Player Poll!

[queendaze]

Hello everyone! If you're still expecting tags from the Queen, I'll be getting back to those today and sticking to replying consistently again, sorry about that!

Today I approach you with a poll about Kingdom Daze's timing/pacing! The game still only just started, but I figured it could be addressed early on JUST IN CASE.

Does it feel like labyrinths could be happening too frequently, ICly or OOCly? Officially speaking, we are aiming for around one labyrinth every OOC week. However, does it feel like there's a bit of pressure on you by having one happen every week? Does it seem like they're occurring too frequently in game with the way that time progresses in the game so far? WHAT IF: it's changed to "a labyrinth will always be taking place every other OOC week—as well as when someone wants to wedge one in between"? Do you think it'd slow down the pace a bit too much, or does it sound good for daily-life-in-between-labyrinths shenanigans?

Labyrinths aside, we're now trying out mingles that span through out the IC day (not that we discourage making your own posts, but I think, from what I've seen, a lot of us enjoy playing in mingles anyway?!)  and then however many OOC days later (or after a labyrinth) we toss up a separate night post. This should hopefully help the pacing to prevent 1 IC day from lasting longer than an OOC week (unless we do enjoy IC days lasting that long?)

Please provide your opinion on this matter in whatever shape or form you can. I'm all for your opinions since you guys are what makes this lovely game what it is. I really want to see what the player base thinks before possibly taking a course of action! I swear I wanted this to sound less formal...

Comments

[ninetyninelives]

I LIKE IT AS IS, and can roll with any changes i am easily pleased

[aliveandkicking]

i am envisioning you as a cat who is content with their sun-spot, and as the sun-spot moves the cat just rolls into it again

which is to say it is very cute imagery

[ninetyninelives]

100% me

[aliveandkicking]

Not speaking as the mod (see, I'm using my character account!!) but as someone who is also playing.

I actually like the slow pace overall (though I was a bit like holy cow one day lasted well over a week...) Even though the current IC mingle is only the first "throughout the entire day" mingle post (which Beth wisely suggested!!), I already have a feeling that mingles like this will work a lot better than a slow constant of MORNING MINGLE - DAY MINGLE - EVENING MINGLE in the future, especially since the game is as cozily small as it is.

Labyrinth-wise I'm on the fence; I like the idea of labyrinths occurring every week-ish. But at the same time I'm kind of like "what if labyrinths happen every other week AND OCCASIONALLY EVERY WEEK" for Modly Reasons that I said I would exclude from my answer... so I'm not entirely sure!!

(I really like to use !! a lot i'm sorry)

[blamesfate]

I would personally lean a bit more towards one labyrinth every two weeks, mostly because of timezone but also because it seems to me like the labyrinths are running over? Or at least, that people want more time to comment. But maybe that's just the impression I get. I consider myself a pretty slow player!

I look forward to mingling /o/

+1

[solarbeam]

COULD NOT HAVE SAID IT BETTER MYSELF

[aliveandkicking]

I've definitely gotten that feeling, too, re:—ALL OF IT, actually, I was about to just quote a part, but no, I have been feeling all of this, too. I felt the "people want more time to comment" part for sure, and so I extended the social bingo by a day... and it still didn't feel like enough. (Hypothetically speaking, if I were to do another social-mingle labyrinth thing again, I'd probably just make it last the whole week really.)

tl;dr +1 AND NOTED!

[soulbridge]

From an OOC perspective, I'm really enjoying the current pace! I feel like everyone is experiencing plenty of opportunity to tag around, plenty of opportunity to backtag without that interfering with later comments—I feel like it's all working really well, and as someone who's really missed public RP but hasn't been able to commit time to a fast-paced game, I'm enjoying myself immensely!

I think having whole day mingles will help to keep things moving along at a reasonable clip. It seems like the right balance of keeping things gentle and casual from an OOC perspective but still allowing time to be moving quick enough IC for the characters not to get... burnt out on labyrinths? Like... one every week/fortnight is fine for us, but if the IC perspective of that is a labyrinth every day or two, I'm sure some characters would get worn out or frustrated, hahaha.

Having seen that it's perfectly feasible for a labyrinth to run every week, I think I ultimately agree with the points that blamesfate raised—in both labyrinths so far, I feel that there could have been room to tag further. If spacing them out a bit more also allows for slightly longer play time, I don't think that's a bad thing! I might be speaking quite largely from my own perspective, though, and missing the bigger picture. I appreciate that adding more time for labyrinth completion might take away some of the "challenge", but as someone on a less common timezone who gets to comment sporadically, it would really be beneficial for me and maybe a few others?!

I also think that spacing the labyrinths out more creates the opportunity to build tension ICly by occasionally having them closer together. I hope that makes sense? I feel like having them every couple of weeks (i.e with a few IC days inbetween) would make it more ~shocking~ for the characters if we then occasionally have them occur closer together. Particularly ~menacing~ labyrinths could appear at certain milestones or something, materialising regardless of how ICly tired our characters may be. Stupid pesky inconsiderate labyrinths.

But I'm just talking into the void now, hahaha. The short answer is I'm really loving this game, I'm having so much fun with everyone (please don't mistake my IC for my OOC, you guys are all wonderful!), and I will get back to tagging people tomorrow!

[aliveandkicking]

YOU'RE NOT TALKING INTO THE VOID MY FRIENNNND.

My reply is one part "I very much agree" and another part "I agree so much that I'm just going to add in my own relative thoughts and probably just reiterate the things you've already said" SORRY I'M NOT VERY GOOD AT WORDS SOMETIMES.

