HOW'S TAXON'S DRIVING!

[taxonmods]

It's that time again to let us know how Taxon is doing! We know it's been a little rough lately, and there have been a lot of changes, but that's what this is for. Let us know how you feel about the game, give us input about the ideas we're bringing up in this post, and bring up your own concerns in comments so we can discuss solutions together.

First, we'd like to let you know more about our plans with the next few months of glitches and metaplot plans.

SEPTEMBER: The winning glitch was Opposite Day! For the duration of a single weekend, characters will wake up as the 'opposite' of themselves, in whatever way you choose to interpret it. We'll also be adding a Taxon High School for our teen-aged characters and anyone who would like a job as a teacher of any subject. Characters that go to school regularly will be rewarded with an extra 100 credits a month, and teachers will earn vocational pay on the jobs post.

Now, to expand on the changes done to the Extras last month and ensure they'll actually be capable teachers, they'll be much more aware. From September onward, Extras will no longer be empty and repetitive, but rather possessed of a limited personality and ability to converse with played characters for longer periods of time. They will also be more aware of their surroundings. Characters that steal will find resistance instead of passive allowance, and those that should be in school but aren't will be approached and told to go to school, etc.

OCTOBER: The winning glitch for this month is Vampire Weekend! Powered and non-powered characters alike will find these powers switched out or replaced for an entire weekend. Any powers present during this glitch don't have to be ones from current characters in Taxon, so feel free to pick anything you like as long as it isn't game-breaking.

Continuing the metaplotline with the Extras, this month will see some of them expand into new, more threatening roles. Characters more accustomed with vigilante justice will find criminals to take down, very simplistic vampires, etc. These kinds of Extras can be used to whatever ends you guys will feel necessary for player plots.

Toward the end of this month will actually be the beginning of December's Invasion plot. The barrier surrounding the city will become solid and then begin to break apart, leaving a giant hole in the top revealing the cave's ceiling and allowing escape for those able to reach it. The hole will remain for at least three months.

NOVEMBER: This month's glitch will be Happily Ever After! For roughly a week or two, characters will believe themselves to be a part of a fairy tale of your choosing, in any role you feel fits them best. Extras will, as always, be available to fill other roles for your characters to help move their plots along to whatever conclusion you'd like, whether it follows the actual tale you've chosen or not.

Near the end of the month, radio signals much like the ones from earlier this year will begin again, all of which coming from a source outside of Taxon or the aliens associated with running it.

DECEMBER: While the radio signals continue, the usual Christmas shenanigans will go on without preamble (meaning things like decorations and mistletoe).

By the middle of the month, characters will notice new arrivals in the city coming in through the hole in the barrier. These will be the aliens responsible for the radio signals, and will be interacting with the citizens for a few days before a larger number comes in. Taxon's aliens will also be in the city, helping the citizens as much as they can while trying to convince them that these other aliens are the Bad Guys. Characters that are convinced can fight against them, while others will be free to join the other side.

None of these plans are set in stone, this is just a very simple outline of what we have in store for you. If you see anything above that we can change or improve upon in any of these plots, please tell us. As always, please let us know any other ideas or concerns you have. Much as we want to hear back about our own ideas for the future of the game, this post is for you so that we can all discuss our direction and find solutions together.

If for any reason you feel uncomfortable commenting logged in, anon commenting is turned on and IP logging is off, and if you'd rather come to us with an issue privately please remember that all comments to our suggestions and complaints posts are screened. We'd also like to ask that you not delete comments. All opinions, whether negative or positive, are welcome here and will be taken into consideration.

Remember, be civil to one another. Some issues that can be brought here can definitely be tough to talk about, but if we see anyone discouraging discussion, name-calling, or otherwise shutting things down, that thread will be frozen.

ETA: There is much in the discussion below about bad tagging habits and cliqueishness within the game. We as mods recognize that these are problems for us as well, and understand that we need to make changes in our behavior as players. Additionally, we are very sorry that any of our actions have contributed to the current atmosphere, and we promise that we're committed to both changing our habits and not continuing to make the same mistakes we've made in the past.

Also: we'll do our best to continue replying to individual comments but there may be waits as people head to bed we sort out a plan for going forward. Thank you to everyone who is contributing to the discussion, we hope to become a better game for it.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

So I think, to be frank, that it's clear Taxon is losing players by more than a handful. This new idea to bring new mediums in for play seems like a last ditch effort to save a sinking ship. Unfortunately, I can only see this as putting a tiny bandaid on the Titanic. There are more problems than just allowing more mediums can fix. It, in fact, may worsen the already existing issues that are causing players to drop. For some of these dropped players, I can say that it's due to feeling unwelcome and ignored by other players, no matter if they crit these players personally (or in fact, because of that.) While you can't make people play with one another if they don't wish to, I feel like something needs to be done to make this game feel welcoming again in general. It feels less like a fun game and more like treading the dangerous waters of high school.

On another point, while it's ultimately up to the mods to choose other mods, I also can't say I feel comfortable in a game where a player who has only been in the game for about two months (give or take a couple weeks) is made a mod. Players have no reason or history to trust this new mod unlike somebody who has been in the game for longer. We (general 'we' here) would have experience with that older player and know most of their quirks and personalities and whether or not we as regular players can trust them enough to bring up issues we may have. Having a brand new player--no matter how nice they may be and how IC they are--become a mod out of nowhere is off-putting to say the least.

