(no subject)

[unborn-of-this.livejournal.com]

DISCUSSION TIIIIIIIIME
Hi, guys! WORRY NOT, just checking in to ask how y’all are doing. We’ve been throwing a couple of events and plots your way these past few months, and we were wondering how those’ve been working for you, what else you’d think it nifty to see, etc.

In particular, we’d really like to know (but obviously, don’t limit yourselves to just this XD):

O1. What bigger-scale plots would you like to carry out? However wild the idea, just put it down! Specifics really, really help with this kind of thing, so tl;dr away! Maybe there’re other people who’d love to see it in action, and we’re definitely here to help with the mechanics!

O2. Are there any worldbuilding instruments (new areas, items, creatures, etc) that might help with plotting and that you’d really like to see in the game?

We were also wondering whether there were any administrative issues that have been giving you any kind of trouble lately, or any suggestions that you’d like to make in that direction! There’ll soon be a poll as to whether the community at large would like to see anon comments restored on HMD (though the result won't affect the February HMD), and the FAQ was updated a little while ago... anything else?

All thoughts welcome, so don’t be shy! We can’t promise a solution to everything, but we really do want to know what is and isn’t working for you at Poly! Our only request is to please keep in mind that different strokes work for different folks, so even if someone’s suggestion doesn’t do it for you, please be polite in engaging that opinion.

Thanks in advance!

Comments

[wishgrant]

IDK IF THIS COUNTS AS WORLDBUILDING BUT

Would it be possible to get some layouts for the housing? For the individual rooms, I mean, and not the apartments as a whole. Just a basic "this is what one person ones are like, the two person, etc."

[arachnidism.livejournal.com]

I always thought that people could come up with those on their own but I think it might be fun to do a couple of templates if people'd like? Maybe a player (maybe I'll do it >> <<) would like to?

[laszlo-jamf.livejournal.com]

We've really left this up to players thusfar--maybe in part because each of the 12 main apartment buildings have infinite floors and infinite rooms, which allows for a lot of messing around and a lot of really interesting architecture (eat your heart out, Inception).

But it can be nice to get an idea of how rooms fit together, especially when logging. So! If you (or someone else, like a certain someone just above this comment) might like to come up with a few sample templates for fun and/or profit for other players to use, that's excellent! I, for one, am weirdly fond of blueprints and building layouts--I'm not kidding.

[bequiet_hescreamed]

Oooh, that would be sort of cool. Even as someone who no longer has a character who lives in an apartment.

I do kind of like the current arrangement where that stuff is assumed, though. When the MKR crew lived in one huge apartment with like THIRTEEN BEDROOMS, WTF I had a ton of fun drawing up a floorplan. Part of the point of the apartment buildings is that they shift and reorganize themselves as needed. If the mods came out with floorplans, people would feel like they had to stick to them. So, for example, someone couldn't decide that they wanted to have a studio with a huge terrace or something, idk.

On the other hand, floorplans make good suggestions. I consulted a lot of them when I was trying to put to paper the monstrosity that was the MKR apartment. My advice would just be to find RL apartments with floorplans you like and be like, "their apartment looks like THIS! :D"

[signatures]

I'm retarded and want a school au curse. I heard we did this pretty recently already, though? ;; I think ~au~ stuff like that is really fun in general, and it at least gives some more ~material~ for my kid to work on for trying to figure all this shit out.

And though there'll be a poll already, I always think anons should be allowed for HMDs, just because some people don't feel comfortable giving crit to others regardless of need. Granted, if it gets to a ~trolling~ extent that particular thread could always get frozen.

But I think City-wide events (things that change the mechanics of the City itself in a way? Spruces it up and makes it different?) are A+? The memory thing was great too, I just couldn't think of what I in particular wanted to get rid of, so I didn't participate. But yeah. FLIPPING THE TABLE OVER type events, just to disturb any sort of normalcy or comforts characters have had by settling themselves in? Changes in setting? Zombie apocalypses? GLADIATORS? Idk.

I am so unhelpful.

Sexual favors will of course be granted as ~inspiration~.

[bequiet_hescreamed]

I am always up for an AU curse, yo. Especially the school one.

fjkdalfjklsaj OH MAN BUT BUT BUT I DON'T HAVE CLOW ANYMORE AAAA

/also unhelpful

[protects-her.livejournal.com]

+1 for the School AU because it is my guilty pleasure and I am not sorry.

