On the first page of the wiki, we're encouraged by the open feedback policy to bring up concerns if, among other things, something seems awkward or difficult to deal with, so they can get fixed. I am very glad of this policy, because I’ve seen too many times, on too many MUSHes, where the player base has given up talking to staff entirely….which usually has heralded the end of growth and the beginning of stagnation and antagonism between players and staff. So here I go:
I'm concerned with the continued - and ever less optional - press toward the use of tokens, resources, gifts, lores, and other code-heavy aspects of the system as it is developing. While I think I understand the purpose (to simulate limited resources and abilities, and keep people honest about what they actually have), I see the system morphing more into a trading game or even a kind of +sheet arms race - where unpopular characters, characters whose players have less time to play, or characters whose players find the OOC system unwieldy or simply not an enhancement to their RP, will "lose" – and less about having fun telling stories together. I’m worried: after all, it’s the love of Amber and RP that brought me here in the first place…not this RPG system, or any other RPG system.
The welcome page of the wiki also says the game isn’t about winning and losing, which means we can just play for color if we want. But the more heavily the system is tweaked toward code, the harder it seems to be to play for color. There are already points at which it feels as though choosing to play color is tantamount to “choosing” to find a creative way to be the loser – not because it makes the best story, or even because it’s fun, but because the system leaves no other choice, and that this is progressively more true as time goes on.
I want to believe that this game is a level playing field for people who play for the joy of color as well as those who thrill to finessing the details of the system. Is that true? And if so, what is the best way to navigate so everyone has the maximum fun possible?