[War_ooc] Daily WAR status report for 30 June 2009 (Kind of long)

[John Penta]

This is a bit long, but worth reading it all.
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We got another person!

Another old player, anyway.

I'm still working out things with him as to whether play will be
possible, but Bryan Tribble has returned to the WAR fold! Bryan, step
up and introduce yourself!

Currently in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, working for an NGO, Bryan should
be returning Stateside in August.

Yeah, you read that right. Bryan would be the first player WAR has
*ever* had posting from a non-Western country (to my knowledge
anyway). We once, years ago, had a player posting from Israel, but
that was years upon years ago.

Please note that Bryan is in Dar es Salaam - power or internet access
might be a bit of an issue on occasion if he in fact decides to play,
at least til he gets back to the States. Thus, please be forgiving if
he suddenly drops out of sight suddenly.
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Aside from that joyous news, some further updates:

Lisa now has admin powers on the Wiki. One of us will eventually
figure out how to turn things from that contentless start page into
the website replacement it's meant to be. Meanwhile, if you haven't
signed up for Wikidot and let me know your Wikidot user name, please
do. When you do, I'll invite you to join the WAR wiki. Please accept
the invite.

Why?

Because...Bryan, in addition to announcing his continued existence to
me, also offered to set up a website using Joomla, a content
management system that should, in theory, allow players to post their
own country pages in much the same way as a Wiki would.

I'm vacillating between either of the two approaches - it'll come down
to cost (first of all, because I'd be paying for anything to do with
WAR out of my own pocket (and I really have no money to spend)), but
secondly to user-friendliness: I realize mucking with code is a big
turnoff to many people (it certainly is for me), and...

My bright idea, the idea which pushes me towards either approach (as
opposed to a classic website), is having players maintain their own
country pages...and for the more technically-inclined, helping
maintain the rest of the Wiki (or whatever we choose).

I'm going to sketch out my dream here:

Eventually, what I'd like to see happen is that WAR's web presence
does more than merely advertise the game, but also becomes a
user-friendly compendium of game-related info *maintained by the
players*. From homegrown projects that've been revealed to the game at
large (through whatever means), to basic country info, to, truthfully,
whatever else people can think of.

It would, of course, include the basic stuff newbies need, but it'd
also be useful to the non-newbie player too.

The key here is that there is no way, no way in hell, it can just be
the responsibility of me as GM (especially given I'm technically
clueless when it comes to this), or me and whoever winds up taking
responsibility for the web presence (to choose a term that steps past
the technical stuff). There's too much to do, not enough time or
energy to do it all.

It really should be something all players help out on. As GM, I'll
read over and approve stuff (probably slightly after it goes up, given
the medium) for game use, but building pages should ideally be a
player thing.

Part of what this requires is an interface that is as "code-free" as
possible, but it also requires player effort. Effort in maintaining
their own pages, at least.

I don't know how achievable that is. That's why it's labeled a dream,
not a plan.

But it's certainly what I'd like to see happen.

Funny thing is, it also helps with the primary objective of our web
presence: Advertising the game and drawing in new players.

Which is a nice bonus.
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Next up:

Right now, I have country writeups accepted and locked in from:

USA (Pat B)
Brazil (Ian)
Ethiopia (Dylan)
China (Chris)
Japan (Mike Downey)

I'm waiting to hear from:

Russia (Lisa)
UK (Mike Brittain)
Canada (Iain)
And whichever country me and Bryan settle on for him if he decides to play.

Just a quick reminder on how it's supposed to work:

1. Look at the regional timelines I sent out.
2. Using the format I posted at least as a base (you can always add
more sections!), draw up your first draft.
3. Send that draft to me. Not the list! Oh, and please do not subject
the draft what you will title the final copy. Gmail hates that.
4. I'll look it over and reply with my commentary/bright ideas/quibbles.
5. Work on the draft from there, send to me again.
6. When we're both happy with it, I'll tell you to post it to the list.
7. Post it to WAR_OOC at esteroic.com with the subject line "<country>
2013". Not the IC list as has been done by everybody except Buckley (I
should have made that clearer, so it's really my fault). This is
essential, because the lists archive by month, and if the country
profiles are mixed with the IC postings (as I expect to begin play
shortly after 4 July) they will be hell to find. That's bad for
everybody.

