Player Feedback

[desolate]

We're looking for feedback on how the Academy operates and what we can do to help everyone get their roleplaying on in future iterations.

So what are your general thoughts on the Academy?

Is there anything you feel that's been done fantastically? Something to emphasize?

Anything that's awful and we should eradicate ASAP?

What do you expect from classes? What do you think is the ideal way to run them?

Do you like having a cast of NPCs to choose from? Are you aware we have them? Do you want them to be more fully fleshed out?

What lore do you want to see? Is there any information that's lacking or confusing? How much depth do you want? Tons? Do you want to write any lore?

Is the freeform nature of the setting helpful or is it a setback? Would you prefer some type of system? Mechanics?

What kind of roleplaying do you want to do here? Quests? Combat oriented? Puzzles and mysteries? Idyllic get-togethers? A large variety? Something else?

Do you like the idea of having large plot arcs to the Academy in addition to the classes? Stories that will affect the whole school?

What about competition? Someone had an idea for a rival school in another country that fell through. Does the idea of storming someone's dojo and taking their flag appeal to you?

When we start writing and reorganizing the Academy, we'll take everything you say into account, so let us know what you want to see. You don't have to answer all the questions, but it's always nice to have a thumb on the players' heart rate. Gotta get it racing.

[spacegy4]

It would be cool to see a school wide plot.

Also I had no idea there were premade NPCs available to just pick up and use

[supernal]

Space, if you look here: http://www.valucre.com/showthread.php/11715-Information!

You'll see the first post has a table of contents and there are two items, NPC Crew and NPC Teachers, that you can click on that will take you to a post listing out the NPC's available for use by the players, and a brief bio/informational on them.

Mind taking a moment and looking through there, and seeing what you think about the list as is?

[circa.cipher]

So what are your general thoughts on the Academy?
The Academy is nice because it's like a giant gumbo pot full of great roleplayers -- you got a bit of beef with Chaflin, and some sturdy potatoes like Donovan, and then some sweet carrots with Shay, and then a whole bunch of spices with Liyah. Anyways -- my favorite part about the Academy has always been how many people are involved.

Is there anything you feel that's been done fantastically? Something to emphasize?
The Academy allows anyone to join, which makes for some really interesting, diverse roleplays. Lots of the people in the Academy are people your character would be unable to meet any other way.

Anything that's awful and we should eradicate ASAP?
Nothing urgent that comes to mind, although there are some ups and downs with how "unstructured" it is as a location. (I put unstructured in quotation marks because the Academy itself is a plot structure, but it's not specifically driven by anything itself besides the students. I, personally, would enjoy having teachers or headmasters or something to add structure.)

What do you expect from classes? What do you think is the ideal way to run them?
Ideally, there would be a teacher, but I understand how it's hard to expect a roleplayer to basically come up with a class schedule and lesson for each time they meet. Maybe it could be more of a hands-on thing, or mainly field trips or side quests?

Do you like having a cast of NPCs to choose from? Are you aware we have them? Do you want them to be more fully fleshed out?
I like the NPCs the way they are. I feel like every person that uses them adds a bit of their own flavor to them, like their own little mark on the Academy.

What lore do you want to see? Is there any information that's lacking or confusing? How much depth do you want? Tons? Do you want to write any lore?
I haven't looked into the Academy lore enough to be an accurate judge of this. I'm not a huge lore person, unless I'm looking for cities.

Is the freeform nature of the setting helpful or is it a setback? Would you prefer some type of system? Mechanics?
Like I said before, there's ups and downs to the system it has now. While it's great to be able to throw our characters into anything at anytime, I feel like ultimately, it would be better to have something driving the roleplays forward, like a class or a field trip or a quest.

What kind of roleplaying do you want to do here? Quests? Combat oriented? Puzzles and mysteries? Idyllic get-togethers? A large variety? Something else?
The one thing I really love about the Academy is how diverse it is. All of these roleplay themes sound like a good time, and having so many different characters from different locations makes it fun to play them out.

Do you like the idea of having large plot arcs to the Academy in addition to the classes? Stories that will affect the whole school?
That would be awesome. Like, super awesome.

