Post by sonata on Mar 31, 2011 7:30:01 GMT
I must express my resignation and disapproval with how this role play game has evolved. When I first saw this game on Role Play Gateway, I was convinced that the—I’m going to refer to GM as Game Manager rather than Game Master for reasons that “Manager” highlights the importance of this role—GM had an idea of how her role play was to develop and grow, and that the goals that she wanted her game to have were met. Role Play Gateway fabricates a very common and contagious RP disease where mediocre GMs will come up with this “glorious idea,” and the first thing that enters their mind is: “I want to make this small, unplanned, barely drafted idea into a role play.”
With this thought alone, they post up their role play idea, some do better than the more mediocre GMs by actually managing to make a compelling introduction to lure role players in; but as soon as the game starts or continues, the role players find themselves without guidance in the storyline. Some rogue role players prefer the GM to have no guidance on his or her story because if they can take it over, then they will gladly do so and make their own game out of it. All those players who were interested in the original GM’s idea quit, and then the game ceases to function. All of this happens within a duration of two weeks dominantly, but depending on how many players are in the game, it can last for only a month and a half.
This game has that disease. There was a character that was playing the major role of The Devil or Azazel that had mysteriously disappeared. No rules about activity were placed to deal with inactive players and to regulate a constant flow of posts. If there had been proper rules, that role player could have been weeded out early, and then the GM could have recruited another player to take his place. This didn’t happen until the RP had fell into stagnation and majority of the role players that had been in it at the very beginning had quit.
By taking on the role of the new devil, I was planning to try and revive this role play, but with the GM confessing that she refuses to be a GM and would rather the role players make her game the way they want it, I find this role play to be a waste of time. That is not what I joined this role play for. You do not buy an interesting book to have the author say: “This is how my story goes in summary, but I chose not to write it because I didn’t feel like it. You’re welcome to write it in the way you think I might have.” I join role plays to experience what the GM has created, but let me clarify for the sake of the narrow-minded and ignorant.
A good role play will have an experienced, active, and dedicated GM that is aware of the common failures that cause games to crash. The GM will then have rules strictly for the order and maintenance of the game, and often times, the rules can maintain game quality. The GM will have a basic outline with how they want their storyline to go. Of course with the addition of new role players and writers (yes, I separate them for there is a difference), the story will gain new ideas and material, but the main plot still exists. The GM sometimes doesn’t tell the role players his or her “secret” plot. This can prove problematic for role players concerned about where the story is headed or even the duration of the RP and will need assurance. It is actually wiser to give role players a small goal that they need to reach. The small goal doesn’t have to reveal surprises later in the story, but it gives the role players something to look forward to. It also encourages and motivates them along. How they reach it is up to them, and depending on the writing quality of the writers, the GM may see some amazing developments. As role players become inactive, busy, or AWOL, it is up to the GM to regulate the game around those players and to remove and recruit new players as necessary so the game doesn’t die. If a GM is incapable of showing management and leadership skills, then more than likely that game is going to die—unless of course, someone takes it over, but then it won’t be that GM’s idea anymore. In summary, being a GM takes time and commitment. If you have neither, if your life is too busy, then don’t make a role play. You will waste everyone’s time.
It is important that if a GM’s RP dies, it be the players fault and not his or her own. The GM should have least tried to keep it functioning, and if it collapsed then it was for other reasons than poor management. There are many reasons as to why games die, but what I stated was the most common reason, and the point of this post is not to go off on a tangent about, “Why RPs fail” but to bring to light the problems that were in this RP, and why I have quit.
