Forum Thread

Ok. So this is a continuation of another discussion thread I made quite some time ago. Many of you remember that discussion, many of you don't. The purpose of this discussion is to state your thoughts of what has been going on with the roleplaying side of this community. And many of us know, how big our community of roleplayer's is. Feel free to state your opinions and wether or not if you agree with what I am about to say. However, please do not get into a full blown argument. A dispute between opinions is fine, but no full blown out arguments with all caps. Please. Without further a do, here is my so called rant:

Roleplay is something that I enjoy but I also somewhat hate it. I enjoy for the most part, except for one reason. The reason being is poor roleplay abilities and lack of determination. Along with bits and pieces of other things, such as childishness. Keep in mind that I am not targeting anyone in specific however this roleplay will be targeted at a certain group of people. I am sorry if you feel offended by this but this I feel, is the only way to truly express my thoughts will harming anyone in particular. And when people's thoughts are expressed, feelings will be hurt. I am trying to make sure that individuals are not hurt, by not targeting them, but a broader audience so they don't feel targeted and so that they know they are not the only ones.

There are common things that I have recently found, that are changing or invading the roleplaying here. And like I mentioned before, I feel they are: Lack of Ability, Lack of Determination, and other factors such as childishness. First off, let's start with Lack of Ability. I personally feel that the lack of roleplaying ability isn't that much of an issue. Reason being is, we were all not very good at roleplaying at some point. A great example is me. My roleplaying skills have highly improved since the year I have been on this sight. I was almost 100% new to roleplaying. My only experience was a public roleplay chat on a pokemon browser game at the time.

My opinion and etiquette on roleplay suddenly shifted because of how different it was. And I also was much of a child back then (Both at the time of the public roleplay chat and when I first joined this chat.). If you really would like to see how my skills have changed, look at this roleplay and compare it to this roleplay. There is a vast change of skill shown between each of these threads and it is obvious which one was made by an amateur and which one was made by a more experience roleplayer. Another reason I am not so bothered by the lack of ability, is because people can easily learn. I started off like most people, only doing one-liners and not indicating chat with "These" and just did the basic "Draco: hello" thing.

So I'm not bothered by this that much since people can learn. Now onto the next topic, being Lack of Determination. I would like to expand upon this by calling "Lack of Determination and Thought." The issue about this, is that roleplay topics and threads are just being slapped together without even any thought. Roleplays cannot be just slapped together because you have a good idea. You have to go through a process to know what is right and what is wrong to make a roleplay about. An example is that a Pre-school roleplay should never be made unless you 100% understand how toddler's of this age act. And if you don't, then do not do it. This means you are making a roleplay based of the assumption that idea is good and people will join. And you also made the roleplay without proper understanding of pre-school and toddler's.

Knowledge about pre-school is incredibly important for two reasons. Roleplay's should make you have a picture in your mind. They create a story in your head like books do, except the fact that you aren't just reading the story, you are creating it along with others. This allows others to be able to think of a setting and have a better picture of the story and setting in their head. And assumptions aren't just a good idea. Would you assume an asian is just smart because they are asian? No. Would you assume a person is smart when they wear glasses? No. Don't just assume a topic is okay.

Going back to knowledge and using it with the Pre-school roleplay example, the idea itself is bad. A pre-school roleplay will be boring to many people for the fact you are limited to everything you do. You are limited to your vocabulary since toddler's can say "Atrocious" which makes their vocabulary's limited and you yourself wanting to be able to talk more than just that. Toddler's as well can't speak very full sentences. However, I do understand the fact that toddler's can speak, just not very well. And I can say that from experience since I have two nephews. One at the age of 3, and the other at 2 which makes them the age of a toddler. And at pre-schools, toddler's are constantly being watched and cared for by adults which then again, limits your ability to roleplay.

So to sum this all up. You have to have an understanding of what makes sense with your roleplay. You can't just make a pre-school roleplay because you want to. You must understand the benefits and the negatives of the topic. A Pokemon Roleplay has many benefits and some negatives but you can't just make a random plot that does make sense. You must elaborate on the idea so other's can understand the topic at hand, just as well as you do.

