terra

I know this thread is old now. But how can you guys like Sheena?! She sucks! :p My favorite character was Zelos, but I was too sentimental so [spoiler]I got Kratos back so that the whole father-son reunion could take place. Which turned out to be utterly useless when at the end of the game Kratos left to travel around with Derris-Kharlan and Lloyd just stayed on Earth and told Dirk, "I already have a dad here." STUPID.[/spoiler] Actually I was really unimpressed with all of my ending scenes. :( Other than that, though, I really enjoyed the gameplay and stuff like that ... Although my game did tend to slow down a lot during some of Genis' spells, like Cyclone.

[color=green]Hi LashamaruChaos, I'd appreciate it if you read the rules of OB, as well as the stickies at the top of the forum, in a little more detail. I know they're fairly long, but if you had read the stickies you would've seen that we have very specific requirements for any recruitment threads started in the Adventure Inn. Among them is that every new RPG include an extensive backstory that lets potential participants know what kind of things the RPG will entail. More effort in your posts in the Arena in general would be appreciated as well. I'm closing this thread; if you wish to start a more thought-out RPG, you can feel free to start a new one. If you have any questions, you can also PM myself or Arcadia. Welcome to OB :). --terra[/color]

[color=green]Hi Michiko, Welcome to OtakuBoards. Unfortunately, welcome threads are not allowed here -- we feel that if members simply begin participating, they will quickly become well-known throughout the forum, so that welcome threads are pretty much unnecessary. So, I'll have to close this thread. If you haven't had time yet, I'd really advise you to read the overall rules of OB, as well as the specific stickies at the top of each forum, before posting. I know they're long, but they will truly help you understand more about posting here. Also, if you wish to join an RPG, you should check the Adventure Inn, which usually contains many signup sheets for different RPGs. Again, reading the stickies should help if it doesn't make sense at first, or you can feel free to PM myself or Arcadia with any questions. Also, [b]Drizzt Do'urden[/b], while the sentiment is appreciated, please don't "play mod," as it can lead to some confusion. In the future please just report any posts that need attention to a moderator instead, which is easily done by clicking the handy link. :) Thanks, --terra[/color]

[color=green]Hi vdguts8, Nobody will hate you if you mess up on your first RPG :). However, you should read the stickies at the top of the forum; there are several important points you seem to have missed. For one thing, RPGs are expected to have significantly thought-out backstories of at least a few paragraphs' length. You may wish to look at other recruitment threads for examples of this; you could add more detail on the wolves' trip to paradise, or something that gives members a better idea of what you're hoping for in the game. It would be appreciated it you improved your post quality in general as well. Typing with correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation is considered quite important at OB (though we try not to nitpick about typos as long as at least effort has been put in). Whenever possible, more detail is great, [i]especially[/i] in the RPG forum. Also important when creating an RPG is the rating, which you should've added in the title of your thread (that's why hopefully all RPGs have a rating like [PG13 - L] in their title). There is a sticky on the details of that, as well. Now that you've started a thread, you can pick a rating and PM myself, Arcadia, or Shy to change the thread title. Please add a backstory and improve the general level of detail in your post; again, I suggest you look at other RPGs as examples if you need ideas. If you have any questions feel free to PM myself or Arcadia. Thanks, and welcome to OB. --terra[/color]

[color=green]Hi Moonlight, Please read the stickies at the top of the forum. I know they're a lot of reading, but they contain a description of how RPGs work at OB. Basically, to begin an RPG you will need to put up a signup form and a backstory in the Adventure Inn, a subforum of this one. After other members have signed up for your game, you can create a thread in this forum, the Adventure Square, for you and the other participants to post in. We've found this creates more detailed and intensive games, fitting the very high post quality we expect here at OB. Because you haven't started a signup thread, I'm closing this thread. But after reading the stickies and perhaps looking around at other RPGs to see what is expected from them, feel free to begin an RPG again in the Adventure Inn. Please do PM myself or Arcadia if you have any questions. Thanks, and welcome to OB. --terra[/color]

