[Gowienczyk]

Muzzy Roberto, on Apr 7 2009, 04:13 AM, said:

I have to side with the new guy. In my one attempt to RP on this site, I found the stat system to really hinder me, and not really make a great deal of sense. I could see how it's supposed to kinda determine what type of character you're supposed to be playing as, but really, who's gonna pay attention to that? You're still gonna swing big Cloudesque swords, regardless of strength. You're gonna flip and jump around as ever fast as you want to, even though you only have 3 points in Agility.

But then again, RP via forum posts don't make much sense to me, either. Why bother having numerical stats when there's no guy on the other end of the computer with dice and a character sheet? Does anyone actually keep tabs of their HP? To me, it just seems like a fan-fiction thrown together, written by x amount of players, 1 of which had any real idea where it was going.

Ah well.

Exactly. Roleplaying (or at least the ones I've been doing for over 8 years) have been simply interactive storytelling or co-op fanfiction if you will. Adding this stats of attributes and experience really does deter the player and makes the forums a fascist place. I know guidelines exist to help players, but throwing them in stone? This kills roleplaying forums. Kids have to learn by being surrounded by better roleplayers than them and learn from the writing going around them.

Although I've roleplayed through forums since 2001 or so and I have to disagree on the bolded. This could be a very apparent reason why this forums roleplaying activity is dead. Because you think the stats will make it a better place when in reality it's killing any interest people had in it, especially veterans like me.

Not very good, eh?

[Muzzy Roberto]

No. The roleplaying here is sub-par, and that's being uncharacteristically kind. I wouldn't say it's the numerical limitations of your characters abilities as it the doofus on the other end, rolling his kajillionth Emo Sonic somehow-his-relative-made-in-a-lab-by-Dr. Robotnik to destroy the Chaos Emerald or some crazy NyQuil addled mess.

Were it I, I would just roll my eyes, fill out the sheet, get approval, tear the sheet up and go nuts. If you're good, people won't care.

[Gowienczyk]

Muzzy Roberto, on Apr 7 2009, 05:32 AM, said:

No. The roleplaying here is sub-par, and that's being uncharacteristically kind. I wouldn't say it's the numerical limitations of your characters abilities as it the doofus on the other end, rolling his kajillionth Emo Sonic somehow-his-relative-made-in-a-lab-by-Dr. Robotnik to destroy the Chaos Emerald or some crazy NyQuil addled mess.

Were it I, I would just roll my eyes, fill out the sheet, get approval, tear the sheet up and go nuts. If you're good, people won't care.

I suppose. But there will always be amateurs (I guess this is why a lot of my RPs are on AIM/MSN), but an active community is always something I look for and this attributes/experience system really puts me off, sadly.

Hm.

Iunno maybe I'm just a bit pigeonholed in my "proper" way of roleplaying? I guess.

[Kvitne]

Well regardless of whether we had the system or not, the RP section has always been pretty dead.

And when it hasn't been it's been filled with peopl whoo talk liek tihs.

[KennEH!]

The attributes system allows for people not to godmod and only take the people serious enough to actually right one up. It also helps to back up someone's choice, instead of arguing about why the person should/shouldn't be able to do what he/she wants.

Now if you have a constant flow of proper roleplayers the system is a bit unnecessary. I however there are people who like do what was mentioned above. Then the system stops all that. I haven't seen a bad roleplay since teh system was implemented that I remember. Problem is the amount of roleplays overall went down too.

[Gowienczyk]

There will always be amateurs in communities, that cannot be stopped, the only way to push them to be better is to set ground rules in the roleplays OP or let them RP with you and learn. Push them to become better. Simple as that. I mean, I was some 12-year old idiot when I started. But I roleplayed and was surrounded by roleplayers at high school and college-level. I pushed myself to improve and I'm, glad the site was that way and not 'no amateurs' rules or I'd be probally very horrid at roleplaying to this day. But like I said, the system is really off-putting and the whole thing kind of ruins the story drive of roleplaying and makes it entirely mechanics based and not logic/writing based anymore which makes me disappointed. It's not that it's a necessarily bad system. I just have never really liked or respected it.

tl;dr version: I like to RP with storyline as the focus and not mechanics.

[KennEH!]

Does that mean you don't mind some mechanics, in hat you don't want them to have much bearing over the roleplay?

[Gowienczyk]

KennEH!, on Apr 7 2009, 06:58 AM, said:

Does that mean you don't mind some mechanics, in hat you don't want them to have much bearing over the roleplay?

I suppose, then again I really do prefer actions and characters being based around writing and never mechanics. As I said real pure down to earth roleplaying. No D20 system or what have you. Mechanics in cooperative fanfiction seem rather mehtastic to me.

/shrug

[Kvitne]

That's a very valid point. And it would work just fine that way if everyone started out like you did. Most of the time the role players, and a lot of the members, that we get here respond to help with "wtf u guise suXorz i do wat i wnat!"

Not much working with those kinds of people when they have their mind set. I mean, sometimes a warning or two will scare them into posting correctly, but you really can't get them to change just by reasoning with them or showing them a better way.

[Gowienczyk]

Kvitne, on Apr 7 2009, 08:29 AM, said:

That's a very valid point. And it would work just fine that way if everyone started out like you did. Most of the time the role players, and a lot of the members, that we get here respond to help with "wtf u guise suXorz i do wat i wnat!"

Not much working with those kinds of people when they have their mind set. I mean, sometimes a warning or two will scare them into posting correctly, but you really can't get them to change just by reasoning with them or showing them a better way.

It all comes down to how the amateur acts and how strong the roleplaying community is, I think. You have people who are stubborn (heck, I was stubborn when I started; but years in that community effected me) and pretty set in their writing skill. I mean you could even look at fanfiction.net for an example for that. Also, how am I supposed to RP here if I'm forced to use a mechanics system? It seems alright as a guideline but... as I said before it's really offsetting.

[Green]

I'm not too sure here, since I haven't been around that long, but I think the only 'amateur' who has gotten past the system is me. Sure, there've been some people who get their character made who tlks lik tihs, but usually only after 10 pages of critiquing and the mod finally breaking down and editing the wrongs for them. So, ya, the system is good.

Wait, what are we talking about?