Winding down from this year's fkficfest/fkficfest (it's never too late to read! or to comment! please go look!), I've thought a little about the questions for next year's "Shall we play again?" survey.

Next year, 2016, will be the 20th anniversary of the end of FK canon and the beginning of our journey as an out-of-production fandom. If, when the time comes, people do wish to play again, I think it would be especially auspicious to hold a 2016 game, so I'll do my best to make it possible on my side (although of course one never knows). It would be our 7th game.

When the time comes, we'll ask again the questions that we always ask, of course: who wants to play? when? how? I've been musing particularly on two specifics:

• Exchange-style or challenge-style?
• Minimum and maximum word counts?

There's much good to be said for both exchange-style and challenge-style games. The goal of both is to have fun together writing and reading and discussing! In exchanges, more players tend to finish writing stories, but I'm afraid that someone always feels disappointed (sometimes even hurt) by a match. In challenges, more players tend to drop out, but no one ever feels hurt by everyone writing to the beat of a different drum. Our smallness as a fandom at this end of history may emphasize both the advantages and disadvantages of both game styles, in a way that the sheer numbers of a large fandom might mitigate. We can't afford to lose any of our few players in a challenge; we don't have enough players to ensure strong sympathy across matches in an exchange. (Not that even the very biggest player base, with the very best intentions, would be guaranteed to avoid misunderstandings! We can't read each others' minds, obviously.)

We've always had a 1,000-word minimum. ("A picture is worth a thousand words.") It was the most common baseline in fanfiction games when we began. We've never had a maximum word count, except where enforced by technical limitations (e.g. the maximum length of LJ posts, the maximum posts in LJ queues). Should we modify our minimum count? Should we create a maximum count? We want story sizes that fit both writers and readers, to maximize everyone's enjoyment. What are the norms these days out in the large, still-in-production fandoms? How do other games get everyone to finish on time, and encourage players to read and comment on other players' work?

Just some very, very, very early thoughts. :-) What do you think?

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