How successful is the SWRP?

[Brandon Rhea]

Well said, Duncan. Your opinion on the two types of role-playing makes sense, but the only thing I can really say is that it would be pretty impractical to force people to role-play one or the other of those styles if they don't want to.

 

[Ser Gregor]

Very well said, Duncan. Agreed almost 100%. Only thing is, ala Brandon, we can't force them to go in one direction.

I've certainly written with Style B in mind, or else I would have never let Dakar simply kill Darth Nexus. (:()

However, some people like Style A more, which is fine. This site is inherently geared toward Style B, so sadly, Style A players won't 'develop' as far into the story, as say the Style B players. An example is to look at the major characters in the RP, all RPed by vets who shape the story.

Sometimes, I feel like the site is to geared toward being serious, and takes away some of the fun for people. But that is inherent in any site, and this definately has the best RP community out of most sites.

 

[Jaqen H'ghar]

I think as a social website we're doing amazingly well. The Roleplay itself could move a little faster. It seems like we have these waves where the roleplay goes up and the social side goes down or the social goes up and the roleplay goes down.

Anyone else get that or is it just me?

 

[Kit]

I think as a social website we're doing amazingly well. The Roleplay itself could move a little faster. It seems like we have these waves where the roleplay goes up and the social side goes down or the social goes up and the roleplay goes down.

Anyone else get that or is it just me?

I wouldn't really say that the two sides of the site are ever balanced, mainly because of the way the entire show is run.

The main story tends to revolve largely around the same group of people each time, though that isn't in itself a bad thing. I mean, in the last timeline, we had Sin as Dark Lord, Bac as Supreme Chancellor and the Leader of the Bendu. In this timeline, we now have Bac as the Jedi Grandmaster and Sin as one of the main Ospion and Onderonians. I'm not having a go at either of the two (they being the first ones to spring to mind) because they're damned good at what they do and I think it's right to give pivotal jobs to those who are bloody good RP'ers. But... it does make it very hard for newer members to make a real impact on the story.

For example, I barely made a dent on the main story of the last timeline right up until the very end (having joined in the dying days of '06 and RP'ed in it for... a year, a year and a half?) and some new members never do.

Now, I absolutely love this site and I would call it intensely succesful, but you can't deny that as a new member, it can be very hard to feel included or even remotely important. That's the only thing I'd change, though I can honestly say I don't have the foggiest idea as to how.

Which impacts the balance that you see. Newer members try to establish themselves OOC instead, because it's quicker and easier to get a reputation there (though not always a good one eg Sheo and Masq back in the day)than through the RP. So the more new members there are, the more OOC thrives, and as they get accepted aand make their mark, some migrate into the RP properly, so their OOC frenzy dies down.

That's the way I see it, anyhow.

 

[Ser Yorick]

Bac isn't the Jedi Grandmaster....
The dynamic has changed drastically, I'd say.

EDIT: We've got Matt in control of the Jedi and Onderonians, Nexus for Ospion I believe, and Ols for the Republic. I don't see anything similar between this and the last timeline.

 

[Kit]

Bac isn't the Jedi Grandmaster....
The dynamic has changed drastically, I'd say.

EDIT: We've got Matt in control of the Jedi and Onderonians, Nexus for Ospion I believe, and Ols for the Republic. I don't see anything similar between this and the last timeline.

Well, yeah, I know it's changed, but the point still stands.

When Last timeline we had Matt as Mandalore and Nexus as Dark Lord. Though I'll gladly give you Ols, yeah.

I'm not saying it's a particularly bad thing, I'm all for it, but you can't deny that it's there.

 

[Ru the Boatswain]

Bac isn't the Jedi Grandmaster....
The dynamic has changed drastically, I'd say.

EDIT: We've got Matt in control of the Jedi and Onderonians, Nexus for Ospion I believe, and Ols for the Republic. I don't see anything similar between this and the last timeline.

And also there are a large amount of newer members that are reaching the opportunity to become leaders of great factions.

I think the reason new members have an issue getting highly ranked is because no one has that sense of trust they do with a vet. We know that the vet is capable of leading and won't cock it up.

A newer member is less predictable. We don't know how they can lead. We can barely expect them to act logically.

 

[Ser Yorick]

Well, yeah, I know it's changed, but the point still stands.

When Last timeline we had Matt as Mandalore and Nexus as Dark Lord. Though I'll gladly give you Ols, yeah.

I'm not saying it's a particularly bad thing, I'm all for it, but you can't deny that it's there.

Yes I can, because Cailst was in the mix as well. He was recently killed, but still. The Mandalorians are gone as well. People are playing different roles than they did last time, or were even available. I played as the Jedi Grandmaster last time, and as a Sith for a while, not to mention the badass Kalel. Now I'm playing a lowly Padawan, an adviser to the Onderonian King, and so on.

The dynamic has changed, but I will give you the fact that some RPers resurface, and in my opinion, they should. Some of these core people are there for a reason.

 

[Sovereign]

I fail to see why a new member should be given a high rank and an important role in the story.

Are you going to expect a promotion after only working for a day at your new job?

