Hey, guys - since it's been over a month since we last had a post to the main comm, I'm going to go ahead and indefinitely suspend the check-in AC, stop maintaining the taken characters list, and allow DDD to become a full-fledged DR. If the game ends up becoming more active again in the future, we can reassess this decision! Either way, I'll still be around to answer questions and monitor the game, should the need for it arise.

Okay guys, DDD is now officially open as an appless game! Not all the game info pages have been updated yet, but I'll summarize all the changes and relevant information here:

- The taken list is still here. To claim a character, comment here. All characters that are currently in the game are considered already claimed.

- Virus polls will no longer be run by the mods, and players will be allowed to subject their characters to any virus at any time (if you want to coordinate with other players to infect several characters with the same virus at once, the OOC community can be used for plotting!). Please note that viruses and player plots that involve things that have previously required mod approval will still require that approval.

- OCs are now allowed. We recommend putting some information about the character somewhere in their journal, either in an entry or in the profile info section.

- AUs and canon OCs are now allowed, but they must first seek permission from anyone else from the canon currently in the game. They also must have some information about their character somewhere in their journal (at minimum: the character's name, the fandom they're an OC/AU from, and an explanation of any character or canon divergence, if applicable).

- Doubles are allowed, but only if the first player of the character is okay with it. This holds true even if the first player of the character is playing an AU version, and the potential player wants to claim a canon version.

Keep in mind that this is a big change for the mods as well as the players, so bear with us as we work out any kinks and issues here! As always, questions and concerns are welcome.

Thanks for voting again, guys! Allowing both OCs and AUs won by a landslide, so that's something that'll be implemented along with the other changes. We as mods will figure out the logistics of how this will work, and pretty soon, we'll make the changes official!

As a lot of you have probably guessed, DDD will officially be transitioning into an appless game with a check-in system at some point in the near future (more details to come!). However, looking at your feedback in the last poll post, we noticed that many people had different views on allowing AUs versus allowing OCs, so we're running a follow-up poll.



This poll will be open for one week.

As of right now, the poll is officially closed! Many thanks to everyone who participated and left comments/suggestions. Since the issue of AUs and OCs didn't really have a clear-cut majority response here, we'll be discussing it further, first privately in the mod comm and then with all of you in the OOC comm. Be on the lookout for a post about that!

Hey guys, Iddy here! Sorry for the non-game journal, but this is my only paid account right now and you need a paid to make polls.

As you all know, DDD has slowed down considerably in the past couple of years. For the most part, we were tiny and slow, but not inactive - we still got regular posts that generated activity, and most people made activity check with no problems. However, in the past month or so, we've noticed that this doesn't seem to be the case anymore, and it doesn't look like the game has generated enough activity in July/the first week of August for everybody to comfortably make AC, so we've decided to suspend both activity check and the applications system.

Now, there are a couple ways that this could go going forward, and there are a few options we want to poll the playerbase on.

The Taken Characters list. We could become a straight-up DR and eschew this entirely, or we could just become an appless, AC-less game with a claims list (this would require some form of regular "I'm still here" check-in, to prevent the list from getting bloated with characters that are not and will never actually be played at all).

The rules about which characters are allowed. Currently, we only allow canon characters to be apped - no OCs, and no AUs (with the exception of somebody apping into a cast that has created an AU timeline based on in-game development). We could continue to enforce this, or we could open the game up to characters of all types.

Viruses. We could keep the virus schedule as-is with a voted-on virus occurring each month, or we could do away with scheduled viruses entirely and allow players to infect their characters at random if they so choose.



This poll will remain open for two weeks, after which the results will be tallied. Feel free to ask questions if you have any, and/or use this as a discussion post!

Welcome to the DramaDramaDuck Biannual State of the Duck post! 

Today's issue will be a run down of what's what and who's who for new players and a refresher for the old. First up will be an introduction of the mod team and who does what. Secondly we'll delve into what makes this particular game tick and what features are available to foster plots and interaction in DDD's increasingly unusual setting. Thirdly, we'll discuss some of the feedback we've had from the players about DDDs setting and format. As always the comment section will be an open forum for any discussion, questions or comments everyone may wish to have!
( Cut for length )

Thanks for reading, and feel free to offer any comments or feedback!

By result of a player vote, Non-Player Characters (NPCs) are now appable!

As per the results of our poll, we're going to be making some changes to DDD's worldhopping policy! Unless a player decides to opt their character out, all DDD members will now be able to worldhop. They'll all get a nifty little device for it, about the size and shape of a cell phone. They'd better be careful with them, though-- if it's lost or taken away, they won't get a new one until the community is good and ready, which could take anywhere from a few hours to a few months (OOCly it'll be entirely up to you, the player).

That said, there are a few guidelines that you'll need to abide by, and some info that you'll want to be aware of:

- There will be a ten-minute rate limit between worldhops. So if your character goes somewhere, they'll have to wait at least ten minutes before their device will allow them to leave-- which means that in fights, they won't be able to dodge blows by worldhopping back and forth!

- Only DDD members can worldhop. Sorry, your character's BFF can't come along on any crazy adventures unless they've been apped into the game!