I also like the AUs in general, and I remember early last year we ended up doing them pretty frequently (didn't we have like...three of them over the course of one or two months?), and I think the reason why they dwindled is because they take a lot of time and creativity in advance to come up with backstories and plots and often even research into the setting for the sake of accuracy--which makes it easy for them to become overwhelming if we face too many in too short a time.

That said, maybe we could come up with a sort of schedule for AU curses, like...I don't know, kind of like how we do for 4th Wall? Every two or three months, an AU rolls around to throw the citizens for a loop. It'd give the long-term residents something new to think about and chart, kind of like how most of them have gotten accustomed to expecting Grab Bag and 4th Wall, but it'd also be unpredictable enough in terms of era and so on that they wouldn't really be able to track what will happen, just that some shenanigans will.

Aaaaaaand this is really more directed to the post as a whole than as a reply to you (sorry >> ) but yes, +1 School AU, +1 for More AUs.

[causeblackouts.livejournal.com]

I WOULD LOVE A SCHOOL AU OH MY GOD. I'm such a sucker for that stuff. :(

But yeah I'm with you on allowing anon, because freezing threads is always an option and sometimes anon is the only way to encourage people to give crit.

[deadly_legacy]

I'm happy with things plot or not plot wise and world building wise.

For administrative all the comes to mind is:

I have always wanted a map so I could see where things were in basic relation to one another.

It seems like I keep noticing old entries on the taken pages. So, maybe that system should be looked at a little?

[laszlo-jamf.livejournal.com]

Oh that map... Hi, I got this one.

So, a while back, one of our Poly alums made a City map and it was great. Some time later, I said I was going to update the map and I began collecting information on where everything was in relation to everything else and got all set to make it... And my computer died.

And, after being out of commission for more than a little while, I had a lot of things to catch up on, and the map got pushed to the back-burner. Where it stayed for far, far, far too long.

tl;dr: a map would be awesome, and I'm going to pick that thread up right where I left off. In the meantime, we do have poly_places, which can give some idea of where things are in relation to other things, but it's not the same as a really awesome map. So! Map, get!

[protects-her.livejournal.com]

As a driveby addition, the old, un-updated City Map can be found over here (http://community.livejournal.com/poly_extra/745734.html).

Obviously, you have to take it with several grains of salt since a lot of the information on it is outdated, but as a general scheme/point of reference/starting place, I know I still refer back to it a lot myself. So I hope that's helpful, at least in the meantime!

♥

[bequiet_hescreamed]

I like plots! But do not often find the time to participate in them to the extent that I'd like.

This is probably a me problem, not a game problem.

And so this is the most fail reply ever.

/spam

[eagleofautozam.livejournal.com]

*keeps your spam company

[esotaria.livejournal.com]

IDK how feasible this would be for y'all or if this was tried before and failed miserably, but it'd be a lot easier for me, since I comment around more frequently than I remember to post, if comment threads could also be used to count toward activity. Like, you could make activity with either two posts or with a post and a comment thread of at least 10 comments or something. I know the mods can't check on comment threads themselves (oh lord that's a nightmare to even contemplate), but I've seen other games that do an activity check in instead -- a post goes up and each player must comment showing they've met activity (linking entries or threads of the required length).

Anyways, just a thought. ROCK ON, POLY! o9

[deadly_legacy]

+1

[dude-imbatman.livejournal.com]

01.

The AU curses are fun. My favorite curse yet is still the Moulin Rouge Era France one. It's an amazing idea and it gives us a chance to play out entirely different settings and backgrounds. The problem with these, imo, is that plenty of time to plan is necessary, weeks even. I also think that while these are amazing, they have to be spaced out properly. Once every 2-3 months maybe? And I think they have to last several days to a week in order to be effective and give us time to really enjoy it before things go back to normal.

I'd also really love to see some more breakdown of the City as we know it. For example, I would love to see the technology in the City fail. All of it. Power, computers, devices, etc for a week or so. It'd be kind of equivalent to an AU curse. It's interesting to see what happens to people when things start crumbling like the memories.

I know there's an overall plot with the clock and the carousel. I'd love to see those move forward as well. Again with all the bigger scale plots I think pacing is important. Not too fast, not too slow and give us some time to breath between them.

That's asking for a lot I realize. You did want to be tl;dr'd at right?

02.

