RolePlayGateway: WeBlog!

We had about 10 hours of downtime today; we’re really sorry about that! We went down at about 9am (EST) this morning, with an estimated downtime of three hours. However, due to some unforeseen problems with DNS propagation, we were down later in the evening. We’re again, really sorry about separating you from your roleplay!

So to compensate, we provide you with our new server. That’s right, a brand new server. Everything should be running noticeably faster now. If you notice any new problems or issues, let us know! (Because there’s a chance that we missed some things. Maybe.)

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I’m sure everyone has noticed how slow the site has been getting. Pages sometimes take a very long time to load, and it’s making your role playing experience a bit less awesome. This slowdown can be attributed to the massive growth we’ve been experiencing in the past six months. We’ve had an average of nearly ten people per day registering for the site, and the total amount of activity on the forums has been skyrocketing.

While we’re not going down any time soon, we’d like to make your time at RolePlayGateway as epic as possible, and part of this involves being ready for more growth. To do this, our server needs to be upgraded to handle how awesome you are.

We’re currently accepting contributions towards this upgrade, so if you feel so inclined, by all means donate to our fund. Be sure to spread the word to your friends, as even the smallest donation will make a big difference! You can use the big button on the right to chip in to the fund. There is also a similar button on the top of all the other pages on the site, so you can do the same thing there.

Thanks a ton to everyone for being so supportive and making RolePlayGateway so successful!

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It’s official - if you have internet enabled on your phone, you can now load RolePlayGateway Role Playing Games in a mobile-friendly format.

The site automatically detects who you are, so you can use the normal www.roleplaygateway.com to do this. If it’s shorter on your fingers, using the URL gwing.net will work just as well. Add it to your phone’s favorites and get access to your favorite RPGs on RolePlayGateway from anywhere.

Every feature on the site will work completely and without any loss of functionality. If you experience any bugs or issues, please - let us know!

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In many online communities, like our beloved role playing forum, member activity often slows to a drip, and can risk being shut altogether. There are tons of methods of addressing this, but we’re going to address one particular facet.

Make A Commitment.

Get your members to commit to something simple and attainable. In our case, I’d like to make the challenge to all of our members to commit to dedicate one hour per day to the forum.

Encourage your members to set their own goals, too - but be sure to give them solid standards and pushes for the direction you want them to go. Your goal is to drum up activity, so push them in that direction using a guideline, or a pilot commitment.

So what can you do in one hour?

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Establishing great gaming relationships with your fellow role-players is an integral part of enjoying the experience.

These days, the rosters of local gaming groups change frequently. Gone are the days when you got together with your close friends and started a gaming group. Role-playing game shops and the internet especially, make it much easier to join gaming groups of people you’ve never met. This leads to a whole new age of problems.

And if you think joining an established group is hard, try forming a new one; it’s much harder. Most people overlook the obvious reason this is so hard; in order to effectively role-playing game with a new people, a high level of trust is fundamentally necessary. The truism is “you can’t game with strangers.”

The Obvious That Needs to be Mentioned
You’ve probably heard it all before, but it bears re-thinking. Here are a few tips to get you started:

• Introduce Yourself - a name and a short description are much better than being ‘the new guy’.
• Be Polite - even as much or more than you are with your parents’ friends. (It works!)
• Learn Everyone’s Names - believe it or not, the more you say someone’s name, the more they like you.
• Share Your Interests and Remember Theirs - beyond gaming. What made those old-time, role-playing games so good were the outside friendships they were built on.
• Treat Everyone with Obvious Respect - even if you have to go out of your way to show it. (Why? Read the next line closely.)
• Give Trust to Get It - it’s a fact of life and yet so many people forget it. Everyone gets the benefit of your doubt, no matter what! If you trust everyone in the group explicitly, the rest of the group will defend you if you are taken advantage of. Honest!

