Discuss The quality of RPGs currently in The Arena

[Balmon]

Here are selected introductions from a number of RPGs currently active in the Adventure Inn:

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Well the sign-ups for this are the same as the megaman RPGs. I'll take about 6-8 then we'll start.

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Yep guys this is the first rpg which is based on Megaman. I have just became a fan of it so dont blame me if i do something wrong. But this is introducing a whole load of new characters. Well here is the story. Its now been about 4 years since the final defeat of the evil World 3. Lan and the rest of his pals are all older and they are busy studying harder then ever. Now a new evil organisation by the name of Dark hole. And they are planning to delete all the net navi's who protect all our computer networks with their own evil bunch of warriors. Not only that the leader of the organisation has kidnapped Lan and his buddies. And our characters have to defeat all the evil net navi's in order to let the pals go. There are at least 10 evil net navis to defeat and all of them are all really though. Even one of them can make a net navi's speed go down very low and drain their energy. So guys do you think you and your net navis have what it takes to save the friends and the world? Let me tell you that one of you has to be the cousin to me and one of you can be my childhood friend[girl or boy. And my bro or sister and only two of us is allowed net navis that look like animals. Oh yeah i almost forgot. We need a few people to be members of Dark Hole.Dont worry people Megaman is gonna be there to give us help . Since Lan jacked him in before he got caught. Heres different types of net navies you can choose

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Welcome to the Inuyahsa Rp. Sign up and we can begin.If you wanna join but all characters are taken but the rp hasnt started yet ask me and maybe you can make-up a character but if we have already started the rp sorry your on youre own.Well sign up b4 its 2 l8!

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The stone, a new facility that allows hard cases a second chance in the real world. Koti Hamasaki is one of these, she and 5 others have been selected for a experimant trail to see if they can make it in the real world. They must live with a probation officer and go to school AND pass every class. They must get jobs and pay rent. Living together they must also tolerate each other for they share rooms. Living at The Stone turned them all hard to kindness, getting a second chance was what they used to wish for but, can they really make it in the real word after being trapped in The Stone for so slong?

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once in the future there was
a girl that loved to dance but when
she was sent back in time to
set things right she couldn't
anyone that wants to join the story just state:

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Correct me if I?m wrong, but I thought that high quality was stressed here on OB. Frankly, these RPG intros need a LOT of work; I can think of no word more polite than that. These posts are the sorts of things I tried to avoid by coming here to OB.

I understand that the inimitable Moderators on OB have their hands full with other matters, but somehow, too many of these poor-quality RPGs are allowed to proceed without any repercussions or reprimands. The Adventure Inn and Adventure Square are inundated with these ?stories?, and it?s starting to sicken me slightly. The Stickies and Rules posted everywhere on this site are designed to educate everyone on the importance of proper punctuation, and the standards on OB with regards to detail, substance, spelling, etc., etc. Are all those there for decoration? I take those standards relatively seriously (although I?ve done my share of minor offences), but I don?t feel that this level of consideration is held by everyone on OB.

Does anybody have any thoughts on this? Am I simply being unreasonable?

Phil

[Ezekiel]

[COLOR=SlateGray]I don?t think you?re being un-reasonable at all.

I know everyone was once a newbie who didn?t know the rules and was worried about messing up, but when I joined, there was no where [I]near[/I] as many spammy or bad quality posts as there has been lately.

I admit that I didn?t read the rules all the way through and that my first thread was closed (for being in the wrong place) but after that I made sure to check that what I done was correct and to the correct standards.

I've been around in the Adventure Square/Inn for quite a while now and it's horrible when you see it getting filled with bad quality posts like you pointed out, it really pulls the standards of these very respectable boards right down.

It seems that people joining now aren?t reading the rules at all and are just steaming ahead without worrying about what they are doing or if they are adhering to the set rules.
The moderators are trying but they can only do so much with the matter and I constantly see their posts of;
'Please read the Rules and FAQ pages...'
I wouldn?t be surprised if most of them had these posts saved on Word so they could paste it over and over again?.anyway, like you say, Phil, the stickies really are plastered all over the site, it's just a shame that there really isn?t anything else to do but try and convince these members to go there.

