@Lady Amalthea What is Metagaming exactly?

@Wick Considering you have been on the forum for an extended period of time with so many posts I have to ask if you are being serious or just being sarcastic at this time.

If you are being serious, I feel you need to read Rping 101: The Beginners Guide To Role Play

If you are being sarcastic however, well I will just keep that train of thought to myself because it breaks the forum rules.

@Lady Amalthea

Yes I was being serious. I just use common sense and common courtesy, but I'm unfamiliar with all of the terminology. Thanks for that link it will help me learn what a few things are called.

@Wick No worries and forgive the short attitude on my part. Being on the forum makes me default to figuring someone is being an ass when they ask a question than serious. ><!!! Hope it helps, have any questions, feel free to drop me a Pm.

@naptime The roleplaying community is full of people who A) are too fickle to maintain a long-term RP and B) are socially-awkward and can't handle confrontation. This kind of ghosting happens all the time to everyone. Just scroll back through the bitching thread and you'll see there's tons of complaints like that. So it's probably not your fault. :) In the future, if you're starting an RP with someone unknown, try having a look at their post history. You can usually recognise the serial ghosters pretty quickly.

@naptime They do it here too—I could list the ten or twenty who have done it to me personally—so thanks for the disclaimer, lest we made a totally different assumption.

If my opinion matters, I think blaming yourself is far more admirable than tending to blame them. Even if it wrecks your mental state, that's the attitude one needs to get better at writing, which, in theory, would make others more excited to stick by you through your partnerships. (Some people of course are just irreconcilable. Cunts.)

@pugbuttersee, my worry is that this hyper-invested attitude of mine has made me seem intensely clingy and neurotic, and that this is what is scaring off my potential RP partners, even moreso than my amateur writing and unflattering characters.

but like here's the caveat okay
i can only too quickly make the admission that i myself have historically been guilty of serial disappearing. I don't want you to get the wrong idea and think i've never done this (especially what you outlined in your own post, with people leaving profiles and then never showing up). in my case, it was the result of an unstable mental/emotional state (i am bipolar, and used to go through periods where i would get bursts of energy and join all of these things, stop sleeping, etc then find myself hopelessly overwhelmed and exhausted when it ended), sudden complications in my outside life, or writing-based anxiety (which i struggle a great deal with). but, look

- i'm not saying my disappearing acts weren't shitty -

during these times i broke down and left the whole SITE (this was gaia, which wasn't primarily a RPing site), you know, i wouldn't be cheerfully hopping around other threads or - god forbid - joining new RPs
i left the INTERNET, i would be wallowing sunken-faced in my room pouring hours in to animal crossing or sitting in inpatient or something
i usually SAID something before i left, especially if my partner and i were already exchanging replies
i didn't just fucking--
...but i understand how people can bite off more than they can chew, and end up sacrificing whatever they're the least caught up in
especially if they haven't posted IC yet, if they just have a profile or something, i can see why they might just avoid saying anything. whatever.
it's still hurtful. and it still messes people (you, hi, you're a person) up. And they really ought to at least say something...

Since I'm new here and it's easier for me to recognize all the differences because of that, I've got a chunk to drop here.

I hate having the time to finally write but finding no motivation to do so even if there are posts to be done.

Inversely I hate having the motivation and interest and ideas but then having no time to put anything down.

It's like sometimes the world is working against you whether you have time but lack the focus or drive. Or you have the interest and energy but time is just not on your side. It really sucks and probably happens in the real world and not just with writing/roleplaying. Like right now I have several hours to myself but all I want to do is make interest checks instead of making posts I need to do.

Seriously brain, work with me here!

@naptime you sound very melodramatic over something that isn't really a loss at all

sometimes personalities just don't click. being up front and honest here: some people annoy me purely by how they talk. or what they talk about. i just have no interest in it. sometimes writing styles don't match up; either you were expecting something else, the length of the posts just isn't enough, or the post is just riddled with holes or low quality responses. whatever really. it doesn't matter. if someone decides to stop roleplaying with you then that's not your decision, but it's theirs.

and yeah i can kinda see why you'd get mad/upset whatever, but really, consider it a show of character. do you really want to rp with someone that has such little decency?

and that's coming from someone who really does have such little decency. i drop partners all the time. sometimes i tell them, sometimes i dont. most often it's because i think someone will write back some dumb shit that i'm not interested in hearing. i'm not interested in trying again with a different plot or whatever. i decided to pull out for a reason and that reason is the same as why i don't wanna continue talking.

would you really wanna continue roleplaying with someone like me or even talk to me some more? lol

Since I'm new here and it's easier for me to recognize all the differences because of that, I've got a chunk to drop here.

