So you have one of the most advanced and well-thought-out Star Trek sims on the internet, with years and years of history at its back, and you have everything well-organized and planned out, and it seems like every part of the website is perfect.

So my question is, if you have such a loved and advanced Star Trek sim, why are you still using the annoying play-by-email style of RP? Using forums is much easier and much more fun, and it seems odd that a sim that has come as far as Terra Nova has, hasn't gotten a forum board to play on yet.

Well, first of all, NeoRazor, thank you for the compliments and high praise about my USS Terra Nova sim. You're very kind.

On to your question, though...

Why don't we use a forum board style of roleplay? Well, there's a simple two-part answer to that. First of all, the Terra Nova sim has always been, and will always be, different than most Star Trek sims out there. I have nothing wrong with how other sims might choose to conduct and organize their operations... I just want the Terra Nova to be different. And I've chosen -- as the director and GM -- to maintain our unique identity on the web. THAT, afterall, *is* what has made the Terra Nova so "loved and advanced", as you put it.

And second, we don't use a discussion board to organize our episodes because the current play-by-email format encourages healthy prose, allows the story to evolve as if it were a collaborative story, and, most of all, is the easiest to moderate. Yes, the Terra Nova is moderated -- by me. Not only do I have to maintain strong casting requirements and encourage good writing, but I also have to make sure the story contributions by all of our players actually make logical (and sometimes realistic) sense within the flow of each plotline.

You just can't guide the story, organize multiple characters, and maintain such story integrity when everything is contributed via a disorganized forum board structure. Afterall, why change something that's worked so successfully for over five years, right?

In a way, the Terra Nova has become it's own online Star Trek series -- with the same attention to detail as any of the series' that aired on television. We have a lot of fun, sure, but we're also very serious about the integrity of the story we're creating. A forum board setting works for casual sims more interested in the fun of group simming. The Terra Nova uses the tried and true play-by-email format because we're creating something more substantive than a casual gathering of fans.

-Jon