What about competition? Someone had an idea for a rival school in another country that fell through. Does the idea of storming someone's dojo and taking their flag appeal to you?
I feel like attacking other places seems like a silly thing for a school to do, but it would be interesting to have a large competition at the school every year. Some sort of Tri-wizard Tournament (pardon the reference if you dislike Harry Potter) type competition could really add a spark to the student body. A type of competition that tests a whole bunch of different things and anyone is welcome to participate or watch kind of deal would be interesting.

[supernal]

What do you expect from classes? What do you think is the ideal way to run them?
Ideally, there would be a teacher, but I understand how it's hard to expect a roleplayer to basically come up with a class schedule and lesson for each time they meet. Maybe it could be more of a hands-on thing, or mainly field trips or side quests?

In this thread: http://www.valucre.com/showthread.ph...emy!#mandatory

In the Mandatory Reading section, which the link ought to take you to automatically, there is a section for the teachers. I'll quote it here.

Teachers: Although we allow members to play teachers, we do not allow teacher "class threads". Field trips, internal missions, extra-credit and extracurricular assignments are the primary methods by which a member playing a teacher may actively teach a class. Threads in which a teacher is simply soliloquizing to a class has proven tedious to play in, and disastrous when considering the whole of forward progress is dependent on a single person (the teacher).

Teachers, even NPC teachers, will always be better than any student in their specific field of expertise.

Is that kind of what you're talking about?

[Oljhin Akusao]

So what are your general thoughts on the Academy?
I think it's a great starting point for a new character, or a nice stop for an old one.

Is there anything you feel that's been done fantastically? Something to emphasize?

Anything that's awful and we should eradicate ASAP?
none

What do you expect from classes? What do you think is the ideal way to run them?
I think that the classes are fine as they are now; dependent on the teacher, or the student. Though the 'explore the world for your studies' technique is kind of hindering more people to congregate into the school, I believe that it's better that way so our characters are not constricted to the confines of the classroom. I think there's an equal distribution of students in the field and out in the lands and that's fine.

Do you like having a cast of NPCs to choose from? Are you aware we have them? Do you want them to be more fully fleshed out?
I like the NPC cast as they are. They have depth in them already, but just enough that they can be tweaked depending on usage by different people.

What lore do you want to see? Is there any information that's lacking or confusing? How much depth do you want? Tons? Do you want to write any lore?
The lore is a good, but it's a bit lacking imo. the academy itself is beautifully crafted and highly informative, but could use a little more detail. I understand that they're pretty bland to allow for free-form writing, but people don't always make big impact in the lore when they're just walking through the halls. so a little more would be nice. (I'd love to write some lore!)

Is the freeform nature of the setting helpful or is it a setback? Would you prefer some type of system? Mechanics?
I think the free-form nature's pros outweigh its cons. Though the mechanics could use a bit more tweaking. take the -semester- for example, which as of now is dependent on whims as to when they change. I was thinking of having something of a more fixed yet fluid mechanic as to when it changes.

Spoiler:

Here's my idea, still needs work, just throwing it out there
-say a semester ic lasts two or three months time irl. so a person has 3 months of real world time to complete his/her subjects in their respective threads. (this is a very strict timeline, but here's how I propose to make it fluid.) taking into account that not everyone starts at the same time in taking classes, I say the three months time will not be set as a standard on everyone.

ie. jan - mar, april - july...

but instead have them bind themselves three months from when they start taking classes.

ie. I joined in june, and A joined in july. So while A has until september to finish his classes, I only have till august to finish mine.

This needs major work and has flaws. but you guys wanted suggestions. :D

What kind of roleplaying do you want to do here? Quests? Combat oriented? Puzzles and mysteries? Idyllic get-togethers? A large variety? Something else?
I like any roleplay within or outside the school.

Do you like the idea of having large plot arcs to the Academy in addition to the classes? Stories that will affect the whole school?

It would be cool to see a school wide plot.

I agree.

The notion of storywide arcs is a wonderful idea, as it both creates a plot within the school (rather than just having classes) and provide a focal point of gathering and intermingling of the students and teachers outside of class threads. And it would help to draw in more students and teachers.

