Well it's that time of year again! The numbers are in, and folks, I know I was just naysaying the naysayers on the While We Wait Thread not long ago, but after taking a new look at the situation and the numbers, it appears things are not as peachy as they appeared at a quick glance.
Below is the number of NESes created during the period of 1/1 to 5/16 over the below years, you should see what I see:
2011: 19
2012: 15
2013: 26
2014: 10
We have had a dramatic drop in the number of NESes being created. I've concluded that the probable best indicator of the health of the community is the number of NESes being created. They don't have to last very long, but my theory is that as long as there's inspiration among the community, aspiring moderators will be consistently creating, whether they succeed or fail. For whatever reason, potential moderators are no longer willing to risk failing to create an NES.
My conclusion is the following, based on review of the past couple years of NESing: Unreasonably high expectations have been placed upon moderators and NESes in general, putting unneeded strain upon those who would seek to create an NES. Overall, the emphasis on quality over quantity has gone too far in that direction. From what I've seen in the various failed NESes in recent times, a moderator creates a world, very quickly encounters opposition from someone based on nebulous grounds of "realism," and then the moderator either gives up or falters once they succumb to the belief that they have bitten off more than they can chew. To reinforce my statements, I'll point out that over the past year, almost every NES that has achieved some modicum of success has either been a pure story NES or otherwise not based on any sort of reality. Any claiming to be realistic or taking place in a RL global setting has quickly failed or is in a limbo state as I type. This demonstrates that expectations for these types of NESes are unreasonably high for those attempting to create them.
So, time for a finalized solution! While I do not believe in the so-called NES elite that people have been telling me about, I suspect that some of those considered the "elite" are the source of the problem. We'll start with trains...wait...that's something else entirely. In seriousness, NESing's greatest problem is one of the following two things (or a combination): Either moderators too timid to ignore critics, or unbearably high levels of criticism. There is no easy solution to NESing's problem, beyond NESers being able to actually acknowledge the following facts:
1. NESes are games. We can play at this is all a "serious business," but the fact is that it's not. No one's making money, no one's life depends on the outcome of anything we do.
2. IOTs = NESes. There is functionally and technically no difference between the two. The sooner we can accept this fact, the sooner we can have a surge in new ideas and people willing to try new things.
If all NESers can accept those two ideals, we should be able to turn things around. If not, well, I'll still be here doing my NESes until the forum is deleted for inactivity, I came to terms with that a long while ago.