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Roleplaying Overhaul



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OmniChaos

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I've been thinking of how to revitalize certain aspects of this section, and how to restore activity and community focus. I've tried the Tavern, and while it has some activity, it isn't the central hub I had hoped it to be. I tried the Academy, and it proved to have minimum success. Even the CotW, with promises of actual, tangible prizes, has met with failure. So, I give up. Obviously I'm doing something wrong in how I'm implementing things, so I've decided to go back to the drawing board.

So, I plan to relaunch the Roleplaying Tavern, the Roleplaying Academy, and the CotW, and have them implement everything decided upon.

That's where you come in: I want these threads to incorporate something you would use, to one extent or another. So please, tell me. What would you like seen done? What is something you want these threads to do? These threads are meant for the community, to help or to just chill and talk. Tell me what you, the roleplaying community, want.
 

Ordeith

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Perhaps we should allow things to just grow organically—at least for a little while? If we simply encourage roleplayers to present new concepts without fear, quality roleplays will be made with time. The stigma for a roleplay to "succeed" seems to have become a handicap to experimentation...

The Tavern, Academy, and CotW contest should continue as resources for the section, but we needn't push them quite so forcefully. Good ideas generate activity, rather than the other way around.


Above all, don't think that your endeavors have been fruitless.
The section just needs a little time; it's unrealistic to expect an instant fix.
 
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Orion

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Find alternate ways to set up roleplays, so that not everything is of the same formula. Roleplays without templates; word limits per post so people really have to push themselves for good characterisation, or set things up over multiple posts so that if someone's nearby they could actually be interrupted; roleplays where - so long as people can enter in a reasonable narrative sense - they can go into the roleplay without permission or confirmation; stories where people's characters face a legitimate risk of irrevocably dying.

No matter what setting, genre and other features you slap on a roleplay, almost all of them rely on the same foundational structure, and I think people would be drawn to something different - if not to try something new as a long term project, then to just experiment with a new system that might drive their own alternate setups.
 

Chromatic

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I recognize that, as someone who hasn't actually roleplayed here in well over a year (or has it been more like two?) I have little place to call anyone out; but it does seem like my thoughts on this matter do need to get out.

Since I'm sure I've rambled and stumbled on my points in the following statement, I'll just give a few bullet points to start.

- Gimmicky stuff (Tavern CotW, etc) probably won't work at this point. We would need to pull in more active members for those to accomplish anything worthwhile.
- Actually roleplaying is kind of key. Anyone wanting to revitalize things that isn't already in an RP should either start one, or join one that has recently been posted or otherwise seen more recent signs of life and promise.
- If you've got an RP project in the works, then follow through with it. Perhaps focus yourself on one project at a time to ensure that it actually gets off the ground and runs smoothly, rather than spreading your attentions around multiple works.

I honestly think that, given the recent track record for discussion in this RP section, this thread is going to be wasted effort. The same will probably go for relaunching the Tavern, Academy and CotW. Only a fraction of the community ever engaged in those establishments and most of the people that did are either gone from the site entirely, or simply withdrawn from active participation.

I've made similar suggestions to this before, and I feel that they've always been either ignored or argued against. Regardless, I'll reuse the idea(s): if you guys want to improve the activity here, then get active. And I don't mean running the Tavern and starting contests; like I said, those probably won't work with the activity in the slump that it is. I mean doing things like picking out a roleplay that still has signs of life, and put in a character sheet. I know that most of what's still "alive" probably has zero appeal to any of you, but at this point, actively roleplaying and actually getting roleplays off the ground is where things need to kick off from, a start back from square one maybe, but it's still worth a try, and as I've seen, none of you (and I recognize that I'm no saint in this regard) have been doing much in the way of joining RPs the way you might have done back in the day. And with the pickings as slim as they are, it's best to not get picky. Perhaps it would benefit to consolidate the people that are still around and "more" active and formally invite them into an RP. Or perhaps simply try to establish something with more of an open world feel, invite the people that you know are active and work with whoever you get as cast, and maybe that will be incentive for other people to get motivated and (back) into the swing.


I should point out, and I suppose this goes on all three of you above me to some extent (I recall that you were all involved in its planning), that there was all of the discussion on starting KH Eclipse as the "main roleplay" for the section; the discussions which, in my opinion anyways, came to some reasonable conclusions and could have been easily moved into the next step months ago, which never happened. I feel that there was plenty of interest in it, and from the perspective of someone not within the "inner circle" of the project, it felt like it was just abandoned.
 

