[quote=wild-kitsune]
I'm really sorry for being so absent guys. I know after all these years nobody wants to see Feral die, myself least of all, but between work school and family I just haven't had the drive nor the time to really get meaningful posts in. I blame myself in part for taking on so much (since I'm controlling Neon, Torva, the entire council, the guards at the Colosseum, the judges, the other competitors, etc, etc), and I think in the future I'll try to keep things a bit more manageable for myself.Part of that, though, deals with newer players, and to that end I'd appreciate some advice from other legacy RPers. In an attempt to be welcoming, I find that the best way to deal with new players is to give them NPCs to talk to in the hopes that they'll eventually have enough interactions with the core group to allow me to dial back and let things happen naturally. It may be my storytelling, or it may be the natural distrust of new players among the core group, or it may be some combination of multiple factors, but I think what we need to do is decide if we want to keep Feral as an open RP. I've always wanted to keep it open because there will always be a somewhat steady flow of people coming and going, but at the very center of the story the players have been consistent for years now. I think for management purposes it might be easiest if I stop accepting new players entirely, but I wanted to let everyone else voice their opinion on the matter.As for a post coming, I don't want to mess with what Har has been working on, and maybe we can work together to merge stuff, but at the very least I should get you guys a resolution of the games and a small jump to the vote from the council. There's a lot on the table right now and it wouldn't be fair of me to let it go ignored. If I promise, for really real, to have a substantial post up before the weekend, can you guys grant me that much faith and just hold off for a little bit more?
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Also, given how busy you are, why not have one (or two) of the core players be a formal co-GM? That way they can take over for you when you're swamped or uninspired.

As for new players... On one hand, it's always nice to have fresh blood join us and bring something new to the table, on the other hand at this point I'm kind of apprehensive as to whether we should accept new players. For reasons already mentioned, and the fact that it won't be easy for them to join an RP already in progress for 4 years at this point. We can be as welcoming as we want but it's always going to be difficult for a new player to jump in and get comfortable with the group with disrupting the flow.

I realize it's part and parcel of new people joining the group and we should try to be welcoming if they do join us, but at this point the results seem to speak for new players not sticking around for long. I'm not advocating outright closing new member applications, but maybe making it really hard for new players to join without getting a sense of our pace.