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[cosmods]

A few more admin notes and a poll!

☆ The Current Events page has been updated.

☆ There is now a player added locations post! This is also linked on the world info page.

☆ There is now also a player plots post which has been added to the navigation. This is in response to a lot of plots going on at once and some people getting burned out quickly, so hopefully this will help everyone keep track of what's going on!

Keep in mind Cosmographia is also advertised as a light-hearted game with occasional dark elements when running plots!

☆ We're also looking for another potential helper mod! Please free free to email us if you are keen.

☆ As always, if there are any issues please feel free to email us. Responses may vary from immediate to a few days, but we try to get to everyone!

☆ The poll, which is in response to some player concerns, strives to get a holistic view of player-base preference:

Poll #16844 Should Cosmographia have a reserves page?

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 24

View Respondents

Yes or No

View Answers

Yes
22 (91.7%)

No
2 (8.3%)

Feel free to briefly say why

View Answers

This poll will end in 2 weeks time, aka July 25th at 5pm PST. If you have any alternative suggestions or concerns, feel free to comment to this post as well!

Comments

to reserves page or not to reserves page

[magistermentium]

So right now we have app challenges, but only if two people coincidentally happen to app the same character in the same week. If we had a reserves page, this would change to first come first serve, rather than who actually writes the better app.

What if instead we had something like a reserves page, except it doesn't actually reserve anything? More of an "application planning" page, where the purpose is more publically announcing that you plan to app a particular character. It doesn't reserve them for you, but it makes others aware you plan to app them. That way if there's someone else who also wants to app the character, they'll know there will be an app challenge.

I'd be in favor of something like this personally, since I prefer "better app gets the character" as opposed to "whoever got there first gets the character," but what do you guys think?

[gomi]

This is something I'm personally in favor of if we do go ahead with this. (as a mod since I am not playing atm, but in the future--!)

[weiss_nine]

I don't actually see why it would change?

like, in previous games I've been in all a reserve meant was "we wait for the reserve party to app before we look at any apps for that character." it never meant you were assured of getting the character, only that nobody would be accepted for that character before you had a chance to try for them?

[magistermentium]

Well a reserved app can always be rejected, yeah, but I've never seen somebody try to challenge app against a character that was reserved? In theory you probably could, though depending on the policy of the game/mods the mods might tell the challenge app mun who didn't reserve the character "We can't process this because someone else already reserved"? Again I've never seen this happen though so honestly I have no idea.

[weiss_nine]

the couple of times we did it at my old game, we just sent a placeholder comment to the challenge app that was like "your app will not be processed until the reserve for this character has expired, or the other challenger has apped." although it was explicitly stated on our reserves page that we allowed challenges app, so. that probably helped. like, as long as people know they can, they will?

it didn't come up often or anything, but it did come up. you could even allow challenge reserves, I guess? we didn't do that, so I couldn't help you there, but. /shrug

[magistermentium]

Oh, that's good to know! I've been journal RPing for about 5 years but in that time I haven't actually been in very many games. Yeah, a reserves page that makes it explicitly clear you can challenge app even if someone else has reserved the character is another possibility/good idea too!

[camparistar]

I second this idea.

Like.

I know the app page is screened but we don't get that many challenge apps, do we?

[cardofhearing]

I'm totally not heavily invested in reserves vs not reserves at all, but! I do like this idea better than a standard reserves page, for all the reasons listed, and it'll also be one less housekeeping thing to do for the mods. Especially because Cosmos is a game that does allow (AU-based) multiples, I just don't see the NEED for a reserves page, but I'm cool with it if we do get one!

[magistermentium]

I don't think we've had one since we opened! It's gotten a whole lot less likely too since we switched from processing apps every 2 weeks to every week.

[camparistar]

omg please don't tell me i'm the only one who's ever challenge apped

[magistermentium]

I think you might be;;;; sorry!!

If it makes you feel better I was almost app challenged? But the other person who was going to app Bill changed his mind...

[camparistar]

Nah, it's cool. I think it worked out for the best, in the end.

But it does bring up a good point about the reserve page; since the app page is screened, it's likely someone won't know they're challenging/being challenged until after the fact. The reserve page lets you know that, hey, there's a good chance that a challenge may exist.

