Everything's fine on Balmung. There's lots of public social events hosted every week, which present opportunities for people to connect with others - I've been playing since sometime in early 2015 and I'm constantly meeting roleplayers I didn't already know.
The one and only thing that I could say maybe arguably is concerning is that there are a lot of "Vacuum FCs", in which the FC isn't really aggressively putting itself out there for recruiting, and then some significant portion of the leaders and active members take a break from the game (which has nothing to do with Balmung being closed - this has always happened for roleplayers, since forever), and so you end up with an FC which really isn't doing much of anything, yet it has members still in it who don't want to leave due to the "break" folks theoretically coming back.
I've seen it happen with quite a few FCs where the members left end up feeling bored and restless, yet also guilty if they were to bail and go find an FC that has more activity. Sometimes, these people end up leaving the game because they aren't having fun anymore. These "victims of stagnation within their FC" roleplayers are what active FCs need, in lieu of genuine newcomers to the server, in order to grow and thrive. It should be that as one FC dies others grow, it's a cycle. Instead, sentimentality is leading to situations where an FC dies but the remaining members just sort of go into limbo.
I'm not sure there's really a solution to that, except for people going on break being more honest with themselves about their intent to return and the timeframe of it (in other words, don't leave your FC members hanging, if you won't be back for months just shut the thing down until you return and give the members freedom without feeling guilty like they've abandoned the break-taker or somehow let them down by moving on). On the flip side, members in FCs where there's a vacuum need to avoid sentimental attachment to their FC - the good memories are awesome for sure, but roleplayers are notorious for claiming to take a break and then just never coming back, so... don't hold out on that, I guess. If you quit and do something else, and then the folks on break do return, nothing says you can't just go rejoin their FC if you want to.
The one and only thing that I could say maybe arguably is concerning is that there are a lot of "Vacuum FCs", in which the FC isn't really aggressively putting itself out there for recruiting, and then some significant portion of the leaders and active members take a break from the game (which has nothing to do with Balmung being closed - this has always happened for roleplayers, since forever), and so you end up with an FC which really isn't doing much of anything, yet it has members still in it who don't want to leave due to the "break" folks theoretically coming back.
I've seen it happen with quite a few FCs where the members left end up feeling bored and restless, yet also guilty if they were to bail and go find an FC that has more activity. Sometimes, these people end up leaving the game because they aren't having fun anymore. These "victims of stagnation within their FC" roleplayers are what active FCs need, in lieu of genuine newcomers to the server, in order to grow and thrive. It should be that as one FC dies others grow, it's a cycle. Instead, sentimentality is leading to situations where an FC dies but the remaining members just sort of go into limbo.
I'm not sure there's really a solution to that, except for people going on break being more honest with themselves about their intent to return and the timeframe of it (in other words, don't leave your FC members hanging, if you won't be back for months just shut the thing down until you return and give the members freedom without feeling guilty like they've abandoned the break-taker or somehow let them down by moving on). On the flip side, members in FCs where there's a vacuum need to avoid sentimental attachment to their FC - the good memories are awesome for sure, but roleplayers are notorious for claiming to take a break and then just never coming back, so... don't hold out on that, I guess. If you quit and do something else, and then the folks on break do return, nothing says you can't just go rejoin their FC if you want to.
Lydia Lightfoot ~ The Reliquarian's Guild «Relic» ~ Lavender Beds, Ward 12, #41
This player has a sense of humor. If the content of the post suggests otherwise, please err on the side of amusement and friendship, because that's almost certainly the intent. We're all on the same team: Team Roleplayer! Have a smile, have a chuckle, and have a slice of pie. Isn't pie great?
This player has a sense of humor. If the content of the post suggests otherwise, please err on the side of amusement and friendship, because that's almost certainly the intent. We're all on the same team: Team Roleplayer! Have a smile, have a chuckle, and have a slice of pie. Isn't pie great?
