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Post by Para on Mar 18, 2012 0:02:47 GMT -5
So, obviously GD has been having some issues for a while. Aika, Killy and I have been discussing what to do some, but before we decide anything, we'd like to know what everyone here would be interested in, and what you'd like to happen.
Option 1: Just close GD. We might end up making another, different site, who knows, but GD would be dead.
Option 2: Continue GD, and do whatever we can to make it recover. Meesh has made some particularly helpful suggestions about the ad and information we have that could help with this, though we would need help from everyone.
Option 3: Temporarily close GD, maybe for a month or two, then reopen. This would give us time to get everything better organized and figured out (I, personally, think that a lot of the issues have come from the three of us not having originally been leading GD, and not knowing exactly what to do with it or even exactly what GD was when we took over. This would give us time to figure all that out, along with figuring out plots), so that GD could hopefully run more smoothly once it reopened, but I do think we'd lose some people while it was closed.
Option 4: Close GD, and make a new simourv site. Similar to the third option, but this would allow us room to make changes we want (such as making gender and sexuality completely irrelevant to simourvs' choices, or more major things like adding minor magic/rituals, or just moving the timeline forward or backward a few generations so we have some new plots) without having to constantly retcon the site (as we did with the bonding, among other things); it would just be a new, AU site. This would have the benefit of allowing us to more easily and thoroughly create Pohono as its own world, rather than leaving it as mostly just a Pern ripoff. We would, however, also risk losing people in the move between sites.
Option 5: In theory, we could both continue GD and make a new, AU/future Pohono, but... well, it'd take a lot of work, so we'd need a lot of help to do that, and I personally think it's somewhat unlikely that anyone will be so interested in having two simourv sites that they'd want to put that much time and energy into it.
So. Killy, Aika, and I are largely willing to work with any of these options, but we don't want to spend all our effort trying to revive GD if no one wants to write here anymore, nor do we want to close GD if everyone still wants to write here. So, what do you think? Do you want Pohono to continue, as GD or as a new site? Do you just not care (and if you don't care, is there anything that would interest you?)? If there is an option you like, would you be willing to help, and do you have any ideas for how any of the options would work, or even any other options we might have overlooked? Or, for that matter, any other thoughts you might have on the subject.
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Post by Chern'a on Mar 18, 2012 11:27:32 GMT -5
Options 3 and 4 make the most sense to me. While I really like the simourv idea, the more I played here the more it became apparent that things were confusing and there was a lot of miscommunication - between Bre's original ideas, the directions you guys wanted to take, and even creative differences amongst the admins/mods.
While not every single detail needs to be provided right off the bat, I think GD would have an easier time attracting new members and keeping them if it had a cohesive backstory available for all applicants to review and the basic customs and such for both continents - where are the cultures similar? What makes them different? - clearly outlined so people have an easier time known what to expect, and how to build their character sheets/backstories.
Some sort of short character sheets on the important NPCs would also be good - C'elia runs the Eyrie, but frankly...I'd been getting conflicting reports on what she was like, depending on which admin was writing her. A publicly available character sheet that at least listed some of the 'changes' she may have instituted from her predecessor, her recent decrees or actions, and the most common rumors that people circulate about her that our characters might run across would be a big help in formulating their opinions/reactions to the NPCs.
I like GD. I think it fills an unusual niche - and that's become more true the more you've made it its own creation and not just a DRoP-clone. I would like to see it continue. But I think it would be a stronger site for making it the collective brainchild of the current admins/mods, and not the remnants of someone else's idea from a dead site. Whether you do a 'soft reboot' and shut the site down for a little bit while you rework the current issues and do some serious retconning, or a 'hard reboot' where you make a completely new AU and a fresh start...I would support either. And with the numbers of active people having dwindled, this is probably the best time to shift things around - you run the risk of losing a few of us, but I think there's less than a half-dozen of us left at this point anyways...numbers you could probably rebuild with one solid recruitment drive.
If there are people you ARE worried about losing, pull them into the new site re-design as 'Founders' - keep them involved as you're rewriting things, even if you don't want to make them full-fledged mods.
On the other hand, I'm not going to lie; as quiet as the site has become, I've drifted away to deal with both IRL social, work, and school, and I've been devoting my free time to a more active site. I like you guys, and I enjoyed RPing with you in the past, but due to both some personality/creative differences and time constraints, I'd not be able to provide much more than my occasional opinion for things here. I'd probably end up having to go down to just one character if the site reboots. But I don't want to make any more waves, so I'll mainly be cheering you on from the sidelines.
