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Saturday, January 14th @ 3PM (Town Hall)
Join us and discuss the next 6 months of the game!

Saturday, January 14th @ 3PM DST

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 Amphitheater to brimming.

We've added a LOT to the game in the last six months and made plenty of great changes. I'm really excited for all of us to get together and talk those changes as well as what we have in the works!

The typical formula we follow is a 3-hour Town Hall that starts with Senior Staff giving updates on their respective positions (Head of Game, Head Builder, Quartermaster, etc.). After those speeches we start the Open Discussion section of the meeting, where we work our way through the player submitted topics.

Take a look at the threads below for more information on what to expect, what type of topics are appropriate for the meeting. You may respond to this thread with your suggestions. However PLEASE in the interest of keeping this easy to manage, do not engage in discussion about the topics here. If you want to discuss them, create a relevant thread in the correct part of the BGBB.

I will be using this thread to help me build out our agenda for the meeting.

Thank you all! I'm super excited to catch up with all of you OOCly and to get to meet some of you for the first time.

-- Slither

Town Hall June 18th, 2016 Topic Thread: http://www.sindome.org/bgbb/open-discussion/anything-really/june-2016-town-hall-topic-thread-815/

Town Hall June 18th, 2016 Log: http://www.sindome.org/town-hall-06-18-16-log.html

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/

I think we'd benefit on talking about players communicating and speaking about Sindome stuff on 3rd party channels. And how harmful it is for the game.
@Villa It's on the agenda! Thanks for the suggestion.
As a new player, it'd be cool to hear directly from the people who deal with them about when to write @notes. I always feel weird thinking about writing them because I rarely feel like I've done something important, but I know @notes are extremely useful to staff and that I should probably be writing far, far more.

I'm excited to attend this!

Have you checked out the help files for player side notes?

help @notes

If you have and you find them lacking, please let me know here-- and include any specific questions you think would be useful if we addressed in the help file.

The help file really helped with formatting @notes to make sure I'm making them how the people stuck reading them would prefer, and I will say I'm super glad it does that.

The examples in the help file all point to job-search or NPC interactions, which nails that in my head pretty well as something that needs an @note, but I'm sure there's a ton more cases where staff would like an @note. I don't want to be too free wheeling about it and force staff to read every little character interaction I've done with other PCs though.

I guess my question is more about what warrants a note when it isn't a direct NPC call, and how much detail does staff want to encourage players to log about character interactions? @notes feel very much like a system designed as a 'help us help you' from staff, I just worry I'm not using it enough to meet its potential. If it'd fit better, I can make a separate thread for this instead.

Got it. We will add that to the list for the town hall!
I wouldn't mind seeing administrative accountability discussed. The rules the admins need to abide by aren't posted anywhere, which seems kinda odd. I've seen admins lie to me, I'm pretty sure I've seen admins lie to each other, and I've seen admins lie to other players. Some players have claimed they have only succeeded IC because they've flirted with admins OOC, others have claimed to work for admins IRL and this is what's given them success IC. And trying to look into this led to my being banned for a year and a handful of other players quitting permanently.

It's all a very murky little swamp that's hard to wade through. I can't be here at the town hall to discuss it for obvious reasons, but some clarity in the community would be nice to talk about.

I fretted over writing my history for two weeks before I jumped in the game. I would have loved to have an example history or two to look over. I think that is something that would make the game a bit more newbie friendly. I'm not sure if that is a good topic or not for discussion, but I thought I would mention it!
Curt5

Your post seems deliberately inflammatory. It is very easy to make claims like you just did, which can ruin player experience with the game by screwing with their admin trust. It's also easy to assume you know everything that is really going on, when you are on the player side. This very much led to you being banned.

I would ask that everyone read (or reread) this very in depth post on Admin Trust: http://www.sindome.org/bgbb/open-discussion/anything-really/recent-events--admin-trust-831/

Curt, your other claim that the rules for GMs are not posted anywhere-- it's incorrect. We received this feedback previously and I spent a bunch of time writing up a post about it. It's been up for almost 6 months now, accessible to everyone.

Rules & Restrictions for GMs: [/url]

Curt, we have allowed you to continue posting on the BGBB despite being banned-- but your post is not leaving me with a ton of confidence that your time being banned has done any good at all. If you would like to e-mail [email protected] and provide evidence of admin doing things for players that flirted with them (or other instances of cheating from back when you were playing), and the names of the players, I will be happy to dig into that and potentially ban both sides for cheating.

