How's The Game

[wearethecrystalmods]

HOW'S THE GAME?

Welcome to Cosmographia's first "How's the Game"! This is essentially an open forum for discussion about where to take the game from here and anything that might need changing. A lot has happened in the past week and going forward we feel it's more important than ever to have a discussion like this.

This is not a place for criticism of specific players or characters. This is purely about the game itself. Please save player specific criticisms for the upcoming How's My Driving. Any disregard for this or out of hand conduct will be frozen or deleted.

We are inviting not just all current players (old and new) to participate in this discussion but also past players that have left and new potential players considering the game; we encourage everyone to pitch in their two cents. That being said, since this is the game's first HTG we are currently going to do it without anon or sock journals (for future HTG this may change).

Like said this is a completely open forum. We have a list of topics we want to discuss (listed below), but after all those have gone up players are completely free to start their own threads with anything not covered by the other sections.

Current sections (please wait until all these are up and linked to post your own they're all up now!):

The Staff
Applications
Setting Suggestions
The World Outside Waverly Bay/Potential World Plot
Event Schedule/Power Distribution
Player Plot Approval
Power Limitations/Guidelines
Fate of Cosmonet
Network Comm?
Day Cycle Comments
The Temp. Drop System
Future Event/Plot Suggestions

Comments

[nailed_it]

Just my two-cents but I honestly like that this game doesn't have a true game-wide network comm and actively encourages face-to-face interaction? It's refreshing and honestly a lot less stress for me OOC-ly because I don't have to keep close track of what's being posted "online" nor do I have to come up with too many excuses for why my character may not see or react to the "network" posts that are there (she doesn't Internet much if at all so she doesn't see them lol).

If a long-distance mode of communication is going to be needed in the future because of missions or characters going beyond Waverly Bay perhaps, instead of trying to finagle internet and the like sort of devices into the setting, could Gem-to-Gem communication become a power everyone can gain upon entry? Sorta like how Fusion was unlocked for everyone?

That way any Gem can communicate with any other Gem(s) if need be on a personal basis.

[foolreversed]

Internet and mobile devices are already in the setting though, is the thing. Like they've been there since the beginning.

From the FAQ:

☆ Does Cosmographia have a network?

Yes it does! It is a little non-traditional however compared to some other games though, since there isn't a dedicated community for it ([personal profile] cosmonet is an OOC organizational tool, not a network comm). Instead network posts just go in the main IC community, with the WHERE of the post being "On the network" or something to that effect. A network post is any type of post where characters are not communicating in person, such as through text messaging, a phone call, a video call, or over the internet in general (for example: posting on a forum).


The question is not whether to implement a network because there is already one technically (we will not be changing this into a different type of network, just to be clear... other than maybe giving it a dumb name or something) and it is already used every now and then. The question is whether we want to separate it from the main comm for organizational purposes.

Also I'm actually not sure how comfortable I am with a gem-to-gem communication powers, or at least with it being a thing for everyone (there are characters in their canon who can use a power like this like Rise and Fuuka in Persona). It would bother my character a lot and can still end up replacing face-to-face interaction.

[nailed_it]

Oh no, I knew there were Internet/mobile devices in-game already. But a lot of characters come from worlds where they either aren't familiar with technology like that or they don't actively use it for one reason or another. Since characters aren't given things like communicators/phones upon their arrival like in some games, the only internet access is via computers at places like the library or a personal device that could connect to an Internet connection if they happened to come in with one?

My train of thought was basically that, in giving the network its own separate comm, the IC/OOC assumption then becomes that every character accesses it in some way, which doesn't make sense for the current verse set-up. I could be totally off base though and/or that might not end up being the case at all. I may also not be making any sense and my apologies in that case. ^^;

I definitely understand hesitation on the gem-to-gem communication powers, my character wouldn't want random people projecting their thoughts at them either. I was thinking of it working only between two gems or a small group at most, not game-wide since that would require a lot of experience and power on the part of the "speaking" Gem. And perhaps in addition to the default Gem Communing power there would be an accompanying "Block" power, so that characters who don't wish to communicate like that are essentially sealed off from it.

Basically, for this idea I was taking inspiration from how characters already commune with the Heart Gem and things that have been seen in the SU canon since I'd personally prefer a "power" as opposed to an additional device I have to worry about my character carrying around/having constant access to/potentially losing.

[foolreversed]

Ahhh okay I see, sorry I misunderstood.

Yeah nah, I wouldn't want that to happen. My thoughts were only for having it separate for ooc purposes (and maybe giving the supposed "gem forum" a name or something).

Don't worry there definitely wouldn't be any additional devices added or anything like that. We don't intend to change how that stuff works in game as it is now, just give it some place to go. But you bring up a good point of that causing some incorrect assumptions so probably best not to bother.

[kelp_for_brains]

Just throwing in here that I have no idea what to do to get this guy into network post or otherwise quick long-distance communication. I'm still fuzzy on the powers-for-communication thing you have going on, and Percy does his best to not use anything that sends radio signals the way computers or phones do.

[foolreversed]

There is no powers-for-communication thing right now, it's just a consideration that was suggested (though people are free to come up with it on their own as a power for their character it's not a thing everyone has).

The "network" is just the internet so all a character needs is a computer or phone, which can be purchased or created in the characters room (but can't be removed in that case). If Percy actively avoids those things then there's unfortunately no way for him to see internet posts.