As said in the announcements, we will be having a small time skip to help get the plot back on track. Please vote for your preferred amount of time passed. Questions, comments, or concerns should be voiced here in a respectful and thought-out manner.

I'm afraid I disagree with this move.

A lot of things have happened that I think we should fully RP the consequences of. There are a lot of player-created arcs occurring as well.

The mourning of those who have died, such as Summie, Chie, Fuji, Hotaru.
The resignation of Kiba and his new life in the Rukongai
Ume's standing down and Taisho's first days in his new post
Malik's efforts to reach out to the Rukongai, and his meeting with Sengoku
Yoshiya's relationship with Kurai. (And we already had to skip the training and evolution threads to join the event)
The next winter, since I'm guessing a lot of crops were destroyed in the attack.
The Rukon's relationship with the Shinigami after this attack.
Konno's recovery (if I may make use of a character still to be approved)

I can only speak for myself, but I suspect this is true for others. We have plans for our characters, and a time skip would mean that we can't RP pretty much any of the above.

Jun 26, 2013 8:01:30 GMT -8 @gfjmember said:

I'm afraid I disagree with this move.

A lot of things have happened that I think we should fully RP the consequences of. There are a lot of player-created arcs occurring as well.

The mourning of those who have died, such as Summie, Chie, Fuji, Hotaru.
The resignation of Kiba and his new life in the Rukongai
Ume's standing down and Taisho's first days in his new post
Malik's efforts to reach out to the Rukongai, and his meeting with Sengoku
Yoshiya's relationship with Kurai. (And we already had to skip the training and evolution threads to join the event)
The next winter, since I'm guessing a lot of crops were destroyed in the attack.
The Rukon's relationship with the Shinigami after this attack.
Konno's recovery (if I may make use of a character still to be approved)

I can only speak for myself, but I suspect this is true for others. We have plans for our characters, and a time skip would mean that we can't RP pretty much any of the above.

There's no reason you can't still RP these things out. The reason for the time skip is because there is SO much stuff going on, most of which has stagnated, that I can't even start to get the plot going by any means. A time skip will remedy this while allowing people to still be able to RP through this important personal matters.

Ah, by past threads. Sorry, brain not working

I didnt realize anyone was going to MOURN Chie, let alone notice she was gone.

lmao

I disagree with this as well, though Jeff seems to have changed his mind.

Regardless, though, I believe when the revamps were being discussed it was decided that after a respectful length of time the game world would progress one year. And to appease those that didn't want time skips, there would be a poll to decide whether or not the game world would advance.

In that regard, my vote is no; time should not skip ahead. But in the likely event that it does anyway, no more than one year.

I realize that my opinion is probably biased, as I feel my current thread and personal story could play a very important role in how the game world develops. Especially over the course of a year. Shinigami could be actively training Rukon Citizens. A visible "war effort" could be ongoing. Who knows. And acting it out in a past thread wouldn't make sense, because current threads would very likely be affected by the outcome. An outcome that, as far as the site is concerned, hasn't been decided yet.

No, I haven't changed my mind. I'm still against this. Though I will disagree on one point. A year is too short. A longer time period would give time for things to return to the status quo, before the event. Plans could be enacted and failed, anything could be happening, and what happened after the April event becomes less and less relevant, since other incidents could throw the course of history to where it is.

I hope that made sense, it's late.

Though, from a personal note, I used the event to explain why Konno Yumi's speed stat was less than the profile suggested; she had been injured, and was going to have her recover as I put points into that stat. A longer time period would mean that it makes less sense. Though I admit, I am no medic.

I suppose I could rewrite her history to give her a more recent injury though.

I adamantly disagree to this proposal. So so so hard.

I have a nice, long post all typed out, but my Internet is shot dead and I can't get any docs transferred over to my phone so I will post it before I head home tomorrow from a Starbucks or something.

I also protest to time skips mostly because it's the wrong approach to the pacing problems we're currently suffering from. I'll probably also have more about it tomorrow, but it's late, and I shouldn't make a persuasive argument at this level of exhaustion.

I'm more or less neutral on this issue. Though I suppose a different possible solution to this could be to change how fast time moves on the site. For example we could say that the year advances every two months or something like that.

