Nagato..
Active member
Awards
You must be registered for see images
Seriously NB...
I really dont know where I should begin on this quest to speak my mind about the Role Play and it's lucky inhabitants today. Let me start out by saying that when I first started out on NB I wasnt always the best person on the site or in the RP, when it comes down to technically saying whether I always obeyed the rules or not. Over the years I found myself in very crap situations because of my own actions and I have changed from the person I used to be and the things that I used to do such as spamming and going against NB staff (for those who have been here long enough to remember) and just not caring for the RP. So let me just continue in saying that we are not perfect as human beings. We all do make mistakes and we learn from them, no matter how minuscule the problem may be or how magnified the situation can get as well. Some people get chances they don't deserve, and some do not. I've been given several chances to turn a new leaf on this site and I won't ruin that for something stupid or illogical ever again. One cannot merely comprehend how much work or effort one takes into maintaining a community such as NarutoBase where people in general can be very ungrateful to many privileged they are given, outlooking the fact that we all roam here for free, for the members who come daily this is a place where we spend most of our time when bored. I can understand that, for whatever reason you come here you come here because you have fun in whatever you do; whether it's the Roleplay, the fanfiction, contests, spamming (Yes people do come online solely just to spam to their hearts content), etc.
One of the purposes of maintaining this balance in keeping members happy, feeling comfortable in returning to the site they so love to enjoy is putting people in charge that help maintain that order when the Admins are not around. There are just too many things going around in every section for them to handle on their own. So they put moderators in charge to ease the load and bring judgement to rule breakers. They are believed to be selected as the ones who can fulfill a certain criteria, as outlooked to be the ones who can handle the stress, perform actions and judgments without bias, uphold and obey the rules for everyone else to see and follow, along with other things the Admins have them do behind the scenes. Let's not stray away from the fact that even though, they are voluntarily doing moderator work, they are human. They make mistakes, and they still want to have fun like the rest of us, or else it will take away the fact of them coming to the site like the rest of us.
Mind of an upcoming RolePlayer
Now that you've read my lengthy introduction, I will get into my main reasoning for posting this thread. In todays Roleplay, it starts out simple.... just like the Roleplay years ago..... You see the RP section and peek into the battles and aspire to become this amazing ninja, in the RP sense and conquer all sorts of things, and achieve your own accomplishments or goals. Isn't that what most people think of when they want to play a game? Be recognized for what they do and stand out amongst the crowd by proving themselves in a fair environment? Well that idea is short lived in this era of the RP. It becomes a simple reality check when you come to realize things aren't as easy as it appeared to be. Yes, you may have found all the rules to create a bio, have gotten your post count up to create your first biography or which ever special bio, then it gets approved. Now youre wondering, "Hey how can I get trained?" Then it becomes a game to find one of us sensei to teach you the basics etc so that you can be strong and master your own skill in however way you see fit.
The problem is, what happens when training is over. Of course they want to get their feet wet right? They want to experience what it feels like to finally become that ninja they so longed to be, in the RP sense. So you have your first battles. You may not have mastered everything, but you can pretty much get the hang of having a basic battle with kuani a bit of taijutsu and a few elements thrown into the loop. At this point in time youre not really focused on the winning or losing because of one reason and one reason only. Usually when two weaker roleplayers first start out fighting, everything is balanced and they dont really have anything to say because there is no clear gap in power shown and they feel pretty good about themselves because "they knew they gave it everything they had." This is a prime example of Role Play innocence. Noone has been exposed to customs, power ups such as (Sage Mode, Gates, MS, and OP bios). Two people giving it all they have to achieve fun. Some of you may be reading and agreeing saying to yourselves..."Yeah hes right, why cant it always be that fun?" I will tell you exactly why it cant.
What happens when one of these innocent role players starts fighting a person with customs? Theyre intrigued by it at first but they dont really think about it twice. There are times where it doesnt matter where youre using customs or not, but though it can be a deciding factor when there is no cannon technique to allow you to defend from it. What will this person do now? They will have it in their head that they must also create customs to have an edge in todays battles. They can't simply let other fighters have all the fun kicking their butts with customs can they? Of course not!! They start submitting customs too, so that they can have an advantage as well.
