Post your name, along with what character(s) you play.
If you want, specify particular areas you would like feedback on! (It's okay to ask for just general feedback!)
Indicate whether or not you're okay with anonymous feedback. (It's totally cool if you don't.) You can also post links to your character's personal HMD if you'd prefer comments there.
Reply to other people telling them how you think they are doing.
Be polite and objective! If someone says they're cool with anonymous crit, that is not an invitation to be unfriendly. No one likes a Diamond Tiara! If you have something negative to say about somebody else's playing, make your points politely and suggest ways to improve. To give an example:
X - Unhelpful Diamond Tiara - "Jeez, Terri, can you learn to type? You've got about a billion typos in your posts!"
O - Helpful Not Diamond Tiara - "Hi, Terri, I noticed you have a number of typos in your posts. Something you might want to do is give your posts that one last look-over before hitting submit. It would really help with readability!"
?????
PROFIT
You don't have to post your own characters to give other people feedback! You don't have to post your characters at all if you don't want to. It is 100% OPTIONAL. If you do post, we would encourage you to give feedback to at least one other person!
I want to start off by saying that I enjoy how approachable you guys are with concerns, and that you've actually been trying to balance the heavy modplot stuff with the lighter slice-of-life more as time went on. It's still not 100%, but I can see you guys have been making an effort at it.
I've spoken with Ni in private about some tonal things, but I figure it bears repeating here: While I personally don't mind the tone of the game, keep in mind that the way it's presented will turn off some people, even if - especially if - you use "what cartoons can get away with" as your upper limit.
Remember: Death may be frowned upon by censors, but the replacements are a million times more unpleasant/horrifying/potentially problematic. (For good examples, see The Princess and the Frog, or pretty much anything at all by Don Bluth)
We are aware of the tonal issues inherent in the game, but are happy you've seen the progress we've made to try to shift the balance to something lighter. This is a My Little Pony game, and for as serious and disturbing as the show can get brainwashing, anyone? it's still ultimately a show about friendship conquering all aimed at a younger audience.
We will continue to try to find a balance, but are ultimately aware that some things will simply not work for everyone, no matter how hard we try. We will keep making the effort, though! And if we begin to slip again, please feel free to come to us in the future at any time.
Much like Sword said, I do like that you guys are trying to balance the heavy modplot stuff with slice-of-life, though keep in mind if you try to make it too dark all the time, that runs the risk of either turning people off or break characters to the point where they can't play them. After all, despite the RP ad saying that we have a dark modplot, this isn't a horror game.
In terms of NPCs, while Tirek was interesting, his whole "might is right" thing confused me. He wasn't like that in Twilight's Kingdom or in G1. Otherwise he was IC.
We are actually doing our best to tone down the darkness! Part of the reason we asked people not to have their characters killed in this most recent plot is because of that. We wanted Tirek to be a serious threat, but in the show, he is not a murderer. We felt that would be OOC for him and undermine efforts we'd made to lighten this particular plot from its original inception.
We will bear in mind your thoughts on Tirek for any future use he might get. We were trying to extrapolate from his general power lust shown in the show, though!
While I'm not noticing the heavy stuff quite as bad as some, I do agree that some of the lighter plots could be...more, well, light? Sword put it well with his assessment of the 'limit', I think. Perhaps we can have more silly plots, and steer players that might think of bringing darker elements in to more light-hearted ones? I'm hardly one to talk about that, of course, but...just as a thought.
I'll PP you about more in-depth things as well.
Other than that, I think you guys are doing very well. I appreciate you guys trying really hard to make this a good game, and listening to your players. Y'all rock! =D
We always, always, ALWAYS welcome player plot suggestions. We'll put our thinking caps on for some sillier, lighter ones to keep going with, but would love to hear any ideas you have. And we have actually been trying to steer a few players to make their plots lighter and fluffier than they started out as. We'll continue to work toward that to ensure we keep a more balanced tone in the game.
May I suggest that, due to some of the problems we've had with anons, that the next HMD be gamelocked? I know that gets it out of anon, but perhaps if people want anon, they can make a post on their journals with it on? Based on what I've seen on here, and on the anon communities, I'm wondering if some of it's not out-of-game wankers, since I'm aware we've had those before.
