Alright so here's an issue I have been struggling with. Being a 'pre-guildfall' veteran that came in from a Dutch forum originally meant for a game called Mount and Blade, where we roleplayed in Dutch and the plots were centered around the game of the forum, I was not a very good roleplayer. As in, I was really bad, mostly because I was 14 and just.. wasn't that good at coming up with interesting stuff, and well thought out plots, character arcs and other things like that. RPG really brought me up and made me better mostly because the environment was one that made me constantly strive to become better - the people here were objectively better writers than me, I was impressed with their skill, and naturally, I pushed myself to become better (than them) and constantly asked for feedback and remaining humble. For instance until last year I was convinced I could not write in advanced roleplay threads. Now that I have been there, I have experienced that it's much less advanced than I had anticipated (but, exceptions being there, there is a lot of threads that are really advanced.) 

In this time period I GMed one of the largest, longest lasting Naruto RP's (if not the single largest longest lasting Naruto RP's) that ever existed on RPG. This was my first RP I ever made together with a friend from that Dutch forum and, as a result, also one of the worst GMed RP's to ever exist (we made it last mostly because we had a lot of veterans from the Naruto RP community help us, as well as a very active head GM (my friend)) and also the first RP where I ever had a character that I was interested in for more than a few months. It was my first taste of a long lasting, persistent RP. It was also my first taste of roleplayers that were just simply put better than me. Some names come to mind that are no longer around (or are) such as Hillan, J8cob, Savato and perhaps most notably Ganryu. 

In turn these people uplifted me by more or less forcing me to become better. And that is what I enjoyed so much about the RPG community - it really forced me to be better, to try harder, and it [i]motivated[/i] me to do so too. I wanted to become a better writer, I wanted to become a better writer [i]for them[/i] because I could give back the same quality they gave me. More examples can be made but the thread would obviously become too large.

[b]Now this is where my issue comes in, or rather, it comes in two parts.[/b]

Part one is the community. And to me it seems like something has changed - for the worse. The community as we can tell is dwindling, there are a lot of new faces and that is a good thing but I constantly notice that older faces are leaving, and not coming back. And, constantly, this has spelled out something to me - that the old generation of RPers where the community was so important, and where people helped each other in more ways than just saying 'welcome to RPG!' in the introduction threads, that these people are leaving.

The community has become more self centered, and much more clique-y. Perhaps I feel that way because I try to avoid clique's and always start shit with everyone and their mama, for fun, but still it very strongly feels that way. And I admit it has always been like that. There were a lot of people on here that really RPed Naruto only. And then there were the 'slice of life highschool/college' roleplays. 'Superhero' roleplays and whatever you have. There were still clique's but it seemed like the clique's didn't interact in a negative way where as now that seems to be the case more and more often.

Perhaps that is just my imagination. But, I also partially think the lack of progress with the website is a part of the problem. I mean no ill will towards Mahz - I respect what he does, I respect that he puts himself before RPG, I respect above all that he makes a financial sacrifice to provide this for us. I'd like to repeat what I have always said.. [i]this is a free service offered to us by Mahz that he may terminate at any given time without notification or reason. I don't want to criticize him - because he is already doing more than he has to do for us.[/i] 

[b]But.[/b] The website has fallen still - key features that were promised months ago have not appeared, and while the key components of the forum (i.e. layout, color schemes, and the ability to post, BB codes etc) are all in place some of the nicer side-components are broken. Arena system. Why? Nobody plays in arena anymore. RPG Chat - great idea! Lack of progress made it obsolete and now we have a discord. I'm not going to voice what I think about that, but I think it's sad that an official RPG function has become obsolete because people consider that function to be .. well, worthless. VM system was a great incentive but shitty implementation, as characterizes the most of the issues here. It's broken, doesn't work well, notifications are borked.. I have sent moderators messages offering some insights and critiques and they mostly went ignored or were met with a 'I agree, but I can't do anything about that, because we need Mahz'..

all these things I feel like negatively impacted the traffic from old-time roleplayers. And have in turn created the community we have now. 

And admittedly I don't like the direction the new community is going. I'm not sure what the cause is ([i]B-but Buddha you're just getting old and conservative!![/i] Shut up I'm 20) and I am not sure if there even is a cause, perhaps this is just the natural progression of the forum? But I don't like it and I feel slightly concerned for what RPG might become in the future - not enjoyable to me but I have faith RPG will continue to make [i]some[/i] people happy as long as it survives. So for that I am glad, but I also wish that it will continue to make [i]me[/i] happy too. 

And that brings me also to my second issue which might be linked or might not be linked to the first issue. I've felt, growingly, that it is harder to satisfy myself with roleplayers that write below my 'level of writing' and yes that sounds arrogant. I don't care. RPG has made me a better writer and over the years I've become aware that the better I became, the lower the amount of people I 'could' roleplay with on the same level. 

Take for example: 

I used to write at a casual level of two to four (small) paragraphs and it was always fairly easy to find a roleplay that a) matched my level and b) suited my interests. 

Now I write at an advanced level of 6 though often more paragraphs, and a desire to further plot, characters and set the theme of a post more clearly. It is harder to find partners that can match my level post-by-post and also enjoy this process. So, matching my level is hard enough (haha, arrogant again, but those familiar with this problem would understand) and add to that that I've become more specific in my roleplay desires, and you have a lot of trouble finding roleplays and/or partners.

And many people are capable of 'matching post length' and I find that admirable but I can't do it for the life of me. I have become so used to writing out these posts that it's very hard for me to 'dumb it down'. And I find I generally enjoy an RP less nowadays if I do that. 

Adding to this is also that a lot of people who write down themselves as 'advanced writers' are more often than not at the level they should be at. I'm not saying post length, either, but just sheer character progression, plot creation, etc. Both the IC furthering of plot, character exposition, [i]posting meaningful posts[/i] as well as the OOC process of brainstorming about plot points, ideas, setting changes, location ideas, interesting concepts.. these things used to be so prevalent back then, but now it seems like all I can see in the 1x1 interest checks is 'well, I'm fine with whatever, so I'll just do what you say..' Have people just suddenly turned into sacks of potatoes that can't think for themselves, or is this a growing trend? I hope I am not alone in saying this - that I am not the only one that has noticed this.

Now my idea is that perhaps these two are linked - after guildfall a lot of advanced writers left, a lot of the people that wrote longer posts left, and perhaps the new faces were 'me' at 14 years old - into roleplaying, wanting to get better. And that makes me sad because here I am feeling annoyed when I accidentally end up in a roleplay with them. I want to help them get better - but I put my own pleasure in roleplaying first (I feel no guilt for that). 

And lately I have lost a lot of my pleasure in roleplaying bar a few roleplays. Either the other person just doesn't scratch my itch, or we just don't match up OOCly, or.. I don't know, I just don't enjoy the writing? And I [i]know[/i] it's not an issue with me getting bored of roleplay, because there are other RP's that I am enjoying thoroughly. 

Now with all of this said I should also add that I am grateful we still have this website, naturally. It's a great place. I enjoy shitting around on here and mocking people OOCly (never for their writing - even I have a code of honor) and starting arguments over dumb things. I enjoy it. It makes me happy to fuck around with people. So I am happy this website exists. 

But I really think there may be some issues with the website. I am interested in hearing what you all have to think about this, to see if it's just me (which is possible) or if there are more people with similar ideas and experiences.