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Thoughts on word count


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As someone who began where the standard post was one line to one paragraph, I've found games with word counts to be a little daunting. It tells me that there's potential for a lot of extra detail that may not be necessary. Especially since sometimes, one line conveys exactly what you need it to. 

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On 6/27/2020 at 8:50 PM, Grimscythe said:

As someone who began where the standard post was one line to one paragraph, I've found games with word counts to be a little daunting. It tells me that there's potential for a lot of extra detail that may not be necessary. Especially since sometimes, one line conveys exactly what you need it to. 

 

Fun fact. I started RPing (at least on forums) where 6+ posts was the standard to be considered advanced. And not a creative writing paragraph. I'm talking they expected 6-12 paragraphs of 3-5 sentence paragraphs.

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6 hours ago, Morrigan said:

 

Fun fact. I started RPing (at least on forums) where 6+ posts was the standard to be considered advanced. And not a creative writing paragraph. I'm talking they expected 6-12 paragraphs of 3-5 sentence paragraphs.

That sounds absolutely dreadful. And a bit on the antagonizing side of things, honestly. >.<

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I haven't been on a site that had a word count requirement, but it is not something that would put me off from joining a site for as long as it was within reason.

I can certainly see the appeal of word counts in certain circumstances such as sites that run on an experience or money system; however, it is not something I would ever consider implementing myself.

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I personally don't care for word counts. I'm very concise with how I write and if I'm not given enough to work with, I sometimes have a tough time meeting them. And ultimately I'm doing this for fun, I don't want it to be a chore.

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When I started roleplaying, I would go looking for a specific word count as it was likely to be able to mean that the players would post the way that I did/do. I'm not sure that it was the best thing to do and while I never struggled to meet the requirements after finding a site with *zero* word and daring to experience the freedom and fun I have learned that it is just far more enjoyable to be able to just write and not worry about some mandatory expectation or anything. Just the experience and fun of the story being shared. 

 

That's why the sites I have or join are ones that do not have any word counts either. 

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I actually prefer a small wordcount, somewhere around 200 or 250 words. I can type three to four hundred if I really get going, so it's not a huge deal for me. The kicker comes in when making sure you're giving the other player something to respond to, and not just straight up introspection, or useless infodumps.

Since that's how I usually write, I would be mildly ticked if I were on a site and got a one-line response. And so, I don't join "no wordcount" sites.

It's the same level of personal preference where I only join sites that have separate accounts for each character.

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Not a fan of word counts; though sometimes I can understand why folks might implement a word count. I flucuate with my word count; anywhere between 100 to 700 sometimes depending on the situation, the inspiration I have for that particular scene but I'm not going to pad out a scene just because I need to obtain a word goal if there's plenty that moves the scene on with say 200 words over the 500 words.

 

However, if there is a word count - I've learned my lesson to sort of be more wary of sites who require 600+ words per post because it leads to burn out very quickly in my opinion. And unnecessary extra details that you wouldn't usually consider.

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Two sides to this coin. Word counts can be a useful tool, but they can be seen as restrictive and stressful too. Some players can even see them as a form of punishment.

 

Its all in your implementation. Personally I like them if you use word counts as a way to reward players.

 

For example I set 500 words as a maximum number of words. So any post over 500 words counts as multiple posts. This is done to reward players who write longer posts with their equivalent activity.

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I've never enjoyed word counts. I've seen some stunning one liner posts, and also written my share of posts that went into many, many, many hundreds. I think not having a word count, for me, is a matter of just trusting my player base to make the best decisions for them! We've yet to run into any problems yet.

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I used to be a stubborn word count lover, when I was searching for sites I would look for a 300+ minimum. But as I've grown a bit older now, I've actually foudn having no word count so much better for writing- do I still write 1000 word posts? Hell yeah I do. But also, there are some which only need a few lines. I've had players write the 300 word minimum and I didn't really understand what actually happened in the post because of all the fluff they added. I feel like no word count just takes away the stress of posting too since theres no penalised target for me to reach.

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Minimums hit me right in the anxiety, even when its an amount that I can write without effort most days. I might be able to write multiple posts in a day upwards of 1000 words without a minimum, but with a minimum I barely scrape 200 or 300 words and struggle to write anything else that day. If everything else about a site is perfect for me a minimum won't make me avoid it. However, I'll end up writing less per posts and fewer posts overall than if it didn't have a word count.

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I'm a fan of word counts and I think they have their place, but I also think that they can be a hindrance to some people and I understand why. Sometimes the muse doesn't strike and you don't have much to say (or there isn't much to say in a thread) so a word count does make people feel as if they have to fluff a post unnecessarily. However, there are some people (and I count myself amongst those) for whom a word count is never a problem because they don't come up against that barrier.

I love them, but I choose not to have them on my site for that reason.

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Personally I feel that if you can write something meaningful and fun to reply to in just a few sentences, then who is anyone to tell you you need to write more? Less is more, and all of that. As long as you're giving something of worth to the other people you're writing with, then it shouldn't matter how many words you pack into a paragraph.

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Personally, I do find this sort of structure and guideline helpful, but as a hard rule, I'm pretty opposed. I've been on sites with a word count in the past and while arguments to the contrary could certainly be made, I think it's a pretty lazy and blunt instrument for monitoring quality. Sometimes a brief and quippy reply is really what's appropriate for the character and situation, and not everyone gets as lost in thought as my stream of consciousness writing tends to entail.

Some writers with different, equally valid styles can suffer and stress due to these kinds of constrictions, and I find attentive, compassionate staff to be a much better means of quality assurance. Insofar as that even needs to happen?

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