[Neus]

I said I would keep an eye on the thread, and I did, so now I will be responding to it as best as I can. First of all I appreciate everyone's candid opinions, even if they caught me a little off-guard, so thank you for that. I'm not going to be able to respond to every single post, but I did read through it and gather up what I feel were the general takeaways of the thread, so that I could give my personal thoughts and have a discussion about what positive changes we could make in regards to them. These are in no particular order.

OOC Characters/Existing OOC

• Characters that exist in the game environment in an 'OOC' fashion undermines the RP environment and can create confusion about when and where it is appropriate to try to start RP with someone.
  
• Similarly, people behaving in an OOC manner or polluting the IC channels with memes and OOC jokes are distracting and have a negative effect on RP.
  

My Thoughts: I very much sympathize with people who feel this way. Meaning no disrespect to anyone, since I'm sure when this is done, it's not with negative intentions, and at times is distracting no one else. However, when it is done excessively and in very public areas, I feel like it is a large negative to people who are seeking to engage in more meaningful RP, and may in fact drive them away to other areas, even private ones, so that they can distance themselves from it.

Solution Ideas: The primary idea that comes to mind is simply to have more concrete rules on what substance RP in IC, especially public areas such as towns or the arena, should have, so that people grow out of making OOC jokes in IC channels, or otherwise being a distraction. 

Furthermore, as far as characters existing OOC, there should also be more well laid out restrictions on what you are and are not allowed to do while 'OOC'. This requires additional discussion on why someone goes into 'OOC' mode to begin with, however.


Applications for Events, Requests, Lore, Etc.

• The process for getting things approved and requesting them is vague. It is hard to see when someone gets something approved and for what reason.
  
• For this reason it is also hard to know if someone actually has some aspect of their roleplay approved, or if they're just making things up.
  
• Sometimes the lack of transparency creates a feeling of favoritism when someone is denied something, but sees others get things approved.
  

My Thoughts: Ultimately I feel this is an issue of clarity and consistency. The process has always been to contact a GM or myself privately, and while that's fine for the most part, it does create the issues listed above.

Solution Ideas: The first thought I had for this was simply to make a public forum here for player applications and requests, as well as guidelines on what you should do to get something approved or not. Establishing this forum would allow for greater clarity, allow review by both GMs and players to see what has been approved and what hasn't been (and why), and help correct the perception that nothing significant is approved.


Community: Cliques

• The game often breaks down into friends only wanting to be around their friends instead of RPing with others they are less familiar with (for whatever reason).
  
• Could partly be caused by people breaking down the RP environment with OOC-like behavior or 'memeing'.
  

My Thoughts: Cliques are not inherently a bad thing, but they definitely hurt RP in some fashion, especially when people only interact with their friends group in private areas. However, this is something that involves the community primarily - there is not a lot that I can do to resolve it, I feel.


World Rigidity

• People perceive the world as incapable of being changed or affected in any meaningful capacity.
  

My Thoughts: When we first announced eventmins, one thing that was asked and answered is that I was definitely open to people being able to take steps through them to change the world in a significant way. I feel like that has been forgotten, or that people haven't had the proper motivation or ideas to do so. In a lot of areas, though, this is my fault as well, as I haven't personally run events with the intent for something big to change and given players an avenue to participate, and have instead relied on the idea that players who want to see such things would rather take their own steps towards it.

That said, a lot of the time, when people approach me or the GMs about their requests, we hear a lot of the same things - I want to blow up X town/building/person. Not to dissuade anyone from going for such a thing if they desire it, and I am certainly not against such activities, but if feel you've hit a roadblock while trying one of these, just know that we have heard it a lot and it can feel a little low effort.

Solution Ideas: On the players' parts, if you have interest in causing such change, then I encourage you to make use of the eventmins. On my part, there may come a time where I will have to actually help steer or do some of these events myself. I also feel that the previously mentioned application forum would go a long way here.


Lack of Roles

• People perceive that there is a lack of place for their character to go, and positions in the existing world that their character can fill. (Not just mechanical Roles.)
  

My Thoughts: This is going to sound like a repeat of the last section, but again, I am absolutely open to people trying to rise up the ranks of the existing political structure, or to try and create their own. That was one of the goals of adding the roles system - to give people a foot in the door for contributing to the world in some fashion, and help them foster RP around it. However, it hasn't done as good of a job as I'd have liked.

Solution Ideas: This is another area where we would benefit greatly from an application forum.


Conflict, Rules of Engagement

• Rules for expected etiquette in situations of conflict only exist in vague terms.
  
• Playing as an antagonist character carries a lot of risk with very little in the way to bounce back; a single failure often carries extremely harsh punishments, including long times in jail away from meaningful RP.
  
• Other parties, including guards, can often feel like an insurmountable, infinite, and at times omnipotent force, stifling antagonist encounters and RP.
  

My Thoughts: This is definitely an area where we have had long struggles, and it mostly falls on me. I haven't really been able to discern what, on average, a player looking to be an antagonist actually wants, and how to properly keep that in check. This is something that will require discussion, with the intention of creating a very clear list of guidelines and rules of what antagonist characters can do, when and where they can do it, and what protections they and their potential victims have, without the need of GM oversight in every situation.

I also do feel that taking antagonist actions, especially illegal ones, should come with the risk of punishment, but I also feel that there are more creative ways to deliver that punishment without inflicting 'soft bans' on people (although such things will likely still exist for extreme cases).

Again, this requires a lot of discussion based on what antagonists think they should be able to do without GM oversight, and what players are concerned could happen, or what a fair 'defense' would be.

Solution Ideas: First and foremost is establishing a clear set of rules and guidelines for antagonists and engaging with them, as mentioned.

For the problem of punishments, perhaps instead of hard jail time in every instance, the requirement of paying a fine within a certain period of time, or commuting of sentences in return for doing community service, or hunting down another criminal, or some other type of redemption service could be explored (and failing those, you would just get thrown into jail).

A 'scene lock' rule has also been suggested, where once an antagonist scene has begun (for example, a robbery), the scene is locked and no one else can participate without the permission of the two parties. This would prevent issues such as being mobbed by a growing party of guards, or someone calling for backup, or things getting extremely complicated when people simply wander into the scene. Such a rule would likely not apply if it occurs in plain view of NPCs or guards in a town, etc.


Personal Thoughts About Other Things
Note: Nothing in this section suggests that I am going to change anything randomly. They are merely my personal thoughts and things I've noticed.

While I understand why it exists, I view the mentality of having to rush to max level and gear out to begin RPing their character to be a negative for a few reasons;

1) People feel like they can't RP when they aren't max level, leading them to spend more time grinding instead of roleplaying, which can exacerbate the lack of finding RP.
2) It skips over potential character development and puts your character right at where you want them to be, giving them less room to grow.
3) Max level characters appearing out of nowhere leads to characters feeling ephemeral and without much substance.
4) It encourages the same behavior out of other people, as they may feel excluded if they do not.

