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Kat Dakuu
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#1
Old 06-04-2013, 03:59 AM

So let's talk about things that bug you when they happen in an rp. Come on, everyone has something that irks them and it helps to get these things out in the open where people can talk about them, fix them, get over them, whatever. I'm not creating this to rant (well, maybe a little) but I'd love to have a discussion about these things.

These are my top rping peeves.
1. using an omniscient point of view or narrator's voice. I'm sure people do this every now and then to clear up things they think might have been misunderstood, but lately I've been seeing a lot of posts that can only be interpreted as your character's thoughts are reactions to my character's. But why does he/she know my character's thoughts?!
2. These lit, semi-lit, advanced...whatever titles that people use. Most of the time it seems it's dependently entirely on the amount a person writes per post. I'm sorry what? I'm not literate because I can say a lot in few words?? People, find another way to express the writing style you're looking for than the word 'literate'. I can write you four awful and useless paragraphs if that's what you want. Besides the fact that people misrepresent themselves, don't really get it, or feel insulted by the categories.
3. Having the rp ditched in the first 1-3 posts or just as worse, after the question "who's going to start it?" when everything is ready and you've got a bubbling idea in your head that you now have no release for. Come on people, can't you at least stick around for more than one post before you decide the rp isn't worth it. I know a bad rp can been seen quickly, but isn't this too quick? Give the rp a chance!!
4. writing in present tense. This is a minor thing for me. I don't mind reading it in another situation, but it's kind of messy since I write in past tense and I like the story to flow stylistically somewhat. I can live with this though.
5. Any sentence that starts with "He leant/lent against...." Just no. I've never even considered that could be correct at any age or writing level. Spell check? This is the one grammar mistake that gets me the most. Other things I can understand but not this.
5. Really nice characters. You know, that really sweet and shy girl (sometimes guy) that forgives everything, wants no trouble, always backs down, never yells, or hates, a complete follower. I run into these ALL the time. These people aren't mary sue's really. They're even fine characters sometimes, but eventually it just gets really boring because I quickly run out of things to do in the story. This also goes for those damsel in distress chars!
*I've found a word for this: Hood Ornament. Sure some characters who are very sweet and shy are sometimes not hood ornaments, but because it's so overdone, I end up dislike them too. Which is sad. Don't make me dislike something I shouldn't. :(
6. Randomly going about everything like an anime. Everyone has Japanese names, the story is sometimes set in japan which would be great if it wasn't an assumption and I was in on this. I can't understand why it's impossible for some people write without the influence of manga. o.o If your character is going to have a Japanese name, actually think of them as Japanese. If the story is not set in Japan, build the fact that they're a foreigner into their profile!
7. I understand not everyone rps to the same level of seriousness and a lot of people don't care if all your characters seem grafted out of different universes, one named Bob and another named Ylondinete. Plot points start, drop, and morph without any lead up or wrap up in order to keep things interesting or a million other things that are fine to write but would be awful to read. To a point, some of this can't be helped. It always irks me though when what makes a good story is completely ignored.

So lay it on me people, what's your peeves? I wonder if anyone is annoyed by the same things I am, or do ya'll disagree maybe? I'm sure someone does.

Last edited by Kat Dakuu; 08-05-2015 at 07:25 PM..

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#2
Old 06-05-2013, 08:39 PM

I have the same pet peeve as you. #3 what gets on my nerves the most. What's the point starting the rp, when the other person is going to give up on it so soon? It so annoying!. I mean come on give the rp a chance. *sigh*

---------- Post added 06-05-2013 at 03:40 PM ----------

I mean it can be bad at first since it is a new rp and people are just getting into their characters or something then quit.

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#3
Old 06-05-2013, 09:58 PM

nice Bellinda. It just seems people could at least wait till half way down the first page to make decisions or I don't know...say they made a mistake at least, but no one every says they're leaving.

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#4
Old 06-05-2013, 10:57 PM

Another peeve I do get annoyed with that people disappear without saying anything. I know rl can get in the way but at lease come on and tell the other that they won't be on for a while because of this or that.

Question for you Kat. You have seen a few of my rps, have you? Do I write past or present tense? Cause I think I do have a problem with that. Cause some people will notice it and what gets annoying about it they won't help me try to fix it. But of course I do have issues with it. I been rping or nearly 13 years and never had any trouble with it until now.

