Our problem

[TheTragicComedian]

As I'm sure alot of you have noticed, NA seems to be dieing, or maybe close to dead. This is not to say that NA isn't awesome, because I love it here. What I mean by this is that we don't have that many active users anymore. Here are the reasons as I see them.

1. Naruto is losing it's popularity

2. Because there are no longer two factions, the NCIA and the Resistance, it requires more effort to make a story for each character

Of course, the Naruto fanbase is large still, however it seems like the intelligent people who love to write for RPs are no longer fans, though there still remain many intelligent writers.

Now obviously, it would be ridiculous to say that the NCIA must live forever, as the entire RP was formed around bringing them down, so of course it had to happen eventually. But now that it's happened, I think that some people are suffering from a syndrome known as..."now what?"

My Proposed Solution

I think that maybe we should shift to a different anime rp, or maybe even a different kind of rp. It may be time to try something new. Maybe we can even create our own type of RP.

None of this is meant to be offensive. When I say that there aren't as many intelligent fans, I'm not saying that everyone here is stupid or non intelligent. Infact, I have yet to see a stupid person here. Though I think if we all want to still hang around together and write/rp, we need to consider our options.

[Rhap Sodos]

NA has a tendency to slow down at around this time, simply because people are finishing up with school and have [sadly] more important things to take care of [including myself]. Its the problem you face when most of the demographic is school age. To address your points:

1. Yes, I agree, but Cntr has said that the site will remain open as long as their are people to RP.

2. The NCIA plot didn't end all that long ago, when you're looking at an RP that in it's current state has been around since 2004 [source: Cntr]. And that plot in and of itself took several years to start and finish. It was a conscious effort to move away from World Plots.

Now, there are plans for inter-village plots once some current intra-Village plots have ended (read: Kiri), its just important to remember that because of how long NA has been around, things have a tendency to not be as fast paced.

[cntrstrk14]

That being said, as Naruto's popularity declines it is obviously going to become harder and harder to recruit new members and current members may wane their interest. The nice thing about NA though is that it is almost its own world apart from the Naruto series. With all original characters, the locations and general theme is all that holds this site to the Naruto IP. If we were, say, to change the name of the villages and remove all the canon techniques/bloodlines, it would simply be a ninja/sorcerer role play site.

Addressing your two concerns specifically...

1. NA will never move to be based around another anime. It would simply cease to be NA. We have had many, many sister sites (usually started by myself and a group of motivated members) and all of them have fallen apart due to disappearance of the staff and general disinterest by the people who joined. This is not to say it hasn't been tried in the past, in fact I believe a One Piece role play or a Magic the Gathering role play would be very interesting (the first more likely to succeed than the later). What it does mean is that the past has shown almost no fruits from these ventures. Past sites that were under the "academy" flag have been Bleach, Harry Potter, Avatar: The Last Air Bender, A Futuristic Sci Fi World, and Dungeons and Dragons (Still technically around...). However, to reiterate, NA at the core will always be about ninja-sorcerers

2. A world plot caused even slower activity and much more waiting than what we are currently experiencing. Though the staff have plans for another world plot (secrets! If I told you it would spoil it!) but this will NOT be to the extreme that the NCIA arc was. The problems that occurred with the NCIA arc was A.) it took far too long to come to a completion and having so many member's actions being reliant on other people's role play meant that every time someone disappeared from the site things could get halted for weeks. B.) The NCIA arc made the world feel less like Naruto, which is not bad for the members, but was shown to be bad for new members. When you join a Naruto role play there is an expectation of what the world is like,and the NCIA plot involved to much knowledge that had to be given to new members before they could even start to make a character. The closer the role play world stays (at least for when a character starts) to the one represented in the series, the easier it is to get new member's feet wet. C.) Organizing and making sure everything lined up across all the threads in all the villages was a logistical nightmare. It was hard for a GM to begin anything because they needed to find out what was going on everywhere else to assure they were not contradicting or stepping on the toes of other GM sessions.

There are many other problems with world plots like this, but we have learned the lessons (or at least I have) and we plan to solve them in the up coming plot that we are currently concocting.

Of course, the life of NA is in its member base and I do not want to try and stop members from helping jump start NA. In fact, the GM position was created to allow motivated (and proven) members to help create stories in the world for others to enjoy. The only real qualifications to be a GM is to prove that you are creative, a good role player and consistently active (we don't want GM's just poofing in the middle of their plots! :[ )

I encourage yourself and any other concerned members to please keep suggestions of what YOU want coming so that we can make a game we all enjoy. Everyone owns as much of NA as they want, and you get as much out of it as you put in (let me tell you from experience). One of the major problems that I see is a lack of man power to drive the game forward. Every member has to take the initiative upon themselves to start a role play, this in your sandbox as well and you can do whatever you want in it! (Disclaimer, Village GM's will act accordingly and within logic to your actions so be prepared for a Jounin to arrest you if you go on a murdering spree!)

As a member, you also have to help call out when things are bottle necking on certain people. Please let me know (especially in the case of a staff member) if you are waiting an excessively long time or finding things coming to a stopping point because of one or two people.

This community is one of the best I have seen on the internet and I am proud to be a member and continue to provide a space for them to congregate. I will continue to run this site probably until the day I die, and maybe even further if I can set up the payment plans. Even if it falls apart and just becomes a social hang out, there will always be a place here for any NA members to kick up their shoes and feel at home. We're a family god damnit, and I don't intend to just let that die!

[TheTragicComedian]

I see, thanks for answering my concerns, though that MTG rp sounds really fun to be honest.