There is no doubt in my mind that the Star Forge RP community is larger and more healthy overall. That was true while it was still Ebon Hawk, and undoubtedly it's still true now. Although I've only ever peeked in there myself, I am sure that everything Nick and Ash have said is completely valid and spot on. All of the concerns and context are hard to dispute, nor would I want to.
The truth of all of that notwithstanding, there are lots of reasons I personally will almost certainly never move to Star Forge. (I won't say
never never because it's impossible to predict everything, but just assuming variables as they currently stand.)
For me, it is almost entirely logistics based. A single character transfer costs about $10. Accepting that it's not strictly necessary for me to transfer all 70 of my characters, even just transferring the stable of characters I frequently and primarily role play would already put me in the realm of between $100-$200 dollars. Most of those primary characters have their full 16 outfit slots kitted out, in which many unrecoverable and expensive dye modules have been slotted (outfit stamps are all lost upon transfer). I have 21 personal strongholds, of which more than half are completely and extensively decorated, and all of that decorating would be lost. I own 8 guilds, all with strongholds, and
all of those guild assets would be lost as guilds do not transfer in any capacity.
Even assuming that I were willing to lose access to the roster of 50+ secondary characters and GM-purpose NPCs I've created in order to just get my "primary" characters over to SF (which I am really not, they represent a substantial $ investment in character slot unlocks), all of the rest of it is a cost that's just too high for me to be willing to pay it. (For me personally, there's also the fact that I would be yanking characters I actively use for PVE out of reach of my established PVE guild as well, though I recognize that's not a concern for everyone.)
If there was a way to pick up my entire account, all assets intact, and just hop over to Star Forge... I might very well do it. But as it currently stands, it would take something pretty extreme... like the 100% absence of every other RPer I know on SS... to get me to make that move.
I would be more amenable to the idea of creating alt-versions of my primary characters on Star Forge to attend the occasional event over there if someone has a particularly cool event to call out (or if folks from our community want to create "satellite" events over there for this purpose). But the thing about group RP is that it's like a living eco-system, and if you aren't actively and consistently connected to it you won't really get much
out of it either.
I don't mean any of the above to sound like negativity aimed at shutting down discussion. I'm just one person, and in this as in all things in life everyone has to make decisions that are best for
them, and the pursuit of their own RP fun. For some people, maybe moving over to SF is absolutely the right choice. For others, it may be the wrong choice, or it may just not be logistically feasible.
I derive a lot of my RP enjoyment from small group RP interactions, so it may be that I just don't feel the lack of "big population events" as keenly as do those who derive their RP enjoyment from those bigger cast affairs. While I fully acknowledge our community here is small, I'm not willing to acknowledge that it's dead. It's only dead when we choose to stop playing in it. That doesn't mean, however, that it might not be too small to achieve certain things. Again, it's all about what each person is looking for.
What I think I see most sharply affecting our particular community here is what Imazi called out in her post, about folks being strapped for time and the impact that has on RP. While it's undeniable that very many people have left the game entirely, of the folks who remain it's very common to see work or health issues or other life conflicts preventing people from being able to attend events. That's not going to stop any time soon, here or on SF (though enthusiasm always helps I don't deny that) because neither school nor work stops in people's lives (and those who are transitioning between or combining the two are probably finding their time even
more strapped). As an example, for
@recoveringgeek 's Dread Mind event (which I will below cite in a different and more positive context), five people have commented about work or other life conflicts possibly or definitively preventing them from being able to attend. That's just... life.
I also stand by what I've said before in other posts: we have to be the change we want to see, and if we want to see more events we have to
run more events. At the risk of feeling like some game developer with a death mark on my back, I can say that while there's currently only my word for it I have a lot of events in the works right now, I just need the time (there's the time thing again) to roll them out. Social RP events serve an important function, but adventure-hook RP events are where most knock-on RP gets generated, and I think the interest in
@recoveringgeek 's Dread Mind event shows that "if you build it, they will come." Maybe not in mass droves (when you don't have mass droves to start with), but still. Even counting all the folks who said they can't come because of Work/Life Monsters, there's still a good number of sign-ups, and as we all know it's common for folks to show up without signing up.
The key is to have more (and
varied, variety is important) events running, because then if you have to miss one it won't be 2-3 months before your next chance. Ideally it will only be 2-3 weeks, or less. But it all requires folks stepping up to run events. (I know, a lot easier said than done, but it's still the truth.)
In any event, I'll stop now before I enter dead horse territory. Just my two (thousand, as usual) cents!