[(Anonymous)]

The new mod appointment made me uncomfortable too. There's a feeling that the only way to get anything done or get tags is to be close to a mod, and making a new player who's close to the mods a mod pretty much only proved that.

[taxonmods]

It is clear, and we're aware of these issues. That was part of why we've done so much overhauling this summer; a lot of our official information had, over time, become full of in-jokes and nods to past events in the game. We wanted to make sure, at least on our end, everything was more accessible to newer people rather than just those who had been here when those things came into being. The idea behind opening the game up to all mediums is another attempt at bringing bigger change. Right now, a lot of the popular canons being played from are the ones that are largest here already. Opening ourselves up to more variety, both in characters and players, is something we hope will break people out of some of their usual circles.

At this point, we honestly don't know what else we can do on our end to change things on that front. If there is anything at all that you see we can or should be doing, but aren't, please tell us.

Regarding Kirsten becoming a mod: Not all of us knew her well, or really at all, when she was appointed. What we knew at the time was that she was willing to help us, had the time to do so, was familiar with mod obligations, and comfortable editing HTML. That was the kind of help we needed, and we picked someone who hadn't been in the game very long because we were already aware of some of the ruts we'd gotten ourselves into. We wanted to bring in someone with fresh eyes and opinions to keep us from making the same mistakes we'd made before.

That said, we are so sorry this decision has made anyone uncomfortable. While that wasn't our intention, we completely understand players feeling this way. Is there anything we can do to make things right?

1/?

[hasaheart]

Positive things!

I am personally loving all the changes, and can't wait to see more of them. Opening up the appable character base is a stroke of genius that will no doubt attract a tonne of awesome roleplayers and mix all sorts of things up. One question, though: How will non-animated/non-cgi characters perceive those who are? As flesh and blood human beings, or approaching the [holographic] mode?

Also loving the more sentient Extras. Kudos to who ever thought of that!

Looking forward to September's glitch, even if I will be as scarce as always when uni starts. Also looking forward to Happily Ever After.

Onto more serious things.

[taxonmods]

We're glad you like the changes we're making! At this point we aren't going to make a solid decision regarding the media change until we hear from more of our players, but if that does come to pass all characters will perceive each other as normal, flesh and blood humans (or, species close to humans if that's the case). There won't be any noticeable difference between them at all.

Hopefully, the new and improved Extras and our coming glitches and events will give people a lot to work with in the coming months. ♥

(And sorry in advance if we happen to flood your inbox a little. We're going to try responding to all your comments and the points they bring up one by one, rather than trying to cram everything into one comment down the line.)

[hasaheart]

I'll try to be brief, and I'll try to be as crystal clear as I can so as to avoid misunderstandings.

All the things I'm bringing up here are things that have been brewing for a good long while, but I haven't had the words nor the inclination nor the drive to speak up. To be honest, I have also been afraid of repercussions after a player was more or less bullied into dropping their character sometime around Christmas. You may not see that event that way, but that's how it came across from an outside perspective. When player A asks for concrit in one of the player HMDs, s/he gets it, and from there on in it just escalates into the absurd when players B and C don't agree with A on character motivations and try to force their opinion on him/her. After a day or two, player A drops.

Unfounded or not, it has led me to be very cautious in figuring out where Cain's coming from, on the off chance that I would receive the same treatment. I'm sure it seemed like perfectly legitimate critique from those who gave it, but from an outside perspective, it just read as vicious.


This is a pan-fandom game.

I joined Taxon because I had heard great things about it, and I'm sure the same applies to a lot of players here. I've been here over a year now, and though I'm nowhere near as active as I would like to be, I still see several things that just don't sit right with me. For instance, the suggestion that this is a pan-fandom game, when in reality, most people rp within their own fandoms/casts. If I want to play in a Tin Man comm where only Tin Man characters are allowed, that's what I'll join. But I don't see the appeal, so I join pan-fandom games because the rp is supposed to span time and space and worlds and fandoms, sometimes to great results.


We're a small community

- Is there a need for several, canon-exclusive ooc plotting comms? Wouldn't it be easier and more accessible to other players to just plot things in the ooc comm? I don't get it. There's a TVD plotting comm, there's a Buffyverse plotting comm, a Doctor Who one... I thought the general idea was to plot things outside your own canon and cast (with a few exceptions), because why else join a pan-fandom game? I cannot stress this enough. Regardless, I think it would be fun for everyone to be able to see what's on the horizon with other characters and players. Who knows, someone might even give a kick ass idea just for the fun of contributing.

It isn't the thought of cast-locked plotting posts that irks me, it's the fact there are entire comms devoted to them.

- Yes, I know real life gets in the way sometimes. It happens to me. Players lose momentum in threads, and sometimes they die just a few tags in. It happens. But when it's a given from the start that you'll only get one or two tags into a scene with a character before it ends, it soon gets to the point where you start to wonder why you're even bothering. At least it does for me. Being a minimum of six hours away from everyone where time zones are concerned, I'm prepared for very short threads, and it's okay. But I spent the first five or six months in this game playing a character that only ever got tags from one other character/player (I know I'm exaggerating, but what few and far between other tags he got, I can count on the fingers of my two tiny hands). I told myself it was just a case of playing an obscure, not entirely mainstream character. And then Cain gets pretty much no CR outside his own canon... First few months, that was fine. He was depressed and grouchy and hardly ever talked to anyone. But with his recent progress that was beginning to change. Just the past month or two, virtually everyone I have tagged in the hopes of building CR have dropped the game. I'm back to square one, where Cain knows one or two individuals aside from his fellow Ozians, and he's not the most talkative, social butterfly sort of guy.

