Pegasus Fleet Forums

Advice For Healthy Simms

I'd like to offer these with the following dynamic kept in mind.
Joining a simm is like getting married. After the honeymoon, it takes effort.
Untended commitments crumble marriages and simms alike.

1. CO's - BE the participation that you'd like to see from your players.

CO absenteeism is guaranteed fatal to a simm. I have endured this on ship after ship.
One cannot blame the players. I admired, marveled at the creative talent of the others.
Yet, despite efforts way beyond the call of duty, the ships failed.
Lead - By - Example!

2. Joint Posts - Fish or Cut Bait.

Mission-related JPs are essential to the health of the simm.
If you're in one and can't consistently update it, then have the courtesy to bow out.
Another player or NPC can be rewritten in.
You shouldn't be held back by 'it's not my official ship role'.
TOS did that all the time, characters taking on roles well outside normal duties.
Other players are waiting, time is precious, and life is short.
What does it take, five minutes to log in and add a response line to a JP each day?

3. Solo Posts - Icing, but Not the Cake
If JPs are the cake, then Solo posts are the icing. They make the cake great, but they cannot substitute for it. Do I object to solos? Heck no! I luv 'em. My simm histories attest to that. But a simm with dead mission threads turn solo posts into a kluge of unrelated mini-fanfictions. That, I'll reserve for an original space opera published in Kindle books. Otherwise. I'd like to balance out my solo posts with community writing, the very reason why simms were created.

I'd like to add that I hate being the only one posting. It makes me wonder if I might seem dominating the simm or, worse yet, hijacking the mission threads.

4. Hesitant? Don't know what to post?
One thing which holds many back is, they simply don't know what to do in a JP.
There's an easy solution for that. If you don't know what to DO, then share how you FEEL.
Dr. McCoy did it all the time. This actually is more valuable contribution than one might think. It draws the reader into the situation, establishes points of empathy.
On a general basis, McCoy shared feelings, Spock made suggestions, and Kirk was big dam hero.

Everyone has personal reactions to situations. What is your character's? You don't even have to voice dialog. Just type in what your character is thinking! It's easy.
Don't be intimidated by lack of experience. Welcome to the club. My early writing capital-S Stunk. It was pathetic. You get better by diving in there and doing it.

Communication

Yep, just as in survivable marriage, communication is a vital component.

5. You don't like what another character is posting? SPEAK UP!
Speaking for myself, I crave feedback! That means good, bad, or otherwise.
Silence breeds resentment, back biting, and factionalism.
Give feedback like a human, a Vulcan, a Klingon (well... lemme think about that one), but hear Aretha sing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYbs_O_iMfU

OOC healthy confrontations foster personal growth and maybe even build friendships.
If you can, manifest it in-character, between your characters!
IC confrontations just make for good drama. You know, 'to boldly go'?
Will we always come to agreement? Maybe not very often at all.
But at least maybe we can make considerate adjustments.

6. COs, don't leave PMs unanswered.
It doesn't have to be right-now instantaneous, but eventually throw us some bread crumbs? Okay, okay, some comments shouldn't be dignified by an answer. But in general?

The XO

In a viable marriage, it's not generally a good idea for the husband to announce, "Honey, you're in charge of the children. That entails bearing, nurturing, raising, soccer practice, band uniforms, haircuts, slumber parties, arranging summer camps, etc. Your duties will also include keeping the house spotless for when I invite guests, preparing all meals, do the laundry, take care of dry cleaning, etc."

In like manner, barring masochistic consent, CO's shouldn't abrogate responsibilities to the XO. Maintaining websites, playing post-police, recruiting, creating missions, handling awards... the list goes on. I have actually seen multiple would-be COs recruit, specifying all encompassing duty requirements.

Simms are not fire-and-forget weapons. They're fly-by-wire, you keep your hand on the joystick. The XO is there to H-E-L-P, to fill in temporarily when CO is unavailable. A good litmus test for any crewman or employee who's been saddled with too mucho management responsibilities is, "Am I doing so much that I might as well be commanding my own ship?"

I know that I'm focusing (picking) on COs, here, but it applies to everyone:

Simm membership is a privilege.
You are needed and you need others.
Running a simm requires varying degrees of work.
Simm metabolism requires communication.
Take or switch to a role on your ship that you can realistically handle.
Honor your fellow players by keeping your commitments.
Many hands really do help make light work.

Thank you for the post, Treymiar. I think you make excellent points, and I think I agree with pretty much all of them. Like you said, this is great advice for any player, not just the COs. One more thing that I would add is that if you don't know what to post, then ask. I know as a CO, I'd rather have a player ask me for ideas than just sitting idle.

Just reading these back once again. A great contribution.

Thank you, I appreciate the feedback.
I just pulled out of an X-Men simm which essentially died on the vine.
I'd posted bunches, put lots of work into it, but it was turning into a solo fanfic.

Maybe it worked out for the better. I finished the draft to my first novel and am slugging it out with editing. Weeks and weeks of work!

- PSF

Great Post!