feedback

[Chance]

5.
More leaders, less followers. If someone is: Making posts in the IC forums, causing visible impact, has a group of followers or is a part of a group, and is active on most days, empower them. This can be done with hidden spells or even just direct communication/guidance, but it does more good than harm to lift someone up (within reason) who is ticking all the boxes. 

So my question to you, Chance, is why did it take so long for these realizations/recommendations to get taken seriously? why did we wait until so many people stepped away from the game to publicly address these issues and look for serious solutions to them? 

These aren't any ground breaking realizations or conclusions I've come to, and I don't think that's really implied anywhere, but moreso a thought spiel that I'm just writing down while hoping for some useful food for thought (and have to an extent pointed this particular point out in past posts). We've also always been looking for solutions and improving since day one, so I don't really think that framing is fair. It may not be apparent to you in particular, despite the host of structural changes and tweaking of the game to figure out what works (factions, map, events, magic, administration, etc etc), but it's a constant process that's always happening.

As for your specific criticisms, I think the application process is okay as is since it provides different admin perspectives (but could always be quicker, and we do get overwhelmed easily), although maybe it would be best not to focus on it as much and have people submit a summary of what their character has been doing + possible boons as a reward? Something a little lighter. Being a cute girl probably won't help your application, considering who votes on these? And being close to a staff member does help, but I don't think it's essential either since the moderators as a whole do go out of their way to point out promising characters. It's fairly easy to get noticed in a small community like this I think, but the hard part is figuring out your own direction afterwards, even if you do have people complimenting your writing and wanting to roleplay with you (we should assist more here, somehow, but not necessarily in a handhold-y way).

And while I'm sure others might disagree, the real issue with Eternia3's enjoyment levels was the slow start & structure. Very slice of life-y, nothing to do for a good month or so vs. the chaoticness of previous games. That kind of continued, too, where wars died prematurely due to circumstances or didn't really lead anywhere, and it was easy to lose interest. Huge map, difficult to encounter people organically unless at a city spawn. Those are the true problems: the administration is arguably far better than it's ever been in every way, from ensuring fairness to processing abilities, to making sure a-helps are dealt with, not that there aren't areas to improve on (but acting like it's the main cause is insincere imo; it's certainly the easiest to put blame on while frustrated).