Membership Character Limits

[Guest Archaic Cyborg]

12 hours ago, Kit the Human said:

 

@Blackjack Bart my opinion on character limits changes with canons for the reason you mentioned. I haven't really come up with a solution that I'm comfortable with.

 

But I don't do claims. I can't help but wonder if there's a correlation between your feelings on character limits and your feelings on face claims.

 

I usually see more cases of players hogging important roles rather than hogging face claims; it's not how often you see someone's face, it's the fact that someone has claimed half the heroes or villains or whatever, and aren't using them. Or are using them for selfish wish fulfillment.

[Zahhy 130]

I don't do limits. I never want to stifle anyone's creativity.

 

My only exception to this comes when important characters go inactive. If a player has a character of rank (a highly desirable character that is important to main-storytelling) if they haven't gotten any play within 3 months - despite their other characters being active, I usually poke them and ask if they intend to retire that player or of they are comfortable putting them up for adoption. If they are not comfortable with either of those options, I ask them to get immediate play with that ranked character to keep it.

 

Otherwise, I let everyone (even myself) go crazy on making characters. I often adopt out the ones I've made that I'm "over" and unlikely to play again and encourage the others to do so (I give extra store credits for making adoptable characters, even if they were your own). I just make sure to carefully choose those players that get characters of rank to avoid having too many inactive characters that are important to the story.

 

 

[Icewolf 258]

I would say a character limit is OK if it prevents the hogging of popular canons as there might be people around who want to play them. (And from my time on a certain bird site, people hogging canons can cause very big problems!), I would say that for fan created characters there shouldn't be a limit as long as they are kept active, or as long as you're not holding back other writers because they are neglecting a story-line while they post on constantly on one thread.

[Zahhy 130]

Oh goodness @Icewolf that's a good point! I do actually put (unspoken) limits on ranked characters. Each player usually can get one of the qualifying type, but there are unsaid rules of activity level and knowledge of the game etc that gets taken into account before high level characters are just given out.

 

If we have an availability though and nobody new wants it, I allow players already of rank to request them so it's a lax system that fosters more fun for the game then rules on keeping shinies away from players.

[Sage 289]

I think I'm in the minority here where I actually appreciate character limits. I cannot handle upwards of 10 characters on an active site - it would run me into the ground. But I have the itch. I want to make a million characters and can get a little greedy. It's bad. And even though I know I can't handle that many, it's hard for me to stop. So that leaves characters that never get played and are just a drain on a site's resources. And it will leave any plot they're involved with hanging. It's a bummer for everyone.

 

So when I know I have a character limit, I am more frugal with my ideas. I actually make better characters for it, too, since I can pour that much more into them knowing I can't make any more. And for me, that's a lot more fulfilling. 

 

At the same time, though, I don't want to limit other people's creativity. That's one of the reasons why the site I'm on now has a "limit" of 3 free characters, but to get more, you'll need to spend points in the shop (that you get by posting, participating in events and development, helping out around the site, etc.) to open up that new slot for yourself. That helps me because I can better spend those points on my existing characters instead of making more, but it also allows others to keep going. And it's really easy to wrack up points. 

[the actual duck 9]

It is a problem when characters go inactive, especially if it's a canon or another crucial character in the RP. I have to say that I agree with Sage's points, as well.

 

I have really bad self-control and it's hard for me to stop myself from creating more characters than I can handle so having a site with character limits is a good fit for me personally. 

[The Duchess 8]

I'm on the fence about character limits as both an admin and a member. I have a character making problem and often as a member, limits turn me off to a degree. But as an admin I understand them because at the same time, I'm a character making machine but half the time... the older characters get left to the wayside for the newer characters. And I see it happen a lot on sites I've been on where members think they are active with all of their characters but when the numbers are shown, they really aren't. 

 

On my site, we don't necessarily have a character limit but more so that we have a character slot purchase after your first five characters. Points aren't all that hard to come by and if you're posting your five characters actively, getting points for another slot for another character to be made isn't all too hard. As long as you're active. So in a way, it regulates the members to ensure that they are active with their characters before making another character. 

[anthrxmilkshake 86]

@The Duchess That's something I absolutely agree with. There is a certain degree of worry that allowing people to make characters willy nilly can mean they'll end up with 20 characters, but only play ten of them. Now, this can mean several things depending on other things. Are they taking up slots of a staff approved species? Are they using FC's for characters they don't use that others might want to use? Have they integrated those other characters into the site in other ways that are now holding up a bunch of other people due to being unposted for so long? I feel like a good way to negate this is giving over so many characters, and than making anything else purchasable like you've done. That way they're definitely posting with their characters and active enough to have purchased another slot. It's something I'm looking into for Beacon Rock while I slowly work out bits and pieces of it.