I get the complaints, I really do. The whole reason we had time progression on AK before was so we didn't do time skips, so I'll be addressing Crazy first. In the thread that was started when I was gone, people complained about the time progression. A year passed in four months; 1 month per season, but because of the complaints, this was removed. Now, overall site time is supposed to be set by staff run events. However, an additional rule was removed at this time; the three days without posting and you're exited. People can still request a person be exited, but guess what, they don't. The majority of threads now move at a slug's pace if they move at all making it impossible to introduce new events.

So on my end, I've been hearing/seeing people openly say (for awhile now) that we have no plot, that AK is boring, and activity grind to a standstill. Despite what people said, there is a plot. It was started in the Halloween event. Even with the three day exit rule then, people spent months progressing past the issues raised then. Normally, this is a good thing. The whole reason a plot exists is to give the characters a story to work through. Except people weren't progressing through different threads. They were in the same threads for ages.

This issue, again, has increased drastically within the last month or two.

What the time skip will allow for is for the story to take a jump, but still let people work on their current personal stories. Otherwise, I have to tell everyone to wrap everything up completely or they're forced to end their current threads without a proper resolution and then have a whole new set of issues from the new event dumped on them. As it is, I just need current threads to be ended. Then in a thread people would discuss what events they feel would transpire during this period (not in detail as that is saved for IC), such as Carb said, Shinigami training Rukons, or a war effort, and whatever else without going in so blind, thus allowing past RP of said events to be possible.

That being said, I'm not dead set on a time skip, but guys, I don't know what else to do. If you've got viable suggests that work for the majority rather than just a handful of you (it's what I have to keep in mind when making these decisions), feel free to suggest them.

I've since made a recommendation in the Member Involvement thread, but I'll write a bit more about my thoughts here. This is where things belong relating to the time skip.

What a time skip does is stick a band-aid on the problem. You're going to go another three to four months, have threads stagnate because people are slowing down again, or they'll be bogged down in past threads trying to catch character development up to the current place, since this forum is heavily-oriented around inter-player continuity.
This orientation has its merits. You force players together and they have to work out the plot between each other. They aren't allowed to have invite-only threads, and as such, there's a level of unpredictability to the plot of each thread.

That said, there are problems with that stance. Players NEED to feel motivated to post quickly and with sufficient quality that the other player can respond. Push for too much speed and you wind up with poorer quality. Push for quality, and the pace slows dramatically.

You said it yourself that the issue has increased. This isn't a sudden issue. This is a long-time coming problem that has been happening because players increasingly don't feel motivated to post with any rapidity. And, to our credit, why should we? For those of us entrenched in a character's development and growth, and I am speaking for myself here, there's no reason to speed that up when there's a lot to be delved into. I want Aya to finish her medical soap opera thread and invite Mai back for tea at her house so they can have sisterly bonding time. Mai wants to find Chie. Chie's dead. That's a big nut waiting to get cracked, and a time skip of any sort makes that feel... shallow to play out at best.

What I'm saying is that you'll be asking many players (not all, mind) to figure out where their characters will be in a year's to three years' time, an idea to which many aren't even paying attention.

If you're concerned about progressing the plot, incentivise quantity here by subsidizing quality. Give more players a role in the plot. So far the only characters who have obtained any sort of plot-based item are those used by the admins. Change that. I haven't seen an event of any sort since the hollow attack, which we're still just recovering from. No one has had time to ask "where did that come from" partly because a) IRL issues, b) individual character plots are higher priority for many players, and most of all c) the threads were ended without any warning and the mystery of the plot basically erased because no one had any time to know what happened except that a bunch of hollows attacked.

Here is the post from last night:
I agree with both Carb and Jeff, for very much the same reasons. There is too much going on right now with all these characters to just, really, nip it in the bud. To me, that's the dickest move you could do, because it's telling me that you don't care what happens to these characters that are trying to keep things moving. That you would rather make these several characters (that are kind of the only ones posting right now anyway) suffer because no one else can, or will, do anything?

What happened to the PMEs? Can’t you use those instead? Or are those gone, and Cain was the only lucky one to get something?

Instead of skipping all this time, which as Carb put it, is now fluid, use them for the people who aren't affected by the last event? It's Spring 2001 now for how many characters? A timeskip would bring, at least, a 9-month blackout in character memory. That could be filled in with past threads, yes, but as Carb said, these threads are incredible crucial to character plot. They're going to affect things that haven't happened yet, and because we don't know what's going to happen or even how they're going to happen, we can't accurately plan ahead and come to an agreement. I don't know about anyone else, but I don't know what's going to happen in a thread until I actually write the posts out, one by one.

