Compliments & Criticisms: Your Thoughts On SW-Fans.Net [Archive]

Tarrick Ragnus

Jul 12th, 2010, 03:04:15 PM

Being a newbie to the site, but not to Star Wars Simming (and running a few sites myself), I do have a few thoughts on the site. I'll keep them brief as my ADD will get the best of me.

THE GOOD -

1. Lots of simmers. I enjoy simming, but I also enjoy reading other sims of members who really like to sim. It gets my creative juices going.
2. Open, in my opinion, to my comments (otherwise this thread wouldn't be here).
3. Fairly lax in what criteria I post for my bios. Doesn't have to be in any set formula.

THE "NOT-SO-GOOD"

(I don't like calling it bad, so we will stick with this title.)

1. With all of the different genres' it took me awhile to figure out where to post for what. We have specific boards for each faction and then a general board.
2. When rummaging through the boards, I do not find a list of who is leading each faction and the hierarchy, or if I do find it, then it is woefully out of date (sometimes by years). It's like looking to by a house that has been left vacant. Some people move on. I would like to see the factions hierarchy updated so that new people know who to contact in case they need to get started.
3. For the fleeters, it would be helpful when we are assigned ship(s), to be given a first mission to get us on our feet. I have my ships, and I know that I have freedom to post whatever I may, but I don't want to cause problems because I haven't read every thread and missed that an independent planet is actually controlled by another faction and now I started another war.

SUGGESTIONS

1. Have a contact person for each faction that contacts the newbies for their perspective faction. I would prefer it to be the leader, but it should be someone who has authority to give out ranks, ships, assignments, etc.
2. If a faction has gone inactive, could it be hidden so that it doesn't clutter up the site? I know that admin will still see them, but the vast body of members wouldn't see it.
3. Have a place on the forum where positions are being advertised, or "want ads" can be placed incase someone is searching for a sim or members or is wanting to contribute to sims.

Again, I think this site has more positives and negatives and will continue to sim here. In fact two members of my other site have already moved over here. These steps might make it easier for others to feel out their first few days of posting.

Dasquian Belargic

Jul 12th, 2010, 03:19:40 PM

Thanks for the reply, Tarrick. Especially as a newcomer to the forum yourself, your input is really interesting.

2. When rummaging through the boards, I do not find a list of who is leading each faction and the hierarchy, or if I do find it, then it is woefully out of date (sometimes by years). It's like looking to by a house that has been left vacant. Some people move on. I would like to see the factions hierarchy updated so that new people know who to contact in case they need to get started.

Would it be beneficial perhaps to have a thread in this forum, with links to the profiles of each factions moderators - along with a brief explanation of the faction itself? By keeping that information centralised, we eliminate the need to updated lots of threads throughout the board and avoiding, like you say, there being out of date and potentially conflicting information.

1. With all of the different genres' it took me awhile to figure out where to post for what. We have specific boards for each faction and then a general board.

I agree that in some factions, there are an excess of forums. The Empire for instance seems to have a large number of forums, that don't see a lot of activity. It might be worth consolidating some of those forums and giving them a clearer purpose - in the same way that the Jedi forums are set up. What do you think, Imperials?

3. For the fleeters, it would be helpful when we are assigned ship(s), to be given a first mission to get us on our feet. I have my ships, and I know that I have freedom to post whatever I may, but I don't want to cause problems because I haven't read every thread and missed that an independent planet is actually controlled by another faction and now I started another war.

I like this idea a lot. We don't have a huge number of hardcore fleeters, but plenty of people writing pilots.. so I don't think it would be unfeasible to come up with a mission for a new members to take part in. This could even be something that is run on a monthly, or bi-monthly basis... some fleet combat that would involve a contested or unoccupied world.

2. If a faction has gone inactive, could it be hidden so that it doesn't clutter up the site? I know that admin will still see them, but the vast body of members wouldn't see it.

Is there a faction in particular that you are thinking of with this suggestion?

3. Have a place on the forum where positions are being advertised, or "want ads" can be placed incase someone is searching for a sim or members or is wanting to contribute to sims.

This forum (RP Planning Discussion) is meant for exactly that purpose :) Maybe that is not clear, though? In which case, we could add to the forums description or perhaps just have a general 'Wanted' / recruiting thread.

Loklorien s'Ilancy

Jul 12th, 2010, 03:28:29 PM

I know that if you go into your User CP and click on group memberships, it lists all the groups and their leaders, but I'm not sure how common-knowledge that is :/

I do know that it lists the moderators of each forum you're currently in along the bottom of the page. I don't know how easy it would be to shift those to the top of the page though; that's not my territory, heh.

Captain Untouchable

Jul 12th, 2010, 03:31:34 PM

I was discussing this with someone... yesterday, I think it was. No matter how far I go, or how hard I look, I haven't found a community that is as 'good' as here. It's hard to pin down what it is that makes it work. There's just something about the atmosphere. We somehow managed to be both laid back about stuff, and intensely passionate at the same time. There's always someone to bounce ideas off, and there's always non-hostile advice to be had. And I wholeheartedly think that we have some of not only the most talented and creative people writing here, but also some real, genuine golden souls.

Plus, no other Star Wars community has Jace. And everything is better with Jace. :cool

In terms of criticism... yeah, we can be a bit scatterbrained and disorganised at times. We've got information split between the wiki and the website, and it doesn't always match; and not everyone knows where to find it; and not everything is presented in the same sort of way.