[color=green]Okay ... [b]IrregularX[/b] and [b]The Pro[/b], please do not "play mod" (tell other members the rules). If you see a rule being broken, please report it to a moderator instead. When members begin playing mod, it may be taken the wrong way by other members or causes more chaos because it prevents us from doing our jobs. In addition, The Pro, you were incredibly rude to sky and I do not want to see you acting like that towards other members again. [b]Moonlight[/b], double posting is indeed not allowed, and you may wish to go over the rules of OB to understand a little better the kind of post quality that is expected. Actual roleplaying occurs in the Adventure Square, not here, so your first post was slightly out of place; also, your posts should be a little more lengthy and have more quality. (This goes for IrregularX and The Pro too, by the way.) [b]sky[/b], in the future when you begin RPGs, you may wish to include more of a backstory. Looking at other RPGs for examples of this might help you, or you can PM me if you have any questions. In addition, all recruitment threads and game threads should have a rating at the top of them; there is a sticky in the Adventure Square describing this requirement. All of you should be avoiding posting one-sentence posts, because these low-quality posts are often close to spam. I am closing this thread, though sky is welcome to try this RPG again with a more descriptive backstory in a new thread if she'd like. Please PM me if you have any questions. Thanks, --terra[/color]

[color=green]Thanks, Lady Asphyxia. Rage15112, I realize you tried to start an RPG based on this before. Unfortunately, you will not be able to get around the requirements for a backstory by posting it in the OB Anthology forum, as you now see. My advice is that if you'd like to create a collaborative story, you put in the effort required for the recruitment thread -- it's really not that difficult, and I'm sure you can handle it :). I'm closing this thread; you can use the other thread you started [url=http://www.otakuboards.com/showthread.php?t=42343]here[/url] if you'd like to pursue this (just please delete your last post to avoid double posting if you do so). Feel free to PM myself or Arcadia if you feel like you need help with anything. --terra[/color]

[color=green]Hi gohons daddy, Unfortunately, that is not quite the way RPGs work on this forum, so I'll have to close this thread. I'd recommend you thoroughly read the stickies at the top of the forum; though there's quite a lot of words, they are rather helpful and explain very specifically how RPGs operate here. You may also want to check out other RPGs to see how they work. Thanks, and welcome to OB. --terra[/color]

Name: Cerra Hayle Age: 16 Gender: female Appearance: Cerra has wide blue eyes and extremely straight brown hair. She is slim and of average height, and dresses in light, neutral tones in practical but pretty dresses and tunics. She has a serene air to her, as if she would be difficult to ruffle, and that is true. However, if she gets angry, she seems to stand straighter and become more intimidating somehow, not in the least because of the evident ire flashing in her suddenly icy eyes. Personality: As mentioned above, Cerra is generally very calm, having learned to take many things in stride because of her life. She is very obedient to her parents and all that is expected of her. History: Cerra was born to an upper-class family and has always been surrounded by material things of the utmost beauty. She lives in the capitol city of her realm, Leaisha; her family name of Hayle is well-known throughout the city and even the realm. The Hayles were one of the first families to defend their goddess, and they continue to do so. They do not do so for religious reasons (instead, they merely wish to continue living under the goddess's protection), but they still are able to reap the benefits of Azure's blessings. Because of the Hayle history, most of the family becomes militant servers of Azure, physically fighting members of other realms and regulating the residents of their own as well. Cerra was slated for this life as well and began her weapons training soon after she learned to walk. However, her career path changed when it was discovered that she was an excellent creator of Heaven's Weave. Her parents gave the appropriate thanks and sacrifices to Azure for blessing their daughter with this gift, and wanted to withdraw her from military training immediately. Cerra asked to continue at least some of her lessons, though she agreed that making Heaven's Weave should be her primary goal for the rest of her life. Cerra's current life consists of weaving the fabulous material for about eight hours a day in a room filled with other clothmakers. Like many of them, she has been taught her craft since she was about six, and she has several good friends among them. Unlike most of them, however, she also attends lessons for two to three hours a day in the bow and arrow and defensive tactics. She has never participated in actual combat but likes to feel like she could, were it really necessary. Cerra's three brothers all entered military service for Azure; one, her elder by three years, died six months ago. Her two younger sisters are currently in training; none of her other siblings have the gift of creating Heaven's Weave. Her parents are retired from active service but remain involved in finding rebels within the realm and tapping potential recruits. God: Azure Realm: Leaisha, in Ru'ke-Whim Magic/Weapons: magic Weapons (max 3): Bow and arrow; a typical bow and arrow, though her parents have had hers painted a pure white and decorated with accents in golden paint so that it looks like her home city itself. Cerra also has a similarly decorated shield, made of a light copper. It is so light that it cannot deflect very heavy blows, but she can carry it easily. Spells (max 6): I'll come back to this.