This may be a major factor when considering that many people are power hungry, which starts off my next topic..
Why are we all power hungry?
I'll tell you the exact reason we are all tainted with the mindset of becoming power hungry in some way shape or form, but lets also mix in what I just said above so you get a better picture..
Once you start submitting customs to protect yourself or dish out some own cool power of your own, it becomes a never ending roller-coaster ride of making sure that your custom is realistic, worded correctly, chakra points and damage are right etc. But what usually happens? It gets declined because it may be considered "overpowered" or "too strong." Lets go into that topic a bit more. Usually you may see someone using techniques youd never imagin being able to defend against because it may too strong of an element, genjutsu, taijutsu, or it just may bee way too fast for you to protect yourself from. This is the main form of Role Play frustration 90% of NB goes through, throughout your entire RP career. There are just no way of stopping particular techniques, and to make it better, you cant even submit something of that caliber or something to defend yourself from it.
Now I know what you will all probably say. Yeah, there are older members who got more power than us because they were here longer, blah blah blah. Well,yes that is the case. There was a smaller community of members back in 08-09 so it was very casual for certain people to have power. What creates the imbalance, is when you say to a growing RolePlay community, that you will now be "reducing" the amount of power a said individual may acquire. It creates this idea that your power will only be limited to what someone else deems fit for you to have, or a "controlled system" such as, oh you may have this amount of power, and you may have this amount. That form of thinking is whats killing our Role Play. To think that after all this time of growing and developing our system, that we need to stop allowing other people to achieve or submit things that separate them from the group.
When you join a game, what do most people want to do? They want control over themselves. They want o be able to accomplish anything fair and square without being held back by noone other then themselves.. Our Role Play does not create that type of function where someone can easily obtain things fair and square when certain things are taken into perspective, and looked into with a magnifying glass. Now that was mainly about both cannon powerups and customs...
Cannon Power-ups
Lets say we leave customs out of this and look solely into people trying to acquire a cannon power up, such as Sage Mode, Gates, Mangekyo Sharingan, Sound Release etc.
Most people know what these things are right off the bat because they watch the anime and read the manga religiously. So when you enter the Role Play, you may have your mind on achieving these abilities, but you may know theyre out of reach, yet, you dont know HOW out of reach they really are. Now Im probably going to hear someone say,"Well, the experienced and well qualified people get them so that they wont be abused." Yes that is ultimately the goal here, but lets really analyze that type of thinking and if thats theoretically possible as of late.
I cant tell you the last person Ive seen learning Sage Mode, I mean there are plenty of people out there that are more than qualified to fight with it and just overall have fun with it, if given the chance to learn it. That goes the same for the Eight Gates. I cant tell you the last person Ive ever seen learning it, or even using it in battle for the past 2 years Ive ever been on this web site or participated in the Role Play. I can name a list of people who specialize in Taijutsu that would be excellent people to have gates but they dont any opportunity to learn it. Yet the people who do have it, dont use it to even have fun. Why you may ask? Because its not fun when youre the only one using it. See what I just did there?
When I look back on the years Ive spent here in the RP, I can say the system has had a major influence from people sucking up to sensei, RP mods, and Admins in order to achieve things without putting in the work for it.
It doesnt mean that everyone who has worked for it, were suck ups. But it is very obvious when you know someone did not work hard towards an ability but was given it out of favoritism. We need equality and not a biased system..
Arguments
Drum roll!!! Yes what weve all been waiting for. The roleplay arguments. Its just about everyones kryptonite in most cases. I will admit Ive been apart of and even instigated many arguments in what seems tome now pointless threads and fights,but who cant say that theyve let someone have it at least once.
Im now summarizing everything into one final conclusion which you may have your own opinions on, but by time youve completed most of your training, have had the experience of trying to achieve a special biography, tried submitting strong customs but they get declined, youre probably wondering to yourself...." What more can I achieve, if I cant submit strong enough customs to fight other strong people because cannon techniques aren't cutting it, and ontop of that its almost impossible to achieve any cannon power ups such as Sage Mode, Gates, or Sound without winning a tournament this already segregates the lot of people who are probably going to acquire either of them, if they were prizes.
