I'm so sick and tired of this shit.

I'm getting about a billion RPs that people keep asking me to join up with. All of them have the same vapid, trite and tired-ass plotline.

Sometimes, I think some of these people just sit at a table and say, "Hey, what's a good idea that no one has come up with yet? Oh! How about rich people in this era!"

And then go on to use the same old tired playbys as canons. No diversity. No attempt to be historically accurate. No attempt to even try to use someone who is relatively unknown or obscure.

Just no attempt has been made on these RPs in general.

Sometimes, I just want to say to them that "YOUR RP SUCKS!"

I wish that people put some thought into their plotlines and their sites. Is it really that much to ask?

Because they're easier to run, and you're more likely to get members.

As someone who has been on and run games that are more original than not, and different from the mainstream, I got to say that it's really hard. As much as you see people begging for new, original games, it's almost impossible to get a good base number of active players/members much less enough to make for a good sized site (member wise).

But I agree, even I, who doesn't trawl a lot of sites, or get bugged to join them, have seen mostly the same thing over and over again, with the same faces splashed all over. But, they tend to have a big/good member base.

Sucks so bad.

In my experience, people start those sorts of RPs for their own personal wish-fulfillment, and not out of any desire for cooperative storytelling. They just want to write about the epiquely tragique romance of Jensen Ackles and Cintia Dicker, so they don't care about plots and using different PBs would defeat the purpose. And then, as soon as the admin get tired of their characters, they let the RP die. It's an unfortunate cycle.

Quoted for truth.

Originality is good as art but not good in business. It's a gamble to presume that an original plot will succeed. A desperate gamble, I might add.

If not for the sole reason that you have much more to convey to passing members what the basic ideas and concepts are before they give up and leave.

Cal, Arakis and pathogenicoma - Short attention spans suck. They really do. And it seems as if it's showing to me with a lot of people who make these RPs based simply off of some shit that they saw off of "The Hills" or "Gossip Girl" or something to that effect.

This is exactly it.

People watch "The Hills" and "Gossip Girl" and say, "HAHA I WANT TO SEE WHAT IT WOULD BE LIKE IF I WERE RICH AND BEAUTIFUL AND A PART OF THIS SERIES"

To be honest, I like making the background information for an RP board more than I actually like the RPing that follows.

I must say, there are A LOT of those.

But personally, im one of those silent nomads who just kinda wander around different boards, and there are several nice ones that are quite original. =] I like those.

I understand the appeal. They're easier to set up and attract more members because they're more conventional and mainstream. I considered making another "summer town" type RP, even though I knew it would attract the Sophia Bushes, Vanessa Anne Hudgenses, Chace Crawfords... But it is easy, it's instant RP-gratification. But I chose my HP roleplay instead, which, while cliché in certain aspects, proves more challenging than Just Another Teen Roleplay.

I also totally understand the frustration. I hate seeing OTH play-bys only RPing with other play-bys from OTH. I hate seeing Vanessa with Zac all the time. I hate seeing Leighton Meester caught between Chace Crawford and Ed Westwick. I hate sarcastic Ellen Page being paired with goofy Michael Cera. I hate Rachel Bilsons jumping on my Adam Brodys. There is no originality, but at the same time, that's the appeal. It's a good place to go when your creativity extends only to cute signatures. :p

This is why I rarely use live playbys. I often draw my characters. It might help that I prefer science fiction and fantasy RPs where I have more freedom in my character's appearance.

Actually, I have the weirdest pairings when it comes to my charries. Ellen Page was once with Oli Sykes, Alyson Michalka was a tomboy and with Bellz, and I think I put Wendy Chermak with one of my emo-ish guy charries. Go figure. :p

The problem I have is, even when I do think of a creative idea... I think of all the ways people can come in, make bad characters and ruin it.
I want mature members! No, I don't mean ones willing to have their characters have sex every .5 seconds, I mean members who will make realistic people. Even 'unique' isn't unique anymore. I'm tired of the same old types of personalities, looks, etc. etc.

It's probably why my characters always end up with so many social problems, I'm trying to break the mold. who knows if it's working..

When looking for a new RPing experience, I look around for something that will keep my attention. That would generally be something that is well-organized and fairly original without being intensely confusing. There are some games out there that are very unique and complex, but they usually only work for the hardcore roleplayers. The majority of people in the RP community tend to be very casual, and prefer simplistic concepts- thus, they're more popular and there's a lot of similar sites.

Meliora's a fairly generic fantasy RP. The current site-wide plots include a rebellion (Supporters of the deities vs. supporters of the imperial monarchy) and a secret mages guild (Big question: Who should be able to use magic, and are the deities necessary?). They aren't that creative. However, they can be a lot of fun and there's a lot of freedom for different characters to get involved in various ways. Is Meliora so unique that it sticks out like neon lights on a dark night? No, but I still think it can provide an interesting RP experience. That doesn't mean that everyone should just make the same type of RP though.

The best part of RPing is the opportunity to experience different aspects of writing, and a unique plot can obviously be a major part of that.

I would not consider starting my own RP for various reasons (I took over Meliora because I've been a dedicated member for years and I didn't want it to die), but if I was going to it would be because they're wasn't an existing site that had the type of plot that I would be interested in. I wish more Twilight and HP fans would consider this, but it doesn't seem like a popular approach.

The PB aspect reminds me that I should thank Avalene, a Meliora and XMR member, for using play-bys that I had never heard of before seeing her characters (they really are great PBs, too!). ;)

The best strategy, I think, is to put ONE twist (or very few) on a world most will find at least comprehensible. It has to be part of the collective conscious (to coin a phrase Jung would cringe at). I, for instance, did a twist on medieval fantasy. Some do a twist on Harry Potter (gag me with a spoon, but who am I to judge?). It isn't a question of radical originality, I think; that gets old, too--that is, being too wildly weird. It becomes unplayable.

I'd like to see a trailer park RP, though, speaking of socioeconomic diversity in RP. Honestly. It would be awesome. You'd get all sorts of down-and-outs, and even maybe the odd college grad who can't afford a house or car (with these gas and food prices...)...

Dude.

I may have to do this.

I would totally join a trailer park RP. That would be AWESOME.

I've seen a trailer park RP. It died because everyone just wanted to use the same PBs anyway and... they just weren't that interested in playing characters with real economic problems. :p

The success and types of players you get really depend on how you advertise your board, though. So I'm sure it would be a different matter if you made it, antisocialist. The people who made that other trailer park Rp were the types that had like, celeb RPs and teenagers in Richy Rich, California and Upper Class, New York. :p