@Pyrephox said in Fallen World MUX!:
Even something like, "Right now, it's pretty open for a lot of concepts and characters. This game is oriented towards investigating Mysteries in an urban setting, so it's going to be easiest to get involved with characters who are high on the Mental skills, and now that I think about it, we could really use a dedicated technowizard or three for stuff that's in the works." That's a response that tells me that staff is open to diverse concepts, knows what their game is about and what sort of play they're angling for, AND has plots and events in the works that are fun to get involved with.
I foresee one immediate problem with this. Staff often won't know all the plots that are being run on any given game. Largely because all the plot-running responsibilities have been doled out to PLAYERS. The days of Staff ST's who know what's going on in a given sphere are swiftly coming to an end (at least in WoD, can't speak for other genre's). Now its largely just a disjointed mish-mash of one-shot-plots, Monster of the Week scenes, and private 2-3 scene arcs. So asking 'what's needed' will vary based on who you talk to. You can't say what's needed when there's no cohesive story arc to begin with.
Your entire desire for an answer to this question is dependent on there a) being an actual metaplot, and b) staff that are involved in said plot outside of their own characters' involvement.
Your argument also falls apart in that regardless of how many different players are behind the characters, more characters on a game mean less roles to be filled. So while the game with 5 players and 20 characters may not be welcoming to new people, the one with 20 players and 20 characters may not necessarily be anymore welcoming than the former. And, in fact, people will likely actually fight harder to keep their 'special spot' because its the only one they can have. Whereas with the game with fewer players, some may hop onto Alt #3 just to keep their position, but another may just as soon shrug and not care overmuch because they're having more fun with Alt #4 anyways.
I like my alts, I like the ability to try out new and different things without having to give up something else I'm having fun with. Does that mean I immediately make a mad rush for the most influential position I can snatch up on every character? Absolutely not. It just means that maybe I'm a little burned out on Social Butterfly for a bit but don't want to stop her story completely while still wanting to explore this new Antisocial Meganerd concept that's been rolling around in my head. If it works out, sweet, now I don't feel boxed into playing one 'type' all the time. If not, I'll drop the concept I'm not enjoying and stick with the one I do until another idea forms.
What it looks like you're really upset about are people who cling to 'roles' or 'positions' without actually being active in them, which is its own problem, and separate from (though sometimes connected with) how many alts a game allows. The two sometimes go hand-in-hand, but are by no means mutually exclusive.
for the SimpleMU spawns!
Please and thank you.