Like Balmon mentioned, the fact that Metalicon's summary consists of one really long paragraph is pretty deterring. Also, the sentences don't really flow together, and feel a little awkward. Personally, if I read something aloud and it doesn't feel like something I could've just said in normal conversation, I know that my writing was awkward. Good writing is very important to some people. For example, I'm not overly interested in science fiction, but with an amazing description someone may still be able to pull me into a science fiction RPG. Also, you should keep in mind that sometimes people just don't sign up for RPGs that are very deserving. It's just one of those things. Like Legault said, sometimes people just aren't interested in the particular subject matter you chose. Also, around this time many people are going back to school and feel like they won't have as much time online as they usually do, so that may be a factor as well. I do feel like stories in general should have a plot like eternity suggested. However, I feel like sometimes telling the whole plot in the RPG recruitment thread may make members feel like they won't have enough freedom in the actual game. It sort of depends on how structured you want to make your RPG.

[font=Trebuchet MS]Elanna was panting slightly by the time she arrived at the hills; they'd been a little further than she expected. She trekked up one of them among all the other peering citizens, ducking between couples and sliding seamlessly past the bigger folk so that she was almost at the front of the crowd, which was barely being held back by a line of implacable, uniformed troops. But when Elanna saw the thing looming up behind them, she stopped her jostling and just stared. The dragon was much more impressive than those featured in her grandparents' tales. It looked as tall as a three-story house, perhaps even taller when it reared up on its hind legs, which it was doing right now. And it also happened to be roaring, a noise that made the entire crowd cower back simultaneously and cover their ears, even the king's soldiers. Its scales were a dirty green that were surprisingly beautiful when they caught the light, which they did now as the dragon lashed forward with its entire head and neck, forcing the group of soldiers in front of it to scatter. Elanna winced as it effectively headbutted one of the soldiers, denting his shield and throwing him backwards into a nearby tree. "Oh my God," Elanna gasped, pointing. "There's someone over there!" The crowd seemed to hear her as one, as heads turned and more outcries were heard. Elanna squinted at the two men who looked like they'd come out of the forest to stand without the comforting line of soldiers between them and the dragon. Oddly enough, they looked familiar ... and she realized that one of them was Imric, the priest she'd been travelling with. And the other looked vaguely familiar as well, though she couldn't place him. "What are they doing over there?" Elanna muttered to herself, maneuvering through the crowd in their general direction almost subconsciously. She kept watch on the the dragon at the same time. It looked like a group of soldiers had recovered and were in formation, moving towards the impressive monster with their swords drawn and their shields up. She hoped upon hope they would be able to do something about the thing ... though now that she thought about it, she didn't want to see it killed, either. Looking again at the dragon, wondering how such a thought could have entered her mind, she noticed something slightly odd about it. Though it appeared that no soldier had yet touched the thing, there were already marks along the dragon's back that vaguely looked like sword wounds. She forgot about it as she found the end of the boundary of soldiers, at the edge of the small forest bordering the trees. Consciously trying not to think about the repercussions, Elanna began running through the forest towards the dragon, Imric, and the other man.[/font]

