NEW - Feedback and Suggestions

[RaZoR LeAf]

RPG Forum

Feedback and Suggestions

In response to this topic, a new Feedback and Suggestions thread has been created. This is YOUR topic. Issue with the forum, things to make it better, things that can be changed, moved, created, removed. That's what this thread is for. You want a better RPG forum, well this is the Headquarters where any changes will come from.

I know you don't like loads of rules, but these are very short and very simple.

• This is NOT an ideas thread for your RPGs. Don't post here with ideas for an RPG, or your post will be ignored or ridiculed until it is deleted by mods and you are likely warned for your failure to grasp basic rules. Again, a reminder, this is NOT an RPG ideas topic.
• Your suggestions are for RPG and it's two sub-forums only. We don't care what you think of other forums, so don't bother mentioning them unless you are using them as an example.
• Don't advertise other web forums, even if you are using them as an example. Please explain in full what you wish to suggest or talk about.
• If you are making a complaint, do so in a polite and proper manner. Any complaints that are poorly structured and on the verge of flaming will be ignored.

[Elementman-Novapoke]

I hope this is the right place to put it...

Maybe a new sub-forum?

It should be called the RPG test drive section.

Basically, the idea is that before the RPG starts but after the Sign-Ups are done, the GM can make a "Test Drive" topic.

A test drive topic would basically be the beginning of the RPG, to see if the RPGers would contribute enough to it, so the RPG wouldn't die.

I think that it would stop the amount of dying RPG's in these forums.

Also, it could have something like a 4 page limit, so it doesn't go on for too long.

When the RPG would start, it'd start from the beggining, but there would be a slim chance of it dying.

Is it a good idea?

[PokemonBreederChris]

I hope this is the right place to put it...

Maybe a new sub-forum?

It should be called the RPG test drive section.

Basically, the idea is that before the RPG starts but after the Sign-Ups are done, the GM can make a "Test Drive" topic.

A test drive topic would basically be the beginning of the RPG, to see if the RPGers would contribute enough to it, so the RPG wouldn't die.

I think that it would stop the amount of dying RPG's in these forums.

Also, it could have something like a 4 page limit, so it doesn't go on for too long.

When the RPG would start, it'd start from the beggining, but there would be a slim chance of it dying.

Is it a good idea?

Well, I would have to disagree with this idea of yours. We already have a subforum for this, and it is called the RPG Cafe. People just don't utilize this method as they should, and only use the Cafe for informative purposes in their unique RPGs. For one thing, this thread: The RPG IDEAS - Share your thoughts here, already does much of what you ponder. In there, you can post your idea, to see if it is likeable by the Serebiian masses of Serebii - Role-Playing Games Forum. If they do not like it, then you know from that idea, you will have zero to fifteen percent interest.

Another thing is, your 'test' idea can be implemented Via PMing systems another RPG Forum all together with your close friends (since links to outside forums are here by forbidden on this site), or Betaing with friends over a chat system, which I tend to do myself over my MSN messenger. To see if an RPG works, I get into character and role play over MSN in a group chat with a bunch of my friends who are also Serebii Goers.

Also, as friends are mentioned, you can always have a wingman, a back up plan, or someone you can rely on. This person in turn ussually becomes your Co-owner. With your friends as back ups, you can always be confident that they will help assist the RPG being alive; well if you know their character. I do admitt I have a few friends who are heavy procrasinators, and if the story doesn't revolve around them, they just don't care and you have to dangle them by a thin piece of thread off a cliff to get them to work... That's another story however.

A whole forum used for a singular task, that is small, could end up being extremely spammy, and chaotic, the Mods have enough on thier hands as is. It does have its benefitial aspects, but there are other topics and chances to use them outside of a paticular forum.

Also, this brings up a question about 'sign ups' for your 'test' rpg. How will they be constructed? I personally prefer betaing with friends over MSN to see if my RPG is doable, I even get people I rarely talk to to see what they think.

But besides that, this idea will not, I assure you, lessen RPGs from dying. It might, in fact, give a deeper would to the RPG forum, by having less 'official' RPGs actually starting, for in my course of being on Serebii, I've only seen two RPGS finish, I can't remember the other one, but I know that Scar's Sonic RPG was one that completely finished.