Just a suggestion, I don't know if you guys will think it's feasible or not, but it might help lighten the mood a little around here.
It's certainly something we will talk about and likely do for the next HMD. This is one of the first times we've allowed anon on the HMD and it was, in part, to test the waters. We're concerned with the tone of some of the anon and even the non-anon comments we've had here. Thank you for the suggestion.
This is Terri here, and I think something else we can try to do to mitigate any pent up frustrations is to post these more often. I'll see about trying to get them up on a monthly or bi-monthly basis.
I dunno if we would need it monthly, but bi-monthly sounds like a great idea.
Actually I should explain why I think monthly might be a bad idea. I feel if we did this monthly, it would become mostly quiet either because people don't need crit or nobody would have anything to say. Plus people might start ignoring it.
Bi-monthly though I think would be the right balance. Not too often and not too long.
After reading through the feedback people have provided, reviewing some things that have come up recently, and discussing among ourselves, we thought it was important that we make a few broader comments about some things that we feel might be misconstrued or confusing for folks. This is meant for an open discussion, please feel free to ask questions, make comments, offer any feedback you would like. We will take all of it into consideration as we move forward on our Equestrian journey.
1. For the majority, NPC ponies and all other sentient creatures in Equestria are supportive toward the newponies. There is a very vocal and elite minority who are not, hence Tom Shanks and Hoovesweek/the Quarterhorse Quarterly. But in the main, any NPCs your characters encounter in Ponyville/Canterlot/Equestria, in general, who are not monsters (and even some who are), will treat them with kindness or, at worst, a bit of mischief. We have purposefully made an effort to warm relations with the Changelings and Diamond Dogs and will be moving toward such efforts with other groups as the story progresses (e.g., the Moon Ponies and the Griffons). Everyone is on the same side against Calice, after all. That is a much worse threat than any in-fighting there can be between the nations of the world. You can have some mean NPCs, of course, because everyone is different, but these should not be the main and no PC is going to experience overriding, constant negativity unless they're doing something that is actively harmful.
2. Becoming an alicorn is not the end-goal for character development in the My Little Pony universe. Alicorns are extremely rare in Equestria for good reason. We want to emphasize that it is perfectly possible for your character to undergo significant character growth, share their gifts with the world, and remain a non-alicorn. Look at canon! The Element Bearers apart from Twilight do this regularly. In no way is this meant to discourage people from aiming for alicornization if they have an awesome plotline they want to follow through with for that, but please consider carefully if this is something that would be right for the character.
3. Some of the things that happen in MLJ are scary or sad or disturbing, but friendship will and does conquer all. That is the overriding message of the show and for our game. We would encourage folks to remember that when considering their OOC reactions to certain development. We have been overwhelmed (often in a good way) with just how devoted and excited our playerbase is to the overarching plot of MLJ. Sometimes we worry that that enthusiasm can run in a negative direction, though, when reactions to things pile-up quickly and feed on each other. This happens in real life, of course, and there is absolutely no one person to blame (everybody should have the chance to ICly react to something), but we are trying to figure out a way to mitigate this. If anyone has any suggestions for this - Perhaps doing more mod-sponsored mingle logs or network posts after big developments? - we would welcome them.
Can I suggest a point 4, about openness to plots? In my own comments and elsewhere, there's a fear of mod favoritism, since people don't see that all these big plots I've done, I've specifically come to you guys and asked about, usually months ahead of time. Making clear the openness to large-scale plots like that and what you'd look for and expect might clear that up a bit and encourage more people to put stuff up like that.
That is definitely, for sure, something we encourage! DW is evil, and I can't edit the post, but yes.
4. The mods are open to any large-scale plot ideas you have. Particularly ones that are long-term. Do you want to have your character have a major hand in bringing the griffons or moon ponies into warm relations with the Equestrian monarchy? Do you want them to make a major discovery? Take down some big bad who's affecting Equestria on a large scale? Please come to us! We love hearing ideas and integrating PCs into major plot developments. You will need to have an idea, but we're happy to go back and forth with you to brainstorm and make an idea fit with other things we might have plans for.
re: point 2. I have suggestions for point 3 too, but my thoughts are kinda jumbled and I have to go to work soon, so it might end up being separate posts.
