Advice for obtaining New Games.

Started by Sherona, May 20, 2008, 02:18:07 PM

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Sherona

This is just a note of advice that I have been giving some of the new players when they ask me about how to get started in games on Elliquiy.


1. When starting out on Elliquiy, it can be very daunting when one sees so many games going on. It is often useful to set up an idea in your mind of the type of plot that you will be most comfortable in. I, myself, enjoy taking up roles that will challenge me and my abilities to Roleplay, but I would suggest unless you are very comfortable with forum play to start off in a role that is comfortable for you. It can be quite intimidating writing a story where everyone on the forum can read if they wish, as opposed to IM gaming where things are more or less private.

2.That being said, if you have a plot in mind that you wish to explore, and it only needs one more player making it a one on one story post it here. Put as much detail as you can, and it can sometimes be helpful if you include a snippet of an RP post you had made for a writing example. Then Be patient. Your post will get more views then posts I promise you this. This does not out right mean that no one is interested in your idea, but many people on E. view new posts regularly. It can sometimes take days to get an rp set up and started.

3. One of my preferred advice I give to people new to Elliquiy is to look through the One on Ones and pick a story that interests you. Then pm the author. that is the fastest way to get in a story on here. Or you can just go browse the Ons/offs of our members and pm someone who's on's/off's interested you and pm them.

4. Many games on Elliquiy actually come about from conversation. From the SB, to OOC chatter in on and then off topic posts. I am sure that other ooc chatter spots are ripe with story ideas as well, such as the steam boxes and even the doormat in Introductions. If something strikes you as a good idea for a game then by all means turn it into a game. :)

Moondazed

Some of my threads have started from polite PM's from people who read my ons and offs and found that we had things in common, so that may be an idea as well.  Just don't be hurt if the answer is, "No thank you." :)
~*~ Sexual Orientation: bi ~*~ BDSM Orientation: switch ~*~ Ons and Offs ~*~ Active Stories ~*~

Methos

Methos' guide to obtaining games

So you've now got a shiny new registered name on Elliquiy and your the roleplay equvalent of being all dressed up but with nowhere to go, what should you do? I consider myself to have had some sucess in getting games, so to you I humbly offer a few tips. To some extent it will overlap with what has already been said but for the sake of completeness I'll just write down all my advice in one place.

1. Do you ons and offs, this will tell people what you like to some extent.

2. Post some ideas you have for games you'd like to play with people on one on one threads wanted.

3. Read the one on one threads and follow up on any ideas your interested in. Do the same with players wanted.

That's pretty much what Sherona already said so my comments up to this point are redundant. However, I think having put in the basic trenchwork like that its incumbent on people to consider things as follows:

You and your roleplay are now a product. You want people to pay attention to you and buy your product by roleplaying with you. Act accordingly.

4. Do some market research. Look around, more specifically check people out. You'd do it if this was a bar and you were trying to pick up members of the opposite sex, well your trying to pick up writing partners. So read peoples ons and offs, and more importantly READ THEIR POSTS.

5. Identify your target audience. Firstly, who is this audience? Well this depends on who you are? Do you make volumous posts that go into intricate detail, or do you prefer something less elaborate with quicker posts back and forth? Are you looking for consentual scenes to roleplay some slightly kinky fantasies, or hard core non-consentual tentacle rape? Answer these questions as is appropriate for you. Thereafter, go out and find people who resemble you! Approaching everyone here is a waste of time. Not everyone reads the one on one ads or the players wanted adds, but they may be the person you wish to play with. Your potential audience is those who roleplay in a manner similair to yourself stylistically and have common interests.

6. Having identified your target audience make your pitch.

If you politely message someone most people won't bite your head off. You might get ignored but so what? Nothing ventured nothing gained and your no further behind than you were before. I emphasize again being polite here is key. You want something from this person so antagonizing them is the least desirable outcome. Plus harassing people will get you in trouble, so both of those possibilities are a bad thing.

6.5 How to make your pitch

Now, you're about to message someone, so the logical question is how should you go about that. Well obviously you start with some sort of salutation any variety of hi, hey, hello, heya works. Thereafter, identify why of all the people on elliquiy you've chosen to speak to them. This refers you back to market research. Your messaging them because you read their ons and offs, or their one on one roleplay want add, or you read their post in this game or that game and liked it. After having done so your now interested in roleplaying with them because you believe you have similair interests and styles. So say so. Your interested in playing, would they consider engaging in a game with you? And if they are interested you have some ideas you could discuss with them, or do they have anything they'd like to play?

