"Thought #1: It’s hard for new members to establish their characters, because members are drawn toward plotting with more senior, more experienced, and thus more influential characters."
I'm not a 'new member', so I really don't want to say much here because I'm not really the one that should have an opinion on this (as in, if anyone thinks that 'new members' are having difficulty with establishing their characters that anyone should be said 'new members', since they're the ones that can talk about how they currently feel), but I'll still say what I think based on what I see - just know that it's worth what it's worth; that it's just the opinion of someone who isn't exactly the most active member, but at least as been here for awhile.
Firstly, it's just like Aim said: you can't dictate who people roleplay with. If you do this (whether directly or not; whether intentionally or not) then the real problems start to come up... the really bad ones. In the same manner, you can't deny the 'senior' members with the most influential/powerful characters from threading opportunities (or any other type of opportunities - if they are fair, obviously) when they put in the hard work and the grind to deserve it and to have their characters at the level they are at: if someone asks them to thread and they have the time for it, the only logical answer is accepting it. Telling them to do otherwise (or implementing something to restrict them or any other type of limitation) will have us on a very weird and dangerous territory. Of course this doesn't mean you have to overhype 'senior' member's characters in chat, but this is more about just being a sensible person: everyone here is cool, no matter what character they have.
Besides - and regarding the 'Students Faction' specifically, for reasons that I'll explain further ahead - this "how to establish characters problem" becomes a non-issue when we take into account how TP's Yuuei works: the Class System (1st Years, 2nd Years and, eventually, 3rd Years) divides characters cleanly in a good way; in a way that encourages 'new members' to search for threads with other 'new members' that have characters in the same Class and/or Year. Not only that, but we still have group threads (like the Biology Class currently going on) that mostly function as practical scenarios where all Years are together, which allows different types of 'seniors' and 'new members' characters to roleplay together and, after that, pursue interactions in other threads. All of this + the occasional Events makes it easy for 'new members' to establish their characters if they are willing to do so.
Because of this I don't believe that, in terms of system in regards to the 'Students Faction', there's any type of problem at the moment. I return to another point that Aim made: it's up to the 'new members' to find those threads and to everyone else to encourage them (which I also believe is done at the moment by some beautiful members like Plio and Rosey).
TL;DR: Implementing a system to "solve" the natural process of finding threads will mostly likely do more harm than good. If you're a 'new member' don't be afraid to look for plots and threads with other 'new members' (you're all in the same boat!) and, if you want to thread with 'seniors', don't feel like you can only ask the members whose characters are popular/influential/powerful: everyone's cool! Every single one of us went through this initial phase and I think that our community is great, so if you ask anyone to thread the most likely answer will be yes. Also pay attention to #group_finder, #plots-and-char-discussions and your OOC #class-chat. And talk in #general, I guess: getting to know people is a good way of breaking the ice. Basically, we're all human so just do human things, yo'.
Secondly - and with all of the above being said - I do agree that there's a problem with 'new members' establishing their characters if said characters are not from the 'Student Faction', but the reason isn't "because members are drawn toward plotting with more senior (...) characters". The reason, I think, is that if a 'new member' creates a character for the 'Villain Faction' or for the 'Vigillante Faction' they'll have much more of a difficult time establishing and progressing said character due to a lack of purpose.
If your character is a student, you have a purpose: class threads, changing years, ranking up for the yearly Sports Festival, being able to be one of the Top Yuuei Students, do better in spars, join clubs, larger group threads for holidays like Christmas and Halloween, life at the dorms, etc... Now, if your character is either in the 'Villain Faction' or in the 'Vigilante Faction' this sense of purpose is much weaker: there's less characters to thread with and, even if you're able to get a few threads going, there's not much to aim for besides ranking the character up. The reason for these characters to create organizations and build them up is also lacking because, once created, they really have nothing to do/fight against. Basically, these two factions don't have much to strive for. In this case, I can see how creating a Villain or Vigilante instead of a Student can be a big disadvantage in terms of character development. The Starter Packs help with equalling the power-scale between Factions, but something that can equal the narrative-scale might also be needed in the future if Vigilantes and Villains (and, eventually, Pro Heroes) are to have a bigger role in True Path's History.
