takamagahara | November Activity Check/HMD

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November Activity Check/HMD

Welcome to another Activity Check!

The AC will run from November 23 through November 30 and ending at 7PM EST. If that's confusing for you, just look here.

In order to pass AC, you will have to provide TWO proofs of your activity. What counts as a proof of activity? Simple! Any one or more network threads consisting of ten (10) or more comments from your character OR one or more log threads consisting of five (5) or more comments from your character. To make AC easier for you, we've created a nice little flowchart for you to follow. Remember, comments must be from Nov in order to count. That means anything from Nov 1 through Nov 30 will count towards AC.

Please copy the appropriate code, fill out the necessary information, and paste it in a reply to this post.

For Characters Accepted In November:

For All Other Characters:

In addition to the Activity Check, this month will also have our mandatory bi-monthly HMD.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Hi, I just want to comment on Terra's BBS post regarding Xehanort and Maleficent. While I understand how this is an IC reaction that your character would legitimately want to warn people, I'm extremely concerned about the fact that you just potentially ruined any chance someone might want to play either of those characters.

As someone who has played a canon villain before, it's very important to be able to get positive CR as well as negative. If the character is devious and underhanded, getting that initial reaction of people trusting you is very important.

I must say I'm very happy most people did question why they should believe Terra, but honestly, I would not want to risk being a castmate of yours based on this post. It takes work from both sides to have an effective villain character in a game and it's nearly impossible to play a good villain if you don't have that from your cast heroes.

Hi, anon. Thank you for taking the time to offer me crit. I do see where you're coming from about possibly making it less appealing for a Xehanort or Maleficent player, but since I haven't seen many if any of those in years I consider keeping Terra IC a bit more important. He's from a world where world-hopping happens all the time and he was taken from having his body stolen by Xehanort. He had to warn people--and like you, I was very happy people questioned him! That's IC and realistic and the only character that annoyed Terra was Dio's talk of redemption.

That said, I'm very sorry you think it would be risky to be my castmate over one post. We don't have a Xehanort or a Mal, so I didn't really have anyone to run it by and make sure it was okay with before posting it. I know we have someone interested in Vanitas, so I didn't have Terra mention him in the post aside from a thread with Roxas where he underestimates him. Honestly, anon, I'm not sure what you would have had me do and I really am sorry if my post has upset you.

I'm not the above anon, but to give my 2c as someone who's played as and against plenty of villain characters in the past...

Even if you think the character is too obscure for someone to consider playing, there's still always going to be a chance that someone might want to play that character. Staying IC is important, but it's also important not to prevent other people from having fun through IC actions that could have been avoided. Just like how Terra failed to mention Vanitas in your post because you knew someone was considering him, why did he have to make a public post about the other two at all? If it's an issue that he would want to keep people safe, you could've had him approach characters privately/individually to warn them. That way everyone involved would have agreed to the exposure, and if one of said villains was apped then they would only have to worry about those characters and not everyone who would've seen a public network post.

There isn't really much that can be done about it now, but in the future these types of posts really shouldn't happen unless the villain involved gave permission for it or is completely unappable by the game's rules. If something like this happened in a cast I wanted to app a villain into, I'd be reluctant to do so whether they were the character PSA'd about or not. It's a pretty huge deal among villain players.

Like I said last night, I'm not sure what I could have done that would have been IC for my character. Using the BBS to warn as many people as he could about Xehanort and Mal, the ones he feels are the true threats, is something Terra would do as I play him and I'm sorry this post has caused so much upset. Thank you for taking the time to offer me crit, but there's really nothing more to be done about the post. I will try to keep this in mind next time a situation like this comes up in RP.

It's fair to try being IC, because that's how one would play characters in a way that's engaging and does the character justice in an RP setting. But to be honest, while this instance is one where you can go and fairly say "it's over and done with, there's nothing I can do about it now," I can't say this is your first offense in regards to that. Not with Terra, but how you play and decide simply that because something is IC for a character, it should be played out without thinking of how it can affect others, players in the game or potential ones.

In the past you made a post with Leo that gave the implications that people should not aim for negative CR with Niles or expect for him to face repercussions, and that concerns shouldn't be brought to him as Niles' god, even though that's likely to happen because it's in-character for him to make others uncomfortable and rile them up. I've played Conquest and have read supports, I know that protecting Niles is something that Leo would do. But it seems unfair to give Niles a free pass about his behavior and tell others to dismiss it when Noragami's god and shinki system is about developing morality and consequences for actions.