Obviously not.

 

[Jaqen H'ghar]

Yes I can, because Cailst was in the mix as well. He was recently killed, but still. The Mandalorians are gone as well. People are playing different roles than they did last time, or were even available. I played as the Jedi Grandmaster last time, and as a Sith for a while, not to mention the badass Kalel. Now I'm playing a lowly Padawan, an adviser to the Onderonian King, and so on.

The dynamic has changed, but I will give you the fact that some RPers resurface, and in my opinion, they should. Some of these core people are there for a reason.

Your missing the point he's trying to make. It's not that they're playing the same roles it's that the rolls they're playing have the same amount of importance. Not that I agree with him that new members should be given important rolls right off the bat, but still the important people should be shared with the ones capable, not the same people over and over

 

[Kit]

Yes I can, because Cailst was in the mix as well. He was recently killed, but still. The Mandalorians are gone as well. People are playing different roles than they did last time, or were even available. I played as the Jedi Grandmaster last time, and as a Sith for a while, not to mention the badass Kalel. Now I'm playing a lowly Padawan, an adviser to the Onderonian King, and so on.

The dynamic has changed, but I will give you the fact that some RPers resurface, and in my opinion, they should. Some of these core people are there for a reason.

I can't deny that it didn't translate straight across, because, well, it didn't. Though there was an attempt made for those robbed of important roles by the timeline change to be given similarly prestigious ones in th enew timeline. But there is a trend for veteran RPers to move from important position to important position. My example here would be Dakar's Xiantos, who went from Jedi Grandmaster almost directly to Dark Lord in the last timeline. I'll admit that it's not the best example, considering he won Dark Lord, rather than being handed it, but it counts. Ish.

But yeah, there has been a lot of shaking up in this timeline, I'll give you that; with Calist, Ols and even Solus as examples it would be slightly retarded of me to deny it.

Your missing the point he's trying to make. It's not that they're playing the same roles it's that the rolls they're playing have the same amount of importance. Not that I agree with him that new members should be given important rolls right off the bat, but still the important people should be shared with the ones capable, not the same people over and over

Whoa, hold it right there! Not once did I say that, nor do I even tihnk that. I would never, ever, give a position of power to someone like Echodragoon, or one of the other current generation of noobs. I think that the way it works now is pretty much spot on.

But other than that, you're pretty much saying what I'm thinking.

 

[Ser Yorick]

I can't deny that it didn't translate straight across, because, well, it didn't. Though there was an attempt made for those robbed of important roles by the timeline change to be given similarly prestigious ones in th enew timeline. But there is a trend for veteran RPers to move from important position to important position. My example here would be Dakar's Xiantos, who went from Jedi Grandmaster almost directly to Dark Lord in the last timeline. I'll admit that it's not the best example, considering he won Dark Lord, rather than being handed it, but it counts. Ish.

But yeah, there has been a lot of shaking up in this timeline, I'll give you that; with Calist, Ols and even Solus as examples it would be slightly retarded of me to deny it.

Yeah, Dakar doesn't count, lol. He worked his way up in the Jedi, then was able to kill the Dark Lord for his mantle. It was all cunning. The thing is though, that newer members thought capable are given higher ranks, but if you haven't noticed, most of them disappear (Solus) or **** up. The people who seem to play important role after important role are members who stick around time after time and deliver when needed. Ols is the anomaly. That dude is new and he's stuck around. In my opinion, he's done the best job so far in this timeline.

 

[Kit]

Yeah, Dakar doesn't count, lol. He worked his way up in the Jedi, then was able to kill the Dark Lord for his mantle. It was all cunning. The thing is though, that newer members thought capable are given higher ranks, but if you haven't noticed, most of them disappear (Solus) or **** up. The people who seem to play important role after important role are members who stick around time after time and deliver when needed. Ols is the anomaly. That dude is new and he's stuck around. In my opinion, he's done the best job so far in this timeline.

It's pretty rare that newer members get the big roles when they're going, but it has gotten much better in this timeline. Last time though, I think you'd be hard pressed to name a newer member that was a faction leader. I agree with you about Ols though, fair play to the kid, he got his hands on the ball and bloody ran with it.

 

[Ru the Boatswain]

It's pretty rare that newer members get the big roles when they're going, but it has gotten much better in this timeline. Last time though, I think you'd be hard pressed to name a newer member that was a faction leader. I agree with you about Ols though, fair play to the kid, he got his hands on the ball and bloody ran with it.

Not just ran. He got a car and hit the gas.

 

[Random Hero]

For an Star Wars RP site, it is probably the most successful right now. All the other big ones folded within the last two years. I had a account on here back in 05; but I don't even know what e-mail address it is under. I was out of RPing for awhile (WoW) and after I quit that game I came back here.

 

[Storm]

'Tis a good place with good members and good Role Playing.

