Character Adoption Policy

[Wes]

While this would be a start towards the right direction if such a program is necessary it would require that all current inactive characters be grandfathered in as opted out of the program by default.

No it wouldn't, and addressing those legions of characters nobody touched in years part of the point. The needs of the players who are here roleplaying must come before the needs of those who left us. Star Army's ten years old now and I am adamant that Star Army exists to support you guys, the active players, not to be a graveyard of the mummified remains of old characters. It's the circle of life; we should be able to recycle things, including neglected characters.

Why does every old character have to be in use, why can't they retire and fade to the back ground.

Not every character has to be in use, but I would like to have some older ones to come back and become pre-gens for new players to use.

Past that, Why does if feel like you Wes have made the discussion, that this is what is going to happen. Then I guess I wonder why bother calling it a discussion.

I'm listening. But just because I'm listening doesn't mean that I'll be convinced all the time. I get that some people don't like the idea of us reusing abandoned characters so they can be in the RP again. But we also got to recognize they're part of the setting, and they shouldn't just disappear forever because a player leaves. When an actor leaves a TV show, sometimes they just cast a new one to play the role. We should be able to do that too.

The problem is for most RP'ers a character is not just a possession, but a facet of themselves they let loose and developed side-by-side with their own personality.

We're talking about a person that cares so little about the character and site that they don't even visit for 3 months. Look, I'm not going to get stressed out about the theoretical feelings of players who haven't logged on in months.

I've already extended the timeframe and given people a method to opt out. But we need a clear policy on adopting characters, especially now that there are more characters who have no GM to be their safety net because they're in Open RP. I'm going to extend the timeframe one more time to 1 full year but I really don't want to scrap this.

Keep this in perspective: this is a policy that won't even affect you as long as you're an active Star Army member. And, if you choose, will never affect you...although I personally feel like disallowing people to play your character when you're not even participating in the community anymore would be incredibly selfish. We already let GMs use our characters as NPCs, this would just allow our characters to have a real shot at a future beyond us.

 

[Toshiro]

Then what about people like me, who cared, but simply couldn't take the OOC Drama and other crap of the time, or felt they had to leave for a time for other reasons? Or those who were in situations like Doshii mentioned?

The fundamental disagreement for many isn't one you can negotiate on, Wes. People feel that their characters are theirs, no matter how you cover yourself with copyright law. The idea of others playing them in any situation without their explicit consent first alienates a large if not majority of the community.

 

[Reynolds]

It's actually pretty scary that you're not getting it.

 

[Doshii Jun]

It's not a matter of getting it.

It's a matter of two perspectives.

Folks, this isn't just a playground for Wes. It's a business venture he's sunk money into. It's a dream that somehow has survived for a decade and more.

You don't think he's willing to do whatever it takes to make sure it keeps on living? Each and every step taken is for that. That should not shock us.

We're going to disagree on this policy. "Wes' sandbox" still is the reigning management policy. That's just how it is.

 

[Reynolds]

From all the Kickstarter stuff, that actually sounds about right.

The reaction is about the same on both sides, actually.

Edit : Not sure if it's a good or bad sign that this was demoted out of the big announcement section.

 

[Wes]

I considered "what if the policy didn't allow for adoption based on player absence?" but that defeats the purpose and even worse, it could be seen as punishing players that say they're leaving and rewarding ones who disappear without a goodbye.

If we can't adopt abandoned characters, what is the alternative? Writing in a random fate for each of them (death or discharge from the Star Army)? Delete articles? Make them into stubs? Should we allow factions to set their own adoption policy? What happens when we reach a point where the wiki is composed of more unused character pages than any other type of article? What if only GMs were allowed to adopt?

I am not sure I'm going to put the suggested policy in force. I still have questions and doubts based on member feedback.

 

[Kai]

What if we make a dump page for unused character bios, consolidating them into a single Wiki article, or something like that?

 

[Wes]

What if we make a dump page for unused character bios, consolidating them into a single Wiki article, or something like that?

That would take a lot of work and the article would be impractically long--thousands of pages.

 

[raz]

I don't actually mind this since you can put that OOC note and opt out or whatever. But it doesn't really solve the problem that causes players to abandon the site: a lack of places to play. As customers, we're often left for extended periods without a product to consume if a plot dies for whatever reason.

 

[Reynolds]

If you can opt out of any control beyond what is needed to remove your character from their current plot and write in a default fate in advance, that should tie up most loose ends. Having characters of players that disappear for X months default to their GM's control to be used as a background character (with no real character alteration or development) or shuffled off to a post out of the spotlight makes sense.

We could just mark on the character's page, in their history, "This character's last post was on xx/xx/xxxx and they were declared Abandoned on xx/xx/xxxx." Then have the next section marked with what GM was in charge of them and where they wound up.

If we want to reuse art not provided by the player - I notice Zain/Kale has Egil's chibi now, for example - that seems fine to me. Especially if they didn't stick around long enough for it to be used extensively by them.

There's millions of people out there, so having some people just fade out or retire to boring lives out of the spotlight - or just having no one aware of their adventures - isn't very strange.

 

[Ira]

I support this. If you leave and somebody else wishes to pick up your character after a prolonged period, then yes. We have done this with abandoned factions so why not do it with characters.

 

[Fred]

Wow. Heated.

I can sort of relate with how Wes stands on it. For example, Doshii and I kind of manage the Miharu clan. Inside the Miharu clan, we've presently 3 characters which have been used by players, but have not been picked up: Rin, Nao and now Yuzuki.

In an ideal world, I don't think Doshii and I really want to go and do much roleplaying with those three - which is part-awkwardness, part not-feeling-we'll-get-it-entirely-right.