I just hope that [I]some[/I] of them notice this thread and realise that in actual fact, they are embarrassing themselves and the board.

*points below*

[URL=http://www.otakuboards.com/rules.php?]Rules[/URL]

[URL=http://www.otakuboards.com/faq.php?]FAQ[/URL]

Click on the link, read the page and please, please follow the rules![/COLOR]

[terra]

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.

[Balmon]

[quote name='terra]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.[/quote]

I apologize, and I've changed it.

[quote name='terra']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.[/quote]

That's one of the points I'm trying to get at. What is OB's idea of high quality? If I write poorly, but I try really really really really hard, is my writing then good? And, I'm not even talking about the difference between simple storylines and complex storylines. When does the amount of effort, plus the level/ability of the writer, NOT outweigh the standards of the site?

[terra]

[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.

[Gavin]

[SIZE=1]I hate to play Devil's Advocate here Terra as I do have a lot of respect for your work, but I do think that Balmon has a point in some of what he has said. 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. I mean Final Flash was only 13 when he was a Moderator, if memory serves and his level of quality was incredible.

I can accept that maybe a 12 year old may not be as capable a role-player as the likes of say Annie or Corey, but there is still a defined level of [B]minimum-requirement[/B], at last time I checked. I've been here nearly 4 years at this stage and as [B]TheOtaku[/B] and [B]Otakuboards[/B] have become more famous we have an inherent influx of, shall we say lack of "imagination".

I suppose when we had only maybe 2,000 or so members and the Arena was sort of reserved for more experienced role-players then moderating it was not an awfully difficult job. 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. Now though we've seen a massive influx of those who lack quality but are so vast in number that their RPGs are filled with those of quality akin to them.

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.

This practice has created the system, where better quality role-players end up short of players because there aren't enough people either willing or good enough to get into their RPGs. Again I hate to play Devil's Advocate Terra but this is just my opinion on the whole thing.[/SIZE]

[Arcadia]

[quote name='Kane][SIZE=1']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]

[size=1]Perhaps that worked in the old days, as you say, but I have to remind everyone that the boards have changed [i]incredibly[/i] in the last couple years they've been up. I'm not about to say that I've been here the entire time and I've seen it all, but in the year that I have been here, I've noticed a difference. That's going to happen, whether you want it to or not. The rules that worked then are [i]not[/i] going to work now because of that.

RPGs themselves are becoming more creative, and their creators on the whole have been putting a lot more time and effort. They're also opening up their ideas to a lot more people and letting a larger number of members participate. How is this not a good thing?

Yes, there will always be a few of those simple, easy RPGs, and yes, there will probably always be spam, as much as I hate to think about it. But as terra mentioned, members have been improving and that's awesome. If you encourage and help them, you can look forward to more of that. But if you continue to belittle them and cut them down, then what else can you expect but spam and flames and the like?

On a slightly different note, I think that the amount of 'spammy RPGs' hasn't actually changed that much. Sometimes there's a little more of it, sometimes there's a little less. When there aren't a lot of high quality RPGs in the Inn, then you're bound to notice the low quality ones a little more. Give it a couple weeks and things will be back to 'normal'.[/size]

[Shinmaru]

[QUOTE=Arcadia][size=1]Perhaps that worked in the old days, as you say, but I have to remind everyone that the boards have changed [i]incredibly[/i] in the last couple years they've been up. I'm not about to say that I've been here the entire time and I've seen it all, but in the year that I have been here, I've noticed a difference. That's going to happen, whether you want it to or not. The rules that worked then are [i]not[/i] going to work now because of that.

RPGs themselves are becoming more creative, and their creators on the whole have been putting a lot more time and effort. They're also opening up their ideas to a lot more people and letting a larger number of members participate. How is this not a good thing?

Yes, there will always be a few of those simple, easy RPGs, and yes, there will probably always be spam, as much as I hate to think about it. But as terra mentioned, members have been improving and that's awesome. If you encourage and help them, you can look forward to more of that. But if you continue to belittle them and cut them down, then what else can you expect but spam and flames and the like?