TL;DR: 'New members' that create students are gucci, but 'new members' that create Villains or Vigilantes not so much since it can be more difficult for them to do meaningful threads and, because of that, establish their characters. In my opinion (and from a comparison with the 'Student Faction'), this comes from a lack of motivation/global purpose for characters in these Factions, but I might be totally wrong. If I'm right, the solution should be focused in filling the void of this lack of purpose in some type of way. However, I also believe that Staff is probably already aware of this discrepancy between Factions and trying to find solutions for it. Plus Ultra, TP Staff!
Thought #2: Over-reliance (and consequently, burden) on staff to push forward notable and large-scale events.
I think that, despite the title, this #2 Thought was more towards the line of thinking that more ranked-up characters shining more during Events when compared to lower ranked characters and not towards the huge pressure on Staff when it comes to Events, which seems like it could be a completely different Thought (and that you even gave a possible solution for with Soft Proposal #2). However, I'll still try to tackle both these ideas in this area of my reply.
Firstly, about the notion of some characters shining more than others.
It exists, it's inevitable and, if it happens during Events (which is what I'm assuming you're mostly refering to), it should stay like that. Let's give an example: you can't expect a mostly Rank B character and a mostly Rank E to perform at the same level during the same Event (especially if we are talking about a PvP scenario, which is mostly why different ranked abilities exist in the first place). It would not only unfair to the more advanced characters (because it would send a message to the members that progressing your character means nothing, since it gives you no rewards - concrete or moral - when it matters) but, in a way, also unfair to the more fresh characters (because it would send the message that there's no point in plotting and gaining EXP, since they can just end up having the same amount of success as clearly more buffed characters and which would ultimately lead to a feeling that threading isn't really needed). You recogonize this exact point in a way when in your text you said "of course senior chars get more spotlight, they’ve worked hard to be able to do flashier things (...) We understand why the spotlight points the way it does (...)".
Now, I don't think that more 'senior' characters receiving (most of) the spotlight that they 100% deserve necessarily means that newer characters should be left with no light at all. However, this comes down more to how you play your character in those Events, not on how the Events are structured. If you still can't do the cool flashy stuff, do the regular stuff in a cool and significant way for your character and others. One concrete example was the Rescue Course Rumble in which I was involved in with Ryuusei. If I'm not mistaken, Takumi only had a low-ranked Quirk (with no abilities!) & Relena had two F Abilities with an equally low-ranked Quirk - despite this, they were, for me, the two MVP's in Ryuu's team. Takumi was a total badass and, despite being scared himself, went anime main character mode, giving Aiden a much needed confidence boost and having no problem with risking his own safety and staying back in order to save the mannequin. Relena pushed past her own injury in order to save everyone and went total Plus Ultra mode by shielding Ryuusei and later Takumi from freakin' exploding buildings. These two characters were, on paper, totally weak but, because StrongBadEmail and Dessen know how to write them and what they can do, they were the characters that shined brigther than anyone else stronger on paper.
If we are talking outside of Events and more in terms of what is said on Discord, I can agree that this said spotlight can gain weird nuances at times - although, from what I've seen the most, it's normally more
other people overhyping other members' characters (like I pointed earlier in this text)
than members overhyping their own characters. Personally, this doesn't bother me that much, but I can see how other people can feel less motivated when over and over again the same characters are mentioned. I don't think this happens that much though and, like I also said previously, the solution really is just about people being sensible and aware about it. And I also believe that if this ever reaches a super bad state Mods or Admins will intervene with some kind of warning, so I also wouldn't worry that much. It's just a matter of good communication between all parties.
