[Pocky]

Today I'm making this thread to discuss the ELEPHANT in the room.

Let me preface this post by saying that I've harbored these thoughts for quite some time as a new player with tenure of little over a year. I've kept it to myself for the most part, because even when I do interject, even if I do find people that share the same thoughts I do, nothing seems to change. I'm not here to put the blame for all of this on one person alone, but rather the exact opposite. 

Rather, it is the community in general that appears to lack responsibility towards what I see happening frequently on a now regular basis. Every time I see it happen, I'm dumbfounded. I can't believe it. And then it happens again.

Over and over and over.

And very few people seem to care, even though I'm sure there are people who do: because nobody ever seems to talk about it. But all of you have talked about the problems arising from this proverbial elephant all day long these past few months...

"There's hardly anyone online in the other four nations."
"Yokoshura gave us a huge spike in player activity, but it's rough outside of it."
"I can't get anybody to show up."

Don't get me wrong. The other nations seem to actually have pretty good prospects right now compared to the earlier months of Yokoshura's release, and I'd like to shoutout and give my respect to those who are working hard behind the scenes to make it happen. As just one example, PolkJM has made an informative thread just this last week about the state of 'content' in SL2 and how things are stagnating. I now see people working on events for other countries, storylines, getting things happening and moving. Things seem to be healing compared to when Yokoshura purportedly "starved" the player activity on Korvara.

But despite the promising situation, I'm still not content.
So what exactly is the issue? Is there even one in the first place? It sure seems like a lot of you don't think there is.
What elephant are we looking at?

The Case of Country of Yokoshura v. SL2 Player Activity

---

The thing that is so baffling to me is how terrible new player retention is. I'm asking if anyone else has seen it because I see it happening all the time. A new person finds SL2. They join, check it out, see what it's about, make a character. They try to learn the ropes, they:

• learn countless mechanical systems in the game, stats, builds, equips, and how to play their classes
  

• try to meet people and get them interested in RP
  

• try to get into other people's RP
  

• try to write a compelling story for their character
  

And if they somehow figure out how to swim rather than sink after being thrown into the deep end that is the SL2 experience without a social network, all that? 

Was the least of their tribulations. Only the beginning. It's only the tip of the iceberg. You cannot get out of the frying pan. And then you're exhausted.

The reasonable next thing? You leave, depriving the stagnant playerbase of another shining star of potential.

A lot of you are kind to us. You help us out, teach us things, show us tricks; give us items, help us get started. You guys are awesome. Seriously, thank you for everything.

A lot of you have no issue at all with this and will continue to do the same thing you always do, writing with the same people who you always have, albeit with different stories and sceneries. I can't say I don't get where you're coming from. It's comforting, and why swap from what's tried and true? "We've written so many good stories together before. Let's write some more, it'll be awesome!"

That's all well and good. I'm happy for you. But what about the rest of us? Those of us you don't seem to consider. Those of us who haven't been playing the game for years, who might not have the clout and connections in order to make something happen, who might not have the history established on this game to make something happen, who don't have the means - whatever means they might be - to 'get things', like events, regalia/sprites, and even roleplay?

You might not like us. You might not care. If that's the case, it's more than fine if you are to click off this thread and go on doing whatever you were doing, have a nice day. I don't need you to read it. But if you DON'T want the game on life support forever, I'll tell you what's going on with us.

Even if you are a new player who's really got it going on - the passion, the literacy, the vibe - getting something happening seems to be purely by divine chance. "Why don't you guys pull yourselves up by your bootstraps? Why not talk to EMs? Why not try to get involved? Why not reach out?" We have been. I know people that have been doing all those things. I can think of more than a few in Yokoshura specifically. In fact, I can think of a lot.

Again I'm going to reiterate that the point of this post is not to blame any one person or group in particular. I'm just going to make some very broad observations I have and lay out why I feel the environment isn't conducive for new players at all, the way it is now. Let me start by saying if you are out there doing your best to maintain this status quo, I don't ever want to hear you complain about activity when it's dwindling. 

If you're presented with a new player, doing their best to build up a story. Spending weeks, on end, trying to integrate into the community, trying to make something happen. Making connections, forging bonds, and building something from the ground up. If you're presented with a new player like this who's been working at, for example, building up a clan in Yokoshura of their own - which we were all explicitly encouraged to do, I'll remind you - and the best thing you can think of is to discourage them over and over while your so called major faction calls all the shots, gets all the events ran, and generally has it really good as far as the fabled 'content' scarcity goes...

