June 2016 Town Hall Topic Thread
Town Hall is coming, get your topics in!

Damn it. My carefully crafted post was ruined by a missing / again! Okay, here is it adjusted.

It's that time again, folks. Time for the twice annual Sindome Town Hall Meeting! We will come together as a community to discuss all aspects of the game in a moderated open forum. Things discussed at the Town Hall will set the priorities for the next six months of game play and development. It is important. I hope each and every one of you fills our Ampitheater to brimming.

The date for the meeting with be forthcoming very soon. However, we need to get started now, picking and discussing topics. If you have not attended one of these meetings before, I implore you to review the links below (the logs may be somewhat long, be warned) to get up to speed on how we do things.

Town Hall October 2015 Topic Thread: https://www.sindome.org/bgbb/open-discussion/anything-really/town-hall-topics-771/

Town Hall October 2015 Soundtrack Thread: https://www.sindome.org/bgbb/open-discussion/anything-really/town-hall-soundtrack-thread-772/

Town Hall October 2015 Agenda: https://www.sindome.org/bgbb/open-discussion/anything-really/october-2015--town-hall-agenda-774/

Town Hall October 2015 Log: https://www.sindome.org/bgbb/open-discussion/anything-really/town-hall-log--october-2015--775/

Town Hall April 2015 Topic Thread: https://www.sindome.org/bgbb/open-discussion/anything-really/upcoming-town-hall-meeting-719/

Town Hall April 2015 Agenda: http://www.sindome.org/help/town-hall-agenda-2015/

Town Hall April 2015 Log: http://www.sindome.org/town-hall-04-04-15-log.html

Town Hall May 2014 Topic Thread: https://www.sindome.org/bgbb/open-discussion/theme/town-hall-meeting-121/

Town Hall May 2014 Log: http://www.sindome.org/town-hall-05-10-14-raw-log.html

We will be sticking to the same format this year as we have in the past: Welcomes, announcements, rules, speeches, open discussion.

So without further ado, lets discuss topics. The agenda that I create from these topics will group topics together. Feel free to post multiple topics in the same post, just make sure they are clearly seperated.

This is NOT the place to DISCUSS these topics. If you want to discuss a topic someone puts forward, create a new topic in the appropriate sub forum. Do not discuss it here. You can support a topic in this forum.. It's good for me to know what you all want discussed so you can offer your support for a topic in a response, or make suggestions for combining or breaking topics up.

Topics can be:

* Changes to the way the game works

* Problems with the game

* Code changes

* Ideas for moving forward

* Player -> Player Interactions

* GM -> Player Interactions

* Suggestions

* Other things that I forgot (take cues from past agendas)

Topics cannot be:

* Bitch fests

* Complaints about specific people

* So small that they effect only you or your immediate IC friends (keep it game-wide, or at least sector wide!)

We normally have about 1.5 hours to get through all of the topics. And there are a lot of people. So we are going to have to keep our list of topics concise. If your topic doesn't make the cut, we will have a section at the end for open discussion.

Any questions? GO!

-- S

I'd like to discuss about new player retention (i.e. our "reputation" as being "newbie-unfriendly"), and more game-wide plots and interesting events that aren't so seldom and specific to only one sector.

Also, the lack of IC news.

I'd like to see ideas on how to generate emphasis on intelligence-based roles and RP related to these roles / Steering away from run & gun / fight or flight / combat skills required kinds of situations.

Also, plots which rely very little on coded skills so that any newbie or immie could end up heavily involved in some shit and do really interesting things if they RP and put effort into the RP with other PC's.

Also maybe some heavier emphasis on types of information trade, cyberpunk to me is all about the value of information (or disinformation). Data is everywhere. It should have more depth or access. Career path availability for those who demonstrate interest. Information should have a lot of power. People should fear the nerd who does nothing but read dossiers all day.

More active IC directives for such cyberpunk action heros as:

Intelligence Brokers / Private Investigators

Smugglers (get sent outside!)

Forgery / Document falsification agents

I echo the sentiments about newbie friendliness and information broker style characters.

I'd also like to see a GM's take on the best way to go about creating interesting player run plots.

1)More Paydata. More individuality and usefulness for brokers. Yes, Please.

2)More real work for PI's, Deckers, Hackers, etc. Those cowboys should be BA.

3)Artistry restructuring: I'd love to see it work like languages and be more widely

available. Every cyberpunk is an artist in her own right...right?At least more

specialized? Maybe this has been beat to death. w/e.

4)The Matrix? Please? What's in the works/continuation?

5)As far as the economy goes. How can we make professions like deckers, brokers,

PI's more profitable. People won't spend chy unless they -need- to. Most people

wont anyway.

6)Cyberlimbs.

7)Tattoos- short and long descriptions? Colors? I'd love to see both.

8)Time frame on B&E?

9)OMG there's so much cool shit in this game.

It's tough because I think part of the appeal of this game is the cutthroat nature of the world.

Are there stats for how many first time connectors end up never connecting again?

