A couple questions to our players!

[sunshinemods]

Okay you guys, we know that things have slowed down here pretty hardcore lately. With the war plot, it's gotten harder to get AC right? That's caused a lot more hiatuses which has caused more hiatuses, etc as well, we know. Even we mods have been having similar issues and looking at RL disasters which have been furthering this rather dramatic lull.

We're really sorry about that, and this post is all about fixing that.

First, we want your opinion on how to change Activity.

With the lowered player numbers, does a conventional Activity Check help you with motivation? Does it help you get CR in any way? That's the main purpose for how we did it around here, and if it's not happening that way, then there's no point in keeping it how it is.

Proposed alternative options!

1) Making it so multiple posts as well as all comments can be used for AC instead of the mix.
2) Lowering AC by 5 comments all together so you only need 5 and a post, and half could correspondingly be 5 comments.
3) Some mix of 1 and 2.
4) Switching entirely to a check in system, where you note what characters you have, and show something you did with them that month. It could be a couple tags, or a post, just a single link to something they did to show you're still doing something with them.

Do any of these appeal to you guys? Would this take the stress off and make it easier for people to tag? The mods are on board for whatever you guys decide you like best.

Second question for our players: Characters.

If we institute a check in system, would that inspire people to pick up villains and other characters not being played? We already know a couple mods are looking at it. This would also mean that picking up more characters would no longer carry heavy Activity issues, which would hopefully inspire people to do more.

Third question for everyone: War Events.

Does anyone have any events they want to see in the war? By this we don't mean specific conflicts (though those are good too) but we mean things like stuff that can only happen in a time of chaos.

The long ago talked about grand Genjutsu so make people their canon selves for a while, for instance, would be an open warfare event, but so far there has been no time when it has seemed appropriate. Another event of that nature would be unwilling genderbending, temporary de-aging, and other traditional events along those lines. Does anyone miss those and want to see them in action? Are there others you miss?

Do you want a return of the festivals and holidays we've been unfortunately neglecting for bigger plots that admittedly we haven't been executing in as timely fashion as we should be?

Or is there something else entirely you want to see? More propaganda, more open conflict, bigger in your face war efforts? Smaller ones with more subtlety?

Last question: Memes.

Did memes make it easier for you guys to keep active? Do we need to do more of them for you guys? Do you guys have memes you want to post yourselves? (We can readily tell you Go Ahead if you want to post your own, we will encourage and help you do so if you want.) Do you have memes you want us to repost? Ideas that you don't know how to have us execute but want to see?

We know we mods have dropped the ball, but we want to pick it up and resume play. This is a sweeping apology for letting things get difficult for everyone where play is concerned, and going forward, we hope to properly fix it and keep it from happening again.

Comments

[uchihasavior]

[[ I'm here!

I am really fond of the idea of a simple check-in system, as opposed to a monthly quota of comments. I feel it would all of us across different timezones and other non-computer activities, like work, school, or just our sleeping/awake schedule, as sometimes players can't meet at the correct time to amass the total number of comments required per month with us missing so many people. It would also work well for those who like lengthy comments, and end up with less comments total because the girth of the thread is spread out in less total comments.

If that cannot be implemented, 5 less total comments per month would relieve some pressure to collect AC for the sake of AC, and not for plot advancement/development.

For war events--

I liked the propaganda flyers. It gave characters something similar to talk about or to mull over, I wouldn't mind seeing more.

I myself have been hesitant to write details about the enemy considering Itachi is intel and would try to collect information or try to come to a conclusion himself, over time, and I do not want to erroneously assume something. I'm sure the mods have plans and all will be revealed at the appropriate time.

I'm also up for unwilling sex swaps (I'll ignore the dysphoria tidbit, that was too strict on my part), de-aging, and canonization, to all my characters.

I have a question concerning Festivals, if they would/wouldn't be canceled due to an official war going on.

As for memes, I'm terribly picky, but I wouldn't mind more to choose from, especially if they could count for AC. ]]

[thegreatninja]

Waves!

I think doing AC should be a little bite easier? It's hard to think of posts at times and its hard to get AC when you don't really know who's around and who isn't. With the war I feel like somethings are limited also.

I might pick up other characters except that I don't think I have any villains T-T I play mostly cute nice girls.

For events... I want awful things to happen to Yuffie now that she's suddenly important but I honestly don't know how to go about doing that lol. Other wise festival or ways that they can boost moral during a war would still be good and I think interesting. Light-hearted with super serious sort of mix.

I like meme's, I think a handwaved CR or backstory Meme again would be good. I think there was one once. >.< I like the fun meme's too!!! Because its not serious and it can just be fun!

[noboatbigenough]

AC

I think a check-in system would be good, or an otherwise reduced AC.

Maybe we can do some kind of IC reward system for those who go X amount above requirements?

War
Some way of communicating things to the intel people would be great. Like Itachi, Kisame is heavily involved in intel (even if he's leading the village now, he hasn't quite... let go of Cypher) and I really don't want to assume wrong things and ruin a mod plot or something.

I do have brewing ideas for an intel related plot that I'm trying to finalize so I can run it by the mods.

I'd love more festivals--maybe even attempts at some new one because of the war (and even a possible failure and fallout?)

Memes
I really have no opinion on memes. Some are really fun. Some are fun but come at a bad OOC time. Others don't catch my interest. It's hard to say which meme would be which ahead of time.

[culinarydreams]

AC - Given that this is a smaller community, I think checking in with a sample of activity for the month would be a good idea. If more people app in, a comment count could be brought back.

I also like the suggestion to reward people who go above requirements.

Another thing I'd like to suggest - open up applications more than once a month and allow for people to apply for up to two characters at a time. Since this is a smaller community and a multifandom AU, we're unlikely to be receiving a huge influx of applications. If we do, it could go back to once a month. But when it's averaging 2-3 a month? Might as well let people in while they're fired up and ready to play.

War - I would like to see more festivals as well, if only because they're convenient for bringing together characters who might otherwise not interact.

I would personally rather not see stuff like genderbend or de-aging happen, unless it was a genjutsu and was actually being done for a greater plot related purpose. Like...okay, say it's de-aging. The people opposing the five Kages band together and slam everyone present in one village with a mass genjutsu that makes them run around acting like five year olds. In their minds, they are five, even though their bodies are teens or adults. This creates chaos and makes the village look like one filled with idiots to prospective clients. During said chaos, the anti-Kages group sets up a few things. Eventually they're forced to release the genjutsu and people go back to normal. Or allies from another village can help release them. I'd prefer wacky hijinks to be approached like that.

Memes - Maybe we can have more memes for fostering CR? Like maybe a CR roulette one where people are randomly paired up for logs, or some focused on backstory, etc. Or even a truth serum one could be fun, where characters have to answer any question honestly.

[immortalrose]

Activity Check- A monthly check in at this point would be preferred. The player base is just too small to do otherwise at this point

Players- I really feel like we need new blood in here, so opening the applications more frequently should help. However, I honestly think we have too many people currently who are all on hiatus, some been MIA for months at a time. We need people to actually play rather than character sit like I've seen some do. Waiting weeks and weeks for a single tag honestly killed my drive for this game for a brief while.

Memes The introduction of more memes would be nice to get people to roleplay. I'm all for it.

[notveryspecial]

AC check in would be preferable given the size of the game, the more diverse the cast someone plays, the harder it will be to get enough AC when there's only a small pool of players to work with. Obviously if we were to drop to a check in system I've already said I have a few, including villains, I'd app in. That said, we'd probably want to set a hard limit for the number of characters players have, or we might run into trouble getting new people in.

I'm all for some more traditional crack/strange plots, if we can find IC reasons and ways to implement them. I also think maybe we should have some bigger mission plots, like the kinds of things that make up filler arcs (usually those consist of two full teams of ninja and 4-10 episodes of plot)

I'm for whatever people decide with the memes. We could directly transplant bakerstreet memes if people want, too.