I'll say it gently: I think you're killing the game. I don't really care if it's your IC to label them an upstart if it starts to border on harassment. You have so much. Why do you act so poor when you are so rich? Why, specifically, does it have to be this way, why is the status quo your be all end all?

I'm not asking for you to take a new player showing up day one Dragon Head seriously. I'm talking about a hypothetical example of a person who's worked at it for months, not just on their own, but involving other players, going to events, and passing their own milestones. And who knows? There very well are people like that in Yokoshura. All I'm saying is, don't be surprised when new players leave. Don't be surprised when the playercount won't go up.

You guys can't make a beautiful river into still waters and be surprised when nobody wants to jump in or stick around for long. Even if you are in your little bubble I guarantee you that other people can smell those still waters. They see the mosquitos. They don't want a part of it, and I don't blame them one single bit.

Like I've already said a bunch of times, I really doubt anything is going to change. There's no incentive for you guys to make the game sustainable or to have playerbase growth. Which, to me is obvious, because if there was, you'd be doing something about it - to support these new players, to show them that they can have a place, that they can carve out their own place to belong - and you're not, not really.

pocky xx

[Poruku]

[...]

A lot of you have no issue at all with this and will continue to do the same thing you always do, writing with the same people who you always have, albeit with different stories and sceneries. I can't say I don't get where you're coming from. It's comforting, and why swap from what's tried and true? "We've written so many good stories together before. Let's write some more, it'll be awesome!"

That's all well and good. I'm happy for you. But what about the rest of us? Those of us you don't seem to consider. Those of us who haven't been playing the game for years, who might not have the clout and connections in order to make something happen, who might not have the history established on this game to make something happen, who don't have the means - whatever means they might be - to 'get things', like events, regalia/sprites, and even roleplay?

[...]

Let me start by saying if you are out there doing your best to maintain this status quo, I don't ever want to hear you complain about activity when it's dwindling. 

If you're presented with a new player, doing their best to build up a story. Spending weeks, on end, trying to integrate into the community, trying to make something happen. Making connections, forging bonds, and building something from the ground up. If you're presented with a new player like this who's been working at, for example, building up a clan in Yokoshura of their own - which we were all explicitly encouraged to do, I'll remind you - and the best thing you can think of is to discourage them over and over while your so called major faction calls all the shots, gets all the events ran, and generally has it really good as far as the fabled 'content' scarcity goes...

I'll say it gently: I think you're killing the game. 

My friend, I'm really sorry about your experience. Honestly, the new player experience in SL2 needs a lot of work.

But I will say, these difficulties you're facing are not just a new player issue. This is the entire game. I've been here for a while, and I also have the same problems as you. I do not "get" events, I don't roleplay with my group of friends. I don't go "let's write more stories!" because it's extremely hard to get that going. I barely have any friends on this game and there's nobody I "regularly" roleplay with. You may think that old players have a lot of connections that allow them to quickly "obtain" roleplay, but this isn't the case. What I do instead is put up public posts, such as my looking-for-slaves post in the discord's LFG forum. This isn't me and my long-time friends. This is literally anyone who wants to join. I do this for 100% of my groups, events, and activities. I very rarely reach out to people in private, because it's bad for the game, but also because usually it doesn't even work. There's really not a lot of motivation going around. And if you ask someone to join you, they might do it just because you asked, and not really be into it.

The best way to find roleplay is to post an LFG, or go to an LFG. When I say LFG I am also talking about things in discord-ping channels. This has been the case forever. There's just not enough players to populate public areas, especially now. Back in the G6 days, public rp was much more accessible, but there's just too many areas now, and not enough folks to fill them.

I do not mean to say your complaints are invalid. I think a new player coming into an environment like this... Well, it's brutal. The mechanical side being unhelpful is also rough. There's the over-dependence on discord as well, which makes new players have to go on a mad chase to find all the lore and information they need, let alone participate in events.

But I would say it's not really a matter of the community being bad to new players. It might be a hot take, but I think we're pretty good towards new players. But I will also say that often we have no idea who is a new player, so we can't necessarily target them to prop them up.

But most of all, we're also all struggling... As a new player, it may feel like the "hidden" world of sl2 rp is blocked off to you. But it's not; you need only look around and ask to join the groups and things that do exist when they pop up. We're in this together. I'm sorry.

