A public invitation to a MMO roleplay experience

[Demson]

"The old man sighed a last time and stood up.
"It is time." He knocked the Atrox on the head, who consequently arose. Together they made their way down the building, approaching the door of a complex without windows.
"From there," said the man and pointed down the alley. The atrox got in position where the old man had pointed at. Then the man knocked on the door.
The door hissed as it was opened, revealing an armed guard with a pistol at the ready.
"What! Who are you, grandpa? And what do you want!" he said quite suprised.
The grandpa smiled and simply said, "Good day."
Quickly he straved aside and not a moment too soon. Threehundred-thirthy pounds of Atrox, armour and pure hurt came sprinting down the alley, barely avoiding grandpa and knocking down the armed guard with a loud thump and sickening crack, following it up with the loud rattling of his two submachineguns.
The noise of the machineguns and screams of its victims went on for a while. The grandpa litted a sigar while he waited, keeping a look-out for any approaching trouble. Once things started to quiet down inside, he uncovered a large shotgun from under his trenchcoat and stepped inside, closing the door behind him. The game was on.

~ Excerpt from "Hundred Days [http://www.createforum.com/hundreddays/viewtopic.php?t=10]"



Looking for a worthwhile and casual roleplay experience? Meeting new people and having new exciting adventures? Developing a character and participating in a live story arc? Then I have something for you.

The "Hundred Days"-project is a roleplay effort for the highly awarded, historic MMORPG Anarchy Online [http://www.anarchy-online.com]. The exotic planet of Rubi-Ka, a wartorn paradise, has been home to a wonderful and dynamic storyline and roleplay community for many years. Since two years it has been free-to-play for new arrivals.

For those interested, I have set-up a 'new arrival'-programme. By interacting with an assortment of roleplayed characters, you recieve in-character guidance while you come to grips with the gameplay mechanics. Futhermore, these characters provide you with player-hosted events, so you can develop your character concepts and gradually become involved in the existing and rich roleplay scene while exploring the aclaimed setting of Rubi-Ka.

These roleplayed characters all have their own backgrounds and storylines that react and develop as roleplayers go through the programme. The tidings of these characters, the progressions of yours and the input of veteran roleplayers from the existing community all come together in a live, written story arc.

The atmosphere and setting of Rubi-Ka together with character development are very central in the programme. Through the role you decide to play in the story arc, you'll explore the planet of Rubi-Ka and get the most out of the gameplay experience. It will be a very original and refreshing experience for most, wether you're an experienced roleplayer or not.

You can sign up alone, or with friends. Now, or in the future. Don't pass up on this great oppertunity though!

To sign up for this programme or if you wish to learn more, do a quick sign-up at my forums [http://www.createforum.com/hundreddays] and send me a PM there. If you have any questions, comments, even criticism, you're of course very welcome too!

As a last note, I realise this sort of topic might not be entirely appropiate to a forum like this. I wouldn't want to pass you people up on this opportunity though! I read the comments sections often and figured some of you might appriciate an effort like this. Please don't take out the banstick.

 

[mshcherbatskaya]

Just a suggestion:

If you are going to start a text-based adventure of any sort, you might want to run a spell-checker over your entries, at the very least, and possibly consult an English usage guide [http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/] of some sort. Spelling and graphics errors are rather like glitches and graphics problems in a video game - if the game is compelling, people will try to ignore them, but will still find them irritating. Not that I suggest being some sort of grammar fascist for other players, but if you are starting the game, your entries will set tone and from what I've seen, your written English needs a bit of polish.

 

[Copter400]

I smell plant on this sucka'. Mr. Joe, I think yo' should busta' cap in his ass.

 

[Joe]

Sources have confirmed Demson's just a fun-loving roleplayer. Sounds like a pretty good idea. If I hadn't lost my Agent to the ages, I'd think about hopping in.

 

[Demson]

mshcherbatskaya,

If you are posting constructive criticism, be sure you understand the subject matter. Reading comprehension is an extremely useful skill.

Futhermore, the use of 'but' after a comma (and excessive use of comma's in general) is usually frowned upon and introduces unneccesary pauses for the reader. If you feel there is a need to break up a block of text, try not to write that much!

Lastly, sentences such as 'Not that I suggest being some sort of grammar fascist for other players' really do not make any sense at all.

By the way, if I misspelled your name it is because I ran this text through a spellchecker. My apologies beforehand.


