Lack of player independance, and why this is a massive issue for the forum

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

I'll leave further discussion on my part until I get Heartless actually rolling. WHich i'll admit I'm slacking on a bit. However early signs show some players are embracing it. ((SHadow Sketches and Stratos really are.))

[Shadow Sketches]

In Pokemon: LD I've tried to account for this through the Side Quest system and desiring player input; however, we haven't gotten out of the intro yet. I hope to be out of the intro and into more player choice by mid-April, but that's pretty aggressive considering what the timeline has looked like so far.

The way I figure, it will provide an opportunity for people to give their character and their background a bit of spotlight while still allowing others to do their own thing. I've also made an effort to encourage this by indicating that Side Quests are the only way to acquire a "Rare" Pokemon.

It remains to be seen how effective this system will be, but I hope that between the Side Quests I've been designing and the occasional player-designed one we'll be able to see more user-created content throughout the RP.

Oh god, I hope we can finish the intro by the end of the month. I know it's a bit of a push considering how the rp's been progressing but I really want to move on to bigger and better things already and I'm sure the others feel the same way.

I'm actually looking forward to seeing how the sidequests work out, it'll be nice to see them in action. And perhaps I'll be able to introduce an old friend into my own sidequest when it happens, we'll see how things go.

I'll leave further discussion on my part until I get Heartless actually rolling. WHich i'll admit I'm slacking on a bit. However early signs show some players are embracing it. ((SHadow Sketches and Stratos really are.))

I just wanted an excuse to get Icarus involved in some action as soon as I could. As well as getting a rivalry going on early in the story so it can lead to some interesting developments later on between the characters. Who doesn't love having someone that wants you 6 feet below ground?

But when it comes to Heartless I'm expecting it to be pretty open world since that what it seems to be like atm. Where the characters can choose whether they want to go to the library and read all day and possibly unearth some hidden secrets that might aid them later on, or if they want to get into a chest bumping match with a dragon in the hallways. Giving people the freedom to lead their characters where they want (as long as they're within the 'limits' of the world). I'm looking forward to seeing how the world is going to grow and progress as we enter the more meaty parts of the rp.

Though it does make me sad looking at the other rp's that have been cancelled (especially since one of them I had signed up for, but unfortunately didn't get the part but had been lying in wait in case I ended up getting another chance to enter the world.) It honestly scares me to death to think about because if either of the rp's I'm in were cancelled for whatever reason I would be really disappointed. I'm looking forward to seeing how they progress and if someone were to halt that progress completely I'd feel frustrated. Not only because all the work I put into it would go to waste but also because if I join an rp is because I think it had potential and I want to see where it goes, so it would be as if someone is throwing all that potential into the garbage bin and saying "forget it".

Though when it comes to player initiative...well. I personally usually try to take the initiative and get a scene going if I think it will be something interesting to play out. But I'm also wary about them because I don't want to step on others' toes while I do it, I try to find the balance of trying to do something out there that perhaps you didn't expect but not ruining any of the hosts or other character's plans in the meantime. Of course, accidentally messing with someone's plans will probably be inevitable (who knows, I might have done it already and I just didn't notice or flat out didn't realize) because I'm not a mind reader so I won't always realize what others have planned. So in a way I'm sure others that don't take initiative as often probably don't do it because they're scared of messing something up and looking like an idiot or handicapping their character.

[Commander]

Let's just look at the bigger picture before we start throwing things here and there about the problem getting worse. First off, people are going to come and go from an RP as we all have real lives and eventually get less time to do activities such as RP especially ones that have to be survelianced daily to the point people my just honestly forget and eventually grow bored of it. This is the part that nobody can really control and you can't expect RPers to stay around forever as writing in general takes a lot of commitment and acceptance it's not perfect (why do you think writer's sometimes call what they write crap...even if it is golden?).

