I thought about doing this with a sock, but I think it'd be better to be forthcoming.

In regards to the current summer plot, I have to say I feel the pacing of it needs some work. When Phase 2 and this plot was advertised, I got the impression we'd get a more serious plot where our actions do matter- a complete departure from Phase 1 where it was "whacky event of the month but nothing too serious". And then when you guys announced you were closing apps for the plot, I had hope that something <i>really</i> big was going down this summer.

Which we're in month 3 of this 4 month (?) plot and....tbh, I'm really struggling to see how this is different from Phase 1 other than we know it's not Retrospec causing the events (maybe?). I haven't gotten any real sense of weight to our actions (there was an attempt mid June to have update posts? But that was the only one), nor does the game feel any darker than it did last year-- if anything I'd argue year 1 had <i>gravity</i> to it - as August and October were suspenseful in their own right, and even March 2017 had some suspense too with the secrets plot.

Meanwhile for this summer plot so far we've had:
<li> <b>Painting the Town</b> which was a cute gimmick but really had no dire impact on the characters other than them being annoyed and having to paint stuff. If anything, I feel having all of May devoted to it (and having it be a background event in June) this was <i>too much</i>, as there really wasn't a month worth of stuff to do with it. 2 weeks, or having this paired with something else would've been nice.
<li> <b>NPCs noticing stuff</b> didn't lead to anything, because they disappeared the next month and seem to be back to status quo this month (unless I missed something).
<li> <b>NPCS disappearing</b> again no long term consequences since they came back next month. There was potential with this that just wasn't used. What would be the long term consequences of everyone disappearing? How would people manage supply? What do you do about kids with disappeared parents? What if you get sick? There's so much that could've been played with, but it wasn't. Instead it was kinda treated like a side thing due to the next point which is-
<li> <b>Bingo Games</b> these games were fun, but they kinda took up all our energy in June so we couldn't focus on the NPC disappearing and the weight of that. Not to mention, they were yet again pitched to be more serious than the first year bingo game, but other than it had more effects than more freebies- it didn't feel that way at all. Most of the prompts were pretty dang tame.
<li> <b>New AU</b> I like this idea, I really do. I feel it's a great way to explore stuff we didn't think of when we apped, and make our characters question reality. This plot component alone makes me understand better why apps were closed (tho I kinda wish you'd been more up-front about that's why). There's a lot that can be done with this. The <i>problem</i> is that like the NPCs disappearing, it seems to be already getting overshadowed by--
<li> <b>Dreamsharing</b> while this plot idea is really cool and I am playing with it, I can't help shake the feeling of "didn't we just do this in October with nightmares?". It is the same plot with a different coat of paint.

I want to emphasize I don't think any of these plot ideas are <i>bad</i> ideas, they are actually all good ideas. But I have issue with the pacing of them and how they're utilized. You're either spending way too much time on an event that doesn't have that much to work with (May and the paint plot), or you're cramming too many gimmicks into one month so stuff that could be explored by players are shoved to the side (June and the Bingo plot). And because of this, the plot still ends up sounding much like a Phase 1 plot - weird monthly gimmick happens but no serious long term consequences.

Maybe all of this is leading somewhere in August. I don't know August's plot, maybe it'll be incredible. But so far the build-up of to August's plot has been pretty lackluster because of poor pacing and people have felt it. So far, the events have not lived up to the hype you've given us. Throw that on top of closing apps until the fall despite summer being the busy season for RP <i>and</i> the knowledge that you guys are involved with a murdergame on the side (which for the record, idc if you do a mudergame, mods have every right to do what they want in their spare time, but making it a big secret just made it come off <i>way</i> worse) - and it's led to a lot of discontent folks.

Which I know, there's no real way to change things this late into the game. But I guess for next time I'd advise that if you're going to hype up a plot, please make sure the <i>entire</i> plot is paced well enough to live up to the hype. Or heck, maybe re-examining August/September's plans to see if there's any possible way to push apps reopening to an earlier date- since I feel that'd help. Though I fully admit I don't know if that's feasible or not.