7. Additional points - Flattery works. Plain and simple as that. Am I suggesting you lie to people? Heck no that would make it insincere and ineffective. On the other hand I'm suggesting you identify people on the basis that they appear to be people you want to play with. They are people you find to be attractive roleplay partners. So say so, people like being wanted. So make that clear. Were you impressed by one of their posts, say so! Again I'm couching this all under be decidedly polite about it. Flattery is good, creepy is not. Beyond that, don't be discouraged if people don't necessarily agree. Some are in the midst of many games and will decline because they're too busy already. Nothing you can do about that. Others may simply not deem you a good match. Again nothing you can do about that. Finding people is a numbers game, and your hitting the pavement your just trying to save yourself some time here by narrowing the list. Of course this will only work if you do your research and know a bit about the person your approaching as result.

8. In other respects get out there and be seen! Spend some time in the shoutbox, the chat, the various ooc threads and let people see you, get to know you extra, your developing relationships and cultivating people which can lead to roleplay if you work it properly.

9. Get some roleplay out there - this might sound silly in that I'm telling you how to get roleplay and saying have some at the same time. However, even if its just a writing sample in your intro post its good to have. This gives people an idea of what they can expect of you should they roleplay with you. Your a product people will want to examine the goods so to speak. So make sure you have something which can be looked at, its like going to a club be presentable.

10. Have some ideas on what you'd like to play. You don't necessarily need to roll out set pieces as most things come about through discussion. However, have settings, and vague ideas that can be fleshed out in mind or you'll be hitting a very akward point in the conversation with "so what do you want to do?" being directed at you and your response being "ahh..I don't know ..". Always, always, always have a setting and a vague idea even if its a bad one. Because if you propose an idea they don't care for, often you'll at least get a counter proposal and you can work with that. On the other hand your in much better shape if you have a variety of well thought out ideas obviously.

11. If you've annoyed, creeped out or otherwise inadverantly erred in approaching someone appologize profusely and then leave them alone.

I hope this is of some assistance to those that read it. Best of luck to you - Methos
"Till shade is gone, till water is gone, into the Shadow with teeth bared, screaming defiance with the last breath, to spit in Sightblinder’s eye on the last Day."

Ons and offs https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=13590

Haibane

#3
May I please ask that when you set up a thread perhaps you set up one per game idea and put something about the idea specifically in the title (in addition to the site tags). Threads titled "My game ideas" and "I want to RP" I just skip by those now as there are dozens of them. I only look in threads titled with something both meaningful and which interests me.

I have a feeling I may not be alone in browsing this way so you may find you get more playing partners and game offers if you use specific titles to your threads.

Thanks all.

Greenthorn

To add to Haibane's post...

It helps if you mention if you're looking for a male or female character within your title!  I skip many posts of people I don't know out of pure laziness to see if they want a female player.
 

Eren

However, what if the person has ten ideas? I myself (I have that 10 ideas thing) feel that it would be ridiculous to clutter this forum up with all of those ideas in separate topics.

Just wondering about this issue. Your points were very good though.

Haibane

#6
I would do ten posts. If you do a list of "my games" some people will just skip all your games. And one of those 'some people' might just be your dream game-partner...

If you do 10 posts where each post title specifies game type, tags and gender wanted, yes I admit its more work (though actually not very much) but at least every member of E who is looking for a specific sort of game will see your game and so you increase your cahnces of people contacting you. I mean, it can't hurt, can it? ;)

Think of it as a market place offering a job. Right now there's dozens of E members out there clamouring "work for me! I've jobs on offer!" but if one posts up "Wanted: topless waitress who loves neko girls" you know the neko-girl loving topless waitresses will all see it ;)

I wouldn't worry about cluttering up the forums... they are pretty cluttered right now and it's not in anyone's interest to reduce the number of game-offer threads is it? ;)

Eren

Good point, hehe.

;D

(Yay for cluttering. I will start contributing right away.)

Haibane

See my suggestions above: "XYZ's RP ideas" does not interest me, I'm skipping past your posts people! Be specific!!!!

