is it just me or...

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is it just me or...

Postby Ryudo » Fri Mar 03, 2006 2:40 pm

Does MRC feel a bit run down and lonely?
The person who says it's imposible should stay out of the way of the person who is doing it.

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Postby Nomad Soul » Fri Mar 03, 2006 3:08 pm

I dunno..
Maybe you've lost a bit of enthusiasm for it?

My game I'm in feels the same as it always did.

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Postby Sabre » Fri Mar 03, 2006 4:54 pm

My games are filled to capacity, fully active and both games have overflow waiting lists for players willing to get a chance to play.

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Postby roy_vf1s » Fri Mar 03, 2006 7:17 pm

Sabre wrote:My games are filled to capacity, fully active and both games have overflow waiting lists for players willing to get a chance to play.


Yeah, and all 5-6 of us in the Tophatters were vying for the one position the GM thought he'd have to bribe someone to take. :-P

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Postby Blue Phoenix » Fri Mar 03, 2006 7:34 pm

I love the MRC.....I love it!

I don't feel lonely, but maybe it is because I go to another site as well. I've just been to lazy to post about it. If you want a free roleplaying chat room to go to, just Private me for the link.

Wouldn't mind having a macross centered rp to play live every now and again. Might make it feel a little less lonely if you can say various things like

"Oh, skip me I have to use the loo."
"Brb, pizza's here."
"darn! gtg, mom wants to use the phone." Why they don't get dsl I will never know...

P.S: And Sabre's games are filled to the max because he is an rp god. Period.

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Postby Crazed Tafa » Sun Mar 05, 2006 10:33 am

[The RPer formerly known as Tafa...due to losing his password :oops:

But I get what Ryudo is saying. I just came back and noticed that it now feels slightly empty. Not 'supermarket empty' mind you but more a 'ghost town' emptiness with a tinge of 'empty-cookie-pot-sitting-in-the-corner-oppresively' kinda empty in places. There also seem to be a couple less games for people to enter.

But what do I know, I've been gone for over 2 years. So who knows whats been going on.
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Torture is such a harsh word. We Inquisitors prefer to call it "active persuasion."
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Postby studiootaking » Sun Mar 05, 2006 11:13 pm

Could be related to the DNS/host problems....

http://www.macrossrpg.com/comms/viewtop ... highlight=

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Postby araruin » Mon Mar 06, 2006 10:41 am

I think part of it is the DNS host problems. I know it is taking away from my posting time. I get very little active free time now, and if I get turned away, I go take care of something else. Usually I won't have another chance to try until a day or two later.

However, we have been experiencing a marked decline in interaction on the website for the past few years. Some of this is due to stricter guidelines for posting comments on these boards. Some is due to some people taking the enforcement of those guidelines too far. I think the majority of it is due to the dying play style in general.

I've been an avid gamer for years, and I used to play-by-mail. I'm not sure if anyone else here has experienced that style of play, but it was all but wiped out by the increasing ease of accessing the internet. Even with the internet, there still wasn't much group gaming you could do unless you wanted to join a big free for all Doom game. Now with EverQuest, GuildWars, D&D Online, etc. there is a whole new market that makes play by post seem idiotic and boring by comparison. Rannilas has pointed out on several occasions how stupid his wife thinks he is for playing a game that has only progressed about a day per year he has been playing. In alot of these online games, you can have a pretty decent character inside of a month if you play enough. The biggest bonus though is that you don't need to wait around for weeks just to find out what happens when you engage in combat.

I'd venture a guess that if anyone made a decent multiplayer Macross game, our site would be completely dead.

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Postby Nomad Soul » Mon Mar 06, 2006 10:55 am

Well...I don't think that would sway me.
You can create nearly any kind of situation you want in a game like this. You are more limited in a video game.

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Postby inix88 » Mon Mar 06, 2006 10:56 am

But in the meantime, it's still fun. I'm not going to give up on it until it is, in fact, dead and buried, and even then, I'll never forget it.