However, and I want to be clear here, We as a community cannot tolerate gossip. We cannot casually throw around things like 'once a player told me an admin flirted with them and they got a thing and it was cool'. You are only doing the community harm by playing a game of telephone with other peoples words or experiences--words and experiences that were seen through the lens of their own personal biases, issues, preconceptions and relatively small view of the in character world.

I've discussed this time and time again, and there are numerous BGBB posts about it. To continue to have you throwing out blanket accusations that you have no proof of, is really, really, frustrating. The fact that you are doing it in public where other players could be effected by it is personally upsetting, given the amount of time and effort I have put into discussing things with you, and other players, and the fact that almost all of those discussions are publicly available on this very forum.

-- S">http://www.sindome.org/bgbb/open-discussion/anything-really/restrictions-on-gms-admin-826/[/url]

Curt, we have allowed you to continue posting on the BGBB despite being banned-- but your post is not leaving me with a ton of confidence that your time being banned has done any good at all. If you would like to e-mail [email protected] and provide evidence of admin doing things for players that flirted with them (or other instances of cheating from back when you were playing), and the names of the players, I will be happy to dig into that and potentially ban both sides for cheating.

However, and I want to be clear here, We as a community cannot tolerate gossip. We cannot casually throw around things like 'once a player told me an admin flirted with them and they got a thing and it was cool'. You are only doing the community harm by playing a game of telephone with other peoples words or experiences--words and experiences that were seen through the lens of their own personal biases, issues, preconceptions and relatively small view of the in character world.

I've discussed this time and time again, and there are numerous BGBB posts about it. To continue to have you throwing out blanket accusations that you have no proof of, is really, really, frustrating. The fact that you are doing it in public where other players could be effected by it is personally upsetting, given the amount of time and effort I have put into discussing things with you, and other players, and the fact that almost all of those discussions are publicly available on this very forum.

-- S

Well, that post was a bust. Really need to add an edit button to the BGBB.

REPOST

Curt5

Your post seems deliberately inflammatory. It is very easy to make claims like you just did, which can ruin player experience with the game by screwing with their admin trust. It's also easy to assume you know everything that is really going on, when you are on the player side. This very much led to you being banned.

I would ask that everyone read (or reread) this very in depth post on Admin Trust: http://www.sindome.org/bgbb/open-discussion/anything-really/recent-events--admin-trust-831/

Curt, your other claim that the rules for GMs are not posted anywhere-- it's incorrect. We received this feedback previously and I spent a bunch of time writing up a post about it. It's been up for almost 6 months now, accessible to everyone.

Rules & Restrictions for GMs: http://www.sindome.org/bgbb/open-discussion/anything-really/restrictions-on-gms-admin-826/

And for anyone that wants a bit of an idea of what admin do on a day to day basis: http://www.sindome.org/bgbb/open-discussion/anything-really/what-do-admin-do--830/

Curt, we have allowed you to continue posting on the BGBB despite being banned-- but your post is not leaving me with a ton of confidence that your time being banned has done any good at all. If you would like to e-mail [email protected] and provide evidence of admin doing things for players that flirted with them (or other instances of cheating from back when you were playing), and the names of the players, I will be happy to dig into that and potentially ban both sides for cheating.

However, and I want to be clear here, We as a community cannot tolerate gossip. We cannot casually throw around things like 'once a player told me an admin flirted with them and they got a thing and it was cool'. You are only doing the community harm by playing a game of telephone with other peoples words or experiences--words and experiences that were seen through the lens of their own personal biases, issues, preconceptions and relatively small view of the in character world.

I've discussed this time and time again, and there are numerous BGBB posts about it. To continue to have you throwing out blanket accusations that you have no proof of, is really, really, frustrating. The fact that you are doing it in public where other players could be effected by it is personally upsetting, given the amount of time and effort I have put into discussing things with you, and other players, and the fact that almost all of those discussions are publicly available on this very forum.

-- S

Also, I want to just confirm that all players are aware that they can e-mail the following sindome e-mail accounts to report issues that include but are not limited to what appear to be instances of players or admin cheating:

help@

slither@

cerberus@

johnny@

This has always been our policy and as is stated in many places.

I would like to see a brief discussion at the town hall on playing Sindome to breathe life into a character and watch them grow, live, die and live again, ways to involve others in rp as your -character- would involve them, and also ways to create hooks that involve other players -AND- admin support that are really fun for -everybody- including the admins. I vote against any play to succeed or win conversations monopolizing any town hall time.
I'd really like to see a discussion about moving toward a firm ruling on player age requirement for Sindome.