[Raigen.Convict]

As a veteran player, there since beta... It saddens me to hear of new players being discouraged and turned away. I've been away quite some time, and it seems things have only gotten worse which is very dissapointing. I have no authority but I would NEVER turn down a bright new face be it young, old, or any difference between... Everyone deserves a chance. We all were new once...

[Pocky]

My friend, I'm really sorry about your experience. Honestly, the new player experience in SL2 needs a lot of work.

But I will say, these difficulties you're facing are not just a new player issue. This is the entire game. I've been here for a while, and I also have the same problems as you. I do not "get" events, I don't roleplay with my group of friends. I don't go "let's write more stories!" because it's extremely hard to get that going. I barely have any friends on this game and there's nobody I "regularly" roleplay with. You may think that old players have a lot of connections that allow them to quickly "obtain" roleplay, but this isn't the case. What I do instead is put up public posts, such as my looking-for-slaves post in the discord's LFG forum. This isn't me and my long-time friends. This is literally anyone who wants to join. I do this for 100% of my groups, events, and activities. I very rarely reach out to people in private, because it's bad for the game, but also because usually it doesn't even work. There's really not a lot of motivation going around. And if you ask someone to join you, they might do it just because you asked, and not really be into it.

The best way to find roleplay is to post an LFG, or go to an LFG. When I say LFG I am also talking about things in discord-ping channels. This has been the case forever. There's just not enough players to populate public areas, especially now. Back in the G6 days, public rp was much more accessible, but there's just too many areas now, and not enough folks to fill them.

I do not mean to say your complaints are invalid. I think a new player coming into an environment like this... Well, it's brutal. The mechanical side being unhelpful is also rough. There's the over-dependence on discord as well, which makes new players have to go on a mad chase to find all the lore and information they need, let alone participate in events.

But I would say it's not really a matter of the community being bad to new players. It might be a hot take, but I think we're pretty good towards new players. But I will also say that often we have no idea who is a new player, so we can't necessarily target them to prop them up.

But most of all, we're also all struggling... As a new player, it may feel like the "hidden" world of sl2 rp is blocked off to you. But it's not; you need only look around and ask to join the groups and things that do exist when they pop up. We're in this together. I'm sorry.

As much as I respect you, Polk, and all the work that you do, I fear you've misunderstood the point of my post. Actually, it seems like most of your post falls in line with the things I expected people to say:

"There's hardly anyone online in the other four nations."
"Yokoshura gave us a huge spike in player activity, but it's rough outside of it."
"I can't get anybody to show up."
"Why don't you guys pull yourselves up by your bootstraps? Why not talk to EMs? Why not try to get involved? Why not reach out?"

I'm grateful to you for acknowledging my points. And it is true that it's not just the new players that are suffering. It sucks for a lot of people right now, and I totally get that. But the point of this thread is to share my experience as a fresh meat as I've watched this community engage in a pattern of behaviors that is harming its contributors and content makers, including people like you, but also new players. Nothing will go anywhere if we cannot, from time to time, get new people in. 

New players have been looking around and asking to join groups. New players have been responding to LFGs, making them, and making notice board posts... New players have, rarely, found their place. More commonly, however, they have not. I'll say it, I like SL2, and I like the people here. I, by and large, don't mean to imply that wide swaths of the community treat new players like they have the plague - because, like I conceded in the OP, there are so many veterans and players willing to give us chances, help us get in, but it only goes so far.


RP might not be blocked off to us. But a new player establishing themselves in this climate? 
Doing something noteworthy? Let's be realistic now. Right now we have a fat chance, and a lot of my fellow new players feel the same way. I can say this because I've spoken to them.


The fact of the matter is I'm just pointing out what I've seen happen. If you haven't seen it, that's fine, and I'll consider your perspective. I definitely hear you, and I've read your post about content in Korvara and agree with most of what you wrote out! I know it's hard for everyone. I know it is. 

But I see it all the time: new players I thought would blossom into amazing friends - who were going to go forth and write amazing stories I genuinely looked forward to - get driven away.

[Poruku]

That's fair. Honestly I'm just saying that's basically how I've felt the entire time I played this game.

[skull1129]

I am someone who both adores this game and has managed to find my own fun in this game, so I tend try to avoid topics about 'wow this game sucks for xyz populace', but I think it's worthwhile that I speak in agreement with what Pocky's saying in this thread - if only to encourage a discussion for the community.

The unfortunate fact is that this game is very, very catered to its audience of veteran players and its veteran communities. If you already have connections going into the game, you don't have to worry about getting along with other players - let alone, interacting with those you don't like. Still struggling to grasp the game's mechanics or still struggling to get to Level 60 at the moment? Unfortunate - most player events are catered towards those that are both already at Level 60 and know what they're doing with their mechanical builds.