On a slightly different note, I think that the amount of 'spammy RPGs' hasn't actually changed that much. Sometimes there's a little more of it, sometimes there's a little less. When there aren't a lot of high quality RPGs in the Inn, then you're bound to notice the low quality ones a little more. Give it a couple weeks and things will be back to 'normal'.[/size][/QUOTE]

Exactly.

I wasn't around in the 'old days' but I don't think that I would be wrong in guessing that there are [i]more[/i] high quality RPers at OtakuBoards at this point in time than ever before. OB's membership grows and grows with each passing day, and I'm more than certain that there are more great RPers now than there were when I first joined OB.

Of course there are going to be 'bad' RPGs or whatever in the Arena. It's a given, and I've seen terra and Arcadia take the initiative in there and let people know when their RPGs aren't up to snuff. I can say with full confidence that both of them have done nothing but good for the Arena, honestly.

Also, I've been impressed with plenty of the newer members lately (I don't mod here, but I do frequent the area quite a bit, by the way). In Apartment Building C, I let in a couple of newer members over some more 'established' RPers, simply because they impressed me more, and I didn't regret it in the least (both are still contributing well to the RPG, which means I need to get my act in gear lol). Again, there are going to be newer members who aren't up to standards or whatever in [i]every[/i] section. However, they won't stay forever; the majority of them end up leaving after a short time from what I've noticed. Higher quality members come in with the lower quality members, and the members of high quality are the members who end up staying, most of the time. There's no doubt about that in my mind, really.

[terra]

[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 :).

[Dragon Warrior]

I just wanna pop in and say that not only are these "poor-quality RPGs," as you put it, are showing up, but numerous amazingly-well developed ones have appeared as well. Take a look at Shy's "hero" or James' "Kill Adam" or even Zidargh's "Super Plumber Bros." These are all amazing, IMO, and have had time taken into them.

If anything, OB has advanced in roleplaying more than fallen in. I think if we just make more better RPGs, other members will eventually follow suit. Pointing fingers gets nowhere :3

Don't kill me for saying that ;_;

[James]

[color=#707875]I can say -- without any hesitation -- that the last six months of Adventure Square have been better than the last few years of the forum. Better, in the sense that we've seen more variety, imagination and writing skill.

It has to be understood that you can't just take a selection of current RPGs and say "this is representative of Adventure Square". RPGs start and finish all the time. I would suggest that you look at the area on a longer timespan; sometimes we'll have an influx of brilliant RPGs in one week, and then sometimes we'll have a group of highly-rushed RPGs.

What matters isn't what you find on any given day. Instead, what matters is the overall trend; are RPGs improving generally and are we seeing a higher standard being reached across the board? As someone who has actually been running OtakuBoards for years now -- and who has been visiting that forum for the same amount of time -- my answer would definitely be yes.

It wasn't long ago that I was listing new, high-quality RPGs on myOtaku, as examples of how this part of OB has dramatically improved. There were so many, over about a month, that I simply couldn't list them all. That fact alone signifies the change, when in the past, I could probably list all of the stellar RPGs on one hand.

There are two other points I'd make here.

One, in terms of standards...it would be ridiculous to set some kind of "imagination" standard. That's no way to run a site. You can't create totally arbitrary limits for people; some people's idea of a cool RPG concept is very different from what others may think. People have different tastes and different writing styles, too.

The standards that we use are not based on the imagination of the member, but on the effort they include when writing the thread. In other words, we look at things like clarity and appropriate coverage (appropriate coverage meaning that you provide at least a minimum set of details for potential RPers to work with). Those things are purely functional and not based on the imagination of the creator. In terms of clarity, we only ask that posts be [i]in English[/i] and reasonably coherent. If someone spells things incorrectly here and there, or if they're a bit too young to have a perfect grasp of English, that's totally fine. Nobody's expecting a 15 year old to compete with a 20 year old.

But we [i]do[/i] expect that the writing will be readable.

Secondly, there's only one way to improve the overall quality of a forum like Adventure Square (and the rest of The Arena): leading by example. Part of the reason that I made the two Kill Adam RPGs was to show people what they can do -- in the past, nobody ever used HTML, for example, even though it was allowed in these forums for a long time.

