[Nailman]

I feel like the commitment to playing a child character needs to be put more into perspective if the year is changed to 7 days. Not a lot of people ACTUALLY want to rp teenagers, but do so because of age dr or because they just want to fit in.

As someone with a 9-5 job and mostly only available on weekends, a 7 day year would be immensely appreciated. I understand a lot of people might be against this bc they can pour hours on end, but while I can be logged in for the whole week, I can barely get manageable rp time in there, and every other year I barely do anything because of the simple fact I Have A Job.

I also don't play just eternia, and I like playing other games, which does mean that extra time would be appreciated. Not only that but I know a sizeable amount of the community uses apps or events as milestones, and making the time to get either done more manageable is good imo for the storytelling aspect; I don't want to have to rush my characters history due to needing to get things done within 50 irl days, because I think that just amplifies the amount of dev that people force into their stuff instead of letting it flow organically. The amount of times I had new people ask for advice and how to force dev because "I only have 40 days until my character is 30 and oh my god I feel like an underachieving idiot there's people getting hiddens at 16 and im being punished for not putting out apps as quick as possible" is not huge by any margin, but it definitely sat in the dozens when I was playing Hadrian and Orphee both.

By and large, the effect of the clock is mostly psychological. Age DR takes a while before it becomes significant enough, and if you have a burst build or are kitted with invulns, it might never be. What it does at 5 days is, imo, exclude a sizable portion of people with looser attachment to the game (e.g. people who are by and large considered casual due to just not playing enough) or those who simply do not have enough time, on the negative. A conflict that will happen in 4 ooc days is still going to happen in 4 ooc days; all this means is that announcing a raid on Monday to be executed on Saturday no longer means a 1 ic year gap between them. On the positive end of a 5 day year, that rush people get to complete their stories because time is running out is also pushing them to do more stuff every moment because the clock is ticking tick tock motherfucker; it is largely inconsequential, but it still acts as a tipping point for those who are "on the fence" abt whether or not they'll stop

On the negatives of a 7 day year, I can see that it might be worrisome that certain characters might not phase out as quickly, but I genuinely think age ultimately plays a minor role on how tiresome a character feels. Most people quit and pass the mantle, so to speak, due to how OOC time passes, and very little due to how IC time passes. Usually, if they don't want to pass on, they have a wealth of tools at their disposal that took ages to build that outweighs their age DR. Those who didn't get tired of their characters usually don't quit, and those who do quit regardless of their age; Just look at how many children pcs you see quitting, even from experienced players who'd rather do something else, or look at how many old characrers there are with players who don't get tired. The time that it takes for someone to get tired of a certain character is an OOC measure, and you can change whatever you want abt the game time, 40 days will still be 40 days.

There's also other cans of worms to be considered, of course. A lot of people I know complain about delays to apps (which occurs naturally during certain periods and is a seasonal fact; it happens with every admin team eventually and it eventually gets better. Denying that helps no one.) or to get events done; I speak mostly from experience when I believe by and large a lot of people heard of Orphee doing a lot of stuff, but it all started after a nearly two month wait to get the event written, approved, then schedules to align and finally done. While I do think I'd probably have stopped playing Orphee abt the same period I did regardless due to it being a conclusive story moment, I think if these two months were 8 years rather than 12, it'd be very much cooler to just not feel my character has gone old without doing much; because I felt that a significant amount of my time was spent sitting on my hands without having many opportunities on what to do, and let me tell you, that felt WAY worse than encroaching age dr.

I typed this out on my cellphone or it'd have been more succinct. I hope you like the stream of consciousness.

[Hibiki]

well i like to have 7 days. on the Simple reason. it gives one more time. cause i do have weeks where i have to work like a full week  and a other week i have free

and its nice to take thegame at a bit of a slower pace. not rushing dev materials. or anything for the fear of dying of old age. or well and it aids the poeple who have work like 5 days per week and gives em at least more time to spend a year to dev therye chars

im personaly all for the 7 days heck if not 7. 6 at least.

[Galion]

I think their are powerful arguments for all sides of the question here. Ultimately, however, I don't think there is a satisfactory answer out there when you look directly at the year speed, because no matter how fast or slow it is, its going to feel totally out of your control. I feel like the best answer is to shift away from time being so massive of a concept as a whole. We should meet a middle ground for people.

The majority of people who do not like the way years move are primarily focused on the supposed 'expiration date' forcibly set on characters. This is probably the biggest source of the psychological impact, that you are not accomplishing enough with the time you have. That your job or life is preventing you from finding fulfillment in your character.

