I did a small amount of freelance writing some years ago (back when I was still at my old job), wrote a few bits and pieces (Minecraft guides, mainly). It wasn't exactly well-paying or regular (I got like, a tenner for one of them) but I have considered maybe trying to search for something like that. Maybe I should look more into it...I dunno...maybe I'll get lucky - that seems about the only way I ever get jobs :P.

In reply to Dusk Rat (msg # 662):

Same here - I've been without a job for the last few months as well. It's really not as easy to find one as most people like to pretend it is, but hopefully luck will turn eventually, right?

yea im still around too, working from home and all. Its actually quite pleasant to be honest. Id like to work from home forever!

Sorry people seem to be having problems with jobs right now!

I'm with Swift Fox - avoiding everyone sounds like a good idea :p

Right, given the long lack of activity, I thought I might as well ask: is anybody at all interested in finishing this up?

I'm getting the sense that most people don't really have any emotional investment into the game anymore, and I wouldn't want to force anybody to remain out of obligation or anything.

Considering how little there is left (solving the issue with Summer Wasp and dealing with Valador), if nobody actually cares to play the thing off - and again, I don't mean feeling obligated to see it through, I mean actually having some form of interest in participating to it, which I'm getting the sense nobody really has any more of at this point - then I don't know what the point would even be to force people to play through it instead of making a single post on my end when I just tell you what was left, and then answer any questions people might have left.

Of course, if people actually want to play, I'm here, but aside from the general length of time that has been passing between posts, even when people are actually posting, it seems to me that most people just have their character nod along and not interact at all, which tells to me there's no actual interest in contributing to anything. And I know the speed doesn't help, but we've had spots in the past where similar situations came up, and people still contributed even if other people who had a more central role in the ongoing discussion were being slow to react. Indeed, some of the best stuff in the game resulted from people taking that kind of initiative because they were feeling involved into the game, and right now I'm getting the sense of that level of involvement not really being there anymore.

So... what does everybody say? If any of you is bored enough with the game to just want me to put an end to it and be done with it, just say it (even in PM if you don't feel comfortable saying it openly); there's really no point in trying to bring it to the conclusion if doing so would be a chore, rather than fun, for anybody involved.

The point of a game is having fun, and if any of you is not having fun, I'd rather you tell me, rather than pretending otherwise out of some misplaced sense of obligation.

Please everybody, let me know what you think, and thanks for reading through all this!

It will be interesting to see how it ends, at least - I know my character doesn't really say/do much when it comes to things like mass character interaction but that tends to happen when I play a game in a setting I'm unfamiliar with (at least when it's an established pre-existing setting and there are other players who are familiar with it), so I can leave other players to actually know who the NPCs are and info about the important cities and past events and stuff, and react to that.

It's possible some players are having RL issues right now with the whole pandemic thing and all that - personally it's pretty much business as usual for me, given that I'm still going to work (albeit my hours have recently changed but that's entirely unrelated to anything to do with Covid-19) and stuff - I just spend all my free time on my computer anyway and right now I'm in the middle of a five-day weekend :D. Still checking in here every day, as usual :).

I'm happy to see the game through to the end, though I think Sun snake's given it his best shot with Summer Wasp and it's up to others to persuade her or deal with her.

I thought we were waiting on Rain Feather? I know you said she had issues with posting so presumed that was a delay?

We are, and you remember correctly.

However, the last IC post from Wasp isn't so strongly aimed to Rain that somebody else couldn't answer - and that's been true for a number of period of wait in this latest stretch of the game. I feel like it isn't fair to Rain to put the burden on her when any of the other players could have contributed something in her place; you did, after all, but I don't think any of the other players did it much, and I feel like in the past, they would have, which suggest to me a lack of interest compared to the past.

And that's fine if it is so, I'd just want it to be told to me clearly if that's the case, you know?

I'm still around.  Although right now Swift doesn't really have anything to add.
Negotiation isn't really her strong point (unless said negotiation involves threatening to remove someone's internal organs one by one if they don't co-operate.  And I doubt that would work on Summer Wasp) :)

To look at it another way, Swift Fox has been growing beyond her previous training, so negaotiating would be the culmination of that. Especially since no one really seems to be arguing for anything to do with Moon Shadow, by and large. :)

Given how often she previously got shouted down for trying to fight Moon Shadow's corner before, maybe she's falling back on the kind of tactics she's more suited for, such as lurking in the shadows and waiting for an opportunity to nudge events in her favoured direction in subtle and unseen ways...