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Post by Meesh on Mar 18, 2012 12:56:02 GMT -5
I'm also liking 3 and 4. To be honest, I can't contribute much considering I've barely rp'ed at Pohono, and even then it was all borrowed characters.
But perhaps, if we do go with option 4, we remake the storyline completely? We can still keep the simourv, Pohono, and the animals, but we redo the history and politics to something that's a bit simpler. People could keep their characters too, just transfer them over here and edit the history accordingly. We could also open up some higher rank spots, which will certainly attract more attention here.
That, coupled with an advertising campaign with some sort of impressive prize might do the trick.
And perhaps by the time we open new site, Venirephg will have already had her clutch, so prospective members will be attracted by the opportunity of eggs.
Also, this is a kind of random suggestion, but I noticed this on another couple of sites I played and it seems to work out very well. Allow the small chance (maybe a 2% chance per clutch) of a 'mutated' chick to come out of an egg. By mutated, it could be an albino black, or maybe a nonexistant color like yellow or purple. People always love that kind of chance.
Couple this off with shortening the information to something readable and more advertising, and I think GD (or its successor) could be saved :3
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Post by Para on Mar 18, 2012 14:01:45 GMT -5
For option 4, yes; if we make a new site, the history would change some (or we'd move to a new time period; it'd have mostly the same effect). What exactly it would change to would depend on whoever's involved in making the new site.
Actually, mutated simourv have been discussed several times; I remember Killy in particular being interested in having melanistic and albino simourv. The only reason we didn't include them in the last hatching was because we thought that we were doing enough with A'ria's tawny, T'ryn's red, and the simourv bonding to each other.
On the subject of random thoughts: one thing I saw a site doing was giving out 'gift bags' for the first ten people to join when the site was new; the bags were things like diasks, pets, or guaranteed impressions to certain colors. Some other things like colored names and such, too, I think, but those three are what I'm sure of, and probably it's the larger things that would most attract people.
Other random thought: we could, potentially, allow greens and female rainbows to clutch too, if we let them each clutch one egg per flight, and only when the flight is close to (say within a week of) a tawny's flight; the eggs from the tawny and the greens/rainbows would then all hatch together. (Justified via pheromones or something.) It'd allow more clutches of decent size, and a lot of people do enjoy playing clutching females. Limiting it to one egg, and only when the flight is at the right time, would both make it easier to limit the number of simourv, and make it something fun for the people playing the female instead of work (as it seems easy to become when you have to design and plan 10-20 eggs and hatchlings at once). It'd take a bit of work to do, but might work well. (Maybe we could just get rid of grays, either entirely or go with a weakened/new and rebellious eyrie that just doesn't have any grays yet. That would limit the number of simourv pretty well, I think, while allowing lots of clutches and hatchings.) Just random brainstorming there, but I wanted to mention it before I forgot.
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Post by Kilnarak on Mar 18, 2012 15:48:27 GMT -5
Yeah, we had been planning (I think) for there to be a mutation in the next clutch. I suppose if I have a preference it would be for option 4, as we would be able to sort of start fresh and throw out all of the stuff from the old site that we don't like. I'd... lean towards setting it further in the future, as I feel that would more easily allow for implementing more fantasy elements, and generally having humans more settled on the planet.
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Post by winged on Mar 18, 2012 16:26:57 GMT -5
Waffling between options 3 and 4. I feel that 4 would probably be the most satisfying to everyone.
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Post by Para on Mar 18, 2012 16:32:14 GMT -5
I don't think we had an official 'this hatchling from this egg will be a melanistic/albino of this color,' but we were about as sure about having a mutation as we could be without starting to design hatchlings.
As for the AU, I don't care too much about the time; I figure if we're adding any fantasy elements, it's a noticeable enough AU that it won't matter too much. No objections to skipping forwards, though.
Winged: What do you think about 3? Since it sounds like you're also leaning toward that a bit.