Now onto the lack of determination part of this section, since we just covered thought. Roleplay's I've noticed have barely any work put into them. Their also have been very poor ideas or very basic ideas but I can let that pass to some extent. I notice a lot of roleplay's have a plot that is so utterly poorly explains to the point where it's barely understandable. Plots need to be the main focus of your topic thread. Plots are the things that get people interested into your roleplay and they are the reason your roleplay exist. A poor plot won't get people attracted to the idea, nor will people even claim it as 'complete'. For me personally, roleplay's an take up to 8 hours to make. While other's take less than 1 hour. And another issue is the fact that if you take months to make a roleplay, yet it's awful, then there is something wrong. Bad roleplays are made in very short time, good ones can be made in short time, depending on the person. But for most people, it will take a few hours.

And then you also have the issue of no rules or poorly explained rules. Once again, passible to some extent. Another issue are forms or forums. These usually are poor for a few reasons. A recent issue is that creators don't even create a form for other's to use. Another issue is that they are missing elements for their topic at hand. Here are some examples. You make a Fairy Tail roleplay yet you forget to add the Magic Section and/or you mislabel it as Powers. Or you making a High School roleplay and you are forgetting big, big elements such as Age and Gender.


This is all I am going to say for now until more about this topic is brought up. The group who is being targeted, you know you are and I want you to learn from this. Please, please do. That's all I have to say for now. Please feel free with you agree or disagree with what I have said or if you just want to say your opinions about this, please feel free to.

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I have to agree with you on this one, I've only been doing 1x1's with close friends at this point because I can never find a roleplay that interests me. Either that or some part of the community drives me away, I have noticed the change in roleplays for quite a while now and I'm not too happy with the roleplaying aspect of the game. Now I know Pokeheroes isn't a roleplaying site but I've gotten used to roleplaying here. To the point where I'm hesitating to join a real community, with other roleplayers. Roleplaying is one of the only reasons I'm still active on Pokeheroes.

One lining isn't much of a problem, since I can understand some people may be new to roleplaying. Everyone starts somewhere! And this is good practice for them. But constant rule breaking and powerplaying isn't cool. A lot of grammar mistakes are made as well, which makes me question if they even tried. Looking at the roleplay section of the forums there are threads with similar or even identical plots or topics. To me (What I've been noticing and/or seeing.) roleplays aren't very creative anymore. 2016 isn't a good year for roleplayers, at least not for me. And I have a feeling it'll get worse.

Quote from Rascal-kun

I might just take my roleplaying chances elsewhere. But if I do find a decent roleplay I'll probably join.

I've been roleplaying for a long time now, and not just on this site. I wish roleplaying on Pokeheroes could go back to it's glory days. Some may agree, some may disagree, but this is all my opinion.

I would like to thank you for bringing this up, and I agree on this fully. Something that I want to mention is my pet peeve of people roleplaying in the roleplay sign-ups, when you have three sub fourms to put the actual roleplay in. If you are planning to do that soon, please don't, and if you are planning to put the signups and roleplay apart, please put a link to each other, so people can find your threads. I feel like it makes people have a harder time finding what they would like to roleplay in, because the roleplays in the signups will take several of the spots in the first page. I am completely fine about putting the signups and roleplay together, as long as they are on the correct thread.
Thank you for earing a part of my rant thing, and if I really feel like I need to put more in, I will.

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Finally its brung up! And i agree, kinda. When i started out, i actually enjoyed the easy roleplays, where it was just a little plot. It was easy to start out with, and i moved to other rp's. I learned how to create more interesting post, from the simple rp's. I will say that they are good to make newbies begin.

But one topic is the Gijinka roleplays. If they have a good plot, and is balanced well, then they are worth to join. But i have seen sooo many gijinka rp that i can't even name a few, because there are so many. They don't have a good plot, and they are there only for player based action. Or, if a couple gets together. Thats the big highlight. I don't see point in them.

When it comes to when i make rp's, i get my inspiration mostly from Minecraft horror maps. They are my keywords, i won't steal the story, but its the keyword. For example, if i see 'camping' then it sets my creativety on a tour to go make a interesting plot. Most of the time i use 15 - 30 minutes. But when im done, im proud. Because personally i think that i have created a semi good rp.