Before I decided to quit, I attempted to try my hand at other characters than just Matthew. I had created Uriel because the GMs had declared that he was needed. I even posted as Uriel, but did I see much storyline collaboration or interaction with Uriel, no. In fact, the players in this RP have made a ton of NPCs and a good majority of them aren’t even used. When I made The Devil, I had aspirations to hopefully perhaps get some storyline collaboration and planning done, but I was convinced that this would be another Uriel situation. Uriel wasn’t aware of what was going on around heaven since his job was to guard the gates. He needed to be informed, and did the only angel players in game ever get around to interact with him? Nope. Of course, I am not including Nala or Raphael in this since Nala was incapable of doing so and Raphael was busy with Nala, but if Gabriel and Michael weren’t having an endless bicker on who God loves best for the entire month of March, Uriel might have become important and a necessity to the game. But Uriel has stagnated just like this RP. Matthew has hit a development wall and has too stagnated. This entire RP is a dead horse, and I find no reason to beat it.
Other issues; so, there were players who were trying to better their writing—Chocolate being the main desirer. Did anyone confront Chocolate about her chronic and horrible failure in transitions? No. They had rather watch her continue to role play like a noob who must have skipped a few years of English. Her character Tyson was quite the teleporter. One moment he is randomly at the hospital for no apparent reason explained, then next he is at the Mission, then he is kidnapped by Russians and being beaten in a warehouse, then he’s back at the Mission, then he becomes invisible while he is at the mission. We didn’t even see this guy for a few pages but his last location was within the mission, then he posts walking up to the mission a second time. Wasn’t he already there? It is poor writing. No one pointed it out. So there is no educating in this game either.
I enjoyed the few interactions I was able to get with Matthew. Interaction is very difficult in this role play with everyone’s subplots colliding and everyone trying to get the attention of certain people. There is hardly a calm and natural flow. I have no intention of writing short stories called “Matthew’s Adventures.” I had no intention to role play with myself for the duration of the RP to just have people marveling my work yet paying no contribution. To preserve my creative energy, sanity, and muse, once you’ve reached the conclusion of this post, I am officially gone from this RP.
This RP is no longer fun for me. It no longer has a goal. I refuse to be those role players that make the RP for the GM. I make characters for an RP not characters to take over a GMs idea. There are other things I’d rather blissfully spend my time on than to be aggravated by the putrid smell of this decaying storyline throughout the remaining months of my college semester. If you enjoyed it, then you enjoyed it. I do not care about your objections and opinions for they won’t change how I feel about this RP. So, I’m out. Yes, that means I’m gone from this role play. Peace.
With this thought alone, they post up their role play idea, some do better than the more mediocre GMs by actually managing to make a compelling introduction to lure role players in; but as soon as the game starts or continues, the role players find themselves without guidance in the storyline. Some rogue role players prefer the GM to have no guidance on his or her story because if they can take it over, then they will gladly do so and make their own game out of it. All those players who were interested in the original GM’s idea quit, and then the game ceases to function. All of this happens within a duration of two weeks dominantly, but depending on how many players are in the game, it can last for only a month and a half.
This game has that disease. There was a character that was playing the major role of The Devil or Azazel that had mysteriously disappeared. No rules about activity were placed to deal with inactive players and to regulate a constant flow of posts. If there had been proper rules, that role player could have been weeded out early, and then the GM could have recruited another player to take his place. This didn’t happen until the RP had fell into stagnation and majority of the role players that had been in it at the very beginning had quit.
By taking on the role of the new devil, I was planning to try and revive this role play, but with the GM confessing that she refuses to be a GM and would rather the role players make her game the way they want it, I find this role play to be a waste of time. That is not what I joined this role play for. You do not buy an interesting book to have the author say: “This is how my story goes in summary, but I chose not to write it because I didn’t feel like it. You’re welcome to write it in the way you think I might have.” I join role plays to experience what the GM has created, but let me clarify for the sake of the narrow-minded and ignorant.
