I think I'll be closing things up shortly, for a multitude of reasons and after recommendation from some people. Things have gone mostly as I predicted they would here too. Working constantly on this thing has put my main project on hold and generally taken most of my time each day, and in the end a lot of that hard work was more or less for nothing, and is somewhat unappreciated. It's sort of something I'm not willing to deal with considering just being on this site has been detrimental to my physical and mental health for months now. Several people - even those on this site, just for the record - have been saying I'm better off without this place.
The amount of time I've worked on this role-play thus far is easily enough to have written the entire GRG plot as a novel. I even warned people back during the interest check phase not to take this for granted, because I could easily do this as a project of my own if I wanted to. Offering the project as something for people to share and enjoy, instead of just doing it myself, has turned into an inconvenience due to the lack of appreciation and investment with some people. I honestly figured it was worth if it people actually didn't take it for granted. Unfortunately, the few can ruin it for the many, and some people didn't really appreciate the depth this project has had so far -- IC and OOC alike, considering some didn't seem to even read a lot of the posts (or at least they gave no indication as such). My disappearance from the Discord - for technical reasons -
doesn't justify the lack of communication or feedback within group, since the OOC tab exists on the site for a reason and those who neglect to use it are simply lazy. If people were having issues here or questions then it was also
their responsibility to make me aware through the OOC, but only a portion of the group has made any real attempt to be communicative, and all of those people have expressed very positive opinions of this thread.
@Snagglepuss89@banjoanjoThe idea to make the transfer wasn't really my own, but rather something that was suggested to me due to several people really liking the way things have been going thus far and not wanting to see a good thing die just because I want to leave this place and due to some of the people in our group sort of killing it for the rest of us. Honestly though, I haven't decided yet if a transfer will even be happening, but considering I don't even remotely feel comfortable on this site - largely due to the quality of its community - and haven't for months I feel like it's for the best if I just move forward, whether I continue this project elsewhere - for those who truly appreciate it - or not. There's still a strong possibility I'll integrate the role-play's story fully into my main project eventually.
The flakiness, bad nature, and general superficiality of so many people on RPGuild just further emphasizes why role-plays seldom survive on this site -- I've been able to easily understand why the majority of the role-plays are dead here, instead of continuing or being finished, with just minor observation of the community since I joined, so I don't hold anything against myself for closing the thread. I don't feel like I made any real mistakes with the role-play either given how many people - both in and out of the group - liked my GM abilities from witnessing this project thus far, some of whom have asked to remain in contact with me now that I'm leaving this place. I've never struggled to make sure a role-play I ran work, assuming it didn't die due to flaky individuals vanishing, which happens here painfully often, and usually only happened on other sites I've seen if the site died as a whole. While this thread has been enjoyed a lot so far by those who appreciate it, despite barely even starting, I've lost all faith in the project bearing enough fruit on this site to warrant the investment I've given. Considering how inactive some people have been even in our group, there's no telling when they'll just randomly vanish and ruin things for the others.
With that in mind, if I do continue role-playing on sites, whether it be a reboot of GRG or some other project, it's definitely not happening here. This site, to quote someone I might call a friend, 'doesn't deserve' me. Both the community itself in regards to how they treat each other, and the overall commitment level, are worse than any site I've ever seen, and I've been on some pretty terrible sites before. I've only put up with the site for this thread and my friends, but after speaking to a lot of people I'm now confident that my projects would be more fruitful elsewhere, especially since not everyone was that committed to this. Those who were genuine about this can possibly continue it on another site - potentially my own, since some people have been waiting for me to create my next site for a while now anyway - if I go down the transfer route. It's a 'minor inconvenience' at worst, after all. With or without factoring the role-playing in though, the people on this site who're worth knowing can contact me elsewhere.
