[Jupiter_Storm]

Fix Proposal - Forum 'MySpace' RP Profiles

The biggest problem for the game out of all that have been posted in this thread and the other to which it is a reply is the community's own interaction with itself. In a Roleplaying game the onus should not be on the developer and GMs alone to rapidly force-feed content in order to spark a week's roleplay or give people an excuse to dust off an old character for one last hoorah.

You can't force people to Roleplay with each other, and you can't "fix" a community. What you CAN fix is the accessibility issue, and it's relatively simple to do without any alterations to the game itself. It's something that is common practice for browser-based Roleplaying Communities and is immensely successful in connecting like-minded individuals who would otherwise never cross one another's path.

More on that in a moment. First, some showerthoughts:

1) The Imperial Guard & Antagonists - My unpopular opinion is that the Imperial Guard (and the First Squad) have no business in engaging with antagonists outside of managing Bounties and Quests pertaining to them... With the EXCEPTION of law infractions that take place within smelling distance of Cellsvich. You've created a Roleplaying game where the focus of said Roleplay is upon Adventurers who are very frequently treated as children, and treat one another as children (read: "get behind me, it's dangerous!!!"), when it comes to addressing world threats.

The purview of the Imperial Guard should remain exclusively, Cellsvich. Antagonists should be something that Adventurers handle, because their entire purpose is to create conflict and thus offer new RP opportunities to the majority player-base, who are NOT Imperial Guard.

2) Character Progression - Actually, I agree with Dev's thoughts on how this would work. It solves a very clear-cut issue with regards to how the entry-level requirements for RP are viewed. Everybody knows you can roleplay without being level 60 with a full build, so reinforcing that point is irrelevant when the practice still persists. There is objectively no disadvantage as far as Roleplaying is concerned in managing character growth with separate Level Caps with individual developmental requirements. The only people this would negatively affect are those seeking to race a new character build to 60 - as well as Newer Players, which in turn can be solved by having a channel in-game dedicated to character growth with tips for Newer Players and contact information.

This is already being done, as evidenced by the Hardcore community. For all the negative shade it gets, the Hardcore SL2 community was founded under the pretense of meaningful character development, with a system of clearly-defined rules for progression in place (such as Journal Entries, Mentoring Requirements and Event Attendance). The moderators for this community have been very active in managing this and have consistently kept it open to all players.

I'd encourage Dev to contact the creators of Hardcore SL2 to bounce ideas or potentially recruit people who'd be willing to oversee that kind of Character Progression mechanic, if you decide to go ahead with it.

3) OOC Corner's Map - ... I mean, look at the thing. It's incredible. This should be a secret underground fight club where you can obtain illicit substances and gamble at risk of discovery by the boys in red. It shouldn't be a place where people congregate to meme, AFK or build test. 

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Now, the Proposal:

Will keep this brief and concise. I cannot link actual examples of this, because it would probably in some way violate the privacy of its users and I refuse to shill my own pages. However, a perfect example of what I'm going to outline - browse at your leisure:

https://www.roleplay.me/

The problem you're looking at in terms of community accessibility is that people find it too difficult to get in touch with other stories that they might enjoy, or otherwise encounter people they might click with who are not roleplaying within common areas. This issue proliferates when you consider timezones, work schedules, and inactivity periods. Nobody wants to stand around or run around for hours on end in the hope that they will encounter some random world RP. I mean, some do, I have done it, but it's a masochistic obsession.

Here's how this would work:

1. The modification would be made to the Member Lists and Profiles either on this forum or a separate site with a different engine capable of handling this format if it's not possible here.

2. Each community member can 'create' characters on their Profile - i.e. either separate links to sub-profiles for each character (in Blog format) or a summary list of their characters, with a picture and brief biography.

3. These member profiles are also assigned specific keywords (chosen from a checklist or drop-down menu) displayed as their OOC notes. Detailing their Roleplaying Interests (Themes, i.e. Horror / Adventure / Comedy / Slice of Life), their Writing Style (Casual / Para / Narrative), and their Preferred Locations. And anything else you can think of.

4. Other members can then Search the Member List for those people who share similar interests to them, and browse their profiles / characters to check out their descriptions and any Stories that they are currently part of. Then Direct Message those people to get in touch with them.

5. Optionally, you could also incorporate Laplace.net into this, with some characters perhaps having their own In-Character Contact Methods if that's how they prefer to meet new people. They could include their character's Laplace.net ID, their fighting style, their adventuring focus, their goals, and their likes/dislikes. The same as above, except the DM could then be IC instead.

I have actually made, and been using, a Laplace template for something else - so this image won't make sense out of context, but you understand better what I'm getting at. I'd be happy to make anybody their own character's Laplace entry for free using my template if they want.



Anyway. That's the proposal. For your consideration. I really think it would make Characters and Roleplay more accessible to everybody - particularly those who are actively looking but don't have a way to get in contact with others who are otherwise doing things outside of common areas, or log in at different times.