Thank you soooo much for this post. I'm always finding RPs with very good names and then when I go to join them, they're usually all one-liners and the plots are never good. It's why I enjoy Roleplays that only certain users make, though I'll join a "bad" roleplay if it sparks my interest enough to the point where I'll RP for a bit.

And for Pokemon Roleplays, I hate that people always have Eeveelution characters. Or Charizards. Other Pokemon exist??? That's why I prefer the unique RPs. And someone (not naming names) also copied my very unique Furfrou RP. And I quit because I really didn't like it to be honest. I'd love to find Literate Roleplay partners.

Another pet peeve is when people say their RP is "Semi-Lit" but it isn't 3-5 paragraphs. (Hence why my first Semi-Lit RP closed, no one understood Semi-Lit) I like typing a lot, as it gets me thinking about what my characters can do, and be descriptive. I wish more people were as descriptive as what I hope I am.

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Yas, thanks for reviving this.

1. Dont get me wrong, but...I kind of judge by appearence...and by feeds. You KNOW someone will write

-name of character-: like this

and will use asterisks when doing actions and will problably only use one line when they dont even have avataras and their feeds keep having emoticons and stuff. Again, dont get me wrong, and Im not targeting anyone. And that happens for pratically any RPs.

2. Overused topics for Pokemon RPs. Now, overused topics can happen to ANY kind of RP, but mostly Pokemon ones. Its mostly gijinka highschools with NOTHING to do. Now, Im NOT targeting to the last RP that something went wrong. With 1 year of playing here, Ive participated on enough highschool gijinka RPs to know that they are overused. Plus, sure, there are some literate rpers that arent "dESU CHAN1111! XD" on gijinka RPs, but damn its rare.

3. Overused type of characters. Again, mostly happens on Pokemon RPs, but could happen on any kind of RPs. Its basically the CONSTANT eeveelutions and Charizards on basically any Pokemon RPs. Thats why I prefer using the "random pokemon rule": so there isnt a bunch of edgy Umbreons here and there.

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I am glad to see other's who share similar thoughts and opinions along with being in agreement with me.

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Another things I hate HATE

Are people that write "I" instead of the name of the character.

What will you write when you have 2 characters? I²?

Second thing I hate HATE

small plots and no plot at all.

Kinda like how you said, besides some topics having just a few things to RP about, if you never progress with the plot or with A plot, it will run out things to do with the small topic. And, based on own experience, you will be burned if you ever complain. So yeah, I understand not liking being FORCED to RP with a plot that keeps happening, but cmon.

Third thing I hate HATE

MARY SUES. AND WHEN THEY ARE PROTECTED.
Now, this happens a LOT with me. Either the owner itself is a mary/gary, or a friend of the owner is a mary/gary. Again, you can easily judge by appearence when the user is illiterate, mostly because of the lack of skill.

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I haven't seen the first part to this, but I like the points you brought up.

I was a very, very avid roleplayer on tumblr and when I came here, I hoped to see lots of roleplays I'd be very into. I joined several, but I've barely made posts on any of them. I've probably had the so-called Lack of Determinaton before even getting the overall feel of the story, but as you said, it's probably due to the poor plots presented. Not that there's anything wrong with starting; I mean, we all start somewhere. But it's just that, sometimes, the synopsis of roleplays I see (you know, the ones usually presented on the first post) aren't that... flavorful (if that's a word). I'd let it pass if it wasn't just worded properly, but what makes me lose interest quickly is the lack of push to forward the story. Like, okay, I get that we're in this kind of setting, I get that we have these abilities, I get that there are plenty of characters to interact with... but so what? What will all the actions lead to if you don't have a clear plot, end point, and goal? You can't keep a story running forever. It's what makes me lose interest quickly, personally.

That's all I can say for now, since I haven't been here for so long. Yes, I may be judging a book based on its covers, but you can't fully blame me if the design of the cover is terrible and doesn't interest me for long. Also, I'm not attacking anyone specifically nor do I hate anyone; it's just a general observation. Correct me if I'm wrong with anything, though.

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Yes! That's been brought up again!

