Multisphere pressure

[Taika]

It seems there’s a shift towards single sphere or dual sphere games. The question is:

If in hindsight folks want 1-2 sphere games, why is there so much pressure on game makers to add X or Y or Z and push so hard for an outcome that will leave both players and game runners unhappy more often than not?

[Roz]

i think this one is pretty simple: players push for the spheres they specifically want to play in. they’re not thinking about the big picture health of the game. people just want their favorite splat

[Pavel]

And the intensity of their desire is usually inversely proportional to how common the sphere is in other games.

[Jennkryst]

@Pavel said in Multisphere pressure:

And the intensity of their desire is usually inversely proportional to how common the sphere is in other games.

Hi yes hello it’s me.

[Prototart]

@Pavel said in Multisphere pressure:

And the intensity of their desire is usually inversely proportional to how common the sphere is in other games.

it isn’t that I “desire” to play Ananasi it’s that I deserve to

[MisterBoring]

Yeah, it’s mostly player pressure to be “open” and “allow varied concepts”, but what players really mean is “I want to play a tragic Rokea Kinfolk Ghoul Kopa Loei with the Fae Affinity & Medium merits and have other characters who can also keep up with my snowflake levels.”

[Cobalt]

One of the biggest downfalls of Darkwater, was adding in Werewolf. At the time it was done because I wanted to expand what stories I could tell, but in hindsight it adding it in after the fact really just detracted from everything else.

The pressure of new and shiny is real though, and the excitement of new stories and new plots was too hard to resist.

Which is why we did it: excitement for something new, something more.

[Aria]

@Roz said in Multisphere pressure:

i think this one is pretty simple: players push for the spheres they specifically want to play in. they’re not thinking about the big picture health of the game. people just want their favorite splat

What Roz said.

I also think that there’s this general fear among game runners that if they’re not offering enough spheres, they’re not going to draw a large enough playerbase for the game to perpetuate player-led RP. Like if someone’s favorite sphere is Mage, they’re just not going to join a game that only offers Werewolf and Changeling or something.

And while that may be true to a limited degree, what will more often end up happening by adding Mage in is that you may get a few new people, sure. But mostly what you’ll see is people who love WoD and willing to play there are already on the game, and if they love Mage or just love shiny new things, will make Mage alts. At which now you’ve simultaneously splintered the player base into smaller groups, spread the concentration of RP out over more characters, and compounded the work for staff. That might be worth it if you’re expanding staff to accommodate that and have someone who is both competent and interested in telling stories in your new sphere, but mostly? It’s not going to be worth it.

[Pavel]

To answer the other half of the question, though, the “If in hindsight folks want 1-2 sphere game” bit, it’s just as simple: That’s the ideal, but we don’t live in the ideal world. If someone wants to play a Gregorian Chanter, they’re going to go ask an already extant game to add Greagorian Chant instead of just sitting around hoping for someone to make a Gregorian Chant game, because it’s far more likely that the former wish will be granted over the latter, even if the latter is the better scenario for all involved.

[Noraaa]

I think some of this is also our storyteller ADHD coming out, and getting distracted with shiny new opportunities without having the discipline to understand we’ve taken too much onto our plates and cannot possibly deliver on the promises our brains make to us when we’re having all of these cool shower thoughts.

I am immensely guilty of this myself.

[Pavel]

@Noraaa I don’t have the ST ADHD but I definitely have the character concept ADHD, wherein a character concept kicks down my door at three am and screams in my half-awoken face “HELLO YOU ARE NOW OBSESSED WITH BRIAN FUCKING BLESSED FOR NO REASON HERE MAKE A CHARACTER AND MAKE IT FIT WOD.”

[somasatori]

@Pavel said in Multisphere pressure:

@Noraaa I don’t have the ST ADHD but I definitely have the character concept ADHD, wherein a character concept kicks down my door at three am and screams in my half-awoken face “HELLO YOU ARE NOW OBSESSED WITH BRIAN FUCKING BLESSED FOR NO REASON HERE MAKE A CHARACTER AND MAKE IT FIT WOD.”

Unfortunately I have both ST and concept ADHD. And a condition on the second is a sense of immediate excitement as soon as someone brings up something cool.

I was thinking of ways to trick myself if I were to run a game again, such as having multiple “spheres” as being groups of factions with the same template; Hunter conspiracies and compacts grouped together, are an example, or building up a great deal of story and PrP/staff support around specific Vampire Covenants, so you have your Invictus “sphere,” then your Ordo Dracul “sphere” and so on. Cognitive reframing around running MUSHes.

[Noraaa]

@somasatori said in Multisphere pressure:

@Pavel said in Multisphere pressure:

@Noraaa I don’t have the ST ADHD but I definitely have the character concept ADHD, wherein a character concept kicks down my door at three am and screams in my half-awoken face “HELLO YOU ARE NOW OBSESSED WITH BRIAN FUCKING BLESSED FOR NO REASON HERE MAKE A CHARACTER AND MAKE IT FIT WOD.”

Unfortunately I have both ST and concept ADHD.

YOU DON’T SAY

[somasatori]

@Noraaa said in Multisphere pressure:

YOU DON’T SAY

Shock and surprise of the decade~

[Pavel]

@somasatori said in Multisphere pressure:

Cognitive reframing around running MUSHes.

I don’t think you can CBT yourself into better MU design.

[Warma Sheen]

I also think the multisphere pull is MOAR alts, not just for themselves, but for others.

I can only ever play one character at a time, but I know many players who loved to just load up on alts. And in most cases it is mostly about odds of finding RP. The more spheres, the more alts. The more alts, the more chances at finding RP. I suspect… that some of them are looking for a “specific” type of RP. And the more alts you can get, the more chances you have of playing with and/or finding that specific type of RP.

Against that, all other concerns become less important.

In this community, people acting against their own self-interest is exceptionally common, unfortunately. Sure, they’d have a better chance with a game that’s healthy and thriving and not spread threadbare. But. You know. Logic.

[somasatori]

@Warma-Sheen said in Multisphere pressure:

I suspect… that some of them are looking for a “specific” type of RP.

The other meaning of the acronym “CBT”

[MisterBoring]

@somasatori said in Multisphere pressure:

The other meaning of the acronym “CBT”

Classic Battletech?

[Jennkryst]

@MisterBoring said in Multisphere pressure:

@somasatori said in Multisphere pressure:

The other meaning of the acronym “CBT”

Classic Battletech?

I regret that I was not paying attention to the forum, because I definitely was going to go there. STOMPY ROBUTTS!

[Wuff]

@Jennkryst said in Multisphere pressure:

@MisterBoring said in Multisphere pressure:

@somasatori said in Multisphere pressure:

The other meaning of the acronym “CBT”

Classic Battletech?

I regret that I was not paying attention to the forum, because I definitely was going to go there. STOMPY ROBUTTS!