[color=green]Okay, I think I'd like to step in here and make a couple of comments. One thing you should know is that in the Adventure Square, [b]staying in-character as much as possible is very important.[/b] This means asides like "Are we doing this right?" and "Am I dead?" are discouraged. Entire posts of OOC (out of character) discussion are not allowed, as is clearly stated in the sticky at the top of the forum. So, your discussion over who won and whether or not one of you was killed should not have occurred here at all. As Dragon Warrior is apparently your appointed judge for the tournament, he would have the final say on who won or lost. Secondly, in most (though I suppose not all) RPGs on this board, [b]god-modding is not allowed[/b]. That means that in most cases characters cannot choose to kill each other. Battles on this board are usually judged by an unbiased third party, in this case Dragon Warrior. After a certain number of posts, the judge would decide whose overall post quality was better, and that person would be the winner of the spar and possibly be allowed to do a killing post. However, slitting someone's throat in the middle of a battle is usually considered unfair. Thirdly, [b]I will not tolerate any kinds of threats[/b] (I'm referring to this: "We'll see who would actually win in a sword fight when I actually spar you in real life next time I go to your house."). You may be kidding, you may be best friends in real life and both know that this is a joke, or you may not. Either way, this is completely inappropriate for the OtakuBoards. This is, after all, a game, and its primary purpose is fun. Threats are not fun, even joking threats, when nobody else knows if you're joking or not. Finally, [b]Deimos[/b], I've asked you before to please avoid posting one-sentence posts. You should also know that ignoring moderators' warnings can possibly result in a ban. I'd advise you guys to please read the stickies at the top of the forum. Though they're generally more in reference to storyline-type games than spars, they still outline the general rules of the forum. Also helpful is looking at other spars as examples. Though not many are currently going on, there is one [url=http://www.otakuboards.com/showthread.php?t=41766]here[/url]. Unfortunately, if the post quality does not improve and OOC comments do not stop, I may have to close this thread. If you have any other questions on the operation of battles at OB, please feel free to PM myself or another moderator with them. Thanks, and welcome to OB. --terra[/color]

Lucca strode out of her interview, spinning her Wondershot on one finger before tucking it back into the holster. The interview had, of course, been a snap. Just as she'd expected. After some excessive elbowing between the two men whom Lucca immediately guessed were brothers (the matching red and green outfits sort of gave it away), the green-outfitted one had shot off some question about the positron acceleration of extra-tiny nuclear particles. Apparently he'd read her resume. But not closely enough -- Lucca had actually written the original paper on that, and she and Luigi had gotten into quite a discussion about it. Well, as long as you could still call it a "discussion" when it was mostly one-sided, as Lucca did tend to go on when she got onto one of those subjects, but after hearing about half of her exposition on it, Mario had jumped out of his seat and said she was hired. Mostly, she guessed, to prevent having to hear the other half of her lecture, but still, it had gotten the job done. She paused for a moment, surveying the other candidates for the job, feeling superiority that her part for the day was already done. As she did so, something she had originally mistaken for a pink pillow lying on a chair hopped out of its seat and headed for the interviewing room. Lucca's eyebrows narrowed in curiosity; the creature brushed past her and she resisted the urge to reach out and pick it up and give it a big snuggle, because it looked almost too soft and inviting to resist. She was distracted, though, when she looked up from the pink bubble and spotted a very familiar face. "Frog!" Lucca exclaimed, bounding across the room. She was ready to pull him into her arms for a big hug, but he seemed a little too ... amphibious for that, so instead, she settled on a very vigorous handshake. "What are you doing here?" "Lucca, what a pleasant surprise!" Frog said, returning her handshake with equal vigor. "Hast thou applied for a job at this fine establishment as well?" "You're going to work here too?" Lucca said, grin spreading over her face at his familiar formality. "Indeed! Verily, 'tis a small world!" Frog said, and a loud *ribbit* escaped him from his excitement. He covered his mouth embarrassedly, cleared his throat slightly, and tried again. "I mean, indeed, it's a small world." "It really is," Lucca said, ignoring the interested looks from the other people in the room, who seemed to be wondering at the reunion of a gun-toting teenaged girl and a frog in armor. "What have you been up to since, er, the old days?" She wasn't sure quite how else to put what she really meant, which was "the old days during which we attempted to save the world by travelling millions of years into the past and thousands of years into the future, battling side by side against monsters whom we thought might take our lives." Frog seemed to understand, as he simply nodded and said, "Oh, you know, this and that. This job seems an excellent choice to me; after all, there aren't overly many jobs that are well-suited to a knight who also happens to be a frog." "True," Lucca agreed amiably. "As for myself, I've finally turned eighteen, and my dad thought I should go out and give the real world a shot ... you know, see what it's really all about." She sighed lightly. "I hope he's doing all right without me. But you know him, he just shoved me out the door and said that as long as I kept safe and maybe visited him after everything was over, he didn't care what adventures I got into. A supportive guy, really. Strange, though," she said thoughtfully, "Crono's mom was just the same way ... You'd think they'd be more worried about us, I mean, we were only kids. Something in the water, maybe?" Frog nodded gravely, though he didn't quite seem to know what she was talking about. Lucca shrugged, deciding it was all in the past anyway. "I'm glad you're here, Frog," she said, sitting down in a chair to wait for the rest of the interviews to conclude so she'd find out what would happen next. "It'll be so nice to start working like a real adult, and having a friend for the ride makes it even better!"

