| Welcome to Survival of the Fittest, a RPing board loosely based off of Koshun Takami's Battle Royale, with its own unique plot and spin on the 'deadly game'. We've been around quite a while, and are now in our thirteenth year, so don't worry about us going anywhere any time soon! If you're a newcomer and interested in joining, then please make sure you check out the rules. You may also want to read the FAQ, introduce yourself and stop by the chat to meet some of our members. If you're still not quite sure where to start, then we have a great New Member's Guide with a lot of useful information about getting going. Don't hesitate to PM a member of staff (they have purple usernames) if you have any questions about SOTF and how to get started! Let the games begin! |
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| Y'know what really grinds my gears?; Something that's been irking me. | |
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| Topic Started: Jan 21 2007, 06:36 PM (830 Views) | |
| I'm a Cactus | Jan 21 2007, 06:36 PM Post #1 |
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do you want to go to war, balakay?
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Okay, so...I briefly touched upon this in the V1 vs. V2 thread, but I've had more time to think about it and realize how much it's really annoyed me - rather one aspect of it in particular. So what is it that really pisses me off beyond all else right now about SOTF? The pre-planning that EVERYONE seems to have done. Some history: In V1, very few people had concrete plans for their characters. A lot of it was just random wandering and whatnot. You run in to whoever you run into, and whatever happens depends upon situations and whatnot. A few people had plans, whcih was fine, but mostly it was just...randomness, which was cool, and made things seem spontaneous. In v2, it seems like everyone's planned everything down to the last detail, which - granted, isn't BAD, but it isn't GOOD either. While this isn't HORRIBLE, it can be fixed and worked around and whatnot. But this isn't what's REALLY driving me nuts. What is... ...is this shit I'm seeing all over the place and underneath threads like 'Username 1 and Username 2 ONLY!' What the hell is that? I understand if you want to RP in a thread with one person, but to 'block off' your thread...really annoys the hell out of me, and here's why: The thing about SOTF is that there are about 100-200 kids wandering around on a relatively large island. The sole fact though, is that no matter what, these kids are going to run into other people. To have a topic consist of two/three handlers and just those handlers alone - that's silly. The SOTF zones don't have a 'if anyone else comes into the Warehouse it'll explode!' That's the randomness of it all. I just think that it's really presumptous to say 'you can't come in my topic'. I understand if you're playing something out that's important to something you'd like to do or whatnot - that's easily avoided - someone bumrushes your topic, just explain that and leave. Easy fix. But to say 'so and so only!' that's really...I dunno, it just pisses me off, quite a bit. Now, maybe I'm in the wrong because from what I know of, there haven't been any problems as of yet. But I just think that we should all be open to RPing with everyone else. Sure, we'll have people we prefer to RP with, but you have to be willing and prepared to adapt and be flexible, or else I don't think things will go that smoothly. That's just my viewpoint. More spontaneity = good thing. Plans = good thing, just don't overplan. If you want to plan - have a general idea, but be prepared to be flexible. Ask ANY of the V1 handlers - odds are, the way things played out were likely not the way that they were supposed to be originally. I know with at least three of my characters, that's the case. Maybe even more. That's all. |
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--- The Future The Past Meanwhile... | |
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| Endless_Helix | Jan 21 2007, 08:39 PM Post #2 |
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Gaaah! They're eating the flesh off my bones!
