Discussion Do Things Seem a Little Stale?

[Kitter Bitters]

Like for example I could go make the posts I owe and that might help LOL

 

[Balun Dashiell]

I've noticed it myself, feeling a combination of life getting in the way and knowing what others have already stated: Summer period for many, the World Cup and gaming on the side. That said, activity will pick up again; I've no doubt of that. These things happen every so often, but Chaos has been going strong for a long time and I don't see it going anywhere anytime soon

 

[Quinn Varanin]

Nope. Usual slow down for summer, but I’m busy as ever irl and on the site (my backlog aaaa)

I feel “stale” is on the individual — chaos is what you make it. If you’re bored, do something. Go write, go involve yourself in a story, etc.

There’s always something going on and people willing to write.

 

[Darth Carnifex]

This more or less feels like every other Summer slow-down on Chaos, but that's all in the eye of the beholder.

You tailor your Chaos experience in the end.

 

[Kitter Bitters]

This more or less feels like every other Summer slow-down on Chaos, but that's all in the eye of the beholder.

You tailor your Chaos experience in the end.

I owe you a post!!! >_> I gotta work on that lol

 

[Braze]

So what could we do to shake things up? We have a good solid writer base and people are telling awesome stories. How can we use that to make the stale go away?

What're you interested in writting ?

 

[Silas Westgard]

It’s pretty much the usual happening at the same time every year. Speaking of myself, my activity goes down drastically when it hits summer (although I have different circumstances this time). I can imagine others will be the same, especially with the world cup going on as well as other sporting events.

Things will probably pick up again in a few weeks/months time.

 

[Avelion]

I personally feel Alan hit the nail on the head.

Yeah it's summer and all that.

I've been here a while, have seen the slumps and trends.

This is definitely different to some degree. There is defs a lack of the 'Wars' in Star Wars. Right now, the only true conflict is a bunch of hillbillies with shotguns going after some alchemised cyotes. Yes, there's "stuff" happening - I know so don't come at me.

What I am seeing is a sore lack of overarching conflict that causes the piles of fallout threads that come of it - Kitter Bitters actually touched on it in her recent blog.

The "stale" feeling preceded summer slump and WC - to claim otherwise is denial. There's a lot of individual and internal stories only.

But board-wide effects is at an all-time low. Alan may have the right of it - the board is old. That is true. Tropes of all kind have been done to death.

But there are still new people trickling in. These folks haven't done the "jedi vs sith" arc. Or the mando civil war arc that the rest of us old heads have done for the zillionth time. They hear the stories and think that sounds cool, they want to experience something like that as well. But the old heads are like fml no.

Isn't it up to us older folks to gove them the 'Wars' they want to experience?

So I'm calling out the elephant in the room. Do your summer grass touching, etc. But maybe everyone should stop playing with themselves in their corners and being like "ew, no I don't want thread with those guys because of the past experiences, but I won't say it to their face so I just make a lame excuse instead before going on eating glue in my corner" and start putting the 'Wars' back in Star Wars. Not the "I pretend to do it by genociding some NPCs on the fringes". I'm talking about the real conflict - the board-wide kind. The "oh snap" moves. The surprising stuff. Stop worrying about your pixels and just ball kind.

The elephant is there's a lot of behind the scenes posturing and stuff - underlying stuff but we keep it deceptively clean on the surface.

One thing I'm sure of though - the era of salt wars is gone. I really don't think folk have to fear a salt war. Just folk wishing to write an epic story. We can rewire our minds when a surprise skirmish or invasion announcement is dropped in your lap - that won't be a "I am here to chain invade". The culture has definitely changed. I'm 98% sure the intention for that will just be "let's ball and write board-wide influencing stories".

Tldr: it's not just summer slump. Stop being like "ugh not again" and more like "let's craft the experience for the new guys".

