San Francisco: Paris of the West
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People are complaining about how long it takes to get approved, but I have never been in a game where someone has not only READ my background, but sat with me and worked the kinks of it all to make me fit their setting, WHILE adding to the things I had in mind at first.
Please do keep up doing what you guys are doing. I rather wait for a week than the alternative.
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@sunnyj There's definitely two sides of it. I totally agree with you that someone reading the background and working with you individually is better. I know this is true on every level.
But that's hard to reconcile with the reality of the experience of reading up on the game and the setting and doing the research, making the character... then stalling out, doing nothing for however long, each day feeling more and more like they'll never get to you and you just don't know when the wait will be over (or when to check in so they can talk to you about your background and character, etc.). You start to lose interest in the character and the game and all the giddy excitement of starting a new character or game starts to fade away...
Patience is super important for this process, for sure. And it seems like they are doing the best they can with what they have. I don't think anyone is doubting that. So hopefully all the good reports from people that have made it through can bridge that gap to help sustain those that are wasting away in the chargen no-man's land.
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Out of curiosity, what is the approval wait time averaging?
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The game is still in Alpha and there's been ALL people apping in AT ONCE. And the mage staffer is also the main coder who is coding everything that isn't still done, because you know. Alpha.
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They made the very wise decision to allow people to soft RP while they're waiting, which let me tell you, allievates a great deal of the anticipation/anxiety that comes along with waiting longer than expected for an approval. I don't know if they planned it, or if it just sort of evolved that way, but it's pretty awesome.
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I like the hands on feel of the staff (Also dunno how vamp is, not made one so couldn't say), getting comments and conversation about making sure players and staff are on the same page about their characters is very cool.
Even if it does take a while to get approved.
Considering that many parts of chargen aren't even finished yet, and it is in very rough Alpha... I'd say give 72 hours as per the +request thing, and then mail or poke staff if you see them on and active and on duty.
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The game being in Alpha makes things a little different for me, actually. Maybe I missed that before. With that consideration you gotta give a lot more slack. People are lucky that they even have a chance to app. And with the work being put in, I agree that they sound like their going over and above already.
Although it also sounds like a recipe for quick staff burnout if people are pushing them to do even more than they are already doing... So be warned.
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Fair responses. I tend to be the type of player who likes to set pragmatic turn around expectations for staff responses, so if the answer to stuff getting done +req-wise is slowly then I assume that it'll be a while.
With how quickly this game does seem to be rushed into being, I do think they've done a good job of level setting. I think we have a general expectation that large population games move quickly at first because staff and players are new and its the honeymoon phase for the game. If they're doing something differently and trying to get people accustomed to something more mid-run pace, that's probably a good thing.
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@gangofdolls said in San Francisco: Paris of the West:
Out of curiosity, what is the approval wait time averaging?
This is probably going to vary a lot depending on which Template you're doing. My application was approved in less than a day, but I made a Sin-Eater, which doesn't have 20+ apps waiting to be approved, like Mage does.
Xapham spent quite a bit of time trying to work me through Keystone creation, so I can see how trying to give each app individual attention would result in longer waiting times for those spheres that generated a ton of interest.
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@peasoupling It also depends on luck to some extent. My mage I waited 3 days for, but then caught Gabriel luckily and got approved fairly quickly with a few fuck ups on my part being fixed.
My Changeling was approved super fast, but also was lucky that Hadraniel happened to be doing apps right that second and other than an XP bug that made me have to go through chargen twice, was relatively painless.
I think some of the pain might also come from the types of backgrounds written too, some of them are just easier to pull the info from than others.
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On approval? Mage isn't terribly fast -- it likely will take four to six days, it seems, though Gabriel seems to be ramping up lately.
That said, the reason for this isn't that he's slow to approve things, but that he sits down with you individually, really reads your background, and talks to you to really get to know your character and understand the important details. In a lot of ways this made me think and know my character better then had I just hit the grid fast. Its... quite refreshing, personally, and makes me think this isn't the typical sandbox game which just approves you then largely ignores you.
That said (again), I will freely admit, I'm not thrilled the metaplot is pitting the werewolves against the mages.
But besides that? The people are friendly, staff is approachable (I have experience only with Changeling and Mage) and helpful and supportive.
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@ixokai (Editor's Note: This player agreed to this release of IC information.) Your character is a Mysterium mage in his early 40's. While his early accomplishments were nothing to be scoffed at, they were not overtly remarkable. The events of the San Francisco timeline were a huge shock, however. Now, rather than attempting to 'do his job' and slowly grind out the Mysterium ranks, he seeks to bridge the gap between people... to be the Nexus. He was a driving force in bringing together his current cabal, and while his own cabal might not consider him the leader, he is considered by most others to be the spokesman (something that just comes naturally from being the guy that talks the most. Mages are very big on 'consent of the governed'). He's still in contact with his mentor despite their current distance (damned Mastigos), and his penchant for communication and the strength of his will (Mind Master, baybee) made him a candidate for Herald, which he accepted.
This is what I remember without looking at the +sheet or +jnotes.
This is why I do what I do.
But it's also why I'm so far behind. The immediacy of code is slowing down (we can get all the peoples we need through chargen now!), so I'll be getting people onto the grid with a vengeance.More announcements coming soon!
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@bobotron Vampire currently has nine approved characters and is looking for more!
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We are now officially in BETA!! Our Grand Opening has been re-scheduled to 6/16!
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@darc said in San Francisco: Paris of the West:
@ixokai (Editor's Note: This player agreed to this release of IC information.) Your character is a Mysterium mage in his early 40's.
Close. Nexus is in his 30s. Mine is in his 40s. As they're cabal mates, the mix up is understandable.
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Said this elsewhere, but wanted to say it again here:
SF has already closed up Mage and Changeling both, and will not be accepting new apps for those spheres. I think that's fuckin' great. It's obvious that these staffers are very hands on, very attentive, and very enthusiastic about telling great stories. Where other multi-sphere MUs tend to only close spheres when there is no TL present, and otherwise allow as many players to participate as are eager to join, SF has said, 'No, we know that we are capable of catering to this many people, we have the resources and energy to run stories and facilitate play for this many, if we allow more in, we won't be able to manage that'. Where other multi-sphere MUs rely on a sandbox atmosphere, or player STs (incentivized by XP rewards that I have seen abused out of control, and even abused myself as an ST that was greedy for ecks pees) to preoccupy their players, SF has said, 'No, we know that if we as staffers don't take responsibility for facilitating an enjoyable game, we will end up with a dichotomy of generic bar RP, and cliques of players telling stories for one another to essentially 'farm' XP, either of which might be enjoyable but neither of which are what MUs are really about'.
I genuinely wish more MUs would be willing to put their foot down, at risk of seeming 'exclusive', and not allowing spheres to get much larger than 20 players each. At a glance it seems bad, but I think that mentality is really good for the health of a game. This is yet another indicator that these staffers have their heads in the right place.
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They have said they plan to re-open the spheres once they get a handle on things, if I recall.
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@admiral I took that to mean they would reopen upon hiring more staffers, meaning more resources to manage larger spheres.
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Probably best to wait to hear an answer or get direct clarification from someone on their staff and not guess either way on that one.
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+bbread 1/17 (Changeling Cap)
"My goal is a cap of ~25 until I can get an Admin/STs to relieve some of the stress of all this fantastic magic."
+bbread 1/18 (Mage Cap)
"What that means is that we are past what should be feasible to provide everyone the level of experience I'd like to, and until I can fill out the ranks of Staff, I can accept no more mage applications."
