We have been over and over this  both at guild meetings and here on the list
before.
Why is attendance at Guild meetings dropping. ?
Why are there more Games with only 1 or 2 spaces left or more prefill games.
?
Why are there not enough games. ?

The thing is other than low meeting attendance which is now less seasonal
and more of a consistent thing none of this is new.
My first game was one of those with only a couple of spaces left as those
who recruited me organized a low game.
Prefilled Games happened but unless you knew the people involved, because
they where never announced at meetings the only way to learn of them was
once they where finished and someone was nominated for an award.
There has also been for sometime a shortage of games, even when we've had 6
or so games announced at the Guild meetings its generally been scramble to
get a game and overflows were sometimes needed.

What has changed is our awareness of these prefilled or part filled games,
though the wiki and our other websites we can see that there are games that
where not announced, or will not be announced.
With the slow decline in games being run, there are more overflows, plus we
also take more note of part booked or prebooked games.
But as those players on these games, would have need games in any case.
Unless they are playing in more than one game a session they aren't really
stopping anyone else from getting a game.

Question, has there really been a drop in the number of Games run a year, or
has the number of players in the Guild needing games increased ?

As to why we have the low turn outs, increased prebooking, and trouble
finding enough Gms to meet players needs, its not any one thing but a
combination of changes.
-Technology like the list and the wiki makes it possible for people to get
in contact or be made aware of or sign on to, up coming games , and give out
ep or treasure without having to attend the meeting.
-We are all getting older,(some days I feel my age more than others) we have
families, jobs, responsibilities, that we didn't have 5 or 10 years ago.
Things that stop us making the Guild Meeting, restrict the nights we are
free to play, or limit the nights we have available to one a week. This has
lead to more players wanting/needing to prebook, and more than a few GM's
having to make a choice between playing or GMing. GMs too can be unable to
make the Guild meeting so taking prebookings lets them vet the characters.
- The Chicken and Egg effect. With more players with limited free nights or
unable to make meetings prebooking, the number of games with spaces has
fallen.
As it gets harder to get a suitable game for a character, more players are
prebooking or organizing GMs and Part or whole parties to play on them.
Which in turn drops the number of available spaces further and the need for
these people to attend the meeting, and so it goes on.

The freedom of information Tec changes have allowed are over all for the
better, and while pre booking itself is not a problem as long as all those
who wish a game can be accommodated, the knock on affects we are seeing
could be.
We can't do anything about the changes life has made to the availability of
our time.

The Guild and its membership is evolving and what we need to do is adapt.
The wiki is only been in use for a few years, the Character and GMs data
base only tell us how many GMs and active characters we have but not which
characters need adventures this season or which GMs have time and
inspiration.
A number of things have been done in the last few seasons, the addition of a
wiki section for those looking for games or the change to the EP for GMing
for example.
The problem is that the effects of these changes cannot be judged in only a
season or two.

What we need most is for people to give the Guild a little Time and Effort.
Time to see what happen as a result of changes and to attend Guild meetings.
Effort to find that time to attend or GM, or to let GMs know what sort of
games, levels, quests you want to play which can to help inspire Plots.
I think that over all that people are doing the best they can in this
regard.

The Groups we play in are generally governed by the type of game we like
and/or the level of the characters we have. There is little that can be done
about that except on an individual basis, e.g.. players with med +
characters staring a new low or taking your low to a medium game.
It's not something we can codify, its personal choice, and like prebooked
games has always been. Its just like them becoming more visible in light of
the current trends.

Helen


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