Atlantic Roleplay Community Boards

[Samon Triest]

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So a friend of mine recently contacted me asking about ARPC membership and what to do if things don't swing your way in voting.

To him and anyone else who has ever tried or asked or even thought about joining ARPC, you don't need to be a member of the arpc to roleplay and hold events. You don't need to be voted in to be a roleplay guild. You just need people who want to rp. You don't even need to be a member to advertise your event.

Just do your thing and others will want to join in and rp with you. The ARPC label? Just a label so you have a say on the private boards. Don't worry about that label. Just rock the label of roleplayer... that is all you need.


Thanks.
Jeff

*disappears back to his hole*
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Through all else, let Honesty lead you!

[Joanna Weaver]

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ARPC status is for land claims on the ARPC maps, alliances, and voting/discussion with other ARPC GMs.


You definitely do not need it to role play.
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"Art and architecture must combine to create something larger than either." ~ Robert Campbell

[Isk]

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You need it for me to war you.
LULz

[Nogusta]

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Samon

That is exactly the kind of thinking that stunts RP - people WANT to be part of the larger ARPC community, telling people "yeah I know you want to be part of the group but sorry your not, oh by the way you don't really need to be part of the group to be part of the group" makes absolutely no sense.

It's this kind of thinking that is slowly making the ARPC the same kind of elitist group they had on Great Lakes, and guess what happened to RP there? Right it no longer exist beyond the five or six elites that told everyone the same thing you just did.

I am sure your a very long term vet of RP and i am not going out of my way to insult you personally but if your one of the decision makers in this community then you may want to consider this point of view given the community has to script almost every event to get any participation and I constantly see posts from people saying where can I find RP? the answer inevitably is " RP is all around you just have to look for it" if that doesn't tell you something nothing will.

[Acheron]

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Preach on Nogusta!....as someone who is relatively new to RP I find that it falls depressingly short on the vast potential an organization like this COULD have. While it claims to be a community first there is very very little cooperation, outside of the occasional scripted event. I have never come across rp besides tavern or the occasion run in with another rper in haven or what not. There is little to no continuing storylines between guilds whether it's conflict or peaceful. No neutral ground for a bored rper to go converse with other rpers.... It's far from what I expected when I joined, ARPC seems to be quite stagnant. Too many of the "decision makers" have been in too long and worry more about personal agendas and inflated egos than what's best for the "community". Right on the homepage for this site 33% of ARPC wants to have more people.....well that's never going to happen as long as everyone remains so narrow in their vision of what rp is. For the 20 or 30 or so that call the shots.....I hope you like each other cause if things keep going the way they are....you will be all thats left. Don't be affraid of change and new ideas. And remember youre supposed to be ROLE playing if someone says something you don't like.......theyre playing a ROLE.......troubles start when people take ROLE PLAYING personally.


PS I do believe Samon's statement was of the best intentions I'm not jumping on him....but Nogusta's right, continue your narrow vision and ARPC will wither up and die.

[Wynn]

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I do rp in Haven and anywhere else I can. If I am not mistake I have rp with you before in haven Archron. THe ARPC Festival was fun, Taverns in Town instead of hosting at particular rpers taverns. I would love to rp at luna one day at the stables in that large area. All you have to do is say mabey in chat, "rp in such and such a place" you will find that people will come. Lets all think of one thing. How can we as a player make it better? One person can make a diffrence =) I also might add the "decision Makers" are the ARPC guild leaders. THere are not a particular group that makes all the decisions. The GM's of each guild votes and together they decide. I wasnt sure if you was aware of that. I am not trying to take what you said lightly but just trying to explain some of the particulars. I hope this helps.
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What you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it.
-- Anonymous

[Merci d'Rue]

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I strongly advise people to keep to the topic at hand, as well as keep their responses from becoming Inflammatory. Or this post will be locked/moderated.

If you have criticism, keep it constructive, and give suggestions for improvement.
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May destiny guide you...