I'm coming to realize that I REALLY enjoy the slow pace Daze has, more than I've let on; reading the comments to this post and sitting on it helped. I realize that I like knowing I can backtag something from a couple realtime weeks ago and know that, ICly, that's taking place not much more than a day ago from the current IC timeline. Idk, something about playing at a pace like that is pretty neat and refreshing. I'm so used to fast-paced games where, okay sure I can tag this thing from weeks ago, but I get weird about it (I know plenty of people who comfortably backtag for MONTHS in a fast-paced game, so that's just me!!)

I also agree about characters dealing with labyrinths too frequently from their perspective; that was one of my concerns, too. Our first labyrinth was on the evening of the day 1, and the second labyrinth fell on the dawn of the day 2, WHICH WAS ALL COOL! But then I was like, okay, crap, if things keep going like this, the next labyrinth could basically fall on the afternoon of day 2, and that's kind of a lot for characters ICly. Looking at it this way, I think day-long mingles will definitely help with this! We can still keep the pace slow; by having the posts go like that it'll help time progress a liiittle better so we don't have labyrinths Every Day.

Also in agreement that maybe one labyrinth every OOC week is a bit much! Making labyrinths last longer, since they'd only regularly occur every two weeks, too, is also a good idea! I ALSO REALLY LIKE YOUR THIRD PARAGRAPH.

tl;dr I AGREE!! I really like the steady pace we have going on, slowing the labyrinth occurrences and making them last longer would help with some of the issues we could have, and +1 noted.

Also you've taught me the word "fortnight" I literally had no idea that such a useful word existed. I'm gonna use it everywhere.

[glorious]

I kind of reiterated some of what you said down below but one of your sentences gave me a thought, so, TALKING ABOUT THIS:

I appreciate that adding more time for labyrinth completion might take away some of the "challenge", but [...]

From a runner-perspective, one thing I actually enjoy shifting over from Aather to Kingdom Daze is that there's no built-in competition between characters or players due to the fact that everyone's on the same side, therefore 'challenge' is also something that isn't necessarily built in by design, if that makes sense? Like, with the labyrinth I run, the challenge existed ICly but since there's no IC competition, I felt I could be very lax about OOC difficulty levels in a way I couldn't in other games.

BY WHICH I MEAN: I think there's something to be said for having the occasional 'challenging' labyrinth but that that challenge absolutely does not need to be an OOC challenge in any sense, much less a challenge that inherently favors people who are in the same timezone as everyone else.

[glorious]

I ALREADY TALKED TO A MOD ABOUT IC DAY:OOC DAY TIME RATIOS and I do think that a mingle encompassing a day is a great experiment for now.

I also think a labyrinth every two weeks might be something worth trying out. As an Aatherite, once a week is a decent pace for me, but a labyrinth every two weeks means a labyrinth could be hypothetically stretched out throughout a week if it needs to be without any risk of running into the next labyrinth and also allowing for more IC downtime; and possibly there could be other small (optional) activities between labyrinths that could be done as well (perhaps players could be involved in shaping the town itself in someway...?). This could be one way to achieve a compromise between those who are in awkward timezones need more chances at making it through a labyrinth at their own pace and also allowing Lots of Activity for those who are used to faster-paced games.

[aliveandkicking]

I'm definitely for trying labyrinths every two weeks—not that I'd be opposed to someone running a labyrinth in between every now and then to change things up! But that's a good point; by having them every two weeks, they would then have the room so they could last a while longer without running into the other labyrinth, and still allow IC downtime.

Ooh, and I like the idea of additional, optional activities between labyrinths! I'm for doing that, too. This isn't necessarily related, but one thing I'm now trying with mingles is to give them a strong hook, like how the current one for Day 2 has lake festivities. NOT NECESSARILY A FESTIVITY EVERY MINGLE (that'd get dull fast) BUT GENERAL... THINGS. Sometimes it'd be something that can involve the majority, and other times there's a little less grabbing to give characters room for their own thing. Etc, etc.

...I BASICALLY JUST RE-SAID A LOT OF WHAT YOU SAID, which must mean I agree!! Noted!!

[glorious]

I DO LIKE THAT IDEA re: occasional festivities shown via the local businesses. I like that the stores are actively selling things in the most recent mingle. While currency is very /handwaves (which honestly I like since tracking currency in RP is a pain in the butt) there's still a sense that the town has an economy of its own and that players have room to play with that if they so choose.

I LIKE STUFF SO FAR. THOSE ARE MY VERY DEEP DEEP THOUGHTS.

[aliveandkicking]

SUCH DEEP THOUGHTS!!

Tracking currency is so tedious, I'm glad that handwaving has been a good alternative. I'M GLAD THINGS ARE WORKING!! I'm just very glad about many things.

[watertabled]

I NEVER RESPONDED TO THIS

But my thoughts are mostly... that the pacing before was fine. The pacing now is also fine since I think we all collectively took a breather (I checked out even earlier than the general oops) but I think we're definitely capable of picking right up again which is kind of a cool feeling. By which I mean I need to tag out more in the current mingle and stuff but it feels very doable. /o/

Also if all the labyrinths are on the weekends there's a chance I won't be able to make them since I'm always getting kidnapped by family or running around in the woods or someone is getting married or SOMETHING HAPPENS so I hope we'll still have weekday evening labyrinths too.

[queendaze]

I'll definitely be running weekday labyrinths, as well as some labyrinths where the significant part/majority of it takes place through the week since I want to try some longer labyrinths here soon!

AND I SUPER AGREE and get the same feeling re: checking out and coming back and picking right back up again. I've come to think it's really nice to be able to do that!