What Happened to GAiA RP

[Katara daughter of Water]

FierceHex

Katara daughter of Water

I've just come back from a two year hiatus myself and had no idea that was going on nor did my friend who was still on here whilst I was gone mentioned anything about that. As far as I could tell from looking at least on the main page of Barton Town it looked like people are still rping. Is it more like the rps seem to be of all the same type do you mean? Cause like I can totally see that. Even before my hiatus, there seemed to be an overabundance of the arranged marriage variety rp and the walk in type. I actually have been working on making an rp myself but if no one is rping here really anymore that would render it pointless.

I mean even in 2007 there was always "repeated" rp's or clones. Like you stated plenty of arranged marriages or walk ins but back then when one created an rp with a interesting plot and fair rules it would usually flock with users excited to roleplay. I loved it...But now its nothing. Like you ive recently created an rp, and even joined one. Both are going no where.... Idk what to do for my rp needs!

Judging from how many replies this thread is getting, it looks like at least you found some potentially good rpers to rp with smile

[xx I met my fate xx]

Yen Quest

xx I met my fate xx

Exactly. I hate that the Rpers are so rare nowadays. I'll RP any genre (aside from fandoms, school stuff, and Yaoi only) but Fantasy is my bread and butter. I used to have a huge complex fantasy RP that I loved but no one really stayed active and I think the world and reading scared people away so we never had many members to begin with.

I don't Rp on other forums because frankly...I forget. XD I check Gaia daily so I can't really forget to Rp here.

I'm pretty sure it also depends on the generation you're in. Some people aren't into grammar and spelling simply because it's all related to school (and the media focuses on how kids don't like schoolz), and t'is the internet and stuff. I think that, if education was more interesting, then it wouldn't be as bad. But who knows, there's probably still some geniuses hiding somewhere within the community. We just never notice it until we encounter one.

RPs elsewhere are something I never really considered trying. Like you, I don't really venture anywhere else besides Gaia, youtube, and... Well, that's about it really. Checking out deviantart for arts, and game fandom forums for quick tutorial guides and stuff... Yeah, that's pretty much it for me. RP isn't really on my mind these days, since I'm more focused on my inventory. Gaia's to blame on this one though, haha (and me spending habits). sweatdrop

LOL that's my main concern on Gaia these days too. XD I've never felt like other sites are as good for Rping as Gaia. Maybe it's cuz I started here but I love it here. It's just not as active anymore. I feel bad for my characters with their arts collecting dust but at the same time...

NEW ITEMS...OOH SHINIES...OOH QUESTING. XD

[Moist Owlette]

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🎤 Roleplaying was never easy to begin with. Even when I first joined you have to search for a small eternity to find open slots in a good one or a good one at all.

A lot of roleplays also die because NOBODY within them want to make friends with each other I've noticed. It's really silly not to participate in a group you've joined, yet, I've seen it happen even in the Harvest Moon roleplay I moderate. You can't plot/make friends by ignoring the others around you.

The best thing I can tell you is to make friends with a large group because a lot of doors open up within that group for other roleplays. It's what I've always done for the most part and even when there are large gaps in posts due to real life issues you can talk to them via OOC, Skype chat, google docs, etc and you know they aren't just flaking on you or anything. It makes things last way longer than usual having that peace of mind that they aren't just abandoning you or ignoring you. They just have life stuff going on.

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[shiny ponkan]

While I agree that Barton Town has slowed down significantly compared to years past, there are still amazing roleplays and roleplayers around.
It takes a bit of digging around to find them but you'll find that you'll meet a lot of the same people in a lot of them, and you're in a group it's a lot easier.

Personally I know a lot of people who produce really lovely roleplays, some of which have lasted quite a long time.
Not intending to advertise (and most of them are full already anyway) but I'll link a few active ones here for people to take a look.

(OP, these might not be what you're into, but I'm sure if you look through the Barton OOC occasionally you'll be able to find something.)

Edit: Thank you, random passerby, for the tips!

[Asru]

I have a small circle of friends that I met through a single roleplay. We are all kind of the same mind, and were lucky enough to all meet in a rp that is still on going, plot driven and has a lot of interesting characters to interact with. When none of us could find another rp to join that had the same atmosphere in both the in and occ, we just started making our own rps.

Two of my friends just started one up and I'm putting together the bones for something myself. Best thing I can recommend is put the effort into crafting a story, world, themes and setting, and then let like minded people come to you and help grow your ideas. You can manage a group or just do a 1x1.

[Trekkette]

I can't help but think that the slowdown is a result of the demand for high literacy RPers that happenedin... 2007-ish, I think? With the standards getting higher, and fewer people able or willing to work to that standard, the not-as-demanding rps would gain in popularity.

It's kinda sad that this is happening, I'm looking to get into forum-based RPs (I do NOT get the idea, at all) and I can't find one that's interesting AND welcoming of newcomers.