I guess it's one of those situations where we're so used to how it works, we don't need it to be organised. It's like when your room is an absolute tip, but you know exactly where everything is. :\

Emelie Shadowstar

Jul 12th, 2010, 03:47:29 PM

Coming as someone who is still (fairly) newish (what... going on two years now?) I guess I can toss my two cents in here and be fairly honest when it comes to trying to remember what it was like initially and what it's like now.

Honestly, when I first took a look at Fans I was intimidated. There are a lot of forums, and even now I have to wonder if some of the minor storylines don't get lost in the depths somewhere... but then again, I think if anyone is following the escapades of a specific character/group of characters/etc... they pretty much know where to look to find them. It did take some getting used to in terms of where to post what, but honestly I also like it in the sense that it does provide the feel that this is a big galaxy. Major events take place where you can clearly follow them/find out/etc... and minor things can go without notice and for some reason that makes sense to me. Is it the best set up? Maybe not... could it stand with a bit of tidying up? Probably (especially with the group forums... maybe they just need an OOC area and an IC area apiece rather than several RP areas just within one group... unless it honestly makes sense to divide them up.)

So yeah, intimidating at first. But if you kinda lurk around, look around, read around (shouldn't this be the first thing anyone does when they join a forum? After introducing themselves? Maybe that's just me.)... you get a feel for it and I think most people would be just fine. Is it a place to just "jump right in"? Maybe not, but there's reasons for that and that brings me to my actual favorite part about this place that really set it apart from other forums for me... freaking... STORYLINE.

As much as it's RP... I've felt that really Fans has put more of an emphasis on collective storytelling rather than nitpicky uber strict RPing. Trust me... when I found out that I had the ability to basically "do something with a character because it made sense" and not have to worry about "well does it fall in the rules of this group? Is my character basically high enough level to do that? Wait! I'm not a force user, I can't go hang out with those people!" I wish I was overstating that "AHA!" moment, but I'm not. The simple ability to have intrigue that comes from characters backstabbing others, switching between groups, spying on other groups, etc etc... it just opens storylines that just...well... again, make sense. There's a nice flow to it all in that aspect.

But again...without strict structure I can see how this would intimidate people. But I have to be honest when I say this, it's not an elitist thing, it's not a "my forums are better than yours" thing or anything like that... I can't stand forum RP formats where the fact that if I feel like making a new character I have to start them at the lowest of lows and slowly work them up. The second time going through a "basic force abilities class" thread was tiring. The third time it was maddening, the fourth just abysmal. It takes the fun out of writing when you have to basically level up a character to actually WRITE them. I know the journey is half the fun sometimes, but when I've already gone through the basics with two characters... and maybe there's a roll that needs to be filled.. do I really want to go through the exact same steps on a third? Nooooo. Dear god no.

Some people might enjoy that sort of thing... I don't. :P And I love the fact that these forums don't do that to people. You can do it if you want to! But you don't have to. I'm not saying the other way is bad, far from it! If that works for how people want to write - great! Yippy. It works beautifully for someone who is new to RP, or unsure of how to get started in that format... or may just want a more structured setting. I find that Fan's somewhat looser format works here, to be honest. There's still kinda some requirements of "newer" characters. Obviously a person who is brand new to being a Jedi isn't going to be pulling the same stuff as the Master rank folks.. but I feel like on Fans their journey into becoming a full fledged Jedi/whatever would come more natural and less check-listy.

Uber short edition: I think Fans works as a place who want to write something that seems more like cohesive fan-fiction than typical rule/turn/etc based forum RP. Though I think we could all start attempting to organize the wiki and such a bit better so its easier to find stuff sometimes.

Yeah... that about sums up my feelings about this place before I get into the mushy "you guys have made me feel so welcome *sob*" stuff. :lol

Tarrick Ragnus

Jul 12th, 2010, 04:52:37 PM

2. If a faction has gone inactive, could it be hidden so that it doesn't clutter up the site? I know that admin will still see them, but the vast body of members wouldn't see it.

Is there a faction in particular that you are thinking of with this suggestion?

My Bad. I was looking at the ARCHIVES. Never mind on that suggestion.

3. Have a place on the forum where positions are being advertised, or "want ads" can be placed incase someone is searching for a sim or members or is wanting to contribute to sims.

This forum (RP Planning Discussion) is meant for exactly that purpose :) Maybe that is not clear, though? In which case, we could add to the forums description or perhaps just have a general 'Wanted' / recruiting thread.

Another DOH! I even remember posting a want ad there. I tell you my ADD kicked in.

Overall I am thoroughly thrilled to be here and glad I found this site.

Drin Kizael

Jul 12th, 2010, 07:51:04 PM

The wiki could use more love.

Lilaena De'Ville

Jul 13th, 2010, 12:16:40 AM

I think that each 'faction' should have a stickied list of the current members and hirearchy within the faction. And that these should be up to date.

Group mods should get on that right away (include easy links for PMs as well, that would help with communication with newer people).

I like 'Fans because at other places people hate me for no reason. :(

Cael Bathala

Jul 13th, 2010, 02:49:17 PM

The wiki could use more love.

The wiki is and will always be an optional thing. If people want to update it, they can - and it's great when people get all enthusiastic about it, but no one is going to be forced to do it. So if you think it needs more love, you gotta be the one to give it ;)

Cirrsseeto Quez

Jul 13th, 2010, 09:43:59 PM

The wiki could use more love.

The spirit is willing, but I'm so dadgum lazy :(

Droo

Jul 15th, 2010, 04:16:11 AM

Some group forums could definately do with a good stream-lining, as has already been said. It would be nice to see more Wiki stuff but we can only look to ourselves for that, I think we should each at least strive to make a basic page for each of our characters at some point - broken links are horrible! But again, it is voluntary and that shouldn't change.

