I don't agree that every prospective game is worth sharing (god knows I've pitched some drivel) and some ideas are so (ahem) un-nuanced that they do come across as actually funny, but I really appreciate the thread. I'll be the first to wax lyrical about the faults of RPing as a format for storytelling, but it definitely has its upsides, among which are meeting the other lovely weirdos who're interested in the same shit as me. I maintain that some games are perhaps less subtle than others and are laughable to players who prefer something perhaps a little more maybe 'proper', but a lot of that laughter comes from a sense of recognising oneself; I remember when I thought the grimdark pointlessly antagonistic loner archetype was absolutely the dog's bollocks. When I see one of those archetypes and raise a smile, it's not laughing at the player that wants to play that - it's recognising a piece of myself that once wanted exactly what that player's gunning for, although I'm now looking for something else. It doesn't mean I don't want a particular thing in games I run and even participate in (I do, and there are things I don't want, too), but I don't begrudge people that want something that I don't, or want that and will probably move onto something that I consider, yes, more akin to traditional fiction as we read it in books. For me, that's the goal - writing fiction that is readable and makes sense, while maintaining the 'everybody is a main character and everybody is telling a story' aspect that is unique to us. For others that want something else - more power to their elbow, even if we probably aren't compatible writing-partners.
It depends on attitude: I want a game to sink my teeth into, develop a character, work out what I want to explore from the game and what perspective my character can bring to the overall story, and benefit from other players doing the same. That's why I join the games I do with the players I do, and, yes, broadly stick in the section that I do. Other people want something freer, less constrained, and faster - which is fine, if not my thing. Still more are looking for a compromise between the two which is sacrilege, which is obviously more than fine. This is why I particularly like how the forum divides its sections, even if I don't like how 'advanced' sounds somehow 'better' than 'free'. For me, advanced is definitely better than free, but I take it, judging by the healthy boards in free, that the players there see something in it for them, which is great.
I'm pretty glad to have found a place, and it's worth saying, that most of the actual discussion of games and players here has been fairly positive, or at the very least constructive. The only exception I can think of that I ever saw got blocked - and I knew them as a certifiable asshat from another forum I was on years ago (same username, same awful, arrogant attitude), so the staff did the right thing in my mind and blocked the every-living fuck out of them. Even when people submit Interest-Checks that clearly aren't going to float in a given section, either because the idea doesn't tend to lend itself toward what this forum does or because somebody is pitching something in the advanced section (where I hang out) that's riddled with SPaG issues or is clearly under-developed for the audience, when people pitch in to criticise, it tends to be constructive criticism geared towards helping people have a better shot at creating the game they want and not sadistic attempts to tear people down. Again, the only exception I've seen has been in the Spam section (meh) or in response to the aforementioned certifiable asshat who was then deemed themselves to be in the wrong and subsequently blocked anyway. I don't think I've ever seen public unpleasantness in the sections of this forum that directly relate to RPing, which means either I've been lucky, or we don't take the piss with regards to the staff's liberal attitudes.
Thanks Mr and Ms Staff-family for trusting us, and thanks everybody else for pretty much not fucking that trust up. <3
Kirah