The general solution to this would be to require you to RP to actually progress your character. Mechanically this would probably be represented by level caps that can only be overcome by putting in enough effort in your RP, such as with in-game RP posts that are reviewed by GMs (for example) and given a 'gold star', or posts on the forum that can also contribute to that sort of progress. (Potentially 1 level = 1 gold star.)

I also feel like such a system would be met divisively by the player base - since it doesn't exist currently, it adds another roadblock to getting to 'PvP ready' status. It can also be a demerit for people who like to make alts for different character concepts that they want to enjoy mechanically, and may encourage people towards omniclassing characters, leading to a lack of distinct, fleshed out character concepts.


---

I would like to hear your thoughts. Since this thread covers multiple topics, try to keep your opinions organized so that I and others can easily keep up with it. You are, as always, welcome to disagree or try and clarify something if you feel I have misunderstood it. I would also like things to stay civil and constructive - there were a few posts in the large thread that were not very helpful and more insulting, although the overwhelming majority was all very good feedback.

I am committed to improving the SL2 experience for everyone, and I recognize that in certain areas such as RP, I haven't put in as much effort as I should. While some problems will take longer than others to address, I will do my best to do so.

Thank you for reading and contributing.

[Perdition]

Misc Thoughts

In regard to the last section that was written on the mentality of rushing to max level, this is something that I think will change only with some growing pains and a stern stance. You're right in that the concept of level caps that can only be surpassed through roleplaying would be divisive, but I think it's in the right direction in regard to solutions to this problem. A lot of the issues, in my opinion, for SL2, stem from the fact that these issues have been given a long time to fester and come to fruition in the form they are now. However, for some people these aren't issues at all, or some have become complacent toward them so these issues are met with apathy. When large, sweeping changes to them are suggested, resistance is natural because things have been a certain way for so long so many will naturally resist change.

An example of this on a lesser scale is the change to turn order. I view the changes as an overall positive, but many people were adverse to the changes. I would say there was a 50/50 split as far as approval for the changes. However, you dug your heels in and kept with the system anyway and over time I feel like support for it is more positive than negative, and while there are grievances I think many agree that it was a change for the better now.

My point with all of that is to say this is likely how the problem of people's desire to rush to max level will have to be handled. Coming from other RP games, such as the Dragon Ball/Finale derivatives, the amount of control you had over the type and rate of growth your character experienced may as well have been nonexistant compared to what we have now in SL2. I'm not saying to go to that kind of an extreme, but I am saying that less control over mechanical development leads to a more interesting roleplay experience. The thing is, everyone is used to the instant gratification of being able to go OOC until their build is finished and then jump into the world with a full power character. Heights of power become meaningless when any character that might pop up is at the peak already.

I think there may be too much community focus on what's 'fair'. Some may think it isn't fair if another character has a sheer mechanical advantage over another, but in my opinion that also creates a more interesting roleplay experience. If everyone is at the same level of power, then the concept of power becomes diluted and this also contributes to one of the issues of antagonism. This may lead to cries of, or fears of favoritism, but at no point in time have I felt like the admin team has been prone to favoritism. So, while in theory favoritism is possible, I feel like we already have precedent to see that it's highly unlikely that would be the case.

Overall, I think some sort of limit on character growth that can only be lifted by approval is needed. It can't be something obtainable on one's own otherwise it turns in to another grind to reach it. It would probably have to involve some kind of means to attain mechanical power above level 60, since so many characters are already level 60 and the logistics of resetting everyone would be a nightmare. Instead, I feel like level 60 should become the new 'average' power level for player characters and then from there you can introduce higher tiers to make the concept of extraordinary or noteworthy characters to become possible through effort.

Applications

Not much for me to say here except I agree with the idea of another forum section where applications can be submitted publicly so there's no miscommunication as to who has been approved for what, and so that people can't just whip out things with no way for others to dispute if they've been approved for them or not.

Engagement

In the previous thread, I was the one to mention scene locking as a solution to villains inevitably getting ganked. I honestly see this as the simplest and most effective solution to this problem, and as you said, it would be void in circumstances such as someone being aggressive in the middle of a town square or something. 

World Rigidity and Roles

I feel like this things are intertwined, and tied them together yourself as well so they probably are. Anyway, the roles system was an interesting idea, but I think the problem is the current available roles simply do not impact players enough for them to matter. The average player has no reason to really care about the results of the water sourcing role, nor the results of the other role for that matter. To that end, I think more impactful roles would be needed, but to that end I'm unsure of what they might be myself. Perhaps you could have individual settlements that players can apply to lead/rule over. From there, maybe the existing roles can shine in these individual settlements. This also opens up new housing potentially, and things such as taxes can be implemented, which also adds a much needed gold sink to the economy.

This is just an idea off the top of my head, but the gist of where I'm going with that is that something much more... important, I guess, would need to be one of the attainable roles. Perhaps such roles could be applied for so the weight of them wouldn't be abused and they can exist without causing problems. This is one aspect that may help with the problem of world rigidity, but also, I feel like there need to be certain things players can do mechanically to influence the world at a smaller scale as well. I actually feel like the crafting system revamp can help with this. Perhaps certain items that require an exceptionally large amount of materials that would need a lot of irl time to acquire can be added. Perhaps there can be new, rare plants added that players might be able to extract seeds from to start growing them on their own to start a market for them. 

Perhaps there could be mines that pop up every so often, or static ones to make ore less painful to acquire, but introduce chances for new, rarer ores. If you introduce tools like this, I feel like it will encourage more varied player interactions. Maybe people will run into each other at the mines, people will barter for new materials or search for those with them. You could even go as far as making players able to craft supplemental upgrades for other players. Maybe someone could modify a mechantion in some way. Maybe one would be able to artificially or magically enhance themselves or another with enough time, materials and effort. You could introduce large changes that could be applied for but also have to be worked for mechanically in game. These are more ideas off the top of my head, but they're here to give an idea of what I think could be some solutions for this.

Conclusion

There are other sections listed but they're ones I don't have as strong of an opinion on. The ones I addressed are the ones I feel like are the most pressing. Thanks for taking the time to read. I also want to see the game reach the potential I know that it has.

[Mr.SmileGod]

Alright, alright, alriiiight.   I've only got a few topics here I want to hit on personally at the moment, so here goes.

