Hello Mr. Mixt.
Being that I have a judge vote for this one, my vote went out to Ace. While there was an small extent of detail missing to the post, I felt that the direction taken was bolder and more out of the box. It was something I could truly imagine encountering in a dream world, having a more surreal feeling to it. It was, for the most part, reflective of what I imagine being truly caught in a dream would be like, rather than just having a night terror. Even though a bit more of a thought process could have been applied to the character's development within the post, it was still pretty effective.
So we've skipped right to the voting thread then? I'll have my challenge to you before the day is over. It's not going to be nearly as deep is...
Well I've already got my challenge idea typed out. I could have it rolling next week.
If it gets too be a bit drawn out, I'd be willing to make the voting thread, and maybe fill in to present the final challenge if need be.
Is the voting for Idol going to start soon? When would you need my next challenge drafted out by?
I've noticed that the other judges have given inputs as far as what the challenges thus far have entailed. I was wondering if I might put...
Every Challenge for this gets more difficult to judge. But I think I’ve got my thoughts well enough in order. Midnight Star Spoiler Your post was a little on the short side, though that was only relatively speaking when placed next to everyone else’s. There were a few mistakes in spelling/wording that I noticed. Where you have that he “span round,” really should have been “spun around.” Which brings me to the use of “round.” It just doesn’t seem professional to use the term in narrative. If it were some sort of dairy account style of storytelling, where it was clear that someone was recanting the events. Otherwise, always put the effort in to use words in their entirety… round=around. Other than those points in the writing of the post, I’d have to say that you’ve done a very good job in expressing the situation. I do think that you could have come up with something a little more out of the box than a western town setting. But I also think that you presented your character in a generally unique situation. It seemed like his fearful reactions were more towards an ambiguous presence than an actual thing present in the town. You used the ‘power’ allotted to you well, and in a manner that would be expected in a dream, manifesting a bat. In the end, I think that you’d have been better off not including those last two sentences. I found that it sort of weakened itself just from the fact that Ryan was running from what might’ve been defined as his own shadow, which created a really good atmosphere, and, in opinion, those last two sentences broke that atmosphere. P Spoiler Once more, you’ve made a post that is detailed and very impressive. Although I think that in this case you’ve gone a bit overboard. It’s not that a lot of detail is a bad thing or something like that. It’s really just that you took a lot of time and shoved a lot of detail into what was essentially a single experience or happening. I think that that there could have been more in the way of events, or that you could have at least spaced that first long paragraph a bit more to give the chain of events a little more clarity and separation (it also would have been a lot easier on the old eyes to read through). That aside, it was an interesting post in the way you did choose to express the situation. The dream you described really did feel like something that one would find in a full out dream (or in this case, nightmare). The setup in the operating room (if that’s what it was) served a good purpose. I don’t know if it was intended, but I could see a correlation between what was happening to Faust in his dream, and what may have been happening to his physical body while he was having that dream. Ace Sukebe Spoiler I was going to call you out on some minor spacing; it was one of those situations of spacing between different characters speaking. However, thinking of it more in depth, it seems to make quite a bit of sense, being that your situation is with a character having a conversation with himself as two aspects of himself. What I liked about your post was that it was, though maybe not intentionally), different from the other posts in this challenge in that it wasn’t a routine nightmare experience. It was more of trippy idea, or a spiritual sort of dream. I guess the operative word for it would be an “out of body experience,” in a sense. It was clear that Chyeze’s mind was perplexed by the situation, especially by seeing his own body as a shadow in his dream. However, I think that there could have been a little more emotion put into it. Maybe some sort of denial, or just a little more of a process of his mind piecing together where he is and what he’s doing there. Really just a little more detail to go on and exaggerate the emotion being expressed.
I'll allot that you have a strong point with that Sess. It is a drawback of RP Battling that people will, very often, go off on arguing about who's move is right and who's move is wrong. But that usually only comes from A) Huge egos, B) unbearably powerful or obscurely powered characters, and/or C) inexperienced RPing. It would be a long shot, but the idea of a RP battles wouldn't be too wild and crazy so long as there were enough neutrals available to deal with disputes. And the hitch to it is that it's supposed to be a way of creating a story without having to fallback on a plot to determine what your character does. In a way, it's a great practice of matching with other RPers, as well as gaining a better understanding of the ins and outs of RPing as whole. From what I've seen, a lot of RPs around here wind up seeing a large share of combat between characters anyways.