Joe,

Thanks, Joe. Don't worry about having lost your agent. The 'new arrival'-programme and story arc is exactly intended for new players who are starting at level 1.

Admittably, this public invitation was a bit of a try-out to see how people would react to it. What has become obvious so far is that I've been focussing on gamers who are into MMORPG's, not realising that there are gamers out there are not at all familiar with this subject! I should do more to cater to that audiance, I think.

For the record; I am a gamer running a player-driven initiative for pure non-commercial purposes. Or as Joe put it, a roleplayer trying to have a bit of fun. Though I'm deeply flattered if people believe my effort to be so professional, it has to be commercial.

 

[Spinwhiz]

I'd like to try it. I have never done one like this, so if there is a little more info, please let me know. I like Table Topping, so this seems fun if it's not too labor intensive (the people at work may not like me spending all day typing up dialog hehe)

 

[Demson]

Hi, Spinwhiz.

thank you for your interest! I've explained some of the context of the project on my forums here [http://www.createforum.com/hundreddays/]:
- About Hundred Days [http://www.createforum.com/hundreddays/viewtopic.php?t=5&mforum=hundreddays]
- History behind the project [http://www.createforum.com/hundreddays/viewtopic.php?t=7&mforum=hundreddays]

The efforted is centered around a MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game), so it'll require you to download the gameclient [http://www.anarchy-online.com/wsp/anarchy/frontend.cgi?func=frontend.show&template=drill&func_id=1088&navID=1003,1005,1070,1088] and sign sign up for a free account. That probably sounds allot more complicated then it is.

Participating is not supposed to be labour intensive. However, it does require you to play and enjoy Anarchy Online. The story arc and 'new arrival'-programme is very action-oriented on in-game happenings. Think of it as a graphically-intensive MUD. This project basically combines casual gaming in a MMORPG with roleplay and storywriting/storytelling.
Actually, tabletopping and the role of DM was what inspired me to try this. I want to see how the 'tabletop' approach works in an online virtual environment. It was a major success with Neverwinter Nights, so I thought I could try it with MMORPGs.

I'm trailing off now though. Registering on my forums is a good first step. We can PM there (you try keeping up with personal dialogue over multiple forums!) and see if this works out for you and set you up if so. If it turns out it isn't your cup of tea after all, no worries. My membercount will have been beefed up at least!

 

[Sib]

Just a suggestion: Not that I suggest being some sort of grammar fascist for other players

ahh but i do suggest being a grammar nazi
HEIL GRAMMAR

Related to thread: ill have a look at the links you posted, looks quite interesting.

 

[Singing Gremlin]

If you are posting constructive criticism, be sure you understand the subject matter. Reading comprehension is an extremely useful skill.

Futhermore, the use of 'but' after a comma (and excessive use of comma's in general) is usually frowned upon and introduces unneccesary pauses for the reader. If you feel there is a need to break up a block of text, try not to write that much!

Lastly, sentences such as 'Not that I suggest being some sort of grammar fascist for other players' really do not make any sense at all.

Ok, that annoyed me. mshcherbatskaya made a totally valid point, that your post wasn't in perfect English, which wouldn't require knowledge of the subject matter, and until you have your original post in totally perfect English, you cannot even try and lecture her on grammar .

Let me point out some things from the original post that you might wanna consider tidying up:

Whoem is not a word.
The possesive of it is its, not it's.
Threehundred-thirty pounds is in desperate need of your spacebar.
Weither was not an alternate spelling for whether last time I checked.
And Opportunity, not oppertunity.

Just from glancing down. I know everyone makes mistakes like this, but when someone points them out, fix them. If you ignore them and instead act like the person trying to help you is the grammatically incompetent one, people will get annoyed.

Oh, and incidentally, the use of 'but' after a comma is used to simulate speech with writing, a remarkably difficult thing to do unless you're a very good writer because it requires you to hurl some basic rules of language out the window. Lots of people on the forum use this style because its more engaging to read. It makes perfect sense.

 

[Spinwhiz]

Hi, Spinwhiz.

thank you for your interest! I've explained some of the context of the project on my forums here [http://www.createforum.com/hundreddays/]:
- About Hundred Days [http://www.createforum.com/hundreddays/viewtopic.php?t=5&mforum=hundreddays]
- History behind the project [http://www.createforum.com/hundreddays/viewtopic.php?t=7&mforum=hundreddays]

The efforted is centered around a MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game), so it'll require you to download the gameclient [http://www.anarchy-online.com/wsp/anarchy/frontend.cgi?func=frontend.show&template=drill&func_id=1088&navID=1003,1005,1070,1088] and sign sign up for a free account. That probably sounds allot more complicated then it is.

