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+-- Forum: Out of Character Forums (http://alex.zulenka.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=8)
+--- Forum: RPG Discussion (http://alex.zulenka.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=125)
+--- Thread: Activity Surge! (/showthread.php?tid=16865)
Activity Surge! - Sigfried Hunin - 07-15-2011
I think that bunnying makes it a better writing system, personally. It makes us become more invested in other characters and gives us much more freedom to create an actual story instead of just a string of events.
Activity Surge! - Jarka - 07-15-2011
So, regarding retention of newcomers/elitism...
I think there should be a forum specifically for nubs. I was actually really excited when I saw the new forum today, but I then realized that it was just advertisements (which I should have realized by looking at the title of the forum).
Since everybody here has more or less known each other forever (or knows at least one long term member and weasels their way into the group), any new person that stumbles to this site probably gets the feeling that they're an intruder or the odd one out. I know I felt that way at first, despite knowing Sigfried and Piper.
To invert that, one selling point of this site that we haven't focused on is the fact that we are an actual community, too. Most of us interact outside of the forums in one way or another, and the social side of our site almost always has something going on, even if the RP part is fizzled out for the moment.
It would be really awesome if we could have some place dedicated for new people (since the sheer amount of forums is kind of overwhelming at first). Honestly, it could get merged with the new advertising forum.
I'm thinking something like:
WELCOME forum
- Getting started
- Introduce yourself!
- New user questions/concerns
- Link backs
- Advertisements (what is now the Newcomer forum)
Getting Started would probably consist of a locked sticky thread with a brief explanation of who we are, what we do, and how to join. Also, a link to the Rules and Joining subforums, natch. Maybe some sample RPs of different style writers to showcase the variety of writers we have, too (I'm sure we'd be able to get a couple of volunteers to write a short sample for dummy characters).
I think the Introduce Yourself forum would be really useful because then it's a little bit clearer when somebody is totally new versus when somebody is just an alt. It also gives us a little reference to their personality and interests, so it's easier for us to be more welcoming to them in the other forums.
The reason I separate new user questions from our normal forum is because it can be really intimidating to ask a question like, "What does CA mean?" in the current forum, which is usually used for a more advanced questions like fusion threesomes.
Then Linkbacks and Newcomers (with a new name, since not all newcomers come from other RPGs necessarily and I was confused by that at first, myself).
On top of the forum, I think there should be a Welcoming staff member whose job is to make new people feel comfortable on our site. Somebody who responds to each of the introduction threads and gives a new person a sense that they have somebody interested in them in their first forays onto our site. If the current staff feels overburdened in the status quo, just make a new staff member to do that. It's not like they're paid positions or anything.
I mean, if we can change people's perception from us being elitist/cliquey to us being a tight knit community, that little semantic change would probably do wonders for anybody who's hesitant about joining for that reason.
Activity Surge! - Super Buu - 07-15-2011
Some sort of mentor system could be good for that. Assign new people to a 'mentor' who will show them the ropes, answer questions and so on. If you don't already have a friend on the site, it can be hard.
Activity Surge! - Belle Hibiki - 07-15-2011
On new forums:
I think it would be really cool to have a Legendary Asylum analogue for the IC boards - a place where bunnying isn't the go-to, where short posts are standard, and is generally a place for fucking around with your character that doesn't require a large investment of time to participate in.
This would serve the double purpose of giving newbies who are uncomfortable with our bunny system a place to RP and earn XP as they adjust, as well as give older players a more casual, spontaneous place to play in.
Activity Surge! - Victoria - 07-15-2011
I'm on a couple sites where it's not allowed, BUT, when I'm with a person whom I know writes well and would do my character well, I give them permission. I like how that works. But, on that note, if that's how the site is run...most people can't write more than 100 words.
Activity Surge! - Nori - 07-15-2011
Vad Wrote:Alex's works because it harbors to people that do roleplays like this:
*walks into bar and sits down. Orders drink*
And there is nothing wrong with that. The people who write that style of writing have just as much fun as us, and progress further in their own stories.
I've never been a fan of controlling a person's character from the very start. Realistically Vad should be able to appear in front of Majicka and break her legs with next to no effort. However without asking for permission from me he realistically can't, without seeming to be cheap. In a fight where everyone controls there own characters and take turns it is much more fulfilling to me (in meh opinion).
Attack - person counters/defends - counters/defends- so forth until someone loses.
Just never have been a fan of controlling other people's characters, that's all.
Edit: Not saying that way is better, just saying that looking down on it is a form of elitism. XD.
Activity Surge! - Vad - 07-15-2011
I wasn't being condescending. I was telling him why Alex's is successful...
Activity Surge! - Kaden - 07-15-2011
Nori Wrote:And there is nothing wrong with that. The people who write that style of writing have just as much fun as us, and progress further in their own stories.
Who's looking down on it?
No one once said it was bad.
