chacusha: (ff - ashe)
chacusha ([personal profile] chacusha) wrote in [community profile] finalfantasyland2011-05-03 07:43 pm

Community Feedback/Suggestions Part I

COMMUNITY FEEDBACK PART I
(ff_classchange & ff_land)


Here's how this is going to work:

- There's going to be two phases to this whole community feedback process. During the first phase, I'll have you fill out general polls asking you to rate various aspects of the comm and make suggestions. During the second phase, I will collect all reasonable/feasible ideas that were suggested and put them to a vote.

- This series of posts are part of the first phase. The polls here are to help give me a general idea of how the comm is going, but mostly they're here to to jog your memory on various aspects of the comm that might need improvement. You're encouraged to make suggestions in the comments as you think of them and to respond to other people's suggestions.

- Comments are unscreened. However, anonymous commenting is allowed in case you're uncomfortable voicing your opinions with your name attached.

- Not all suggestions will go on to be voted on in the second phase. Some suggestions will be rejected without vote and some suggestions will be accepted without vote, at mod discretion.

- The mods have already put some thought into community improvement. Here's a list of things we've come up with so far:

Suggestions that will be voted on in Phase 2:
  • [GENERAL] Add Vagrant Story to the list of accepted FF games
  • [GENERAL] Add original Kingdom Hearts characters (e.g. Sora, Terra, Organization XIII, etc.) to the list of accepted FF games
  • [GENERAL] Use (different) alliances again in Game 2, or switch to individual teams

Suggestions that will be implemented without vote:
  • [GENERAL] Track & reward member participation with a fanworks incentive system
  • [FANWORKS] Allow people to set up "shops" as part of the above
  • [FANWORKS] Rework the [livejournal.com profile] moogle_workshop fanart scale
  • [SORTING] Remove the leader/supporter dichotomy from the app as it's made redundant by question 4
If you have concerns that would be fixed by any of the above, you do not have to mention them here.


- All suggestions (here and in the comments) are open to debate, so if you want to make an argument for or against an idea, you are encouraged to do so.

Onto the polls!


[Poll #1737741]


Polls/suggestion box will be open until Saturday May 21
If you need to change your vote, click on the "Poll #______" link at the top of the poll, then [ Fill out Poll ], then change your answers and resubmit.

[identity profile] zerrat.livejournal.com 2011-05-04 03:34 am (UTC)(link)
On a scale of 1-10, how satisfied are you with the current class setup (Soldier, White Mage, Black Mage, Thief, Monk, Dragoon)? (If you're not happy with the class system, comment with classes you would add or remove.)

I ranked this as 7, because admittedly we do have imbalanced teams. I love the system, generally, but there's severe participation issues within the Dragoons and Soldiers (Breyzy pretty much WAS the team for a good long time) while other teams, such as Thieves and Black Mages, tend to participate a lot.

I don't know if this is because by grouping more subdued personalities, you're going to exacerbate existing problems (White Mages with shyness and reservedness etc).

Additionally, and I hate to say this, there's not a huge amount of distinction between the monks and the thieves during voting - we're basically boiling it down to the same essential traits, but with more impulsiveness and bluntness.

I don't know, I guess I feel that many of the monks could easy work as thieves or something else, and I'm not sure that the class is distinct enough to gain many members.

I feel like a traitor for saying this.

In general, what aspects of [livejournal.com profile] ff_land did you enjoy?

Pretty much everything listed, but the [livejournal.com profile] raging_fists is usually very quiet. I'll be trying to enact more discussion/team-building between this game and into the next.

Are there any communities you consider particularly over- or under-powered? (Please comment with details)

Hm. Well. As much as I hate to cripple the monk's major ways of gaining points, I worry that there is too much loading on fanfiction when compared to fanart. I mean, that's been the major way the monks have stayed afloat for so long. Without that, we're fairly low-powered in terms of participation. Half the time, it's just me and Eilia voting (Frei's got a lot of exams and such at the moment, so she's been busy) and if it's in [livejournal.com profile] ff_minigames, it's usually just me, and occassionally B (who has been doing great btw).

Anyhow, while I appreciate the ability to keep the team in the runnings, I'm still a little dubious about it. I mean, on a good week, I can post upwards of 25000 words (recently I've been stuck with writer's block, so it's been lower or even zero) so is this fair?

