(02-05-2020, 08:35 PM)Loken Wrote: I have fun playing the game with fun people. I don't need to be granted pixel power or imaginary space empires to feel like my time was worth spending. Sure there are things I'd like to change, but realistically every improvement any one of us would make to the mod would have at least 50 other people up in arms about it.
Back when I used to play here, before 2014, player roleplay was taken into consideration significantly less than it is now. Unless you happened to have friends in the right places you had little to no influence over faction development, and certainly none over the story. People were content to play their characters and enjoy the game for what it was rather than every character being a diplomatic mouthpiece with the sole purpose of working towards some tangible gain for the player or their faction.
Now most of those people are gone, and it feels to me like the players most invested in empire building and playing the long game make up a large proportion of the people who have stuck around. Presumably due to sunk cost.
Edit: I made this longer. Sue me.
I like creating events so other people can have fun. I like writing long-winded RPs that can positively impact gameplay for people. Not necessarily my tribe, but anybody who I run into. I like flying around, blowing stuff up, and being (quite frequently), blown up. I like the thrills and spills. I like trying to set up 5 man smuggling convoys that have hilarious consequences when they run into lawfuls. I like playing larger-than-life characters that let us escape the problems of the real world for the pantomime problems of our interesting universe of scifi caricatures.
I do like having an influence when I have it, but only for the sense of creating a fun product that people like, and trying to help tell stories. Generally, if the server is active the forums get active, people get invested in the grand narratives, and a sense of storytelling dominates.
The bit I don't like is how there's a lot of stunting and negative competition in the community. I'm guilty of it too, sometimes. We all need to think about how what we'll do will make fun memories and a fun, not frustrated, experience, for everyone. 'Winners' or 'Losers' - there are no metrics for that.
THE SYNDIC LEAGUES
(A co-operative of Rheinland's Shipping Unions, retired from a life of piracy.)