People tend to become so frustrated with spending so much time on here and not being able to achieve something in a reasonable amount of time makes them go crazy, or bored or go inactive. There are some that get their kicks off trying to win every battle they possibly can regardless if the fight was fun for either party, because what more else can a person do when all else fails? Make repetitive threads in the battle arena or try to be active in the ninja world. This is what creates the problem. The ratio of the have and have nots just creates this unbelievable amount of tension in todays RPrs that they tend to get pissed off at minor mistakes in battles and lash out to achieve the win.
You cant get mad at them because they are indirectly taught to be this way. Most abilities they want want to gain come at a cost of entering tournaments, against people they cant win against and theyre forced to look for ways to win xd Many people will say that theres a difference when it comes to power over skill, but to be honest it takes unity and balance of both power and skill to win in todays RP. When one falls out of sync it shows, but for some of us that are high level in both its still almost impossible to achieve these things resulting in a never ending cycle of tension, arguments, and drama. People are just not happy with themselves and where they are goals wise.
Respect
I think we need to restore that bond of a sensei and student that we have forged in our brains within our RP because it has become tarnished over a period of time. We are supposed to work together within our community as equals and not some sort of dictators or overlords trying to control others with our thoughts and opinions.
Respect plays a big role in the development and stability of or RP. And the type of image you represent plays a part in what you receive. Everyone should be held accountable to what goes on in the RP. For example, we as sensei need to uphold that bond with the regular members so that we are able to teach and show the way instead of forcing and arguing with people in order to show them the way. I myself have gotten myself caught up in arguments in some form to get my opinions noticed but this also makes it backfire on the community when people are supposed to look up to you for respect and RP role models.. If you cant maintain being a proper sensei what do you think one should do? If he or she cant maintain that bond....If he or she cant maintain and stand for increasing development?
They should probably give up their positions, if they have some self respect for themselves and not pretend to be blind to how they carry themselves and the things that are created form their actions.
The same goes to RP moderators. They like us sensei volunteer to helping the community grow and putting in all types of work for development. They too are not immune to developing respect of their own while they have more of a position of making change than the rest of us.
We always claim to be growing in members and people interested in the RP all the time but when you look in closely there are a lot of things that don't necessarily get done with the amount of RP mods we currently have. When I first joined the RP there were less RP mods and to me things got done without question. This is not to downplay others but you could submit 5 customs at a time and wake up the next day to see that your customs were checked. This was mainly done by Caliburn and Emperor, and the occasional Rag. What puzzles me is how more RP mods actually dont increase productivity but have rather done nothing, from the naked eye point of view. How can less RP mods get more done than an army of mods that we have now? It completely puzzles me.
I just think that if you cant get a job done effectively AND properly at the same time, you should merely leave it in the hand of those who can, and not make the people you claim to represent suffer because of your shortcomings. Same goes for sensei, if you cant represent a true sensei and teach people on a regular basis, give up your sensei title.
What does this mean for our RP? Things like RP mods and sensei determine our growth and overall identity as an RP community, and if one person or a group of people are holding us back then why do we destroy ourselves for a few people? We have more worth than that when we come online here everyday and spend substantial amount of time to participate in it?
Conclusion
Pretty much my overall point is that we as a community spend too much time on here to just settle for anything less than something good. We enter the RP as innocent as can be and we want to have self identity. We want to gain something out of it and not just sit back feeling like we wasted our time on something being monopolized to limit your imagination and fun.
This was a VM to me by one of my former sensei:
We really need to stop trying to preventing people from achieving self identity. This is whats ultimately destroying our RP and making us feel like were wasting our time....which leads to arguments, and struggles for power. I suggest we stop limiting ourselves and literally seek more action to get things done in our RP instead of letting it get out of hand. We need to go back to having innocent fun instead of worrying about power...lets be able to look at power and skill under the same spectrum of light instead of thinking of the two separately.