Conflict rules

While I do understand the idea of adding rules of engagement, I have my concerns in the fact that adding too many 'you can't do this ICly' rules limits what is ultimately supposed to be a 'you can do anything in your power' style of game. While certain things like attacking a city might require oversight of a GM, I'd suggest setting a simple guide-line for affecting other players like some other RP games have. Mostly things along the lines of 'don't try to permanently cripple someone you have little reason to cripple'. Robbing someone shouldn't turn into a case of them losing 2 arms and a toe, generally. Not hard rules, but a guide-line to follow with maybe a way for victims that feel they were unnecessarily shafted in an encounter can maybe contest the results, in hugely-flawed cases.

This would hopefully serve to make the scene-lock idea seem less like a borderline death sentence for the victim, as well.

Character progression

There are a whole heap of flaws involved with tying character progression to GMs in any way, as well as just a personal preference from me that something like that doesn't happen. Here are a few notable examples:

- Shy players would feel discouraged from contacting a GM to try and get their progression.
- People likely won't like having their OOC build connected to IC, especially when OOC builds are tied to other things, such as an ability to get a house via buying asagos from other players, buying furniture, guild charters, etc. It's harder to build that money at level 30 than at level 60. Also, some players are non-combat ICly and I feel this unnecessarily ties the two together.
- It feels like an unnecessary new job for GMs. That would be a LOT of reading.
- Compounding with the earlier sentiment, if a GM isn't around, you're stuck waiting longer.

It's an issue, sure, but I feel like adding more blocks of any variety isn't the answer.

Also as an added note, I feel level 60 characters appearing isn't what makes characters feel ephemeral. It's the fact that they can disappear with no notice, never to be seen again. Strong people existing elsewhere and appearing for the first time is normal in a world like this-- the world is vast, and knowing everyone is impossible.

[FatherCrixius]

Okaaaaay. Hoping to get in quick with this one.

Let me open with something positive from your post. Scene locks, good for game. Other games have it, we should too.

Now for the not so positive : I think you miss the ball on a lot or most of the sentiments shared by people in the thread, and more importantly their priorities.

OOC Characters/Existing OOC

• Characters that exist in the game environment in an 'OOC' fashion undermines the RP environment and can create confusion about when and where it is appropriate to try to start RP with someone.
  
  
• Similarly, people behaving in an OOC manner or polluting the IC channels with memes and OOC jokes are distracting and have a negative effect on RP.
  

My Thoughts: I very much sympathize with people who feel this way. Meaning no disrespect to anyone, since I'm sure when this is done, it's not with negative intentions, and at times is distracting no one else. However, when it is done excessively and in very public areas, I feel like it is a large negative to people who are seeking to engage in more meaningful RP, and may in fact drive them away to other areas, even private ones, so that they can distance themselves from it.

Solution Ideas: The primary idea that comes to mind is simply to have more concrete rules on what substance RP in IC, especially public areas such as towns or the arena, should have, so that people grow out of making OOC jokes in IC channels, or otherwise being a distraction. 

Furthermore, as far as characters existing OOC, there should also be more well laid out restrictions on what you are and are not allowed to do while 'OOC'. This requires additional discussion on why someone goes into 'OOC' mode to begin with, however.

Point one, SL2 is a game that does not take itself very seriously, and neither do the players. This is the only setting with MMO-esque recurring events and incredibly bland settings that lend themselves to no particular vibe. I'm fine with OOC being excluded from certain areas, but it just won't be very popular or heeded. There have been times where I've disturbed roleplay for a comedic break or what not, whilst I was on call with virtually every one else in the scene. Sometimes it's welcome, and it's uncommon enough that one has to read a room before throwing their foot in their mouths. Historically? People that oppose these breaks are branded rp elitists, who were so mesmerised with their slice of life one say / 5 minute pause ARR PEE that they would vocally oppose the presence of OOC backdroppers.  That is not to say there aren't unwelcome breaks, I am sure many no prompts on PvP have been pressed, or some [OOC] tagged characters drag through a scene, but it's not something that has ever stopped me from interaction. 

The OOC corner is one example I can sort of understand, and even add to. The lack of clarity as to whether someone is IC or OOC there results in some rather jarring 'hey im ic now' moments that aren't helpful for maintaining a scene. The other sentiment, say two people you don't know in IC arena, five in the corner, you know who you sticking with : But mostly out of personal experience and talking with like-minded others I believe you are ascribing far too much weight on players not wanting to be IC behind immersion breaking players, and avoiding confronting the setting's innate lack of immersion. 

Applications for Events, Requests, Lore, Etc.

• The process for getting things approved and requesting them is vague. It is hard to see when someone gets something approved and for what reason.
  
  
• For this reason it is also hard to know if someone actually has some aspect of their roleplay approved, or if they're just making things up.
  
  
• Sometimes the lack of transparency creates a feeling of favoritism when someone is denied something, but sees others get things approved.
  

My Thoughts: Ultimately I feel this is an issue of clarity and consistency. The process has always been to contact a GM or myself privately, and while that's fine for the most part, it does create the issues listed above.

Solution Ideas: The first thought I had for this was simply to make a public forum here for player applications and requests, as well as guidelines on what you should do to get something approved or not. Establishing this forum would allow for greater clarity, allow review by both GMs and players to see what has been approved and what hasn't been (and why), and help correct the perception that nothing significant is approved.

A lot of people are quick to call it favouritism, given the things historically given a go ahead. I will say some absolutely stupid things have been okay'd, and otherwise tame things are categorically denied - Such as skateboards and zippers, in a sense that comes across entirely arbitrary in contrast to everything else amidst setting. I could entirely see it, but knowing none of the GM's personally I won't comment. 

The solutions work I guess, provided the GM team is up for reviewing and disclosing whatever goes up there, which I am unsure of.

Community: Cliques

• The game often breaks down into friends only wanting to be around their friends instead of RPing with others they are less familiar with (for whatever reason).
  
  
• Could partly be caused by people breaking down the RP environment with OOC-like behavior or 'memeing'.
  

My Thoughts: Cliques are not inherently a bad thing, but they definitely hurt RP in some fashion, especially when people only interact with their friends group in private areas. However, this is something that involves the community primarily - there is not a lot that I can do to resolve it, I feel.

People have friends. Clique rp is generally justified through public RP being both monotonous and developmentally neutral, shallow and superficial. I will preach from the hill tops that this is a matter of setting and players discarding their IC's too easily, and not just 'Your clique doesn't like mine.' as quality rp is far too rare for even the most stubborn of people to discard. Again I think you are weighing 'memeing' far too heavily. Our topical conversation can only go so deep when we are but acquaintances at a place shallow enough to be described with 'An arena.' or 'Dock town.' Hencewhy player housing is so successful by comparison. I believe it well within your power to remove hermits from their shells, just not by smacking them on the wrist.

World Rigidity

• People perceive the world as incapable of being changed or affected in any meaningful capacity.
  

