Don't Worry, It's NOT A Rant. Still, READ NOW!!!

[Director Troutman]

What I'd like to point out, y'know, just as a random suggestion...

Why not, instead of expecting the staff and Vets to create the main storylines, write something yourself!?

I know it's a totally insane notion made of death and fail, but for crying out loud, do you think any of the 'Vets' rode on the coat-tails of the members before them--Wait, no, they WERE the members before them. We had to make our storylines for ourselves, and yeah, it's created cliques and whatnot, but as a rough point-out to start something for you, let me describe one such clique.

Taiku (previously known as Kazuki).

When I signed up, the first thread I had was fighting Shamino, which at the time I thought was just another fight. As a result of that I began threads with Maverik and formed a friendship (both in and out of character), ended up in Shaminos employ which brought about connections to Gilsin, Ajax and Maverik even further, as a result creating certain plot developments between Mav and I. (Which was developed over around a year, culminating in the 'Revelations' storyline and the big fight on the roof where Maverik took the quick way down.)

Now, during this time I was in the initial stages of posting with Victoria and Levi, Victoria and I grew close IC and as such, the ultimatum was placed upon me (with no OOC warning) to choose between her and my work with/for Shamino. In doing so, tensions were created with Shamino, which led to a series of fights he and I had over the course of a year, one of which resulting in Kazuki being seriously injured and meeting the helpful hands of one Dain Gavyns who assisted him to the medical centre of the school.

(Somewhere in here a tournament occurred which had me fighting Wolf, someone I can't recall and Sebastian. That fight with Sebastian is still my all-time favourite fight because it went awesomely and wasn't EVER discussed. EVERY post was just improvised, if something went out of sync, we just went with it. As a result, Kazuki became tournament champion his first time, so on, so forth)

From there, in the means of things, a member named Kokaku showed up and did his thing, got friendly with a few of the members IC and ended up tied in with Kazuki, Maverik and the rest. A random thread he made sparked a series of posts and threads which came together into something which became the 'Kidnapping Saga'. Now, whilst to our current standards the posts were not the best, at the time it was a pretty big storyline for me and involved at least a dozen different RPers over seven or eight different threads. This further developed ties, strained a few, but it was storyline and it was acknowledged, even despite early argument from the admin at the time.

Now, that's just around six months of RP development for Kazuki, well before any mention of Taiku was even in the works, and I didn't expect people to gift me threads and set up my storylines for me. I made them, just like everyone should. Yeah, the mass storylines are important but they're not worth a damned thing if your character relies solely upon them for development.

I know it can be hard to create a storyline sometimes, but here's a piece of advice. Stop looking around for inspiration and start looking at your character, because they're the person you control, they're the person you have to work with, not everyone else. When it comes down to it, if you can't do something good on your own, what can you hope for in a big storyline with the board affected by it?

Write, don't think that the entire board will look down on you for writing something YOU like, because that's the point. You want to be the goofball who acts like a nut every chance you get? DO IT! You want to be the vapid minx who plays tease to everyone? DO IT! You want to be the stereotypical manic depressive who hates everyone....Uh, I'd rather you didn't but DO IT!

I, as Taiku, have been going out of my way to remove myself from my regular clique of posting, finding ways to post in situations where new members (even a few old ones who just never posted with me before) can come along. It's working, slowly but surely, but sometimes the little, insignificant thread can bloom out and make something really, really good happen for your character. An example or two?

Kit Lee and Seigfried Rochefort. Their characters both had 'chance' encounters with Taiku, both resulting in situations where they can make new threads with him or people associated to him, and as such the network begins to fan out from a straight line into the spiderweb it should be. I mean, I know most of the frequenters on this site pretty well OOC, I'd like to find a way to get to know them all IC as well one way or another...

So yeah, while some of you might note that there's a lack in activity, there's still at least thirty, thirty-five people logging in at least once a day. How many of them have you actually RPed with?

In closing, think of it being summarised like this: The staff and vets should still work together for the big storylines on the board, after all they're the big events everyone waits for, but don't shirk off creating a personal storyline with a couple of other members that has nothing to do with the main board storyline. I personally think the reason so many folks are having trouble posting right now is they've not developed their character enough or, if the fact is their clique isn't online as much, they're not expanding their characters horizons.

It's up to you, not us, to develop your character. Leave the board storylines to us, and keep yourself busy with the other members in the meantime. See? It's not so complicated.

~Admin.

[(I'd like to state on the record that as I wrote this I gained the mental image of me on a rocking chair, eighty years old with a pipe and slippers on, wearing a smoking jacket and being sagely. I hope that mental image amuses you as it did me.)]

