Truly Silly Belief - writing related

[AwesomeIncarnate]

Quantity, apparently, equals quality. Or so I am told.

This equation (let us denote it as Q = q , barring ISO) is very much incorrect.

I've been told that "one-liners are bad" by a person who claims to be a skilled and experienced writer - also a moderator in The Keep. The same has been told to me by a prominent member of Nexus Chat.

What has caused this erroneous theory to spawn? Surely people should be intelligent enough to realize this folly - the experienced ones, at least - leeway must be given to the new.

But "para-posting!". The people who cry out like that have never heard of the word "flow", apparently. Vented.

Anyway. Why ramble pointlessly in an effort to increase the size of your post? Truly one capable of conveying his or her meaning with a condensed post is admirable, in my eyes at least. For is that not writing, or roleplaying in general? To convey your meaning in a beautiful way? If one is capable of performing this task without blattering pointlessly and aimlessly...good work, I say. If I want to read about every minute and impertinent detail, I'll go read some Tolkien or Jordan (not to say they're bad writers - far be it for me to critisise their greatness, for truly their skill is considerable).

PS: Read some Pratchett. Discworld, I suggest.

[Agustus 'Von' Trace]

Been saying this for years man.  My suggestion: Just let it go.  Ignore em.

[Jason Baane]

Unfortunately freeform RP is full of people who like to think that they're accomplished writers and/or hold some sort of mastery of the English language.

What's even more unfortunate is that people are compelled to at least make an attempt to meet the standards of these elitists lest they be shunned. I am guilty of this myself: when I am normally role-playing, I will average at a full para or less. During a fight, I tend to try and match my opponent which suddenly becomes a real shit-sucker if it's a multi-para poster.

[Dalton]

*Puts a tally mark on a 'Rants About Para' counter on the wall*

[Sideus]

name and shame

[Lore'lai]

*Puts a tally mark on a 'Rants About Para' counter on the wall*

I bet there's a crap ton of tally marks on that wall too.

[Dalton]

I bet there's a crap ton of tally marks on that wall too.

... Wanna rant about how many tally marks there are?

[Rosery]

Mock not those who do one liners or those that para post. Both are fine forms of writing and for rp both work, it all depends on what you enjoy. I don't demand people para post, even though I almost always do, but I do it because I enjoy writing and tend to add in details that overall could likely be left out. I myself tend to avoid single line posters, if only because I find alot of them tend to bitch at me when my post takes 3-4 minutes to complete, but thats about my only reason.

Eh, reason for this, both are fine forms of posting, listen to Von, slap an ignore on the dumb asses. If a mod told you 1 lining was "Bad" that mod is setting a bad example in my opinion.

[Kitsune Fury]

I agree with the handsome guy.




No seriously, I agree with the OP. Been a supporter of that for years. Spamming words in just to make your post longer should be considered spam. ninety percent of the time they just repeat the same thing over and over, or blather on about how awesome their character is. It's disgusting ego stroking and I do wish it would stop. But eh, they're going to continue no matter what I say.

As for one liners? Everybody started with one liners. EVERYONE. I don't just mean on tK. I mean EVERYWHERE.

Admit it. You ALL did it.

So give the newbies a break. They're learning.

[Rosery]

I agree with the handsome guy.




No seriously, I agree with the OP. Been a supporter of that for years. Spamming words in just to make your post longer should be considered spam. ninety percent of the time they just repeat the same thing over and over, or blather on about how awesome their character is. It's disgusting ego stroking and I do wish it would stop. But eh, they're going to continue no matter what I say.

As for one liners? Everybody started with one liners. EVERYONE. I don't just mean on tK. I mean EVERYWHERE.

Admit it. You ALL did it.

So give the newbies a break. They're learning.

Rustikins, umm, what if the character's personality is egotistical and vain? Then wouldn't going on in a post about how great they are, with the character speaking this to others, be correctly following a characters personality?

[Kitsune Fury]

Rustikins, umm, what if the character's personality is egotistical and vain? Then wouldn't going on in a post about how great they are, with the character speaking this to others, be correctly following a characters personality?

Yes, if the CHARACTER is saying that.

Not the player.

What I mean is, that if the character's inner monologue is all "Man I'm so fucking awesome" or indeed tthey themSELVES are bragging that, that's fine.