I've noticed in the past a few RPs that have been made that feature a tournament as the sort of driving mechanism behind the plot line. Overall, from what I've seen, the few that have been made have been mostly successful both in garnering members and in keeping steady activity. At the very least, it seems like they've been popular enough in the past to bring them to viable conclusions. In thinking about these such role plays, but also thinking of their rarity and the lack of anything of the sort in more recent days, I'd like to know what peoples' thoughts on "combat-oriented" role playing are. That is to say, what is the general opinion of having RPs that are strictly a battle with little/no overarching plot to follow?
Yeah. I don't think that bloopers are really all too achievable when you're in a text based setting. If we were all going LARPING it would be different. But this is text-based RPing, and it's hard to actually compile a series of things that went wrong and were thus humorous as a result. Maybe if people saved up their RPing goofs or something and compiled them all on a thread of "errors, mistakes etc." Or even, more generalized, have a thread of embarrassing RP moments we've all had. But other than that, I don't see how it would work.
In technical terms, any battles that are waged in RPs should be turn based, to whatever extent possible (typically by way of people posting in rotations so they all get an equal opportunity to defend and counter against one another). Stat-based RPs have been made. I've seen them pretty often, though never to much success. Stats can only go so far in a text-based medium of role playing before it negates the creative writing aspects of the trade.
Sorry I’m so late to the show. Not much I can really do at this point other than echo other sentiments, but here it goes. Firekeyblade Spoiler The one big thing that I have to call you on for this challenge is the matter of the role your character played. As has been said already, your character was meant to be the one initiating the argument. However, that really wasn’t achieved with your posts. It wasn’t really until the end of Andrew’s squabble with KHV-Tan that there was really anything that lead to that end. It would have helped you to come up with the point of argument beforehand and illustrated it in your post. Otherwise, you did a good job with your posts. If you had been the receiver, it would have been nearly perfect in regards to the challenge criteria. P Spoiler Again, you’ve given some very entertaining posts to read; despite her “fantastical” nature, KHV-Tan is a fun character to read for, and the personality you put into the posts for her catches very easily. It was commendable of you to try and get the fire going. However, it wasn’t your task in regards to the challenge, and for that, I feel that I have to call out. Your posts would have been great if you had gotten the first post in to be the initiator. As with Firekeyblade, if you had been meant to be in the opposite role of the argument, it would have been pretty much perfect. Midnight Star Spoiler You did a good job at playing the role of the initiator. You kept to the challenge in blaming your receiver. Though I will say it the way you passed the blame was generic, granted in this situation, generic works very well. And from the beginning, you built up the situation that caused the argument, steadily creating a fuller history of what happened, and why it happened to begin with. You didn’t pull too much from your partner either, which was a good thing; your really just built off of what Maka brought forth. Maka Spoiler Feeling like a broken record here just a little bit Anyways, you played your receiver role pretty well. It was nice how you built the history of your situation. It was especially cool that you worked with your partner, spring boarding off of what they did, instead of deviating out into something new in the argument. As receiver, you played a strong defensive role, which is, for the most part, how it’s meant to be. That’s really all I can think of to say. Ace Spoiler Well, this is exactly how I see a girl starting an argument over a guy, granted I wouldn’t know much about how that goes down. The decision to make it a squabble for someone your character didn’t already know, to me, helped to make the scenario. As your previous works have done, you’ve shown Ruby’s cutthroat attitude through your posts, and in this case, stepped a little more into the “irrational” side of that persona; on that note, I like how you maintain a continuum of sorts with your posts thus far. And your choice of closure for it was, albeit a bit on the distasteful side, rather ironic, and if I may say so, welcome. It’s almost like she’s getting her comeuppance. Britishism Spoiler A pretty strong performance as a receiver in the argument; Jen’s response to the initial confrontation was, for the most part, as it should have been. The confusion was there, as well as the first strains of calmness and a touch of logic and reason to counter your partner’s “obsessed stalker” mentality. You flowed well with the energy from there though, and your character was obviously affected by the front put on by her counterpart, pushed, as it were, to a more aggressive tone.
This is just to say that I will have all of my critiques posted by the end of the night.
Should we judge this round based on pair performances, or stay focused on the individuals?
Just letting you know that I am currently without electricity/net at home, due to a freak October snow/ice storm. I don't know when I'll be back up.
