This is a very good discussion and I have a lot I want to say about everything you said, AJ and Vulnus.
First of all, if we are going to be supporting each other, we have about fifty people. I say this gets thrown up in the announcements section and we start a discussion with everyone because I don't think any of us here are necessarily a family. We are close knit and we are party that left C:DDA together, mostly, and I feel like this is a discussion for all boards and not just this one so we can grow closer. Generally, we need to talk about an entire revamp in my honest opinion, but for now I'm going to keep it strictly Creative Endeavors and Rec Room related. I'm listing the problems and then we can talk about solutions.
As for the Rec Room,
About an average 20 people log on a day. I'm going to make that rough estimate and anyone of you can clock me on it if you care so much. We have about... eight people dedicated to RP which is funny considering a large movement of us came from the Rec Room with other people tagging along. (Not shaming that or anything, just saying that's a huge ratio.) And maybe only three of those eight even come on in a day, and if they do come on, they might not even post.
That's eight people who may or may not give a **** about the RPs that happen here, and three people who have the chance to. I do not think it's a matter about enough people giving a ****, it's just not enough people. I'm going to get real and say we do not have enough people to create a very strong RP community. Especially since most of us already know each other and are, frankly, kind of sick of each other in that aspect. I'm sure some of you are sick of me and I don't awfully care that much about what anyone thinks of me, it's the fact that our small group of eight people dedicated are getting tired of RPing with the same people because we all flatline in a certain way. We cannot keep up with just that. We're all flaky, we're all busy, and it's just not enough people. That's just it. It's not enough people and that why **** won't be taking off like it has in the past. Plain and simple unless anyone has a rebuttal for that, then go on ahead.
Now, for us GM's, me being one, I find that it doesn't really matter how well put together the RP is. You can make it open as ****, closed as ****, or anything and sure you can get the ball rolling with characters and then they can create five pages of straight dialogue, but at the end of the day there's got to be a GM who's going to care just as much as a player. It's an even effort and both have to pull weight. If the GM doesn't get posts from players who care, a GM can't make caring posts. GMs and Players thrive and bounce off one another and we don't have enough of any of those. Like what, four or five of the eight dedicated are GMs themselves. The numbers just don't work and that's the issue. I'd dare say it's not always about dedication from the GM either. You can have a dedicated GM but people who don't want to post/too busy/aren't interested anymore. I've been flaky, I've been busy, and I've dropped things. But if I'm going to use an example, I came back to Sunken Harbors and tried to continue that. It got close. But people left. People got busy. That's the nature of that situation. We are all fickle people.
There's a lot more variables and **** to talk about when it comes to Rec Room, but at the end of the day here's the major issue and if we could solve it, everything would works itself out I guarantee.
We need more people. We don't need the few that we have to care more. Just more people.
Going to turn into an asshole here for a moment:Yeah but the main problem with new people is that, if I'm going to be honest here for a moment, we aren't the most friendly to new people. We say we are, but we aren't. I remember when Wilson first joined, everyone loved and hated him at the same time for being different. Myself included. But overtime he slowly grew on everyone, and everyone started excepting him into the clique.
Same with Tesla, all I got for the first few days he was here was constant PMs bitching about things that he does. I'd say we are a family, because we constantly talk behind each others backs about other people, we get into arguments and then make up in a couple of days, and then when new people show up, its like new people getting married into a mob (IE: "Eyyy Vito, we goin' to cap some Mafioso's. Ehh.") family. The new people gotta conform, kiss the pinky ring, respect the godfathers, and then they can finally be accepted into the nerd-circle.
I think its mainly due to how open we are about ourselves on this board, like holy shit we're literally a semi-anonymous support group for people. Better or for worse, we use this place as a personal diary for all of our problems. So when new people start showing up, we wish we could hide the boards so no one knows how broken, messed up, etc.. we are. While most everyone else is just okay with it.
But then again I might just be spewing what I personally feel instead of the forum as a whole.
I normally delete stuff like this after I write it, but I need to quit doing that, sometimes some hard truths need to be said; no matter how big of a shitstorm it starts.As for the Creative Section,
To sum this up very quickly before I briefly elaborate:
"Actions speak louder than words."
Don't promise anything. I haven't promised to read anyone's anything and I haven't gone out of my way to read anyone's anything. I fully expect that what I put out I will get back. I haven't gotten feedback on anything that I've posted besides AJ's feedback. I expect that. I've reached out, I've offered, and I haven't gotten anything in return. It's a mutual care thing and I agree, in order for people to care about you, you have to care about them. I don't believe in excuses like "I'm too busy..." or "It's just really crazy right now..." Because I guarantee those are the same people watching AJ's stream or just sitting around hitting refresh until an update on an RP comes out or something new happens. Everything that I have glanced at is relatively short and anyone can read it in a short time with the excuse of PULP which is 70 pages long. I suppose it's a matter of just doing it, and I can't really say much because I could be doing that too. These examples are coming from what I personally do, and I'm sure i'm not the only one so I hope no one feels personally attacked by what I'm saying here.
That's all I have to say for now.
You can't make anyone care about it and you can't make anyone do it. It just takes one person's initiative to get the ball rolling. I believe I will take AJ's and make like a stone and roll.
Now this is basically true, although I think you overestimate how many people actually watch the stream, its mainly some guy that doesn't even go on the forum, and the rest are people that stay in general chat and shoot the shit.
But yeah don't promise jackshit unless you're going to deliver on it, I mean I haven't even gotten that far in Roadside Picnic and I was hyped to read that book. We live in a society where everything is just a fingertip away, and life outside that is crazy enough to emotionally drain everyone. So when you get home, you don't want to read and process information, you want to put on "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives" and just let your brain melt, while the fat man with the frosted tips eats greasy food and irritates the owners of the restaurant.
We're all guilty of this, so might as'well just say it.