The RPG Soapbox: Let your voice be heard!

[Eddie Brock]

And now I can never take anything you have to say seriously ever again. Because you are wrong.

Utterly, and completely, wrong.





...although she does wear too much makeup on the show. She looks much better in that avatrr.

Seriously, watch any Cassidy Freeman interviews on YouTube and tell me she doesn't melt your icy heart.

 

[wiegeabo]

Maintain wiki for continuity ?
I'm mixed on this. I like the wiki, and I think it serves a great purpose, but I gotta be honest. I came here to write characters, not go and write down everything that I've done thus far with them. It's not really meant to be a requirement, it's more of a fun little hobby that was created with an actual purpose. I'd rather focus on the actual stuff itself, and while that may not be particularly helpful, it's what I came into these games to do.

It's not like you'd have to write down every detail. I'd think everyone could wrap up what their character did during an entire season in a couple of paragraphs.

Hell, that would be something good to do during a month long break between seasons. Everyone has to update their character wiki, and the GM's can up date the game history. If we take a break in the middle, it can be updated for the first half of the season as well.


And if you don't want to deal with the wiki at all, then play in one of the smaller games.

 

[trustyside-kick]

Hell, that would be something good to do during a month long break between seasons. Everyone has to update their character wiki, and the GM's can up date the game history. If we take a break in the middle, it can be updated for the first half of the season as well.

agreed

 

[Eddie Brock]

It's not like you'd have to write down every detail. I'd think everyone could wrap up what their character did during an entire season in a couple of paragraphs.

Hell, that would be something good to do during a month long break between seasons. Everyone has to update their character wiki, and the GM's can up date the game history. If we take a break in the middle, it can be updated for the first half of the season as well.


And if you don't want to deal with the wiki at all, then play in one of the smaller games.

 

[wiegeabo]

agreed

Seriously, what's up with the white text?


To add to this, a GM could require someone update their wiki before applying for them again. Might be some good motivation for someone who doesn't want to risk losing their character. Hell, a tight-ass GM could require someone update their wiki before being able to apply in the game the next season at all.

Somehow, I could see Byrd doing that...

 

[trustyside-kick]

Seriously, what's up with the white text?

It adds emphasis to the post I'm quoting because there is nothing else to see or focus on. Hence it is smallest size and I make it a color not easily seen on default forum style settings.

If you could submit a post with just a quote without adding at least 3 characters I would do that, but I can't.

 

[Byrd Man]

Seriously, what's up with the white text?


To add to this, a GM could require someone update their wiki before applying for them again. Might be some good motivation for someone who doesn't want to risk losing their character. Hell, a tight-ass GM could require someone update their wiki before being able to apply in the game the next season at all.

Somehow, I could see Byrd doing that...

I would do that...but I've been slack with the wiki myself. A big reason because of how intimidating it is. I have no problem filling out what I've done with my characters....but all the activities of the RPG would be hard for me to sum up. I'd certainly try, but I would need help for sure.

 

[Keyser Soze]

Of course, the downside to all this Wiki enforcement might be that, rather than encouraging more people to post in the Wiki in order to keep their characters, instead you're giving people already suffering a crisis of motivation in games crippled by lack of activity that extra little bit of incentive to drop out altogether.

"Aw man, I've really been struggling to keep up-to-date with my characters, but right now I've got a surge of motivation and I'm going to make the most of it. The season's up, so right now I'm gonna have a clean slate and get posting with all my characters, right now, tonight, I.... oh, I need to write Wiki entries for all my characters now before I'm able to get to do those posts. How's that for a motivation-killer?"

But maybe they write them, and:

"Right, that's really sapped my time and motivation to write for the night having done all that sifting through RPG history to update that Wiki. But I'm ready now, now's the time to post, now I can get back into it and.... wait, what do you mean we're going on hiatus for a month before the next season!?"

 

[Batman]

It's not like you'd have to write down every detail. I'd think everyone could wrap up what their character did during an entire season in a couple of paragraphs.

Hell, that would be something good to do during a month long break between seasons. Everyone has to update their character wiki, and the GM's can up date the game history. If we take a break in the middle, it can be updated for the first half of the season as well.

While I get what you're saying about it being rather simple to update, I don't think it should be a requirement to be able to play. That's just tacking some other responsibility onto a pretty simple concept of apply and play, something that existed long before the Wiki without any real issue. As I said before, the Wiki was created as a hobby with a purpose. It was never meant to become apart of the process itself of playing a character, nor does it prove that a player isn't serious about playing in one of the major games. It's just another complication to throw ontop of everything else that's been plaguing the games thus far.

Now, that said, I'm all for encouraging it to be updated by the players and GMs during a month long break. That's a perfect time to focus on it and to let people go about their business. I'm just seriously against it becoming a mandatory requirement for people to be able to reapply for their character. Otherwise, why are we going to go in detail with the character summaries in the applications? Seems meaningless when we're updating the Wikis ontop of that.

 

[Eddie Brock]

While I get what you're saying about it being rather simple to update, I don't think it should be a requirement to be able to play. That's just tacking some other responsibility onto a pretty simple concept of apply and play, something that existed long before the Wiki without any real issue. As I said before, the Wiki was created as a hobby with a purpose. It was never meant to become apart of the process itself of playing a character, nor does it prove that a player isn't serious about playing in one of the major games. It's just another complication to throw ontop of everything else that's been plaguing the games thus far.