It's in the past now and you said you would put what the anon and player have said in mind for the future, but please, keep in mind that consideration for other players should come before playing characters IC. You shouldn't blame what a character would or wouldn't do for making a potentially harmful post, as you are the one playing them and can make that choice yourself to decide what's appropriate. You might not intend it, but the way you are responding to both of them feels like you are brushing off their "offers" of crit because you want to play what you want to play.

Speaking as someone who intended to app a villain from your cast this very next round up until I saw that post, it's not good to ever assume that someone won't be interested in playing. But as my CR with the entire game has now been pre-determined by you before I even apply, I won't be.

When I joined in as Saïx, Sora went around warning people about him, it hasn't affected my ability to get CR, nor has it made anyone (externally, at least,) treat him differently than if they'd met him without the warning. That's part and parcel of playing a villain character in a cast of protagonists. There are characters in that post of Terra's that clearly aren't going to take his word for it. There's plenty of others who didn't reply to the post at all. I'm fairly certain your CR with the entire game has not been pre-determined. Honestly, Xehanort would use this post to his advantage and turn people against Terra. There are ways to work around this IC-ly that would work to your advantage. I would personally love to see more cast mates - especially villains. If this post has deterred you, I'm sorry to hear that.

It isn't part and parcel in my experience, and I've played a lot of villains to a lot of casts. There's always been an understanding that if a cast wants a villain they don't make it harder for the villain to play OOCly. Fae couldn't have known that someone had been interested in applying, but if a villain is wanted, souring the soup before they even arrive isn't a good lure.

Even Xehanort would have to work very hard to get things to swing in his favor when there are more than just Terra saying he's a bad guy and stay away, with Sora, Roxas and Aqua all having the same story and chiming in. Finding an advantage, when it's one person's word against three or four well-liked others (five if Axel gets into it), is a hell of a challenge even for an expert. Even an idiot at that point would have to begin wondering if maybe they're not all lying through their teeth just to pick on a "harmless old man". For me, it's not very fun or rewarding if I have to do a lot more work than I would have without the warning going up to even begin to accomplish the same things.

Herd of teal deer aside, I am deterred.

As someone you mentioned, I'd like to personally apologize for deterring you. I certainly didn't intend to, which I realize doesn't mean a whole lot now, but I do sincerely apologize.

I don't understand how potential negative CR with a villain character makes them harder to play. Especially a villain who would not care what others think of them.

Nothing deters Xehanort from what he wants to do, not even failing to do it. He'll just find another way. There is a lot of doubt cast on what Terra said by those replying to the post, and doubt is something that Xehanort loves to toy with. He would not have to work all that hard to sway people, he wouldn't need to say anything about himself at all. He'd simply have to cast more doubt about Terra by revealing things about his past to cast him in a negative light. Things that Terra can't deny happened. And Xehanort is charismatic enough to pull it off.

I'm sorry that you think it's difficult, and I'm sorry that you're deterred. Maybe instead of trying to control how others play their characters to make your life easier, you should pick a different character to play.

Negative cast CR is a given when apping a villain. The guaranteed negative CR of anyone who believes such a post before the villain is even applied for, is not as fun. Nor is it a matter of whether or not the character would care, I as the player would. OOC considerations are more important than IC ones. Even though I wanted to app a villain, I also want to make my own enemies, not have them generated for me before I'm even in the game with people who aren't castmates and have never spoken to my character.

I did pick another character, since someone else is controlling how I would be playing if I did apply. I'm pretty sure you know I said I'm not apping a villain to the KH cast. I'm glad you're able to have fun regardless of your own situation, and I do mean that genuinely. It's just not one for me.

Yes, I did see that you decided to pick a different character. But you had considered it, which is what my point had to do with. Anyway, from here on out, just treat any "you" as a general "you."

No one here is a mind reader, so unless you would have it that no character talks about a character that isn't in game yet ever, it seems kind of unfair to blame someone for ruining your potential, (hypothetical at this point,) fun.

If Terra (or any character for that matter,) had been talking about non-canonical things regarding a character, I'd consider that controlling another player's character, but if they're only giving canonical information about a character that is not in game, I don't see how that is. They're not telling you how to play your character (beyond implying that it be IC-ly, which is something we should all be doing,) or even how you can talk about their character. In the case of Terra's post, people are trying to tell Fae how to play her character in regard to hypothetical players that she had no clue were considering apping to the cast. If someone were already in game with the character, it would be a different story because then it would affect an actual player of that character in game and certainly would have been discussed with the player before it happened on a massive scale like that.

Okay, I'm sorry, but you're being ridiculous.