Oftentimes, it's no good to simply say "your quality is too bad". Of course, you have to pull people up when they're simply not putting in any effort. But on the reverse side of that, the most positive way to increase quality is to lead by example; to show people what [i]can[/i] be done, when effort and creativity are present.

And on that basis, I can definitely say that leading by example has worked. Every new RPG that demonstrates interesting new ideas and new levels of quality is going to help spawn dozens of other RPGs that try to reach that new level.[/color]

[Balmon]

I agree with everyone one of you that has posted - strange no?

Basically, I understand the need for viewing overall trends rather than specific incidences. However, I was trying to make a point. There are still those rushed-simple-one-lined-RPGs being ushered out, and often carried out, without much in the way of intervention - THAT's the sort of thing I'm talking about.

EDIT: There also seem to be a number of people who just don't seem to be getting the message - we have people who are creating RPG threads that are obviously far below OB standards, and then people who are JOINING these threads not realizing that there is anything wrong at all.

[URL=http://otakuboards.com/showthread.php?t=42130]Here is an example[/URL]

Worst of all: in this situation, this person obviously has no clue what they could possibly have done wrong. They're more frustrated that they had people interested in their idea, and that it was ragged on by a moderator (and rightly so). While I understand the subjective nature of RPGs, or any sort of creative art, I feel as though there must be SOME form of guidelines or parameters which must be followed before RPGs can be allowed to start. What I'm proposing, obviously, is a board consisting of Moderators that determine the acceptability of an RPG in the Adventure Inn/Adventure Arena. While this idea will quickly find enemies, I ask that you consider it briefly:

In the current system, any ol' person can post an RPG in the Adventure Inn and ask for recruits. The lifespan of this RPG is determined by its quality, the interest generated by readers, etc., etc... but essentially, if it's obviously not up to OB standards, a Moderator will eventually close it. There seems to be a lot of that going on.

Like many Moderators have mentioned already, every case needs to be judged by its own merits. I'm asking that the Arena Underground be used as a forum for proposals for RPGs. I understand that this may be substantially more work for the Mods, namely Terra and Arcadia, but they have to read these things in the end anyway. While I'm not asking them to decide if the RPG is to their taste or not, I AM asking that they judge it based on certain criteria; namely, grammar, spelling, punctuation, appropriate coverage, etc., etc. Whether they like the story or not is irrelevant. I feel that with this sort of system in place, the Adventure Inn would be elevated even higher. They would simply have to O.K. RPGs based on these certain standards, and nothing more. It would certainly prevent situations like the one mentioned above. OK.... NOW you can yell at me. (END EDIT)

I'm consistently amazed by such RPGs as Kill Adam, etc., etc., and could only hope to make something as tight as those, but it's the constant re-appearances of those Inuyasha-type RPGs that drives me nuts. That's all I'm getting at.

I've done a LOT of research in terms of looking at old RPGs, from years ago - or even months - and I AM constantly surprised what a leap RPGs have taken here. Still, though, my negative feelings lie towards those RPGs that seem to have been plucked out of an assembly line and forced down our throats... over and over. AND OVER.

Phil

[James]

[color=#707875]I agree in the sense that we do see a lot of hastily-thrown together anime-based RPGs.

But...I think it makes sense, if you remember that many of those creators are younger and many of them are here as a result of their interest in anime. So it goes with the territory. I am actually surprised that we don't have more anime-based RPGs, given that we're an anime-based message board (although these days I think OB has kind of become a mix of many things).

In regard to that, it just comes down to personal taste. Just wait 'till you see the Pokemon RPG that Shy and I want to produce (it's a very different and bizarre spin on that franchise, let me tell you ~_^).

Regarding your earlier edit...I can only tell you that we do have a system in place to deal with RPGs. That's why you see some being closed and some that require editing.

As I mentioned earlier, I don't want to impose totally abtirary restrictions on people -- instead, I want to simply require that people fulfill some basic requirements (like readability and adequate coverage). And those two things are already enshrined in both the site rules and the sticky threads within the area.

