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I just wanted to relay a complaint regarding RP from someone that's decided to leave the region. They indicated that they "did not receive the RP experience" they expected from the region because one of the RPs, the Wintrean Union, has fallen inactive.

I don't know if the guild wants to do anything about it, but I told them I'd pass his complaint to the guild.

These are my thoughts about the complaint:

First off, Wintreath Union isn't inactive, it just hasn't started yet.

All the RPs in the region are run by individual players. Thus, anyone joining our RP community should expect some of the RPs to occasionally have slumps in activity. The one that Wintrean Union is currently experiencing isn't even that long. In New Hyperion, the Penguins vs. Cookies RP has gone for months at a time without any posts. Participating in quality RPs requires patience and understanding that people have lives outside of NationStates.

In addition, we have more than just one active RP right now. People interested in our RP community can and probably should join multiple RPs for maximum benefit.

Most importantly, however, whoever this person is, they evidently did not make an effort to become involved in our RP community. Everyone who has joined either the RP Guild or the Wintrean Union RP still remains a citizen. Instead of applying and working on a factbook, or even contacting Bodobol and asking when the RP will start, this person has just taken a look at the RP posts and decided that since it was "inactive," they should not participate. RP'ing needs more commitment than that, or else they would fall apart once participants lose their initial interest.

I was looking through the people in Wintrean Union to see who this was. The only new person who has joined that was White Mamba which is as I see, is still in Wintreath. Can I have a bit of clarification on who this was?

I'm with Tau on this one.

And Rasdanation, I think it would be best to respect the person's anonymity. We can't please everyone, but we should accept that fact and respect their decisions.

I think it would be best to respect the person's anonymity. We can't please everyone, but we should accept that fact and respect their decisions.

Ok then...

I also feel I should note that we can't address people's concerns if they don't come to us. Staying silent on a matter and then disappearing instead of approaching one of us privately on a matter doesn't allow us to address the issue productively. I think I speak for everyone in the guild that we would have taken it seriously to try and alleviate the person's concerns if they had simply come to us. We can't fix a potential problem if we don't know it exists, and we aren't all-knowing. Keeping RP running is very much a community effort.

They indicated that they were in the process of picking another region, so they haven't left yet.

I don't think this RP has been on pause for a long time, but it may be worth considering what to do in the RP becomes inactive for a long period of time. Does it simply end or get retired or what?

@Bodobol has the clearest idea of what his RP entails. Perhaps he could comment on it as the host?

True, but I meant in general for the future...I didn't have any specific RP in mind.

I think the fate of inactive RPs should be left to its GM. Nevertheless, if a large part of the participants leaves, an RP simply cannot continue.

What if the GM themselves end up falling inactive?

We could adopt a policy where someone else hosts it after a certain level of inactivity is reached...

There are problems with this, of course.

We also could do the RPs in "seasons" or something like that, in order to allow new people to join and be easily integrated into the RP.  That would ensure that RPs wouldn't fall dormant as a result of people falling inactive, perhaps.  That's the reason TV shows aren't continuously running, either—people have to be able to be introduced to replace cast members that have wanted changes in their careers.  Here the same basic principle is true, right? 

I'm not in favor of your "seasons", but I'll entertain the idea. Could you explain more as to how this would work for RPs?

I'm not in favor of your "seasons", but I'll entertain the idea. Could you explain more as to how this would work for RPs?

Like every two months or so we could have a weeklong pause/discussion and allow new people to join, like an infusion of new ideas and excitement to ensure that the RP doesn't stagnate.  Does that sound good?  You could probably tweak it a bit to make it better...