If You Could Change One Thing in the RP World...

[musicdiva1331 34]

^^^ agreed @Worst Witch

 

it gets to be really rough when it seems like folks have given up on the places they own or open. Every board goes through lulls or transitions. Especially around school restarts/holidays. etc. It's tough when you've been dedicated somewhere, like super consistent, for a really long time, and then just one by one, watch everyone else give up until the owners are like "we're not gonna worry about advertising or bringing in anyone new or activity checks or posting ourselves at all. we're just gonna be members only". So everyone just stopped posting. It's just there, like a graveyard of what was a really awesome place. It's really sad. A run of a year. And then out of nowhere. no idea why.

[iamMuse 7]

Drama. Even in the 18+ realm, I feel there is always at least some form of drama. I try to avoid it, but in staffing often you can't. 

[MissQ 90]

Greed. 

I feel like roleplaying is becoming less about collaboration and compromise and more steered towards the "me me me" agenda. Everyone wants to take away something for the thrill of it all, but not sit down and make beautiful storytelling. It's like we've (generalization) become too focused on what we want out of the hobby that we forgot it's better when we're all pulling together for the same goal. Unleashing a lot of negativity when someone or something doesn't fit our picture of how it's supposed to be. Instead of communicating, there's this build-up of toxic waste and nothing good can come of it. 

 When did we forget this was meant to be a fun experience as a group and not just an individual? 

 

I don't know if that makes any sense. 

[Elena 546]

Activity is made by people. Instead of leaving because it is not enough activity (while it is some), you should have stayed and generated more activity. With you, with me and with the others, the site would have been more active. This way, it is even less active with a person.

[CovertSphinx 710]

7 hours ago, Elena said:

Activity is made by people. Instead of leaving because it is not enough activity (while it is some), you should have stayed and generated more activity. With you, with me and with the others, the site would have been more active. This way, it is even less active with a person.

 

For the amount of times I've heard "I like your X but your site just isn't active enough for me" I could pay for Jcink Premium without using my own money lol

[Bishop 172]

If I could change one thing, it would be that there were more Megs in the world. Meg is a player that has had her ups and downs with muse and school. She comes and goes sometimes, but she is by far the most thoughtful and kind writer I have ever known.

 

Just now, she spent her entire Saturday to make sure that the many players we have on the other side of the world could enjoy an event that us on our side do a lot of because there are a lot more of us there and it is easier on the ones running it to start when we can slip away from families/work (evenings mostly).

 

But she spent all day playing with our Europeans in an IC D&D event.

 

That is what this hobby is all about isn't it? Sharing the love.

 

<3 <3 <3 <3

[StormWolfe 557]

On 11/17/2017 at 5:37 PM, Uaithne said:

If you could change one thing in the RP world (as we know it on this part of the internet), what would it be and why do you choose it?  And, if you so desire to answer: is this change plausible?

 

Well, wow! So many of your brought up things that I would love to see change. One of the big ones for me was the do it this way because that's the way it's done statement (paraphrased). Just had a discussion with someone about that on one of my sites. They wanted this and this and this because that's how everyone else did it. I said, "...but I'm not everyone else. I'm me and we're doing it this way..."

 

Yes - do things your way and not just because all other sites do X and not Y.

 

What I would like to see change and I doubt it ever will, the large number of players who seem to need - or demand - instant gratification - personally as writers or for some aspect of their characters' stories. I've seen more drama due to Player X not getting the story they want, the relationship they want or the reaction they want immediately. This attitude (?) was heavily prevalent when I started RPing back in the stone age and seems even more so now. The patience to develop a character seems to be dwindling to nothing.

 

I'm not sure how plausible seeing this change happen is. There's a huge impatience factor involved and so many people that are involved in RP - in my experience - have the attention span of a ferret on crack. It's all about the shortcuts to get from Point A to Point C without going through or even acknowledging Point B. Personally, I'd probably like to stop at Point B, explore it a bit, look at the major landmarks, enjoy the story building.

 

However, to that end, my sites write in a time linear storytelling format. We allow multiple scenes to occur with the currently open time-frame, but require that everyone pay attention to the events unfolding around their characters. Not all events would affect all characters. In fact, not all characters would even know about all events. It does keep Susie Q. from meeting Sammy B. in Thread 1 and having 8 children and a house on the lake in Thread 3. We still allow and encourage the smaller character plots. They just have to unfold as the whole story unfolds not independently of it.