So on that basis, Moderators have the power to act if they feel that RPGs are violating any of those areas.[/color]

[inti]

I regards to what you're saying about all of the RPGs that get "rammed down our throats", Balmon, I agree that we're seeing a large number of them lately. What I completely disagree on is that quality in the Arena is falling. I don't need to go there, because "there" seems to have been filled in, up and outwards by terra, Arcadia, Shinmaru, DW [b]and[/b] James.
I know you'll find someway to rebutt this, but the Adventure Square Mods would almost be out of a job if it weren't for the simpler RPGs.
I myself have had a number of ideas (two I think) which were hastily put together, I must admit. They turned out to be a complete failure, because I was overtired and I rambled on or something of the sort. Now, with the Arena Underground, everything will go more smoothly.
Anyway, where was I?
Yes...I mainly agree with DW, terra and James. The quality of threads in the Arena has taken leaps and bounds, then trips and falls, but in most cases everyone has fun.
Another thing is that everyone's post quality [b]is[/b] improving, even if it is slow. After James released Kill Adam, there have been a number of ideas for RPs that come in two parts, and more people are writing sequels to older RPGs.
Maybe I've been focussing on [i]just[/i] that, and not really seeing the point of what you're saying (aside from the blatantly obvious, "get rid of the bad RPGs/RPers" :smirk: ). Excuse that...
Well, that's all I really have to say right now...I've lost my track of thought. But, yeah...two part RPGs, give that some thought. More and more people are trying this out (or thinking about doing so, I can feel it :p ), hence, quality is improving, and even if the Adventure Square has tripped over and fallen in on some occasions, it has picked itself up and carried on.
...
What I just said seems like a bad soap opera...

[PWNED]

Sorry to butt in on your coversation but I have a point to make. First of all, All the poor RPG's are created by Newbies example

[QUOTE]Well the sign-ups for this are the same as the megaman RPGs. I'll take about 6-8 then we'll start.

My Sign-Up
Name: Vance Riadas
Gender: Male
Age: 13
History: Vance's father works for one of his peer's (Chaud Blazes) father. By working there his father gets him very good chips for his Net Navi. Vance's mother is the personal assistant to the mayor of ACDC Town.
Appearance: Similar to Chaud's hair, green eyes, wears a green vest with a black shirt under, and wears grey cargo pants.

3 Chips: Sword, WideSword LongSword

Net Navi

Name: White Knight
Gender: Male
History: White was created by Vance's father and was given to him on his tenth birthday. An now White is by his side all the time.
Appearance: My Avatar
Personality: Sincere
Remember I am only taking 6-8 people!![/QUOTE]

This is an actual thread that has been posted by a newbie whose name shall not be mentioned. Now we should bring our attention to a thread from a little while back this is for a good comparsion so I will state who posted this second one. Heero Darkangel, take a bow for his quiality sign up.

[QUOTE]This adventure takes place on the high seas where an 18 year old boy called Heero De'vellan and his father Captain Hal De'vellan once commanded a pirate ship of over seventy good strong men, the boys father was a couragous, strong and fair fighter and his men respected him for his strategic mind, his truth, honour and good heart towards them, the name of their vessel was called Ladies Mile, but one night they were raided by two unknown fleets, these pirates raided their cabins, stole everything and killed everyone except the boy who stole away on a small raft with ten bags of gold, his fathers pirate sword, and a gold medallion with a black pearl center with four red rubys that surrouned it plus other personal items. As he drifted away he watched the once beautiful ship with it's high masts and pirates flags go down in a blaze of glory while the two fleets took off canons firing in victory, with a heart full of a deep anger and eyes of vengence he swore on that final moment that he would avenge the sinking of Ladies Mile and the death of his father and crew.