RPGs will die out due to a variety of reasons, not just lack of interest; which you have to be careful to who you reserve adn sign up. When I construct a serious complex RPG which I am serious about, I make my sign ups more complicated for I want those who are very ambitious to join them, telling me a sign that they won't loose interest. An example of that is Cdra1617, and Mine's Kingdom Hearts RPG, Tundra, if I may use his name, posted a very good sign up, well it was small at first, but her kept adding and adding and adding to it, showing how ambitious he was in wanting to join our RPG. I would have members of his passion rather then the Bestest RPGer who signs up for RPGs, has incredibly skill, but can rarely post due to "lack of modivation."

I know we all loose our sparks, and it could be a major reason to why RPGs die, but you must also take in consideration of time. This Site is origined in the United Kingdom, but is International, every time zone applies to this forum. People from around the globe can access this forum in differant times, and a sad fact is, that the usual lag of this forum can occur during their best chance in entering these forums, the lag prevents them from viewing the forum, or makes Serebii so slow that they get fed up with it.

I personally don't have the problem cause at early night, it works fine for me, but others it can be hectic with.

Also, we all have lives, and scedules. People have their examininations and well other things at differant times. One thing a Game Administrator might take into consideration is when is the perfect time to post their RPG? I know a lot of people who post it the same day they make it, they tell me "Oh, I took five hours on it, its good." I would spend, well yes, five hours on it minimum, but over teh course of a week, and would post the RPG when the timing is right to get max amount of member participation.

You will notice that more rpgs are created and survive longer during summer months, you know why? People are more free with time.

Time is a major reason for why RPGs die.

so you can't cure lack of interest, or time, or any other matter with this new sub forum. Those are obstacles you must fend for yourself with. If the RPG is meant to go one, it will go on, if YOU want to keep your RPG alive, and no one has posted in awhile, under certain circumstances, like a plot moving post, you are allowed to double post. Also Pming the members who are inactive in your RPG does not hurt as well.

There are many treatments and stallers for the unavoidable death or ending of an RPG, but you yourself but implement the shots, I know mods are gods, but faith, alone, can only get you so far.


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WELL, after realizing my small rant, I've also been thinking of something to do with the rules, a slight modification, but have been a closet viewer about it. A few of us members have talked amongst ourselves, and I guess I'll just post the idea, lol:

5. Sign Up Length
Sign Up Forms should have at least 4-5 sentences in any fields regarding Description, Personality or History (if included). Usually if it is under this minimum it means you should have worked on it for a bit longer.

I just have a few oppinions and concerns about this rule, a possible suggestion if you agree. I am not demanding nor saying that it should be changed. I am just giving a moderate oppinion.



The fifth rule, I do think needs to be edited from sentences, to lines. I have seen all to many mods closing sign ups due to sign up sheets being incorrect and plots too small. Yet, five sentences minimum and be as small as this:

Jim is a tall boy. He has brown hair. Jim also has brown eyes, that sparkle. Jim always has on a red shirt and blue pants. He has his favorite sneakers on too.

Looking at it, this is legal, it has five real sentences. How short is it? To me its barely even on the second line, yet the RULES clearly state that sign ups need to be FIVE sentences minimum, not five LINES or etc. So My suggestion is change the 'sentences' word into 'lines.' If not five lines, possibly four lines would work.

[BlazikenBud]

I think that the demand for good sign ups is taking it's tole on the acitveness of the RPG forum. I don't think that Serebii should, in a million years close it down, it's mine and I'm sure lots of other people's favourite forum. I also think the mods are just a little too strict on the rules of making Role plays. There aren't that many round here, as they keep getting closed down. And PokemonBreederChris, 5 lines cna be a bit too much, sometimes you can get a really good picture into someones head with just a few lines, and sometimes it can be a struggle to get 5 lines without actually going into one of the other sections. For example:

Jim has a big bruse on his right arm when he was fighting the bully at school. The bully had been taking sweets off people and Jim had decided to stand up to him.

As you can see that's a decent two sentences, but it could've been, if sticking to the section 'Jim has a bruise on his right arm'



ALSO:

I think we should have another sub forum for finished RPGs or RPGs that got to a certain stage ,as some people like to read others RPGs, instead of deleting them.

