Social Hooper McFinney's RPF Bar & Grille 7.5 - "Loving the lens flare since 1977!” -!

And now I'm seeing a Toy Story flashback...

 

*peeks in the doorway

Remember the days when the RPF was two pages deep with active games and people used to get in trouble for "bumping" their threads?

Nice to see the regulars still around tho

 

I can't imagine having so few to choose from!
Many new games lately, all of which catch the eye. Shame I don't have the time to join all.

 

An

Any recommendations? I love a good game but find it daunting to join a long established storyline.

 

Just my 2 cents but I suppose it would depend on what you're looking for.
There are lots of star wars games, though also a recent trend of different genre's popping up.

Candlewood by @SirakRomar started a couple months ago but is a very good horror games. Nothing too scary yet but I'm sure she's got something up her sleeve.
I just started an Assassins Creed game where players can explore 14th century Europe. (Not to toot my own horn.)
New Sith Trials III is the third iteration of that game, and has a very large player base. I'm sure Lady B can elaborate more on that.
Legacy of the Guardians is an extension of the Guardians of Light, but accepts players from all over.

 

Candlewood is still open for players and early enough to join, so if it is your kind of game shoot me a PM @Kalio_Dynkos

Otherwise I think ConservativeJedi had a good list above. There are also some upcoming games I believe. Rumors have it a Star Wars game launches pretty soon.

 

Every game I recommended I participate in.
Mostly because I think that gives more sway to my words.
There are surely other great games out there.

I will also point out that despite the fact that I did not join, the Reckoning looks fascinating. @HanSolo29
There is of course the fact that the player cap has been exceeded, but I didn't join when it was available because I'm already in so many games I'm afraid I might start neglecting the ones I'm already a part of. In any case I will most certainly be watching it with great interest.

 

Awesome! I'll look them over! Thanks!

What do you guys account for the lower numbers on the RPF? Not that it's a bad thing to have a core of good 'uns like yourselves.

 

Lower numbers on the boards in general maybe, but I think there’s just not enough promotion of the RPF and so not enough interest is generated.

Maybe part of it is the cliquish nature... it seems like people are hesitant to branch out into games GMed by people they aren’t really familiar with, and so it’s hard to get and keep a game going if you’re a new GM.

 

That's an astute point! I would have to agree with that.

 

That certainly is a major factor. Only the most stubborn new GM's survive.
(I speak from experience)

 

Haha! You, go! Show em how it's done.

 

Time is a precious commodity that few people have a lot of, myself included. Whenever I peek in at a game I might be interested in joining, and see walls and walls of text and many users participating, I realize that there's no way I'd be able to catch myself up and keep up once I got there, so I abstain from joining. That's why I jumped on Candlewood when it launched, because it seemed to be a small-scale game in a modern day setting in which I'd be able to keep my head above water, fingers crossed (and admittedly I don't even keep up with plotlines unrelated to my character in that game). And I can see where @Darth_wanderguard is coming from when he talks about the forum's cliquish nature. I hardly know anyone here aside from a few familiar faces, and they seem to only lurk, and it seems like an almost impenetrable community. I think that's in part due to the TFN forums' atrocious design compared to the old IGN boards, and the off-site stuff we used to have like RPFChat on AIM that are no longer around (to my knowledge). The social threads are also catatonic most of the time (and @PRENNTACULAR isn't even around to kill them himself anymore).

I don't mean to rag on the RPF or anything, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss the days when a bunch of us were able to shoot the **** in RPFChat and I'd keep submitting banners to @Imperial_Hammer that never seemed to fit what he was looking for but I enjoyed it anyway (whereas now we just have the same banner in every forum and the color scheme is as dull as a hospital waiting room, definitely not designed by the masterful @Tyi-Maet_Nefer). And of course the internet was a much different place eleven, twelve, thirteen years ago. Netflix and social media weren't nearly as prevalent, and there weren't as many distractions in those days. Now there's so much damn stuff to do, it's hard to keep a tight community together and thriving in one place.

 

Probably the best answer I've seen. And you're totally right 12-13 years ago, my life was different and so was the general feeling of the RPF. What with the huge inter-connected games and the community aspect, it seems like the RPF was always growing.

I also concur with the thoughts about games with walls of text and pages to get get through. The only game I really contribute to on occasion is GAW - which is largely connected to the fact that I jumped into it a decade ago. So it's like slipping back into that glove, rather than trying to recreate the wheel in somebody else's universe. Yeah. I get that. Good thoughts.

Here's hoping it can resurrected, though. RPF just needs a little love and it'll be booming again.

 

GET OFF MY LAWN!

Whippersnappers...

 

The "old days" had their own problems. Many of which we have overcome nowadays. And numbers have been recovering slowly - remarkable considering @Darth_wanderguard is right about us not exactly promoting the forum - but one thing should be recognized about these boards. We got great games. We have a steady inflow of games people enjoy and join and lately we had a lot of games concluded. Four I count. That means four games to which players and GMs stayed loyal to for months to see it through to the end. Look at other post-by-post sites and they are still talking about that one game that had actually a finale ten years ago! So we got a good quality here.

And even in the haydays of the forum, we had games that did not find an audience. It is always a mix of factors that decide about this. Right now we got a player market, with more games out there than anyone can join.

Nevertheless the "Flagship" game served a purpose for the community. Everyone was in there, playing big plots or carving out their own niches. No idea why we don't have them anymore. Maybe it is because of what happened to the Star Wars franchise itself.

 

There is something to be said with completed games. I, for one, love it when a game ends. Back in the days of the RPF HoloNet, I was always a fan of when an arc finished. I've also liked artful GMs.

The old days went through a lot of experimentation. Of course, it was pre-new saga and I think in many ways the fan base was less concerned with toeing a line. Star Wars was something many fans felt like they owned and in the RPF, it thrived.

But, that experimentation also had its issues. There were a lot of dead-end games or storylines that would just peter out into "is this still active"?

 

In 13+ years on these boards I've never once been part of a game that "finished," but that hardly diminishes all the fond memories I have of fun games I participated in. Trying is fun! If I had the time to run a game of my own I'd do it a lot more (maybe one of these days I'll work out a way to launch the TMNT game I really want). I used to have a text document on my computer with pages of ideas.

 

As with TV shows and movies, I think it comes down to the writers (GMs in the case of the games). If they have an endpoint in mind when they create it, they'll get there. If they don't know what they're planning going in it'll wander until it's *ahem* LOST. (Ya hear me, JJ Abrams?!?)

 

That's not an entirely fair assessment considering it takes active players to finish a game. A GM could have a specific end goal in mind and not be able to get there because of players who drop off. Granted that could be the GM's fault for not keeping their interest, but that's certainly not always the case. The curse of a collaborative medium.

 

So coming to the end point is also a collaborative achievement, I'd say. It needs both players and GM to do this. Actually there probably never was a game that saw all players stay to the very end I guess.

I haven't managed to end a game so far I must say (also I totally intend with my current one and got a good feeling there), but I played in games that finished. It is always special to see an end to your journey. No doubt. These kind of games always have a special place in your heart. But I was in great games that never made it to the end and I also have fond memories of many of those.

 

I've been part of a few games that have finished. Most of which I joined very late.
Black Sun reached a proper conclusion.
The Shadow War ended (Granted by the end it pretty much had a completely new cast of characters than when it started).
I've survived both NST and NST II.

I hope to see the end of all the games I'm a part of now.