He was washed upon a small island in the middle of no where, he checked the maps and pulled out a compass he had taken but the island wasn't on there. He searched the island and found an old daunting pirates ship called Devils Rose, the name sounded familiar to him but he fell in love with it. She was bigger than Ladies mile and more magnificent, she had three huge masts where as the Ladies Mile only had two, she also had four rows of canons on both sides which still looked to be in good condition. He circled the massive vessel and found she had a huge hole in the back. He walked in and studied the hole, the boards were abit rotten but nothing he couldn't fix. Over the two months, he spent most of his time fixing her up. He found the spare sails and put them on and repaired the old ones. Everything he need was on that ship. Once she was sea worthy he then began cleaning her up, in the captains quarters he found many treasure chests full of gold, jewels. He smiled as they reminded him of his father and how he used to split everything equally amoungst the crew. After cleaning the whole ship up and getting rest he then set sail to find a trust worthy crew to adventure with and also to find the mongrels who slaughtered his father. He kissed his fathers Medallion to thank him for all his teachings for with out them he'd be dead now....[/QUOTE]

First of all, there is a lot of detail in this second one, which is just the Story behind the RPG. One way to look at this is of experinece. From the looks of the post, It appears to be at least Heero Darkangels fifth RPG while it is the person that was first stateds first RPG.

This is the problem with anime/ game based RPGs, The creator thinks that the people already know what happens in the storyline so they neglect to add a history. I would also mention Kill Adam but I am running out of room [SIZE=4]GOOD JOB JAMES[/SIZE]

Let's not assume all newbie RPGs are really crappy, Let's just take a look at the story for THE EVIL EYES rpg, Myth: Soulblighters Return.

[QUOTE]It's now over 100 years since Balor first appeared at the eastern edge of the civilized lands. His arrival was heralded by a great comet that grew in the sky and signaled doom to all life. With dark arts he raised up the Fallen Lords, sorcerer-generals like himself, bent to his will and desiring nothing but to lay waste to the living and rule over the blasted lands. Among their number were Shiver, the Deceiver,the Summoner, the Watcher and, most vicious and cunning of all, Soulblighter.

Leading a grim army of beasts, spirit creatures and the reanimated dead, the Fallen swept through Eastern villages and cities, destroying the great capital at Muirthemne and scattering the survivors. They passed the great continental range of the Cloudspine and flooded into the rich lands of the West. Only two of the great cities of the West still stood when our armies rallied.

Pursuing a plan of retaking strategic points and exploiting the weaknesses of the Fallen, Alric, last of the Nine protectors of the West, led a strike through the Fallen lines and directly for Balor himself. In a desperate gamble, Alric tricked Balor into exposing himself and cut off his head. Eluding Soulblighter, he brought it to the Great Devoid, a vast pit in the heart of the world, and threw it in to seal Balor?s fate.

Their leadership broken, most of the Fallen Lords were soon hunted down and destroyed by Alric?s armies. With Balor?s destruction, Soulblighter found himself defeated, but alive and free from Balor?s service. He escaped into the wilderness, to bide his time and look for an opportunity to return to his former power, to achieve the ambition that was denied his master.
Now sixty years have passed since the end of the Great War against the Fallen. Alric sits on the throne in the rebuilt city of Tyr. Warriors have returned to their villages, and allies like the elves to their homelands. Peace reigns and the land prospers.

At least it prospers until a warlock of great power decided to track down the resting place of both Soulblighter and the staff of the Magi. It was foolish because when he found the staff of the magi he did not quit in his search. Soulblighter ambushed the warlock and drained his power and stole the staff. Now with the power to create all the undead minions he needed, Guess what he did? He created legion upon legion of Undead and offered the Fetch a way home to get back to their plane in return of their continued servitude. The possible final war had begun.

Paladins and clerics fled before the nearly untunable undead. The dreaded Trow warriors fled from the north, the elves from their lands to the south. The dwarves were beseiged in their stone citys and the greatGnomes once more began to tinker with their great war-machines which have been almost destroyed via their long time without use.

King Alric has sent his messengers in search of five champions who are destined to stop Soulblighter and cast him into the great Devoid. He has sent for the destined five who are Reya Sukin and Talan of the elves, Blorn of the Trow, Sarai Taurer of the humans and Tuscov Wolfbane of the mixed blood. But in the prophecy ( Proberbly in the fine print) It is stated that one shall die, one shall go mad and the others will find success and greatness.[/QUOTE]

See what I mean. Sorry to turn into a lawyer of sorts but like I said, It is mostly newbies that create "el crappy RPG"

[Engel]

[COLOR=red][size=1]Alright, time for my two cents. (or however many I wanna put in) I may not of been here for the longest of hardly ANY RPGer, but I have a few things to say...