I've had a thread sitting in a stickynote on my desktop since this last event ended because I can't post it until after I'm done in the thread I'm in. It's a message from Mai, to Chie, asking her to come and visit Father while he's in the medical ward. This is done not only because it's something Mai would do for him, but now also so they both know that Chie is gone -- You created a character that was part of a family, Az, and to say that you’re surprised she will be mourned is an insult to me.

I take the cast-off of a character very seriously, and especially in this case, it adds an emotional flavor that shouldn't be dealt with so off-handedly, as the timeskip would suggest. "Oh yeah. That character, the one that was my character's sister, died. I should probably address that...whenever." over "Man; Dad's in the ICU, Sis needs to see him but she wandered off into nothing, fuck this is gonna ruin Mai, but that's really good, because that's some good CharDev, and this thing with Harupia is good too, and then there's that bit about Sui that we're still dealing with too, this is some real good stuff!"

Which makes for the better story?

Again, that's just how I feel about it, in regard to my character. (Let alone the second one, who's been ready to go since I posted her profile but stuck in registration for way too long.) We got these associates and second characters to bolster activity, so let us bolster activity with them, not just kill what little activity has managed to keep the site floating. I think if we are allowed to continue these threads, people will see the affect it's having on some of these characters, and the affect the characters are having on the world, then they'd be like..."this is cool!, this is what an RP is supposed to be like, characters changing things, being changed by things, I wanna join here." Vs... "Event. Minor amount reactionary threads. Discussion of time skip. Time Skip. Event. Minor reactionary. wow...kinda boring, not getting to do much...."

If that made sense.

Not much to add just right now, except two things.

First, sorry for making people wait on the Secondaries/Associates. No good solid excuse to give - just screwed the pooch. Sorry. :/

Second, unfortunately, yes, we have had the PME system undone at the request of the provider. I didn't ask for a reason, because it wasn't my place to do so. That said, there's no reason something similar couldn't be started up again, just... less structured, I suppose? I mean, it couldn't be the same system just because, y'know, plagiarism or idea theft or whatever, but... Eh, I'm sure you get what I mean. But it'll be something needs thinking on, is the point.

I wrote a pretty long post (for me, anyway), but upon review it seemed rather harsh. I will sum up.

You should be delighted by and encouraging personal character development and story progression. In fact, that should be the whole point of the site. In that regard the "Main Plot" should be treated as secondary. That's not to say it is less important, just no the main focus. Since the introduction of the new system you have been pushing character development and interaction. It has been the focal point of the site. And yet now you're telling us it's not worth the effort, that we should ignore it for a plot event. Doesn't that sound completely unlike what AK is suppose to be about?

I think it's worth noting, though, that I have been actively RPing since just before the invasion, and have continued to do so after the fact. It is worth noting that I, Carb, notorious for never posting except in events, have found this player driven story to be interesting enough to actually start my own thread.

So thinking about it (and forgive me for stating the obvious) but it seems like the real problem is that we need more activity. So this post is going to go off topic to address that (sorry for doing so)

So i think there are two aspects of this problem. The first is that we can use more threads for more characters as it seems like a lot of characters are between threads. The second aspect is that threads do tend to stagnate as time goes on.

So I have to agree with Fomal about giving people some extra motivation to write quality posts and make threads so they can have something to write those posts in. Plus instead of a time skip that will lead to a new event we could focus on some mini-events. Why not have a small outbreak of more zombies in the 4th district and it's up to some Rukons to clear them out? Or a pack of hollows are targeting arrancar for some reason?

Plus I think the best way to stop threads from stagnating is to go back to the 3 day rule. Yes at times it may have felt strict or that there wasn't enough time due to school, but personally I felt that it worked pretty well. Assuming we do so I would suggest possibly changing up some of the staff responsibilities so that we had one or two (preferably two just in case one of the staff members is busy) staff members who have the responsibility of checking the threads for activity. We should probably do the same thing for whoever narrates the mini-events (assuming the idea of mini-events to advance the plot/make activity is used) and we should definitely do that for grading the profiles in registration so we can get those finished quickly.

Sorry that this isn't really on topic though hopefully it deals with one of the main issues and isn't a bunch of jumbled suggestions.

If I may make a suggestion on an alternative for a time skip, give STUPID notice.on events. Like, 90 days worth. That probably is excessive, but it should give people enough time to work through their own personal plots, and motivation to do so quickly and efficiently, and to request removal of anyone not keeping up to speed.

