Long or Short? Application Process!
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Inspired by the discussion in another thread.
Do you prefer lengthy/intensive application process? Or a shorter one where you get into play quicker?
I’ll go first
Back in the day I didn’t mind a longer application because I thought that meant that the STs would use some of the information from the 100 paragraph novella they required to get approved. However, in the 20-30 years I’ve been RPing, STs using stuff from my character’s background (whether in plot or even a SINGLE scene)… I can count on one hand.
So, I like shorter. I just want to get into the action and focus on the plots the game is offering.
How about you?
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My main concern when it comes to application processes is whether the effort I put in will be returned to me. If I put in a great deal of effort in an application so that it takes days to complete, the least I expect is that staff, in turn, put in some effort to tell decent stories.
If you expect players to put in days of effort for an application, and also expect players to be your primary source of storytelling, that seems to be an unreasonably uneven workload.
That and the usual “if I’m expected to write a novel, I expect that information to actually be used” thing that you mentioned. Which happens so infrequently that we may as well say it never happens.
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I’m all for a shorter application process. Characters are likely to evolve as players get the feel for both the game and the character. So it feels a bit rough to set so many things in stone before starting. Players in Silent Heaven often update their characters’ backstories as time goes on, and we allow updating them as often as they want.
I saw a different game recently announce that it’s feeding character applications into ChatGPT to decide whether or not to approve characters. This is in part to help their staff “spend less time on the tedious parts,” as they claim.
I think that’s a step backwards. If you don’t want to read it, don’t require it.
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I’m weird. I’m for however long it takes a person to write an application that shows they have a functional understanding of both the mechanics and lore. Additionally, a player should have notes for any mechanics that need explanation. If your character has a Mild Phobia on their sheet, you need to explain that in your stuff. For some people that can take 30 minutes. For some people it can take days.
I’m more worried about how the coded systems of a given MU interferes in a persons ability to both build their sheet and write out all their background details and any notation they may need for specific stats on their sheet.
Proud Member of the Pro-Mummy Alliance
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@Pavel said in Long or Short? Application Process!:
My main concern when it comes to application processes is whether the effort I put in will be returned to me. If I put in a great deal of effort in an application so that it takes days to complete, the least I expect is that staff, in turn, put in some effort to tell decent stories.
If you expect players to put in days of effort for an application, and also expect players to be your primary source of storytelling, that seems to be an unreasonably uneven workload.
That and the usual “if I’m expected to write a novel, I expect that information to actually be used” thing that you mentioned. Which happens so infrequently that we may as well say it never happens.
This… if I have to put in X amount of effort and it doesn’t get at least an equal amount of return, I feel real shitty about a game.
The other thing is when people say things like: Oh, you’ll love it, we do 2 events a week, and blah bleh blah! People will welcome you, RP… then you come along… put in the work, don’t find it to be the case.
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@MisterBoring said in Long or Short? Application Process!:
Additionally, a player should have notes for any mechanics that need explanation. If your character has a Mild Phobia on their sheet, you need to explain that in your stuff.
Such games should, then, have those requirements explicitly detailed somewhere. What mechanics need explanation, what needs to be explained, and why, etc.
A problem I see crop up repeatedly is unwritten expectations that have to be explained over and over again because nobody remembers to write things down, and people end up being annoyed that they do what they think is wanted only to be told that it’s not what is wanted at all.
He/Him. Opinions and views are solely my own unless specifically stated otherwise.
BE AN ADULT -
I want a short app process.
But it also helps me to kinda flesh out a character as I go rather than go in with a Malazan: Book of the Fallen length background.
Sometimes I have a concept that I want to work on and flesh out.
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@Pavel said in Long or Short? Application Process!:
Such games should, then, have those requirements explicitly detailed somewhere. What mechanics need explanation, what needs to be explained, and why, etc.
Agreed.
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@MisterBoring said in Long or Short? Application Process!:
@Pavel said in Long or Short? Application Process!:
Such games should, then, have those requirements explicitly detailed somewhere. What mechanics need explanation, what needs to be explained, and why, etc.
Agreed.
Heck, that probably could be its own conversation about information silos, documentation, and reasonable expectations.
Which isn’t something I deal with at work RL at all.
cough
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@Pavel said in Long or Short? Application Process!:
Which isn’t something I deal with at work RL at all.
If I had a dollar for every required piece of documentation that didn’t actually help me at my job, I’d have retired to a nice estate a decade ago.
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Gonna need some definitions of ‘long’ and ‘short.’
I think players should be able to get out of CG fairly quickly, within a day or two if they actually fill in their bit and it makes thematic sense, and I think pre-genned quick-start characters should generally be available. I also think there’s value in mocking up a BG to weed out major thematic misunderstandings or obvious issues, even if it’s not otherwise any guarantee of ‘quality.’
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I liked the comic game apps that everybody wrote like Official Handbook entries but I know I’m like the only person who did; they didn’t at all make a difference in the quality of who got approved, and they scared off anybody who wasn’t super hardcore
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Another factor to consider that I just remembered is that if a player is applying for a role that is of considerable IC power or will have a significant immediate impact on the current plots in the game, a lot of staff (rightly) require a more detailed and lengthy application (and sometimes an interview) to approve the character.
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At the risk of sounding like I’m victim blaming, we also have to be willing to take “yes” for an answer. If staff explicitly say something like “If your background is more then N words, you’re probably going into more detail than we really need,” and I proceed to write a background that’s 5N words in length … that’s not something staff can fix.
