[Community Activity] Reworking the Application Process

Oh for the love of all is holy PLEASE oh PLEASE do NOT do applying for every single character you create ;-;

 

Might be worth adding feedback from our most recently joined members would be extra helpful, as the application process has changed numerous times before being what it was today.

 

Personally, I think the application process should always have that first part to it like how I got it when I first applied. Provides an honest opinion neither right nor wrong that basically sets how they stand. My issues are part two. Part two is too specific for me scenario wise and can generally cause panic (at least when I tried the application process in my head). Too many options and it kind of weighs a player to try and pick their best answer.

• OOC discussion on chat? Break it up, tell them to whisper.
• Blah blah causing trouble? Report to mods.
• Rude dude assaults you and how do you react? Oh uh, well I'd try and peacefully get out of it OR assault back OR etc. All of a sudden the options become that of "What do I say to not get rejected for a month?" And the pressure is on.

When I took the application, the questions were (If I remember correctly) what's roleplay to me, a portfolio of my character, and questions on how my character would react. I'd prefer general questions that really take into account how the person will handle roleplay on the server in general. Such as:

• What is power-gaming? What should be done about it?
• When making characters for roleplay, what do you consider?
• How is lore an important factor to roleplay?

Seeing a person write a character background is nice too. But limit it in size or something.

Also, would applications sent via Google forms speed up things on the Staff side?

 

Hello, welcome to the Antares sector, in order to apply for whitelisting you must first answer some questions.

Lexicon: Basic understanding of terms and phrases used by players.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Can you play a character that isn't a Special Snow-Flake?
Do you like to Ass-Pull? Yes or no.
Are you an Edgelord? Yes or no.
(What does this mean?)

Lore: The fundamental basis of community storytelling.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lore is important. True or False.
Foran are nice cutesy and all around adorable and pose no threat to the general populace. True or False.
Earth was destroyed by:____________
Avians praise Klu klux. True or false.

Roleplay: What characters, created by the community, use to portray the community story.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All RP should only be done in bars. True or false.

This question is an extended response answer.

Two people are Roleplaying.
Character A, Bobby, is an asshole and acts like a douche generally.
Character B, Billy, is a pretty swell inbreed bastard.

How do you feel about the person playing Bobby?

Give us an example of a character you would make.
Please include a name, origin, basic backstory, and what they are doing in the Antares sector.
Make them seem like a character that would fit into the Starboard lore.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
General things to remember.
-We are here to have fun!
-It's okay to not like things but don't be a dick about the things you don't like!
-There are people on the other side of that screen you stare at, most of us are jerks and such, but thats okay.

 

It seems like a decent idea in general, but it's length in general certainly seems like it could be intimidating to newer players, particularly having to write an essay about why Bar RP is bad. (Not to mention there are bound to be people who don't think it's comparable to the Holocaust, and would possibly answer "True" to that question.)

There's also the possibility of how the question about Lore could throw people off. "Uh... Does this server stick to Lore like it's the End-All-Be-All of everything, or do they employ their own custom lore on this server?"

 

The application should be a way to determine who the person is and if they understand the rules.
To test their ability in RP combat, you could put in a simple combat situation where there is already a shot fired or attack move on the character.

Also a trick question to determine if they read the rules.
Like, World measurement tool ; Banana.

 

I agree with all of Kumakin's ideas except the lore questions dealing with specific races. We do not have a server lore section of the forums so as long as new players know they can't go around spreading universe breaking lore as 'true' information those questions could be left out. Unless we are checking for general Starbound knowledge. Perhaps combine those three questions into one? Maybe something like "is it ok to make up major chunks of history that could affect Antares? <yes or no>".

 

I might just be paranoid, but my only problem with this is that the right answer is literally right there. To me, it's the equivalent of asking a person if it's right to kill. I'd prefer general questions asked where the player doesn't have a given black or white over yes or no's.
I just see it as a way of easily letting trolls through simply by being those kids who are like "yes yes yes dad I understand." Who then do something bad for lulz.
Of course, I support all suggestions, but providing a little counter argument will help us find a good method of going about this.

