state of the cabal

[sersi]

It's been bugging me for awhile and I know i REALLY should have brought it up earlier, but assumed I was pretty deep into the minority so let it go but its recently come to my attention that a few people have also been seeing this so I felt it was time to bring it up.

I think the group has been a bit too NM focused lately. Its become nightly or very nearly so for a bit now, and even when we've had RP meet ups its been "when we're done with NM's" or people seem to just be waiting it out so they can get back to NMs. We were built as an RP group first and foremost and while I don't have anything against end game I think we need to start either prioritizing a bit better or decide if its time to rebrand ourself.

Of course I know some of the problem could be that the standard RP meet up of "dance at an RFG show" might not be to everyone's liking, so let's get some ideas beyond that and forum RP story lines (which I love, but I'm aiming more or actual in game RP here).

Ideas? Questions? Shut the hell up sersi you aren't an officer no more?

[liquia]

I'm all for more RP~ We need a storyline(s) involving all of AEgir, also for people to be able to meet outside of RFG shows or parties so we can actually talk about work.

[onlycore]

don't really see NM's as that much of an issue myself, ok we have been hitting a lot of them but they don't tend to take all night to finish or anything, personally I try and put rp first when possible unless I'm already in a run at the time and recently there's been plenty of rp going on, evil ken plot line, the ic hell run and the hacking/mole story arc

my only real issue is well kinda along the same lines as Liquia's comment about too much RFG, about the only time I can recall rushing to get out of rp for a NM run was when we ended up at a RFG party on a Sunday night... after all the rp that weekend had basically been RFG parties on both Friday and Saturday nights as well. I'm not in any way saying RFG stuff is bad or getting at people that enjoy them, hell I enjoy them too, buuuut given most of my characters aren't party animals going to parties all the time gets a little tiring.

[sersi]

and thats why i'm asking for more ideas of stuff to do outside of them

[tess]

Pretty much the same thing. I'm always willing to put aside NMs for RP but going to an RFG show and typing. "/emote dance_samba" for 2 hours isn't engaging RP for me anymore. I feel like we have been getting some good RP in lately with all of the forum RP and meet ups between the wedding, shenanigans with Ken. Hell dungeons with Carl and Jule, Noel's birthday, the beginnings of the mole story etc. I think the RP is there for people when they want it.

[cecily]

I agree with Shay.

We should do a movie night. Stream Call of Cthulhu or something.

There's lots of parties coming up, but this could be a AEgir only thing-- PR could sponsor it.

Or even Arcane could have it as a fundraiser

(Personally, I'm not on TSW to play the game anymore. I stick around for RP.)

[tess]

We may have lost some spontaneity in the RP. The improv stuff and random meetups happen less frequently. But I'm not sure if the NMs are a cause or a symptom of that. I do feel like we could probably have more company meetings or another get together that isn't an RFG show. And honestly Sersi isn't the first person to bring this up so obviously it's worth looking into. But for my part I don't have any quick solutions other than to work on stories and try to involve more people in them and I don't feel comfortable telling people how they should spend their evenings or enjoy a game.

[supergang]

I'm really sorry, I think I'm not doing good enough .

I'm never good at making a story but I will try my best to support any story(s). I will try to do NMs only when there's no other events going on. I might still prioritize story progression over any other things though . I'm close to the end and after that I will have more time to do other things.

[onlycore]

maybe aim for a meet up night during the week, when we try and meet up and just hang out, nothing official just a general whatever night at such and such time approx when we try and be around and available for rpz

for example maybe weds night at approx 8pm EST or something like that so people know if there online some time around that time people will be around to rp and not plan dungeons or other stuff.

[sersi]

Jun 15, 2013 20:37:51 GMT -8 supergang said:

I'm really sorry, I think I'm not doing good enough .

I'm never good at making a story but I will try my best to support any story(s). I will try to do NMs only when there's no other events going on. I might still prioritize story progression over any other things though . I'm close to the end and after that I will have more time to do other things.

Good! TRY HARDER!
j/k - it wasn't a thread specifically directed at anyone person but more just a growing trend. You're doing fine XD

[francesci]

@core, while that addresses the complaint, like Shay said, it doesn't really provide a solution. As for NMs generally not taking all night, there are some cases that it /has/, indeed, taken a great amount of time, especially doing 18/18, which, in my view, seems quite common.

