[War_ooc] So...do we NEED a WR?

[pentaj2 at Scranton.edu]

Okay.

Thoughts swirling in my head:

1. Chris says over AIM that I "just want to order people around and 
watch them work".

Not true, though I'll grant that it may appear that way.

Problem I run into is that the US is involved...Everywhere. It's 
really, really hard for me to do any part of the WR without it feeling 
like I might unconsciously be tipping the scales in my favor.

2. He also suggested that the WR wasn't necessary.

I'm divided here. On the one hand, it does a lot for keeping things 
cohesive, providing "one-stop shopping" for "what got decided" 
questions, etc, and presenting helpful things that are clumsy to do 
otherwise. It also is useful because, with one document, it's easier 
to not contradict yourself or rule on the same thing in different ways.

On the other hand, it's a *bitch* to keep up.

3. I'm wondering to what extent we need GMs as such.

My thought:

Currently, when an app comes in, I grade the exam part (I've got it 
down to where I can generally do it by sight), fwd a copy with the 
grade noted to Chris and Ian, and let one of them do the next steps. I 
then stand ready to help the newbie with writing their country setup 
and intro post.

On reflection, maybe that isn't the best idea. Unfortunately, all the 
join stuff still goes to me,  as our various website incarnations are 
spread all over the web.

My thought:

A volunteer "Recruiting group", assembled helpfully at a Yahoogroup, 
that gets the apps, looks them over, and then one person steps up as 
the mood strikes (within say 48 hours?) to do the welcome letter 
(or "Sorry, you failed" letter, or "Sorry, all your countries are 
taken" letter or whatever), which someone can probably write a 
template for. The newbie is then guided through the process by that 
person or someone else who's stepped up.

Any player could join up, just need to be available to help the 
newbies.

A similar "Control group" that does typical GMish functions of actual 
gameplay stuff like resolving actions, plot-type stuff, and so forth. 
This is where I'm pondering things, because I don't know:

1. Do people WANT a WR as such? Should we respond to stuff as it comes 
in? (An option, I'll note, that works fine with 6 people and a slow 
game...But dies horribly if it's a lot bigger or moving faster)
2. How do we handle Secret Actions in such a situation?

I'm probably the only one who pays a lot of attention to things like 
continuity, time, etc, so I'll keep doing that. Chris, whine all you 
like, but it does matter. Besides, it satisfies some weird part of me.

NHS stuff....I'd like it if someone else could do it, because I get 
enough in my mailbox as is, but as that seems unlikely, eh, I'll keep 
doing it.

Also...

Do people -want- a World Report? Do people -like- the World Reports?

(If we don't do a WR, what would you suggest in its stead?)

That said, for WRs...My "back of the envelope" idea for timefunctions 
on a WR.

Okay, so we only have the weekend to do them on.

Do them.

My thought:

A WR should come out every 2 weeks or about. That's a good balance 
between "too slow and people getting bored" and "too fast and the pace 
being difficult".

So, a timeline of how I think the process should work, in an ideal 
world:

Taking the date the WR gets sent out as W-Day. For argument's sake, 
let's say it's a Sunday or Monday.

Tuesday before W-Day: Someone sits down, looks over the activity since 
the last WR, and divides the played countries into manageable chunks 
(1 person doing the whole WR tends not to be a smart idea).

Wednesday and Thursday: La dee da. La dee da.

Friday or Early Saturday: For sanity's sake, the WR covers only until 
some point on Friday, to be decided. First drafts of country responses 
sent to the group of people who've stepped up to work on the WRs. 
Argument, squabbling, nitpicking, the general fun of WR-writing begins.

Hopefully, on that Saturday, everybody working on the WR can gather 
together on AIM and we can speed the process by hashing things out 
real-time.

Saturday night: Everything made nice and pretty in the WR you've come 
to know and maybe love, and that copy sent out for final checks.

Sunday: Grammarchecks made and WR posted to the main list. Optionally, 
may *also* be posted to the website (not instead of the list, but in 
addition to it).

Like I said, that's for an ideal world.

It's also one possible process. The headline question deserves to be 
answered though: Do we need a WR? Does anyone have better ideas (that 
are somewhat scalable as we hopefully grow)?

Other than that, any opinions?