An RPG school would be nice.
They had an RPG school, but it was taken down. The Mods got tired (Well Lady Myuu atleast) that their help threads were being abused, many noobs (not newbs if you know the differance) entered the school and posted such posts in there withouth reading the RPG rules, the Thread guidelines, the Thread Rules, I would not second guess why Lady Myuu the headmistress of the RPG School gave it up. The school wasn't being used. I think that we, as the Role Playing Community need to admit and want the school. You all suggest it, but how many of you would actually use it? There is a small steady stream of newbies coming into the RPG forums, some have decided to upset the older crowd by not reading the rules. My suggestion, not to the mods, but to the people who read this:
READ THE RULES! GUIDELINES! AND OTHER HELPFUL STICKIES THE MODS HAVE WORKED HARD TO CREATE!
We have all the required threads, it's just that no one uses them.
I like the RPG School and Plot Help Ideas. IF the Plots were better, then the forum crowd would come back. The lags are also a bit of a problem, but, as they say, patience is a virtue
There is something of a 'plot-help' thread,
RPG IDEAS - Share yor thoughts here. You can post your would-be plot, and eople who read it there could give their oppinions whether it is good, needs more juice, etc. The fact is, that it is seldom used by everyone. Only a few members actively use that thread. Yes the lag helps, but if one was truely loyal to RPGing, they'd make their time arround the ussual Lag.
Other problems are that some RPG’s are complex, get a ton of people, and then the members can’t focus as much on joining new things.
RPGs are Complex, yes, many people prefer complex RPGs with 20 paged plots. The more information given, the easier it is to understand, and construct a character. Some RPGs have more then the reckomended ammount, some RPGs prosper with more members, others (Like PBA) fail. It is not that the members can't focus, but that they choose to put all their attention to one RPG. I ussually join two to three RPGs at a time, depending on the activety each one has. I write when I'm bored, however, I do not think my skills are masterful enough for the Fanfic section. You see, I'm too scared to venture into the fanfic section (>.> those people bite...I don't want my self-esteem lowered)
The newbs, like me in every RPG or Fanfic I’ve ever made here, could really use the help so that the more vicious, older members don’t get irritated.
And Help has always been offered, its just never requested or used. Also, not allot of people like Gary-Stus that have incredible powers coming from some Demon blood within that person. They don't like characters with uber attributes that are all powerful, People like pure kind-hearted heroes always putting stranger's live's before theirs, causing increasing strain on the body (strain on the body.... A FLAW! PEOPLE LIKE CHARACTERS WITH FLAWS!) Older members get irritated when their RPG sign up requirements are not used to a good potential, when someone gives a crappy sign up that took only five minutes to make, etc. experianced members like what many people have brought up in this thread EFFORT! Its just noobs don't put the effort, and newbs don't know of the effort till they try.
The older members may not go anymore because their standards exclude the RPS by less experienced members. The complaints towards the minimods are also bad. That just gets everyone ****** at each other, and that just makes matters worse.
That could be a reason, but its the noobs that don't put the effort in the RPGS that annoys us 'older members.' When I see a newbie coming to the forum, who's really interested in the RPG, I give him or her a chance, however when I see a noob enter my RPG who pus no effort into their sign ups, and has...a history...then like any other noble GM I'd be less likely to give them a chance until they shape up their act and put the effort we all had to put. One thing I don' like is enablers, the experianced people who accept two worded sign ups with the excuse "S/he's a newbie, this RPG'll help him/her grow." That could be argueable, but through my own past experiance, I won't make those mistakes again.
Minimodding as well hasn't really been a huge issue. There is either the aggressive flamings of minimodding, or the soft polite "no-no's" of minimodding. There once was a time when allot of members, one member in particular, used heavy aggressive minimodding, but that time is gone. Right now we see the polite minimodding which I don't find issues of, the mods don't really complain about it either. Innerflame's 'minimod' in this thread is what I'd consider polite and helpful (
http://serebiiforums.com/showthread.php?t=264648).