We've already settled that RFG isn't the most exciting RP out there. I completely understand, that's a reason I /joined/ an RP guild in the first place, but I personally feel there's a distance among the members. I'm not against doing NMs, but Shay did have a winning point saying it felt like people were just waiting it out until they could jump back into dungeons.

My solution, albeit probably not the best, but more interaction among coworkers would be a nice thing. To make it feel like we're actually working on something instead of twiddling our thumbs aside from a meeting here and there. We've been merely reduced to spotted passive roleplay and primary action roleplay, if we count the dungeons IC. I urge people to pull up small cases of roleplay, whether it be idle chat with a coworker you hardly know ICly or a problem that doesn't require the whole Fitz Fiasco that we all had loved. This doesn't have to be done at RFG parties or any of the like. While, I know I'm not the most social with my characters, I did find it nice with that small RP at the coffee shop (with Vic) that one night. It had some atmosphere and some backbone. It was spotted, sure, but it was also nice passive that helped build some relations with a person I didn't know that well ICly (Sera was there, they might know what I'm talking about.)

That's my two cents, though. All hail Cth- *message terminated*

Edit: I posted this before you guys decided to blow up in a volcano of replies, so some of these points might have already been discussed.

[onlycore]

yeah I rambled a bit in my first post and tried to present a more constructive ideas in the second one in my defense it's 6am at the moment,

I guess that I'm coming down on the nm'ers are a symptom not a cause I didn't stop rp'ing as much cos suddenly there were nm's going down, it was more bored and nm's going on so it's something fun to do *shrug*

I'm normally happy to meet up and hang out ic and do try and meet up and hang out in the park in nyc for example

[sersi]

aww. we love our sleepeh core. rest! *hugs*

[Ammie]

Wow.

I go to sleep, and you guys broach THE topic.

And pretty much settle it, too.

I've gotta say I agree entirely with the sentiment that it feels like there's a whole lot of focus on NMs recently, to the point where there have been threads established to coordinate more of them. (A great sentiment, focused on sharing time an allowing folks beyond the same set group access, but still a symptom of further focus in NMs.)

I completely understand why people are bored as hell with all the nightclub life. RFG is awesome, and it's a fine place to hang out and chat, but I remember when we used to just -do- that.

There have been a couple of great suggestions here! I think that focusing more on work would help to drive the storylines a bit more. I know Liquia tried to get everyone's schedule, and that's noble, but we're pretty big now, and it'll always be nearly impossible to assemble.
For this, I suggest that we break down by related department and choose a time for a weekly department meeting. This way we could establish department storylines that are smaller-scale, an easier to RP, and then have them connect in an overarching plot of some kind. The plot would be managed by the weekly Directors' meeting, which would set the RP tone and coordinate department progress each week.
It's just a thought, but it may help us to focus and develop constant pockets of little reasons to RP and talk to one another.

I -love- the idea of a movie night. Find something on Netflix - or if not everyone has that, then find some way to stream something - and all sit somewhere and watch it together and MST3K it and throw popcorn at the screen. So down for that, sounds like a blast.

~~~~~~

In short, yes - it feels like I'm always logging in to NMs or the talk of NMs. It started as a thing to do when people were bored, and just kept growing. It used to have a designated "we do this on Sunday" status, them bled to every night. But that may be because people can become too reliant on Fitz DMing to drive plots, and unused to coming up with their own.

That said, it's very fixable. There's the carbomb, the mole, I know BB's got her Shamballa plot, Ken and Jule both went missing and had to be rescued, and I've had an "Ammie needs help with her crazy" plot line in the backburner for about two months now. There's RP out there, and we're making more of it, but I feel like we might need to meet up in a more organized manner to focus it. And trying to meet up as a company may just be too hard at this point.

That's probably more than two cents. I'll conclude by saying thank you all for being the single best experience in the whole of my MMO career, and I look forward to a lot more memories to come.

[angel]

*Silently stops the 18s every night and goes to find some random rp in the God* >_>
Even though Sersi said this post isn't directed at anyone, I'm probably still mostly responsible for this NMing attitude. Sorry about that T_T Perhaps I could use my powers of forming groups for good! Like that time we dragged everyone down to the coffee place for no reason (What Franc was talking about in brackets I think) Although, the department meeting idea seems quite good too.