the greatest general under the heavens
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Post by Egao, Egao Everywhere on Mar 19, 2013 22:05:16 GMT -8
Would you NOT join a site if there's a character limit? How about if you're only allowed to have one character? Assuming that there are circumstances that made these rules, would you find it acceptable or just downright say no?
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Post by darth vader on Mar 19, 2013 22:09:26 GMT -8
i would be more likely to join a site with a character limit, tbh.
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Post by Kodiak on Mar 19, 2013 22:16:19 GMT -8
I'd probably say no if it had a one character limit (hypocritical here since i joined a site with a one character rule but it was lifted after a while) of course it still applied, only to a certain member group and it was hell trying to cope. I like to experiment with new characters and creating them and all that jazz. Plus it helps keep you occupied if you have more than one source for muse output. So yeah, if there's a character limit I'ma be really sketchy if its at a low number, if not then okay! I'll probably make a lot or just a few lol, depending on how creative I can be.
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Post by redox-kun on Mar 19, 2013 22:30:12 GMT -8
honestly idgaf lol. character limits might even be able to rein me in from muse sprees
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Post by Kodiak on Mar 19, 2013 22:37:49 GMT -8
thinking about it as long as it isn't a large character limit yeah I wouldn't mind joining. i hate all my characters anyway lol
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Post by katya on Mar 19, 2013 23:04:54 GMT -8
Probably not what you meant, but regarding the inverse... if there's a character limit that's something outrageous--like a six+ character limit--I'd be inclined not to join. That sort of site either has a lot of spazzy muses or has insane activity that I'd never be able to keep up with.
A one character limit would surprise me, but depending on the site, I might even approve. Some sites are better if they're smaller with highly developed characters rather than lots of characters all over the place. Like, if I saw an Inception site that capped at one character, I'd be like that's weird but alright. If a high school site capped at one though, I'd be a bit concerned.
It just depends on the site, really. Even a high school site could have a plot that's meant for a small group rather than a gimongo cast.
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Post by konya on Mar 19, 2013 23:58:03 GMT -8
I refuse to join any site that tries to limit me oocly with ic concequences. If I want to have 10+ characters I'm going to have 10+ characters and no one except me is going to tell me my own limits.
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Post by gimmick on Mar 20, 2013 12:27:20 GMT -8
I'm pretty stingy character-wise for a number of reasons (muse, lack of ideas, too much of a hassle going through every account, too much hassle trying to keep track of each one, etc.), so I don't really care.
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Post by Snorlax on Mar 20, 2013 18:42:02 GMT -8
A year ago I would have said fuck character limits. Now though, even if a site doesn't have a character limit, I give myself a self-imposed character limit. I'm the kind of person who ends up making ten+ characters, which I can usually keep up with, but only if it's a fast paced roleplay. If it's a site that encourages paragraph long posts then fuck yeah, I'll make all the damn characters I want. But in this day and age that isn't really the norm, so I end up making the ten characters, but I'm the kind of person who struggles to get to 250+ words, and the multiple characters results in even more feelings of inadequacy that kills my muse bad.
tl;dr even if there isn't a character limit, I self-impose one.
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Post by the guru on Mar 21, 2013 6:23:16 GMT -8
I don't think I've ever gone higher than 2 or 3 characters in any given site, nor have I really been interested in doing so. Thus, character limits tend to be a nonfactor for me.
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Post by darth vader on Mar 21, 2013 8:06:34 GMT -8
I refuse to join any site that tries to limit me oocly with ic concequences. If I want to have 10+ characters I'm going to have 10+ characters and no one except me is going to tell me my own limits. question tho--what happens when your ooc actions have ic consequences? say you've got 10+ chars and you're dominating every plot on the site, just by virtue of having a finger in every pot? or you've got 10+ chars and can't keep up with them but don't want to let go and they're just stagnating and keeping people waiting on threads and slow things down or trip things up, and some of them are canons and so people who want to play, say, just one particular canon are locked out of the site and everything just gets so clunky and unwieldy-- (this is a general you, obviously, your post just engaged it rather than me thinking you personally would do this) idk i've seen people push past their limits far too many times to be like "yeah everyone should have an equal chance to have 10+ chars"
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Post by Deleted on Mar 21, 2013 10:09:50 GMT -8
question tho--what happens when your ooc actions have ic consequences? say you've got 10+ chars and you're dominating every plot on the site, just by virtue of having a finger in every pot? or you've got 10+ chars and can't keep up with them but don't want to let go and they're just stagnating and keeping people waiting on threads and slow things down or trip things up, and some of them are canons and so people who want to play, say, just one particular canon are locked out of the site and everything just gets so clunky and unwieldy-- I don't think that would have to do with the number of characters, because I generally have one or two characters, and sometimes those one or two characters have a huge role in the site by themselves. I think that'd be crossing into the territory of 'how many threads per rper' or something lul. Although the cannon thing is usually different, since you usually have to apply for a cannon, and sites usually limit the amount of cannons you can have.
