PlaneShift
Gameplay => General Discussion => Topic started by: gonger on January 01, 2024, 02:52:57 pm
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Dear all,
This has been discussed before, and we really should get going now.
Let's try to get ancient players back. We all miss friends of old we would like to see back in the game.
I propose the following steps:
- Send an official invitation mail to all existing mail addresses. I add a draft below, all reasonable comments are welcome.
- In one or two months, send a reminder. No more afterwards, we do not want to spam people.
- Give the Guild Leader of each guild (or some other represantant of the guild) a list of their members' addresses for a more personal invitation.
- Give every player upon request the mail addresses of five people they would love to be back in the game. Please note: I am not sure this is a good idea, since popular ex-players might in fact be spammed. I include this anyway and hope for comments.
This is the draft of the official mail:
******************************** DRAFT_BEGIN ********************************
Dear friend,
It has been a long time since last you ventured to Yliakum, and much has changed ever since: Since end of April 2023, the Unreal Engine version of PlaneShift is running.
What started out as a migration project over the years finally became a new version with plenty of new content:
- New locations with new NPCs and new quests
- A dungeon filled with traps and treasure
- Crafting improvements
- Everything simply looks a bit nicer - except that players still want the Legacy transport pterosaurs back - they simply looked more impressive!
- And so much more, check news for all details: https://www.planeshift.it/news
So what could be a better start of the new year then a new experience of PlaneShift?
Download it, meet old friends again, and make new friends - or enemies, for two things will never change: PlaneShift is Fully Free to Play, and RP-oriented.
See you soon!
The PlaneShift team
********************************* DRAFT_END *********************************
Please let us know what you think of this.
Travel safely,
Gonger
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Good intention, and while I think there'll be only a couple of players who might be able to return, there may be a few. The sad thing is that the forums likely are visited only by those same players, since (IIRC that has been mentioned elswehere) other media have taken over, but maybe it's the lack of publicity PS receives, as it doesn't feature on any of the gaming networks. At least, I haven't found it on GOG, Epic or Steam (very likely because you have to sell them your soul, as other very good FOSS gaming projects like UFO:AI, Babylon5:I found her, Wesnoth, etc. also don't appear there).
Anyway, I don't like the idea of giving away contact information (maybe you'll even remember my pro-privacy stance from back in the days, so no surprise there. :) ). Having the PS system send out mails to dormant accounts would be OK, the reminder may or may not be an issue, IIRC there was something about receiving occasional mails from PS on signup to the forum, but not to the game, so maybe stick to forum members, which likely will catch all "ancients" anyway (there was no discord, reddit or whatnots back then)?
I already tried to check out the new PS-U but couldn't. First, I could run it on my ancient machine, but the Char Creator GUI is fixed at 16:9, so on my 4:3 screen the elements on the right simply don't get rendered. The UE itself copes perfectly with the resolution, but if the GUI positions are fixed, there's nothing it can do about that. That's a problem I've seen primarily on UE4 titles, I read that the GUI creator doesn't help with that and you must knowingly design on the lowest resolution, but with high-DPI textures, and then the upscaling will do the trick, instead of the GUI being scaled down meaningfully, which at best breaks text legibility.
Anyway, I somehow managed to blind-fly part of the CC, came into the Dryken Plane and don't recall if I even managed to get out of there, maybe the GUI again, or the oddness of the place, or something else.
And now, I'm still on Windows7, which has been dropped by PS a while ago (any of course many others). Once I decide upon and install an alternative (be it W10, DraugerOS or whatever), I'll retry, but it seems I'd have to buy a new screen, too.
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As for us "ancient players," we mostly still exist. But the only reason I left was that my version stopped working. I'll try to download and trouble shoot a successful launch, but I will admit Planeshift is no easy game to get to work. Regardless of the games lack of versatility, I look forward to the return of many. I actively encourage it actually. Planeshift was the main game I played growing up and will always hold a special place in my heart. I wish the devs luck as I always will.
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This caught my attention. How ancient is ancient? (Holy smokes, my login still works!)
