Savojarna wrote:Vangaziland wrote:Scheduling both events at the same time might not work for a lot of people. It would take a lot of writing to be competitive in both. Or someone could just write one article for each, but that's going to add up. Especially as other sports rotate over that long time span. I get that feeder series run congruent with F1 in real life. Still, that'd take a major effort. More likely, the WGP2 might just get less attention.
Imagine having to come up with two separate story lines, two race weekends, two-four driver reactions..... Unless we put them in the same forum. That would have to mean shared RP bonus, where articles count for both regardless of which side you mention. But that would be a lot for one host, so that likely wouldn't happen.
If it has to be skipped until after next WGPC, it wouldn't be so bad.
(Emphasis mine)
I think it would be totally possible to have a two-host team where one is responsible for the WGP2 and one for the WGPC, with the possibility of covering each other if required. Given that we manage to have two hosts for other competitions such as the World Cup, I don't see a reason why WGPC couldn't follow a same way. In fact, I think it should because of three reasons:
1) it keeps away the slight confusion IC'ly of either having the season for motor racing split neatly in two (which means one has to run in winter, which I guess does work if some countries don't have winter/have mild winters/have reversed seasons, but still is rather weird), or having them alternate; running them next to each other means that you can have a lot more interaction between series regarding roleplay and possibly promote/relegate drivers during seasons, which I think raises interesting possibilities for storylines.
1.5) I think this warrants its own point but is connected to 1), if someone has to drop out for a month or two OOC, like me last season, they could roleplay it as their driver being injured and have a replacement step in. That means that we get both more activity and the team doesn't get shafted in the Constructor's, and we get less pressure to RP. I felt really bad for Mattijana last season because my thesis forced me to stop RPing for a while (and when I had time again I couldn't really get back into the flow of things and quit altogether), and that would have been alleviated if we could easily have promoted a Junior MRT driver. Now, I know this is possible in SQ as well, but I think the hurdle may be higher when it's an IC resigning of an OOC unknown person, rather than "let's pull up this guy that has been RP'ing for my team already in the WGP2".
2) I think that it helps WGP2 to fulfil its role as an OOC feeder because people are more likely to be highly involved when more is at stake. That means people are more likely to be willing to take over WGP2 teams because they feel like it's a spotlight role, and because it's essentially less work. I don't wanna run SVJ Racing in the WGP2 again because I have very limited time and energy to RP, and I'd rather spend that on top-tier competition. But if the two were fused, I'd happily run an SVJ team again and only devote every other RP or so to it, while using the other half to RP Sigur driving in the WGPC.
3) With the WGP2 in there with the big boys, I feel like you get more pull with new people. I feel like there hasn't been much interest in WGP2 from the non-racing community, whereas we already tend to struggle to find drives for WGPC. I think that with the two tiers united, people would not experience not finding a ride as often, hence be more interested in racing and more likely to stick with us. Higher appeal is good, if you ask me.
After discussing this topic with VilTur on Discord, I've been meaning to expand my arguments to write a critique of and response to your post for a little while, Savojarna. I should say first, though: thank you! Your points are clear and strong and I'm grateful to you for putting down a thesis for which I can attempt to write an antithesis and with which synthesis may be possible. If anyone's reading this without reading Savojarna's post first, please do so; it's good stuff!
Here we go, then:
1) People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbley wobbley, timey wimey... Stuff. In all seriousness, though, while I was also in the camp of wanting a clear and consistent timeframe established for the WGP2 relative to the WGPC, I think now that it's a better idea to handwave the whole thing with NS multiversal weirdness and let people have the narrative freedom of being able to determine when the WGP2 is taking place as relates to their storylines. We're all in this to create something, after all; why tie ourselves down where we don't have to? As for the question of whether winter running could work in-universe, the current F1 season lasts from March to December; the problem is most definitely solvable! In all fairness, though, the potential for more mid-season driver swaps does sound interesting; I doubt it'd happen much among the teams at the sharper end, gunning for the Drivers' Championship, but on the lower end that would probably be more frequent. That leads to my second point, however...
2) ...which would be my concerns over potential damage to the RP itself as compared to now. These are what I primarily discussed with VilTur and thus are the best-developed points here.