There comes a point where you have to ask yourself if you're really that horrible a player that you're scaring all the really awesome roleplayers away.

[taxonmods]

Regarding Crit: Negative critique and disagreement, some of which can get heated or seem heated in very short spans of time, is something everyone opens themselves up to by responding to HMD. That said, if you see something happening on HMD or anywhere else in the game that makes you uncomfortable, no matter who it involves, please tell us. We can't react to complaints or bad feelings we're unaware of.

Regarding cast circles: We are very aware that this is a problem, but at this point it's something needs to change on the player-level. The 'at least three different players' rule was added to our Activity Check ages ago to forestall the issue, but adding more stipulations to that (x players outside of your cast, x players you don't know, etc.) isn't something we feel would help in the long run, and rather would stifle activity. If you have any ideas on what we can do to help facilitate this change, please please let us know.

Regarding cast comms: It's our understanding that those are specifically for casts to be able to keep in touch with one another about what's going on. Things like updating them on other plotlines their characters are involved in that others in the cast would naturally notice, even if they can't thread anything out, etc. If you think it will help, and would make you more comfortable, we can talk to the players in those side-communities and remind them to keep larger plots to the main OOC community?

Regarding dropped threads: Again, this is something people will need to see and change on a player-level. However, if you see players with a chronic habit of thread-dropping, tell us. With AC set up and checked the way it is, we can't always go and see how long people's threads are, but if you (or anyone) comes to us and lets us know that it's a problem with someone, we will do something.

[hasaheart]

SOTTs

Last month was the first time I actually wanted to fill an SOTT meme, because I felt that stuff had actually happened in Cain's otherwise rather dreary half-life. He was moving forward, the city got a complete overhaul, good times. But what is the use of reaching out to other players during the SOTT for fun and games and plots the coming month, when that's where it stays? Yes, Taxon is a very laid back, easy going, understanding community when it comes to slowtimes. But when it means your plots never even get to take off before another month rolls around and everyone's dropped the ball on the planned plots, it feels all kinds of pointless. The same goes for the monthly glitches. Everyone gets excited (including me, a lot of the time), people plan to have things happen...and then nothing does. It stops before it's even started.


Writing quality

This is a pet peeve of mine, and a small thing when everything else is concerned, but when you put such emphasis on good, proper writing skills in the apping process...and then so many people just default to the text mode anyway? Again, is there a point? I love prose. I love writing, and I consider myself a writer first and foremost. I'm also foreign, which means internet slang doesn't always fly with me until after a few gos. Unfortunately, it seems to be a thing when using [text], to also add in commentary full of really weird, really pointless snark. It works for some, and works less well for others. For me, it just doesn't float my boat. But maybe I'm old fashioned.


Plurk

I'm not on plurk. I probably will never be on plurk, as I'm already too busy as it is...but when I catch signals along the lines of one fandom being so prominent and popular on plurk that people want to app characters from that fandom, it just sets all my alarm bells ringing. It's one thing to be a popular fandom with a very much alive cast of players and characters, but that just doesn't seem to be the case here. And if it's a very active player group, then I wouldn't know, since I'm not a member of the plotting comm, or on plurk, or even part of any extensive roleplaying with the cast.

This of course ties in with my concerns regarding the pan-fandom game concept, and the impression I have of every different fandom playing within its own player group, like a bunch of islands in a reasonably large ocean.

[darjeeling]

This of course ties in with my concerns regarding the pan-fandom game concept, and the impression I have of every different fandom playing within its own player group, like a bunch of islands in a reasonably large ocean.

I completely agree with this.

(I agree with most everything you've written, but especially this.)

[taxonmods]

Regarding SOTT and dropped plots: Again, we know that this is an issue and has been for some while, but we aren't equipped to enforce any kind of change here without players cooperation and willingness to change their habits. Trust us, we've all felt the disappointment of plots that never happen, and it's something we want to change, but don't know what resources we have to make it happen. We know we're getting really repetitive, and we definitely understand that these concerns aren't just yours, but if you or anyone else reading these threads ever thinks of a way we can improve things on our end please tell us.

Regarding writing quality: Initially, we opened up threading to brackets in addition to prose because there was a demand from players. They felt it was easier for them than narrative, especially occasionally when otherwise they wouldn't have been able to continue threads as fast as they wanted to if writing continuous prose. At some point in the future, we'll probably put up a poll about the changes like this that we've made to see if the current player base still wants to keep them. Until then, you're totally free to prose back when someone tags you in bracket format. We can also make this a question on the big permissions meme, so people can know just by checking whether another player is comfortable with one form over another when threading in the community.

Regarding plurk: Personally, we as mods have plurk accounts because it's another point of contact with our players just like AIM and email addresses. As such, we can't really penalize people for taking plotting discussion there, or potential app discussion, in the same way we wouldn't for people taking these things to AIM, livejournal PMs, or other posts outside of the community. Another option we have, though, involves reviving our AIM chatroom and using it more regularly, but it poses many of the same problems.

