Hydaelyn Role-Players
How to make your fresh RP community thrive. An open letter to Mateus, Omega, & more. - Printable Version

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How to make your fresh RP community thrive. An open letter to Mateus, Omega, & more. - Kousagi - 06-17-2017

Apologies in advance, the formatting in this post is funky and I'll clean it up when I get a minute, but for now, I'm gonna leave it be. I need sleep and to work tomorrow, but will be happy to update links and suggestion lists as suggestions come. Thoughts and input are welcome and appreciated.

An open letter to the RP communities that seem to be taking root in Mateus, Sargatanas, Omega, etc.

What is it you think will help your RP community flourish?
I asked myself that a lot when I spent some time on Sargatanas, attempting to get a small RP community together. I found that there was a small one already, a linkshell network, but at the time, I found it to be unfortunately quiet despite having about 50-60 members. I had transferred to Sargatanas to be with IRL friends who couldn't make it into Balmung, but as their interest in the game dropped off and I was the last man standing, I wound up transferring to Balmung, where RP was usually happening somewhere in the world.

And so that's a thing I've been thinking about again, when faced with the "to transfer or not to transfer" dilemma once more.

IRL friends have stepped into Mateus and by chance, Mateus is open to free transfer and benefits for transferring off of Balmung. It sounds like a sweet deal, right? Initially, I was all about jumping ship... but the more I thought about it and the more Early Access and Stormblood has shown me how populated this server (Balmung) is, the more I catch myself second-guessing that. The stakes are slightly higher now that we've seen SE can and will lock out even paid transfers back into Balmung if we were to transfer off and find that the RP scene on Mateus is a ghost town or snoozefest.

We, on all servers, should be diligent in making our presence known. 

So I've thought of solutions to that tendency to go silent based on the things I've seen and love most about Balmung.

How To Make Your Server's RP Community Succeed


• Open-Invite, Player Run RP Events •
[sup]Controversial opinion? Hosting in housing areas may not be the best idea.[/sup]
I cannot encourage this enough. Few things bring a community together the way an open-invite RP event can. Get your FC together. Befriend multiple FCs. Get large groups of fellow roleplayers together in one open, easily-accessed public space at least once a month in places that shy, new, or community-unaware RPers could easily run into. 


Places like Costa Del Sol, city taverns (Goblet, Drowning Wench, The Roost,) Mih Khetto's Amphitheatre. Places that people who are unaware of your FC and FC housing address can easily stumble upon. It's important to keep it friendly to players who may not yet have Heavensward or Stormblood. Personal, FC/LS-centric events can happen wherever, but I feel like we should do our community a favor and try to at least have a good event once a month on each server in public starting zones.


Ideas like... real-life holidays. For North American players, I'm sure we're all familiar with Fireworks Day (Independence Day in the States) and while other countries don't have this, there are often festivals in other countries that essentially equate to Summer Fireworks Festival. Japan's got a couple, UK has one (albeit more in Autumn, IIRC...) and Victoria Day in Canada (May.) We all can agree the summer is a good opportunity to host events that equate to fireworks, bonfires, parties, and the like.


The addition of swimming in Costa Del Sol make this an excellent "prompt" or springboard for giving your RP community a seasonal, player-run event. I feel that if each server can organize at least one public event a month, we'll start seeing more life in non-Balmung RP factions.


Off the top of my head, I can suggest these "prompts" —


  • Fantasy holidays based on current, real-world holidays, tweaked to fit Eorzean lore. Sparklers for all!
  • Masquerades & Dances
  • Theater shows in the Amphitheatre such as the works of A Stage Reborn
  • Take over hot springs in Kugane or Bronze Lake and make a Spirited Away-styled onsen! 
  • Fishing contests in town squares
  • Crafting contests in town squares
  • Drinking contests in taverns (let's be real, everyone wins.)
  • Premade parties who go "treasure hunting" IC in Deep Dungeon, easy floors for less stress and more fun.
  • Comedy-centric RP—blind date setups in February (everyone signs up and gets a number, match them to another number, let shenanigans follow.)
  • Take over the DoH/DoL guilds with your IC crafters/gatherers. Build stories around your alts who practically live in these guilds to make a living. Meet others who want to play something more low-key, less "save the world" and more, "build for the world." Create character connections & go from here.

And to help, resources that have similar, more extensive links (if you have more, I'd be happy to amend this list to add your suggestions! Why not build a reference list of RP inspiration and prompts?)




• RP More In /Say •
[sup]Make those taverns and "lazy locations" (hot springs in Bronze Lake and potentially later in Kugane) ours![/sup]
One of the things I love most about Balmung is that almost any major "lazy location" or "downtime" location (barring PVE-focused zones like Idyllshire or Mor Dhona) has a number of people casually roleplaying in public /say. This is how I've come into a couple of FCs and groups. Running through the back streets of Ul'dah and overhearing plotlines, questing through Thanalan and coming across a party of several folk from one FC all publicly roleplaying their plots... it's pretty magical. I've never seen this on Sargatanas and I'm salty about that. Let's not let Mateus go that route and actively encourage each other to RP proudly and in /say. 


Even on days where I am not feeling social and don't feel up to joining a group to run with, I enjoy coming across these public sessions and taking a seat to listen. Some friendly groups may even invite you, and boom, you've made a new connection. Alternatively, they may just ignore you and press onward, which is equally cool if they don't mind you playing audience to their plot. I feel like we should encourage one another to appreciate passerby/audiences. As roleplayers, we're not too far removed from actors and writers. Let's own that.



