02-04-2020, 10:23 PM
(This post was last modified: 02-04-2020, 10:27 PM by pancakepress.)
I agree that first cap killing is pretty anticlimactic. More than that, if there is a death, there should be a way of spreading it so that it can at least have an effect on people instead of leaving them hanging in this weird IC limbo where they assume they're just dead. From personal experience, Natasha was one example, and it feels odd to just suddenly forget or ignore their existence because they were one of the RBs to Theria. I tried my best to avoid making them an afterthought, but it came harder as I RPed more since there was no IC way of discovering as people started RBing like crazy across the two population shifts we've had.
That aside. This is a more general critique, but I do believe that rules and guidelines should be written and stated more clearly in this game. There are more 'unwritten' rules for everything here to the point that the only way you can get a grasp of this game is to fumble around and ask the community. When you ask ten people, you might get ten different- or varying answers to the same problem. It's going to be subject to a lot of interpretation, and different interpretations will clash. The best way to reduce salt, bickering, and drama is to clearly outline rules and expectations and enforce them consistently.
When I worked on my first hidden app, I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing. I got a lot of conflicting advice from a variety of people from all of their experiences. And even as I was looking for a hidden that matched my IC, there was a huge problem because the wiki page is completely out of date. Dozens of spells are missing, there aren't any descriptions for what they are, what they do, and what kind of theme they're related to. If there's something you'd like to app for, your only choice is to ask around which only opens things to misinformation and arguments.
When I did get things confirmed, I looked through the guidelines and rules for making an application, but all it really did was give a template for the format. The archived examples are a good step of figuring out what might be good, and I've relied on the old forums for guidance when there wasn't enough to go on in the current forums. But any problems with apping would be reduced if time was taken to write a comprehensive guide of rules, expectations, and examples of how things should be done. And this can apply to a broad range of things within the game as well.
Prison break ins and escapes? I think you can break someone else out ICly, because that's something I was able to figure out by reading the rules in the OLD forums. But there's nothing about that written here. And it seems like it can only be done through raids. But yet again, that isn't written either? I'd have to ask an admin. And once again, it opens up the chance for more salt to come if admin/mod opinions differ. People aren't perfect, and they're certainly not robots. Things might change on a given day for a number of reasons, regardless of a different context.
As for the wiki, there's virtually no attention paid to it. So as a result, you have newer players asking constantly about questions and problems that could've been solved if time was spent outlining everything. Esshar is a fairly free-form game, but free-form isn't an excuse to be overly vague, otherwise arguments like these will pop up again and again.
Edit: Some minor revisions upon taking a closer look on the forums, sorry I misconstrued a few points
That aside. This is a more general critique, but I do believe that rules and guidelines should be written and stated more clearly in this game. There are more 'unwritten' rules for everything here to the point that the only way you can get a grasp of this game is to fumble around and ask the community. When you ask ten people, you might get ten different- or varying answers to the same problem. It's going to be subject to a lot of interpretation, and different interpretations will clash. The best way to reduce salt, bickering, and drama is to clearly outline rules and expectations and enforce them consistently.
When I worked on my first hidden app, I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing. I got a lot of conflicting advice from a variety of people from all of their experiences. And even as I was looking for a hidden that matched my IC, there was a huge problem because the wiki page is completely out of date. Dozens of spells are missing, there aren't any descriptions for what they are, what they do, and what kind of theme they're related to. If there's something you'd like to app for, your only choice is to ask around which only opens things to misinformation and arguments.
When I did get things confirmed, I looked through the guidelines and rules for making an application, but all it really did was give a template for the format. The archived examples are a good step of figuring out what might be good, and I've relied on the old forums for guidance when there wasn't enough to go on in the current forums. But any problems with apping would be reduced if time was taken to write a comprehensive guide of rules, expectations, and examples of how things should be done. And this can apply to a broad range of things within the game as well.
Prison break ins and escapes? I think you can break someone else out ICly, because that's something I was able to figure out by reading the rules in the OLD forums. But there's nothing about that written here. And it seems like it can only be done through raids. But yet again, that isn't written either? I'd have to ask an admin. And once again, it opens up the chance for more salt to come if admin/mod opinions differ. People aren't perfect, and they're certainly not robots. Things might change on a given day for a number of reasons, regardless of a different context.
As for the wiki, there's virtually no attention paid to it. So as a result, you have newer players asking constantly about questions and problems that could've been solved if time was spent outlining everything. Esshar is a fairly free-form game, but free-form isn't an excuse to be overly vague, otherwise arguments like these will pop up again and again.
Edit: Some minor revisions upon taking a closer look on the forums, sorry I misconstrued a few points