[Trexmaster]

Foreword

I want to touch on a point that I don't think anyone has made yet in regards to the player's ability to exercise their own creative license--the defining thing that decides the limits of one's creativity within the confines of the setting they are placed in.
(For those who'd rather skip the overview of how ideas are submitted for approval and are already familiar with lore questions/queries to GMs over ideas, feel free to glaze over this spoiler.)

The process of furthering it or simply feeling more comfortable with your own use of it is generally:
1. Ask a lore question pertaining to the topic to help cement whatever concept you're thinking of in the game's reality.
2. Ask a GM a similar question for a speedier response though perhaps not as concrete an answer.

Then if you want to go even further and present ideas to explicitly alter or impact the setting in some way shape or form (new factions, groups, monsters, magical creatures, settlements, etc), your options are essentially:
1. Ask a GM, who may or may not hear your request out, or even be able to offer a verdict.
2. Ask Dev directly, which is likely not ideal for most people who'd rather not bug the guy responsible for the entire game, even if he does have the last say on everything.

So most people with these radical ideas tend to go to a GM, only escalating to Dev if their idea is so out there it needs a higher power to give the green light.

Ambiguous Concept Approval

The problem arises in how these ideas end up being handled. There isn't any sort of formal procedure for processing player proposals when it comes to pitches made to GMs or even Dev, as far as I'm aware as a player. I'll forgo any speculation as there's little to no transparency on how conclusions are made beyond it being Dev's or the GM's say in the matter.

The issue that results from this ambiguity in idea filtering is that some ideas are made to thrive and even affect the majority of the playerbase as a whole, even when to some it may seem outlandish compared to rejected ideas or concepts, resulting in something I'll get to later where numerous 'reality bubbles' are formed where the world and what exists in it is vastly different depending on who you ask.

To demonstrate this ambiguity, I present two ideas that were both pitched to GMs. (Disclaimer: I asked for permission prior to submitting the author's idea(s) )

Exhibit A

Dusks are black parasites born from Mother's person. Their normal appearance consists of a pitch-black miniature body, and they tend to travel in packs while making noises akin to static. They absorb focus from any form of grief in close proximity, and simultaneously generate energy the stronger the negative emotions are. They usually drive people insane overtime, depending on the intensity of the infection, and in most cases kill their host from the inside after prolonged exposure. The darkness defiles the host's blood in several cases, turning it black.

They are vulnerable to fire and light. Water makes it difficult for them to move.

Dusks are very resistant to the cold and can seek out hosts in presence of extreme light or darkness, since they rely on temperature to find them out. They naturally avoid water if they can help it.

Dusks reproduce with each other. Mutations of dusks reproducing with each other can lead to either benefitial or disadvantageous results.

The general populace describes them as 'grief parasites'.

Exhibit B

Originally engineered by Bhakshak vaala, its near perfection is seen in the growth of Revenants--a mutation of Devourer. Deviating from Bhakshak vaala's original intent, but still works for his purposes. They begin life as no more than a few inches long, born originally via magic rituals, though now seem to have a proper life cycle. Sanguine Parasites burrow into victims, and attempt to find their way to the brain, at which point they cause their host to desire blood--which the parasite requires to develop, though requires a host to obtain the amount it needs, and to survive due to its frailty at birth.


As its host consumes blood and furthers its development, it will slowly utilize its partial control of the hosts brain functions and its latent magical abilities (a result of the rituals used to create it and allow this process in the first place) to alter the host's body to better obtain blood to speed its growth, resulting in any or all of the following: sharpened teeth, underbite, enlarged hands, increased height. This isn't a complete or conclusive list, but, very rarely do victims last long during or after these stages. Around this point is the last chance to be cured to avoid suffering long lasting consequences.

               Once it grows large and powerful enough, it will burrow further into the victim's brain--either killing them or rendering them brain dead. Either result soon births a new Devourer, possessed by the Sanguine Parasite, or, in most cases now, a Revenant. The changes required to fully convert a human, for example, to a Devourer or Revenant take time, resulting in either a lifeless corpse or a mindless husk until then, taking upwards of several weeks to finish the process, which is why the parasite needs to be sated long enough to survive the time it takes.

               After the Devourer or Revenant is fully born, the parasite stays for only a short time after it consumes blood once more, as at that point its work is done. The state of the victim's brain at this point determines if they retain any amount of humanity or intelligence beyond what magic the parasite left behind in its reanimation process. After this point, the victim is left to develop on its own as the parasite seeks a Revenant host.

               The Sanguine Parasite may simply stay in its first host if they become a Revenant, otherwise, they leave. Once they find a Revenant, they burrow just above its spine, and remain embedded in its back, consuming whatever blood it takes in until it reaches its next stage of development. After consuming enough blood, it will begin to split inside the Revenant, spawning newborn parasites within the Revenant. Though parasites born within a Revenant instead remain until they've grown, forming what appears to be the tentacle mass that Elders possess--their great intellect perhaps a result of the heavy exposure to the magic of the many parasites they host.
               Their final stage of growth, however, is something new, as once an Elder has nourished them with the minds and life fluids of many; it departs for even greater hosts…

               At any stage of their growth, they detect highly of Isespian and Sylphid magic, though the former grows stronger as they age, and the latter weaker.

