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### Topic

#### Socialization mode

Hi all. I started playing Glitch only recently (thanks for the invite, Beyond the Pale!) and one problem I have is that the constant energy and mood drain makes it hazardous just to take a little time to talk to one's friends, or to strangers, for that matter. I have croaked while trying to talk to someone, and I've had someone croak at my house while talking to me. Even when I survive a friendly conversation (how odd that sounds...) my character is usually left in a pissy mood, which reduces Imagination rewards and just makes gameplay less fun on the whole. This is a poor reward for stopping to say something nice to someone, to say the least. I consider any gameplay feature that discourages people from being social to be a Bad Thing, and terrible for the game's overall feel.
I'm not asking for the drain to be eliminated, but rather wondering whether it might be possible to introduce some sort of "socialization mode." A player would be able to enter or exit this mode freely, and while in it, you wouldn't lose energy or mood, but neither would you be able to do anything useful--you could chat, rearrange your inventory, change which skill you're learning, browse the upgrade cards, and so on, but you wouldn't be able to move or make things or use tools or interact with objects in the world.
As I said, I haven't been playing very long, so I don't know whether such a feature would have potential for abuse. Any thoughts on that? Does this sound appealing?

Posted 4 months ago by Pupusas | Permalink

### Replies

- For what it's worth Pupusas, if you are in your home or on your street you can enter "decorate" or "cultivate" mode (respectively) and you won't lose energy or mood.
  That may not always be convenient, but for conversations happening in IM, where you don't need to be in the same spot, it works very well.
  Posted 4 months ago by Pascale | Permalink
- sounds good to me
  it could simply happen when the chat panel is focused
  looking forward to more social features in this game
  Posted 4 months ago by Lemo | Permalink
- I suggested something similar to eliminate mood drain during visits to other people's towers, since so many of them are displays and shopping, both of which are leisurely activities. I find the current mood loss way too fast and a source of unnecessary stress in the game. Since I'm pretty high level, I have a number of tactics, one of my favorites being to repair one tool. I like the idea of chat mode, where your interactions with the world are very limited so you can concentrate on chat, and can't abuse the mood adjustment. When Global gets really lively, sometimes I just give up early on a conversation, because I can't keep up with the mood drain.
  Posted 4 months ago by KhaKhonsu | Permalink
- edited to remove all previous content
  Posted 4 months ago by foolbunny | Permalink
- Munch rookswort!
  Munching slows down mood loss.
  Drink Savory Smoothies to regain mood while you stand around.
  Posted 4 months ago by WindBorn | Permalink
- The most important thing to consider about this issue is that game mechanics are punishing socialization in a game that's supposed to be social.
  Posted 4 months ago by Impspindle | Permalink
- Dying isn't so bad. And you can socialize in Hell.
  Posted 4 months ago by Malus Agricola | Permalink
- +1 to lower mood loss when idle.
  Dying while socializing, then using a Get Out of Hell Free card for an energy fill when you want to get back to playing makes sense too.
  Posted 4 months ago by Janitch | Permalink
- To everyone offering me advice on maintaining my mood: I know you're just being nice, and thanks, but this isn't a "help me" thread, it's an "idea for improving the game" thread. I don't need help. I think there's a problem with the game--as Impspindle succinctly put it, it punishes an activity that ought to be encouraged--and I'm floating an idea for improving it. If you think that the mood and energy drain is a wholly positive thing even when you're just trying to have a conversation, then we disagree. Which is fine, but we are never going to agree on that point.
  Posted 4 months ago by Pupusas | Permalink
- Just to give you some background: eventually mood mostly goes away as an issue so the people posting might not remember how difficult it was to keep it up. I'm not sure what level the Steady on Mood Loser upgrades are available, but we were complaining about this bitterly as well until they were introduced.
  Posted 4 months ago by Janitch | Permalink
- These problems hit newbies disproportionately hard, and it's obnoxious to tell them to buy rookswort (65c for 5 minutes) or to slug savoury smoothies (none for sale on auction right now, but I seem to remember they run about 150c each) when all they're trying to do is get through the day. As I've said elsethread, when your tank is <200, things that are "solutions" for us oldbies are just expensive overkill. The more I think about it, the less I like rot as a concept in Glitch. We need to encourage flânerie and socializing rather than punishing it.
  I think IMing your friends while staying in decorating mode is a kluge, and kind of an alienating one. Like, I kind of want to see us sitting together, posing for photos, and so on, and it seems weird to me that we either need to be trapped in an IM window or force at least one character to go through energy and mood loss. Even decorating mode isn't ideal, since the decorating character can't see herself, which means you don't have a sense of hanging out with your friends in your virtual house. If that's what we're doing, we should just... install MSN Messenger, I guess.
  Pupusas, people have often asked for a "sitting" mode, not only because it would be a nice way to visualize stopping for a while to chat (and slowing mood/energy loss) but also because we want to see our glitchen sit on all this beautiful furniture we bought! I know that animating these things is extremely difficult and resource-intensive in Flash, but it's definitely one of my dreams.
  Posted 4 months ago by Pale Queen | Permalink
- Let me just chime in and second pretty much everything PQ just wrote.
  Posted 4 months ago by Pascale | Permalink
- The mood looser cards requirements can now be looked up in the encyclopedia. Offhand, they are at 600, 1200, and 2000 energy.
  Posted 4 months ago by Sturminator i` | Permalink