State of the Game

[gamemakers]

So we haven't done one of these in awhile, and with Lisa leaving the mod team, a few people have asked us what's up. Plus we would like some feedback from our players, so we figured this would be a good call right now!

MODS

Lisa's leaving from the mod team has been something all of us have been planning for for a while, and is not coming unexpectedly (or under any negative reasoning.) Lisa's spent a while balancing modding with being a law student, and at the end of the day, law school will always win.

We decided to use this chance to tighten up the mod team, and Hats and Amy have also stepped down for the time being. We are not opposed to bringing on some additional mods sooner or later, but before we bring anyone on we want to see where they are needed. In the past we have had a bad habit of bringing people on without clear ideas of which areas needed attention, so we don’t want to bloat the mod team until we know where we need help.

As of right now I (Terra) will be handling District 13, and general OOC stuff. Ali will be handling all the list up keep, calendar/plot timing, and other misc. tasks. Sarah will be taking over the Capitol end of things. All of us will be rotating through arenas and processing applications. Some of you might not know Sarah well, as she hasn’t played a character in quite awhile, but she’s been at work behind the scenes since the game was founded.

Going forward, no mod is going to be just the "_______" mod.  All of us are on the same level and can be approached to answer your questions.  On that note, we are going to continue to try to be vigilant about not answering questions on the mod plurk, as it is too ripe for losing information/misinformation getting spread. If a question gets asked on the mod plurk, we might not see it or notice if you get incorrect information.  Please contact us via the mod contact page or by PMing us. This is the best way to contact us to resolve issues or answer questions.

OOC PROJECTS

Presently we are restructuring NPCs and rebuilding a new FAQ page.

FAQ is a little shy of half done. Hopefully the new layout will make the massive amount of info on there easier to sort through. We urge anyone with questions to make use of the FAQs page as we’d like to have clear and correct information available for all of our members.

More information about the NPCs was posted a few days back, and we will be sorting through those replies and getting back to people soonish. There will likely be round or levels, since we got a huge response (yay!) so were going to try to work as many as we logically can in.

The final logistics of District 13 are still being worked on, however, we decided hard line that we won't send anyone until we have at least 10 people signed up (even if some of those are tentatively). Right now we have 9, so I am not terribly worried (and if you want to sign up, go here.

Propaganda and Celebrus. These are both things we have touched on in the way back, that we are going to be working on getting rolling again. Propaganda will likely end up tied in a lot with the NPC plot. With Celebrus, we are still kicking around ideas to figure out what will work consistently.

UPCOMING PLOTS

The line up right now is this:

-Kevin's crowning in the next week or so
-Mini-Arena
-Penny's plot spread throughout these
-New Arena

And that should fill us up through September.

LONG TERM GAME PLANS

So I have talked about the fact this game is finite. When I (Te) go to New York next month, Ali, Lisa, and I will discuss a skeleton for the next year or so to make sure everything goes smoothly to the end.

Before we do that, we want to get your guys feedback.

This is my (very basic and flexible) outline:

4-5 more Arenas while 13 builds up, and the Capitol gets more desperate and panicky. Which may include throwing more ridiculous gimmicks in as smaller plots (think things like, if you were around, when the baron gave everyone drugged candies, returning to old arenas with new spins for a greatest hits kinda thing, etc.)

All out war, which will likely be a few months in game. This will likely be more drawn out than in Mockingjay and certainly structured differently.

A descent into a dressing room situation where people can play in voluntary mini-arenas for different causes (my idea is for personal wealth vs helping the districts recover as their champion, to inspire the most variety of characters to play) that will be a lot more player run, no apps or caps, etc.

There’s also the idea of continuing play after the conclusion of the war with characters potentially trying to help in the reconstruction of civilization. This is an option that’s been discussed by some players on plurk and one to consider as well.

Since we are tackling plot elements that haven't shown up in THG movie canon yet, we will sort of be working those elements into our world but...we're already an AU. If great ideas can integrate smoothly, they may be added, but we won’t hold back too much to see what the movies do.

