Work/Life/Roleplay Balance

So @wickedleaf mentioned something in another thread.

This is actually something that @Yazzeh and I have been striving for on our own roleplay game.

The main question is: How do you carve out time for a game when you have so many other things going on in your life that you can't give it the attention it should have?

I feel that there is a lot of thought to put into this question, and its solution. When Yaz, Admin V, and I sat down and said "okay, we want to craft this game", it came with it's own challenges. Yaz and I both work full time jobs, and while Admin V is on a ton, sometimes you still need the help of another person.

So we formulated a plan. After opening, we would select another admin to help man the ship while the two of us were at work. That's generally what you would do, right?

More importantly, we also challenged ourselves in making the board as self-sufficient as possible. This was a big decision, because our game is not your typical, "join and know what's going on" type of game. There are things to know and read and understand, and if they have questions, we want them answered as quick as possible. We wanted their requests to be taken care of as quickly as possible, and we wanted the members to stay happy all at the same time.

That, my friends, is a daunting task, as I'm sure you well know.

So then, with that in mind, we furthered our gameplan and came up with goals.

1. Make the Gameguide as succinct and easy to follow as possible, while also making sure it has all the information you need to know about the game (or at least most of that information).
2. Remove restraints on the things that would normally need administration approval. So for us, that was powers and the type of character you could join with right off the bat. For wolf roleplays, it would be eye/pelt color, whether or not you were allowed to join as black/white/whatever color wolf (if there was too many of one), etc. You get the idea.
3. Remove the need to move threads to an archive forum. Risk has no archive forum. We close the thread and leave it there. Quick and simple, no muss no fuss, and creates less work for the staff team.

There was a few more but you get the point. We wanted to make the game as hands-off for the staff team as possible. I know, it sounds really backwards, but it also gives the staff team a chance to focus on the things that really matter, like keeping active in game and doing what they do need to do in a timely manner. So far, we've still had a lot of work to do on the site, especially as it's in its opening stages right now. We're only in our second month.

But you know what? I'm already noticing that the staff team isn't burning out when it comes to doing work on the site and posting, because the task of micro-managing/making sure everyone is on point has been mostly removed from the equation. I, personally, as the owner, feel much better about managing a site this way, with a full time job, and a full time life on my plate.

So with all that said, how do you balance you work/life/roleplay?

 

I think as hands-off an approach as possible is ideal for most games and what most long-time admin probably what since it is absolutely taxing managing an active RPG.

I feel that over the years, we've worked to simplify things a lot at 'Souls as far as streamlining reading material and delegating lesser maintenance tasks to moderators. However, 'Souls remains a pretty complex game with a lot of kind of rigid systems built into place to keep things fair, and a lot of things still come down to admin having to discuss and approve things. 'Souls long history, complex canon and stance on semi-realism keeps us on our toes as far as having to check players on what is/n't allowed.

There are a lot of things that we could probably do away with -- things like auxiliary character restrictions, puppy/litter restrictions, and especially drama mitigation and management are very time consuming...but I also think our handling of these things and our policies regarding them are part of what set us apart and part of what's helped us survive as a game for as long as we have.

For a game as old as 'Souls, sometimes it's really hard to balance tradition with practicality and the realism of administrative time limitations. I could easily dedicate 40 hours a week to 'Souls and still have things leftover to do on the game. As it is, things do get sacrificed. We've had less time for larger projects over the years as we deal with lots of little small things. In exchange though, I think members have had more freedom to work with their own plots. It's impractical to do stuff like board-wide plots when you have an average of 200 characters at any given time, haha.

...I got really rambly on this, but I guess overall, I'm still trying to find the right balance. I tend to cycle my focus between life, administration, work a lot. It's hard for me to deal with everything at once, so often I end up focusing on life stuff one week and doing minimal work regarding everything else, then focus on 'Souls one week, minimizing everything else, and so on. Probably not the best solution, but nothing's burned to the ground yet I guess.

 

ehhhhh.

I don't spend that much time on my site, really. I can hammer out a post in minutes, half an hour tops. There is no admining to be done, because we're low on rules. It really doesnt take that much time.

And if real life gets complex, we can just step back from our site without killing it.

There really is not much to balance. Steamhawke is part of my life (and work) and it's just there. I dont carve out time for my cats or my partner or my family. They're just there.

 

The one who wants to find time for a hobby, just finds it, because it enriches his life. The one who has always excuses and other priorities, simply doesn't care enough for it.

I have been writing since I learnt to write. I remember being praised and having my compositions and poems featured on the wall gazette in second and third grade, and when I was about 13 I discovered at a general cleaning a notebook where I wrote a story in the first grade, about a witch who flew over a man and turned him into a rabbit. Two or three consistent paragraphs were a lot for a 7 years old...

I started writing longer stories since 12. My first one, 2 notebooks long, was a Western one... I still have one of the copybooks, having lost the other one. It makes me smile now, as there is no literary value in it, and sometimes things I wrote then have no logic. But I won't throw it away.

Among the many stories I wrote in my teens, some don't have much literary value. Or they could have some if reworked... but given the amount of work that might involve, I would rather transpose the idea in a different setting if I wanted to. With some, it worked though, and I transcribed them on the PC, reviewed and completed second edition.