Not that I'm saying she's doing that of course...

On the plus side, you're much less likely to need to keep checking your back for stray sharp things that got 'accidentally' left sticking in it.  ;)

Foxy still around too for the most part. Though these politics were never something he likes even at character conception so trying to think of something to add to be meaningful and character based after all

I notice Water Hornet was browsing the game last month! Good to know he's still around, even if as a lurker! *waves just in case*

Hornet expressed an interest in being able to play again, which shouldn't be any problem given that his character is still around, but first he said he needed to read all that went down since he left, which understandably might take a while.

Oof, that's a lot of walls of text! But that would be great if he could participate again :)

Wow, it's been a month since checking in! Time files right now :(

Hope everyone's still doing as ok as can be expected in this continuing to be weird times!

I am fine, and I also hope everybody else is.

Rain Feather has been having trouble, but that's personal, and I'm not going to disclose anything I might or might not know other than to say she spoke to me recently to say that she still wants to see the game through and will be posting as soon as life let up on her, but that might take a bit. That's why she's not posted.

As far as I'm concerned, the game is still on, is just that everybody's been leaving it all on Rain to carry the conversation at a time where she's having difficulties to do so, hence why the long pause from posting. I even asked, but everybody said they had nothing to add, so clearly everybody was fine with waiting.

Still, I'm still around, and I know Dusk Rat, Sabre Fox and Swift Fox all also are because they're active in games I have currently a presence in, so really, everything is fine; hopefully things will return to move forward soon enough - we're really not that far from reaching a conclusion, it's all a matter of what sort of conclusion it's gonna be at this point.

Yeah, I'm still here :D. It's understandable if some people have some RL issues goign on right now, because, you know, pandemic and all that :P. It's barely affected me, really, because my job is one that continues anyway and I don't really go out except to go shopping, so other than having to queue to get into Sainsbury's sometimes and generally taking a wider route around people I pass along the way, I've basically been able to get away with just carying on as usual. Meanwhile most of the rest of the country seems to be all "Omg I'm stuck in my house and I can't go and see all the people I normally see and all these other things I normally do", as I boot up my computer as usual and carry on playing whatever game it is I'm currently playing :D.

Still here too.  No hurry :)
Thanks to all the political sniping in the media, everyone here is clamouring to end the lockdown soon, even if it isn't actually safe yet.
Darwin Awards on standby...

I'll be staying in unless I'm forced out anyway.
Avoiding the rest of humanity for several days is a great cure for depression, I can highly recommend it :)

Just seeing Rain Feather occasionally logging on so knowing she's at least around is good, waiting is no issue for me. Especially for personal reasons.

Shame Water Hornet hasn't logged on since March :(


I'm know I'm lucky to have kept employed through all this, but like you Dusk Rat normally staying at home would be fine. However, work now means I have to use this laptop and sit at it for 8 - 10 hours a day, so it's basically managaed to knock out my primary method of relaxing from work. And the other one - going out in an unrestricted way - not an option until recently either. Very strange!

Still, as problems go it's very minor.

Edit: Lol, yeah, if work wasn't intruding on my personal space this would be amazing! :p

I can say that I'm also the type that almost never leaves home, so the quarantine isn't really that big a problem for me.

Hehe yeah, to roughly quote what I saw someone say in a Yogscast video early on in lockdown - "Turns out my everyday life is "extreme measures"!" :D.

Yeah, I was staying indoors as much as possible and giving people a wide berth when going out before it was cool!

I don't think it's really "cool" even now, seeing how some people are apparently protesting against it. Which feels extremely weird to me, but whatever.

Maybe it's just easier for us because we're used to getting regular interpersonal interaction with smart, interesting people through things like this very game, while those who aren't used to it don't realize that they could still be as social as they want by just finding the proper ways to communicate with others? I find that it's often hard to realize what sort of options you have access to when the situation you're into isn't within your normal frame of reference.

Sorry, I'm more just making a joke in the line of 'I liked this band / media property before everyone else did and it was cool'.

Some people don't like explicit restrictions, even if they would happily live within them otherwise, some people actively need mental energy from interactions with others or from getting outdoors, for some people text or video isn't the same as the interpersonal or even just hate technology / can't use it. I can sympathise with how hard people find this. I just find it 'funny' that I would be absolutely fine with this, but working from home is undercutting every method of coping so I'll sadly be glad when I can get back to working normally and therefore it can stay away from my non-work life!