But then I look at Yin who posts fanfic too, and Breyzy with her icons, and I think that the Monks aren't the only team that benefits greatly from MWS.

What did you think about the alliance system this game?

Loved it, the thieves were fantastic allies. Perhaps the next alliances will be a little less unbalanced. The soldiers and dragoons certainly need to be split, perhaps the least active one going with the thieves and the remaining one with the monks. The mages seem to work well together, though.
Edited 2011-05-04 03:38 (UTC)

[identity profile] virago-queen.livejournal.com 2011-05-04 04:32 am (UTC)(link)
Have to agree with Z on the unbalanced nature of the teams. I think that Dragoons could be easily merged into Soldiers, to the benefit of everyone there. Monks also pose the problem of not being differentiated enough. Personally, if it comes down to a major overhaul of the system (which I don't see happening) I would cut the classes down to the four "core" FF classes - White Mage, Black Mage, Soldier, and Thief. Re-establish the Soldier class with a mixture of Soldier and Dragoon traits, and resort all the Monks into other classes (I know there were quite a few who had White Mage leanings, and the WMs could benefit from an infusion of Monk-style awesomeness). Not ideal, and obviously a huge undertaking, but just my two cents. =/

[livejournal.com profile] firaga_casters is typically pretty quiet, but we've been brainstorming some ideas, so hopefully that'll change soon. It seems like this is sort of a comm-wide team comm problem, though.

MWS does seem a touch overpowered, but I think that's just because of the INCREDIBLE prolific nature of our resident fic-goddess, Z (*bows*), and [livejournal.com profile] hillian and [livejournal.com profile] haryan's crazy icon posts. The other teams just don't have anyone that awesome posting. I think the current wordcount fic system works, but I might suggest an overhaul for shorter works, like poetry or drabbles. Maybe make all fanworks have a minimum point worth, like 10 or something? I know my husband, [livejournal.com profile] zydoxis, was kinda put off by the wordcount system when he posted those two extra limericks, since he'd only be getting like 5 points for the pair.

The alliances were fun, and I think having them next game would be beneficial, since there's such a gap between the three top teams and the three bottom ones. I'm just sad that the Black Mages probably won't get to team up with the Monks or Thieves. There are some awesome people over there that I'd love to work with! And I would definitely make comm-linking required next time. I think the Mage team suffered a bit for being the only unlinked alliance.

And I would just like to say that this place? Awesome. ^_^ I'm so happy to be a part of such a fantastic community! You're the best, [livejournal.com profile] chacusha. *bows*

[identity profile] zerrat.livejournal.com 2011-05-04 05:28 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, I could see soldiers and dragoons merging (perhaps calling this class the 'warrior' class) without major hiccoughs. Thing is, it should be up to the members of those classes.

The Monk class members doing reapps... I myself would be fine with this scenario, though I cannot speak for the other members of this class.

As for drabble/shortfic/poetry ratings, they definitely need more weight. I'd even say true drabbles and poems get 20 points as a base, and shortfic (500-1000) getting minimum point earnings too, because length is no indication of the effort put into the piece. Just because I can write 2000 words in the time it takes another to write and refine a drabble shouldn't mean my stuff is worth more just by virtue of wordcount.

So true drabbles/poems etc should get a better weighting.

[identity profile] virago-queen.livejournal.com 2011-05-04 06:04 am (UTC)(link)
Thing is, it should be up to the members of those classes.

Yeah, definitely. If they want to stay separate, that's totally fine.

Resorting the Monks is an extreme measure and obviously it'd pretty much have to be a unanimous thing in your team. I'm just brainstorming ideas. ^_^

Just because I can write 2000 words in the time it takes another to write and refine a drabble shouldn't mean my stuff is worth more just by virtue of wordcount.

Then again, your writing talents are fantastic even if they are to the detriment of my team and should continue to be rewarded highly! ^^

[identity profile] zerrat.livejournal.com 2011-05-04 07:04 am (UTC)(link)
Seriously 25000 words in a week??!

In a very good week! I can do 7000+ a day if I focus and don't get distracted. It's just that I always get distracted! The internet and ff_land actually stop me from doing monstrous amounts of writing, simply because I have a lot of fun. That and the new season of Masterchef Australia just started. Hnnnnngh.
glacialphoenix: (Default)

[personal profile] glacialphoenix 2011-05-04 10:37 am (UTC)(link)
I worry that there is too much loading on fanfiction when compared to fanart.

