Admin Notice: Faction Statuses Revoked; Warnings for Inactivity

[fencore]

I wouldn't blame the Great Gallic Nothing on Gallia itself, really. Many factions are in an activity slump, and I'm most definitely participating, which is why I turned over GMS to my HC. With things going on outside of the game and a lack of real roleplay movement anywhere save for what we as users can push around a little, interest is being lost and we're moving elsewhere to sate our need for something fresh.

I did my best to keep GMS interesting for my guys while I had it. Really, you look at our activity list and then back at the roster in our feedback thread, I've got a small faction with an even smaller number of active people. But I like to think that we've always done things to make it fun for those we roleplayed with. But there's only so long we can exert that effort. There's only so long we can go out and mine in Tau-23 and run back to Gallia for drops, and there's only so many times we can run to Bretonia, taunt some English Knights, and then scurry on back.

I've tried to build relationships with nearby factions, such as EFL, to help drive a little Gallic activity, and I've held diplomatic talks with the Corsairs, Zoners, and IMG, and even Fleet Admiral Ralston for a little of the Admiral's scotch. Which I promptly gave to those Corsairs. We go out and about, which according to rules we're allowed to do, because nobody can come to us. Yet when we do, we receive a mix between curiosity and upturned-noses for "being places we shouldn't" in freely civilian areas. (The critique on Minor I accept, we didn't have much of a good reason there for naught but sheer entertainment value). I realize Gallic roleplay makes us a tad different, and I've even told other groups to feel free to shoot my guys if you don't want us somewhere, but all I want them to do is roleplay with us. Instead I get "Are you allowed to do that in the rules?" or "French? Ew, no".

So the idea isn't so much that Gallia itself is to blame, but perhaps that we need something fresh to do that the community supports. Not just GMS, but many factions, and no, the Gallic push into Languedoc doesn't count since that onyl affects the GRN, who clearly can't even be arsed to utilize this because hey, now they've got admin permission to shoot NPCs in Languedoc. Woo. I myself grow tired of constantly having to stretch the limits on what I can do to get some interest going, and thus I've begun to play in the official Freeworlds community on version 1.66 while we await the release of FW: ToW. It's new, and I'm having a royal blast there doing things I wouldn't think of doing here for the sher Q_Q it might bring. But I feel disappointed that all this work and effort me and my fellow roleplayers have put into our factions is going to waste because we just can't be moved to do repetitive and unrewarding things to prop up our factions.

Further, I find myself without the desire to log and read the forums like I used to. I see the same things I've seen a hundred times. I see tech requests for Zoner tech poorly put together. I see griefing and groaning over "Their circumstances are better than mine" in regards to tech, rules, and regulations in the General Discussion and Factions boards. Trials by forums. Same old, same old, and it's lost its comfort. I grow tired of the squabbling that's being done because frankly, we haven't anything better to do.

Granted, I realize that some are still having a whale of a time, and we're still getting new players. OSI is a perfect example. Activity has skyrocketed due to new members being completely awesome. The Omicroners clearly still enjoy logging in and sitting in Omicron-74 out of the way, as the activity list shows. So no, not all is lost, but I've only been here a year and I'm already beginning to move on because of the stagnation that's happening where we're all being left to sit on the edge of our seats for a new med release that has been purported to make everything better.

I wouldn't blame Gallia. I wouldn't blame the continually pushed-back release date for 4.86. I wouldn't blame old players or new players or poor roleplay or good roleplay. I wouldn't blame the community for being what it is. At least, none of these things alone. It's the unfortunate combination of everything together that's put us where we are. I followed my own advice, when things became a chore, I turned them over to people who would be able to show the work due respect. This game is meant to be fun, not work, and with the state of things as they are, it surely feels like we're having to work an awful lot to have fun with the same environment that's existed for the past two years and quite a while of that without an update, which in talking with the Devs at the FW community, is easy enough to do insofar that I find it painful that the last update for Discovery was before I started playing.

I said my piece, and I've gone on much longer than I should've. More on this later.