Linear Time Versus Liquid Time

[Sarika]

Hey Folks -

This is a discussion I've been wanting to have for a bit now.

Traditionally Feng Shui has been strict on one thread at a time. This rule was put in place because we didn't want people jumping across the world or RPing out the end of the season before the first episode had even started. We were concerned about canon-events being affected.

However, with Republic City we have a much smaller area to work with.
A lot of us have more RPing experience, myself included, and we've worked with Liquid Time RPs.

I personally believe that this would not hurt the site.

I'd like to hear any arguments for or against implementing Liquid Time on FS.

[Chen Li]

(PARTIAL) DISAGREEE

Liquid time is often used on websites that require more activity, or who prefer people use many characters rather than one. These also have strict timeline rules (AFAIK) which keep the many threads in line with one another. (See Vault 713 Harry Potter roleplay, for example, of which Ai Fen and I are members at least.)

Here, it is not the same. We may divert completely from the canon storyline, have no calendar to speak of, and could use a little continuity.

Admittedly, with so few characters right now, and our higher quality posts (another point that Vault, for example, generally lacks), having more threads per person would be nice to set up the storyline. But I am wary of doing such a thing.

[Rei Misora]

I personally like liquid time, and with so few characters currently in existence, I believe it'll allow more threads and thus, more activity. For instance, lets say someone makes a character, and there were already six characters, in 3 two-person rps. Without liquid time, that person would be forced to join one of the existing threads, or make their own and wait for either:

A: One of the threads to conclude.

B. Someone else to get accepted that fits in well with their character.

Some people are still going to only post in one place, because that's what makes sense to them, but for the sake of avoiding a lock up, I endorse this idea.

[Teiú]

I'm up for liquid time as we're returning to activity. It'll make this beginning more dynamic. We could use it while we're bound to RPing in Republic City. After we open the whole world for RPing we might then decide if we should keep liquid time or go with the old FS standard, depending on how many users we'll have then and how active they will be

[Zan Yu]

TINEAR LIME~!!

Ahem, I'm mean to say, I'm down for linear time.

Yet I'm okay with some allowances of tiquid lime liquid time in the case of "special events" such as a particular canon thread or probending matches for example.

[Sarika]

So, we're kinda split evenly.

I personally wonder if linear time hurt us last time around when our membership started to die down.

I see the advantages of Linear time - More organization, more appropriate character development, easier for newbies to jump in.

I see the advantages of Liquid time - More activity, A faster paced RPG, quicker character development.

I know first hand one of the cons of liquid time is losing control of the time - People not being on the same page time wise and thus having to retcon potentially. That happened on Court Intrigue, my Sailor Moon RPG during our first season. That's also partially me and my Co-admin's fault because we actually had a story planned out and we didn't share it with our members. We thought they'd somehow pickup all the little hints we'd leave and somehow be able to read our mind and keep from going every which way. Well, they went every which way and frustrated me to the point of closing the site and quitting. We had semi-liquid time on that site if I remember correctly and it was just.. it was hard.

However, here at Feng Shui we have a story that everyone knows. We're replaying Season 1. When we have a Korra and other canons, they will be following Season 1 loosely, but loosely enough. We want to hit all the major plot points but we're not going to ask them to follow the book. So, if we were to go by liquid time here.. I think having the Canon plot to follow with might help us not go crazy. I know Chen has volunteer to post regular news-like reports on the Twitter and in the Noble Accounts detailing what is happening in Republic City.

Based on my experience with RPs other than Feng Shui (A D.Gray Man RPG, Court Intrigue, and a Historical Fantasy RPG), I like Liquid Time and I would like to see it implemented on Feng Shui.

Are there any other insights or opinions anyone wants to offer?
If there are no objections, we will stay at Linear time for the time being.

[Shen Fàn]

I'm one for liquid time, personally. While I'm not up to write a whole post about my reasoning, I'll just say that I think we're grown up and responsible enough to put our actions into logical order without being forced to stay in one thread per character at a time.

Being forced to wait in a single thread can absolutely kill any muse you might end up having. I've had it happen to me where I was kept waiting for months for a post. If this happened on FS, there would either need to be staff action to free the member of his restraints, or the member would have to wait and wait and wait. Both of these are unnecessary, when we've got a solid member base that knows what they're doing and won't abuse liquid time, and who can also keep an eye out to make sure that any newer members aren't abusing the feature, or making their timeline become implausible.

Just because we adopt liquid time, doesn't mean that people will instantly make ten threads a piece. Many of us, myself included, will try their best to make sure that they allow one thread to end before starting another, so as to account for any character development that may occur within the thread. It just gives us the option to move on if we deem it prudent, something that I believe many on here have shown they can handle. I'd relate it to taking the water-wings, or the training wheels off of our members. A vast majority of us will thrive, regardless of the type of time being used. Liquid time will just feel less restricting, and eliminate the possibility of people getting caught waiting in an inactive thread.

Good night, and good luck.

[Uhchakuhlak]

So shall we come to an official decision sometime?

[Chen Li]

maybe we should go to the mod board and mod some

[Sarika]

Sept 8, 2012 11:38:09 GMT -5 Sarika said:

Are there any other insights or opinions anyone wants to offer?
If there are no objections, we will stay at Linear time for the time being.

That kinda was the official decision.

Do we want to rescind that because I honestly wouldn't mind. Chen and me are both DYING to RP and we can have a RP while we wait for Shen to get back together with a new computer.

[Chen Li]

Sept 29, 2012 20:42:57 GMT -5 Sarika said:

Sept 8, 2012 11:38:09 GMT -5 Sarika said:

Are there any other insights or opinions anyone wants to offer?
If there are no objections, we will stay at Linear time for the time being.

That kinda was the official decision.

Do we want to rescind that because I honestly wouldn't mind. Chen and me are both DYING to RP and we can have a RP while we wait for Shen to get back together with a new computer.

*points up to my last post* *prod*

[Uhchakuhlak]

Well, the unofficial opinion veers towards melting away our linearity.

Just put your stamp on the forms and we can then sweat the details.