Now, that said, I'm all for encouraging it to be updated by the players and GMs during a month long break. That's a perfect time to focus on it and to let people go about their business. I'm just seriously against it becoming a mandatory requirement for people to be able to reapply for their character. Otherwise, why are we going to go in detail with the character summaries in the applications? Seems meaningless when we're updating the Wikis ontop of that.

Not if we allow returning players to simply link to the Wiki in their application to prove that they updated it.

 

[Batman]

Not if we allow returning players to simply link to the Wiki in their application to prove that they updated it.

Alright, fair enough. But in the event of new players, weren't we trying to discourage stuff like that? An application is supposed to prove their merit as a player, so if we can't copy/paste from Wikipedia, how is copying and pasting someone else's wiki entry any different, if it's a new player applying for a previously played character? It doesn't prove that the new guy took the time to do research, it just proves that they went onto the wiki site, found that paragraph, and linked back to it. They wouldn't even have to read it from top to bottom.

 

[Eddie Brock]

Alright, fair enough. But in the event of new players, weren't we trying to discourage stuff like that? An application is supposed to prove their merit as a player, so if we can't copy/paste from Wikipedia, how is copying and pasting someone else's wiki entry any different, if it's a new player applying for a previously played character? It doesn't prove that the new guy took the time to do research, it just proves that they went onto the wiki site, found that paragraph, and linked back to it. They wouldn't even have to read it from top to bottom.

That may be true, and the idea behind doing the research has merit. But it's honestly more of a hindrance than a quality-control measure. If Poster A is new and wants to play Character A in WoH, for example, he has 8 seasons of research to do. He has to track down every application, every time that character changed hands, every post made by every person who played Character A over 8 seasons, all while bouncing between the DC forum and the Archives. And that's just to learn about Character A, let alone the rest of the universe over 8 seasons of work.

Like Soze argued above about Wikis, at the end of this, Poster A can simply be gassed - if he even has time to do all this extensive research for a game.

 

[Batman]

That may be true, and the idea behind doing the research has merit. But it's honestly more of a hindrance than a quality-control measure. If Poster A is new and wants to play Character A in WoH, for example, he has 8 seasons of research to do. He has to track down every application, every time that character changed hands, every post made by every person who played Character A over 8 seasons, all while bouncing between the DC forum and the Archives. And that's just to learn about Character A, let alone the rest of the universe over 8 seasons of work.

Like Soze argued above about Wikis, at the end of this, Poster A can simply be gassed - if he even has time to do all this extensive research for a game.

Good point.

I guess my real issue is that it seems like the wiki is being used as a means of punishment, rather than something fun that we can all get behind. I'd hate to see the day that someone is literally booted from a game just because they didn't update their character page, even if they had kept up with it for most of the season. I can see the GM telling them to do it when they apply, however, in order to get approved - so maybe that seems less harsh. Sort of in the vein of asking a player to revise their sample post.

 

[trustyside-kick]

Newcomers are irrelevant to this particular discussion when you guys keep saying "reapplying". They are not newcomers then. You are talking about this hindering newcomers and turning them away when it is the people who played the characters last/recently that were to update the wiki. It helps the newcomers to read a quick summary.

 

[Rain Dog]

Alright, fair enough. But in the event of new players, weren't we trying to discourage stuff like that? An application is supposed to prove their merit as a player, so if we can't copy/paste from Wikipedia, how is copying and pasting someone else's wiki entry any different, if it's a new player applying for a previously played character? It doesn't prove that the new guy took the time to do research, it just proves that they went onto the wiki site, found that paragraph, and linked back to it. They wouldn't even have to read it from top to bottom.

That's a good point. I hadn't thought of that. Even if wikis were updated there would be no way to prove that someone actually read it.

 

[Eddie Brock]

Newcomers are irrelevant to this particular discussion when you guys keep saying "reapplying". They are not newcomers then.

That's true, but the argument at hand was whether Wikis actually make it easier for newcomers to simply copy/paste without actually knowing or caring about the character's in-game history.

 

[Eddie Brock]

That's a good point. I hadn't thought of that. Even if wikis were updated there would be no way to prove that someone actually read it.

There's no real way to prove that their research was at all extensive. To be honest, even newcomers get away with fairly simple character summaries.

 

[trustyside-kick]

That's true, but the argument at hand was whether Wikis actually make it easier for newcomers to simply copy/paste without actually knowing or caring about the character's in-game history.

That's something I'm not concerned about. You cannot always get every detail fixed with a situation so you do enough. Wikis being updated do more good than harm.

 

[Keyser Soze]

It's probably been a couple of years since I even looked at the Wiki page. What's the address again?

 

[Batman]

It's probably been a couple of years since I even looked at the Wiki page. What's the address again?

http://superherohyperpg.wetpaint.com/

 

[Eddie Brock]

EDIT: Curse you, Batman!

 

[Excalibur]

Before I actually sleep I need to ask... When your One Universe and DC RPGs end, will they be rebooted? (because I'd be interested in applying for them)

 

[Eddie Brock]

Before I actually sleep I need to ask... When your One Universe and DC RPGs end, will they be rebooted? (because I'd be interested in applying for them)

If we make the decision to end them, yes, they will be rebooted.

 

[Byrd Man]

Before I actually sleep I need to ask... When your One Universe and DC RPGs end, will they be rebooted? (because I'd be interested in applying for them)

Yep. That's the plan. DC will start with a new continuity cut-off, possibly sometime around post-blackest night or brightest day, depending on if it's over with when we get done with the last season.

 

[Batman]

But it's probably worth noting that those would be many months away from now.