Name of Board: This is Just the Prologue Link to Board: http://theprologue.b1.jcink.com Short description of Board: It's a literate/advanced site, based on the premise that the Greek gods all died and now the sisters of fate are doing a little experiment to see if they can behave themselves. The gods are now mortals around high school age. Analysis Notes: Activity has slowed way way down and I'm trying to pinpoint the areas that are turning people off. Basically I want to change a few things to make it more guest-friendly? without losing the feel of the site. Link to profile on the Board: Schoofie
First Impression: As soon as I read the words “high school age” I couldn’t help but groan. But I do like a mythology rp as much as the next guy. Graphics and Skin: Impressive, conveys that fantasy/mythological feel and the colors although somewhat trippy are a welcome change Sidebar: It’s easy to navigate and seems to compliment the skin. General Organization: For the most part everything seems in its proper place and can be found with little difficulty. Forum and Subforum Layout: This is what confused me the most is how the epilogue and prologue forums are laid out. If the focus is on the town of Ludlow, why put mount Olympus and Greece first? Is this where “prequel” threads are played out? Ether way I think you should rename the forums and switch them, putting Ludlow first. The Plot: It makes sense, certainly much more so than some of the other modern mythology rps I’ve seen in the past. And it’s well written. Again the only thing I think holds you back is what you wrote in the plot description for the purposes of this review “high school age”, honestly not only does it seem to restrict character types and diversity, it also makes rpers like me groan “not another teen rp” often associated with poorly written characters, over the top drama and more angst than you can shake a stick at. And I like to believe you guys are better than that, with such a fantastic plot. The Rules: Only rule that seems to jump out at me is the one that states there are no regular activity checks. Activity checks ensure activity and should be held at least once a month in my opinion. Other than that the rules are pretty standard. Other Informational Topics: I believe so, the F.A.Q. answered most of my questions, the town of Ludlow topic gave me a feel for the town and overall you present enough info without bombarding potential guests. Staff: Can’t say that I met them, but if you’re willing to post here, it shows you care for your site. Strengths: -Awesome plot -Straight forward/easy to follow -Impressive canon list -Accessible and easy to navigate Weaknesses: -High teen population and a restricted age group -Confusing forum layout -Lack of checks against inactivity Good luck, I wish you the best, got an interesting plot and a cool site on your hands. ^ ^
First Impression: Like geminiguy, I was set back just a little when you described it as a 'high school age' RP. Not a fan of them, myself, but I was pleasantly surprised by the overall setup of the forum. Rather impressed. Graphics and Skin: The skin is beautiful and the colors are a welcome change to what I normally see. I have high speed DSL and Google Chrome and the forum loads within milliseconds. I did read the banner like: 'Prologue: This is Just the'. That left me wondering...this is just the what? However, that is very minor. Being the old woman that I am (just kidding, I'm 20, but I have horrible eyesight), I could appreciate larger text, but it's not too important. I have a zoom button on my browser. Sidebar: I love that the sidebar is hide-able. It seems to have everything a potential member would need access to. General Organization: Everything seems in order here. Forum and Subforum Layout: This also seems to be in order for the most part, although personally I'd place 'The Drafts' before 'The Annotations', but that's just me. The Plot: I think it is really good. It definitely has a lot of potential. It's not too brief, but not too long, and it explains everything clearly. The Rules: In rule 4 under Characters, you say Mayor Olympian, and then Major Olympian. And I'd put the General rules first, but that's just me. I disagree with geminiguy on the activity check thing, though. The way you propose to do it seems a lot more solid. On my old forum, we would put up the activity check and, of course, everyone would be emailed about them, and people who hadn't posted in weeks (or sometimes months), and didn't plan to post, would post in the activity check just to keep their characters from getting deleted. Seeing who's actually posting instead of seeing who thinks they're still active (even if they're not) is a lot more efficient, in my opinion, and keeps the member db clean. Other Informational Topics: Seems so. The only thing that's bothering me is that I'm unable to find what year the RP is set in. Staff: Schoofie, from what I've seen. She seems to be on top of things and is present on the board. Strengths: Beautiful, but simple skin - Aesthetic appeal. Call me shallow, but the skin is the first thing I look at, obviously, and it's what I get my first impression from. Plot - Has a lot of potential and seems pretty open-ended so that players aren't restricted with their characters and everyone can join in the fun. Activity Checks - Or lack therof. The process that the admin/s have chosen to use seems much more efficient. No Word Count - Less intimidating to players, in my opinion. It's much easier to write when you're not stressing about how much fluff you need to add to a post to reach the word count. Hideable Sidebar - I'm not a fan of cboxes, although I do admit they can be nifty at times, but I don't want to look at one constantly. It's distracting. Weaknesses: Restrictive Age Limit - From what I understood, the characters that join should be below thirty years of age, and since it's a high school RP, the majority of them should be between 14 and 18 years old. I have my fair share of twenty-something characters, but I also enjoy RP'ing more mature characters, and I probably wouldn't be able to fit them in here and get a lot of play out of them.