I'm personally of the opinion that there should be a legal, ass-covering blanket ban on people younger than the voting age in the United States playing a game where inter-character relationships and textfucking are relatively commonplace.

I would like to see what the staff think about this, what discussions have taken place (if any), and if this is an avenue we can pursue to get a definitive answer on the subject.

I'd love to see a more refined idea and execution of the Rigging skill. I've yet to experience or hear any players boast about being the best rigger, nor have I seen it being used in my time here.

I would also like to see if the admins are liking the general state of the game's 'Mix vs Corpie' lifestyle. Like, are they confident that the theme of the game is being pushed, or if they're noticing a lot of Corpie characters mixing in with lowly Mix characters, and now would the admins go about changing the way the two themed classes interact.

Might be worth bringing up the Grid again, as I believe it was mentioned in the last couple of town halls, yet as far as I know no change has been made to it. This could be faulty memory on my part, however.
If I'm not mistaken, I think the devs are currently at work on Grid 3.0.
@ himble

The age rule thing is tricky AF and the laws are grey, varying state to state and country to country. Generally speaking, since it's adult content, but it's not "real life" content like a porn or dating site. (as in, there are no photos of actual people being exchanged or solicitations for 'hookups' like a tinder chatroom) SD is relatively free of liability. There some disclaimers, most notably the "Note: Adults Only, RP Required" when you sign in. Though perhaps that ought to be larger. Funny I felt like there was some big flashing one somewhere but I couldn't find it, so maybe I'm wrong.

Anyway, It's pretty impossible to screen for age without requiring people to register with a credit card in their own name, or some other more invasive form of age verification, like having players disclose sensitive identity related documents, which would be a whole legal nightmare in it's own right.

That being said, if someone OOCly comments or is suspected to be a minor I think the policy must be to have them straight up banned unless they can prove otherwise? Anyone?

@Wildgiller

Regardless of the legal status of anything, I know I'm not the only one who is put off by the idea of there being minors in the game. I'm not asking for in depth invasive verification or anything like that, just 'a ruling' in general.

Something more enforceable than a warning on login going forward, in the event it's discovered that a minor was playing the game or that someone was found to have been playing while underage and therefore breaking an outlined rule.

Well.. I found something explicitly stating age ..but is this really accurate?

http://www.sindome.org/signup/

It seems to indicate players can be 12+ according to USK12 ....

And.. now I want to know what the rules are too..

Also want to point out I'm not trying to single out anyone with my posts. I know it's happened in recent months, and there was a lot of unpleasant OOC chatter about it. Just looking for some way to avoid that kind of awkward shit in the future, is all.
The thought of doing anything even remotely sexual with someone underage makes me want to puke. I'd love an age limit listed on the login screen, preferably 18 and up.
Guys... USK12 is a GERMAN rating system. Europe is keen on Sex and not on Violence, opposite of North America. The North American rating on that page is clearly MA 18+

We're clearly an 18+ game with Adult Only RP situations. We cannot enforce this without screen people and requiring verification. We have had people as young as 16 on MOO that grew up with us.

Maybe you should stop moosexing if you can't stop thinking about the person you're moosexing with on the other side of the screen?

Sounds like an unhealthy idea of what MOOSEX is as a means of rolepaly.

In my opinion if you're going to worry about moosexing with minors, might as well not moosex at all, because you can't know for a fact whether a player behind a screen is a minor or not unless they tell you beforehand. The best way to deal with this is to keep it all IC and stop caring about the other player, because you are not doing anything sexual with them, your character is doing something sexual with their character. You're not catering to someone's else OOC sexual needs by engaging in sex scenes with their character. By learning to respect this barrier and differentiate between the in-character world and the real world, this becomes a non-issue. There's a notice on the login screen that denotes this is an adults game. The staff cannot physically enforce that age barrier, but the least they can do is hold all of us by that standard.
I'd like staff to take a moment and think about ways the players can help the staff do their jobs better (not that you are doing a bad job, but are there ways we can make life easier on you?)

With apologies to JFK, Ask not what the staff can do for the player, but what the player can do for the game.

Thanks for all the topics so far. Keep them coming!
I would like us to discuss how OOC communication, even stuff that starts out innocent, can have a negative effect on the game and others enjoyment of it. I'll try to bring some suggestions and ideas relevant to the playerbase.
I just woke up and saw himble's and wildgiller's posts. What happened was I tried to write a post containing my opinion regarding the legal aspects of our current age policy, while still groggy. This went as well as you might expect. It turned into an absolute nightmare with me trying to 'research' stuff on the ooc channel, when the channel was not exactly the appropriate place to do so. Let's say that my extremely panicked state did not sit well with the staff. This is an apology for my negligence.

