Winning isn't really possible without actors and audiences, so this is a null factor. I still have a play I did (without actors, after five failed attempts to do it with actors) about 20 game-years ago that never got submitted because it's got zero chance. I think I got maybe one person to watch it once. Maybe I should just delete it and then bring it to Hallifax to re-direct it, in fact! In a way I can't say without spoiling the plot, it is almost sort of appropriate for them.

Edit:

Compare to a play I did back when Serenwilde's culture was vibrant:

I need to think about the play contest again. (Either that, or just pay somebody like Lendren and his or her actors to do it--I want to in part parody the whole "Hollywood process" a bit).

When things get less busy for me (and when I finish The Witcher 2), I hope to write the synopsis for "A Yrael and the Murph Adventure": The Strange of Lacostian" and see how people expand it and/or make it their own.

Pay doesn't really help. Even credit prizes don't help; there's been 75 credits waiting for the next Seren to produce a play that goes to the World Stage who isn't Lendren for almost half a game-century now, and no takers. (I guess now that I'm not culture minister, and the current one doesn't do any culture stuff and has never touched the stage, that offer is off the table, actually.)

Wait, what? Did my play ever go to the world stage?

Nope.

Hmm, do plays need a certain number of views to go to the world stage or something? Clueless here.

I thought it was the culture minister who had to submit it.

Yeah, Culture Minister does it at a special time of the year. Don't ask me when, I some how -always- missed it.

Culture Ministers pick a production to submit in the first six months of odd-numbered years. Sounds complicated, but just submit something one year after culture winners are announced and you'll be on time.

It's important to submit something because otherwise you don't get a theatre activity score no matter how many plays were watched in the preceding two years.

(P.S. Don't submit theatre games, though. That was silly.)

(P.P.S. I wouldn't know any of this without Lendren's help!)

So...it's not like I mind either way, since it wasn't that good, but is the reason it hasn't been submitted because it can't, or because no one's gotten around to it?

When I was culture minister I was hoping to hold off for a year when no one else submitted, so it could win. That used to be fairly common, but towards the tail end of my tenure, it stopped happening. Since we have so little to submit and nothing new coming in, it made more sense than Daraius's "always submit" advice -- a year when we submit for a few points isn't as useful as a year when we could submit for a lot more. (Daraius's approach is the right one assuming you have something to submit every cycle, but Serenwilde has had two productions in the last forty years, and even that's only because of me going ahead without actors, so that's not a choice Serenwilde has.)

The current culture minister doesn't understand the stage. After he was appointed, he asked me where it was and what it was for. I explained it to him a number of times but he just doesn't seem to get what productions are, or what he's supposed to do. I actually haven't seen him in several weeks, though that could be just that our times don't overlap. Anyway, he has never done anything with the stage and I don't expect that's likely to change.

Don't worry, the play will still be waiting there patiently when TMC decides to get a new culture minister (even if that doesn't turn out to be me). In fact, you can try to get people to watch it between now and then, to build up some activity.

Oi!

I think it's lovely, Elo. And totally free of forest detritus.

Not everyone can like everything.

Actually, in real life I probably wouldn't be that fond of Serenwilde's stage, either. (Though I do really like the way I did the balcony.) My real-world theater experiences and preferences have been far more minimalist bordering on spartan. What I like from a stage is that the audience doesn't even see it. So the last thing it needs is curlicues or vivid colors or other ornamentation. It should be a blank canvas.

Probably full of Lobo-fur though.

This isn't really an issue in Lusternia, though. I've watched several plays on my halli-alt and I had to log on and purposely walk up there to look at the stage to figure out what the fuss was about.

You're gonna get mauled.

o New CONFIG option DESIGNMESSAGES is available. If it is ON, you will
be messaged when designs you designed, or submitted in your cartels,
get approved or rejected.

I would love big expansions in aetherspace. To me it's supposed to be a big crazy place full of adventure and possibility but once you've visited all the bubbles (Not a difficult feat) then you're pretty much done. Sure there are some places on cosmic and astral I haven't explored but still.

Essentially I'd love it if it was a much crazier place, with moving, slightly randomized aether bubbles or something that would keep me occupied (impossible dramube quests don't count)

Maybe it's just me but I like exploring! And now I've seen most of the basin it just gets a bit boring...

Edit: Realise this seems a bit random, was reply to last page.

Edit edit: I may only think this because Doctor Who is AWESOME.

Design messages! I no longer need to do the cartel enternamehere list scramble anymore to see what designs were accepted/rejected! Wheeeeeeeeee.