Sarge981

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Im about to bring something to the roleplaying thread that I guarantee will bring some life back to this thread. I promise I will shed light on this very soon.
 

OmniChaos

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I should point out, and I suppose this goes on all three of you above me to some extent (I recall that you were all involved in its planning), that there was all of the discussion on starting KH Eclipse as the "main roleplay" for the section; the discussions which, in my opinion anyways, came to some reasonable conclusions and could have been easily moved into the next step months ago, which never happened. I feel that there was plenty of interest in it, and from the perspective of someone not within the "inner circle" of the project, it felt like it was just abandoned.

KHE isn't abandoned; not by a long shot. Ordeith and I have been fairly busy lately, so it hit sort of a standstill. Now that certain things in my life have been resolved, I'll be able to resume moving forward with this project.
 

Chromatic

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It may be a bit late to try that, unless of course the folks that were involved in he discussion are still floating around enough to be roped in. Or otherwise, unless the people that are here now can find it in themselves to join up and make it happen.
 

JustSnilloc

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Since I'm new to this section, I'll add some input here. See, I've been RPing since '06 or '07, and even started my own site for RPing. As is the way of things however, things don't always go perfectly. My site has seen its high points and its low points. Now without going through its complete history or my own, I'll give you some advice from personal experience.
Reactive and Proactive Leadership - There are two ways to lead, reactively and proactively. Leading reactively means that you wait for things to happen and govern them as you will. Leading proactively means that you're (actively) making sure things are happening the way you'd like to see them done. Obviously one is much easier than the other, but this alone can have a huge impact on things being where and how you want them.

My advice? Advertise. Get the word out and be the one to take it places. Don't mistake this for spam, rather if you see an opportunity to mention it to someone then do so. A signature can help with this. Creativity can help here too. Ignorance is a lack of knowledge, and ignorance alone can and will keep people from here.

Attractive Layout - No, not some emotional or romantic attraction, but something that draws people in. This is probably the main reason I've stayed out of this section until now. I mean it isn't bad once you take the time to go through it, but at first it just seems jumbled and hard to navigate. We all know the old saying "You can't judge a book by its cover." but there's also plenty of sayings about first impressions, let's just say that once people click on this part of the site we want to give them a reason to stay and not click away.

My advice? Organize things differently. I'm honestly not sure how it needs to be done, but the way it is now just doesn't seem to work (at least IMO), the word "jumbled" comes to mind. Again, I'm not sure how this issue needs to be tackled, but it's still an issue that needs attention.

Activity - Interestingly, activity and inactivity feed themselves. Activity breeds more activity and inactivity is the same way. There are other variables too of course, but a leader should lead by example. Actually, people expect that. If leaders aren't doing anything, then most people won't feel motivated to do anything either. This doesn't mean that if leaders are doing stuff then flocks of people will come to contribute to activity, but it does help. As a side note, it's hard to tell what is and isn't active here (at least to a newcomer like me), that actually translates into inactivity.

My advice? Simply be more active or get others to be more active. Also like I said, make it more clear what's active and what's not. Some form of a news bulletin may help in this area.

---

This is all I have off the top of my head, if I think of anything more I'll let you guys know. I'm looking forward towards what's to come :)
 

Lord of Chaos

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I apologize for replying to this with an opinion almost a month from the last post, but, as an older member, I figured maybe I would offer my experience with this. My advice is pretty simple, as well, and you can either agree with it, or dismiss it and move on.

Role-Playing comes and goes in the forum atmosphere. Whatever we may do, as members or as moderators, really will not have a large impact over the forums. The anomaly is the battle role-play... but admittedly, I only introduced here, what was present in most other role-play communities. It was nothing new. Then again, that's the thing--there's nothing new left to do, and we're a community mostly made up of people who have outside obligations or the attention span set only for video games.

Honestly, the best thing you could do would probably be to just shut down the RP section in general and let (what little) traffic migrate to somewhere else if they're that set on it. I mean, used to, a post almost a month old would be on at least page 5, if not further back... but still being on page one? I rest my case. I hope that, perhaps, people could prove me wrong, but I sincerely doubt they will.

Anyway, I'm not trying to insult anyone, just giving an opinion. Cheers.
 

OmniChaos

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I fear that that may very well be the inevitable outcome, at least given the section's current path. But until that day comes, I will continue to fight to restore this section and rekindle the spark of creation into the hearts of those who enjoy what roleplaying has to offer.
 