A personal gripe of mine is the underlining of a post once it's been edited five minutes after it was first posted. I don't know why but it just irks me to no end and has me rushing to edit posts before the five minutes runs out, it is a petty complaint, but aesthetically it drives me mad. And I am very particular about appearances like that. I understand this is a vBulletin thing but is it possible to change this so that the line appears at the natural bottom of the post, along with the Edited by... message with it?

Dasquian Belargic

Jul 15th, 2010, 06:03:47 AM

What would people think about removing the 'bio' forums from the board itself? That way, we don't end up having one bio on the board and one on the wiki- and it might give some the drive needed to transfer their characters info over ;)

I agree about that 'Edited by...' thing Droo - it has always irritated the presentation-fixated part of me. I think originally it was originally a measure put in place to help the staff deal with certain issues (people posting something horrifically offensive, then editting it out and claiming it never happened) so maybe it could be removed now? I'm not sure. That would be a technical matter for our more technically minded admins ^_^;

Emelie Shadowstar

Jul 15th, 2010, 11:04:42 AM

I think removing "bio" pages from the forums isn't a bad idea at all. If someone needs to have their concept reviewed that can be done in an initial interest thread in whatever OOC forum the group has, rather than making it its own post somewhere. Once approved they can go slap it up on the wiki to make it "official" :)

Dasquian Belargic

Jul 15th, 2010, 01:44:58 PM

I have 'stickied' this thread so that as time goes on, people can feel free to put in with any thoughts or suggestions they might have :)

Lilaena De'Ville

Jul 15th, 2010, 02:00:31 PM

I think the "edited by" isn't a bad thing to keep, its just as Droo said that it doesn't fit into the 'footer' of the post. Right? maybe I'm confused again. I think we should keep it because then if something IS changed in a post we can know to look for it.

Travis North

Jul 15th, 2010, 02:07:01 PM

I think that each 'faction' should have a stickied list of the current members and hirearchy within the faction. And that these should be up to date.

Group mods should get on that right away (include easy links for PMs as well, that would help with communication with newer people).

On it.

@ Tarrick - Plans are coming together and I'll be sure to direct you on the path to Victory.
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Cirrsseeto Quez

Jul 16th, 2010, 12:48:43 AM

I think I'd wiki a lot more if I wasn't such an ignoramus on the format. Maybe this weekend I'll talk to somebody who's good at it and figure something out.

Morgan Evanar

Jul 17th, 2010, 04:57:09 PM

Wiki format is dead simple, just copy someone else's page and mod it. With the Wiki, bio forums are redundant IMO.

Atton Kira

Jul 17th, 2010, 06:43:44 PM

Wiki format is dead simple, just copy someone else's page and mod it. With the Wiki, bio forums are redundant IMO.

Some formats are a little over-complicated if you're unfamiliar with the coding. For example, the format that people have with scroll boxes all over the place can be disorientating (the titles aren't always easy to spot, among other things), and they're easy to "break".

Some bios use a much simpler format though, and while it would be nice if everyone was working to the same template, provided the information is up there it doesn't really matter at the end of the day.

Sasseeri Reeouurra

Jul 17th, 2010, 09:54:38 PM

The more complicated ones are the older versions, not everything has been 'moved' to the newer, more simple versions.

*shrug*

Lykaios

Jul 18th, 2010, 12:37:17 PM

Em's feelings reflect my feelings as well, so thanks for typing all that, Em! :D Oh, and thanks for showing me this place.

But really, even though I'll be repeating what she said, the fact that someone can write a story and its only limitations seem to be for it to make sense instead of a set of rules, is what's best about this site.

I like the open-mindedness of the members, I like the fact our input is asked for and actually taken into consideration is why even though I haven't written in ages I still hang out.

I also agree that an org chart of sorts for factions could be beneficial for newcomers along with who'd be willing to help noobs get set in without having to be high in the hierarchy (i.e. it doesn't have to be Miranda the one to help a newbie get settled in, it can be whoever is willing to help, hope that makes sense).

Anyway, if I think of anything else, I'll post it later.

Dasquian Belargic

Jul 20th, 2010, 05:51:32 PM

Well, in the space of a couple of weeks we have made some changes and they seem to be paying off already if the current posting activity is anything to go by :)

Lilaena De'Ville

Jan 20th, 2011, 01:37:10 PM

Does this still need to be stickied?

Content: I love SW-Fans and I wish we weren't all grown up now and could waste so much more time here actually RPing. :(

Dasquian Belargic

Jan 20th, 2011, 02:42:22 PM

I am leaving it stickied for now, yes :) and I agree. Being an adult sucks!

Morgan Evanar

Jan 20th, 2011, 06:29:58 PM

I am leaving it stickied for now, yes :) and I agree. Being an adult sucks!It has its pluses but I do miss being able to piss away hours on the internet with abandon.

Vigilante

Mar 5th, 2012, 09:04:41 PM

:Poke

My current thoughts on Sw-Fans is that we should do something to gain more members, or up our posting, because for the last few months this place has been like a ghost town. I can only change my own posting momentum, though, so I've been doing that. Baby steps!

p.s. Being an adult still sort of sucks, lol.

Captain Untouchable

Mar 6th, 2012, 03:40:53 AM

If we're going to try and attract new people, we might want to think about making the boards more accessible to new people.

We have the wiki, but one of the reasons [that I think it] doesn't get updated much is because most of us just write character-focused stories: stuff important to us personally as writers, but that may not necessarily feel noteworthy enough to get put on the timeline/etc. Those kind of threads are also really tricky for new characters to get involved in without them feeling (or being) pushy.