+ Remove age nerfs or mitigate their impact. Raise the natural lifespan of magi. (just an idea to go with my thoughts)

We are playing in a magical fantasy world. In a lot of magical fantasy worlds, magic sustains an individual with longevity, more then just a 'healthy' body. Also in a lot of fantasy worlds, there are many characters who operate well into the later years of their lives.

If players want to stick with one character forever, then let them. If they want to hop to a new character every couple months, that's also okay.

My own resolution might not be enough, or the best of ideas, but I think any suggestion regarding this topic should be focused on peeling people's eyes away from the concept of year speed & time as a whole. The only time a player should really be paying attention to it is when they're waiting for the date their character's descendants might spawn in.

tl;dr
there is no satisfactory answer with year speed. if we want ppl to stop looking at the clock, then start by making it less important mechanically

[ratqueen]

The majority of people who do not like the way years move are primarily focused on the supposed 'expiration date' forcibly set on characters. This is probably the biggest source of the psychological impact, that you are not accomplishing enough with the time you have. That your job or life is preventing you from finding fulfillment in your character.

it's more so that at present having other responsibilities, or even other hobbies, means your character has significant gaps in their ic history, which is especially problematic during core developmental periods (childhood) that should be having a pretty significant impact on the person they become.

one extra day adds a week of time for you to toy around in the 11-18 range. two extra days adds two weeks to that range. it's a nice change for people who can't commit themselves completely due to work or family obligations or college courses or social lives or the non-eternian hobbies.

and for people who don't like playing children and don't want to spend more time in that era? don't spawn in as one, or spawn in as a slightly older one. age DR scales with your creation age now.

as for the argument that there might be less history + generations to reference, meranthe has a solid backlog of history now that it's over a year into the game, but really only the last handful of months are referenced 99% of the time anyways (e.g. the entirety of dal'thala's original cultural norms seem to have been lost over the year).

i say this as someone who, regularly enough, logs onto old characters and talks about things prior to that handful of months ago and bring a splash of the past to the present. i'd rather give people who have less time to dedicate to the game more opportunity to have an impact on their generation than I'd rather more generations where those players are more left out from the melting pot of events. quality over quantity.



side argument: longer years also delays the awkward moment where ever expanding family trees accidentally start crossing their roots. this naturally happens with small population sizes that have smaller pools of immigration, and every new generation of emporium posts inches us closer to this point. i can already see the crossing points from here.

[PastaTM]

So, I feel slightly responsible for this entire debate since I did bring this up back when BG3 had just come out, we had 9-day years. Part of me was happy that I didn't have this need and drive to get on every day for hours just to feel like I was doing something in-game, and not wasting my time (and money). Mind you it felt very odd since I was used to such a quick pace that things kinda slowed down.

It felt nice.

However;

This is where I go against my first thoughts on this entire situation because I truly- honest to god. See both sides of the coin here, where if we have longer years to deal with then the game will SLOW DOWN. This could damage the flow of things, or it could encourage it, this depends a lot on the person and what their goals are. Would I say no to extra time for projects? No, not at all. I would say No if I had to wait 5 goddamn extra weeks to just have a kid pop out to spawn. (I enjoy family rp!).

I think what also needs to be set in stone is this.

JUST BECAUSE YOU HIT MATURE ADULT. DOES NOT MEAN YOUR STORY IS OVER.

I don't quite understand where this thought process came from, Age DR is meant to allow the next generations to push forward, to take the torch. Because this allows the game state to change. Before I had to leave for some serious medical issues the game was admittedly peaceful. Why? Because that is what the leadership OF THE TIME worked towards. Then a hostile takeover, then a shattered empire, and now the city-states are their own thriving places again.

The point I'm trying to make is.

5 Days; A simple, effective, and rather quick-paced way of RP to allow generations upon generations to push forward into the overall story of the game. This can however feel crushing, overwhelming, and as if you're on the clock against time itself. This as well, is a source of burnout, since the pace is so insanely quick.

7 Days; A slower pace, but a bit easier on the mind pace of RP. It allows longer lives and longer time to work on projects, and it can allow some time off if that's what the player wants, not as much burnout, but it can still cause it all the same. You feel less against the clock, but things can feel like they're dragging far more.

I'm perfectly fine with either, but take time to think about why you want a shorter or longer time frame.

My ramble is done.