I think the trouble with the alicorn option is that its shine is a little too alluring: all that power, all that importance, all that spotlight, and it's the clearest and coolest character development path available at the moment. There's just something sparkly about a character growing so much they earn that awesome responsibility.
But it's also exclusive. Only available to ponies (though I suppose non-pony characters could species-switch if they really wanted it), and not every character has the right temperament or talent to ascend. I know mine don't, haha. And, as you say, the numbers are going to remain small or else it's not special anymore.
The information post on the subject says that any character is capable of re-activating the Elements with their growth, whether they're eligible to become an alicorn or not, and maybe some reassurance that those characters are still important would help things?
It's a little difficult to discuss this without giving away too much of the modplot, but what we can say is this:
Calice will not be defeated by raw power or force.
This has already been hinted at, but we thought we'd make that explicit now. Every time the Elements of Harmony are activated, they will weaken her, but becoming an alicorn will have zero impact on your ability to actually defeat Calice and will not have any additional weakening effect.
When we move toward end-game and have our eventual final show-down, a non-powered character will have just as much - if not more - of a chance of being instrumental to Calice's defeat than those with super powered abilities for reasons that are currently spoilers. Not to say that characters with powers won't be important, but reliance on those in the eventual show-down with Calice will not be exceptionally effective.
As for alternative character development pathways that are equally cool, it's a little hard to call out what they might be because it's different in the context of each character, but there are ponies who have significant political or social clout who are not alicorns on the show and if you (collective and general you) would like to get your character into that kind of situation, we would be more than happy to work with you toward that goal.
I'd also like to point out that previously I was under the impression that alicorn-hood ascension required a great big character arc from friendship-clueless (as we saw in Twilight's case and now in Zetta's) to friendship-power-expert. Nothing wrong with that except that it seemed like that meant characters who all ready are mature and embody the Elements, usually from their canon background, would not be in the position to ascend because they never made a huge personal growth spurt within the game. Does this make any sense?
I'm sure now that I was misunderstanding but I'd like to hear what you mods have to say nonetheless.
I'm not entirely sure how exactly, but I would suggest make it much more clear that the discrimination against offworlder ponies/newponies is a very vocal minority from Tom Shanks/Rich Elite. Yes I know there's some warm relations now so newponies aren't completely alienated, but before it really did seem like, at least to me, that there was more hate towards newponies than there actually is. Heck, part of me is wondering if Tom Shanks and/or the Rich Elite will eventually summon the windigoes in Canterlot because of their hatred towards newponies. Maybe that's just me wanting to see some karmic justice against Tom Shanks.
I'm going to address a few things in regards to their points.
Point 1: I think more things showing upfront that there are plenty of natives who like the newponies fine would be good, in that case.
Point 2: HOLY CRAP THIS. I've only seen a bit of season 4 after Twilight ascends, but even she is still learning stuff. It doesn't mean your development is done, it means you've taken a huge step in it. I do think we need to show in the coming time what is expected of Alicorns, so those thinking of it might consider more fully what it means. This might help mitigate some of the OH SHINY bit that some are concerned about. It's not just "OH YOU GET MOAR POWERFUL AND CAN FLY AND USE MAGIC", there's real responsibility and such that some characters wouldn't be able, or wouldn't want, to handle.
Point 3: This is a big thing in general, and part of the problem is, no one is talking to anyone when they have problems. By which I mean, they're not talking to the person they have a problem with, or going to mods. I can understand that that is scary, and for those of us with anxiety, it can be a big hurdle. But the thing is? Problems rarely go away on their own. The solution isn't forming cliques and getting more insular, it's reaching out to each other. This is a game based off of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. And that's what everyone needs to keep in mind: Friendship is magic, and can do so much to help people. So if you have a problem with someone, go to them in love, weigh your words, and be gentle. It honestly goes a lot farther than smacking them upside the head.