What about competition? Someone had an idea for a rival school in another country that fell through. Does the idea of storming someone's dojo and taking their flag appeal to you?
I'm not too sure about breaking down doors and stealing flags from other schools, but a rival is not a bad thing to have. We could have inter-school competitions and that sort of things, but an active war against a rival school doesn't sound bad either.
-If there's a lack of people for an entirely different school, we could have factions within the academy itself. again for the purposes stated above.

[circa.cipher]

Yeah, I was aware originally that a lot of the time teachers would be mainly chaperones to field trips, and I really like that idea. Lots of people don't like school so having the Academy be class room based would be negative, in my opinion. I definitely think as much going out or hands-on learning as possible would be for the best.

[desolate]

Thanks for the input! You're all awesome. :) I hope to hear from more people.

What we've decided to implement so far from your feedback:

• School-wide plot arc.

• Unique event or contest for the Academy like the Triwizard Tournament.

• Factions within the school and a student body.

• Big list of various class-related quests that can be undertaken without a GM as inspiration and activity fodder.

• Advice for round-robin GM styles for those who want to use NPC teachers. I suspect guidelines will make people more apt to tackle new threads.

• Player controlled teachers should take a GM role. It's already expected, but we will elaborate on the expectations.

• New, expanded Academy grounds so quests and field trips don't always have to occur outside the Academy forum for a diverse experience.

• More detail for what already exists.

A note on semesters: we tend to end them every six months with a new roll call to see who is still on board and to prompt new people into joining. However, schools do have multiple class times: regular academic, express, 10 week, 8 week, 6 week, weekend, dynamic date, etc. For the sake of lore, we will include such an aspect in the class template.

Feel free to brainstorm any specificity.

[Homo Sacer]

School-wide plot arc.

I like this very much. One element of that arc, I think, should have some impact on the world outside the academy, though. I'm sure it'll play out that way, since execution of the arc will obviously require activity outside of the academy's walls, but I just want to make clear that it shouldn't solely be the canon of the academy which the narrative affects.

Unique event or contest for the Academy like the Triwizard Tournament.

Eh, neutral to this. I'm not a big contest guy. I'd help administrate, and I wouldn't discourage willing participants, but it's not a big turn-on for me.

Factions within the school and a student body.

Sounds good to me. Factionalism always makes things interesting.

Big list of various class-related quests that can be undertaken without a GM as inspiration and activity fodder.

Definitely like it; however, I think that PC teachers ought to have at least some role in developing those quests, since it's their class. In general, though, I like it because it lowers the total amount of micromanagement to which teachers have to attend, which I think is good.

Advice for round-robin GM styles for those who want to use NPC teachers. I suspect guidelines will make people more apt to tackle new threads.

Okie dokie.

Player controlled teachers should take a GM role. It's already expected, but we will elaborate on the expectations.

I'm completely behind this, though I'm obviously curious as to what your specific expectations are.

New, expanded Academy grounds so quests and field trips don't always have to occur outside the Academy forum for a diverse experience.

Yes. Just yes.

More detail for what already exists.

Cool.

More NPCs, but the presentation and content style will remain the same.

Eh. Most people expressed satisfaction with the way the presentation and flavoring worked, so that's all well and good, but I don't recall anyone having said there weren't enough NPCs. I guess, as long as it doesn't burden with extra overhead, it's not really a problem.

[vasanti]

So what are your general thoughts on the Academy?

I've personally always enjoyed the Academy for as long as I've been an active members of the story, and have enjoyed the experience and the activity it provides. It was fun to make a character for it, and then to be able to interact with so many other people on such a large-scale plot rather than just smaller side-plots that may involve only the same handful of people here and there.

Is there anything you feel that's been done fantastically? Something to emphasize?

I very much enjoyed the large quest/adventure threads that went on and that were DM'ed. It was all kinds of fun to have Chloe (my Academy character) get kidnapped, her eyeball removed, and locked in chest for the other kids to find; I know, I know, kinda gruesome...but it was worth it!

Anything that's awful and we should eradicate ASAP?

Nowai.

What do you expect from classes? What do you think is the ideal way to run them?