This timeline is tentative and can be altered so as to meet the needs and wants of the player base. We want to hear your ideas about which direction we should aim for.

Comments

[69problems]

This all looks good to me! Also I'd like to throw in my vote for post-war reconstruction of civilization rather than mini-arenas, even if it would still likely be a dressingroom situation. A kind of post-game healing period would be nice rather than more murders.

[bindsthedead]

Seconding this

[notdavinci]

I agree on this point. It was one of the things I really hated not seeing explored in the canon, so I'd always vote for an exploration of those areas if at all possible.

[aboveangrybees]

I love the reconstruction idea.

[hiccup1puberty0]

I would prefer to see this as well.

[aintyourdad]

Agreeing with this - picking up the pieces, rebuilding, starting anew, etc. seems much more broadly appealing to me in terms of a post-game dressing room situation than continuing with arenas. I know my character would not under any circumstances want to keep doing arenas, but he WOULD be interested in settling in a post-rebellion Panem, potentially.

[dividedgirlofmine]

I'll throw in another vote for Reconstruction: The Dressing Room.

[seestheman]

I'm just going to parrot everyone with post-revolution reconstruction sounding like a blast.

[atippleoftransparency]

Definitely more into reconstruction rather than more Arenas.

[parenthetically]

I've always loved the rich world build of the game -- it's part of what attracted me to app in the first place. That said, I think that the NPC clean up is entirely necessary and I'm glad you guys are actively working on it. What confuses me a little, I suppose, is the idea of tying up new plot ideas (Celebrus not being exactly new, but certainly something I haven't seen used with any frequency during my time in the game) with the older NPCs. As there's a rich cast of Capitol player characters, maybe consider using them a bit more heavily? Naturally, I can see potential concerns of info-modding, or important plot details being too tied up in people who may or may not have it within their schedules to disseminate them, but we already have the latter problem happening now and I think it's could be more rewarding in the long run to involve more players in that process. And that was a massive run-on sentence. Whoops.

This is a bit of critique that I almost brought up on the HMD, but I just haven't really moseyed over there yet -- I feel like there's a lot of information that I, as a long-ish term player, am not clear on. What I mean by that is, I'm fuzzy on what should be common knowledge and what shouldn't be. I mean this specifically in regards to Cruentus' role in the structure of the Capitol, the characters scores being public information or not, District 13's general existence, the aliens from last year, are there pods under the Capitol that people should be investigating?... That sort of thing. If y'all are already working on the FAQ, I might suggest including a section on what players need to know to effectively plot, and what characters would ICly have access to.

All in all, I very much like the theoretical schedule (4-5 Arenas) laid out so far and would be really keen on a post-game, rebuilding the world kind of scenario. One of the most interesting things to me is the political structure of the Hunger Games and there are a lot of characters (and players) who have expressed interest in it. I think it could be a great way of keeping the feeling going even after the Arenas no longer are a viable plot option.

[gamemakers]

I'm not sure where you're getting the idea that Celebrus and NPCs are tied together. Sorry if it was unclear, can you point out what you mean?

The propaganda will be tied in with players getting information re: The recent NPC plotting post. Celebrus just comes from the media, not any specific NPC, much like the IC proportion of the death roll. What you're suggesting is a lot of what will be happening in that plot, with just some NPCs to corral people, give PCs a starting point, etc. Out goal is to get things a lot more player based.

Part of the issue with OOC information is why we are urging people to bring things through proper communications. What seems to happen a lot it someone asks something on plurk, it gets answered on plurk (sometimes incorrectly if a mod doesn't see it), and then when we go to update a document, we don't have it documented that that needs slipped in somewhere. For instances, the question about the scores being public has never been asked on the FAQ or mod contact (though a similar one is up there), though it is on the new one, because of a conversation had with Ali that happened to happen as we were discussing it.