You can make the argument that players can simply hide in the non-combat areas to talk with other players, but the moment that you do something even remotely strange to a bigger player, you'll already have an invisible aura of avoidance around you without realizing it. This is especially terrible if you're a new player. If you're a new player that hasn't exactly made any connections on the game yet, who are you even going to reach out to? That said, how are you even going to know that people might feel odd about talking to you?

While I don't really have any real 'solutions' that I can present personally - nor feasibly work if I do things on my own, the game itself doesn't exactly provide many tools, avenues, mechanics, etc. to 'welcome' or support new players - let alone encourage players to just be creative and use more of the gamespace to just have fun and roleplay. A lot of things that would make the game enjoyable are gatekept by a learning curve, the existing player climate, or even just a general preference of players to either reject those around them or just simply stick to their own groupings. There's no real incentive for anybody to help out a new player - nor is there an incentive for new players to learn or understand the game when the veterans might reject their presence over something they aren't even aware is an issue.

The way things are at the moment, if I were a new player trying to try this new janky Byond game that just caught my eye and I already got turned away by the community, why would I want to stick around? I barely understand the game - let alone how to place skills around. The interface overwhelms me - and while I can read, I'm confused what these statistics are supposed to do and why they're important. Is there someone I can talk to in the community that could help me? Not after I said something a bit strange to them and now that's all they'll ever think of me.

Why would I roleplay in this game where nobody wants to roleplay with me? Why should I roleplay under the common sense, lore, and rules of this game where I have no reliable source of information for any of this unless I take several extra steps outside of the game to understand or figure out what's going on? Why would I play a game that doesn't welcome me, the new player, for simply choosing to try and pick up the game amongst the sea of many others?

I like this game a lot - I've found a lot of great friends, managed to do a lot of fun and hilarious things and I genuinely love the gameplay whenever I find the chance to actually sit down and play - but when a majority of my and others' problems can be solved by "just do it somewhere outside of this game", I think that's a bit of a problem. We should be providing more incentives for people to stay on the game - not giving incentives for them to leave.

[Trexmaster]

A lot of what I already said in polk's aforementioned thread rings true here. Though to more pointedly address the OP....

New players cannot find their place because that's the secret. There isn't one to begin with to find in the first place. The game is far too large to support people being as fractured as they presently are in the roleplaying environment, with absolutely nothing to tie them together as the only person with the creative license to introduce anything by with which to do so: the developer of the game; does not wish to do so or otherwise has not thus far.

To explain my loaded statement, to tie together the environment, it means to do as I stated in the prior thread. To agree upon a singular universe, a space to share in which the events of the roleplay occur in. The canon is one all participants agree upon unquestionably lest there be no reason for any to share this space.

A common phenomenon observed are groups of people who largely play in an isolated fashion, seldom if ever interacting beyond their circles in a meaningful fashion beyond throwing hands in The Vale/Badlands Arena. There is nothing to enforce anyone to not do this, if anything, it is encouraged as this offers you the freedom to engage in the roleplay you want to have with who you wish to have it between. It is why I have compared SL2 to a chatroom RP like RPUnlimited. It is akin to an MMO it tries to be, like FF14. Sure, everyone plays the same game, but I have no idea what even 0.1% of these people are doing nor is it relevant to my own roleplay, ever.

Problem is, SL2 has like. Maybe 100~ players or so left in total. Split approximately 10 different ways and that number is only getting bigger by the day. We have the now five nations, Yokoshura, Geladyne, Telegrad, Duyuei, Meiaquar. Then we have the subgroups that I am aware of, like the Wanderer's Vale, Luminera, Fimbulwinter, The Dream Disruptors, The Wastelanders, Ravenwatch, The Blackguard, and Monstrum Venandi. Then we have the sub factions inherent to each nation: Research and Development (Meiaquar, Geladyne); Archives (Geladyne); Finance and Logistics (Geladyne); The Inquisition (Geladyne); The Praetorian Guard (Geladyne); The Rangers (Telegrad); The Venue (Meiaquar); Records (Meiaquar); Various Slums Gangs (RIP/Meiaquar); The Dredgers (RIP/Meiaquar); The Hawu (Duyuei); The Skouge (Duyuei); The Galljager (Duyuei); The Imala (Duyuei); Like 13+ Clans You People Need to Stop Like Holy Shit You're Worse than Skaven (Yokoshura).