I've always liked the way the classes have been ran and the schedules and different, smaller threads for each class. It also gave the writer a chance to interact with multiple groups of different people on a much smaller level rather than like, the initial grand ceremony or something.

Do you like having a cast of NPCs to choose from? Are you aware we have them? Do you want them to be more fully fleshed out?

LOL okay I've just gotta say here that I think Damon did an incredibly hysterical job at making all the NPCs, matching images to their roles, and descriptions of them... and their names? Fantastic. I liked having the cast of NPCs to choose from to interact with, it gave anyone the chance to do something on their own, rather than having to always constantly find characters to get involved with.

What lore do you want to see? Is there any information that's lacking or confusing?

Haven't thought of anything that lacks or is confusing.

How much depth do you want? Tons? Do you want to write any lore?

Depth is good, but it doesn't always have to be to the point where there's no room left for imagination or creativity - then it loses the aspect of being created through the writing, and rather just starts sounding more like a pre-existing story that we're just reading rather than contributing to.

Is the freeform nature of the setting helpful or is it a setback? Would you prefer some type of system? Mechanics?

I've always enjoyed freeform, tbh.

What kind of roleplaying do you want to do here? Quests? Combat oriented? Puzzles and mysteries? Idyllic get-togethers? A large variety? Something else?

All of the above. Doesn't really matter how much of each is done, but there's always already been a pretty good mixture of all the above, or so I felt.

Do you like the idea of having large plot arcs to the Academy in addition to the classes? Stories that will affect the whole school?

Yessum.

What about competition? Someone had an idea for a rival school in another country that fell through. Does the idea of storming someone's dojo and taking their flag appeal to you?

Sounds good to me. I don't know why, but reading this last question - I was instantly reminded of the Simpsons and their rival school/town, and then I was also instantly reminded of capture the flag games, haha. Love it.

[Fallen Joy]

[I haven't read anyone else's responses, so sorry if anything I say is repetitive]

So what are your general thoughts on the Academy?

I think it's a great idea in general, mostly in the sense that it allows for the development of both character and the powers they have. And it's a way to make someone 'normal' suddenly become someone 'special' ICly; which in my opinion is way better than establishing it through writing a character history.

Is there anything you feel that's been done fantastically? Something to emphasize?

Well I think it's great that universal NPC teachers and faculty have been placed for the academy. The Gala was good introduction to new students, though some part of me feels like that should have remained open for the continuous flow of students.

Anything that's awful and we should eradicate ASAP?

Uh. None that I can think of.

What do you expect from classes? What do you think is the ideal way to run them?

The way you have the classes now is good, where people can create their own adventures/assignments for classes. It gives a sense of freedom for the players, but definitely has its down sides. Like now, besides the adventure's class thread I tried to join, there's not many threads up for classes. I think a problem might be that some people became students to be lead by someone else, not to teach themselves by playing an NPC teacher. It's kind of how I feel anyway. For example, I know absolutely nothing about Alchemy and placed my character in the class cause I was interested in learning it on an OOC level too. Kind of hard for me to start a thread and play a NPC teacher on something I know absolutely about. So I don't bother making a thread. Same general concept with the other classes I picked. I wanted to learn something new and be taught/guided by someone else on an IC level.

We don't have that many people who play teachers, but I think the ones that do should definitely make threads for their classes and see if any students join. I probably would.

Do you like having a cast of NPCs to choose from? Are you aware we have them? Do you want them to be more fully fleshed out?

I knew about them, but only because Carlos somehow drew my attention to the thread some time ago [don't remember how]. I didn't find it on my own, so might want to make them more known? Like I mentioned before, great idea, but has the NPC downsides that I already stated.

What lore do you want to see? Is there any information that's lacking or confusing? How much depth do you want? Tons? Do you want to write any lore?

Not sure what you're talking about. I don't think there's any lacking or confusing information. I always enjoyed more depth in anything. No, not really.

Is the freeform nature of the setting helpful or is it a setback? Would you prefer some type of system? Mechanics?

Aside for my classes statement, I don't really have much else to say on that.

What kind of roleplaying do you want to do here? Quests? Combat oriented? Puzzles and mysteries? Idyllic get-togethers? A large variety? Something else?

This is an academy. I would expect and want all of the above.