[color=green]Hi Misenki, If you haven't already, you may want to check out the stickies at the top of the forum, which explain in some more detail what the Adventure Square consists of. "Recruiting other players" refers to the Adventure Inn, in which you can post a signup thread that gives a general description of what your RPG will be about and asks if other members would like to join in the game with you. Looking at other games that are already in progress, or other recruitment threads, might help you understand the process more as well. RPGs here are generally not as free-form as "The World" is, though if you wanted to start an RPG that was like "The World" that would be all right as well. I have moved your thread to the Questions/Suggestions forum because threads like this are not allowed in the Adventure Square itself. After reading the sticky threads, if you still have questions, feel free to PM myself or Arcadia. --terra[/color]

I'm not going to get in on the argument between Siren and Balmon :p. Frankly, that scares me. I will, however, agree with this: [quote=Balmon] So I think just blaming new members is an unfair statement to make.[/quote] I think so too. It's true that new members sometimes do not read rules, but some of them do. This has probably been brought up before (and will be again), but Arcadia's second post or something was the recruitment thread for Laeth E'Thae, which was nothing if not well-executed. In the same way, I have definitely seen older members practically deliberately break rules. (Heh, the most common one is the "don't play mod" rule but others get broken too.) Perhaps it is less common for older members to post poorer signups because hopefully Arcadia or I have PMed them about poor signups if they did post them to begin with, but that just means that as new members they may have been at similar levels as the new members now. I also thought for a short while about asking James to change the system so that Arcadia or I would have to approve every recruitment thread before it showed up. However, I decided that would be too much work and be pretty much ridiculous. The Square has the potential to be a lot less fun if we try to put too many restrictions on it, because of the range of types of visitors we have to it as has been mentioned before.

[font=Trebuchet MS]Elanna pulled aside the flap of her tent and peered outside. It was still early, judging by the sun in the sky, but it was bright and the Fair was already humming quietly. From the quiet snores coming from the next-door tent, it looked like her escort Imric was still sleeping, but Elanna was suddenly wide-awake. It was morning, and she was finally at the Fair she'd been dreaming of for years. So she got herself up, bringing a wash basin to one of the many freshwater supplies in the campgrounds and splashing the cold water in her face to wake herself up. After a perfunctory change of clothes, she was ready to explore. Somehow Elanna found herself at the Battlegrounds, the temporary name for the area set aside for the battle competitions. Sets of elevated platforms were arranged in neat diamond shapes so that observers had a variety of places to stand and watch the fights. Some of the early elimination rounds were going on, even as early in the morning as it was, and Elanna paused in front of them. Swords glinted in the perfect morning sun as they clashed against shields, and Elanna found herself completely caught up by their mesmerizing footwork for a few moments. She was distracted, however, by a very strange noise. It sounded something like a horse being strangled or perhaps a frog drowning somehow, but it certainly wasn't pleasant. Looking around for the source of the sound, she spotted someone propped up against a tree, the near-painful noises coming from him. Snores, apparently. Elanna drew nearer to the boy, who couldn't be much older than she was, and nearly reeled back from the overpowering smell of alcohol. It was one of those fraternity boys, clearly. Elanna's eyes narrowed from the alcohol abuse, but she couldn't help but feel a little sorry for the major hangover anybody could anticipate would be coming his way. She poked him slightly with a foot, not wanting to get too close, but the man didn't respond, head lolling over further and a small sliver of drool dripping out of his mouth. Elanna couldn't help but feel disgust, but pity prompted her to lean over and gingerly wrap his hand around her small canteen of fresh water. He might wake up with a blinding headache, but at least he could quench his thirst. Elanna pivoted abruptly on one heel, hearing a loud noise behind her. She immediately recognized the emblem blazed across the chest of a troop of the king's soldiers, jogging in formation towards the hillocks on the east border of the campgrounds. Behind them was a group of straggling followers, men striding forward with a purposefully curious look on their faces, children looking worriedly behind them for their mothers who would assuredly have pulled them back into their tents. Elanna couldn't help but join in the fray. "What's going on?" she asked one of the people whom she found herself jogging alongside. "Not sure," the guy answered, picking up the pace slightly. "But there's rumors there's a dragon." The news almost stopped Elanna in her tracks. Dragons were practically mythical creatures, even in this day and age; the last recorded appearance of one was almost a hundred years ago. Eager to see if it was the truth, she followed the rest of the crowd towards the hills.[/font] [size=1]OOC: There is a dragon, but it will [b]not[/b] be easy if any of your characters does have the guts to go up and try to attack it. Firstly the king's soldiers are taking care of it, and are keeping a large boundary around the site. Secondly, dragons are pretty badass. Just so you know. Nobody should kill off the dragon in his/her post. :)[/size]