Also, as I mentioned in my own private plurk to the mods, and in my responses to Ash, it's really easy to not watch yourself when things happen both ICly and OOCly. But, I've noticed what seems to be a lot of bleed through between IC and OOC, and I think that's something that's coloring the game's atmosphere. Remember, even if as writers, we tend to have characters in our head? We still have to remember what we're doing. It's Pretendy Funtimes. And even if some, or maybe many, of us get 'feedback' from characters, it's important to distinguish between them. If something makes you mad or upset, take a step back, and make sure it's actually applicable. On the same token, don't bring OOC feelings into things if you're angry. Take the step back, and evaluate. Take a breath. It'll still be there when you return.
TL;DR for that: Communication is key, do unto others as you would have them do unto you, OOC=/=IC, and have fun.
Also, I think mod-sponsored mingles and such would be great. It helps people unwind and lets us parse things a bit. Plus it lessens pressure on those of us who kind of suck at making mingles XD
A lot of this might be YMMV, but I think the tl;dr is pretty universal.
Actually, I kind of want to address something that keeps popping up in my thoughts that might be tangentially related to statement 3 on the post above.
The way modplot has been written? All apps and drops are, by their very nature, forced through an IC filter of horror and/or imprisonment which almost makes it feel worse than what happened to drops in, say, Mayfield, which was unashamedly a horror game.
If you drop a character, that character is imprisoned by a cosmic entity, potentially without question, unless you or someone else picks them up again. Whether or not there is a choice in the matter, this is the default state.
Let me try rephrasing that in a way that's slightly less IC and has slightly more unpleasant OOC undertones:
If you drop a character, you are helping the Big Bad of the setting out unquestionably.
It's been eating at me for a while, and it feels kind of unfortunate at best and downright manipulative at worst?
I don't know what to do about it. I really don't. But I don't like it.
That has been bothering me too to be honest. Like you're being made to feel guilty for every time you drop a character in this game. That shouldn't be that way. That was part of the reason I tried really hard not to drop Coco when I was struggling with her still since I already felt bad for dropping Pre-season 2!Luna and Principal Celestia.
I also have something to chime in on about the tonal issues, which is slightly hypocritical of me considering I've been an enabler for, and am not bothered by, a darker tone in general. And I think part of the problem has been how, up until now, with a lot of the major game wide events (or at least the ones I've observed, keep in mind I've been a sporadic player) it rarely feels like the players actions affects all that much that's happening overall at times. For the bigger sweeping plot of things, in consideration of Calice, this makes sense: it's going to take baby steps to get to her. However, when it was the Antithesis/Nemesis plot that turned out to have mod plot, I think part of what bothered players was how futile any action they took was, and then in the end turned out their presumption was wrong, which would've been an okay twist of it wasn't for the fact that their presumption was "we have to stop him to save our friends and the death o the world by eternal night and cold or its over infestation by demons". And then at the end of it there's an indication they're supposed to feel bad about their actions. Which isn't necessarily wrong, but altogether its a hard pill to take. Because even after the end of t, that kind of event breeds a sense of oppression from the setting that is more fitting for a horror game: it's a painfully lose/lose feeling and can make the players feel stripped of autonomy. It's also what may have helped propagate the idea that the great majority of NPCs were hostile to the outworlders: Hoovesweek was our primary view of their opinion. So while Hoovesweek may be the minority, they're all we really saw. This doesn't mean the NPCs should have some kind of 'hooray for the new ponies' party every month, but I feel clarifying the position of most setting natives helps a great deal to alleviate what could be construed as an oppressive tone.
I'd still say this isn't, by itself, wrong, but after that: the players desperately needed a victory that could be considered a game wide victory. Which I'd argue they did get with the event with Tirek. And, if I'm to be honest, I feel like this should be a genuine upswing that the players should start to get to keep momentum on. While Im not saying the players should just be given victories, I think it'll help to have more events where there's a clear possibility for victory and growth.
which is slightly hypocritical of me considering I've been an enabler for
I actually just got done mentioning this to Ni, but I feel like I haven't been fair to the mods by approaching just them with the tonal issues, as it's part of a game-wide issue, both from players and mods. In some ways, I think this is why the way Dragon does things rubs so many people the wrong way - he might have the tone of the show down pat, but since nobody else really has as solid of a grip about it, he still sticks out like a sore thumb, a tall poppy that needs to be cut so to speak.
