A Measure of Success

[Formendacil]

My own RP credentials are somewhat thinner than others here, but I've been reading along, and hopefully you'll forgive me contributing. As a RP mod from a (somewhat poorer quality, writing-wise) forum elsewhere, I don't have any solutions... but I do have my two pence.

Originally Posted by Folwren

I would like to see more activity on the RPG threads. However, I kind of wonder if changing the rules and loosening things up will really be effective. I mean, we don't have very many new comers anyway. If loosening up means getting some old players back, I'm all for it. But it won't necessarily bring in any more new players.

Quite honestly, I think that there would be more RPing if WW was not such an over-arching part of this entire forum. So many people will spend HOURS every other day on a WW game and not show up at all for weeks on any RPGs they're part of. Is that a problem? Well, no. As Dury said, the whole purpose of this forum is for people to have fun. Is it annoying? Heck, yes, for those of us who aren't obsessed.

Folwren makes a couple good points here. The first, in particular, bears noting, I think. The Downs is not attracting new members in droves, and those it does are not always likely to be RPers. While I think it's possible they stay away from the RP fora because they're a monolithically daunting, separate, and rule-laden part of the forum, the fact of the matter is that we don't have enough new members to really be focused on getting them into RPs.

Thus, I agree with her about needing to focus on player retention/getting back old players. Speaking for myself, the never-ending games are killer, and need tighter--and shorter--timeframes (in this respect, I agree with Mnemo generally). Not only would I be more likely to sign up for a two-week campaign or a month-long story that I actually thought would take that long, I think everyone would be more likely to actually participate, once joined.

Folwren's point about WW is valid... but I have no more solution than she does, though I do want to go on record as saying that WW siphons off a lot of RPing energy from the stable, committed members of the forum, and that as long as it continues, we're going to have a personnel problem here.

*IF* we could relatively sure that a two/three week or month-long game would actually last that long, I think one could reasonably ask players to refrain from playing WW at the same time... but, obviously, that might detract from people's desire to RP.