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Postby studiootaking » Mon Mar 06, 2006 11:11 am

It is true that there are other, more 'quicker' forms of entertainment out there. However, that has always been true ('cowboys & Indians' anyone?)

This format of play is essentially a niche, which will never grow to the sizes enjoyed by mainstream games like Doom, etc.. However, as a niche, it will never truely disappear, as a lot of us users don't have the time to invest in the more fast paced entertainment out there, IMHO. In addition, it is nice to have a week (sometimes 2!) to think about a characters actions.)

In the end though, Nomad Soul is right: we are limited by only our imaginations here. True the passage of time in some games is slow, but do we really play this game to mark the passage of time? It's like that Star Trek Next Generation movie (Insurrection) A moment could be a lifetime... it's all a matter of perception...

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Postby Kai » Mon Mar 06, 2006 12:32 pm

To be honest, when I got persueded to come back here, I found the hoops to jump through in making a character more than a little off-putting. I realize that everyone was just trying to make things easier in the long run, but when there 3 pages of documentation and sublinks off those pages, and 4 stickied topics....well, it makes one feel like maybe there's just too much work involved in playing. Can't exactly go back to the really old system of 'copy this and fill out the non numbers part' but seeing how rarely we use stats around here, maybe we should try just asking for a character description, the likes, dislikes, the background, etc., and work in the rules and the stats as people hit the 'Hill.

There is definitly a factor of medium decay with MMOs out there, hell I play two of them, but more of subject decay, Mac+ was the big wave of enthusiasts, and Mac 7 for some of the more anime-savvy, but Zero wasn't something new to excite people again, more a background piece. RPers are a small subset of Macross fans, and Macross fan numbers have shrank a lot since I first started this, there is going to be an ever decreasing number of new fans/players.

And like araruin said, there's just a lack of drive. At the peak of it all I was running 9 characters and 2 campaigns concurrantly, but other interests pulled me away, and campaigns closed and eventually I did none of it for a while. I still have fun with my two current characters, but the drive I had for even my 5th or 6th character let alone my first just isn't there anymore. I find myself judging the people I play with now up against people like Thorn and 12guage and OZ and there just isn't that same level of 'wow' anymore.

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Postby Blue Phoenix » Mon Mar 06, 2006 1:21 pm

inix88 wrote:But in the meantime, it's still fun. I'm not going to give up on it until it is, in fact, dead and buried, and even then, I'll never forget it.


I won't stop there. I'll make my own site on proboards if I need to.

I love the game, I know I just started to play but still.

I waited 9 months for my character to be made and find a game.
The time for a human birth.
I find this as a fitting time for such a thing to happen, although it meant that every single day I waited for a game, waited for a post from a fellow player.

I think I will truly enjoy this board forever, only because indeed I love writing and playing. I write poetry, not as much as I used to, and I have a short story that I try to work upon from time to time. Page 14 already hurrah.

I love this place, and even made sure to pm anyone I saw on at the same time. Further along the line I stopped doing that, but only because I get drowned by IM conversations from other roleplaying friends from other places. I enjoy the MRC, and do not care about it falling from time to time, though I would love it to stop doing so.

Basically, I hope no one leaves anytime soon. I have shown this site to a few friends, and a few have joined. Although, one of them pretty much needs help. Will kick him in the bum for you guys. Have fun, time for me to post on a live chat rpg.

Have fun.

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Postby Mr.F » Tue Mar 07, 2006 2:10 pm

Well... declining as the macross fanbase might be I for one didn't join this place primarily because the nifty macross logo. In fact I hadn't seen any macross as I begun here. I had seen a few episodes of Robotech but not nearly anything complete.

What drove me here was the method of gaming and the quality of said gaming. Play-by-post is not the fastest way to play. It may also feel limmiting when one wants to delve into one on one conversations. This is slow pace is as much an advantage as it is a disadvantage though.

