Thanks bilbous and Pakarro, maybe I was overreacting but I've made experiences in the past that I appeared too offensive...
(it's also why I try to rarely post here because I hold a personal grunge against the game which is mostly my own fault, and I'm afraid my personal opinion might make its way into what I say where it would be somewhat out of place; and I know that it's been a huge letdown to see Aiwendil post so aggressively after he's been a person I've been looking up to ingame, so I want to avoid being a similar letdown to others still in the game; but then probably nobody cares about any of this)I will give credit that you have improved the details page about races. That's definitely a start. However, there needs to be done more to enable newcomers to actually make up a character that fits in the settings.
Can you make a practical example of what you think it's needed here?
Thanks for responding to my comment. I have said that before somewhere else, but I will repeat it, hoping that you read it (even if Aiwendil were right and you'd ignore it anyway...)
What I have seen in a different roleplay-centered game is the following approach: everything about the world you can actually play in is spoilers. You know about as much about the world when you get in as a new player knows about Yliakum.
However, there is an in-settings explanation why: the actually playable part of the world is an island that is cut off from mainland, and only rumors exist about this island. The rest of the game world is decidedly unplayable, but documented. There exists lots of information about the mainland on their website: maps, country names and uniquenesses, cities and what happens in them, even river names, forest names etc; who usually lives where, what life is like in the different parts of the world etc. Everything.
I think something similar could be done with Yliakum. You
could (for example) decide that the Dome is the only playable level, and all the other levels are non-playable. Then, you could write details about the other levels and make them freely available on the net. The only thing still missing would a reason why people have never come to the Dome before, or know nothing about it. In that other game, the island is really an isolated place, and people can't freely go and leave there. There's a legend about the island. There's rumors. No information about the island is available on mainland. The devs would have to find a reason why the Dome is isolated, so that there's an actual
reason newcomers know nothing about the area they live in (being newcomers from one of the other levels). Of course, it would require a change in the settings... I cannot tell how much would need to change, because I don't know all of settings. But I think it would be possible.
Now there's those who said "nobody reads all that crap to play a game". I'm not so sure! That other game is
- German only
- 2D with not very pretty graphics
- Non-commercial
and I think it has a larger player base than PlaneShift (judging from their IRC channels; I've not actually played it). The thing is that it works so much better for serious roleplayers, I think.
NOW.
If you're going to do that, there is four more things that game has, and I think are VITAL for the concept to actually work. These are:
- VERY strict RP rules and enforcement
- New character accounts NEED a two-page back story for the character and are only activated if another player (something like an advisor in PS) confirms that the story is good and fits settings
- A startup bonus for new characters
- Death isn't free.
On RP rules: I'll name an example. They have a rule that magic use NEEDS TO be RPed before the actual use. If you get caught not doing that, you can get banned. Obviously, bad names aren't only renamed if a lazy GM stumbles across them, but would never make it through character activation. And so on.
On character activation: this is the most important thing that is missing with PS I think. Here, people can just create an char and jump right in. This might lead to more new characters in the short term, but also to DISCOURAGEMENT of serious roleplay. It's just not worth trying to ask someone for the way to somewhere when his desc is empty. And so on. If there IS information, people are encouraged and supported in giving serious thought to their characters. In the long term, I can't think of any better concept to have a REAL RP based game going well.
On the startup bonus for new characters: when you create a character, you select their race, job etc. and according to your selection, you start with a default set of clothes (instead of naked), weapons/items, food, and/or money (and well, some ranks in certain skills, but PS already has that).
On death: If a character dies three times, there is a team (i.e. Godly) discussion about whether or not the character will be allowed to live once more. (of course, bug-induced deaths shouldn't be counted in)
Now you might wonder if that's not more team involvement than you can handle. On the one hand, it's probably too much for only the GMs to handle. But there's also the possibility of player councils (as I said, similar to advisors). Obviously, I can't tell if it will work for PlaneShift. But it works for that game very well, although it is in some ways inferior to PlaneShift in mechanics or graphics. (Not in all ways, obviously; there's a job system in place which is far superior to PS' in my opinion; it limits the leveling of skills based on creation choices; but then that's okay imho because it makes people seriously think about how they set up their character.)
Now I'm gonna say. That game is built on top of the Ultima Online engine, which is a commercial effort. However, all the game's story and settings, the char creation etc, the races and... I guess at least some of the graphics are all created in a free effort. I'm aware PS' engine might never be perfect, but I don't think that's PlaneShift's main problem. The main problem is that "identity crisis". And I can't think of any other way to solve it than through the above.
But that's just my opinion.