As someone who plays a couple of people who like hunting monsters and figuring out cases, I'd love to see some monster plots that over reach the entire City. A creature-tarium (is that even a word?) that lists out a bunch of monsters, their strengths and weaknesses, rough appearance, etc that tells us what we might find in the Underground would be amazing. That way we could do a lot on our own without worrying about over stepping bounds on what's vulnerable in the Underground and what's not.

As far as areas, new ones to explore are always fun but I think over all we've got a lot of areas in Poly that aren't used or that people just don't know about. Things that bring these areas to light would be fantastic. For example I didn't realize we had an Academy here for the longest time.

This relates a bit to plots, but items/clues that give players hints to how things work in the City would be a lot of fun. I'd also like some sort of rare, magical item(s) that might allow those without magic to enter Shadowland.

Administratively, I'm happy with Poly. The mods are great. The players are great. There's always something to do in Poly and I love that. The thing that is sometimes...tiring (for lack of a better word) is that there's little development toward things. The prisoners don't have any hope of ever getting out or any control of the City at large. There's only so much difference they can make and I understand that part of that is necessary. However it'd be nice if we could make a bit more difference and have a little more hope.

YOU SAW NOTHING

[unborn-of-this.livejournal.com]

The prisoners don't have any hope of ever getting out or any control of the City at large.

Thaaaaaat is kind of one of those things that need to be balanced, because you're right: there's really no way to give the prisoners... real victory without ending the game (for them, or in general XD). But it's also not fun if characters lose motivation.

What kind of specific small victories / hope-raisers do you think might make a difference? For your characters or

[bill-to-sis.livejournal.com]

Nitpicky thing, but on the locale page, it says a map of Poly is pending and while I don't need anything specific, a simple block drawing putting all the places together would be helpful for general geography! I suck at geography in real life so knowing where my character is in a day and what s/he might reasonably be able to pass off in multiple action posts would be very helpful. If a map really isn't pending though, I'd suggest removing the link so as not to get people's hopes up that it'll randomly appear someday ^^ ETA before posting: Just saw someone mentioned wanting a map too and that it really is pending but since I already had this written up, I'm... just gonna leave this here anyway. >_>

Also, not sure if anyone else would find this useful/knows of a link, but maybe just a general list of potential jobs? I draw a mind blank on this type of thing if it falls outside my usual experience so that could be helpful for people who want to find something unique for their character that's still within their skill set? I realize that looking at the shop listings helps a lot, but when I look at those, I just see a lot of restaurant/bar related jobs.

/mindblanks forever

As for bigger plots, I love them even if I don't participate in them due to RL usually sticking me in the back, but it does help to add continuity between posts rather then just being flavor of the day. It really helps me when I can be show consistent character development/action development from post to post rather then just being a random curse thing. It also helps other tag into things too which is why I'm loving this memory loss post. But, if they're a lot of work, maybe just have one once every other month?

Also, not gonna lie, I love seeing big character plots so while I might not be able to participate in them, I like knowing that I COULD if I had the right character who'd butt into everyone's business. Like the current ongoing BtVS plot. So excited for this! However, I'm not at all sure how you can encourage more of this as it's on the characters end to do so XD

And that's about all I can think of at the moment. I don't mind anon on hmd memes, but I also know it can lead to a lot of trouble so I'll just be the person who goes with the flow on whatever is decided.

/two cents

[unborn-of-this.livejournal.com]

Well, the assumption is that there're a lot of NPC offered jobs too, so a lot IS available -- are you referring to PC-offered jobs? Like... having some kind of post to reflect, say, ads on a board at the square?

[deadly_legacy]

I'll just keep thinking of random things.

It might be nice to have a list of mod-played deities and NPCs somewhere or maybe there is and I just don't know where? Or to mark the profiles of the journals clearly. I mean, I can usually guess, but there really isn't anything stopping random, crazy people from tagging on our journals, so it would be good to know they are specific crazy people. ♥

[laszlo-jamf.livejournal.com]

Ahhh NPCs. I won't lie, I do like the element of surprise when it comes to springing a new NPC critter on a plot ("omg wtf is that?!" and all), but you do raise a good point re: random, outside-the-game taggers. We do usually try to put a "property of: POLYchromatic" note in an NPC's journal, but that's not always a quick-and-easy way to see whether someone/-thing is associated or not and, hurr, sometimes I know I've forgotten to do that (shh >>;;). And a record of all the past NPCs would almost serve as a record of past events and plots, which appeals to my urge to archive everything. Personally (as a player myself, I mean), I think this might be kind of a useful thing--so I'll point the other moderator-types in the direction of your comment.

