[Egao, Egao Everywhere]

I made a list of three common types of character applications. Which of them do you prefer? How effective and convenient are they? And is it practical and effective of sites to use the character application as a sampling for a roleplay's writing skill? Even with an RP sample, is it good enough?

Traditional-paragraph

The traditional-paragraph style is description-oriented. It's opened with basic character facts followed by its three main parts: description, personality, history. This is the most professional style as it covers all general information required. It's what you'd have when you need information on a certain person like in criminal investigations. You'd want to know what they look like, what their background is, and what kind of person they are.

As much of a workload TPS is, I like this style a lot. It does help me cover a lot about my character that I didn't think of. The history can be a SRSLY MAJOR PAIN and hmm, actually that's the only part I don't like about TPS. I love the description area the most. I don't think an image could ever replace it. Character description is not all about statistical data like eye color, height, and so on. When you describe, you need to make an impression of how your character strikes to others just by his or her looks. How they stand, walk, etc.

Traditional-listing

The traditional-listing style is field-oriented. It includes basic character facts but unlike the traditional, it doesn't require descriptive paragraphs. The description area is not used, substituted by the use of face-claims instead (sometimes, it's still asked though); the personality area is divided into two: positive and negative, which is filled up with a minimum amount of traits; and the history is usually modified depending on the site. Sometimes, sites rename them as the "etc" section where major points of the character's life can be cited rather than asking for a run-through of the character's complete biography.

A common mark of a TLS is its number of extra fields not found in TPS. Some of these fields are sexuality, likes and dislikes, and hobbies. This is to cover other aspects of the character (which usually ties in to the listed personality traits) since it would be otherwise too short, brief, and even lacking.

TLS is very convenient. I don't hate them or anything but I don't think they're effective at all. It's not that I look at people and think they suck at characterization but people need to be pushed to make an effort to really understand what they have in mind. It can't stop on ability alone. TLS is good for chill sites though.

Freeform

The freeform style is like what its name says. The app allows the roleplayer full freedom on how to present their character. It's considered to be more advanced (but not necessarily better!) than the traditional because, besides the creative effort, the character's personality and history must will be somehow presented. The advantage of this app is its more hands-on approach to the character as there is usually roleplaying involved in a freeform style.

There are a lot of dangers in a freeform app as it could not always provide information others may want to know about from the character. The lack of categories can make it a difficult reference for people who are searching for specific information about the character.

The freeform style of app have a lot of variations. They can be done through prompts, roleplaying, and - the best style I've seen so far - interview. I'm a fan of freeform-RP but as length can vary from rper to rper and character to character, it can be a troublesome reference point. A freeform-interview manages to fix this by using a questionnaire-style app, which does a secure a good amount of content depending on the number of questions. Initially, this came off corny to me because of the cross of OOC (the interview question) and the IC (the character's response) but that's most likely because of my background in fanfiction.net where authors seem to be talking to their characters. It can effectively display a member's grasp with their character. The big downside of this though is its applicability with certain characters and the breaking of the fourth wall is still rather quite flimsy.

If you know other styles of character applications, share them! I know there must be a lot out there but I'm not going to bother researching all. Though I'm not really sure what other styles could be out there besides these three. A lot of them would be just a variation.

[darth vader]

i like the freeform app the best. one of the freeform apps i wrote is probably among my favorite pieces of rp writing i've ever done. i sludge through the others, but freeform is fun and gets me pumped about the char.

[THE TRUE JIN]

Freeform apps are the best for me too. I have seen interview apps on other sites though? Sometimes I like those as well because it helps me along with what I should write.

[Egao, Egao Everywhere]

I don't like freeform app from a staff perspective because I don't think they generally can work as a stand-alone character profile. I get what tsun means though by being pumped through freeform apping. Maybe sites can use freeform app as the "intro page" of a character then fill up the factual details after acceptance. I'm thinking something like what Broken Hourglass did. It's a mass crossover rp so all characters there are canons. The task you have to do is to audition for your character so you pretty much just freeform rping that char. It kills two birds with one stone. The person's writing skill and grasp with their character are both judged. It's only after acceptance that the rper fills up a character app. This is really convenient too. I feel bad for people who go through the trouble of making a character app only not to be accepted.

As an rper, I think I still like traditional the most for practical reasons. I go back to basic details of what I've written whenever I'm stuck. I guess to me it's like the script of my role. It guides me to how I should play my character. I can be pretty inconsistent so if my freeform app isn't as wonderful after a week or so to me, I'm gonna be :I

[SEADRA]

I always have a mutation of listing and free-form, like there's the filling out of information (name, age, etc.) and then i'm totally freeform on history & personality. like i don't care whether you write paragraphs, bullet points, organize it how you like. this makes it easy to skim through from the staff perspective and more interesting / makes you feel more in control from the member's perspective.

I also loooooove interview apps, but I feel they only work on certain kinds of sites. =P

/throws in two cents

[/justify]

[WRATH]

Honestly, I like all types of applications -- but traditional-paragraph sometimes really turns me off, because at times it feels like a contest of who can make the longest application. (Also, in my opinion, having to read through them can get rather tedious but that may just be me.) I prefer traditional-listing for ease of filling out, but I agree in that a character may not end up being fleshed out enough; my characters deviate from their applications the most when I use listing simply because I didn't develop a good enough grasp of them when I created them.

But a+ for chill sites, definitely.

Freeform is also by far my favorite, because it ends up being something that you can tailor to your character's needs. It can be difficult for some because of the lack of structure -- my first freeform app was a Fucking Disaster because I had no clue how I was going to write it -- but it also leads to some pretty amazing character applications. Like Tsun, some of my freeforms are the things I'm most proud of.

