12-30-2010, 05:36 AM
Did you guys miss me? I hope so. =]
So, to begin, I'm going to state that I agree with REM's principles of Acquisition and Retention, and I'm going to talk about the first one first, hopefully briefly.
Acquisition: I'll admit that when I first joined CDBZ, I was hesitant about I would fit in, writing-wise. I was an experienced role-player, but not in the style of writing that we do here. The style of writing that we have here is more novel-style - third person limited, but with control of other characters' actions. I was a veteran of the Harry Potter role-playing games where if you even thought for a second about controlling anything another character said or did, you'd be crucified.
Admittedly, this is what kept me here. When I realized that this was the type of writing I enjoyed (I never stayed on the same Harry Potter role-playing game for more than two weeks), then I was here. And I think that there's a whole market of people like that waiting to be tapped into. There's countless role-playing "resource sites" that offer an advertising space that we could use. I know that we think we're elite to all of them, but as a person who was formerly one of them, I know that there has to be people on those sites that would come on here and find that they're having a blast.
And this is why I think we should continue using custom characters; we're looking to market ourselves, and by keeping custom characters but making the the universe more identifiably DBZ, then we win both battles - we get the die-hard DBZ fans, but we also get the Harry Potter role-players who might write amazingly, but are stifled by the world they live in. CDBZ is different that the role-playing experience offered in that world, and I think that's our most marketable aspect, and I think we should exploit it.
And now I'm going to move on to talking about the system.
Retention: I'm going to say that I'm a huge fanboy of the Unified Currency idea, and if you combine it with the Relative Returns idea, I think it's damn near perfect, and could easily get that way with some slight alterations. I think, in my opinion, that positive reinforcement is most definitely the way to go, and that we can utilize these two systems to make sure that things go smoothly, simply, and players feel as if they're doing something.
Now, the thing we have to think about is the way that we implement the Relative Returns idea. The idea behind Unified Currency is pretty obvious, and it is easily implemented (aside from the rewarding of Prestige, which will be a topic I cover later). I think that we can utilize a level-up system in order to make sure that things stay on an even keel, and that levels should be how we judge power levels. What I would do is create certain requirements for levels; say, you need to have this many experience points and this many techniques before you can go to level two. Perhaps I should use an example.
I'm Juno, a level one half-Saiyan. I roleplay my first quest, "Search for the Golden Monkey Relic," and submit it for grading. It's decided that I gain 500 Prestige for this quest, because I did a super mega foxy awesome hot job on it, right? Right. I go to my training page, and it reads something like this:
The idea is kind of similar to how you gain promotions in your job in the Sims 3. You need to be doing good work, but you also need certain skills, and you need so many contacts and connections in the world to move up the ladder. Except here, it's based on Experience and Techniques. I take my 500 Prestige and spend 250 of it on experience, and I'm maxed out there. I can't buy any more experience until after I've grown to level two. I need one more Technique before I level up to level two, so I go to the custom tech thread and price myself one, or I go look at stock techniques to see if there's anything I want. Luckily, I find one, Kamehameha, that's worth 250 points. I spend my 250 points on it, grab the Kamehameha, and add it to my page. Oh, look, I have all the requirements for level two, so I become Juno, level two half-Saiyan.
There could, also, to make sure the DBZ element remains be abilities/techniques that you're required to have before you can advance to a certain level. For example, you're required to buy either Flight or Super Leaping before you can advance to level three.
This also solves Orion's problem of people spending more on one than the other. Now, the problem I see with this system is, "what if people don't want anymore techniques?" To that, it'd require slightly more work, but a player would sacrifice a technique, but have to spend more points in experience before they could level up. Example. I didn't want to buy a technique yet; so instead of buying Kamehameha, I sacrifice my level one technique slot(s) and have to pay extra in the way of experience; I have to pay 500 instead of 250, which, thankfully, I have. Now, this would be on a case-by-case basis and would require a bit extra effort from staffers.
However! In order to off-set this, we implement a community grading system, to lessen the work load on staff members. Now, here, we face the problem of making sure the community looks in and reads things, grading them. I generally don't read as much as I should, but if I were getting rewarded for reading, I most definitely would make an attempt to offer at least a small amount of critique. I'm sure someone can think of a rewarding system that would help to push this concept, because I really, really like the idea of implementing it.
If you got nothing else from this tl;dr post, I hope that you got the part about Acquisition, because I really think that the elitist attitude that sometimes comes up is keeping us from getting new members. We have to reach out, and though they might stumble at first, give these people a little time, and they will acquaint themselves with the system, and either leave, or, what I think will be the majority, stay, like myself.
