systemwide | STATE OF THE GAME: APRIL & MAY 2015

▶ SOCIAL: DRAGON BOATS

▼ THE FESTIVAL

On Tuesday, May 12th, William Tsang will be throwing a festival inspired by the Dragon Boat races. These will take place in the vast reservoirs of water on the Engineering level, the ‘course’ running one thousand yards long. Before and after the race, food, libations, and good sportsmanship serve to inaugurate the new agricultural rotation! Spiritual and social functions aside, the race is also incidentally timed to end with scheduled maintenance and cleanup of the reservoir.

Hovercrew team-building has repurposed the competitive team spirit! One of the races is slated to pit the ship crews against each other, give or take those who opt out and volunteers. As an OOC note, winners and rankings will be decided based on a dice roll and the number of years each team member has been unplugged.

Businesses within Zion have made friendly alliances to sponsor the crafting of these boats, as well as donating resources for prizes. It is certainly regarded as an economic opportunity for advertisement. All types of entrepreneurs, from noodle shops to mechanical repairpersons, are planning to make a showing.

▼ ANTI-CORRUPTION

At the root of the Dragon Boat tradition, a legend speaks of protest against corruption, which is certainly a theme that pervades Zion as of late. Although some citizens may regard it as an expression of discontentment, the Council evidently knows better than to try to end dissent by shutting down the party. Instead, a few representatives are slated to appear and partake in the festivities, paying respects, and perhaps mixing work with a little play.

▶ HOUSEKEEPING

▼ CR MEME

Please don’t forget to check our CR meme. More players have added characters and comments over the past few days, including new applicants and freshly accepted characters. Be sure to revisit over the course of the next few days and build CR with fresh participants.

▼ RECRUITMENT DRIVE

Following Commander Gwisin’s announcement, the Zion Defense Grid held a recruitment drive to replenish the ranks of hovercrews. The citizens of Zion (i.e., the players of Systemwide) rallied to the call, leading to the officiation (and re-officiation) of three new crews, serving: the Nidhoggr, the Phoenix and the Atalanta. Please find the new rosters in those links. Characters who were not recruited may still rotate through or sign onto the Shangrila to participate in missions.

▼ MISSION CONTROL

Our latest major page addition can be found at Mission Control, which we invite you to check out. This page will be devoted to all plotting, big and small, that is ongoing. We encourage you to track elements of this page or check in frequently for updates, as we continue to add hooks to it. All major metaplot events will continue to be posted properly to the OOC community and announced on our modplurk, but smaller missions that may or may not have metaplot ties in them too will also feature here. We will also point to items in these monthly State of the Game posts.

This page also describes the sim stations, a plot device used for characters who wish to write cross-canon simulations that do not necessitate real Matrix entry or boarding a ship. These can be training exercises and skills uploads for upcoming missions or just in general, socialisation and experimentation, or simply finding a way to pass the time.

If you have any questions, let us know, but please, go nuts!

▼ PLAYER-RUN PLOT INCENTIVE

The mods would like to announce an incentive for player-run plots (i.e., Low Clearance Missions). If the mission meets certain qualifications, the player responsible for running (or starting) the thread will receive 1 Activity Check exemption. Players may store multiple exemptions indefinitely. To qualify, the thread must meet the following criteria:
The thread must have at least 5 tags from the plot-runner (may include the top-level post)
The tags were posted within a 30-day period
Remain consistent with the Low Clearance Mission parameters (i.e., risk level, little impact on the Matrix), although the specific objective of the mission is flexible
Should future problems arise (i.e., character squatting), this policy is subject to more limitations.

▼ MOD VACATION

One of the mods, China, will be on vacation from May 21-31 and may be completely unavailable to fulfill her related duties. Afterward, her availability may become slightly spotty for a few weeks due to moving between states. Please be aware that aspects of game-running may become slightly delayed (e.g., FAQ responses), although all of our calendar dates remain as originally scheduled. Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Activity Check will begin properly in the last week of May.

▶ KEY DATES

Activity Check: May 24-31
Test Drive: Currently Open
Reserves: Close on 31 May (4 PM, EST).
Applications: Next round opens 26 May (4 PM, EST).