[dontstartunbelieving]

I just want to put my 2 cents in on reserves! Because there are people not on my plurk and I said Reasons and stuff:

A) I've seen a couple occasions where someone wants to play a character and gets enabled and everyone gets very excited!!! Only to find out that character has already been apped in this round. It's disappointing on both ends I think, because we're all human and we get excited for stuff and then when it doesn't pan out we are a little bit sad. And if people get sad, there's a chance the person who apped in might find out and that's even sadder because now they might feel bad! A human and understandable thing! Not necessarily true in all cases but that is my big concern.

B) I don't think it encourages challenge apps to not know who's apping in. If anything, I think it hinders the "what's the better app" idea because it just means the person who wrote their app quicker got in.

C) I personally don't like competition. Not for any reason other than I don't like conflict. At all. I hate it. Because someone's gonna come out feeling like they sucked if they get rejected from a challenge app neither of the players knew was a challenge. Like for me the point of a challenge app is both actually knowing you're challenging somebody and making sure that your app is 200% perfect to prove you can character. Not knowing there's someone else who's apped isn't a challenge--it's an accident that some people would want to avoid. In a hobby that's all about pretending to be fictional people on the internet, I would love to avoid unintentionally hurting people's feelings when all that went wrong was we both loved the same character.

Bonus Round) I think it would be better to have a reserves page where it isn't a rigid NO ONE ELSE CAN APP, but "Your app won't be judged until either the player submits their application or the reserve is terminated." That way other players who are comfortable with conflict know it's time to get their shit together.

tl;dr: I have Reasons, several of which are personal preferences. There are pros and cons to this system! But I personally find the cons outweigh the pros! This is not the case for everyone and I respect that!

[foolreversed]

actually the way i always saw it, app challenges basically came into existence specifically because of reserves: so someone could challenge the reserver, in case you didn't get the reserve and thought you could write a better app (especially in games that have short app cycles). i also always got the impression that they were basically implemented because reverses were felt to be a little "unfair" (but then some people feel challenges are unfair which is why you have games that don't allow them i think). i actually find it a little weird that app challenges exist in a game without reserves because idk that almost defeats the point of it being a "challenge" i guess; you're just judging two different apps that happened to come in at the same time then.

but yeah every game i've ever seen has waited until the reserver has also submitted their app before judging the two, like R said.

[foolreversed]

Would it be possible to hear the reasoning why we don't have reserves right now actually?

This is the first game I've been in (or seen period really) that didn't have them and while I don't really care one way or the other (I'm in favor of them but can live otherwise) it is a little strange!

I think it'd help with deciding if we could hear each side and understand why things are as they currently are.

[foolreversed]

ALSO meant to say this but THANK YOU SO MUCH for the player plot page. I've loved all the player plots so far and they've all been executed AMAZINGLY well but I was a little worried about potential burn out and things getting too dark too often. I saw that sort of thing spiral a little out of control at another game before and it became really... unfun after a while, especially since both characters and players eventually got really apathetic. :c So I really appreciate this!

comes in 20 minutes late with cosmobucks

[torya]

First of all I just want to say i am SUPER GLAD that you guys added the player plots page! This was something i was like, literally just thinking about to myself (no for real i mean like i was actually thinking about it when i saw this post) so I'm REALLY PLEASED to see you guys taking this potential concern on board and doing what you can to nip it in the bud. awesome!

as for a reserve page, i think that ultimately comes down to what kind of reserves we're looking at -- I've been in games where a reserve means that character is exclusively yours app-wise until said reserve expires and that's never sat right with me, since it kind of comes down to whoever's got the fastest finger in the west vs who can write a better app.

But if it's simply a sort of "okay, you're first in line with this character if multiple people app them" sort of reserve, then I don't see a problem with it at all, as long as it's made clear on the app page.

[cosmods]

THIS IS FREYA basically the reasoning is that in my own previous experiences in games, I found that reserves could lead to some really unnecessary possessive drama over characters and put people off applying for said characters when someone "stakes a claim", when they really should have been given just as much of a chance. I also come from a different RP circle from others, so I've been in games that have worked perfectly fine without the reserve system and wanted to keep that when I first opened this game!

Of course, as time went on I've noticed the game is mainly populated by players that come from a different RP culture than me, so I decided to take that into account.