Limit on RPGs?

I'm not sure if anyone else feels the same way, but I am starting to think that maybe there should start to be a limit on RPGs.

Don't get me wrong- RPGs are great. It's just that some of the topics and themes are getting repetitive, and some of the RPs are really flat and have no plot. Most of these RPGs only have a few members, and there are a lot of them. Since there are so many RPGs with only a few people posting back and forth, no one really wants to join them, and the roleplaying slows down. These roleplays wash out some of the better roleplays that should have more members and more activity. Also, some people make RPGs just so that they can up their post count by posting one-line posts back and forth with another person. Some members are making a lot of RPGs at once, and trying to manage so many can be frusturating and some RPGs can get forgotten, which is frusturating when members really like the RPGs and want to continue them.

It used to be that members took pride in the length of their posts and the quality of the intro post, but no longer.

I'm not sure if there will be less individual roleplays when the site-wide ORPG starts, but for now I just think there are too many Roleplays with no plot.

Any thoughts?

Pay 100WP to start a roleplay?

I have to 100% agree. It is essentially clogging up the forum and its a way for members to spam up their post counts without it being so obvious. I think it would help to require a template that specifies the purpose and establishes a clear plot for an rp and I think it should also cost a minimum of 100 WP for it though I'm not sure how that would be monitored yet.

I completely agree with you Icestarr. Not to blame anyone or degrade them, but a lot of the RPs made lately are a good example. They're often frustratingly simple and boring. They have no clear plot set out, or enough detail to make someone want to join it, unless you're the kind of person who joins every RP made, no matter what. So in the end only a couple people join and they start spamming off one sentence posts until the RPG eventually dies off. I get the feeling that they are made simply to get WP or onto the Top Posters list.

If you look back into the pages of the Other Roleplaying section, most of you will find that the RPs in the past were more thought out and active. Nothing like the bland 'Middle School Life!' RPs of now. I mean really, there's no plot or excitement to keep it moving along. What are you going to do in a RP where your characters juts 'live?' Think of something to excite people! A field trip? Something happens with radiation (like the plot in Gone)? A famine? War? Come on people, the list is endless.

I also feel like too many RPGs are made at once. Often by the same person, or a similar RP topic. With too many choices to choose from, none of the RPs are going to stay active for long anyways. There's too many mythical and superpower roleplay games. Surely people have more creativity? If the first time you make an RP fails and no one joins, change your ideas. Instead of going on a repetitive stream of 'Cat, Dog, Wolf, and Horse RP,' try something different and make one based on a well known book for example.

Another issue is RP post length. It ticks me off when I type a long detailed post and then someone goes off and does something like:

Example: wrote:"Yeah we should." Amber sat down and smiled, crossing her legs.

Thoughts, descriptions on surroundings, anything can be added on to make it more detailed. And some members' characters are always doing something by themselves. Kind of just posting to get on the Top Posters list? God, if you have nothing you can do to forward the RP, just don't do anything. And if you're talking to another member's character and they don't respond yet, don't go on. But don't keep posting that they're waiting for a reply. That's plain unnecessary.

Example wrote:Amber waited patiently for her reply.

Understand that not everyone is on 24/7 like you are. They have other things to do, so don't do this: say you're asking a rogue why they are in your territory. Someone else posts something like, "They spot their Clanmate and a rogue in the distance and run over." (But with more detail of course.) Don't go off and post again:

Example wrote:When he didn't respond immediately, she stepped forward and spat, "Answer me right now or I'll claw your face off!

Be patient. They may be in a different time zone than you.


I hope I'm not too critical here. Just saying what I think.

I agree with you all, but the only thing I don't get is the 100 WP thing. That I don't agree with. Dragonclaw is busy, and if he is inactive for a long period of time, no RPs will be out and only the repetitive ones will be up (Like the RandomClan vs RainbowClan or something). Maybe instead they limit to a number of RPGs up and if you make another RP off the limit you will have your RP deleted and perhaps face some kind of punishment, only not too severe.

Nowadays, and this is just me, I join RPs and never RP on them again. Why? Because they're low on members, and the plot is re-created and altered slightly by another member and makes the idea unoriginal.

I completely agree as well. I've had to tell at people countless times in the past because their posts just slipped what counts as "spam". I gave numerous reminders but didn't lower warning bars because people often didn't realize why they were doing was still wrong.

I don't think we should make people pay WP to start RPGs for the same reasons as Dawnstorm. Perhaps each member can only have two actice RPGs at once. It counts as active if the last post has been within two weeks, but past that, it's a goner so you can make a new one.

Human RPGs should be minimized as well. They're often pointless and have no material except for some love triangle drama. Cat RPGs should be promoted, with real plots and space for all to participate actively in it, rather than just having the typical "the two leaders are discussing right now no one can post yet" type.

And seriously, just because one RPG with that theme was a hit, doesn't mean a new one should come out that's exactly the same. Sequels to popular threads are welcome but two similar ones at the same time just ruin the point.

Your posts should always be meaningful and if you can incorporate two events in one post, that's the correct way.