I'm perfectly fine being skipped, or skipping, people in a thread if they're not posting "promptly". I was unaware the three day limit had been lifted for present threads in addition to the past ones; as far as I'm concerned, past threads, since there's no limit on the number we can participate in, we can post in leisurely and not have a need for people to be removed unless they leave the site for whatever reason. I skipped carb because I thought the three day rule was still applicable, an it really wasn't fair for him to be exited because the three other people didn't really address him. He shouldn't be penalized for that

So this is something I haven't had a problem with myself, so one of you people who keeps bringing it up, please help me understand your point of view here.

Now, the argument is "I want to post more often". Or, that's one facet of it. The next point brought up is "People don't post because they want more incentive to post". Shortly after that is the claim that "I want to post more to make my character better", and then "I don't get enough points per post".

So what I'm seeing is "I don't post very often" and "that not very often posting is getting me not very many points". Which then leads to "it makes it harder for me to make my character stronger" which follows into "I then have no interest in playing my weak character" which escalates to "the motive to post more is not motive enough I want more points for less posts"?

Here's my question: If three people are in a thread together, and all three agree they want more points AND to post more often... why are they not just posting more often and getting more points?

Why should it be EASIER to get to the top tiers? If I'm not mistaken, you can't max out a character's stats in five fights in any other game, why make it so easy here? Shouldn't we be invested in our characters in more facets than just "AUGH WHY IS MY SPEED NOT AS EXCELLENT AS MY STRENGTH"? Is fighting even so damned common in these threads that this is becoming an issue? I can't for the life of me recall the last time I saw any sort of real PVP going on I wasn't directly involved in, but we all want to get MOAR STRONG anyways? For what? For what purpose or goal are we harvesting all these abilities and tiers? Just to sit on them and crow at one another that, yes, in the hypothetical situation that we should ever think about fighting, numerically I would have the advantage?

Again, I'm not saying you guys are wrong: I'm saying I am fundamentally not understanding what the actual problem is. The goal of the RP should be to hurp RP, not to collect as many points as possible, and yet that's what I'm seeing this turn into: more points, less RP. Growing up I heard one lesson over and over, and that was "If you think one way and the rest of the world is wrong, you might need to reconsider your thought process". Well, help me rethink the situation, because apparently RP for RP sake and getting points on the side is not the point, right?

Cain, I'll speak for myself since that's what I know. The first claim is not mine, nor would I pretend it be. I'm posting as fast as I please, and I'm content with that. I don't want to be RUSHED by a time skip is my problem. However, Ki asked for an alternative as she did not see one. My response was that people might post more if they recieved more from it. It isn't about "GET MOAR STRONG"; it's "Maybe people feel no need to climb the ladder because there are so many rungs."

I think we don't get enough points per post, and I don't think it's wrong to say so, but if you'll notice, I said word for word "there's no reason to speed [the site plot] up when there's a lot to be delved into."

Let me turn this another way. A two paragraph post saying what my character does is worth just as much as a five paragraph post wherein my character does the same thing and there is forethought on her part and development overall. It might net another credit. It might not. Obviously, we don't know why those credits are awarded necessarily because there is no feedback.

So should I just cut down my quality/length/development so that I can post more times? Or should I post better posts at a slower rate?

For me the answer is clear. The latter is better for the story and the player. The former become Twitter.

So with the current awards, you incentize posting more times rather than spending more time per post. Does that make sense? I get a point per post, not a set of point varying by my post.

I, and others, don't give two shits about climbing the ladder. Some do. I'm positing a solution that appeals to both crowds. Those who enjoy their own story, because I'm Carb's polar opposite if you go by his own self-description. I almost never join events. Why? Because they're over too quick. Because my character doesn't have interest in the overarching plot. She cares about people around her and those closest to her.

As to those who enjoy climbing the ladder, they're bored by Ki's own admission. So yeah, they could post more often, but they have to deal with people like me too. They're slowed down not by IRL pacing but because the story is lagging.

The only last thing I'll say about your argument, Cain, is that if no one is supposed to care about their abilities and stats and shit to begin with, why are they regulated that way? If people intentionally scale down their characters (Aya isn't a Chiyudo expert even though I had the points to throw at Reiatsu; Kurai hasn't killed a Rukon maliciously like her faction probably should; Raiu isn't even a Shinigami except by faction.) why is it that the system is built to aim high?