I have seen the occasional rushed RPG with a short, disjointed story, and I have seen it fail. However, if Terra or Arcadia comes along and tells them what they did wrong, like if the plot wasn't detailed enough to get the story across, the creator often fixes it, and it becomes of better quality. (Thanks, BTW. You guys do your job well.) Though sometimes not enough to get many people interested, but the creator learns a new thing, and will (hopefully) build on his/her's new knowledge and create better RPGs.

Some RPGs have a WAY too detailed story, see Guilty Gear: Rebirth of Outrage for an example. (I WILL get it started soon, my ToS RPG and my new upcoming Metroid RPG have been taking time) Hardly anyone wants to read a novel like that, and are ulimately intimitated by the sheer size of it.

And, I may not be the greatest, or anywhere near it, RPG creator, I like to see plot twists, well thought out stories, and all around good grammar and writing. My RPGs aren't the best, but however many faliures, I dust my self off and get back on the horse, and have come out with two great RPGs. Thanks for reading this, if you did. That's just what I think.[/size][/color]

[Balmon]

Perhaps I should reply to a couple of those, because I don't want anyone misinterpreting what I said in the very first post.

[QUOTE=(Someone three posts back)]What I completely disagree on is that quality in the Arena is falling. I don't need to go there, because "there" seems to have been filled in, up and outwards by terra, Arcadia, Shinmaru, DW and James.What I completely disagree on is that quality in the Arena is falling. I don't need to go there, because "there" seems to have been filled in, up and outwards
by terra, Arcadia, Shinmaru, DW and James.[/QUOTE]

I did not mean to imply that the general quality of the arena is failing... quite the opposite. My only point of contention was that there were STILL an inordinate amount of poorly contrived and executed stories, chock full of enough grammar, spelling, syntax, and punctuation errors to embarass a preschool student.

As I said during the discussion with James, I totally agreed that the general level of the Square is rising - LIKE with Kill Adam 2 (that's one example that won't go away :)).

Also, regarding the other poster a couple of posts back who was making a point regarding newer members and their posts in the Adventure Inn: While many of the lower-quality posts do come first from newer members, a fair share problems still arise from current members. There are plenty of new members who come to OB with a lot of experience in writing, and RPG writing. So I think just blaming new members is an unfair statement to make.

Phil

[Brasil]

[quote name='Balmon']While many of the lower-quality posts do come first from newer members, a fair share problems still arise from current members.[/quote]
I find it humorous that you're so quick to criticize other members and their RP posts when you've put up your fair share of stinkers. Your now-deleted reply in terra's 'stress relief,' for example. It was clearly rushed and suffered from the same kind of randomized nonsensical narration that those quotes from the so-called "N00b RPGs" suffered from.

Adding partially to what terra has said, I think it'd suit quite well to get your own writing at least somewhat in check before you start posting threads about "The quality of RPGs currently in The Arena" and posting these silly criticisms and so forth.

Just a thought.

[Balmon]

Whoa whoa, Siren. Ease up. I admitted a while ago to my stinker of a posting - and others before it. I'm not claiming to be a genius. The paragraph you so intelligently quoted, for example, doesn't exclude me... but for some reason, you chose to assume as much. So before you feel the need to act as the Defender of the OtakuBoards, give it a little more thought, eh?

[Brasil]

[quote name='Balmon']Whoa whoa, Siren. Ease up. I admitted a while ago to my stinker of a posting - and others before it. I'm not claiming to be a genius. The paragraph you so intelligently quoted, for example, doesn't exclude me... but for some reason, you chose to assume as much. So before you feel the need to act as the Defender of the OtakuBoards, give it a little more thought, eh?[/quote]
Not to belabor this point, but Balmon, the way I see it, I'm not acting as a Defender of Otakuboards. I'm not defending everyone who goes here, and I'm not blindly standing up for the Rules.

