I am continuing to accept submissions for the next release. (Yes, I am an optimist. I do expect to be producing more updates in the coming months.) Sooner or later I may have to find a location of my own to post it and give all of you the URL, but Nimrod did promise me it would be incorporated into MarsDawn and I still hold out hope.
I am bringing this subject up now because I want everyone to consider what it would be like not to have MarsDawn anymore. There has been a lot of grumbling about various aspects of the show, some technical and some story-line. There are legitimate gripes and reasons for discontent, but there is so much that is right with this program that we often take for granted. Let's not lose sight of the fact that this entire escapade is produced by a team working in their "spare time" (whatever that is). We demand a lot, and we SHOULD demand a lot. MarsDawn is a community *and* a vehicle for the advancement and creation of careers for some of its key people.
We accepted the responsibility to take on roles and stay in character while interacting with the story. We were given the MessHall where we could loosen up and drop out of character from time to time, as I am doing now, to talk about aspects that are not directly part of the story-line. We have all blurred the lines here, sometime talking about the story and sometimes just having a conversation because we want to.
We have to start focusing on the purpose of each discussion board and keep the conversations on the appropriate one. Plans of the strategies with the probes and the continuation of the story belong in Probe Discussion. Talks about the construction of the site, inexplicable inconsistencies in the portrayal of the story or the introduction of new features/functions belong here.
By using those clean delineations, we can be certain that anything said on this board is either directed at the construction of the site or is off-topic fun, while anything said on Probe Discussion is aimed at being an in character participation in the continuation of the story. This should help to minimize the erroneous supposition of personal attacks while providing the originally intended soap box for making our feelings and opinions known.
There are some who are beginning to question why they are spending time with MarsDawn. They have a legitimate question. The expectations from both the staff and the audience are not in sync right now and that is leading us into a morass of discontent and sniping that will only serve to lead to the quick demise of the show. The recent attempt to explain the expectations of the staff has stirred up a hornets' nest, but it has also prompted an evaluation of what we MARSupials believe is a reasonable expectation on the part of the staff. Recent comments about how long it takes to move along in the story followed by a machine gun-like burst of activity too rapid to permit a well-reasoned response from us should be viewed as constructive criticisms. It is difficult to maintain interest when the story moves as slowly as it sometimes does. It is difficult to keep up when it moves at breakneck speed, especially when it began at a near dead stop. There must be a happy medium that we can find and use. Perhaps we can increase the probe's communications by recognizing the fact that nightly broadcasts imply a time window of more than 2-3 hours. We could receive reports from them and send them our messages at Midnight (arbitrary example) and do the same again at 4 AM (same). That would mean an extra interaction cycle where our comments, suggestions and questions are sent and the probes' responses received more quickly. This might only be necessary when the action is "hot" but it does provide a mechanism for permitting the MARSupials to be more proactive. As things stand now we must wait to see if the probes followed our advice, what happened, and who is left with whom to talk?
Speaking of "who is left..." It was not difficult for us to deal with the loss of Daniel at the beginning of the story. He was unavailable from the start and did not become a factor until we established some contact with him. Just as it looked like we might be able to get somewhere, we lost him again. Not only that, we lost Bette too. It would have been bad enough if Daniel had been captured and Bette left for dead by the ETs. We would have had a difficult time getting Bette out of the tunnels and somewhere that was reasonably safe while giving her something constructive to do, but there was a real opportunity to introduce a wealth of information about the ETs. We could have been challenged with the need to re-enable Bette to speak before we could get those answers. As it is now, we are short two probes and have nothing to show for it. This is very discouraging and needs quick rectification. How do we hold the interest of those who were devoted to Bette when their anchor is no longer available? How do we go on saying, "she'll be back with us *any* time now, just hang in there," over and over and over again? The broken record just does not play well and serves to drive away active and vital participants.
MarsDawn is not dead yet. But the team effort to kill it is quickly sending it to the point of needing the ICU (Intensive Care Unit). Let's do our best to steer it back to good health. That requires a colossal effort of the staff and MARSupials alike.
Koala, Captain, Team Andrew