Do you like the idea of having large plot arcs to the Academy in addition to the classes? Stories that will affect the whole school?

For sure. Anything that can give the people participating an excuse to roleplay with one another.

What about competition? Someone had an idea for a rival school in another country that fell through. Does the idea of storming someone's dojo and taking their flag appeal to you?

Haha, kind of Naruto-much, but yeah it does actually. But even if it didn't, I'm sure it would appeal to someone else who loves fighting. Though I think you should try to get more academy activity in before throwing in another one. If there was a competition though, best believe my character would be ALL over it.

[ruckus]

So what are your general thoughts on the Academy?

I think the Academy has always been an area of unrealized potential for Valucre; the possibility for the creation of a collaborative bildungsroman is always lurking somewhere below the surface of the actual day-to-day interactions on the academy grounds. While it seemed to begin as a place for smaller characters to charge up their lasers and learn the finer points of geomancy and religion, I tend to view it more and more as a fertile ground for an exploration of the . . . well, the adolescent viewpoint of growing up in a world riddled with miracle and defied expectations. It's, um, Joyce's epiphany, or at least could be.



Is there anything you feel that's been done fantastically? Something to emphasize?

I think the structure offered to academy roleplay by having dedicated "class" threads is indispensable, since it allows for the convenient transference of ideas between the formal academic setting and the actual interpersonal drama that should be occurring between students as they enroll and participate in the Academy. Much like we navigate our own world according to the ideas and concepts we learn in school, on the internet, or at home, the characters in the Academy are confronted with an inundation of data. It's unreasonable to think it is all immediately palatable.

If this were to be emphasized, the cultural role that the academy can play in the lives of its students, rather than the accumulation of powers, etc., I think there might be a richer play environment for Valucre as a whole, just based on the generative power of such a roleplaying format for the collective lore of Terrenus, Iselyr, Genesaris, etc. I think the class format is a great way to facilitate such a dynamic and, as such, should perhaps be more concertedly theorized before it begins in the future.



Anything that's awful and we should eradicate ASAP?

Bullying. I don't see how you can expect me to send my character to an institution that will just sit back as the other students just take advantage of him and systematically pick him apart.



What do you expect from classes? What do you think is the ideal way to run them?

I expect my character to be grounded in Valucrean lore in a way that I couldn't get from reading one of Carlos' many tutorials or one of the lore articles up in the taskbar at the top of the site. I expect to be given a unique perspective on the macroscopic structure of Valucrean politics, or the use of magic, or the wars, or the terrorism that occasionally goes on, or any number of things. The material is potentially rich, and goes much deeper than learning how to make an earthquake through the bottom of your feet. We do not, of course, attend every class that a professor holds during a semester here at the academy; therefore, it behooves the professor to make their one class count for their students. If that means taking a field trip, so be it; I don't think discussion roleplays are necessarily boring, provided the discussion within the thread is genuine and engaging and crosses a broad-spectrum of theoretical ideas that can be generated in-context by the participants in the roleplay.

For example, are there no atheists in the Academy? What arguments are there for atheism in a world where Gaia at least appears to actually exist? Are there any students from destroyed Biazo? Any Unnatural students? We had an Unnatural headmaster . . . are all the professors so tolerant as to not care? Are all of the students, even those from Biazo, which still suffers from an Unnatural infestation, as tolerant?

The dynamics are practically limitless, but unexploited as the Academy stands. By focusing the single class of the semester purposefully, we can really drive toward the sort of character depth and lore depth that I believe Valucre wants to approach. Does everyone really want Terrenus to be a militaristic theocracy? I doubt it.




Do you like having a cast of NPCs to choose from? Are you aware we have them? Do you want them to be more fully fleshed out?

Didn't know. Still don't know. I'd rather have there be a genuine interpersonal dynamic in the academy than a cast of NPCs with a rotating storyteller.




What lore do you want to see? Is there any information that's lacking or confusing? How much depth do you want? Tons? Do you want to write any lore?

>_> See above. I'll write lore if you'd like me to do so, but I can't promise an objective lore.




Is the freeform nature of the setting helpful or is it a setback? Would you prefer some type of system? Mechanics?

