Interest Check

[Lye]

What do you want to see more of on Althanas?

Pick any of the options above and feel free to elaborate or add a suggestion of your own. I'm curious as to what people would like to see more of.

[Otto]

I think we push tournaments/clan wars too much. I can't comment on the quality of the writing therein (although Dirks has), but apart from anything else, it puts a halt on everything else. They have their moments, but do we need to run them continuously? Or am I misinformed about competitive writing, and place too much importance on collaborative narrative?

[Zook Murnig]

My "something else" is actually on the list, but I wanted to be more specific than to say "canon progression." I think it would be good to see more progression of user-generated canon content, and the submission system completed and functional.

[Alydia Ettermire]

I think more competition would be fine if there was joy to it, but there's not, and stuff does get piled on too thick for the size of the site to support. I'd be all in for canon stuff and storyline development, though.

[Cards of Fate]

I loved the AC but damn we're salty mofos about it. Everyones literary dong is on the line and it gets hostile. I like the idea of maybe an Ac like Fq without all the salt...

[Rayleigh]

I didn't notice an excess of AC salt, except maybe from a couple of people.

But I do think we have too many tournaments. I'd really like to see more large-group, cooperative contests (think boss battles, first round of the AC, etc.). I'd love a more active, more reliable mission board too. Really, I'd like to see us interact with cannon (site and user-generated)a bit more.

[black shadow]

I really enjoyed the Featured battle and the Featured Quests are fun too. Those are what I would like to see more of rather than Tournaments.

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

An excess of tourneys stresses the judges assigned to them and kills activity elsewhere on the site.

I'm all for more events that help shape canon, though; be them Featured Quests or more private, personal things done by a small group of RPers.

[Lightfoot]

I think it'd be a good idea to promote the competitive tournaments less, and the cooperative narratives more. More Featured Quests, more banding together, more triumph in the face of adversity, but on a "global" scale. More world building.

I think allowing people to shape canon will get people interested in the story of Althanas, higher than just "my mercenary is a badass", and make them think more about, "how does my character fit in the world? How do they live, how do they act, what are their views about the world."

I would love to see a revival of Mission Boards across the different regions. I've always thought this was a fantastic idea. The only thing that bothered me was that a quest completed from the Mission Board should immediately interact with the region once the quest is judged. Having that information relayed and made public for others looking to RP in the region would give more substantial and satisfactory gains than just EXP and Gold.

For example, there's a mission in Scara Brae to deal with bandits in the woods hampering trade along a main road. A motley crew goes to deal with it, they get the job done and collect their rewards. Afterwards, (once the thread is judged) words spreads once trade improves. The people involved are either noticed or can hear their names being mentioned among the heroes. Then you could post up in a "Current Events" thread for the region about the heroic deed and what it means for people that weren't involved. Maybe there's talk in a tavern? Maybe the heroes now have bounties on their heads from the criminal underworld profiting from the choked trade? Which in turn could open up another Mission Board quest for some of the more violent members of the site.


I also think that there should be more fun little contests on the site that can help members place their own mark on the world. Bringing back old things like when we submitted new Regions and everyone kind of voted on what they liked and would want to RP with. It's how we ended up with Dheathain and Akashima, after all.

We could even take it step further and have people submit their own monsters, or maybe have a folklore contest to see who can come up with cooler traditions and superstitions based on Region.

I really think we should take a step back from the Competitive Tournament mindset, and focus more on creating a world we all want to explore, together.

[Hysteria]

On the comments about mission boards, they tend to get stale. What other ideas do we have to generate interest?

For example, we could have alerts that come out, say a merchant requests some valuable item. Anyone can join by any means (solo, team quest, etc) with the aim.of completing the alert within a set time frame (say a month). Special rewards based on score as well. The result may have more or less effect on cannon too.

What else do we have?