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This caught my attention. How ancient is ancient? (Holy smokes, my login still works!)
Hello Kluger!
Everybody who used to play, but no longer does, of course!
I received no comments whatsoever about the mail draft... Is it that good? ;D
There was some discussion on discord about privacy issues points 3 and 4. We would most likely cancel 4 entirely, and for 3 let a guild representant write a text that would be sent through someone from the team with full access to the adresses.
So, let's do it... and get our old friends back! And our RP enemies as well!
Gonger
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Remember, when sending a letter, preface any appended thoughts at the end with P.S.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/513577345895104512/1202471374338400327/PS4.jpeg)
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OnTopic: I agree with Seytra
Semi Topic Related: as I'm getting (I think) into PS again, somewhere in the future I wouldn't mind making guides for linux peeps (guess what I've been doing those years :p )
Off Topic /or not?
Hey y'all!
Somehow I found some poetry notes, while cleaning, I wrote for a character named Eliseth (IIRC, maybe a typo) Today! She sold them books for mad trais! Also print outs from the overview of the government etc. (IIRC the whole portal planet thing is new, either way: GREAT! going through the character creation this time was like better :) )
So I went and looked up Planeshift. it the game I abandoned when I went to study +- 17-15 years ago (I dunno).
My old characters are gone, because I abandoned them email addresses and don't know them passwords. THIS (forum) I remembered by lightning strike today (I already changed it to something I need a manager for). I'm more than okay with that, most of them trias I got through them mining exploits and 15 years further new game new me :) I'm like +- double the age now.
What I noticed in the tutorials: fighting (magic) is MUCH better, so RPing based on "Oh I just got through the portal, imma learn how to survive and live in this new society" is like SOOOO much better, really liked the introductions :)
+- 17 years, My main (see this forum account) has like all it's funding from mining calculation mistakes :) -> I don't care, I want to start new.
If we can work something out so I can take Socius as first name I'm all ears: problems are I don't have control over the email related to the account and for the life of me the password neither (I was paranoid @ 16 :p ) and so I understand that if that's not possible, I now have a Nolthrir with Socius as last name.
Anyway: I would like that, I can give the email-address to the account, but that's all, so I understand if it's not done... else I would make it as soon as I read it :p
Freaking mountains and valleys! I've only seen the tutorial region, Hydlaa plaza and my first stop: Kada-el's! those fancy wine cups are the only change it needed :)
I'mma make it a real goal to do Planeshift again after the cool welcome in global chat :D
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This has been discussed before, and we really should get going now.
Let's try to get ancient players back. We all miss friends of old we would like to see back in the game.
This is always a noble goal. However, I'd like to share a few thoughts about the bumps in the road that I hit when I used to attempt such things in the past. These issues might still be lingering around.
Are there enough active stories for people to find some RP hook to latch on to? Nothing ran people back off like not having something to talk about or not having something that they wanted to interact with. It just stinks coming back and you have no connection to anything anymore. Also, people will likely come back to an empty buddy list, so heavy community support would be helpful. How many people are on at a time, these days?
For some, they left because of community drama. In those cases, it might be helpful to mention that the people they hated don't play the game right now. ;D (<- I missed this emoji) Other people might have wanted features, races, or skills that didn't exist. It might be helpful to point out specific new things that might interest the person.
Oh yeah, Gonger mentioned that there are new locations... That means that that online players could be even more spread out. You may want to invite people back for specific events. This way, if people come back, they see several players in the area instead of an empty area. That might not be an issue any more, but it is something to think about if there is still low player count.
Overall, I feel like messages will be more effective the sender happens to remember why that player left. The more personal the message is, the more likely the player is to read it and consider it.
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Hi.. I'd like to get back in and take a look around, my ingame name was xitop... but can't getpast the login launch screen. The link provided leads to a 404 error, and I don't know the discord address. Suggestions please?
Thanks,
xitop
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Hi xitop. Glad that you want to play PlaneShift again.
This is the Discord channel of Planeshift. https://discord.com/invite/f9y6TFjvnf
When you are in the Planeshift Discord channel, send a message to Talad (Discord name: KerriganSon) with your ingame name and email address associated with your Planeshift account), and he will help you. Good luck and see you soon!