Nemesis/Antithesis was kind of a hot mess for the reasons you mentioned as well as the criticisms levied toward Dragon - it basically felt like a long con perpetrated by Zetta and the princesses, or in a meta sense by Dragon and the mods, and I don't think a lot of us have gotten over that.
As I'd said to Ni privately, I think the issue is threefold. The elephant in the room, the problem that can't really be undone without gutting the game and starting anew, is that Ni's design for the setting is rife with horror in both the "cosmic" and "fridge" senses, because there's explanations for everything, you just may not want to hear them.
The second problem stems off of that: There's explanations for everything, and people keep digging. I think part of the plummet back into darkness honestly was the repeated dives into Calice's world, which just picked apart a small scratch further and further until it became a gaping hole.
But at the same time, the mods could have denied further dives at any time - after all, it's been proven that powers aren't always consistent, especially ones as nebulous as JA's and Dandy's. I think at the moment what we need to do is dial the explanations back into a drip feed, and worry less about "why are we here" and more on "what do we do now". All in all, I've always seen MLJ as a game about taking a tangled, messed up life, and making something beautiful out of it. That's partly, I think, why I have faith that this game can recover, because the meta-issues dovetail almost ironically well into the theme overall.
I gotta take some of that on myself, because for N/A I didn't sell something I thought was important: the efforts of the ponies to counteract the negative effects of the asteroids were absolutely crucial in preventing serious long-term consequences. They mattered a hell of a lot, but I didn't make that clear enough.
This is Terri, once more, and I'm going to address your comments as well as the ones below here for the sake of being concise:
- We will be working to find more and better ways to communicate that NPCs are mostly friendly and good-natured toward the PCs. Part of this is the continued use of Noovesweek as an alternate news source and just, hopefully, the interactions that characters have with non-hostile important NPCs in plots that are run by the mods.
- The remaining modplot for the year will definitely be focused on PC 'victories,' even in the absence of fighting. The player running the next player plot has also personally approached us to help with this and developed an idea to lighten the tone of their plot considerably.
- While MLJ isn't ending any time soon, we do have our eye on the time horizon, and we would like to keep up a reasonable pace toward endgame. To that end, we will probably not be drawing down on information being provided to characters. We'll try to change the stream to things that might be more helpful in terms of 'what can we do,' though.
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mylittleooc2015-04-13 08:29 am
THE MODS
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I've spoken with Ni in private about some tonal things, but I figure it bears repeating here: While I personally don't mind the tone of the game, keep in mind that the way it's presented will turn off some people, even if - especially if - you use "what cartoons can get away with" as your upper limit.
Remember: Death may be frowned upon by censors, but the replacements are a million times more unpleasant/horrifying/potentially problematic. (For good examples, see The Princess and the Frog, or pretty much anything at all by Don Bluth)
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brainwashing, anyone?it's still ultimately a show about friendship conquering all aimed at a younger audience.We will continue to try to find a balance, but are ultimately aware that some things will simply not work for everyone, no matter how hard we try. We will keep making the effort, though! And if we begin to slip again, please feel free to come to us in the future at any time.
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In terms of NPCs, while Tirek was interesting, his whole "might is right" thing confused me. He wasn't like that in Twilight's Kingdom or in G1. Otherwise he was IC.
Overall you guys are still awesome as mods.
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We will bear in mind your thoughts on Tirek for any future use he might get. We were trying to extrapolate from his general power lust shown in the show, though!
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I'll PP you about more in-depth things as well.
Other than that, I think you guys are doing very well. I appreciate you guys trying really hard to make this a good game, and listening to your players. Y'all rock! =D
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Re: THE MODS
(Anonymous) 2015-04-14 08:46 pm (UTC)(link)Just a suggestion, I don't know if you guys will think it's feasible or not, but it might help lighten the mood a little around here.
