Well, here's a rough estimate of what went into the period between the first two games of this academic year: 29th September 2012 and 10th November 2012. Note: all numbers are approximate!
Downtimes:
43 downtimes received and responded to, in which there were...
32,828 words written by players
71,400 words written by the STs
...which makes 104,228 words of downtimes total.
STs on the boards:
We had 20 queries from players, and had 8 new players join the game.
In addition to queries from players, the STs are very active behind the scenes. In this period there were approximately 25-30 separate active threads on a variety of topics, including discussing current plots, planning new plots rules, creating NPCs and pregenned characters, drafting newsposts and discussing rules.
This is the state of the ST area of the board, as of 16/11/2012...
Face-to-Face meetings:
As well as interacting a whole bunch on the boards, us STs make sure to have proper meetings to discuss the happenings in Shades of Norwich. Between September 29th and November 10th we had 3 official "ST Meetings", totalling about 10-12 hours. Of course, this doesn't include the time we spend together in a non-ST capacity, during which any one of us is likely to utter the words:
"I know this isn't an ST meeting, but..."
At least half of the ST team managed to escape on a holiday for one whole week!
Why are we telling you this?
We endeavour to respond to player queries in a timely and efficient manner - we know it can be stressful to send off emails and hear nothing back. We also try to make sure all our players are getting the most out of the game. But as you can see, there are a lot of things going on behind the scenes.
If you would like to ask us about something, to make your query go as efficiently as possible make sure to email us at shadesofnorwich@yahoogroups.com - however quicker it seems to ask us face-to-face or via another site, trust us, it's best to email!
Further posts may delve into the specifics of what happens to a query that gets sent in, or how we respond to downtimes, but for now, know that whatever we're doing, we're probably doing a lot of it...
As a final note, we wanted to show how much we love Shades of Norwich. We do all we can to give a strong framework for players to interact with - and it's worth it. We have an immense amount of fun doing all of the above!