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Greetings Ancients as well as Youngers!
Dropped briefly into the game, for the first time in a long time, after installing the game software. Venorel finally looks her Ylian self! \\o//
There are some questions about what is worn and what one sees, yet that may find an answer in game.
Someone has been busy since my last visit. Kudos!
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This is the Discord channel of Planeshift. https://discord.com/invite/f9y6TFjvnf
Getting a message that the link is invalid or has expired.
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This is the Discord channel of Planeshift. https://discord.com/invite/f9y6TFjvnf
Getting a message that the link is invalid or has expired.
It works for me. What about this one? https://discord.com/channels/378244034348449792/378244034348449794 (https://discord.com/channels/378244034348449792/378244034348449794)
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This has been discussed before, and we really should get going now.
Let's try to get ancient players back. We all miss friends of old we would like to see back in the game.
This is always a noble goal. However, I'd like to share a few thoughts about the bumps in the road that I hit when I used to attempt such things in the past. These issues might still be lingering around.
Are there enough active stories for people to find some RP hook to latch on to? Nothing ran people back off like not having something to talk about or not having something that they wanted to interact with. It just stinks coming back and you have no connection to anything anymore. Also, people will likely come back to an empty buddy list, so heavy community support would be helpful. How many people are on at a time, these days?
For some, they left because of community drama. In those cases, it might be helpful to mention that the people they hated don't play the game right now. ;D (<- I missed this emoji) Other people might have wanted features, races, or skills that didn't exist. It might be helpful to point out specific new things that might interest the person.
Oh yeah, Gonger mentioned that there are new locations... That means that that online players could be even more spread out. You may want to invite people back for specific events. This way, if people come back, they see several players in the area instead of an empty area. That might not be an issue any more, but it is something to think about if there is still low player count.
Overall, I feel like messages will be more effective the sender happens to remember why that player left. The more personal the message is, the more likely the player is to read it and consider it.
I agree, with your statements. Its important with enough active stories to be able to come back. But oh how i miss the good old days once in a while
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Hey there Nova. o/
I agree, with your statements. Its important with enough active stories to be able to come back. But oh how i miss the good old days once in a while
Hey! Sem! It's been a while. :D Yeah the active stories thing is the one that concerns me the most. People need a reason to be around and interacting. But even I get bitten by that nostalgia bug. Nasty little thing. ;D
However, if I am perfectly honest, it's not that hard to create new active stories. The problem is whether or not one can get wide enough player buy-in. I remember suggesting that players come up with their own current events in the past and some players just weren't comfortable with that idea. They only wanted to support ideas that came from the developers. Now that might not still be an issue, but one way or another there will need to be player buy in.
But, even if players decide to start driving more of PS' story, there is one other hitch. I don't know how much experience current players have with driving larger RPs and older players are likely to be blindsided by settings changes. It seems like this would leave more of the burden on newer players unless there is some kind of "Welcome Back" primer on the settings somewhere. If the newer players don't have the same exposure for driving RPs, then that feels like it would be unfair to have all of that burden on them just to try to get back players they've never even met.
Hmm... I wonder, do all players spawn in Hydlaa still or did it finally go back to to each race spawning in their own cities (when available)? Creating an RP foundation in a single city is much easier... Bah! Let me stop, I'm trying to solution the problem and I don't even know the current setting. :-X :sweatdrop:
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Ha! Consider this ancient conjured! ;D
Just thought I'd stop by and hay 'Hi'. Some day I hope to have the time and download/install/drop in the game again.
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Hello everyone, Hello Mordaan!! I randomly reinstalled and visited the forums thursday, lol
Have been watching some of the developmental twitch streams from time to time over the years.
I did log-in ingame... have absolutely no recollection how to do anything ;D
Hope everyone is doing well.
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Hi there!
And nice to see a (very) few familiar faces! :D
It's a good intention, and a few good points have already been made by other posters above. :)
The question of why people leave and whether we should try and get them back is a recurrent one. There have been squabbles, yes, but people also went to other games, moved on to other passions, saw the atmosphere change and decided it wasn't what they were looking for any more, and so on.
