Hey there everyone, it's your neighborhood friendly Michi here with some updates regarding the area of culture, some of my plans, and a bit of an open floor area to get some citizen/member input as well.
As you all well know, the forums have been declining in activity, Discord has been shaky on when it wants to be active and where, and the RMB has only more recently become spiking in activity due to the emergence of WARPP and nation-based RPs, and NS events (N-Day and Z-Day) as well as the Hearthkeepers pushing the Daily Icebreakers and Weekly Bonfire events to help push for conversations beyond the RPs. Overall, the area of culture has been struggling significantly outside of a few areas...and interest in such areas has been incredibly low.
Let me start by saying that both Silv and Gerrick were excellent in their jobs. Both revolutionized this area in different ways during their stints, and Culture has continued to be a a far better area due to their efforts. However, the appearance of Covid-19 and related troublings has brought Wintreath down quite a bit from what people may consider the golden ages of our activity. Activity itself has been sporadic and low despite some great efforts by our previous Jarls to try to revitalize things (including a recent attempt by Silv to start a new game of Werewolf, our usual powerhouse game series). People have either been scrambling because of things related to Covid-19 on the outside, have been dealing with increased workloads or finding a new job in this day and age, or overall have been kept busy due to some aspects of offline life. It's honestly not a time I would have wished on anyone entering or continuing on the role of Jarl of Culture since it's been a decline in that area due to the overall activity decline...and I only know too well how that can create much burnout when RL matters are also chipping away at your sanity.
My goal is to figure out how we can overcome this sporadic activity slump and get closer to where we were before the pandemic jumped in and pressed the shuffle button on the Wintreath activity playlist.
So with that, let me break down what some of my current plans are:
>Begin a game of Spyfall before the holidays. I know some of you are probably jumping at wondering why Spyfall over Werewolf, and it's specifically because it's nearing holiday time. Werewolf is played best with time, in the sense of having time to debate people, time to build up cases, time to peruse through the thread at will to pull evidence, it's just a game that even in lighter form requires a bit of commitment. With Thanksgiving approaching and Christmas right around the corner afterwards, time is going to be a precious thing that people won't want to waste on Werewolf, a game that can take up to a month at least if attendance is decent enough.
Spyfall, however, requires much less commitment. You answer questions directed at you, ask questions at who you're curious about, and can publicly accuse someone at any time or vote for an accused person. It requires much less time especially since it's not phase deadlines, and a game of Spyfall can end on that same day or as long as a week to a week and a half (unless player count is high and the game is complex, but this would be traditional Spyfall with a set player count). So it makes more sense to host Spyfall first, and then give people the break for the holidays.
>Start the new year with a game of Werewolf.That being said, Werewolf is absolutely going to happen. Werewolf 25 is still in the planning stages, and I'll be co-hosting with Silv so that we can bring you a memorable game to start the new year. The goal is that once January 1st hits, we'll be hitting the ground running with signups to start the new year off. And if you're curious, the theme is an amalgamation of moments from previous games, as a way to celebrate the 25th numbered iteration. So if you were wondering, yes Werewolf is definitely on the list of things that'll be happening.
>Re-introduce Avatar of the Month with a Discord Add-On. So because the forums have been incredibly quiet, our usual Avatar of the Month has understandably stopped being a thing. However, since a good portion of people have been on the Discord, I see no reason not to bring it back and include Discord Profile pictures in the mix. We can still have a regional voted theme each month, and it can go towards our forum avatars and/or our Discord avatars.
>Release the December and January Editions of the Posh Penguin, move Posh Penguin to once every 3 months, start the new year with the Gamer Gazette Since people have been enjoying the publication, I don't see why I can't continue making them. December's cover has
already been teased, and once November 30th hits, there should be a new issue ready to start off December. Likewise once December 31st hits, there will be a new edition ready for January.
However, I realize this may be an unpopular choice for some people, but starting in the new year the Posh Penguin will become an every-3-months publication. I've mentioned this a few times, but it's a self-created and self-sustained publication where I do all of the work myself, though I always welcome outside articles or overall assistance in getting stuff created. However, since it's purely been a solo-thing, monthly is simply not feasible. It's definitely possible, but it's also taxing considering the usual size...especially considering that I had to cut 2 areas (the Naked Truth section where it's an opinion piece on some random topic, and Michi Reviews, where I write up a game review) simply because I was running out of time to get it done before the deadline. 3 months will give me a lot more time to get articles out of the way without having to sacrifice any, and will also give me time to work on other stuff without the stress of a short deadline.
But also, it'll give me time to write up another magazine for every 3 months, the Gamer Gazette...which is basically a magazine of game reviews (and if it becomes popular, I'll replace the Michi Reviews in Posh Penguin with movie/show/book reviews). I've been planning on working on this for a while, but Posh Penguin has been taking up more of my time unfortunately.
Like I said though, I'm definitely always looking for anyone who wants to help out though, so if you like the idea of writing satirical/parody articles and want to get your creative juices flowing, definitely hit me up on here or Discord!
>Introduce new forum games such as a Hunger Games type of game, and Discord games such as Hide and Seek.So, these were brought up
at the end of 2020 along with the idea of bringing back a full version of Choose Your Own Adventure. However, they just never ended up happening due to various events, the declining activity, and the overall approach of burnout. However, I do want to hit the ground running with some of these to start the new year off as well, provided that our activity starts getting back to better levels in the forums especially. But these have still been on the forefront of my mind to want to write up and toss up for people to jump in at.
>Get more interest in the Hearthkeepers, keep up with the Daily Icebreakers/Weekly Bonfire Events, and bring it to Discord.Normally, I don't like to brag/boast...but I'll say that creating the Hearthkeepers was a good idea. People have been taking part in answering the Icebreaker questions and have even driven some conversations with each other based on them, and likewise the weekly Bonfire Events have shown to be popular enough to where we've had at least 2 of them go beyond the day and at least halfway into the next. I want to see this continue in the RMB because not everyone posts on there to do the nation-RPs, so having some side conversations/activities on the RMB is lovely.
However, right now the Hearthkeepers is 4 people plus Wintermoot (and I believe 1 RMB-only member not on Discord), and it's mainly been myself, TGN, and today Wintermoot doing the daily prompts. I'd love to see more people jump in and join the ranks and have it be where it's a different person asking a question daily, as opposed to the same people doing it multiple times in a row. So I plan on figuring out a way to build more interest in wanting to join Wintreath's welcoming squad.
Likewise, I think it'd be a great idea to push the Icebreakers and Bonfire events on Discord as well. Maybe having an optable role for pings on the daily questions and weekly activities (which a thread would be made for those), just some way so that our Discord users don't have to miss out on the questions or games in case they don't go on the RMB...and since it'd be an optable ping role, people who wouldn't want it wouldn't have to be annoyed by the pings.
Anyways, those are the current things on the agenda for now and going into the new year.
Right now, I'd like to open the floor up to member input and suggestions. What are some ways you think we can improve activity? What are some things you'd like to see in the forums? Is there any other input you'd like to share in regards to our area of culture (aka Games (video games and forum games), Roleplays, discussions and overall the area that creates the vibrant atmosphere that makes people want to stay here)?