[Skatha]

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what is so offense about open discussion of this subject?

are we no longer free to voice opinions here?

it is possible to recognize a problem and have no suggestions for a cure.

are we so tight, so perfect, that we cannot accept criticism or questioning without being so offended as to threaten to lock a topic because we are uncomfortable with the subject?

Maybe free rp is a thing of the past within our community. We have grown quite large now, perhaps this is what happens when groups grow, become more formal, declarations of war are frightening because of the fear of losing territories. Guilds become complete within themselves.

It would be unrealistic to expect things to stay as they were ten or five years ago. With growth come problems. Welcoming potential members to our community maybe something we need to deal with.

Most of us sit with our own guild members at tavern night. This seems to be a natural thing to do. I think we have a legitimate problem that needs to be dealt with. Just not sure how to do it.

Maybe a welcoming committee or a group to work with newcomers until they can get their feet on the ground? Wish I knew the answer to this problem, but to deny the problem exists does not mean it is not legitimate. We are no longer a small community. The nature of how we function changes as with any community that experiences growth.

Perhaps, there is no comfortable solution. We have changed, how we interact with each other and how we welcome new people has changed over the years. Question then may be, do we wish to deal with it, or as a whole, are we content as things stand now.

Could we have some discussion on this?

Edit: Granted this is off topic, maybe with a new thread we deal with this.
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"I'll get you, Dorothy, and your little dog too!" L. Frank Baum

[Halister Marner]

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Most of these issues are ones that are very tough to tackle, but they are obviously ones that will help the community as a whole.

The potential of the ARPC is limitless, especially with all the groundwork and resources we have available. The problem generally comes down to activity and drive.

As much as we want it to happen, the community can't magically make activity happen and revive some of the great traditions of our past, that has to be done by the people in the community.

Anyone who has organized a large scale event can tell you exactly how difficult it is to set it up and achieve a large turnout. That sort of drive needs to be replicated and carried over consistently to resurrect some of the ideas mentioned above. We need people to set up a neutral tavern and pester people to interact there until it becomes habit, we need people to start plots and storylines and interactions.

On the ARPC guildmaster side, they can vote on rulesets, resolve the few issues that occur, and synchronize their guild mechanics. This can be done to infinity with little effect besides sustainability. The hundreds of players that make up the community are the ones that truly define what it is and how far we can go.

If even 10% of the total roleplay community started up projects, plots, and events, we would have more activity than we knew what to do with. If anyone has a good idea, make it happen, any ideas that benefit the community won't be shot down, and if they are, I will crush the dissenters mercilessly

In summary, yes there are many things lacking that would be fantastic additions to the community, and positive change is always encouraged, but don't depend on anyone to do these things for you. As a community we should be supporting each other, but we first need something tangible to support, or else our words will be lost in an ocean of intangible compliments, complaints, and "what if's".
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"There are those who dream to escape reality, and there are those who dream to change it."

[Acheron]

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Look harder and you'll see the suggestions I made in my post........neutral ground for bored rpers.......ongoing storylines between guilds..........I've done my share to try to get interaction between guilds seeing how it was me who reached out to Shai and teamed up with him to organize the Vesper/Mag/VO misercord plot and Siege of Britain Battle.....and would love to organize and participate in more events like it/as would most of the people who participated / i can't speak for anyone else..but those were the kinds of things I imagined when I heard of ARPC but saldy that was the only event of it's kind I even heard of in my time in aprc ......yes Wynn I ment to include our run ins in Haven in the times i found random rp but the way i worded it wasn't clear......The boat ride a few weeks ago from Bucc's to Vesper was the most non scripted I had ever seen the guilds interact....but that may have been cause we were all on a boat. So when you obviously, and I mean obviously from what i've read here and what other guilds have said to me, have alot of people stuck in a barely interactive routine...why make it so hard to add new life, new points of view, and new ideas to your "community". why?