I'll be frank here. I think the system incentivises the wrong ideas. I've said so since I joined AK, and I'm finding now that I'm not alone. I think better writing should be important, not stats, so I argue for getting points based on your writing not your volume of posts. I think character development should be important, not sitewide plots, so I argue not to time skip because there are better ways to get that train rolling.

I don't have all the answers. I won't tell you what's the right way to do it because different people want different things, but if people are vocalising that they're bored, and then they tell you time skips don't work, there must be another answer.

Just thought I'd let people know that I'm rather content with what I'm doing with Ume at the moment, and would rather not have a time skip because while, admittedly, I'm seriously slow paced with replies, I'm enjoying each thread I'm currently active in; not to mention I wouldn't want to just up and change the pace/mood forward a year. Since we base it more on season, I'd say, can't we focus, if any time needs to be altered, based on a season or two? That way not too much time would pass, should we decide on a skip.

I still need to edit my history to accommodate most of the events that are pivotal to her history, but I'd say Ume currently is developing, and I'd rather not skip it. I'm not bored in the least with AK, I'm just a sloth. D:

I had been putting it off to post in this thread, though I have voiced my opinions to others through other means. Regardless however, as you can plainly see I'm adding my voice (as it were) now. To be blunt, I don't want a time skip either. I agree with Carb's views in that while we do have a forum plot I don't think we should be focusing on it as the core, we should be focusing on the rp between individuals and we have a lot of that going on right now.

As it's been said, I've been working on getting things a moving with the Rukongai and Shinigami members for awhile now and had I not been away for a little over a month I'm 100% certain we would be much further along with that development, but since my return I've been working on getting that going again and I think I've made pretty decent progress thus far. Now I realize this seems pretty petty and quite selfish of me, but for those reasons alone I don't want to jump ahead a year or two and miss out on rp that will actually matter, rather than just skip it all and say it happened and then do past rp to show it. It just sucks the enjoyment out of it.

Furthermore I don't see how a time skip is going to solve any real problem here, if the core issue is that things are slowing down. It's summer, things are going to slow down. We've seen it time and time again. Lots of social activities, trips and other things that take people away from the forum days and weeks at a time. A time skip is not going to fix anything, if anything it'll just make things a bit confusing for those who are going away for a bit.

I say we just leave things alone and let those who enjoy slower threads, knowing they aren't able to rp constantly like some of us, do their thing and if more active rpers want to join them, that's their choice. They made their own bed, let them sleep in it. While more active rpers can rp to their hearts content, enjoying what is important here. The Rp (and I don't mean the rp points, how that got started I don't even want to know), for at the end of the day on a forum like this, that's what matters most, even if it's silly and has no tie in with what's going on in the bigger picture.

Now this is no reason why we can't have continued events, I'm sure anyone who joins an event knows the rules and time deadlines by now and have no excuse as to being punted or having their character injured by taking part and not posting on time. So if the 'core plot' needs a moving, we just need more events not a time skip. Again I say, it ain't going to fix a bloody thing.

Now I've rambled a bit, and I'm not quite sure it all makes sense, but I've said my piece. I've also voted too, not that I really wanted to, but I voted none the less. I've seen a lot of nay sayers to this idea, so if that means anything I don't see how a vote matters anyway.

Perhaps it is simply because my character is currently only involved in one thing, and I have no further plans for him just yet, but the idea of a skip does not bother me. So long as it as at least to the next year, so that people can create past threads that fill in the blanks.

Though if a skip were to happen, it should not be immediately. A date should be set, so that people can sort out any things that need to be finished quickly.

Just a quick note to Aya:

Being rewarded points based on length has been done before. It leads to all sorts of problems, and frankly I think it takes away from the RP, as it pushes quantity over quality. Getting points for a quality post is already currently being done, and as is apparent it has its own problems, as people don't know what qualifies as quality.

I think the one point per post is fair. Though I would like to think that mods have the right not to award a point for a shit post, just as they can award two for a quality one.

I, personally, couldn't care less about points. I have always been of the opinion that stats have no place in RP. But I have come to realize that I am a member of the severe minority who believes their character should be fundamentally flawed, whether that be physically or mentally. Or both. And that does not necessarily mean handicapped. Just, you know, not good at things. Or, in some cases, ridiculously bad at them. It makes RP more fun.

