Incoming Negative Nacy
So when Arcana first started, I was already wary of how it would go. I'm more cynical than I like to let on and, not having been part of a single RP that's been fully completed on this site, thought having an 'main' RP would be asking for trouble. Still, I held out hope that I would be proven wrong and joined up to show support. Hell, I even wanted to do more and further help and
started a pseudo mission-based request board so members could PM with me and partake on a solo RP experience in case they got bored while waiting for others to post. I'll be the first to say it was a half-assed idea and I quickly stopped caring, but the general feeling I got from Arcana as a whole was that it was going to need as much help as possible so I hope I did more good than harm. It's easy for me to assume this as well because of the lack of real interest (three or so people PMed me) that was shown, as well as the fact that shortly after I closed the request board down,
someone else took its mantle and, as far as I'm aware, never got a single PM or request to send a PM for a request.
Now when Arcana first started there was plenty of interest for it, but that interest quickly tapered off as the first event went on, and when the event ended and people went their separate ways, things hit an odd bump. I've talked a little bit about this before but even though people (myself included) want to have creative freedom to do anything they want, when presented in a sandbox-like mode where nearly everything goes, it's hard to come up with anything. When you don't have direction things can really get muddled down unless a clear objective is given to them, and here's where things seriously started to falter. Throughout the course of Arcana we've had various times when our GM went missing and while this is totally understandable since real life happens, it isn't totally understandable to drop the load on someone else and hope she can deal with it when all she really offered was help with the RP every so often, which was then largely misinterpreted. (I was going through the OoC to look for the exact post for that point, but couldn't shuffle through 30+ pages to do so. Please excuse the lack of a source on that.) The exact 'transfer moment' is
confusing at best, but since Rena became more and more distant with Arcana due to outside forces, reigns of the RP were handed to KitKat and though she managed to catch up with the goings-ons, it still wasn't enough to keep the ship afloat. One moment that definitely stuck out, however, was somewhat near the beginning of her taking over when a user commented on how things were going,
taking a jestful jab at KK. It was a joke and
the person apologized and made things right, but it still goes to show how quickly and easily we take things for granted, especially when this is supposed to be our 'main' RP.
So as we (or 'they,' I should say since I was largely off-board at this point) went along as best they could, two things started happening. Two interesting things. The first 'interesting' thing was also the last nail in the coffin for me and it was
the template of a new user who, funnily enough, never actually went ahead with posting in the RP. Right off the bat we had another member (who I honestly deeply respect) point out various flaws the character had. The thing is, it worked. The member recognized the flaws and changed them in a way he thought would be acceptable, but there were still a few problems to iron out, which that same first member pointed out. At the same time, I also decided to pitch in and help balance things out, as did KK since the new member didn't seem to fully understand how RPs worked. But someone important was notably missing from this exchange, which is jarring considering I'd assume the 'main' RP of KHI would mean helping newer members learn the ropes of how to RP from the people who are running the show. Oh, I also want to
point out another member calling out my criticism. I thought it was cute and reinforces my earlier point of easily taking things for granted.
The second interesting thing that happened was the return of the well-received
"Traces Of" series! Finally, we can have a 'main' Kingdom Hearts Role Play on Kingdom Hearts Insi--wait. I doubt I was the only one who thought it odd that Traces of Aftermath appeared while Kingdom Hearts Arcana was, for a lack of a better term, bleeding out. (Please note the date of posting of these posts and those surrounding it for these examples as they coincide with the date Traces of Aftermath's OoC thread was create by Rena on August 3, 2015.
Ex. 1 was created on April 13, but didn't seem to be going anywhere anyway so we'll give that one a pass.
Ex. 2 was posted on July 29, and the next post for that thread wouldn't come until a month later, August 30th. The third example needs two links since they exist on separate pages.
Ex.3-A's post was on July 20 and wouldn't get a follow up until August 3 [
Ex.3-B]) This is very odd because while I understand her not being able to keep up with Arcana, I
can't understand her beginning another Kingdom Hearts RP instead of returning to her first one
first in order to make sure it could sustain itself, especially when it's
supposed to be our 'main' RP. This, along with the fact VMs were sent at the beginning of Traces of Aftermath's birth asking people to join it drained Arcana of its userbase for a more safer choice. (no link/source for the VMs. This would be a powerful source, but I'm not willing to wade through dozens, if not hundreds of VMs to prove it. You know if you got one and if you didn't feel free to ignore that point.) If Aftermath is getting this much love, shouldn't this be the 'main' RP of KHI instead?
If these last few paragraphs feel as if they're a bit aggressive, then that's probably because I strongly disliked the outcome of all this and I'm a little disgusted and depressed at how it all went down. To a lot of people this place (The RP section and Creative Writing section) is just a site to have their kicks. They come home from school or work, write up an RP post or two, have a good time, and that's it. It's largely the same for me but it's also a kind of home on the internet. When I first boot up my browser, this is the link I initially click. I post
all of my writings here even though I only get one or two responses for them and I largely doubt I'd be writing at all if I didn't join this site way the hell back in 2008/2009. As a result I want there to be quality role plays here, especially if they're coming from respected long-time members. Instead what we got was, what I feel to be, a half-baked idea that was largely left to the community to sink. And yeah, I know this was because the creator had real life issues to take care of and it most likely couldn't have been averted, but if this was supposed to be KHI's 'main' RP, shouldn't there have been safety nets
already in place in order to prevent something like that from happening? Looking back in, I can't see myself ever returning to Arcana for various reasons, one of the largest ones being the lack of trust I feel. If I'm going to join an RP I want it to last long enough for me to enjoy myself--I don't even ask for the RP to
even finish, just that the entertainment value outweighs the time and effort placed into it by all members. So my thoughts are that if Arcana is going to continue, or restart, or whatever, there should be genuine care and attention devoted into it.
And that, in the average word count of a single update of one of my CLASSIC story posts (with just as many grammar and spelling errors, I bet), are my thoughts on Kingdom Hearts Arcana. Feel free to hate, flame, and take anything and everything I said surprisingly personally.