increasing incentive for player interaction.
Dec 28, 2015 2:41:09 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Dec 28, 2015 2:41:09 GMT -7
i noticed this thread some time ago, but thought it might be a better idea to move the conversation here rather than continue to post essays in a salt-tinged goodbye thread. (no offense, raven <3)
my evaluation is this, and i am not trying to be aggressive in stating it: what most of you are in too deep to see is in fact just how alienating the set up here is to new folk or new characters, especially once you have accumulated an army of veteran members (which nfrp has). it is a crises of having no middle ground, and having the playerbase spread too thinly.
on average each village has maybe two members with 'main characters' in that village; some have one, or basically zero, not counting the people who occasionally show up to post once every other fortnight.
this is a problem, because in order for a character to be at all impactful in a world where all those characters are behemoths with 3000+ TP, they have to have their asses trained off, which requires a huge investment of time.
the incredibly drawn-out, number-centric progression system also causes one's fellow rpers to tunnel vision on getting high numbers as being a primary goal, as demonstrated by the vast majority of training or 'objective-based' threads compared to those which are merely done for the enjoyment of interaction - which are the building blocks of a vibrant, interesting rp-verse.
very few people will understand or act upon this while the site is painted to be a combat-and-number-centric 'RPG' with very little actual combat going on. people rp here more with themselves than other people - i could make a lewd joke about that, but i'll spare you.
the current set up - whether intentional or unintentional, it doesn't matter - is to discourage interaction and promote isolation. people who have only ever really roleplayed here might say 'that's ridiculous', but consider that many sites discourage or outright ban training on your own, and their communities mingle far better.
consider the fact that inter-character interaction is at its peak when such events as the 'x2' are in action, causing members to come together for such occasions because of the numeric rewards on offer.
i don't plan on rping here in a big way anymore, but i still have a desire to see nfrp do well for itself, and have observed its function for many years. my suggestion is this:
you ought to seriously consider it: granting TP/SP rewards for interaction threads (of decent length, perhaps) which in and of themselves involve no 'training'. once a thread is said and done, it can be evaluated and rewards can be distributed as such by staff in a similar manner to training.
almost certainly, you will manage to direct the industrious nature of many of your members in a more positive direction than simple isolated grinding that mostly gets the overall site (and its narrative) nowhere, or is at least not nearly as efficient at producing compelling and vibrant plot as interaction between two (or more) characters.
staff would be able to read these threads and give points based on thread quality, length, etc. in a similar fashion to grading training.
i am not suggesting that such methods be near as lucrative as concerted grinding, but i believe the site will flourish if you give people some tangible reward in such a materialistic system for merely rping - they are still, essentially, writing on the forum and contributing to its contents overall, in fact more constructively than training on their own.
i cannot think of a good reason not to reward such a thing. is that not the sort of spirit that the x2 event offers, already? i am merely suggesting a far watered-down version that functioned constantly.
otherwise, people here will continue to view inter-player interaction as 'wasted time', 'wasted wordcount', most likely, which is a terrible shame.
in this way, newer characters could be raised up without having to go through the exhausting effort of catching up on their own time with all the old, veteran characters/players and have much more fun in the mean time, and older players might be better encouraged to actively participate in alternate characters just for the fun of it, while feeling that they are actually getting somewhere in the meantime.
it would almost certainly assist in creating a more interwoven global story that meant that combat would have a meaningful reason to take place - and look! you have substantially built your character's strength while you were also building a reason for yourself and others to be utilizing it or their own.
the argument against this that i have seen is that people 'ought to be able to do both', i.e they should rp casually where they want to and train otherwise, but as i have attempted to state already, in such a numerically-focused system, people seek only to climb in numbers, and disregard other forms of character development if they are not given the incentive of numbers, dismissing such activities as 'not worth the time' or putting it off 'till they get a bit stronger'. but of course, this figurative tomorrow never arrives.
naruto is still going, but its original fanbase is much older than they once were. hell, i joined when i was 10 years old, now i'm a god damn adult. i even have a job. the overall playerbase doesn't have as much time as they used to: 'both' might not be an option.
i stand to benefit from any of this not at all, but the rest of you might.
thank you for reading.