RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes

Bryn · **03-26-2015, 04:46 PM**

(03-26-2015, 04:42 PM)cuideag Wrote:
(03-26-2015, 04:32 PM)Domri Blackblade Wrote: I think Verad brings up a great idea. I know I'd gladly reach out to new folks if needed and Domri is more than outgoing enough to work that into him. Reminds me of the mentor flags. Just have some individuals ready to extend the hand out and help others feel more integrated and have a person/place they feel comfortable around from the start.

I really miss mentor flags. Then again I also really miss just running around La Theine or whatever and just buffing/ressing everyone I saw.

That said, I worry about applying something like that to RP as I am sure there are folks who might worry that it could end up becoming a way to police RP.

Welcome committee sounds kind of cool. I wonder if that could be like a regular thing? Every few weeks or whatever, have volunteers set up a casual event somewhere and invite folks over. However I wonder how that might reach folks who might not be on the RPC? Would all the city-states be represented? What about time zones? That is, could this be something done for EU RPers as well?

We could always utilise /shout and party finder to advertise these events.

Aya · **03-26-2015, 05:02 PM**

I've spent a lot of my time on Balmung trying to connect with and meet new RPers: its one of the main reasons for the barmaid RP that I do on Aya.Â But there's only so much one person can do, and in the end I don't think you can ever fully remove the onus being on new players, that's just how it is when it comes to meeting people.

The more welcoming people we have willing to seek out, PM, contact in game, and chat with new people, the better; but I have a hard time believing that you can craft organization around the theme (with all of the constraints of real life, limited playing time, PvE, and the time consumed by existing relationships and commitments) that actually does much to improve the situation.Â If anything you're likely to just eat up time and energy that could have been spent on actually talking to new people instead.

I'd really just encourage people to do it, rather than talk about it.

Verad · **03-26-2015, 05:05 PM**

The most organization I'd suggest would be for interested parties to designate themselves as being receptive to new players and indicate where and when they tend to RP. That way new players can be pointed to them as an "in" for getting started, while also allowing the listed players to frequent their typical haunts.

The more organized form of committee I've seen worked because the organization had in-guild promotion as an incentive. We don't really have that here.

Aya · **03-26-2015, 05:06 PM**

(03-26-2015, 04:46 PM)Bryn Wrote: We could always utilise /shout and party finder to advertise these events.

Edit: What Verad said! ^_^

Okay, I'm going to modify what I just said in my previous post a bit.Â I do think there may be a useful idea here in the realm of "Mentors".

If we could post a well maintained list of active RPers who are approachable and like to meet and help new players, that could be very useful to maintain in the introductions or making connections forum.

Just a half dozen to dozen people each with brief character descriptions:

Aya Foxheart - Ul'dah based barmaid.

Provided that everyone on the list is actually active and suited, and able to make the time for the new players who contact them, we could probably actually make it make it a bit easier for people to get into the flow of things.

Melkire · **03-26-2015, 05:10 PM**

(03-26-2015, 05:05 PM)Verad Wrote: The most organization I'd suggest would be for interested parties to designate themselves as being receptive to new players and indicate where and when they tend to RP. That way new players can be pointed to them as an "in" for getting started, while also allowing the listed players to frequent their typical haunts.

This is something I'd definitely like to see. Search Info would be a good place for this in-game (it's already sort of used that way, when folks designate themselves as "Roleplayer, Walk-up Friendly!"), but something here on the forums to designate the "receptive" would be useful. Maybe a stickied directory of such people, to go up on the Welcome Desk board? Make a thread, provide a template, folks post to sign up, to update their info, or to request to step down?

I'm on board for making said sticky if folks think it's worthwhile.

Aris · **03-26-2015, 05:12 PM**

As a roleplayer finding it difficult to break into the community, I love the sound of a welcoming committee.

Edit: ^ Such a directory would be very helpful. Smile

FreelanceWizard · **03-26-2015, 05:15 PM**

Long ago -- specifically, back when 2.0 was in beta -- the RPC had a Mentor Program, run by Ellie. The idea was that people would register to be mentors, then a new player could contact them via PM or tell to get mentored, brought into the RP community, etc. With Ellie stepping down as a mod, some other issues the program had (mentors using it to recruit for their FCs instead of mentoring, mentees disappearing, mentees asking for mentors rather than proactively selecting one, etc.), and the RPC's move under my leadership into more of a "community resource" role rather than a "community maker" role, we retired the initiative. So, one interested in starting such a thing up again might want to review that thread and consider any improvements or changes.

