Okay, so I know we should suspend our belief regarding members completing jobs at different times, but are we supposed to acknowledge that other members work on the same job?
For example, Chamunda has referred to me as a “pie-in-the-sky” idealist (I’m guessing that’s very idealistic) when my track record so far in this group only involves investigating Laurie Wu (and being suspicious about it in the forums), refusing to work with Mahodara, and donating to worm-medicine charity in the Auld Lang Syne job.
Only the worm-medicine thing makes me seem that idealistic, so if Chamunda called me that because I made that decision, then how does Chamunda know that when there are probably a dozen of other members who worked on Auld Lang Syne who could’ve made the same decision?
I’ll answer the general question about simultaneous jobs first.
We’re still working out how we want to handle the dissonance regarding many people doing the same job. Our assumption so far when writing story is that, in the fiction, you are the only one who has done those specific jobs: you’re the only one Mahodara contacted about that thing and you’re the only one who pulled off that impossible heist.
However, we’re also assuming a general background noise of other Zero Day members doing things. So the non-player characters act like other Zero Day agents are doing a bunch of other similar hacks, even if they’re not the extra-cool ones you did.
This does mean that we’re asking players to hold two contradictory viewpoints at once, especially when doing things like discussing plot on the forums. We’re hoping that’s something players are willing and able to do, but we’ll have to see as numbers grow and story becomes more intricate.
As for Chamunda? Her calling you a pie in the sky idealist might have more to do with her personality than your past actions. She does treat you differently depending on past actions, but she’s also got her own opinions about life and groups like Zero Day.
If you’re especially curious about what the game tracks of your individual behavor, at the moment the different messages and paths you see through jobs are entirely governed by what badges you’ve earned.