A good role play will have an experienced, active, and dedicated GM that is aware of the common failures that cause games to crash. The GM will then have rules strictly for the order and maintenance of the game, and often times, the rules can maintain game quality. The GM will have a basic outline with how they want their storyline to go. Of course with the addition of new role players and writers (yes, I separate them for there is a difference), the story will gain new ideas and material, but the main plot still exists. The GM sometimes doesn’t tell the role players his or her “secret” plot. This can prove problematic for role players concerned about where the story is headed or even the duration of the RP and will need assurance. It is actually wiser to give role players a small goal that they need to reach. The small goal doesn’t have to reveal surprises later in the story, but it gives the role players something to look forward to. It also encourages and motivates them along. How they reach it is up to them, and depending on the writing quality of the writers, the GM may see some amazing developments. As role players become inactive, busy, or AWOL, it is up to the GM to regulate the game around those players and to remove and recruit new players as necessary so the game doesn’t die. If a GM is incapable of showing management and leadership skills, then more than likely that game is going to die—unless of course, someone takes it over, but then it won’t be that GM’s idea anymore. In summary, being a GM takes time and commitment. If you have neither, if your life is too busy, then don’t make a role play. You will waste everyone’s time.
It is important that if a GM’s RP dies, it be the players fault and not his or her own. The GM should have least tried to keep it functioning, and if it collapsed then it was for other reasons than poor management. There are many reasons as to why games die, but what I stated was the most common reason, and the point of this post is not to go off on a tangent about, “Why RPs fail” but to bring to light the problems that were in this RP, and why I have quit.
Before I decided to quit, I attempted to try my hand at other characters than just Matthew. I had created Uriel because the GMs had declared that he was needed. I even posted as Uriel, but did I see much storyline collaboration or interaction with Uriel, no. In fact, the players in this RP have made a ton of NPCs and a good majority of them aren’t even used. When I made The Devil, I had aspirations to hopefully perhaps get some storyline collaboration and planning done, but I was convinced that this would be another Uriel situation. Uriel wasn’t aware of what was going on around heaven since his job was to guard the gates. He needed to be informed, and did the only angel players in game ever get around to interact with him? Nope. Of course, I am not including Nala or Raphael in this since Nala was incapable of doing so and Raphael was busy with Nala, but if Gabriel and Michael weren’t having an endless bicker on who God loves best for the entire month of March, Uriel might have become important and a necessity to the game. But Uriel has stagnated just like this RP. Matthew has hit a development wall and has too stagnated. This entire RP is a dead horse, and I find no reason to beat it.
Other issues; so, there were players who were trying to better their writing—Chocolate being the main desirer. Did anyone confront Chocolate about her chronic and horrible failure in transitions? No. They had rather watch her continue to role play like a noob who must have skipped a few years of English. Her character Tyson was quite the teleporter. One moment he is randomly at the hospital for no apparent reason explained, then next he is at the Mission, then he is kidnapped by Russians and being beaten in a warehouse, then he’s back at the Mission, then he becomes invisible while he is at the mission. We didn’t even see this guy for a few pages but his last location was within the mission, then he posts walking up to the mission a second time. Wasn’t he already there? It is poor writing. No one pointed it out. So there is no educating in this game either.
I enjoyed the few interactions I was able to get with Matthew. Interaction is very difficult in this role play with everyone’s subplots colliding and everyone trying to get the attention of certain people. There is hardly a calm and natural flow. I have no intention of writing short stories called “Matthew’s Adventures.” I had no intention to role play with myself for the duration of the RP to just have people marveling my work yet paying no contribution. To preserve my creative energy, sanity, and muse, once you’ve reached the conclusion of this post, I am officially gone from this RP.
This RP is no longer fun for me. It no longer has a goal. I refuse to be those role players that make the RP for the GM. I make characters for an RP not characters to take over a GMs idea. There are other things I’d rather blissfully spend my time on than to be aggravated by the putrid smell of this decaying storyline throughout the remaining months of my college semester. If you enjoyed it, then you enjoyed it. I do not care about your objections and opinions for they won’t change how I feel about this RP. So, I’m out. Yes, that means I’m gone from this role play. Peace.