[Kyousuke]

admin said:

[(I'd like to state on the record that as I wrote this I gained the mental image of me on a rocking chair, eighty years old with a pipe and slippers on, wearing a smoking jacket and being sagely. I hope that mental image amuses you as it did me.)]

I just had to quote that.. Anyway.

I think your right. A lot of people have just been joining random threads and I myself am going to try to make some connections to get a storyline of my own going, but it's going to need more than myself and Leslie.

And for a prime example of someone setting up their own storyline that's really interesting I'd think of no one better, in recent memory, than Valencia. A Thus-Far Nameless Game would seem, to me, to be a shinning example.

[Pain Killer]

You still owe me a fight, Liam.

See? There's a thread right there! And it took all of two seconds to think of.

[Leon Loire]

Valencia deserves credit for being our Queen of uniqueness. She's really good at that.

And I like this rant a lot! Brought back good memories from the old board, and it made Liam and I have a nice chat and debate! In the end, all good stuff comes from old people! ;D

[Odin Reeves]

Adam, we need to fight sometime. It's been pushed off for far to long.

Look! Another thread. With Adam! He's popular for beaten's.

I'd also like to add that not everyone should wait for a freak of luck occurance to begin. I didn't start getting recognition until I made it to the finals of my first tournament, and so did my opponent, both of us having just over 200 posts. What I'm trying to say is you can't always get lucky, as that happening seemed like a 1/200 chance.

So, play your character, and reread what Liam wrote. It's amusing, if you understand it.

[Kei]

Word.



Since I know I can't just post one word, I'll have to bullshit.

Our administrator's right. And, even if you DO spend months on end on the board, there's still the high possibility that you won't be "popular". And honestly, I don't even know how this could actually "label" people; besides of the possibility that "VIP" or "vets" considers them so. The reason why these people gain VIP status, is because that's exactly what they are- skilled role-players (not the absolute best, mind you), social people, experienced people (in terms of knowing how things work in the board), and so on. They're people we can rely on. And, despite what you, as our members may think, the decisions made for the board are NOT done by Liam, Maverik, or even Kurtz alone. All these decisions are not done even only by the staff alone, but with the help and input of our VIP members. If we can't settle it there, or just feel that it's best not to just share it in between ourselves, we take it from all of us to board wide (OOC).

As for our administrator's post above. You know that thread I'm in with him and some others, in Legion? Yeah. That's the second time I've ever RPed with him, with the first being A YEAR AGO; how's that for making a storyline (fourth time in a thread though =P)? Also, if anything, the progress he listed above is severely understated. Why? Because it was enough to piss me off, watching him and the rest involving themselves in their OWN (seems contradictive somehow, doesn't it?) storylines, while getting involved with other major characters and their storylines.

However.. these posts, are not to instruct anyone on how to become a "name face" around here. Do your thing. Role-Play. Fuck everyone else. All the seniors around here? Just keep them in the back of your minds as competition. Want to become better than say Taiku specifically, or even all of us? Use this as some motivation to have some fun in this game. That's what's intended. But, if you think it's anything but, then I apologize on behalf of everyone. When joined, I dunno why or how, but I was excited. I was refreshing the page every two seconds looking for a new post. I was posting like I was on speed. Hopping into threads, doing God knows what, it was just fun. I liked getting involved with things. And, I wanted to prove that I can be as good as the people around at the time. What happened? Within a month, and a half, I was RPing on par, if not better than, RPers who commandeered "heroes" of Varron, or the characters that really stood out. And much like the rest of you, I was starting out fresh as a Role-player. In my first post ever, I wrote like, in first and third person XDD. I won't get into my history now, since it's not important, but, yeah.

Administrator, thanks, for spreading the word. God knows we needed another thread talking about this (referring to Everyone)

Oh.. and guys. Again, if you feel like it's too much pressure for this being a place to relax and have fun and stuff, I apologize on behalf of the staff and the senior members. In Mel's new thread, someone (I believe Maverik or Dain?) stated that they prefer this board than our last, because now we actually have direction, where as Varron we didn't really know wtf we were doing. Somehow we made it work, but, now, we have things "written in stone" you could say. From glowing aura like DBZ and super heroes, to kids leading somewhat normal lives without punching someone through a brick wall... I think now we at least have some control in what's allowed and what isn't supposed to happen here.

~Manuel

[jdmthe1st]

admin said:

I know it can be hard to create a storyline sometimes, but here's a piece of advice. Stop looking around for inspiration and start looking at your character, because they're the person you control, they're the person you have to work with, not everyone else. When it comes down to it, if you can't do something good on your own, what can you hope for in a big storyline with the board affected by it?

Being an individual, outside the forum, equipped with high-functioning Asperger's Syndrome, I am interpreting your message as; "Take care of yourself before taking care of other individuals." I see that as a more independent statement.