In the meantime, we do have a wee bit of a profile page for the Deities (http://berryfloss.livejournal.com/11685.html) themselves, at least. But that's hardly an exhaustive list of NPCs, obviously (there have been a looooot of them).

[narnian]

****I read nothing in this post past the 23 comment count, apologies for any rehash orz****

o1. So, AU plots are neat though I realize AU is incredibly broad, so as to a few that seem to have gone over extremely well every time there's the obvious of School oriented curses. Also the Belle Époque curse. Environment shifting because their day-to-day curses do not involve this (usually) are quite possibly the types of 'event' curses people will feel they have the most freedom with and then, once those curses are over, there is in addition to readjusting to the 'norm' of the City whatever carryover from said curse - LOTS TO WORK WITH \o/

→suggestion [AU]
Shift the reality of the City to match that of a canon world (i.e. the City becomes Narnia. SHUT UP. EVERYONE WANTED THIS AS A CHILD. I still do. But you know not really, anything. Um. Supernatural world would I suppose involve Wendigos, exorcisms, and tricksters for example.) The thing is that when the world shifts so do the people - as with Belle Époque, etc, etc, etc. It's only AU because players would have to come up with roles for their characters (i.e. in a canon world of Star Wars, Arthur is a Jedi. ...what. I'm doing this on the fly okay) or else it would be more like a canon world showcase.

...which might be kind of cool too though I think you did that once? D| Memoryyyy. I don't have it.

I know that this curse is difficult in the sense that not everyone knows every canon, but at the same time I don't think it's impossible. For me, at least, I know that if the canon has a wikipedia with a decent explanation of the world then that's...enough for me to run with it, less even. But this is all just opinion >_<;;; eiogdksl

Granted this might be more of a summer endeavor, to be considerate to those in school or even in school and work or whatever. I personally wouldn't mind seeing it any time but it's also the kind of thing that does need its planning stages so maybe it's a while in the making anyway.

Um also I would say if this ever saw its day in the sun, that it would be better as an unusually long curse (a week? too much?) to better give people time to play it out (god knows I live for backtagging but some of the in-the-moment zeal is, I'm sure, half of the fun) and post around their RL schedules, etc, etc, etc. THIS IS LONG I'M SORRY T_T Also, it's the kind of curse I guess that would benefit from the players knowing a month ahead....so place it perhaps at the end of the month but throw up a Poly-TLDR post for organization on the first of said month?

...does any of this even make SENSE anymore...scre.

o2. Extending the barrier perhaps and the land that gives way is...perhaps a little like an effort to make 'the City' into a literal world of its own? That may be too much considering the beauty of the concentration of this place is that inevitably Character A will meet with Character X, but a thought anyway.

→suggestion [LANDSCAPING/BUILDINGS~]
A desert FOR NO REASON. A...vast wilderness with waterfalls? Um.
→→Seconding/thirding template ideas for buildings be it the same for all twelve or different for each one which might be kind of fun. Perhaps to lessen work on mods this could be done on a volunteer basis? I would be glad to help with this, would take up two building layouts in fact if said volunteer list was short.
→→Rather than adding literal expanse to the environment there is also the option of adding in things within preexisting areas. So for example, in Xanadu where it's always temperate, suddenly there's a well. The well could do many things - be a wishing well for instance but every time you make a wish, what you wish happens to someone else. Conversely, if you wish something on someone else, it happens to you. Why wish at all you say? Well...like the functions of a curse, this well compels anyone who stands at its side to do so....THIS MAY BE a bad example but yea. IDEAS. Suddenly I'm imagining the Mirror of Erised(sp!?!?!?!) showing up...sob.

[narnian]

Game-wise: overall...? Love Poly :>

NOT HELPFUL RIGHT? >_>

→ Okay um. Re: anon well, a poll's a poll so I guess the numbers will give what they give...though I'm generally opposed to Anon.
→ Activity: I think that perhaps if a person could have 1 post and 1 completed log for activity, that would be really helpful as an option. I think the last time I said this people thought I meant that EVERYONE would have to, so I'm trying to be clearer this time. People COULD still do the 2 regular network posts, but they would have an alternative, which is extremely, ridiculously helpful for those who are more likely to interact in person than on the network, and additionally for those who do not wander in public space and talk to strangers for very long, etc. I saw the suggestion for comment threads to count and while I think it's a good show of activity I feel if this too is an option it should be something more like 3 completed threads. That sounds like a lot but it's not. It doesn't have to go on for twenty exchanges. Just, you know, more than HEY and HI and ...