What I am doing, however, is providing a defense for those less-skilled people whom you've deemed unworthy of posting stories and thus should be punished or reprimanded for their transgressions against an online messageboard's rules that you take more seriously than most here.

If simply standing up for the little guy is considered being a "Defender of OtakuBoards," what does that make attacking the little guy for not being able to adhere fully to your interpretation of the OB Rules? "High Prince of the OtakuBoards?"

Like James said, an imagination standard, which you seemed to be implying was desperately needed, is an unrealistic idea. We can't expect a 12-year-old Yu-Gi-Oh fan to write Crime And Punishment, lol. It just doesn't work that way.

[Balmon]

Perhaps Defender of the Boards was a little overboard... sorry.

I didn't mean to imply that they should be punished - really, how could you punish someone short of banning (and that's not what I'm implying at all). The only solution I could think of, albeit a simplistic one, was to make the Arena Underground a forum for allowing RPGs into the Adventure Inn. If a moderator deems their thread below-standards for the Inn, they can go and work on it, and return with another proposal. That's all.

And I agree regarding your last statement. Of course I do. If I don't expect it of myself (i.e. Crime and Punishment), how can I expect others younger than myself... let alone older?

Thanks for your input.

Cheers,
Phil

[terra]

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.

[Semjaza]

Like it or not, idiotic people come here. What they make is quite simple: idiotic posts. They don't just infest this area of the boards. They don't just infest OB. They infest the entire internet and eat at its foundation from the inside out.

As such, expecting two people to compete with the honestly limitless amounts of people who can easily apply for this site is a bit overzealous. OB is FAR larger than it was before terra and Arcadia were given their positions. Different people come here, as different people are attracted to this site due to the fact that theOtaku.com is more of a posting/blog hub than an anime site as of late.

I don't see what the big deal is if there are some poor recruitment threads. They're either fixed or closed before they even make it into the arena area at all. If these RPGs made it into the Arena unscathed, then I think there'd be some argument here... but considering that isn't the case, I don't know what can be done without acting like brutal, mechanial thread closing beasts.

[Balmon]

I totally agree with both of you guys. I tossed out the idea just to hear some thoughts on it, but I knew from the outset that it was logistically unsound idea.

[Boo]

[quote]There are plenty of new members who come to OB with a lot of experience in writing, and RPG writing. So I think just blaming new members is an unfair statement to make.[/quote]

[color=gray][size=1]That's one of the smartest things I heard someone say in this whole thread.
Sometimes (like when Otaku[b]Boards[/b] is down) I am looking for other forums just so I have some replacement. The last time OB was down, I went to some Final Fantasy forum with an RP section in it. Well, when I looked in there, the quality of RPing was way below whatever you see here on Otaku[b]Boards[/b]. Most members limited themselfs to 2 sentences at most and then it were posts like '[i]Buffy heard noise in the bar so she walked in[/i]' with sometimes a character talking after it. And let me tell you, thats the quality of most forum RP sections I've seen till now.

So, how low quality it may be, if such a forum is the first one you ever saw, you will get easily used to that quality of Roleplaying. The quality of Otaku[b]Boards[/b]' Roleplaying is way above normal if you ask me. But since I am used to it now, I start to see [strike]dead people[/strike] low quality RPG's aswell, and the more you improve, the more they look I think.
First I didnt notice any bad RPG's because I was a lousy RPer myself. It's very funny when you look at the first RPG's of people. And then I mean RPG's who have a slot to it and not end after 1 page or so. In my first RPG, you saw my quality go from well, what you would call 'bwahaha n00bish', to well eh... pretty much less n00bish.

I know from my own experience that when you first participate in some RPG's before you make your own. You're more used to RPing and you have seen enough other SignUp threads to know how to make one yourself (ofcourse this is very hard, when they see a lot of 'low quality' RPG's, and they just join one of those lol).

So I would say that quality depends on what you're used and that I would recomend new members to read the sticky and [i]look at/participate in[/i] other people's RPG's.

By the way, putting Kill Adam up as an example is sort of awkward, seeing that James has experience with RPing for several years now and he is pretty old aswell. And ofcourse James is famous for having high quality posts, so it wasnt really a surprise that the RPG was high quality aswell.
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