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis [+]

Somewhere I read that GOOD writing consists of using words that are readable. Not over the top words, where you're scraping the synonym barrel for the most unused, unappreciated, unheard-of word to toss in your roleplay. I get it. You want to sound intelligent, but just use proper grammar and don't repeat the word "softly" for your every adjective. A good roleplay is one you can read and be ABSORBED into. Googling ten words a paragraph is not immersive.

I can agree with this. If someone is a good writer they shouldn't just pluck words out of the dictionary but use unique words that can help emphasize the scene.

In one of my roleplays I used this line, "Their minacious laugh is more than enough confirmation".

minacious
mɪˈneɪʃəs/Submit
adjective-rare
menacing; threatening.

While the word may not be known in that simple line, if you read the entire scene you would already have a vibe for the scene. So even without looking up in the dictionary you will be able to gauge the approximate meaning. But I also used it once, not 10 times because it sounds cool.

You know what really grinds my gears? The pattern I see in every thread.

GM: This is a vampire roleplay.
Player: Okay but can I be a werewolf?

GM: This is a Italian mafia roleplay.
Player: Okay but can I be a Russian gangster?

GM: This is a roleplay where everyone is a villain.
Player: Okay but can I be a hero?

I don't know if it's just fun to play the odd man out, if it's because everyone wants a unique character, or if nobody knows how to write a character that isn't based off of all the protagonists they've read, but it is starting to seem like half the characters I see are just the writer's attempts to go against the grain of the roleplay.

@DeadbeatWalking 'lead character syndrome' where your character has to be special and unique and totally not the lead character but it definitely is.

Not here, but another site. GM doesn't show up for days on end, constantly misses deadlines by miles, co-GMs are just as useless, and when I call them on it, I "have a bad attitude." It's at the point where I'm really tempted to start a competing RP just to show the incompetent how to do it.

@Odin Which is generally the basic learning pattern for most of us. Wether it is today, tomorrow or in the past most of us have been or is that way and or on that level. In general it is so that you have a easier time to lead and push the plot.

I think that is just a way for most of us to learn and develop our plot pushing skills OR you know get a sense of control. Not everyone enjoys feeling like a leader or a main character. It is just the way it rolls sometimes and I dare that we are sometimes being slightly pushed towards direction by others.

We're the middle of July, the period where you'd think most people would be free, and activity is more scarce than ever.

I'm usually not one to complain about player activity, but it's hard to stay invested in a hobby when you and the GM seem to be the only involved ones in any given RP. Or when people say they'll post, then don't. When you have to prod them ten million times for anything to progress.

Literally all of the RPs I'm in are ones that I enjoy thoroughly, but I seem to be the only one sometimes.

When you realize that you're talking to yourself and nobody is actually interested in your shit, haha.

Rpers or Gms phoning in their posts. I'm getting tired of it. If you aren't paying attention to posts, not trying to move thing forward for yourself despite having plenty to respond to, just using your post as a craptastic placeholder - just drop the RP. Seriously. I understand having to push out a post every so often if you aren't inspired or on your game but if you have been in an Rp for a year and every last post is just the same thing over and over again, you aren't trying, just leave. This isn't directed at someone who is stuck, can't post more, etc. That is understandable. It is when you see someone posting great elsewhere or know they can do better because they have done it before but have just all out given up. It's one thing to have a slump but, seriously, if most of your posts are just you phoning it in, there is nothing wrong with pulling out. In fact, it's better if you do.

@Lady Amalthea Sounds like my work! People working past their due date, not contributing to the business, and using their job as a social meet up rather than making any money. If I can imagine how that pissing me off as the same way you're annoyed with your RP players, then I do feel sorry for you.