Windermere RP

[Matias]

As someone that is heavily involved in the Windermere sphere I was wondering how other people within the sphere think it is going? The classes seem to be well attended but I hear that the campus RP is a bit thin and wonder if that is because a lack of planned events by faculty and the students PC don’t feel up to it? Is the downside of being a student like reduced pay and standing restrictions preventing you from enjoying the university RP? Basically do people enjoy Windermere RP and what if anything is missing that could be added by the players on grid to make it better?

[Sophie]

I think part of the challenge is that while the reduced pay aspect is not clearly explained up front, it would not feel like a drawback if there were more consistent and varied RP opportunities outside of classes. Right now, aside from lectures, it is not always obvious how to engage with the wider university setting, and some guidance or examples on how to RP campus life could help a lot.

One thing I have noticed is that the most visible faculty and student interactions sometimes skew toward propositioning, which can feel a bit creepy when that is the main type of RP on offer. Having more non romantic and non predatory avenues such as academic projects, competitions, clubs, and student and faculty collaborations would give players more options and make the setting feel richer and more welcoming.

[Mirabel]

There are no built-in reasons to be on campus outside of calendar events. The place has no real gathering place, no coded hotspots, and like five different entrances which means there’s no natural funnel for player traffic. There are no shops there (not even in the room called ‘campus store’) and no facilities of any kind, just bare rooms with descriptions that reek of AI. Coupled with the ban on private RP on campus and the fact that grades and faculty ranks do nothing, the result is that people show up for classes and leave again once it’s over. There’s no actual life on campus.

In the past, the sphere has had:

– Natural hotspots so player visibility isn’t fully reliant on people remembering to set temporary hotspots
– Communal dorms with shared social space and some degree of sorority/fraternity identity
– A shop where you could add to your outfits, customize game objects, and buy the all-important ‘thing’ object type for RP props
– One main entrance, encouraging interaction
– All the clinic facilities, both for your own use and to bring outsiders into the sphere from time to time
– The HSD station and associated holding cells
– Interesting nooks and crannies to hide in, spy on others, etc.
– Thematic sub-areas such as the detention basement (back when it was Blackfield) or a proper chapel with a real confession booth instead of a single bland room with nothing but a description
– Prior to 6.0, the cafeteria sold food. It may not have been a very diverse menu, but it encouraged gathering there for mealtimes
– A faculty ranking system which, while not perfect, at least did something instead of being purely cosmetic

All of that is now gone, so there’s no tangible incentive to be there. The place is super boring and featureless. The only reason to set foot on campus is to chat with people, and while it’s possible to be creative enough to make the most of the primitive infrastructure, it’s tiresome to have to use creativity for absolutely everything and never being able to really rely on any built-in facilities as outlined above.

[Mazerin]

Windermere helpfile was almost completely AI-generated from what I found out when I put all of the text into an AI detector tool. Hadn’t done that to room descriptions, but in short. Mirabel hits the spot. Windermere feels like the shadow of the college we had in previous wipe. Feels like it is better to search for avenues of RP elsewhere in factions and societies rather than the college itself.

I had more fun with society RP rather than college, at the very least.

[Marlow]

Lively campus life RP has never been created by helpfiles and room descriptions, it has always been through the blood, sweat, and tears of players who collaboratively push campus RP, often against the tide of lazy predatory narratives. I don’t disagree with Mirabel’s list of useful features, but rather than listing off what used to be, perhaps it might be useful for people in the sphere to petition for things that would be useful in the here and now in a magic university in an openly magical city. If pof Sister Abigail from 6.0 is still involved in the college, that’s 60% of the heavy lifting done for everyone already, all that’s left is for other people to want to put in the effort to play college students as the main focus of their character and not just when there’s a calendar event. Bring your own lunch to the cafeteria (but also petition for cafeteria food).

[Hester]

As someone who’s put all her energy into just 1 college character, it takes a certain flavour to be “interesting enough” so that other students would want to engage in more college RP. Hester’s made some attempts but has been shot down IC, which is fine. It just felt like there was no real interest from majority of the student roster in anything that was being done so far.

[Matias]

Due to the lack of response (I do appreciate those that did) it is really a case of…

1) The RP was not bought into by the current student roster.
2) There are drawbacks to being a student and not a lot of resources rewarding them or enabling RP to offset the drawbacks.
3) Perhaps I will put in a list of request/suggestions and see if we can improve the Windermere grid to try and make the RP space more appealing.

[Yourstruly]

Just wanted to weigh in as someone brand new to both the game *and* the college sphere (but with a long history in MUs):

It is a hellish beast to navigate. There’s no maps anywhere and ‘map level’ only works… sort of. If you don’t know which building the room you want is in, you have to cycle through all of them. Then cycle through each floor. Which is wildly tedious. If I want to RP, I don’t want to wait 20, 45 minutes until I find the right spot: *I want to RP.*

If there was some sort of map available (maybe a player has made one and if so: props, but it should still be a staff-provided resource IMO that would even make sense as an IC tool because unis ALWAYS have maps available), that would help. The information in the help files is wildly vague and because so much is AI generated: no one has any answers to questions that crop up.

I have spent time sitting in various ‘public’ spaces (like the cafeteria, student union, etc.) visible on where, roomtitle set, and… nothing. Not any sort of attempt to join me. And I don’t necessarily blame people. I groan internally every time I spent 20 minutes just getting to a hot spot to RP. At Windermere, that can easily be doubled.

And don’t even get me started on the night it was pitch black and you couldn’t move around at all because as a new person I had *no idea* I needed to buy a flashlight somewhere so I spent a whole evening at a loss for RP because I couldn’t find my way around and after a good 30 or so minutes trying and finally landing back in the dorms I just locked myself in my room. (And I did try to generate RP from THAT as well by mentioning it on NewHaven and Windermere both, but since people can’t navigate the place even in the bright of day, it’s not like anyone — understandably — was jumping at helping someone navigate their way out.)

I’m not about to quit. I’m willing to put the time in. But I don’t blame people for quitting. We’re here to RP and if the barrier for RP is too high: people go elsewhere.

[Seraphina]

In an attempt to give the students a place to congregate and rp in a student union environment, until the Uni is given a cafeteria or other spots with interactive places, I have created a ‘Windermere Student Union’ across the street from the University. I am still working on putting items in it for sale, but there is a cafeteria that will have food this week. The plan is to allow some teachers to have access to put in text books and lecture notes for a small price, provide ‘uniforms’ if people want to give that a go, give people a study hall (though I feel that is probably less needed, as the Uni has plenty of space and rooms dedicated for that, and some recreational activities.

This won’t be a forever shop, I don’t think, but it is available for the time being. Please feel free to use it until some of the spaces in the Uni feel more useable.

[Talia]

All of what has been said.

The H6 campus’ feel and university mechanics were very well done. I don’t really understand why it was not just more or less ported to H7.

– The campus is a maze that is hard to navigate.
– There are no natural congregating spots.
– There is no shared identity and no real reason to hang out with other students, like the sororities/fraternities encouraged.

(Descriptions are overlong and smell of AI, making for a bland location – but that describes about 90% of the grid, if we are being honest.)

[Author]

Posts