What To Do About Villain Applications? Community Poll

[Lathros 377]

Remove them because they're retarded. 

 

"Oh I know, lets force !!!!!!players!!!! to write essays in order to roleplay a character. Genius!"

 

No idea who came up with the idea, but god knows what went through their minds when it was happening.

<3 Favorite Ex-GM.

[K00l 72]

. . . When did everyone start agreeing with me?          

R3m0v3 D4m VAs.

[Lathros 377]

I honestly dont care because VA or no everyone will still be running around being a self righteous vigilante or a psyhopath for no particular reason.

What makes you think that when you remove a VA somebody will just not be good anymore? xD. Why would someone go out of their way to make a psychopath. 

[ChampionOfL1ght 112]

Please just remove VA's. They do nothing but put restrictions on how you develop your character. Chuck Norris and I agree with this post. 

 

 and so do I.

[Aislin 4354]

They are archaic and noob-unfriendly.

 

I could go on for days about how dumb they are, but I think only one argument at this point needs to be said:

 

If MAs have been deemed illogical and unneeded by the staff, then VAs by default should be granted the same treatment.

[Daisy 9739]

If I never wrote a VA my character wouldn't have a bio. Honestly writing a VA strengthened my character development as a whole.

 

If your VA gets denied that means that you didn't put enough effort in it and you would be doing evil with no RP reasons.

 

EDIT: If I never wrote a VA my character wouldn't have much of a bio.

[ski_king3 0]

Honestly, the VA just doesn't do the job it's designed to. It serves as a barrier for those who have less free time than others, or those who don't want to take the time to write up a VA, rather than a barrier for those who are good RP'ers. I don't think a compromise can really be had, but if one were to be made, I think it would have to be a VA only for psychopathy. Basically the only thing that would need a VA is killing people with no justification other than the loopiness of one's mind, to try to keep track of random, seemingly reasonless killing. However, I still don't think that's necessary, as the argument of who it deters still stands.

[Shadowjax 140]

If I never wrote a VA my character wouldn't have a bio. Honestly writing a VA strengthened my character development as a whole.

 

If your VA gets denied that means that you didn't put enough effort in it and you would be doing evil with no RP reasons.

Don't punish the majority just because /you/ decided not to establish a backstory for your character.

 

Should we start forcing applications for all new characters so that they're "properly-developed?"

[Roxforbraynz 251]

Really, a simple VA isn't that hard to get. The only real roadblock that held me back was getting off my lazy bum and writing up a very short, summarized story of why Elwen kills as a quick solution to problems and to protect her new family.

 

The only time you'd have to write an "essay" is when you're going for very complicated evils such as psychopathy, or going for all the evils at once. Seriously, take a look at my VA for Elwen/My account VA and you'll see, not much effort is required for some simple evils, like thievery or basic murder. I think the only time you'd get denied then is if it either didn't make sense or was too Mary-Sue-like.

 

If your character has a good backstory already, then it shouldn't be hard to stuff that biography section with enough fluff to make it passable. Take Elwen for example, I have several bulletpoints in her life that you can see throughout any documentation of her, her tongue being cut out at a young age being the most prominent.

[monkeypoacher 8055]

Remove them because they're retarded. 

 

"Oh I know, lets force !!!!!!players!!!! to write essays in order to roleplay a character. Genius!"

 

No idea who came up with the idea, but god knows what went through their minds when it was happening.

 

They made them because the exact thing that is happening now was happening. People were running around shooting eachother for no reason with no restriction.

It's not forcing you to write an essay to roleplay a character unless the only thing you can find in roleplaying is combat RP. Enough said.

[Swgrclan 2682]

Why do you need an application to do that? If you're a half decent RP'er you already provide RP for others by simply RPing WITH others. 

It validates that someone is willing to agree to certain rules and follow certain guidelines after acceptance that would lead them to providing satisfactory villain role-play. This is not the case sometimes, but all systems hold flaws - it's not anything to blame the application process on, as it's core intentions do the server better than not. I don't think the player-base can properly balance a lack of organized villains on it's own.

