The Like/Hate Thread

[Kaden]

The problem with numbers in a game like this is that they either have to determine everything a person can or can't write, or they have to be abstracted enough that they serve for interpretation. I believe you're familiar with the "Ballpark" system Greg has used in the past, and that's a good example of something we choose to avoid here. Something similar was considered, but if we said "you have to have 50% Strength or higher, you lift up to 500 lbs." people start feeling like their creativity is being inhibited.

Fair enough, but I think it would be foolish to assume that everybody who has been 'at the top' of the rankings have always busted out quality posts. Some days we're feeling it, some days we're not.

It's equally foolish to assume that people used "I only want to make quality posts" as an excuse because they wanted to go play whatever new video game had come out instead of write. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, but the fact of the matter is that, regardless of what you think of the quality, all of the people at the top got there by making the choice to put their writing before anything else they could have been doing. I won't lie, as one of those people, it's frustrating for me to hear arguments like this. I could have played a game, or gone outside, or done something else, but I made the choice to write and I don't think the rewards for doing so should be diminished because someone else didn't and then said it was unfair.

Ok... done with that. I'm over it.

I do not feel that what we have now is completely balanced, at least, not as it is currently being interpreted.

Just for point of clarification, I wasn't saying that what we have here is balanced. I was actually saying that it, specifically, is not. Also saying it never will be.

As far as what to reward and such, I think in most cases, perhaps a static or staggered prize should be offered. Depending on the effort put in, the reward can range from a range of of 3-10XP

Always consider that you have to have people actually doing manual updates. If a player is RPing to get the XP for a new move and, to them, it's important to what they do next with their character, they have to wait for someone to grade/reward/whatever their work, then they have to wait for someone to add/grade/whatever their new move is, and then... you see what I'm getting at.

Also, I strongly advise against thinking you should ever grade on "effort." One of the reasons that we decided to use word count for XP is that we avoid having to reward someone for being a better writer than someone else. Or, conversely, we punish someone for not being as good a writer as someone else. It's incredibly demoralizing to see someone who made the exact same length post as you get rewarded more for what they did. You also can't determine how much effort someone put into something. Even if you don't think the quality is very high, it could taken them twice as long to write it as something you consider very good.

I feel that competition shouldn't be about who has the highest combat ability.

Then what should it be about? Here's the problem with a site like this. If Joe is simply a better writer than Bob, by an agreeably sizable margin, then Bob has no reason to ever try to compete against Joe. He will always lose.

You can call it "levels" or "CA" or "Ki" or just "awesome points" but if you have people working to reach a goal, then whoever reaches it first or more often is winning. It doesn't have to be through a number, either, it can be abstracted through number of abilities or amount of zeni or types of items, but the competitive aspect of it will always be there. The only solutions, really, are to remove stats in-and-of themselves, or have them set so that, once created, they never change.

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Ok, so, this next part I typed, then deleted, then retyped. I know it's probably going to be irritating or... I dunno. It'll sound bad. All I can say is that I'm trying to be straight-forward, not insulting. So... yeah...

It sounds like what you and Greg want (and it could be a ton of people, you two are just the only ones who've said anything) is a system where you can put it down for a while, then come back every now and again and still be on-par with the people who never stopped. The system that is here right now was specifically designed to avoid that. I think that's horribly unfair to the people who continue playing. That said, it probably could have been mitigated more than it was, but live 'n' learn.

While I appreciate the desire to maintain an level playing field, I can't caution you enough against diminishing people's efforts.

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I also am curious, why don't you make a new RPG? It sounds like there's enough that you want to change (both mechanically and canonically) that you'd be best served just starting with a blank slate. One of the things that we wanted to do was turn Chubbs into a hub of (apparently failed) RPGs to keep the community, but appeal to people in ways that the current stuff didn't. If you have ideas you want to pursue, that's the course of action I'm inclined to encourage.

EDIT:

No worries. I like discussing this as we are now. I do not feel you are being defensive, and I hope I am not coming off as that way, either.

You're definitely not coming off as defensive. I actually was being defensive earlier in this post, but just for the bit about people at the top making quality posts. Hopefully nothing else came off as defensive/was offensive.