What we might want to think about doing is some more events that will make a splash, and then cause ripples across dozens of threads. We don't necessarily need to do a massive thread about the event... but things like the creation of the Wheel, Empress Tarkin, the Mutant Registration Act, and (to a lesser extent) the Cloud City and Bounty Hunter stuff we started sparked off a heck of a lot of activity because it shook up the status quo.

Maybe we need to aim to do Splashes (TM) more often? We don't necessarily even need to post the splash itself: if we make an "Oh no! The Empire has conquered Mon Calamari!" news post, then the actual posting of the conquest itself can potentially just be one of the dozens of ripple effect posts.

That way we can keep the board's central narrative ticking over so it doesn't stagnate... but people can still do threads that happened earlier in the timeline. Just a thought, anyways. :)

Dasquian Belargic

Mar 6th, 2012, 11:09:58 AM

I like that idea, Jace.

We did talk about doing roleplaying 'seasons' when we first decided that a board-wide reset was necessary, so that we would have one story arc and then after a certain point, a plot development would push everything into a new arc.

For anyone who has been taking part in our RP voice-chat sessions, I think you'd probably agree that it's useful to have someone orchestrating the overall story.

Perhaps something we could try, similar to that, is have RPers take turns - when they have the time - at being the 'game master' for a 'season' of RPs.

Vince

Mar 6th, 2012, 12:29:46 PM

Perhaps something we could try, similar to that, is have RPers take turns - when they have the time - at being the 'game master' for a 'season' of RPs.

Are you saying that we may try to institute a SW-Fans Dark Banana?

"Okay, we have Ben and Anbira and Vega van Derveld all in prison (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/YouAllMeetInACell). Chained to the walls, and rough sacks pulled from your faces, you all see each other for the first time."

Vega: "I want to kill them."
Ben: "Please don't kill me!"
Anbira: "Please don't kill him. We need to work together to get out of this."
Vega: "I'll work with you if I get to kill you afterwards. Or during. Or now."
Anbira: "Maybe."
Ben: "No! I don't wanna die!"

The above is a very facetious example of what I mean.

Dasquian Belargic

Mar 6th, 2012, 12:37:02 PM

:lol Something like that, yes.

Someone comes up with a scenario for a self-contained story, which is relative in some way to the wider Galactic Civil War plot, and acts as the game master for the rest of the players.

Crusader

Mar 6th, 2012, 12:54:37 PM

Vega has rolled a 20 he slips on the floor and falls into his own weapon!

Dasquian Belargic

Mar 6th, 2012, 01:08:47 PM

ANBIRRAAAAAAA :verymad

Droo

Mar 6th, 2012, 01:12:18 PM

Reminds me of my traumatic Star Trek roleplaying stint in which my engineer failed an attempt to climb the ladder in a jefferies tube and incapacitated himself. Dark days.

Closer to the topic at hand, I like the idea of event roleplays, but offer a word of caution: don't go too big in the beginning because it rarely works out due to the scope of the plot and the numbers involved. Not that there's anything wrong with being ambitious and perhaps this will provide me with a neat little segue onto the other point: games masters could be the solution to that problem providing direction and pace to the narrative. Yes, that transition worked out quite nicely.

Dasquian Belargic

Mar 6th, 2012, 01:24:29 PM

It might work well, or it might not translate at all, but it could be an interesting little experiment.

Vince

Mar 6th, 2012, 02:04:32 PM

I think the only major problem would be the "GM". A lot of people, myself included, have been known to fall off the face of the earth sometimes. If one of "us" happens to be GM, then there's a major problem, moreso than if one of the players disappears.

We could try to make a system of GMs. Perhaps come up with a scenario or something and have a number of fallback GMs in case something happens; that way if a GM has put something into a story (especially the larger, more ambitious storylines), his or her disappearance doesn't mean the entire thing is sunk.

Lilaena De'Ville

Mar 6th, 2012, 04:13:01 PM

I think we basically do this already - like with the Dan is a Sith story that is dangling right now. Charley (and I to a lesser extent) set the plot in motion and if people would post it would follow the story arc that he envisions.

The same goes for any story that spans more than one RP. Whoever's story it is helps push it along. It's just the participation that's a problem at the moment. imo

Dasquian Belargic

Mar 6th, 2012, 04:30:42 PM

What would be your suggestion to improve participation? Other than 'post more' because that is something that is really dependent on peoples RL time commitments.

I think that there is probably a fair difference between the way we currently RP and RPing with a GM, at least given my own experience in terms of how the GM provides most of the pace and direction to the narrative, and the players are generally responsible for doing a lot more discovery both IC and OOC, instead of OOC knowing most of the plot from the outset - but that was just one idea that came to mind, off the back of the fact that some of us have been having a fun time with that kind of role-playing recently.

Vince

Mar 6th, 2012, 05:00:33 PM

I think that there is probably a fair difference between the way we currently RP and RPing with a GM, at least given my own experience in terms of how the GM provides most of the pace and direction to the narrative, and the players are generally responsible for doing a lot more discovery both IC and OOC, instead of OOC knowing most of the plot from the outset - but that was just one idea that came to mind, off the back of the fact that some of us have been having a fun time with that kind of role-playing recently.

I'm kinda stuck agreeing with both you and Lilaena. I can see where she's coming from in terms of the way it will play, but instead we should probably think of it like Charley's aborted attempt at the Fallout setting. The wasteland account would be something like the GM, and instead of a setting, we'd have the event or scenario. The different threads we'd do with a GM would be very much like a D&D or pen&paper session, and the "event" would be very much like a campaign for pen and paper, and much like an arc for us. The strength of this kind of set up is the ablility to handle the entrance and departure of characters or players as it happens, rather than stalling due to disappearances or frustrating lack of inspiration.

