[Dev notice] - Activity wipes

[Lythrilux]

There was a time when we didn't need a carrot and a stick from the devs to log our factions, 4.85 was the longest we ever went without the mod receiving an update and it was full of people just playing their roles and having a good time, rather than only logging if they feel like they have something to gain for their spaceboat empire from an event.

We're currently stuck in a self perpetuating activity crisis where the community is still quite large, but nobody will play the game because there is nothing to do, and there is nothing to do because nobody will play the game. People are spending all of their time waiting for something to happen rather than making something happen and it sucks.

We can't expect activity to function solely on the backs of motivated players always; people get demotivated, come and go, or simply wish to stop playing that role. I used to be that person but it gets so exhausting when you have to play like a second job to keep things flowing. Certainly in the Omicrons and Omegas at least there is a fundamental lack of good system design to enable activity to exist 'naturally'.

Not to mention the trend, amongst many groups of players, of spitefully counter-logging people with ships that they are not able to deal with, because forcing opponents to stop playing is more of a priority than creating an engaging interaction. That's pretty harmful to activity too.

This is actually appalling and the worst part is that we're powerless - is there even anything that can be done about it? It's cancer that kills Discovery but just out of reach of treatment, like an invisible tumor. I really wish there was a proactive approach to stop that.

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