Activity Surge! - Jarka - 07-16-2011
Belle Hibiki Wrote:On new forums:
I think it would be really cool to have a Legendary Asylum analogue for the IC boards - a place where bunnying isn't the go-to, where short posts are standard, and is generally a place for fucking around with your character that doesn't require a large investment of time to participate in.
This would serve the double purpose of giving newbies who are uncomfortable with our bunny system a place to RP and earn XP as they adjust, as well as give older players a more casual, spontaneous place to play in.
I really like this idea as well. It would be really great for breaking through writer's block, too.
Activity Surge! - Celena - 07-16-2011
There should definitely be some kind of mentoring system. I would definitely be up for mentoring a newcomer and even rp'ing with them to help them build confidence.
I also like the welcome forum idea Jarka presented as well as Belle's.
Activity Surge! - Jarka - 07-19-2011
Yay to Kaden for making the Newcomer forum!
Activity Surge! - Nori - 07-19-2011
The staff introducing themselves made me chuckle.
Activity Surge! - Blue - 07-19-2011
You know, I've always had mixed feelings about any stat system. On the one hand it offers rewards to people who've been around a while or who roleplay a lot. On the other, a newcomer enters a world where they are pretty much insignificant in any sort of PvP encounter. I've been glad to see that the norm here seems to be that writing ability outweighs Combat Ability in nearly any situation, but it is still pretty intimidating to look at.
I was thinking that doing away with the Combat Ability number and keeping the XP counter might help in that regard. It would equalize the characters' strength across the board, for old and new members. By leaving the XP counter, you still offer rewards for roleplaying when character's use this XP to purchase new techniques and the like.
So while everyone will be at the same CA, the additional techniques and such earned by a player will grant them more options in combat/roleplaying which will in turn help that character just as much as any CA number.
I also like the idea of a place that people can roleplay in a relaxed way. The main draw, for me, of the Mafia games we played was being able to do that in some of the games.
Activity Surge! - Nori - 07-19-2011
I've always hated removing CA. I came to roleplay dbz, and I feel that power levels, or some form of that, are dbz. I know that's not fair to a newcomer, but I really don't care at this point. XD.
Activity Surge! - Belle Hibiki - 07-19-2011
See, for me, I'm starting to think the opposite. Right now it feels like we have a system where writing quality is the big factor, with stats as a tie-breaker.
The problem with that, in my eyes, is that it doesn't really encourage people to roleplay a lot. With stats, a player has a clear idea of how strong they are relative to the rest of the playerbase - they know that if they write, they'll move up. You could make the same argument about writing quality: if you write and read more, you slowly become a better writer. However, this 'betterness' is vague, undefined. More importantly, it's subjective.
On the other hand, if we go to stats being prime, there's no way a newbie is going to do much of anything in contests for the Dragonballs for years.
Ugh.
I have some thoughts on a new system, but I'll probably just make another thread for it.
Activity Surge! - Nori - 07-19-2011
My only problem with this system is it encourages quantity over quality, where the old one was the opposite.
Activity Surge! - Blue - 07-19-2011
The problem with a quality-based system is that it would place an awful strain on the staff, as they'd have to read all the roleplays and choose how to reward them. Even if we use a system where the members grade the roleplays and the majority wins, we run into the issue of whether or not people will actually grade them, or even if enough people will do so to provide an accurate assessment.
Don't get me wrong, I feel that a difference in strength is important in a DBZ roleplay. I just believe that a character with a larger amount of techniques can show that appropriate strength difference. Especially if we rework Power-ups to state what they do in terms of roleplaying instead of stat boosts. For example, if a Tier 1 power up approximately doubled your strength. A description like that would give a feeling of CA without actually needing to put the number out there.
Also, if I remember DBZ correctly almost the entire series revolved around brand new people showing up and either besting or matching the heroes. With a CA to hold that back, we could end up having fantastic new villians and powerful new heroes showing up and more closely follow the general theme of the show.
Hell, most of the time it was a new technique that saved the Z-Fighters, not all the time they spent training.
Edit: Another thing I would like to see would be an IC mentoring thing. The characters who are inbetween roleplays, or would like to include a new member, could invite someone to join them. Sometimes it just seems that a lot of character only know a certain number of people, and I think something like this would not only build IC relationships with new characters, but it would bring the universe together as a whole.
Activity Surge! - Kaden - 07-20-2011
Nori Wrote:My only problem with this system is it encourages quantity over quality, where the old one was the opposite.
The old one encouraged doing nothing for months at a time and still getting stats for it.
o.0
EDIT: By "nothing" I mean a single post every two weeks. Not literally nothing, but it wasn't much, and it was still enough to continue getting stronger.
Activity Surge! - Kaden - 07-20-2011
Nori Wrote:The staff introducing themselves made me chuckle.
How so?
Activity Surge! - Victoria - 07-20-2011
I was wondering that too. Why did it make you chuckle O.o? I think it's a great idea to have the staff known to the members
.