This however sounds like a migraine and a half when chalked up on top of everything else you guys do for us ._.

It would still be work but maybe less so, therefore, if those options (or one of them) was added, if a post was made that (every month) characters reply to it with proof of their activity IF it involves something other than network posts. Does that make sense? Just, if EVERYONE commented then you'd be inundated and 'helpful' would just become TITANIC....the end part. :/ Don't want that. And plenty of characters DO prefer 2 network posts so I don't think you'd have to worry about it being too many swapping.

SUMMARY: ACTIVITY ALTERNATIVE: COMBOS
1 network post, 1 completed log
1 network post, 3 completed threads

HOW:
/PRETENDS to be a mod
"If you made activity this month with something OTHER than 2 Network posts, please comment to this post with the character's journal and links to your combo!"

OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT?! ;;????

Oh god....

/gets out....forever....

Scans things for data

[eagleofautozam.livejournal.com]

Something that is difficult to keep up with in Poly is place names. The names of businesses are constantly changing names and ownership… and if you miss the post that occurs in well, suddenly you are using the wrong name in your posts.
I know there is the Polyplaces section but it isn’t often updated and many of the places aren’t listed? Or at least it seems that way to me.
So it would be a bit of work to setup I’m sure, but in one of the games I played in they had a wiki. It was SO helpful! I was constantly looking things up in it… and the best part was you could request access to edit the pages. The players themselves helped to keep the thing updated. So how about one of those? ^_^

You can get a free one here PBWorks (http://pbworks.com/content/personal+overview?utm_campaign=mcgetyourown&utm_source=personal)

Quit scanning me, Eagle.

[bequiet_hescreamed]

Oh hey, that's a good idea.

/HAS NOTHING TO ADD

[causeblackouts.livejournal.com]

Personally I really liked the way January had the slow-building memory plot thing and I'd like to see more like it. Where it's not so much a curse DAY but a slow, build-up event. It draws away some participation in regular curse days, but I think it's better for CR which is basically one of the main things people are able to do within Poly.

I also think some group events would be nice! Give people an opportunity to throw themselves into a group with people who they might not have CR with, branch out, encourage plotting outside of comfort zones. Something where idk people are thrown together and forced to work with one another to either solve puzzles or escape some horrible evil. You've seen Saw, I'm sure, but not necessarily so horrific.

Joining the chorus of big AU plots being awesome, as well. Or maybe something disastrous like a few weeks of solid rain that causes some damaging and intense flooding or ... idk, things like that which can't be ignored or handwaved by characters.

I'd also really like to see some plot where the end result (maybe an exploration plot that could lead to getting more areas like the neverending desert someone mentioned, etc.) would be the characters learning more about the history of the City and its deities. I feel like some breath needs to be given back to the world plot and discovery of it and interest in the carousel, because 90% of Poly has settled into slice of life and not bothered even mentioning it.

Administratively, a lot of characters have ICly mentioned a welcome center to both of my characters but there's no information on what information and assistance they give to new characters. IDK maybe I'm just ... retarded and not able to find it, but I've dug through all the literature for months now. Also I had no idea the Raven served blood until someone told one of my characters about it IC because it's just described as being pretty shady. :c So if that could be added to its location description that would be fantastic for ... anyone who apps a vampire in, really.

I'm going to ... baww here about how happy I am you guys are promising to work on the map more because not having one has been making me die forever. I'm a detail-oriented type person like that, and I know there was one hanging around when I was here before, so it was really jarring to come back and find one ... did not exist at all.

I THINK THAT'S EVERYTHING IDK.

[causeblackouts.livejournal.com]

Oh, and honestly I'd like to see some kind of encouragement for people to post on non-curse days. People can get by activity-wise by playing their character completely OOC -- I'm not saying this happens, I'm saying it's possible -- by only taking advantage of curse days which would make it really hard to build CR with them.

[protects-her.livejournal.com]

On Bigger-Scale Plots:

I'd love to see a plot where Adrastus's mother comes back and announces to everyone that her son is engaged to be married and thus forces the City at large to work together to put on the Wedding Of The Millennium™ for Adrastus and his infernal bride. Woe unto you if that wedding cake is not lemony enough and the processional music is not Beck enough.

