[Sedna]

Hi Zen,

Thanks for reading. I've thought quite a bit how to make this game better, because it's been a great deal of fun, but big improvements are possible. Obviously the biggest problems has been people dropping out. I myself am a replacement - and I think only Alneyan and Puffyn are original players. The flip side of this coin is a lack of yarns.

One solution would be to decrease the number of yarns while increasing the pace of the game. I feel that the slow pace (~2 turns/week) lost us a lot of the original players. But it's extremely difficult to post interesting, informative, or funny yarns even twice a week. I think an optimal solution might be to have just one yarn per season (thus every three turns). We could then play 48 hour turns and yet need to write only approx. one yarn a week.

This might make for long yarns in the late game if people want to report on everything that happens, but it would help with the slow pace of yarns at the beginning of the game. Let's face it, after a little bit of character development and mood, the first many turns are going to be: "Yep, we killed more independents". I get bored just thinking about writing those yarns.

I think this type of game really requires it to be PBEM. If you need to review past turns to write your yarns (which you will, at some point), it's much easier if you have an e-mail archive of them. And it's pretty easy to just rename your old Yarnspinners folder to Turn51, and slowly dump the really old ones into another folder to keep your in-game menus reasonably short. So a PBEM host as wonderful as Alneyan is also a must.

As for motivation: the point scheme clearly Zap originally proposed clearly failed. The only benefit I've received from writing yarns is that people seem to have been reluctant to attack me, for fear that they will no longer be able to read my deathless prose. Or perhaps that's just because I attack everyone before they get a chance to attack me.

I believe that the motivation to write yarns should be tied directly into the game. I'm not familiar with the possibilities of modding, so perhaps this is impractical or there is an easier way: what if PBEM host was not directly playing? He/she could maintain a neutral empire of one province with a large astral income (and no dominion). Each yarn submitted would be rewarded with one astral pearl. Again, the incentive would be greatest at the beginning of the game. Once everyone is emotionally invested in the game, I think they will keep writing. The details of this suggestion could probably use more thought.

Finally, it would be great to be able to see more pictures and maps and graphs as the game progresses. I know AARs with maps are the only ones I really bother to read. Puffyn plans to post maps for this game after it's done, but it would really help keep an audience to have them as we go along. That audience, in turn, provides more motivation to keep writing. Again, the host could play this role: a simple screen shot of the map each season (or year) with just the race banners displayed. Secrecy is all very well and good, but it can't be maintained if it interferes with the game, and good yarns are going to reveal some useful information anyway- playing with full knowledge of the map evens the playing field and allows everyone to write more honest yarns.

Oh, and baby brains. Lots of baby brains.