- If a player doesn't want to give their character this ability, they don't have to. We know there are people who preferred the old system, so feel free to stick by it if you want! You can still have your characters need to track down somebody to give them a worldhopping device, or even just bum rides off of other characters like an intergalactic hitchhiker. Likewise, if you don't want your character to be able to worldhop at all, that's also totally okay.

- You need to ask permission before having your character visit the world of another character. You want to have your character visit a generic Earth, or Mars, or even some made-up planet you invented yourself? Go for it! But if you want them to visit the world of another DDD member, take it up with them and get approval first. Players might want to limit who's able to come to their character's world, or even disallow visits entirely.

That's all for now, guys. Have fun!

March comes in like a lion, goes out like a lamb. DDD's having a few changes this March, with two mods out and two in. Fret not, Taylor and Orly will still be around as players! Thanks to them for their hard work and contributions on the mod team! The new mods intros and info are below.

The first addition to the team is probably best known as Greed-mun!

"'Sup! I'll be putting your events and virus suggestions into polls and trimming the queue as well as trying to come up with some surprise events with the other mods. If you need to contact me, perhaps to clarify some event or virus ideas, you can reach me on AIM at CdnmMastermind, PMs at sinnesspiel or any character journal I'm in the game with (just material_guy right now). I don't use Plurk much, but I have made an account, so if that's your preferred method of contact, hit me up at Ozaki_Toshio! It'd be best to poke me through one of the other formats first if you want me to look there."

Secondly, we have Nikki, who first joined as Roze and now also plays Ellie, Sena, and Edgar!

"And hi from me! I'll actually be more of a general mod, someone who helps out when another mod gets too busy, needs more input, or just needs help. You can always reach me through plurk (MakewayforRoze), e-mail (slipperyslanders@yahoo.com), AIM (Sillyslanders), or through any of my character journals. I'm always open to talk so please feel free to let me know if you need anything."

DRAMADRAMADUCK IS STAYING OPEN

We believe that the poll demonstrated enough interest to keep the game going! That said, there are still issues to be addressed, so we will continue working on that. We’re paying attention to all the suggestions made on the poll post and ones that were brought to us beforehand. Any major decision will be brought to you, the players, first- so expect to see some more polls in the future! And if you have ideas you didn’t get to share on the post, the suggestions post is always open!

Thank you all for your input, let’s have fun going forward!

Hello members of dramadramaduck,

We’ve got a difficult topic to cover today, which may sadden many of us. DDD has been going for seven years, through thick and thin, but with the rapid decrease in game speed and drop to app ratio leaning into the negatives, a few suggestions have been brought up by various individuals. Now it’s time to come to you, the players, about what you would like to do. We don’t want to make a decision this big without input from you!

We welcome comments and discussion from all players, potential players, and former players on this post. This is meant to be a civil and productive discussion, so be kind to each other! Anon is enabled, please do not abuse it.



If enough people are interested in the game continuing, we will stay open! The game is in your hands, we just want to make sure that we’re doing what’s best for everyone. This poll will run until January 26th, please submit all responses before then. Thank you.

Based on feedback and mod discussion, we've designated four memes to be official mod-posted memes, and they will run on the following schedule:

Test Drive Meme: every month, coinciding with the new app_this_plz
Plotting Meme: every two months on the 1st, starting this month
HMD Meme and Love Meme: every three months on the 16th, starting this month

Again, this does not disallow other players from posting memes. No matter what, adddictions will remain 100% open for anyone to post in at any time. This is simply to put some of the most useful/popular memes on a schedule, to ensure that they get posted regularly.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Sup guys! After discussion, we've decided to add some more mod-run memes in addition to the HMD meme. This is the tenative schedule that we've come up with:

Test Drive Meme: every month, coinciding with the new app_this_plz
Plotting Meme: every two months
HMD Meme and Love Meme: posted concurrently every three months

It's completely open to revision and change, so please feel free to offer thoughts, suggestions, or concerns! If no major issues are raised within the week, I'll start finalizing and implementing it; if any are raised, I'll be editing this post continually with updates.

We also want to stress that this would not disallow other players from posting memes. No matter what, adddictions will remain 100% open for anyone to post in at any time. This is simply an attempt to put some of the most useful/popular memes on a schedule, to ensure that they get posted regularly.

Hey everyone! First of all, I've got some great news! We finally have a PREMISE PAGE! This will help all members, new and current, to describe what the game is about. Enabling will be easier and figuring out just what we do here will as well. (I know that was something a lot of people asked when first thinking about joining the game-- I get asked it all the time, so hopefully this will help everyone out!)

SECONDLY and very important, the moderators would like to launch an open discussion about methods to help make the game more accessible, bring in new players, and improve the game overall. Anon comments will be enabled so long as there is no harassment of other players. Please use this post to give suggestions, things you would like to see in the game, current problems with the game itself that you would like to bring up, or anything else you can think of related to these purposes. Bear in mind that this is for constructive purposes! If you have a comment, make sure to provide a possible solution or improvement that you would like to see.