I think the bulk of the issue is that people just aren't that interested in RPs like they were a while ago. It's kind of like the fan-game Expose. There was a large boom and now like most of those games are out of comission like I said they'd be. I even told a number of people that this is a huge commitment and needs a lot of work which at some points might get boring or tedious. The roleplay section has also kind of hit that stage. We've lost quite a number of really good and interesting RPers as the above paragraph explained and it just can't be helped. With fewer writers coming into the RP sections, this place is eventually just going to die. That's just going to have to be accepted if new RPers don't find their way here. There are a few things you can do to attract more people:

1. The first and foremost is to let the creative writing grow and florish. We have all we need to let that place grow, but due to the lack of feedback, it's sort of in a stalemate as feedback is very important to help writer's grow and feel motivated. I was originally stepping out of the RPs due to someone needing to be there which is half the reason I dropped so many RPs (along with the lack of motivation) because I've been with a writing community before and I know how it feels to get nothing out of people reading it. Getting a brutal, but honest comment is so much better than just empty or no comments at all. It's just common sense that if they creative writing section grows, the RP section will grow as well since it's more or less a collab of writers. This alone would allow RPs to flow more smoothly as you have dedicated writers compared to random people.

2. There should be more RPs that appeal to what's trending on the site right now. If there's a time to do a fire emblem or Pokemon RP, now's the time to do it. Pokemon will always attract people around here as that's half the reason we joined. Hence why they're the biggest and long lasting. This'll draw more new people in compared to something they've never heard about such as the Fates series. Fire Emblem would be another good one as quite a number of the community enjoys it here and it's simplistic enough to create a grand adventure people can interact in. I had issues when doing mine, but I seriously do recommend making one as it appealed to quite a number of people. I still have people who mention my old FE RP if you don't believe me. Anyways, you get the idea now.

3. Keeping it simple. I mean I love Stratos's really long and well detailed RPs and even posts, but they are sometimes intimidating. Even for writers, I cannot stress it enough that simplifying and overly complex idea is not a bad thing to do even if it doesn't give you what you want. I'll admit I'm a bit jealous of Startos's ability to write like that, but I've figured out over time what works for me and trying to be him would only hurt my writing. Ironically, we're trying to do that to some RPers on here with those 1-line posts. We don't have enough of the people we're looking for (aka writers) so a reward system for making quality posts should motivate people to go away from that. I mean even comments about what a certain user RP'd would do wonders as I said earlier, feedback motivates people to continue. Motivation is needed to write.

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I kind of got a little rambly on the third point, but all of that should make a bit of sense. I mean you can keep throwing ideas around and around even original ones, but right now the RP section has hit a low point. Writing is always about taking risks and even falling flat on your face. Once you remove the risks, aka trying to force rules on people, it can get boring. I'm the type of writer who wants to encourage people to dance along the line of the rules. I'm not even against them bunnying or god modding. I tend to be the type of person willing to screw with another person's plans even if it ticks them off a bit because obviously, they are going to be forced to rethink their whole plans and even may want to get back at me. Why do you think I wasn't afraid to do things with Henry most people wouldn't?

Obviously, there are going to be boundaries that people shouldn't break. Bunnying and God modding are frowned upon because of how unfair it is. Those are things that you should put on the backburner though. Instead, think about why you joined and got into RPing and why you don't want this place to die. Focus on that when trying to get people to join and finding newcomers. RPing is about having fun and it's not everyone's cup of tea which is why people leave. If you want people to stay, you have to let them have moments like you did instead of focusing always on rules and things people do wrong.

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

I think the bulk of the issue is that people just aren't that interested in RPs like they were a while ago. It's kind of like the fan-game Expose. There was a large boom and now like most of those games are out of comission like I said they'd be. I even told a number of people that this is a huge commitment and needs a lot of work which at some points might get boring or tedious. The roleplay section has also kind of hit that stage. We've lost quite a number of really good and interesting RPers as the above paragraph explained and it just can't be helped. With fewer writers coming into the RP sections, this place is eventually just going to die. That's just going to have to be accepted if new RPers don't find their way here. There are a few things you can do to attract more people:

1. The first and foremost is to let the creative writing grow and florish. We have all we need to let that place grow, but due to the lack of feedback, it's sort of in a stalemate as feedback is very important to help writer's grow and feel motivated. I was originally stepping out of the RPs due to someone needing to be there which is half the reason I dropped so many RPs (along with the lack of motivation) because I've been with a writing community before and I know how it feels to get nothing out of people reading it. Getting a brutal, but honest comment is so much better than just empty or no comments at all. It's just common sense that if they creative writing section grows, the RP section will grow as well since it's more or less a collab of writers. This alone would allow RPs to flow more smoothly as you have dedicated writers compared to random people.