 

[Helix]

As a rule, I don't generally interact with meta posts. I'm here to write, and I don't touch the politics with a fifty-foot pole. That said, yup, it's pretty much as Avelion said, and I'll break my rule to speak on it. I haven't been here that long compared to many, but it's been my impression that while the culture is largely accepting on the surface it's also cliquish and gatekeepy beyond reason once you start digging in. Breaking in as a new kid is no small or easy feat. I've been here two years and change now and still don't feel like I've broken in sometimes. I don't want to imagine how impenetrable it would seem for someone who joined last week.

To be blunt, some of the people who will tell you "Nah, this is normal" are the people who've been here a while, have an established community, and will never have to worry about that lull in activity and engagement that many others experience. Activity's pretty constant at those levels. Not trying to say it's an ivory tower effect, but well, if the shoe fits...

To some extent that's just the reality of older communities, I'm in some myself, even started some myself. Everyone knows everyone, and it's pretty entrenched as far as who writes or interacts with who. That's fine, everyone can do what they wish and write (or not write) with who they wish, but taken to extremes that sort of thing eventually leads to stagnation and discourages new writers from getting involved. Just something to consider.

Also gonna agree with several people here that the lack of overall conflict and large-scale narrative shakeups are definitely part of it, if not the single largest part. This goes back to the previous issue. I again agree with Avelion that to some extent, the burden falls on the veterans to show the newbs the way, but all I ever hear about are stories of cool, board-altering stuff that happened back in the 2010s. Never any ideas about how to do cool stuff now. Overall things are very past-facing, which can only harm the overall energy of the site.

In continuing bluntness, a new writer will not care how Darth X toppled the planet Y and enslaved the Z species back during the Obama administration. They want to know how they can make impacts on the story now, and the fact is that they largely can't, not in the way things were done then. I've seen people far more talented than myself try, to no avail.

So far as I can tell, the culture as it stands actively resists big, ambitious narrative events like the ones that set up the current in-story setting of the site to begin with. There's a certain comfortable status quo that is, consciously or otherwise, very much enforced. I'm not even sure how to begin to address that, and I'm certainly not equipped to.

On the smaller level, yeah the summer slowdown is also here tho. Even at best people got stuff to do. I sure do. It's for sure a contributing factor, but a lot of this started well before summer. I don't think it's anyone's fault exactly, but imo it does need to be pointed out so that it can be addressed.

I'll end this with the usual asterisk that these are just one person's observations, and may not reflect reality, but there lies the issue as I see it. Everyone's free to ignore it if they wish, but as someone that loves the site and has watched stuff get worse just in the relatively short time I've been here, I thought I'd speak up about it since I see others doing so.

 

[Makai Dashiell]

Helix

 

[Ronhar Tane]

Avelion and Helix have expressed their points far better and more succinctly than I ever could, and I have to agree with their sentiment.

Forget the whole "minor, moderate, major" faction debate for a moment. Let's take a look at what is established on the board, because whether or not you pay attention to it, those on it are some of the primary motivators for faction wide and board wide RP.

We have two Sith factions: The Sith Order and the Sith Covenant. Both of those factions seem, at the moment, content to support and work with one another. Of course, Sith being Sith, I wouldn't be surprised if one ends up betraying the other at some point, but for now, they seem to be friends, which means their isn't any catalyst for large scale conflict or board altering stories.

Then we have two Mando factions: The Mandalorian Empire and the Iron Covenant. The Mandalorian Empire again, for what I can see, seems to be allied with the Sith Order, and I can't imagine them trying to fight the Sith Covenant for as long as their alliance holds. Again, no catalyst for large scale conflict or board altering stories.

That's three of the five major factions so far not engaging in conflict with one another.

The Iron Covenant, on the other hand, is actively engaged in conflict with the Sith Covenant. Huzzah! An actual war in Star Wars! That being said, I'm not entirely sure how their eternal fleet mandate works (despite me being in the faction lol), so I'm not sure how much they can really shakeup the landscape of the map. But props to them for trying.