It was Pokeheroes what introduced me to RPing. I joined one which I liked as my first one. It was a Pokemon RP, and I liked the concept. The posts were something more than 1-liners (though we were sometimes restricted to them when the plot 'slowed down'). Everyone was friendly, and it was there I was introduced to terms like 'bunnying' and 'God-modding' (I didn't notice the guide XD). I improved my RP skills enough to make almost advanced posts. It gave me my first real friends on here, and the story finally reached its climax.

[The RP had often been trending on the Most Active area, the RP was-: The Path to Saving the Hoenn Region]

Then a sequel of the RP was made, which is still running, we RPed for a long time, until some of the people went offline for some time and we were almost left in a 1x1 situation. Still, we ran it, and one of them is active again, and we're hoping to kick start it.
I made a RP, but it wasn't a success, so I decided to join one, but when I looked around for the first time, I noticed that almost all of them were either gijinka RPs (which I hate), or eeveelution RPs. And the posts were senseless, and ALL 1LINERS.

There was literally no plot, or story, just a string of nonsensical posts. I miss my first glimpse to RPing....

Now I realise that how everything's changed, and now I cannot find a promising RP to join. I joined a RP, but later I realised that it had NO rules to prevent God-modding and bunnying. I HATED IT, and ended up rage-quitting.

So, that's my story..

[PS-: If someone is hosting a Pokemon/Pokemon Trainer RP, which has a bit more sense, don't hesitate to contact me]

@skarmoury I do think you make a valid argument. Many roleplays do never have an end goal and will simply fall short when one or multiple people start leaving the roleplay or are not posting.

@PkmnTrainerV Personally, I dislike like sequels. Reason being is that those sequels were made just because they enjoyed the roleplay or because it was popular. Like the Path to Saving the Hoenn Region. It was a popular roleplay but the story and the roleplay was never good enough to continue on. And plus they basically just started a sequel without having an ending to the first one (Correct me if I am wrong as I have not seen the Roleplay)

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Ah, I just wanted to mention too that the "to be RP'ed" personality is a huge pet peeve for me since I've been seeing it around a lot. I'm not sure what it means to have a personality that is "to be RP'ed", how does one roleplay a character without being able to describe their character beforehand? I understand that characters change and develop greater personalites as they grow in the roleplay (just as any regular person changes attitudes based on their surroundings as they grow up), but is it too much of a hassle to include how one imagines a character at the start of the story? A simple quiet / mean / funny / annoying personality at least gives us a glimpse of the character, rather than having people guess how someone acts and reacts throughout the story like some wildcard. It just bugs me that many roleplayers can give detailed appearances of their character but don't know or can't exactly tell their personality at the beginning. A character's personality defines his or her choices, statements, actions, etc., and is honestly more important to know than the appearance. One way or another, any character has to have some personality from the start.

Basically, what I'm trying to say is that you can't just establish a character's personality in the middle of the story; that character has to have some sort of personality that made them act this way instead of another way or say these string of words instead of another sort of sentence. I understand to-be-RP'ed histories since they don't play much role in a roleplay if you don't want them too, but personality? Nah man, every character has a personality at the start. It's up to the roleplayer to establish that.

Then again, I might have misunderstoond the meaning of the "to be RP'ed" personality. Correct me if I'm wrong.

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(I apologize if you find any mistake but I am writing thiis from mobile and I am not quiet used to it as keyboard)

Finally something like this is made. I was first introduced to roleplaying in PH. Since my first roleplay I have been trying to avoid writing just one lined posts. I don't think that I have improved that much but now I give a little details in my posts instead of writing long dialogs.
I have tried roleplaying with both one liners and people who write really long posts. I didn't found much problems with anyone instead that when two one liners roleplay together they just keep on posting and fill 2-3 pages in very less time and that too full of just one line posts. It just annoys me a bit. When I was new I saw some very interesting plots but now I see overused plots and/or a plot with very poor explanation given by the owner.

Also @~Draco-Senpai~ I agree with you on th part where you said that sequels are made because the role players had fun in role play and made another season even when first one didn't got a proper ending. I can say that because I have been in some of the roleplays and their sequels. But I don't think I totally hate them. I just hate the fact that sometimes roleplayers from season one totally ignore people who joined in sequel and carry on with just older players.

If you don't have the same opinion as me then feel free to criticise me. I would like to know what other players think about it.