[The Duchess 8]

Exactly! It took some time to come to something like that but we wanted something that didn't necessarily deter people from making more characters but more so made them get active and earn another character. Which I feel is a bit more fun. And makes the newest character worth it because you've worked for it. 

 

Sadly, I have enough points to buy a crap ton of slots and that's... proved a personal problem for me on my own site. I have so many characters and don't post many of them unless they are needed for plot reasons. However, lately I haven't posted at all because I just don't have any writing muse whatsoever. 

 

But yes, I think finding a compromise between the two - character creation limits and ensure they are active with what they have - is the key to it all.

[KAIJU 0]

I prefer restrictions, honestly. Characters get left behind if you just let people carry a million of them. If you can carry those characters to an expectation that's fine. I think sites that don't have "canon" characters are different. I know that having a canon taken by someone who has five other characters and can't keep up because it's unfair to everyone else who wants intereaction with that character?

 

I think everyone knows their limits, but sometimes get too deep in. I do prefer the "X posts and X things" requirement, it's not as restricting.

[Uaithne 543]

@Sage, @the actual duck, @anthrxmilkshake, @The Duchess, (and whoever else)

 

Have you thought about making your new character ideas as NPCs first to "try" them out before you commit to a new character?  It might help you curb your impulsive character making.

[anthrxmilkshake 86]

Nope, and I won't do that, either. I enjoy my freedom at making characters. I like being able to decide how many I can personally handle without outside perspective on limits from other people. NPCs don't really interest me. I just like having a large cast of diverse personalities at my disposal. Doing an NPC first wouldn't help me curb that, than I'd just have seven thousand NPC's and a train track length list of pending applications.

[Dragon 673]

I dislike character limits, but I have never once run a site where one or more players haven't abused the privilege and started screwing up the game for everyone else. I can handle a lot of characters when I have time, so I know there are others that can do it to; the problem lies with those that think they can manage, but actually can't. One of the biggest problems that I see get stirred up is that someone with a lot of characters might not be as invested in certain plots as someone with fewer, so they are slower about posting to those threads. This often makes the other player feel like they're plots don't matter, and because to them that's their favorite story arc, all the sudden they're gone because they aren't getting what they need out of the site any longer. 

My solution has been to create a "soft" character limit. In other words, my players can make as many characters as they please. However, after an initial 12 free-make characters they have to start "paying" for new character slots using the points they earn by posting. The cost of a new character isn't very high, and they can combine points from any of their extant accounts in order to purchase a new slot - because I understand that some characters just get used more (my lead character has almost two thousand post, and my lesser used hover in the low hundreds). There's nothing wrong with that at all.

 

 It isn't a perfect system by any means, but it does give myself and everyone else at least some level of assurance that high character members are actually using the characters they make rather than churning them out to stroke their own egos, losing interest, and screwing the rest of us in the process; because players that are actually active have no trouble at all paying the point cost of a new character. 

So far this has done a pretty good job of keeping things level, and it successfully weeded out the problem character-factory members who in the course of a year made over 20 characters not a single one of which ever actually made over 20 posts - most of them had less than 5-10. The only ones that have ever complained about it were the problem members that forced us to install the rule in the first place, and since most of their plots were stagnant no one was all that sad to seem them go. 
 

[Huskerdust 625]

I need to make all the characters. On a private site with a friend, we each have like 300+ characters each and it is amazing. Heheh. 

 

Personally, I don't really give ten hoots how many characters people have or even if they're all active. I don't believe in face hoarding or whatever. There's millions of faces to choose from and our site doesn't even REQUIRE them. If a person's biggest concern is that "their" face is taken, they can keep walking until they find a site where they are. 

[Kaycakes 78]

My site doesn't need limits. It's niche, it's small, and I really enjoy seeing what people come up with. I even allow radio silence from some of those characters as long as the player is active with 2+ of them. I also like a variation of the same archetypes or themes because different things can happen for different outcomes. I don't even like having terms on character creation, like the whole how many posts to make or whatever. I only do that for creating groups, subforums, or taking up a high ranked character, because buddy, if you take a high ranked character our plot depends on and vanish, I'm coming after you. >_> Maybe. 

 

Therefore, my expectations are the same if I go to another site to play.

Also...

 

On 6/24/2017 at 9:33 PM, SithLordOfSnark said:

I don't do limits. On my own site, one of them anyway, I have close to 200 characters and I don't want to be forced to stop.

Chris, Chris, Chris. I stalked you on your site a few days ago. I was reaaaally considering joining DoTF. Then I saw who's who. Then I saw HOW MANY OF YOUR PLAYERS HAVE OVER 30+ CHARACTERS. And youu! YOU! Had so many. I was in awe, so in awe that I went to my coadmin and gave her the link. I told her, count those babies, baby. I thought she was bad for character hoarding (which I'd never judge, btw, it's my goal to have moar), but even she was impressed with you. ;)