I'm just curious, is there anyone who will actually be unhappy or feel their enjoyment of gameplay will be hampered by staying in the journal based format?
I do wonder if that might not be the question to ask, simply because everyone here signed up knowing it was journal based and so is likely to be able to tolerate keeping that system. I myself will be sad if it switches to a comm format but it's not a deal breaker. I'll see how I deal with it, I'm just aware of people with more issues than myself related to playing in a comm style.
The biggest specific/technical pros I can see with switching to a community format involve making the transition to dreamwidth smoother for the mods when it comes to compiling an initial friending list, and then the worry that people will forget to click both grant and subscribe when adding individual friends later. And, obviously, some people just prefer the community format - but have been playing in a journal based style and joined the game with that set up.
I feel that a small note or table to throw in to new character tldr posts saying "please grant AND subscribe to -username-" would go some way to solving the two-click problem, and we'd get used to it, though I'm sure there would be small slips.
However, in switching to a community format, we lose some of the tradition of one of LJ's older panfandom games - and while poly may always have put a few people off who only like comm games, there are many alternatives. Far fewer alternative journal based games.
We lose the back story of the characters. We'll all either have journals that look abruptly cut off, or those of us who like things neat will delete or hide imported entries and start over. Either way it will be harder to trace a character backwards.
We lose the more personalised feel and sense of ownership others have mentioned they get from having their character's entries in their own journal.
We lose the ability to filter friends pages: I know some of us with more than one character like to have one main friends list and smaller friends lists for individual characters, for those days when you can't read everything (more necessary when the game was faster).
Yes, we can track community posts in our own journals, or even fake-cut link across, but both of these options feel somehow distancing.
Ultimately, I'll go with the game and see how I get on with it, whatever the decision may be. Making the change to dw is already quite an adjustment and it's great that there are efforts all round to be accommodating with it. I just wanted to shape my opinions a little bit more and stop overloading people's plurks. Sorry to be so srs over what is a silly little thing in the scheme of things. It's just 4 1/2 years in the game is a lot of tradition to miss.
no subject
I do wonder if that might not be the question to ask, simply because everyone here signed up knowing it was journal based and so is likely to be able to tolerate keeping that system. I myself will be sad if it switches to a comm format but it's not a deal breaker. I'll see how I deal with it, I'm just aware of people with more issues than myself related to playing in a comm style.
The biggest specific/technical pros I can see with switching to a community format involve making the transition to dreamwidth smoother for the mods when it comes to compiling an initial friending list, and then the worry that people will forget to click both grant and subscribe when adding individual friends later. And, obviously, some people just prefer the community format - but have been playing in a journal based style and joined the game with that set up.
I feel that a small note or table to throw in to new character tldr posts saying "please grant AND subscribe to -username-" would go some way to solving the two-click problem, and we'd get used to it, though I'm sure there would be small slips.
However, in switching to a community format, we lose some of the tradition of one of LJ's older panfandom games - and while poly may always have put a few people off who only like comm games, there are many alternatives. Far fewer alternative journal based games.
We lose the back story of the characters. We'll all either have journals that look abruptly cut off, or those of us who like things neat will delete or hide imported entries and start over. Either way it will be harder to trace a character backwards.
We lose the more personalised feel and sense of ownership others have mentioned they get from having their character's entries in their own journal.
We lose the ability to filter friends pages: I know some of us with more than one character like to have one main friends list and smaller friends lists for individual characters, for those days when you can't read everything (more necessary when the game was faster).
Yes, we can track community posts in our own journals, or even fake-cut link across, but both of these options feel somehow distancing.
Ultimately, I'll go with the game and see how I get on with it, whatever the decision may be. Making the change to dw is already quite an adjustment and it's great that there are efforts all round to be accommodating with it. I just wanted to shape my opinions a little bit more and stop overloading people's plurks. Sorry to be so srs over what is a silly little thing in the scheme of things. It's just 4 1/2 years in the game is a lot of tradition to miss.