Route 29: ｍｏｄｓ (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
these_balls) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
route_292011-10-11 04:15 pm
these_balls) wrote in route_292011-10-11 04:15 pm
Entry tags:
A NEW RULE APPEARS
Hey, Route!
Yes, more new stuff. Everything chaaanges, chaaaanges, it's evolutionary~
1) New apps rule!:
In the interest of clarity and app processing speed, we now ask that potential applicants post their application in comments rather than linking. If the app contains explicit references to 'hard' spoilers (think big reveals, like 'Dumbledore dies', I SEE DEAD PEOPLE, I am your father etc), players should put the application in their own journal or their character's journal and link it, making sure to mention the presence of spoilers within.
We've always gotten linked apps (goodness knows I'm guilty of linking an app or five that was spoiler-free!), but having them all on the page means the mods don't have to open a million tabs while processing, and spoiler links keep fellow players from stumbling onto things that might ruin a canon for them.
This is a rule; as of today (the 11th of October), if your app is linked but not marked for spoilers, it will not be processed that week. We trust all our players will read and abide by the rules list, which has not changed besides this.
2) Polling about the passwords:
RELAX, we're not changing anything concerning passwords...yet. But we're thinking it's about time this thing got an overhaul, don't you think?
Our proposed fix: What we'd like to do is remove the passwords altogether and replace them with something of a task system: on the rules and FAQ pages, tasks such as 'explain in one sentence how your character feels about strawberries in their personality section' or 'include a link to your favorite youtube video in the canon links section'.
The goal here is to make sure people have at least given a cursory visit to both pages. These tasks would change arbitrarily and be located arbitrarily within the FAQ and rules. Yes, these would be more work for you, and for us, but the current password system feels outdated and obvious.
Your turn: How do you feel, Route? Hate this idea? Love passwords? Have a better idea? Let us know!
[Poll #1785767]
If you have grievances, comments, suggestions or ideas concerning either the new app rule or the password system, you can: PM the mod account, PM any of us individually, catch us on AIM, or post (anonymously or not) to our (screened) Suggestions post.
Looking forward to hear from you!
Yes, more new stuff. Everything chaaanges, chaaaanges, it's evolutionary~
1) New apps rule!:
In the interest of clarity and app processing speed, we now ask that potential applicants post their application in comments rather than linking. If the app contains explicit references to 'hard' spoilers (think big reveals, like 'Dumbledore dies', I SEE DEAD PEOPLE, I am your father etc), players should put the application in their own journal or their character's journal and link it, making sure to mention the presence of spoilers within.
We've always gotten linked apps (goodness knows I'm guilty of linking an app or five that was spoiler-free!), but having them all on the page means the mods don't have to open a million tabs while processing, and spoiler links keep fellow players from stumbling onto things that might ruin a canon for them.
This is a rule; as of today (the 11th of October), if your app is linked but not marked for spoilers, it will not be processed that week. We trust all our players will read and abide by the rules list, which has not changed besides this.
2) Polling about the passwords:
RELAX, we're not changing anything concerning passwords...yet. But we're thinking it's about time this thing got an overhaul, don't you think?
Our proposed fix: What we'd like to do is remove the passwords altogether and replace them with something of a task system: on the rules and FAQ pages, tasks such as 'explain in one sentence how your character feels about strawberries in their personality section' or 'include a link to your favorite youtube video in the canon links section'.
The goal here is to make sure people have at least given a cursory visit to both pages. These tasks would change arbitrarily and be located arbitrarily within the FAQ and rules. Yes, these would be more work for you, and for us, but the current password system feels outdated and obvious.
Your turn: How do you feel, Route? Hate this idea? Love passwords? Have a better idea? Let us know!
[Poll #1785767]
If you have grievances, comments, suggestions or ideas concerning either the new app rule or the password system, you can: PM the mod account, PM any of us individually, catch us on AIM, or post (anonymously or not) to our (screened) Suggestions post.
Looking forward to hear from you!
Part 1: Passwords
It also feels like you're expecting too much if you want everyone to be familiar with everything as soon as they apply. Before I apped, I was only loosely familiar with Pokemon and I still consult Bulbapedia and game reference pages constantly to be sure of things.
My other game, Somarium, has a very detailed world as well as three years of backstory. As of the last mod update, it has 266 characters. The only check it has? A question asking what your favorite rule is. People don't have to know more than that. And in a lot of cases there, and likely here, characters asking a question ICly can double as a player asking OOCly to be certain they're learning things right.
What I'm getting at is that asking people to know as much as possible before they go in is a lot. The game, HMDs, and private player contact can serve for education and telling people what they do wrong in an easier manner than expecting everyone to know a lot of information right off the bat. I've heard from people who don't know Pokemon at all that say it's intimidating to read everything on their own time as it is and quizzing new players would only make them even more nervous about applying in the first place.
I've modded before, though only smaller games, and one of my personal goals was always to make applications seem as unintimidating as possible because that sets the mood for how they interact with the game as a whole. Demanding something exact can leave people with the impression that the mods are very strict overall and that they need to know everything when, in my experience here, getting educated on details as you play is perfectly reasonable.
Re: Part 1: Passwords
I think you might have opposite views on the FAQ than the mods; this isn't necessarily a bad thing, just different, and I'd like to explain our views more. The way we see it is that Route is enormous and fast-paced and already incredibly intimidating, so therefore it makes sense to encourage new players to read through the FAQ as much as possible before entering the game.
Even if we did change the system, and nothing's been set in stone yet, we wouldn't be asking anything difficult from our players; we know that we have people coming in with zero pokémon knowledge, asking them to suddenly be experts would be incredibly rude on our parts. We feel, however, that encouraging new applicants to familiarize themselves with the game's policies before they join isn't asking too much. Again, we don't want anyone to know everything (that's what we're here for!), but we do expect players to come in with some knowledge of how Route works, or at the very least to know where the FAQ is and how it's laid out so that they can more easily access it for later reference. This holds not just players with no prior pokémon experience and master trainers alike; even if you've played all the games, Route doesn't exactly function like its digitized counterpart.
If we change the system, we'll definitely attempt to keep things as relaxed and fun as possible. We're not out to indimidate people out of apping, either, and we want every part of the game to reflect Route's lighthearted appeal.