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I have a feeling that this topic is going to attract a lot of people who're going to say something along the lines of "I don't overplan!" and generally have a need distance themselves from the concept of overplanning. There'll probably even be people giving examples of how spontaneous they are. The point of this post is to discourage finger pointing and all that jazz that could occur in this sort of thread. I'm somewhat cynical, but still, just a friendly reminder to play nice, kids. However, I'm not sure this "overplanning" is as rampant a problem as everyone is making it out to be... I've seen quite a few in the last couple of days, but I wasn't arround during V1 so I've nothing to compare it to. Yeah, it grinds my gears when I can't post in a fun thread, but eh... whatever. Make your own thread. Other annoyed people will join you and you can have fun without the meticulous planners. |
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I now have... Meat Puppets! with 70% more calories than my last ones! Mortimer Jones, Boy 66: Emotionless and Hungry Joeseph Gai, Boy 67: Yet to debut Do you know why they're called revolutions? | |
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| Cyco | Jan 21 2007, 08:49 PM Post #3 |
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Suicidal Maniac
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I hear ya, Dodd. It doesn't really bother me as much, but it can be irritating when someone has all of their deaths lined up from the very beginning to barter for someone else's rights. Course, I've done this too out of fear that all of my characters would be running around doing nothing for the whole game. Right when v2 officially started...well, you know. It's ugly, and I wish it could be avoided. |
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| Megami | Jan 21 2007, 10:01 PM Post #4 |
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Squishy
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I've said this before, but a base plan isn't a bad thing. Knowing that you want your character to take on a villain role through the game, or knowing that you want them to meet up with such-and-such sometime before they die isn't bad. What's bad is when you know when and where they'll wake up, every single person they'll kill, every time they'll stop to pee and where (overexaggeration in case I must clarify), and where and by who they'll inevitably die planned out with no room for flexibility. It's annoying. Having a private storyline every once in a while is okay, but think of it like this. SOTF is supposed to be a reality-based roleplay. In reality, things aren't perfect. So, even if your character has it in for somebody else and they're stalking them across the island waiting on that opportune moment to get them alone and corner them, what is the likelihood that they're going to remain completely alone forever? Slim to none, on an island of this size, with such a large amount of kids running around. You're going to bump into SOMEBODY. And you know what? That was what made V1 so much fun. You never knew who was going to show up where or what was going to happen in a storyline. And to this day, I think the writing was better, not so much because of the skill level of the writers, but more because they were writing something spontaneous on a whim instead of writing something they'd scrutinized over for three months because it just had to go down a certain way. Too much planning can be a bad thing for a number of reasons. For starters, and this is what I'm noticing the most of, it makes you very dependent on certain other handlers. Then, if they drop out of the roleplay/get rolled/lose computer access/follow the yellow brick road, you're shit outta luck, because all of a sudden, all your plans got flushed down the porcelain god and now you've got absolutely nothing until your co-conspirator reappears from la-la land. And besides that, it excludes people. It makes it really hard to get into a roleplay when you don't know where you CAN place your character because it seems like everyone's gonna bite your head off for dropping another variable into their topic. I can understand having private topics every once in a while when you DO have something important that needs to go down, but it's silly to do it EVERY time to avoid roleplaying with certain handlers, or whatever. If that's the case, grow up. If you don't wanna roleplay with them, they probably don't wanna roleplay with you either. If that's not the case, then ignore the previous statement because I'm not directing it toward you. Meh, anyway. I'm pretty much with Adam on this one. Planning isn't a bad thing. Having a basic idea of how you'd like your character's story to go isn't a bad thing. Just don't overplan, and for those of you who're sitting here going "Well, I guess she could be talking to me, but *string of excuses to convince yourself otherwise*,", save yourself the trouble. I'm guilty of overplanning, and so is most everybody on this forum. Some do it to far lesser degrees than others, and there is a whopping like 5% out there who haven't/aren't/won't overplan, but the majority of us are guilty in some form or another. Like I said, basic ideas are good things. When you have a list of character rights and know exactly what your character is going to do for the next three days, then you're overdoing it. It makes the roleplay hard for other people to get into, and quite frankly, is just annoying. |
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Misa Achtland Ayako Okogamine Kevin De la Torre Melissa Angelicchio | |
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| The Burned Handler | Jan 21 2007, 10:53 PM Post #5 |
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I used to be a handler like you, then I turned into a horse.