[hasaheart]

Vampires vs not!vampires, glitches, CR and secrets

So far, several people have been bitten by either glitched vampires or humans-glitched-into-vampires. To me, that reads like an unprecedentedly awesome opportunity for CR and character development and dynamic roleplaying. The humanoids who come from monster-free or vampire-free worlds reacting accordingly, the vampires having to make life-changing choices (to out themselves or keep living in secret, to say fuck it all and go on a killing spree, or try to work on rebuilding the trust... Dynamics changing, moral crossroads, growing as characters and rpers and maybe even getting CR out of it that you would never have otherwise... It sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me, no matter how one chooses to play it).

Aside from Godric graciously enough stepping up to the plate as a diplomatic figure and something along the lines of acting spokesperson for the vampire population, nothing much has happened to encourage IC roleplaying.

- When some humanoids get frightened and make rash decisions re: there being an actual vampire population in the city, humanoids who do have a clue what to do in such a situation...do nothing. No help is offered, no benefit of the doubt on the victim's part, nothing constructive. The most victims of vampires have gotten so far is disbelief, snark or attitude for so much as suggesting that a vampire could be dangerous.

- In the Buffyverse, vampires are monsters, with one exception. In True Blood, I can see the issue being a lot more complex, but vampires are still very dangerous people even if they're pacifists and only drink artificial blood. It shouldn't be an issue with anyone who knows how to deal with vampires that, when someone is glitched into a blood frenzy, you have to do something about it. Just imagine the dramatic potential of a city-wide vampire hunt. Vampires and humans and others joining forces to at the very least catch the glitched-or-frenzied person. Strategy, tactics, forging alliances through facing a common enemy. How would friends of the glitched character feel about the hunt? How would they deal with it? To not even consider these options is in my opinion to close a lot of wide open doors for no apparent reason.

- Shit happens, you do something about it. ICA=ICC. And regardless how things work out, it would be worthwhile. If not CR-building, then character building. In my mind, character development is sometimes even more important than CR. The way I see it, CR is the catalyst and character development is the result.

See, it isn't so much about the vampires themselves, it's that other players (myself included) feel unable to act ICly towards them. Cain wouldn't even have a problem with vampires (and I love all things vampire related), as long as they didn't break the law and acted somewhat civilly around others. This is no different from how he'd treat anyone else. But when you can't even have your character express a standpoint along the lines of "Someone nearly drained my friend, this sucks, are we in danger?" without having one of the vampires reply with "FYI, you're trapped in an underground cave with blood sucking monsters who could literally tear you apart if they weren't being so civil"... It isn't exactly encouraging. Where do you even start trying to get a better understanding of someone if that's what you get? In another context, another time and setting, I see no reason why a remark like that wouldn't pass by as witty. But at the time, it was one of the worst things any vampire could have said.

- A scared humanoid's feelings are just as valid as that of a vampire's girlfriend, whether she's a Slayer or not, or a friend, or a cousin, or what ever you can think of. But it sure doesn't feel like it. This is one of the reasons I have kept Cain as far away from anything to do with the subject of vampires and ICA=/=ICC, because, again, I don't feel like I could play him IC without getting a world of crap for it. He could be a cop, and try to make an arrest if a vampire broke the law, and then what? If you can't even voice a character's IC opinion, how will you ever be able to have them act accordingly?

[(Anonymous)]

Agreeing with this. Taxon seems like two games. Vampire Taxon and everyone who supports vampire and then everyone else who can't get cr or traction. If you don't play from Buffy or the Vampire Diaries you get left out. And if your character isn't pro vampires you get dogpiled on or ignored. Unless you play from the popular fandoms or know the mods it's impossible to do much.

tl;dr

[hasaheart]

ICA=ICC, and glitches, memes > rp?, and tags

- I have yet to see someone's IC actions having in-game consequences aside from a degree of animosity or awkwardness between the involved parties. Someone beheaded an Extra last Halloween - nothing was ever resolved (and I know an NPC did the dirty deed, but still. I don't think anyone ever bothered to figure it out). It amounted to nothing. People get bitten, or whammied or a DRAGON appears out of nowhere by way of exploding out of a building - and hardly anyone ever reacts. I'm tired of tiptoeing around topics, and I'm tired of no one ever giving actual concrit on the HMDs, and I've just had it with a lot of things. The past few weeks being full of people dropping the game sent me right over the edge from begrudging complacency to all-out rage. Because I care. I am invested in the comm, and I can't sit on the sidelines and compartmentalize my frustrations while I only tag people I know I'll get tags (or at least OOC communication) from.

- I have sat and watched memes get hundreds and hundreds of comments while actual rp posts in the comm are completely ignored. Is that what Taxon is for? Memes? They're fun, but how about prioritizing pan-fandom CR when you're in a pan-fandom game?

- Tag and tag again. If you make a post, at least try to reply to your comments more than once. If you comment to someone else's post, don't leave it at that one comment unless that's the purpose of it. I know I sometimes suck at this, and I'm working on it. If we all work on it together, CR would thrive.


---


Lately, I feel like a lot in this comm amounts to nothing. Plots go nowhere, glitches go nowhere, people go on hiatus every month to skirt the activity requirements (or so it feels to me). We get new players, and then they drop. And so it keeps going. It doesn't seem as if this is any cause for concern. People come and go, and no one ever asks why people don't stay. I want people to stay. I want this comm's potential to be realized.

I know the mods have concerns, just like I do, but to be frank I have gone from having had every faith in the mods, to sincerely doubting them, to fearing repercussions if I ever voice any of my concerns (not necessarily from the mods, but if a player can be harrassed into dropping, and the mods don't step in, that doesn't help matters), to just being too tired to care.