My Thoughts: When we first announced eventmins, one thing that was asked and answered is that I was definitely open to people being able to take steps through them to change the world in a significant way. I feel like that has been forgotten, or that people haven't had the proper motivation or ideas to do so. In a lot of areas, though, this is my fault as well, as I haven't personally run events with the intent for something big to change and given players an avenue to participate, and have instead relied on the idea that players who want to see such things would rather take their own steps towards it.

That said, a lot of the time, when people approach me or the GMs about their requests, we hear a lot of the same things - I want to blow up X town/building/person. Not to dissuade anyone from going for such a thing if they desire it, and I am certainly not against such activities, but if feel you've hit a roadblock while trying one of these, just know that we have heard it a lot and it can feel a little low effort.

Solution Ideas: On the players' parts, if you have interest in causing such change, then I encourage you to make use of the eventmins. On my part, there may come a time where I will have to actually help steer or do some of these events myself. I also feel that the previously mentioned application forum would go a long way here.

Eventmins are anything but a solution to this problem. The world is fluid only when it serves to sweep up the results of some dramatized event. However many times hospital was bombed, The falcons attack arena, what have you is swiftly forgotten as if consequence was but an afterthought; And no eventmin will be able to remedy this global prerogative. This exists due to a lack of actors, consequence, and reactions. For instance, there are no wars, no politics, feuds or ongoing damaged relations with anywhere else. Everything is just peachy. Should some player have the go-ahead to intentionally sabotage relations with terroristic actions in another continent? There is expected to be no consequence, and the event falls into trivia territory. Next, the lack of actors. As you bring up

Lack of Roles

• People perceive that there is a lack of place for their character to go, and positions in the existing world that their character can fill. (Not just mechanical Roles.)
  

My Thoughts: This is going to sound like a repeat of the last section, but again, I am absolutely open to people trying to rise up the ranks of the existing political structure, or to try and create their own. That was one of the goals of adding the roles system - to give people a foot in the door for contributing to the world in some fashion, and help them foster RP around it. However, it hasn't done as good of a job as I'd have liked.

Solution Ideas: This is another area where we would benefit greatly from an application forum.

There is a key lack of actors. GM-Approved minor nobility is a pseudo-exception, but are rarely given credence and even rarer to be known about. There are no religious zealots, no subterfuge politicians out for greater office, and no feuding lords. Players don't inhabit the right roles, because water sourcing offers no RP value. I do not think this is a matter of there being dismissive gms, or that players are just too shy to ask ;  But that there's a clear lack of structure to sigroganan world. Nobody knows what roles could be attained where it not suggested by some authority, because no systems are in place. Players have to form their own roles around them, such as hospitals, adventuring guilds or even to a lesser extent the guards. If you want to sincerely remedy this, more lore is needed, as to how Sigrogana and other nations function; As well as key case examples and individual liberties offered to players to do something with this role, rather than just twiddle their thumbs expectantly. If players are not to take these roles, they need to exist in game somehow. 

This key lack of actors in vital roles prevents players from reacting in any other way than slice of life monotony, and for sure stifles the creativity players would otherwise be able to harness. 

Personal Thoughts About Other Things
Note: Nothing in this section suggests that I am going to change anything randomly. They are merely my personal thoughts and things I've noticed.

While I understand why it exists, I view the mentality of having to rush to max level and gear out to begin RPing their character to be a negative for a few reasons;

1) People feel like they can't RP when they aren't max level, leading them to spend more time grinding instead of roleplaying, which can exacerbate the lack of finding RP.
2) It skips over potential character development and puts your character right at where you want them to be, giving them less room to grow.
3) Max level characters appearing out of nowhere leads to characters feeling ephemeral and without much substance.
4) It encourages the same behavior out of other people, as they may feel excluded if they do not.

The general solution to this would be to require you to RP to actually progress your character. Mechanically this would probably be represented by level caps that can only be overcome by putting in enough effort in your RP, such as with in-game RP posts that are reviewed by GMs (for example) and given a 'gold star', or posts on the forum that can also contribute to that sort of progress. (Potentially 1 level = 1 gold star.)

I also feel like such a system would be met divisively by the player base - since it doesn't exist currently, it adds another roadblock to getting to 'PvP ready' status. It can also be a demerit for people who like to make alts for different character concepts that they want to enjoy mechanically, and may encourage people towards omniclassing characters, leading to a lack of distinct, fleshed out character concepts.

I for one see PvP as a vital part of my characters identity. They don't have to be good, but their build has to thematically fit them like a glove, and I have spent many hours fucking around to facilitate this. I will say that the grind to 60 happens not because 'I must be ready to fight as I envision it', but the growth of 1 - 60 is literally too jarring of a transition for me to be cool with, whereas build to build 60 + Offscreen LE's allows for far finer control, and demonstrates the effort I put into making a character 'RP ready.' in much the same way of FI's and Profiles, a point I am sure I mentioned either on my post or the PM.
Maybe people who only play this game to PvP see reaching 60 that way, but 1 - 60 being 'development' seems lost to anyone but new players, and given GM insistence that player characters are average in setting; it almost feels disingenuous to suggest level ones grow to corroborate the backstory you set in place. Sure, they can mechanically grow stronger from 1 - 60, but doing two dungeons and doubling in strength just breaks whatever immersion SL2 has. The worst way to ''''''''FIX'''''''' this problem is to make grinding slower. Subtle, but seperate tiers of strength would be far more effective, aka exactly what people are doing with tiering their builds through LE's right now. 
Additionally, there are players that try to capitalize on the underleveled. "KEKW"
Doing some form of RP reward system would be fine and dandy, but would not help the GM's biased mentality a lot of players feel, but may be worthwhile to increase the longevity of characters I guess. With walrus stepping down from the GM team, this process is also going to take a lot longer, perhaps unviabley so.

Now, some points others have pointed out to me, that should take precedence over those that you have presented;
A lack of mechanical tie in to RP, as suggested by miller, that a lot of mechanics are poor for the rp environment; Such as the regularity of black beast raids, the entire story, and the core gameplay loop of BDPs do not inherently lend themself to RP elsewhere. The former being some trivial but good for exp / murai minigame that happens however many times a reboot, and the latter a pivotal part of the gameplay loop that could see much expansion to facilitate greater RP. As they stand, BDP's are something you want done quickly and quietly, so your focus can be on better thought out elements of the game.
I think Ethan was the first to mention this one : The conflict between adding Mmo / stiff mechanics and improving the rp landscape of the game divides too much attention. My personal opinion is that SL2 should be considered a roleplaying game first, and a turn based strategy mmo second, but all the recent updates have focused on adding new content and features to the PvP system, which I shall refrain from commenting on here. No surprises the landscape has been stale for my demographic. I want to do things, not sit around and discuss PvP unbalance.
I don't remember who brought it up first, but do something about the guards. 




