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The Skill Level of your Fellow Players

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If you MUST choose, would you rather be in a roleplay with people who are clearly...

A.) about the same level as you?
24
80%
B.) much better writers/roleplayers than you are?
6
20%
C.) not nearly as good a writer/roleplayer as you are?
0
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Total votes : 30

The Skill Level of your Fellow Players

Tips: 0.00 INK Postby Wudgeous on Fri Feb 24, 2012 10:02 pm

Ding ding! Second floor. Would you like to overwrite your previous answer with...
A.) extremely diverse in skill level--including beginners, intermediates, advanced folk? (All of the above, in other words).
B.) a combination of A, B or C, but not the whole shebang? (Be specific as to which pair you're picking!)
C.) None of the above!!! I hate roleplaying!!!!! (Whu--Wa--... Wait, what?!)

Lastly, another short answer: How come? Why not the ones you didn't pick?

Optional: Are you speaking from the perspective of a player or a GM? Would you answer differently from the other perspective?

Discuss, discuss.~



-I realize this doesn't take that fancy thing called "writing style" into account. You may talk about that as well if you like, so long as you try not to be a negative nancy with nonsense like "This topic is ridiculous!!!! There is no such thing as writing skill, just judgmental people!!!! Nyeh!!!!" Go create your own topic if you'd like to debate that.

-Iiiin addition, I wouldn't be terribly shocked or heartbroken if this topic has been brought up before, but I would like a link to the previous answers. c:
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Re: The Skill Level of your Fellow Players

Tips: 0.00 INK Postby ViceVersus on Sun Feb 26, 2012 12:23 pm

When I'm in a roleplay, I'm generally out writing with friends and pals and whatnot. We're just trying to write a story - tell a story, whatever. I don't want to have to worry about who's better, who's not as good, that sort of thing.

But at the same time, there's something oddly satisfying about knowing you're better at stringing words together than someone else, in the most base, esoteric way. Like producing a really kick-ass post, and then sitting back, and thinking about if there's anyone else out there in the world who can match you. I mean, we're writers, we know that someone can but in the moment it's nice to think that we can have finally mastered our craft, and that there isn't someone lurking right next to you who could hang you out to dry. :P

And those are my thoughts. Haha.
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Re: The Skill Level of your Fellow Players

Tips: 0.00 INK Postby Marionette on Sun Feb 26, 2012 7:43 pm

I much prefer playing with others around my own skill level. I'm also confident enough in myself that I don't get too intimidated even when I'm playing with people I consider to be far better than me. I have to admit that I don't have a lot of patience for playing with players who aren't around my level. I can get myself into it, especially if someone wants to play a game with me to practice and learn (I am so willing to give people a chance if they want to improve themselves) or if I'm just looking for the RP equivalent of casually shooting the breeze. However, if I put a lot of effort into a setting or character and will be spending a lot of further effort reading and composing posts for the game, I want to be surrounded by writing that I consider at least decent. Consistently poor writing tends to suck the fun out of it for me. When I pick up a book, why should I stick with one that's written poorly enough to be grating to me? When I'm going to go the further step of both reading and contributing to the plot, that's a lot bigger of an investment to make for writing that I don't even enjoy. I'm also really picky about joining games; a poorly developed setting or premise is just not something I'm usually going to mess with.

That said, I don't get down on those who aren't at my level. Not everyone has to be. RPing is about having fun. If someone else can have fun writing in a way that I don't like, more power to them. I just don't usually participate myself because then I'm not having fun.
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Re: The Skill Level of your Fellow Players

Tips: 0.00 INK Postby Wudgeous on Sun Feb 26, 2012 8:54 pm

Oh no, there seems to be a majority vote! Where are my eccentrics?

Anyway, thanks so much for responding, you two. <33 I've got no nitpicky counterarguments or anything; much too busy sitting here being happy that I got a partial view on how the site thinks. So yes, thanks!!

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Re: The Skill Level of your Fellow Players

Tips: 0.00 INK Postby Kurokiku on Sun Feb 26, 2012 10:52 pm

I try not to dwell too much on the relative skill levels of the people I'm writing with. Really, as long as the story and characters seem to be compelling, thoughtful, and not so atrociously-bad in the grammar department that it's distracting, I'm happy.

On the one hand, it's much easier to relax when I'm writing with people I consider to be about on the same "level" (it hurts every bit of my liberal-arts education to say that; it sounds so elitist to me!) There's not so much pressure, but you do (or I do, anyway) want to keep up the standard of the awesome stuff you're writing, so it's a nice balance.

On the other hand, another part of me is a masochist and really likes writing with people who are plain-out better at it than I am. I feel like I learn something every time I read a post like that, and it motivates me to try harder, sometimes perhaps a little too much. I do it all the time though, so maybe I'm just asking for it.

Also, it appears I have three hands instead of two, because I have also written with people who aren't quite as apt at it as I am, and I'd like to think that the same thing works the other way and they learn something from me, or at least enjoy reading what I write more than people who are obviously better would. I do like both teaching and making people smile/laugh/whatever, so that'd be nice if it was the case. Unfortunately, I am not nearly as motivated to give it my best in such situations, and often there's less to work with anyway. I tend to think that truly good writers can feed off each other and write something much more interesting than any of them could in isolation.

Eccentric enough for you, Wudge? It might just be indecisive.
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Re: The Skill Level of your Fellow Players

Tips: 0.00 INK Postby Wudgeous on Sun Feb 26, 2012 11:36 pm

Doho, yes, the "imparting knowledge" vs "GOTTA TRY HARDER!!" aspect is definitely one of the things I was hoping to see tackled. xD Thank you, too!

(I'd say more in response to these, honest, buuut gotta be neutral. As with the example my English teacher gave, you can't expect people to answer questions "normally" if you're running amok saying things like "Oh yes, chocolate, but what about PIIIIIIZZZZAAAAA????" hahahahah. (Yes I did just tangent in order to reminiscence this one time my teacher said something dopey). I truly appreciate every last sentence though!! <3)

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Re: The Skill Level of your Fellow Players

Tips: 0.00 INK Postby VitaminHeart on Mon Feb 27, 2012 5:59 am

I find it a bit hard to talk about this, as I feel an little narcissistic judging people as of a lower skill level than me. I can only really judge my writing from my perspective..and I think I'm fairly good I suppose.

Anyway, it's a mixture with me. I don't tend to worry too much about writing as far as length, spelling, complexity and such is concerned. I tend to really focus more on interaction and characterization when I RP. In the past I've had people with really atrocious spelling who could write really brilliant and exciting characters who dove right into the story and started getting involved, and I've seen people who write novellas that tend to amount to their character preening and them describing how beautiful they are.

Putting that to one side, I like RPing with people a little better than me...though not enough that I feel massively intimidated. I tend to adapt my style to suit whoever I'm with, so if I'm alongside people writing good stuff then I'll tend to up my game to try to match them. If I'm alongside people who're writing a couple of lines per post with no details then I'll generally stop making the effort pretty fast.

If people are too good however, I always get a bit nervous that they're judging me. I tend to be rather paranoid about that. This might be due to the fact that the atmosphere where I started RPing was considerably less grounded in civility than Gateway, and people we liable to rip into you, kick you off their RPs, or attack your RPs if your writing was not seen as up to par.
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Re: The Skill Level of your Fellow Players

Tips: 0.00 INK Postby Nannyhap on Tue Feb 28, 2012 6:20 pm

This is something I've been thinking about lately, and struggling with to some extent (as Wudgeous may well know.) I think it depends greatly on the roleplay being run, and my investment in it, as I often have vastly different reasons for roleplaying in one thread (well, here they aren't really threads so much, are they?) than another.

For example, when I'm roleplaying something for gits and shiggles, I don't really mind the skill level of the roleplayers I'm working with, especially when I'm in an extremely large group and the focus of the roleplay is to have fun. As long as they're decent at what they do and can bring about some interesting conflicts, I'm fine with the flat characters, syntax errors, and inevitable misunderstandings that come with writers at a lower skill level than myself.

But if it's something I'm roleplaying because I really want to roleplay, because I want to make an emotional and psychological investment in the world (especially, although not limited to, one of my own creation), then I'm much more comfortable roleplaying with individuals around my own skill level and above. I know I need to brush up on my roleplay abilities because I've been out of the loop for such a very long time, but I'm confident enough in my skills to know that I can at least interpret the information being presented to me, and can respond to it in a reasonable way.

In my opinion, a great deal of roleplay skill (at least, the bit that goes on before the writing) comes down to reading comprehension, something I've noticed a lot of newer, younger roleplayers have a great deal of trouble with when they're first starting out. A fantastic roleplayer doesn't have to have a fantastic writing style, as long as it's competent--s/he just has to be able to read and understand enough of the posts before his/hers to be interesting, which is something that even people who label themselves as "advanced" sometimes have trouble with.

Just my two cents on this matter. I've only been back on the RP-scene for a few weeks, though, so I might be coming right out of left field with this.
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Re: The Skill Level of your Fellow Players

Tips: 0.00 INK Postby Wudgeous on Tue Feb 28, 2012 10:55 pm

You jerks, bringing up topics I can't refrain from acknowledging--
No, I love you all.

On elitism: Ach, not to worry, I sure won't be judging anyone for seeming so! xD I believe I'm one of the baddest apples when it comes to pride or "Oooh eeeh, but you're not special" or whatever one would find elitist: Yes, I consider myself guilty of it. It's an endearing quirk awful, I'm certain. Good news is, you can't be worse than meeee!!
Anyway, the point was, feel free to sound like a snob, you hesitating lurkers guys; it's a questionnaire, not a speed dating service. Don't gotta impress nobody down here. <3

On comprehension: Oooh are you onto something, Nan. I find myself agreeing that it's a bigger deal than people would think. I'd written a paragraph or two more, but I kept feeling like it was tangenting and logically unsound. xD So yeah, all you have is my enthused nodding. Sorry!

Also, ahahahahhaa gits and shiggles.

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Re: The Skill Level of your Fellow Players

Tips: 0.00 INK Postby RogueMinstrel on Mon Mar 05, 2012 11:30 pm

I prefer to play with people around my skill level. This is hard though because I'm so damn amazing. Not a lot of people can keep up with me. Sometimes, my posts are so detailed and so well thought out that they actually look bad to the untrained eye.

...
...

Or not. I just thought I'd give Wudgeous the snobby answer he was looking for. lol Aanyways, my first sentence still holds true. I do not mind at all playing with people that I deem 'better than me' but I sometimes get that guilty feeling that I am holding everyone else back and that my presence is more being tolerated than acceptance. With people around my "skill level" or only a little bit above I feel more comfortable because I feel like I can really contribute.
As for playing with people who are "below my skill level" (I keep putting all of these in to quotes because I do not like the idea of dividing RPers up in to categories of skill but sometimes it just cannot be helped) I do not mind so long as I am not trying to get involved in to a super deep story. Really I have to go along with what Kurokiku said about devoting time and energy to a story.

In the end though I am actually happy to RP with just about anyone and am happy to adjust my "skill" accordingly.

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Re: The Skill Level of your Fellow Players

Tips: 0.00 INK Postby Wudgeous on Mon Mar 05, 2012 11:55 pm

It's curious that you chose the "around my skill level" to be the snobbish answer; I'd say the snobbiest possible would be "OOOH SONNY, I have no choice but to 'play' with 'people' of a lower 'skill level' than me, because that's what they ALL are! Lower beings! Unholy invertebrates! 'NYEH'!"

Shall we all unanimously decide that that there's my own answer to the original forum question? Sure, go for it.

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Re: The Skill Level of your Fellow Players

Tips: 0.00 INK Postby ViceVersus on Fri Mar 09, 2012 10:13 am

Anywhere I go when I'm writing, I like to lead by example. And that includes conduct in OOC, as well as IC stuff. It might partially come from the fancy staff name, but it's something that kinda translates to every part of my life. If I can show and instruct by doing and just being what I can be, then that's awesome. The same applies in writing.

To be fair, I haven't been in a roleplay in a long-ass time, but I can at least still think practically about it. :P

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Re: The Skill Level of your Fellow Players

Tips: 0.00 INK Postby Wudgeous on Fri Mar 09, 2012 10:39 am

I'm curious--this is responding to me specifically, and not the original question, yes...?


Oh, dude, unless you think I was referring to your original post in here? Because naahh, I was being completely goofy and hypothetical, nothing to defend from. Mostly I wanted to make fun of RogueMinstrel's usage of airquotes.

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Re: The Skill Level of your Fellow Players

Tips: 0.00 INK Postby TheFinalOne on Fri Mar 09, 2012 11:02 am

I don't understand this skill level thing. Am i right in assuming skill equals pacing, characterization, interactions and stuff like that?
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Re: The Skill Level of your Fellow Players

Tips: 0.00 INK Postby ViceVersus on Fri Mar 09, 2012 11:23 am

"Skill level" is about as relative as you want it to be. But that's another debate, entirely. I guess it's just how "good" you perceive a piece of writing to be. How well someone tells a story, their grasp of language, that sort of thing.

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Re: The Skill Level of your Fellow Players

Tips: 0.00 INK Postby Wudgeous on Fri Mar 09, 2012 11:28 am

Yup, usually stuff like that! It could also be something as basic as grammar or spelling; everyone's definition of what is "above/about/below my skill level" will differ, so I didn't want define it as anything specific. c:

Just, anything you personally believe qualifies one to be a better or worse roleplayer, that counts; even if it's something ridiculous like "uses indents instead of line breaks." xD I'm hoping that makes a lick of sense.

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Re: The Skill Level of your Fellow Players

Tips: 0.00 INK Postby Kestrel on Sun Mar 11, 2012 1:05 pm

People's perception of their own and others their ability is so skewed this poll is more a way to measure ego than anything else. I've had people tell me I'm a bad writer because I don't give enough insight in my character's psyche. At the same time I critique these same people for paying too much attention to inner monologue and flashbacks that they sacrifice the pacing and flow of the story.

However the above assumes we are writing for an audience to begin with. I don't know about you, but over the years I've gotten to care less and less about giving it my absolute everything to write. RP'ing pretty much gets my B-effort. This is because you see, roleplaying isn't writing; it's playing a game. How skilled I am at that game depends on how much I enjoy myself. Because well, that's the goal of that game. How are you gonna measure that and weigh it against your roleplayers? I'm all for a little competition in games, like fights between characters or even battling wits, but competition in being a 'better' writer is pointless if you ask me. Then again, who am I to complain if you want to amuse me?
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Re: The Skill Level of your Fellow Players

Tips: 0.00 INK Postby WadeJackel on Sun Mar 11, 2012 1:42 pm

I remember some qoute made, by someone, pretty much summs up my opinion

Its an RPG, not a literary class

I have no ego, I know Im not a great writer

But then again it is more of a game then a writting exorcise, as brought up in the last post

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Re: The Skill Level of your Fellow Players

Tips: 0.00 INK Postby Wudgeous on Sun Mar 11, 2012 2:07 pm

Kestrel: Y'know, at first I was going to live and let live, but then it occurred to me. "Playing a game," you said.
All right then, let's explore that. Instead of roleplaying, let's take use a shoot-'em-up as an example. Naturally, only a seldom number of people consider it to be srs bsns. Fits as a substitute for roleplaying so far, but do the questions work?

Would you rather play against a complete novice? Perhaps you would, you get to show them the ropes and muck around with friendly fire. Would you rather play against someone who knows the game about as well as you do? Why not, you can discover new things about the game together, grow together, bond. Or would you rather play against a master, who can completely kick your ass, but nonetheless can teach you some very badass stuff? Despite all this awful learning nonsense, a shooting game is still a hobby.

So. I'm not sure why the fact that roleplaying is a game can hinder your ability to have preference on who you play with...? And again, said preference can be "with everyone," without discrimination. It's still a choice, still a preference. Everyone has a right to one, as with opinion.


Now, let's all love each other please, thanks.

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Re: The Skill Level of your Fellow Players

Tips: 0.00 INK Postby Kestrel on Sun Mar 11, 2012 3:36 pm

Your assumption here is that someone can be 'better' at roleplaying than someone else, which entirely misses every point I tried to make in my previous post.

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