Welcome to Gaia! ::

Dearest questers,

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. However, 'they' need to hush. xd

One thing that I have noticed after perusing quite a few of your threads is that many of you have very blatantly not taken the time to read up on the characters who are already on the island. This can be anything from names (yes, some names are common and it's feasible that there would be repeats, but I've seen much less common names being duplicated) to personality quirks (most often in terms of phobias or mental issues) to methods of arrival (and again, some ways are going to be more common).

In a community like IoDM, it really is important to know about the characters involved and be able to judge when someone is stepping on another character's toes. Or flippers. If something is obviously missing, find a way to fill it! If something has already been done several times, think again!

You all have so many resources in this guild. The staffmembers are working to critique your ideas. There's the Alternative Animal Thinktank, as well as Islander- and quester-run threads for brainstorming. Before all of this, questing wasn't nearly so organized.

Basically, take advantage of what you've got! Learn what kinds of things are acceptable within the Island's setting. Figure out what's been done, and do something different! There's so much more to character development than adding a bunch of weird personal quirks and twists in their backgrounds.

I know I have no real authority, but I like to think I can put forth a voice of reason. Those of us already on the Island usually have a pretty good idea of what and what not to do. A lot of us read most, if not all, of the RP that goes on, even if it doesn't seem to affect our own characters directly. When I was a quester, I read so much RP and I really felt like I knew a lot of the Islanders already. Not only did it help me, but it was (and still is) a lot of fun.

So please! Read the front page of the shop. Read the stickies in the guild. Take a look at the quests that have already been completed! Try to keep up with some of the official roleplay. And please, please, please read this post that I've typed up at 3AM!

Best wishes,

Kimie Kitty
(AKA, Nita MacNeal)



Want some tough love? Go see Sylan!

And feel free to reply to this. If even just a few questers read this and pay any attention to it, I'll feel like I've accomplished something.

edit: ilu, Ves <3

A brief note:

I am not trying to tell people what to do, or even what not to do. I am not telling anyone how they should conduct their quest. I am making some very sensible suggestions. These are all tactics that helped me out a lot when I was questing, and I honestly think current (and future) questers should keep them in mind. 3nodding

This is a very good thread Kimie. I hope I am not copying anybodies anything lol...I want Justin to be origional! But I totally agree! biggrin If you find anything in Justin's profile that makes you think of an islander...please tell me and I will try to fix it the best I can. biggrin

I think Justin is a fairly good character and pretty origional. When I created him, I didn't really go through a whole lot of threads and saw what they had. So I was just wondering what you thought.

You've got a lot of good points there. I know my own quest has some simularities to some existing characters (I've been gradually digging through the mountains of RPs here and finding out more bit by bit) Though I've tried to make sure he wasnt too simular.

I personally think that the whole point of questing is to make a character that really is interesting and unique in their own right so as to provide a more enjoyable experience for everyone in the actual RP

Good thread, Kimie. Any chance one of the guild-guys could sticky it?

welp I'll add my 2 cents.

As somone who's been around this place for over a year I can officially say that IODM is one of the greatest places I have ever RP'd in if not the greatest. It's the diversity of chracters, creatures and well just the great folks behind the chracters that makes it all worth while! I'd love to see this diversity continue but scrolling through the questers guild there are alot of duplicate creatures and alot of folks with similar ideas, similar backstories. If you're gunna make a chracter take the time to look at who's already on the island so you're not hurting anyones feelings. Also, this questers guild is so fab, you can just hang around and get to know so many questers, it's truely awsome the tenacity that you guys have to just hang in there even when things don't go your way. Keep it up folks truely but remember theres a squigillion (whoo made up word XD!) animals out there, theres plenty of beasties to go for that arn't at all like the islands other inhabitants!

I know you can all do great and I hope you all grab a place one day and bring more fun to the island.

~Colche~

P.s. Bring chocolate cake it makes the cheetah girl happy XD!

I second Kimie.