Epistemic value: this is the result of about an hour of highly emotional time, so it's definitely not the most clear post I've ever written and I'm probably missing many sides to this. I do have good intent tpward making the rest of this quest happen as positively as possible, both in story and out of story.
First, as a lurker who has followed the quest since the beginning and read every post of the nearly 2500 pages, I want to say: Thank you, EagleJarl, OliWhail, Verlorien, for all that you've done over the last year and a half. This quest has been a significant portion of my limited headspace. Reading it has made my life more enjoyable. I literally cannot thank you enough.
However, I think a fundamental issue in this thread is that the QMs see the quest primarily as an attempt to rationally simulate the Naruto-world. Simultaneously, the players care only a little about that goal and care mostly about it being a fun game that is written extremely well by some very talented QMs.
Many of the players are acting out here (see suicide voting) because they see no way forward for this quest to be a fun game. This also leads to one of the other primary plans, Watchtower, the only real plan that succeeds in keeping it a game. I honestly see no other way for this to continue existing as a quest other than it. It just won't be fun. I get that we're probably not going to get to redo the past, but right now I wish that I had a time machine so that I could fix this.
[Side note: man, I haven't cried for a lot of things in a long time. The last time was one of the scenes in this quest a while back when we were having a good time with the group. I'm bawling atm.]
As a point of information: We didn't set out to screw you, and we didn't deliberately hold back information. We're all busy folk and it was only Wednesday afternoon (London time) that we realized what had happened and what the realistic consequences would be.
This is an example of where I see the difference in thought about the point of the quest. You'd probably collectively already had 20-30 hours of looking at the world before realizing that it had happened. The players collectively might have about that much time dedicated to each plan, but not as in deep, because it's split between many more people. If the quest were meant as a game, I would think that you would either have said something and stopped the plan from being enacted or simply have ignored that.
Because of this misunderstanding (as I see it), it seems to many players, especially lurkers who aren't knowledgeable about the QMs or the rationality community, that the QMs are intentionally trying to be mean to the players. I believe that the QMs are not causing this intentionally.
In light of all of this, I'm voting for the following:
[X] Poll: Move MfD to a weekly update to take some strain off the GMs
The only current plan that would allow the players to continue playing the game:
[X] Action Plan: The Watchtower
As an action of prolonging decision time to get better plans:
[X] Action Plan: Lore Update
This is my vote for making it more like a game and less like a realistic simulation of the Naruto-verse:
[X] Poll (Agency): Yes, I want to give up some control of Hazō such that he will generally follow the plan but the GMs will make him do whatever they think is sensible whenever we (the players) vote in something that they (the GMs) think is inappropriate for Hazō-the-character to do. I fully understand that "inappropriate" and "whatever they think is sensible" are subjective and might not be things I approve of or would prefer and I promise not to complain about it in those cases.
