Advanced Role Plays...Do They Exist?

[Leingod]

I know I'm the new guy who just registered here a few days ago..Not to sound rude or anything...but the title of this thread is exactly what I'm about to talk about. Where are the advanced role plays in this forum? Seriously. And do not point me towards the advance role play forum.

I went to that advanced role play forum hoping to find some role plays that will satisfy my hunger and thrill for an amazing role play session with others. But what do I find? I find chicken feed. One liners. Plenty...and plenty of one liners. Yeah, it's a miracle to see a paragraph or two in the advanced role play forum, but that is the problem. I HARDLY see any paragraphs at all. The one liners aren't even long enough to call them a line, because some responses are like four to five words at best! The stories have potential, but it's the players who makes the role plays good.

When I made my role play thread, "Distortion City" I was starting to think I have too many rules on there compared to the others, and maybe I am expecting too much from them...but then I thought to myself: "No. This is an ADVANCED role play thread. These are the kind of rules that make an advanced role play. I'm supposed to have high expectations in this thread, because it is for ADVANCED players." I went back to the other "advanced" role play threads...shook my head no...and said to myself that this has to change.

So again I ask...where are the advance role plays on this site? Where every post is a paragraph worth, gives plenty of juice for the players to work with, where one liners do not exist, and where potential stories live up to their fullest? As far as I'm concerned, the word advanced seems to be used as a simple title than actually living up to it's name. For those who plan on flaming the living hell out of me, keep in mind that I'm only being blunt, and honest. A fellow advanced role player who is taking a stand and speaking his mind. Go to that advanced role play forum yourself, and you can tell me weather or not you see the same chicken feed I am seeing.

[Overlord Branny]

This site is still rather new and unheard of in most avatar forum communities, so you have to understand we are limited in our users.

I guess there isn't any excuse for the one liners..
But I don't think alot of the main members we have are not advanced role players. If you have friends you know on other sites that are maybe you should try to get them to join, so you can have more fun.

[Chu]

Moved to the feedback and suggestion forum. It struck me more as constructive criticism than discussion.

Huh. After going through a few of the threads, I do see what you mean. Advanced roleplays should have more thought and content, and while I don't agree on the one-liner aspect of your post, I can see where you're coming from with it.

Are you suggesting that we mod the forum more strictly? I think it may be in order, personally. I'll continue reading through the threads.

I'll be honest though, that forum is pretty hard to mod because it's so out of most people's comfort zone. However, it is no excuse to mod the forum so lightly. I do see that. We recently added a mod who roleplays, so she may help a bit in that respect.


EDIT: I hate to be so harsh on Mido but the age of a site shouldn't really warrant the condition of the forum. And honestly I see it as the fault of the mods, and by this I mainly mean myself, as I was the only active mod for months and honestly paid little mind to the forum. I don't know how roleplays work. The term "advanced" is vague so I didn't really think critically about what should and should not be coined as advanced. I pretty much figured that advanced roleplayers are literate and responsible enough to manage themselves. I didn't consider the possibility of people misplacing threads.

After reading this thread, I now see that I was wrong in all respects, and understand that my treatment of the forum was much too loose. I'm not trying to make excuses for not modding it better, because ignorance is never a good excuse. I'm just explaining why I did what I did. I do take full responsibility for its condition though. The condition is the fault of myself - not the users.


But Branny is right. Invite some friends to Mido, and you can find yourself enjoying the forum more. In the meantime, with the consent of the staff, I can begin moving threads that aren't qualified for that forum. Until Maeve or Cat offer their opinions on the situation though, I'll wait.

[Maeve]

Yup, I've PMed Cat about it recently. It's bothering me too...

You see, for a while, there was only two or three role-plays in that forums. They might not have been the most advanced ones, but they still have a higher level, and none were really active due to the small amount of members anyway.

Then people started to add role-plays in that forum. And since the rules were pretty much the same as in the other role-play forum, there wasn't much indication for people. Though I think we both have the same vision of what an advance role-play is, it might not be the case for everyone. And so we end up with one liners.

I think the rules need to be reinforced first, so that they are clear for everyone and clearly define what should be in the advanced forum and what belongs in the general role-play forum. See, I don<t feel like I can do much if the rules only say "Be literate" without any indication of what's literate and what's not. I think most people would agree that one liners are not literate, but what about settings, plots, rules and the rest of what makes a role-play?

BTW, if you're looking for role-play with longer posts (can't really say they are more literate though), I suggest you check some of the active role-plays in the Theater (not the advanced forum, just the general role-play forum). Other role-players and myself have placed our role-plays there a while ago since it was easier to attract other players. And the GMRP would be a nice place to discuss that kind of things and meet other role-players (see the guild linked in my signature).

Edit: Don't blame yourself, Chu. I might not have been a mod for long, but I knew some role-plays in that forum were probably misplaced and didn't do anything either. I tried to bring up that discussion in the guild once, but it wasn't that active at the time and got very few feedbacks, so I guess I thought I was too hard with some of the games in there. And they were less at that time too...
And I agree, this need to be taken care of as soon as possible

[Leingod]

That makes me glad I said something and got it off my chest.