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Post by Chern'a on Mar 18, 2012 18:35:51 GMT -5
I would lean more towards 4, myself - an easier to chance to start with a clean slate and everyone on the same page. Plus, like Killy said, the setting really needs to change. If it's going to be set so close to Landing, there should be more tech. If you want it to be more medieval-y level of culture/politics, then setting it a few hundred years (or more) after Landing would make more sense. Then 'lost technology' would have a lot more meaning, and it would be easier to have it shift gradually towards steampunk, if that's the direction you want to go with it. Or turn it into pure fantasy with some mystic/magic elements, if you really want to shake the DRoP mold.
Grab bags sound like a good idea - maybe do it in levels, to encourage more people? Say, first 5 get pick of simourv colors/available PC ranks, 6-10 get 1 free pet, and 10-15 get 100 diasks?
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Post by Para on Mar 18, 2012 19:12:16 GMT -5
I was thinking kind of 'each grab bag has one high-level thing, and 2-3 low level things,' so that people wouldn't go 'oh, the high ones are already gone? Nevermind then.' Combining them could work well, though.... *edits:* Combining the ideas, I mean. The original grab bags I saw were huge (like, a simourv, and a few pets, and artwork, and diasks, and a colored name, and a few other things all in each grab bag); I don't think we can or want to go to that scale, though.
Another thought is that with the fourth option, we could create already-bonded simourv-simourv pairs. (And hopefully, a better way to describe them. Flyer pairs, maybe, with human-simourv being rider pairs?) I think the option to pick up and play those would draw a lot of people, even if we said 'we have to see how you write first, so make a character, we'll put a pair up for adoption every week/two weeks, and you can ask to be considered for a pair once you have 20 posts' or something similar.
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Post by Kilnarak on Mar 18, 2012 19:58:18 GMT -5
We could allow players to pick up single simourv as characters also, or kamrov, or include new sentient races. Probably want to make more non-native earth animals, or possibly evolved earth animals if it's that far into the future.
I wonder if we should carry over diasks? Because a lot of people here have accumulated them. I'd also probably want to allow people to port over characters with edited histories to fit whatever the setting is/or altered versions of current characters + any pets or perks they have. I'm not sure how that would work with gift bags? There should be some perk for returning members, but maybe different from gift-bags - have those for new people? I don't know.
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Post by Para on Mar 18, 2012 20:07:15 GMT -5
Yeah, I think returning members would get something different than the gift bags, since the gift bags would be for the purpose of luring in new members. Maybe, like, a choice between several things? A high-ranked character, a single simourv, a bunch of diasks, and an extra character slot, pick one or two?
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Post by parallel on Mar 18, 2012 20:17:03 GMT -5
I would hate to see GD close down, mainly because I'm a newish member and haven't had much of a chance to rp my character yet. It' a really good site, with creative members and I think it can work out great once a direction is chosen and worked on.
Option three and four sound like the best to me. I would have no problem waiting for the month or so while the site gets a reboot, once someone emailed me to let me know it was back online again.
I really like the concept of the simourvs and the way they are deviating from the DRoP, but with regards to the plot I actually haven't a clue. Maybe I just didn't pay enough attention, or maybe it's because I haven't spent long reading much here, but I really don't know what's going on plot or history wise. It might be good to focus on making that area more clear? I don't know, that could just be me!
I like the idea of magic and rituals and stuff too, it sounds really interesting and I'm sure we could have a lot of fun with it, so I think my vote is swayed more to option four because of this. It would also separate us further from the dragons I think.
Either way, you won't be losing me as a member no matter how long the revamp takes, so long as the site gets more active and I can play my characters! ^^
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jakers
New Member
[M:48]
Posts: 7
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Post by jakers on Mar 19, 2012 15:16:44 GMT -5
I reckon moving to a different point on the timeline would spice things up and we should pump more art into the sites. And also probably post ads on our target audience so to speak... That's pretty much all taken from the options above but it's all I can really think of that seems useful in my mind.
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Post by azuli on Mar 19, 2012 17:16:19 GMT -5
I prefer 3. We already went through leaving GS once, and I think creating a new site is just too much effort when we have an existing one that works. It's hard for me to find information on whatever I want to know, which is why I'm reluctant to post. If we reorganize stuff a little, it would be a lot easier. Even if we create a new simourv site, this would probably happen again.
Oh, and I love the idea of letting greens and female rainbows clutch! That would be exciting xP
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Cy
Winglet
E'ry[M:318]
Posts: 7
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Post by Cy on Mar 19, 2012 21:31:55 GMT -5
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