important!

[rosestolilies]

Hello, Queen of Hearts. We recently celebrated our 2nd birthday and we've been working our way onto our third, however with time things need to change and it's come to our attention that there needs to be a major change in store for this game.

We have been working with the game for quite a while in order to bring fresh life into it that could attract more players, we've taken suggestions for ways to advertise and how we can improve. And still, there's been a lack of apps and quite a few drops, which will surely take its toll on such a small game. We asked for a new moderator who might help to implement some of the changes the players have been asking for, but received no offers.

We feel we are running out of options on keeping this game interesting and afloat. If you have any suggestions, you are welcome to come to us, but we have made a few options of our own.

Closing the game: We don't want to do this! But if the players would like some sort of closure to send their characters home to, we will provide.

Musebox: We can turn the game into a musebox. There will be no applications or activity check, but also no moderator-run events or plot. This basically means the characters will stay in the Gardens and you are free to play as you like.

New mods: If some amount of players would like to step up and help to revamp the game and the rest of the players would be alright with that, we are happy to help.

Any other suggestions are welcome. We feel we're at a standstill currently, but we would love to keep this game running! There's no poll on this currently as these options aren't set in stone and can be changed. We mostly just want to gauge player interest. If it seems there's a divide on certain options, we can find a way to work it out.

Comments

[nekomikoreimu]

I think losing a bunch of players has hurt, especially ones that had so many characters and such a deep connection to the game. I need to count to see how many people are still here. I guess the taken characters/contact has been updated yet.

As to what we do to fix this... I don't think mods are an issue, unless you guys don't have enough to run the game. I think we may need more player run events. Maybe more events involving the NPC's and not just the whims of the queen. I think some of you biggest events involved other NPCs, like the Pirate and the well lady. After the Priestess or the Warrior involved in something.

In that line, I think having the NPC's interact more with our characters is important too. I look at theinstitute as an example on how to do it well. In a few places the NPC's do jump into other peoples threads to interact with them. I say have the Queen and her Vassels more involved with the day to day life. If a character is sad, have the queen comfort them. Things like that.

[swarmoflies]

It was a pretty substantial drop train to say the least. I stopped counting at thirteen characters dropped, but there were more posts after that. It's a big chunk taken out of a character count that had already been dwindling for quite some time.

Running the game with just the two of us would be pretty difficult. Ran and I run more or less opposite schedules, so it's hard to get in touch with each other reliably if we don't have a third to bridge the gap. Adding more NPC interaction on top of mod work and our own characters' tags just adds to that problem.

[nekomikoreimu]

I could have sworn there were 3 of you. My bad. Having a third mod is really needed then. Games with just 2 tend to suffer in one way or another.

I was mainly suggesting the NPC interaction if you had enough mods to do it. I say try it out if you decide you get a third.

However, it seems a bunch of people are leaning towards Museboxes. That would be fun, but I also think the game should have an end. I say do both, and say the muse box took place before it, or have some other excuse. I am very curious to see more of the secrets this world has

[swarmoflies]

There were three of us until recently, when Vee stepped down. We put up mod applications but as noted in the post, nobody responded.

[nekomikoreimu]

Right, I saw that but forgot. I was thinking of putting my name down, but I thought that if you need to ask to be a mod, you shouldn't be a mod. Though I did put my name down in NW since that game is much newer.

Still, I am willing to toss out ideas and help with some plots. I did want Kanako and Sette to have more WACKY encounters, haha

[namedforthesky]

I'll be honest, and this may be an unpopular opinion. We have maybe 28 characters in this game, and no new apps coming in. There's no new blood to help shake things up, and I haven't even seen anyone INTERESTED in apping in a long while. I think most people are surprised we're even still open. I love this game, a lot. Sora celebrated being here two years in December, and I'll miss this game if it closes. But realistically, I don't think we can do anything unless we get a sudden wave of apps.

So I suggest people advertise it on plurk for a bit, and we see what next ATP brings with advertising hardcore. If we get some nibbles, okay, keep the game open. If not, an endgame + sandbox option is probably best. An endgame is what QoH deserves, at least, and I'd rather see that happen than it fizzling to the point of a quiet close. We've survived two years despite initial opposition.

[nekomikoreimu]

If we don't get anymore people, that may be the best option. I agree that this game, if it is going to end, needs a nice great ending. Too many games just stop.

I think we advertising more is a good thing, but we need to make it sound appealing. The game is about yuri romances, not about lesbian make outs. I think some people may assume that is all we are about.

[mnementomori]

I know I'm one of the players who dropped ( :( ) but as someone who was here from the beginning, and checks back every now and then thinking about apping, I figured I'd offer my two cents. I don't know if its the game itself or the fact that the holidays are keeping everyone busy (as well as the restart of school) that things have slowed down so much, but I don't think it would hurt to try to encourage people for a bit longer. Personally it's RL obligations that are keeping me away right now, not the game itself, but I'm not sure how widespread that is.