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#5
Old 06-05-2013, 11:07 PM

I can understand sometimes when an rp dies and no one says something. There are moments when it's so obvious that the rp needs to die because no one can get anything to happen. Sometimes I just leave in those moments without saying anything but I find it really strange when people disappear right in the midst of interesting things.

I don't know if I have seen any of your rps, but present tense is "she goes to the store". past tense is "she went to the store." Neither way is more right than the other, but many writers use past tense.

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#6
Old 06-27-2013, 05:36 PM

Lately, my pet peeves have been starting in a new rp, and it dying right away. Nobody posts for days or weeks. Or we have to wait for a certain person to post, and they never do. Also, just trying to start a new rp. Nobody wants to join them. You wonder where everyone is. There are only a few rps in each category that are still going, and they usually have hundreds of posts to them. Who'd want to join a rp that far along?

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#7
Old 06-27-2013, 05:47 PM

I'm gathering you're mostly talking of group rps? I normally think of this site as one of the best and easiest to start an rp because of the amount of people here. Lately it has been more difficult for me to start. I think no one is around this summer though....which is weird. It's summer.

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#8
Old 06-30-2013, 02:52 AM

I just wanted to make a clarification: Lit, Semi-lit, etc. or whatever other words you want to use, denote more than just quantity of words in a post. :) They're measures of a person's writing ability and cover grammar, spelling, and depth. People who are looking for literate roleplays are actually typically looking for more than just:

Quote:
*he went over to the chair* "How's it going?" he said to her.
No, that's not actually a quote. I just did that to set it apart. :P

That's the kind of stuff that makes a lot of people shy away from a roleplay. In a way, the labels serve to mark experience as well. Mary Sue's and similar characters are far more typical of people who would be measured illiterate. Actually, if you look, you'd probably find one or two roleplays on this site where the creator of the thread has a Mary Sue as their character. And with atrocious writing to boot.

Like I said, I'm not saying any of this to start a fight or something. I was just clarifying the terms. :D

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#9
Old 06-30-2013, 03:08 AM

I've been roleplaying for 8 years and i hate to say it, but 70% of the time, literate roleplayers won't even look at me due to writing under 4 paragraphs. And I've even seen one person who flat out said that quality is quantity. I always thought that was just bull. I understand what the terms are supposed to do, but I think that people rarely use them to classify someones skill level. I have plenty of roleplays going with less than brilliant writers, some of which classify themselves as advanced lit.

sorry if my discussing sounds argumentative.

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#10
Old 07-02-2013, 06:42 AM

I share all of your pet peeves. I'm also really bugged by poorly played "badass" characters. Especially when played by people with poor writing skill. They tend to be Gary Stus or Mary Sues. I hate it when people godmode.

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#11
Old 07-02-2013, 09:20 PM

Oh nice. I haven't run into badass characters like that. I mostly run into way to nice and friendly characters. Would you consider it godmoding when someone is always trying to be the main character of the story instead of sharing importance?

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#12
Old 07-06-2013, 02:52 AM

Yeah, but you will always run into people who are just stupid. XP In my own experience, there are very few people who are actually 'literate' in the sense of the word. Usually, they're semi-lit or a touch above. It's pretty hard to say and it depends on your fellow writers as well. For instance, I can typically write three solid paragraphs easy. Big deal. What I think serves as a better estimate of my writing ability is being able to come up with a paragraph in response to one-liners consistently. I'm not boasting; just using it as an example. :3

That's typically referred to being a Mary Sue/Gary Stu/etc. And yeah, I've seen quite a few of those on here in different places by different authors. It's not always taken to an extreme, but it can still be rather annoying. A similar example would be a character that has powers no one else can in the storyline itself.

As for my own pet peeves, I get irritated by the basic stuff. Mary Sues, godmodding, metagaming, powerplaying, etc. But I don't believe there are very many people who aren't bothered by that stuff honestly. ;) Recently, something that's really bothered me is people being impatient in a roleplay. With living in different time zones and what not, people can't always respond immediately, but these guys don't care. It's just frustrating to have someone show a complete disregard for your personal situation.

