just post some trends you've noticed the rp world. Here's something I've noticed. A LARGE decrease in the amount of twilight rp boards A slow increase in the hunger games rp boards (I seriously remember when there was absolutely no IF/Jcink HG rp, I was going to pioneer but i lost interest XD;.....) Anime/manga sites increase with literacy, negating the stereotype that 'anime/manga have not as literate members' =/ An increase of people using special abilities/jutsus/powers/etc.... where they clearly didn't do their homework on it
Twilight will come back with a bloody vengeance when that last movie hits. People are always riding on the back of major tv shows and movies. The zombie apocalypse is a major thematic influence lately, which I personally attribute to Shaun of the Dead (not saying it's the first one, but it seemed to spawn quite a bit of funny zombie-related things, and most zombie boards have that "Hey we loved Zombieland so we're also HUMOROUS! ha ha ha" thing going. Inception had like fifty boards for it a year ago. Now there's only one that I know of, and it's kind of meandering along as people start to lose interest in it. And with Hunger Games about to have their big old movie, there's probably going to be like a thousand of those around right after the first screening. That'll be fun. I'm not sure what else to contribute outside of the "thematic fads" of the current time. A lot of the trends I see in roleplay may be specific to the small group of people I mostly roleplay with. Some of those trends include a slight shift towards older characters (less angsty teens, specifically), people being more interested in the nitty gritty of the 'verse (for the sci fi board)(which I think is AWESOME btw), and more interesting characters in general as we grow up and learn that you don't really need a sad, twisted background for a character to make them worth reading. I just realized I have so many positive things to say about my current group. I love you, guys.
(Legend : ^ up , v down , - same, 0 virtually nonexistant) Software/utility: vv Wetpaint sites ^ jcink sites - proboards sites v IPB/IPS sites - invisionfree sites - phpbb, smf, ... sites ^ zetaboards sites - plugboards - topsite directories v Broken topsite directories v roleplay directories v outside means of roleplay advertisement ^ google analytics tracked sites - use of jquery v resource & graphics studio sites ^^ online virtual pets & pet sims Genres: ^ Disney themed ^ warriors & feral cat sites v dog/canine sites v fantasy animal sites 0 non (horse/dog/wolf/cat/bigcat) sites v multigenre animal sites v non-movie/"classic" vampire sites ^ zombie survival sites - pokemon sites v digimon sites ^ bleach/other anime sites v harvest moon & zelda sites - marvel/comic based sites 0 avatar sites ^ dinosaur sites - star trek/space sites - origional fantasy sites - historic sites Genre internals: vv dice-rolling sites v sites with stats - copycat sites ^^ copycat sites that got busted ^^ dark-themed sites ^^ dark-themed sites with itty-bitty cursive low-contrast fonts vv light-themed sites - other colored sites vv sites that play music or flash automatically vv roleplay sites with a personal promo video
I'd classify Jcink as ^^ and zeta as O. I hate zeta because the skins I've seen for it are generally insanely simple or too bulky looking.
vv On chat roleplays. If you want to do something in a chatroom, there are only two main sites to go to that are known well enough, and they usually have elitist roleplayers, or people who want to show off their ePeen at you on their profile. Or a mixture of the two.
Since you mentioned it, there's been a mass migration towards those (I forget exactly what they're called atm) flat, imageless?, overly simple skins and I absolutely hate them.
Yes, sorta. No. These first started on RCR but Caution picked up on them. They're usually two-tone with a white or light backdrop and strips of some other color for the headings.
Don't call those atrocities minimalist. There's a different between minimalistic style, and those. I am so judge-y about them, because I like minimalistic styles, but I hate people slapping together two colors and calling it a day. </aspiring designer> Anyway, I personally noticed a lot less proboards sites. Most sites that are proboards now, are animal sites, or... Well, yeah, animal sites.
I like simple skins, but not to the point of overly simple where there's no sidebar/table that gives you no information about a site =/ A simple sidebar for me: Welcome, staff section, links, affiliation, chatbox <-the rest is optional to me XD Another trend I've noticed is there's like no 'warriors' series sites anymore (that cat series book)
I, on the other hand, do not like sidebars. I like a simple looking forum, and I've just seen too many sidebars that make the board look cluttery (new word XD). I do agree with that "slap up two colors and call it a day" is awful. Puts some effort into it and make it a least minimally appealing to look at. Just leave off the sidebar. I'm really hoping sidebars are a fad that will disappear, but I doubt it. Oh, yeah, the other thing I hate? "Literate" boards.
side bars became a huge thing about 8 years ago. Before that, they weren't really common. Now, I see them as kind of vital for at least giving basic info about the site. At least have a nice, not cluttered looking table.
Maybe its just because I've spent most of my roleplaying time for the past few years at the same site, but the trend of thread templates/ doHTML has really came out nowhere for me, especially on the comicbook sites that I tend to like. It used to be, there might be some sort of coding fanciness on the canon list, but the idea that you must do this for even just a post in a roleplay thread is a completely foreign idea to me that seems to have engulfed forum roleplay in the last two or so years.
I know doHtml gives some people headaches when attempting to fill out a template/application, so I always give players options to do a 'traditional' style that requires zero coding knowledge or a fancy doHtml one =/
I hated sidebars when they first came out, but they became so ubiquitous that now I'm always a little thrown off when a site doesn't have one, and I wander around like a homeless infant trying to find information that I know is readily available to me a few clicks in.