...Hey, you did say it could be wild. >>

Right but anyway, outlandish ridiculosity aside, I personally would love to see and hear more of the City NPCs, even if they don't actually appear in person. We're coming up on two years now since we last saw Adrastus's mother, and I'm sure a few of the older characters remember her parting words about how she'd paid for the City!dead to be alive again and the cryptic "riverrun" and so on, but two years is a long time in an RP and so by virtue of character drops and other complications, a lot of that stuff can be forgotten in the passage of time. And it's difficult in an OOC sense for dropped characters to pass on that information to newer characters, since new characters and players weren't around to know where it is, or sometimes even that it exists in the first place. The City Guides tend to be a unique exception, since most people save links to them and distribute them accordingly, but take things like...oh, the mysterious information November 11 found after killing the Tickler. He's dropped now, and as far as I know that information is in limbo, so even if someone wanted to pick up the investigation or find out what it was all about, it's difficult to rationalize ICly because they wouldn't have any way of knowing about it in the first place.

I'll pause here to say that I do acknowledge this isn't entirely a mod problem. It also relies on players taking the initiative to pursue the hooks that the mods give us, and not all hooks will take. We had the Curse Token handout earlier this year, which was a really nifty idea, but to my knowledge no one has actually used one yet--which I wholeheartedly admit I'm guilty of myself. Not all seeds will bear fruit, and there's no way of telling which ones will and which ones won't, and it does have to be a team effort because I know the mods work hard to make things fun for the players, and often don't get the acknowledgment or thanks they deserve for all the work they do. (So thank you all, by the way, for everything you do to make Poly fun. ♥)

But I personally would really like to see some of the NPCs become more recurring characters, and an expansion of the mythos. Even if it's something as simple as, say, after a large-scale plot like the memory loss one we're having now (which is apparently a bureaucratic error on the part of the deities), have an accidental video broadcast of one of the deities going "oh, hell, another screw-up like that and we'll pull a performance review from her." Or have them reference the major past goings-on, which would give newer citizens the opportunity to go "wait, what Stewards" or "what do you mean, a hair monster?" and the longer-lasting citizens the chance to pop up and provide answers. I also think that would help in alleviating the feeling that the curses sometimes occur in a vacuum--they happen, they end, and a month later they're forgotten.

Anyway, tl;dr (concision, Alex, learn you some!): I would love to see the stories of the City's history revive, and any hooks to help facilitate that among players would be, I think, a helpful idea.

[protects-her.livejournal.com]

On Worldbuilding:

Finnick wants a boat. (Don't you ever forget.)

I think some islands would be a cool addition, if you're looking for specific locales? And to reiterate above, more things that hint at the City past and mythos would definitely be something I, personally, would be interested in. Or you could combine the two and give us ISLANDS WITH BURIED TREASURE (not in the least because this is relevant to Rosella's interests at all, oh no). I also think the bestiary is a neat idea, but that might be more feasible as a player-run endeavor.

On Everything Else:

I figure I'll just link to this thread (http://community.livejournal.com/polychromatic/218074.html?thread=17000666&style=mine#t17000666) about AUs and how they could work in reiterating that I have a secret and ridiculous passion for AUs and I would like to see more of them, albeit sparingly to avoid creative burnout.

Also, thank you again for this post as a forum for discussion! ♥

[never_very_good]

Okay, so here's the thing I don't understand about the anon HMD discussion: how would enabling anon change anything?

Anonymous criticism is not something everyone wants, or is comfortable with. I understand why some people want to give anonymous criticism, but I don't think enabling anonymous commenting on the HMD would actually allow all those people to anonymously crit the specific people they want to anonymously crit. Posting to the gamewide HMD is not mandatory. Having a crit post is also not mandatory. People who are willing to accept anonymous crit typically have an anon-enabled crit post. When those people post to the HMD, they have the option on the little form fill-out to link to it. Which means the people who are willing to hear anon crit essentially do have anon-enabled comments on the HMD: you just need to click the link and go comment there.

If the gamewide HMD were anon-enabled, all the people who don't have a crit post would not suddenly become open to anon crit: they just wouldn't post on the HMD at all. So instead of having the chance to crit more people signed-in, you would have the chance to leave anon crit for a smaller sampling of players. The only way to change that would be to make it mandatory to post, and frankly... Regardless of the anon issue I don't think I would be comfortable with that decree.