EightBitRed

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I could take a crack at restoring this section, but it's going to take time and some might disagree witht he RP I have in mind. But I'll suggest it, and depending if I get my little all-star team together then its possible KHinsider RP section might enter its second golden age in this section! If kH vets are willing to help me with my little project, then by all means~
 

OmniChaos

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Well, to be fair, it's going to take a lot more than a single roleplay to restore life back to the section. We have to reestablish the community before there's any hope for this section to be reborn.

That said, the more people coming together helping, the better chance the section has. So by all means, go for it.
 

purgatory

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hi, new here myself. Didn't see much posting going on besides this thread and a few others, looking for a roleplay to participate in. Suggestions?
 

Javelin434

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hi, new here myself. Didn't see much posting going on besides this thread and a few others, looking for a roleplay to participate in. Suggestions?
It really does seem kinda dead around here. If you have no luck finding and being accepted into an RP here, I got a suggestion for you that involves another KH related forum website that has a more active RP sub-section compared to this...
 

Mason Stark

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I think it's a mixture of problems, from not enough active members to no interest and that sort of thing. I know that one of the reasons that I stopped posting as frequently as I used to is because of time and the effort it takes to create a post. Usually, posts are long, depending on the roleplay, so they do take some time to write up. Another reason is that a lot of older and active members have left, while the people still here are active but not active enough. A lot of people grew up with the section (I definitely did) and now the older members have less free time on their hands to post. I feel like new members aren't interested/may be intimidated by the section sometimes, too. (May just be me, but it feels that way.)

We are working on fixing the problems, but it's going to take some time to do. It has been this way for a WHILE, though, and it's going to take some time to get the proper solutions to increase activity.
 

Javelin434

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I think it's a mixture of problems, from not enough active members to no interest and that sort of thing. I know that one of the reasons that I stopped posting as frequently as I used to is because of time and the effort it takes to create a post. Usually, posts are long, depending on the roleplay, so they do take some time to write up. Another reason is that a lot of older and active members have left, while the people still here are active but not active enough. A lot of people grew up with the section (I definitely did) and now the older members have less free time on their hands to post. I feel like new members aren't interested/may be intimidated by the section sometimes, too. (May just be me, but it feels that way.)

We are working on fixing the problems, but it's going to take some time to do. It has been this way for a WHILE, though, and it's going to take some time to get the proper solutions to increase activity.
Well for starters, why not be a little lenient on those whose typing abilities are limited? Once you can suck them in, learning from others and improved writing are bound to follow. It worked for me and now I'm on par with some veteran writers.

Also consider keeping posts sorta brief so it isn't a mini-novel in every post. I've skimmed through what seemingly is the only active RP here and admittedly, it is a bit intimidating. now given enough time, I can write up to that sort of level, but it takes too long and personally, I dunno if I'm gonna commit given the very low activity here in this sub-forum.
 

Mason Stark

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Well for starters, why not be a little lenient on those whose typing abilities are limited? Once you can suck them in, learning from others and improved writing are bound to follow. It worked for me and now I'm on par with some veteran writers.

Also consider keeping posts sorta brief so it isn't a mini-novel in every post. I've skimmed through what seemingly is the only active RP here and admittedly, it is a bit intimidating. now given enough time, I can write up to that sort of level, but it takes too long and personally, I dunno if I'm gonna commit given the very low activity here in this sub-forum.
I am definitely up for that: I completely understand that not everyone can write at that level and I don't expect anyone to do so. In the past, it was looked down upon to have bad grammar/spelling and newbies were turned away by older members for it. (This was a long time ago, though, and I hope that it's not a big thing now...) You learn by making mistakes and seeing what others do. But, even though members don't necessarily do this now, the section itself probably comes off that way: that you have to have perfect grammar and spelling, while also be able to write the mini-novel posts.

For keeping posts brief, that depends on the roleplay itself, but it has become so common to see super long posts in the sections that it's just the norm. I do understand that it is freakin' intimidating to see that, but we can encourage simpler roleplays with shorter posts and that's one of the things that I want to do (...like with that roleplay that i forgot about... oops heh 8D;;). With some things, it's not necessarily something the mods alone can do, but we can help encourage members to do new things and that can increase activity in the section overall.

And, oh my goodness, thank you for sharing your opinions and everything. This is really helpful! ;w;
 
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