Hopefully the recent changes as detailed in the latest mod post will be for the better and open up for more interaction between fandoms. As is, I'm having a hard time finding the motivation to stay.

I was hoping the summertime would mean people went off hiatus and had time to plot and tag to their hearts content, but things have just followed the same pattern as the six-eight months prior.

I think that's everything I wanted to say.

Re: tl;dr

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you for putting pretty much everything I wanted to so into such eloquent terms.

[(Anonymous)]

Trying to look at things from an outside perspective, I obviously think it's important to start really looking at just WHY there's been such an influx of droppage, which is a really sad thing to see coming from someone who's watched this game on and off close from where it began, and what can be done to change things and make players not only eager to join Taxon, but to stay and stay motivated to continue developing their characters. That's kind of Stating The Obvious, Unstated Facts and Uh Hello This Is The Whole Purpose of This Discussion We Know This territory but I always love an intro.

As for opening up the game to new mediums, I'm going to echo what was said earlier up towards the front. It reads to me also like a last ditch effort, like 'We're losing more people than we're gaining, let's open up the doors' and it's not actually addressing the issues people have or making the game stronger? I could be off, because a lot of stuff seems to be internal player-to-player issues and it's just a theory, really. On the other more contradicting hand, I also think it's possible that as long as cast-decisions for apps are very very much carefully made, the stretching thing can work out. But personally, Taxon always attracted me because it was human-centered, more or less, and even back when it started up, it was a STRONG ASS game. If it's gotten weaker, it's not because the medium's not large enough, in my opinion. Maybe getting the name out there/advertising, I don't know much about that stuff.

I don't know about you, but I like the idea of people lurking about the community and thinking, 'Wow! This is the kind of stuff I need to get into.' Like I did, once upon a time. Watching characters who are well-rounded, well-played, and non-discriminatory or exclusive, with interesting, unique plots that involve lots of characters, with a cast of talented, welcoming, mature players who love fresh meat and love the game just a little more. It has to be a goal for mods and for players, not one or the other because one's not gonna cut it.

I realize most of this is general and a little vague, but it's all I've got for now.

[taxonmods]

Thank you for giving us your input, even if you aren't a part of the game. ♥

We realize the media change is a gamble, and we aren't going to make any more large changes until we've settled the issues being brought up here. And we assure you, that is all definitely a goal for us as mods and players, and we really hope we can deliver.

[selfmadman]

For whatever this is worth, considering I'm on my way out, I think the game could really benefit from a reexamination of the new activity requirements. I realize they've only been in effect for a month, but given the precipitous decline in game membership during that month...well, it's certainly something to take a look at. As I understand it, the new activity requirements were implemented so that players had more flexibility and felt less pressure to post, but I wonder if they haven't decreased people's investment in (and consequently involvement with) the game. The old activity reqs created problems too, to be sure--it was pretty easy to tell who was throwing up a post just to pass that month--but I've felt a change in atmosphere since the new reqs were implemented. It's hard to describe and maybe it's just me, but it feels like a lot of people have been coasting along with no real drive to stir things up or get their characters involved in something new. Which makes it easier to drop, since there's no investment in where the game's headed.

Moreover, if you look at the people who posted in July and the people who've posted so far this month, it's...a lot of the same people (and same characters, obviously). Many of whom are leaving.

I'm not saying change it now, but it's definitely something I'd keep an eye on. If you decide to go back to requiring a post per month, maybe consider giving each player a pass they could use one month out of every...I dunno, six months, a year? if they're not feeling up to posting during that one month.

I'll probably add more things in other comments as they occur to me, but those are my thoughts re: activity reqs.

[taxonmods]

Thank you very much for this, it is something to consider. Striking the balance between encouraging people to post and giving them leeway when they may not have an idea for one is tricky. The idea of re-implementing a posting requirement and giving the option of a "bye" month is a good one, and will definitely be given thought.

[(Anonymous)]

In response to some of the replies you as mods have been offering, I feel a couple of things need to be said. First - I see a lot of blaming the player base, which seems counterproductive when it's your players who are coming to you with concerns. But it also seems like you're forgetting, or not acknowledging, that you as mods are also players and if there is a problem that's based in player attitudes and habits, then aren't excluded from being part of the problem.

Secondly, since you asked for suggestions on how to get things to change without making more rules, you could try leading by example. Telling the player base that there are things happening that you would like to see altered and then making clear efforts to lead the charge in making those changes seems like a better solution than making excuses.

[taxonmods]

We're very sorry, and do acknowledge that we are players as well and have our own responsibilities in regards to tagging and plotting habits. As stated in the edit to the post above we recognize that we do have issues to work through, and will be definitely be making strides to improve.

Thank you very much for taking the time to share your thoughts.

[(Anonymous)]

As a former player who was in this game close to a year, I come back still to check up on things, hoping for improvement. I didn't expect to see people finally bringing these problems that I've had with this game to light, but I'm glad they did. Though I'm not in the game, I like some of its players, former and current, and in the interest of helping you improve, I'll add my two cents.

First and foremost, you have to accept that this game has a major clique in it, centered around the mods and the vampire shows. If you don't play a character from Buffy/Angel, True Blood, or TVD, it is like pulling teeth to get CR. I learned that quick when I joined. I would tag people, and after two or three tags, they would stop, before we'd barely gotten the introductions out of the way. Either that or it'd take over a week for them to tag back, then I would tag, then another week would pass. Meanwhile these same muns are tagging vampires and vampire friends like mad. It definitely made me feel unwelcome.

