Ares Users: Daily Prompts?
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One issue I've seen on some Ares games (SGM, Notion, and others) is that it's hard to 'sync up' with actively online and portal users to get scenes going and you can have a day or even days where no scenes happen because of a lot of 'Anyone RPable?' 'Sure' 'Oh sorry I asked that an hour ago...' type hit-or-miss chatter.
Sometimes just launching a portal scene and waiting works, but that's a really new concept and a lot of people are afraid to take that leap of faith (understandably!) or they don't have the free time to sit around all day and wait to see if someone 'bites' on their scene set.
So here's what I was debating a trial run (because a huge part of SGM is @Paradox and me trying out new ideas... some work, some don't!) of and I'd like to get feedback from other Ares users:
a few days a week, I could start up a portal scene with a scene set. A 'prompt' as it were. Give people something to hook into as they want. Maybe it's just a 'casual day at the.....' or maybe even something exciting! It'd always be crafted to be something easy to drop into and the idea would be that no one is stuck waiting for someone else to show up. That way no one person is starting the scene and twiddling their thumbs waiting for others.
Yes, obviously, someone posing in is gonna have to wait, but the 'starter' is a Staffer (me!) putting in a scene set. It takes away that initial pressure.
If you, as a player, saw a 'daily prompt' like this upon logging in (an open scene, with a ready-to-go idea), would you be more willing to jump in and RP? Would it take off the pressure of hunting RP day-to-day? Or would you shy away from and avoid it?
Saying the quiet parts out loud since 1996.
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People start open scenes all day long on GH as "slow/portal RP." They usually gain at least some traction. YMMV.
If this is something you're thinking of trying, maybe just... try it? And see if it works?
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@krmbm said in Ares Users: Daily Prompts?:
People start open scenes all day long on GH as "slow/portal RP." They usually gain at least some traction. YMMV.
If this is something you're thinking of trying, maybe just... try it? And see if it works?
I've had a couple players (we're a much smaller playerbase than GH, mind!) do this with success, but I think it takes a certain kind of person to be willing to 'put themselves out there.' I've done it myself and I think my scene sat open until someone dropped in for about 3 hours.
And that's where the issue lays. You have to be willing to wait until others show up and a lot of people aren't willing. It also takes a big shift in thinking from the traditional style of MU to get to that point. It's kind of like the old 'grid sit until someone shows up,' but isn't.
I can't always be the one to go and 'sit' in an open scene. Largely because of work. BUT, I could probably, as I'm catching up on email in the morning, toss down a scene idea for others to pick up on.
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@Auspice said in Ares Users: Daily Prompts?:
even days where no scenes happen because of a lot of 'Anyone RPable?' 'Sure' 'Oh sorry I asked that an hour ago...' type hit-or-miss chatter.
What you're describing sounds a lot like the old grid-camping thing, which never really worked out that great in my personal experience. Too often you'd come on down only to find that the person's wandered AFK two hours ago, which isn't really any better than responding to an hours-old "Anybody want to RP?" on channel.
I'm not really following why syncing up via channel is a challenge though. Everyone's on the same channels, no matter whether they're on the portal or in a MU client. It sounds like the core issue is with people being available at the same time so that a response of "Anybody want to RP?" is met with "Yeah! How about X..." If that's the case, I don't quite see how having a specific RP hook will help.
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I'm still admittedly not fully comfortable with the web portal. I don't know if people keep the channels up all the time when they are on the website? But I think that what @Auspice is experiencing is just kinda standard mush stuff.
I can't see how opening a scene with a hook would HURT. @krmbm and I threw out an idea a long time ago about going some kinda random scene set generator in some of the more public rooms to help people who do the whole "wanna rp? What's your idea?" Sort of thing. Never got around to it because we are swamped with 500 other things but that might be a good idea too?
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@bear_necessities said in Ares Users: Daily Prompts?:
@krmbm and I threw out an idea a long time ago about going some kinda random scene set generator in some of the more public rooms to help people who do the whole "wanna rp? What's your idea?" Sort of thing.
I would love to hear your ideas on this! What sort of generator were you thinking? Code tool, something like a classic +view, etc?
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@bear_necessities said in Ares Users: Daily Prompts?:
some kinda random scene set generator in some of the more public rooms to help people who do the whole "wanna rp? What's your idea?"
I don't recall if it was on Calaveras or 5k, but I pondered the random rp card (like a dance card, that gives random partners (active when the card is generated at least) and a random idea; like 'become a thief for the day with NAME'. Folks could run with that, steal something on purpose, accidentally walk off with something, steal some pies, steal kisses, whatever. There used to be old plot generators floating around that I wanted to borrow from but no one has links to the code or offered to share (the ones I've mostly seen a player could +plotidea and get Mr VILLIAN kidnaps VICTIMS from the LOCATION, it is a ruse in his plot against Ms VILLIAN ... and people could use it or borrow from it as fitting).
Maybe a dance/card plot generator would be good for Ares as a plugin. I may look into this, I've time these days.
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