THIS DISCUSSION IS OPEN TO ANY WHO WISH TO PARTICIPATE: MEMBERS AND POTENTIAL MEMBERS ALIKE.

( A Note: This is not a complaint, love, or HMD post for specific players, as usual please use the suggestions/complaints page or wait until the next HMD if you have a situation that you need to bring up with another player. )

Hey guys! Here's a brief post to go over a few changes that have been made recently to keep everyone in the loop and make sure you know what's going on with your game too!

Preview of Content:
•Mod Changes
•Accessibility
•Newsletters
•Suggestions/Complaints
•Other Things

( Down Below )

After some players had a difficult time during grabbag because of problems with Youtube, and on account of other issues that have been under discussion for a while, the mods have after a lot of thought decided to institute a new rule.

From here on, we are banning the use of embedded video in character posts.

Players may still link to a video on youtube, vimeo, etc. in the text of their posts, but video posts by characters (accidental or intentional) must consist of a transcription and description of the events in question.

This is designed to make posts more accessible to a wider number of players! If a player can't watch a video because of issues with a site, because they're on their phone, or for other reasons, they can still read a transcript. During video-post heavy events such as the trip down memory lane virus, this can make a huge difference in a player's ability to keep up with their cr. We also hope that this will foster tagging out more. Many players have admitted to skipping posts with embedded video unless it is posted by extremely close cr, because the format is not as readily accessible. This means that players could be missing out on things that would otherwise ping their characters and serve as a base for new cr. And besides, creative writing and your character interpretation, not posting videos, is what rp is all about!

Thank you all, and feel free to come to us with any questions!

activity check changes.

Now that Activity Check is over, it's time to go out with the old and in with the new. Before anyone panics, this is nothing you haven't already heard! These are the same changes that were discussed at the end of February, this is just a reminder that these changes are officially in effect, and our next AC (which is in May) will have these new requirements!

If you've got everything down, feel free to carry on; if you need a refresher or you have some questions, let's continue!

(  to continue, click this cut!!!  )

Questions, concerns, anything that needs clarification - ask away!

The results are in, and we are making the following changes! Please read this, because this affects you (yes you!) and we want to know if there's any confusion!

First, Activity check will now require a minumum of two (2) threads with different characters in addition to the 20 comments required. Under this system, any post by your character or multiple threads on one post count as one thread. For events posts, all threads which responded to a starting comment from your character count as one thread, though tagging other people's starting threads gives you another thread (a more detailed explanation for events is here). So if you have a community or journal post by your character which has more than 20 comments, you'll still have to provide another thread, of any length, in order to meet the new AC requirements. You can still combine threads from as many posts as you need in order to meet the 20 comment requirement.

As we're announcing this halfway through the current AC period, these changes will NOT take effect until after March's AC. We encourage you to get in the practice of making sure you could meet them, though!

Second, we're going to implement tagging community posts with the characters who reply in addition to the posting character. This can start immediately! Just tag the post with your character whenever you comment. This should make it easier to keep track of things for the new AC requirements.

If you're worried about being able to find just your character's posts under this system, do not fret! If you use http://dramadramaduck.dreamwidth.org/?poster=username, substituting your character's username at the end, you'll get them!

That's it! Thank you all for voting and stay awesome.

Hey everyone! Taylor here with the morning report! Or, well, some fun stuff about events and a special bonus. First of all, with February upon us there's the wonderful wonderful time of Valentine's Day (or Singles Awareness Day, whichever you celebrate). Like with the winter virus, we're going to have open suggestions for a Valentine's Day virus/event! Comment in reply to this post with your suggestions for the V-Day virus, just make sure it fits the following criteria:

1. It somehow relates to Valentine's Day and follows the game's rules.
2. It's family friendly. We know Valentine's Day can get sexy for some people, but make sure that your virus is PG-13 max, okay? Obviously within the events your characters can do as they please, but don't require anything beyond that rating for the virus/event.
3. You can suggest either an event or a virus.

The suggestion period will end on February 5th at 4PM EST, then the poll for this month's viruses will go up shortly after that. This would've gone up sooner, but with the long event at the end on this month, it seemed like a better idea to make sure to space things out a bit more this time around. Voting will end of February 11th, then the Valentine's Day virus or event will start on Valentine's Day, February 14th. The duration of it will be specified based on the winning virus/event. There will be a second 1-2 day virus later in the month as well that will be voted upon in the same poll.

As for the second little bonus surprise: DDD now has a Plurk! dramadramaduck is the official mod plurk of DDD. Please note that it will only contain reminders and updates of posts made in the OOC comms and will not be used for exclusive content, but rather as a supplement to help you keep up with game activities and OOC notifications. It is strictly optional and only as a bonus benefit for those who choose to keep up with it! Please note that this is not a place to contact the mods about questions/comments/permissions. There are many channels in the game to do this, the modplurk is strictly for updates! If we happen to see a question, we might answer it, but you're faaar better off asking one of the mods directly or using the appropriate post that matches your need.

Thanks and we look forward to seeing your suggestions for the Valentine's Virus/Event!