Part of this, I have to admit, is the reason for the overhaul of fanart points. I compared how long it takes me to write fic versus how long it takes Ari to draw a something that snags her an equivalent amount of points... and the discrepancy is huge.

I personally feel that if you really are that prolific (25000 words, Z, seriously? I am in awe) then, eh, we should let you have the points.

[identity profile] the-404-error.livejournal.com 2011-05-04 12:33 pm (UTC)(link)
firaga_casters is typically pretty quiet, but we've been brainstorming some ideas, so hopefully that'll change soon. It seems like this is sort of a comm-wide team comm problem, though.

Interestingly, I went through all of the team comms, and we have the highest number of "comments received," so we could be interpreted as the least quiet despite not being merged with anyone else. Even when disregarding the 70+ comment tarot post, we're still second behind the monks. D: Poor team comms.

[identity profile] breyzyyin.livejournal.com 2011-05-04 01:54 pm (UTC)(link)
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! ♥
Edited 2011-05-04 13:55 (UTC)
glacialphoenix: (Default)

[personal profile] glacialphoenix 2011-05-04 02:29 pm (UTC)(link)
1. About stamping applications - I'm inclined to keep a 'least favourite' question rather than a 'most favourite' question, because I've noticed that if anything, people here seem to protective of the friendly atmosphere within the community. A lot of that comes from accepting that other people have different opinions than yours, and tolerating, if not accepting, those opinions.

And I personally feel it's easier to be cheerful and happy and enthusiastic about something you like, and be friendly about it, precisely because you like it. It's how you act about something you don't like or disagree with that demonstrates your spirit of openness and willingness to work with those who don't share your opinions, and I think that's vital to a landcomm like this one.

I hope I don't sound too cynical with that. ^^;

2) On stamping teams: I think some classes suffer from... how shall I say this - lack of definition? I mean, we all have a damned good idea of what the textbook Thief, White Mage and Black Mage archetypes are like, but the differentiation between Thieves and Monks can be a little hard sometimes and I think Soldiers and Dragoons even more. I don't know if the people from those teams feel that way, so you should ask them, but from the sorting guide in [livejournal.com profile] ff_classchange:

Soldiers: "The default class. Well-rounded, a mix of calm and enthusiasm, not particularly outgoing but not especially withdrawn either. Proactive with a strong sense of leadership."

I'm not sure if this is beneficial for sorting because I think once you define something as 'the default class', it's very easy to vote someone who's got too short an application, or is difficult to place, into 'the default class'. This is not in any way meant to say that the people here don't put thought into voting, because I know they do; this is not meant to say that the Soldiers didn't put enough thought into their application, either. I'm just using the Soldier description as an example because I think it's the class that suffers most from lack of clear, defining archetypes.

3) Alliances: Judging from the participation and points so far - we're probably going to need alliances next game, I'm guessing? Although we definitely need to mix those up a bit more. Ideally we'd have six separate teams, but participation levels differ so much between teams that I don't think we have much choice at the moment.

4) [livejournal.com profile] moogle_workshop: [starts noting down revamping ideas] Thanks for the suggestions, guys.

[identity profile] zerrat.livejournal.com 2011-05-04 02:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh no, I think that discourse on contentious topics like that one can be interesting and helpful.

On a level, I do agree. People have a right to their opinions - but the way in which an opinion/dislike is presented is critical. This does give us an opportunity to perhaps see a different side of the applicant than would otherwise be seen (or would be seen too late).

the differentiation between Thieves and Monks can be a little hard sometimes

Completely agreed here. There is often a very fine line between the two classes. Same with the dragoons and soldiers.
glacialphoenix: (Default)

[personal profile] glacialphoenix 2011-05-04 03:00 pm (UTC)(link)
People have a right to their opinions - but the way in which an opinion/dislike is presented is critical.

Yeah, that's exactly it, really. And you can be an opinionated person and express those opinions clearly and strongly while still acknowledging that others don't share your stance or viewpoint.
glacialphoenix: (Default)

[personal profile] glacialphoenix 2011-05-04 03:20 pm (UTC)(link)
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).

