[FatherCrixius]

Maniacal hand rubbing.

Having spoken to a lot of people, I will say that my opinion comes more from discussion than lengths of play time, being around only for three years or so. In this time, SL2 was my first experience with this sort of game, and barely the second game I scratched on byond. I was also going to write more, but it's getting late, im weak ect ect. Anyway, Exposition end.

Now I'm going to be blunt, This discussion was long overdue on public forum. Having spoken to a lot of you privately in dms, on game etc I can safely say that nothing that there isn't much new thought-piece here, but a far more vocal and well structured discussion of such. Most of what's said here is danced around in flowery language when not at the forefront of argument, and swiftly brushed away should it prove a challenging topic, as if voicing sincere qualms is deemed as a confrontation.



Public Interaction

No beating around the bush here. It's dead. People have been clinging to cliques since before even I started playing, and motivation to stick to congregated public areas has been waning ever since. Interactions in public areas are generally shallow in part due to the lack of any substantive interaction with the environment, more so generalised pushes as to interact based on 'Why you're there.' Case in point arena, As PVP mechanically began to slip, so too did people avoid the place for fear of having their IC cheesed by a numerically superior build. This will be relevant later, but my foremost point will be that environmentsments harbour little player interactivity, and generally serve as scenery.

The general nature / lack of offense to said set dressings also hamper rp potential, preventing players from making any new assessments or unique takes on areas. There's just very little to cellsvich square, and it will be relegated to 'pleasant' background. Well designed areas elsewhere, such as obenque or the blades headquarters, offer far more to promote a setting, and harbour more involved interaction from players. It is not a matter of 'How pretty' these places are, it's that they functionally mean something, and have genuine weight that just isn't seen too often elsewhere. It's unusual ; The lore is detailed but the world never exceeds ankle depth, the players experience what feels like everything but the intended stage for such a game.

The slice of life air also comes to mind. Outside of events, public areas are generally for slow and relaxed posts, which to some grows old quickly. There is few alternatives elsewhere, linking back to my first point, your stuck between Mechanic based PVE / PVP or this soap-opera esque monotonous style of RP, where you have to breed your own conflict, leading to this feeling of 'Having to be the bad guy punching bag people ask for, and being shit on for it.' This leads to an almost meaningless feeling in myself and others, that sigrogana is going to always be this stagnant- No one else will take initiative, conflict must be cultivated for it to exist at all.

BDP Delving is a thing of the past or something done on OOC grinding builds now. It's a mechanic that has, in many cases, proven to be an unwanted end game to grind items for future IC's, and serves as a barrier for RP participation moreso than as building up to a character. A consequence of GR, you are now jacked or you aint. The progress from 1 - 60 is far too mechanical and far too jarring for people to take it as IC, so they don't. Experienced players will attempt to abbreviate their experiences in PVE as much as they can, because after god knows how many dungeons you aren't going to forget about how mathematical and repetitive you can make grinding. There is little reward and nothing new to learn from PVE, so it is cut as short as one can suffer through.

'Jobs' is a thing I hardly feel the need to mention, moreso out of insignificance, but I will tick it off the list at the very least: Another grind, for something that is almost always going to be used to either make murai or gear OOC homies. There is no rp or mechanic consequence to becoming a blacksmith or a tool smith, it just expedites one form of grind to another, or allows you to service people who need X for their coming soon build. Similarly, head doctor aint shit either. I know two people who take it as part of their IC's, and it's fundamentally boiled down to resource acquisition and offering people head for blood, assuming they don't have 80 Vit Glykins lying around. Numerical grinds such as these are not facetes of a character if they'll only be called on once, nor are they fundamentally interesting.

The stagnation of the world is also a key point that should not go on such a light note. It's understandable that, given the genre, players are expected to make their own legacies, but even that isn't facilitated in SL2. Player IC's don't amount to, well anything, in part to purposefully limiting lore.

The community's relationship

I want to be especially vocal about this point, and I will hurt some feelings in doing so. There is this culture, where you will voice your concerns vocally- sing them even, but then once they could go addressed people are suddenly gripped by; apathy, understatement or otherwise, and nowhere is it more clear than in the main server discord.
For different reasons each time, there are a lot of points that should go stated, but go obfuscated, a key example would be balancing, though there are many more. Complaining about a mechanic, feature or etcetera in dms or on-game isn't going to change shit, nor are threads that devolve into different topics, and only leads to a more fragmented community relationship with each other and the game itself, and the lack of clarity will only detrimentally affect what changes will be made in the future.


Lets talk about events

Overextend their welcome and they will become shallow, cookie cutter experiences that amount to nothing. A lot of people had the mindset that eventmins would '  SOLVE RP STAGNATION   ' and while it's a step in the right direction, far be it to expect them to do what you fail to forge your character with. There's this notion that partaking in events will allow you to build character through shared traumatic experiences, and I rarely see this come into competent fruition. Event chains are at their strongest when people are few, hence the foaming at the mouth to the mention of clique events and clique rp people have spoke about, it is fundamentally de-individualizing to be thrown into a chain with 19 other people competing for top dog, see any MMO story ever. The more invested / fewer headcount event chains from what I've seen have gone swimmingly, lowering the required resources to facilitate this character development and allowing it to be far more approachable than previously, whereas before it was manpower and items for a quick event. It is my sincere opinion that events shouldn't just become 'If your in the area, come fight XYZ' I think that is fucked fundamentally, and will only dampen the weight of other chains. Give them weight, impact and consequence.