[Chibi Halo]

I get the feeling that a lot of the RPing on the site has moved to guilds, either as the main focus of the guild or something the guild allows for within it. I see a lot of guilds associated with Breedable shops that are RP focused and have taken part in guilds that allow for RPs in them. I'm currently in a bit of an alternate time line Gaia based Barton Town role-play with a bunch of friends from the Barton guild I'm in. It's great because we're comfortable with how each other posts and we don't demand the things you see in the Barton Town forum. It's just a bunch of friends having fun with some characters we made for the world of Gaia, which I love because I don't really get to play with my Gaia based OC much. My friends don't care that my OC has several titles to her name, lost a human husband to a long terminal illness, happens to be royalty, and has had some hilarious mishaps happen to her during her 108 years of life. They just like having me as a part of the RP and seeing how I make her grow and change.

That's what I love about role-playing with my good friends.

[Soyee]

Love-Making!!

❥I was...pulled back into Gaia because a few IRL friends thought that it would be easier to roleplay there.

Beforehand though I had been roleplaying in forums (turn-based, I believe?) and really didn't understand how the roleplaying of tumblr worked. So I tried it for a couple of pages. They eventually went back to the world of Tumblr and I stayed here. emotion_sweatdrop

But one of my very first Gaia Online RP experiences was in...'04? '05? Around the time where pool party rps were popular.

I find that I like dice-roll RPs now than plain forum-based ones, too easy to godmod. emotion_donotwant

yum_puddi

[Charlie Graves]

I never had much luck with finding RPs the traditional way here, but I ended up starting one with friends I had already made.

As for now, I recently started it up again with one of those friends after a couple year's break. Just like old times!

[Catena Carswell]

tea and stuff

Catena Carswell

well personally I quit RPing on here because a couple years back gaia made a series of questionable choices involving the forums, locking old threads after some inexcusably short period of inactivity among them

combine this with the solid brick wall of refusal to do anything even remotely like updating guilds and a few really scary archive reliability issues with threads, the site itself is inherently mechanically really unfriendly to roleplay, the staff is blatantly out of touch with the RPer community and what they want/need from a site-

essentially I quit rping on gaia because they made it more appealing to use google docs and ******** skype.

So where is a good RP site though?

If you find one, I'd be greatly pleased if you'd let me know about it. so far the best formula I've figured out for producing good rp:

1. meet people on a website who share your interests, philosophies and/or hobbies and who also have OCs

2. become friends with these people

3. start a skype rp chat or google document with them

[BOMB4Y]

FierceHex

Exactly. Bringing back the rp feel will not only increase revenue but it'd probably bring back many old time Gaians. When it was treated more towards the rp community it was still a great place for those who just wanted to "hangout" and had a lot of people online at once. Now although "many" people are online it feels like a ghost website

I love your idea about the avatars

It may really be a shift of interest in community or method of posting really. I remember one of my old RP-mates mentioning that they were more interested in moving to Tumblr to RP, because the fandom and community there pretty much encompasses a wider field. A lot of users have probably migrated due to ease of posting, or even being able to visually adjust the post.

On Gaia you used post formats, which mean you're required to copy and paste them, but on Tumblr, your blog can be set in the settings portion. Anyone who clicks on it to read will see those images there - and you can also treat the blog like a personal diary a character has. Gaia unfortunately only supports text... and guilds. Guilds are outdated however, and often difficult to navigate.

Ahaha whee I played the prince type, so I often dressed it up accordingly. Gotta charm the girls with a matching avatar too wink

[BOMB4Y]

FierceHex

That's just sad. I never really understood the point of cybering but to each their own. Just wish it didn't ruin rping..

It hasn't "ruined" it, actually. surprised Cybering in RP has always been present - it's just that the majority of RPers in general have dwindled down and left these. As for fandom RPs, I tend to really only do those - my own characters are really created for business purposes or clients, so I can't really share them so freely. I also really like fandom, so I can relate. The same may be said of others. It's enjoyable in its own light. I don't think putting it down is a very good thing. Gotta keep an open mind. yum_puddi

A lot of users who're still RPing here may be younger, and therefore you'll find a lot of "anime ripoffs". Which I kinda enjoy reading, for some reason. redface I'm young too, so what gives eh yum_puddi

[Alyxsandre]

Bahahaha, while I do feel like it's gotten really slow and stuff, you do eventually find some very amazing gems once in a while. They're just hiding amongst the kindasorta shoddy roleplays that move too fast to have any real planning or breathing room and are extremely illiterate that have people who still confuse its with it's...

Literate+ Roleplays are more casual than the semi ones.

Sometimes you just gotta search, and more often than not you'll have a very amazing group to interact with. I don't know where you're looking if you can't find any good ones :'D You can always just make a search thread and wander about the OOC threads every once in a while to find any openings.

If there's a will there's a way. Not as many gems but the gems that are there are astounding gems.

Also 1x1s exist.
I can say with 100% confidence that my 1x1 partners are some of the most astounding and amazing roleplayers ever and are amazingly great friends. No I didn't know them prior to roleplaying with them here on Gaia.

[ponponpon way x2]

With these kinds of challenges I'd rather create my own group roleplay, try guilds (though I haven't found any that have worked out really well), or find a 1x1 for myself.

[DJ Twissta]

Threads being locked and guilds I think.