Following your request, Slither, and speaking about newbie friendliness, there are a few focal points I would like to point out. Let me speak from my own perspective. When I first begun playing Sindome, I was overwhelmed. I literally didn’t know what to do next after popping out of the immigration control gates, so I wandered around, somehow managed to get some clothes and somehow had the luck of meeting a very influential character back then who hired me. A bit more interaction and I ended up having a corporate job, but I still didn’t know many things about the game. I lost interest and stopped playing because I felt like I was simply inadequate for it. It was only because an IRL friend continued to nag me about coming back to the game that I decided to give it another try, with my current character which made me fall in love with this game.

For the bigger portion of the immigrants, they don’t count with the same luck I did. Run around naked, confused about the layout of the streets, and most importantly, oblivious of what the hell is the Grid (or any communication method) about. Besides, add up our strict “find out ICly” policy, and how some players might not like getting mugged without even knowing where the hell they are standing. I am not implying that the “find out IC” policy is inherently wrong, but that it gives an impression that we have an odd way to approach OOC communication and while we’re just being frank and staying on-theme, some people read it along the lines of: “you can’t know that – figure it out by trying over and over until you find out… how to make a phone call.” And while we have “examine” to figure most of those things, I am speaking in a very broad sense, and generally speaking, people have the perception that you simply have to FIGURE OUT how to play Sindome instead of having an intuitive approach.

How do we improve this? I firmly believe there are two approaches. First, builders should add an IC tool to help immies get their way around Red. Fuck the “you will figure it out with the courier job” or the “find out through the grid”. Because those get you even more confused. Most immies pop up in the gates bare-assed, broke and weak. They want to improve that, not hop in a virtual internet, and unless they explicitly ask about where to get a map, they won’t know. Most people assume there’s no map, so simply move on, wandering around. A good solution would be to create a gigantic holographic projector near the immigration control gates with a map of the Red sector displayed on it. Simply “look” at the thingy and get a link of the Red map sector. It might seem mundane, but in my opinion, it will help the newbies immensely. And, there’s a reasonable IC means for that: it’s Withmore City, a place riddled by holograms and TV-ads every-fucking-where. What harm will it do for the WCS to plop in a hologram projector next to Immy the Hologram with a steady image of Red’s map?

As a community, we can also take on the newbies and involve them in the game. I believe this has been discussed through the boards several times but I would like to emphasize the importance of this. Even if my character is in a position where he can’t really deal with the immies, some players can, yet, they don’t. And here it’s a no-man’s land because as a GM or as a fellow player, you can’t tell someone else how to RP. You can’t tell them “you shall now take on newbies and give them jobs or introduce them to new people”. But I believe that simply interacting with them, will give them a feel of being part of the game and not just a spectator. I understand completely that you must have the initiative as well, board the game without expecting handouts; not everyone will have the same luck as me with my first character, but involving newbies in your roleplay is good for them, for you, and for the game. Even if you have to treat them like shit, or give them challenges, give them RP. It also happens that some players realize that they aren’t OOCly cut for Sindome and they can’t really handle the cutthroat, grim world where death is always a possibility and despair, pain and agony is imminent. It happens; sadly, we can’t really please everyone. But those who might be actually attracted by the THEME we offer, might be drifted away when they encounter this kind of hindrances and the broken promises (“become a gun-toting Street Judge!” – yet have to do unrelated jobs for half a year of IRL time to even get a chance).

Overall, I disbelieve the thought that our community is somehow toxic or close to newbies. In fact, quite the contrary. However, contrasting from this, if you go and read comments about us on boards and discussion forums, people complain about the odd approach we have on OOC communication (i.e. “find out IC”), how hard it is for a newbie to find meaningful RP/find a job. Perhaps allowing them to directly hopping in the game without much fuss will improve this situation. It’s a bit frustrating when you join a game, but you realize your goals are set very far away because the steep learning curve is maybe too steep.

I’m not entirely sure if I’ve boarded the issue correctly. Maybe I haven’t offered much solutions save for barely addressing the problem in itself. Here I am expressing my thoughts and my opinion, and hopefully we’ll be able to hear a word from it from our fellow players and staff at the town hall meeting :)

This is getting a little heavy and difficult to follow, so, let me reiterate what Slither said in the first post:

This is NOT the place to DISCUSS these topics.

If you want to discuss a topic someone puts forward, create a new topic in the appropriate sub forum.

Do not discuss it here.

You can support a topic in this forum.

Again: Everyone is free to take a topic and open a new BGBB forum thread on that subject in order to discuss the topic. Please keep this one focused on collecting topics for the Town Hall agenda.

Thank you.

Corpse Cloning and what you do/do not remember. This is more something I just want to make 100% sure everyone is on the same page about.

Last call!

I wholeheartedly support Holly's ideas, particularly the last section. Tips on how to be a good antagonist and tips for players and how they can help the GMs to enforce/promote the lore are very important things.

I would like to request a word from GMs about the homogenization of topside-mix. More class division and less corpies mingling with mixers for NO reason. This is something that has particularly annoyed me lately, seeing high-rank corporate people having idle banter with people that obviously wouldn't get even close to their sphere of influence for no reason rather than just wanting to have idle banter. I want to see mixers get belittled by corpies, and corpies be resented by mixers. I feel like the line between them has been blurred a lot, but maybe that's just me...

Also, a word about the status of topside: in my opinion, there should be more violence, cutthroat corporate backstabbing, stuff like that.