Something Nice for the TMP

[Imreis]

The TMP is a fun setting but the I see one problem. It's a night club for all intensive purposes. I think it would be pretty neat to tack on a new area for that setting. A coffee house - one of those 24 hour ones where people can get food and coffee. A room like that would allow RPing any time of day or night. Not to mention if fixes problems for characters under 21who cannot drink alcohol. Perhaps it could be the neighboring building to the TMP. In case that did not come out clear. Building A is the TMP with the Alleyway being stuck between the coffee house.

It don't have to be a coffee house but it did seem like a pretty nifty idea. Some where to go sober up after drinking or a place to go during the morning hours. I think it would broaden the setting while keeping to the area. New York is pretty known for its specialty coffee houses so it would be logical to think one could open up next to a night club which would draw in plenty of revenue from drinkers to designated drivers.

Even more so, it would draw in the younger people who want to be 'jive', it could call in more players as well who want to play more wormy characters who might not go into a night club. I mean look at it this way. there may be players who wish to make a modern setting character though cannot come up with one who would want to go into a night club. There left with an alleyway which is not the most desirable place to go hang out with your friends.

Personally, I am open to any ideas but I sorta hope the coffee house idea catches on. Anyone else for this idea?

[Pain Noodle]

I agree with this. Coffee houses, parks, streets, docks, industrial zone. Plenty of locations to play with. Potentially.

[Ruthia]

I like the idea of a little coffee house type thing, maybe an internet cafe? Something less noisy compared to the nightclub where people can go to get away from the hustle and bustle that is NYC. Would be the ideal place to sober up or meet up before or after being in the nightclub too.

Course no ones gonna take a word I say seriously since I'm me but hey at least I have an oppinion to speak of!

[Magi_Siani]

Out of curiosity; have any of you ever watched 'Casablanca'? Specifically concerning Rick's Cafe?

Not that I have any idea of TMP...not my turf, so to speak. Just askin'.

Siani

[Magi_Trelian]

Originally Posted by Ruthia

I like the idea of a little coffee house type thing, maybe an internet cafe? Something less noisy compared to the nightclub where people can go to get away from the hustle and bustle that is NYC. Would be the ideal place to sober up or meet up before or after being in the nightclub too.

Course no ones gonna take a word I say seriously since I'm me but hey at least I have an oppinion to speak of!

Of course we take it seriously! But to put Siani's point more directly (and after talking with Gabe), the problem seems to be in what people think TMP's "nightclub" is like. I've been to those open-at-night-only places where everyone dresses to kill and you're lucky to find a seat anywhere, where it's all dancing and drinking and loud music. This isn't one of those. This is the place that's mostly a hang-out spot, a cafe as much as a bar, and with an area where music and dancing can happen but don't always. It's open during the day. Think, Irish pub maybe, if fhat makes more sense, except it's not Irish and it's not a pub. It's fine to go in and just drink coffee and surf the net on your laptop, maybe play online games at some chat site, heh. (TMP does have free wireless, doesn't it? Or all of NYC does? It better! Or we'll get no customers at all by that year!) But because there is that bar, it's 18+. That's not going to change and any other room is likely to be the same because when we're talking "modern" setting, we're also talking real world legal issues that, believe me, you don't want us to try to enforce and we don't want to either.

Edit: Hmm. Okay I was going off what I'd understood of the intent and the way I've often seen it played when I'm in there, but I got to admit I've gotten blase about checking the room description so I went and reread it.

""A sophisticated nighclub in 2033 with a polished tile floors and colored lights flashing from the ceiling. Along the front wall is the "zoo" of exotic reptiles and fish while a well stocked bar runs along the back. Tables, a dance floor and a modest stage fill the rest of the room with a set of stairs leading up to a security locked door at one end of the bar."

Maybe that should get tweaked a little.

[Imreis]

See now you can see where my post was coming from. Flashing, colored lights - I'm imagining colored strobe lights here. A plethora of lizards, snakes and fish that take up one whole wall. The words 'sophisticated nightclub' sorta give it away too. Which is great in all but its why I suggested a new little room. It would be the same setting and everything but give a refreshing feel to the whole TMP's modern setting. As it sits only a handful of players even attend it. Occasionally you can catch at the most, five to eight characters in there. I really do feel that it could draw some extra attention to the setting if it had room for different styles of characters.