[Dandeli]

mske it seven days (very important opinion)

[Avee]

Fun to watch the community get older and watch what people's definition of 'old' is changing over time.

Note : I may not agree with Dandeli, but I'm obligated to like whatever they post when I see it in the wild. They make the cutest things for me.

[Maromar]

I'm in favor of 7 days years because I love eternia, but I have a life, and I have other writing projects and rp games that desire my time. Additionally being on such a short timer while not having a solidified position in the community and still bumbling my way forward to nail down how dev and just the game in general works leaves me with the fear that my first character may hit old age before I get comfortable or connected enough to do anything significant (I think it was touched on above, but 5 day cycles may in fact, alienate a good chunk of would-be-players with less time to dedicate to the game).

And from someone that sufferers from hard burnout and knows many that does? I'd any game meant for fun and relaxation not resemble the feelings of the harsh deadlines of work that I'm playing to escape.

Alternatively make youth potions just a little more accessible.

[Spicy Serious]

I do want to throw in my two cents that, older characters aren’t less valid than younger characters. Pasta is right, Mature Adult and even Elder is far from the end.

Years/large chunks of time passing without you doing anything can be demotivating, and even just hitting Mature Adult and realizing you didn’t really manage to do anything with your time as a young character can seriously hit your mood. Because while age dr…certainly isn’t much of a problem imo, the passage of time will change a character. A young adult and a mature adult are different characters.

Buuut, the only thing stopping you from enjoying that mature adult character is yourself. Leaving Camino aside, back in e3 I played Ragnhild, a character who did Jack of all in her youth, but when she hit her 50’s and 60’s her faction saw a few renewals in life, and over time she managed to earn many perks, a funni stance I never used well, blessing, got a fun moment app that scarred her injuries and gave her cosmic ascension so she could set an example for the next generation. She even averted a few traitor plots by being the local grandma apparently(?).

You might miss out on things. But you’re the one in control of your experience. And year change or no year change don’t let imaginary number ticking up demotivate you.

[Nailman]

I think that ultimately the choice of 5 vs 7 days boils down to what you're going to want to please.

At 5 days, you please people who have the free time / will to get on every day, play a lot, write a ton. It's even the same thing that has been said a lot here; "I have enough time, and I can do this, otherwise it will feel slow for me who can get online every day!" Arguable, but fair.
At 7 days, you're pleasing the people who do not. To those who have limited schedules, be it a job, demanding colleges, are on a trip, etc. the 2 extra days come in extremely handy because, arguably, the moving age counter also doesn't help.

A 6 day year could be a plausible solution. It doesn't "slow down" the game a lot, but it also does just enough that people who have not a lot of free time during weekdays get something out of any year at any given time.

Personally, do I think it's the best? No; I largely prefer 7. I have other hobbies, other stuff to do, and eternia is far from the top of my priority list (boooooo prego why dont you treat the byond rp game as the most important thing in your life!! grrr). But above that, I want to just be able to not log in for three days, and not feel "oh fuck i wasted so much time the year has ticked already im so fucking dead" because that's what stops me from playing again.

But in the end, I don't think there's a world where everyone leaves this happy. The people who *need* to take time away from the game will feel like that resource, which they are already extremely short on, is being devalued if the year clock remains at 5. The game is already at odds with needing a lot of time taken away to do stuff (eternia homework in general, like collecting logs).

The people who don't and are free to play all day every day, are going to feel like they have now too much time in their hands. I think this hinges a lot on the fact that people want to play as young teenagers but not start out as teenagers, but for the sake of playing devil's advocate, I'll go with the notion that suddenly the game is slower, things don't happen as much because now there's no hurry to fit it within an ic year, which is the main way I can see the longer year affecting any character that has already reached maturity, and this can lead to staler IC.

To me personally, the game ultimately functions as just that. A game. My real life comes first, and I have stuff to do for 5 out of 7 days of my week; 6 if I've got anything at all for the weekend. Everyone's life works on that same 7 day cycle, unless there's more trust fund babies here than the one or two we all know about. I don't think that the game will change in how much it morphs over time due to that, since most significant events happen either regardless of current IC year, or they're organized around the days of the week; No one ever organizes raids, world events, or anything that potentially affects the world massively by going "well it's on the second to last day of the year". It's usually fridays, saturdays or sundays, where people are generally free in both EU and US timezones.

tldr
eterniaheads like 5 days
wageslaves like 7 days
there's no overlap