I think the healthiest thing you can do for the game right now is clearly outline your thoughts, intentions, and perceived problems as they arise; and cultivate a community that responds in kind. Be ready to receive well intentioned criticism, and mindful that not all opinions are going to come from objective outliers. When asking others to bounce off of in writing this, there wasn't a lot of positivity, the best being 'a step in the right direction, sort of'. Later elaborated into 

it's only a 'step' in the right direction but it's ultimately just... not really going to mend or change much in the end I feel? I don't want to be pessimistic about it, since this is the first time something of this nature has happened in like seven years.

[MakeshiftWalrus]

It's been a while since I've gotten a chance to post my thoughts publicly, so let's give it a shot. I'll try to make it brief.

OOC Characters/Existing OOC

• Characters that exist in the game environment in an 'OOC' fashion undermines the RP environment and can create confusion about when and where it is appropriate to try to start RP with someone.
  
  
• Similarly, people behaving in an OOC manner or polluting the IC channels with memes and OOC jokes are distracting and have a negative effect on RP.
  

Being OOC is one of the few liberties SL2 has over other RP games. In all of my years engaging in role-playing, it has been the only game to date that has even allowed people to walk around, and do things OOCly. This, I feel, is largely due to the tons upon tons of mechanical interaction you can have with the environment, and I don't personally feel this is a bad thing. It becomes a bad thing when people do it excessively, or try to abuse it. But there are areas your character wouldn't necessarily go that has required facilities (Such as Lawrence in Law's End) that essentially forces you to slap on your OOC tag if you're not keen on the idea of paying out five bucks for a science kit in the Asago bank.

The latter point is an issue with the community's viewpoint of the game, and how little the game actually takes itself seriously. It's hard to take it all too seriously with how many pop culture references you can find in the game, or how much inspiration is taken from other media when it comes to design choices. I'm not saying the game is worse for it, but it does shatter the idea of a unique identity.

Applications for Events, Requests, Lore, Etc.

• The process for getting things approved and requesting them is vague. It is hard to see when someone gets something approved and for what reason.
  
  
• For this reason it is also hard to know if someone actually has some aspect of their roleplay approved, or if they're just making things up.
  
  
• Sometimes the lack of transparency creates a feeling of favoritism when someone is denied something, but sees others get things approved.
  

All three of these should honestly just have been a thing from the start. It's a result of being too hands-off with moderating the game both from you, but also from the GMs, of which I was also to blame naturally. The complete lack of actual guidelines for what you can achieve, or cannot only make it all the more confusing for what you could aspire to accomplish, and there have been all too many cases of one GM allowing an inch, and the player then taking a mile. While I don't necessarily think everything of this needs to be, or should be applied for publicly, there obviously needs to be more communication between the staff about what's happening-- steps I know were taken before I left.

Community: Cliques

• The game often breaks down into friends only wanting to be around their friends instead of RPing with others they are less familiar with (for whatever reason).
  
  
• Could partly be caused by people breaking down the RP environment with OOC-like behavior or 'memeing'.
  

It's only natural for people to group up to assure they get what they want out of role-playing. We're social creatures, and why should we waste time with something we don't like, when we could hang out with people we know will give us the fix of creative writing we want? The issue here isn't that people are forming groups, it's that people outside of said groups get huffy that others are having fun, instead of focusing on their own things. In my experience, most of these 'Cliques' are open for people to join in if they actually want, but poor OOC-relations are the actual enemy when it comes to trying. You dislike someone who either spearheads a certain group, or is a prominent member of said group, and it makes you feel unwelcome.

The idea that people are criticizing others for hanging out with their friends is quite frankly incredibly silly.

As for the second point, the memes only (usually) happens in public, because of the incredibly unserious nature the environment tends to create. I cannot stress enough that the general standard of public role-playing is so bastardized compared to the creative writing in more private locations that you might as well be looking at two different games entirely. I've spent countless hours watching people walk around on characters that obviously aren't serious. Sometimes they're funny, most of the time they aren't. The issue with this, however, in my own opinion, is that memes aren't punished unless they actually go too far.

Sure, people shouldn't be 100% serious all the time, but we can't possibly be so starved for creative ideas that we have to use another funny skeleman to make bone puns while dancing in the fountain, right? It wasn't entertaining the first six times, and it probably won't be the next, either.

World Rigidity

• People perceive the world as incapable of being changed or affected in any meaningful capacity.
  Lack of Roles
  • People perceive that there is a lack of place for their character to go, and positions in the existing world that their character can fill. (Not just mechanical Roles.)
    

What people mean with the world is rigid, they mean the average player can't change anything if they wanted to. A player shouldn't necessarily have to go through an eventmin to accomplish something, it should be something that they can achieve with their own, two hands, and their creative writing, or at least, that's how I view it. People want to take on jobs that can affect what they're interacting with, and the eventmins, while largely helpful in these matters, should not be a requirement for an adaptive world.

If you look to other role-playing games, there are almost no important positions that aren't filled by player characters. They have actual sway over armies of others, and has worked incredibly hard to achieve what their power grants them. They can have political opinions, and might choose to rebel, and create conflict with somewhere for example, which is utterly impossible in the context of SL2 as it stands, because as Crixius said before, everything is just fine, and dandy. Everyone is in a big ol' lull in history, and any meaningful engagement between nations are squarely in the past.

Water sourcers are meaningless in the world, and nobody respects a doctor who slapped his name on a board, and got randomly selected through a lottery.

What people want is high-standing political positions capable of shaping laws, or land. Being promoted to generals in the army, and overseeing actual, tangible troops. They want official in-lore guilds to climb the ranks of, which is why the Dormehan Militia is as popular as it is. It's a faction that actually gets a bit of scraps from the game, and that's fantastic.

Things like the Church Knights, the Verglas Monastery, the Geistritters, the Agency. We also want spots like being in Sigrogana's aristocracy, or the Alstalsian High Council. All the roles that keep the world rigid are filled, and that's what I personally feel the core of the issue with these two points are.

If you think this is incorrect, then guide us towards the things we should be doing. Yes, it's our job to create the narrative we want to live in. But it's also your job to show us what we're capable of doing.

Conflict, Rules of Engagement

• Rules for expected etiquette in situations of conflict only exist in vague terms.
  
  
• Playing as an antagonist character carries a lot of risk with very little in the way to bounce back; a single failure often carries extremely harsh punishments, including long times in jail away from meaningful RP.
  
  
• Other parties, including guards, can often feel like an insurmountable, infinite, and at times omnipotent force, stifling antagonist encounters and RP.
  

