Web-based CharGen or in-game CharGen
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@somasatori I get what you’re saying, but it always makes me a bit nervous relying on the court of public opinion/free market of the playerbase to handle an… arguably unthematic app.
The playerbase might’ve known they’d be encountering all kinds of people, but they probably don’t love the weight of social enforcement. Turning people away sucks no matter how steely you are, and if players are openly avoidant, unwilling to use public channels to search for RP, this is a problem. Watch how your very active, very social dynamo player handles a character like this. Watch the energy get drained from their bones as they try and fail to work with this character that probably shouldn’t have seen the light of day.
This tends to happen ANYWAY in situations where the staff is unaware of how someone is RPing their powergamey werewolf, or a little more hands-off in general. I’d strive to work against it, not encourage it, since in my experience someone really dedicated to their twinky character will stubbornly linger on a game far longer than short order. IDEALLY they get bored and leave on their own. It happens! Not always.
Although we might be getting off topic here.
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@Yam I think you hit on something I found really significant in my time in the mines. Don’t leave it to your players to enforce your theme, if it matters to you.
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Nowadays, for games I create, I use web-based only. I shy more and more away from the traditional MU shell and more toward web-based for all my RP needs.
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@KDraygo said in Web-based CharGen or in-game CharGen:
@MisterBoring Apologies, but because of rising inflation, I have gone completely paperless. You can refer to my geocities site for all the necessary information for my chargen application. Thank you.
Geocities applications must be first processed through the webform on the game’s Tripod site, which will generate a 26 character code. This code must be posted to the game’s Myspace so that staff can process it in the special webform on the game’s hidden Angelfire staff page.
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@MisterBoring And then you must provide evidence of RP skill with three logs from other MUs that you have, naturally, put on your lifejournal.
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@Yam said in Web-based CharGen or in-game CharGen:
There’s another thing. The CONTENT of the CharGen/Application. For 2k5 it was a big fat written app that was e-mailed. The length of it was determined by the specialness of the roster character you were picking up.
In contrast Arx was like “you want THAT weird old man that’s in the freezer? ok yam sure” which was oddly refreshing.
I’ve often wondered how much applications actually filter anything.
I pretty much was just looking for the ones that obviously couldn’t really speak english or clearly had no idea what a writing game was or woulnd’t work out.
‘i want 2 kill tings on ur mud’ or ‘我对你的网络游戏很感兴趣’ there were people that wrote like 6 paragraphs giving a very long breakdown of the character dynamics and were obviously really stressing out on whether they captured the intricacies of the character motivations when I was mostly skimming for whether they were a nazi irl
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yeah applications are to tell you about the player more than the character, I think. "Name a non-fictional woman that is smarter than you’ would be a perfect application prompt.
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@hellfrog said in Web-based CharGen or in-game CharGen:
yeah applications are to tell you about the player more than the character, I think. "Name a non-fictional woman that is smarter than you’ would be a perfect application prompt.
I expect this for any hypothetical Arx 2 OC applications now.
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I used to hate web-based CG, now I prefer it.
I was an application staffer on TR for a few years (for Mortal+ and changeling), but have staffed other smaller places too where I had to review some apps (TR burned me out bad though so I tend to avoid that particular task if I can).
My experience is that it’s not very useful for screening the worst kind of problematic people out. Abusive or manipulative people will almost always look fantastic on paper, you won’t find out about them until they’re hurting people on your game.
Player ooc behavior during the application process will catch more people. How do they handle being told no? How do they handle a mild wait time? How many arguments/how much showboating do they do on channels in the wait time?
It can also kind of alert you to the kinds of folks that probably won’t be problematic in a big way on the game, but will annoy people a lot because they don’t have discretion (like the folks who insert explicit and elaborate sexual content into the application bg knowing or perhaps not thinking that it’s making a real life staff person have to read that) or don’t understand the theme or splat. That may or may not be important to the game at large.
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@hellfrog said in Web-based CharGen or in-game CharGen:
yeah applications are to tell you about the player more than the character, I think. "Name a non-fictional woman that is smarter than you’ would be a perfect application prompt.
Faraday and Cobalt. Next question.
He/Him. Opinions and views are solely my own unless specifically stated otherwise.
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@mietze said in Web-based CharGen or in-game CharGen:
Player ooc behavior during the application process will catch more people. How do they handle being told no? How do they handle a mild wait time? How many arguments/how much showboating do they do on channels in the wait time?
How someone handles thematic correction during the App Process is incredibly telling. It’s also much easier to screen Problems out at this point than it is once they get on the grid and feel empowered because some staffer rubber-stamped them.
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@mietze said in Web-based CharGen or in-game CharGen:
Player ooc behavior during the application process will catch more people. How do they handle being told no? How do they handle a mild wait time? How many arguments/how much showboating do they do on channels in the wait time?
The reverse is also true, and oft-overlooked I think. It’s an excellent time for one to judge staff, beyond job progress time. What’s their communication style and does it mesh with yours? Are they sticklers for things you don’t care for? What’s the atmosphere of OOC chatter like? Etc.
Most people, in my experience and this does include myself, are more preoccupied with getting their application done over assessing whether the game, and those running it, are suitable for our needs.
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As I watch another app on a game enter its third week of inactivity, I draw a great many conclusions about the people who staff it. Volunteer or not, after a certain point, my interest doesn’t wane, it rots.
The concept of “the squeaky wheel gets grease,” combines with “the second rat gets the cheese,” really. If someone speaks up against staff idleness, they’re being un-mutual to the game itself; if they remain silent, well they clearly enjoy the silence, and are hoping it doesn’t change.
What constitutes a polite reminder by intent may not appear as such to a particularly-idle staffer.
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@Yam said in Web-based CharGen or in-game CharGen:
I’ve often wondered how much applications actually filter anything.
Apps for me are more about filtering out players who don’t understand the theme. I can’t count the number of times that the app process has blocked an “oh heck to the no” type of character. And games without apps have led to some pretty forehead-slapping retcons.
This is harder to do with roster chars because the backstory is already written for them. Those “job interview” type apps have always icked me out as a player, so I’ve never wanted to do them as staff.
@Pavel said in Web-based CharGen or in-game CharGen:
Faraday and Cobalt. Next question.
Aw thanks.