Okay, so what events would be GOOD? And not just token involvement of people for the sake of semblance. I am of the opinion that events other than festivals, world changing events or just player ran gatherings wont alleviate much. The RP in those isn't deep but there is greater immersion and player involvement with the backdrop, which is always nice. Everything else should remain closed off, gated to people of IC relevance, for the sake of preserving their importance. People relying on regular eventmin-ran events to facilitate character conflict, though, will do fuck all for alleviating anything. It should not be seen as a substitute for growth or player interaction.

Why is it like this

I can only throw spit-ball thoughts around here, having not been around long enough to witness every change, but my guess would be due to the almost political community and the lack of a strong mechanical endgame :

People making enemies of each other for the sake of conflict. It's no secret byond players tend to be confrontation averse, and rather than interacting with people they dislike, ignoring the offender full stop is more practiced. This adds obvious issues to the landscape, but I tend to look the other way and let people ruin their own fun how they see fit I guess. There's little else to do beside making friends and common enemies, I guess. The clique label / allebi gets thrown around a lot, and I don't believe it does as much damage as others suggest, even if I avoid them like the plague. If you get good rp with your friends, interact with your friends. Meaningful interaction comes like water in a desert and if that's the only reason you play, you should not be penalised for it. A lot of you are anxious, cynical, or just uninterested- and rightly so, so I shalln't shift blame where I don't feel its due, and ask you enjoy the game with as many people as you can. 

Now, a more prominent note. Many people in this thread are old, old players. One's almost a bag of dust. What content has there been for you to do? I will state that, outside of resource hoarding or becoming 'Better' at pvp, there's sweet fuck all for you to take away. What other mechanics are there to better yourself at? There's the meta skill of becoming a better RP, although even that is a struggle with the aforementioned lack of quality public RP. Really, the true end game, is right here.



Smack each other with sticks to try and get better at an obtuse and poorly balanced turn based strategy game, for GARUNTEED use in a future ic that will definitely probably possibly happen. It's no surprise that people feel bored, stale, tired. There's fundamentally nothing to better yourself at, giving this impression the game is a disguised time waster. However, and I cannot stress this enough, the fact that people stick here from mechanically stronger rp games? Testifies the community and shows that people, while not vocal, are still hopeful about the future of the game, less they would not be here. The fact you've read thusfar through shows you have some interested in the state of the game.

The only real suggestions I can give, is to reduce the initial / post 60 grinds to alleviate more dynamic character growth. The early game can be the most spirit breaking, mostly because of the natural uncertainty that comes with investing so much time and effort into a character you weren't set in stone about making.

Have more thematically relevant public areas, with better player involvement built in. There is interesting set dressing off continent, though all attempts to get people to spread out further across the map have been unsuccessful.

Avoiding impactful changes to PvP, focusing more on working with what you got to the communities content, more so than putting in new content. I will say, while petty, the shift in PvP meta has been more than reason for me to quit. It's volatile, people aren't always genuine with their intentions, and it's highly liable to shifting- But post GR stat changes makes it so anyone with a fruit or some time on their hands can facilitate any build ; No matter how meta.

Incentivise more conflict between players, be it through less Arjav time, or more interaction at Arjav. It's currently seen more as 'Godmod jail softban' than anything productive or fun. I would add it would also feel interesting to allow for other nations to have prison systems, as varied as they can be, and allow players to become 'guards' there independent of Sigroganan guard status (Which was a giant turn-off for me.)

[FaeLenx]

So someone actually linked this thread to me. And I figured I'd throw an opinion in there because reasons. I played pretty actively for a while on a couple different characters, though mostly one. I also, for the most part, didn't participate in the OOC cornering or hanging out inside houses to hide from the unwashed masses. I mostly stuck around the square, dormeho fountain-area, and badlands doing IC duels. I'd like to think that I had a good relationship with most groups, at least on a surface level.

I stopped playing entirely due to a lack of interest and an aversion to some of the playerbase and how they interacted with others.

The lack of interest: Follow the bold to get the cliff notes version. I tend to write a lot.

Events with over 6 people are a chore. They're probably awful to run. They're awful to participate in. You don't have any individuality at all. World events in this way should be managed into smaller groups serving similar purposes. The moment you become a part of a mob, the only reason you'd see it through to the end is because you don't want to log in the next day to having to explain to somewhere where your character disappeared off to in the middle of everything. Sometimes, I made the decision to do it anyways and throw some character story into there completely separate to what happened in the event, like the time I redesigned Gwen. Smaller events? They were cool! But obviously this fixes things for a decidedly smaller population. I tried running some of my own events. Tournaments for fighting. Mostly to meme around and practice some art skills on the side. It was fun, but it was work. The only interesting things that came from it were a vague threat against my character from some event character, which was neat.

Slice of life is bad. Slice of life where most of the characters are puritans who know neither sin, scandal, or mischief is awful. If you can't think of a single time your character acted in a way that you personally don't approve of, you're probably guilty of being dreadfully awful to be around. Go cheat at dice, call someone a bad name, say something stupid, spill spaghetti out of your pocket talking to someone, and let your character get lied to, befuddled, tricked, or humiliated. Make them believe in something that someone else will disagree with them on but not to the point of being a raving lunatic or murderer. You live in a society after all. You wouldn't exist to adulthood if every elf you see sent you into a murderous frenzy.

Tagging a bit onto the comment above, there's a reason people don't hang out in the square. The interaction goes pretty swiftly from some banal conversation to light joking, puns, a few more jokes, and then someone mentions something vaguely interactive with the opposite (or same) sex. Everything grinds to a halt, a record scratches, and people get ready to type in 'Oh just another day in the square' or 'that's enough of the square for the day.' One or two people leave, one or two people come, and this repeats for the rest of the day.