I'll try to see if I can get people to join...and perhaps I can open a thread to explain the different types of role playing maybe? A type that would break down the levels so that people can see where they could easily fit in. Know what I mean? The best cure for not knowing, is to teach the unknown. :3

[SillyAndPerverted]

I am not staff, but personally, I think that would be a good idea. There are so many sites where the RPs are misplaced, simply because people do not know the difference between the different categories. Also, if there is such a thread to explain things, it might be easier for staff to moderate the forums and move threads to the correct locations, because they too have something to go by.

[Maeve]

Edited my post...

Yes, I remember some site having similar explanations, and they could be really useful, at least to give us an basic idea of where to start, you know. If you want, you could just post them in the guild, and I'll link them somewhere on the front page so they can be easily found by everyone.

[Leingod]

Sweet! I'll get right to work then ^_^ I've got nothing better to do, so I'll try to have it all up by tomorrow :3 I'll also round up my friends to see if they can join as well. Turns out I can still contact them after all.

[Chu]

@Maeve: I know, I just feel bad. ^^; Honestly one of the reasons that I was glad to see you become a moderator was because you roleplay, and I always knew that we needed more moderation there, but I was just unwilling to do anything and too overwhelmed by the job. Bleh. I hate to admit it, but it's true. DX I'm really sorry.

And honestly, Maeve, the two of you being a minority should not change the rules of the forum. For all we know, there's still a silent group of people who think the same way. I think what the two of you are after is perfectly reasonable, and I hope to see it being used as a standard for that forum in the future.


@Leingod: Thank you very much for your feedback and help. :3 I'm glad to see that people are being so responsive to your thread, haha. Proves that constructive criticism gets shit done.


On another note, The rules definitely need an update, and I see an automatic problem with profiles: Users are placing one another's profiles in their posts without quote boxes, which is blatantly against the rules because they themselves did not fill in the profiles. I'm going through now and throwing all of that into quote boxes.

Once again, I don't roleplay so I'm ignorant of the standards. What do the two of you consider advanced aside from no one-liners? Personally I would think that Leingod's "Distortion City" is the perfect example of an advanced roleplay. It has a well thought out and constructed description of each aspect (the setting, story, races, etc.) and is very organized. Should the standard deviate from that, and if so, how much?


Please, to any roleplayers, offer as much feedback as you can. I can't offer anything but my support because of my ignorance so feel free to write out examples on what you think the rules should be, and the staff will be sure to look into it. ^^


EDIT: And if anyone for some reason disagrees, feel free to voice your opinions too. Don't feel that your posts will be ignored. ^^;

[SillyAndPerverted]

If you need any help with the thread, feel free to ask me. While I am not that active these days, I used to be an active RPer at several sites.
Anyway, it's just an offer, if you feel you need no help, or don't want any, no problem.

[Chu]

@Silly: If you're willing, then offer any feedback that you can. The roleplayers can collaborate here if you'd like, considering it is YOUR (the roleplayer's) forum. Tell us what you'd like to see. Consider it remodeling the forum.

[SillyAndPerverted]

Chu: Let me take a better look at the RP forum and sub-forums and I'll get back to you.

One suggestion I can give you already is splitting up the OOC subforum in an OOC and a RP request subforum. OOC is Out Of Character, used to discuss things about a specific RP - like, asking your fellow RPers in a specific RP if something is okay with them, discussing character development, etcetera. Everything that goes on behind the screens, as to say, things you don't want to clutter your RP thread with.

A request for RPs, whether 1x1 or group RPs is something different altogether.

[Maeve]

Yeah, I think the rules were fine when there were just a few role-plays, but since the site is getting bigger, they could use a good update and be clarified to prevent future problems.

I think the easiest would be to take everything out of the forum and then place the threads that belong in it there...
For me, an advance role-play can be defined just by looking at its settings and basic descriptions. It is grammatically perfect, or as close as possible. It has a good detailed introduction and descriptions of anything that needs to be described (races, places, etc.). It has strict rules, even some about the length/quality of the posts people need to make, and requires profile for characters. I also screen players, asking them to send an example of their post before being allowed to join, to be sure they can follow the rules and style of the game. Though I don't think any role-play on Midorea has asked that beofre...
Anyway, I think Leingod's thread is a good example.
And I'm a bit tired now, but I'll see if anything else comes to my mind.

And as Chu said, please leave feedbacks and comments about this subject. I'd like to get opinions from as many people as possible.

[Leingod]

This is all going so well. In due time, my hunger shall gain it's satisfaction! Mwahahahahahahahahaha *cough cough, ahem*.....ahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaa!!

Aside from my evil laugh, thanks for taking this in consideration. I'm working on that guide as we speak. :3

[Chu]

@Silly: Ah, really? Okay, we'll see about that.


@Maeve: Alright. Did Cat ever respond to your message?


What are everyone's opinions on the 1x1 roleplay forum? Is it necessary?