 

[Slateris]

I think for an RP its really good in terms of success

 

[Brandon Rhea]

Well I had no intention to be the Jedi Grandmaster in this timeline. Not to call out Sin or anything, the staff and I felt that he really wasn't doing anything as Grandmaster to move the timeline forward, so we asked him to step aside from that role and he did. I then filled in the void as Grandmaster. I volunteered for that mainly because there weren't that many active Jedi Masters (Matt was a bit busy at the time if I remember right, and Cyril's activity has always been sporadic) so I created the character, jumped in and pushed the creation of the Ospion. As Kurt said earlier, I am now no longer the Grandmaster. As far as Alcor Bac goes, he's really not all that important.

Now in regards to the last timeline, to be fair to me, I was the leader of the Bendu because it was my faction that I created entirely from scratch. The only reason I was the only Bendu faction leader (as Ussej III, and then as Josiah) was because, at that time, I was the only one who actually understood the Bendu. Thats not inconcievable considering I was the one who created it. Even if the Bendu were still around, there are still very few that I would let run the show. When I stopped RPing Ussej, that's why I took the Bendu off the site, although I should have just started using a new High Priest off the bat.

The reason I became the Supreme Chancellor was because I was chosen to be the first one on this site when we first created the faction. I just happened to continue doing it for eight or nine months since no one attempted to knock me out of it until Sin's Dark Lord forced me to resign (although, again to be fair, that was planned). I became Supreme Chancellor for a very brief period after that mainly because I felt I had to, since no one else was stepping in to try to fight the Sith.

And now really in the interest of fairness, and this will be my last remark in regards to last timeline's characters (I do have more to say about the last timeline), I worked my way up to Dark Lord of the Sith. When I first created Carden Mannux, I had nothing planned out for him (same goes for Ussej III until the holy war idea came around, really). He was just a Dark Jedi at the master level until I decided to try to get an in with the Sith, which I did when Dire/Kain was Dark Lord. I became the leader of what I ended up calling the Dark Guards of the Lettow based on my Alt. Saga stuff (it's now the Dark Guardians of Lettow, and I retconned the title of that initial organization to be the Obsidian Guard).

After Dire's was murdered by Sabre's, and during this time there were still only a few Sith spots, I was promoted to what we called "Arch Duke of the Sith" and then something like "Chosen of the Sith" (we had weird ranks then). When Sin became the Dark Lord, I became his apprentice, and we eventually decided that I would overthrow him. I then became the Dark Lord for the first and only time in my role-playing career. I only stayed in that position for a little while before deciding to step away from it and focus on my story-oriented stuff.

Now I obviously had a lot of power in the old timeline because I was the Bendu High Priest, Dark Lord of the Sith and Supreme Chancellor at the same time. This put me into a position where I was easily able to manipulate the role-play to my liking, all for the sole purpose of crafting the story I wanted for the Alternative Saga. Throughout this long conflict of interest, I denied that it exist. I and many others, at my own insistence, would frequently state how I was a very impartial person and would not exploit the positions I was in. My constant manipulation of the storyline, however, forced me to rationalize it and it got to the point where even I believed that I was being impartial.

When did I finally admit this to myself? February 2008. If you recall, that's when we switched timelines. Truth be told, the reason we ended up switching timelines was because Kurt and I were in a heated argument about the RP. I put up a thread in the debate room asking how the RPing was going in an attempt to prove what he was saying to be incorrect. Boy, was I blown away when everything I was saying was proven incorrect. It was at that time that I realized that the last timeline really wasn't fine and that we needed to change things.

Why wasn't the last timeline fine? I'm sure there were a lot of answers that could be said, but I'll tell you what I think, even if it may sound a bit egotistical. The story came to a sudden halt around January 2007 when Sin and the Sith finally took over Coruscant from the Republic. At that same time, I also stopped RPing Ussej III, Carden and Chancellor Dashin. These are the same characters that I had been using to manipulate the RP. A lot of what Sin was able to do (easily take over Coruscant, easily take over other planets, easily gain a shit load of forces) was all because I let him do it. Why? It suited what I wanted in the RP, aka. it suited what I wanted in the Alternative Saga. Basically, I believe that when I stopped manipulating things, it was a cause of the year-long RP slow-down. People started becoming bored and there were very few major events. In a period of one year, there were only three or four battles that took place.

Even though I think the storyline with Ussej Padric Bac III, Isabella Dashin (Kelly), Kalel Kitsune (now Kalel Esunkit, after Kurt changed the name), Carden Mannux and Cos Jonathan Dashin was brilliant in scope and design thanks to the many people involved in the conception and development of it, I think that it did end up hurting this website for a long time because of the reasons I listed above, mainly because of my conflicts of interest and manipulation. Even though Kurt, Kelly and, to a lesser extent, Damien were involved in this, it's not their fault. It's entirely my fault. I pushed them to do the story the way I wanted it done, even though I know there are instances where they didn't want it that way. I manipulated the role-play. I let things get out of hand. I messed up. I've known this for awhile but haven't said anything since I was waiting for the right opportunity, and this is it. Basically, I am very sorry. I never meant for any of that to happen, but it did and I am sorry.

Tl;dr version: I ****ed up the last timeline. My bad, yo.

 

[Kit]

Fair play, that must have taken some balls. Kudos to you, sir.

 

[Ser Yorick]

Damn right, bitch!