• Publicize Your Events •
[sup]Put a flyer / open-invite out on the big forums for FF roleplayers! 
[/sup]
I could be forgetting some, but I can think of a couple places off the top of my head that could bring in new players. Whenever you and your group are planning events for the server/community, it's important to get the word out at least a week in advance. 



* Reddit's FFXIV community is notedly hostile toward roleplayers, so I suggest putting the open invite out there and simply ignoring everything that ends up in your inbox. There will likely be a good deal of trolling and downvoting, so don't take it to heart. Toss the invite out and don't look back. I've learned of a handful of good events that got advertised here and if anyone comes in to troll, just block/ban/report for harassment. Generally, it doesn't bring much trouble, most of the naysayers really are too busy raiding or doing other PVE things to come interfere. It's also worth noting that lately, there has been a ton of discussion and openness about RP and where to find it happening on Reddit, so. Food for thought, but skip this option if need be.

• Networking & Sister-FCs •
[sup]A victory for your neighbor's FC is a victory for us all.
[/sup]
I cannot stress this enough—we as a community really need to have our heads of FC reach out to other FC heads and form "sisterships" and expanded networks. It's all too painfully often that I see people slip into one FC and clique things out, never again to be seen in the public eye. We all remember how things went on Gilgamesh, aye? Not sure if it's the same as the time I spent there looking for RP, but it was about as quiet as Sargatanas, because people generally either went to Balmung for open RP or filtered themselves into their groups and moved all interaction/RP into private channels (Linkshell, FC, tell, etc.)


While there's nothing wrong with wanting privacy in your RP, we should remember not only to keep our RP flags up while in major cities as well as take some time to have open, round-table tavern bs like Balmung's Goblet is so known for. Why does it have to be just the Goblet? 


We should really make an effort to form alliances and networks with other FCs, especially those of different genres and themes. If, for example, we have a slice of life crafter's guild themed FC teaming up for a crossover event with the characters of a black market, secret mafia sort of FC, can you imagine the sort of threads that could come of it? Not to mention the bonds built among big FCs of our servers' communities?


I'd really like to see this happen more. Balmung does it sometimes, so let's be diligent to ensure it happens on our new communities like Mateus and Omega. FCs and cliques are going to happen regardless of what anyone says, no biggie. Just as long as we keep our doors unlocked and our minds open to new players and scenarios. In this regard, it's paramount to see your fellow roleplayers as members of a larger family. We're all in it together, guys, it's us against the datacenter.




• Homepages and Hashtags •
[sup]Reaching out to new players through any means possible.
[/sup]
Perhaps this section is an addendum to the Publicize Your Events section, but my point here is that when you make a free company, you really want to establish a place where you can advertise it and announce player-run events. Tumblr, Twitter, Reddit (sometimes) and here are good places, but you really just want to know your hashtags. Anything tagged #FFXIV is going to be noticed, for certain, even by non-roleplayers. Tag your server name, always. Let newbies to Mateus be aware that if they do tumblr or twitter, they can find us as easily as clicking the hashtag for their server name.


Homepages that are easy to edit and simple are excellent for this purpose. My favor has always fallen on tumblr and twitter for this medium, but your mileage may vary. I see a lot of FCs using enjin as their homepage and forum, often doubling as their announcements page for any company events. However, not everyone will find their way onto your enjin page, so do yourself and the community a favor and cross-post open-invite announcements on tumblr and twitter. 


So in closing...


I want to wish all of these new servers good luck. Above anything, what I want to see in the FFXIV community as a whole is for the roleplaying/creative community to flourish and thrive. Less "Server A vs Server B" in terms of who has the "better RP scene." 


If you want to have a playful sense of competition, let's roll with our Golden Rule of Writing: Show, don't tell.


You on Mateus, think you've got a hotter RP scene than Balmung? Don't tell us about it, prove it, show it to us. Pimp those player-made events. Shout it from the rooftops. Bring us screencaps of all the wild shenanigans that went down and do it again three or four weeks later. You on Omega think you're the RP champs of drama and intrigue? Show us, then, and bring us tales of your FC vs FC in-character wars and tell us all about the cross-FC friendships and connections that followed.


Competition can be great to fuel the want to be on and be a part of "the best" roleplay server. However, let's all agree it's in poor taste to outright say it, aye? ;3 


And at the end of the day, let's also be able to put the spirit of competition aside and reach out to help our fellow servers in any way we can. Like I said before, we're a community and a family of some sorts and should have each others' backs. Apologies in advance of the saccharine nature of those statements brings a cringe or two—but let's agree it's for the sake of this new community and what I think we can all say is something of a paradigm shift in FFXIV's roleplaying scene.


It wasn't always "just Balmung" but it certainly felt like it.


Now, with Mateus and Omega rising and Balmung being locked indefinitely, it certainly is not just Balmung.


RE: How to make your fresh RP community thrive. An open letter to Mateus, Omega, &... - Flynn Rosenberg - 06-17-2017

I like this post.

Would also like to stress that whatever happens, if someone is griefing you, if there are no houses to buy, do NOT let that discourage you from playing/rping or retreating to private spaces.

RE: How to make your fresh RP community thrive. An open letter to Mateus, Omega, &... - matchstixs - 06-17-2017

This. All of this. This post is absolutely beautiful and oh so true. We've gotta be the change we wish to see, guys!

I also had no idea about Twitter's presence among the RP community. I'm gonna pop up a profile for Whorlbane, my FC, once I get it up and running. Thanks!

<3