10-26-2021, 11:22 PM
Hello!
So, as everyone keeping up with things knows, a big part of my personal statement of intent as Headmin is to above all do my best to ensure things are interesting and engaging in the world of Esshar. The State of Aegis posts and the plot hooks and public events that spawn from that are an example of this intent, as is - perhaps surprisingly to some - being able to craft dev items. Its my honest belief that crafting dev items in stages with tangible results like dev items you can see in your inventory you can then put into an item gives a better feel of progressing in item creation (and with them experiencing a pretty quick turnover in the requests and being lower-effort than massive item apps, I think that's working - if you've made one and agree/disagree, let us know!). Ultimately all of this comes down to one thing, and I think its probably the most important thing in this game.
Momentum.
Momentum is the key part of any story, from the wider faction v faction conflicts of war and blood and death to smaller, interpersonal tales of a handful of characters dealing with a complicated family. When people feel like they're achieving things, and getting closer to their goals, their interest is naturally higher. When they don't, it decreases. The awkward point, then, is when that momentum disappears, its hard to get it going again. And if there isn't a focus on keeping it going, it stalls.
So, the purpose of this thread is to offer some potential solutions, and get those inclined to respond's thoughts on the matter. I'm going to stick, personally, with two suggestions. Note that while improving journal response times are a valid suggestion for strengthening momentum and is something the team is trying to plan methods to make it easier, thats not the scope of this particular thread. Plus, I think everyone's a bit tired of talking about that.
Suggestion One: World Arcs
So, this is already kind of going on. Positive reception to the Barsburg SoA has turned what was going to be a single public event into a chain, and then eventually to the very likely state of a world arc. Considering that was unplanned at the time, I'm quite happy to see it build up interest to the point that some people are inspired. That's great, the SoA's are supposed to offer hooks! In that line, expect some role apps to go up soon.
World Arcs are generally either player or admin driven; we've recently had a whole bunch of primarily player driven ones (Ebonblooded and Asphodel conflicts, etc) and we've had Admin driven ones in the past (the initial expeditions at the start of the timeskip and the Academy arc). From my position, I've come to think that a balance of the two is actually very important; the Academy arc, for example, was the springboard for the healthiest period of the game population wise and setting wise, with the generation of the Academy class and the immediate one following resulting in the end of the Achyon-Osrona war, the rise of the Docros as a significant threat, and the rise of Asphodel. That high seems to be slowing lately, as much as the Ebonblooded are up to interesting things, so the upcoming incursion of some rogue divisions with ideally help boost that (plus a relatively predictable thing in the future). Moving forward, I'd like that to be the norm; an arc kicks off a new wave of interest, follows its natural course, we enjoy the aftermath, and when things begin to simmer down we fire them up again. A little bit of admin direction, thus, kicks off some momentum, and the players can ride that wave as long as they want.
Suggestion Two: Factional Goals
This is very much a theoretical thing for the moment. In the very early part of this era, each major faction had a goal; Osrona found Primordials to seek the appointment of an Archmagi, Achyon tried to get Project ADAM going, Moxtli was bringing spirits to their cause and the Fireblooded were hunting for Balmung. These goals offered consistent things to strive for on a larger scale than the interpersonal, and offered a mix of PVP and PVE elements so that all sides involved could have something that didn't rely on someone else losing. I like these, and ideally I'd like to bring them back. Furthermore, I'd like to coordinate with current leaders to figure out a few goals for each group, and make myself open for helping workshop ideas for smaller groups that want something to drive them. I think this would be good, as long as its a result of cooperation, not dictation. I'll likely be experimenting with this soon.
So these are the ideas. I'm asking for feedback, and your own thoughts. Disagreeing is fine, but lets keep it constructive, please!
So, as everyone keeping up with things knows, a big part of my personal statement of intent as Headmin is to above all do my best to ensure things are interesting and engaging in the world of Esshar. The State of Aegis posts and the plot hooks and public events that spawn from that are an example of this intent, as is - perhaps surprisingly to some - being able to craft dev items. Its my honest belief that crafting dev items in stages with tangible results like dev items you can see in your inventory you can then put into an item gives a better feel of progressing in item creation (and with them experiencing a pretty quick turnover in the requests and being lower-effort than massive item apps, I think that's working - if you've made one and agree/disagree, let us know!). Ultimately all of this comes down to one thing, and I think its probably the most important thing in this game.
Momentum.
Momentum is the key part of any story, from the wider faction v faction conflicts of war and blood and death to smaller, interpersonal tales of a handful of characters dealing with a complicated family. When people feel like they're achieving things, and getting closer to their goals, their interest is naturally higher. When they don't, it decreases. The awkward point, then, is when that momentum disappears, its hard to get it going again. And if there isn't a focus on keeping it going, it stalls.
So, the purpose of this thread is to offer some potential solutions, and get those inclined to respond's thoughts on the matter. I'm going to stick, personally, with two suggestions. Note that while improving journal response times are a valid suggestion for strengthening momentum and is something the team is trying to plan methods to make it easier, thats not the scope of this particular thread. Plus, I think everyone's a bit tired of talking about that.
Suggestion One: World Arcs
So, this is already kind of going on. Positive reception to the Barsburg SoA has turned what was going to be a single public event into a chain, and then eventually to the very likely state of a world arc. Considering that was unplanned at the time, I'm quite happy to see it build up interest to the point that some people are inspired. That's great, the SoA's are supposed to offer hooks! In that line, expect some role apps to go up soon.
World Arcs are generally either player or admin driven; we've recently had a whole bunch of primarily player driven ones (Ebonblooded and Asphodel conflicts, etc) and we've had Admin driven ones in the past (the initial expeditions at the start of the timeskip and the Academy arc). From my position, I've come to think that a balance of the two is actually very important; the Academy arc, for example, was the springboard for the healthiest period of the game population wise and setting wise, with the generation of the Academy class and the immediate one following resulting in the end of the Achyon-Osrona war, the rise of the Docros as a significant threat, and the rise of Asphodel. That high seems to be slowing lately, as much as the Ebonblooded are up to interesting things, so the upcoming incursion of some rogue divisions with ideally help boost that (plus a relatively predictable thing in the future). Moving forward, I'd like that to be the norm; an arc kicks off a new wave of interest, follows its natural course, we enjoy the aftermath, and when things begin to simmer down we fire them up again. A little bit of admin direction, thus, kicks off some momentum, and the players can ride that wave as long as they want.
Suggestion Two: Factional Goals
This is very much a theoretical thing for the moment. In the very early part of this era, each major faction had a goal; Osrona found Primordials to seek the appointment of an Archmagi, Achyon tried to get Project ADAM going, Moxtli was bringing spirits to their cause and the Fireblooded were hunting for Balmung. These goals offered consistent things to strive for on a larger scale than the interpersonal, and offered a mix of PVP and PVE elements so that all sides involved could have something that didn't rely on someone else losing. I like these, and ideally I'd like to bring them back. Furthermore, I'd like to coordinate with current leaders to figure out a few goals for each group, and make myself open for helping workshop ideas for smaller groups that want something to drive them. I think this would be good, as long as its a result of cooperation, not dictation. I'll likely be experimenting with this soon.
So these are the ideas. I'm asking for feedback, and your own thoughts. Disagreeing is fine, but lets keep it constructive, please!