The Official Darkmyst Discussion

All sorts of out of character chat.
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Nymphetamine
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The Official Darkmyst Discussion

Post by Nymphetamine »

So, a month or so ago, I believe, someone mentioned the possibility of moving the channel to Darkmyst, to make ourselves home there. The conversation was pretty favourable to the idea of moving, but I'll review the pros and cons that were listed at the time for everyone that wasn't present.

PROS:

1. Darkmyst is slightly smaller than Sorcery, it's true, in channel and user count. However, Darkmyst's userbase is almost entirely all RPers. The network's infrastructure is set up to host the RP community with custom commands and services that can be used to support roleplay and find players.

2. There's more RPers on Darkmyst, as a whole. There's around 60+ OOC channels registered for RP on Darkmyst that are listed in its directory, in addition to other games that haven't been listed. Several channels that are registered host more than one setting or game from the same OOC room, further broadening the variety.

3. There's a void for medieval fantasy FFRP on Darkmyst. Weekly, there's at least one or two people in the community channel #RPG-Hub looking for a free form game where people can just make up a character and get to playing. Most of the games that fit this criteria are quiet and far more sporadic than BDI's gaming.

4. Darkmyst is on the top spots for IRC roleplaying terms, and they advertise on other creative writing and roleplaying websites to drive in new players and traffic. From there, they are greeted by the folks at #rpg-hub to help them out and assist them in locating a channel that matches what they're looking for. DarkMyst has built incredible infrastructure to get this community to grow and bring in new players, and has displayed their dedication to the RP community.

5. The community on Darkmyst, for RP, is friendly and supportive. There's no competition between channels the way there was in the past that we've experienced in BDI in years gone by. Drama between channels is not encouraged on Darkmyst. The Multiverse event was a few weeks ago, and monumentally successful. A sort of RP convention that took place over 3 days, with multiple hosted events from various channels on the network. Darkmyst sponsored hundreds of dollars in prizes for the last Multiverse for players with the highest word count.

Overall, the community and the staff on Darkmyst are polite, friendly and helpful. The various innovative services are unique to the network and make game/channel promotion easier. Additionally, with the influx of new people that Darkmyst sees regularly, we're likelier to gain new players there, than remaining on Sorcery. Let's face it, BDI's in desparate need of new blood to the channel to continue.


CONS:

1. Moving sucks! Setting up the bots, getting a decent redirect going for regular users in the channel are all pains in the butt. Some people may not want to move because they don't know how to connect to two servers at the same time, or don't want to, simply because they aren't used to it. It's easier to keep things as they are then to move.

- The bots getting set up again will be an annoyance for Pat, and no one else, it won't effect the players in any way. However, I'd be more than happy to write guides in how to connect to more than one server on mIRC and other popular clients. Many of our players already do this.

2. We could lose people who don't want to move. Some people may not want to move, and this could strike a death blow.


I, personally, can't see a whole lot of reasons -against- moving to Darkmyst. I'm sure others can and will add to why we should stay on Sorcery. Ultimately, I believe that the need to add fresh blood to BDI is more important, and I don't think we can do that on Sorcery at all. We rarely see new people in BDI, and we are listed as one of the bigger chanenls on the network most of the time. (Top 5 at the moment of writing this, usually within the top 10 at the very least.)

I think a move to Darkmyst at this juncture would only help BDI. There are few reasons to stay on Sorcery, and many to move.

We'd like to hear your opinions before we finalize a decision on moving or staying. So speak up!
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Re: The Official Darkmyst Discussion

Post by Cardoc »

I think moving would actually enhance the channel more than hurt it. I am for the move personally.
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Re: The Official Darkmyst Discussion

Post by Pigasus »

You'd be silly not to move.
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Re: The Official Darkmyst Discussion

Post by vile »

The room needs to move. I'm in one room that lived on Sorcerynet for quite a while and very rarely ever saw new players. But shortly after the move to Darkmyst there's been quite a few new people visiting. It's definitely revitalized the room. The same could very well happen for the inn instead of stagnating on a server that's not centered around RP.
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Re: The Official Darkmyst Discussion

Post by Selestia »

I'm all for moving. The only reason I'm on IRC is for RP--specifically in BDI since I have found a dislike for most other channels. If it means a larger base of players and less stalling in storyline, I'm packing my bags.
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Re: The Official Darkmyst Discussion

Post by Karras »

Are we there yet?
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Re: The Official Darkmyst Discussion

Post by Laurwick »

NO LOL jk

I think it'd be a great idea, personally, I don't know if there's anyone who actively plays (cough, cough, I'll get around to it, I swear) that we'd lose in a move to DarkMyst. There are, however, a lot of lurkers in the main channel that I've never, ever seen post. Not once. Having them there boosts the numbers of people in the channel, which I guess is somewhat important on a server like SorceryNet where we could get lost in the myriad of channels with less than 10 people, but on DarkMyst I don't think we'd have any real need to boost the numbers to avoid getting lost on the channel listing. There are less channels there over all, and we already have a pretty sizeable group of players who'd join in the move.

Also, then I can set my auto-ID script to just join for DarkMyst. My IRC window is super-cluttery right now. D:
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Re: The Official Darkmyst Discussion

Post by Wolfram »

I've been the holdout against the move to Darkmyst for who knows how long simply because of my play there some time ago, during which I observed some extremely shady behavior on the part of people in charge of the network. I won't name names, but this was along the lines of PM snooping, or special "favors" for those who happened to cyber with the IRCops (i.e. channel takeovers).

So until about a year ago, I refused to play there. I haven't seen that sort of behavior arise again, lurking under a proxy as I have been for some time now. I have, however, seen that exact level of shady come up on Sorcerynet. It's just that Sorcerynet isn't really a network for RP channels, so the drama hasn't really spilled over into our neck of the woods. And the fact that Sorcerynet isn't FOR RP CHANNELS is kind of the thorn in our side. The RP channels that survive here are sex channels by and large, and while the user base has some crossover, it's not significant enough to merit clinging to the network.

That said, I'm still holding onto my reservations about Darkmyst as a whole- Ryan is a salesperson at heart and goes out of his way to be so. But that's not enough for me to say no, it's just enough to keep me wary. Maybe the guy just REALLY LOVES HIS ROLEPLAY NETWORK.

Also from an op's perspective let me say: no trolling the new people that will drop by.
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Re: The Official Darkmyst Discussion

Post by Alex »

I understand Wolfram's reservations, it's a common issue I've heard, but from the extensive talks I've had with Ryan directly, I'm really not seeing much shady behavior. Ryan does seem to genuinely care about DarkMyst and the state of IRC RP at large and does a lot to encourage it and make it grow.

My vote is for the move. Aside from the inconvenience of moving, there really isn't any logical reason I can think of to stay on SorceryNet.
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