General Discussion

[Satin Knights]

I can add another pseudo game of "At Home" for those that are active and wanting recruiting, but are resting in the luxury of their own homes. Yes, I have been using the "Wandering the Streets" as an "inactive, but might come back" catch all. If they haven't been seen on the streets in three or four months, I punt them from there as well.

 

[Qik]

For what it's worth, you're more than welcome to remove Quioan from the "Wandering the Streets" list. I'm pretty sure he's seen the last of his adventuring days; it's just a question of settling on a character to replace him.

 

[Satin Knights]

Done. It is easy for anyone to move around their character to the DWI or the streets. Simply edit the Approvals section and change the categories while in there. Some sections, when you edit them and change categories, the change does not take effect. But editing the last section on the page always seems to work.

 

[perrinmiller]

What about removing the inactive characters from the Approved Characters page? We have 111 characters, but considerably less active.

 

[jkason]

What about removing the inactive characters from the Approved Characters page? We have 111 characters, but considerably less active.

Characters that have been intentionally taken off the table can be marked as Retired or Deceased. And since those statuses come with possible mechanical benefits (creating replacement characters), it seems to me a useful distinction. I'm not sure this does the same.

I suppose it's a matter of intent, though. From my perspective, I think the Adventures page serves as a good enough distinction between active and inactive (in fact, it's why I wanted the Adventures page to be dynamic in the first place, for use reflecting the actual availability of characters for GMs) that I'm not sure we gain anything by creating yet another page / category. But as GlassEye points out, just because that's how I use those pages doesn't mean others don't have other uses, so I'm open to hearing differing perspectives.

As another consideration, I wonder if creating a separate list / page just for the characters whose players haven't been around for awhile might create a perceived barrier to returning?

 

[Satin Knights]

That is why I haven't created an "Abandoned Characters" category. I didn't want people to feel they have been kicked out.

I try to keep an eye on the DWI thread and reactivate characters into there when they start posting again. If characters want to take interactions to a "at home" thread, we can easily setup on catch all for all those threads.

 

[Systole]

Personally, I like the idea of an abandoned character category. I don't like having to wade through eighty characters who don't want to play anymore every time I want to go look at who's active. It sends a bad message. And frankly, if they're not playing, screw 'em.

 

[jkason]

Personally, I like the idea of an abandoned character category. I don't like having to wade through eighty characters who don't want to play anymore every time I want to go look at who's active. It sends a bad message. And frankly, if they're not playing, screw 'em.

In general, if you're looking for parties based on the Approved Characters list, you're probably already wasting time. It doesn't list anything but a name, so you have to open each character individually just to find out what class, race, and level he or she is.

The Adventures page, OTOH, gives you a snapshot (both a literal image if one's there, and a list of classes and levels) of each character when you're perusing, and as noted before, is more or less filtered on activity.

Given that, I'm with SK in thinking that 'abandoned characters' may have a feel of booting players. Especially in PBP, I've seen a lot of folks fall into long lulls of inactivity for perfectly valid reasons (sometimes unforeseen--and thus without warning) only to come back even more involved than ever when they return; having to sheepishly ask someone how to become 'unabandoned,' though, might make those returners feel stigmatized. It's also entirely possible I'm assuming thinner skins than most folks have.

If the concern is that someone coming in will go through the approved characters list and think we're mostly inactive due to how many approved-but-inactive characters there are, I'm not sure calling them all out on a separate page helps perceptions on attrition or what have you.

If we're looking at giving newcomers a better picture of our activity level, maybe a front page change would be an option: If we rename the Adventures page something like "Active and Adventuring" and take out the "approved characters" link in the Players Guide section, that might better point folks where we want them to look for the characters / players they can expect.

 

[Systole]

I wasn't looking for players, as such. I was trying to get a feel of what levels were idle and could use an adventure.

I will say that I ran a Warcraft guild for several years, and I vigorously guildkicked idle alts, and moved idle main characters to an 'idle' rank. I felt, and still feel, that a situation where returning players occasionally have to ask to be reactivated is better than a situation where obvious deadwood is cluttering up the rest of the game for active players.

 

[IronWolf]

I really don't have a problem with the current Approved Characters page. PbP has its lulls for people. With the dynamic pages that SK has setup it is pretty easy to see who is out adventuring, who is in the Inn, etc. The Approved Characters list is just sort of a Master list of players that have taken the time to get approved. I don't see the harm at this point in the list growing.

I also would rather avoid additional maintenance of trying to keep that page organized into active and inactive players. We have enough to do with keeping up with character approvals, level-ups, adventure reviews and such. I don't think we gain a whole lot to further split the Approved Character page at this point.