Just a suggestion is all.

[Magi_Siani]

Just needs an update to the description, that's about it so far as I can tell. Brigit is the one to make that decision.

Siani

[Magi_Gabriel]

Originally Posted by Magi_Trelian

It's fine to go in and just drink coffee and surf the net on your laptop, maybe play online games at some chat site, heh. (TMP does have free wireless, doesn't it? Or all of NYC does?

Not only does it have free wireless, it has free terminals as per the setting page which goes into much greater detail that the quick blurb that appears when you log in.

Originally Posted by Imreis

See now you can see where my post was coming from. Flashing, colored lights - I'm imagining colored strobe lights here. A plethora of lizards, snakes and fish that take up one whole wall.

There's never been any mention of strobe lights in the TMP... they'd upset the animals which are all rather light sensitive. The only lighting referred to in setting information is the soft blue lighting and that the animal enclosure is dark at day and light up during the night (to encourage the creatures to be most active at night).

So I'm not really sure how we can take away what isn't there.

The words 'sophisticated nightclub' sorta give it away too. Which is great in all but its why I suggested a new little room. It would be the same setting and everything but give a refreshing feel to the whole TMP's modern setting. As it sits only a handful of players even attend it. Occasionally you can catch at the most, five to eight characters in there. I really do feel that it could draw some extra attention to the setting if it had room for different styles of characters.

Just a suggestion is all.

I'm honestly not seeing anything that would be different other than removing the bar and the dance floor and changing the title word to "coffee shop". Perhaps "sophisticated nightclub" means something else in some parts of the US, but here it generally reflects an extremely safe environment and many of the ones I frequent attract bookworms.

The minimum age of solo entry into TMP is sixteen, you only need to be twenty-one if you want to indulge in an alcoholic drink. Book worm characters are quite welcome in there as it has it's own coffee machine and free terminals to use along with snack vending machines.

We can tweak the description a bit or you can talk about adjustments with Brigid, but honestly, the room only getting five to eight people at a time is a good not to create another room.

[Ruthia]

I don't think Imreis was saying anything had to be changed guys and gals. I think his player was just making a suggestion. And aren't suggestions for new settings OR setting changes open for anyone to make?

The strobe light thing, Yeah I can see how some people would see that acctually. Flashing colored lights could honestly be anything in anyones eyes. The flashing colored lights thng is quoted at the bottom of Trelian's post acctually.

[Imreis]

"...colored lights flashing from the ceiling..."

Ok then maybe it's just me but flashing lights sorta indicates strobing.

Besides if the idea is not what the Magi wish for the setting then that's fine man. But ripping apart people's posts and quoting pretty much every sentence to do so I feel is uncalled for. We as players are constantly encouraged to feed our ideas to the Magi and honestly, this is the last time because its not very encouraging at all to have your brainstorms ripped apart like confetti. A simple "we are not concitering adding new rooms at this time" would have sufficed instead of telling me all the reasons why my idea was wrong.

[Dontella]

Speaking as a Player..

I see no need to add an additional room to the Modern Setting. If you removed the words "Night Club" and replaced it with "Club" you'd get precisely what your seeking to accomplish.

Computer terminals, we have those. Coffee, we have that. Fruit juices and bottle water, Check. Clean, non-smoking environment.. yep. Ages 16 and over, check.
　

"Which is great in all but its why I suggested a new little room. It would be the same setting and everything but give a refreshing feel to the whole TMP's modern setting. As it sits only a handful of players even attend it. Occasionally you can catch at the most, five to eight characters in there."

The modern setting does not generate enough traffic at this time, you even stated so, to justify the additon of another room. All this does is create another splinter in the current setting, and divides a small player base into even smaller groups.

Add to this the small number of dedicated Magi, and there's simply not enough man power to have to moderate another room, especially given the low traffic already present. Having to split attention means that all the other areas suffer a loss of notice.. or as the phrase goes, spreading themselves too thin.