I've never had a non-event related fight with my PVP build, but people who I know who are greatly weaker got targeted pretty randomly by villains who knew neither me nor them to make the educated decision to target one before the other. I understand that you don't want your precious highway banditman to get stomped on day 1, thrown in jail for high quality gameplay content, and then left to wait for a week while you either play on your main or keep posting about being in jail on the discord or world chat, but I've known a fair share of new players who I pretty much told "Don't worry about having a completed build. Nobody really ever PVPs outside of events or the arena here unless they're doing a bit. It's never happened to me once," and then they get stomped by somebody who followed them into a blackdoor and then never logged on the villain character again.

Being a bad guy is pretty much impossible. There are no rules for fair play. There are no second chances. The law and order system is very tone deaf for what it actually does. I've proposed what I felt were better alternatives before. I got accused of being too soft for a system that I've never been on the victim side of.

Hunting down bad guys is pretty much impossible as well. People exist OOC whenever they please. What does this lead to?

Either a bad guy gets clapped by some guard who turns into two guards in the overworld because they were being silly and not walking around OOC or nicknamed, gets clapped by someone they thought they could beat but couldn't, or they eventually have an EPIC SHOWDOWN with an OOC and potentially IC friend to resolve their storyline. Or they just don't log on for a while and everyone forgets what they did. I've seen that happen once. In the end, this attempt at adding some sort of world conflict will inevitably end in a humiliating guardswarm or another event that legitimately nobody will notice.

The PVP is bad. This one's probably a controversial statement. Unlike everything else that's the product of a carefully cultivated culture of metarules and expectations, this is ragging on the beleaguered efforts of one person who I am not personally paying any money. Still, it's a thing worth mentioning. But in the end, what's bad about PVP is the way the community does it. Most of it is badlands arena PVP with carefully manicured rules to 'remain in character' cutting out 10% of the class features available across the board, 1v1 which means that item counters pretty much will always win you the game (try playing a multishot magic gunner for more than 2 fights in a row and see if you can get away from someone smugly changing to a fangfaced shield or bellplate if they see you dual wielding), or are OOC 1v1s to jerk off over big numbers, and there's a particular fervor for NEVER CHANGING ANYTHING because certain classes just NEED to be stronger than others and item counters need to exist for some reason. I'll say this was my favorite part of the game still. I didn't do it OOC in that corner more than a few times, but the game aspect of this game was the only thing that SL2 has over being a chatbox. If I didn't care about the game, I'd be on some forum roleplay probably.

People were rather toxic. Dipping my toes in a lot of groups lead to me hearing about peoples' problems with each other or myself. It's a lot of unmitigated vitriol, usually trying to skew someone's identity into something else worth mockery and then trying to convince others that they were this thing. So the usual social interaction you'll get on the internet. I found itself a nice home in SL2 through the various discords available or groups. I've watched players pronounce that they defeated the toxic trolls/ERP clan/whatever else it was in the moment because those people no longer want to log on again. Usually there was a staffmember involved. Not in a disciplinary way. Far be it from me to question who they want on their game, but it's no surprise to me that the server is empty. You all built those barriers to entry and avenues of quick exit for a reason.

I'll quickly add that I made a habit of making enemies out of players that I liked. If my character interacted with you in a negative way, it's because I actually enjoyed that headbutting. So, y'know, ya'll know who you are, and just because this is the first you've heard from me in a half year and Gwen or other unnamed alts called you names doesn't mean there was any particular personal beef. Make enemies out of your friends when it comes to RP and all of that.

There are one hundred other things I could be doing with my time. This game never changes to be one of them. It's competing with every other outlet of its kind for attention. Every other MMO, every other roleplay guild or server, every other tactics game. While there is some comfort in knowing that I could log onto my character that I left a half year ago into a carbon copy of the moment they left and there would only be some winks and a nod to get rid of the awkwardness of them being back, it doesn't make up for the fact that that is the same carbon copy of the world that they were born into.

Conversations like this. I wish I could count out just how many times people had gone over every point made here over the time that I played. The lack of events, the lack of players to interact with, the lack of ACTIVE people going up to others, the lack of change, the lack of balance, etc, etc. The solution to most of these problems is actually pretty simple. Invite your friends to play, come up with some gimmick to do in your time here (play pathfinder or 5e using SL2 housing as a battlemap if you're out of ideas), try your best to be accepting or inclusive of others, and either stop PVPing for IC conflict resolution or make it something that people want to do. You don't even need to balance out the system for it- Just change the rules for character interaction via PVP.

[Trexmaster]

Foreword

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

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

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

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

Ambiguous Concept Approval

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

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

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

Exhibit A

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

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

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

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

The general populace describes them as 'grief parasites'.

Exhibit B

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The answer:

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

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

Proposal

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

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

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

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

The Multi-Canon

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

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

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

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

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

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

Proposal

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

Conclusion

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

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

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

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

[Aqua]

Alright time to throw my two cents in here, most of what I would mention has already been mentioned above by several people. I'm also speaking from experience and in my opinion of two or so years. (If you're gonna hate I don't care just don't do it here.)

Public Interaction

As it stands this has been practically 'dead' for more than I can really remember and basically leads people to stick with their friend Circles or "Rp Circles" as people have called them in the past. Yes, no one wants to repeat the same old standing around in one spot for 6 hours on end, even more depending on the timezone of the person (More than likely irrelevant). As someone who struggles to find RP in public as a Guard character or any character without being made to feel like your forced into certain area's like bars and things, it comes to no surprise people fall back to a backup plan of RPing with friends and whatnot. As far as It's implied by all these 'public' RP hubs etc it leaves you to think about the following Scenario, bare in mind I'm just compiling things I've read throughout my two years or so playing the game:

Scenario - What if you make a character has no reason to go to places like bars because that's the type of person they are and whatnot, Is this going to lead them into believing "Well if you're not going to go to this place then you're shit out of luck for RP."