I live in Sweden. A few members live in Japan. A whole bunch of people live on the American continent. All those different time zones would make it utterly impossible for many to participate in a more direct form of playing. It's only on weekends when I can sit up until way early that I get a chance to talk to certain (IMHO locationally challenged ^_^) people directly via MSN or simmiliar networks.

Then there is this whole silly thing with work/school and icky icky real life issues that keep taking time. With a faster pace I wouldn't be able to play at times =*(. Ialso feel that play-by-post allows for more intricate writing. Fast-paced games (chatrooms) seldom allow for that kind writing. You would be helplessly outpaced ^_^;;

/Mr.F - It's not the macross. Its the people. ^_^

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Postby roy_vf1s » Tue Mar 07, 2006 2:29 pm

Mr.F wrote: It's only on weekends when I can sit up until way early that I get a chance to talk to certain (IMHO locationally challenged ^_^) people directly via MSN or simmiliar networks.


Heh. See, it's the opposite of that with me - most of the people I love talking to on the board are in Japan and Europe (not to say my fellows who live in North and South America aren't fun to talk to).

The play by post is exactly what I've been looking for; my tabletop game usually consists of "I fire four MRM's at Regault 3;" Whereas here, it's "Johnny flipped his fire control button over to wing-mounted missiles, and, taking time to line up his reticle, unleashed a quartet of missiles, sending them roaring into space after the targeted Zentraedi mecha."

Some people aren't into it, I guess?

Plus, aren't we (for the most part) adults with jobs, families, etc.? I know my girlfriend and her Dad get precidence over making a post that could wait a day - even if I'm a GM. :-P

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Postby Ryudo » Wed Mar 08, 2006 6:57 pm

the DNS issues i guess have been an issue for me, but since i'm around the general discussion board most of the time and its slowed down thats probably it for me
The person who says it's imposible should stay out of the way of the person who is doing it.

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Postby Jouby » Wed Mar 08, 2006 9:37 pm

Is the activity on the general discussion board a good indicator of the vitality of the site?

I hardly participate because I mostly have nothing intelligent to contribute. But I'm still having fun, three years strong now. So I don't think it's at the verge of extinction.

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Postby shiruikage » Thu Mar 09, 2006 7:55 am

i just started, and i'm still waiting for my character to be approved. but from the pace of new post being made here, it is pretty much very....sedate. i donno much about this play mode, in fact, i do not know much about any play mode except for RTS, but i hope the macross fan base will not shrink and people will find this game enjoyable.

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Postby Blue Phoenix » Thu Mar 09, 2006 10:31 am

In the game I'm in, I can find a new post each day basically. I love it. ^_^ So fun! Just survive the entrance process and enjoy the free base rping in the Graduates transfer quarters.

I began to play the beginhill game with the fellow cadet of mine in Instant messenger. It was fun until RL came in the way of his playing anymore.

P.S. I think it would be lovely to have another Free Role Play board. If we don't have one anymore. Might be able to get more people together to just play while they wait for the real game's to post. I love free based role play.

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Postby araruin » Thu Mar 09, 2006 3:50 pm

General Discussion is one of several things I use to measure the vitality of the site. The site has always been in a constant state of flux. The fact that I am one of the oldest members active on the site is an example of this. Before the MRC moved to it's current boards, noone even knew who I was. Many of the staff and players who were around when I started are gone now, but this sort of trunover is common for the site.

However, General Discussion topics are almost non-existant. We can sometimes go for more than a week without a single post. I remember a few years ago that there was so much discussion I couldn't keep up with all of it.

Another indicator is Joining Board/Beginhill. The last two years, we have seen fewer new members than in most months prior. We had such a member influx at some points, that we were required to start several new training squads at once. For the bulk of my tenure on Beginhill, we had between twenty to forty cadets training at once. We haven't had that many new members in the last three years.

Another indicator was the number of full squadrons we had. Most squads tried to have 12 members, and we still needed to create new games for new members to have a place to play. Now, many squads have dropped to six man games, and there is no problem finding a place for new members to play.