Xel-Naga

Mar 6th, 2012, 05:07:52 PM

Creating the opportunity for people to post is the first step for getting more participation. I know for myself I really do not post on 'Fans much anymore. Not because I'm not around. Trust me. I lurk on this board every day of the week. I just do not feel like I have anywhere to write, since there does not feel to be a lot of casual writing going on anymore. For that reason I would not suggest jumping straight into huge, intricate roleplays that suck in dozens of characters. This will look too complicated for some and any writers that lose interest or fall away can potentially cripple the entire roleplay.

You might try starting with something more casual. An event shared with several groups. I dunno. I really do not have any ideas. I just advise against getting too complicated too quickly. I would absolutely love to get back into the more intricate circles of writing here on 'Fans.

Improving activity could be as easy as pulling in new writers. I don't know if we have any kind of advertising going on in the shadows that I'm unaware of, but as far as I know we don't really get our name out there anymore. It's not like in the old days where Fans was one of the few boards around. The vast network of SW roleplaying boards and subsequent split off boards has shown me there is a lot of Star Wars roleplaying going on out there. And I run into people in other genres of roleplaying that get very interested when I tell them I write Star Wars too. Usually I link them here but the general inactivity of mots of the forum usually dissuades them from joining. It wouldn't hurt to try some advertising outside the usual circles. If we had an official advert I wouldn't mind posting it around on other boards that support advertisement.

Glen Fiddich

Mar 6th, 2012, 05:45:18 PM

RE: Ripple Effects

We do have events that cause ripples already... but I think the big problem we've got is that we explain the idea, and then start the build-up. Everyone gets really enthusiastic about the possible rammifications of the Rebels discovering that Dan is a Sith, but we then embark on a long road to get to that point.

Maybe we need to start coming up with more sudden ripple effects? If we were doing an RP based on the new Star Trek movie, the destruction of Vulcan could be the cause of our ripples: something that happened extremely quickly on screen, but that completely rewrote the entire universe.

Maybe we should try starting at the cause of the ripples, rather than starting with the causes of the cause of the ripples? Some sudden, shocking, Return of Palpatine / Vong Invasion style game-changer that comes completely out of left-field, so that we can strike with posts while the inspiration-iron is still hot?

RE: GM'd Forum Roleplaying

I like the idea of a GM, and the notion of players discovering stuff as we go... but I'm not sure how we'd implement it. Using Dark Banana as an example - we seem to have a lot more more Keanu Banana and Hitler of the Mountain characters than we do regular old Glens and Dasquians: quite a lot of the characters we play are (understandably) pretty important members of the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire. Those are the sorts of characters that a GM would normally control.

How would we make a GM situation work for our Generals and Jedi Masters? Or would it be something that we'd only be able to employ for the likes of Rogue Squadron, special forces, Jedi "away teams", etc?

Lilaena De'Ville

Mar 6th, 2012, 06:08:58 PM

I totally agree - things take a long time to develop, and it's a chicken/egg situation because we want exciting storylines, but we need participation to drive the story along... but we need stories moving along to get more participation.

And of course, a lot of times it only takes one or two people stopping posting (Jenny or Liz for example) to halt nearly all roleplays. I don't think there is a solution to that, of course, other than kidnapping and forcing people to post. ;)

I think advertising the board is a great idea, I used to do my best to get us out there when I was an admin, with limited success. But we need a product for new people to 'buy into'. We need people writing. I don't think there is a solution to writer's block, but if everyone just picked one RP they have dangling and unfinished and worked on getting it done, it might snowball onward from there.

Vince

Mar 6th, 2012, 06:32:13 PM

Generals: my friends and I did an RP where we took command of the defense militias of a city, and directed the defense from the front lines. Instead of doing each individual soldier, we split the troops under our command into "squads" and companies, with each squad having the stats of a single character: hp, attack and defense, and so on.

The GM would assign us to do skill checks depending on what we wanted to do. If one guy was doing recon, he'd roll a stealth check and we'd all agree on (the GM would have the final say) the effects based on the roll. Bad rolls got him and/or his squads caught, so-so rolls didn't get much information, and excellent rolls gave him and his squad(s) the chance to snipe and destroy some enemies before they engaged us.

Perhaps we could implement something similar to the way Generals and Jedi Masters would play a GM run thread, depending on the event. I think this could be good for fleeting and land battles especially. Skill checks to decide whether a negotiation goes well or badly, or how long a mind trick lasts, could add a nice level of play to threads played with the more important characters.

And nothing says we have to stick with a GM styled system either. We can run the present system and the GM system side by side if anyone simply wanted use either.

Dasquian Belargic

Mar 7th, 2012, 11:43:07 AM

RE: Ripple Effects

Maybe we should try starting at the cause of the ripples, rather than starting with the causes of the cause of the ripples? Some sudden, shocking, Return of Palpatine / Vong Invasion style game-changer that comes completely out of left-field, so that we can strike with posts while the inspiration-iron is still hot?

Some kind of invasion is typically what's brought up whenever we talk about this kind of big, game-changer. The only problem I could imagine with that is that a biiiig invasion would be a long-lasting story arc rather than something that has manageable start and end points. That's not necessarily a bad thing, if we want to dramatically alter the landscape of the scenario, but if we're just wanting to give it a jolt of activity... something smaller scale might be easier to manage.

RE: GM'd Forum Roleplaying

How would we make a GM situation work for our Generals and Jedi Masters? Or would it be something that we'd only be able to employ for the likes of Rogue Squadron, special forces, Jedi "away teams", etc?