 

The bar RP question is a True or False answer. I'm not sure how the 'holocaust' pertains to bar roleplay either. It has it's time but assuming it is the only RP is not what we aim to advertise. The general length also deters players who wish to 'Troll' seeing as they wouldn't usually have the patience to fill the whole thing out for a bad joke.

This server does stick to the starboard lore, as broken as it is, as the premise of the Antares sector's lore. Any additives to the lore are faction based by player characters. For example: An Avian will have all of its racial prejudices and background lore still intact the only exception would be an Avian maybe raised by a different race for oddly undue circumstances. See Special Snowflake Syndrome.

We have been using the Starboard lore as closely as we can follow it before expanding to more custom lore. Without a foundation humans could have been born into floran tribes, much akin to the story of a boy raised by wolves, which is complete bullshit. The Lore questions were general knowledge answers so you don't have people rolling characters who are outside the scope of lore which, in turn, would lead to 'universe breaking lore'. Example: Shadow Avians. (( You can message any old characters or admins and ask. ))

(( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suggestive_question ))
The questions that have the answers in them are a form of testing which teaches the person about something while examining what they know. I did it intentionally to expedite the process. Especially the Lexicon section which emphasizes some general bits of RP I find most players to fall victim too.

As far as a more grey area type questions I added an extended answer question to help weed out players who take it seriously as opposed to 'trolls'. A character can be as zany and odd as they wish as long as they can fit within the basic lore and cover their bases. Some great 'joke' characters have ended up with extensive and well developed backstories. Examples: Blaze Winchester.

My list of possible addendums:
-Question about Meta-Gaming, power-gaming etc.
-Question about building.

If you think I'm attacking you. I'm not. I'm just generally pretty tired all the time and come off as abrasive. Also, I don't speak english well.

 

No I do appreciate that you took the time to respond with your reasoning since it makes sense. The psychological progression of the questions do make sense now in how they process the applicant. I'm just over thinking it.

 

I'm a new player. Just started playing today but I came from being a long time member of minecraft roleplay community and what I saw that worked pretty well when we did servers was having an app that was a conversation and the player filled in responses with emotes and dialogue. Let me show you a rough, quick example.

You beam down to the new unknown planet before you. All around you are surprised Apex scientists. "Who are you?!" One of them shouts.
(Player response here)
The Apex are shocked that you have arrived here and begins to shout more. "Why did you come here? You should not be here."
(Player response again)

I'm not sure if you've tried something like this but I've seen a few iterations along with OOC questions and it worked well. I filled out your application on Monday and did not think it was bad. I just thought I would give my two cents

 

My only opinion is that the guys who aspire to join us must have some hard work and effort to do the application. Cause lazy people will go away when they see the size of the form.

And as a RP player, he or she must be good at telling a history. I recommend also a 8 line of some text.

 

When I applied a while back, there happened to be two different pages describing two different ways to apply. I happened to use the outdated instruction. There should be a priority to make a check-list or take measures to prevent old informations to crawl around alongside new ones.

That's the tough one. Personally, I'd set a maximum of words for the charstory to prevent 10page-applications and a relatively high minimum amount of words. People not interested in RP won't bother writing a one-pager about a character.

The general tone of staff helps a lot in preventing this. I found that the rules section, the FAQ and staff messages (rules, community integration, application feedback) were all very friendly, welcoming and carefully written as to not leave a negative impression by accident.

One thing that could generally be changed in the application process: It might be worth to write one big chunk for a characterstory, rather than several paragraphs to answer each question. This would give the staff a better indication on whether people can develop a characterstory and a narrative for their character. The current process doesn't to that so well because the narrative/charstory is intentionally broken into little informationparagraphs. Just one textchunk that has to include information on x,y and z might work better. Again, a min/max word restriction might be good to have then.[/quote]

 

What Kumakin said pretty much. I think It should include a question about the radio.. Something along the lines of You've been lurking around your ship for quite some time and you decide to flip on ye' olde radio, what would be your first transmission?

There's a lot of "Where are the colonies???" , "Hello!" or "Selling powerful guns for a cheap price"
Don't know if it would help at all, but it might reduce some dull radio conversations.