GAME HMD #1

[acatamods]

I ▫ main IV ▫ premise       XI ▫ applications XIV ▫ activity II ▫ logs V ▫ rules VII ▫ bestiary   IX ▫ canon updates XII ▫ taken XV ▫ drop/hiatus III ▫ ooc VI ▫ faq VIII ▫ setting   X ▫ mods XIII ▫ reserves XVI ▫ players game hmd. Hi, everyone! After receiving feedback and constructive suggestions from our playerbase, we have decided to institute a regular Game HMD. This is intended to give the modteam feedback about the game. We also plan on posting a Game HMD at the end of every world jump, to gain specific feedback about the world itself. That doesn’t mean your criticism has to be focused on the world jump! If you see something about Acatalepsy that needs improvement that doesn’t necessarily have to do with our world jump, you can leave it here. Please note, this is not the space to leave private player complaints -- comments here are going to be screened temporarily and will be made public to the entirety of the game. If you have a complaint that you want to remain private with the modteam, please visit our mod contact. Those comments remain screened permanently and will remain private. Here are a few points the modteam would really love feedback on! This is not an exhaustive list, so if we don't mention it here and you want to talk to us about it, please do! (1) Game Mechanics: We know the group mechanic in the very beginning of Akvos was not a popular mechanic. Our intention was to prevent the regularity of "oh no, we arrived in a new world again!" and to encourage new CR among different people. This had the opposite effect for a lot of people, and had a jarring start to Acatalepsy with our new players. However, we would really love suggestions on the mechanics themselves -- such as the world interactions, the plotting posts, the structure of the logs, etc. Additionally, if you have any suggestions for "fun mechanics" on the world jump logs, we would really love to hear that too! Do you like logs for the worlds, or would you like network posts instead? We like to try new things, and while this new thing wasn't necessarily a success, we want to keep experimenting and making Acatalepsy a great game for some time to come. (2) Player Interactions/Engagement: In a similar line with Game Mechanics, we would love to hear suggestions on how to better serve the playerbase in terms of interaction and engagement. What would make threading in Acatalepsy more engaging? What about the current game structure is exciting, or frustrating, to you? Do you find yourself being able to interact with the world jumps, or do you struggle with how to get involved? (3) The World: What about Akvos did you like, or not like? What would you suggest we had done differently? Additionally, if you were present during El Minha (World #1) and Struxta (World #2), what did you like or not like about those worlds? What do you like or dislike about them in comparison to Akvos? (4) Pacing: Our worlds last roughly six to eight weeks incorporating two bigger "events" in that time. Akvos ran a bit longer than that! How many events/logs per event is enough? Do you want more, or less? (5) The Game Writ-Large: We have a lot of plans going into 2019 with the new mod-team, including a world directory and ensuring all the lists/setting pages are up to date! They are already really hard at work. What else would you like to see Acatalepsy incorporate? What are we missing? What would you like to see? Again, this isn’t an exhaustive list! This is simply what Dai and Chelsea got together, thought about, and really wanted feedback on. If you know of anything else, please drop a line and let us know! We really want to hear from you. :) Thanks again, and here's to the next World Jump! - Acatamods.

Comments

[acatamods]

Thank you for your input and for all of your thoughts! We are glad that you are enjoying your time in Acata and we definitely want to make future events more accessible for our players, new and old.

We do have “world interaction” top levels for any and all mod questions that are intended to be for players to ask us questions about where to go, what to do, and so forth! They are open and answered throughout the entirety of the events, so don’t be afraid to go back to the post and ask a question a week or two later if you want some guidance! We are definitely here for you on that front all throughout the event.

However, that might not be totally obvious to new players, so we are working on some solutions to make the questions a bit easier to understand and more accessible. We want to link the headers in the posts themselves, so they’re easily accessible instead of working your way through a ton of comments.

We also are considering different ways of organizing information in the comments section, to broadcast player plots that may be lost in the mayhem! For example, we’ve noticed that sometimes players pursue the same ideas and could work together on something cool! We want to broadcast those plots so that way, players can connect with one another and with the modteam in a more meaningful fashion, rather than just swimming in the dark.

While we are not putting up an open log for the post-Akvos fallout, a player has done so here! That being said, we hear you about the TDM not counting for AC! The modteam is going to discuss that particular AC rule amongst ourselves and we will give you an answer about that in a timely manner.

Finally, we are going to be posting our suggested suggestions in a subheading below -- please don’t take this solution as anything finalized! If you have further ideas, please let us know.

[shootstyles]

Hey mods, thank you for responding! I just have a few follow ups that might help clarify a bit.

On the world questions post, I did notice that there were questions but I seemed to read it as mostly just world question. While in other games I have been in have had OOC threads that were specifically for "my character is investigating/doing something/messing with the world, what happens?" and the mods would give quick narrative replies to help move the threads along and help players discover information. In my head I saw that as a little different than questions, but I can definitely see the questions thread could cover that base as well!

I'd definitely love to see a different way to organize the comments. And maybe just the information to the world in general where relevant information could be bolded or called out so players know what aspects can be further explored in terms of plot and what is just nice world building window dressing.

ALSO for the TDM I was mostly suggesting it as a one time thing because I think a lot of players are still wanting to play in the game but have lost steam in Akvos and so are in a situation to take a strike or drop and I think making the TDM count could help people who want to stay be able to stay! But I don't think it's bad to discuss it as a permanent thing either!

[acatamods]

Thank you for the clarifications! We received several suggestions on how to better organize our plot posts, and we will take these suggestions into consideration when we test out these new methods of organization for the next world jump.

As for the TDM, we are discussing the AC rules as a whole among the modteam, but we will definitely take these concerns into consideration. Our AC proposals will be posted in the subheading below once we compile our suggested solutions. The game will know our decision on AC before the TDM is posted on Monday.