Most villains tend to exist in the form of event characters, and I think that's a terrible shame. It serves to create this alien entity we can't touch outside of the events they specifically orchestrate, because they have every right to just slap on an OOC tag, or go: "I'm hiding in my secret Alstalsia base nobody can find." I apologize to the people I'm calling out with this one, but I've seen at least six terrorist cells just chilling on Zeran lands, and it just never made much sense to me.

But I understand their sentiment, because whenever villains do make themselves a thing on the map, people always show up en masse, and just mob the villain to death with endless PvP-requests. With how integrated PvP actually is in these cases, it doesn't help that the people playing the villains are super-hyper-optimal as a result of just not being allowed to lose, or are face-swapped characters that exist only these purposes. We have some ways to alleviate the pure mobbing through the fleeing rules, but it isn't perfect, and I feel guidelines for conduct like this are a must.

I feel there are many issues with the guards, but the primary one is not that they're capable of spawning out of the woodwork in major cities. That should be the deterring factor to doing illegal things within large settlements.

Personal Thoughts About Other Things
1) People feel like they can't RP when they aren't max level, leading them to spend more time grinding instead of roleplaying, which can exacerbate the lack of finding RP.

2) It skips over potential character development and puts your character right at where you want them to be, giving them less room to grow.
3) Max level characters appearing out of nowhere leads to characters feeling ephemeral and without much substance.
4) It encourages the same behavior out of other people, as they may feel excluded if they do not.

I must hard disagree with the notion of an increased level cap. It wouldn't make characters any less likely to disappear, because the way players treat characters is by swapping new faces onto old characters once they've gotten bored of them. Why wouldn't they? They've spent hours grinding up a Vampire to do stuff on, so if their new concept is a Vampire, and it has all the gear they need, why not just ask a GM for a name change, and boom, enjoy your fresh new character without any of the effort.

That's what makes characters feel ephemeral.

Having been a GM, I can safely tell you that any GM-involvement in checking things in-game just would not happen. The GMs as a whole aren't on the game enough to make this ideal, and I have little doubts that any of them want to feel forced, or pressured to be around more. Even so, rather than increases to parameters that will obviously just be abused for more PvP-shenanigans, the aim should instead be to reward the people who dedicate to their characters with unique possibilities.

Things like I mentioned before: Important positions in the society of the game, or unique items which aren't stronger, or better, but might hold importance to the lore. Unique opportunities to accomplish things that other players might not, unless they also dedicate their time to growing less than ten characters over a longer period of time.

[Neus]

I'm not aiming to shoot anyone's opinions down, but I did want this to be a discussion, so I want to respond to a few points. Again, you are free to disagree with me.

Point one, SL2 is a game that does not take itself very seriously, and neither do the players. This is the only setting with MMO-esque recurring events and incredibly bland settings that lend themselves to no particular vibe. I'm fine with OOC being excluded from certain areas, but it just won't be very popular or heeded. There have been times where I've disturbed roleplay for a comedic break or what not, whilst I was on call with virtually every one else in the scene. Sometimes it's welcome, and it's uncommon enough that one has to read a room before throwing their foot in their mouths. Historically? People that oppose these breaks are branded rp elitists, who were so mesmerised with their slice of life one say / 5 minute pause ARR PEE that they would vocally oppose the presence of OOC backdroppers.  That is not to say there aren't unwelcome breaks, I am sure many no prompts on PvP have been pressed, or some [OOC] tagged characters drag through a scene, but it's not something that has ever stopped me from interaction.

There is a difference between the game being more welcoming and not taking itself seriously, as you put it. Some players not taking the environment seriously, and therefore contributing to this problem, does not also mean that it is encouraged by anyone else. Trying to put forth that kind of argument when you yourself admit to this behavior does not make it very convincing.

While you sometimes do it around people you are in a call with and therefore are familiar with, what you need to understand is that this normalizes this kind of behavior and causes it to be repeated by others elsewhere, because they think everyone is okay and expecting it. Even worse is labelling people who are being bothered by it as 'elitists' instead of understanding that this kind of behavior can be disruptive.

You are very critical of the game's setting and game elements, but don't seem to understand how the behavior you're defending is even more detrimental. Because while game elements such as the recurring events may not seem very 'realistic' and vaguely pierce the RP veil for some, people acting out OOC jokes ICly completely rips it off the wall for everyone.

I'm not against people having fun with others. If you want to joke around in OOC in private with your friends, that's totally fine. Doing it in places where it disturbs others is not.

A lot of people are quick to call it favouritism, given the things historically given a go ahead. I will say some absolutely stupid things have been okay'd, and otherwise tame things are categorically denied - Such as skateboards and zippers, in a sense that comes across entirely arbitrary in contrast to everything else amidst setting. I could entirely see it, but knowing none of the GM's personally I won't comment.

Considering I am the one who has said no to skateboards and zippers, anyone chalking that up to favoritism is just being silly.

People have friends. Clique rp is generally justified through public RP being both monotonous and developmentally neutral, shallow and superficial. I will preach from the hill tops that this is a matter of setting and players discarding their IC's too easily, and not just 'Your clique doesn't like mine.' as quality rp is far too rare for even the most stubborn of people to discard. Again I think you are weighing 'memeing' far too heavily. Our topical conversation can only go so deep when we are but acquaintances at a place shallow enough to be described with 'An arena.' or 'Dock town.' Hencewhy player housing is so successful by comparison. I believe it well within your power to remove hermits from their shells, just not by smacking them on the wrist.

Would you like to elaborate on what you believe I can do on this matter?

Eventmins are anything but a solution to this problem. The world is fluid only when it serves to sweep up the results of some dramatized event. However many times hospital was bombed, The falcons attack arena, what have you is swiftly forgotten as if consequence was but an afterthought; And no eventmin will be able to remedy this global prerogative. This exists due to a lack of actors, consequence, and reactions. For instance, there are no wars, no politics, feuds or ongoing damaged relations with anywhere else. Everything is just peachy. Should some player have the go-ahead to intentionally sabotage relations with terroristic actions in another continent? There is expected to be no consequence, and the event falls into trivia territory. Next, the lack of actors. As you bring up

Eventmins exist to help facilitate player ambitions. They are an avenue you should use if you have goals you personally want to pursue.

Hospital bombings and random attacks on the arena are like lightning - they're flashy and they get everyone's attention for a moment, but they don't have a lasting impact. Do they not have a lasting impact because the game demands they don't? No, it's because of the nature of these sorts of actions. The bomb blows up, the damage is repaired over time, people forget about it or mention it ICly as a past thing that happened. May I ask what you would expect otherwise in this example?