Real Quality Goes Beyond the Gaming Table
I’ll say it again; if you want a great, role-playing gaming group, you must be friends with these people away from the table too. Do things together outside the sessions. Remember those interests I made you remember? This is what you can do with them. The important part is to learn to think of them as people (and especially as friends), not as gamers (or even just as their characters).

The best way to carry yourself is to be considerate, but tough enough to be honest. Make yours an equal relationship with neither taking advantage of the other. This is the best avenue to any friendship.

If you feel you are having trouble fitting in and may be upsetting the people in the group, keep an eye on the quieter members of the group. They usually reflect the feelings of an established group the most, just not verbally. If they look uncomfortable, do what you can to throttle back and be more sensitive; if they look happy or excited, you’re doing fine.

Because everyone has such a personal investment in the game (especially in their characters), avoid all conflict with players and be careful in conflicts with characters. Players often identify quite closely with their characters and take insults and injury to them quite seriously. Remember? “Treat Everyone with Obvious Respect.” This is where ‘tough, but honest’ is most necessary. Make it clear where you stand, focusing on the outside of the game situation. (Such as, “Only my character hates your character’s guts. I like you.”)

Possible Problems
You can go all over the internet and find real articles on how to deal with these: Favoritism, Best-Friend-itis, Turtle Players, Rules Lawyers and Month Hauls. The fact is almost every problem at the gaming table stems from someone not wanting to be taken advantage of, mostly a matter of being subversively defensive or overly generous. Be charitable and in order win their trust!

Finally
The most important thing to remember is that you’re there to share the fun! Nothing more, nothing less.

“This is an exhibition, not a competition. Please, no wagering!” — David Letterman

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RolePlayGateway is a great place to roleplay, talk about roleplay, and simply hang out with other roleplayers. Of course, it’s not all roleplay all the time, but it sure is a lot of fun, whether you roleplay or not. However, not all is perfect — people still turn away from the community in favor of other ventures.

Why is this? Sometimes the claim is that the community is too new to roleplaying to be worth someone’s time. Other times, the claim is that the community is too advanced for new players to jump in and play. These are diametrically opposed views, so which is accurate about RolePlayGateway and the roleplaying community?

Both.

Wait, what? Yes, that’s right, the roleplaying atmosphere of RolePlayGateway is both too advanced and too close to a beginner’s level for many people. This is one of the problems that plagues us right now, and there are a few solutions.

It is imperative that first and foremost we focus on the community and the user experience. We need to be sure that everyone enjoys themselves and the activities they participate in while on RPGateway. The RolePlay Gateway Staff play a very important role in this, but perhaps the most crucial role is player by the average members of RPGateway. These members, collectively, are what define the community and ultimately, what make the experience a memorable one.

At RolePlay Gateway’s Welcome Desk, new members get the chance to introduce themselves and to be welcomed by existing members of the community. The members do an amazing job at welcoming these users, and while they could do a better job at capturing the interest and captivating them in discussion, we do tend to get an excellent turnover rate for people who post these welcome threads.

There’s always the ongoing issue of bad apples and trolls who seem to be dedicated to turning the community into a flame war, and some of our new features should help members report these items to moderators more quickly. For the most part, our moderators are dedicated and passionate about their task, so again, the members have the most power here, in reporting offensive posts and potential powderkegs to the moderators using the functionality provided. Knowledge is power, and if you inform the staff of problems, I promise, we’ll fix it.

Moderators additionally have the task of making things happen, such as organizing events that keep the whole community involved - such as the infamous word games (and other random non-roleplay fun) and more on-topic helpful threads that help people get involved in games. We’d love to see more of this, indeed. But we’d be happiest to see all members giving their most to the community.

The bottom line is that every member plays an integral role in the great machine. If you complain about something yet aren’t willing to help work toward a solution, you don’t belong here. Be passionate about what you do, and the entire roleplaying community will benefit.

This applies not only to our online community, but to all things that you do. Take it to heart, and you’ll be a better person.

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