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Post by darth vader on Mar 21, 2013 11:16:24 GMT -8
I don't think that would have to do with the number of characters, because I generally have one or two characters, and sometimes those one or two characters have a huge role in the site by themselves. I think that'd be crossing into the territory of 'how many threads per rper' or something lul. yeah but i mean if you have one character no matter how many threads they have, no matter how important they are...they're still one character. i'm using pre as an example bc it's just a great example ok, but like: shamees was a HUGE BIG DEAL character on pre. president of lux, actively involved in plots, as icly and oocly involved as you could ever hope of a character/player on a site and yet, when his player left, everything was ok. the site carried on. because he was just one char. now imagine if his player had been playing 10 characters. all of the same big deal importance (and this can happen against the best intentions of staff and the player themselves) and if that player had left--suddenly the site is bereft. plots stall. plots fall apart. characters who are created for other characters or plots are left in a no man's land. and even if the player doesn't leave, i have seen players through sheer quantity of characters played, begin to shape a site in their image. just because they're so overwhelming that it becomes natural to be like "well okay, i'll just let them handle this thread. and then this one. etc etc" they're in every event, and they affect the outcome of those events thru numbers. they have so many character that they can match one to every plot, and because they want to play all their characters (understandably) they do attempt to play in every plot, and it begins to shut other people out. intentionally or not, when your ooc enjoyment starts to infringe on other people's, that is when it should be curbed. i'm not saying every player who racks up 10 chars does this, or that this happens every time or that we all need to ban people from ever making more than one char. site atmosphere affects a lot of this, but it is something that happens, and honestly, it's why my sites i make tend to have pretty definite character rules. (no more than one of x group, no more than x overall, etc etc) because it doesn't happen all the time, but it can, and often where you least expect it. i should have clarified, i meant more site specific canon positions as in someone playing the leader of x group as well as a high ranking character in x's opposition group, etc etc. although it can happen with fandom canons as well, i'm sure.
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the greatest general under the heavens
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Post by Egao, Egao Everywhere on Mar 21, 2013 11:35:58 GMT -8
Once bitten, twice shy, Tsun?
I generally don't make more than one character with important site role as much as possible. When you're staff though, I think it's understandable why you'd try to do more than that. I got both of your points though. Basically, it's circumstantial and you either want to be wary of what "could" happen if this and that happens and things go out of hand. The chances of this happening is quite uncommon since this means that the site must have been quite old or just insanely active though.
At the off chance it does, I never really thought about it. I stick to one site-important char because I don't want to control more than what I already have on the site, similar to how Tsun explained it. The characters I make after that are usually just characters I want to make so that there would be more diversity in the site. Basically if I feel like people have been making the same sort of characters with no one to push them and my first char can't really help, I make a new, not-important one. Also yeah, because I get to thread with more people. I love threading with all sorts of rpers regardless of their skill.
I think it's about standing back to see if you're starting to cross the line. In general, I don't think it's bad to have around 2 plot-important characters although it starts giving a bad impression if you have more than that. When the staff has protagonists canons off the bat, I often don't join the site. It just tells me that this staff wants to do the plotting with all the canon that can be hoarded instead of trying out new stuffs. And I guess if the staff has a lot of characters too, it makes me a little skeptical. No offense to those who are like that lol but that's how I view staff members with a lot of chars.
I also think it might affect the people who RP with you. Let's say, ten characters. Okay, I'll admit that when a really good friend of mine made like 16 chars, I felt my value lower. Because he has all these chars, all these threads his attention's divided in. It made me feel like our thread was pretty insignificant. Like he's just using me to kill time. We're still really good friends and I don't hate him lol. But that's what irked me about him at that time. I didn't hate people with tons of characters because of that but just sharing you the experience I felt about it. I limited my threads and chars so I could make each of them count but then my threads with him didn't feel worth anything compared with the stuffs he had.
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Post by cairo on Mar 21, 2013 13:37:32 GMT -8
Majesty and Tanz pretty much summed up my argument, and this coming from someone who has managed up to twenty five different characters. I'm all for people making as many characters they want, and doing what they want - if it fits the setting and if you're actually a trustworthy member. It's due to the fact so many people are allowed to just join a site in a single day and create up to five different characters that many sites die in two weeks. Because the same people only join to snag their favorite fcs (and by doing so, the site won't be able to actually gain those people who only want to join under one or two characters, because they're barred from doing so on the aspect their usual fc is taken by some character whore who only has 10 posts on the account and isn't even active with it at all), horde a ton of plots, and then -- boom, site hop. The bane of every admin's little baby.
Not only does it kill your morale to see your site go from 46 members active daily on the user list to 29, like Majesty said, if that person plotted in that single week with a bunch of people, had threads started up and got a few replies in, it'll just sort of unsettle multiple people and be an overall blow to the site itself. Other people might have difficulty getting involved again after their plots were ripped in two, they might stagnant and go inactive - or if they specifically wanted to plot with that fc, then they'll just sort of sit and not really care about trying to create new plots. Everything slowly begins to fester.
That said, I have no issues with character limits. I honestly prefer one character per person sites because people accomplish more in-character when made to sit and focus on one character rather than the four others they have alongside it. You can't argue that people with multiple characters also accomplish more because people will always have their favorite characters, favorite plots, and just in general want to rp as specific characters of their own more, leaving their others to just sit and wait until they have muse to play them. I would honestly prefer one solid character with continuously progressing threads ICly (none of that predetermined plot page crap, it really doesn't count as accomplishing things) rather than juggling a multitude.
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