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Jun-20-2007 12:56

***This is my opinion. Strictly my opinion.***


I've looked at the community, and anyone who's been here longer than 100 days is able to see that Sleuth activity has gone down the tubes. Dead. And what is to blame? The agencies.

Now, agencies aren't the root cause. Let's get that straight. But the way they have been operating is. The problems with agencies are (1) the quantity, (2) the purpose, (3) and the role they play.

Okay, first, the quantity of agencies. Not too long ago, there were about 20-30 agencies. All full at 12 persons each, coming to a total of roughly 240-360 people. That was a good amount. But now, we have almost 120 agencies. That's right. 600% of the amount we had about a year ago. Sure, some may argue that the community has grown, and it certainly has. But 600% growth? I don't think so.

Mar-21-2009 00:06

It's interesting, I think I missed this thread back when Jojo posted it in 2007, whether deliberately or because I was too busy/stressed/sick to read and/or post on it at the time I can't remember now. Oh well.

I did read the old stuff on this a couple days ago, and just got through reading the new stuff just now. While I think several people have made some valid points, I think there's a couple things that need to be clarified.

As far as Jojo's post goes, I happen to be guilty on practically all of his arguments. I started out in an Agency as a Newbie, grew and learned there, and went on to become a Director of it and head it up. For the better part of two years, I worked 8-10 detectives' cases most every night, always putting my own at the bottom of the heap. For the last 13+ months of that time, I did it mostly on my own.

After a year plus of working an entire Agency on my own with no help and no future in sight, I made a painful decision to leave (basically leaving the old Agency for dead). I went on to form my own Agency (sorry, Jojo), took two detectives and a Newbie with me who didn't want to stay at the old place, and started out on my own.

Something seems to have worked, cause we celebrate our Second Anniversary today. That Newbie is now my partner, and a fellow Director. The roster is full of active agents. And now, I do what I want to--be that 10 agents' cases or nobody's.

Things have been going so well at Wish that recently we opened a satellite office (I dislike the term 'sister' office). Will it stay open? Who knows. But for now, it's serving a purpose that few could have pictured back in 2007.

Mar-21-2009 00:42

So does Jojo have a point?? Perhaps. Admittedly, there are a great many more agencies around today than there were back when he first signed up. And a great many of them are filled with Inactive, Unsubbed people, prob'ly never to return again. But then again, we keep seeing people we think are gone for good suddenly show up out of the blue and decide they want to come back, at least for a little while (ie. Adam Carter, Detective Happy, etc, etc, etc. ;-). So I'm not convinced that getting rid of all those 'Dead' agencies is such a good thing.

For those who aren't familiar with Nephi/Hannah Blue/ Whoever he claims to be in This Particular Reincarnation, lemme introduce you:

Yes, technically, Nephi did throw out the idea for the Sleuthetania. I believe it went something like, "There should be a ship that goes from one city to another, that people can travel on and do cases on." There ya go. That's it. His big invention. Did he stick around to throw in the dozens of other suggestions/ideas that went into its development? Nope.

He flitted off, our Mockingbird of Sleuth, only to return about every three months to throw out 3-4 suggestions designed to throw the community into chaos, then was gone again. And while he didn't suggest erasing everybody's experience, equipment, and contacts this time, he's done so numerous times in the past (that actually seems to be one of his favorite requests, for some weird reason). Our roaming revolutionary has advocated for everything from various lottery schemes, to storing FM's and favors (already been tried), to having 'storage warehouses' for the factions that one can rent/buy, to basically eliminating the factions altogether, to creating/being a character/'archcriminal' that can legally steal equipment and money from people and agencies, to having this same 'archcriminal' be able to kill off your detective. His purpose in life seems to be to "create tension in the game." He's here for a couple days max, then he's off and

Mar-21-2009 01:02

gone for another three months.

So, any of this sound like a worthwhile person to be listening to? No, I didn't think so either. Flit, flit, Nephi. Off you go.

Several people have mentioned that Sleuth's big problem is the lack of advertising that we have. While I've been here, Admin's conducted two advertising campaigns that I can remember. Both netted a huge intake of temporary people, eager to try out Sleuth. The servers went bonkers, the community went in an uproar because of said server problems, and Drewbies galore infested the boards. How much help did the campaigns help overall in recruiting long-term, seriously-interested Subbed people? Not much.

Sleuth's problems are numerous and multi-dimensional. Some have been around a great deal longer than many realise. It will take more than just an ad campaign or (another) server parsing to fix Sleuth. While both may help a little, these are both symptoms of much bigger, underlying issues that need to be addressed by Admin and the community, and dealt with before they grow unsolveable.

Admin tends to view Noir from a programming perspective. Admittedly, I'm much more of a creative person (Programming means nothing to me.). If things are going to be fixed in Sleuth, we must find a way to meet in the middle, and be able to communicate with everyone.

*Steps down off the soapbox, and hands it to the next person....* ;-)

Mar-21-2009 12:32

Thanks for the shout-out Breit! I'm going to speak for Jojo in the hopes that he gets upset with me and comes back to Sleuth. But I would think the Sleuth community is very happy for all of your accomplishments. You started a great agency from scratch and have done extrememly well with it. I think at the time, there were a lot of new detectives starting agencies who had very little experience. As a newbie, I think it's best to join an already established agency to see how they work for a few months before trying it out on your own. (I'm under the assumption that Breit did this)

As for me leaving, it wasn't personal, since I really enjoy the community on this site. But I feel there aren't enough new challenges within the game to keep me interested. And, although I'm happy to stay active within the community (bar chat, message boards, etc.), I don't think I'll renew my subscription when it comes up again. Do I blame Ben for none of the new challenges and game play? Nope (although I understand the frustration of long-time players), it's his game and he can do whatever he likes. Just like it's up to me if I want to pay for it or not.

*passes soap to someone else* :)

Mar-27-2009 19:54

No one speaks for Jojo, happy. NO ONE!

*gets upset and comes back to Sleuth... to yell at her!* :D



In all seriousness, very interesting to see this thread back. I find it very intriguing that thoughts from 2 years ago are back and relevant. Maybe when I actually have the time, I'll come back and comment about my thoughts as of now... maybe.