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pedalbike2020-12-09 10:34 pm
upcyclingmod) wrote in pedalbike2020-12-09 10:34 pm
Entry tags:
An important announcement
Hello, everyone.
This mod announcement is meant to address the many concerns that our players brought to us since the conclusion of the latest app round. We’ve received your feedback, and rest assured, it won’t go ignored. All of us want this game to thrive. For that to happen, we mods need to foster an environment in which our players feel comfortable enough to truly get creative.
Which is why we’d like to start off with an apology.
Our application review has been poorly handled. We received feedback on this in the past and have attempted to improve our process since, but the attempts have been haphazard and not always cohesive. This seems to have only made the inconsistencies in our review process worse. Though this was not our intention, it was the ultimate outcome, and we are truly sorry for the double standard we created. On top of that, the word choice in our rejections was unhelpful and at times accusatory. This was a failing on our part, and we make no excuses. Our potential players did not deserve this treatment, and they will not receive it in the future. This, we promise.
In light of this, we have re-reviewed this round’s rejected applications and decided to offer all rejected applicants a fair chance to revise.
Going forward, we will be doing our utmost to alleviate the aforementioned issues. The first step is to significantly change our application process. Instead of having one mod review applications, a team of mods will be taking on the task each round. Our hope is that this will not only ensure that our app mods are never forced to rush the process but also increase the odds that any given app will be reviewed by someone with canon knowledge. The more present and knowledgeable we are, the more likely we are to catch mistakes. In conjunction with this, we plan to establish a concrete grading system in order to make the process more consistent and fair in subsequent cycles. This system should ensure that every mod on the team uses the same evaluation criteria across the board.
Many of you have also come to us with concerns about favoritism. It was never our intent to keep plot information secluded to certain player circles, and we have never prevented players or characters from seeking it out. However, we readily acknowledge that not all of the information characters learn gets filtered to the game at large in a timely manner.
One of our players came to us with a brilliant suggestion, and we have been working with them to establish an official in-game document that will make it easier for characters to share information with each other. It will be an editable Google doc, linked in the game’s Full Navigation for easy accessibility. We had planned to ICly announce it during a network intro mingle this month, but our choice to hold off announcing it OOCly was a mistake.
To give us the time we need to kickstart these changes, this month’s OOC Meet n Greet has been delayed! It will go up Thursday. Please pay attention to these posts from now on as they have undergone important reconstruction. Information relevant to that month such as event timeframes, weather, and possible monster encounters will be displayed here. The plan is to announce player plots as well, so everyone can get in on the fun.
On Friday, we will be posting a network mingle for all characters to participate in. This is the mingle that will introduce the game’s information sharing document. It will also be the first in a long line of regular monthly network mingles.
Ending things on a more positive note, the game’s information pages have been under review for a while now, and we’re glad to announce that all of them have been officially updated! We would like to extend our thanks to Wind for taking on this project. Feel free to glance over the FAQ and other renovated pages, and please contact us if you have any further questions!
Edited to Add: We have locked this post to active game members. While we're willing to continue hearing suggestions and crit from members of the community, having dropped players or socks come in to argue with the playerbase was never the intent of this post. If anyone not in the game has additional commentary to make, they're welcome to direct it to the mod contact page.
Edit 2: Hi guys, we're unlocking this post again. The initial locking was a kneejerk reaction, and for that we're truly sorry. In becoming a little frazzled, we haven't been taking your comments to heart the way we should have been, and our replies may have come across as cold and uncaring. We're going to step back from this post for a day or so to cool off, but we're hoping to allow civil discussion here between both members of the community and onlookers alike.
This mod announcement is meant to address the many concerns that our players brought to us since the conclusion of the latest app round. We’ve received your feedback, and rest assured, it won’t go ignored. All of us want this game to thrive. For that to happen, we mods need to foster an environment in which our players feel comfortable enough to truly get creative.
Which is why we’d like to start off with an apology.
Our application review has been poorly handled. We received feedback on this in the past and have attempted to improve our process since, but the attempts have been haphazard and not always cohesive. This seems to have only made the inconsistencies in our review process worse. Though this was not our intention, it was the ultimate outcome, and we are truly sorry for the double standard we created. On top of that, the word choice in our rejections was unhelpful and at times accusatory. This was a failing on our part, and we make no excuses. Our potential players did not deserve this treatment, and they will not receive it in the future. This, we promise.
In light of this, we have re-reviewed this round’s rejected applications and decided to offer all rejected applicants a fair chance to revise.
Going forward, we will be doing our utmost to alleviate the aforementioned issues. The first step is to significantly change our application process. Instead of having one mod review applications, a team of mods will be taking on the task each round. Our hope is that this will not only ensure that our app mods are never forced to rush the process but also increase the odds that any given app will be reviewed by someone with canon knowledge. The more present and knowledgeable we are, the more likely we are to catch mistakes. In conjunction with this, we plan to establish a concrete grading system in order to make the process more consistent and fair in subsequent cycles. This system should ensure that every mod on the team uses the same evaluation criteria across the board.