To Cain I say this; Maybe we've been reading a different thread, or I just skimmed the parts you read (which is likely), but as far as I can see only Crazy has advocated more points. Again, I may have missed things.

To address the point of this thread, again; A time skip will not fix anything. It will give us a plot event, if I understand correctly, and then we'll be back to where we are now. Only your currently active posters will be annoyed with you.

Fomal's system isn't just about more points. It's about bettering writing. It helps the poster realize his strengths and weaknesses, and how he can improve upon them to better himself; the point per paragraph is, as I understand it (and he can certainly correct me if I am wrong), a way for the one who is grading the thread to actually stop and read the post line by line to asses the quality of the writing and really find the beauty in it, or to help the writer bring that beauty to a shine.

More Events, like the horde and the invasion, will not help this issue. It's just the same cycle over and over. Little events, even if they're the shitty, stupid ones I kept offering to Mal when he was asked to come up with them (Where are those, by the way?) would be better than a time skip because you're unhappy with the speed of things. They [Little events] give the members not still riding the wave of the last Event something to do while the rest of us learn that we lost a family member or our boss is in a coma or we fail at life because of the Event. Why kill off something that has the potential to change the entire way our canon is viewed? It's clear the Rukons and the Shinigami can't continue on as they are, so why just take the best suggestion from a thread instead of letting things take their natural course? It could be something entirely different that was suggested by someone not willing to post in the discussion thread, but so completely awesome that you're just stunned.

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. You don't chuck them in the trash.

You don't need an organized system for little events; cows got out, and anyone who's not in a thread can go wrangle them up. You don't even need the iridescent orbs to be rewarded for them if you're worried about someone just using the events for a get rich quick scheme.

This fluid time/time dictated by OP thing is also terribly confusing, and since this deals with time: you've got this Invasion Event taking place in the Spring (near as I can tell - if the time progresses due to staff run events, then it makes sense as the one prior was set in winter), and then the few threads directly following that one, and then the next thing I know, Court's in a thread taking place in autumn, but Taisho is recently promoted (two weeks after the Invasion by Malik's thread which means Zane is either incredibly lazy or just really poor at his job, because he was meant to bring Malik someone from the Rukongai after the Horde [as I understand it] from the autumn season)....

Jun 30, 2013 19:59:36 GMT -8 Mhairyn "Aryn" Dirson said:

Fomal's system isn't just about more points. It's about bettering writing. It helps the poster realize his strengths and weaknesses, and how he can improve upon them to better himself; the point per paragraph is, as I understand it (and he can certainly correct me if I am wrong), a way for the one who is grading the thread to actually stop and read the post line by line to asses the quality of the writing and really find the beauty in it, or to help the writer bring that beauty to a shine.

That's what I implicated. Rip, it's true that AK has had systems like that in the past. They have NEVER been focused on bettering the player's writing, though. Quite frankly, I don't understand the goal of grading threads if stats aren't supposed to matter and writing isn't emphasized at all. I trust that graders read threads, but I feel like there should be more depth to it, and more than giving more points, which does give a larger scale, I want to know what I've written well.

But I digress and this isn't the purpose of this thread. The timeskip shouldn't happen. If nothing else, I'm content to move on with things.

Let me begin by apologizing, because I am going to digress; the time skip is something I am simply not concerned for, and oppose only in light of the member base's reluctance to skip forward.

I don't see the point in cranking up the rewards. I really, really don't. Let's get this out of the way: I can only think of a couple of posts that have ever made me want to breach that ceiling. What I find intriguing is that additional points are being preached by the players that claim they care minimally about climbing the ladder; what few members we have that are orientated toward combat have not voiced any gripes about the purported lack of numerical recompense. Actually, we're the ones arguing vehemently against it, so let's drop the pretense of postulating points addendum to appeal to both parties, shall we?

You guys want to better your writing, and if a third point is the incentive you need, you're not going to like it when you post ad nauseam and muster up a couple of +1s at best: we're talking about posts so phenomenal they ought to -- and probably will -- net you the WotM award, which (to me) shames whatever numerical value we're to soullessly assign your winnings sheet.

I cannot hope to scratch the surface of how staunchly I oppose ''point per paragraph.'' For players to request legitimate input from the grader is something I can get behind, and this is a service I am willing to provide, but let me give you my unvarnished opinion: to reward individual paragraphs is an atrocious idea. Similarly, I am in line with Rip's suggestion that I ought to be capable of assigning zero points to a particularly half-arsed post, because it is disheartening to assign a point to a few lines the player could've whipped up in two minutes.