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This is Terri here, and I think something else we can try to do to mitigate any pent up frustrations is to post these more often. I'll see about trying to get them up on a monthly or bi-monthly basis.
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Actually I should explain why I think monthly might be a bad idea. I feel if we did this monthly, it would become mostly quiet either because people don't need crit or nobody would have anything to say. Plus people might start ignoring it.
Bi-monthly though I think would be the right balance. Not too often and not too long.
PLEASE FEEL FREE TO COMMENT ANON OR NOT
After reading through the feedback people have provided, reviewing some things that have come up recently, and discussing among ourselves, we thought it was important that we make a few broader comments about some things that we feel might be misconstrued or confusing for folks. This is meant for an open discussion, please feel free to ask questions, make comments, offer any feedback you would like. We will take all of it into consideration as we move forward on our Equestrian journey.
1. For the majority, NPC ponies and all other sentient creatures in Equestria are supportive toward the newponies.
There is a very vocal and elite minority who are not, hence Tom Shanks and Hoovesweek/the Quarterhorse Quarterly. But in the main, any NPCs your characters encounter in Ponyville/Canterlot/Equestria, in general, who are not monsters (and even some who are), will treat them with kindness or, at worst, a bit of mischief. We have purposefully made an effort to warm relations with the Changelings and Diamond Dogs and will be moving toward such efforts with other groups as the story progresses (e.g., the Moon Ponies and the Griffons). Everyone is on the same side against Calice, after all. That is a much worse threat than any in-fighting there can be between the nations of the world. You can have some mean NPCs, of course, because everyone is different, but these should not be the main and no PC is going to experience overriding, constant negativity unless they're doing something that is actively harmful.
2. Becoming an alicorn is not the end-goal for character development in the My Little Pony universe.
Alicorns are extremely rare in Equestria for good reason. We want to emphasize that it is perfectly possible for your character to undergo significant character growth, share their gifts with the world, and remain a non-alicorn. Look at canon! The Element Bearers apart from Twilight do this regularly. In no way is this meant to discourage people from aiming for alicornization if they have an awesome plotline they want to follow through with for that, but please consider carefully if this is something that would be right for the character.
3. Some of the things that happen in MLJ are scary or sad or disturbing, but friendship will and does conquer all.
That is the overriding message of the show and for our game. We would encourage folks to remember that when considering their OOC reactions to certain development. We have been overwhelmed (often in a good way) with just how devoted and excited our playerbase is to the overarching plot of MLJ. Sometimes we worry that that enthusiasm can run in a negative direction, though, when reactions to things pile-up quickly and feed on each other. This happens in real life, of course, and there is absolutely no one person to blame (everybody should have the chance to ICly react to something), but we are trying to figure out a way to mitigate this. If anyone has any suggestions for this - Perhaps doing more mod-sponsored mingle logs or network posts after big developments? - we would welcome them.
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4. The mods are open to any large-scale plot ideas you have. Particularly ones that are long-term.
Do you want to have your character have a major hand in bringing the griffons or moon ponies into warm relations with the Equestrian monarchy? Do you want them to make a major discovery? Take down some big bad who's affecting Equestria on a large scale? Please come to us! We love hearing ideas and integrating PCs into major plot developments. You will need to have an idea, but we're happy to go back and forth with you to brainstorm and make an idea fit with other things we might have plans for.
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I think the trouble with the alicorn option is that its shine is a little too alluring: all that power, all that importance, all that spotlight, and it's the clearest and coolest character development path available at the moment. There's just something sparkly about a character growing so much they earn that awesome responsibility.
But it's also exclusive. Only available to ponies (though I suppose non-pony characters could species-switch if they really wanted it), and not every character has the right temperament or talent to ascend. I know mine don't, haha. And, as you say, the numbers are going to remain small or else it's not special anymore.
The information post on the subject says that any character is capable of re-activating the Elements with their growth, whether they're eligible to become an alicorn or not, and maybe some reassurance that those characters are still important would help things?