[Hexagram]

I agree with the five lines thing. Anyways, here are Brad's possibly crappy suggestions(I have NO SELF ESTEEM)

1) Implementation of a section for experienced RP'ers, and a section for inexperienced RP'ers
2) An RPG school. However, so it won't die, everyone who wishes to RP must go there and, in a sense, graduate. Then, they get an RP liscense. Then, those who wish to improve even more can go to an advanced version. This idea may eliminate the first one, though.
* Just a personal rant, not a suggestion: NO MORE DIGIMON!!! I have no life, and I'm looking for RP's, and like, 5 of them are Digimon or Kingdom Hearts!
3) Allow NC-17- It may diversify the forums with some darker RPG's- maybe it will appease the masses?
4)A right, for mods, to revoke aformentioned RPG liscense, and/or ban the person from RP'ing- for rulebreakers.
5) A sentiment to not flame the noobs- noobs are people too! Same with the guys like me- I'm suicidal!
6) A limit on the amount of RPG's about one thing- to limit us from having 5 Digimon Rp's at once!

That is about it for me. If they suck, oh welll, it just proves I need cyanide more now than ever before...

[RaZoR LeAf]

NC-17 RPGs are allowed. You are thinking of fan-fic where they are not. And we can't limit people on what they want to have an RPG of. If we did we'd have to limit pokemon RPGs, or start categorising things when they shouldn't be.

[Hexagram]

Touche. I'm still standing by my ideas 1, 2, 4 and 5. They would really calm tension and bring us some better Rp'ing, IMO. However, you are the almighty mod, so I will stand by... and wait... and stuff...

[Shadowfaith]

Personally, I'm a little sick of all the discussion threads. The RPG cafe isn't really what I expected it to plan out as. Don't get me wrong, I'm all up for discussing RPG's...it stops the spamming within threads. So basically what I'm asking for is another sub forum perhaps, one where these threads CAN go?

I know its a big ask, but I'm not gonna get anywhere without at least asking.

I just imagined the RPG cafe to be a place where people talk about RPG's...but in general. XP


EDIT: I also don't see how its fair that FanArt and Fanfiction have they're posts count towards they're post count and we don't. Could we sort that out please? I mean don't count them towards the RPG cafe or sign-ups, but at least our actual RPG's.

[RaZoR LeAf]

Thankfully the Discussion threads cut down significantly by making them mod approved, but I agree that they are still taking over the forum when it should be used for other things. I'll put Post-Count on in the main RPG forum when I get a chance.

[Shadowfaith]

Thankfully the Discussion threads cut down significantly by making them mod approved, but I agree that they are still taking over the forum when it should be used for other things. I'll put Post-Count on in the main RPG forum when I get a chance.

Thanks a bunch, Dan =D

And yeah, its anoying. We have some good threads in the cafe that get ignored because of the masses of discussion threads. End of the day, it was suppose to be for general discussion ;-;

[Shadowfaith]

Double Post! =O

Just to note that the mod team are also working on other aspects to make the forum more fun for y'all! We are aware that it has become a ghost town at the moment. It's getting some life back, but we thought you all needed something nice to give you some spark back to. These include member of the month voting and competitions and such. The RPGer school will be making a comeback as well as a step by step guide to RPG and perhaps even a never ending RPG where you can come and go as you please. Note that these are only in development and some are only ideas at the moment, though your feedback is appreciated.

[JolteonShock]

How about a thread where people could rate your RP characters? You could also post comments, tips or ideas to help you define your char. Others could rate your history, note flaws, help iron out errors. Then you could use that char for most sign-ups, and it could maybe help cut down on rule breakers during sign-ups. Would that work?

[Skeith]

How about a thread where people could rate your RP characters? You could also post comments, tips or ideas to help you define your char. Others could rate your history, note flaws, help iron out errors. Then you could use that char for most sign-ups, and it could maybe help cut down on rule breakers during sign-ups. Would that work?

Allow me to point you in the direction of The Making A Sign Up Thread. It has a indepth guide to making a sign up and gives you the opportunity to have your characters rated.

Also, if you’d like, you can post your sign ups here and get feedback from other members and the Mods. We’ll do our best to help you out and give advice here. ^-^ Post questions if you're not sure of something, or if you would like to add something further!

[Moogles]

Allow me to point you in the direction of The Making A Sign Up Thread. It has a indepth guide to making a sign up and gives you the opportunity to have your characters rated.

Dammit you beat me XD.

Anyways how about a place to store completed RPG's like in the Fanfic section?

Just to give the people a good story you know?

[RaZoR LeAf]

In my experience, once a thread gets more than one page, nobody ever reads the first post and they just respond to it based on the last couple of posts. Using it as a rating thread would turn it into a thread full of poor sign ups, thus making it's original purpose obsolete.