[color=green]Hi all. [b]Houka[/b], consecutive posts by the same member (called double or triple posting) is not allowed on OtakuBoards in any case, whether it's to post images or for any other reason. Please do not do so in the future; perhaps you could make your images smaller so that they could all fit in one post, upload them to a different site and provide links, or combine them all into one image. I've deleted the posts after your first one because of this. [b]Houka and Shugo54[/b], single-sentence posts are greatly discouraged here at OB because they always tend to border on spam. This applies especially in the Adventure Inn because recruitment threads easily get cluttered up with quick questions about the RPG that only apply to one or two people. Please restrict such conversation to PMs in the future; I've deleted them both. [b]IrregularX[/b], the way RPGs work here at OtakuBoards is that a signup thread is posted in this forum, the Adventure Inn, and the actual game will begin sometime after signups have been filled in the Adventure Square. If you need more explanation, please feel free to PM myself or Arcadia, and do check out the stickies at the top of the forum as they explain everything in great detail. [b]Deimos[/b], I deleted your post as well, but please do not "play mod" (tell other members the rules). While I am sure you were only trying to help, advice from members playing mod is sometimes taken the wrong way. In the future please report the post to a moderator instead and it will be taken care of as soon as possible. Thanks everyone, and welcome to OB. --terra[/color]

[QUOTE=Kane][SIZE=1]I knew your predecessors (Warlock and Flash) pretty well and I have to admit that this sort of quality or rather lack of in these cases wouldn't have been tolerated whatever the age. ... Back then Warlock or Flash would simply close the poor quality RPGs and constant spammers were simply banned, not a merciful system but it kept order. ... I don?t want to sound like a broken record here, but back in the "old" days there were only maybe a few dozen constant posters in the Adventure Arena and as such getting into an RPG made by a respected poster was difficult. This influenced those new to the Arena (myself included) to go back and work on their quality until it was at an acceptable level to get in. Whereas now we don't have that as respected role-players stay the heck away from quality-lacking RPGs and those who create them no longer attempt to up their quality as their RPGs are filled anyway.[/SIZE][/QUOTE] First off I honestly don't mind if your opinions differ from mine. This is a discussion board after all, so it's only to be expected, and it'd be boring if we all just agreed immediately anyway :p. Just because that was the "old" system doesn't necessarily mean it was better. Nor am I certain that the system we have these days is better, either. I would love to go through the Adventure Square and read amazing RPGs one after another rather than some of the "simpler" games. But like I said before, there are quite a number of members who simply don't want to get that involved, and don't want to have to worry overly much about how good their posts are. This isn't only referring to their grammar, but even the simplicity of the storyline. (Now I think [i]I'm[/i] starting to sound like a broken record.) When I first became a moderator, it was my initial urge to PM every one of those members who made less-complicated RPGs and ask them to improve each one. As time went on, I realized that my interests may just not reflect the interests of many of the other members who come to the forum. Which is why I try to achieve a happy medium of being more tolerant of simpler games, while not being too tolerant that I let spam go by. Whether or not I achieve that is debatable, but that's my goal. Also, I feel like both Arcadia and I are prone to give second chances than apparently was the case "back in the day." We would rather attempt to help a member improve than ban them, though we have not hesitated in the past to ban members if they clearly aren't listening to our warnings. Again, this may not be any better than the system on the older OtakuBoards, it's more a matter of personal moderating style, but it's not that we ignore members whose posts could use improvement, we just try to give them time. (I hope I'm not speaking incorrectly for you, Arcadia.) That being said, if you see an RPG that you feel is blatantly spammy, definitely feel free to hit that "report to a moderator" button. We do try to read everything that goes on in the Square, but it's pretty darn difficult at times. What you think we might have just let slide, we might have missed, so help us out :).