Regarding this: about the point discrepancy, I'm not sure if it's best put under MWS or UA, because it's an issue of points given for a particular challenge - if I'm reading you right? Unless you're suggesting a decrease in points given for certain things in MWS...

But about the incentive: noted, thanks! <3 Will keep that one in mind.

[identity profile] the-404-error.livejournal.com 2011-05-04 04:10 pm (UTC)(link)
I didn't have enough time to completely respond to this earlier, so here we go. *cracks knuckles*

I agree with what many have said above regarding the teams and personalities. I do think that affects it to a degree, especially since the thieves have been the most active while the soldiers/dragoons the least so. Anyone who describes themselves as extremely extroverted tends to get sorted into the thieves (or sometimes monks*), while the least social tend to be associated with dragoons and soldiers.

*This is the exception to it, then, as I'd expect more monks to be active in this case. I also personally find it difficult to define a monk when voting, as it's an extremely varied job class. I tend to think of Yang and Josef first, who are on a completely different wavelength from Zell and Snow. There are also a couple active dragoons and white mages, so I don't think it can be entirely blamed on the personality factor as part of it also seems to be the ill luck of ending up with the "hurray, I want a pretty stamp!" people in some cases. There could be a revamped job class info post explaining how each group has at least a couple more extroverted members, but I'm not sure if it would do any good.

... but, whether or not groups should be merged or changed should be left up to them, and since it isn't a problem in our case, I won't say anymore.

I personally like the favorite/least favorite questions on the application. It may not be as useful as other information in some cases, but if someone basically writes a love letter to a character, it does show more of their values. People also tend to automatically welcome people who share their favorites, which gives the community a better image in general. "I totally fan over [x] as well! I'm not longer alone, hurray, I love you already!" Conversely, going on a massive rant about how they wish [x] character would gruesomely die and all their fans are idiots gives a very clear idea of how they'll interact with others. (I've heard similar comments a lot in other branches of the FF fandom, and so far the one member who wasn't accepted was turned away on similar grounds.)

The only one I voted to remove is the "relate to" one. Yes, I can see how it could help, but I think it could also bias the application? If someone states that they relate to Tifa, Yang, and Prishe, it might bias it towards getting them sent off the monk training grounds even if the rest of their application may be inclined towards something else. On the other hand, it will probably make them happy and may increase participation, but eh...

I like alliances now, but I do think we'll benefit from altering them a bit. At the moment I'd vote Thieves/Soldiers Black Mages/Dragoons, as that combines the most active with the least active? That does leave the Monks/White Mages in a bit of middle-limbo, though hopefully the other combinations would balance it out.

Question out of curiosity: What is Vagrant Story's connection to FF? Just the Ivalice setting or...?
Edited 2011-05-04 16:12 (UTC)
glacialphoenix: (Default)

[personal profile] glacialphoenix 2011-05-04 05:20 pm (UTC)(link)
About the inactivity thing: I do wonder if that isn't sort of linked to personality as well. It's less an attribute thing than a 'tone' thing sometimes, and if you sound happy and cheerful and talky you're probably going to end up in, say, Thieves, who are enthusiastic and participate a lot - which in turn generates more participation?

Whereas terser, shorter answers might get you sorted into Soldiers & Dragoons, and it's entirely possible for a terse, short answer to be that way because the applicant simply doesn't give a damn. And Soldiers & Dragoons are low-activity - I know if nobody else in my team seemed to care I would feel a lot less inclined to participate as well.

[identity profile] arivess.livejournal.com 2011-05-04 06:13 pm (UTC)(link)
*SOB Z I CAN DO LIKE 500 A DAY AND I'M REALLY PROUD OF MYSELF IF I HIT 1000-1500* ;_________________________________________;

[identity profile] arivess.livejournal.com 2011-05-04 06:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Haha, thiefie comm is quiet. ;_; We only have like... intro posts, 2-3 brainstorming posts, and reminders.

[identity profile] the-404-error.livejournal.com 2011-05-04 06:52 pm (UTC)(link)
If it helps, quite a few of the comments come from these "What did you play/read/watch this week?" posts I started as a desperate shot for more activity. Typically, only the same few people comment on them, but it does sometimes help everyone flail over other fandoms we discovered we had in common. You could try something similar if it continues to be quiet?