Answer? Well, it depends on the person but personally, this has been a thing for quite a while now and quite frankly that gives off the message of "if you want consistent RP to go to x place" which is a really bad message to give people and it's quite frankly one of many reasons why it's been so demotivating to play the game. This isn't to say such is a bad a thing but I guess I just have a gripe with these type of things?

Pvp

Ah yes, something I detest with my life. Sadly to say the game is an "RP Mandatory" setting but it doesn't quite seem that way what so ever. A lot of the game feels, and this is not to throw shade at people that do PVP, PvP orientated and the majority of the players are PvP obsessed individuals who stand around in the small area near the Arena Blacksmith, designated OOC corner, these are people who tend not to be around to RP what so ever which is fine. I don't agree with the whole people who stand in that corner being classified as "Wallflowers" because to be fair a lot of the people that stand in that corner are quite frankly not wallflowers. I've spent hours a day in the corner to know no one in that corner is a Wallflower (This is the only time I'm going to disagree in this post probably). However, the fact that this game feels more PvP Orientated is due to the lack of RP opportunities provided by that game itself. Us as players can feel heavily demotivated to even bother trying to find these opportunities without it either being some petty attempt for attention or a complete waste of time. OOC Corner has bugged me for just over a year now and that's just trying to understand PvP a little better than I already do which is made hard when people can sometimes to throw you to the ground and kick you about to point of "What's the point in trying to even learn this thing?" Which does exist.

Events and Eventmins

I don't think we can really judge the eventmins right now, at least they are going out their way to help provide the community with things to do, which can be very time consuming and very stressful, cut them some slack, to be honest, they are trying. As for events, as someone, who's tried to do public events in the past it's no surprise how demotivating getting round to do it can be due to how limited as players we are because you feel as though you're going to be judged or compared to others how you do it but hey ho Criticism at it's finest. This essentially just leads to being unable to be Unique due to peoples

As it stands yes some people are more comfortable to stick with their groups or just stand and wait for something to happen or someone to come up to them and post for whatever reason. People have shells and should be allowed to come out of such in their own way. Most people prefer a slice of life type of setting but that often is unavailable due to the lack of activity or is often shunned by people, mainly those that tend to not care about others.

Other than that I personally feel the game could use something that promotes RP rather than it does PvP/PvE, then I'll be happy but until then I'm not so much as satisfied with how the game is right now for the reasons stated above but that's just me.

[Snake]

Peace is just boring to be roleplayed for over 5 to 6 IRL years. So, when will Zera be revived again?

Right, fine. I'll type more.

Alas, there's little for the little old me to add that has not been said but my own thoughts. I've enjoyed reading most of these arguments above and by the end of all I still can't decide on a more meaningful way to fix this. Alone, that is. Maybe the staff is too small. Maybe the game's interactivity is too limited. I say this comparing it to Space Station 13. The sheer amount of shit you can do there for absolutely no reason but 'I'm just doing my job dude.' is impressive. You can be a good person and pick up the trash. Destroy this trash at some incinerator or recycle it. You can You can eat whenever you want, openly. You can drink whenever you want, openly. You can get drunk if you down too many bottles of beer. You can get piss-poor sick and vomit in the open. You can play whatever songs you want with any instruments at disposition. You can write on papers. Roll a die. With those even play DnD ICly, for fuck's sake.

The level of immersion you get in such a game with poor aesthetics and horrible animations but great investment on how much you can tamper with the world around beyond 'heeho choppin trees, heehoo i fish some fish, heehoo I cook food that can only be used once per god-knows-how-long' is awful.

Being able to interact, modify, destroy or create in a world is what gives RP some semblance of oxygen. But the game currently puts a barrier on how much you can do with both IT and THE OTHER PLAYERS. Which feeds a more selfish mentality. If you can't afflict others, or the environment, you can only put up walls and defend yourself.

It's rough, buds. And there ain't even a way to hang in there but to step back from the game. Not until something makes it appealing to come back to again. Although I can firmly say that PvP updates won't be it to make everyone happy. They're like small shots of anti-depressants that makes you hyper for a few moments before the big sad reminds you that nothing really changed and you were just under the effects of an induced happiness.

That, or well, Eventmins take some examples out of what JupiterStorm is doing with Bracken Moor 2. But shhh... I never said anything about this.

[Deja Vu]

I don't have many complex opinions about SL2's activity, only that I agree, for the most part, with what Fern said. But I wanted to give my two cents regardless.

First, I don't feel that the OOC corner is a problem on its own, more like symptom of what people would prefer to do. When someone walks into the arena, and they have an intent to join the OOC corner, they either do so or leave if no one is there. I'm guilty of this as well, which is partly why I feel comfortable sharing my insight.

I feel that if the OOC corner was prohibited in some fashion, the people there would rather find somewhere else to meet with builders, or just not log on. This is only what I would do, though. I may be wrong. I only frequent the OOC corner when I see someone I know and want to say 'hi', or when I want more opinions about a build. If the OOC corner was not there, Discord would be my go-to, not to settle down and RP.

But how do we solve that issue of low activity? Heck if I know, but right now I'm in an event group that holds such things weekly, and it's what keeps me going. I feel that if Fern's proposal to host more public events via Eventmins was followed, it'd create a much more lively environment. People like their characters having history and exploits. 