Edit: almost forgot, I suppose there could maybe be a like Mando civil war or something between the ME and the IC, though the IC seems to be more focused on the Sith atm

Finally, we have the High Republic. I'm not really involved with them nor do I keep much track of what they're doing, but from what I've seen or rather haven't seen, they seem to be a bit quiet as of late. I think they had a border skirmish with the Sith Order a little while ago, but not much has resulted from that to my knowledge. Will they attack the Sith Covenant? Maybe, its possible and relatively likely. Will they attack the Mandalorian Empire? Last I checked, they were actively paying the Mandalorian Empire to work with them even though the ME is allied with the SO, so probably not. Will they attack the Iron Covenant? Probably not, because I don't think they have a reason to.

So as it stands, we have two large scale conflicts going on atm: The Iron Covenant against the Sith Covenant, and the High Republic skirmishing against the Sith Order, which I'd actually hesitate to call a major conflict. But why does this matter? Why should I care if I don't even pay attention to the map?

Because if you want a shake up, if you want board altering faction threads involving everyone, if you want to see those epic large scale invasions and diplomatic wrangling sessions and a story that gets everyone involved, thats how you do it. You have the major factions launching those stories with each other because they're the ones who are capable of doing it. But at the moment, the board seems to be frozen or stratified, which is why you don't have those grand overarching narratives

As a consequence, everyone not involved in those factions are kind of left to their own devices. The Farworlds Alliance, the United Protecterate of Sovereign Systems, my faction the Mahporeem Imperial Remnant, the Bastion Imperial Remnant, the Wild Space Rebellion, none of us have any board presence. None of us are capable of challenging the status quo, and I don't say this to be rude, but why should we? How many times can I offer to be opposition for a major faction knowing I'm going to lose the thread? Sure, I can ignore the results of an invasion or dominion or whatever, but do I really want to keep doing that? Granted, RP is about the content of what you write and enjoying the story that you create, but it would be nice to "win" once in a while, you know? Not only do I not have the resources to do that, I don't even have the option to really try. That's why all us minor faction kind of stick to our corners of the map and do our little development and faction threads in hopes of one day making it to major. At least that's how Mahporeem is doing it, I shouldn't really speak for the others, though I haven't really seen them engaging in large scale threads with the majors. Again, want to point out that this isn't a criticism or "salt fest" on my part, its just a reality.

When I joined a year ago, we had the Galactic Alliance, the Imperial Confederation and the Diarchy, and all the factions seemed much more willing to throw down and fight one another. The two Brosi campaigns I took part in remain, in my not so humble opinion, some of my best and most enjoyable RP I've done to date, as hectic and time consuming as it was to write.

So whether or not you pay attention to the map, its existence and the existence of those on it are a major catalyst for those grand large scale threads you seem to want to participate in, or at least ones that shake up the narrative of chaos and get everyone involved with them. You're free to disagree naturally, or tell me I have no idea what I'm talking about, but that's just the way I see it.

I do want to point out though I don't mean to imply this is the only reason things are going a bit slower than usual. It's a part of it, yes. but it's also Summer and we just had the World Cup and a bunch of sporting events. I'm confident things will pick back up soon. But regardless, I do think things may continue to be not perhaps as engaging or exciting to some due to this.

Anyway, that's my rant for the day. I'm not trying to call anyone out or grandstand or anything like that. I really love this community, the characters I've created, the friends I've made and the stories I've told along the way, and I'm committed to the continued success of this community for the foreseeable future to come. Basically, I want to help and support Chaos as much as I can, even if my position gets me some flak. Hope you all agree, and if you don't, thanks for taking the time to hear me out. I'll still be writing stories regardless, and anyone who wants to write me, is more than welcome to!

 

[Kurayami Bloodborn]

A lot of the gate keeping and such I see referred to is in the heads of those calling it out. Whether from lowered engagement rates on the site (I could include myself here, not nearly as many posts as when I first joined almost 11 years ago now), or whatever other reason, I have never had an issue with gatekeeping in the community. Even when I first was referred here by a friend and recognized only that person and two other names. I talked to people, got involved with factions, planned storylines, and through it all never once ran into someone 'gatekeeping' my writing. So communicate, make concessions and don't be afraid to ask for the other side to as well if you absolutely have to have a specific detail or event present in the plot.