Anyone looking for something outside what is offered by the settings that ISRP offers, is free to create their own background and genre in Ahoy Adventure and Carpe Diem. These rooms exist for people who want to Role Play something that ISRP may not offer, without the need to create masses of additional rooms.

"And aren't suggestions for new settings OR setting changes open for anyone to make?"

Anyone can make a suggestion, so long as it's done creatively I would think. This statement however makes it seem like the Magi are doing something wrong, just because they are in disagreement with the idea. When really, they are basing their judgements on the current room and the current amount of interest it generates.

It's basically been implied that the current TMP setting is undesireable, and thus this idea would be somehow "Better" than what is in place. However, what is in place is pretty much -exactly- what is being promoted. A few changes of words here and there, and it's actually the same thing that's in place.

Also in order to propose a new or change to setting, there honestly should be a large demand from the playerbase that a change or new room is needed. There has to be the traffic and interest enough to justify the adjustments required. Things can not and do not happen overnight, and as such there has to be basis and foundation for adjustments to be made.

[Magi_Trelian]

Whoa! please! We're not trying to rip anything to shreds!

Yes, it's fine for people to make suggestions about new rooms and setting changes, that's perfectly fine and very welcome! It says you care about the settings.

Some people get upset if all we say is "No, not right now" and want to know why we don't address each of their points. They think that not answering point-by-point means we didn't listen, that we didn't really read their post. Gabe went to the full setting description page rather than the room description in the chat, and he's right, there's no mention of flashing lights there. So that's an anomaly that probably should be worked out, so that both descriptions give more of the same impression.

It's also hard sometimes to figure out what impression is being given. The setting coordinators know what idea they have in mind, but it's not always easy to get that idea into words and especially not in the very short space we have for the in-chat room descriptions. So it's good to start threads like this that say "this is what the room description implies to me" so we know. Even if nothing is changed right away, it's feedback and don't think it doesn't matter. It can affect things down the road, when/if more rooms become more possible. "Remember that thread about... "

[Pain Noodle]

I don't mean this as an insult or anything but what exactly do the Magi do? I'm certain it's simply a matter of the hours I am able to log on but I very, very rarely see any Magi logged into the chats. Do your duties and responsibilities keep you out of the chats mostly? What keeps you spread thin? Do you recruit or take on other Magi to help with the workload? As far as I can tell, the chats seem unmoderated. I'm just curious, if you have a link where this has already been explained please hook me up.

[Magi_Siani]

Some of us aren't in the chat IU (In Uniform) but are in other character guise. Some of us haven't time to be on a lot and tend to view the boards more. We use the logs and complaints to keep track of what is going on when time doesn't permit hanging in the rooms.

This job takes up a lot of our otherwise free time, what there is of it. We all have real world jobs and lives to deal with in addition to this. There aren't many of us because finding and training Magi is not an easy task and has to be fit into the already limited time we have available.

I might add that anytime we do moderate something it isn't done openly...the only people who know of it are ourselves and the person being disciplined..unless said person wants to talk about it to someone. We Magi have a policy of confidentiality so we don't talk about warnings or actions to anyone other than those directly involved. That is, you won't see it happen except in very rare cases and then generally when you know what to look for action-wise and we won't answer questions about it. We mostly try to deal with things IC or via PM when on site, by email when off.

Its a more hidden, hands off kind of approach in some ways.

Hope that helps.

Siani

[Magi_Brigid]

Originally Posted by Magi_Trelian

Edit: Hmm. Okay I was going off what I'd understood of the intent and the way I've often seen it played when I'm in there, but I got to admit I've gotten blase about checking the room description so I went and reread it.

""A sophisticated nighclub in 2033 with a polished tile floors and colored lights flashing from the ceiling. Along the front wall is the "zoo" of exotic reptiles and fish while a well stocked bar runs along the back. Tables, a dance floor and a modest stage fill the rest of the room with a set of stairs leading up to a security locked door at one end of the bar."

Maybe that should get tweaked a little.

Yup, as soon as I can figure out how to DO that, I'll do that. Really!