 

Great discussions and points from everyone! I enjoyed reading this.

[Jacob 58]

Instant gratification!  So many people demand short applications and posts.  They usually condemn those like me who keep to old ways.  I'm a rather punctilious man now.

Edited February 11, 2018 by Jacob

[Blahblahbertha 8]

If I could change one thing about the rp world, I would bring back short-term rping.  I love long-term, don't get me wrong, but I started out on Neopets and I miss the freedom.  Trying out a new idea or genre or character that may or may not be for you.  Developing a character for a larger project.  Finding rpers you mesh with through actually writing.  Doing a plot with a shorter horizon.  (Sometimes I just want to tear through plot without having to feel like I need to move more slowly in order to keep it "long-term", or having to feel like I have to add more when we come to the conclusion.)  Or even just not having to commit– knowing I have time for an extra rp now.  

 

I don't think it's likely to come back any time soon, at least not on a forum.  I started a board with this concept a few years ago, and it never took off, and Barbermonger has a rapid-fire/fast-casual forum that basically sits empty.

 

Though I wonder if there's somewhere out there on social media people are doing this?

[featherstone 69]

@Blahblahbertha I think the commitment to create a skin, rules, etc plays a part there. You work hard, you want it to last ideally forever (even if it'll shut down in a few months but that's another story...).

 

I believe there's something like that on FB, but the environment isn't the best. There are sites like Ongoing Worlds and Giant in the Playground that might be close to what you're looking for.

[Blahblahbertha 8]

22 minutes ago, featherstone said:

@Blahblahbertha I think the commitment to create a skin, rules, etc plays a part there. You work hard, you want it to last ideally forever (even if it'll shut down in a few months but that's another story...).

 

I believe there's something like that on FB, but the environment isn't the best. There are sites like Ongoing Worlds and Giant in the Playground that might be close to what you're looking for.

 

@featherstone  Thanks for the information!  I may try to research the FB group to see if it's for me.  Ongoing Worlds and GiantITP have the structure I'm talking about, with the ability for subgroups within the forum to create their own games, but are still pretty geared towards long-term rps.  And I forgot to mention, even on one-on-one rps, I see this tendency.  And of course, an existing board that lets you create threads for a one-shot, long-term rp already has a skin and whatnot.  So I'm still not sure what accounts for the lack of interest.

[Dragon 673]

1 hour ago, Blahblahbertha said:

Though I wonder if there's somewhere out there on social media people are doing this?

 

Check out Morrigan's 1x1 Fun coterie here on RPG-I. 

[Morrigan 1,826]

Just to add to the temptation @Blahblahbertha

 

[Lawman 88]

Less judgmental attitudes overall would be a godsend. I mean, for people who often claim to be relaxed and non-competitive they certainly seemed fond of trying to hold their preferences (detailed apps or simple apps, long posts or rapidfire posts, all-ages or 18+, etc.) as some kind of objective standard for good roleplaying. And better yet, to judge others while complaining about being judged wherever they go - I mean, what goes around comes around, you know?

[KainZilla 17]

I think the thing I would change would be to end people's reliance on the "I just don't have a muse" excuse. It has become so ubiquitous and usually translates to "I don't feel like writing and am just going to watch TV but I want you to think that I am thinking about it." Yes, sometimes it can be difficult to figure out what you want to do with your writing but the solution to that is to work on it. The "no muse" fallback is divesting yourself of responsibility and blaming ethereal inspirational powers and it always feels so silly.

 

If you want to write, then write. Work on it. Yes, it might be hard but just not doing it is not the solution. If you want to just sit and watch TV then do it, but don't put up the auspices.

 

I've heard it said by those far more eloquent than I that writing is one of those few jobs/careers/hobbies that includes within it a built-in excuse not to work that is indulged upon by far more people than not. I defer to Robert Evans and JF Sargent of Cracked here:

 

Quote

"Writers like coming up with terms, so we invented a whole new one for 'procrastination,' even though we didn't need to."  Writing is the only task where people think putting off doing it is an essential, even noble, part of the process. Nobody has ever died because their doctor had surgeon's block. Adolescents aren't starving to death in the halls of their school because the cafeteria team has cafeteria team's block. Imagine complaining to your boss about burger flipper's block.

 

Write or don't write. Stop excusing it.

 

[/rantdone]

 

^_^