[quote=@XenoCyanide]
[@Thinslayer]

I'm not sure what mixed messages you are receiving nor do I understand what you mean by "more structure means less freedom".

What it sounds like to me is you want everyone to pitch in and write the world with you, which is a [i]completely[/i] different kind of RP entirely and one in which requires immense dedication. Since you are the GM, the responsibility falls on you to create a world that feels alive. Currently, it feels empty mainly because a lot of things are left up in the wind. Not talking about every minute detail needs to be accounted for, but generalities like kingdoms, culture, influence of magic and aristocracy, beastiary, lay of the land, temperature, etc. etc.

These things create a world worth exploring.
[/quote]

I suck at landscaping. Nations I can do, politics I can manage, territories I can draw, but ask me to make a landscape, and it'll bore you to death.

Now, I agree that some more worldbuilding should be in order. Most stories handle that in the story itself. When I established this RP, I thought I made it fairly obvious that this was your typical medieval fantasy setting. You have peasants, lords, aristocrats, knights, and kings. The main difference is the presence of a world government, namely by the high elves. You have your world, for the most part; you're just not doing anything with it.

Regarding your statement that writing the world with me is a completely different RP, I totally disagree. I believe it is the very essence of freeform RP. When Tiberius picked up the Heart Ring from the chest, he did something that hadn't happened before. When Xen'Desh ordered the party to assemble the next morning, he said something nobody said before. His tone of voice, mannerisms, and personality implicitly added culture to my world where it previously had none. You've been worldbuilding all along, adding to an in-game history I didn't write.

The difference is not in whether or not you're pitching in to help write my world with me. You do that already, just by signing up with a character sheet. The difference is in degree. You already add to the culture and history of our world; why not some of its land and its people? I give you boundaries to play in, and you get to create the rest.

That's how stories are built, after all. Whether it's a character you want to play, a setting you want to be in, or a world you'd like to see, the story begins with a bounded idea, and then you fill in the blanks to make it happen. You want more boundaries? I'll make you more boundaries. But we're all responsible for worldbuilding.

Take the worldbuilding away, and this may as well be a dice game or something, or better yet, I should just write the whole darn thing myself and ditch the RP gig.