So, because I felt neglected, and God forbid I say anything because the clique would come after me, I gravitated towards those who weren't in the clique, and we were like the secondary clique. These muns were the only ones I could gain CR with at all.

From reading the mod comments here, it seems you guys feel you can't do anything to remedy this. That it's up to the players, and you can't force them to tag anyone. What you aren't getting is that it starts with you. You guys have to be the ones to stop dropping tags. The only tags you never seemed to drop were with your little vampire clique. You have to be the example that the rest will follow.

Sofie brings up so many good points here, but I want to add that it was two mods who drove that player out of the game. It doesn't matter if you had your "player hats" on and not your mod ones, people will always see you as mods first and foremost. That's not always fair to you guys, but it's true.

Regarding the memes, that's another good point Sofie had. I almost never had people tag me on memes, and when I tagged them? Nine times out of ten they wouldn't reply. You know who was almost always guilty of this? The mods. You guys made me feel so unwelcome, so unliked, and so worthless as a player that I finally had to leave. I gave this game all I could, and got very little in return.

And the worst part was, I could never say anything. Everything about this game had a distinct fake Pleasantville vibe surrounding it. Everything was perfect, there were no problems. If something made me unhappy, it had to be me and not the game, right? The fact that no one really brought up any of these issues until now suggests that maybe we were all too scared of criticizing the way the game was run, because dear God, the mods would ice us out of everything. I was already pushed into the secondary clique. What if no one would tag me because I said I didn't like the way the mods played favorites?

Now mods, I'm pointing all this out to you so you guys can improve. Stop dropping tags. Stop playing favorites and tag outside your casts more. People will follow your example and do the same. But if you continue neglecting your players, people are going to start dropping only a month or so after they join, once they see how you behave.

Different Anon Than Any of the Above Anons

[(Anonymous)]

This was precisely why I dropped Taxon. All of this. Getting CR in this game is like pulling teeth. I've met some lovely people here, and there are some truly rare characters that I loved seeing and interacting with. But the bottom line was that this game's OOC environment is very very cold.

I felt like there was the game I was playing, and the game the mods and their friends were playing, and those two games just happened to share an underground city. They did not interact, they did not overlap. And judging by the anons that have shown up, this is a problem that has been percolating for a long time.

Maybe there is no easy fix, mods, but the surest way to not fix things is to say "well, we can't make our players do anything." The fact that you are getting so many responses anonymously rather than logged in should be a huge red flag that your playerbase (even former playerbase) is not comfortable with the way things are going. And as the anon above mentioned, if you are serious about fixing the problem, you are going to have to lead by example.

[poisonousparty.livejournal.com]

Hearing all of this is kind of distressing for a new player, and kind of discouraging. I know I definitely wouldn't have joined had I been aware of the cast-only communities, which, tbh, I think is absolutely ridiculous. That's like saying if I get more Killjoys, then I should be entitled to a comm as well. I'm already in a Danger Days community; if I wanted Party to plot mainly with his buddies I wouldn't have joined up for this.

So far things have been good, even if I haven't been here for long. I'm going to keep a positive outlook, because I'm having fun so far, but just thought I'd put my two cents in, however repeated it seems.

[atraphoenix.livejournal.com]

I've always thought of cast plotting posts as a place for touching base with your cast members and making sure everyone is aware of plot developments that are going on for a particular character, whether they've actually been part of that development or not. (If you have a character that is canonically close to another character, the player of that character deserves to know what's going on. The actual development itself could be based on threads with anyone, canon or not.)

From what I've seen / done, cast only communities function in exactly the same way. The community is just used to save one particular character's journal from being used.

That aside, I imagine this is distressing to hear but please don't let it get you down too much. I'm disappointed that these things are only being brought up now, but at least that means that they can be dealt with. And they will be dealt with.

*breaks out Killjoy icon, just because she can*

[molecules]

idk throwing my two cents in here.

I love the glitches, even though I've been a part of only one so far. I like the State of Taxon where we all say what's been going on with our characters, only because sometimes I forget in other games and I think it's a good way for us to sort of regroup and see which direction we are heading with our muses.

I'm still kind of fresh meat so I haven't been around for much of what's been stated in this post so far. And I'm sorry if most of this seems negative. I am enjoying Taxon so far, despite finding the drops a bit disheartening, and would love for it to continue on and revive itself.

Personally, I'm finding the activity a bit hard to meet, only because Taxon isn't generating, say, five posts a day from players, and I find that hard to be able to tag into four different posts a month. I know I could throw up a post, but Taxon is different to the other games I'm in, mostly because it doesn't have a log community and it's all prose (most of the time) and it's slow. I don't like having myself on the first page twice, you know? The other games I'm in, some are slow and some are medium, but I'm always able to tag into many because there's new posts up every day. Whereas here, it's slower, and it takes a while for another post to be thrown up. I'm not sure for the reason of this - possibly just because Taxon is very relaxed (imo and from what I've seen) compared to the other games in regards to possibly backtagging (which I love). Is there any way we can change the activity to perhaps one post or two minimum and/or, if you can't post, several threads? I fear I won't make activity because I find it difficult to tag into some posts. And I as a player need to be more active on my half, so it's not just the game's fault at all.