When I was first here, there was very little game mechanics (except collecting crystals, if that still rings a bell), and most of what we did was roleplaying. Then the whole game was revamped and looked completely different. It also went through a very unstable phase, which was the final push for many fans. I'm sure the next generations saw other changes and had their own reason to move on. What matters is that new generations keep coming and bring fresh air in the community.
Something I notice, whenever I happen to come back and peek at this website: it's almost abandoned. Most of the subforums haven't been touched in years. I know there's a Discord, but it can't replace a forum and will feel very different to old-timers. The forums, which were the primary point of contact, really give the impression the project has closed - that's what I first thought months ago when I went by and logged in, and it's only after looking deeper that I saw the activity had moved elsewhere. I'm not sure how many will take the time to look and register on a real-time chat platform like Discord.
The fact the login cookie expires after 1 hour only is also quite off-putting and unnecessary.
But who knows? If you throw a message in a bottle, chances are people who still have that email address will feel a pang of nostalgia and check in, just to see if other past friends do the same. I doubt they'll go as far as trying the game, though (I have no idea if it's stable and easy to set up).
FWIW, I corrected a few things in the "letter". Of course, some of it should be adapted to the timing if such an email were to be sent (for ex, it's not the beginning of a new year any more). I'm also a little confused about "what started out as a migration project", because that's not at all what I remember PS being back then, in 2003 (granted, I'm not the oldest around). What migration?
I would definitely NOT try to get hold of people's email address, as it's against the law, at least in European countries. Just seeing that makes me want to quickly change and give a fake email. Please, just don't even think about it.
Cheers
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Dear friend,
It has been a long time since you last ventured to Yliakum, and much has changed since. What started out as a migration project over the years finally became a new version with plenty of new content:
- Since April 2023, Planeshift is running on the Unreal Engine.
- New locations with new NPCs and new quests.
- A dungeon filled with traps and treasure.
- Crafting improvements.
- Everything simply looks a bit nicer - except that players still want the Legacy transport pterosaurs back - they simply looked more impressive!
- And so much more, check news for all details: https://www.planeshift.it/news
So what could be a better start of the new year than a new experience of PlaneShift?
Download it, meet old friends again, and make new ones - or enemies, for two things will never change: PlaneShift is Fully Free to Play, and RP-oriented.
See you soon!
The PlaneShift team
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Oh hey there. A few more names I recognize. Hi. o/ :)
For what it is worth, I imagine the "migration" is a reference to migrating from the old engine (crystal space?) to the new one, Unreal.
However, I too felt like the forums being slow wasn't a great sign. But that feeling might only occur to those of us that are used to the forums being more active. Players that started while it was slow and older players that never engaged on the forums might not think much of it.
However, it is nice to see people here again. I wish some more folks would pop in for a hello... :D
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Oh hey there. A few more names I recognize. Hi. o/ :)
For what it is worth, I imagine the "migration" is a reference to migrating from the old engine (crystal space?) to the new one, Unreal.
However, I too felt like the forums being slow wasn't a great sign. But that feeling might only occur to those of us that are used to the forums being more active. Players that started while it was slow and older players that never engaged on the forums might not think much of it.
However, it is nice to see people here again. I wish some more folks would pop in for a hello... :D
Hi back! :)
Ah, I see now. I misunderstood the "started out" as how PS started, but it just means it was a long migration, I guess.
Yes, I also have the feeling that forums are starting to become a thing of the past. Now, chat systems like Discord are replacing them, even if it's more a real-time conversation system like the old IRC than a forum.
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I love that this is still going, I am struggling to remember names, I do remember Moogie, Seperot, Safer, Draklar, Xordan, The K's! Karyuu, Kwartz, Kada-el, Khala, Dorbian
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I am still one of the very old players and a former GM in the old days
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After being done with Illarion, I checked this game out back in 2009, then 2014, and now very impressed with the new version.
Consider me back.