[Skeith]

Dammit you beat me XD.

Nyeh Nyeh

Anyways how about a place to store completed RPG's like in the Fanfic section?

Just to give the people a good story you know?

In the two years I have been coming here, I have only seen one rpg come to a conclusion and that was Scar's "The Winds of Chaos". Most tend to die out during the first few pages and I don't think I've seen many last more than a month so it wouldn't be used very often and wouldn't serve much use.

Anyway I have a question, and well this feels like the right place to ask it, so are there any plans to reuse the Advanced Section?

[RaZoR LeAf]

Nope. It's dead.

[Moogles]

This is a kinda weird suggestion of mine.

As we can see there is obviously the "Making a Signup" Thread over in the RPG signup section. But alas many people don't actually take the time to read it and make bad signups.

I might be getting anal about this, but the amount of these "bad" signups seem to be agumenting and it just irks me. I was thinking to make some showcase of good signups, and what are so good about them just to give newbies even more help to making a proper signup.

[RaZoR LeAf]

Sounds like a good idea. Actually, it's something I can incorporate into my secret project for the new year, but for now, we can post good sign ups in the thread. If you want, you can start a thread in the Cafe for it. Post a sign up, and have people evaluate it, then we can put the best ones plus the evaluations into the sign up thread.

[Cameron Oakley]

Um...I'm not quite sure it this is a good idea or not, but it's kind of like a different version of what Moogles4ever stated. How about a RPG Management Advice thread where those who have made successful role plays or those who are considered elite role players can give advice about how to manage role plays. Everyone has their own opinion of how role plays can be run, that I know, but I do think there are a few things people agree on as well.

I am new to making and running a role play and it is a rather tough job, in my opinion. ^_^ It's fun all the same though. The management thread can be a locked topic or something, I'm not sure. It was just a thought. This might be integrated with another thread so a new thread for this type of topic might not be needed after all. Like I said, it was just a thought. ^_^

[Zincspider]

I think there might be somthing like that, but I am not completely sure.

I was thinking of a "RPG Commercials" Thread, like the one in FanFiction.

THat way you can advertise your RPG with what it will be like, and not based on the name like most people do. I notice that it is fandom games that get all of the people to join... not that it is always good. Alot of newbs are running aroun (maybe me included... I'm not sure).

I just think we need it to show people somthing other than Digimon can be good and diferent.

[RaZoR LeAf]

That's up to you to make, not us.

[angrycaterpie]

For some stupid reason, I'm unable to post in the RPG Ideas & Wishes Thread.

Is this thread for feedback and suggestions on RPG's, too? Or am I asking a silly question again?

[NPC]

Holy crap, AC.

The problem with RPing in SPPf as I see it is that new people will be constantly, almost undoubtedly turned down from games written by experienced players, because nobody wants an idiot running around what they have spent days or weeks formulating, typing out and trying to sell to the Serebii public. In their constant rejection from high-profile, well-written RPGs, these novices tend to lose their motivation for role-playing, which doesn't help the already small population of the forum. Eventually these novices join the only RPGs where they are accepted: flimsy, rushed games made by other novices which will almost certainly die or spiral out of control within the first few pages. Eventually the newbie learns and becomes more experienced (given that he/she continues to role-play), but the process takes time and many failed attempts as well as rejections, which is bound to turn many away from RPGs in general.

What we need is a place where these people can post without fear of being turned down instantly and work their RPG skills out in an environment that will encourage them to keep posting. In the past, mods have had various newbie-teaching 'schools' where they could RP and be told what they're doing wrong and right. It worked, but I think that in this instance we should have RPGs with simple (but well-thought-out) plots, preferably regarding major franchises that lots of people will want to join (Pokémon, Digimon, etc.), and classify them as Training RPGs or something to that effect. They should be short RPGs with simple adventure-boss-triumph story cycles where players will be able to grow and establish character relationships while doing what they like to do best in RPGs. Letting them learn this way is much more effective than turning them down eternally or letting them RP only with others of their same level. Those who are motivated will eventually become competent RPers either way, but one way is much faster.

Unlikely, but if you need someone to run something like this, I could do it once things in my RP settle a bit.

tl;dr bring back RPG school threads, but with actual adventurous plots.

[Moogles]

Can we have a RPG Awards? You know, somewhat like the one in the fanfiction forum, but for RPGs.