[Chance]

Make sure to put some serious considering into voting before doing so; the outcome of the vote doesn't necessarily determine a decision either, but rather to get a discussion going.

My opinion is that 7 day years would be an overall negative for Meranthe, due to how long it would take for characters to age, generations to grow up and pass over, and for children to be of a playable age. From conception to playability, it'd be over two months for a PC child to be available, f.ex. Or even just going from a child to adult, that timespan is longer than what many people actually stick to a character for. Characters would rarely, if ever, hit age nerfs, and we wouldn't get to see many elder types around.

To me, this is unbearably slow, and history also won't be established as well. Right now at five days we get 70 years per IRL year, and I like knowing that in a few IRL years, we're going to have centuries of history to reference with Meranthe.

But that isn't to say I don't see the positives of 7 day years. It's a bit more realistic, and less pressure to get stuff done. I'm mainly making an argument against to play devil's advocate because IMO the current flow is underappreciated.

[Chance]

oh i should have added an 'I'm unsure/don't mind either' option but hey

[Lung]

My opinion is 5 days are fine, but when time and circumstances are relevant, temporarily put to 7 days, is a really good tool.

[Sailor Ryu]

I'm glad this is getting a proper poll/thread because I've been a vocal advocate for slightly longer years.

Right now, at 5 days per year we are as stated getting ~70 years per IRL year. This, is a pretty large number in general, and for the sake of getting as much history as possible, that's fine. Meranthe is a longform game that's meant to last generations, and have these years of history that can be looked back at in 2-3 OOC years and be referenced as tales of the past, be it cautionary, or otherwise.

However, we could still achieve that with 7 day years.
A 7 day week brings us down to exactly 52 years per IRL year. That means, in 2 years, we've seen a century. But, it's a century that's had more content within it, than what a 5 day year's 140 years have had. Two extra days may not seem like a lot, but that's still two whole more days of history made in Meranthe.

I can't speak on behalf of those who decide to make as children, I refuse to play child characters and genuinely do not see the need for them overall beyond emporiums. I've also openly advocated for the maximum spawn age to be adjusted to 16, rather than 11 (With the exception of those who take on emporium roles). Sadly, that adds a touch of micromanagement with age adjustments needing to be done for everyone who in future took a child role from an emporium post.

Now, let's talk about those not fortunate enough to have as much free time as someone like me.
A lot of people work 5 day weeks, some even more. So where they are only getting maybe a few hours a day in, over the course of 5 days (one IC year), their presence is going to be massively reduced, their characters are aging but they're not getting to put in as much as someone else might. That extra 2 days slows down that rate of their years seemingly passing them by a little, giving them more a chance to RP their youth, their prime age, and so on. Yes, it does mean they're stuck in the child phase for longer if they spawn as one, or the teen phase, so on. But, choosing to spawn at those ages is an active choice, and a significantly less meaningful one now that age DR is a flat number of years after you spawn, and not a specific age.

There are pros and cons to both, but for me, personally, 5 days has always felt a touch too fast. A week rounds things off quite nicely. It allows for the exact change of the year to be on a very specific day (every monday, for instance). Yes, we lose a bit of the timeline to Meranthe, with the loss of 20 years or so per OOC year, but it's an extra 2 days that can be packed with that extra content. More history, over a shorter timescale.

No doubt someone's gonna disagree with me, but that's my take.

[ForgetTheUnknown]

My hot take? Shorter years are better. Theres literally no reason to wait for 7 days to pass for any given reason. As well as I want my character to transition through age. if only a little before dying. Five days is at the sweet spot since I dont have to wait longer to get rid of teenage age nerfs either. And I dont typically pay attention to the years that much, which is why I prefer it to pass by a bit faster anyways. Bottom line? I prefer any mechanics that is ic year related happen sooner than later.

[GSM]

As someone with a really hectic and hostile schedule with a major RP role in-game, I'd appreciate a 7 day year instead of a 5 day year. I didn't even realize Na'Ria turned 40 this year until I got jumpscared by bugged-out age DR. With games coming out (Baldur's Gate, Armored Core, Starfield, etc), other interests (tabletop games, art, etc) and other stuff jumping up out of the woodworks, especially now, it kind of feels like all my spare time is exclusively going towards Eternia- which I don't mind, but an off-day kind of is needed every now and then. And I'd like that more if we had more of those.

[Chance]

I can't speak on behalf of those who decide to make as children, I refuse to play child characters and genuinely do not see the need for them overall beyond emporiums. I've also openly advocated for the maximum spawn age to be adjusted to 16, rather than 11 (With the exception of those who take on emporium roles). Sadly, that adds a touch of micromanagement with age adjustments needing to be done for everyone who in future took a child role from an emporium post.

Good post! To touch on that lightly:

Raising the minimum starting age to 16 wouldn't be bad, but with 7 day years that's just under 4 months before an emporium even becomes playable, longer than most characters last to begin with. That and people enjoy the development of a 'blank canvas' that those teenage years present, and like to maximize the amount of time they get with it, so it can be prime for setting up the foundations of a character.

It was lowered a while back to make emporiums more manageable. It's still just under a two month wait as is.

[GracefulAoife]

should have four-day years actually.

[Astronomical]

E1, iirc, experienced 4 days per year change, and I always personally felt that was a tad too short and my development wasn't as caught up with the character as I wanted it to be. Everything around my characters felt short-lived and not as enjoyable as I hoped. That's just me, however.

I do not recall what Spires was, however. It's been so long, but the dev I got on my last character (iirc, the days may have been changed by then to 5 days?) felt really nicely paced. I got good development that was appropriate for the character's age growing up.

I was not around for Esshar after the start, however, but I'll just assume the year change there was also 5 days.

Regardless, I feel that 5 days per year is very managable and fine. The progression isn't stagnant, and I feel my character is learning an appropriate amount of development for her age as she grows. It is neither too rushed nor is it too slow. It's comfortable.

7 days would, in my opinion, feel waaaay too long for a character to grow up. I do not want to play a PC teenager and have to wait weeks to months until I reach adult age. I feel the length of time would be too great that my character would end up learning far more for their age than what a normal teenager in the real world of average knowledge would learn. Generations and history on the game wouldn't truly progress as far as they have in the past games. Things would likely end up feeling dull by a certain timeframe in a charater's life with 7 days as the year limit. My vote is to remain at 5 days per year.

To add to playing a teenager: I feel that a teen is a good blank canvas to start with to learn about the game (especially as a returning player who's not as familiar with the lore as older PCs, so what I learn IC is also stuff I am learning OOC). A teen character to start feels 'right' to me - this is just my bias, however! Everyone is able to express their own feelings about playing an older character. That is fine. I just feel that starting younger gives me a chance to really begin a character's story from a beginning and grow to prosper.

The goal of the game is to create history, inspire new generations of characters, and generate interesting narratives with the given lore. I don't feel like 7 years per year would accomplish that very well.

[Powerjake]

idk all i know is i was uninspired/didn't want to play for awhile, now things are picking up again and im having fun but already 33