3. Keeping it simple. I mean I love Stratos's really long and well detailed RPs and even posts, but they are sometimes intimidating. Even for writers, I cannot stress it enough that simplifying and overly complex idea is not a bad thing to do even if it doesn't give you what you want. I'll admit I'm a bit jealous of Startos's ability to write like that, but I've figured out over time what works for me and trying to be him would only hurt my writing. Ironically, we're trying to do that to some RPers on here with those 1-line posts. We don't have enough of the people we're looking for (aka writers) so a reward system for making quality posts should motivate people to go away from that. I mean even comments about what a certain user RP'd would do wonders as I said earlier, feedback motivates people to continue. Motivation is needed to write.

Things i want to address.

On point 1. Holy heck yeeeeeeees. I swear no one ever gives feedback especially for me. I know I'm the mod and stuff and I feel like fro some reason this intimidates people into like... never giving me any feedback lol. Because they are afraid that they don't know enough etc... or that they can't be constructive. Wanna know how to be constructive? Tell me annnnnnything. Tell me what you personally liked, what you thought was cool, if a characters feels awesome to you , if they connect to you. Seriously... it makes me smile like an idiot when people say those things. Like Shadow Sketches just mentioning in Heartless that he loves Babble and Barbara... makes me so happy and feel like writing them is just soooooo damn worth it. Really and honestly just that makes me feel so great. I try to do so as a host at times as well when I really really want to make a player know I love something they did or really enjoyed it. I try to as much as I can. Honestly think I don't do it enough. But I really love a lot of what my players are doing. Really, Heartless I love you guys. You've been a really fun group and I enjoy that some of you are really starting to embrace what I'm trying to do. Sorry I'm dropping the ball on you guys a lot.

on 3, we could stand some more of that. ISmple doesn't necessarily mean bad. It's a balance of detail and keeping it brief that is needed. That way, we get a lot of what is going on, but people trying to keep up aren't overwhelmed like crazy. ((it's why I'm breaking up Heartless posts more, since they are fuuuuuucking huge otherwise. I could have done the entire scene of the prologue already, but.... no one wants to read that monster in the middle of a bunch of interactions... so I've been cutting it up into digestable pieces. I honestly still think the part with Solomon and TImes was... way too long...

[Shadow Sketches]

On point 1. Holy heck yeeeeeeees. I swear no one ever gives feedback especially for me. I know I'm the mod and stuff and I feel like fro some reason this intimidates people into like... never giving me any feedback lol. Because they are afraid that they don't know enough etc... or that they can't be constructive. Wanna know how to be constructive? Tell me annnnnnything. Tell me what you personally liked, what you thought was cool, if a characters feels awesome to you , if they connect to you. Seriously... it makes me smile like an idiot when people say those things. Like Shadow Sketches just mentioning in Heartless that he loves Babble and Barbara... makes me so happy and feel like writing them is just soooooo damn worth it. Really and honestly just that makes me feel so great. I try to do so as a host at times as well when I really really want to make a player know I love something they did or really enjoyed it. I try to as much as I can.

Honestly I think one of the best feelings as a writer is knowing someone likes your characters. I wish I could write up a character as lovable as Babble but if it had been me writing for Babble I would have not made him anywhere near as great as how Hukuna is writing him. They're always those characters that you might not be able to tell exactly why you love them so much but you do. I hope that later on I'll get good enough to make a character that others can enjoy, since aren't characters the main thing that makes stories so great?

I do have to admit that I will usually not want to criticize someone like Hukuna because their writing skill is better than mine and I'd feel like I won't know what I'm talking about. "Who am I to judge when my posts aren't as amazing?"

But I know I should get out of that mindset because any criticisms should always be appreciated because it could always help better yourself as a writer. No matter where it comes from, that's what I think at least.