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Why do I get the feeling that if there were no planning, this exact thread would still be made, but about the lack of planning instead of abundance? |
Things SOTFers say
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| Shiola | Jan 21 2007, 10:58 PM Post #6 |
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IDDQD
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Ideally, we should move away from over planning, a little closer to the middle Lots of Planning -----*We are here*---(Middle Ground)--------No planning at all. |
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V7: Erika P. Stieglitz Tyrell K. Lahti Caroline S. Ford Henry A. Sparks | |
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| Xaldien | Jan 21 2007, 11:16 PM Post #7 |
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A dream imporium
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*has the phrase "Guilty of overplanning" stamped on forehead* I'll admit it. I'm too organized of a person to have spontaneous roleplay, and random go-along storywriting isn't my style, but I do see where you're coming from. I have become WAY too dependent on other handlers to post, which is a major downfall, but at least it gives me time to think things through before I write. |
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| baby_g | Jan 21 2007, 11:20 PM Post #8 |
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god it's been a lovely day
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I don't see anything wrong with planning something out. It's basically just because you work up a really good idea and don't want it to be spoiled. eg. If you have to kill someone off, like I did with Nessy. Oh well. |
| It's so nice | |
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| Nealosi | Jan 22 2007, 03:16 PM Post #9 |
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Level 80
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I kind of agree, Adam. I personally, do not plan out many aspect of my characters, I plan a short distance into the future, just so that I know where I'm going with a thread, and then I just kinda let my characters go where they want to go. I can see how overplanning does tend to boggle things, it ties certain people up and excludes others. And people can get really pushy about their stroyline, but ya know? If they can adjust it well and make the plotline work in the long run, I really don't mind. |
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I eat alone in a desert with skulls for my pets, I rate the days 1 to 10 with lead cigarettes. v4 Jeremy Ressler Catherine Cowie Haaziq Muhammad Sayf | |
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| Shula | Jan 22 2007, 05:05 PM Post #10 |
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Queen of the Pirates
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Just my opinion, but I think that the deaths themselves are probably better off planned if another person is invloved, just so that details aren't being misunderstood and screwing things up a bit, especially if the killer writes first rather than the kill-ee. On the otherhand, everything else probably is more fun done in a spontaneous manner. (at least I dun like planning, but that might just be because I'm bad at it. =P) ...so basically this was a fairly useless post saying I agree with everyone who said middle ground is good. <.< |
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| The Burned Handler | Jan 22 2007, 05:21 PM Post #11 |
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I used to be a handler like you, then I turned into a horse.
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Kill-ee isn't a word. |
Things SOTFers say
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| Xaldien | Jan 22 2007, 05:32 PM Post #12 |
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A dream imporium
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Details. |
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| baby_g | Jan 22 2007, 05:32 PM Post #13 |
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god it's been a lovely day
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Oh come now, we all knew what was ment...
Middle ground good.... really, I guess it's up to the person writing. |
| It's so nice | |
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| Croco | Jan 24 2007, 06:52 PM Post #14 |
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Meep! They're after me!
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I think that when it comes to such a complex RP like this, you have to have a little bit of both. I've got plans for each and every single one of my characters, but it's getting to those points that's fun because you don't know what exactly you'll run into along the way. Honestly, I prefer spontaneuity over planning, but what do I know? Hell, I've even got an idea for how to end it floating in my head if my main character makes it that far...but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. |
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THE HIT SQUAD G16: Brittany Ashworth - CONDITION: Deceased B44: Michael Neely - CONDITION: Deceased B20: Peter Rosenthal - CONDITION: Deceased B23: Vesa Turunen - CONDITION: Injured FUTURE HITMEN Corbin Barrett, Kazuhiko Takeda | |
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| laZardo | Feb 7 2007, 08:58 AM Post #15 |
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^This is not what a Laz looks like^
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The only person I really seemed to have "planned" out was the Dame. I never expected Marv and Zed to go so quickly (especially to people I didn't figure), though I somehow figured them as fodder beforehand anyway. I also never expected Roland Kelly would be my first character to get a kill. Either way, I just play along with it now...though only having 2 characters now may insure my early retirement before I get to have some real fun. |
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Unfucked: Cisco Vasquez (V4) Proper Fucked: Harris Van Allen (The Program), Rashid Hassan (V4) Fucked Soon: Carlos Lazaro and Eliza Patton | |
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