It is a vicious cycle of creating new things in hopes of sparking enough drive and pressing with that momentum to keep the roleplay moving. It is the unfortunate, stagnant nature of the overarching environment that inevitably causes that momentum to plummet. You either create your own environment or get lost in the mire that is the shared environment.

When we have no reason to exist in the same environment as newer players, they will inevitably be left at the mercy of the most benevolent of us and even then, that isn't always enough. Undue pressure is placed on those of us willing to act for the sake of others' enjoyment where the burden should rightfully fall upon those with the power to make more sweeping changes and better encourage players to interact with and develop alongside one other in the same shared playspace.

What is stopping me from getting my friends together and making a new RP group that simply exists in some back end corner of the newest Telegrad adjacent map? I have an EM do events for us from time to time to push whatever story I wish to tell with that group and occasionally interact with the rare passerby. Yet to most, we simply will not exist at all. We leave no impact on the world and it'd be like we never existed if you wander by where we were and none of us are online.

I am of the firm belief a foundational issue to this game that is like poison to roleplay is the way it has shielded players from the concept of consequence. You cannot do anything that someone does not like in the roleplay environment. That makes it exponentially difficult to make anything happen when you are lambasted for attempting to create roleplay by introducing a source of conflict to challenge the ideals held by players' characters, when it is not something that you simply click Basic Attack or your favorite damaging skill on until its HP goes to 0 and it fades away.

I do not blame the players who have taken enjoyment from SL2 for feeling this way about conflict and consequence. They have had no reason to engage with either of those things beyond their comfort, and thus never had reason to learn how to do so in a manner that could create an enjoyable experience for everyone involved. The idea of consequence or conflict stemming from a source they do not implicitly trust is an uncomfortable idea to some as a result of how SL2 has acted to coddle players. For good reason, in some cases, as some unfortunately know we have had to deal with incidents where players acted in bad faith to achieve their goals.

Thus do we begin to reach the root of this core issue. A lack of desire to administrate, to ensure that players engage in conflict in good faith and provide the means by which players can resolve conflict without the need for absolute faith in the other party and or direct intervention from the admin team. Conflict rules are literally a suggestion. This only serves to breed bad behavior when conflict (ICly) does inevitably arise on an OOC level, as there are no rules by which to amicably resolve any issues ICly. So instead players are more like to voice concerns OOCly when a situation could be resolved through roleplay.

What happens when you cannot feasibly resolve a conflict with another individual? You disregard them. That is why you see what you see today in SL2. All these circles? All these people not wanting to interact with newer players? They have been scarred, scared, or otherwise hurt trying to do so in the past. They have dealt with bad actors. Few have escaped the apathy inherent to the abuse present in this community's past. No reason given for them to continue to place their precious time into the game that offers them nothing in return, as they desperately beg and present their arguments for positive change.

I've had countless friends come and go and I cannot say I am able to be there for new players given I am seldom in the spaces to catch them in game. I wish I could do more, and hope to do more in my time as an EM. I see a couple of parties of new(?) players roaming about in dungeons, and hope they at least enjoy what time they choose to put into the game. I am more than happy to offer help in the form of items/ease of levelling, the game does not make it very easy without putting a giant target on my head I'd rather not have. People who know me know I have spent thousands of hours grinding nearly every member of this community at some point. I am repaid by having the means by which I did so ripped away from me as I must scramble to find a new method by which to comfortably aid others get through the game.

TL;DR:

We made Korvara way too big. Make people all people within the same nation at least. That'd be a start to fixing Korvara's issues. Make finding players easier without hoping they put up an LFG to maybe be able to find them in this giant world. Either address the issue of conflict or have it be entirely barred outside explicit consent with both parties, indecision only hurts everyone.

Decide if this game is going to be an MMO or a roleplaying game, or at the very least, make efforts to smoothly translate mechanical aspects of the game into the roleplay in a consistent matter to avoid one of the biggest issues new players have: turning off older players by relying on the mechanics of the game to understand the universe when it is often antithetical to the roleplay others are doing. That is its own can of worms. We are allowed the freedom to interpret our abilities as whatever we'd like ICly, and for some players this is a core part of their characters, thus to have it ignored and translated as literally as possible can feel off-putting. For example, my character may use Wraithguard and roleplay it as a shadow copy of themselves. That, to my knowledge, does not exist as a skin for Wraithguard. Thus they will look at my skin of a noodle shadow man and go 'Nice Wraithguard!'. Or perhaps I am using a weapon I have regalia'd and given its own lore, and someone goes 'Ah, I see, a Tarnada'. You can see how that'd be upsetting.

