Frustrated Rant

Ladies and gentlement,

I salute the founders and the moderators of this fine site, they have done a wonderful job.

I also salute those of you who active post in your game and who run successful games.

I am frustrated because of the lack of interest from many of the members here.

I have signed up for the majority of games that have posted want ads since I joined. Most of those never even start.

I have spent hours creating characters that I like and look forward to playing. The game lasts a few weeks then the GM vanishes without a trace. Two weeks go by then a month goes by and the GM hasn't even logged in.

I have tried running a couple of games, people sign up, we make characters, we start. Things go good 2 weeks, maybe a month and a half and half the players vanish without a trace. Sure I could NPC them to keep things going but sooner or later thats just gaming masterbation, I might as well play a video game or watch the Idiot Box (TV).

This is very frustrating to me as a player and as a GM. I find it hard to care about a game if I have to sent out private messages to people saying 'hey we are still gaming' or 2 weeks go by and someone finally posts their character's actions. Or a GM vanishes without saying something and then comes back a month later and wants things to keep going.

The purpose of playing a game is to have fun, and in a role playing game its take effort from everyone so that everyone has fun. Frankly all of the above listed activity makes these games not fun at all.

I understand that real life happens, unforseen events eat up your time. Is it really that hard to take 2 minutes to log on, post 'The drek hit the fan, back in two weeks"?

GMs: You are making a commitment to yourself and to your players when you even offer to start a game. You should examine yourself and see if you have the time, the will, and the effort to fulfill that commitment before you even post a want ad.

Players: when you agree to play a game, you are making a commitment to the GM and the other players. If you dont have the time to log on every couple of days to check the progress of the game and post your characters thoughts, reaction, and actions then don't sign up for the game. Sometimes you don't get the email notice that a thread has been updated, you need to put some effort into check to see if a game is updated.

Of course some GMs may be ok with less frequent posting, that is their choice.

To those of you who have fulfilled your commitment to your GMs, Players and fellow Players I thank you and salute you.

I am hanging up my SRO GM hat effective now. I will continue to play my characters in the games that they are in assuming the games continue.

Thank you for reading my rant.

--Saint Nougat

That was heartfelt and considered. Thank you for posting your thoughts and feelings for all to see, witness, and understand. They are both appropriate and unfortunate.

Thank you Gala.

I mean I know there are some great games going and people are having a great time. I love the idea of a play by post opportunity.

Some people are having a great experience, unfortunately my experience had gone from great to frustrated repeatedly with each game I joined, and I haven't been a member very long.

I hope that I can find a game that will continue and be active with players and a GM who are commited to each other and the game.

Being a GM is a large Commitment and you done your best to uphold it, I applaud you for that, but there is the problem of the Internet anonymity, RP is a lot based on community, but here - online it's easy to be just a nickname_forever and if you are bored or did not find the fulfilment you searched for, leave, even more understandable is forgetting to log off, there are no phone calls from friends who ask if you will be there tonight or not there is no shame following you for missed night's.
In the internet it's easy to forget manners, and it's a shame. For GM's and players alike.

That is what I came to understood being here, when I joined there were less then 500 members, today the number is 754, and only a hand full have stayed.
To date, Been here just a bit less then a year, Gala is the only GM, who had not had a break in the flow of her game, from me for that.

You have a interesting way of playing your characters and I like how you put a lot of thought in them, a pity I did not had the chance to be in your game, would have loved to see if it had the same scrutiny for detail. that would have been fun.

Keep the head up, this alone means you are not part of the uncivilised internet community but a real member of SR Online.

I think one may be underestimating RL events. Take my own experience, for instance. A few years ago I was here, and I was having a blast - incredible amounts of fun. I was a few other places as well, doing other game types via PBP and even telnet.

A single RL event - which I won't go into - dragged me away from any spare time until pretty much a week ago. There are events which consume one so much that the thought of posting up a good bye doesn't even cross one's mind. Play by post games have always been notoriously unstable; Nature of the beast, comes with the ease of connectivity. Any PBP game will do the same.

I been on here a quite some time. I never finished a game i even took some time off, had some RL crisis time, but when i came back same thing. Is there any finished runs on site just wondering. Id like to read them and see whats so different from the ones im running in. Think at least that i/many of you try pretty hard to keep up. And once i tried to GM a run... Was very hard so "I thank all of you that do it" I could not... Or i let it get way out of hand at the gate should of toned it down. ST. N you were in that (it was terrible right? lol ) you saw how bad a gm i am lol well here's hoping something pans out and merry Christmas all

Kudos To G for keeping hope alive in ATFS its ruff but you did it so far i wish you strength in the future i will be there as mush as i can to support that which in my opinion is one of the oldest and most interesting runs on site (personal opinion)

There are a few that were finished. I was in one, but it was a 'new player run' to begin with.

I see that this is an old thread but what was said was well laid out.

As for myself I can be blamed for disappearing form the site for a while. Life took a turn and I got a promotion that I wasn't expecting and things became pretty busy for me. It's not a good excuse for just not showing up or saying what was up and if any of the GM or players in the games I was in read this I offer an apology.

With the new year I'm settled into my job now and have some free time.

St_Nougat, being a Shadowrun Website owner myself, I can tell you that this sort of thing happens. It didnt happen to just my website, which opened in 2005, but to a great majority of websites that were also opened the same time that mine was open. I remember in 2005, there were about 7 Shadowrun Websites open, including Digital Dooms and myself, and dozens of mini sites that were open during that time too that were full of information for shadowrunners. Play by posting was an awesome concept in 2005, but technology eventually caught up to us and we (as website owners, GMs and gamers) noticed that there is a lot of competition out there that we have to endure to continue to captivate the attention of our gamers. Now 7 years later the challenge is greater than ever and perhaps a new style of online paper/dice, PBP is needed to keep the spirit of the game alive. Dont give up...

Echo that - Real Life events can drastically change anything you consider to be "settled" in your life. Housing, friends, family... Without even getting in to the things that are non-necessary, like our online obsessions with PBP Shadowrun. A single great opportunity could uproot you and your family and move you half way around the world, quite literally. Or, similarly, how many of us here on the site lost connectivity due to a hurricane passing through town recently? Or because you couldn't afford internet after the 2008 depression (it shouldn't be too long now before the government fesses up to jiggering the numbers, and that the depression was real) caused such astonishing and severe job losses!

That said: it would be great to have some good continuity! Some games have been rolling along, more or less smoothly, for some time. Others start up, gain some steam, and then sputter out. We shouldn't give up, though, just because the going got tough. Start another game! There are players and GMs here who want to keep the site running, however bumpy the road may be!