So, to begin, I'm going to state that I agree with REM's principles of Acquisition and Retention, and I'm going to talk about the first one first, hopefully briefly.
Acquisition: I'll admit that when I first joined CDBZ, I was hesitant about I would fit in, writing-wise. I was an experienced role-player, but not in the style of writing that we do here. The style of writing that we have here is more novel-style - third person limited, but with control of other characters' actions. I was a veteran of the Harry Potter role-playing games where if you even thought for a second about controlling anything another character said or did, you'd be crucified.
Admittedly, this is what kept me here. When I realized that this was the type of writing I enjoyed (I never stayed on the same Harry Potter role-playing game for more than two weeks), then I was here. And I think that there's a whole market of people like that waiting to be tapped into. There's countless role-playing "resource sites" that offer an advertising space that we could use. I know that we think we're elite to all of them, but as a person who was formerly one of them, I know that there has to be people on those sites that would come on here and find that they're having a blast.
And this is why I think we should continue using custom characters; we're looking to market ourselves, and by keeping custom characters but making the the universe more identifiably DBZ, then we win both battles - we get the die-hard DBZ fans, but we also get the Harry Potter role-players who might write amazingly, but are stifled by the world they live in. CDBZ is different that the role-playing experience offered in that world, and I think that's our most marketable aspect, and I think we should exploit it.
And now I'm going to move on to talking about the system.
Retention: I'm going to say that I'm a huge fanboy of the Unified Currency idea, and if you combine it with the Relative Returns idea, I think it's damn near perfect, and could easily get that way with some slight alterations. I think, in my opinion, that positive reinforcement is most definitely the way to go, and that we can utilize these two systems to make sure that things go smoothly, simply, and players feel as if they're doing something.
Now, the thing we have to think about is the way that we implement the Relative Returns idea. The idea behind Unified Currency is pretty obvious, and it is easily implemented (aside from the rewarding of Prestige, which will be a topic I cover later). I think that we can utilize a level-up system in order to make sure that things stay on an even keel, and that levels should be how we judge power levels. What I would do is create certain requirements for levels; say, you need to have this many experience points and this many techniques before you can go to level two. Perhaps I should use an example.
I'm Juno, a level one half-Saiyan. I roleplay my first quest, "Search for the Golden Monkey Relic," and submit it for grading. It's decided that I gain 500 Prestige for this quest, because I did a super mega foxy awesome hot job on it, right? Right. I go to my training page, and it reads something like this:
Quote:Juno - Level 1
Experience: 0 (needed for level 2 - 250)
Techniques: none (needed for level 2 - one)
The idea is kind of similar to how you gain promotions in your job in the Sims 3. You need to be doing good work, but you also need certain skills, and you need so many contacts and connections in the world to move up the ladder. Except here, it's based on Experience and Techniques. I take my 500 Prestige and spend 250 of it on experience, and I'm maxed out there. I can't buy any more experience until after I've grown to level two. I need one more Technique before I level up to level two, so I go to the custom tech thread and price myself one, or I go look at stock techniques to see if there's anything I want. Luckily, I find one, Kamehameha, that's worth 250 points. I spend my 250 points on it, grab the Kamehameha, and add it to my page. Oh, look, I have all the requirements for level two, so I become Juno, level two half-Saiyan.
There could, also, to make sure the DBZ element remains be abilities/techniques that you're required to have before you can advance to a certain level. For example, you're required to buy either Flight or Super Leaping before you can advance to level three.
This also solves Orion's problem of people spending more on one than the other. Now, the problem I see with this system is, "what if people don't want anymore techniques?" To that, it'd require slightly more work, but a player would sacrifice a technique, but have to spend more points in experience before they could level up. Example. I didn't want to buy a technique yet; so instead of buying Kamehameha, I sacrifice my level one technique slot(s) and have to pay extra in the way of experience; I have to pay 500 instead of 250, which, thankfully, I have. Now, this would be on a case-by-case basis and would require a bit extra effort from staffers.
However! In order to off-set this, we implement a community grading system, to lessen the work load on staff members. Now, here, we face the problem of making sure the community looks in and reads things, grading them. I generally don't read as much as I should, but if I were getting rewarded for reading, I most definitely would make an attempt to offer at least a small amount of critique. I'm sure someone can think of a rewarding system that would help to push this concept, because I really, really like the idea of implementing it.
If you got nothing else from this tl;dr post, I hope that you got the part about Acquisition, because I really think that the elitist attitude that sometimes comes up is keeping us from getting new members. We have to reach out, and though they might stumble at first, give these people a little time, and they will acquaint themselves with the system, and either leave, or, what I think will be the majority, stay, like myself.