But passage after passage of "the attack is utterly unstoppable and only a fool would try to run away because the attack is so powerufl and suchandsuchcharacternamefromJapan is incredibly powerful and he has all these items" over and over and over again is OOC character wankality.

And that's not acceptable.

[Jason Baane]

A good example, Rosery, would be someone that showed up in the Kingdom of Silvermoon and wound up really not doing much of consequence.

This person in question made a three-paragraph introduction in what we lovingly call a 'Prince Ali'  intro. The following 'rounds' were simply her cataloging her china doll, porcelain-like features in three paragraph articles each. What did she accomplish with these paragraphs? Nothing much. At least, nothing of consequence. She didn't talk to anyone. Heck; she didn't approach anyone, either.

I really don't care a whole lot anymore. I just ignore them and their attention whoring ways. However, the fact of the matter is that many people do find that somewhat insulting.

Another example is a user by the name of... well, let's just call him "user" since I doubt he would appreciate me saying his name behind his back. He will come out of nowhere with - I shit you not - twelve full paragraphs of uneeded fluff and bullshit that just spams the hell out of the screen. He thinks it's a sign of writing skill to be able to say the same things over and over. But really it's just a show of disrespect to spam the hell out of the screen with your character performing mundane, trivial actions. It's like saying "No one else in this room matters. Look at me."

Back when the Kingdom I care for was role-playing in Yahoo Chat under the Ayenee rules, the standard was a system called T1 - or Type-1. This was pretty much the style described in the Underkeep. At one point Ayenee had this retarded rule that if a defensive post during combat was not at least two-thirds the size of the attack action, it constituted a 'force hit' wherein the defensive player was assumed to be hit regardless. This lead to a particularly rampant epidemic of people looking to increase their post sizes through any means necessary because, frankly, it became vital to the combat mechanic.

I am not sure if The Underkeep ever had a rule like this, so I don't know if there's some metagame excuse in The Keep or not.

[Lore'lai]

... Wanna rant about how many tally marks there are?

Do I!

I mean, those tally marks are totally spamming up that wall. I wanted to hang porn up there, but now there's no room. I can't even see the damn wall anymore!

[Kill Boy]

I say good chap tally forth!

[Cattie]

Unfortunately freeform RP is full of people who like to think that they're accomplished writers and/or hold some sort of mastery of the English language.

What's even more unfortunate is that people are compelled to at least make an attempt to meet the standards of these elitists lest they be shunned. I am guilty of this myself: when I am normally role-playing, I will average at a full para or less. During a fight, I tend to try and match my opponent which suddenly becomes a real shit-sucker if it's a multi-para poster.

AAAHHHAHAHAHAHAHAAH.  Am I the only one that's tickled pink by irony?

[Jason Baane]

Durrhurr that was the point.

[Cattie]

The point was to slam yourself?

Then you win!

DURRHURR.

[Jason Baane]

Slamming myself - not so much. But you're free to take it for what you will.

[Acacia]

I think the problem here is that people are into themselves. They're so far up their own ass, they think they're good writers; they think we want to or should want to read their mammoth posts; they think their characters are the pinnacle of creative genius.

They're not. I'm not. You're not.

We could all use some humility - all of us. Even the guy who started this thread (whoever you are - I didn't read your name).

[Kill Boy]

That puppy humbles me.

[Lore'lai]

We could all use some humility - all of us. Even the guy who started this thread (whoever you are - I didn't read your name).

AwesomeIncarnate is, of course, his name.

Of Course. *adds tally*

[Sideus]

a lot of people in this thread should stop posting

(Cattie)

[Soja]

The key to good communication is saying as much as is needed in as brief a space as you can take up.

The people who are obsessed with the "superiority" of "para rp" are only deluding themselves. It works sometimes, it doesn't most of the time. Those who confine themselves to multiple full-posts ALL the time will earn carpal tunnel in vain, as I usually skip over those posts with only as much as I need to get the idea of what is happening.

I can only assume that most of the average player is the same. I don't give a damn about your personal fan-autobiographical-fiction.

[O'Borg]

'Quantity = Quality' is only true if your name is L Ron Hubbard.

'Skilled and experienced writer'...
We have a Stories forum. Tell them to put up or shut up.

[Ripraf]

"OMFG u post 2 big i not play wit u noob"

"Oh my God you suck at roleplaying with your single or two-line posts, noob."

lololol internetwar