In all seriousness though, while our users are right in not focusing on the person behind the screen, I do believe that some explanations on the law and sindome would benefit us all by making us more aware. So, perhaps this could be included in the next town-hall?

That is all.

Talking about ways to involve new players could be enlightening.
It'd be nice to talk about ways of METAing. Not OOC contact with other players, but as in ambience or other ic ways:

e.g "short shrouded dyke in a canary yellow poncho" = AH! I know ___'s word is always 'dyke' and she owns a canary yellow poncho.

Or maybe by short description...

Or the fact that when you pass by somebody, you are bound to see and notice them.

(Ignoring ambience basically)

Something like that maybe. I know there's other ways, but I can't think of one right now.

I too am curious about what Diani mentioned. If someone is disguised and I recognize their description, am I metagaming for knowing it's them or is it assumed my character just recognized them by body-shape, voice, mannerisms and other such things? Some clarity on things like that would be appreciated.
@Diani

-Metagaming clone memories,

-Deducing identities due to small world logic,

-Ignoring ambient population.

-Speculating with GM online times to avoid ambient pop reactions or reactive NPC puppets (like Judges),

-Abusing the grid's limitations,

-Abusing the market's code limitations,

-Ignoring wounds, specially critical ones,

-etc

I've definitely been guilty of puzzling over the one hooded mano at the bar when ambiently there's probably dozens just like him in the same area.
@Stelpher You are supposed to do a reasonable work of recognition. Voice, @nakeds, hand tattoos, speech patterns, choice of clothes or gear. The description can help but it's not enough.
I'd like if the GMs or experienced players spoke about ways to create big plots. Big stuff that usually involves a lot of players and leaves a transcendent and meaningful effect in the game world. Beyond your usual bar banter and corpie romantic drama. I believe our newer and not so new players would benefit from this so they can dive right into the serious intense roleplaying.
I wish to address official GM policy regarding handling sleepers.

Carry on.

I agree with Villa, I think that would be very interesting to not only see, but experience.
Another subject I consider interesting, in my opinion, is the achieveability of large goals.

If I recall correctly, a senior GM stated that it was impossible for a player character to become the CEO of one of the existing megacorporations (i.e. NLM, VS, etc.), because this position was held by previous PCs in the past and they had massive amounts of power and control over the game, making it a little unfair for the rest.

Personally, I believe it'd open so many doors for RP if you allowed (and even, impulsed) players reach certain positions, of course, assuming they have enough OOC trust from GMs, and players who you can rely on policing themselves, like you currently do with Judges and other positions of large power. Understanding it usually takes months of character development and investment to reach such goals, but at the end of it you just empower the population and making the game much more dynamic.

I'm probably speaking out of my ass because I haven't put myself out there to try it, since my character has very different IC goals from the ones I'm contemplating here, but is it really feasible for a player to try to start up their own gang up to par with the three main gangs, for example? When is the next time we'll see a Lucifer starting up TERRA or a Seven Ecks starting the Snakes? Or an ambitious player, not a NPC, who became the CEO of NLM through shady means? This is what I mean when I say big, meaningful plots. At this point, I don't know whether it's just the playerbase being passive and not actively pursuing those ambitious goals, or just OOC restrictions to keep the game balanced, so I'd love to talk about this too.

No player has ever been CEO of a corporation that they didn't themselves start (or that was started by another player). TERRA was a player created corp, for example.

Due to game balance issues, we do not have players at the very top of organizational chains due to the fact that players come and go. It's not -just- the power, it's the fact that everything falls apart when there isn't an NPC to take over for a player who has had to stop playing due to real life.

Thus, it is VERY MUCH possible to reach positions in organizations where for all intents and purposes you are in charge of a lot of things (Department Managers, VPs, Head Producers, Media Starlets, High ranking gangers, Staff Judges) but unless the very very rare situation arises where a PC is being turned into an NPC (this happens very rarely, please don't expect it to happen for you), those PCs are always kept in a position where an NPC can take over their responsibilities, allowing the GMs to carry on where they had to leave off due to IRL constraints.

There is also the idea that the head of a corp like NLM would have nearly unlimited power and the GMs would still have to tell them 'no, but' more often than would be ICly reasonable due to the fact that 'killing every mixer on red over and over to purge the gene pool' while potentially good for business, might be bad for the game.