By the way, I don't reward length as a benchmark. That's just it. Length is an enabler to accumulate points without making the player step beyond their comfort zone -- it rewards the tired ''action-reaction'' formula that many of our writers apply gratuitously and label development. Why should a developing character be rewarded more luxuriously than a static entity that does its job equally well? Both can undergo visceral experiences, and stagnancy can be organic, so be aware that if you go the developing route, you'd better treat it as a tool, and by God you had better use that tool well.

Summarily: a static character is not the narrative lesser of the developing character, and a character that undergoes a dynamic change is not, in fact, inherently better than their stagnant counterpart. This becomes a matter of portrayal. Craft a multifaceted character, handle it properly, and you will be rewarded -- mishandle the avatar and you will be admonished.

The same goes for length. Clearly, it isn't something I am going to penalize in itself -- if you want to write, by all means go ahead, but then you had better have something to say, because ''fluff'' is something I am loath to even take into consideration, and if you push that envelope you will find yourself sorely disappointed.

You want constructive feedback? It can be given to you. But perish the thought that it'll address exclusively what you've been doing ''right.''

I have said nothing because until now, I have had no inclination to, so I shall start this stream of thought off at the beginning.

One year time-skip, that's what I voted for because it's not just the smallest but one can fit a lot into a year, especially with past threads. And on that note, I do not see why we cannot simply multitask with our character; we have present and past threads and will continue to have them in the time-skip, so let's use them. We have the tools to adapt, use them or don't, it's your choice but it is foolish to simply ignore them in my opinion.

Frankly, that's all I have to say on the time-skip; we can make use of it, it just requires a bit of coordination and teamwork really.

Now, the primary reason I'm speaking: point reward system suggestions.

I strongly disagree, and I will go far as to declare NO. I care about my goals for Nero and I know part of the battle is about points, but only part. It guides only his combat abilities and skills, nothing more than that. So what if it takes several threads and months to get him to the top? It'll be well earned and if I get +1 points for quality posts, then it's up to me and me alone to figure out how. That's incentive enough right there to go back and read the posts to see what really caught the grader's eye.

Few posts have caught my attention and made me wonder if that's what a high quality and bonus worth post is. I'm not talking about long ones either, I am talking about posts that when I read them, gave me chills and sucked me in to the point where I had to check my neck to see if there was blood or look around to make sure I'm in reality. Posts that stand out above the rest because of quality, content, and impact are what matter most. Quantity doesn't matter worth spit if nothing happens; there is little doubt in my mind that I hold the infamy of being a long as hell post writer. 

Several moderators and members can attest to this.

Does that mean it was worth the maximum amount of points? No, not at all. I can do long posts with rinse and repeat basics but that doesn't mean I deserve the same amount of points as a post where nothing is repeated and new twists and turns are added by another member. Far from it, content and quality are more important than quantity. I am content with one point per post and a bonus if a post stands out or multiple posts do, that's all the better.

We can ask for more incentive but will we work for it? I highly doubt all will do so, I'll stick to what works best for me; trying to push myself to think better, write better, and roleplay harder. Honestly, it has popped up in my mind that perhaps some posts might be worth 3 points but really, why go that far when it'll push someone towards a burn-out. Some of us are damn good writers however, none of us are perfect and we all strive to achieve a higher level. A single bonus point is incentive enough for me, and I care about my points. 

Not to mention, someone could do two, maybe three high quality posts in a row/thread. Good job and great work to whoever pulls that off, I envy the lucky son of a gun that can do that.

Do I want more? Yes, if I've earned them. I don't want anything I haven't earned myself through hard work, skill, and serious thought.

Carb and Aki bring up an excellent suggestion; point penalization for unworthy posts. I'm not talking about a post where you could only work with what was given and nothing else, I'm talking posts that frankly, are products of pure laziness and no motivation. 

A teacher in High School, psychology being his subject, had a rather interesting reward system to encourage class discussion and student development; if you gave a comment or remark that was both profound and thought provoking, or as he called it a "huh" moment of deep impact, you got a rubber duck. I only got one at the end of school but I tried regardless to think and ponder about the subject and discussions, wanting to get that duck and the recognition of my work and self-motivation. Others did so too, and they got a couple for their profound remarks and points.

