recettear has been both dull and intriguing for the same reason so far: people are trying to make it work.
no-one gave a toss if GAF "worked", it was trench warfare. volley after volley of shellfire with whoever had the biggest guns and deepest trenches coming out on top in an utterly pyrrhic victory which shed the partisans of any humanity. you can blame the mod policy or whatever but the main driving force of its hysterical awfulness was that victory in whatever shitfight you were involved in should come at any cost.
with this new place, everyone seems invested in trying to build a semi-functional micro society and lo and behold their militant posturing on everything from bathroom politics to multi-platform pixel counts has been massively toned down. the greater cause has supplanted whatever secondary cause that previously erupted into all out war on a minute by minute basis.
the real test will be when the forum's existence is taken for granted, when it's no longer a cause that needs protecting and the good will tank is empty. will the standards of empathy and moderation which ensure its early survival remain intrinsic to the board itself, or will the modern disease of hyper polarity reinfect the patient following a full body transplant?
until then at least, this thread will be feeding on scraps. maybe a good time to explore the rest of the forum.