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I played quite a bit way back in the old days, stopped playing just after Gug was added, player name back then was Zhaxor, maybe people remember me, maybe they don't, but I am impressed both with the conversion to Unreal and the seed with which updates are happening. Player name now is Varonica, started fresh and I must say enjoying it.
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I guess I remember a few of the old names mentioned, I guess that that makes me ole of the old players
I have the problem that my login no longer works and I don't have access to the email it was created with...
Apis of The Way of the Hammer
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@apis Connect to our Discord and message me, we can recover it.
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I might consider coming back if someone can find aurelynt and bring them back as well. Might. Consider.
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Well for starters it might be an idea to at least invite new players you come across to the wonderful events hosted by Uadjet. Those offer a good opportunity to start own stories.
But yeah, recently I have been on during the weekend, testing fps with different approaches with my new laptop, and I rarely saw someone else around than Thosor.
Anyway, it is important to start somewhere.
PSUnreal really is in a nice state… Yes, the Dryken Plane may deter new players… but we discuss this in another thread. And… other than that… I am really enjoying the vastness of the world in PSUnreal. Of course this is also a bit of an issue if only a few player. Cause there is so much room in the PSUnreal world to run past someone.
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Just saying hi to people I knew from the past.
Found my way back yesterday, so having a look how the new version works and compairs to the old one.
Two things, the visuals are really awesome :thumbup:
What I do find difficult is the movement of my character, having to use the walking key combined with the mouse for direction. But, it might be age combined with not being experienced yet ;D
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I too would like to say Hi to any who remember me, ( and those that don't), started peeking in the other day,trying to rewet my feet, love the new look, and look forward to friends and foes of the past.
plan on popping in more often, see you there in the unreal world
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Hello,
It seems nobody has anything else to add, and there was nothing that really said, "Don't do this."
Just a few quick answers to points mentioned by others:
- If somebody is no longer interested in PlaneShift, they will simply delete one or two mails and be done with it. Nobody will be spammed.
- Old relationships (friend or foe) can be renewed, or restarted. Imagine meeting someone in RL after a couple of years. You both have evolved in this time, and therefore things between you might be different now.
- Active stories - of course right now there are few of them. But the more active players there are, the more active stories there will be. And, as pointed out quite correctly, we have the weekly RP events run by Uadjet. Also consider that in the long run more players will mean more Developers, more Game Masters, etc.
So are we going to do this now, or not?
Gonger
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As for sending an official mail to all mail addresses… I think this could only be done with the approval and help of Talad or somebody else who has access to the mail addresses.
Also I am not sure what GDPR and other data/privacy regulations (like in California I think) might hinder this in case you adhere to them. I did not think of it before and thus did not mention it. I do think a mail or two would be quite harmless, but when sent automatically to everyone as far as I see it the GDPR may apply. Unless it can be made clear that we are more like a private group of people.
Especially the part about giving mail addresses to guild leaders. I am not sure I'd want to receive those as a guild leader although I may easily have most of them anyway due to taking over the web site of guild quite some time ago. Although I went to great lengths to allow members of the site to remove their mail address from account data which is not supported officially in Wordpress I believe most did not bother at all. Actually back then I indeed mailed everyone regarding GDPR agreement which has been less than a stellar success to put it mildly. Some even reacted in an offended way. But that might have been due to people not preferring to be asked whether they agree to the privacy policy I came up with. I might have overreacted to the GDPR introduction back then, but these were my experiences so far.
I consider sending individually crafted mails to at least some long not seen players from our guild that I actually know more about from meeting them in game at some time. If its an individually crafted mail to each one… I think this is more like sending a personal mail which is not covered by GDPR. I think this is an approach I can take. And I would just use the mail addresses I already have. But sending a mail to a character's player I have no idea about cause they have been active in the guild before I started playing PlaneShift… I am not sure what to write in such a mail. And I think those are in the majority even.
For the global approach Gonger, I think you would have to discuss with Talad as the project lead.
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Hi Damola,
Thanks for your answer. Some of your points have been discussed on Discord. My apologies for forgetting that not everybody is there!
