That's why it's better to challenge yourself, Master Free, then move to casual Master that and then Advanced

free is good, the only problem is its all recycled with animes and zombies. then when something new if up or a new GM steps up no one goes for it.

I'd agree that Free it has it's good points, and it's popularity speaks for itself, but as a section it's really not for me. Like you said, there's a lot of recycled ideas. And personally, the grammar, spelling and general standard of posts in there range from making my eyes bleed and up. The comment about something new coming up and no-one going for it could apply to any section as well. There's a lot of very unusual, original and different ideas all over the forum, but often people aren't willing to take a chance on them. I'm not saying I'm a saint and I give everything a try. I'm as fussy in my interests as the next guy, but those ideas are out there.

That's why it's better to challenge yourself, Master Free, then move to casual Master that and then Advanced

I've never felt the need to participate in an RP in free, and I'm comfortable where I am in Casual. If an RP came up in Advanced that I was interested in/wasn't already full, then I'd go for it. It wouldn't make me feel as though I had to stop posting in my Cas RP's though. I like the system of having different 'tier' RP's, but I do feel like it creates a lot of arbitrary snobbery and people doubting/questioning their abilities on the guild as a whole.

A lot of the snobbery is more than likely just word of mouth, like "Advanced being full of elitists", so when new people go - they assume being elitist is the norm. Honestly, I never really ran into any elitists in Advanced. Douchenozzles? Yes. But otherwise, it was perfectly fine to me. It's pretty easy to adjust to Advanced, or any section really. Though, I've never done Free and have no plans on doing so.

Silver is right, I made an Assassin type RP, and decided that was not it's home so, i had It moved to Casual

Even three hundred words takes you into Advanced territory.

No, it doesn't. If you give me 300 crap words I'm probably quickly inviting you OUT of my Advanced RP. 300 great words that fit the narration and scene to a T? Now we're talking. We do damage to the idea of Advanced when it's measured out in word counts and paragraphs. What generally marks Advanced from the rest? Not length, not skill...just the level in which the RPer in question CARES about what they put forth. This isn't the "Read/React" posting of Free or even most Casual. (That 'User' thinks IS roleplaying, and folks like azarhiro are uber-comfortable with.) Does your post contribute to the narrative flow? Are you putting things in your post your other players can take and work with? Are you setting up story, or just consuming the story presented to you thus far? Are you trying to introduce new story elements, trying to keep the story and game fresh? All important. All have nothing to do with length.

<Snipped quote by HeySeuss> No, it doesn't. If you give me 300 crap words I'm probably quickly inviting you OUT of my Advanced RP. 300 great words that fit the narration and scene to a T? Now we're talking. We do damage to the idea of Advanced when it's measured out in word counts and paragraphs. What generally marks Advanced from the rest? Not length, not skill...just the level in which the RPer in question CARES about what they put forth. This isn't the "Read/React" posting of Free or even most Casual. (That 'User' thinks IS roleplaying, and folks like azarhiro are uber-comfortable with.) Does your post contribute to the narrative flow? Are you putting things in your post your other players can take and work with? Are you setting up story, or just consuming the story presented to you thus far? Are you trying to introduce new story elements, trying to keep the story and game fresh? All important. All have nothing to do with length.

HEY! i put this up so i could understand. and so far i can understand it snt for me. no need to be rude

<Snipped quote by Ruby> HEY! i put this up so i could understand. and so far i can understand it snt for me. no need to be rude

Okay, I'm a little confused how you got something disparaging out of that.

This is what 300 words looks like (if you don't get what they are talking about).

<Snipped quote by HeySeuss> No, it doesn't. If you give me 300 crap words I'm probably quickly inviting you OUT of my Advanced RP. 300 great words that fit the narration and scene to a T? Now we're talking. We do damage to the idea of Advanced when it's measured out in word counts and paragraphs. What generally marks Advanced from the rest? Not length, not skill...just the level in which the RPer in question CARES about what they put forth. This isn't the "Read/React" posting of Free or even most Casual. (That 'User' thinks IS roleplaying, and folks like azarhiro are uber-comfortable with.) Does your post contribute to the narrative flow? Are you putting things in your post your other players can take and work with? Are you setting up story, or just consuming the story presented to you thus far? Are you trying to introduce new story elements, trying to keep the story and game fresh? All important. All have nothing to do with length.

Well, when I say '300 words' I really mean 300 good words that have been spell/grammar checked and capitalized properly. I also tend to mean 'it moves the plot forward.' But you knew that.

<Snipped quote by Ruby> Well, when I say '300 words' I really mean 300 good words that have been spell/grammar checked and capitalized properly. I also tend to mean 'it moves the plot forward.' But you knew that.

Yeah, sorry. It seemed to me too many were missing the heart of the matter, and your '300' just triggered me. Although grammar/spelling can slack a little if the writing is good. I knew you knew it, too, but at least folks like User can see it and hopefully understand it better. If you approach the concept of Advanced as length/grammar/spelling requirements first, you missed it. The boat left, and you weren't anywhere near the dock.

<Snipped quote by HeySeuss> Yeah, sorry. It seemed to me too many were missing the heart of the matter, and your '300' just triggered me. Although grammar/spelling can slack a little if the writing is good. I knew you knew it, too, but at least folks like User can see it and hopefully understand it better. If you approach the concept of Advanced as length/grammar/spelling requirements first, you missed it. The boat left, and you weren't anywhere near the dock.