Some readers may already know the answer immediately, but try and pretend you don't if you do--and if you don't, you can think on this unbiased:

Which of these examples do you think would make sense in SL2's world, if either?

The answer:

Most people likely already knew from the start what the answer was, but for fairness sake: Exhibit A is what was successfully made canon from a player's idea and subsequent proposal to the GM team. I'll refrain from adding my two cents on the answer to my own question, it's just something to consider when you think 'what makes sense to make canon in SL2?'. You'll likely get a different answer from most people.

My question is then: How do you distinguish between these two and say 'this can work' and 'this can't work at all'? One is arguably more dense to read but they're ultimately very similar concepts with reasonable suspensions of disbelief for the sake of fantasy for the reader to at least believe it makes sense in the universe, somehow.

Proposal

There should be a clearly outline, transparent means of connecting with the GMs, Dev, or whatever party may be responsible for in the future to submit ideas for approval to be 'canon' to the game and acceptable to the playerbase without needless rebuttal from he said-she said due to whatever GM said okay.

For example:
The GMs as a whole work together to moderate a ticket system to accept and process player ideas, and the process is clearly detailed for the submitter to know how to properly format their request to be best reviewed.

Or a bit more realistically: A form is available to be filled out which all GMs and Dev are able to access to review at their leisure then return feedback to facilitate 1. The removal of the question of 'which GM do I ask?' and 2. Create more a accessible avenue to put forth ideas without fear of being ignored or rejected on the merit of having asked the wrong person.

Hopefully this is something that will change. Even if it's mostly a matter of simply hammering the GMs enough to give a verdict to more complicated ideas.

The Multi-Canon

This is largely conjecture based on what I've heard and seen, but given the past topic of ambiguity in what is or isn't acceptable canon in the lore...you ultimately get what I'll coin as 'reality bubbles'. Reality bubbles are an abstract concept to define the collection of ideas that constitute the agreed upon canon in a specific community of people. I like to think everyone who has played long enough is familiar with occurrences of this.

Reality bubbles aren't made intentionally or without reason. The main cause is due to the inability to have an idea approved to be accepted by the entire playerbase unconditionally due to the Word of God (dev), it's then sequestered to only be shared with the group of individuals it's relevant to. This can range from entire civilizations to the idea of multiple realities, to accessing areas of the world that no man should ever have been able to go.

An easy to digest example of a reality bubble is simply any covert organization that is OOCly kept hidden away despite how infeasible it may be to pull off within the realm of SL2's reality. You could walk right over where someone's private group is or even fight a war on top of it and you'd never know it even existed if you didn't know who to talk to to know it existed. This leads me into the reason for this whole portion:

The playerbase is divided on what's canon and isn't.

Simply put, this shouldn't happen. It's the GMs and partially Dev's job to at the very least have a world where we can agree on most if not everything in it being part of our shared universe, or else why are we even playing the same game? The reason I elaborated on 'reality bubbles' is that they're the byproduct of this divide. Groups of people nurture their own lore and community for lack of a world to influence as a collective with the rest of the game--the only reasonable course of action most have in the face of the issue outlined first in my post.

This, in turn, creates a game of many different 'reality bubbles' where if you step into one then try and enter another, it's jarring. What's real and what isn't alters and shifts depending on who you're interacting with, and with no lore reason everyone can agree on for something, it existing can soil the immersion of the player--unless they only interact with those who do agree that it can exist and has reason to exist. Either that, or simply pretend it doesn't exist unless they're with the right people...which is in essence, from the outside, exactly the same as it only existing to those who are in the know, despite any possible logical that someone outside the bubble could know.

Proposal

I don't think there's an easy solution for this one. It's far too late to start okaying every single thing that's ever been conceived and played an integral role in someone's development. All we can do is look forward and try to avoid this being as rampant as it is now, by providing the means to better present ideas to approval and come together as community to make the concrete sandbox (analogy brought to you by Cyclo) we all share as nice as it can be.

Conclusion

There's been numerous efforts by several parties to foster player-led, inclusive communities, but what we need is not only that, but support from those with the power to make the major changes we need to get involved and give a voice to the players who've rarely if ever had a chance to be heard. Eventmins were a step in the right direction in that regard, but to my knowledge they're still just as reliant on the same if not similar procedures as players to have their ideas greenlit. They just have their foot jammed in the door.

Allowing the players to exercise greater creative freedom to influence the game would be a boon, if properly moderated in a consistent fashion. I encourage decision makers to think 'no, but' rather than 'no.' when approaching a new idea. Even if it's insane, some collaboration might make both parties happy anyways. Convince the next Emperor slayer to go after some merchants instead.

All I'll add is that I've been a part of this community for over five years now, and can safely say we've not faced this level of divide until recent years. Sure, we had cliques, but people were often found roleplaying in the public scene. Maybe it's just the stagnation of the setting creeping in, who knows. I seldom find time to get on the game these days, but I still enjoy roleplaying with the few I play with.

TL;DR More concise, streamlined approach to player idea submission and approval will vastly help the game in allowing players to exercise greater creative freedom without the constraint of worrying on who to ask or how to even be considered. Being on the same page as the rest of the world helps to not be ejected from the pool of immersion.