Reading through all the responses. Thanks for the thoughts. It seems like the best solution is honestly just to ask for the game, or to just keep playing and start to "just do" what we want to do with the overall theme and metaplot. We would ask them for permission first for these things, or try to work with them on their preferences for these things... if they were around.

Because while some are reminding that a week is not a problem, people need to be patient, RL comes first, and so on... the problem is that we are not just talking about someone being offline for a week. We're talking about unannounced 3-4 week absences, where no character applications are processed(!), no stat upgrades are done, and no plot inquiries are answered, because only the missing staff are truly authorized to perform these duties.

Not even character apps are done. Would anyone want to wait three weeks for an app reply? This is doubly frustrating because the game is currently quite active and therefore still gets frequent interest and guests, who then find themselves trapped in approval limbo when they app. We lose new players to this.

I have been around this game on and off since its inception, and have a great deal of affection for it, which is why I am reluctant to name it (the current activity and RP are good despite these issues). But it has always gone through wanes and waxes, and it is frustrating to see it going into another ebb in spite of active players due to the absenteeism of critical staff. So I suppose part of this is just a vent as well.

I would like to be respectful of what these staff want for their game, but it gets difficult when you are essentially down to playing in a static corner because true changes need to run through staff who are not around. It may simply be time to work through it by taking de facto control over more of the metaplot... or to consider creating a new game and transplanting all our RP. Both of these options feel as if they might invite drama, but unless they will pass the game to more active staff they seem like the only options.

Reading through all the responses. Thanks for the thoughts. It seems like the best solution is honestly just to ask for the game, or to just keep playing and start to "just do" what we want to do with the overall theme and metaplot. We would ask them for permission first for these things, or try to work with them on their preferences for these things... if they were around.

Because while some are reminding that a week is not a problem, people need to be patient, RL comes first, and so on... the problem is that we are not just talking about someone being offline for a week. We're talking about unannounced 3-4 week absences, where no character applications are processed(!), no stat upgrades are done, and no plot inquiries are answered, because only the missing staff are truly authorized to perform these duties.

Not even character apps are done. Would anyone want to wait three weeks for an app reply? This is doubly frustrating because the game is currently quite active and therefore still gets frequent interest and guests, who then find themselves trapped in approval limbo when they app. We lose new players to this.

I have been around this game on and off since its inception, and have a great deal of affection for it, which is why I am reluctant to name it (the current activity and RP are good despite these issues). But it has always gone through wanes and waxes, and it is frustrating to see it going into another ebb in spite of active players due to the absenteeism of critical staff. So I suppose part of this is just a vent as well.

I would like to be respectful of what these staff want for their game, but it gets difficult when you are essentially down to playing in a static corner because true changes need to run through staff who are not around. It may simply be time to work through it by taking de facto control over more of the metaplot... or to consider creating a new game and transplanting all our RP. Both of these options feel as if they might invite drama, but unless they will pass the game to more active staff they seem like the only options.

I'm here to gather some opinions on how to proceed; out of respect, I'll try to keep details vague.

There is a decently popular MU right now that boasts about 60-70 logins a night, and sometimes even more than that. There's plots, there's activity, and there's logs.

However, there's no staff.

I think we're going into a second or third week of no logins from the husband/wife headstaffer team, and the only staffer left is no doubt carrying the load (and probably tanking the complaints that are cropping up in the lounge about the wait times, without any actual authority to resolve them).

This isn't a single incident. The headstaffers are on a wax/wane cycle of activity and non-activity that goes back months and months. When they crop up, they see to +job approvals, etc, engage a couple scenes, but don't participate in plots or really keep up-to-date on the social minutiae of the game. And then they are gone again.

The times spent "gone" are starting to become longer than the times they are here. Players have volunteered for admin roles to keep things going, received some tepid answer, and weeks and weeks on, no one has been hired on to do anything. Neither have the headstaffers made sounds to want to transfer ownership of the game, or have someone else take over server costs and just run it in their stead. Despite that, they continue to retain control of the policies, plot directions, and major decisions of the game and don't really seem to be giving off the airs of someone willing to delegate any of that authority or control.

What is plain to me is the husband/wife are checked out. Whatever or wherever their time and energy is being spent, either willingly or not, it's no longer on the game. Nonetheless, they're lingering; their characters are no longer integral to plots, but OOCly, they are the ones solely responsible for all decision-making, so they are still forced to remain integral to the game.

So what does a game do when its creators no longer care?

Left is a significant PB with years of RP that no one wants to give up, and daily activity that keeps going strong despite the lack of administrative leadership. Does the PB hold on until things linger off, and hope that the headstaffers will care again and keep up work? Even then, should the volunteers accept staff roles, knowing they are going to do 100% of the busywork while not really having "control" over the game? Do they make a new game, transfer over previous storylines, and invite others on to continue? Does it end up looking like an awkward revenge game, or worse, go the way of a sandbox?

I'm curious what others have done in situations like this, and if there were any happy endings.