Habbo Hotel Canada - The "Welcoming" Committee
This is where I first started Roleplaying. It wasn't the worst, but it had it's fair share of problems.
+The bonus all Game Platform RP's have of being able to design settings. Can add immersion.
-Said Platform does also severally limit (and slow down) ability to RP though.
-The fact said props also required Habbo Credits, which required real money made it an expensive hobby.
-It was more a combat system than roleplaying itself. Like, a story was there but almost everything was dictated by combat.
-Said Combat System wasn't even inventive, they just spammed attack actions until the other fell. It became a test of who could type (or copy+paste) the fastest.
-This also lead to a clear hierarchy of people who were 'better' than others. So elitism was rather high.
Star Wars Combine - Basically the Galactic Empire
Where I was first introduced into the Genre of Forum RPs specifically. To give context, Combine is primarily a browser based Star Wars Simulation game. I was trying to join the New Republic, but being a big Faction they tend to be slow as hell (and miss introducing recruits entirely). So they offered those applying some ways to distract themselves while waiting, one of which being the "Meeting Hall", effectively the sites forum RPs. I became hooked.
+A Pretty fun, cool and creative player base. Some good moments were had.
-The Moderators were Controlling as hell. To the point sometimes we weren't even allowed to fight Stormtroopers because no one in the RP 'owned' any in the game (and no, these RP's had
zero effect on the Browser game itself. If they did they were hosted on a different site entirely and called "White Scenarios").
Star Wars Universe Roleplay (SWURP) - What happens when you put me in charge of something
So eventually I got fed up with the Combine Moderators, but I loved the people I was playing with. So I offered to make a separate site for us all to move over where we'd be free from such restrictions. Literally every single active player agreed in a heartbeat and within the day we all jumped ship. Now, it should be noted this is
technically two sites, but that switch was more my way of providing an 'update' since I lacked the knowledge on how to simply upgrade the old site.
+Same Community Combine had. Except even closer and more friendly with one another. Several friendships were made.
+Direct control over the RPs, combined with a small (and friendly) community made adapting things to suit our current needs quick and easy.
+Were actually able to organise, run and complete a Universe RP that lasted in total around 2 years.
-We got a bit too eager with power levels. By the time our Universe RP completed we hit such a high power level there was nothing for us to continue to if we ever wanted to do something else.
-You thought RP Guild me was naive and rash? I was even younger than that when I was an Admin. Thankfully in the later stages there were two other admins to keep me under control.
Roleplayer Guild - The Meat of the Experience
So mid-way through SWURP one of the fellow Admins got an RP craving bigger than what SWURP alone could provide. So he found the Guild and came back to tell us all about it. The rest of us joined, and kind of came in and phased out within a month cause it didn't catch any of our interest. But then SWURP came to an end, and suddenly I was left without any method of Roleplaying. I knew the Admin who introduced us to the Guild had remained active there, so I went back and gave it a second shot. It was during that time I got hooked and practically exploded in Roleplaying, taking part in a good amount of the most active RP's on the site (especially 1x1... I was a
little absorbed into it). That being said, general burnout from so much RP's combined with a bad break up left me in little mood to continue RP'ing, so the next 2 years I spent on the Guild were exclusively non-RP related only for me to then join one more RP just shortly before leaving the site.
+Huge Variety of RP's with a relatively simple and efficient system for finding them
+The most maintained and fairly moderated site I found up to that point
-Said Moderation was still lazy though, and ultimately resulted in a mass data loss and the majority of the community simply vanishing.
-And then they didn't learn from the first time and the majority of those who chose to stick around also then gave up.
-Rather Elitist Mentality among the "Advanced" RPers (Advanced refereed to general length and grammar expectations) towards everyone else. Thankfully, said community was also highly introverted so we barely had to deal with them.
-It's Off-Topic Community wasn't much better. Everyone trying to 'debate' when in truth they were just trying to show off how many words they could get off Google.
-Likewise it's Spam Section were just as cliche, aggressive and dickish as any High School. It seemed less like an 'escape' from normal life and more where people went to lash out at others over it.
Iwaku - Praise the Sun! \o/
So obviously I eventually ended up here. I was one of the late comers to Iwaku, mainly cause said shitty community from the Guild hit a bit too close for me and I ended up acting just like them... Serves to me as a good example of be cautious of what you let others imprint onto you. Anyways, that RP I joined at the tail end of my time on the Guild had moved to Iwaku which was my original reason for coming on here. My original plan being to be active on both sites. However, as the Guild showed to be more and more dead and hostile, Iwaku proved to be more and more welcoming and alive. After a few months here it became rather obvious that Iwaku was my new home and I was permanently moving out of the Guild. I'd still visit occasionally, they were never pleased to see me though.
+The best Staff and Admins I've ever seen for a site. Seriously, I might complain and critique time to time (it's in my nature) but the combination of how involved they are but at the same time take such great care to act rationally and with proper cause rather than gut feelings continues to leave me in awe.
+The most accepting and open minded RP site I've seen yet. I mean you still find the occasionally "I hate people! Piss off!" sorts, but you kind of can't avoid those folks on the internet (especially among a ton of authors), but the majority of people here are cool... Dare I say, Fonz Cool.
-There's no more Tabs. I miss my tabs. :(
-The logo isn't the Sun yet... You people need to Praise more.
