[ confidential contact ]

[simpathis]

— CONFIDENTIAL CONTACT —

If you have any issues regarding the game, the mods, or other players, please contact us! We want to ensure that your time here is an enjoyable one and will do whatever we can do to help if possible. There are several ways to contact us:

Mod email: empatheias.mods@gmail.com
Comment to this entry
PM the journal

The mods are as follows:

Laena
Steve

Please do not contact mods individually regarding game issues! By keeping player concerns on the mod account, we are better able to keep track of them and respond in a timely manner.

If you are submitting your concern via e-mail or to this entry, please fill out the following form:

<b>[ Player Name ]</b> <b>[ Characters ]</b> <b>[ Type of Concern ]</b> Is it a player issue? Game? Character? Mods? Something else? <b>[ Details of Concern ]</b> We request that you be as detailed as possible and provide proof or examples of what caused the concern. The more information we have, the better. <b>[ Contact ]</b> Best way to contact you.

All comments are screened and our responses to your comments will also be screened, so we can communicate through the entry if preferred. Everything will also remain confidential, but if another party is involved please realize that we will have to disclose some information if we have to contact them. We'll always double check before doing so, but please keep that in mind and make a note if there is anything you are uncomfortable with sharing.

We will try to be as fair as possible and do as much research and as many discussions as needed.

Responses will be given within 72 hours. In the case that we haven't responded to your query past this time, please send us a message! Thank you.

Comments

[simpathis]

Hello! This reply will be unscreened so that it is visible to you.

First and foremost, thank you for your feedback. We have also noted the shift in the game’s tone, and believe there are a number of contributing factors, although primarily we believe last fall’s State of the Game to have been responsible, as there was a great deal of player input concerning the game being too heavy or serious at the time. Some of the shift in tone may be a bit of an overcorrection in response to that, and in addition, we have been making an effort to stagger heavier, plot-revealing or high-volume events with lighter mini-events. Excursions, plot events and the annual festivals see a lot of traffic, and the intention of the mini-events in between was to give players something to do while also trying to avoid making players feel obligated to participate and thus burn out on events.

The Defying Gravity event was intended to be a fun anti-gravity event on the surface, with the option for players to handle things much more seriously if they chose to, with an emphasis on the fact that there were no serious injuries or damages done in the log itself. In hindsight, we can see how that might not have come through, and we apologize to those who feel we should have handled it differently. We have more than one serious event approaching, and were attempting not to overload the playerbase beforehand. Admittedly, it can be difficult to find the right balance of an event, large or small, that will appeal to everyone, but the option to take a more serious route is always there, especially given how central a role emotions play in the game world. We apologize if the potential gravity of the event (pun not intended, but…) was not communicated effectively in its execution. We will continue trying to find the right equilibrium moving forward!

Regarding your concerns about the task board, we took some time to go through the last few months worth of hunts, and see where serious characters may be having trouble. While the hunt marks themselves are still very dangerous, we can see how the tone might be off-putting. Most of them have some pretty vicious game mechanics built in for characters who like to live on the edge, such as the Montimoags’ ability to force characters to experience unpleasant memories or the Putrumps’ poison, if the difficulty of the hunt marks provided was a part of the concern. The NPCs behind writing the tasks are meant to provide flavor, but if this is making it too difficult for characters to make use of (we can see how some characters might not be able to take such postings as a legitimate job they would like to spend their time on), it can certainly be addressed. Additionally, if the mentions of edibility were part of the concern as well, they have been included per player request for characters who like to make sure their kills don’t go to waste, but we are already discussing alternatives with how to present that information.

We hope that you feel your concerns have been heard and are being taken into serious consideration! Again, thank you for taking the time to communicate with us. If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to let us know!