So, with that said, I'm happy to sticky any threads people have for long-term initiatives (whether constructed by a mod or not) and certainly don't mind, say, writing some guidelines for effective use of the Making Connections forum. Smile

#magicAdminHat

Melkire · **03-26-2015, 05:39 PM**

Looking over the Mentorship thread, I think a fundamental cause of its problems might have been that it was, simply put, too much.

I'm thinking just a listing of character names, their availability (days of the week/time of the day), and where they often be found in-game. That's all you really need to provide an out-of-character hook for new roleplayers such as Aris to get involved in-character.

I'll use Aya as an example, not because I'm volunteering her for anything, but because the barmaid concept she went with for a time had her character firmly rooted to a certain location.

"Hi, my character's name is Aya, I'm usually in the Quicksand (Ul'dah's Adventurer's Guild) on such-and-such days at such-and-such times. I play a barmaid."

That would be it; everything else that the Mentorship Program had seems, imo, extraneous. With this, though, you'd have a listing of social, available people who have volunteered themselves as potential starting-points for other characters. New members check the sticky, go "oooh, Aya seems like the kind of character mine could talk to, and so does ____" and from there it's a hop, skip, and a jump towards getting involved with this community.

...I know, I know, I went against my own advice and went into detail instead of making a separate thread. Whoopseedaisy.

I'll see if I can't draft up a sticky thread along these lines and give it a trial run.

Aya · **03-26-2015, 05:50 PM**

I think it would be a great idea! My only real strong advice I've already mentioned, and I'll just re-iterate:

1) The descriptions should really be brief, easy to digest, to just give people a quick idea of who is out there for them to meet.Â No paragraphs of detail Smile

2) The list should be actively maintained.Â Having a dead-end list of people who were once upon a time active and friendly but aren't any more is probably worse than no list at all.

I'm definitely happy to be on it, even if I only barmaid a fraction of the time I used to, its still a particular pleasure of mine to help new players get their feet Smile

Tiergan · **03-26-2015, 05:50 PM**

(03-26-2015, 05:02 PM)Aya Wrote: I've spent a lot of my time on Balmung trying to connect with and meet new RPers: its one of the main reasons for the barmaid RP that I do on Aya.Â But there's only so much one person can do, and in the end I don't think you can ever fully remove the onus being on new players, that's just how it is when it comes to meeting people.

I think I may have worded myself a little weird, but I didn't mean to imply that we take away responsibility from new people to arrange a meet up. It's not anyone's job to hunt down and fish up RP for new people after all. I just think newbie and not-newbie should be meet each other halfway in terms of getting together for RP.

I feel like encouraging a community culture where if you post a new person's Looking For RP thread saying "Yes, I will totally RP with you." we actually take that one step further by either PMing that person with "Here are the days/times I am on and free. I'm pretty much always [x] location all the time when I'm RPing." OR "I'm online these days/times - if you are free one of these days we can totally meet up and do things." would be ideal.

Saying "I'm always up for RP! Hit me up if you see me in game!" - while kind (and I'm earnestly not trying to slam on anyone who's done this before because I have 100% done this in the past too), ultimately doesn't really help folks because it doesn't list what timezone they are, when they're free, where you can find them, etc.

I agree with Freelance that a mentor system may not work out as well as it sounds. It's great in theory, but every time I've seen an RP initiative for a mentor system in an RP community, or even in some guilds I've been in - it hasn't ever worked out with great success.

It could just be as simple a stickied thread like Osric mentioned that lists people who are up for newbie-RP, their day/times when they are usually free, and inviting folks to PM them if they'd like to RP sometime.

Though I do also think that if you sign up for that thread of "new-person friendly" you should also:

1) Not use it as an FC recruitment drive.
2) Sign up being aware that all the new people may have lore-beliefs that may not align with yours at all. You might have to just be very flexible and receptive at least for the first meeting. (AKA, you don't like WHM RPers. Newbie is a WHM RPer, etc, etc.)

[Edit: Whoops, Osric is already rolling with it. AWESOME o/]

Domri Blackblade · **03-26-2015, 05:52 PM**

(03-26-2015, 05:39 PM)Melkire Wrote: ...I know, I know, I went against my own advice and went into detail instead of making a separate thread. Whoopseedaisy.

Show Content

I would be interested in that idea, either way.

Ermine · **03-26-2015, 05:59 PM**

A big thing I get from RPC that folks might not realize is provided; is the ability to see that there is a thriving community. This isn't the only place where folks congregate to talk about the game, or about role play in it - it's not the only place, but it's a pretty good place.

