Mod, News anchor and RP Fanatic Walks Back In(stage left this time)

Yes, I'm back! Hi! My school's firewalls had a funky glich and blocked the guild for only a couple of days. Now, everything's back to normal and I've returned with the four winds and the wrath of the Almight God. Huzza! I would like to apologize if I have messed up any roleplays with my absense, but things happen and real life should always come first before the internet (remember that psychos).

Members Demand RPBs (continued from last week....and the week before)

The results of the pole regarding the potential reinstatement of the RPB forum is only somewhat conclusive. However, after going back and searching through the previous AP articles, it turns out the poll results from WoD's original Bringin' Back the Arena thread were actually opposite from what I first thought. The majority of the previous vote for bringing back the Arena and not against it as I mislead you to be. Wow, I guess I make a dang good journalist to already mislead people, eh?

Anyway, I will still post the poll results for this recent thread:

Yay 7- 70.00%
Nay 3- 30.00%
Abstain (No Opinion/Opt Out) 0- 0%

The majority still holds it in favor. The poll has been physically removed.

Study of RP Death
~Candi

As you may or may not be aware I conducted a survey regarding roleplay death within the guild. After a few weeks of accepting submissions and collecting data I have finally amassed a decent amount of responses from which I have learned some things.

First a fore most, what constitutes RP death anyway? Simply put, a roleplay has died when no one posts in it anymore. There is no defined interval of inactivity either - a month is fairly conclusive - but RPs have been known to kick back into life even after that. But, on the fundamental level of things a roleplay is dead if it is no longer actively posted in.

I initially set out with two goals in mind - to understand what everyone considered a dead roleplay to be and to seek out ways to help stave off that death for as long as possible.

Working towards goal number two I examined possible causes of RP death - do certain genres die faster? Does level of roleplay attribute to death rates? Is there a common underlying cause of death?

It turns out, not surprisingly, that genre and death are not inter-related. As for cause of death - there were a lot of them, and non of them were unexpected. Loss of interest, player boredom, authours suddenly disappearing (or players), players getting into fights and the story taking wild turns that impress no one are all causes of RP death. But what can we do about preventing it?

Many suggestions were made to this end as well. Posting in the OOC and private messaging players to keep them interested and remind them when it's come time for them to think about posting, planning the RP out a bit before hand with the players helps keep interest, warn people before you go absent for a long time or leave so that they don't sit waiting for you to post for weeks and cause the RP to die, write your character out if you are going away for a long time. As the authour you need to be active in keeping players interest peaked and helping them keep at it even when the story hits a low. And as an authour, if you decide to leave you should either appoint a replacement authour or leave enough information in the OOC that the players can continue if they want.

((I also posted an article here with more thoughts on keeping RPs alive))

It's also an interesting thing to note that the average life expectancy of any given role play is 1 month, at least in the case of the responses I received to my survey.



Doctors Propose Order of Treatment in Case of Pandemic
Candi

Recently, a report has been released by a team of physicians that outlined a possible emergency response plan in the event of a health care emergency (such as a flu-pandemic). This plan is essentially a list which detailed the order of preference for treatment.

During a pandemic health care utilities are strained. Machinery is constantly in use and beds are in short order as well as doctors. So a proposition has been made, not for the first time, to instate an emergency guideline for determining who gets to essentially live and die in such a crisis.

The basic guideline is a list of those who will be refused treatment if the facilities are strained and a decision has to be made. This includes those over the age of 85, people suffering severe trauma, those with severe mental impairment and those with chronic illnesses. This has raised many ethical concerns in terms of discrimination against the elderly, however at this point it is merely a proposition that has been put on the table as a suggestion to hospitals to either use these guidelines or develop their own such that if a crisis does arise health care professionals will be prepared to deal with it immediately.

More here.



One from each roleplay forum!

The Legends of the Seven- Beginners
the last silver dragon - Casual
Nyxia - Advanced




If you wish to advertise your roleplay here, I will let you. Just PM me a link to your roleplay along with a brief description. I will post up to five (5) ads under this section. The first five I get will be the ones posted here. If your roleplay is currently displayed under the Hottest Roleplays section of the article, then I will NOT advertise it. I will PM you a notification of this as these things may happen upon accident and it would be unfair for TWO links to your thread to be posted in ONE article.

A Study into Evil and Corruption *MATURE*
Brivta

" What is the nature of Evil and Corruption? Or, more importantly, what do your believe is the nature of Evil and Corruption? Attempt to survive in the heartless world of a small town dominated by such a force, learning insights about your character, humanity, and yourself."

Editor's Commentary- This roleplay greatly intrigued me. The title brought me back to an old debate that I've had several times with others and even my own pastor. This thread even got me started on creating a discussion in the OTD and so far, I'm quite amazed to see such philosophical thinking on this site. This is definitely one of the most well set up roleplays that I've seen on this board. The Preface is absolutely captivating and the backstory has set up an adventure that sucked me in like a magnet on speed. I look forward to roleplaying in this particular story and hope that more do too. Hats off to the author - Brivta.


Gladiators!! Fight for Freedom!!!
eferhilda

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