We can discuss this further at the town hall, but that's our general policy and for the reasons I stated, I don't see that changing unless there is some major consideration that we have neglected to see thus far. Make sense?

-- S

Okay folks, we're getting closer and closer to go time! Please continue to post your topics / suggestions / ideas for discussion at the Town Hall. This is your chance to have important issues you see, addressed and discussed by the entire community!
I wish to address the matter of the effect that active, aggressive and savvy max-UE NPCs bring into the game, particularly in the Mix.
Interesting point Kuzco, it's something that I've experienced myself but never thought it would be something to address OOCly. I've always seen it as an IC matter, but come to think of it, those max-UE NPCs who will mercilessly kill you are probably there as a balancing factor to keep oldbies on a leash.
Kuzco, can you go into a bit more detail about what aspects of that you want to discuss? A few examples?
I can't give concrete examples because that would be IC info.

But the idea of having max level UE chars terrorising the mix, against whom there is no possible opposition for anyone who's not either a maxer or near maxer, is a little frustrating. The result that I -see- is that the mix gets -emptied- when these maxers go in a rampage. Everyone hides in their homes.

Putting it simply, a maxer attacks me (and I've seen them attacking without provocation, and I know that I may be missing the big picture but I know a little more than the average player too) and I know there's nothing left to do. The fact that maxers are played by the most skilled players in the game in terms on reaction time, typing, correct command and gauging of enemy capabilities, makes it worse.

I know they are here to create chaos and conflict, and they are -excellent- tools for that, but so are the gangs, and they don't have to be max UEs for it no?

I hope I'm not coming out as whiney or aggressive, it was something that's been in my mind for a while and thought to speak up.

Not even mentioning that maxers are usually wielding the best weapons, armor and chrome in the game! =D
Okay, we will add this to the list. Though I must admit I am unsure how you know these are max UE npcs?
Okay, we've got quite the list here! I've added it all to the Agenda. However, I'm not starting to worry that we won't have enough time to cover all of it. Keep the topics coming should you have important ones that come up. If you think it's only marginally important, create a BGBB post about it and let's discuss there.

As it stands, I may break a few of the topics requested off and create posts about them.

While I'm sure Kuzco doesn't know for sure that they're max UE, I think the fact whether they're max ue or not doesn't matter. I think the issue is they're so good at fighting that, even if they're theoretically beatable, absolutely no one wants to give it a shot as the only reward for doing so is bragging rights until said clone's NPC comes after you for revenge, and the entire mix just goes and hides until SIC gives the all clear.

I think that's what Kuzco is trying to get at, anyways.

Whether it makes it to town hall or not, I would love to tackle Kuzco's issue in a post because I think there's a lot of meat there, and it could result in a lot of advice both for players who are trying to navigate dealing with these NPCs and for GMs who can always benefit from feedback.
Second Vera there. That would be a good thread no matter what.

I would like to talk about possible changes to artistry skill, but that would take up a -lot- of time we don't have.

I would also like to see a quick discussion or at least an admin rundown on:

1) Adding more pets into the game.

2) Nobody's mentioned plans for the Matrix

3) Villa mentioned, and i would love to see talk on Big Plots, too. How to come up with and sustain highly inclusive, successful ones that get the admin involved, as well.

I don't know if it's appropiate but I'd also like to propose a way to let players know when staff is busy or when they'll otherwise not get a puppet anytime soon.
I'd also like to propose to change doctor revival to an automatic function instead of requiring a puppet.
I agree with both of Kuzco's proposals. Having your character die just because you play during none-peak hours when staff isn't as active is a little iffy.
Okay, I'm going to call a close on topic submission. I've got a few follow-ups:

1. Resuscitation. I agree. We can make it an interactive process where you the player need to continually tell the doctor to revive them. The issue is that it's completely unautomated. Any PC docs know what I'm talking about. It requires interaction (which is the point). It's on our list. Please make an Ideas section post about it so we can discuss.

2. Are GMs online? Type @who. Do you see any GMs? Type xhelp, do you see any GMs? Keeping in mind that Johnny and Slither and Fengshui being online does not mean 'GM' it means 'Senior Admin who is probably coding'.

Hey Everyone! We are T-Minus 75 minutes to the Town Hall!

Here is the AGENDA for the meeting, along with helpful links to the Spotify playlist (I will shout when you should hit play) and for other resources that are relevant to review before the meeting-- so we are on the same page.

http://sindo.me/mjtQnS

See you all soon!

-- S