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You know how in anime we have the generic light novel adaptations that have the action, sci-fi, ecchi, harem, and fantasy genres in a school-like setting with one male character and fifty female characters? But yet tons of people still seem to really like these, and the more experienced fans know the drill and stay away from them. I feel like this is the same type of thing. We have the people who express dialogue in incredibly weird and inconvenient ways, things with absolutely no plot whatsoever, bland and uninteresting cliche characters... you know. But yet there are tons of people who enjoy that type of roleplaying, and the more experienced roleplayers know the drill and stay away from them.

In my opinion, I agree with the things this thread has mentioned. But I also find it very interesting that people can enjoy doing things in an entirely different way that to me seems childish.

Other than that little thing about it being interesting to me, I'd just be re-writing everything that everyone else in the thread has stated, with the exception of one thing: one liners. I believe that both one-liners and paragraphs are essential for a roleplay. Only typing paragraphs in a roleplay will usually, from what I've seen, add unnecessary fluff to the story. Why? Because you have to type a paragraph, so it's impossible to keep such an RP going without adding tons of fluff, sometimes even to the point where some or all of the story is lost. One liners are necessary to avoid this fluff. They provide a safety net for the story. A RP made entirely up of one liners, on the other hand, does not execute enough of the story.

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@skarmoury You are indeed correct. However, it can just simply mean they don't know what their personalty will be and will be known in the rp when it becomes apparent.

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I too was really and amateur who didn't understand a thing about roleplaying, in fact my first ever roleplay was here and tbh i totally sucked at like everything, the first one i made was too boring and now i sure have learnt a lot and improved those who have roleplayed with me, I'm sure they've noticed this. I totally agree that roleplays are repeating the same plots again and again, plus the plots lack content I've seen meany plots that consist of just one line and then the form, not even a single rule.

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@skarmoury Not trying to start a argument, and I understand your side, just wanna explain the "to be RPed" real quick:

EVERYONE HAS to have a personality for a character in mind, or else, the "to be RPed" really is useless. But most of the time, you have to analazis the other characters on the RP before setting your own personality for your own character. For example, you would't but a girly character on a blood RP.

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@teius: No worries, I'm not trying to start any fights (though I apologize if I sound aggresive sometimes, but I swear I'm cool) ^^; And I appreciate the elaboration! As I said, I'm very new to roleplays on this site so I might just have misunderstood several aspects (and that's why I enjoy reading the comments here, to help me get a larger glimpse on roleplaying).

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Ah, this thread. I have hope.

1. I used to roleplay like this: ( [CHARACTER NAME]: Went and did... ) and yes, looking back at it now, it made me cringe. A lot. I guess if you're new its regular. Now, roleplayers like that really... Annoy me.

2. Have any of you ever come across roleplayers where they use 8's instead of B's? That is probably the most annoying thing out of all. I have seen it only once on here, I'm not going to name who (because rules and I forgot anyway), but I couldn't stand it, especially as they wrote paragraphs and paragraphs and you could just pick out a load of random 8's everywhere :'D

3. One liners? People do them I guess. Especially when you are in some sort of situation when it's either really random to describe the surroundings, or you're stuck in a situation when there's not much you can do. Having a few is okay, bit excessive ones can get a bit annoying, especially pages and pages of them.

4. And finally, storylines. I personally love a nice, big storyline to really get the feel of what the roleplay is really like, and when you have something like... Uh... (EXAMPLE: pokemons and humans are now fighting against eachother are you a pokemon a human or neither), it just... Isn't deep enough for me. Like how it happened, and maybe more descriptive too. (By the way, I just made that up, not shaming anyone). And a few have got a little repetitive too.

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Finally found this, and its true
I hate it when people roleplay like this;
- *(insert random name here) walked over to (insert another name here)* Whats wrong?
or
- I ran over to you and hugged you. Whats wrong I ask.
It just annoys me beyond reason. I really don't even know why anymore. And I hate when people begin to act all mary/gary sue. it makes me want to cry, what has this world come to, honestly.

All in all, you have to be interested in the roleplay you choose to be in, and you have to be careful not to let others become all-powerful gods. Thats why its nice to loose in a battle every now and then, to show you aren't overpowered, and sometimes it makes others respect that you know when to quit and let someone else win.