How do you guys feel about IC conflict in Althanas? Now that the PG scene is suspended for the moment there's really no element of surprise conflict between characters.
I think conflict is good. I even think conflict without consent is good! I think it would be a real thrill if I woke up one morning, came to Althanas.com and found a thread in Dheathain where another player--without having discussed it with me whatsoever--had launched an attack on Gum's home. What a thrill to have to jump into the thread and get into exactly how my character would defend himself, escape, fight back, whatever. And every post would be a complete surprise to me.
Am I the only person who would find that exciting? I am kinda dumb, but I'm not so dumb that I don't see the glaring problems with my vision lol. That kind of play could lead to metagaming/bullying and just all round antisocial behaviour. But maybe there are solutions to those problems? After all, only an asshole posts a complaint without making some sort of constructive suggestions. And I don't want to be an asshole. So here are some thoughts.
PVP Flag
So Elth plays a lot of WoW. And that got me thinking. In WoW you have a PVP flag. Without your PVP flag toggled on then you can't be attacked by other players. Maybe Althanas should introduce a PVP flag system where those brave enough could play with their flag on could be attacked IC at any time. With your PVP flag on, there's no such a thing as a closed thread. Thrilling!? Yes/no?
And then the meat and potatoes of this post is all about...
Bringing Back PG Conflict
There's no ignoring the fact that the community's low activity numbers are the cause of a lot of problems. There's not much to be done about it. Ray, to her infinite credit, put a huge amount of effort into growing the community. Even with all that effort, we have a small community. It is what it is. Maybe it's time to start shaping our community based on the small membership?
Limit PG Membership
I think it was Ebi (if it was somebody else I'm so sorry lol) who made the excellent suggestion that PG membership should be limited due to the small size of the community. That suggestion blew my mind. Imagine a PG with only four spots on the team. The PG leader is only going to keep active players in the team and one single PG won't dominate our small community with ease.
More Dynamic & Simpler Clan Wars
I'm gonna say it, I'm gonna do it. Introduce a draconian word limit per post for clan wars. 250 words. That's it. Speed it up and make it easier for judges. Use a simplified rubric. Focus on fun, unpredictability and competition. With such a tight knit (small) community we only need one PG HQ. Make it easier for it to change hands. Make the rewards preset and simple, an XP bonus or something. It has to be a considerable bonus to make it desirable though!
Make It More IC
Make it a castle, a fort, a tower, a town--something. Produce a story to match the bonus (XP or whatever, gold, something) to an IC magical item or force or some kind of power. If you control the tower then you benefit from some super srs ancient orb of knowledge. People seem to like the famous locations in Althanas, lots of lore helps I suppose.
Well, thanks for reading my stupid suggestion post. Appreciate ya!
p.s. I wasn't around when the big pg discussion thread was alive, otherwise I would have totes taken part in it. I didn't want to necro that thread when half of what I'm talking about here isn't exactly the same thing.
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