feel like there was any universal dissemination of this information ICly and I didn't want to risk infomodding.
• I was phased by the lack of OOC communication between players that I think could have been facilitated by the mods. Not everyone was on Discord and if anyone plurked about the thread I didn't have them added. As such I was nervous about tagging in and stepping on toes by contradicting other people or ruining their plans, and I felt like I had to make my tags way more open ended. I feel like the group ICly would have benefited from being able to plot as they went, even just to say "my character will lure it towards the tree" "cool, my character will rescue people from rocks, does anyone need to be rescued?" "my character needs a gun" etc. This also might have helped more with my first point.
• I wasn't really sure what was going on! There was a lot of confusion about where everything was. While I love tabletop, there is a reason that in fight scenes there is usually a map on the table and it is clearly laid out where the fight is, what distance everything else is, and who is where. I had real trouble orienting objects in space especially with conflicting OOC information and the absence of some players. This also ties into my second point obvs.
• I wasn't really sure what I was allowed to have succeed! This is way more an anxiety on my end than you guys', but again, in a tabletop situation it would be as easy as rolling dice to see if I succeeded or failed based on my character's established abilities. Dreamwidth based fights seem nebulous, and with the extreme power nerfing I struggle with even my character, with all his video game stats and abilities. Suit based powers got knocked out early — but not for everyone? I don't think Justine was wrong in any way to say the light missed Max but then I was like "oh, we can just do that?" but wasn't sure how realistic it would be etc.
Ultimately I found it easier to just write my character out of fighting than be a bother trying to establish the above, and I'll own that that is my bad, but I hope this perspective at least gives you an idea of what isn't working with the format. I honestly joined this game because I watched the last 24 hour event and it looked like so much fun and the whole game reminds me of tabletop, but I think some aspects of tabletop that benefit from everyone being able to sit in a room together and chat in real time and be present for every action anyone in the group takes have a much harder time translating to DWRP without heavy mod facilitation.
2. Discoveries.
I'm fine with this for now. As with my first point above, I wish it was clearer how this information was disseminated - once someone finds something out so they have to tell everyone? How does common knowledge spread when there is no physical central community and no network? (Not a criticism of the lack of network, which I enjoy for the record. Just that a mechanic to better encourage information spread such as IC group meetings or a base of operations or a way to record info in a book anyone can check etc would probably help people utilize the discoveries more maybe?)
My only real crit would be that I think mods could remind people about the mechanic more. Like you shouldn't have to hand hold players obviously but I think people forget, so nudging people interacting with the setting in tags by going hey, you could submit that to discoveries! And maybe more plurks or mentions in the Discord. But if that is just adding more to your todo list then maybe that's something established players should take on instead?
3. Pacing.
I know everyone so far has said there was nothing to do this month, but speaking as someone who was new I was pretty overwhelmed. Maybe the game is just slightly faster than my RP speed which is fine, and something for me to work out, but I feel like I was still playing the "where am I what happened what does this do" game and failed to engage in the city at all (partially my bad because I missed the link to the OOC post with all the city info when writing my starter and didn't incorporate it as au would have liked.) And then the underground post went up and then the event log! I would have loved more posts in between those things with a chance for my character to meet more people and settle in but I also felt too overwhelmed to make the post myself. Anyway this is mostly on me I think? It's not very constructive criticism for which I'm sorry, and I honestly don't expect you to change to fit my RP style but I wanted to offer a different perspective.
(If anyone has suggestions for me personally I'm open to 'em!)
4. General.
I would love to just be able to handwave survival and focus on the actual plot, but I kept getting caught up this month on food, water, shelter... and so did a lot of my threads, which meant I wasn't rping about researching markings or engaging with NPCs. I really hope that as the game goes on something is clearly established to allow players to handwave that all these aspects are taken care of and just focus on what their character is doing beyond menial tasks.
5. Concerns.
Nope!
Despite this wall of text I think you guys are doing a great job! I really appreciate how innovative the game is and how creative, how it has a little of ecats mingles and a little bit of tabletop inspiration but also some more traditional DWRP game aspects, and it takes talent to keep all those balls in the air. You've always been very prompt answering my bajillion questions and I have no problem with the tone of the mod posts. I love seeing the mod personas around the Disco and watching the creativity being poured into this beautiful, interesting setting, not to mention how attentive you guys are to player concerns, as shown by posts like this one!