Alright guys, I've noticed from various off hand comments, and directly asking a few people, that the lack of IC posting is deceptive. Apparently, discussions are indeed taking place between some factions about various deals and agreements. My issue is how it is being handled, and my problems are twofold:
First, if there are indeed 'secret talks' happening, theres a limit to how much can be accomplished via PM. Any PM discussions should be backed up by RP posts in the various threads- that is why they are there. The RP boards are not public-knowledge forums: unless a faction has a character present during a scene posted in the RP forums, the contents of the post are known only to the factions involved. So if the FWL and CC are having secret discussions about a joint-invasion of the LC, it is fine to disuss the overall idea and specific strategic issues via PM, but there needs to be some sort of post in the RP threads where the military commanders are meeting to discuss the strategy, or the faction leaders have a meeting and agree to the plan before appointing commanders to undertake the mission.
I don't need to see the specific battle plans posted, but there needs to be RP about what is going down. If the game is just going to take place solely via PM, then what is the point of having these forums all set up for people?
My second issue, one which is ironclad and will be enforced from here on out, is that ALL PMs dealing with international discussions/relationships, need to have the GM PM account copied. Without exception. Since every faction has their own private discussion board, I don't expect internal PMs to be common anymore, since the forums are easier to browse through. But I see very little PM traffic, which means either there is no external discourse going on, or else people just arn't copying to the GM account.
I know people might be worried about potential metagaming from the first issue, but we are all adults here, and we need to operate on the honor system for this game to work. I am here both as the GM and the forum moderator- if someone is cheating, they are not welcome in my game. So trust me: metagaming will not be an issue. If someone is caught, not only will their faction face severe consequences, they will no longer be playing with us as long as I am GM, and could potentially face disciplinary action from a Forum Moderator stand point. I want to see some good RP between factions. And I will deal with anyone who uses information they don't have any business using.
The second issue is also a serious one for me, albeit not normally a punishable offense.
If factions continue to fail to post RP concerning their faction's activities, and continue to fail to add the GM PM account to their PM conversations, I will need to start forcing factions to comply. And I don't want to do that. I don't want to seem heavy handed, but in my opinion, having the game's character-to-character interactions, the lifeblood of the FGCs, take place mostly in PMs is more detrimental than a potential metagamer who will be stamped out on the first offense.