[identity profile] arivess.livejournal.com 2011-05-04 06:54 pm (UTC)(link)
XD I'll try.

[identity profile] arivess.livejournal.com 2011-05-04 08:12 pm (UTC)(link)
Re: Sorting--

I'm just repeating what people have said, but. Yeah. I think most sortings go all right, but the main problem is, if someone doesn't talk a lot, they automatically get tossed into soldier or dragoon. Not saying that all the soldiers and dragoons are there by mistake; some people I clearly see as one of them. But still. But I guess it's not so much the app's fault as people themselves...

Class setup I feel about the same problem as everyone else, too -- the more enthusiastic people just generally end up in monks or thieves, because we tend to be more enthusiastic. XD; But I do get what you're saying, too -- it's kinda because we happened to get some high-participation players that we're winning, because it's the same few people winning every challenge... Maybe with a new round and scorewipe, things will go better. And going off on a tangent, but maybe if we have different varieties of challenges, we'll get different types of participation. Because, I mean, short fics and long fics are different, but they're still fics, period. And icons and wallpapers are differnet, but they're still graphics.

Also, I'm slightly concerned about the different number of people in each team. It's not making too much of a difference right now, because it's not like the bigger teams have full participation, but theoretically speaking, even if it's just voting or a small minigame, a bigger team would get like 15-20 more points every time. (Which, granted, isn't much, but that's a bit of a problem too, I think.)

Re: Questions in the app--

I feel the dichotomies are okay, but some of them are maybe not exactly opposites? Like confident and modest, I think I've mentioned (and a few other people) on the app that you can really be both. It's arrogance and modesty that's more different. Things like that.

I don't think the description of how you work in teams is that useful, not because it's not a good question, but because almost everyone gave the same answer. >.>; It's practically all "Well, I work well enough, I'd prefer not to lead, but I can". Sure, there are a few that are different, but on the whole, it's probably not worth asking.

The general FFs questions -- I don't feel a lot of them add to the app, buuuuuut I think they should be there, even if only because we can hear the people just... talk about what they like and don't. And make friends based on interests. Because, I mean, it's a FF comm. If they don't seem interested at all in FFs, then, well. Uh. Yeah.

Re: Communities--

I actually find Ultima a bit over-powered? :\ I know it's mainly supposed to be about contests, and I do them, but I think like people have mentioned, the contests are heavily fandom-based, which... well, okay. Makes sense, because it's a FF comm. XD; But I guess the problem is we have too few people. The same people win the same types of contests aaaaaall the time.

Point of reference, in the previous landcomm I was in, challenges were something like 10 points for submitting and 40-50 points for winning. And that's with like 30-40 submissions each challenge. And their minigame-type activities were worth some 15-20 points. I think this makes it fairer so that non-fandomy-non-contesty people could actually contribute. :\ Instead of feeling like, "Whoppee, I got 15 points in a minigame. Greeeeaaaat. Now let's see the other team get 500 points in a contest."

Mysti's told me the challenges are scaled with Moogle, which makes sense, but maybe still make them slightly less? And scale minigames up more? Because at this point, aside from the egg hunt, none of the minigames scores even mattered much.

Plus, if we scale up minigame scores, we can differentiate them also based on how time-consuming they'd be. So we could give less for a luck-based thing, or a continuous thing like my chocobo game, and give more for harder ones like the song-guessing which was giving everyone headaches. (That's a looooooot of songs they either have to know already, or a lot of soundtracks they're going to have to listen to over and over again. And since it's instrumental with no lyrics, it's even harder.)

(Comment too long, rest on next comment.)

[identity profile] arivess.livejournal.com 2011-05-04 08:12 pm (UTC)(link)
Re: Calendar--

I loved it. XD;;; I think with mods posting reminders, the other team members might not need it as much, but I really really needed it. (And whenever I forgot to check it, Z ends up posting reminders and I go OOPS I WAS SUPPOSED TO DO THAT. *coughs*)

Re: Alliance--

I thoroughly enjoyed my alliance, but I'm still kinda on the fence about the whole thing. This time, team thonk was great because both teams were really pushing hard, but I can imagine it being highly frustrating if your allied team isn't doing anything. :\ But we really don't have enough people to really do much without alliances, I think...

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