Many older players carry great burdens that have scarcely been alleviated for all the time they have played, leading to an upsurge in apathy in the veteran side of the player base as time goes on.

I am happy to discuss at length in more detail any of these perceived issues I have laid out. As despite many of my friends wishes I intend to do what I can to stick it out here. Hence the role I have undertaken.

[HiddenBlade]

Hi, new player here. I'd like to start off by saying that in my bit of time here, despite how daunting the mechanics and overall rp theme were, there have been plenty of people that have offered tips/extended a helping hand in order to alleviate some of the burden of being out of the know.

One thing I can genuinely say is that if I have a question, usually someone is kind enough to explain it to me, so I've never felt as if information or certain advice is being gatekept in any sense.

It's taken some getting used to, such as coordinating events and creating plot points to have EMs follow up on. I come from the side of RP where IC unfolds in a way that lacks any sort of pre-orchestration or consent. Conflict is usually resolved through IC, so needless to say it was a bit jarring to learn that it only goes so far.

My RP experience in Yokoshura hasn't been bad at all, as I've always been more of an individualist. It's certainly been... an interesting experience. I've wanted to make my own little slice in Yokoshura in particular since I've arrived, but realize that there's a lot of factors that go into doing so. Regardless, it was a task I set upon, and had even been successful in doing  so. I notice though, that there's a sort of scrutinizing eye that comes with trying to do your own thing in a kitchen chock full of chefs, even more so if you're considered new to the playing field.

I suppose it's to be expected, although it kind of comes off as a feeling the need to prove yourself, when really the status of some of the most influential people in Yokoshura comes from purchasing a guild charter. It feels less like a community of leaders building up a nation, and more of a member's only club that you only have access to when one deems you worthy enough. Although this hasn't deterred me personally, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and often times I think about just sliding away elsewhere where things aren't so... heavily distasteful.

I call it a 'member's club' because that's what it's beginning to feel like as time goes on in my opinion. I won't place blame on any singular group, although it doesn't really take rocket science to figure out what's happening in the Desert Weebland. I don't often make posts on the forum at all, but when I saw the thread, I figured that I would give my two cents as well since I've been in the area.

[Neus]

I appreciate you making this thread because we do not have a lot of discussions from the perspective of a new player, and it's rare for one to feel like presenting theirs in an honest manner.

I feel you've hit on some good points. Even going back a year or two, there have been times where I've felt that the resource that new players are has been wasted. I could name specific examples, but just in general, there have been times where newer players - sometimes highly motivated and active - are not afforded avenues, roles, or opportunities in certain spaces of the community (for whatever reason).

This is something that was far more prominent on G6, but it's affected Korvara too. So, if that's something you feel you've noticed, it's not just your imagination.

I think there are some things endemic to social games that present a natural barrier to any new member, which isn't necessarily unique to SL2; friction that comes from stepping into any community where you don't have an 'in'. We are blessed with a good number of people who are happy to help new players; something much easier to do on the mechanical aspects, than the RP ones, unfortunately.

But breaking into many of these RP spheres has only gotten more difficult over time. Nations, at some point, became rooted around cliques more and more, and interacted with people outside them less and less; something that presents problems for established players, let alone new ones. (Although this ties more broadly into the environment itself, and I've started and stopped writing replies on more relevant threads several times, I don't want to derail this one too much. Suffice it to say this had a large impact on activity 'in general'.)

Yokoshura itself is new and has mostly been free of that (at least to my gaze). A lot of problems I have with the RP environment elsewhere, I tried to minimize when creating it, which is one reason why there's so much player freedom in clan creation, etc. My intentions for it - the encouragement to interact with others, and the freedom for the motivated to make an appropriate impact - are hopefully obvious.

All of my IC currently involves Yokoshura, but from positions outside of clans, so I unfortunately can't offer perspective or advice on difficulties regarding creating or managing them. If things are happening contrary to my intentions, that is disappointing. If new players feel they aren't able to get over the threshold of 'try' to the realm of 'did', that is also disappointing, but most likely one reason why this discussion was started. But I also feel as if OP was speaking of the game as a whole and not one subsection of it, so I don't want to minimize the scope of focus too much.

It's possible I have missed the point OP was trying to make. If I have, I apologize. Regardless, you are welcome to DM me sometime if you'd like to discuss it in more detail privately.