[quote name='Balmon']When does the amount of effort, plus the level/ability of the writer, NOT outweigh the standards of the site?[/quote] Well, this is a question that could probably get a ton of different answers. For myself, improvement does count for a lot, perhaps what others would consider too much. I think it's very encouraging to see members whose posts improve greatly over the time they're here, so I may be a little more lenient with them. Still, no matter what, if a post is short and poorly written, I will PM them -- I think the leniency with me personally comes with the tone of the PM I send. When a member who's been here for a long time almost deliberately ignores a rule or a FAQ, I feel a little less generous.

Phil, I really wish you'd express your views just slightly more politely. This isn't speaking as a moderator at all, just as a member. I find it rude to say that anybody's writing "sucks"; you could say that they need work, or even a lot of work if you'd really want to stress it, or that they didn't put much effort into it, or [i]something[/i]. ... That was just a personal note. One thing we should keep in mind is that some of the members are much younger than others. There are 12-year-olds posting here alongside 20-year-olds, and while I agree that being young shouldn't be an excuse for posting poorly, it does mean that some of us have just had way more experience reading and writing than others. Usually, there's also quite a difference in the standards of members because of this age difference, and other factors as well (I am [i]not[/i] by any means saying that all younger members post poorly, so please don't think that's anything even close to what I mean). Some people consider themselves merely writing in paragraphs to be a big accomplishment, while others would consider nothing less than an epic a decent post. I suppose what I'm trying to say is that people simply have different meanings for "high-quality." Along the same lines, some members would hate to join the more complicated and involved RPGs, and would simply prefer those simpler ones closer to the posts you pointed out. That all being said, yes, there are several occasions when lower quality recruitment threads and other posts bother me, and yes, I would really appreciate it if all new members actually read the FAQ, rules, and stickies. In many cases Arcadia and I do find it appropriate to PM members and ask them to greatly extend their back story, improve their grammar, or address whatever other aspect needs improvement. But I also feel like some level of tolerance for differing levels of quality must be kept.

[color=gray][b]Sept. 6, 12:07AM[/b] Mima sighed, rolling over in bed noiselessly. She couldn't sleep. The moon was shining brightly in at her window, and it didn't occur to her that she could simply close the blinds. Earlier that day, in an attempt to act like a "normal student," she'd gotten caught in the kitchen by Soushi, quite literally. He had been making a cake, apparently for the party in no less than five days (Mima had always thought he was a little strange ... perhaps overly high-strung). In a spectacular demonstration of slight klutziness mixed with a marked amount of overzealousness, he'd tripped on something invisible and practically poured flour and batter on Mima. The immediate effect for Soushi was that the cake was now out of the question, as all the flour seemed to be on the floor. The immediate effect for Mima had been stickiness. Stickiness like she'd never known before. Stickiness that made movement, let alone [i]subtle[/i] movement, nearly impossible. She'd experienced her first full-blown panic attack when she'd tried to drift out of the kitchen to the shower, and been completely unable to. Soushi had laughed, clapping a hand on her shoulder and saying charmingly, "Don't worry, Mima-chan! You look good in white!" and whirled away, presumably to bother some other innocent victim. Mima had stood in the kitchen, staring down at her incredibly obvious, impossible-to-hide self, immersing herself in the feeling of being vulnerable and exposed for a full four minutes. Until someone had come by -- Mima hadn't even stopped to see who it was -- and she'd finally kicked back into gear by shrieking and running (yes, [i]running[/i], what a traditional and horribly pedestrian method of movement) back to her room and straight into her shower. The rest of the day had been spent cleaning up the mess of flour and batter she'd left, including what remained of Soushi's kitchen debacle. She didn't want to chance ever having to walk in that white powder [i]again[/i]. But now she was next-to-invisible again and not tired, so she got up and stood by her window. The wind flirted with her hair as moonlight sparkled in her eyes, and she thought to herself, [i]What a perfect cutscene. And what a waste, nobody's here.[/i] Driven by some unknown force, Mima slipped out of her room and into the one next door, where Imric Kagushi was lying sleepless in his bed. Shamelessly, she opened his blinds wide to let the moon and the wind come in and repeated the tableau she'd just performed in her own room. She waited only a few moments, just long enough for him to look up and notice her, then glanced at him, caught his eyes, and smiled. Very knowingly. And a little creepily. Then she slipped away, back into her own bed, somehow feeling much better.[/color]

