Apathy

[Piscator]

Oh, we also need the increative ones. Since we lack NPCs, those roles have to be filled by humans. If we don't keep the game interesting for the builder types, we'll lose the backbone of society. In order to keep the game interesting for them, there must be something to build left, which means that the achievements of previous generations have to be slowly erased.

Creative people have no reason to stay in this game if it doesn't offer much more than a chatroom. Creative people can be creative anywhere. The only way to keep them is to offer something they can't get somewhere else, which is an unscripted and interesting game world.

[Wolfsong]

I disagree that the only way to keep a creative person around is to offer them an "unscripted and interesting world" - because while that certainly can help (but also hinder, depending on how well the world is implemented) the biggest way to keep a creative person around, IMO, is to surround them with people they want to continue to play with. Quality begets quality.

[Piscator]

Well, this works in both directions. If some interesting people leave for some reason, there's the real danger that more people leave as a result. This kind of self-reinforcing process can pop like a bubble if something unforeseen happens.

[Doug R.]

Apathy:

3173-1.21: a woman in her seventies says: "The next person to speak that's not XX gets 100g of iron!"
3173-1.32: You see a woman in her thirties leaving the central area of Nraam, entering building.
3173-2.31: You see a man in his thirties talking to a woman in her twenties.
3173-2.31: a man in his thirties says: "*He shakes YY, lightly.*"
3173-2.32: a woman in her seventies says: "*looks XX* Wow, stubborn bunch. Never figured I couldn't give iron away."

[viktor]

emaciated world but there are a few sizable populations around, and there is drama, depends entirely on where you are, i try to make certain things in game but, sometimes there is just a lack of active trustworthy and interested chars to coalesce into a large functioning society.
leaders try for a while, and them fall asleep sometimes because of the lack of people that participate in it. also the massive reduction in players/chars thins us out way more.

and creative people do still play even in fully developed areas, there is more to creative expression than just construction, there's social engineering, creating conflict, creating adventures for people, there's always something, and for as long as i play i will always have at least a few chars working on.. interesting things of unique natures

[SekoETC]

It's unfortunate that so many people are inactive and hindering the lives of others who have to wait for them. Sometimes you just need to move on and hope to find someone else who's as bored as you, and do something to make a difference. That list of activities within a week that mojo posted was quite inspiring. My Cantr experience lately seems to mainly consist of waiting for people to reply... I try to reply fast when someone seems to be online, so that they wouldn't get bored and go offline, but timezones can cause issues and now I'm staying at my parents for a couple of days so I can't stay online at night.

[Mykey]

Things have gotten much busier for me, lately. I wonder if this thread had anything to do with that.

Thanks everybody, for sharing on this topic.

[Cheshierekat]

I wish things would get busier around my chars...This is how I ended up with more chars than I wanted. Things were slow, so I would spawn another...ugh...please, look alive people!

[pyrphoros]

Give a lower limit for number of characters played by a player and give limit for number of total characters can be made per user name. Four characters at a time and eight characters for a lifetime is too much already.

When a man has only few clothes to wear, he will treat them like treasure.

People will act more seriously, more active and live their (characters') life more lively for there are less characters to handle, and people will do the best regarding their (characters') life for those are all they have.

When there are plenty of chance and plenty to handle, most likely their characters' performance will be dropped, passive, and abandoned: junks.

Maybe that's why cats are so lazy. They have nine lives!

[Vega]

Maybe that's why cats are so lazy. They have nine lives!

Ours have seven

I don't think having less characters could help... Well, maybe. But having a limited number of total chars could be hell... Why if you can't play for a long time for any reason and you lost all of them? *Shivers frightened*

Althoug, I don't know why, but this week has been specially slow and booooring...

[Mykey]

Give a lower limit for number of characters played by a player and give limit for number of total characters can be made per user name. Four characters at a time and eight characters for a lifetime is too much already.

When a man has only few clothes to wear, he will treat them like treasure.

People will act more seriously, more active and live their (characters') life more lively for there are less characters to handle, and people will do the best regarding their (characters') life for those are all they have.

When there are plenty of chance and plenty to handle, most likely their characters' performance will be dropped, passive, and abandoned: junks.

Maybe that's why cats are so lazy. They have nine lives!

I remember SekoETC going on about something similar once. Only she knocked the limit down to one character.

On one hand, it would make the characters much more treasured as you suggest, on the other hand violence would be even less likely. Which would be a big turn off for some. And imagine if it didn`t make violence less likely and you got 4 characters killed by pirates, now your account life is down to 4 characters....

I agree if you got too many characters and dont have the time to manage them you should consider axing a few. But if you got all the time in the world I don`t see why you shouldn`t have up to 15. I think the lack of bodies in the world is a big problem, this would only make it worse.

I`m starting to think the reason more things arn`t happening is, a combination of RL time constraints, Social awkwardness (guilty of this myself) , a general sense of, been there done that, among older players. And a lack of players.

I don`t think it has anything to do with having 15 characters on accounts. Or atleast, it is a minor issue.

[Doug R.]

I'd be in favor of halving the available characters slots, to say 7 or 8, but that's the extent of it, and only to force players to spend more time per character. Doing this to make characters "more treasured" won't work, because people will be even more inclined to get rid of the boring ones to make way for interesting ones.

[Mykey]

Doing this to make characters "more treasured" won't work, because people will be even more inclined to get rid of the boring ones to make way for interesting ones.

I hadn`t considered that, it is a very good point.

I could see myself becoming much more selective on characters that I`d keep around if I only had eight to settle into. Most likely ones with superior skill sets.

[mojomuppet]

I completely enjoy my chars that work lots and say little. I know one that would put Doug's char on meds if it spoke to him everyday. Even though it busts it butt for his. That's the price he has to pay. I WANT MY WAY!

I have another that is impossible to play a lot because she gives it up all at one go when she gets to town, stays quiet unless there is something interesting that she understands and then just gets up and leaves most of the time not finishing something she started because that is just the way she is. She is rounding her third island. I like chars that show up make some noise and leave.

I also love my chars that people test to see if they are watching or not. tsk tsk this never works out for you. Plus if they barked out all day long you would get sick of it.

This leaves me time for the chars most of you enjoy to love and hate. It's all about balance for me.

[SekoETC]

I remember SekoETC going on about something similar once. Only she knocked the limit down to one character.

I don't remember saying that but if I did, I take it back. It would be awfully boring if one was limited to a single character and you would only experience a small part of the game. But people should try to play different roles and for every leader they play, they should play at least one follower to balance it out, and if they play someone who enslaves people or locks them up (maybe excluding law-enforcement), they should be ready to play a slave or a prisoner if one of their characters ended up in that situation, because you can't expect others to tolerate something that you couldn't handle if it happened to your own character. Also it would be good if one couldn't create several characters in one day but you should wait at least a week in between, maybe two. That would prevent people from spawning too many characters at once in a moment of boredom and later failing to take care of them. Or an alternative idea, make the waiting time grow exponentially so that first it would be days, then weeks, then maybe months (although it would have to cap somewhere).