What if one on the forum doesn't want to be involved in a bunch of storylines? What if the reason an individual were playing on this forum just happens to be socializing and interact with people, especially those who are adjacent to you? Aren't people supposed to have fun on this forum? Oh and for your information, this forum is addictive.

Or prehaps there is a grand scheme I am missing out on and nobody has told me yet. If that is the case can someone present a brief summary of what events are taking place. Thank you.

[Director Troutman]

Okay, the reason people sign up to these forums is to ROLEPLAY, and I see no other justifiable reason for someone doing so.

What I'm saying, to clarify it for you, is that you (the RPers as a whole, not just Antonio) need to build your own characters storyline instead of just riding on the wings of someone elses all the time. If you can develop your character by interacting with other people, creating your connections through the board and developing, then people who remark that 'theres nothing to post to' should find that statement leaves their vocabulary.

[jdmthe1st]

That brief summary clears things up. Thank you.

[Pain Killer]

reeves said:

Adam, we need to fight sometime. It's been pushed off for far to long.

Look! Another thread. With Adam! He's popular for beaten's.

The fact I forgot about that disappoints me to no end. I'll fix that when I'm done work.

[king]

do you think any of the 'Vets' rode on the coat-tails of the members before them

Was I the only person tempted to make a list of examples to the contrary.....not that I think people didn't earn thier fame, but you have to keep in mind that characters interact...meaning that if you want to get people to know you, you have to to actually have thier characters get to know your characters.

and for god's sake, that does not mean walking up to someone and asking "so boss, what's the plan?" Do you know what makes a good character, CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT! The difference between King and another fighter with daddy issues is not measured by how long I've been here, but the ass I kicked, the stances I took, and taking my sweet time in letting people get to know my character.

The vets road to the top on each other's coat-tails, by actually rping with each other until the connections were made as they were. I hadn't made Stern until almost years since I joined the site, but he's now the main character of a major plot. I didn't just start of that high in the evil ranking, didn't just start off with everything (all I had walking in the gates of Varron was Stern, his history, and a past with Zeniro that will probably never actually be discussed because neither of us never bothered to actually figure out what it was). You become major by slowly gaining the loyalty of those on your side over time, frustrating your enemies on end in your antagonism, and get people on the board to ask questions about you.

You do not jump into a thread with a veteran, have a fight, and expect to be popular. We've had more member leave the sites from the ass kickings they got pulling that than ever gained popularity (I'm considering making it a contest with Shamino out of it)

Get out there, and don't think how you can get character to know you, think of how you can make characters want to know you.

[Kazuki Akimoto]

king said:

Do you know what makes a good character, CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!

The vets road to the top on each other's coat-tails, by actually rping with each other until the connections were made as they were.

Firstly, you're just saying what I said over again.

Secondly, the vets worked with each other to get their storylines up, I never denied that, but they hardly rode coat-tails on the way there. The expression is more directly implied to members who do very little self-developing RP and solely await mass storylines (then have the audacity to complain that they take too long to write/post). The difference between how our lot did it and a number of the new lot is that we posted like demons, as Kei said, I refreshed the page every couple of minutes, I skimmed every possible thread to find a place to go, I posted so often that there were occasions (with my time zone factoring in) that my name was in three quarters of the boards 'most recent post' sections.

While we have a decent number of newcomers who know that principle of RP, it also appears too many are either just abandoning their account or, in a rather heinous action, just sitting and waiting for us to write a big storyline.

[Leon Loire]

Can we go back to the first point of this thread? Where it was the muse of a wise, experienced old man (in truth, really a fellow adult) telling us tales of his (character's) life, and trying to use those tales to help us understand how to live (play) our own?

I like giving "advice" to the "younger" board members, but for God's sake, I feel like we're suddenly treating them like children. Sorry if I'm wrong on that observation, but I think we're letting our own nostalgia of the past blind us.

The current member body, I feel, is just as active as we "Vets" ever were. All the time on this board I see threads being constantly posted, accounts around here refreshing and checking various sections, so on and so forth. People on this board ARE active; in fact, I recently did a check on the entire population of the membership, and made a list based on their activity. I don't have the list on me right now, but from what I saw, we have about 74 members who are active within a few weeks' notice, compared to about 32 who have been "inactive" because they haven't posted within a month - and only a handful of those members have actually been inactive by months and months.

This new generation is nothing disappointing. So while I may seem to be assuming things, DO NOT treat them like they need to live up to what we were in our day. They are active, they are committed, and they are interested. The only difference is that we "Vets" are so comfortable creating board/personal storylines, that we seem to forget to finding ways to getting them involved, or inadvertently force the new members to feel determined to create their own personal storylines to compete and/or interact with us.