Follow these steps in order, and the universe will remain happy and
balanced, and your GM will smile upon you. You may not see any benefit
to that, but I assure you there is. Fail to, and I might get a bit
grumpy, because these really are not hard directions to follow.:)
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Yeah, about play starting, another reminder of how things are going to work:

Our POD is 0000 US EDT (Midnight in New York, to be simple about it),
July 4, 2009. If it hits the media before that time, it happened
in-game. If not, it didn't, even if it happened before the POD. There
will inevitably be events which blur the line, I'll rule on those as
they're brought to my attention.

Play will actually -begin- with a post from me to the IC list, one
which (if all country writeups are in by that point) will be sent
sometime on July 5, 2009. If it takes longer to get all the country
writeups in, okay. We can wait.

The IC start date will be Sunday, January 20, 2013. This is somewhat
arbitrarily chosen, as only the US has (among countries in play)
incredibly fixed Presidential terms, and it doesn't seem fair to
Buckley to start it earlier and leave him waiting to get going.
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8, possibly 9 players. If activity holds up to expectations, it'll
mean World Reports (which I've decided we'll be going with for now)
may take some time to write.

Nonetheless, regardless of that fact, I'm pleased - no, actually a
little amazed, to see that so many people came back. This is, for the
record, the upper end of the expectations I had for WAR at relaunch.
10 is accommodatable (Yes, I think I just created a new word), but
would be slightly scary. Beyond 10 I realize I'll probably need to
think up new approaches to a lot of things.
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About World Reports:

If anybody wants to be helpful if a not-really-technical way, they can
send to me (off-list only) a possible template for a World Report. By
which I mean, something where everything's set up and I only have to
fill in fields and narrative. I'll pick the (very subjective) best for
actual use. Make sure you use only plain text - that displays best on
the archives.

Because we're so big, expect World Reports approximately every 2
weeks, covering 2 IC weeks (14 days). Yes, a 1:1 time progression. For
now, it keeps things simple. For another, every 2 weeks means I'm not
-quite- scrambling to get another one out as soon as I finish the
first one. I may implement a cut-off time for posts to be included in
the WR so as to give myself time to write.

I don't expect to need to draft anyone to help, but I leave open to
myself the option.
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GMing:

Which brings up another thing:

I'm not playing a country. This is not a misprint. Certainly, everyone
has remarked on it - with reason, given that there's rarely been a
time in which I haven't played a country, even while GMing. There are
good reasons for this change, but mostly it's because I couldn't fully
imagine a country and its cast of characters at present, not to the
degree I prefer if I'm going to play a country.

Rather, I'll be playing NPCs. From the Queen to the Pope to the Chief
Justice of the US Supreme Court to whatever else, you can call on me
to write NPCs. Be advised that I'll write them as realistically as I
can pull off; this may mean your plans get derailed on occasion. Just
send to me the start of the post, and we'll go from there. Not
required that you go through me, but it certainly prevents me from
having idle hands. *Evil GM grin*

NPCs should be read fairly loosely to mean "anyone not a player character".
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AGMs:

There won't be assistant GMs this go-around. Nor co-GMs.

At least, I can't think up any reason to have them that outweighs the
hassles they historically bring. If we get bigger, I may reconsider my
stance, but I'm going to need to think hard on it.

What will happen, on the other hand, is a lot of delegation of tasks.

I will remain the sole GM. I essentially own the game this time - if
the Secret Service or FBI wants to knock on anyone's door, it should
be mine. *grin* More seriously, this keeps the responsibility for
guiding the game in one pair of hands.

I will, however, delegate (happily at times) various OOC tasks
generally handled by the GM on other games, but that I just don't have
the skill, interest, or time for, as the case may be.

At the moment, there are two such tasks: Web stuff and advertising.

We need one person who can handle our web presence - whether that be
building the Wiki's basic frame or whatever else gets decided on.
Mostly, this will consist of the technical end - actual
content-writing I spoke of above.

Next up, advertising. It's essential for a game, but it's also
something that takes a certain skill. Skill which I do not have. This
person needs to find places to advertise, write the ad-blurbs
required, and keep them posted.

I don't foresee our advertising happening other than on the web, but I
would not be adverse to authorizing other methods of advertising.
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I think that wraps up this update.

If you got this far, you earn a cookie.

John