Why Scenes On Forums Is Important

[Madhatterr]

I wanted to take a moment to explain why running scenes where possible on the forums is an important thing.

There are several reasons. It makes our site look as active as it is, search engines consider us by our size, not by how many people are hanging out in IRC, so that makes it very important.

Search Engines consider only new, fresh content. So Blogs, Forum Posts, etc are what they are judging us by.

For us to be considered among the big boys on the Web for forums, we have to hit 500,000 posts. To keep that in perspective, we currently have 14,960 spread across 1330 threads.

So in order for us to succeed and survive, we need the forums. Please consider in your scenes and role play if you could not do that scene on the forums instead of always pushing for IRC. It increases the enjoyment of others around you, contributes to the site, and helps the business to succeed, ensuring that we can invest more into the things that make this so much fun!

[♦Tyler Bryan]

I think that there are several parts to this problem:

1. We play in a game where for the most part we are playing creatures that don't want others to know what we are doing. Lets say for instance that Ash is working to get in good with Corin to her face. Only in other scenes he is doing everything he can to make her life hell or ultimately to cause her downfall. If that is all on the forums and Lauren goes and reads how Ash is doing all this stuff in other scenes, no matter how well a player she is that information is going to taint how she reacts ICly to Ash. Or if Ash is secretly meeting with someone to learn how to be an infernalist, no matter how cool a story that is, I risk the situation of that information being taken IC and used against him. I know that is meta-gaming, but what if the person that reads it says it to someone else and that person mentions it to someone else who looks at Ash to check for signs of Infernalism and finds it, but the only reason they looked is because of what they had heard through the grapevine. Now he is ICly a known infernalist, but he has never ICly given anyone a reason to suspect.

2. Another reason I think a lot of scenes are run on IRC is that it is so much faster. I can hop on and grab Tina and Joe and we can run a scene in 20 minutes that might take two or three days on the forums.

Not saying that it can't be done, but those are two reasons why I can think off the top of my head about why there isn't more being done on the forums.

One other question, how do the social groups affect our numbers? Are they counted in the total number of postings.

[Madhatterr]

1) Yes and no. 75% of scene logs I run would do no harm what so ever to be on the forums. 25% should not be. So it comes again to a judgment call.

2) Yes, but they are also hugely more inconvenient for many players. You have to find a time when you can all get together.

My goal is that you should have forum scenes running, IRC Scenes running, and live Chat Game scenes.

The Social Groups do not count towards thread posts for our statistics as they are locked away from search engines.

Forum scenes are a great way to run character development scenes. In your example, the scenes you are doing with Corin to her face could be on the forums, then you could do the backstabbing in private.

Scenes with NPC's should be on the forums as much as possible also. We have many times a back log of scenes and we have a ton more work to do than run scenes in IRC and running those scenes can be a challenge for us to find time to do.

As for generic backstabbing and plotting.

The ST's monitor things pretty closely. The goal here is to build great story together, so letting people know some things is not always a bad deal, indeed it can lead to better comraderie out of character if you do.

So you're plotting against Corin behind her back. Well if Lauren knows it, when you finally screw her in the end, she won't be surprised and it won't hurt, indeed she will be more likely to say, "Wow! Well played!" then if out of nowhere the person she thought was her friend suddenly kills her character.

Again I'm not saying all things belong on the forums, but this is a play-by-post Role Play site and the heart of our business is these forums. Utilizing them as a tool is not only good for the business, it is a huge step in building the interlocking story that we are weaving out of each character's thread in our tapestry.

[Joe_F]

All right, sir, I'm testing the theory and have placed a new thread on the boards. This is one I'd generally do in private, but I'm with you--the more posts, and the more entertaining threads we have, the more traffic we'll receive.

Here we go!

http://myworldofdarkness.com/outside...nture-sts.html

[Little-Red]

Just to let you guys know, I found this site on a search engine, so you must be holding up pretty well And I like how this rpg is more in-depth, where play-by-post is important, as oppposed to just pushing buttons to advance (not that i'm pointing any fingers, cuz I don't wanna get sued ). I enjoy the way things are done on this site, and have recommended Vampire: Masquerade to my friends and people I know. Keep up the good work!

[Madhatterr]

Little-Red -

So glad to have you, I've enjoyed our RP and I look forward to more! We are constantly working to improve the game and we have some great new plans in the works!

[♦Luke H]

I can see both sides of the story here. The desire to have a game were you don't have to worrie about being cheated and the desire to add to the game by letting others experience your side of the game. I personally think that we are all adults here, you cheat your going to get caught and it will be delt with. It hurts not only the players but also the game.

That being said I do intend to RP most of the upcoming events with Stan on the forums. I think it will add to the game, not only for those involved but this who get to see the story. Sure their will be parts here and there that people won't get to know but hey that builds the suspence. I would hope it would allow people to go, "Hey that's cool, I wonder how I can get in on that!" and it will pull people into the game. But I'm just one person trying to tell my story so we will see.

[Miranda]

Well said, Luke.

[Madhatterr]

I like "sharing" the story. Its scary. Someone can burn you, but in our group, our community we have yet to have a serious issue with it.

Yes someone might cheat, it will probably happen eventually. We are watchful and at the end of the day, we as a staff are monitoring this (another advantage over full free form role play sites)

I'm glad and excited to see people share their story and invite us all in!

[Edge]

Just wanted to say that for me, being in a different time zone than you guys, forums is a must. (Most of you are on a gmt - 5 while I am on a gmt + 2, thats like 7 hours ahead of you)
I do agree it can be slower, but I have no alternative, so I do appreciate it, a lot!