I like that the cast members are encouraged to keep up to date with one another, simply because castmates sort of react to each other. I am having issues with this in other games and I appreciate that there's a place where I can say x is happening to Caroline. But maybe we should make this more accessible for non!castmembers? I know that when I wasn't playing a castmate, I would wonder what happened in the comms and felt a bit weird since I'm a lone canon warrior (and proud of it lmao). But maybe others might want to tag into the cast plots we have going on and be a part of it?

♥

[taxonmods]

Thank you, we're glad to hear you are enjoying yourself and finding the SOTT helpful.

We believe the drops and the lack of posting are, unfortunately, all tied in with much of the discussion in this post. As such, we're hoping our re-evaluated attitude will contribute to improving things on those fronts. As for any concerns you have about making activity, you can always let us know if you are having trouble and we will work you so you won't get dinged. This of course goes for everyone.

Making sure that any game-related plotting comms are open is one of the options we are considering, as that does foster much more communication. Thank you for the suggestion, and for all the observations you've shared.

[(Anonymous)]

http://taxonooc.livejournal.com/381489.html Since you mods aren't allowing comments to this entry I'll make my reply to it here.

I think that if you promise to do your best to reply to individual comments, you should follow through on this. Each member is taking the time to voice their concerns and glossing over them in this manner gets nothing accomplished.

+1

[(Anonymous)]

Between the lack of replies and the passive aggressive heart to an anon upthread this post has made my faith in the mods take a nosedive.

1 / ? - Side Comms

[smecker.livejournal.com]

Okay, so, heh, my turn.

So first off, while I am dropping, I am also somewhat heartened by the responses of the mod team, and IDK-- I could consider staying, or maybe coming back, if there is some solid committment to working on these issues. ...which makes it sound like I think my playing is some great prize, lolz. I don't think that, but I say that rather to get across... that I do really like Taxon; I was delighted to find it in the first place, I was thrilled for like the first three months I was here, and I hate the fact that I'm leaving.

So now to address the reasons why I feel the game is no longer fun for me.

First off, every single problem that has been brought up by posters so far is something I share. I'm not going to browbeat on them, because it feels like beating a dead horse-- I'll only revisit them in particular if I feel I have something specific to add or elaborate on. But I do want to emphasize the experiences of others have been shared by myself as well.

I've never actually felt that I couldn't voice my opinions, but rather that there wasn't really any point-- that I was speaking personally from a style of play that was just so counter to the 'play culture' already established in Taxon that my critiques and concerns were just going to be dismissed or brushed aside. Whether or not this thought was correct or not isn't really relevant, I'm just putting out my perspective there.

The topic of cast-only comms
In theory I don't find anything wrong with these. In practice I think that the message their establishment sends, especially when they are LOCKED, is huge. It may not be intentional, but it's huge; in a game where cliqueishness and playing within one's own fandom is already a problem, you do not want to create anything that is locked to a specific subset of players, because even if it is the most innocent thing in the world? It still looks really bad to anyone outside that set of players. That's common sense. That sends a message.

2 / ?

[smecker.livejournal.com]

The topic of 'negative CR' and/or 'trolling'
I really didn't want to try to bring up specific players or names here, because justifiably that is something that should be brought up to players individually as critique of their play, but it's something I've observed with enough players and characters that I do feel the need to address it as an overall game issue, and not just a one-on-one player issue.

So: yes, negative CR happens. No, characters will not always get along perfectly with each other. I play Paul Smecker, whose usual canon method of expressing frustrations is to throw a literal hissy fit and slap cops. Believe me when I say I know from abrasive characters, I know from characters who aren't the most personable in the world, I know from characters who can just outright be jerks, or who have sensitive issues that are triggery for them and which they may get defensive about. I get that.

But when you choose to play a character who is 'abrasive' in whatever sense-- whether dismissive and mocking of mere mortals, whether sensitive over being accused of misusing her magic, whether a vampire constantly fighting down their evil demon or a laconic alien or a fantasy prince stuck in a world he hates, or, yes, an FBI agent who is often an asshole-- my experience of RP leads me to believe that there's an onus on you to try and play the most IC option that still leads to good interactions, as opposed to just taking the first negative response and going "well, it's IC for my character, and if the other character doesn't like it, oh well, negative CR is fun too!"

Yeah, negative CR is fun up to a point, when players OOCly are on the same page. But if your chars do things like hang up on injured characters, if your characters make threats about humans, if your characters mock characters bleeding from vampire attacks with snarky song lyrics, it really just screws you over, because ICly my character is going to want nothing to do with yours as a result, and OOCly I'm also not exactly thrilled to pursue negative CR just for the sake of negative CR.

When characters do something that is truly a problematic action in the context of the scene (all the examples listed, I personally believe qualify. I'm happy to defend my position there if people want, but I am really not trying to turn this into arguing over individual IC histories-- but rather overall game patterns. I'm not trying to attack specific players, but a trend) -- I wish that it wasn't just dismissed with "well, it's IC" and moved on from. I wish that players would think it through a little bit first and go 'okay, does the immediate gratification of answering this tag in this way screw over my future CR with this character?'

And since I know this comes off as still being very "player attacky", I stress that I don't think I'm a saint-- but that I have tried to play Paul as as tolerant and accepting of things like vampires, etc, as I can possibly make him given what has ICly happened. I look at all the possible IC responses for him, and I try and go with the one that does the least to shut down possible future CR.

