[War_ooc] John gets to thinking.

[Michael Brittain]

Hey guys! I'm still on the WAR lists, and as I've already said to John would be more than willing to help out, so I thought I ought to speak up and get involved in the discussions :-)

My thoughts on the points below are yes to an activity requirement and yes to post counts (useful information, I'd say). Of course it's up to the rest of your guys, but I wouldn't have a problem with them. Also, I think that the WR could be replaced by another format not in so much detail. 

My past memories of WAR have always been that the WR is a monster to complete, and after a while plays a big part in the GM's feeling some form of burn out or unnecessary stress. We're all relatively :-P intelligent people so we're aware of the potential implications of our actions, posts etc, so detailed responses I don't think are really that necessary - we can all estimate approval ratings, economic growth etc ourselves as Dan says, and if there are issues a GM can step in to help. Good posts/plots and interactions between players and countries should negate the need for a detailed world report, at least in my opinion, especially as the game isn't being played 'scientifically', in that there's no sliding scales of actions to be considered etc. 

I'd be more in favour of  'fake' news reports from the various countries media outlets, or global news bulletins, as a way of responding to the actions of individual players but also as a way introducing new 'problems'/issues to deal with. I think it would make it more realistic and hopefully be an easy, routine way of introducing new plots and moving the game play along. They could be flexible in terms of when they're needed to be sent out - they'd be no fixed date, they'd be fluid to in game plots, wouldn't need to be very detailed or long, could follow a simple format and are less monotonous maybe? You could also use them on the website to make WAR more realistic to potential players, and so that they could see what was going on.

Maybe there's just as much work in these 'news snippets' and maybe I'm being a bit naive! What are everyone else's thoughts on this? :-)

- Mike

----- Original Message ----- 
  From: John Penta 
  To: war_ooc at esteroic.com 
  Sent: Saturday, June 27, 2009 3:40 PM
  Subject: [War_ooc] John gets to thinking.


  It's a slow Saturday morning, I have nothing to do, not even anything for WAR, so I've gotten to thinking.

  Oh, stop hiding.

  Thrown out ideas:

  WAR FAQ - the more I think about it, the more I think WAR is best explained by watching posts come in, the WR go out, etc. Put more succinctly, I'm not sure how to go about writing such a FAQ. However, I mention it in case someone wants to take a crack at writing such a thing.

  Next up, ideas I'm considering:

  The WR. Bluntly, do we even need a World Report? If we do, how should it be structured? Are there any ways in which we can automate the process (in my dreams only, I know)?

  Activity requirements - I'm increasingly in favor of this, but it's a decision I want to leave up to you. Should WAR have a formal activity requirement?

  If we do, I doubt I would enforce it as a hard requirement - more of a "reach this point or be nagged", with only people turning in nothing becoming eligible for removal.

  Post counts - One thing I'm definitely thinking of borrowing from other sims is posting a weekly or biweekly post count to the OOC list. People, I've found, are naturally competitive, and want to reach the top of that list. Keep in mind though that only public posts would count. Secret Actions would not.

  Is there anything else that comes to people's minds?

  One brief thing: Even if you have no plans, no chance of playing a country yet...Your opinions, your help on the OOC side of this endeavor would still be welcome.


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