That's what the bonus points are really, reward ducks in a manner of speaking. We get points for participation regardless, and it works. One point per paragraph? No, to do so is a mockery of true RP and I will not stand for it. And I will personally guarantee that doing so will only cause destruction of RP into walls of text the likes of which those of us who came from a particular site will cringe and grow nauseated from.

Personally, I get caught up with posts and streams of thought- this post right here is proof of that- but it's when I have something to say. So do me a favor, and forget the point per paragraph everyone. It's counterproductive, and it's not what you need.

I think my training posts from before speak for themselves if you really think point per paragraph is a good thing...

So to wrap this up, I vehemently and firmly declare NO to added points. The point system is near solid completion; it needs the ability to penalize someone for a horrible post, that is all I suggest. I agree with Carb and Aki strongly; negative reinforcement works, or in this case, an incentive to post well via penalization. 

Simply put; we earn the points we deserve, the points we put the effort into, and reap what we sow. I strongly support and hope the moderators will be given the ability to penalize for wasted posts, even if I will be guilty of it at some point. Oh well, that's what I earned, that's what I deserved.

And a final note, constructive criticism is just that, feedback that will mention the good but also the bad and the incorrect. Be careful with that, and that's not an opinion. That's personal experience talking, don't overlook it.

We're trying to find ways to encourage good, quality role play with bettering our writing, and instead of coming up with ideas on your own, you just bash ours. We're trying to help, too, and being called stupid, power players, or generally insulted is what we get? We came back to play with you guys, but if you're just going to be the biggest assholes around, we really don't want to try and help anymore. You're not giving Fomal a chance to explain his system or to even let him show you what he means by it. All you see is more points means people maxing out faster means why bother means hell to the no I don't want to change this. You forget that your captains, these people in positions of military power, are weaker than the unseated carting them off the battlefield because their skills don't match with their ranks. And they never will without the use of these mysterious free boost items that only the admin has gotten.

I don't care about the point system, the poor stat systems, or the overpriced purchasing or whatever the fuck the problem is. It's not the point. The point is whether or not a time skip should happen, and if it does, how long would it have to take. We're trying to tell you what we think the problem is and you pick one, one suggestion, and rip it to shreds instead of maybe trying to come up with a way that it could work. What about the other suggestions that have been posited? Why just tear Fomal, and by proxy me, to pieces?

And to everyone else: quit hiding and participate. This affects you too.

Here's an idea: buckle down and pump your brakes before your attitude starts to yield some less-than-desirable consequences.

You guys went out of your way to posit suggestions concerning a reward deficiency and I am addressing them. You guys wanted to better your writing via constructive feedback, and I am offering to do just that -- however, I oppose the approach, and elucidating required me to provide some insight as to how I grade what I'm made to read.

We came back to play with you guys, but if you're just going to be the biggest assholes around, we really don't want to try and help anymore.

And if you're going to keep behaving like this, perhaps it's for the best. I haven't deconstructed your argument meticulously, and this is no different than you guys parroting your reluctance to time skip. Fomal can clarify his system whenever he wants, but I'm pretty sure I got the gist.

You forget that your captains, these people in positions of military power, are weaker than the unseated carting them off the battlefield because their skills don't match with their ranks. And they never will without the use of these mysterious free boost items that only the admin has gotten.

You make an excellent point and have unconditionally changed my point of view!

Feb 25, 2013 9:43:38 GMT -8 @gfjmember said:

Area: Stats

Reason for Edit: Raising Stamina to Excellent

New Information: Stamina: Excellent
Remove Iridescent Orb

Mar 16, 2013 8:41:25 GMT -8 Mhairyn "Aryn" Dirson said:

Area: Stats and Skills

Reason for Edit: Raising Reiatsu Stat from Good to Excellent and Reiastu Skill from Average to Good.

New Information: Minus the iridescent orb and 21 rp left (71 - 50 = 21)
Reiatsu stat would be at 4/4, Reiatsu skill would be at 3/4, and I believe Chiyudo would also be at 3/4

Feb 25, 2013 15:50:28 GMT -8 Kuerina Darkblaed said:

Area: Stats

Reason for Edit: Speed from good to Excellent
New Information: Speed: Excellent
Iridescent Orb

Oh wait, no you didn't. Because Ki handed every character an orb, and Cain declined the one he was supposed to be given.

No, I'm not sorry you feel the need to get so defensive you can't properly debate your own side.