There are people like me, who write because they have a story to tell. The story is there, in their brain, it is turning its wheels and writing itself, bits and pieces, while waiting in the station or riding a bus/ subway to or from work, or in bed before sleeping. Bits and pieces scribbled on a paper while in a boring meeting at work or waiting at the doctor’s.

I couldn’t live without writing. OK, maybe one month or two, at the maximum, and even then, usually my brain is busy cooking new stories (or pieces of them, because yes, often my imagination functions in bits and pieces which need bridged later.). When I am sad or angry, writing is another way to channel or soothe my feelings – be it a fighting scene or, by contrary, a comic one. When I am happy, my excess of energy is also channeled in writing.

So, yes, writing is my hobby (albeit not my only one, but my main one) and I would always make time for it. Especially when writing with others and knowing that there are people waiting for my contribution.

I have read somewhere that writing discipline (writing constantly, even if it is only one page/ one post) is important for any writer in order to keep the inspiration flowing. And yes, this is what I am trying to do, but far too many people don’t bother to do it, writing only occasionally.

Constantly might not mean every day (even if I try my best to do it, without stressing about it). I am trying to keep posting every day (or almost every day), to make a good example, I am trying to come with new ideas... but sometimes it is very tiring when 80% of the ideas are only mine. Given that it is a collective hobby, it should have discussions and contributions from everyone... And sometimes, yes, I am at loss of ideas myself... and when I ask my writing partners and I receive the answer "I don't know", "I have no idea", "How you wish"... my frustration increases.
I really prefer having writing partners than writing alone. But sometimes they aren't available, or they have no ideas... and I wonder what is more pleasant, waiting for an answer which will come in a few weeks and might be asking for myself to lead the story and make all the efforts, or making the same efforts from the start and writing the thread alone, knowing that I can write when I have inspiration without waiting for anyone's posts, and that if I focus on other, collective stories first, there is nobody to wait for my answer?
Sometimes, I can't help thinking that if I wrote the story "Before the Mast" alone, it would have been finished long time ago. Other times, I remember the wonderful people I met with this opportunity. But I am still frustrated by snails, who have time to update Facebook, to knit, to chat, to do anything else... but not to write when not only I am waiting for their contribution for... weeks.

The story will always come first to me, and the characters are the most appropriate ones to make the story happen. I offer you the opportunity to join it and make your mark on it. If you don't want to, the story will still go on... with your writing contribution, with another's, or with mine only. And yes, I'll always make time for writing, otherwise the unwritten words and stories would choke me.

 

I'm one of the lucky ones. Currently, I don't have a job and I'm not expected by the fiance to get one. I've been thinking about getting a part-time job anyway, as I left the work scene due to severe anxiety but I don't think my anxiety is quite so severe anymore (depending on what kind of environment I'm exposed to, I think I could do it). I do still have housework, family/guests, friends, that type of thing. And I can't be RPing ALL the time or I'd be burnt out (I'm a teensy bit burnt out right now but I'll write through it).

Anyway, for me, like others, I've found ways to make the admin part of my job much less "hands-on." For me, this meant doing away with an application process (instead, we have an audition with the first character and all other characters can be created whenever.) Members can change characters to their groups themselves, so I don't have to and they don't have to wait around for me to do it. Lists? They're all automated. (This is largely the reason I'll never admin on a free host again.) I hate admin paperwork, like updating lists. Now I don't have to because face claims, ratios, etc, any list I want can be automated so I don't have to do anything.

I also keep threads where they are and lock them. I used to do that manually but now I have the autolock mod, which locks threads automatically in the IC areas after one month of no activity. No more work for me there, either. Members can always ask for me to unlock the thread if they were still posting there. Plus, members can lock their own threads when they're done if they want to.

About the only big admin things I need to do are advertisements (which I only added in an ad board because Somnia was a baby.... May end up deleting it at the start of the year and just keeping affiliates) and the fun stuff, like planning events. I definitely wanted my site to be a pretty self-sustaining site because I'm the only member of staff and doing it on my own wouldn't have been fun otherwise.

 

I practically live on my site...i'm pretty much a hermit due to a physical injury so I am just stuck on my site 24/7

 

I moved to another country to be with my partner, so my social life took a big hit. Roleplaying for me has helped me keep sane while I navigated a new lifestyle.

Nowadays I have friends and I work multiple jobs so it gives me more my own schedule to maintain. Online for graphics/websites, as a tour guide at a museum, as a cleaner for nearby offices, babysitting for friends of my SO's family... I kind of do a bit of anything and everything.

I like staying busy and admining a roleplay forum never really feels like too much work to fit in around that. I have a co-admin and ask mods to help when they can. I don't think I'd ever want to run a site on my own. It's always good to have someone on the same level as you, they can bring some amazing ideas of their own to the board and if you encounter any problems you know you've always got that second opinion on how to deal with them. I seriously adore my co-admin and be sure to tell her often enough how much I appreciate her going through this with me. Communication is key!

The aim on our board is to set it so it's very little work to maintain the site so everyone can collectively put more focus and enjoyment into their characters and writing. It's a hobby for us all and we want to make sure it's treated as such.