Many of you have also come to us with concerns about favoritism. It was never our intent to keep plot information secluded to certain player circles, and we have never prevented players or characters from seeking it out. However, we readily acknowledge that not all of the information characters learn gets filtered to the game at large in a timely manner.
One of our players came to us with a brilliant suggestion, and we have been working with them to establish an official in-game document that will make it easier for characters to share information with each other. It will be an editable Google doc, linked in the game’s Full Navigation for easy accessibility. We had planned to ICly announce it during a network intro mingle this month, but our choice to hold off announcing it OOCly was a mistake.
To give us the time we need to kickstart these changes, this month’s OOC Meet n Greet has been delayed! It will go up Thursday. Please pay attention to these posts from now on as they have undergone important reconstruction. Information relevant to that month such as event timeframes, weather, and possible monster encounters will be displayed here. The plan is to announce player plots as well, so everyone can get in on the fun.
On Friday, we will be posting a network mingle for all characters to participate in. This is the mingle that will introduce the game’s information sharing document. It will also be the first in a long line of regular monthly network mingles.
Ending things on a more positive note, the game’s information pages have been under review for a while now, and we’re glad to announce that all of them have been officially updated! We would like to extend our thanks to Wind for taking on this project. Feel free to glance over the FAQ and other renovated pages, and please contact us if you have any further questions!
Edited to Add: We have locked this post to active game members. While we're willing to continue hearing suggestions and crit from members of the community, having dropped players or socks come in to argue with the playerbase was never the intent of this post. If anyone not in the game has additional commentary to make, they're welcome to direct it to the mod contact page.
Edit 2: Hi guys, we're unlocking this post again. The initial locking was a kneejerk reaction, and for that we're truly sorry. In becoming a little frazzled, we haven't been taking your comments to heart the way we should have been, and our replies may have come across as cold and uncaring. We're going to step back from this post for a day or so to cool off, but we're hoping to allow civil discussion here between both members of the community and onlookers alike.
no subject
We should have been much clearer with the game's plot in general. We do enjoy surprising our characters, but these surprises will have to come complete with a pre-prepared information page update in the future. To work toward this goal, we will be compiling as much additional plot information as we can and adding anything relevant to the current FAQ as soon as possible.
Because this will take time, we hope to clarify a few things right here in this comment rather than leave you hanging.
The Silence infection is intended to be difficult to cure. There should be a lot at stake, so that every attempt to be rid of the Silence can be as interesting and dramatic as players want it to be. To heighten this effect, we decided that the purifying treatment should take time. It will require one purification a week for a total of four weeks. This can be accomplished through blessings, holy powers, holy water, or something similar, but the method will have to be applied gently.
The Silence doesn't play nice.
These purifications can be RNGed for excitement or flavor, but it is not required for success.
no subject
Anyway I'm totally fine with waiting for the FAQ cause I understand it'll take time, and I do appreciate the apology!
That said, before things are set in stone I want to raise an objection to purification taking four weeks of sessions. It's not because I object to the Silence being difficult to fix, but I feel like just extending how long it take has two problems:
1) Either those four sessions are going to wind up being handwaved by most players for convenience, or you're going to get four threads that are more or less the same. Not great, either way. Also if someone is set on getting their character cured- making them wait for four weeks seems a little much.
2) It doesn't address the current issue with players not seeking treatment vs holy folks searching to cure people. When players get their character infected- they obviously WANT to play with that! I would too! Ergo, they don't have their character seek treatment. But at the same time, you got characters with holy powers being pressed to seek out the infected and cure them.
So you wind up with a pretty awkward situation where as players we understand people should get a chance to play out their infection so we don't want to interfere - but we also have to manage our holy characters being IC and there's only so many times we can have them hold the idiot ball before it starts to get unrealistic. Jun's seals are something of a compromise for that- but since he's the only one who can those seals (and it'd be super OOC for him to share how, sorry), that's not a perfect solution in the slightest. I really do want other players to get a chance to shine!
I think what would be a much better solution is to create a reason WHY purification wouldn't be effective on a character until players play out what they want to do with their infection. This is supposed to be a psychological horror game, so maybe one idea is that the infection won't be fully curable until the infected character confronts something about themselves. For example, maybe if a secretive character gets infected, they won't be able to get cured until they share something vulnerable about themselves, or a character who holds grudges has to let go of a grudge. Or something along those lines! It can vary by character and be up to the player! And after that is resolved, then the Silence can be removed as it's lost some of its hold on the character.
I think that would play really well into the theme in the game, and give the subplot more satisfactory substance to it, since it's a chance for character development. And while characters are still working on confronting those issues- if we could have a means to give seals to more characters (or some other temporary treatment measure, whatever) - more people can get involved! And also it means players like me don't have to do an awkward song and dance where I avoid CR with infected folks because of their jobs.
I don't know, it's just an idea that came to me. Thanks for hearing me out mods!