Furthermore, I don't think low activity in public spaces is also a problem on its own, more so a symptom again. A lot of the times when I hear that the place is populated, it's accompanied by comments of 'oh geez, so and so is here again and being cringe' or 'ah there's degeneracy in the square again'. I feel as though it's more so a quality issue over pure public population. And sadly, I can't think of a solution to make those people who would complain, myself included, more comfortable with engaging those environments. I feel pretty guilty for bringing up a problem with no solution, but that's the honest piece there.

Finally, I 100% agree with what Fern said about the community being mostly reactive. I've somewhat lost interest in public RP, but when I am there, I absolutely enjoy and find it much more rewarding to initiate conversations, happenings, and general activity. I used to be much more reaction based when it came to my RP, so much so I was obsessed with others. (Aeugh). I'm much more satisfied with being my own favorite player, and enjoying my characters and how they initiate talks. So I feel that if people were to simply understand that initiating RP, while much more exhausting in some situations, is actually very fun- then perhaps we would see a more proactive community. I think this can be done by trying to engage the less active people, but not so much so that they can rely on the other person to carry the talk. Egging them on to speak out, and RP in the RP game.

Thanks for reading, loves.

[WaifuApple]

This is the part, now, where I bring my extended thoughts, supplemented by things I've heard from other people who may or may not have already made their own voices heard - not everyone is confident enough to speak up, and not everyone who has spoken up can be expected to be willing to express their opinions fully, lest it seem like they're trying to pick fights with people.

Something I must mention is that some people get the impression that a many within this thread are pointing at a problem and complaining about it... without taking steps to remedy it themselves. This is not something just Dev, just the Eventmins, or just current reactive people can solve. This is everyone's problem, and no single group can make it better. It's alright to list the problems we have in hopes they'll be solved - but if you're expecting for things to get any better if you just sit and leave it to others to make them, this discussion isn't going to get anyone anywhere. You've got to take what you've said, look inward and ask where it applies to you, and change. Everyone does. I do, too - and I have been trying very hard as of recently.

Many of you - I won't name names - rarely make an attempt to get out there unless you consider it important to you - which is a trap that is difficult for anyone to work with. Can't always pick and choose if you want things to feel alive. In recent days I've found a bit of public activity in places like Dormeho Square (not Obenque), which haven't been to me of bad quality. They've been enjoyable. At current there is a new popular game that will have stolen people's attention - but I can say that there's still public RP, and it's not dead. It's just that many of the people here... are people I haven't seen even bothering to engage with it.

Now, that might sound provocative to say - but keep in mind now that sugarcoating things is not going to get people anywhere. There are plenty of new players out there to interact with, if you're willing to look beyond just Cellsvich and the Arena - they're not the only hotspots anymore. I have been able to make friends with characters there, or at least get more association than a meeting and then never again... which I think is honestly really good.

It is one thing to be someone who is reactionary. Unlike other people I can't complain about that - I can still enjoy RP with such people, and can enjoy RP as one of such people, too. It is another thing to just not participate at all, like so many have resigned to doing. It's not going to improve things - it's not going to make them any better. A better environment is something we have to work for - and I've seen that not trying at all breeds a cycle of that same pessimism towards things that people don't break from.

We, as eventmins, cannot be a substitute for a flaw that is inherent in the community itself - giving you more to participate in publically, often in my experience has not led to people developing alongside one another - it's not exactly done much for the pre-existing state of different groups not mingling. People come, usually pair with those they associate with normally (unless they have the short end of the stick and have to fill in with the remains) and when all is said and done, they leave. Usually they don't interact with the people they met afterward. An event too big and your individuality is taken, too, and the impact is muted. That is a problem with public events without some kind of limiter - it's hard to make anyone feel special with such crowds.

That's combat / action events. Public SoL events, as I mentioned before... also divide into existing groups and it can be an uphill battle trying to get anyone to acknowledge you despite your best attempts because they're too busy having fun with their friends to pay you any proper attention. It's easy to get blanked. In that vein, what I'm trying to say is:

We can provide events to people - but the baton is on the wider community, including us, not just as eventmins, but players, to make the world more lively through more than just artificially injecting a threat into it. It will never be as satisfying as players making their own attempts at impact and pulling eventmins on board to realise them, because that feels more real. That feels much fresher. It's alright me throwing a storylines at you - an event at you. But storylines aren't based solely on their massive action scenes, and those big action scenes...

They're far from all that's missing.

Don't let other people not trying be an excuse for you to not try either. If you sit here talking about wallflowers and reactionary RPers... but don't even participate? Is that... any better?

[BlackLynx3]

I have noticed this shift recently myself. Fern's concerns also resonate quite a bit with me, and while I'm terrible with articulation and almost never post here, I can at least give you guys a perspective from what I see, as a (new-ish) player that has thoroughly enjoyed SL2, even in present-day. I have been in the game for awhile myself, probably a couple years by now. I have met some fantastic people and still chat with them occasionally when I have the spare time, and the main focus of my playtime in SL2 has usually consisted of character development, and a balance of elements such as roleplay, combat, events, and developing other characters besides my own....the way Sigrogana feels like it should be, ever since my time and before it.

This may be a bit off-track, but the game feeling like it's falling seems to have a disturbing parallel with events going on outside of the game and my own personal goings-on. Referring to the latter, I have not been active as much lately as I am in the unfortunate rut of my family and I preparing to move to a new location entirely. The OOC Corner has been definitely a worry of mine for awhile and seems to sum up my anxiety that maybe the game is heading down a path where we see less and less people on. Heck, the reason I found SL2 in the first place was because I needed a change of environment from Space Station 13 for awhile, and just so happened to like the setting this one represents. I am legitimately worried I will reach the point where a need of scenery change from SL2 occurs and I would loathe for that to happen because I'm much more tied to this game, as it's still a large part of my stability and release from life's stress, even in these dire times we live in.