In regards to not being enough, that can also be a bit of a problem in freeform apping -- but be it canon or oc, the distinction between knowing your character inside and out and perhaps only knowing a facet of them becomes pretty clear. I think the goal of freeform apps is to show what your character is as well as how they got there in whichever format you like.

Then again, there are some characters for whom doing a freeform app (true freeform or questionnaire or w/e) is difficult for whatever reason, so having a site with only freeform applications might become rather restricting.

I have no idea where I was going with this because I took a break to clean the house but tl;dr I like them all, some more than others, but I think being able to have a sort of combination of them is best or some...thing.

[meg]

I like to combine them all. I have mandatory things as quick listing, and then a section where people are allowed to say what they want in a paragraph or list. depending on the design of the app I will either ask for a list or paragraph for personality traits (but often I have left it up to the player to decide which to use, most generally chose list).

[katya]

There was an in-between form of apps when I was still rping on LJ. I don't know if it's still popular there, but it was a bullet-point facts list. Some people did a bullet-point history, then a bullet-point personality. I've also seen just a bunch of points of stuff worth mentioning. Each bullet-point was about a sentence or two, so it was like a super brief version of paragraphs. Sometimes there's a headline (like for personality, it'd like Stubborn - blah blah blah), so it looks like Major Point - necessary elaboration in form. It's pretty versatile, but sites would ask for x number of points (usually 10+) on a completed app.

That's still my most natural form for writing apps, simply because I did a lot of those in my earliest days. I like freeform apps because that means I can get away with doing that sentenced bullet-point format I prefer, but I don't do actual freeform apps that are creative or anything like that.

As staff, I hate going over apps, so I hate all app forms equally. I suppose I like listing best because it's an easier skim.

[Pool Boy]

lol the only app style that eats me is first person fill-in-the-blank.

like:

Hi, my name ___ and I attend the _____ grade at Ikebukuro High School! I'm ______ years old, and I have ____ brothers and sisters.

yada yada

like. who says that's even how my character talks. what if my character lies about their age or was a punk who'd just be like 'fuck off, bastard' and didn't even have a polite syntax?

I'm a freeform buff as well. the bullet-listing and the psycho-analyzing approach feel dry to me, like I can't truly get into writing them without nearly rping them. Freeform is more of a holistic approach after all, and I always like to combine how life experiences might have made them who they are, or just show a brief glimpse of who they are if I want them to remain mysterious.

[dream eater]

... lol personally i don't care, but i'm most familiar with TPS and TLS....

for me, freeform is a bit of "awwwyeee" and "fuck this" because me being the person i am is just like "how do I even start" although when I start I get more into it.

/unpopular opinion QQ

[phosphorus]

i remember posting a poll asking who would like freeform applications on the site. people were throwing daggers at me, they didn't like the idea that much. what the heck changed between then and now? ;;

and for me, freeform applications feel more "risk-reward" than other types. not saying they're bad, but although if you can ace them that means you have a really good character idea, if you can't you're gonna be dissuaded from joining more easily. it really takes a mindset that's apt to fill them out, i guess.

[Pool Boy]

but with freeform, don't you have the option of filling them out like a traditional paragraph or traditional listing by default? free forms means the form of your choice right?

[SEADRA]

Jul 26, 2013 17:42:14 GMT -8 Pool Boy said:

but with freeform, don't you have the option of filling them out like a traditional paragraph or traditional listing by default? free forms means the form of your choice right?

^ dis. and usually freeform does have some structure or guidelines to follow, it's not like they give you something and are like "HERE WRITE YOUR OWN GD APPLICATION AIN'T NOBODY GOT TIME FOR THIS". and a lot of sites (mostly rl, since most rl sites are the ones who have completely freeform apps) have both a freeform and a more structured app you can choose from.

[gojira]

no apps!

just join, rp and once you get a feel/like that particular person, make it your official character. if possible, i don't want to have a personality section; only a history/background section.

idk, minority opinion.

(i never liked personality because you might say X, but circumstances happen and they act Y, and i end up thinking, 'ah, all my characters act the same' which is a problem i constantly grapple with.)

i also like my npcs more than i do my own characters, so this is probably why i'm fonder of this kind of character-making.

[Egao, Egao Everywhere]

Jul 26, 2013 16:18:39 GMT -8 dream eater said:

... lol personally i don't care, but i'm most familiar with TPS and TLS....

for me, freeform is a bit of "awwwyeee" and "fuck this" because me being the person i am is just like "how do I even start" although when I start I get more into it.

/unpopular opinion QQ

No, I have that issue as well xD I do like freeform but sometimes, it can be difficult. Picking a topic that you want to focus on can be hard. I'm trying to freeform my char an it took me a while to come up on an approach because I didn't want to go on about character history in an app. It's something that I've already put in my plot page so I think I would only be going in circles, and making a really dramatic wall of text.

Electric, I've never heard of that kind of style and that's...just lame. It sounds so elementary lol. I don't know, it just reminds me of a...autograph book? I know we did something like back when I was in elementary for some class. Like an introduction of some sort.

I do enjoy character analysis so must be why I like traditional-paragraph. When I come up with plots, they're very informational sources.

Jul 26, 2013 19:02:19 GMT -8 gojira said:

just join, rp and once you get a feel/like that particular person, make it your official character. if possible, i don't want to have a personality section; only a history/background section.

You already know this but yeah this is the kind of app we have for Water Margin. Apps are basically short character blurbs but we have a member audition there, which requires sample profiles. I decided on blurbs because it's something that's done in Suikoden too.