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Character Apps - What You Hate to Write


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So, while popularity has begun to decrease significantly over the years, character applications are still a primary stepping stone to getting involved in a site. 

 

Other than the usual concerns about getting site lore and what all correct to avoid trouble with staff, what kind of stuff do you dislike in apps? Are there certain sections you don't like to fill - maybe you don't like including character histories, or going through the increasingly complex sexual/romantic/platonic orientation sections. 

 

And just for the hell of it, what kind of stuff do you cringe upon seeing in other player-character apps? 

 

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Templates! I can't stress that enough. I'm not coding savvy so these things are the bane of my existence. I would love life never to see an app that is heavily coded with tiny fonts and smooshed into a template.

 

Shippers. I'm not a fan of these especially when trying to join a site where I don't know everyone. While it's great and some are really pretty (more templates) but just like in life some pairings can look good on paper, but don't always work out like we imagined. It's best for me to just do meet ups and see how personalities work.

 

I guess I like keeping them simple and easy. Histories I understand are thing, but they should be easy to edit since a lot of time (for me) that comes out once I've gotten a feel for a character. For me though, the simpler the better. It doesn't have to be huge, but enough for me to get the jist of things. I know. I'm weird.

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When it comes to apps, nothing is really a hard no for me. Well, nothing that I've come across anyway. Who knows what outlandish things are out there?

 

Whenever I see a field for sexuality I feel like I'm entering a site with a strong shipping culture. (Different strokes and all that, but not for me. Only one site has proven me wrong in that assumption.) I've had it argued that knowing a character's sexuality can generate plots, but I think that's just pigeon holing or forcing plots to revolve around a character's sexuality.

 

I don't like writing physical descriptions of my character. But I appreciate that they serve a purpose and sometimes I've found it handy to check a character's physical appearance bit, it's sometime I can bounce off of.

 

I prefer that the bulk of the app just be "about" because I find that history and personality often walk hand in hand and I find myself wanting to use historical points to promote personality traits. 

 

I don't like filling out friends/enemies/lovers bits. If there's anything important, I'll include it. If it's not important, than there's nothing for me to add in that sort of section.

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Anything with a word count. I can go on for miles and miles unprompted, but the second someone tacks a "this field must be at least three (3) words long!" requirement onto something... the pressure, my friends. The pressure.

 

I love history sections, but hate personality sections. I'd rather show than tell.

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By Wit & Whitby

[Plot] | [Rules] | [Wanted] | [Discord]

18+ | Victorian Era | No App | No Word Count |

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I hate writing descriptions of my character's physical appearance.  The exception to this would be a site with no PBs or certain art styles, in which case, I can see why it would be necessary.  I am also not a fan of writing out personality.  A lot of times while I do have a general idea, I'm not entirely certain how my character's personality will actually come out when thrown into situations.  In regards to writing, I also just find it more interesting to express personality through actions, speech, the tone and behaviors in the app.  I think this is more fun to read as well. There was a trend of apps with things such as likes and dislikes and big long lists of things to fill out.  While those sort of surveys can be fun after character creation, I would rather they not be in the app itself.    

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I loathe required appearance sections with a passion. Especially if there's a word or paragraph count. There's an avatar. Right there. And 99% of the time, an app image and miniprofile gif too. You know exactly what my character looks like. 

 

I also don't like apps that require rl information about a member like age or gender. There's something about that that just feels creepy to me. 

 

I'm also not very fond of apps that ask for your character's favourite colour, movie, animal, etc. because a lot of the time, I'm making a new character for the site. I don't know all these tiny details yet. And even if I know, I don't see the point in having it written down in the app. That's for plotters or dev threads. 

 

Other than that, I can't really think of anything I strictly dislike. Although I have grown to prefer freeform or shipper apps over ones that have divided history/personality sections. 

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I'm less concerned about specifics and more bothered by being forced to disclose information in fields/sections that have nothing to do with whether my character should be OK to use or not. Things like sexual orientation, likes, dislikes-- Those make me bonkers. Most of the aggravation stems from having to give up info that I don't want other players to have. Even if people aren't likely to metagame, it influences their approach to my character and diminishes some of the fun of discovering things along the way.

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46 minutes ago, Dun said:

I'm less concerned about specifics and more bothered by being forced to disclose information in fields/sections that have nothing to do with whether my character should be OK to use or not. Things like sexual orientation, likes, dislikes-- Those make me bonkers. Most of the aggravation stems from having to give up info that I don't want other players to have. Even if people aren't likely to metagame, it influences their approach to my character and diminishes some of the fun of discovering things along the way.

All of this. I prefer keeping things under my sleeve. Some of my best plots happened through this form of playing. If there’s nothing left to discover, why even bother? 

Reality is an illusion. 