For awhile, the hub of activity has shifted as far as where the current 'hotspot' of public space is. When I started, it was clearly Cellsvich, and just as often, the Badlands Arena. More recently, the hotspot seems to have shifted to Dormheo, but even that's started to peter in and out depending largely on timezones, from my observation. Most of the usual areas seem to be dead most of the time, and it feels like either no-one's on, are wandering about elsewhere, or are in properties that I don't want to burst in for no IC reason. That last is a weird one, because it feels rude to burst into someone's house, you know what I'm saying?

I don't really have any answers to rectify any of the current state of things, but I do have some ideas that may be worth considering. I believe adding more to the map is a possible solution, aware I am as to how much work that is, and how Karaten's appeal fizzled out as soon as the novelty wore off. (Yes, I'm sure a lot of you noticed that too.) We could also try to really connect with new players, though with the consideration of the people behind those characters taken into account and all that entails. With groups, I have mixed feelings about. On one hand, they're great for driving stories and events, on the other, they can be daunting to organize and keep momentum going. Sometimes, they fall apart and new ones take their place. I don't think they have that much of an impact on open-space RP, but then again, I don't tend to think much about these things.

Regardless, there are things that do console me somewhat about the current state of things. First, I recently created a new character to spice things up a bit (I have a nasty habit of really sticking with my mains) and have noticed a lot of new players showing up. That is good, the trick is keeping them there and keeping the momentum of the game going. Events also have often been phenomenal and creative, Karidan in particular I think gets a shoutout given I have the most experience with his events, and the time, care and the way he sets up the narratives of the event is spot-on, even if the execution of them isn't for various (and understandable) reasons, such as time. When I have time off (Usually the evenings until we get out of this terrible city I live in), I often greet new players and try my best to keep the RP and adventure flowing, but it is marred somewhat by my current time constraint. Despite that, I keep a positive outlook. My afore-mentioned new character is lots of fun to play as, which says to me that the potential for development of our characters is still supported by the game and it's populace. I think we're just at the point where we need a push to take a good look at our game and see what we're not focusing on as much, put some attention and energy into those things, see what sticks and what does not.

I don't claim to know any answers, but I still have faith we can keep the game going. Events both public and private and the eventmins who run them are people I highly respect, and the community just as much. While this is possibly Captain Obvious, we're all human and I understand that we may have been struggling with things in and out of our control. This is normal.

Keep in mind, this could be much, much worse of a situation than we're in right now.

[Moose]

This problem with roleplay is not a Dev problem, GM problem, or even Event Admin problem.

First and foremost, it's a PLAYER COMMUNITY problem.

At some point in time, people decided that roleplaying outside of incredibly closed off player homes with their special friends beats roleplaying outside of their safe spaces player homes. It's like they took the events of Current Year and applied #stayathome to their SL2 life! :^)

Here is a screenshot from 2018-01-08, taken at roughly 0100 hrs in some US timezone. Look at how many people standing around and actually roleplaying. The Cellsvich Square is the first place a brand-new player is introduced to when they launch SL2 and to see a small amount of players or absolutely no players, gives the community as a whole a bad look. Even though it is silent, it shouts out volumes. "There's 88 players on but no one in the main player hub! Where are the players?!"

Now don't take this as me having a problem with Dormeho Square roleplay. I think it's quite lovely. The reason I have no problem with it is because any type of public roleplay breathes life in the game. It actually makes the world seem alive.

Now peruse this screenshot from 2020-07-23, taken at roughly 1700 hrs in the same US timezone. Do you notice the difference? Now you can just dismiss these screenshots as cherry-picked to try to dismiss my argument, but how many of these PLAYERS in the first screenshot are even seen outside of player houses nowadays if they still even play this game?

Engage in some honest introspective thought for a moment: How many times have YOU personally roleplayed outside in an environment where you couldn't pick and choose who could potentially interact with your character?

What has made many players so afraid of not roleplaying in a place they have complete control over? It doesn't lead to any organic roleplay if you are picking and choosing who can interact positively and negatively with your characters. It isn't organic all relationships with that character have been pre-determined because we are such good friends OOCly. Have many players' sensitive sensibilities been hurt that much?

Players are blaming Dev, GMs, Event Admins how this game isn't like isn't like SS13, with its super interactivity. Players gotta blame themselves. When a player walks their character in a public place where there is roleplay occurring, do a 360 and moonwalk away back to their cave safe space player house, THEY are in fact contributing heavily to the problem!

As for solutions, I can only offer a few as my words are unlikely to encourage the shrinking violets from cease roleplaying in the places they feel the safest or get implemented anytime soon.

• Encourage small public events in easily accessible places
  
• Award roleplaying points manually if player is roleplaying inside a player made instance.
  
• Award more roleplaying points if player is roleplaying outside.
  

This thread is a step in the right direction. Many of the players who have posted here have acted quite disingenuous and downright dismissive if this topic is brought up in Global OOC. This issue has been brought by old players and new and frankly to dismiss is wrong. 


Be the change to make SL2 a much better SL2. In fact, I already believe that change is happening now. Since Fern posted this thread, I have seen player characters that are NOT a part of the usual suspects, roleplaying in both Cellsvich and Dormeho. This is a step in the right direction.

[damycles]

I've read some stuff. I've seen some stuff. Many of you are aware of the shit I've witnessed. But regardless.