I just realized you had the trailers linked in your original post, TN, so I went to the one for [i]Ocean's Twelve[/i]. I really hate it when trailers show no new footage whatsoever. The [i]Meet the Fockers[/i] one, which I saw in theaters, yes made us laugh because there were all the memorable clips from the old one, but there were only thirty seconds or so of new footage. It just seems so cheap to me. The [i]Ocean's Twelve[/i] trailer takes that to the next level without a single clip of anything, only their animation. Which, granted, is still cool, especially because it uses the supercool music from the first one that makes me remember the supercool moves there, but still! Grr, sorry, rant-y. That just makes me so mad :p.

Of the ones originally mentioned, I definitely want to see [i]Ocean's Twelve[/i] and, uh, that's about it. I don't even think [i]Ocean's Twelve[/i] will be all that good, though, what with the sequel-ness and need to live up to the coolness of the first one, but I'm sure I'll see it anyway because the first one was just so cool. Plus, George Clooney and Brad Pitt, of course. Though I can't believe they're the same age ... George Clooney just looks so much older. I also have interest in seeing [i]Open Water[/i], because people keep saying so many good things about it. There are also all those things about how they made it with practically no money and the actors really are in open water with sharks and part of them really is scared to death. Apparently professional shark trainers were around ... to throw bloody fish at the sharks to keep them interested but not hungry. Or something like that. Anything that the actors attacked with such dedication deserves to be watched. I don't particularly want to see [i]AvP[/i] but I'm sure I'll have to because my boyfriend is really excited for it to come out. Plus, this past weekend I made him go see [i]Little Black Book[/i] (which was exactly as bad as I expected, but apparently worse than he expected) so he'll be wanting payback. [i]Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow[/i] kind of intrigues me, if for nothing else because the commercials explain basically nothing. But it really looks like crap. apple.com/trailer has a clip from it and in my opinion it's absolutely horrible, and if that's what they released in order to promote the film I definitely have no interest in going to see it.

[color=gray]Some hours had passed on the first day back at school and Mima was bored. Glancing down at her watch she found that it was [b]September 5, 2:45PM[/b]. "It's still September 5?" she said aloud to herself, quietly. She was in her room alone, her roommate, if she even had one, gone as usual, or possibly invisible, she pondered to herself. After straightening out her schedule with the extra classes she'd desired, Mima had come to her room and unpacked all her things. First to come out had been her CD player and her collection, and first to pop into the box had been her "Miscellaneous Mystical Mix" which played seventy-four straight minutes of general, all-purpose mysterious-sounding music. She'd opened the windows and let her hair blow around all it wanted while she unpacked. She was pretty sure that she'd seen some freshmen in the courtyard below pointing up at her room claiming she was a ghost. Mima sighed and descended back to the ground floor to wander the courtyard. She'd been down earlier, trying to appear in front of some freshmen with some good lines -- what, she didn't understand it herself, but it could be pretty amusing -- but for some reason it hadn't worked very well. She could tell from their initial expressions of shock that they, like most other people, were always surprised at her appearance and that far-off expression on her face. But when she opened her mouth to say something suitably spooky (last year, one of her favorites had been "The journey is arduous, and have you stopped to ponder that finally, there may not in fact be any light at the end of the tunnel?"), nothing had come out. Leaving the freshmen free to give her odd looks before skipping off with maniacal laughter. It was [i]hard[/i] to come up with those one-liners most of the time, Mima thought to herself ruefully, kicking the grass in a most un-mysterious fashion. She brightened slightly. Maybe it was her year to talk like the other students did. Maybe this would be her year to become [i]normal[/i]. As she was thinking that, a piece of fluorescent pink paper flew into her face. "What the --" she muttered, eloquence lost for a moment, picking the paper off. Upon closer inspection, it seemed to be ... some sort of party. With costumes involved, and perhaps some sort of ritual pigeon sacrifice, the message wasn't quite clear. Was this what the normal children did? She would have to find out.[/color]

[color=green]So ... yeah. I had moved your other thread, but as you've created another one, I'll just delete that thread. :p However, RPGs here need to have an extensive back story (at least a paragraph) that covers the plot behind the game. Please edit one into your first post. If you need more information on that, please see the stickies at the top of the forum. Thanks, --terra[/color]