I think the mechanics we tried to implement at the outset of the academy were a theoretically good idea with a bad execution; we had lofty expectations about what kind of a time/interest commitment we could expect from our players. That having been said, I don't think it needs to be eradicated entirely, just simplified so that the school year can be collapsed down to a "choice" among a number of different disciplines. If a student wants to come here to learn about how to pyew pyew, then we can shuffle that student off into a class with like-minded individuals. If the character wants to come here to learn how to organize magitech and the potential risks/dangers of using magitech in the long-run, etc., then that could also be a route that another student wants to take. If they want to learn about a particular language, and can get enough people together to do it, that could be fun as well.

I do think there should be a simple way for people to transfer what they've learned at the academy to their character's histories in a way that assumes a larger commitment to the academy than their sparse threads would indicate. Having a basic level of classes to choose from that allows for a character to increase his or her knowledge base might be helpful, but what might be even more helpful is to literally have the students "tell" about what they learned in their classes (i.e. write lore articles) to try and shape some of the more unshaped areas of Valucre and Terrenus.




What kind of roleplaying do you want to do here? Quests? Combat oriented? Puzzles and mysteries? Idyllic get-togethers? A large variety? Something else?

Variety is the spice of imaginary life, but textual puzzles are almost uniformly dumb.




Do you like the idea of having large plot arcs to the Academy in addition to the classes? Stories that will affect the whole school?

Yes. Absolutely.



What about competition? Someone had an idea for a rival school in another country that fell through. Does the idea of storming someone's dojo and taking their flag appeal to you?

Nah.

[Lunadrakla]

So what are your general thoughts on the Academy?
My general thoughts on the Academy are that even as it gives an area to help expand and build our characters up, its rather hard to do for some with such a generalization and lack of certain goals. Some prefer to have set goal in mind and work towards that, while others have no goal and just work with what they have. I'm the person that prefers for someone to give me role and I can configure to fit it. But overall, the general idea of the academy is a good one.

Is there anything you feel that's been done fantastically? Something to emphasize?
I think the organization of the layout is very well thought out. Perhaps the classes could be emphasized more, I've read some threads and a few mention classes that I didn't even know was available.

Anything that's awful and we should eradicate ASAP?
Not that I can think of right off hand.

What do you expect from classes? What do you think is the ideal way to run them?I expect the classes to help give more fullness to my character. The problem is that one requirement is to participate in the classes, but there are classes that are started by some and trying to jump in doesn't work too well or starting one with yourself can be dull and boring. I've noticed that there are students that will jump into a class though and post only enough to get others to interact then they don't post in that thread anymore leaving the others pondering what to do next.

Do you like having a cast of NPCs to choose from? Are you aware we have them? Do you want them to be more fully fleshed out?
I'm aware of the npcs but I find them to be confusing as I am a blond and lack a lot of simple understandings.

What lore do you want to see? Is there any information that's lacking or confusing? How much depth do you want? Tons? Do you want to write any lore?
The truth is, I don't want to write any lore because of the conflicts my ideas bring into the picture, but it would be nice if there were more fleshing out of perhaps past students or achievements. This would give a good stand for future drives.

Is the freeform nature of the setting helpful or is it a setback? Would you prefer some type of system? Mechanics?
I think this one is a trick question.

What kind of roleplaying do you want to do here? Quests? Combat oriented? Puzzles and mysteries? Idyllic get-togethers? A large variety? Something else?
Can I vote for all? I would like for there to be something on the site that would allow for practice on combat rping without the ridicule of others when failing. But the get-togethers would give a good chance for characters to interact as the gala ball did.

Do you like the idea of having large plot arcs to the Academy in addition to the classes? Stories that will affect the whole school?
Those would be nice especially if there were events that came up...such as messages sent to members that mention a quest or event that could be participated in.

What about competition? Someone had an idea for a rival school in another country that fell through. Does the idea of storming someone's dojo and taking their flag appeal to you?
Yes the idea appeals to me or even just having internal competitiveness like groups or houses within the school that are competing. Of course, this all puts me in mind of the show Major Paine.
Another thing might be if an enemy state thinks our school is a training base for military...for the invading idea.