Lovely posts everyone, some good ideas there.<br/><br/>Just to pick up one one thing you said Shihong about a certain game I walked away from; no, that particular incident did not apply to that game. I had in my mind two other games I was in a long time ago where a scene was 'taken over' by pairs of players and no-one else posted for maybe, oh, 3 or 4 hours but suddenly the post count had gone up by 20 or 30. In one case the two players did a scene that needed perhaps an hour of time and I was left going 'Wait. What? Now what do I do?'<br/><br/>Having covered that particular point, it seems we can all agree on a way to get around that which is to allow players to make a side thread, creating them on the fly if needed. While I GM in a way that usually means I'm happiest if I create all the game threads, I'm coming round to the view that as long as we all behave in a mature way then pairs or small groups of players should be allowed and even encouraged to use their initiative and create a thread to run a scene in - it would also be fine if say, the main story moved on, that those players carried on their small scene until they were happy with it's conclusion.<br/><br/>One of the advantages of forum play is we do not need to be constrained by a regular flow of time, we can shift it about and play out scenes long after the rest of the group has moved on. Or jump about. Or reverse it briefly. The use of storytelling or cinematic techniques is fine by me as long as there's some clear OOC discussion of what is going on.<br/><br/>'The rubbery nature of time' is something I'd like to experiment with more.<br/><br/>But, yeah. Player maturity. Its good to have 'good' players.<br/><br/>It's also good, nay, blinking brilliant, to have lots of open OOC discussion about things. Not only socializing which helps you get to know your co-writers but discussion of plot twists and such. By all means take it private to PMs if you'd like to keep something a surprise from the others but CCing in the GM might be a good idea there.<br/><br/>I have never played in a game where the GM made announcements declaring a new time slot of the game was now in effect (morning/afternoon/night). I know of one game on E where this is done and while it seems to work I've no experience of it but it is something I would like to try.<br/><br/>Some good ideas there about players leaving and character re-use. I think it all boils down to good planning. If a GM states before the game that the characters of players who leave may/will be re-used, and if you do not want that to happen with your character then please do not play, that fixes the situation of someone leaving under a cloud and spitefully not letting their character be played by another player.<br/><br/>Having said<em>that</em>the number of new players I have found willing to join a game and take up a pre-used character is very small. Very small indeed.<br/><br/>Putting discussion of negative facets of group games aside for a bit, what about the positives? What sorts of things really make you want to post and causes your spirit to do a little happydance when you see that lovely shiny 'new' tab beside a game in your bookmarks?<br/><br/>What can we collectively do that is 'right' for a group game?<br/><br/>And where are the rest of the lovely ladies I invited to this thread?  :'(