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ripleysbelieveitornot2016-09-11 08:12 pm
al2955) wrote in ripleysbelieveitornot2016-09-11 08:12 pm
(no subject)
Hey, guys, this is Cappy and Xander! We wanted to say thank you for sticking with us to the end. We hope that, ultimately, The Cradle Project was a fun experience for people. That said, we are aware of several issues that we'd like to quickly address in this post.
The first thing we want to address is the plot and pacing of midgame, as this has been brought up to us before. Around w7, both Coco and Xander were unfortunately hit by very serious RL issues. We would prefer not to get into the details, but please understand that this was a very difficult and stressful time for them both. Because of this, metaplot issues such as NPC tags, player/third-role plots, and graveyard plots fell by the wayside until around w10, as Cappy was never intended to be a plotmod and already had to spend most of her time working on the cases and trials. This is not an excuse, but rather an explanation and an apology; we should have communicated with the playerbase better that two of our mods were dealing with RL issues instead of leaving them frustrated that their efforts to impact the game or discover more of the metaplot kept being stalled with no explanation as to why. This lack of communication was our mistake and we deeply apologize for it.
The second thing we wanted to address is endgame. Again, we would like to thank AO/Alli for coming on board during the last two weeks of the game, as we (Cappy and Xander) would have honestly been lost without her. In full honesty, we had no firm plan for endgame, as Coco was our main plotmod and most of the metaplot was her design. Following w10 (Dave's trial), it became more and more difficult to get into contact with her, and downright impossible from w12. We were not alerted of this, we were not given a heads up. This lack of communication seriously affected the game; the biggest issue was that we had no idea what Coco had planned for endgame. We had to put something together a week before, as well as tie up a bunch of plot threads that we weren't sure how to handle. Again, this is not an excuse, but an explanation and apology; in retrospect, we should have had a plan already written up for endgame that was shared between the three of us rather than rely on a single mod. And because it really cannot be said enough, we are incredibly grateful to AO for helping us out during the last trial and endgame, as she brought a fresh perspective and a ton of great ideas and also contributed as much work as a main mod would.
Once again, guys, thanks for sticking with us. We're sorry for all the trouble caused, and we hope that despite it all, we did give you some good memories. If you have any feedback, please leave it in the comments below and let us know if you'd like your comments screened or unscreened.
The first thing we want to address is the plot and pacing of midgame, as this has been brought up to us before. Around w7, both Coco and Xander were unfortunately hit by very serious RL issues. We would prefer not to get into the details, but please understand that this was a very difficult and stressful time for them both. Because of this, metaplot issues such as NPC tags, player/third-role plots, and graveyard plots fell by the wayside until around w10, as Cappy was never intended to be a plotmod and already had to spend most of her time working on the cases and trials. This is not an excuse, but rather an explanation and an apology; we should have communicated with the playerbase better that two of our mods were dealing with RL issues instead of leaving them frustrated that their efforts to impact the game or discover more of the metaplot kept being stalled with no explanation as to why. This lack of communication was our mistake and we deeply apologize for it.
The second thing we wanted to address is endgame. Again, we would like to thank AO/Alli for coming on board during the last two weeks of the game, as we (Cappy and Xander) would have honestly been lost without her. In full honesty, we had no firm plan for endgame, as Coco was our main plotmod and most of the metaplot was her design. Following w10 (Dave's trial), it became more and more difficult to get into contact with her, and downright impossible from w12. We were not alerted of this, we were not given a heads up. This lack of communication seriously affected the game; the biggest issue was that we had no idea what Coco had planned for endgame. We had to put something together a week before, as well as tie up a bunch of plot threads that we weren't sure how to handle. Again, this is not an excuse, but an explanation and apology; in retrospect, we should have had a plan already written up for endgame that was shared between the three of us rather than rely on a single mod. And because it really cannot be said enough, we are incredibly grateful to AO for helping us out during the last trial and endgame, as she brought a fresh perspective and a ton of great ideas and also contributed as much work as a main mod would.
Once again, guys, thanks for sticking with us. We're sorry for all the trouble caused, and we hope that despite it all, we did give you some good memories. If you have any feedback, please leave it in the comments below and let us know if you'd like your comments screened or unscreened.
no subject
On my part, I'll say that a lot of the miscommunication and lack of coordination could have been prevented if I had stepped up and voiced my conerns earlier. We realized around w9 or so that we had become way too overambitious in terms of our metaplot and roles, but honestly, I should have seen the signs and spoken up earlier. It was already becoming clear to me around w8 that Xander and I were doing the vast majority of the work when it came to cases, but I never said anything or expressed how worried I was getting because I figured I could handle it - casework was what I had signed on for and I was happy to do it when my co-mods were going through serious RL issues.
Ultimately keeping silent was a mistake however, as it lead to a massive lack of coordination when it came to the metaplot due to our lack of information. Coco's absence was something that should not have taken us by surprise, and I should have spoken up much earlier so we could plan out endgame and metaplot while she was still available and possibly asked around for a helper mod to come on board. I should have also been paying more attention to the players' issues with the metaplot instead of focusing all of my attention on the cases. I didn't even notice NPC tags getting dropped or unanswered, and as a mod, that was a major failing on my part. By the time the three of us realized how much was slipping through the gaps, we were already ten weeks into the game, and that's inexcusable.
Regarding my behavior, I'll say that while I don't regret going into that anon plurk, I should have kept it at that and not started a huge storm on my personal plurk about it. It's been pointed out to me that a lot of the players in this game were new and people I hadn't really interacted with before, so the casual/sarcastic and joking tone I tend to take in game plurks could be construed as aggressive or deeply unprofessional. If this was the case and I came off as unapproachable, then I apologize. It was never my intention at all to make any of the players feel uncomfortable or unwelcome in our game or in coming to me with concerns, and I'm genuinely sorry if I ever made you feel this way.
Ultimately, I do still really hope people had fun in Cradle! We had some bumps, but I hope people will remember the high points more than the low points. I disagree with Xander in her assessment that she's incapable of modding - like I said at the start of this, I think she did a brilliant job with everything that happened and while there were certainly areas we could have handled better, I don't regret signing on to mod with her at all. I think that even with all the issues - and I'm not diminishing those or player's frustrations at all - this is still a game she can definitely take pride in, especially with all the work she put into it.