That One Character

So what do you do if you have a character on an active site that's being ignored?

I'm not talking a site where the activity is down, and the problem isn't you as a member. the rest of your characters are getting action (that one character with Jensen Ackles as a PB is getting a lot of action, if you know what I mean), but for whatever reason, one particular character just... isn't. Again, for this scenario, the character is from someone who's been on the board for a while, has an established presence, and is known for being a good posting partner.

(why yes, I do have a specific instance, but I'm attempting to keep it general before I veer into my particular instance).

So again: what do you do? Do you make demands for people to post with said character? Do you take as many open threads as you can and cross your fingers? Do you start tweaking the character to see if he/she needs a rewrite (assuming he or she does)?

Basically, has this sort of thing happened and how did you handle it?

Presuming they are an active player....

On a Narrator System site, they should be involved in the plot that there character is in the closest proximity to.

On a Freeform site, get involved with as many threads as you can and/or PM everyone who would be within site of the character normally.

Perhaps something caused the player to fall out of favor with others and they are being ostracized. If so, you to get to the root of it and clear the air.

Try my hardest to ram it down people's throats and stick it in plots. Like, 'NO, PLAY WITH THIS ONE'.

I do have a character that gets perpetually ignored wherever I take him. His name is Nick, and Nick is heavy into identity theft, and is good at forging IDs, and grew up as a petty criminal. He's snarky and bitter, but he pretends to be friendly to people that aren't his BFF. I love him, but everyone else? Not so much. The friendly characters ~SEE RIGHT THROUGH HIM~, the bratty rebels say he's too much of a criminal for him, the criminals say he isn't enough of a criminal. Poor guy.I refuse, though, to change anything about him, he's how I want him, it's everyone else that's the issue. >;[

It's probably not the character, if your other characters are getting 'action', it might be the maturity of the site. It seems characters are only popular on some sites if they are 'useful' to other people. To get shagged, the great comedy romantic plot, to be overpowered by someone's hardass character (eyeroll), or to be mocked by the MATY (More Awesome Than You) more sarcastic, more witty, more EVERYTHING than you.

It just seems people aren't willing to let their characters be vulnerable or taken in, they are just so desperate to micromanage their character lives to be perfect. It's a shame, I'd looooove to be scammed by your guy :D My poor, dimwitted goofy girls would never stand a chance xp.

I would make a suggestion. You might try asking around for a short range type plot. Like involving a credit scam or identity theft, being very specific about how long it would be, or if its just a one off thread. Being specific as possible about what you want, how long you want it, and what the possible results might be might get you some interest.

I think I'll do that! At the moment he's been pushed into a backburner because I got tired of 'PLOT WITH HIM PLOT WITH HIM' 'hmmm, I think we'll go with the plot for this other character!' ' >;[ ' It took over a year for me to give in and back-burner the character, but yeah. ;x

This sort of thing has happened before. Surprisingly (or not so surprisingly), I noticed that these characers who were ignored (while others weren't) that all their PBs weren't very popular, I don't know what was up with that, and one time it was a nine year old girl - all my adult characters were getting threads, I just assumed that no one wanted to RP with a little girl because it's 'boring' or because they wouldn't know what to do. Usually what I do is I pretty much bombard people's plot pages, if there are open threads I might enter as long as it suits, etc.

I never ever change my character because if people don't like that one character or don't want to RP with them for whatever reason then it's their problem, not mine. I'm not going to tweak my character to make others happy, I made them a particular way and was accepted already. So all in all, I just bombard them until they submit themselves to my master plan.

I agree with the others. Sometimes (if it is your character, you know better) the character has been designed from the start to be a secondary character, used only in certain circumstances (seldom than others). In this case, it is nothing wrong, but do make a habit in tossing him in any open thread where he could realistically be.

This had happened with my mercenary, who got involved more in tavern scenes, because a wandering mercenary could be almost anywhere at a given moment, and this will happen with another character I have, which has been created specifically as a love interest for a pirate. (But even she, when he'll bring her to Tortuga, and this will happen soon, she will help there as a tavern maid and she will enter any tavern scene where she might be needed - be it to serve customers or to greet the newcomers.) She will try to make friends with the other tavern maids and to treat friendly, but respectfully her husband's friends. Later, she will open a shop of her own, and I guess this part will be less played out, but she'll get a few (2-3) threads at work too.

If it is not your character, but somebody else's, and you are staff on that site, yes, involve the character in an important plot, take a few threads with said character, and make the most of them collective threads, so as several other characters to be involved, not necessarily for her sake, but for the action's. And once the character is tightly tied into the plot... well, they will have to play with him!

When my characters don't get the attention I feel they ~deserve, my first reaction is always WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU PPL? Y U NO WANNA PLAY WITH THEIR OBVIOUS AWESOMENESS?" Especially if there are other characters/players getting tones of plotty luvins. It's happened plenty of times at different games.