Example of incorrect role playing:
Player 1: Sandstorm yawned, stepping out of the den. "Morning Dustpelt, how are you?"
Player 2: "Good. How about you?" Dustpelt mewed, cleaning his paws swiftly.
Player 1: "Great," Sandstorm replied. "I'm hungry."
Player 2: "Me too. I want some fresh kill." He waited for a reply.
Player 1: "Let's go hunt for stuff."

Example of correct role playing:
Player 1: Sandstorm yawned, stepping out of the den. "Morning Dustpelt. How are you? I'm hungry." She began cleaning moss off of her fur. "Want to join the hunting patrol?"
Player 2: "Hey Sandstorm," Dustpelt greeted, cleaning his paws as well. "Yeah, I'm hungry too. I'd love to go hunting with you. Let's go see who's in today's patrol."

The length of the posts should be longer, but my thumbs hurt cuz I'm on my iPod. You should never include ravish descriptions or repetitive actions to lengthen posts.

If you guys don't mind, could I write a "Guide to Roleplaying"? ^-^ It'll be like the FAQ that I wrote previously and it could be a sticky.

I agree completley. I thought thought about my new RP for a long while and I was dissapointed when only three poeople joined. I will join an RP thinking "Maybe something exciting will happen soon!" Ans when it never does I give up. A good example of two people RPing back and forth would be Supernaturals. I was sitting in my house thinking about the Family Matters RP "Is it a good idea... hmm, I think it needs a plot. A battle! Everyone likes a good battle." So I thought it out and three people joined. But I think having a limited amount would be confusing. How are you supposed to know when one RP has does out or not??

Yes, Cheesestar, you should write a Guide to Roleplaying! That would be so helpful.

And Emeraldsky, usually RPs with really long first posts appeal to people since they see that the RP has a disstinct plot. The Family Matters RP was a good idea, but just saying that there is a battle won't really attract people. You could have explained why there would be a battle, or why there was such a huge rivalry and why they hated each other, etc.

Okay, i was rushing through my first post I made on the topic so I'm going to make a more meaningful one.


I agree with you all, but the
only thing I don't get is the 100 WP thing. That I don't agree with.
Dragonclaw is busy, and if he is inactive for a long period of time, no
RPs will be out and only the repetitive, one-on-one RPs will be up (Like the
RandomClan vs RainbowClan or something). Maybe instead they limit to a
number of RPGs up and if you make another RP off the limit you will have
your RP deleted and perhaps face some kind of punishment, only not too
severe.

On this subject, I also think we should set a limit of... maybe three 'Other' RPs. This is a cat roleplaying forum, not a 'Middle School Life!' or 'Best Friends!!'. In fact, I think we should refrain from making or ban topics like 'Supernaturals' 'Middle School Life' 'Human RPG' and a few others for a little while. They're are all repetitive and there's rarely a plot. I think the 'Versus' RPs should apply to this as well. Stuff like 'Kittypets vs Rogues' or something, in my opinion, are bland and have something to do with cats, but aren't related to Warrior Cats at all. The ones like 'OakClan vs WillowClan' are related to Warrior Cats, but they are worn and have nearly no purpose.

I think that they should also make people have a lengthy introduction post. They should have a checklist of what every RP needs, such as: A purpose (except Clan life RPGs), possible problems (a small idea of what could happen), some kind of banner or special heading like big text or something, and maybe a few more elements. It's annoying for people to have something like this:

Example wrote:
Rules:
*Have fun
*Fill out full form
*No fighting

Form
Username:
Name:
Age:
Description:
Personality:

My Charrie
Username: Cluelessfeather
Name: Concededpaw
Age: 9 moons
Description: A white cat with rainbow stripes on his tail and rainbow eyes
Personality: You'll see

They have no purpose written, or anything. This is exactly what some of these modern RPGs look like, and it can get extremely annoying.
On this, I also would like to say that I hate how people say 'You'll see' or something in the form. That annoys me so much, they should fill out everything by at least putting 'N/A'

We should also have a rule where you must use readable grammar and have a minimum of 3 sentences per RP post, at least 5 words per sentence. Some people also have unreadable grammar and even though you can still easily figure out what they're saying, it's annoying. Example:

Mudouppy sniffed tge bone caushisly. he turned 2 Lithekily

Compared to:

Mudpuppy sniffed the bone cautiously. He turned to Lithelily.

Although improper grammar is often a mistake, I think that people, and you probably know who you are if you're one of those people, should type out their post without spaces, capitals, whatever is their habit, and alter it before they post. People who never add commas, periods, capital letters, spaces, etc's post can get a bit annoying sometimes, even if it is just a habit.

Cheese, personally I think you should start lowering warning bars to the people who do it continuously, even if they mean no harm. And I do admit, I spam sometimes, but I don't think people who do it on a daily basis should get away with it easily.