(yes, that was 4 exclamation marks)

Nadir

I actually prefer reading lists of ideas - it gives me an opportunity to consider ideas that I would have otherwise never be bothered to read. 

DeviantWolf

I agree, having one person post 10 different games really is to much.  It adds to many individual posts to have to read through and then forces other people's games off the main page which will then start the "Bump" wars to get their posts back up. 

Really it's much harder to have to read through 10 posts from one person about all their different games then read through one post with 10 ideas.  Besides just because something has the tag [NC] or [Bon] doesn't mean I will like the plot even if I like the subject matter.  Often times too you have people who have plots or ideas but they don't know how extreme they want to make it so it'll just be tagged with [Mul] anyways.

~~ I'm loving what you wanna wear ~~
~~ I wonder what's up under there? ~~
~~ Wonder if I'll ever have it under my tongue? ~~

Haibane

Quote from: DeviantWolf on December 12, 2008, 03:11:50 PM
I agree, having one person post 10 different games really is to much.  It adds to many individual posts to have to read through and then forces other people's games off the main page which will then start the "Bump" wars to get their posts back up. 

Really it's much harder to have to read through 10 posts from one person about all their different games then read through one post with 10 ideas.  Besides just because something has the tag [NC] or [Bon] doesn't mean I will like the plot even if I like the subject matter.  Often times too you have people who have plots or ideas but they don't know how extreme they want to make it so it'll just be tagged with [Mul] anyways.
Not wanting to start an argument but none of your points make sense. First, if each post for one game specifies the game type/genre/whatever you can just skip the ones that straight away don't appeal to you, so you are *not* reading 10 posts from one person and there is no 'long trawl through long lists of games', also if a post contains one game idea it takes around 1/10th the time to click on it and read it than it does 1 post with 10 game ideas in it... (that's criteria #1), second, your account shows which threads have new posts and there's no reason to bump game requests that fall to the second page; the people looking for games will (if they are sensible) check all the threads that are both new and pass criteria #1. Thirdly, at least *some* people such as me, won't look in "my new RP ideas!" threads as I just don't have time, I scan down the list and look for the things that might appeal...

Thirdly, don't just use tagging, give a hint of the game type or story or genre, in the thread title. Those who don't like sci-fi can skip the sci-fi games without opening a random post with 10 games in and finding 5 of them are set in the Star Wars universe...

If you're selling shoes you place the shoes in a shop window, you don't sell them behind a blank screen with 'lots of shoes!' written on it and expect passers by to come in on the off chance you have your size, colour and style. Its simple logic. If you have a great game idea, advertise it!

Greenthorn

And we all try to avoid bump wars...actually some of us look down on "bump" posts :-\
 

johntfs

I'm not sure what happened to the "Banned" and "Castrated" folks, but they do make good points.

For my part, your best bet is to establish a good reputation early on.  That means conducting yourself in a polite, intelligent manner.  It means being punctual in replying within your roleplays and demonstrating qualities that make you a desireable roleplaying partner.  If someone is a bad player, I certainly don't want him as my "GM."

For newbies, you should probably avoid the mistake that I've probably made in loading up on too many games too quickly.  Umfortuntately, I feel a little like a dinner guest sitting just outside the banquet hall waiting for the butler to yell "Roleplay is served!"  I've probably let my eyes outpace my appetite.  However, I'll do my best to live up to my current commitments.

Right now, I'm just waiting, napkin tucked in, for the dinner bell of approval.

upanddown4life

What about having multiple posts but multiple ideas in each? In other words, categorizing them. Say you have ten ideas, five are outlandish, three are realistic, three are non-sexual, two can be joined by either sex and one is kind of fetishy. I know thats more than ten, but some are two things. Would it be best to group them as one post being for the outlandish (which includes the fetishy one), one for the more normal ones (lets say that has two of the non-sexual), and one for the ones where the pitcher doesn't mind who joins? If they had general stuff like who they want to join and some category in the title and specifics in the thread itself, that should be enough to attract attention without the prospective player having to worry about something they dislike coming out of left field, right?

Ojokernegro

Thank you for the advice Sherona and Methos.

Will

This is kind of an old thread. : /  And no need to thank Methos; as you can see, he's banned.
If you can heal the symptoms, but not affect the cause
It's like trying to heal a gunshot wound with gauze

One day, I will find the right words, and they will be simple.
- Jack Kerouac