Public map roleplay encouragement event?

[FriskTheRisk]

I was talking to some friends in-game earlier, and we all agreed that one thing that is killing off most of FH's roleplaying base is the fact most of the current game RPs are set in private/downloadable maps, leaving no ground for group-to-group interactions in maps like Cherika.

One idea we had was to create an event (Sort of last year's official roleplay one in a way) taking place in public maps. Say, have the staff join rps for a week or month in Cherika Valley, then another in Kibou Ridge and so on, in attempt to encourage users to use said public maps again.

The few roleplay groups that 'dare' to use public maps tend to die out due to the lack of a plot/interaction so this could help the player base to find bigger groups without having to download private maps (Somewhat like what happened, say, in Fluorite Plains).

[SpicyDirt]

This would be awesome to do! This could also get users used to the different maps and the different ways to get to said maps. We could even do it as themed roleplay events!

[FriskTheRisk]

This would be awesome to do! This could also get users used to the different maps and the different ways to get to said maps. We could even do it as themed roleplay events!

Yeah, as I said before, I've been on post-update FH since 2017 or so and I still don't think I know all map-to-map routes. XD The themed roleplay could work to be honest. After all.. Say you wanted to start a deer roleplay. It is rather rare to find people willing to roleplay as deer on FH nowadays, except perhaps during seasoned timing like Christmas.

[l3irdie]

I do remember a long time ago there was "Roleplay Day" and everyone sort of gathered and RP'd, I didn't get a chance to participate in it, but, I don't think it's a had idea to build off of that idea or revive it all together. I do think FH lacks RP as much as it did years ago, and I could see something like potentially encouraging people to RP in local more.

[FriskTheRisk]

I do remember a long time ago there was "Roleplay Day" and everyone sort of gathered and RP'd, I didn't get a chance to participate in it, but, I don't think it's a had idea to build off of that idea or revive it all together. I do think FH lacks RP as much as it did years ago, and I could see something like potentially encouraging people to RP in local more.

I remember the Roleplay Day was either last year or in 2018 - At most, it was after I got back into FH at 2017. The people I've been talking to were from the late Shatteredclan, and they mentioned that one of the great things of taking part in roleplays at Fluorite was the fact everyone would rp in local, allowing for other groups to 'step in' and roleplay with them. The biggest roleplay map we have as of right now is Cherika, and as far as I've seen it is not as full as Fluorite itself used to be. I'm not saying that the old maps were necessarily better - But the experience people had surely was. I also think that one day perhaps wouldn't be enough (FH had the roleplay day and about a week later it was back to that innactive state), which was why I mentioned maybe setting it up for a longer time span, like a week or even perhaps a month.

[LordSuragaha]

The state of roleplaying in this game has indeed drastically dropped. Those few roleplays you see now are often very private groups with a lot of strict requirements. Some of these groups have extremely unwelcoming “clique” sort of attitude and behavior too. Then there’s others (the majority in fact these days) that are strictly Discord based. Roleplaying isn’t as spontaneous as it used to be, but that’s also cause there’s been this stigma amongst some users who don’t like it when other users roleplay in the local chat. So you end up with more users going off to roleplaying privately in unseen group/party chats or Discord. The entire “culture” of roleplay in this game has changed and a big part of that started after the removal of the general chat.

Roleplay Days aka FHORD/FHORF do encourage some roleplaying again in the community but as you said:

I also think that one day perhaps wouldn't be enough (FH had the roleplay day and about a week later it was back to that innactive state),

We could try holding one for longer but after a day or two people lose interest. We’ve actually tried extending it but it all comes down to user continued interest and participation.

We can keep trying things like this but in the end it’s just a temporary “fix”. The core game itself has issues, many issues of which are causing the issue of roleplays “dying” out. There’s a huge lack of convenience for things and many other things that need improving upon to make the environment one that is suited for roleplay again, and not just roleplay but communication and socialization again in general. Feral Heart is outdated and has remained so while its user base and the world they live in continues to grow and modernize. Hence why Discord has become much more favorable even over the game and forum itself to some.

Anyway we had a FHORD/FHORF not too long ago. If it was brought back do you guys have any other ideas to make it more interesting? Aside from the activities we usually already do with it.

