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jigokuooc2022-08-28 10:34 am
jigokumods) wrote in jigokuooc2022-08-28 10:34 am
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HOW WE DOIN? six month anniversary edition
MOD FEEDBACK POST!
It's been almost six months of Jigokucho, and with this current app period setting up to be our biggest since launch, we're doing another player feedback post to help shape the game moving forward!
For an idea of the kind of things we'd like feedback on;Story, events, and how the plot has been handled. Structure, when events, tdm, and substories are posted. Posting flow and the like. Rewards, AC, and housekeeping stuff Player ideas for substories or events! (we also take suggestions for these year round on the mod contact page, but hey, post'em here too)
You are by no means required to offer feedback, of course, and compliments are appreciated as well, either way, we're open to ideas on how to polish things!
Issues we're aware of; Reserves haven't been "processed" the way we traditionally do them, and we're probably going to change them to something less involved moving forward. We also know that a lot of rank updates got lost in the shuffle, and that's part of why we made the Rank Update header on the Taken page, which should hopefully fix that.
AS A REMINDER this is a normal AC month, so if you haven't done your AC yet, please do so!. We will not be posting any warning posts or anything of that sort, so please be sure to get it in before the end of the month!
Story, events, and how the plot has been handled.
Prefacing that like, obviously just speaking for myself. As someone who has been around since the opening of the game, I'm focusing this largely on the direction I predict the game is heading towards. Consider my feedback largely speculative! I know it might not continue to go this way, but I want to point this concern with game direction out from a player perspective. Mods can consider if this observation is worthwhile. (And if this isn't the direction the game is headed, then it's all pretty moot!)
So, I have one main concern seeing how plot elements have gone so far. Put most simply, it's a "Big Bad" problem.
With a faction game like this, I believe the most interesting element is the tension and conflict between the factions which have Player Characters. I'm extremely cold on the idea that there is an NPC only faction that everybody playing needs to band together to deal with. Personally, it seems like squandered potential to not make any actual faction(s) responsible for upcoming/ongoing plot conflict. It sets up factions as all on the same team. That seems entirely antithetical to what the game concept is and what JGK is advertising itself as.
To back up what I'm saying here, I'll summarize my take-aways from previous plot beats. During the very first event, there was a suspicious assassination of a major faction leader. This was largely interesting as a who-dun-it. Then, it turned out that nobody could have guessed who-dun-it, because it wasn't even a known element, so to speak. No other faction, not even an internal coup, but a mysterious outside force. Then the blood rain was caused by an outside force to the four factions. Then the smuggling and big kidnapping at Tanabata was caused by an outside force... I feel like in all of these instances the plot would have held more meaning and suited the game concept better if an actual faction was responsible for the conflicts at hand. Instead, the cause of conflict always seems pushed off of the factions so nobody takes the blame.
This is something I've noticed building up with time. The more it builds up, the more I feel it compromises the setting. Players can be told things about the faction dynamics, but if all the big conflict are being shown as the fault of outside forces ICly, then characters are going to act/react ICly with less concern for their faction interest when there are bigger plot concerns.
I thought this might be something the mods wanted to examine for themselves and make a determination on, for the health of future plot development. I wanted to draw attention to this without really... proposing or demanding a solution. That is entirely at mod discretion and judgement to address or not. If this isn't a concern to the team, I accept this might just be my own issue with faction based game structure.
Anyways, that's my bit of observational feedback. I appreciate the time and effort being put into the game! It's been a blast so far. I hope to really get back into it when my RL lightens up a bit.
+1