Marosia is a small game with a very high demand on staff time due to complexity. Staff are volunteers and it has been established that regular breaks are needed in order to have a breather and get on top of things.
This is not necessarily permanent. Lockdowns will be evaluated to confirm if they are working and if any changes need to be made.
For transparency, admin, mods and loremasters can access reports and god players can access prayers during this break if they want to use it to catch up, though they are not told that they have to do this.
The staff want to thank everyone for their understanding. It is impossible to please everyone, but at the end of the day we think we are lucky to have such a mature and understanding group of players on board with us, and we hope we can continue to reward that with our work over lockdown.
22 July - 2 Aug 2022
22 Aug - 29 Aug 2022
26 Sept - 3 Oct 2022
31 Oct - 7 Nov 2022
5 Dec - 12 Dec 2022
11 Jan - 16 Jan 2023
13 Feb - 20 Feb 2023
20 Mar - 27 Mar 2023
24 Apr - 1 May 2023
29 May - 5 Jun 2023
3 July - 10 July 2023
7 Aug - 14 Aug 2023
11 Sept - 18 Sept 2023
16 Oct - 23 Oct 2023
20 Nov - 27 Nov 2023
25 Dec - 1 Jan 2023/4
29 Jan - 5 Feb 2024
4 Mar - 11 Mar 2024
8 Apr - 15 Apr 2024
13 May - 20 May 2024
17 Jun - 24 Jun 2024
29 Jul - 5 Aug 2024
2 Sep - 9 Sep 2024
7 Oct - 14 Oct 2024
11 Nov - 18 Nov 2024
16 Dec - 23 Dec 2024
20 Jan - 27 Jan 2025
24 Feb - 3 Mar 2025
31 Mar - 7 April 2025
5 May - 12 May 2025
9 Jun - 16 Jun 2025
14 Jul - 21 Jul 2025
18 Aug - 25 Aug 2025
22 Sep - 29 Sep 2025
These questions were anticipated by the Marosia Staff Team and the answers are verbatim from their discord post.
Why don't you just get more staff?
We are not afraid to get more staff where we need them - but we had much higher rates of burnout within the staff team before we implemented the regular lockdowns. People were getting burned out, and we just cannot keep cycling through individuals like a revolving door, especially when we really value each person who is part of staff. Something had to change, and we think lockdowns are still the answer.
Why don't we encourage people to take breaks instead of locking the game for everyone?
We do encourage people to take breaks whenever they need them, and staff and players are still going to be encouraged to take breaks between the lockdowns if they need them. However, it has been proven time and time again that people can struggle to take a break for a multitude of reasons. People worry about letting others down, about missing something crucial, or about the story standing still without their critical character. People end up powering through hoping that they will get their muse back, and we see people's resilience and enjoyment being chipped away until the game is viewed as a chore. Our hope is that lockdowns will give people the breathing space they need to recoup, eventually coming back to the game refreshed and with a newly found enthusiasm. When the game is down for everyone - people won't worry about what they are missing, and it will give staff some much-needed time to catch up on what needs doing without new things popping up.
Why one whole week? That is so long!
We looked at shorter times but decided the full week was needed to really give us the chance to not only catch our breath, but also have some time relaxing for ourselves before the game comes back up. A few days was deemed not long enough to actually wind-down, so we opted for the longer break with a long period in between rather than a shorter break every week or fortnight.
What am I going to do with myself?
Relax and forget Marosia for a bit, or you can try and make some progress on those descriptions or book entries you have been putting off. You can process recent plot developments and mull over future ones, or look closely at characters you are no longer enjoying and have the time and space to figure out how you might change that. Essentially - you can and should use the time however you want to.
Note: Dates correspond to that date in EST e.g. 5th December 00:01 the game would be locked down and 12th December 00:01 (approx) the lockdown would be lifted.