Idea Post!

[livebait]

Hello Aather! In the interests of making Aather the best game it can be, we'd like to toss around some potential ideas for what you'd really like to see in the near future!

Since the game has been running incredibly strong for over 3.5 years now (///), we want to make sure we're keeping things bright and engaging, while still staying true to the game as it is and what's made it what it is.

We've had more open slots recently largely due to a lot of characters moving to Happy End or Legacy after being played for several years, and game turnout is a little lower lately (probably also because some of us have been doing this game thing for longer than we've lived in any one place in real life, I don't know about you); and we've also dropped down to a bit of a quieter pace that's a better fit for the playerbase at the moment—but some of these are fairly big changes functionally! so we want to make sure we can continue adjusting and growing the game to fit that.

The mods have some ideas for things we want to do in the future (and I'll make note of some of them in this post!), but we'd also like to hear:

❥ Game or event ideas you'd like to see! Games that we ran two years ago you really liked, or just "a secrets game" or "a costume game" or anything like that. Things we haven't done in a while you wanna see again, or things we've never done that you have a good idea for.
❥ Plot hooks or directions you'd like to go in. "I want to find out more about why there's always a tree in the Ring" or "I want more helping Personae break roles" etc.
❥ Elements that would help you or your characters be more engaged!
❥ Other things that would be cool—quests? Abilities? Themes? Laser beams for Burupya?

At least for this post, we would really just like to hear ideas and suggestions—nothing will be definitely going to happen and someone might have an idea that you don't think would work for you, but that's okay! We are also not looking at making any changes to activity/game structure & functions at the moment—just gameplay, please!

For now—please help us with suggestions about what you'd like to see and we will do our best to make some things happen! If you have multiple ideas, please feel free to leave them as separate comments if they're about fully different things.

Thank you as always for being such a stellar playerbase, and please do always feel free to come to the mods in private if you have questions or concerns or suggestions or pictures of kitten paws.

Comments

[livebait]

I think similar concerns were brought up in a few comments above, yeah! We're trying to focus more on generating ideas for change rather than dwelling too much on what we've had so far, since it can be discouraging for gamerunners to hear, like, hey that thing you did was hella slow and no good for me/everything is repetitive, since it's much easier to move forward with "in the future I want."

So I think from this, you're looking at—
- more consideration for time constraints (shorter timeframes for games, maybe a faster pace?)
- more competitive/game-y games (which often have a faster resolution anyway)
- variation in outcomes from trauma/events so sometimes they're positive/moving forward but sometimes they do have a negative result

If there's anything else that you think would help or that I missed, let me know! And I do think these are all good places to start!

[cerealpunner]

Yeah, pretty much those points! And I don't mean to discourage anyone. There's plenty of games recently that have been loads of fun. We just need more of a variety is what it feels like, is all. Setting into a pattern is where you can get into a bit of a rut.

I'm not much of a game runner myself (terrible with mechanics), but I can randomly come up with ideas if people want to just have something to work with (like how I suggested jello jenga and Steph-mun ran with it and figured out the mechanics and such). Definitely agreeing with what I think someone said about there being stand-by helpers with runners if they get overwhelmed.

I also saw someone was mentioning staggering out events in terms of... relay-running? And that seems like something that worked with the Ice Queen event, so you can probably +1 me there. Though, again, keeping in mind time frames so they don't run too long is A++.

[livebait]

I absolutely agree with this! I think part of the reason why there tend to be more mingle games and things falling into patterns are just . . . this is so much easier . . . As like a super super super frequent gamerunner I sometimes am just like I NEED TO RUN A GAME OR THERE WON'T BE A GAME and I just don't have the capacity to put together a complicated or engaging pvp game. Although it is my desire!! the flesh is weak.

It would be a dream come true if people who struggled with mechanics but still had ideas could send those in, or people that didn't mind running but didn't have a Persona, etc, could work together, so I'd really love that.

[cerealpunner]

I still say some amnesia team game somewhere should do a trauma or even silly game of Don't Shoot The Puppy. Hostage-y but hey.