by Sanjin Koukyu on Sat Feb 11, 2023 8:02 pm
I had to do some thinking and consideration about the possible pros and cons of making this sort of change to the SFaD auctions.
1. Does it create more work for Bel's Ace programmers (Ehl & Ame).
No, it doesn't, since all it will require is a payout by a moderator, admin, or someone with said capacities (Like Tawny!)
2. Can the process be abused in some fashion to distribute mehrial?
I don't believe it can be. Since the slaves and auctioneers involved will all get a cut, while the folks auctioning for said playthings will have to pay out of pocket, it's a pretty fair distribution.
Here's the caveat though, in my mind. SFaD is there to promote play, and typically, characters who are more active will typically get higher bids or more active participation between the people making bids. Characters who have next to no proper facetime, or are only brought out once in a blue moon and don't have any background with folks, will likely not get (either) many bids or high bids.
I'd want whatever mehrial I spend, however much or however little, to go to characters who are active and would make use of the mehrial (either for themselves or their masters/mistresses if the SFaD is collared/concubined). As such, I'd feel nonplussed about a character who's only been out for two days of the year and, as a result, had a top bid of say, ten mehrial, to get a 2000 mehrial cut because someone somehow dragged Lethtal, Belson, Allivia, (examples!) or another high profile character to be sold in the event.
If someone who is lower level, but incredibly active, gets sold and earns a nice chunk of the split proceeds, even better!
But.
There is always one massive elephant in the room (from what i've seen and what i've been told) when it comes to SFaD -- not everyone gets bid on, or it's the bare minimum.
How do we prevent people from feeling... dismissed? This is the biggest reason, I feel, why people don't participate - they don't want to feel as if they're unwanted, despite trying to help drum up roleplay (for themselves and others).
I don't think we can. This might help in that regard, but it'd be a band aid fix if nothing else. Best advice I could give in that, is create a reason for others to bid on your character. Develop character social networks, delve deep into the character's personality and let it bloom from there.
However, that's a very selfish way of thinking. In the end, I'd like to promote as much roleplay as possible, so taking a potential 'loss' for the sake of fun roleplay is always an avenue that I'll take. But I could see and had to voice the potential devil's advocate for such a change.
So despite that long-winded back and forth with myself, I think that it should better promote roleplay and SFaD participation. So I advocate this change! Couldn't hurt to give it a test run and see how it goes, as long as it's approved by the bosses!
Again, sorry for being so long winded!
:}