 
 

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I really hate shipper-style apps.  Like the kind of apps that you respond to for plotting purposes?  Hate those.  They always fall so flat to me.  Plus, it's so time consuming to click through each app in order to find the character you want to plot WITH.  I'm just a big fan of keeping apps/profiles separate from plotting, I guess.  When I plot, I like to include things like 'hey, I'm looking for characters who grew up in the same area, so we can do some backplotting' sort of thing.

 

I'm also gonna join the bandwagon shouting about writing appearances.  I don't like doing it either, especially in a game with FC's/PB's.  My character's general appearance is RIGHT THERE.  I used to consider writing appearances practice for Real Writing (tm) but now I just wanna get to the game. 

 

I'm also not a fan of including little details like likes/dislikes, etc.  Or home or room descriptions.  I tend to tackle those things when I get to them.

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I don't like appearance either but I find it necessary at least for the bare bones. Normally if there are any more important details to the situation/purpose of the thread like what my PC is wearing or carrying, I'd rather bring it up when I join the thread but otherwise I don't think I want to be arsed with a description I have to provide across the board.

 

Its a lot harder for me when there are mandatory face claims actually. I'd rather write a description of my PC to work with rather than hunt around for a FC especially when everyone expects the same "type" of FC. In my last site I actually went without a FC for over a year until some stuff happened which actually justified a pretty FC (although I still didn't use that sort of a pic, opting instead for an april fools image of a game character lol)

I actually hate personality fields more. I mean why would anyone else need to know it? Just find out about it as I play, You can work with that accordingly. The only reason you'd need to know a PC's personality is so you don't step on any landmines but I'd like to think if there are really any game breaking landmines, it should be easy enough to discuss on for a solution or a retcon if that is really necessary.

 

What I hate most (especially now that I'm looking around for a site to join) are stuff with "writing samples". I find the sites demanding it to be pretentious and elitist which immediately puts me off regardless of whatever interest I might already have.

 

Also I see a trend nowadays where people want to define sexuality and such in their PC app/profile. I get put off by those just as much as the entire writing sample thing. I honestly don't find it important enough to be put in an app.

Edited by omnitricks
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6 hours ago, omnitricks said:

1. Its a lot harder for me when there are mandatory face claims actually. I'd rather write a description of my PC to work with rather than hunt around for a FC especially when everyone expects the same "type" of FC.
...
I actually hate personality fields more.

 

2. What I hate most (especially now that I'm looking around for a site to join) are stuff with "writing samples".

 

3. Also I see a trend nowadays where people want to define sexuality and such in their PC app/profile. I get put off by those just as much as the entire writing sample thing. I honestly don't find it important enough to be put in an app.

1. Hear hear.

 

2. Oh man, do people still do that? I get wanting to browse someone’s history or see past posts for an idea of whether you might mesh, but asking one for site admittance seems a step too far.

 

3. Now this I’ve a contrary thought on. I remember a scene in one of Isaac Asimov’s robot-related books, in which people are actively trying to figure out whether this politician is a robot or not. The protagonist mentions that she has never seen him eat in public. The politician agrees to eat, and ventures a guess: because she is a woman (in the 1950s), she came prepared with food in case he consented.

 

In an era where women were expected to be prepared for (and preparing for) every possible scenario before they stepped out the door – he was right. She had an apple ready in her handbag.

 

There are things I consider and have a much different perspective on because I’m gay. I think that, when given proper consideration, a character’s sexuality (or even a character’s lack of awareness to their own preferences) shapes that character as much as their height or skin color might. So, it’s an optional field on our site.

 

That said, I get the frustration of it being a tacked on trait rather than an aspect of a character that ranks up there with gender.

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By Wit & Whitby

[Plot] | [Rules] | [Wanted] | [Discord]

18+ | Victorian Era | No App | No Word Count |

PoC & LGBT-friendly | Newbie-friendly
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I hate writing out powers but I force myself to do them. They are just long and drawn out. I know that are needed to make sure that a player understand what the powers do. I hate it just as much as my members. 

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For me, it has to be:

  • Applications that ask for your character's seven deadly sin, heavenly virtue, what medieval humour they are (i.e. humorism) or temperament (i.e. choleric or phlegmatic), what their moral alignment is, etc, in settings where none of these are relevant or applicable, I am shitting-you-not. Some non-Harry Potter fandom sites, such as real life, do Hogwarts houses of characters and other irrelevant fandom divisions.
  • Asking other details like: favourite food/genre/music/hobbies - and not just their likes and dislikes but asking you to list their positive and negative traits (for some of my characters, I might be able to think up a plethora of negative traits and not much positives) or ask you to include one defining characteristic (how can I narrow a person into one word? Although I love the idea of just putting "asshole".)
  • Applications that divide characters according to personality characteristics, like whether they're a dreamer or aggressive. It's less including it and more having to read the different arbitrary usergroups to figure out which one might character could fit in. Especially when these usergroups have feck-all to do with the plot.
  • Also shippers/plotters. I hate them as a whole so having them a part of the application process is just about pure Hell for me.

 

 

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I despise sample posts.

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