It's possible that all the other players I have discussed do this too; I'm not psychic and I'm not perfect. But from being on the receiving end of these threads, it really doesn't feel like they've put that thought into their tags/threads to try and avoid ruling out good CR.

3 / ? Meta in tags/ Giving players stuff to work with

[smecker.livejournal.com]

Meta in tags/Giving players stuff to work with

Again, I really run the risk of being player-specific-attacky with this, and again, I will admit that this is something that would be better placed in individual crit to these players-- but, again, this is something I have observed with enough players that I'd rather bring it up as a group thing than as individual crit to mutiple players.

I'll also preface this by saying that I write long tags and thta I may be just as unknowingly guilty of this as the people I criticize.

RP is not prose fiction. RP is not a monologue; it's a conversation. I LOVE getting into character's heads and telling us things about the backstory and life that inform the choices they are currently making.

But when you have two or three paragraphs of narration about your character's psychology, history, life experiences...... and 1-8 words of response to what the heck is actually happening in the thread.... you've gotten past RP and into monologue.

I have had tags where my characters asked other characters things like their name and gotten LITERALLY one word responses back. Three paragraphs of text... ONE WORD answers to my character.

It's like an RP slap in the fucking face, pardon my French. I have my character ask questions about your character to facilitate interaction, to provide jumping-off points to letting your character give me things to work with in return. If you give me one word in response, as well as no actions, no description of how your character is reacting to my character-- God, it really leaves me with absolutely nothing to work with. I sit and stare at the tag and go "okay, well, this player is telling me that all the work to continue this thread is going to have to be done by me".

And I drop those threads. They aren't RP. They're an excuse for you to talk about how amazing your character's psyche is, or history, or whatever else it is, and you're not playing with me, you're just indulging your love for your character.

Which is great, but please go write a fanfic instead.

Just... idk, once your tag is typed, look at it and go "okay, if I'm the other player, am I giving them anything to RESPOND to here?"

4 / ? The Cross-fandom Issue

[smecker.livejournal.com]

So I'll second Don-mun that I think the drop-off in activity and the change in activity reqs are not two things taking place in a vacuum, but distinctly related.

I realize people may not always feel inspiration to write a post but..... seriously? Seriously, you are SO STRAPPED for ideas for your character that in four weeks of game time you can't think of one thing they could be doing in the city that they could make a post about?

If people have to do at least one post each, then they do one post each. Suddenly instead of 5-10 posts to the comm in a month, there's 30. I refuse to believe that that won't help the interaction problem at least some. If people are having honest-to-god problems meeting the very strenuous requirements of one post a month.... then I don't know, maybe they need to re-evaluate why they have the character in the game? I guess that sounds really harsh (and rich, coming from someone who is dropping) but.... it's how I feel.

Alternately, say that two of your four required tag-outs have to be to someone not from your fandom. Except I really doubt that'll fly, because it 'restricts players too much' -- not really. They can still tag as much as they want with their relationships and angst in canon. They just also have to tag outside of it too. *shrug*

Also, it's very frustrating for me to put out plot stuff month after month in SOTT and rarely if ever get responses. Paul wants to make a fortress to protect people (as has been mentioned in the SOTT, and in-game, for several months now). Why do I get no responses to this from cops, save Cain? Why do I get no responses to this from Slayers? Why do I get no responses to this from 'good vampires', or the myriad other action hero types who are in Taxon complaining about having nothing to do?

Same thing when I did Long's glitch into a dragon-- I will take full responsbility that I planned out his glitch badly, that I should have done more OOC planning first. I thought a surprise would be cool-- in hindsight that was a huge mistake.

But that still doesn't change the fact that of the nine zillion cops, action-hero-types, and general others in Taxon who you think MIGHT investigate something like that...... practically nobody did. I had to practically twist people's arms OOCly to get them to tag in (and threads that did tag were dropped by the other players very shortly).

Does real life happen? Sure. Of course. But if there's a crack RP meme going on at the same time in the OOC comm and you are doing 40+ tags to it when I'm waiting on tag in the plot? Yeah, that really gets across to me where your priorities are, and to not bother trying to include you in my plot ideas in the future.

Re: 4 / ? The Cross-fandom Issue

[(Anonymous)]

YES to everything Dien has said.

[(Anonymous)]

So we have one remaining mod back on the post and one MIA, and excuses for the mods who flounced are made while nothing is said to the player breaking the rules. This is the kind of thing that is an issue.

[(Anonymous)]

Thread frozen, but no telling her that was inappropriate. That gets zero confidence from me, it smacks of going through the motions but not really caring.

[(Anonymous)]

Leaving this discussion early this morning, I felt good about the possibility that things were really going to change. I felt encouraged by the mods' statement that they recognized their own failures and were going to work on them along with addressing other problems brought up by people here.

And now I come back to discover that two mods have just quit altogether instead of following through on their promises that they would accept their part of the responsibility for what's been happening to the game? That's a slap in the face to every player and the two remaining mods. It gives the impression that at least half of the mods didn't care about making Taxon a healthy and welcoming game and were only willing to make changes when the changes didn't involve them. Which is one of the fears that it seems like a lot of people here were voicing in the first place.

To say it's disheartening is an understatement.

[kseda.livejournal.com]

If it helps in any way at all, you can replace all the instances of "we" up there with "I", as everything posted last night were my promises alone. I understand now that I should have made that clear from the get-go, and I apologize for muddying the waters more. I'm learning as I go, and this particular incident has been a major lesson.