As far as interfactional politics and the wars, yea invasions and all slowed down, that is to be expected during summer when people are on the move and outside and especially during the last month or so of prep before those with kids, or those in school, are back to the grind of it. It has nothing to do with 'cliques 'in some elitist sense with many factions. When you find a group of writers you work well with as part of a major then you want to bring them in on your next project too. Besides, they are most likely people you would consider friends or at least close acquaintances after sharing a discord server with them. So yea, same as you'd invite friends to your next party you invite the writers you mesh with to your next faction, major or minor. That's not bad, and I see how on the outside it can seem cliqueish, but consider, most all factions are open to join. Not all factions, but most of the big ones. So go join the ones(yes you can be part of more than one) you want and write. Faction staff should be more than willing to help you craft a story for your character.

Yea you will hear us old heads talking about a battle that happened years ago. We like to reminesce. We also use these as talking points to frame why you don't see the major map shakeups you used to. Because many of those were salty as hell. Fuelled by thinly veiled OOC conflicts that were given a varnish of IC to pretty them up for the board. In addition the mandate changes have made such moves less rewarding. The way invasions were judged was changed entirely because of those types of invasions, where people would create characters only to kill them in a duel for drama to 'add to the tensions of their side's story.' It worked, huge swthes of territory were flipped and entire factions wiped off the map by literally disposable characters. That isn't to say there weren't epic duels, there were, and some were truly great reads. Sad part is those were the exception during that time, because nearly every duel had to be life or death, nearly every fleet battle engagment was duking it out with no retreat, etc. It was exhausting just to read at times.

Again, just the experiences of one person out of many. Peace.

 

[Colette]

Arguably a big part of why the site is so stale story-wise is because the ones who are trusted by the non-existent-but-actually-kinda-existent cliques to drive a story lost their drive to pull a big narrative like ten years ago.

Doesn't even have to be factions that are guilty of this. Where did staff-run events go?

 

[Makai Dashiell]

Doesn't even have to be factions that are guilty of this. Where did staff-run events go?

Maybe I'll start a separate suggestion for this? Ask staff for a space to allow for some brainstorming from the community then let them be the guide rails during said event?

 

[Aselia Verd]

You think things are stale and want to do something about it? Ok fair.

Go Major and declare an invasion.

In the immortal words of Tefka, be the change you want to see.

 

[Joy]

Go Major and declare an invasion.

A group of writers went Major with a faction last Summer and the faction died within three months. Take from that what you will.

 

[Makai Dashiell]

Go Major and declare an invasion.

Not really an activity driver since it normally only applies to two factions with a narrow focus.

 

[Quinn Varanin]

A group of writers went Major with a faction last Summer and the faction died within three months. Take from that what you will.

But that’s the map game, factions longevity is dependent on the writers. It’s how it works. Factions aren’t meant to live forever, people get new ideas and branch out.

I will say I’m lost on the point that you were trying to make. We’ve had factions popup and die within months while others have lasted and kicked a bit longer.

It’s just the ebb and flow of the major faction.

 

[Aselia Verd]

Not really an activity driver since it normally only applies to two factions with a narrow focus.

But it is, whether we want to admit it or not. Invasions do create activity.

Aside from that, the responsibility of Majors is to their writer base and what they want, not the map, and not to other factions or even the board at large. Writing fun stories is why we are all here.

If you are not having fun, it might be time to try something new.

A group of writers went Major with a faction last Summer and the faction died within three months. Take from that what you will.

And Kudos for trying, but not everyone succeeds.

 

[Joy]

I will say I'm lost on the point that you were trying to make.

The Galactic Empire applied to be a Major faction in order to finish the Dark Empire storyline, dubbed ' The Great Core Wars ', that they originally started (with the Galactic Alliance) in 2024. When their Major application was accepted the GA writer base capitulated and the faction died because of OOC drama. As a result the GE died themselves three months later.

Not really an activity driver since it normally only applies to two factions with a narrow focus.

See this point as for why someone going Major, right now, would stop the staleness of the website as well.