Participating is not supposed to be labour intensive. However, it does require you to play and enjoy Anarchy Online. The story arc and 'new arrival'-programme is very action-oriented on in-game happenings. Think of it as a graphically-intensive MUD. This project basically combines casual gaming in a MMORPG with roleplay and storywriting/storytelling.
Actually, tabletopping and the role of DM was what inspired me to try this. I want to see how the 'tabletop' approach works in an online virtual environment. It was a major success with Neverwinter Nights, so I thought I could try it with MMORPGs.

I'm trailing off now though. Registering on my forums is a good first step. We can PM there (you try keeping up with personal dialogue over multiple forums!) and see if this works out for you and set you up if so. If it turns out it isn't your cup of tea after all, no worries. My membercount will have been beefed up at least!

When I get a free moment away from work and my work comp I will look into it, no doubt!

 

[Demson]

Oberstgruppen-Führer Singing Gremlin

I appriciated the constructive critism from mshcherbatskaya. I did not appriciate how it was done and it being done as the first reply in this topic, rather than through private channels (as I specified in the OP). I tend to return such helpful if insensative comments with helpful if insensative comments of my own.

I've taken your suggestions and corrected them in the OP. That's the kind of thing I appriciate. You can tell someone 'you're doing it wrong' or you actually help them by providing corrections.

For those who are turned off by my lack of technical expertise with the English language, consider the following. The idea of the story arc is that it's written on the fly. That means I do not have time to fret on every little detail. I am not writing a novel.

Also consider I wrote this public invitation like I write entries for the story arc; on the fly. I often read the comments on news articles and figured this is a decent crowd of people who might enjoy initiatives like this one.

One thing I've learned from this is that when visiting the community of a magazine, bring nothing less than perfect English.

Cue someone dissecting my English in this post in 3, 2, 1...

 

[xMacx]

you misspelled insensitive .


Sorry, I couldn't resist.



Firefox has spell check! Helps me avoid the spelling Nazi's. Good luck on your initiative!

 

[Melty Blood]

For those who are turned off by my lack of technical expertise with the English language, consider the following. The idea of the story arc is that it's written on the fly. That means I do not have time to fret on every little detail. I am not writing a novel.

Wait, if it's written on the fly, does that mean you just type up a story arc and plop in up there without revision?

(Yay, post 126, I'm a beat writer now)

 

[Demson]

Melty Blood

I haven't come around revisioning yet. I will eventually revision and rewrite it once I publish it on the official AO forums. Right now, my main effort is actually making this happen. As result, the rough edges will show. I didn't add the excerpt until the very last moment. Actually posting here was an impulse to begin with, really.

This whole effort began as a spur of the moment. I haven't had much time for it in the past month but things are really begining to pick up again. I don't think I've ever had an on-line game experience as furfilling as this one.

Congrats on beat writer. Does that mean you now have to beat people about their writings? Or write beatings?

On another note, re-reading my reply to mshcherbatskaya made me realise I came off as an asshat. I don't know why, I was tired at the time and the part about 'reading an English user guide of some sort' got under my skin. Listening to some remixed Japanese pop (crazy stuff I tell you) on Gridstream Radio [http://www.gridstream.org/gsp-nextgen/subpages/news.aspx] probably didn't help much either.
So if I came out as particulary insulting, my apologies. I only intended to be mildy provoking, since I still believe that publically calling out someone's bad grammar and spelling (especially considering the context and circumstance) is bad form. Still, I took it too far and am sorry for that.

So there you have it. Hopefully we can be done with it now. If anyone else has anything to say, please bring it through private channels. Obviousily I'm breaking my own rule here by bringing it up myself. I can't exactly post a public apology through private channels through. Not without some serious hassle, anyway. I'd be banned for spamming people's in-boxes.

 

[Melty Blood]

Listening to some remixed Japanese pop (crazy stuff I tell you) on Gridstream Radio [http://www.gridstream.org/gsp-nextgen/subpages/news.aspx] probably didn't help much either.

Misono FTW!

 

[Monsterfurby]

I must say that this is a great idea. I always wished to see something like this in other MMOGs, but usually those are full with Ub3r Ownz0r Gam0rs, who give a pidgeon's excrement about roleplaying, even though it can be very fun. If I should happen to have more time at my hands in the near future, I guess I'll drop in.