In general, I also typically fail to get interested in a roleplay where the characters' powers and abilities are limited excessively. This is especially something I see in fantasy roleplays all over the place. They say, "Yeah, magic exists, but you can only use it to light up a room or something. It's not stronger than that." My problem with it is that it's not really magic like that. I might as well give my character a torch.

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#13
Old 07-07-2013, 06:33 AM

Changing the scene already set forth, in a very obvious, unbelievable sort of way. For example, I give the opening post. In my setting, I describe a morning day, with my character going to get coffee. And when you enter, it's suddenly night time, in a club? Uh, no, I described something else entirely. It's not suddenly night time. I set it up for us to meet at the cafe, not a club.

Small mistakes I can handle - I'm wearing a blue dress, you mention it being green, no problem. But when something this major is changed, I just get incredibly annoyed.

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#14
Old 07-07-2013, 07:51 PM

Pweep, I can understand that. I know I've done that before because I didn't read carefully, but I also tend to get annoyed when there are large discrepancies like that. The only real excuse for it is if the first mention was a while back and preferably on another page. Me and my best friend run into that a lot with our rp that's been around for almost two years. We had to make an OOC just to store information rather than for chatting because there are so many pages and just...everything.

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#15
Old 08-04-2014, 11:34 PM

I think my biggest pet peeve definitely stems from post quality. I'm not one to care about post size. You can write how much or how little you want so long as I have something to work with.

Sometimes I find that I'll make a post which in a couple paragraphs or whatever will describe the scenario, what my character is doing, etc. And then I'll get a response (typically it's a one-liner, but not always) where the other might write something like

John watches Alex.

Or something really simple like that, which gives me no context to respond to. Did this character just enter the room? What's he feeling? How long was he watching for? I have no idea. And that drives me insane.

I tend to find that this behaviour is often linked to persons who leave it up to me to carry the weight of the story, which is fine sometimes. Everybody has days when they can't come up with great ideas, but for the entire story not even including one teensy tiny little thought? I tend to find that kills an RP for me. Because then when I hit the proverbial wall, we're left sitting there RPing, but not really doing anything.

PWEEP also touched on something for me that I find bothersome. In group rps, it's not as big of a deal for me because there's typically a lot going on and every now and then somebody gets confused. It's pretty easy to set straight.

However, I'm a frequent 1x1 RPer and I find that a lot of times what ends up happening is I will make a post and if my partner doesn't like what I've written, they'll just completely ignore what I've written and write something else in place of it because they seem to think that's the better route to go, rather than just take a minute and talk to me OOC about it.

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#16
Old 08-05-2014, 12:11 AM

I refuse to go anywhere near people who rp so uselessly why would someone write a post that has little bearing on the story. How is that even fun?
Ah, I also dislike when some blatantly ignores something I've typed and it's also very rude to like...pm and say they want me to change it to something else. You don't always get exactly what your want.

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#17
Old 08-06-2014, 08:14 PM

One thing I don't like to do is have my character go back in time to respond to someone's last post. I prefer to have the flow of time continue at a usually rate, which is why I don't mind short posts while 2 characters are interacting. I'd rather finish my post with a question so the flow of time isn't disrupted.

Time skips are another thing I feel like I'm the only one initiating in some of my rps xD

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#18
Old 08-06-2014, 10:09 PM

oh? The pacing? If there's too much of it it's annoying, but there are definitely moments where it works to have the overlap. Lately I rp in the middle of the two paces.

I have to write most of the time skips too and a lot of the time when other people do it, it's kinda ick!!

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#19
Old 08-13-2014, 04:00 AM

Character power trips.
I saw this a couple of times, even if just playfully, during the wedding event in a casual roleplay thread. Someone always has that character who, with the flip of a finger, exerts soooo much power, and we're supposed to be floored and awed by the display. And then if you step up to them in confrontation, you're totally ignored as not understanding or as weak.

Aside from that, I have no qualms with quality, quantity, or most other character designs.
Although...I get a little bored of the same shy, polite, curious, super nice, super sweet, she's a total girl-next-door who wears slinky, sexy, hip-hugging somethings and super high heels with an "ample" bust but she doesn't really know how pretty she is so when she flirts it's just coincidence that a few posts later you're married and she is pregnant.