Firstly, I'm a little confused as to how putting the WGP2 alongside the WGPC would make the WGP2 more visible as compared to now. If anything, I'd worry that it would do the opposite, pushing it into the shadow of the WGPC and leading those participating to think that their successes in the WGP2 are second-rate compared to those of the WGPC; juxtaposition emphasises contrasts, as people who have studied literature will know. Compare this to the current situation, in which those successful in the WGP2 get their own moment in the Sun with little interference from the WGPC; I'd note Janne Laukkanen from last season's WGP2 as a prominent example of success being given significant, unchallenged exposure by the series, even if he wasn't the creation of a new user.
Secondly, and this concerns my greater worry, there is the argument that combining the two series will reduce the demands that they place on roleplayers, particularly in terms of time. I fear that they could actually have an effect close to the opposite of that. Placing the WGPC and the WGP2 in the same space of time would mean that those writing for both would have to make a choice: either they try to write the same amount as they would have written for both separately in half the time, which I know would burn me out rapidly and imagine would do the same to others, or they cut down on the amount of writing for each, which would leave less time to explore narrative and character arcs and would probably lead to growth in each being rushed - several of the posts of WGPC 17 that I was most proud of were also some of the longest (the livery reveal and Ryker's near-win in Filindostan especially stand out in my mind) and these just wouldn't have been feasible if I was trying to write for the WGP2 at the same time. I do have a proposal to try to alleviate some of the roleplaying pressure of the WGPC/WGP2 cycle that I'll get to shortly but I don't think that the way to do it is to cram the same competitions into half of their current space.
3) These are good points and, broadly speaking, I don't disagree with them. Using the magnetism of the WGPC to draw people into WGP2 would probably work, leaving aside the problems relating to achievements in the latter being overshadowed that were discussed above. That being said, I don't think that this potential benefit outweighs the potential negative consequences of placing the WGP2 season alongside that of the WGPC as they have been set out here.
Now, as far as I have been able to identify, there were two major problems with the current setup of the WGP2 set out in Savojarna's post: firstly that it isn't being as effective as a feeder series for new roleplayers as it could be and secondly that the work of trying to write for both full WGPC and WGP2 seasons can be too high. These are concerns that I've had in the past too and that I think do need a solution, if not this one. As such, I'd like to propose an alternative: instituting a word limit for WGP2 roleplaying, probably on a per-week basis.
The WGPC, as I have alluded to, is a roleplaying environment that I feel should be restricted as little as possible and, in general, I think that this principle should apply to the WGP2 as well. Writing is better where the writer's imagination is allowed to flow checked only in the interests of that writing. Again, I was very happy with my longer posts in the last WGPC (I hope that other people enjoyed them too!) and I believe that the WGPC should always be a space for that kind of creative freedom. That being said, one of the WGP2's main purposes is to allow new players to get into WGP competition more easily than jumping into the WGPC and, though the WGP2 has for the past two years been less competitive than the previous WGPC, the standard for roleplay has remained very high, sometimes intensely so. By imposing a hard limit on the amount of writing that a roleplayer needs to put out to be competitive, new roleplayers would not only be able to fully involve themselves with the WGP2 far more easily but also be empowered to hone their writing by applying a greater depth of focus to each piece, making the WGP2 a better stepping stone to the WGPC than it is now both by being more engaging and by encouraging the growth of the skills that are valued there. There's also the advantage that it would make the WGP2 easier to run, since there wouldn't be as much to read and grade each week; this would provide a stepping stone for hosts, then, as well, allowing people to cut their teeth on running the WGP2 before moving up to help organise the WGPC if they so wish.
Moreover, this change would also significantly reduce the pressure on those competing in both competitions. Instead of a second series into which most of the veteran roleplayers would (because, let's be honest, we would) continue to invest substantial amounts of time, a word-limited WGP2 would create a period of less intense, more relaxing roleplay that still allowed for the continuation of overarching plots. Personally, I think that could be quite enjoyable!
Ultimately, I think that the core of the WGP2's issues is that it's fundamentally similar to the WGPC while trying to accomplish different goals. Matching the timing of the WGP2 to that of the WGPC wouldn't change that while causing several other problems. Instead, if we want the WGP2 to do different things, I say that we make it different.
My word, that took an hour to write. Thank you for reading this; further discussion and ideas in any direction would be appreciated!