Folks have brought up to me a change to a coffeehouse of sorts in the past. I don't know that's the extreme change we need, but something more along the lines of a cafe/club/hangout is probably needed (and I've been thinking so for a while, because the nightclub scene doesn't even really suit me or Brigid, the proprietor). In large part, I've tried to keep it true to the theme that Pou set a looong time ago when the setting was created.

As for a THIRD room for the modern setting....yeah. I really don't think that's necessary at all, considering The Meeting Place can be easily modified with a little dust (and me figuring out some wacky coding stuff).

I'll admit to being not the most active Magi there is (I'm a grad student and hold down a job and a half), but Trel and Siani are right -- we're volunteers, and not necessarily volunteers with that much time. When I'm around I'm usually on AIM and peeking into the chats -- usually on my IU name (Brigid) when I pop in, but occassionally on out of uniform characters as well. Most of the time, we trust the community to be self-policing--and it really is, which is a testament to the community more than anything else.

[Imreis]

The reason I didn't suggest changing out the TMP for something different or tweaking it is I didn't really think about changing existing places on the chat. I figured that they were how the Magi intended them to be. Though recent events and much talk adu with altering settings and rooms so deeply has made me reconsider this I suppose.

Well anyways, now that I've calmed down and I am not mad anymore about it.... I still think that the responses from a few magi came across as very closed minded and too harsh for what the situation called for I can understand where you are coming from in some aspects. I am sorry and apologize if I rubbed some of you the wrong way but what was said cannot be unsaid. Moving on!

I would really love to see an alteration come to the TMP setting. A type of hub where people of all varying sorts could logically meet up. With my recent ventures into the TMP, I've seen law enforcement, hair dressers, street punks, ravers, cutsy lollipop girls and dark foreboding types. With such a hodge podge lot of people its hard to place down a good lounge-ish place for all of them to play together. If a coffee house is not your style there is a few other alterations to the current TMP you could do. Maybe your cafe idea with a stage thrown in for a type of open mic, were people can read poetry, sing, play a instrument and so on. Eh, well what ever you decided to do or not do is all up to the Magi of course.

[Sienna_Rose]

I just typed out a nice long reply which seems to have gotten eaten.

So, I'll just sum up, 'cause I don't feel like typing it all again.

I think a major issue here is mis-communication. "Nightclub" clearly means different things to different people. To most, as far as I've witnessed, it implies that it is an adult place, with dancing and drinking. Definitely not a place that's just a general hang out place, and certainly not quiet.

I've brought up the idea of a coffee house before, and even spoken to Gabe and Brigid about it.
From this discussion, it looks like clarification is more of what's needed - because I've read the longer description (though it's been a while - I don't even remember how to get to it), and I didn't even know that TMP has food besides simple bar fair type of stuff like chips, pretzels and peanuts.

[Magi_Brigid]

There's another thing about TMP that you have to realize, too: we don't necessarily WANT anyone under the age of maybe seventeen hanging around, simply because of the place's history and what tends to happen there. So the age restriction on characters will likely remain, but the setting will be clarified to be more of a hangout than a "nightclub" per se.

[Ruthia]

Ohohohoh! Can I make menu suggestions? pppweeeaassee??


Go for fried and grilled foods. Easy to make and serve, take up very little room...

you know. Cheeseburgers, Pizza logs...easy crap like that.

mmmm pizza logs.....
*runs to buy some now!*

[Elf_Ariel]

Y'know, while we're having suggestions put out for TMP...I was wondering if anyone could sling me a NYC rundown. Ya can put it on the forums rather than adding it to the settings info page. But since I dont live there, I shun big cities and areas of high population. I dont know about the districts, the common peoples, the industries, size, population etc etc. I know you cant get firm numbers (since the setting is futuristic). But it'd be kinda nice to not have to research the hell outa the place just so I can play there.

If you're wondering what I'm asking for, the vague idea of Sydney is:
Pop: 4-5mil
Northern Suburbs: richie rich-ville
Western Suburbs: working class & lower

I'd go on, but I'm sure you all get the idea.