First of all, thank you Ty for taking the time to read our comments and respond! More than anything else, I do want to convey that I'm grateful that you hear us and understand our issues- that alone makes me really appreciate having you as a mod as well as alleviate a lot of the stress/worries. So seriously, thank you for this.

I do have a couple points I want to bring up in response to this. I'm not going to address everything because either I don't think it was addressed to me or I don't have a particular issue. so if there's something I don't cover, assume I'm either fine or I just don't have a strong opinion that issue.

<li> <b>Re: Apps Reopening</b> - I'd actually be really supportive of taking a comm poll to see how people feel about this! I know what my own opinions are (I'd be for opening them up August/September even if it makes a bit wonky down the road), but i'm only one player so I'd rather know what everyone else thinks. As for the TDM prompts being affected by August's event- personally I'm not too worried by this. I apped Elliot during last August cycle, and if anything that made his TDM <i>way</i> more memorable than Noah's (which was Feb 2017's TDM). Elliot's first ever day in Recolle was getting attacked by monsters, he's been traumatized by it to this very day it's great. But again, maybe other players disagree.

<li> <b>Re: Making a How's the Game post</b> - This is something I'd also be really in favor of. I've been in other games that did this, and while not every idea thrown in a how's the game can or would be implemented- at the very least you tend to take away a few good ideas and a general sense of how players are doing. Also recommend doing it on a set schedule so it doesn't just come up during crisis mode time.

<li> <b>Re: the murder game</b> - I should acknowledge this since I brought it up. I appreciate the clarification, and I do want to emphasize I'm not begrudging the existence of the murdergame. I will say I think telling players to keep it on the downlow until the game started isn't <i>that</i> different from keeping it a secret and it still produced the same result. As in, word eventually got out through the grapevine and people immediately jumped to the Worst Conclusions, as people do. It <i>really</i> didn't help that it came to light around the same time you guys announced Rec's apps were closing, mod responses were slower than usual, and the Recolle May plot was pretty lackluster. When you explain how it went down from your POV- yeah, all those incidents were separate unfortunate occurrences that were mostly unrelated to each other. But from the player perceptive - we didn't know what was going on, so it made a lot of people nervous/unhappy (many of who, including myself, probably wouldn't have cared if it was public information from the getgo). That's all. There's nothing you can really do about it now, other than I guess remember in the future if there's another situation like this -- transparency is almost always the better option.

I do really appreciate the apology though!, and I swear I'm not planning to keep bringing up Grimm. I mostly wanted acknowledge it as a factor in what's been causing discontent among players instead of treating it like an elephant in the room.

<li> <b>Re: Pacing/Event Prompt Issues</b> - Okay so this is where I get theoretical about stuff and I may be way off base. I feel like an issue with Year 2 and the prompts in the event post is that there seems to be a struggle between having a <b>Linear Game</b> vs an <b>Open World Game</b> for format.

Year 1/Phase 1 of Recolle was very much the linear style. We had set prompts of what we were supposed to do, and while they were never quite <i>mandatory</i>, there wasn't a whole lot to do if you wanted to do something different other than continue slice of life stuff. August 2017 was a great example of that. Sure, <i>technically</i> the groups were voluntary groups if you were in the city- but as anyone who opted out can tell you, there was not much for them to do if they weren't in a group. That's about as linear as you can get.

Year 2/Phase 2(?) feels like meanwhile like it's <i>trying</i> to be Open World, but it's not quite making the mark. There's still a heavy emphasis on following the main plot (like in June with the bingo, or May with the painting) - but now with the Open World element the prompts are much vaguer and the event log has gotten pretty bloated with all the stuff available for characters to do. A lot of players feel overwhelmed and aren't sure what to do. And it <i>really</i> doesn't help that the monthly plotting post the past several months has been <i>super vague</i> while the event post has all the details, so there's reluctance to plot out stuff in the plotting post as it might get messed up by the event log.

My big advice is that if you want to do more open world format, I'd recommend rehauling how you do the Plotting Post vs. the Event Log. As in, in the plotting post itself I'd put down all the things that'll be happening for the month (like what's up in the regions, weird changes in town, etc). That way, people have all the information when they do monthly plotting. And then for the event log, I'd reduce the number of prompts in it, and maybe keep it to like...specific Retrospec-related missions that people can choose if they wanna get involved in or not. At least, that's one way you can do it.

<li> I am looking forward to August's plot! It's nice to hear the dreamscapes will have a lasting impact, and I'm looking forward to what happens. I don't have much to say here, but I'm staying optimistic!

Anyway, thank you for addressing all of us. I really do appreciate it. I really do love this game, and I want it to do well for everyone.