Then I turn down the CAPSLOCK RAGE and try and think about it logically. Have I put my dude out there for plots? Hit people up for plots? At which point I make an effort to do all of these things.

If they still get no luvin, I wallow in self pity for awhile as I realize the only logical explanation is that my characters suck, as do my plot ideas, and as an extention, I suck.

Admittedly, it's a very exhausting cycle. I don't recommend it.

What I do recommend is taking a good, honest look at your own character, like others above have said. Making the effort to put that character out there with ideas. If you still get no plot luvin', sometimes the character just doesn't work on the site. It sucks, but it happens.

Ugh I hate that! I have a character like that - a criminal type that works very hard to keep up a respectable public face - and I've never been able to really work into the plot for the same reasons. Especially the ~see right thought him~ thing. And even when I try to roll with it, something along the lines of 'oh, your character is good at reading people too? Could be interesting to watch them dance around each other," they just sort of peter out.

So, yeah, off topic but I just had to chime in and say I FEEL YO PAIN! THE WORLD JUST DON'T UNDERSTAAAAND.

Generally, I find that if someone I enjoy threading with has a character who is uninteresting, then I avoid that character. Therefore, if I find myself with a character that is often ignored, I will create more history for them, and as a result make them more interesting. Then I ensure I jump into the open threads of others with this 'improved' version of the character, and make sure he or she has friendships forming if they didn't already.

That's basically me. XD

Create a whole bunch of NPC people and play them by myself in the corner. Then make sure everyone knows what an AWESOME TIME I AM HAVING WITH MY CHARACTER THEY REJECTED.

Surprising, this works a bit. Maybe because they like the NPC's now connected to the character, maybe just seeing the character in active piques some interest. Something about parading a character I feel is awesome just in a closed thread seems to get a bit of curiosity, then I capitalise on that. Sometimes I feel tempted to be like "Nu, u had ur chance!".

This has happened to me a fair number of times

I has teh lames - but more on that later

The way I usually combat it is - as mentioned here - I RP with myself. Seems silly, but starting up a thread and just 'going at it' with whatever random NPC's you can think up got me 'famous' on this Star Wars board I joined. Not only did I get a lot of RP requests, but the NPC I made up for the RP became NPC of the month :|

sometimes people just have to get to know a character, and if they don't want to take the chance... maybe you should show them how many w33ns you has

Honestly? Not everything that comes out of my head is gold. Sometimes I may think so but it's not -- have you ever reread something of yours from a year ago and laughed? The exact thing will happen a year from now with a certain percentage of the stuff you write now: posts, characters, stories.

Other people don't need a year's distance to figure this out.

If I have a character that doesn't do well, I give it my best shot and if it doesn't work out, I retire said character. Why parade it around more?
Now if I really am on a site where people only appreciate the pb, I'd leave but that also has more to do with me than everybody else because I chose to play there. *shrugs*

I'm just wondering (because a few of the comments made me wonder), did you mention whether the character is established or new? Because that changes a lot of things... It really depends on the situation.

If they're new, it's probably because the member-base has yet to see enough of them to know whether or not the two characters could interact in posts and plots. A couple days is not enough to be able to tell, sometimes it takes up to a month or more to get a character going depending on the size of the community.

While if they are established, it may be due to the fact that your idea isn't successful as in there seems to be no direction for them; however, if you're dedicated to and really fond of the character, you should try to get them out there a little with new plots and perhaps a different direction and if that fails for a second time, then you could look into making edits, etc.

Ah, you got me there, @Jareth, mostly because I was going all general and stuffs.

This character is actually the second character I made on the site I'm currently on, and she's been around for a while. However, she's also a seductive female at a school related setting, wherein most of the members are straight females. It's been my experience that characters like that have a tendency to be avoided in those situations overall, though maybe I'm reading too much into it.

It does bother me though that most of my other characters will see their open threads snapped up like they're meat in a piranha tank, while this one gets habitually ignored. Though I will admit that a few of said open threads did suck, it still burns me sometimes.

I'm prolly too attached to her to drop her, not to mention that she's a partner in crime for one of my preferred RPing partners on site, not to mention one of my favorite canon characters (it's a canon site; see how many details I was leaving off?). I've debating RPing with myself, but I'm still on the fence about that. Most of the other ideas I've tried to some degree, though I've recently taken to trying to present her as a plot device for other people, since that seems to work overall...

Fate, what if instead of making new open threads for her, you make her join other people's open threads? I think this would be the best approach. And being "a partner in crime for one of my preferred RPing partners on site", it means that she IS already involved in some plots, so why do you think she is ignored?

I am not so sure what you mean by "trying to present her as a plot device for other people" (for me a character is… a character, not a device), but I guess it means that she might help other characters, and yes, it means she gets involved in more important plots, which will have an impact over her too.

I have loads of characters concepts, if one does not work I try another. No big deal. Rarely happens anyways.