That said, I think if all else fails the musebox route is a pretty good idea. I like the flexibility of the setting more than a lot of other games I've been in.

And this it totally up to the mods, but while there was some negative reactions in the past, asking for help/advice on the anoncomm (rpanons) might get some hits. There was discussion about another f/f game recently, but it didn't take off because the original mod couldn't make the time commitment or something, so people might have leftover ideas from that.

best of luck! I really wish I could do more. :c

[swarmoflies]

The holiday slowdown certainly didn't help, but I think this had been brewing for a while. I've long had concerns about us getting fewer apps than drops per month, although it was a slow attrition up until now. Unfortunately, we could never quite identify the problem, so attempts to fix it obviously didn't work out.

[mnementomori]

idk if this will help, but maybe identifying the other aspects of the game aside from f/f would work? I know my biggest draw in the beginning aside from that was the worldbuilding--the ability of the players and characters to change the setting. I probably should have said something at the time, but looking back on it, the event where all the dirt-built stuff vanished if the creator had dropped or no one claimed it felt sort of...I'm not sure how to describe it. But I think it would have been neat to leave the abandoned buildings around, since new characters would sometimes adopt them for themselves.

I looked back a few entries on the anoncomm and I didn't see an ad from here, but someone mentioned to me that there wasn't much in previous ads that really caught their attention. Sure, it's a romance game, but the events, especially the big ones, seemed to hint at an underlying plot we never quite got a glimpse at. In two years all we really knew about the queen that the lake of blood is created from her? And maybe a few other vague details, but not much, as far as I remember. I also think the events that paired people off randomly, plus the pirate battle one, were the most successful and engaging.

I know this is all coming really late, and I apologize it couldn't be sooner.

[lifes_expensive]

I'll +1 for the musebox idea. I'd hate to see the game close because I love it so much, and I think it's worth it to give that route a shot before completely shutting down. There simply isn't another game on DW that could replace QoH if it left, but I know how hard it is when you can't keep players and characters.

Regardless of what happens, I've really enjoyed my time here, so thank you for having such a great game~! <3

[swarmoflies]

Well I'm hopeful that there will be other F/F games. Even if the game choked and died on the spot at this very moment, a two-year run is pretty good for any game, let alone one with relatively niche appeal in the DWRP scene. No matter what happens, QoH has proven the viability of a F/F game, which was the big objection raised against the prospect back in the day.

[lifes_expensive]

I do hope there will be other games! If a worst case scenario plays out here I know I'd be happy if a another F/F game came along to fill the void~ But even then, it's still sad to see it go. :c

[(Anonymous)]

this all could have been looked into sooner, had there been actual moderator communication on the last discussion post.
your players waited WEEKS for answers to questions, with preparations to find suggestions to revitalize the game with, and received nothing but silence in return.
I am not saying that this game deserves to close, or even that it should. but it is clear that your desire to keep the game running barely touches upon lip service by this point.

[ran]

I read through the suggestions on the discussion post when it was still active (and just now, to make sure we hadn't missed an important question) and to me, all of those questions seemed rhetorical. Things for the mods to think about. I could be completely misinterpreting them, and I'm sorry if we didn't answer a question someone wanted an answer to, but that's why I didn't step in with answers.

[(Anonymous)]

Not that anon, but for future reference, it's entirely possible to participate in rhetorical conversation so the other person doesn't feel like they're talking to a wall. Any sort of response would have been better for player faith than none.

[(Anonymous)]

there were actually two direct questions that received no answers or replies, not even from players.

my point is that for a discussion post, very little actual discussion was happening.

even something as simple as letting others know which points were considered, which were improbable or otherwise unlikely to be implemented would have been courteous.

this post says "We feel we are running out of options on keeping this game interesting and afloat", and I read it that the items that were already suggested for consideration were not good enough or would not make enough of an impact. which is it going to be?

I really do want the game to stay open, and have said my piece before. I apologize if I come off as blunt.t this is not the first game I have been in that has essentially petered out at the peak of my interest with it. I will grant you the perspective I have, of a player frustrated with the pattern that is coming to light of seeing a game teetering the line of closing and just languishing there.

[ported]

As someone who dropped, probably my number one reason was the lack of mod feedback on people's ideas on the discussion post.

I don't know what was intended but I figured you guys had pretty much given up and I was already on the fence for dropping so it tilted me over to drop.

[swordthrowing]

As one of the players that dropped this month, I'm popping in to say that I enjoy the setting a lot and that I would pop in at some point if the game was converted into a musebox. At this point, I'm not sure if the game CAN be revitalized, so I think either that or endgame/closing are the most viable of the options you have available to you now.