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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-10-2009 17:22

Now, I am not saying that old players have to be overlooked and especially since we are facing the advertising problem mentioned above. Ctown made some very good points in his post, out of which one stands out very clear: players need to feel they are taken care of, be that by new content added or simply by maintaining contact. I have to say that things around here are much different from the time when I first joined, in the sense that now the game looks like a ship that has been abandoned by its crue and captain and it is just run by its passengers. That's not an attractive look, especially when you pay for a ticket. The human nature is basically shaped towards interaction. When one feels no one's listening to him, he will move to wherever finds some open ears.

I think in this regard the creation of Shades has had a major influence. I am not talking about players moving to a more spectacular game, as basically to play this one implies the existence of a certain taste that practically cancelles the need for 'spectacular'. I understand from nicnic's post that not even Shades has a lot of action in a profitable sense, so practically that denied the possibility of accusing it of stealing players. But Shades did indeed generate a status of neglection in Noir, which led to what I have described in the above paragraph.

At last, regarding the idea of a game's community sustaining its own existence, it can be a step ahead towards sustaining the existence of the game itself, but it will never be enough.

The conclusion of all I've written is this: Noir needs advertising and also it needs the presence of an active management team, even if just for drying their mouth around the message board.

As far as Jojo's initial post is concerned, I fail to see the connection between what he described as being happening in the game at the time and the phenomenon he pointed as a result, but I don't think that's important to discuss. Maybe I'm just not that smart...hehehe

Mar-10-2009 17:25

Darn!...I wish I could limit myself to one post. I nearly put myself to sleep while reading again what I wrote...hehe

Mar-10-2009 18:23

I know this is going to sound really, really horrible. But, I don't really want to do anything for the game. I'm more than happy helping edit some mystery intros or being a chat mod (something within the game). But when it comes to me having to go out and advertise or do extra things, I'm just not that excited to do it. (Saying that, I do mention the game to other people on other boards.) I greatly appreciate the contributions that Ctown and other members have made to the sleuth community. However, I don't have the time/energy to make this game better. If I get bored, I rather just unsub -which I did for a number of months. I'm sorry if that sounds selfish.

Mar-10-2009 20:07

No that just makes you sound human hap :)

Mar-10-2009 22:45

Thanks SS. :)

Sorry, I think i was supposed to post this in "what we can do to help sleuth" thread.

Mar-14-2009 23:04

To walk through an agency list in noir is to walk through ghost towns...places where interest bloomed and dropped like interest at a physics convention. I feel like that Indian that rode up on his horse and looked over at all the litter *tear dripping down my eye* ;) Variety is the spice of life...bring us your drunk and stoned and lookie loos ...rebuild join agencies stay solo who cares...we need players!

Mar-17-2009 23:39

Go on with your bad self Bill...He has it right

Mar-18-2009 09:28

LOL :)

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