I might just quit public role-playing sites again. At the very least, I'll likely quit ones like this where you're inclined to meet far more bad than good. This site's moderation team doesn't make enough effort to keep the bad eggs out of the community -- it's like the member count is more important than the people here actually being decent, which also explains why zero effort has been made to lockout the bots from joining despite there being trivially easy ways to do that. My experiences on this site have reminded me of why I stopped joining large public sites in the first place, and why the best days of the role-playing life for me and my circle were on invite-only sites that I
personally created and on messenger programs. Most role-playing sites, like most role-plays themselves, just aren't managed at the same level of devotion or quality that I look for and that I offer myself -- whether people appreciate that or not. Regardless of whether I reboot GRG or run another project, or simply go back to my main project exclusively, this sort of community does nothing but hold me back, even if I've managed to meet a select group of good people here who I'll continue to communicate with elsewhere.
I appreciate the best wishes given regardless - especially considering being on this site truly has been detrimental to me - as well as the appreciation you've both given for the project and how engaging (to use Banjo's words) it is, even if Banjo didn't get involved in the IC yet. It's nice to know even some people who weren't participating in the IC yet realized we had something great going here, especially considering the compliments I've received both in and out of the thread whether they be from this group or just observers.
@MeloTo be honest, I'd actually suspected some people had lost interest, largely due to problems that couldn't be prevented. I actually suspected it months ago, and even had an idea of which people it would be and even the reasons to an extent, which is why I posted up that big update for everyone about it a while back. I actually figured the depth of this role-play might be too much for some people, particularly with such a large group, which is one of multiple reasons I was reluctant to even host it here (another being that I haven't been comfortable on this site in general).
The pacing and such were largely unavoidable with such a big player number, especially considering several people started posting long before the whole group was here and I've more or less been unable to move this along for weeks - even months - due to waiting on people for various things. I'm not quite sure what you mean by 'cluttered', unless you mean all the posts or their length, or the amount of information and detail the thread contains so far, all of which is unavoidable in a large group and
especially in an advanced group no less (advanced role-plays are more about in-depth characterization and such, not moving a plot forward as quickly as possible). Considering I'm ready to leave the site anyway, I don't think it matters what you meant. This role-play was posted in this section of the site for a reason, since it wasn't meant to be casual or simplistic.
Even if I don't continue this role-play (it'll depend on a few factors), several people already want in on whatever project I do next - assuming I do another project instead of just focus on my own writing - due to how I've managed it, so the problem is clearly some sort of unavoidable issue with preferences. That's not even factoring in all the people outside of this group who're acknowledging the quality of this thread, and those who want it to continue even if it happens elsewhere.
Nothing was actually ever stopping anyone from posting, including you, but since some people wanted to wait until the escort or the estate itself started - despite there being plenty of in-universe justification for the player characters coincidentally encountering each other (several parts of the IC made it clear that fate/causality was being manipulated in a way that completely justified any inherent 'coincidence' of the characters meeting up, and everything that took place prior to arriving at the estate was going to add depth to the events that would take place later on) - the wait for posting was inevitable to those people, because people recommended that I allow the role-play to start IC before we accepted everyone, and then we had some others taking a long time to register.
Some people told me they were fine waiting for the escort, despite being informed that it would take a fair while, since we needed to wait until everyone joined, so this actually has nothing to do with how the role-play was managed -- I made people aware in advance, and they were acting like they were fine with it, so I can't do anything about perceived 'problems' that people hide from me. If people lost interest or simply flaked out, that's not my fault - it's
their fault, as they made no attempt to approach me about the issues - and frankly I won't tolerate attempts to insinuate otherwise after all the time I invested into this and how many people have complimented my GM performance and the thread in general. It's not my fault if people decided to ignorantly miss the details of the IC and understand that there was actually nothing 'coincidental' about members the group encountering each other before the role-play started. I honestly feel like some people were simply being lazy when they didn't get involved.
It actually was a problem with the role-play itself and nothing to do with how it was run, based on what you've said, because this role-play literally couldn't begin properly until we had the entire cast accepted, and people were taking ages to get things together. Frankly, this role-play required a lot more work and handling to manage in comparison to a lot of role-plays on that basis alone, and also due to being really in-depth as a whole. Nevertheless, it's easy to see now why role-plays don't survive on this particular site. A large group role-play like this can be managed, but only if the community is dedicated -- something this site sorely lacks, based on observation of the place in the last few months.
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