Well, I pointed out the 300 word thing because I've been to casual and a lot of people write very good quality posts that qualify for advanced anyway. That point was mostly aimed at someone that writes a quality post already and is thinking of stepping up.

<Snipped quote by Ruby>

Well, I pointed out the 300 word thing because I've been to casual and a lot of people write very good quality posts that qualify for advanced anyway. That point was mostly aimed at someone that writes a quality post already and is thinking of stepping up.

Indeed. If a few of those casual players could migrate over to advanced, it'd be a much livelier place. There's more than a little talent hiding due, no doubt, to perceived ideas of elitism and lacking skill.

The way I see it, the sections are based on two things: Time and Ability.

Free consists of two different types of RPs, from what I've seen. The first is the speed posting RP, which we are all familiar with. The other is someone's attempt to put as much information into a single post as they can, often only sizing up to about a paragraph per post. I'm in an RP of the former variety on another site, and it is quite enjoyable when I actually have the time to jump in.

Casual consists of those RPs where people who can write, or have good imaginations, go to RP. It's for those people who don't have all the free time in the world, or those who like a little bit of volume in their posts, or for those (such as myself) who are not writers by nature. I'm much more familiar and comfortable with numbers than words, and that's just who I am.

Advanced has a bunch of people who either have little time, and are unable to frequently post, yet enjoy great volume in their posts. It is also for those who have that knack for writing- for whom creating stories and putting words together to form beautiful stories comes naturally. I wish I had such an ability, and I've always been envious of those who can, but words just don't flow for me like they do for others. That's just the way it is.

The section you tend to be in speaks volumes about you as a person, when you get down to it.

For me, 'free' allows people to 'assume' what is happening. You rely more on one another to already know and accept what is happening outside the short quick posts. In some cases, you don't ever explain anything going on around you. It's more "two characters together" than it is "two characters and the world around them".

Where as advance, which I prefer, actually makes people 'set the scene'. We do not go in blind and assuming we understand one another and what's going on at all times. We have to detail out our characters, the setting, etc. It helps build a bigger world that can be seen by both minds and not just assumed by both. We play multiple people and dig into who they are as a person inside the RP. Instead of it being "Two Characters" it's more like 'A World'.

Like many advanced roleplayers, I started at what is considered 'free'. It's natural to, when you start, not grasp the concept of higher levels of 'literacy' on roleplaying sites, or not feel it's important or needed. However, like many, as we got older and learned more from those around us, we begin seeing the joy of 'details' and deeper 'collaboration'. We suddenly see ourselves creating a world.

As an author of actual novels, I see a difference (quite a huge one) between writing a story and collaborative writing. In a story, I know everything that will happen at all times because I'm doing it all myself. When I write a advance roleplay, there are surprises and things happen that I didn't know would. It changes the dynamic of the flow of the roleplay. We work off one another to build a story together where we never know what might happen next (excluding those who actually enjoy pre-planning), where as if we wrote a story alone, we know everything that will happen and nothing really changes. Instead of creating a world alone, I am creating a world with someone else.

^.^ Everyone is free to roleplay as they like. No judgement. ^.^

Also, to people who think advance writers either don't have time to post or unable to post frequently, trust me, that is not the case.
I write at 121+ words a minute using TWO fingers (excluding the shift key with my thumbs).
Many advance writers, while true, may be lacking in time, many others can throw out 10+ posts a day when they are sitting down because they are fast typists and they can quickly work off what they are given.
Advance doesn't mean 'slow' or 'lack of time', it just means we like detail and depth in our stories. Hehe.

to be honest I've stayed away from advanced rps so far because I don't have the patience to read through huge posts everyday, but with people saying that the posting rate is slower I think I might go and give it a try. right now I tend to hang out in the casual section, and it's a good fit but like I said I'm willing to go give advanced a try. However, what @Miss Gallagher mentioned about creating a world or whatever with other people-I find that I am only really comfortable doing that kind of stuff with friends and people I'm close with, and none of my friends from a different site use this website so yeah. Me and a close friend of mine are doing something that kind of reminds me of advanced roleplay actually, at least in the context of what Miss Gallagher said.

Basically, this story thing started out as a roleplay we made together on a different website. it didn't even start out as a forum roleplay actually, but that's not really the point. we made the plot, and we rp'd it for a while with our group of friends and the plot progressed pretty nicely. we didn't regularly rp every single day, it was more of when everyone was available and such. anyway, we've done a lot with the roleplay plot so far. well, this one day I had the thought to turn the roleplay into a story-like an actual book/novel type thing, not just a mere roleplay. what happened was both my friend and I listed out the plot that we had planned and everything, we both did a lot of character brainstorming based off characters that were actually in the roleplay and stuff like that. Right now we're doing the actual writing part-I write one chapter, she writes one chapter, and we alternate. But whenever my character from the original roleplay starts talking to my friend's in her chapter, she gets me on the google doc and I fill in the dialogue because i know my character the best, and vice versa, but we both control every single character in the story-it's just that we try to make sure what we are making the characters do fits what they're actually like.

so would that be considered like 1x1 advanced rp, or collaborative writing, or both? sorry if that explanation was confusing lol