I also think that there should be more RPGs out there where you use your real RP characters. Making a new character for every RP gets annoying, and you made a whole entire character sheet for your main RP characters, and you use made-up characters more! I think we should refrain from making new cats every single RP

So yeah, those are my highlighted points on this topic. That's what I can think of right now, but I'm sure there's a bunch more reasons to support everyone's ideas. I guess to put it simply, Icestarr, I completely agree and think this should be approved

I think that there should also be a minimum of 5 members who join an rp before the story is actually allowed to start. It's not really true role playing if there are only 2people going back and forth. I think for the most part the only exception for this is 1) a clan wide rp or 2)if you are a mentor and apprentice training together in a topic where no other characters have any need to reply. Otherwise it should count as spam. A lot of the top posters are top posters because they spam all over rps that only have 1-2 other people posting in them.

I sometimes do that. Sorry And I totally agree with all of you guys. Most rpgs nowadays have short sentences like:

Example wrote:Dustfeather got up and padded to the fresh-kill pile and dragged out a squirrel.

These should be more than 3-5 sentences long to make it a true rpg. I'm sorry again if I've done these things and I'll try not to do it again.

I think it is actually against the rules to have an rp shorter than 2 sentences.

3 sentences, and that's only for Official RPGs though, not regular ones. I'm trying to say that should be promoted to a site-wide rule. :3

I agree with all of you. Lately there've been a lot of pointless rps, or days when a bunch of rps about the same topic pop up. Right now, there are a lot of human and rps that include magic or magical creatures. While I don't think these things should be banned, I really don't think that there should be more than 1 rp about the same thing unless the plot is different. Like Dawn said earlier, a lot of rps just have a 1-3 sentence intro, the rules, and the characters. No lore or any other information about the rp. This is why I decided to make the City of Midnight rp (though I really need to post there to straighten things out and get it going). As you can see, I put in a lot of other info and even a backstory. Here's the link so that those of you who haven't seen it can get to it easily:
Click

I try to make it look nice, too, and I put in some special quirks and pictures (like the tattoos). Here's the banner:


There's even a theme song for every character It'd be nice to see more effort being put into posts and rps on the site. (Though don't go overboard like I did! The posts broke the site and Brighty and I had to exorcise it and split it into sections)

Sure, it's extra work if you want to do it (especially if you want to make something so huge), but a banner like mine took like 10 minutes (most of the time was spent looking for the pictures) You don't need to include that much text. A simple paragraph or something as an intro is fine with me.

I think that some of the stuff that you guys wrote down here should be included in the rp guidelines thread. Anyone who'd like to make an rp would think it was useful

About the problem about people creating too many RPs,

How about the first five every week will submit a sign up form to Dragonclaw or Staff so that they are permitted to start an RP? Five RPs (one per day) will be enough right?

~ sorry if you don't get it it's hard to explain when I'm on my phone >.< ~

I have to disagree with that one. I don't think staff should be allowed to tell us what we can and cannot rp and I don't think we should have to have permission to make a new one. That's giving them way too much power and being far too unreasonable. I think Dragonclaw should add a rule that there must be some sort of pre determined and established plot for an rp. I also think members should not be allowed to rp under the topic until there are a minimum of 5 people who have joined, obviously with the exception of training topics like I said above. I also would like to see an increase in the required amount of either words or sentences, for any post that is posted in any of the roleplaying sections of the site, though that one might be more difficult. More than anything though you guys it is u to us to actually put pressure n these members to make more quality topics and roleplaying posts.

I don't think GMs should be given the power to decide on RPs. Or any Staff really, other than Dragonclaw/Tech Team. Members may become angry at GMs if they turn away their roleplay suggestion, and there shouldn't be a big rift between between them and 'regular' members. A five RP limit per day is a good limit for now. Or maybe even three. Approval by tech team or Dragonclaw should definitely be a rule, because what if people made really simple ones when you had this really awesome idea?

If Dragonclaw agrees let's make these rules temporary. There'll be modifications we'll need to work out once we test this out, so no point in making them permanent.

See. I don't agree that anyone should have to approve of the rps. I don't believe that the gms need ANY more power than they already have and Dragonclaw and the tech team are not going to want to have to constantly come on and approve of each individual rp that is going on throughout the entire forum. I don't think it is reasonable for them to be asked to constantly manage things like that. I think that Dragonclaw needs to add a rule and template that everyone has to meet the requirements for that shows there is a solid plot. And then I think from there it becomes the responsibility of the gms to go through the rps and lock the ones with only 2-3 people participating or showing any interest. Or to lock and remove RPGs that have no plot that just clog up the forum

Well I guess that's true because Dragonclaw's getting all the busier these days and even though I don't know about the Tech Team, I'm sure they have other things to do too. I still like the whole approval thing better since it's more secure but the requirements thing works too. CheeseStar already made a thing for creating topics/posting. We could add on to that or make an entirely new one.

I appreciate all these suggestions

I will look into further review of this and discuss it with the Staff.

There is a lot of suggestions here any many good points and ideas. I hope we can get more member input on this, as I would like to implement some of these changes soon, especially with the beginning of the Official RPs starting this weekend