As it stands anon HMD is an opt-in system, and I really think that's how you'll get the highest response of people overall looking for crit. Like I say, I understand wanting to give anon crit, but I don't think there's any way to make people want or accept that crit, and taking away the middle option (signed-in only crit) seems like it would just mean less HMD participation in general, regardless of whether the actual anon-ing got out of hand.

[unborn-of-this.livejournal.com]

We've always left the issue of anon-enabled / purely-logged-in HMDs at the discretion of Poly's majority, so whatever is decided will be done based on what most Poly players feel most comfortable with, and based on the setting that increases the likelihood of their participation and of finding use in the experience. For the purposes of the poll, it seems fair to allow both options of choice.

CITY JUSTICE SYSTEM

[heelsandlaw.livejournal.com]

Well. WELL. I meant to deal with this later and bother you mods with it some other time, but now seems as good as any and discussion is good, y/y?

SO. I mentioned before that Cameron's working on a criminal code (I'm about 1/3 done with it, orz) and I know it won't be deity-backed and thus not mandatory for players. In theory, it would be what the police force will be basing their actions on, in practise, I think villain-muns and police-muns will still be considering which punishment they want and how things should play out.

That said, writing a criminal code obviously also raises questions about a justice system, particularly a court system. I wasn't around poly when the warden-system came down and don't know what the rationale behind the decision was, but unless I missed something, there's no decision-making body (other than the Deities, and I think citizens may be loath to bring their conflicts before them?). I was thinking maybe Cameron could, in-game, try to introduce a sort of jury-based court system. Since there is a shortage of lawyers/judges (non-NPC) in the City, a jury system seems to make the most sense to me and it would allow (1) for players to solve their conflicts ICly, and (2) for other players to become involved with it on, say, a random basis, offering the possibility for CR-building. It probably wouldn't be used much, but-- well. It'd be there for people to use if so inclined.

If you (the mods) have different plans or would just like to leave things as they are for now, please let me know and I'll promise to shut up about the whole justice-thing :) if you do like the idea, I'd offer to take most of the workload ICly and OOCly to set it up.

I'd also love to know what other players think of this - good idea or useless?

I-i hope this made sense >.>

[eagleofautozam.livejournal.com]

Alright after a day of thinking on this. It seems to me the game could use more opportunities to meet people outside of their usual circle of people. Maybe plots where random people are paired up together.
Some curse ideas:

Tag Random People Curse: Today you are feeling unusually social. Go forth! Talk to the people! The more people you tag the better you feel! The curse compels even the most antisocial to seek out new people, people you have never spoken to before and talk till you drop!

Cupid’s on the Loose: That pesky cupid has been flying around shooting random people with his love arrows. Be careful… it might happen to you. One moment you see an attractive stranger across the room and the next you have to find out more about them! He seems to be targeting total strangers… well, he feels the citizens need to make more friends.

Big Plot Ideas:

Citizens feel compelled to clean the city in randomly constructed groups of four. Kind of an ‘Earth Day’ curse. People should be randomly placed in groups and given some kind of task to do… like clean the park, paint over the graffiti, ect. Derp welcome!

There have been rumblings for a while from many of the citizens who are tired of living under the deities rule. I understand this has happened before but how about another attempt to take control of the City away from the deities? A revolution could get a lot of people involved. There could be the people fighting against the deities, people fighting for them… random citizens who are just in the wrong place at the wrong time. We could do this ‘French underground’ style, small groups banding together for acts of sabotage against deity affairs. Randomly selected groups could be offered. CR chances abound!

Seconds… or thirds…
I also like the idea so many others have put forth of month long curses. We could turn the City into some one else’s world for a while, chose a time period to play in, or have things like the memory curse happen. Medieval castles sounds fun to me… or maybe fairy tales. ^,^ *YES! WITH BUTTERFLIES!*

Question
Also I have a “Ah-you-can-still-smell-the-new-ness” newbie-style question. It is a little early to ask at this point but, how do people go about settling up City-wide plots of their own? Do they send you mods an e-mail about it or… pounce you on aim? I don’t see this listed in the faq…?

[unborn-of-this.livejournal.com]

What we encourage people in the FAQ (item #15) and outside of it = either drop us a note on this thread (http://berryfloss.livejournal.com/14140.html), or e-mail, or IM us. XD! It's usually better to tackle e-mail or that thread, because you can put down more information at once and organize your thoughts!