First Impression: At first glance I was highly impressed with the banner. I thought it was gorgeous and fit well with what the RPG was about. It alone made me want to go deeper in finding out more information. Graphics and Skin: I normally don’t like small fonts because they make my eyes hurt, but the small font in your skin didn’t even phase me. The colors mesh well with the banner and the image on the sidebar as well, so it’s easy on the eyes. I’m glad you went with a darker background because I think it made the forums stick out and catches the viewers’ attention. Sidebar: I’m not familiar with the clickable sidebar where you can chose to hide or make it viewable. I find it to be so convenient to have it there because sometimes you don’t want to look at the sidebar. Not only that, but you have 5 basic links that help a new comer get all they need before they start browsing the forums, which I personally think is important – mostly because I like to be able to click on a link to the information instead of hitting the back button, then clicking another information topic. I hope you understand what I mean by that! Overall, I love the sidebar. General Organization: For a new comer it is set up just the way it should be. Information first, then all the in character forums followed by forums that aren’t really as important i.e., advertisements, ooc things and so forth. It’s basically smooth sailing. Forum and Subforum Layout: This is a hard one. To me, “The Glossary” section seems to be too long – like it needs to be split up or a few of the forums put into subforums. It’s minor, so it’s not like it would stop someone from RPing. The Plot: I read the whole thing and really loved it because it was easy to read and to understand. The only thing that didn’t make sense right away, was that there was no mention of adults – like the parents of these high schoolers who were once Gods but turned mortal and had to earn back their power or that there aren’t any playable born mortals. I think a mention of adults needs to be some where in the plot. I don’t mind that high school students are the main focus, but I think for a town of students who have no idea they were powerful Greek beings - there needs to be known adults that are teachers, parents and residents that also meet the same fate. The reason I say this, is because it’s more realistic and expected in way. I didn’t read the in character posts, but I did read some of the applications and they have Ludlow parents which means there are born mortal’s being their parents AND siblings. In this case, I think they need to be playable to be believable. It also adds a dynamic between once immortals versus born mortals. The plot says that the sisters of fate wanted them to change in order to go back to being who they were, but wouldn’t it defeat the purpose if they have no memory of who they were? To make change, they have to know what to change – I think right? I think in order for them to change, they need to be surrounded by mortals (which they are, just NPC’d I presume?) who’ve been mortals all their lives and also have their memories. I feel like I am missing a part of the plot that explains what kind of change the sisters want from them exactly. It seems all the sisters of fate are doing, is rebirthing them to be someone else rather than letting them change on their own terms which would make them worthy to go back to being who they once were. The Rules: They are very reasonable and straight to the point. I don’t completely understand the discrimination part of the rules, though. I guess I’ve never seen a rule like that because discrimination is common sense, but I get it either way. I’m sure there are people who do it and sometimes without even knowing it. Other Informational Topics: I was definitely hit with a lot of information that I understood well. I believe I almost wanted to register because I was confident enough to start making a character, but unfortunately I’d have to do some studying on a canon I chose since I am not familiar with 80% of the Demigods, Nymphs etc. I like that there was a link to information on the mythological figures in the canon lists for people like me and that a potential member can make up an original character. Staff: I believe they are. In the staff section of the sidebar, I clicked on more information on the staff and noticed that couple staff had several characters that they play. I think it’s important for staff to be engaging – especially with characters. Strengths: Strengths are definitely in the skin and overall look. I noticed people, including myself, drawn to a board because of the look. It makes people want to read what the RPG has to offer. The information is also a huge strength. Not only is the plot well written for anyone to understand (minus the raising questions part), but I like how the town Ludlow is described as well. I could imagine the setting and I think that is important for an RPG to do. I feel like a pest if I keep asking questions about a setting, so it was a nice addition to the information provided. The canon list is amazing! You guys have such a great list that gives people a mythology character to play. Weaknesses: - I don’t think there is a whole lot of weaknesses, but one that comes to mind right away is the lack of adult playable’s and playable born mortals in general. That kind of dynamic can be interesting then just having playable high schoolers. - The plot too, only because it draws in a lot of questions about the sisters of fate’s decision to erase the memories of the Greek Gods, demigods, etc., doesn’t seem logical for why they are mortals in the first place. I think those are the only true weaknesses of the forum. Even though these questions would be raised, the RPG is playable and the weaknesses can be easily overlooked.
Thank you so much for the reviews! I've taken this all into review and have tried to edit a lot of the problems. Thanks again! <3