Yeah, first off, I gotta admit. This ain't ever gonna be Space Station 13. I don't even blame the man. Dev, I understand your pain. As a CS major, as someone who has looked into the abyss that is Byond's coding language, I get it. I get some of the reasons why you do the things you do, and I am impressed. The specific circumstances that made Space Station 13 the way it is today are so goddamn unlikely and fantastical that there is no chance it is ever happening again on this platform, so let's kill that dream quickly before any of you get some funny ideas and think you can somehow try to do it yourself and expand the scope the same time.

Another thing, I'm not saying Dev ain't completely blameless here. There is genuinely one thing I want from you man. Literally one thing. Sometimes people, very occasionally, once in a blue moon if they can help it, set stuff up that is pretty cool and might actually change the status quote of the world in either a physical sense or societal sense. My one request, my dude, is that on occasion, you look at these poor little puppies put on your doorstep and decide to take 'em in and raise 'em like you would a son. You know if players at least got the occasional nod that yeah, I can change shit- sometimes I feel like it'd raise the motivation bar at least a little bit more. Not sayin' you gotta be Spires, I've been there, I've seen that shit, I don't want it coming here either, but you know.

Aside from that, I do feel there is a sort of dichotomy in the community in terms of what people seem to actually want from this game and its setting. Some folks, just wanna be big damn heroes. The ones you see on the TV-Tropes page. The kinds of heroes that make Zack Snyder get a big ol' stiffy. The types that go in, blow shit up, walk out looking cool as fuck and don't have to pay for the property damages. Then there are other folks, who think about the property damages. The folks who are no so into the whole shonen aesthetic and are maybe looking for something more along the lines of a telenovela with superpowers. I'm not saying either want is inherently wrong, however... I have noticed that when these sides clash by virtue of being in the same area doing the same thing, whether it be an event or otherwise, neither one's really looking to give.

So the question is, what happens when an unstoppable pvp Chad meets an immovable slice of life Stacy. A big damn mess happens, that's for sure. There are honestly two solutions to this. One that's gonna make it worse, and one that's gonna feel shitty for the first few months. Either, we can part the red sea, let the Chads chad it up in a corner where nobody's bothering them, and let the Stacys go and fuck each other's wives husbands where nobody's bothering them... or... we can learn to compromise. Compromise is a scary word. It's this thing, that people do, as adults, in society. I get it guys, I think it's a scary word too. Talk to me like, three years ago, and I'd call you fucking Zarathustra cause you just killed god and I'm afraid of you.

Perhaps, the Chads do have a point, and that the Stacys should learn to get out of their house a bit more and be more conducive to aggravated assault and getting rescued by a caricature of Arnold Schwarzeneggar in an anime twink's body. It's a fun time, I get it. We all want to be big Saiyan Uchiha King of the Pirates. We all want to get that Winrey Sakura Saber Faced Waifu. And honestly, when them Stacys just sit on their asses in their houses with their Stacy friends and just refuse to allow the big bad to even maim them a little bit, it gets annoying. I get that. I feel for you. However...

Perhaps, the Stacys also have a point, and that maybe the Chads should learn to have a little bit more restraint with the aggravated assault thing. I get it, you just want to sit down and have a cup of tea with your girl, who is a friend, but also not, and not have to worry about Conan the barbarian bustin' down your door and taking you to their sex dungeon. Or having a creepy vampire dude waltz into your camp while you're havin' a gay old time and try to suck you drier than last night's cock. Honestly, it can get annoying when people just... try to beat the shit out of you for no goddamn reason. And I hear you Chads bustin' down my door right now, and while many of you might think you have a reason, I would like to point out that having a character who is just crazy cause they crazy or an absolute psychopath that can't control what they're doing or even just... being a loose cannon... doesn't exactly feel satisfying to the person whose skull you're caving in.

To you PVP Chads in the chat, I would like to extend the Shonen Jump Olive branch. Remember, fights are great in Jump, but they're even better when they actually matter for a narrative reason. Cool anime shit doesn't just hit different cause it looks cool. Cool anime shit hits different cause the author took the time and care to work the story into a point where that cool anime shit mattered for the characters. You know what happened to series that forgot that? They got axed. Early on. Nearly always early on. Don't be a canceled series on Jump. Make your fights truly hype by saving the violence for when it actually matters enough for other people to give a shit. Don't blow your load early. A true PVP Chad... knows that your hype anime moves should only be used sparingly, and that really... fighting in general, is just another narrative tool. I know when you make your hype build that is able to body around 90% of the population, there is a specific subset of this community that will applaud you and it will make you feel good. But genuinely, for the rest of us... we don't give a shit. I'm not trying to be mean either it's just... This is a game. Like honestly you know it's like bragging about your optimized DnD build to literally anyone outside of your party. And even then, like... come on, do you really want to be that guy in the party? Be real here.

Now, a few words for both parties involved. Yeah, I'm talkin' to you Chad and Stacy, you're both in motherfucking couple's counseling right now, and I've got some words to make this paycheck. I get, that you want to be hyped, or sought after... Perhaps, maybe being a little bit less high key about trying to present yourself as the next coming of Christ would make it easier to swallow that hype. Some folks, they got a tendency to showboat. And, I'm not saying your character can't showboat. I'm saying showboating is for assholes, and some people seem to want to do that while still pretending that they ain't the asshole. The only real exception to this rule I can think of... is if someone is literally going around as a costumed superhero because that entire premise is just showboating, but it's fun kind because there's cool colors and highly marketable aesthetics going on. Still, all this talk about showboating actually very nicely connects to another point.

