Kerbal Kommunity Game?

[TheMultiVitamin]

Didn't know whether to post this here or in Fan works, but basically i'd like to ask if people would want to do a Kerbal Space Program Community Game? Basically how it would work is that I, as the OP, would make story based posts based on what happens in the game, and the community members would take on the role of kerbals of influence, coming to a consensus of what we do next with what parts we have available. The community members could "Claim" directors, workers, family members, visitors, pilots, engineers, scientists and in some cases tourists, and make RP based posts as those characters in reaction to what happens in the game or what happens RP wise between each other as events. I would be trying my best to deliver on what they'd want to do and RP about (for instance, if someone wanted to RP that they made a mobile roving satellite that went around the KSC to monitor what's happening, I would make a rover, use kOS to automate it, and have it do so).

It would be heavily modded for as much realism and content as possible, and it could lead to the community coming together to create a unique story narrative and just have fun with it all at the same time. I would also be supply Screenshots and the like as best I can as well.

[Snark]

3 hours ago, TheMultiVitamin said:

Didn't know whether to post this here or in Fan works

Asking about setting it up is more a of a Kerbal Networks thing, so I've moved it there.

3 hours ago, TheMultiVitamin said:

but basically i'd like to ask if people would want to do a Kerbal Space Program Community Game? Basically how it would work is that I, as the OP, would make story based posts based on what happens in the game, and the community members would take on the role of kerbals of influence, coming to a consensus of what we do next with what parts we have available. The community members could "Claim" directors, workers, family members, visitors, pilots, engineers, scientists and in some cases tourists, and make RP based posts as those characters in reaction to what happens in the game or what happens RP wise between each other as events. I would be trying my best to deliver on what they'd want to do and RP about (for instance, if someone wanted to RP that they made a mobile roving satellite that went around the KSC to monitor what's happening, I would make a rover, use kOS to automate it, and have it do so).

It would be heavily modded for as much realism and content as possible, and it could lead to the community coming together to create a unique story narrative and just have fun with it all at the same time. I would also be supply Screenshots and the like as best I can as well.

Unfortunately, such a project-- though it sounds like lots of fun and I'm sure plenty of people could enjoy it-- is not allowed here due to the forum rule prohibiting role-play.  No RP allowed. 

Per the forum guidelines:

Quote

2.2.j Roleplay, e.g. acting as a Kerbal, creating fictional organizational hierarchy amongst users and/or interactions of fictitious entities of an oppositional nature;

Yah, I know, it's a bummer.  There's a long and painful history behind the existence of that rule-- won't go into it right here since it's a long story, but the TL;DR is that it wasn't originally out-of-bounds, and then people did RP and Bad Things™ happened, causing lots of problems in the forum and eventually forcing us to (reluctantly) add the "no role-playing" rule.  The rule is there, and it's not going to change.

However, there's no reason why you couldn't have something like that, if it's hosted somewhere other than the KSP forums.  If you've got your own Discord server or whatever, by all means do that.    But we can't have roleplay in the forums.  We're sorry about it, but unfortunately that's the lay of the land.

[TheMultiVitamin]

Ah I didn't see that rule! thanks for letting me know and the like. Typically this kind of thing is done via Forum because it works better as a Forum based game, the original idea coming from the Dwarf Fortress forums where people do something similar. Thanks for letting me know and the heads up about the rule that I didn't see though!

[Snark]

8 minutes ago, TheMultiVitamin said:

Typically this kind of thing is done via Forum because it works better as a Forum based game, the original idea coming from the Dwarf Fortress forums where people do something similar.

Oh, certainly, in terms of the mechanics of making it happen, a forum would be ideal for this sort of thing.

The problem that we ran into with role-play here in the KSP forums is that people got angry with each other-- differences of opinion turned into bickering turned into resentment turned into punitive behavior turned into retribution turned into escalating personal feuds that boiled over into other areas of the forum and ended up burning everything down.  (Do a forum search on "Rocket Builders" if you'd like to follow the whole sordid story.  This thread has a fair amount of discussion on the topic and should give you a pretty good overview.)

In short:  it was a social problem.  A forum-based role-playing game can work great... as long as everyone involved plays nice together.  That can work great if the set of participants is limited and on good terms with each other-- e.g. if it was you and a circle of friends who routinely socialize IRL, for example.  But it tends not to work so well in a wide-open internet forum where anyone can join and there's no guarantee that the people participating are ones who will get along in all circumstances.  And unfortunately, the group dynamics are such that whoever is the most contentious ends up driving the conflict.

[TheMultiVitamin]

Understandable, it makes me wonder how they had gotten it to work over on the DF forums to be honest, a lot of the people there have majorly differing social opinions but still somehow manage to get along for the sake of RP. Thanks for all of the Info! I really do appreciate it. Sad that it can't happen here but I understand the circumstances as to why it can't.

[TheMultiVitamin]

@SnarkActually question wise, if I did a mission report series in a similar vein, without the RP and the claiming and stuff, would that work? In that there wouldn't be any RP posts, but the community would vote on what I would do next for the mission report and then make my mission report post as to how it went and the like? Keeping the RP based stuff out of it and just having them decide things via polls and the like? Maybe even utilizing the ships they built if anyone would upload any?

[Snark]

1 hour ago, TheMultiVitamin said:

Actually question wise, if I did a mission report series in a similar vein, without the RP and the claiming and stuff, would that work? In that there wouldn't be any RP posts, but the community would vote on what I would do next for the mission report and then make my mission report post as to how it went and the like? Keeping the RP based stuff out of it and just having them decide things via polls and the like? Maybe even utilizing the ships they built if anyone would upload any?

That should be fine.  In fact, if you're doing it in Fan Works or Mission Reports, it's even fine to write your own story with RP-- e.g. if you want to write a narrative from a kerbal's point of view that's narrated by Jeb or Gene or whoever, that's perfectly fine, people do that all the time. 

What's not fine would be either of two very specific things:

• Not okay:  Writing RP (i.e. "in character") when engaging with other forum members.  i.e. no interactive roleplay.  As long as the distinction is clear between "this is me, writing a story 'in character'" versus "this is me, not in character, just talking to other people about plans for the story or whatever", then that's fine.
• Not okay:  Any situation where you create a hierarchical organization where any person (yourself included) has any sort of "authority" or decision-making power over anyone else.  For example, if it's clear that "this is my story and I'll write what I want, but suggestions are welcome," that's fine.  What's not okay would be if, for example, you "hired" someone-- "okay, I'm the CEO and I'm hiring you as my chief engineer"-- so that they have some role, and you can fire them or whatever.  So, for example, you can't have a "team" with membership.

Some illustrative examples might help.

• Example of an okay interaction:  Someone:  "Hey, maybe in your next chapter Jeb should get space cooties!"  You:  "Hmm, thanks for the suggestion, but that's not really the direction I was planning on taking the story."
• Example of a not-okay interaction:  Someone:  "Hey, maybe in your next chapter Jeb should get space cooties!"  You (speaking as Jeb):  "How dare you, sir!  I'll have you know that I practice excellent astro-hygiene!"
• Example of an okay interaction:  Someone:  "Hey, I'd love it if you could use this ship as your Mun lander!"  You:  "Hey, thanks, I think I will!" or "Thanks, but I prefer this other one."
• Example of a not-okay interaction:  You:  "Hey, I need a Chief Engineer to design my Mun ship."  Someone:  "Pick me! Pick me!" You:  "Okay, you're hired."  Someone:  "Yay!  Here is my design, sir."

Does this help?

Best of luck with your story! 

 

[TheMultiVitamin]

Yea it does! Thanks for all your help, I really appreciate it!