On the other hand, we have a family of notable NPCs to run, and I think I speak for the both of us when I say we're willing to make something constructive of their lives and show that they still exist. We'll say what they've been up to, we'll try to briefly include or reference them in some of our threads and such.

Using the character and making he/she still part of the world isn't quite the same as taking it over. If either Kyoki or Cadetnewb would come back and suddenly have the urge to take their Miharus back to do something with them, I don't think them being filled in on what we had them be up to for the past couple of years would be all that odious.

* * *

However, the Miharu clan is just one example of how abandoned characters can be handled. Regardless of the schools of thoughts offered, I'll point another thing Doshii himself made reference to.

We have a lot of dropouts, and dropouts whom have characters with art - very often chibi art. This being said, I think it'd be within the realm of fairness to allow Wes to reuse the art he's invested in if it's not seeing use. The unused art assets could join a bank of 'generic character art' new people could browse through and pick one if one of those ever picks their fancy.

Or maybe, one could also just come close. We had a newcomer pick some Kyoka art, and palette swap her to his liking. That being said, there's plenty of older art lying around which could be used to the same ends.

 

[Ira]

Fred has some wisdom here with his art idea.

 

[Sigma]

What's the point of this?

That is a question I ask every time someone suggests a new species or faction. And with this proposal, I have a couple answers.

I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it.

There is the Holmesian argument, which rather speaks for itself.

My own is rather similar. To an organized mind, the number of unused characters is nothing but clutter. There are only two things which should be done with them: 1) remove them or 2) recycle them. Allowing such clutter to accumulate is a reflection on how much player attrition we suffer. The number of "useless mouths" is annoying and the inability to touch them has, on occasion, impeded my efforts vis-a-vis my plot and the overall Nepleslian setting.

Anyone who is complaining about how they don't want this to happen to their character, then make a note saying you dont want it to be up for adoption and appoint someone caretaker. Your GM shouldnt have a problem just saying yes to that sort of request. It is a simple process. The alternative is simply not going inactive.

As a GM and a setting and tech maker on SARP, having to circumvent older PC and NPC's and their achievements (due to inactivity) has been extremely annoying. Remaking the IPG and NAM were difficult because I had remove the NPC in charge, explain their IC removal and then explain who the new guy was. Updating the 3rd Assault Fleet was so much easier because Kampfer transferred control of it and its Admiral to me and we worked out the Admiral's personality and leadership style. From there, I could tailor the expanded Fleet to meet its original flavor.

Another example is how MoonMan was absent for a long time. Legitimately absent but without any word. The planned reboot of NSS Altomir fell apart because we had no word from our Supreme Overlord. If Koku and I had permission to take over Vanderhuge and De Luca, a reboot of the NSS Altomir could have become a reality sooner.

However, I'm not in favor of players taking over random characters and tailoring them for a plot without a GM or FM being told. If you're going to take over a character, there ought to be a reason and plot. So in that sense, I foresee GMs and FMs are the caretakers for the inactive characters. In addition, I am not in favor of new players taking their first character from this pool. They should make their own character first and if they want to join a secondary or tertiary plot, they can approach the GM with the character and work with him or her on updating it for the plot.

Contrary to the hype, I don't foresee a huge rush by anyone to snatch up a ton of characters. At best, a couple GMs will pick up inactive PCs/NPCs and make use of them as recurring characters. Maybe a player will pick up a character for an Open RP. GMs and FMs would benefit from this far more than the individual player, simply in that these characters can be used to fulfill necessary roles within a plot or setting element without having to make a whole new character up.

I would also use the opportunity to start deleting random, vanilla characters who applied to Nepleslian plots. That way, the names are freed up for use for anyone who can think of them.

Strange as it is to say, but I am in favor of such drastic change. I am happy to argue until blue if something breaks existing principles. This proposal does not break any of the existing principles but amends them to a greater point of flexibility. It does not render null and void any of the previously established Player Rights. This simply returns the inactive character to the ownership of the community.

The argument for originality over recycling in non-applicable is, in my mind, not an issue since we are required to update them within a week of successful application. Anyone worth their salt in RP would be able to craft a fairly interesting interlude for the character and explain how they got from past to present. And the best role-players are people who can play a role crafted by someone else rather than a role they designed. The challenge, after all, in Role Playing is not to play your own well but someone else's creation in a stellar fashion. It is a challenge I personally welcome and love to tackle. But that is because I am never satisfied with my role playing and writing. Satisfaction, especially when prolonged, leads to mediocrity and stagnation.

If I disappeared and someone took over Valken and played him true to my original "taste", upon my return, my opinion of that player would be raised enormously. And how can I begrudge someone moving the setting along? Just because I go does not mean the 4th Fleet must stop. The show and the story must go on, opening inactive characters for (even limited) use adds another tool to everyone's box.

 

[Wes]

Okay, after much discussion and debate and thinking it over, I'm thinking I'll implement the policy after some minor changes:

• 1. There should probably be a grace period to allow people to opt out if they want to opt out. During this time, players can put OOC notices on their bio saying who they want to pass on their character to (like a will) or say "please do not adopt this character" or something.
  2. I want it to be clear that some attempt should be made to contact the character's last player to say "hey, your character is about to get adopted."

 

[Wes]

Here's the guide: Character Adoptions

 

[Abwehran Commander]

How about added a list to the wiki that actively catalogs characters up for adoption?

In this regard, individual who want to adopt a character can browse said list to see what they would like.

 

[Wes]

I will. The problem is they're a little hard to find for me, too! In fact, the list might be just as useful for players looking to give away their now-unused or "made-for-adoption" creations. Anyway, I'll be working on it.