I'm not sure where the impression that there are no wars/politics/feuds/etc. comes from, either. I don't do anything with them personally, but they definitely exist in the lore. I don't really want to argue hypotheticals when the perception is so fatalistic ("why do anything because nothing would ever change"), but if I could critique the idea, breaking down relations by doing random bombings on another continent doesn't make much sense. If you want to shake things up like that, join one of the factions you're trying to stir up and take aggressive action that way. There's no reason for relations between two factions to break down when there's no evidence or logical reasoning to point towards it actually being a hostile action from the other party.

I understand that people may feel that way after looking at the Bloeden plots, but that didn't play out the way it did because 'Dev wants his perfect snowglobe slice of life to never be disturbed'. I do want things to get shaken up, but I also want things to make sense.

There is a key lack of actors. GM-Approved minor nobility is a pseudo-exception, but are rarely given credence and even rarer to be known about. There are no religious zealots, no subterfuge politicians out for greater office, and no feuding lords. Players don't inhabit the right roles, because water sourcing offers no RP value. I do not think this is a matter of there being dismissive gms, or that players are just too shy to ask ;  But that there's a clear lack of structure to sigroganan world. Nobody knows what roles could be attained where it not suggested by some authority, because no systems are in place. Players have to form their own roles around them, such as hospitals, adventuring guilds or even to a lesser extent the guards. If you want to sincerely remedy this, more lore is needed, as to how Sigrogana and other nations function; As well as key case examples and individual liberties offered to players to do something with this role, rather than just twiddle their thumbs expectantly. If players are not to take these roles, they need to exist in game somehow.

This key lack of actors in vital roles prevents players from reacting in any other way than slice of life monotony, and for sure stifles the creativity players would otherwise be able to harness.

I agree to a point - that there isn't an extremely clear structure to the political world beyond noble houses. I also feel, however, that as I fill in more details, sometimes players perceive it as me putting up more barriers and the environment somehow becoming more restrictive, which is part of the reason why I haven't really put in the effort to do so.

I also feel as if this wouldn't necessarily stop players from trying to pursue positions even if they don't know the exact details, but I won't deny that it could just as easily be a deterrent.

I for one see PvP as a vital part of my characters identity. They don't have to be good, but their build has to thematically fit them like a glove, and I have spent many hours fucking around to facilitate this. I will say that the grind to 60 happens not because 'I must be ready to fight as I envision it', but the growth of 1 - 60 is literally too jarring of a transition for me to be cool with, whereas build to build 60 + Offscreen LE's allows for far finer control, and demonstrates the effort I put into making a character 'RP ready.' in much the same way of FI's and Profiles, a point I am sure I mentioned either on my post or the PM.
Maybe people who only play this game to PvP see reaching 60 that way, but 1 - 60 being 'development' seems lost to anyone but new players, and given GM insistence that player characters are average in setting; it almost feels disingenuous to suggest level ones grow to corroborate the backstory you set in place. Sure, they can mechanically grow stronger from 1 - 60, but doing two dungeons and doubling in strength just breaks whatever immersion SL2 has. The worst way to ''''''''FIX'''''''' this problem is to make grinding slower. Subtle, but seperate tiers of strength would be far more effective, aka exactly what people are doing with tiering their builds through LE's right now.
Additionally, there are players that try to capitalize on the underleveled. "KEKW"
Doing some form of RP reward system would be fine and dandy, but would not help the GM's biased mentality a lot of players feel, but may be worthwhile to increase the longevity of characters I guess. With walrus stepping down from the GM team, this process is also going to take a lot longer, perhaps unviabley so.

Now, some points others have pointed out to me, that should take precedence over those that you have presented;
A lack of mechanical tie in to RP, as suggested by miller, that a lot of mechanics are poor for the rp environment; Such as the regularity of black beast raids, the entire story, and the core gameplay loop of BDPs do not inherently lend themself to RP elsewhere. The former being some trivial but good for exp / murai minigame that happens however many times a reboot, and the latter a pivotal part of the gameplay loop that could see much expansion to facilitate greater RP. As they stand, BDP's are something you want done quickly and quietly, so your focus can be on better thought out elements of the game.
I think Ethan was the first to mention this one : The conflict between adding Mmo / stiff mechanics and improving the rp landscape of the game divides too much attention. My personal opinion is that SL2 should be considered a roleplaying game first, and a turn based strategy mmo second, but all the recent updates have focused on adding new content and features to the PvP system, which I shall refrain from commenting on here. No surprises the landscape has been stale for my demographic. I want to do things, not sit around and discuss PvP unbalance.
I don't remember who brought it up first, but do something about the guards.

I find a lot of this contradictory. 'A lack of mechanical tie in to RP', but 'don't make grinding take longer', but 'doing two dungeons and doubling in strength breaks the immersion'. I'm not really sure what problem you want to be addressed, or if there's even a problem, so I can't really comment in much detail.

I think the healthiest thing you can do for the game right now is clearly outline your thoughts, intentions, and perceived problems as they arise

That's good, because that's the entire point of this topic.

[Balor]

So going to make this short.

1. If we're to make a difference as players in the world we need a more accessible venue to the lore in game and out of game. The wiki lacks details and a player shouldn't have to search through a lore question thread for confirmation. As an Eventmin trying to work with people many are unsure what makes 'sense' in the lore. So often many just don't do anything. While some may think more details is a bad thing. It creates a creative border to build within, and is more satisfying than making an attempt and being told 'no this doesn't work.'

A Google doc, or some form of compiled information of what details you have set in place that can easily be accessed at a whim. Would be a godly tool for newer players.

2. More transparency between GM's and the Community is needed. While I have spoken to a few of the GM's and have been on good terms with them. The community is detached from them, and they from the community. As Walrus says, not many of them are active on the game. The submission forum would be a nice change of pace, or even a monthly newsletter.

3. The community doesn't want a harder grind. Levels or mechanical rewards are not going to inspire people to stick to one character. Roleplay does. A sense of weight on the world. I believe point one would remedy this issue, because it would allow people to feel more comfortable pursuing a goal in the game. Because they would feel confident setting an objective within the world, and reaching out to achieve it.

4. If you wish to give us more mechanical challenges. Legend Ink rewards for Laplace Quests would be nice. Meaning that people aren't going through the tedium of legend extending over and over again. Perhaps even Laplace quests that grant players the ability to forge a singular 10*. Giving them a feeling of sentimental value. The level cap doesn't need a raise, and the grind doesn't need a change. Mechanically we just need more to do rather than recycling old content.

5. The Conflict and Rules of engagement stuff I like. Antags tend to get dogpiled from my experience meaning that often they shy away from public displays. Being able to lock down an engagement so long as both parties are consenting is the right way to go.

6. I feel that people are too harsh on the OOC crowd. When the server is full of up to 50-70 players online. We often blame the 5-10 that are taking a break for the day in the OOC corner. I feel like there are different problems afoot, and taking 30 minute breaks to just chat up people before I go to bed. Or go to run errands is a luxury I feel people are making a scapegoat. OOC shenanigans can be an issue. But I don't think they deserve to be homed in on as they have been.

