Our biggest issue is perception. Mahz and I talked about this not that long ago: he gets a lot of hate mail about us. People see us as an RP like any other on the site, and they resent us getting our own sub-forum and where that sub-forum is located on the Guild front page. That'd be fair if were like any RP, but we're not.

Players control where this game goes, not the GMs/PW Mods. Case in point: one group of our players really gets active and makes a great story for players not into Jedi and Sith.

The faster people realize if they don't like something about this game they can join it and change it over time with activity and effort the faster everyone will see what this was meant to be.

Yeah I'd second the perception issue. The PW is perceived as a failure simply because it takes time as a project. Yet you look at it now and we're steadily chugging along into activity and the game is a big reason why a certain group of players remain on site. We've had a lot of passive aggression in guild statuses and on the main discord. I've noticed that enough.

The biggest struggle for me, I think, was in ensuring that we all resisted knee-jerk reactions to the hate and complaints we got pre-release. The natural reaction to all of the "It's not going anywhere" "Nothing has been done" "Its already dead" and "Release now or I'm leaving" that we had to endure would've been to show everything we had just to prove them wrong.

The problem with doing that is that it is essentially a soft launch, and transitions one out of fully focusing on preparation and on to trying to prep while also being a GM. This was a problem Ellri and I had in our previous SW RP, so we were keen on avoiding it with this even larger scale project.

For one, there was a huge amount of prep work in the form of sorting out the lore/guides/sheets.

Word. Also a lot more behind the screens management and collaboration within the GM team. We try to be as inclusive as possible, but sometimes things have to go fast. I'd say that most interactions I've been in were civil if not cordial. Lots of guides.

I actually started with play-by-post roleplaying on Invisionfree boards that were, effectively, persistent worlds with a couple of dozen or so users at most. Coming to a forum where the model is to have thousands of users across hundreds of distinct threads entirely unconnected to each other was an odd shift for me. I think the substantive differences between the two plays into the first question a bit. The forum isn’t designed with a persistent world in mind, and the userbase hasn’t traditionally played in this manner.

With that in mind, introducing the Persistent World is a tough ask, to begin with; with the delay between announcement and the ribbon cutting ceremony, it’s easy to see how initial engagement was low. Given that the idea has a solid grounding and things are now in motion, though, the big hurdles have largely been overcome and I expect the active users will continue growing in number.

There were people wanting to rush launch. Half of the material for the guides was initially made for [my] last RP. The key difference between that RP and the [PW] is that [I] intentionally made that one focused towards a single story, whereas the [PW] is meant for many stories. Which in turn meant the need for a few additional guides. and expansions to some of the existing ones

I find we've had to cross-check and reference a lot of the source material. Some of the old guides were useful, but they still had to be adapted, redacted. Others created from scratch discussed. There's been a bit of a peer-review if I can call it that. On top of that, Disney acquiring Lucas' legacy didn't always make it easier for us to select what was useful and what not. Legends versus the new canon and such were something I found myself sighing at a bit if I'm honest.

I think we've worked well as a team. It was certainly a group effort to get things off the ground. Ellri wrote a huge amount of the guides but each of us contributed to those, then we've all be working to spark activity.

It's not been all smooth sailing, we've had disputes and we had to drop one GM. But I'd take the disputes over not having an enthusiastic and creative team anyday

Quite enjoyable for the most part. I prefer to work in a team of specialists rather than having to manage everything myself, and I feel we have all fallen nicely into our places here. This team is definitely greater than the sum of its parts.

Well, there’s always the challenge of remembering not to run roughshod over those who aren’t as stubborn or who don’t know when to jump up and say “No! Stop!”.

Well enough, though I’m a recent addition to the team and wasn’t here for the majority of the GMing action. We all have our corners and there are more eyes on the ball when it comes to things over which we share joint responsibility. All the same, there’s a lot less GMing and a lot more RPing to be done now.

I love Persistent Worlds. It’s been a long time since I’ve played in one and it’s great to be back in a system where role players I don’t directly engage with on the forum are directly affecting the world we play in together. I have very fond memories of playing a part in a much larger story co-written by a dozen or more other people, and I’m looking forward to building something even bigger and better here.

You meet so many new people. This thing transcends some clique lines, and that's been amazing. It's truly a community project anyone can jump in and have fun with, whether they wanna carve out their own personal IC kingdom or join with a group of adventurous Jedi.

Seeing all of the different characters that people come up with. Everyone really seems to be trying to make their own unique, interesting characters.

Meeting new, enthusiastic writers - and being part of something bigger than the usual type of RP.

With any luck this persistent world will be around for a long while, but future persistent worlds that do come about would probably be well-served by tackling in advance the launch-related issues that dogged this endeavour at the start.

For other PWs I’d like to see all kinds of ideas for them. Since there’s so many. Could do ones set in fandoms like Game of Thrones or Star Trek, or entirely original universes.

TES has been brought up as a possible second PW if this one does okay. So have Comics. [I'd also like to see that] people see them as community projects for everyone.

Future PW style RPs should always remember the importance of pre-launch preparation. Making sure the appropriate resources are ready for the players in their entirety before starting is vital, but perhaps a less obvious element of pre-launch prep is that it gives time for the GM team to get to know each other more and mesh into a functional team before diving headlong into the thick of it.

I cannot stress enough the value of preparation. Having everything in order before you open things up to the chaos of players cuts down on stress immensely, ensures the smooth running of the initial phases of the RP and ensures GMs don't burn out early.

Take your time in creating a character. Don’t be afraid to start over or let him/her/it die. Ask questions. Both players and GMs are willing to help you.

Even the smallest and most seemingly insignificant character is every bit as valuable as a Senator, Jedi Master or Fleet Admiral.

Be prepared for the long haul. I've told people it'll take years for this to reach it's potential. In the meantime enjoy the ride.

Bring your friends!