[quote="Dnate Mars":ot5xl4h1]A question that is hard to answer is what caused the community that we started with to break like it did. Was it the new sim that caused it, or was it the lives of the players that changed? I know in my case it was much more a factor of my first life becoming quite busy rather then a new sim coming on line.[/quote:ot5xl4h1]
I think that the evident decline in civic involvement is a result of a number of interconnected factors. First off, as the CDS has grown older, it seems to have lost a lot of its momentum, not a unique phenomenon amongst projects. As the original, core group has moved on or had other priorities come up at various points, each successive generation has less of an investment in the community, in a general sense. This is not to say that all new citizens are not committed or invested in their communities, but it hardly seems a stretch to say that if you have a hand in the beginning stages of a project, chances are there will be a deeper connection than with those who come in at later points. For the record, I have only been in the CDS for just over a year now, so I am not an oldbie by any means.
Secondly, perhaps as a result of or a contributing factor to the aforementioned departure of some of the early members, there has been a noticable decline in events in the CDS over the past several months. The MoCA and other private citizens and organizations has been successful in putting on a number of events recently. However, the government should work to increase the number of events taking place in NFS and CN to draw in more people to the sims. These increased footsteps will increase the value of our commercial and residential land, provide entertianment for our fellow citizens, and instill vitality into the community, if only for an additioanl hour every day. I know it has been proposed on several occasions, but something such as a weekly or monthly flea/farmers market on the platz or starving artists faire at the CN forum would help bring in visitors and encourage residents to explore their sims again.
In addition, I do believe that the seperation of the CN and NFS has played a role in discouraging the revival of civic life in the CDS, simply because they serve as a barrier to transport and exploration. One result of this barrier is that there is little benefit to a CDS sim when the other sim is hosting an event. If I am hosting an event at the Amphitheatre in CN, those who are attending may stop at one of the shops on the forum or explore the sim. However, because the sims are seperated, that is generally how far their exploration of hte CDS will go.
So, where do we go from here?
I generally agree with the previous comments that adding a third theme to the mix will just worsen the situation. This next expansion should connect our two existing sims, but should not feature as strong of a theme as to allow for our two existing themes to gradually transition into each other, creating a more natural and organic feel as opposed to having the german sim and the roman sim and the ?? sim.
As for events, I feel that the government of the CDS should take a larger role in promoting and encouraging the hosting of events in our sims. We have a number of excellent venues for events of all sizes, from the Amphitheatre which can easily hold 40 people, to the church which I estimate can probably hold 20 to 30 people, to the beer garden which is good for smaller events, along with numerous other venues of varying sizes.
In the end, we need to work on getting everyone reinvested in the community through events, commerce, government service, organizations, and any other way possible. The revitalized MoCA is a great step, as is the New Guilde. We just need to keep up this momentum and keep it growing. The community is still alive and kicking in the CDS, it just needs to be reenergized.
--BL
Ofcourse there's much good things too, just trying to make an important point.