It would probably be the latter, although there is nothing to stop characters of higher standings taking part too. With the Jedi for example, you could have a team with a couple of padawans, two knights and a master. Your GM characters would then be the other senior members of the Jedi and perhaps the Rebel Alliance.

Taking an example from recent times, a GM could have run the 'Rescue From Coruscant' event which saw the majority of Jedi Knights and Masters on Coruscant. The GM would just have played the Empire, Inquisitors and all of the opposition to the Jedi.

Loklorien s'Ilancy

Mar 7th, 2012, 12:08:04 PM

I'll admit I'm not too keen on a GM approach since I've always enjoyed the freeform way we've done things a lot more, but I'm certainly not unwilling to give it a go.

I guess for me personally, as of late the inactivity has been a chance to recharge and get re-inspired. I've always viewed this place as cyclical to a fault, but it's a fault that I like because we write until we get tired, then recharge and bandy about ideas in chat or PM, and get back to it. Even this discussion is a part of our cycle.

Dasquian Belargic

Mar 7th, 2012, 12:11:42 PM

Yeah, I think it's important not to get too hung up on the GM idea. It's just one suggestion for something that might be interesting to try.

Even if we did try that though, ultimately we would need some kind of 'events' to actually RP.

Tear

Mar 8th, 2012, 12:20:37 AM

I would agree on cyclical pattern Swfan's tends to go through (This being probably one of the longer droughts then average)

Keeping with the pattern is the lets do an 'event' conversation. Lilaena already pointed out how most of the eagerness is spent discussing the idea then activity slowly dies off as people actually have to do the hard part, writing.

Motivation to post and the inspiration to keep that going is huge and something that ultimately lays with us/you/the writer. It's obvious that activity sparks creativity. The last few posts in this thread show that for a fact but I think numbers also play a part.

Our board is roughly 5-6 active writers (not lately, Charley is nearly a 1 man show right now) on average. That isn't a huge pool to pull from. Especially if just two of those writers get pulled away into RL issues, or have their interest in posting wane, which lets be honest, it happens.

We need more writers at Sw-fans but to do this we need to be active writers ourselves with events that are:

Hard to derail by inactivity.
Easy jumping on points for new people.(Small in scope?)
Exciting enough to keep those interested and writing.

It's a tall order.

I do like Vince's mention of a more 'game' type of thread involving fleeting and land battles. I had been setting up a really simple 'battleship' type system for fleeting but never took it anywhere. Perhaps we could build on that idea? Including something like Si'l and her great character cards. Have it so our character's equipment is shown as RPG elements, character sheets, stat's with items.

Ultimately this shouldn't be something that holds much sway in story terms and would need to monitored so as to not get out of hand. It could help draw more people to the site while keeping others posting to continue to 'build' their characters.

Special events could be Gm'd with prizes in mind that you could have added onto your characters.

Si'l having her unique lightsaber for example could be shown on a character sheet with some stats as a legendary item. What if writers could be rewarded with stuff like that as a result of finishing threads?

Loklorien s'Ilancy

Mar 8th, 2012, 02:05:29 AM

A reward system is actually something I can really dig, and would certainly add to the incentive for thread-finishing.

Lilaena De'Ville

Mar 8th, 2012, 02:16:14 AM

I think bean counting was organically excised from our system over the years for good reason. I'm not in favor of reinstating it or requiring stats for characters, etc.

Droo

Mar 8th, 2012, 04:52:24 AM

Number crunching does nothing for me either, to be honest. It has its time and place but once it starts affecting the success of our character's actions here I can't help but feel it would cheapen the experience.

And while I'm all for event roleplays that can push story along and make people feel a part of something, I think there's also a place for the old random free-for-all roleplays that used to pop up in the good old days; some were very silly, admittedly, but they were also fun and served in bringing characters together without any real planning or forethought.

Dasquian Belargic

Mar 8th, 2012, 07:21:18 AM

I've seen something on other sites which could be cool, in that they have little "achievement" icon bars they can put in their signatures for taking part in a particular event and seeing the event through to the end. It's just a small reward but kind of cool and everyone likes "achievements"

Droo

Mar 8th, 2012, 07:30:19 AM

Now that's a good idea. It's like when there were big events in the likes of WoW, and you get an achievement to share with others so you look back on it and say "I was there for..."

Plus to newcomers it would certainly pique curiosity about the big forum events and stories that have unraveled in the past and give them an incentive to be there for one in the future.

Crusader

Mar 8th, 2012, 08:58:15 AM

You mean like medals? Do we get Gamerscore as well?

Captain Untouchable

Mar 8th, 2012, 09:31:47 AM

Achievement: You Have a Bad Feeling About This...
Work a famous Star Wars quote seamlessly into a post.

I was initially just kidding about those sort of achievements... but actually, knowing us it could turn into something quite fun cooking up and naming achievements like that. We could do it like the whole suggesting custom titles thing mixed with leaving positive reputation on posts... if you read something awesome that warrants commemoration, we can make up a new medal or find an existing one to fit.

"I am your father!" could be awarded to people who "create an account for the father of an existing character" (I think that may just be Charley and myself ^_^;... ), and there could be a "Force Frying Pan!" achievement for "creative use of an unconventional object". :uhoh

I know some versions of board software are able to have little icons for achievements and things under the avatar/post count. Rather than try to cram everything into the signature bar, maybe it's worth looking to see if something like this is possible as an add-on for our boards?

