I don't know, honestly. I could definitely see merging some of the teams as a good idea...but, then, like with the Soldiers and Dragoons: I didn't necessarily feel like the alliance was all that helpful overall because the members still weren't all that active (actually, it seemed like the Soldiers picked up activity towards the end and the Dragoons sort of slowed down...and I don't know if that was just because members were busy IRL or if people lost interest or what. I know there were even quite a few members who never bothered to add the other team comm in those teams, so in the end I'm not entirely sure how beneficial it was in the long run). I like Z's idea more of merging or having an alliance with a team that participates a lot with one of the quieter ones...because, as shown with the alliance for the Dragoons and Soldiers, merging two quiet teams isn't necessarily all that beneficial in the long run.
Unfortunately, it does all boil down to traits. I hate saying it...but when I think of the traits people tend to use when sorting Soldier, Dragoon, and White Mage applications, they don't exactly relate well to team playing-- which might also explain why some of those members aren't super active. For Soldiers I see people getting stamped because they remind people of Squall, Cloud, or Lightning...or for Dragoons because they remind people of Kain...and even for White Mages they *have* to be reserved like Yuna or they tend to go into another class: regardless of the fact that there are other characters in those classes who *don't* fall into those personality archetypes. I think that's where the Soldiers recently have benefitted, because there's more versatility in the class overall (applicants who remind people of Tidus can get stamped into Soldier, and I think they'd be more likely to participate because of that in general). Unfortunately, there's no easy way to fix that...other than to ask people to consider the character classes as a WHOLE instead of focusing in on one or two popular characters that might happen to fit that archetype: because, in reality, people tend to only vote what they know. I've just found that if you stick all reserved or introverted people on certain teams, you're probably going to find those teams not super active regardless of the really good efforts of one or two of their members. :)
I also think that MWS could benefit from a point overhaul in some way. Not that I want to take away points from my icon posts or anything, lolz! Still, it seems like something about the point system could be worked on in a way: like when people submit fan fic things to challenges and then they don't place but they'll get 30 points for submitting to the challenge, but no points at all for de-anoning and posting at MWS (while considering the word count for the longer challenges, they probably would have gotten more points just for submitting to MWS instead of the challenge itself). Maybe we could do an obligatory "20 points for de-anoning" or something, just to encourage people to post there? I do know that there are a few members who won't de-anon after a challenge because it just doesn't seem worth it overall, so I think it might be beneficial to them if they have some little incentive and receive positive feedback too. ...Although, in all honesty, I also know MWS is where some people make up points for their teams (like Yin, for example. She can't enter most of the graphic challenges, so she likes writing fan fics there to help get some points up for White Mages...and Z does a great amount of them for her team as well!), so I hope that it won't be too drastic of a change. I am glad to see that the points for fan art will be overhauled though! ♥
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Unfortunately, it does all boil down to traits. I hate saying it...but when I think of the traits people tend to use when sorting Soldier, Dragoon, and White Mage applications, they don't exactly relate well to team playing-- which might also explain why some of those members aren't super active. For Soldiers I see people getting stamped because they remind people of Squall, Cloud, or Lightning...or for Dragoons because they remind people of Kain...and even for White Mages they *have* to be reserved like Yuna or they tend to go into another class: regardless of the fact that there are other characters in those classes who *don't* fall into those personality archetypes. I think that's where the Soldiers recently have benefitted, because there's more versatility in the class overall (applicants who remind people of Tidus can get stamped into Soldier, and I think they'd be more likely to participate because of that in general). Unfortunately, there's no easy way to fix that...other than to ask people to consider the character classes as a WHOLE instead of focusing in on one or two popular characters that might happen to fit that archetype: because, in reality, people tend to only vote what they know. I've just found that if you stick all reserved or introverted people on certain teams, you're probably going to find those teams not super active regardless of the really good efforts of one or two of their members. :)
I also think that MWS could benefit from a point overhaul in some way. Not that I want to take away points from my icon posts or anything, lolz! Still, it seems like something about the point system could be worked on in a way: like when people submit fan fic things to challenges and then they don't place but they'll get 30 points for submitting to the challenge, but no points at all for de-anoning and posting at MWS (while considering the word count for the longer challenges, they probably would have gotten more points just for submitting to MWS instead of the challenge itself). Maybe we could do an obligatory "20 points for de-anoning" or something, just to encourage people to post there? I do know that there are a few members who won't de-anon after a challenge because it just doesn't seem worth it overall, so I think it might be beneficial to them if they have some little incentive and receive positive feedback too. ...Although, in all honesty, I also know MWS is where some people make up points for their teams (like Yin, for example. She can't enter most of the graphic challenges, so she likes writing fan fics there to help get some points up for White Mages...and Z does a great amount of them for her team as well!), so I hope that it won't be too drastic of a change. I am glad to see that the points for fan art will be overhauled though! ♥