A few questions regarding RP on PokeCharms

[Retr.0]

So I have two questions (at the moment) so yeah, first question!

• Do any of the RPs actually end up finishing? (As in getting to the point where the creator decides the story ends)

I have never been in a RP that has completely finished, they all either get abandoned or closed because of rule breaking posts. It would actually be really interesting to find out if such a thing is possible.

For this question I'm also going to attempt to answer it myself, I expect the answer is NO, between RPs shutting down and people not planning to end the RP im guessing none have been finished. Although I'm sure no one ever thinks "I'm going to create a roleplay and everyone is going to enjoy it the whole time, I know exactly at what point it's going to end and I know that everyone who wants in is a complete rule follower" I'm also pretty sure no one knows when they want to end an RP. Even when there is the opportunity to finish it they've had so much fun they just try to hang on until it's abandoned or shut down with no proper ending at all. Tell me if I'm wrong please!

Question #2

• Admins usually when closing down an RP tell everyone that was taking part in it to look at other RPs to see how they are supposed to look but about 80% of the RPs have something wrong with them.

I really don't have an answer for myself for this but I would like if any of the Admins actually looked at this and considered what I'm saying, Thanks!

Seriously no offense to you admins and it is nice that you guys let some things slide and I'm honestly not gonna tell you how to do your job or tell you to be stricter or improve at all, but really it would be better to direct them to the RP rules themselves rather than looking at other people's RPs.
They will look at it and 80% of the time not see much wrong with what they were doing originally. I know this because when I first came here (in September) I started a RP right away without reading any of the rules and it was closed down within two days and I was told to look at both the rules and other people's posts. I ended up just looking at other people's things and got my next RP closed down again before finally taking a look at the rules. Since then I've been able to follow the rules. So just a suggestion (and seriously I'm not trying to be mean or anything) but don't tell people to look at other RPs for examples, just tell them to read ALL the rules and put a link to them. (I find it very hard to navigate my way through the website even now so a little help finding the rules wouldn't hurt them)

Thanks!

 

[Shiny Motley]

Do any of the RPs actually end up finishing? (As in getting to the point where the creator decides the story ends)

During my 9 years here, I've seen a few RPs finish, though they're usually fairly short RPs which involve a single battle or fight scene. Long RPs with complex stories and the like rarely if ever finish; I'm sure there's something on this website that isn't short and is a completed RP, but I can't remember any off the top of my head.

I feel like the issue many times is either people losing interest, or life getting in the way and thus a crucial member of the party can't post, which brings the RP to a standstill. Or it's a combination of both. I know I'm to blame for many dead RPs (hi, sorry for not posting) :x

I'm not staff so I don't think I'm in a position to answer/address your second question, but that's my two cents re: RPs never finishing

 

[Shocari]

iirc, Dotted Hole Ruins was a finished RP that wasn't just a battle. And if it wasn't finished, it was pretty darn close.

Re: question 2 - usually when the admins recommend looking at other RPs, they usually specifically name some of the more "proper" ones, or ones that have been going on fairly successfully as per the rules. But to be fair, I haven't looked at the RP boards in a while so this may have changed.

 

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

Here's the problem with the Pokemon Fandom - it is, sadly, primarily composed of children. Obviously a small herd of them is going to stand up now and whine "We're over ten, we're not childreeeeeeeeen" now, but from the perspective of a biomechanical abomination who was old when your stars were young - if it looks like a child, acts like a child and quacks like a child... then clearly it's a child raised by ducks. But I digress.

As children/(usually early) teens are concerned, they are naturally also subject to certain patterns of behaviour that characterise that particular age group - excessive energy coupled with low attention span and patience, along with a certain tendency to follow trends - You may have noticed that RPs tend to come and go in waves of virtually identical threads featuring virtually-identical (and usually very flat and "edgy") characters that feel like a massive copy-paste of whatever the average twelve finds "cool" at the moment (and believe you me, even veteran RPers and writers have been guilty of this at some point in the development of their writing, for lack of better description, "career"). These usually start up, run for several pages of (usually incredibly sub-par) posts and then die horribly when the kids who charged gung-ho into the new shiny thing lose interest in record time and move on to the next shiny thing. This - along with rule breaking - tends to make the average lifespan of a "n00b" RP fairly short.

