People look at Advanced and think that the only qualifier for posting there should be technical ability and skill level for writing, but the fact of the matter is that a lot of Advanced Threads suffer high turnover more because of posters who treat roleplaying as a hobby, post twice, and then vanish into thin air never to be seen again.
That is my problem with casual roleplayers. Either they fail to perform at an advanced level, or else they behave below an advanced level to the detriment of people who actually take roleplaying and writing seriously, while publicly projecting the exact opposite.
There's an interesting point you bring up here, but I'd like to make a simple note:
Roleplaying is a hobby for everyone on these forums.
A hobby is something you don't do professionally. The only people I know of that roleplay professionally are actors, whether they be Broadway or big screen or something less famous than either of those. I suppose mimes and clowns are professional roleplayers as well. Maybe you could argue that professional writers are roleplayers? But the fact remains that if you're on this forum, you're probably here for one of two reasons:
- To improve yourself as a writer,
- Or to just have some darned fun.
A huge percentage of our population is going to be the latter. It's fun to roleplay, it's fun to write, it's fun to express yourself. Most folks are probably here for both reasons, really; you can only get better the more you write. But the fact of the matter remains: this is a darned hobby. This is a place to have fun.
Now, I am not saying that you can't take a hobby seriously. I take my hobby pretty seriously, though I'll always put real life matters (like going to college and paying bills) first. However, I care enough about roleplaying that I try to put forth good quality writing, and when I'm stumped or mentally blocked I try to figure out how the heck to overcome that. I use roleplaying to better myself as an author, and you can bet your behind that a lot of my skills as a writer are thanks to the trial and error I developed while roleplaying.
But this is still a hobby. I take it seriously, and a lot of people do, but it's still a hobby. To try and define us as anything other than hobbyists is a silly endeavor.
I agree with you that people in the Advanced section should try to not overextend themselves and should try to at least let people know when they're going to leave. They shouldn't vanish. They should produce good quality writing and show good sportsmanship as writers. But that doesn't make it a profession. We're still hobbyists.
That's all I wanted to say. Sorry about the tangent.
Nations in NRPs based purely on conquest. Not even trying to make it interesting like "they believe that by conquering other peoples, they will save them from doomsday" or "they are a dying race and were once peaceful but are now forced into war". Just pure "I want to win this NRP so fuck y'all, I can beat all of your sorry asses with a race dedicated to nothing but war even though realistically such a nation cannot sustain itself and would also be culturally dead".
You just hit the nail square in the head. I don't have much more to say than "Amen" and "Preach it!"