Giving mail addresses to Guild Leaders - we pretty much agreed to drop this, there is a potential for abuse. I probably was a bit naive there. Uadjet proposed that the Guild Leaders can send one message through the PS Admin team. That would certainly be an option, but right now let's just do the general message, to all ancient players, from the PS Admin team.
Of course the team would also have to do the work behind, except writing the letter where we have a draft from Yours Truly.
Finally I also think it is a good idea to send private mail to mail addresses that were given to you by individuals. There should not be problems with this.
I re-write the final question of my previous post:
@PS Admin Team: Are we going to do this now, or not?
Thanks to all who contributed so far!
Gonger
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- Old relationships (friend or foe) can be renewed, or restarted. Imagine meeting someone in RL after a couple of years. You both have evolved in this time, and therefore things between you might be different now.
- Active stories - of course right now there are few of them. But the more active players there are, the more active stories there will be. And, as pointed out quite correctly, we have the weekly RP events run by Uadjet. Also consider that in the long run more players will mean more Developers, more Game Masters, etc.
My last message was maybe a bit troll-y, I think I should give a more proper answer.
I was in an active RP for about one year, with mostly just a single individual. I fondly remember that time now and wish I could reconnect with that person, maybe RP with them again. At the time, I had to terminate the RP. It was the right decision then, but now I wish I'd stayed in contact in some way.
(Side note: If anyone reads this who I also RPed with, I'm not saying that I didn't enjoy interacting with your characters as well, I loved all the RP we got into together, but my point is that there was one person that was just consistently there, so there was never a downtime where I was just walking around trying to find RP.)
Ever since then, I have been looking for something like what we had over the course of that year. Just a person to RP with, who is always there, who appreciates my stories as much as I appreciate theirs. I have tried so many different games, but never ever got into another RP like this.
So I've been contemplating a lot about how cool it would be to get this consistency back, and this... to me, it felt like teamwork, like we were building something together. And it was nice. And I don't know, maybe that person moved on, we never really talked OOC, so I have no idea how they were feeling about me, maybe they felt like I let them down or betrayed them, maybe they don't ever want to interact with me again, and that would be fine. But I have this glimmer of hope that somehow, some day, we meet again, and everything is the same as it was back then. Pipe dream, maybe.
That said, assuming they come back and everything is as awesome as it was, I don't think I would want to RP in PlaneShift again. If it's the only way I can RP with them again, then maybe. But I'd prefer to get into some other game. Maybe one of the ones I have tried over the years, where I have built a character I really liked before realizing nobody wants to RP with me like I did in PS back in the day. I still like all of my characters, but never got to be them much. I would prefer to fix that over more PS.
So, on the one hand, yes, I would like to reconnect with some people. On the other hand, I would preferably not do that in PlaneShift.
Hope this more serious answer is useful :)
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Hi derula,
These are all valid points, but imagine you meet your old RP friend again, and for the same reason that you prefer other games now, this friend would prefer to stay in PlaneShift...
The only other game I have tried during the past years was World of Warcraft, and even though I was on a so-called "RP server", absolutely nobody was RPing there...
Everybody was just running around like crazy, from one quest to the next, "Oh my, I still need to kill 5 x in area y for my daily quota", things like this...
PlaneShift has a small but (again) growing RP community, which seems to be a rare thing in other games.
Don't get me wrong, I do hope you find your friend again, and some common RP ground. But if not, PlaneShift is probably one of the best spots to find RP.
Either way, best of luck to you.
Gonger
[Edited for typo correction]
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These are all valid points, but imagine you meet your old RP friend again, and for the same reason that you prefer other games now, this friend would prefer to stay in PlaneShift...
Yep, as I said, then it might be something worth considering.
The only other game I have tried during the past years was World of Warcraft, and even though I was on a so-called "RP server", absolutely nobody was RPing there...
Largely my experience, too, even if you have an RP community, people typically also want to play the game "normally," which takes away from RP time. And when there is RP, it's often just "tavern RP," i.e. RPers meeting in a tavern and making small talk.