Those are all valid questions, some of which do have answers in various game documents, but without being asked in traceable ways, they just end up slipping through the cracks before we get a chance to update/clarify/figure out how to make that information easier to find/etc

Unfortunately with a game going several years, we can't go through everything (for example, I don't think the alien plot will ever be terribly relevant again, if something similar was to happen it'd be rehashed in OOC before starting, and is more suited for the wiki as a "thing that once happened") especially with how much reading new players already need to do, but we are happy to get the most important bits up there, and that's a lot of what the FAQ redo is for. So if you have questions, feel free to go dump them there and I will get them worked in (And the draft will also be posted for feedback in OOC before it goes live, if you want to wait to see how it's organized)

[parenthetically]

Propaganda and Celebrus. These are both things we have touched on in the way back, that we are going to be working on getting rolling again. Propaganda will liked end up tied in a lot with the NPC plots. With Celebrus, we are still kicking around ideas to figure out what will work consistently.

I must be misunderstanding something entirely from that, but I guess to me it seems like the propaganda will be tied to the NPC plots, or be controlled by the NPCs themselves. What I'm trying to get at here is that I would suggest, regardless of whatever the current plan is, that more player characters be involved in the process. This would, to me, make it a much more interactive thing. Rather than the mods simply making things happen and the players/characters reacting to it, they could impact the world itself.

I guess, in that case, instead of an FAQ, it might be worth it to consider creating a game timeline? Something that lays out when large events happened. This could be a collaborative effort and players and mods alike could brainstorm to remember specific noteworthy events in the Game's history that would be common knowledge. This is somewhat different from what I was getting at regarding the scores, but I think it could go a long way to make things more accessible to newer players/clarify the plot thus far for people who have been here a while. Having played in a few games that have lasted 3+ years a piece, I suppose I just don't consider it to be that daunting a task if handled more collectively.

[gamemakers]

I was editing cause our misunderstanding was figured out and you beat me to it XD

THE NPC plot is this, which if I am understanding you right, is exactly what you are asking for.

It wasn't talking about general NPC plot, but specifically that plot. I'll edit in to make that clearer!

Like I said, it was something we set up the wiki for (and a suitable place for it, as it's searchable) but keeps falling through. If it is something you are interested in arranging, I would be glad to share the info and help out (And we even have a spot for it in the game guide as a coming soon!) but it ends up being one of those things that comes up, a lot of interest gets expressed, and then it doesn't happen. The wiki is very much by the players, for the players, so you re free to get anything going there, and I will make sure it gets linked in the game guide!

[polyturtle]

I agree with post-world building in a DR setting. More murders - unless its for specific plot reasons (a la what the D13 leader wanted to do) - would be kind of counterproductive for re-building on the ruins of what might happen during the war. I would definitely enjoy playing that out, as well as the ultimate fate of what happened to the technology that brought them there to begin with!

As for the amount of Arenas before the Capitol panics...I enjoy the Arenas, I really, really do, but I honestly think that 4-5 Arenas might be a bit too much in terms of the overall narrative we have now, especially with the plot bombs we got regarding District 3 (in particular) and 13. With another District out, it feels like that would actually speed things up and cause fallout and resentment in the Capitol that can build up despite the propaganda (the kind stirred up with things like Peeta's pregnancy announcement, or more D13/Rebellion transmissions that the Capitol can't prevent to reflect the growing strain, both of which is something I'd love to see!). As opposed to allowing for that many more Arenas. Especially since major Arenas do take 3-ish months, and also not taking into account additional mini-Arenas and plots you might want to run in between, along with evacuations to D13 that you guys might want to do before things hit the fan.

My thought is that with our current pace and the current developments we've been given, 2-3 would be more reasonable in general, each one even more extravagant than the last, which also allows for mini-Arenas and things to happen without dragging it out too long. I don't know what anyone else thinks about it, but it would allow for another year of Arenas, as well as a year to build up whatever players want to do for when things move towards war.

[gamemakers]

I would also not be surprised if we only hit 2-3. We will be playing it by ear and feeling it out as each ends.

[bindsthedead]

Seconding that 2-3 more arenas makes more sense to me.