[Lark 2227]

Keep VAs. Why? Well I could write an essay on this but to save everyone's time and make it easier, I'll outine my concerns in bullet points.

 

• VAs, while restrictive, are necessary to keep those who are not mature enough/good enough at roleplay from abusing the power of being able to steal and kill on a whim. We can regulate ourselves? No, we cannot. Trust me on this
• Villains are meant to provide fun roleplay, not provide players with a way for getting free goodies.
• VAs prevent everyone and their mother being a lockpicking master thief jumping from roof to shining roof stabbing people in the throat. Don't believe me? We already have edgies without VAs. Give them a VA and see what happens. I dare you.
• VAs act as "Roleplay Upgrade" in my personal opinion. When you have an accepted VA, you are recognized as someone who has the roleplay skill to do villainous things and not be a **** with them. Refer to Bullet 2.

 

Now do I believe we should take some evils off? Possibly. Maybe update the evils, but don't remove any. Personally I find all are necessary, despite what some people believe.

 

 

They are archaic and noob-unfriendly.

 

I could go on for days about how dumb they are, but I think only one argument at this point needs to be said:

 

If MAs have been deemed illogical and unneeded by the staff, then VAs by default should be granted the same treatment.

 

MAs were removed, the way I see it, or I would like to see it as mages were becoming a bit to pompous and not providing the fun roleplay they should have been providing. The way I see it, the MA and VA are upgrades to a character in terms of roleplay. Some people just aren't mature enough to advance that far sometimes. Others advance that far and then fail to utilize their gift. There are plenty of good Villains out there, I see no reason to remove the VAs other then cause chaos. Yeah, letting everyone and their mother have magic is bad, but I still haven't seen a lot of mages, in fact, only one or two. And they made the roleplay hilarious. Think about that.

[Overland 349]

  I think that we should remove VAs as a test when we arrive in 4.0, and if that doesn't work, we can re-add them, allowing us to experiment with VAs. I think a complete removal would work well if there was less combat role-play, maybe even the removal of VAs will cause it? There are risks in removing it, but I think the reward may be far greater than always trying the same thing.

[Han Solo 35]

  I think that we should remove VAs as a test when we arrive in 4.0, and if that doesn't work, we can re-add them, allowing us to experiment with VAs. I think a complete removal would work well if there was less combat role-play, maybe even the removal of VAs will cause it? There are risks in removing it, but I think the reward may be far greater than always trying the same thing.

Yes I agree with this one. We should just try turning it off just once and see how it goes.

[Lym 849]

They are archaic and noob-unfriendly.

 

I could go on for days about how dumb they are, but I think only one argument at this point needs to be said:

 

If MAs have been deemed illogical and unneeded by the staff, then VAs by default should be granted the same treatment.

 

 

There's a reason this release on magic has worked so well this far:

 

 

People can't kill each other with it yet.

 

 

 

It serves as a barrier for those who have less free time than others, or those who don't want to take the time to write up a VA, rather than a barrier for those who are good RP'ers.

 

If you do not have 15-30 minutes to fill out a short form, I wonder how:

1.) You have time to play on this server at all.

2.) You want to prove you're not just playing for your own little conquests.

 

If you're such a busy man, you probably don't have the time to provide good RP either which is perfectly fine - just means you're not getting a free VA.

 

The reason the current antagonist got flamed so badly when they were first released is because they didn't need VAs and some of them didn't know what it actually means to be a villain in the first place. Tell me what you want but from my point of view, half of the antagonists wouldn't have been accepted as villains in the first place with the old VA system.

 

 

Don't punish the majority just because /you/ decided not to establish a backstory for your character.

 

Should we start forcing applications for all new characters so that they're "properly-developed?"

 

Seeing how Dalek said nearly the same as you, I'll share my two cents on this:

 

There is a huge difference between punishing someone for not following the rules which you swore to follow and punishing a majority. Don't act as if everyone is oppressed, it's not the case at all.

 

 

 

Overall, I think the recent changes made to the VA system have been working out quite well so far and I see no reason to change them at all. I'm all up for discussing this "issue" once again the promised skill and magic plugins are out but until then, I don't feel like giving a free PvP-No-VA-ticket to everyone.