So there are quite a few adjustments coming to the House of Cards and we wanted to make sure everyone was aware of them before they happened. Some are bigger than others. Some require your participation. Please take the time to read this post in entirety. Thank you!Applications
As of August 1
st, we will begin leaving applications open from the 1
st of the month until the 21
st of the month, every month. With this extended length, we will be approving applications on a first-come, first served basis, though please keep in mind that approvals still may not actually come through until the weekends, depending on mod availability. Still, you won't have to wait for apps to close to be approved.
They
will be closed from the 22
nd through the end of the month for us to perform Activity Check and get things situated as usual (the AC grace period is still from the 22
nd to the end of the 28
th and that's based on GMT -5, more or less).
We'll also be leaving applications un-screened.Characters
Starting in August, when we open up applications, we will also be extending the maximum number of characters a player is allowed to have from 5 to 9. Also, you will no longer be required to request permission to have more than four characters.
However, please keep in mind that if you aren't keeping up with your current characters and apply for a new one, we will likely tell you you'll need to drop one of the current characters or show some increase in activity before we'll allow you to bring the new character in.
Activity Check
Also beginning in August, we will change the AC requirements and make it the same whether you are a Face card or a Number. Yes, this means that for July, you still have to meet the current AC requirements.
Next month, we'll be looking for each character to participate in a minimum of three threads (if you have three threads within one post you've made, that counts, or if you tag around to three different characters, that will count. Tagging the same character three times would be frowned on). We will still expect threads to be at least five comments from each character.
So, for example, if I create a post with Julien's account and David, Athena, and Urania all reply to him and each thread has at least 10 comments, that would cover Julien for the month's AC.
But if David doesn't make any posts at all, but he replies to posts made by Julien, Rachel, and Eileen and each of those threads is at least 10 comments long, that would cover David for the month, even though he didn't make any posts himself.
Holds
There will be coming soon a section for people to request 'holds' for up to two weeks on specific PBs or Rank slots. During the time a hold is in effect, we will not accept any other applications for that particular PB or Rank. Please keep in mind that a hold does not guarantee your application will be approved and if not approved that PB or Rank will be opened again for others to apply.
Deck Internet
We've discussed the idea of people making posts as if they were on an internal "Deck Internet" type network with our very own Deckbook, Deck Twitter, Deck Youtube, and so on so characters could be making posts to these places and other characters could reply like they were on those websites.
This would NOT take the place of current posts, but would allow players another avenue for making posts if they don't want to always post in the SWS or the log format.
Thoughts?Move Questionnaire
We will be sending everyone a PM very soon requesting your opinion on the possibility of moving the game to DW. Note: we are not saying it's a given, but we would like to know what the playerbase thinks. All replies will be kept confidential between the mods and we really want to know your opinions on the matter, good or bad so feel free to let it all out. :)
Comment Pages Layout
We didn't forget the poll we had a while back and we are in process as we speak of getting the comment pages tweaked to hopefully make things work better.
Monthly Summary
We have on the table the idea of posting some kind of 'monthly summary' of biggish things that happen in the comm to make things easier to find for both new players to get a feel for what's happening in the game and for current players to find posts that might be interesting to catch up on.
Yes, we tried this before with the Daily Trump, but this time it will be a straight up fully OOC/Meta post that just posts links with thread titles and a short summary of interesting threads that have happened in the past month. We would still strongly encourage players to submit threads they think should go on the post, of course. :)
Character Bios and Information
We want to link each character's name on the Taken Cards page to their biographies...which all of you should have some form of since most all of you have had to fill in applications to join the game in the first place. :) This way it makes it easier for people to find the information about the characters without having to go all over the place for it.
We are also talking about making a post that lists all the current occupations in the game (we know there's the gdoc that some folks keep updated but we'd like something a little more formal) so new players can both see what sort of occupations people are using in the game and also see if something is already being done in a given Suit that doesn't really require a duplicate (like head of Guards, for instance, there don't need to be two in any given Suit).
So that's what's going on....questions, comments? Please put them in the comments!