Y'all gotta be more fine with your characters getting shit on. SL2 rp, especially the Shonen experience, has a lot it can learn from the world of professional wrestling. I think the most important concepts to take from professional wrestling is the heel and the jobber. The heel, for those of you who aren't aware is the character whose main job is to be a hateable fuck so that the protag looks cooler when they beat them. But they can't be a weak ass bitch either cause only the protag should be able to beat them. The jobber is an equally important role in wrestling tradition where for whatever reason, for the sake of the narrative, they must eat shit so the plot can advance. I think, deep down, you're all aware of these roles. What you're not aware of is when you happen to be the ones playing them.

Some folks gotta take the time to really evaluate their characters, their actions, what exactly the things they do happen to mean to people on a wider scale and start to realize... a shit, I am the jobber or in more rare cases ah shit, I am the heel. Now, accepting either of these things means that you are essentially fated to be shit on. Not OOCLY, but most certainly ICLY. And I get it, being shit on doesn't sound fun at all. I mean, who wants to lose am I right people? But that's the price you have to pay if you really want to play a murderhoboing asshole. Like, if even after all of this, even after I tried to appeal to you the spirit of Jump you still want to join the league of villains, fine, cool. I'm just saying be more cool about it when folks give you shit for talking shit. If you go to jail, take that shit like a man. Don't try to use your connections to finnegal your way out of there early. If you've crossed the lines and someone was so pissed off that they went out of their way to try and kill you and succeeded in beating your ass, let 'em do it. I don't hate heels. Actually, I quite like them. They're a very valuable part of any story or RP community. Because honestly, nobody gets to look good if everyone's a fucking saint. Even a telenovela needs a person you can unironically shit on. And telenovelas are the master of getting absolutely nothing done plot-wise and just watching a bunch of dramatic scenes that look like they're going anywhere but don't.

Finally, to cap this off... on New Players. For the love of god, give 'em a chance. I get it, I understand. The blank profiles. The one face icon. The poorly compressed JPEGs, we've all been there before. Some of us are still in there actually, but those are different. You know, New Players, they're like lambs lost in the woods. They deserve a Shepard. A good one. Unfortunately, the new player experience doesn't really normally give them one so all of us folks who've been here for more than a hot minute gotta learn sheep herding real quick. In the event, you're doing a thing right, and it's supposed to be a private thing and this poor noob runs in without a care in the world because honestly... why would they care, they just get here... Please, do not send them away. Do not doom them to wander the empty streets of yonder chosen city. Do the responsible thing. Adapt. shield this child from the storm of literally having nothing to do. Try and see if you can fit them, no matter how awkward it may be. Even if you're OOC, or intended to just be with your buddies specifically, calling you out there Stacys, like come on. Throw 'em a bone. Let 'em have something to chew on. And even then, you know... you can't honestly tell me that staying in a house all day and interact with the same six people is gonna be interesting forever right? Surely, suuuurely, even you can acknowledge the need to spice shit up but accepting change... right? And speaking of change, another thing that we could probably do to allow the new player experience to be less shit... is to switch up where we're at.

SL2 has, and for the time being,  continues to be, a place that revolves around a set of commonly used RP hubs. Nobody asked for this. Dev didn't specifically code in behavior that forces us to go to the same six goddamn places every single day. Nah, this shit's all on us. For new players who don't know the unofficial rules or know where exactly everyone else is hanging out in, that's fucking hellish and unfair. Honestly, this game has a decent amount of setting to use these days. I think a lot of new players might... you know... want to explore some of that shit. Maybe a new player doesn't just want to hang out in Cellsvich or Dormeho, or you know any of the other common spots that we know exist because we're in the know. Honestly, we gotta spread ourselves out. We gotta be more willing to make some of these other RP spots that shouldn't be dead less dead. And for those people who are worried about standing for hours in a dead RP zone like say... Karaten, which shouldn't be dead, it's a good map, Jesus Christ... If we we're talking six months ago you might have had somewhat of a point. However, these days we have this useful tool called... L.F.G. Ain't those letters magical right? You gotta learn to use that shit more. If you don't wanna go somewhere where people don't normally go to, you gotta fucking tell folks about it. I don't mean Discord DMs, I mean the public shit. The real shit. We have a system in place for it so use it more often. It is especially helpful to the most vulnerable, that being, the noobs, because at least that throws them a bone. 

Ultimately, I'm asking all of you to do various things that for various reasons are probably going to be outside of your comfort zone. Well here's the thing, we're an MMO. The kind of game where no matter what, you have to deal with people that you might not usually play with, and that involves getting used to working outside of your comfort zone. Roleplay is a collaborative experience, and because of that we all gotta learn how to get along in Byond's shitty netcode for better or for worse. Keeping yourselves in tight-knit groups in your goddamn houses all-day with the same five folks cause you're too afraid of the actual consequences of roleplaying with randos who might actually be your friends if you gave 'em a chance... that shit's easy. Doing whatever the fuck you want without giving a damn about the consequences because you want your shonen power fantasy but you're not willing to let other people have a taste of the spotlight and shit on their parades, that shit is also easy. But that's the kind of shit that makes this whole damn thing feel like a fucking waste of time to most people. So if we want this train to survive, and we want it to live... thrive even more than the most direct competitor we have, which is spires, which I will remind you is run by some real fucking class acts... we gotta do better. We have to be more willing to give each other a shot. And maybe, if we get comfortable adapting to other people and actually making the conscious effort to try and get more folks involved in what we deem private rp or our big goddamn hero moments then perhaps we'd even be able to grow this goddamn nearly stagnant audience.