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Calice will not be defeated by raw power or force.
This has already been hinted at, but we thought we'd make that explicit now. Every time the Elements of Harmony are activated, they will weaken her, but becoming an alicorn will have zero impact on your ability to actually defeat Calice and will not have any additional weakening effect.
When we move toward end-game and have our eventual final show-down, a non-powered character will have just as much - if not more - of a chance of being instrumental to Calice's defeat than those with super powered abilities for reasons that are currently spoilers. Not to say that characters with powers won't be important, but reliance on those in the eventual show-down with Calice will not be exceptionally effective.
As for alternative character development pathways that are equally cool, it's a little hard to call out what they might be because it's different in the context of each character, but there are ponies who have significant political or social clout who are not alicorns on the show and if you (collective and general you) would like to get your character into that kind of situation, we would be more than happy to work with you toward that goal.
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(Anonymous) 2015-04-16 08:58 am (UTC)(link)I'd also like to point out that previously I was under the impression that alicorn-hood ascension required a great big character arc from friendship-clueless (as we saw in Twilight's case and now in Zetta's) to friendship-power-expert. Nothing wrong with that except that it seemed like that meant characters who all ready are mature and embody the Elements, usually from their canon background, would not be in the position to ascend because they never made a huge personal growth spurt within the game. Does this make any sense?
I'm sure now that I was misunderstanding but I'd like to hear what you mods have to say nonetheless.
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I'm not entirely sure how exactly, but I would suggest make it much more clear that the discrimination against offworlder ponies/newponies is a very vocal minority from Tom Shanks/Rich Elite. Yes I know there's some warm relations now so newponies aren't completely alienated, but before it really did seem like, at least to me, that there was more hate towards newponies than there actually is. Heck, part of me is wondering if Tom Shanks and/or the Rich Elite will eventually summon the windigoes in Canterlot because of their hatred towards newponies.
Maybe that's just me wanting to see some karmic justice against Tom Shanks.(no subject)
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(Anonymous) - 2015-04-16 08:50 (UTC) - Expand(no subject)
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Point 1: I think more things showing upfront that there are plenty of natives who like the newponies fine would be good, in that case.
Point 2: HOLY CRAP THIS. I've only seen a bit of season 4 after Twilight ascends, but even she is still learning stuff. It doesn't mean your development is done, it means you've taken a huge step in it.
I do think we need to show in the coming time what is expected of Alicorns, so those thinking of it might consider more fully what it means. This might help mitigate some of the OH SHINY bit that some are concerned about. It's not just "OH YOU GET MOAR POWERFUL AND CAN FLY AND USE MAGIC", there's real responsibility and such that some characters wouldn't be able, or wouldn't want, to handle.
Point 3: This is a big thing in general, and part of the problem is, no one is talking to anyone when they have problems. By which I mean, they're not talking to the person they have a problem with, or going to mods.
I can understand that that is scary, and for those of us with anxiety, it can be a big hurdle. But the thing is? Problems rarely go away on their own. The solution isn't forming cliques and getting more insular, it's reaching out to each other. This is a game based off of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. And that's what everyone needs to keep in mind: Friendship is magic, and can do so much to help people. So if you have a problem with someone, go to them in love, weigh your words, and be gentle. It honestly goes a lot farther than smacking them upside the head.
Also, as I mentioned in my own private plurk to the mods, and in my responses to Ash, it's really easy to not watch yourself when things happen both ICly and OOCly. But, I've noticed what seems to be a lot of bleed through between IC and OOC, and I think that's something that's coloring the game's atmosphere. Remember, even if as writers, we tend to have characters in our head? We still have to remember what we're doing. It's Pretendy Funtimes. And even if some, or maybe many, of us get 'feedback' from characters, it's important to distinguish between them. If something makes you mad or upset, take a step back, and make sure it's actually applicable. On the same token, don't bring OOC feelings into things if you're angry. Take the step back, and evaluate. Take a breath. It'll still be there when you return.
TL;DR for that: Communication is key, do unto others as you would have them do unto you, OOC=/=IC, and have fun.