Many of these children also don't quite understand how forums work. The rules and etiquette and notion of quality over quantity that characterise forums and seem like common sense to people who have spend a great number of years on such... tends to be fairly alien to individuals who grew up with, say, social networks and YouTube - and the sort of culture prevalent on those sites (generally brief, thoughtless, "rapid-fire" screaming at the void aimed to draw as much attention as possible). I'd write a whole thesis about this clash of internet cultures but I fear that I'm already coming off too much as "kids these days should get off my lawn" (Which they should, some of the plants are carnivorous!). The point of the matter is - they're not used to forums, and to the notion of reading rules, and the sad truth is that most of them aren't willing to make the effort.

Aye, effort seems to be the biggest issue here. Making the effort to read the rules (or skimming through them because their attention span is too short to process said rules), making the effort to write in paragraphs and mind their grammar and tenses (as the rules require them to), making the effort to actually attempt original thinking (this may seem a harsh critique, but again, see my previous paragraphs regarding the trends RPs and particular ones by young RPers tend to follow)... or, indeed, making the effort to exercise whatever parts of their mind concerning critical thinking and judgment in regard to what makes an RP a good or a bad example of RPing. These all play a part in the incredibly frustrating state of the RP forums.

But here's the rub - Story-format RPing, as practiced here, should be... well, like writing a story! And most of these children aren't great writers right now, but they could be should they opt to stick with it. Most of them won't - as they mature, many of them lose the excess energy and funnel what energy they have left into other pursuits (and those who would stick with writing would tend to look back at their earlier works and cringe). In the meantime, most of them are just looking for a place to have fun rather than be forced into a framework of rules that would probably remind them of school or of being forced to read books too much (even though being a good writer also tends to require doing quite a bit of reading, too).

As such we find ourselves in a bit of a fix - on one hand we do have rules and we have to enforce them and get these people to make more than a marginal effort to raise the quality margins altogether. On the other hand, as a creative community we would like people to engage in creative pursuits and develop their skills (if they're willing to make the effort to do so, which, as stated, most don't) rather than just shut them down repeatedly. As such, we are forced to be a bit more lenient than some of us would have wanted - let some posts pass by because they technically comply with the rules even if they don't do a very good job of doing so - and casually prod the wild-growth biomass that is the average thread in directions that would hopefully lead to improvement prior to taking the nuclear option, as well as nipping certain threads or plot-branches that are beyond help in the bud.

Keep in mind that we - the staff, that is - are busy people and we don't always have the time to spoon-feed the RPing masses with helpful hints (that they aren't going to read) or continuously and repeatedly link the same thread in hopes it sticks. We do point out the rules - repeatedly! - to rule-breakers (and everyone else). When official warnings are given, the warning PM sent along with the warning has the rules linked. The rules are a sticky topic which appears on top of the RP forums no matter where you go in them, and as they are now also accessible via the drop-down Role Play menu, they are easier to find than ever. So really, marginal effort. If you're not willing to invest that, there's very little we can do for you. Whether or not people make the effort to read and follow the rules even after having been thwacked with them repeatedly (tragically, most don't!) is something that we can't control - all we can really do is enforce our rules and do damage control. As the old adage goes, you can lead a horse to the water... but being a fire or a ground type, it is invariably going to have an x2 weakness to it. >>;

As for pointing out other threads to demonstrate how things are done - something which is always done in addition to the rules and not as a replacement to pointing out the rules - you bring up a valid point, as it is difficult to rely on the average person to be able to wade through the morass and find actually good examples, especially as months go by and the lines between veteran RPers and particularly prolific newbies (and, alas, n00bs as well) begin to blur. We're going to need to get a bit more specific, surely - and we shall keep that in mind.

 

[Retr.0]

Wow! I see your point and I completely agree (with all of them). Thank you for taking the time to write all of that.