To really fix this, we need to help everyone with plot. With that, experienced members would be happy, the noobs would learn, the quality would be better, and the forum would regain its crowd
sorry, I disagree, this would not really regain the Forum crowd. In my oppinion, what would bring some experianced members back would be the lack of stubborness on the noob's end (as well for some experianced too), and a better work quality. Poor RPGs make me not want to really RPG, the uninspire me. It is also very quite annoying to see many noobs in the RPG forums instead of newbs. If people would WANTto learn and be better, I could not complain, its just that many people don't WANT to learn, and blame the staff when their rpgs get el locko-ed.
Myself, I would like to see more happiness in this shell. More acceptance and smiles. I would like to see people getting recognized for their good characters and post and having people feel free to mention that they are doing a good job. I would like to see leaders be concerned about being active and friendly, having fun with its fellow members at the same level as enforcing the rules. I would like to see less bitterness, blithy contempt for inexperience and harsh words for individuals who have yet to develop their skills. I would like to see people be able to come here to learn and to improve , and be a branching out point to the greatworld of RP story telling.
Your demands are tough, but a can do. I myself, when issuing an RPG would be more business in the Game Administrating point of view rather then have fun (Fun's for when the RPG starts). The thing is, people get upset through the fact that no one listens to them, that they still hold noobish ways. I'm happy for the newcomers who want to improve, its just those who do not want to improve, and whos sign ups...just BLEH! I let individuals who want to develope their skills into my RPGs, or give them a nice huge long 3 page critique to tell them what they need to improve on. As a GM I am not "Denied, cause you are too over powered" No, I'm like "Denied, due to the fact that your character is a gary-stu. You character is a Gary-stu because etc...etc." I to think we need more members who actively want to Role Play, its just that people need to make an effort.
There is enough there to hash responsibility out to everybody. In my view, if the forums is dying... and clearly if there is this much dissent in the forums... something is being said and needs to be heard. To reiterate our moderator's words in another way:
MAKE AN EFFORT (TO MAKE THIS A FUN, NURTURING AND WELCOMING ENVIRONMENT TO PEOPLE WHO WANT TO RP)!
Although we all should make this a fun environment, SerebiiForums does have higher expectations then must (Which I like, cause then the real writers get to shine). Plus wouldn't you want to see an RPG with 10 posts but two page MS typed posts? Or a 50 post four line posts RPG. People like Quality over Quantity here.
And hell, if that means some of the rules need to be bent or looked at again. I would argue that the law is made to make order, but it is grossely insuficient to bring about happiness -- only we, the members of the community, can be charged with doing that. If the law inhibits us too frequently, how could we feel to be members of a community when there is a little underlying fear of being found "out of bounds?"
It is true, that the rules could be a little bit more flexable. The feeling thatone is competely barred down by rules is not good, however, the mods have placed these rules in order to limit as much noob-invasions as possible. The rules are a pesticide in the organic garden, which is both good and bad.
I saw a few people request an RPG school. Thing is I believe there was a RPG school open to help newbies improve and learn to at least make a decent sign-up along with learning to make your posts a decent size instead of just a few sentences. Though it was closed probably due to lack of interest.
Actually it was closed due to noobs not reading what the purpose was for and just waltzing in there, giving Lady Myuu a headache.
As for standards they're not the problem. It's the newbies who don't read the RPG forum rules and the stickies. They think that they can just waltz right in here and make a sub-standard RPG expecting people to want to sign-up and join. I mean really every once in a while I see a newbie post a crappy RPG and I can automatically say that the person has not read the rules and the stickies that the mods post for the benefit of the RPG forum. So I would say that perhaps RPGs should be made that will help newbs to get used to the way things are done and give them a bit of experience in a RPG to boot.
Those, my friend, aren't newbies, but noobs. Does anyone know the differance between Noob and Newb anymore? Or am I too old!? Whisper-Snappers! I've councilled a few newbies into this RPGing world, I've attempted to help noobs, but often got flamed. They don't want to change, and would rather be hated by all instead of making the effort. Newbs though, who really would want to chagne would put in the effort and become Greatness.