*

Thinking of possible options for a Ripple Event... what about some sort of supership, superweapon, or superfleet? We've discussed stuff on a similar theme before; it's definitely the sort of thing that could easily spring to life overnight without us needing to post an extensive lead-up. It is potentially the sort of thing that we could use the GM system on - the GM controls the superthing. Plus, if the superthing is controlled by a third party it can provide story fodder for both Imperials and Rebels, and possibly some Bakura-style cooperation too; and if the Imperials and/or Rebels throw a ton of ships at it Endor-style, there are possibly some long-standing ramifications if too many of them get blown up. And it's something that can end (with the super-thing's destruction) in a big, medal-worthy event.

Loklorien s'Ilancy

Mar 8th, 2012, 11:08:55 AM

Instead of jumping immediately to a new scenario, maybe we should integrate some of these ideas like the achievements and/or after-thread-rewards into the current Alliance/Wheel project we have going on? That one right there has a lot of branchouts for a lot of characters. Vega, Amos, Inyos, Sol, and Serena come to mind in that they all hit key points by the ends of their respective threads.

Dasquian Belargic

Mar 8th, 2012, 11:46:19 AM

I know some versions of board software are able to have little icons for achievements and things under the avatar/post count. Rather than try to cram everything into the signature bar, maybe it's worth looking to see if something like this is possible as an add-on for our boards?

That's something Ogre would have to weigh in on... but I'm reluctant to add anything else above/below the avatar because for some people that area is already pretty crowded with CTs, stars, supporter icons, con related graphics etc.

Instead of jumping immediately to a new scenario, maybe we should integrate some of these ideas like the achievements and/or after-thread-rewards into the current Alliance/Wheel project we have going on? That one right there has a lot of branchouts for a lot of characters. Vega, Amos, Inyos, Sol, and Serena come to mind in that they all hit key points by the ends of their respective threads.

That sounds like a cool idea. Probably some for existing/ongoing threads and perhaps one new event would be good, to give people who aren't really involved in anything right now something to hop in on.

If people like this idea, I'd suggest we make new discussion thread for coming up with ideas for potential achievements. We can what kind of achievements people like the sound of - participating in particular battles, rescue missions, discovering secrets, whatever it might be - and then go from there :)

Sanis Prent

Mar 8th, 2012, 01:36:08 PM

I like all of this

Captain Untouchable

Mar 8th, 2012, 02:30:06 PM

That's something Ogre would have to weigh in on... but I'm reluctant to add anything else above/below the avatar because for some people that area is already pretty crowded with CTs, stars, supporter icons, con related graphics etc.

I thought your suggestion was to add stuff to the CT? :cyduck

Did I understand that wrong?

Dasquian Belargic

Mar 8th, 2012, 03:53:37 PM

I've seen something on other sites which could be cool, in that they have little "achievement" icon bars they can put in their signatures for taking part in a particular event...

Nope, we've got enough in our CTs already IMO :)

Captain Untouchable

Mar 8th, 2012, 04:07:52 PM

I totally read that wrong. O_O

Signatures is a much better idea. :lol

Droo

Mar 9th, 2012, 03:31:31 PM

If this is indeed the start of a new cycle of renewed roleplaying interest, perhaps it might be a good idea to have a thread in which people offer a blurb on each of their characters to provide the uninformed masses (me) a handy recap of where that character is at and, briefly, what they've been up to and will be getting up to in the immediate future. This will help people in getting a foot in the door, as it were, and potentially serve to facilitate plotting.

I'm sure something like this has done before, perhaps on numerous occassions, but does anyone else feel that something like that would be quite helpful right now?

Jamo Jakatta

Mar 9th, 2012, 03:38:37 PM

Charley actually made something a little like this fairly recently: http://sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?t=22268

Captain Untouchable

Mar 9th, 2012, 04:15:05 PM

Droo

Mar 9th, 2012, 04:58:33 PM

Charley actually made something a little like this fairly recently: http://sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?t=22268

This is just the thing. I'll make an effort to do something similar for the mutants scenario soon, unless someone beats me to it.

Dasquian Belargic

Mar 9th, 2012, 05:12:18 PM

We used to have massive "I need to post to this" lists a few years back. It was a massive help as far as keeping track of your threads went, but it had a downside in that you were the only one who could your list.

Maybe there's a better way we could do something similar? Maybe use the wiki so that other people can add threads, or change the thread status to let you know it's your turn? I'm sure with a little bit of templates and wiki magic, we/I could come up with something slick and easy to use that doesn't involve too much rummaging when you want to use it.

Personally, I am much more in favor of just PMing or IMing someone to let them know they're up. Or even setting up an OOC thread for a particular RP and chipping in a "so and so is up!" post whenever a reply is made. My reason for preferring that is that I'm bad enough at checking up on board stuff without having to go and check the wiki as well ;) so this seems like putting in an extra step / hurdle to me but hey, the wiki is a tool that's available for people to do whatever they want with it so if you want to keep a track of your RPs there, feel free to.

Loklorien s'Ilancy

Apr 20th, 2012, 12:28:44 AM

I've been thinking about this for the past few days, but what if we broke up the RP of the Month into categories? Like comedy, drama, and action? I generally have a really difficult time deciding which thread I like enough to nominate because it's hard to choose from a thread that made me physically laugh out loud and one that really threw me for a mental loop and made me say 'holy shit'. And by the time that I do decide, nominating is closed.

Thoughts?

Lilaena De'Ville

Apr 20th, 2012, 12:41:48 AM

We usually have trouble remembering just to put one up. I think figuring out three or four might be asking too much. Also, the front page of the wiki would be crowded?

Also you can nominated as many threads as you want, you don't have to choose one.