I can look and browse free companies to see what's what - I can see what sounds good, I can look at server events to see what's being hosted. It's not EVERYTHING (it can't be) but it's plenty, and even if I can't attend I can see that they're happening - maybe when there's one I -can- attend, I can take steps to be there.

Ultimately, if I want to participate in RP, I have to show up and actively be a part - whether it's an RP Free Company with a thematic I like, or a like-minded group of folks who want to write stories in Eorzea and beyond is what RPC is for, so I can find these sorts of things to be a part of them.

So, as someone not really in the community site, or in the RP communities the site can be as a store front for, that's what I come here for! Ok, back to lurking with me thank you

Sophia_Grave · **03-26-2015, 06:02 PM**

I feel like the bad guy saying this, but I feel like its up to the individual to break into RP themselves, rather than the community's job.

Don't get me wrong-- we certainly have to make people feel welcomed and comfortable enough to RP, but we already do that. We RP just about everywhere aside from moar donuts, and we have this great site and wiki as a resource that holds tons of open FCs to shop through and look at. Newbies come through all the time asking about lore and RP etiquette, and those threads always, always get diverse, encouraging, and constructive answers.

I suppose the issue I want to avoid is having to coordinate too much for others. Its an absolute pain trying to manage people who seem to want good RP handed to them. I see it all the time: here, in my FC, and hell, I fall into that trap myself more often then I care to admit. RP isn't something one just signs up for; its a team effort. Its hard and completely undo-able without putting forth the effort.

I think the best thing we can do, as individuals anyway, is to make a real effort to follow-up and be open to strangers or newer RPers. People like Faye, who responds warmly to nearly every single Welcome Desk thread, or Aya, who by this point is as much a part of the Quicksand as Momodi, come to mind. Events like the Grindstone too, that occur regularly and are completely open to anyone willing to give it a go.

If we had just a little more of that, I feel like we wouldn't need a whole mentorship thing.

Klynzahr · **03-26-2015, 06:10 PM**

(03-26-2015, 05:39 PM)Melkire Wrote: *Great ideas*

I really agree with Melkire's ideas here, keep it simple and assessable with no long term commitments implied.

I do think that it will be very important to keep basic information about each mentor up to date.

1) Like others have mentioned only a brief character description is needed, but it should include their full in game name at least.

2) Availability is very important. As others have stated, offering to wide of an availability window is actually not very helpful. -For example, I am available every week night but generally spend some of them leveling my alt or crafting. If I were to list my availability as "Weeknights after 10pm PST" and some newcomer waited up for me three nights in a row, while I was somewhere else, it would only be discouraging.-

Maybe instead of listing everyone's full schedule of availability, we could suggest that potential RP mentors set aside one or two 'time slots' per week for the purpose of outreach RP, and then make every possible effort to be at their chosen location IC at those times.

3) This brings me to point three. In order to function properly, mentors would need to be responsible about updating their posts and someone would need to occasionally give it a look over and prune out any retired mentors.

I guess my biggest point is that if it is not functional and/or fails to produce reliable results, newbies will just give up on it.

Domri Blackblade · **03-26-2015, 06:14 PM**

(03-26-2015, 06:02 PM)Apl_Juice Wrote: I feel like the bad guy saying this, but I feel like its up to the individual to break into RP themselves, rather than the community's job.

Don't get me wrong-- we certainly have to make people feel welcomed and comfortable enough to RP, but we already do that. We RP just about everywhere aside from moar donuts, and we have this great site and wiki as a resource that holds tons of open FCs to shop through and look at. Newbies come through all the time asking about lore and RP etiquette, and those threads always, always get diverse, encouraging, and constructive answers.

I suppose the issue I want to avoid is having to coordinate too much for others. Its an absolute pain trying to manage people who seem to want good RP handed to them. I see it all the time: here, in my FC, and hell, I fall into that trap myself more often then I care to admit. RP isn't something one just signs up for; its a team effort. Its hard and completely undo-able without putting forth the effort.

I think the best thing we can do, as individuals anyway, is to make a real effort to follow-up and be open to strangers or newer RPers. People like Faye, who responds warmly to nearly every single Welcome Desk thread, or Aya, who by this point is as much a part of the Quicksand as Momodi, come to mind. Events like the Grindstone too, that occur regularly and are completely open to anyone willing to give it a go.

If we had just a little more of that, I feel like we wouldn't need a whole mentorship thing.

I guess I don't feel like it has to be some sort of IC hook up alone where we serve up the RP to someone, but more like a friendly resource they can feel comfortable to approach and talk to. I don't know, I guess to me one friend goes a long way in at least getting the foot in the door. Perhaps, I am a bit idealist!

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The RPC and You: A Discussion

RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes