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Sorry, that's the wrong password

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Sorry, that's the wrong password

Tips: 0.00 INK Postby Byte on Fri Mar 06, 2015 9:02 am

Before you all start swamping me like disgruntled bears on a honeycomb, allow me to expand. Then again, I'm pretty sure we've all seen it around somewhere. You know that unnecessary password โ€œthingโ€ that for some reason a GM thinks automatically compels their audience to abide every law they've decreed in their precious roleplay? That song and dance routine, clubhouse jingle you need to write, do or repeat even though all you want is to just make a character because you thought the story sounded intriguing?

Lately these passwords have become bloated and just all 'round obnoxious. One roleplay I read through required three, THREE passwords to be typed out in the OOC alongside your reservation/expression to join. And I had to ask myself: Why? Why are we all so paranoid that we demand people to perform a specific set of mundane actions to show that they've read the bloody rules? I'm actually kind of curious how this has become so prominent in almost every roleplay, and I'd like to know how this in any way benefits you and your fellow roleplayers.
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Re: Sorry, that's the wrong password

Tips: 0.00 INK Postby Kurokiku on Sat Mar 07, 2015 4:25 am

By and large, I agree with you that this sort of thing is useless. I can see the desire to make sure that potential players are actually paying attention to things like rules and specifications, but I donโ€™t think requiring something like a password is all that helpful. That saidโ€ฆ nothing else is, either. In most cases, the character sheet will tip you off pretty effectively to whether or not someone has bothered to read everything they should have read, but a character sheet is a lot of work. Perhaps the point of having a password is, more than anything, to gently nudge people into reading all the โ€œboringโ€ stuff before they waste all their time making a character that for some reason or other, wonโ€™t fit? If so, itโ€™s rather kinder than I would be.

RPs with passwords are also ones that take reservations, in most of the cases Iโ€™ve seen. Perhaps itโ€™s supposed to be some kind of minimum bar test for people trying to reserve? Like, if someone doesnโ€™t even put in the effort required to read everything, why bother giving them that reservation when someone else would clearly make better use of it? Of course, this presupposes a system where reservations are the logical thing to do, and I donโ€™t think there are very many, if any, such systems.

That was two paragraphs that essentially amounted to a shrug. I agree that it seems silly, and perhaps a smidge immature, but I canโ€™t say it bothers me, really.
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Re: Sorry, that's the wrong password

Tips: 0.00 INK Postby Dawn โœฉ Quixotic on Thu Apr 23, 2015 2:53 am

I saw one that had the password, in several parts, hidden somewhere in the write-up, with only a minor hint that you had to piece it together. Not exactly sure what the creator was hoping for.

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Re: Sorry, that's the wrong password

Tips: 0.00 INK Postby Sibylline Oracle on Thu Apr 23, 2015 5:05 am

I'm curious, how do other GMs handle the issue of players not reading?

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Re: Sorry, that's the wrong password

Tips: 0.00 INK Postby Ersatz Creed on Fri Apr 24, 2015 7:57 am

Randomosity wrote:I'm curious, how do other GMs handle the issue of players not reading?


Perhaps by not accepting the character.

I have tried this myself but it was more for giggles than a serious thing. It was always something silly that they had to include in their character sheets like *insert name of character* likes to wear women's clothing. Rather hilarious for the male characters, or at least i thought so.
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Re: Sorry, that's the wrong password

Tips: 0.00 INK Postby Kestrel on Sat Apr 25, 2015 5:44 pm

A password is a shortcut, sure, but I personally found it more useful to not have the argument of "Your rules suck!" or "I didn't know that!" when you have to invoke them. It's like clicking that read and agree box. Except it probably will take you a minute instead of two hours. Generally, the less you have to argue the better.

That said, a literary Rubik's cube for a password is dumb. That would be a valid reason for me not to join the RP, because that'd be very telling about the GM.
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Re: Sorry, that's the wrong password

Tips: 0.00 INK Postby cl.love on Tue Oct 11, 2016 7:50 pm

I think the matter of whether passwords are necessary or just plain annoying depends on the GM of the roleplay.

There are a lot of group roleplays on this site that have died simply due to neglect, and a lot of roleplayers put down rules regarding commitment, as no one wants their story to fall dormant. Other common rules I see as necessary would be ones concerning overall effort - like a specific minimal word count - and still, different roleplayers have different standards for this.

A lot of rule sections in roleplays also address what kinds of potentially triggering content might be in a roleplay, which can be very important for writers who are a bit more sensitive to certain topics. Having a password in order to join a roleplay ensures that these requirements and regulations are being considered and helps make sure that no one's going to get angry because "you never explained that!" or whatnot.

I personally don't really use passwords for my own roleplays anymore, because I prefer to just address them directly with other roleplayers, but I can understand when roleplayers do choose to use them. I also believe that if you really want to join a roleplay, putting down passwords shouldn't be a big deal - unless of course they're like a friggin' riddle, then its just a pain.
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Re: Sorry, that's the wrong password

Tips: 0.00 INK Postby Lyysa on Wed Oct 12, 2016 1:22 am

Almost everyone demands commitment and some sort of minimum post amount in the rules, but how often does that change anything? Most of the time the roleplay dies anyway because of different reasons, perhaps people thought the story was boring or are just plain rude and can't bother typing down an answer even though people are waiting for it. And a password doesn't change that either. And in fact you don't know if people have actually read the rules, most of the time you can figure out what the password is by just reading the others reservations. Some of them could just have seen it there and copied the others.
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