So perhaps we need to remember to keep to our own advice. I love having board storylines, they're great to have for everyone's sakes, and I love having personal storylines that involve those I've come to know and care about; but in order to have people in those storylines, you need to have friends and allies with you to accomplish them. I feel the problem with our storylines is that we are expecting everyone to just jump right in. In Stern's event, he only has two real followers, the Pillars only have a few active supporters outside of their own active existence, and everyone else seems to have a hard time getting anything done. I think the key to helping get any real groups/factions/sides accomplished is by gaining those connections BEFORE the events, rather than during them. If we accomplish that, perhaps we'll actually have people actively committing themselves to board storylines and events, rather than keeping quiet in their own little corners with one or two friends, or just plain leaving.

So let's get back to Liam's first point, rather than barking like old dogs and treating the other members like the pups; EVERYONE (like Keisuke valiantly titled his own remark a while ago) needs to get ready to get to know each other again once this event is over. It's time to turn Hircine High into a comfortable social environment, rather than a constant war zone. Send PMs, post some requests to join a thread in the OOC, whatever's necessary! Just get to know each other, and make something of it.

Damn it, I ranted again. -_-

But I suppose it was necessary; I don't want people feeling like we're as much an "Elitist" board as some of the 552 board members claim. I'd like us to be a COMMUNITY, not a tribe of the wise and the ignorant. We're all teenagers and young adults, after all, so we should remember that.

[Kei]

Thanks (John) .

Seriously though. Like I wrote earlier, this isn't a thread to tell people how to be "like us". Or what we did to be how we are now. Stray away from that. Immediately.

Simply put. What I believe is the point of this thread, is to explain that some of these members need not to rely on the senior members to make major storylines, and just make their own. Besides that, just RP around, join threads, post around OOC a lot, as well as the RP sections.

And, I think if we (well, mostly to people like me, who don't read anyone's thread at all), need to start actually reading more. It's like we're making false claims you know? But, we'll just wait some more weeks. It's summer. People take vacations. Eventually, all members learn what it means to be a role-player you know? They all learn how important and fun it is to interact ICly and OOC-wise. It's just easier for some people. And, according to Leon, we're not doing that bad at all (his numbers).

I have... no idea what I wrote. Just got out of work... so I myself am a little confused at what I wrote XDD

~Manuel

[Kayar]

Well this is an interesting topic. And before someone starts yelling at me for asking for help in a recent post, let me just explain myself. I imagine that doing anything that may connect my character directly to the happenings in the school might require a bit of clearance from someone with the power to do so. Thus, I asked for help simply because I thought that, if indeed my character was to connect to the school, someone with greater knowledge of the school than myself might give me a suggestion as to what could be done. I see now by this thread that what I did was foolish. But if clarification might be given as to what may be in my power to do effecting the school, I would be satisfied. For those who've seen my post and read my character bio, you know that I want to connect my character to the school through his father. I want him to discover something at his father's old apartment, perhaps documents, that can give this connection. But doing this would require my character's father to have been in a position of power, or at least in a position of importance regarding the school. Now you see, I don't know if giving a character, even a dead one, that kind of position is allowed here. The father's death should also thus be connected to the school. Therein lie some possibilities. He could be a government worker who deals in some small part with the schools, for example. This could give multiple people reasons to murder him. Even Principal McMillan could be a suspect, he could have had to silence Kayar's father on some illegal matters that may have been discovered. OR, on the other hand, a gang might kill him so as to either gain documents regarding the school or as a first step in some sort of plot. Neither of these have to be actual scenarios. These were just the few things on my mind when I first made that post. These would require some working in, however, which is why I invited people to PM me. Now I see that I'm going to have to do some things myself. But I still see few good options that don't require the help of others. I seem to have stuck myself in a situation out of my hands. I've even, accidentally, fool-proofed this cycle. Due to Kayar's uncaring personality and the fact that the only thing that matters to him at the moment is finding his father's killer, he is very unlikely to take an active part in the school, gangs, or other pieces of the main plot. And so, I may require a little help. Please don't kill me for being such a newb here.

Profile: xinrpb1.proboards99.com/index.cgi?board=approved&action=display&thread=1187234803

"The post": xinrpb1.proboards99.com/index.cgi?board=streets&action=display&thread=1188320249

[zeke]

maybe if McMillan read your post, Kayar, He'd tell you if you were allowed to give your character's dead father that kind of a background. it could be an interesting plot point. don't be afraid to mention it.

[Leon Loire]

This thread's been dead for a month Kayar, I wish you just PMed Liam about your idea...

Just remember not to commit Thread Necromancy in the future, as it's a pain to see old threads suddenly come back to life, especially for something that could have been settled over PM. In any case, this thread should be locked anyway, so I'll take care of it.