[FriskTheRisk]

The state of roleplaying in this game has indeed drastically dropped. Those few roleplays you see now are often very private groups with a lot of strict requirements. Some of these groups have extremely unwelcoming “clique” sort of attitude and behavior too. Then there’s others (the majority in fact these days) that are strictly Discord based. Roleplaying isn’t as spontaneous as it used to be, but that’s also cause there’s been this stigma amongst some users who don’t like it when other users roleplay in the local chat. So you end up with more users going off to roleplaying privately in unseen group/party chats or Discord. The entire “culture” of roleplay in this game has changed and a big part of that started after the removal of the general chat.

I'll have to agree with that, unfortunately, the only advertisements we see in the 'Lobby' map (TG at this point) are for private/mapped/Discord-oriented roleplays, and not even these get too much of an active player base nowadays. Back shortly after Feralheart launched, there were always those people that went: "Hey, did you wanna rp or something?" While the others agreed and as such a smaller group was started. I read about the topic in which the fact someone was harrassed for rping in Local was mentioned, and considering how much damaged that topic in general already is in FH's current situation, it is a shame really. I do have an idea regarding the General issue, though to keep things organized I'll list it along with a few others at the end of this post.

We could try holding one for longer but after a day or two people lose interest. We’ve actually tried extending it but it all comes down to user continued interest and participation.

Hmm.. Perhaps one way to fix that would be to add some 'competitions' throughout the FHORF/FHORD? As in.. Not only character creation, but maybe plot-writing - Or even, perhaps, a sort of competition to see which user can bring the most of their friends (if they have any that do not previously play the game) to try out FH for the first time. This would also be a reasonable way to bring more people into the game, and the staff could keep track of people cheating (i.e making duplicate accounts and acting as if it's their 'friend') through the user IPs in the forums. It would at least give the player base a breath of fresh air if some of these new players decided to stay in the community - Specially now that the registrations have been opened or at least so I've heard.

We can keep trying things like this but in the end it’s just a temporary “fix”. The core game itself has issues, many issues of which are causing the issue of roleplays “dying” out. There’s a huge lack of convenience for things and many other things that need improving upon to make the environment one that is suited for roleplay again, and not just roleplay but communication and socialization again in general. Feral Heart is outdated and has remained so while its user base and the world they live in continues to grow and modernize. Hence why Discord has become much more favorable even over the game and forum itself to some.

Feralheart may be outdated now, but as I've said ingame quite a few times, I'm actually getting high hopes about this game after what has been going on (It was helped greatly by the newsletter posted in December). I have the feeling that, specially now with the source code, maybe FH could get the polishment it deserves and restore it's player base - I know this sounds way too optimistic, but really that is just the way I hope things will turn out. I was on with SpicyDirt earlier and one thing we've noted ingame was that for one a lot of the 'older players' seemed to be getting back on FH, and I can't help but notice this seemed to improve quite a bit after the news of having the source code back.

Anyway we had a FHORD/FHORF not too long ago. If it was brought back do you guys have any other ideas to make it more interesting? Aside from the activities we usually already do with it.

TL:DR quite a few of my ideas were listed above already, I'll set them in a list along with new ones however:

- A 'Roleplay Advertisement' chat so that people would be able to advertise out of videos, with range going through the whole map like General once did. Maybe, unlike General was however, that chat could be turned off by default so the users themselves would manually turn them on when looking for a roleplay. To avoid 'trolling', maybe only a player/character that leads a group could speak in it.

- The activities I mentioned earlier: Character/plot writing contest and the 'player invitation' competition.

- As SpicyDirt mentioned earlier, perhaps the addition of 'themed' or even a specie-specific roleplay, say, for example a deer, dragon or a horse roleplay as not many of FeralHeart's users usually get out of the 'comfort zone' of rping wolves or cats/lions.

- Another idea I had shortly after posting this was maybe adding a in-game and even maybe a forum 'title' for the leaders or members of a group settled in public maps, as some sort of recognition for trying to help on the current situation regarding public-map roleplays.

- Chat-related idea (Again): In light of what happened to those people that were rping in TG's Local, maybe another roleplay chat (this one being for the act of roleplaying itself) acting as a public one.. A second local, if you will. If people keep the 'first' local up for conversations, and simply toggle off the rp chat/second Local, the issue that had happened there would be avoided while still keeping roleplays public for those who might be willing to join.