What I'm thinking is, if you have a group to RP with that share your mindset, the game doesn't really matter. Just select any online game where you can walk around together and have some features useful for RP, and you'll be able to build something fun.
Obviously this forum is about PlaneShift, I'm not saying "we should all move on to something else," that's for everyone to decide for themselves and not even the point I'm trying to make.
My point was more, even if you reach ancient players, and they're excited to meet old friends again, I don't know how many would consider going back to PS. If they left knowing they'd have to leave their friends behind, I don't know if "all your friends are here" will be the message that brings them back.
Really, it seems like you have two goals: repopulate PlaneShift and bring old acquaintances back together. I feel like these are partly in conflict. So what I'm trying to say is, achieving both goals with one email may not be easy. If the email focuses too much on PS, it may be ignored by many. If it focuses too much on old friendships, they might come back, hang around the forum for a few weeks, and then leave again.
I'm not trying to say it's a pointless endeavor, or that other games are better, or that people have moved on and won't ever return. I'm trying to explain why I think it's a bit of a tightrope walk, and that it's important to get the message just right if you want to see the outcome you desire.
What would be my solution?
Don't make the email about repopulating PlaneShift at all. Make it about the community. Talk about events that happened, remind people of different characters and what their role in the world was. Focus on relationships between the characters. Maybe get some old players to write stories, retrospectives, IC documents, etc. Remind people what made their time in Yliakum so special, and that most of these old people are still out there, somewhere. Ensure to get as many people as possible to just think about it again, and bring up positive memories.
If people have a positive connection to those events and those characters, they might want to engage with the community again. Never force the issue. Never tell them, "oh, you know, PS is much better now with PSUnreal." Let them make the decision organically, if they want to. Nobody should feel pushed back into it, or like it's something transactional ("you're having fun in our community, so you owe us to play the game again," even if just implied).
As those Oldbies get more comfortable interacting with the community again, start communicating what's happening in the game in a way they can see it, but don't feel like you're asking them to get back into the game. The same way you shared old stories in emails, share new stories from the game, maybe with screenshots. Show, don't tell people that the "good old days" are also the "good new days." Give them the chance to decide they want to get back in.
But I feel like you get one chance on that. If at any point, people feel coerced, or like the community has a toxic element to it that reminds them too much of the bad memories that contributed to why they left, or if they conclude that the game hasn't improved enough, or if they think current RP isn't up to the high standard they're remembering (even if that's just false memories), they might just be gone again.
Am I overcomplicating things? Maybe in regard to some people. I'm sure there are a few that would go like "heck yeah, forgot about PlaneShift, I'mma jump back in." But most of the people I remember had grievances with how the community, the game, and development was run, how lore and rules were implemented and enforced, were discomforted by perceived double standards in the GM team, etc. etc. A lot of issues aside from low population. Some of them just because they were bitter, some of them justified.
Are you sure all such potential issues are addressed and fixed now, and people will feel much better now and stay? For me, there's still a looming air of discomfort connected to the community. Not going into detail here, but feel free to DM me in Discord if you want me to elaborate. And if I got an email overtly asking me to come back to the game without evidence that any of the issues I used to have were addressed, it probably wouldn't be very successful in motivating me to come back.
[Edit: softened last sentence because I didn't like how strongly it was worded... I really just want to help but sometimes my tone is off... sorry if it is off in this message.]
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There are already a number of veteran players who joined the new version. It's great to see some people after 15-20 years!
In general I'm more interested in new players, they are younger, so they have more time to play, and they can bring new energy/perspective to the game. People with grudges from the past please stay away.
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Well all I can say I do not have any plans to switch to a different game regarding all the RP. And yes, PSUnreal is really better in many ways. One may be seen as an disadvantage at first: Due to the world of Yliakum being much, much, much larger it becomes more rare to accidentally run into each other. But it also opens so much of opportunity to explore parts of the vast map, some dungeons and what have you.
While it is important not to coerce anyone… and while I do not see any benefit in anyone playing the game if not on their own free choice, I think regarding any mail to players… – if that is still a plan – I'd not over complicate things. There have been some new players in recent events and my recommendation would be to really invite players to log in during event time.