When I said that this style of gaming was on the brink of extinction, I didn't mean that it would cease completely, just that it would never become popular enough to grow to more than a few hundred members at most. There are several species that still exist, but are labeled as extinct because they will never be able to repopulate.

That said, what do you, the members of our site, believe that we could do to make things more exciting?

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Postby Mr.F » Thu Mar 09, 2006 4:44 pm

You could all band together and do my final year paper? ^_^
That would make me more active on the general discussion board anyway. ^_^

/Mr.F - Selfish :oops:

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Postby Blue Phoenix » Thu Mar 09, 2006 5:26 pm

Okay, I can help with that.

Mr. F moves through his bedroom with a quiet air and glass of coke in his hand. Taking a sip of the cherry flavored liquid, he smiles at his desk. Seems like another day he's going to be wasting with a pen and pad. Sticking that pencil in his mouth, his mind races over all the topics he could write upon. Why we need more anime in college classes? Why did Minmei not die after the first episode? Oh, and if you drop a cat from a twenty floor building, will it still land on its feet? Suddenly in the middle of his thought process, a cat falls from the roof of his multi story apartment, only to turn into a ninja and fly into his window....


Yeah, maybe we could help you there Mr. F, but I feel the ninja might want some tea first.

I'm enjoying this topic actually. Instead of having a general discussion about anime, we are having a general discussion about the MRC, and it has helped get us together. So, thanks to Ryudo for starting this thread up.

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Postby Jouby » Thu Mar 09, 2006 5:33 pm

Ok, that's not an easy question to answer. I seem to remember that there was a maximum of new members per month that was instaured, a few months backs. That could explain the drop in new members.

But then we have to ask ourselves another question, are the GM that are in place, and any up coming GM, willing to create more games to accomodate all the influx of new players? I think alot are overtaxed as it is.

Maybe the answer is limiting the amount of games a player can play in? But I think that was also tried before. Another problem I see about opening the valvles on the new member piplines is the influx of "idiots", for lack of a nicer term. By wanting to have more members and increase activity, we may be confronted with UN-wanted discussions. Also, the poor staff in charge of the JB could be overtaxed as well and the result would be a bunch of so-so characters.

The whole concept of this site is that it is free, and people can play and have fun, from both the Gm and player perspective. I am just afraid that if the membership increases by another few hundred people, then the whole thing might become unmanagable and would be in a very precarious position. We don't really want to "make babies" and have a great deal of sites that compete for a limited amount of players now do we?

And like you said, the site is always in a state of flux. So I think it's just normal to have some down time once in a while. If you want activity on the general discussion board just for the sake of having activity, you just have to tell me, I'll write something up, I just won't guarantee the intellectual level or time spent thinking things through.

In a way this IS a community, it's up to us to make it fun. The senior staff have their hands full already with management and GMing, it's up to us normal players to give this thing life.

So I'm sorry about the long winded post. I'm just thinking out loud here, I'll be interested in hearing what others have to say on this.

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Postby Kai » Thu Mar 09, 2006 11:06 pm

Hey, some of us are old enough to remember when we were on a threaded message board system and our Beginhill team crashed out threads by hitting the maximum chain length on a regular basis ;) There is always flux. but I do think we are sort of 'past our prime' both in medium and subject matter, bt that's no reason to stop playing.

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Postby roy_vf1s » Fri Mar 10, 2006 4:30 pm

Kai wrote:I do think we are sort of 'past our prime' both in medium and subject matter, bt that's no reason to stop playing.


Well, I guess that's all personal opinion - after all, Kai and others have been around long enough to watch most of it.

I can remember looking into the MRC once or twice before some of its splits, and thinking "If only I had more time..." and now I log in a couple times a day just to see what's new, even in games I've no interest in playing - I love just sitting back and reading some games.

Maybe it's for that reason that the MRC has yet to get 'old' with me?

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