The only scenario where opinions are shared without any friction whatsoever are echo chambers. Actual productive debate is not sunshine and rainbows. I welcome a more intense debate so long as everyone remembers the first rule of good rhetoric:
Respect the individual; only engage the argument.That said,
How to piss off every section simultaneously: A sarcastic take.[sarcasm]
Free:Substance? What's that? If you want real content here you have to look across multiple posts to really see any advancement of plot. Its brief and often lacks good formatting, and if either of those are true than it's actually a casual-level RP masquerading as free. I hope your inbox is prepared to explode because lack of per-post content is often made up for with sheer volume of posts. Good luck keeping up!
Casual:Literally everyone is here. So many RPs, characters, and players come and go so frequently I don't recall having seen the same person twice. The sheer fervor of activity in this section makes things blur together, and that activity only draws more to it as GMs often gravitate towards where the players are. Its the catch-all for everyone where people think themselves above free but are afraid of advanced, even if they're very capable of writing to it's level.
Advanced:Here it's always the same crowd it seems. You think that thousand word CS was long? Get ready to be expected to do that every post. The lore dumps are massive and intense and you better keep up. The GMs here enforce rules with an iron fist you won't find elsewhere. Oh and don't be surprised when posts come in as slow as once a week.
Arena:And I thought advanced moved at a turtle's pace.
1x1:Porn. Yeah I said it. One browse of the checks will find more erotica than storytelling. Nuff said.
Nation:If this place isn't godmodding-metagaming central then I will honestly be shocked. Every nationsim RP I've ever been in before ended up with people being more concerned with getting ahead and running up the score than the actual complexities of diplomatic relations or grand strategy, or the overall plot and how their interactions affect the world and story at large.
Tabletop:I already have a D&D group.
[end sarcasm]
An actual, more thoughtful take:
Free:Very reminiscent of my time RPing through Skype and other messenger platforms. Its a very rapid-fire style that I don't particularly care for anymore since it burns me out quickly and I don't feel like it effectively represents more complex, more cerebral characters. Its not my prefered cup of tea, but I'd be lying if I said I don't agree with why it exists. This was the style I cut my teeth on after all.
Casual:Honestly has a bit of an identity crisis. There's a ton of stuff, and players, here that I feel could pass in Advanced (admittedly I have somewhat unique standards for a GM in that section I'll talk about later) but don't for whatever reason. Some have said its intimidating. Others prefer faster pacing. A few GMs have said they prefer the exposure and perceived accessibility. Reasons aside, it does represent the largest pool of potential players on the site.
Advanced:It has a bad rap, and some of it is deserved. Someone accused the RPs in this section of crumbling under their own weight, and unfortunately that's not without basis. From my tone it should be obvious this is a section I'm both attached to, but also want to see improve. The sheer content of people's posts makes it a bit exhausting to keep up higher post rates, and I know firsthand the burnout is very real. It also contributes to that intimidation. I could go on but I'll end this blurb here for brevity of the larger post.
Arena:I don't actually spend any time here. From outside it has the appearance of being slow-moving, and the profile "arena stats" thing really doesn't help its appearance. It gives this competitive image which is honestly kinda off-putting.
1x1:I wasn't actually kidding in my sarcastic version about the volume of erotica I come across here, and it's a bit annoying as someone who very much is not interested in partaking in that. I'm also
super fucking picky about my one-on-one concepts so really it's just not the right place for me to be advertising those. In RPG's defense, those particular concepts have struggled everywhere I've advertised them, not just here.
Nation:I've had a number of bad experiences in nation roleplays. I projected that in the sarcastic version so I'll concede that's entirely coincidental to me. I'm also not really a fan of stats in written RP, and I'm
really not a fan of a GM rolling stats
for me. That's pretty much deal-breaking for me. Stats are often the order of the day here, so its a section I don't frequent. That said, it seems to be alive and well so obviously it has its crowd of people. One day I want to either join or run something here.
Tabletop:My same personal dislike of stats affects this section too, which means I don't really go here. Long-form written RP just doesn't seem like a medium that works well for a tabletop game, but I also really don't see actual RP activity there. Maybe people recruit and go to Roll20 & Discord voice or something? Its an obscure section I don't really think about unless I'm actually thinking D&D at the time.
I know this post is getting long but I wanna take the time to make a rebuttal to
@tex about his critique of that post sample before I conclude.
The post you're critiquing is, for one, far fluffier than what I write and what I expect from my own players. In that regard I have no objection. The usage of grammar in a lot of ways that you critique, however, is somewhat reminiscent of something I and a few of my players do. We purposely ignore the technical correct usages in favor of using grammar to make our posts read in a certain way. I personally abuse commas, semicolons, and fragments to do this. The result is that my posts, if read as intended, actually have a pacing that somewhat mirrors the action and emotion taking place. I make it a point to ensure spelling and word usage is always correct but I do take creative license with the intricacies of grammar & punctuation, as do certain others. I acknowledge your subjective dislike of technically-incorrect usage, though I will challenge the implication that this somehow disqualifies a post from actually being more advanced.