Morgan Evanar

Apr 20th, 2012, 12:42:55 AM

The more the merrier.

Loklorien s'Ilancy

Apr 20th, 2012, 12:51:29 AM

Like I said, it was just something I'd been mulling over *shrug* A sort of Oscars for Fans.

During times of high activity such as now, it might be something to consider.

When things slow down, I certainly don't expect us to keep up with multiple nominations.

Lilaena De'Ville

Apr 20th, 2012, 01:10:09 AM

Well we already do multiple nominations... Maybe I don't understand what you are proposing. ^_^;

Loklorien s'Ilancy

Apr 20th, 2012, 01:20:28 AM

I'm saying that - at this point in time of high activity - there are a lot of different genres of threads floating about. Some are comedic, some are very dramatic, and others are very action oriented.

Mitch's 'Wee Hours' thread is stunning and amazingly introspective.

Vince and Zeke's 'Fine Green Mist' thread is hilarious.

Both are top-notch examples of the mood that each of the authors are trying to convey. Might be nice to have 'X of the month' slots for them to be able to fill.

Atreyu

Apr 20th, 2012, 06:35:00 AM

Perhaps instead of multiple categories, keep it the way it is now but also have an 'Other Nominees' section which lists other nominations that were received. That way those threads still get attention, and it's only a small extension of what we're doing now.

I don't take part in the whole 'roleplay of the month' thing (I leave that for you roleplayers :p) but the idea of trying to include nominations by category strikes me as a tad complicated to pull off (in the sense that some threads might end up being hard to categorise - for instance if a roleplay is both dramatic AND comedic, which category would it fit in?).

Captain Untouchable

Apr 20th, 2012, 06:48:33 AM

Maybe instead of a single Roleplay of the Month, we could so something like a "Fans' Five to Watch"? We only focus on whichever RP received the most nominations, but we also list X number of runners up... perhaps with a TV guide style single-paragraph summary of what it's about and what makes it awesome?

If a character gets nominated (but isn't the focus), that's okay: they can always be re-nominated at a later date. Given the rule that it has to be a current / active thread that is focused on however, if a thread isn't #1 it misses out completely... and that's a shame.

Also, if we're giving honourable mentions to other threads, we might find that we get more nominations, too. At the moment people are pretty much recommending a single "best" thread... whereas mentioning more means that we'll be able to draw attention to a much wider variety of threads as well, like Christin suggested.

Morgan Evanar

Apr 20th, 2012, 09:24:26 AM

How about we just post up the most fun/awesome stuff in the thread and other people can click on the links and read stuff. The one with the most mentions gets RP Of The Month or whatever. (I'm proposing the same thing with less structure)

Dasquian Belargic

Apr 20th, 2012, 11:57:09 AM

A monthly digest of awesome reads would be cool. It would be something I'd actually like to see someone doing for the frontpage news, even... like the features that Dakota, Tear, etc have done in the past. You could get people to throw their nominations into the thread as usual, with the most nominated one becoming the focus but then the 'runners up' also getting a shout-out on the frontpage (which could be linked to from the wiki.)

Loklorien s'Ilancy

Apr 20th, 2012, 12:03:11 PM

I'm keen on that. Works well to keep any clutter from the Wiki, but still allows us to showcase on the front page more than just one thread.

Atreyu

Apr 21st, 2012, 06:20:44 AM

Dasquian Belargic

Apr 21st, 2012, 06:28:18 AM

We already have a couple of existing Frontpage News staff, but if anyone else would like to join them, please let me know :)

Draiya Naaianeya

Apr 21st, 2012, 10:09:38 AM

I can do that. Especially with cheesy Clone Wars Narrator voice :D

Jordana Jax

Jul 20th, 2012, 06:34:12 AM

This might be way more than you'd like to do here as far as giving recognition goes but at a forum I use to write at a very long time ago, we held quarterly SWERPA's (Acronym for Star Wars (name of community) Roleplay Awards). They were based on the Emmy's.

The community was given X amount of days to submit up to 5 nominations per category. I don't recall them right off the top of my head but I think they were:

Best Jedi, Best Sith, Best Villain, Best Imperial, Best Rebel, Best Story, Best Interaction, Favorite Couple/Pairing, Best Roleplayer, etc. You get the general idea.

So everyone would submit their votes to the administrators, who would then tally them up (posted in the admin forum so all admins were in the loop and it was kept fair count-wise). After the submission period, votes were tallied and the nominations were announced. I had a news reporter who did this as an Entertainment holochannel's star-studded thirty minutes of fun!

Once the nominations were posted, the community then had X number of days to submit their final votes for the winners in each category. For this, you had to only choose 1 from each category and could only select from the choices given in the nominations. Then again, at the close of the voting period, all votes were tallied and final winners in each category were selected.

But before the winners were even announced, the art team whipped up awesome awards images for the winners in each category. (Winners displayed these on their character wiki page and quite proudly).

We made huge deal out of it the first time around, too. My journalist was the host for an evening of star-studded glamour, met each of the nominees on the red carpet, conducted interviews, it was a BLAST! One of the most enjoyable threads I ever participated in to be honest.

It was great too because it allowed characters that otherwise would never ever interact with each a chance to do just that. The character attended the gala and basically it was like that character was the 'actor' in the 'film' - in this case, the story. Of course, I could have just said it much easier by stating that the characters were the actors and their stories were the 'films' lol.

It was in this IC thread that the final winners were announced and given their awards. Everyone loved it and we did the awards every quarter for at least 5 years.

Of course, you don't have to do every quarter. It's up to you, obviously. But anyway ... just a suggestion :)