Also, I think mod-sponsored mingles and such would be great. It helps people unwind and lets us parse things a bit. Plus it lessens pressure on those of us who kind of suck at making mingles XD
A lot of this might be YMMV, but I think the tl;dr is pretty universal.
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The way modplot has been written? All apps and drops are, by their very nature, forced through an IC filter of horror and/or imprisonment which almost makes it feel worse than what happened to drops in, say, Mayfield, which was unashamedly a horror game.
If you drop a character, that character is imprisoned by a cosmic entity, potentially without question, unless you or someone else picks them up again. Whether or not there is a choice in the matter, this is the default state.
Let me try rephrasing that in a way that's slightly less IC and has slightly more unpleasant OOC undertones:
If you drop a character, you are helping the Big Bad of the setting out unquestionably.
It's been eating at me for a while, and it feels kind of unfortunate at best and downright manipulative at worst?
I don't know what to do about it. I really don't. But I don't like it.
+1
(Anonymous) 2015-04-16 09:04 am (UTC)(link)to feed my characters to Calicedrop out."+ 1
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Re: THE MODS
I'd still say this isn't, by itself, wrong, but after that: the players desperately needed a victory that could be considered a game wide victory. Which I'd argue they did get with the event with Tirek. And, if I'm to be honest, I feel like this should be a genuine upswing that the players should start to get to keep momentum on. While Im not saying the players should just be given victories, I think it'll help to have more events where there's a clear possibility for victory and growth.
Thank you for your time.
+0.5
I actually just got done mentioning this to Ni, but I feel like I haven't been fair to the mods by approaching just them with the tonal issues, as it's part of a game-wide issue, both from players and mods. In some ways, I think this is why the way Dragon does things rubs so many people the wrong way - he might have the tone of the show down pat, but since nobody else really has as solid of a grip about it, he still sticks out like a sore thumb, a tall poppy that needs to be cut so to speak.
Nemesis/Antithesis was kind of a hot mess for the reasons you mentioned as well as the criticisms levied toward Dragon - it basically felt like a long con perpetrated by Zetta and the princesses, or in a meta sense by Dragon and the mods, and I don't think a lot of us have gotten over that.
As I'd said to Ni privately, I think the issue is threefold. The elephant in the room, the problem that can't really be undone without gutting the game and starting anew, is that Ni's design for the setting is rife with horror in both the "cosmic" and "fridge" senses, because there's explanations for everything, you just may not want to hear them.
The second problem stems off of that: There's explanations for everything, and people keep digging. I think part of the plummet back into darkness honestly was the repeated dives into Calice's world, which just picked apart a small scratch further and further until it became a gaping hole.
But at the same time, the mods could have denied further dives at any time - after all, it's been proven that powers aren't always consistent, especially ones as nebulous as JA's and Dandy's. I think at the moment what we need to do is dial the explanations back into a drip feed, and worry less about "why are we here" and more on "what do we do now". All in all, I've always seen MLJ as a game about taking a tangled, messed up life, and making something beautiful out of it. That's partly, I think, why I have faith that this game can recover, because the meta-issues dovetail almost ironically well into the theme overall.
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(Anonymous) - 2015-04-18 06:36 (UTC) - Expand+1
(Anonymous) - 2015-04-18 16:14 (UTC) - Expand(no subject)
(Anonymous) - 2015-04-19 07:14 (UTC) - Expand(no subject)
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Re: THE MODS
- We will be working to find more and better ways to communicate that NPCs are mostly friendly and good-natured toward the PCs. Part of this is the continued use of Noovesweek as an alternate news source and just, hopefully, the interactions that characters have with non-hostile important NPCs in plots that are run by the mods.
- The remaining modplot for the year will definitely be focused on PC 'victories,' even in the absence of fighting. The player running the next player plot has also personally approached us to help with this and developed an idea to lighten the tone of their plot considerably.
- While MLJ isn't ending any time soon, we do have our eye on the time horizon, and we would like to keep up a reasonable pace toward endgame. To that end, we will probably not be drawing down on information being provided to characters. We'll try to change the stream to things that might be more helpful in terms of 'what can we do,' though.