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#20
Old 09-20-2014, 05:52 PM

Poorly written female characters that exist for the RPer to force a romantic subplot into the story have always bugged me. Actually, when I was younger and not polite, I'd literally write that my OC hated their OC so there wouldn't be any misgivings. To me, it's buying into regressive notions of femininity and has become a trope.
For the same reason I tend to avoid romance all together. Some people fetishize homosexuality and it's a little... offensive, frankly. Especially with the seme/uke subculture that has some noncon peppered throughout. And this is speaking as someone who used to love that kind of stuff. I'm glad that I matured enough to see how problematic it is.
I think what bugs me the most though are partners that will provide their own ideas for an RP, but won't ask you for yours. It's like they're assuming you'll have nothing to add or offer.

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#21
Old 09-20-2014, 06:10 PM

I tend to be wary of m/f romance because of the female characters like that. It's less of a problem with other orientations. Iv'e noticed a lot less some/uke culture on this site than any others. I never got that into that anyway.
I'd get annoyed if I never got to add input into the story, but I think I'd be better than the opposite. I don't like doing it all. Sometimes you just got to be forecful back. People with that kind of personality usually don't mean to be elitist, but are just excited about their own idea. Feel free to add your own ideas in whether they ask or not.

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#22
Old 09-20-2014, 06:38 PM

Yeah, I've seen the words "yaoi" thrown around and some other key words that made me a little weary, but otherwise Menewsha isn't the worst offender!
Ah yeah, I agree with you on that. It's way more frustrating when your partner has absolutely no ideas or does but won't share them. That's good advice, too; thanks!

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#23
Old 09-20-2014, 07:21 PM

I chafe a little at the word yaoi, but not much. It's a little convenient to type and is still just a way to say a gay relationship. Mostly I just get irritated with the anime obsessed culture, as if people can't write without it being japanese in some way.

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#24
Old 09-20-2014, 10:21 PM

Oh yeah, that makes sense. And I think that's usually why I kind of shrink back from the word "yaoi" since to me it embodies that obsession with Japanese culture. But it makes sense for people to use that just as an easy way to communicate!

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#25
Old 07-27-2015, 05:49 PM

Oh boy I could go on about this for hours.
  • Metagaming. Just...metagaming. Unless your character is psychic or mine has told them in-universe, they really shouldn't know everything my character has in their pockets right down to the number of pieces of pocket lint.
  • Godmodding my character's body. This isn't so common on sites like this, I've noticed, but on tumblr (where I do most of my RPing), where most of my characters are transgender and/or intersex, people seem to really enjoy ignoring these facts or otherwise making assumptions. The sad thing about this is, even though adult RPs are allowed on tumblr, I don't really do them, so there's even less reason for this to be happening...
    Let me describe my own character's body type and I will do the same for yours, okay? Okay.
  • Purple prose (a.k.a. Dickensing) and being elitist about it. Charles Dickens didn't write like that because ~it's the best way to write~, he wrote like that because he was being paid by the word. You're not better than anyone because you can write like that. If you want to write like that, it's your own choice. I, personally, find long-winded, metaphor overloaded narrative to be confusing and boring, but if you don't, all the more power to you. But don't act like you're better than me because we have different taste. That's all it is. We have different taste.
  • Flanderizing characters. This is mostly an issue in fan-based RPs rather than original universes (because there's no canon characterization to Flanderize with OCs!), but with the canon characters I RP on tumblr, I see this a lot. Reducing a character to one or two prominent traits and then RPing them as if that's all they are - or worse, expecting other people to do the same and treating them as if they are. I work hard to show all facets of my characters and I'd prefer that you not focus solely on, say, his relationship history.
  • Weebery. Half of the reason I, as a gay guy, cringe every time I see "yaoi RP". Weebery is dehumanizing. Cultures and languages aren't playthings for foreigners.
  • Similarly, and this is a minor and very personal one, using a multilingual character as an excuse to throw around one or two simple words to sound cool. I am multilingual. If I am speaking language A and throw in a word of language B, it will probably be because it's a more advanced term I don't know in language A, or because an equivalent word doesn't exist in language A. It won't be "hello", or "good," or "sorry," or "thank you". That's not how being multilingual tends to work.

 


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