On a sidenote (and outside of the dichotomy between newer and older characters) I think that, overall,
it's difficult to gain a sense of your character doing something noteworthy. This might be, once again, by the lack of a general threat and/or purpose that makes itself more present on the 'Villain Faction' and 'Vigilante Faction', but that is overarching to all characters in the sense that, in general, it's hard to grasp if your threads are that important for or affect True Path's History. A solution for this might be using the #bullentin channel more and actually using the 'News Bar' that is on the main page of the site. Continuing doing stuff like the Semper Fi articles after the Events would also be a nice touch. Of course that this is
only for things that should
really be noteworthy - if you make a thread about eating breakfast with a friend it shouldn't be public knowledge, same if you are in an Event but do nothing significant.
TL;DR: If you have a strong and older character, of course you should have more of a spotlight - we should always reward effort and establish a sense of meritocracy. But don't be afraid new characters, for this doesn't mean you can still have your badass moments! Just be creative and own your underdog status to create amazing moments until you get enough EXP: there's enough spotlight for everyone, we shall not be greedy here! Outside of Events/In Discord is just a matter of reading vibes and knowing when to hype a character and when not to - like I said before, all members here are cool and I'm certain that the ones with better characters (on paper and in terms of power) also don't like to be put on a pedestal.
Secondly, about the over-reliance on Staff.
You didn't touch much upon this, so I don't have much to say either. I mean... Yeah, the Staff works a lot (we love you!!!), but taking into account the low amount of Staff we had a few months ago and the number of Staff we have now I think it's safe to assume
we are in a much better place. Besides, it's more on Staff to know if they are getting overloaded or not than for us members to guess - if Staff is having too much work, they'll look into adding more people, I think it's that simple. However, I do like (and somewhat agree) with your Soft Proposal #2 but I'll talk more about that later.
TL;DR: Staff is love, Staff is live.
Thought #3: Plotting one-on-one feels difficult and one-sided, like an awkward dance / Soft Proposal #1: Encourage more people to use plot pages!(It's at this point that I've realized the amount of time I've already spent writing this, so sorry if my next topics are way shorter LOL And no, I didn't put Thought #3 and Soft Proposal #1 together because I'm being lazy
I did and I am, it's because it makes sense to group them together!!!)
I mean, yeah, DM'ing people for plots can be weird and lead nowhere, but I think that's expected with the game - you win some, you lose some. Pushing the use of 'Plotters'/'Plot Pages' and using 'Wanted Ads' for general ideas could make the process more fluid, but at the same time:
people can already do that - nothing is preventing them - they just choose not to. But hey, it also doesn't break anything so I don't see a reason for not supporting a little encouraging effort for people to use them when they want to (just don't make them obligatory or something like that,
it wouldn't work at all). I'd also say to not be afraid of using #group_finder to share your ideas for plots, since it's better to share it with everyone than with just one person and most people on our community are more than willing to help and participate in said ideas!
TL;DR: Yeah, why not?
Soft Proposal #2: Make use of mini-events, developed from the bottom up with more distributed responsibilities!
After reading the 'Storyteller Information' thread, I'm pretty sure that members are already able to have cool storylines and that the system
is just not used. The suggested measure of allowing members to control NPC's (which is already allowed -
I think - for smaller stories) could work well on some instances of larger scales storylines with a well thought-out system, since it would, in theory, increase the threads' pace (maybe having Storytellers step in mostly when criticial moments come, like those major decisions in Telltale Games?), but I actually think that the major point is really
getting people to understand that their storylines can affect True Path's future Story. If people understand that the end result of their created storylines might affect future Events or that their decisions in said storylines could come back to haunt them in the future, the engangement with the Storytelling section could be much larger.
I also like the idea of non-canon Mini-Events. A section inspired on Isekai Quartet where all characters could interact with each other could be a fun change of pace! We could even have fun non-canon games IC'ly!
TL;DR: Storylines are cool and people don't use them - maybe they don't even know about it! If they realize - and see - that player created Storylines have consequences and are not stories isolated from the rest of True Path's World/Main Story we could have much more stories and impactful threads, which would also lead to more site-wide story possibilities.
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Love to both Chary and Kyou for not being shy and sharing their opinions (:
I honestly think that having dialogues like these are important to see what people think and feel and it's also healthy for True Path to have this type of discussions where we can share opinions in a civilized manner!
*insert the "i'm so proud of this community" meme here*