[FatherCrixius]

aight i give up

[sadbot]

In regards to the rules of conflict and engagement, some sort of loose 'scene lock' rule sounds like a great idea that I haven't heard before. I feel like it would handle the main issues that dissuade people from wanting to play an antagonist. The complaints I usually hear from those that have or would like to do antagonist character type things, myself included, is the response that the ic community at large has to these events. The general flow of the situation goes as follows most of the time:

1. Antagonist commits an illegal act/makes themselves known in some public fashion.
   
2. A group of players, whether guards or just bystanders in the area, form a party to fight the antagonist. This immediately means that the antagonist must either have a 4 man group of competent fighters of their own for anything like this, or avoid conflict entirely in all but the rare situations that they aren't heavily outnumbered for some reason, limiting their options.
   
3. The guards, or more guards, swiftly arrive after being notified IC and/or OOC unless this event is taking place in all but the most private or secluded of locations, usually leaving the antagonist outnumbered by multiple 4 man groups even if they brought a 4 man group of their own in preparation for conflict.
   
4. This outnumbering continues as a solid portion of the online player base flocks to witness the event (In most cases, unless the event is very small scale, again limiting options) until their is nothing more the antagonist can do other than surrender, be defeated in the conflict or flee on the players' terms or the terms of the fleeing rules.
   

All in all the number of people that get involved in conflict against antagonists is what causes most of the problems. Obviously nobody wants a rule that would force events like this to be small scale only by limiting how many people can even attend/participate, but perhaps an optional 'scene lock' on conflict participants so that the antagonist group can't be outnumbered, or can only be outnumbered to a smaller degree, would prevent this type of roleplay from getting regularly derailed via antagonist dogpiling. This would allow it to be used in public spaces and more private events as well, in an effort to keep antagonist roleplay in general more stable.

As for the the other points, I don't have much to say about punishments for the antagonists, but some variety beyond just jail time would certainly be a nice change that would add some weight and seriousness to the jail time route without dissuading antagonist behavior in general by making it a guarantee on capture.

I do think establishing some rules and guidelines on antagonistic roleplay would also be a good step to making it more achievable and stable, and of course more enjoyable for everyone involved as a result. I do think however that those rules should be kept somewhat loose, so that it doesn't infringe on people's creativity when it comes to this sort of thing. After all, it's basically down to a player's imagination when it comes to antagonist motivations, plans and actions. Most likely it should just be some guidelines on the where/when/how side of things, and perhaps some loose rules and protections on the protag and antag side in order to prevent the roleplay from breaking down into pvp dogpiling while still allowing conflict to be included.

As it stands right now, the only way I've see of consistently avoiding the conflict dogpiling is for antagonist roleplay to be restricted in various ways to either avoid conflict entirely at all costs, or shrug off the inevitable problems that come with it by either accepting that antagonists rarely if ever succeed in their plans regardless of scale and/or creating throwaway antagonist character that are just deleted afterwards. This usually leaves this sort of roleplay left exclusively to heavily pre-planned events in an effort to keep things on track, which leaves it somewhat inaccessible for those unwilling to put in a lot of time and effort for a single event while limiting options and making more casual antagonistic roleplay near impossible.

That all said, this sort of roleplay can and does happen, but I can't remember the last time I saw an antagonist or an antagonist group even successfully escape from the near inevitable dogpiling and subsequent arrest, let alone succeed in any capacity with their plans, regardless of scale. Probably the destruction of Cellsvich, which would fall under the category of heavily pre-planned event (that was already pre-determined to be successful for the antagonists technically due to the upcoming Cellsvich update). 

I've ended up kinda rambling here. Please don't jump on me too hard as I don't claim to be any kind of expert here, just someone that would very much like to see more of this type of roleplay. but to summarize, I think the main problem right now is that antagonist roleplay if often derailed by pvp dogpiling, and antagonists succeeding with their plans, regardless of scale, is almost impossible in anything more casual than a planned event setting as things stand at the moment.

[Neus]

So going to make this short.

1. If we're to make a difference as players in the world we need a more accessible venue to the lore in game and out of game. The wiki lacks details and a player shouldn't have to search through a lore question thread for confirmation. As an Eventmin trying to work with people many are unsure what makes 'sense' in the lore. So often many just don't do anything. While some may think more details is a bad thing. It creates a creative border to build within, and is more satisfying than making an attempt and being told 'no this doesn't work.'

A Google doc, or some form of compiled information of what details you have set in place that can easily be accessed at a whim. Would be a godly tool for newer players.

2. More transparency between GM's and the Community is needed. While I have spoken to a few of the GM's and have been on good terms with them. The community is detached from them, and they from the community. As Walrus says, not many of them are active on the game. The submission forum would be a nice change of pace, or even a monthly newsletter.

3. The community doesn't want a harder grind. Levels or mechanical rewards are not going to inspire people to stick to one character. Roleplay does. A sense of weight on the world. I believe point one would remedy this issue, because it would allow people to feel more comfortable pursuing a goal in the game. Because they would feel confident setting an objective within the world, and reaching out to achieve it.

4. If you wish to give us more mechanical challenges. Legend Ink rewards for Laplace Quests would be nice. Meaning that people aren't going through the tedium of legend extending over and over again. Perhaps even Laplace quests that grant players the ability to forge a singular 10*. Giving them a feeling of sentimental value. The level cap doesn't need a raise, and the grind doesn't need a change. Mechanically we just need more to do rather than recycling old content.

5. The Conflict and Rules of engagement stuff I like. Antags tend to get dogpiled from my experience meaning that often they shy away from public displays. Being able to lock down an engagement so long as both parties are consenting is the right way to go.

6. I feel that people are too harsh on the OOC crowd. When the server is full of up to 50-70 players online. We often blame the 5-10 that are taking a break for the day in the OOC corner. I feel like there are different problems afoot, and taking 30 minute breaks to just chat up people before I go to bed. Or go to run errands is a luxury I feel people are making a scapegoat. OOC shenanigans can be an issue. But I don't think they deserve to be homed in on as they have been.

1. One thing I was working on before the website move was establishing a wiki on the domain for this, since a lot of topics are hard to find and I figured that I could also clarify a lot of them at the same time. Now that work on the crafting stuff has slowed down, I might refocus my attention to this and work on it bit by bit.

2. 3. Fair points.

4. It's not really something I want to do since I feel like lnet requests don't contribute very much to RP, which is the primary concern.

6. I'm not really trying to make people who just want to log on and relax or spar OOC feel bad for doing so, I'm just trying to point out that when they start overlapping with IC, it becomes a problem for RP.