The onus is not on potential Xehanort players to accept that the entire game (yes, the entire game -- it was a public BBS post with 4 additional people chming in in support) has been warned off against their character. The onus was on Fae to find a way to play her character without trying to direct the rest of the game in the direction she wanted against potential Xehanorts.

You and Fae both seem to have forgotten that you're playing a version of your characters, and that at the end of the day, you have control over their actions. We all have things that our characters would do if we were being 100% canonically accurate, but those things would break the game and make playing with others less fun for everyone, if not impossible. Fae didn't have to make that post -- one option would have been to post only to the KH cast and ask if anyone had seen Xehanort; another would have been to describe Xehanort to the game at large and ask to be contacted immediately if anyone fitting that description showed up.

People are trying to tell Fae how to play her character because Fae forgot that this game isn't about her. It's a group game, and part of being in a group game is taking the needs of others into consideration. The anon you're talking to -- the Xehanort that you and Fae have ensured won't be apping -- pointed out that Fae's actions dictated the way they would have to play their character. You (and Fae) owe that anon an apology.

I don't believe I ever once said that Fae's post was the best idea she could have gone with. I think the post ideas you suggested definitely would have been the better options, but they weren't what happened and the post is out there.

I have not forgotten that the character I play is only a version of him. He's a shinki, which cuts out a lot of the potential game-breaking aspects of his character, but I still try to play him as accurately as possible. And when it comes to working with castmates and close CR alike, I'm good at running things by them when the situation warrants it.

Still, I don't feel that talking about a character in game ruins the ability to play them. And if it does, certainly not any more than if there had been another player with that character who dropped before they picked them up. They come into the game with pre-determined CR that way. A lot more pre-determined CR that often runs a hell of a lot deeper than one post on the BBS with a second-hand vague account of "this guy is really bad, don't trust him."

I'm sorry for any feelings that got hurt along the way. My opinion on the mater of Terra's post itself has not changed. Although I do see where you and the anon(s) are coming from, I just don't agree that it's necessary to treat everything as if every character not in game will be apped and therefore needs permission to be talked about in a way that the player feels is IC for their character. I know I was definitely more curt than I intended to be in my last comment and I am sincerely sorry for that. I had put the comment out there and wasn't going to play the game of deleted/edited comments to make myself look better, so I let it stand even though I wrote it while not in the best of moods.

You say that you understand the concerns being raised, but then everything else you say here makes it clear that this isn't in fact the case. And that's fine -- I'm not in your cast, I have no intention of joining your cast, and at least you've been public about the level of respect you feel you owe to your potential cast members.

No, I do understand them, and even agreed with some of them. I just also feel quite strongly that players should have the ability to have their character speak about other characters without being policed on it.

If my feelings on this matter have made people think I don't respect potential castmates or even other players, I'm sorry. The only way I can undo that perception at this point is by showing respect to future potential castmates and other players from here on out. Just saying it means nothing if I can't back it up with my actions.

a different anon here, but the base problem is that it's not actually IC for terra to appear and immediately warn everyone about characters who may or may not be here. It's something I could see from Sora, or maybe Aqua, but not Terra.

There is more than one anon, yes. The person who first brought this entire situation up is not me, I am only in the particular thread where I (and you) responded to the idea that nobody was interested in apping Xehanort or Maleficent so it didn't matter who got told. Someone was interested, therefore it mattered.

Someone was interested as evidenced in this thread, but afaik no one in the cast knew they were until after the crit to Fae was posted and it was mentioned in this thread.

but to be fair, that doesn't really matter whether you knew or not. talking about anyone that could be a potential castmate in a game-wide setting that has people from that cast chiming in to say what a big bad they are, no matter the canon, is going to look bad.

ie; if sansa from game of thrones made a game-wide announcement about ramsay and joffrey, as right as she might be in hating them, trying to set an entire game against cr that isn't even in game is a terrible selfish, and short-sighted thing to do. i get that it was done without consideration of the possibility of them apping in ever, but the basic rule of thumb is to hope or expect that there's always a potential for a castmate. any castmate. siccing an entire game on 'the bad guys' in any one canon is just a borderline godmod thing to do and it's terrible roleplaying. the fact that fae didn't think about it at all is even worse, to be honest. there's a question you have to ask yourself when you post about castmates, and that question is: 'if they were in the game, would this be a shitty thing to do without talking to them first?' if the answer is yes, don't do it. if it's a character-type thing to do, the other player mentioned it up there, but they could have made it cast-exclusive. again, that fae didn't think of it shows that maybe she shouldn't be rping in a game setting if she can't think of her gamemates or potential castmates.

Thank you for trying to be a voice of reason.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

November Activity Check/HMD

Re: Fae | Leo of Nohr | Terra (KH)

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