A wise man once told you:

HATING THE GUY WHO TELLS YOU YOUR HOUSE IS ON FIRE ISN'T GOING TO STOP IT FROM BURNING DOWN

[Arahim]

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I've never been the best rper, or the most outgoing, or the most popular. I rarely, if ever respond to posts like this, and never tell you "What song I can't get out of my head." I can count the people who actually know me on one hand, so maybe me chiming in here is completely useless. I mean hell, I hadn't even played in six months or more. And I realize the mantra here is "No one ever quits forever," and maybe thats true. We all want to think what we built as an RP community is impossible to find elsewhere, so how can you stay away?

So indulge me, and let me tell you what I see as things we can do to fix this community, as someone who has quit, and has no idea whether or not he'll come back or not. Keep in mind, this won't win me any friends, but in all honesty, fixes are needed here. I'll just rattle off...

1. Stop being insular.
2. Stop being clique-y.
3. Stop thinking your character is you. Drop that ego aspect.
4. Stop dishonest lip service and gossip.
5. Stop plagiarizing or using "Wikipedia rp." Books, TV series, comics, amateur poetry sites, each other's posts...I've witnessed it all here.
6. Start cultivating lesser heard rp voices when you see them post. Be more supportive of more than just established, "popular" characters.
7. Start pushing community as something more than a dozen pages of replies to a DAZ signature that may or may not be sexy.
8. Less alts, more ideas.
9. Less focus on guilds, more on actual character.
10. Drop conventional rp, and stretch out. How many times can we thwart a kidnapping?
11. Minimize the Harelquin-romance IC posts. Ok, ok! This warrior-woman's armor was pierced by this unexpected man's love. This moody poet is in pain for the love he holds for a noblewoman. Fine. I realize this is an intergral part of rp for various reasons, but if you want new voices in this comm. vary your writing. Our boards look like an online dating service.

I'm sure theres more, and if this is read as a flame, I'm sorry, but its not intended that way. And again, who am I really? Thing is though, if I see these things as issues, I'm not special, and I'm not alone. I spent enough hours in-game just listening to icq gripes from various people that express these same issues.

Thanks for lending me an ear.

Edit: If you need to argue or send me hate, don't do it here. PM me, I've thick skin, and would be happy to talk it out. But give others a chance to speak their minds here without locking the thread. Its the only way we'll fix anything...maybe things we aren't even aware of. Thanks.

[Isk]

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Anyone that is a GM of the community is a community leader, every ARPC GM has equal vote.


I RP with anyone that comes my way with the intent to RP and Im sure that's the truth for everyone here. I will not however war anyone unless they are a part of the ARPC. This is not because I am a snob, it is because if my or the non ARPC guild breaks a rule there is no higher accountability. So in essence I go to any events, I interact with anyone and encourage everyone to, but I will not cross swords with non-ARPC.

Also it is easy to say "Make something happen" anyone can make something happen, you do not have to be a leader in the community to just flat out say "Skara is where I will be from 7pm-10pm, everyone is welcome for interaction. These are some things I have been doing there that you might know: blah blah blah"

Dont wait for things to happen, make things happen.

[Nogusta]

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[Skatha]

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Just curious, i am on the outside looking in it seems....... I have no dog in this fight... Has there been a post stating why the new MTC was denied membership in the arpc?

I am not, repeat, not.... questioning the decision at this point, just wonder if members of the new organization have been told why. And is there any reason that the logic behind this decision cannot, or has not (assuming I have missed a post somewhere) been made public? If so, would appreciate being pointed to that post.

Thanks...... and for heavens sakes, this is not intended as criticism with some great hidden meaning... perhaps the new group could simply change names or such if they wish admission.
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"I'll get you, Dorothy, and your little dog too!" L. Frank Baum

[Nogusta]

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I don't expect any of the decision makers to explain why, nor should they publicly as that would make this into a huge flame thread and cease to be productive.