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Yeah. That was my view as well and my purpose for advancing it beyond "100 lines and bounce somewhere else" Taking one good look over the Academy as it is clearly shows that it was never finished. It's still a ways off from any kind of proper completion. It's open for use as any normal Academy regardless.

I'm not bashing the old NFS. I often pondered what it'd have been like if I could've been around for it, but I fail to see how using the line/word count from old NFS (1040 words, right?) is any less arbitrary than setting a rounded number like 2000 as the requirement. It honestly seems pretty pointless to debate a word requirement and constantly belittle it as 'arbitrary' if all you're going to do is propose a smaller, yet equally arbitrary value. In the original ideas that I discussed with Sai for the Academy, I even proposed incentive rewards beyond established practicing of the system in various ways. From there, I also began tossing ideas back and forth for how to give a little more connection to the workings of the Naruto World--hence the option to skip the Academy and it's rewards, so that a player could jump into the open world to participate in on-going events if they either knew the system or didn't care about the learning process (or, late starters jumping in on fun events). All ideas that I was tinkering with and discussing with Mercer and Sai at various points. The idea was simply that completion yielded potential rewards like Ryo, and a Headband item unique to each country that held a country-specific small buff. A first-hand experience with a meaningful starter item.

The Academy I envisioned, and what drove me to advance it was not a petty basic thread with a cheap line requirement and almost 0 guidelines. The ability to create settings/places of the Naruto World through sub-forums and threads is a beautiful thing. It allows us to shape the world without having to constantly imagine it's entirety from a single simple blank thread. The world itself, through each country and the established rules of the world from the series, as well as the mathematical system that keeps everything regulated are all structure bringing NFS to life as something more. Systems like building destruction/village sieging, Ranking up to utilize perks, so on and so forth were all born to create meaning within the structure. To make things more interesting.

I set out to create a tangible structure in the guild that would utilize the Academy to it's utmost potential while also breaking down the system step by step and explaining it in a very user-friendly easy way to understand. Keeping all relevant information together and organized in clearly marked threads all under the one part of the guild it'd make the most sense to be located at. Making every point crystal clear and providing useful information along the way that might not normally have been addressed. (IE: What ifs, connections/relations to other content, situational rulings, etc etc)

The last time I had started giving any legitimate effort to it was the last attempt to breathe life into the guild, and before I could do a whole lot everyone vanished. It was kind of unreasonable to sit and spend a ton of my free time working on it when there was no one there to appreciate and make use of it, so I left it, and after some conversations with Sai about the guild, I was convinced NFS wasn't ever gonna be a thing again. If some real commitment stems from these modded campaigns and whatnot, I'd have no problem picking back up from where I left off and completing it.



I've taken the liberty of reviewing and then removing the rest of the post because it seems as if you misunderstood what I said entirely. It's now bold in my initial quote. The Academy itself was nothing more than a very simple thread with a weak requirement. There were countless people who did nothing to teach themselves the system at hand in it, including plenty of people that would've done well by it. There were no guidelines or incentives. It was plain and very very lackluster despite having so much potential as the first real form of the guild anyone experiences. The gateway to NFS. The academy itself was a product of the show, not me. But, the project to advance NFS's Academy into something greater was mine. I proposed it and it's purpose. So, I can say with confidence: "Yes, it was, and still is, the purpose for advancing the academy." Lol

More or less, the guild was being fleshed out each which way, and it made absolutely 0 sense to me that the academy's overwhelming potential go to waste. At the time, I had also been discussing some of the confusing factors of the system and noticed that often I'd have to bother Sai to get clarification on how something might process in relation to another; situational, or otherwise.

The key that flipped the switch in my head was actually my experience outside of NFS. I noticed that RPGs with undefined or understructured systems (even none at all) had a tendency to draw tons of active players, where as places like NFS, even with exposure to these individuals and promoted to the general public--did not get a good reception. I found from studying the system myself, helping friends, etc that actually sitting down and learning the system was a difficult hurdle of it's own. The more I read the more questions, not detailed anywhere within those systems, arose. I felt one of the strongest ways NFS could rebound and bridge the hurdle of getting beyond a very small player base was by essentially creating the setting to learn in a fun way with incentives, and then siphoning the system as it was into something far more informative and clear. Something, that if it really raised any questions--they were few and could be adapted into the respective "classes" for all following readers.

I could be mistaken, but the little I have completed is rather presentable and the translation is simple and clear. I feel that it delivers the necessary information in full without the feeling of tediousness. It's something you could thumb through and really find the answers for yourself most times. I get a much better feeling sitting and re-educating myself through my work than I did sitting through the original system threads.



[P.S.: Sorry. I accidentally selected "Edit" out of habit from all the recent rearranging work I did, so I mistakenly ended up replacing your post with the chopped up and addressed post of mine. The only missing information was the presumptions that were nigh, so it should be alright to simply post this to keep things on track]

Are you planning to do anything interesting/original with it like you have with particular prior characters?

If I'm not mistaken, I've been away from the guild and RPing in general ever since the falling out of those last modded campaigns. I even participated in your ROUS event with Mercer during it. It's been just as long, but I mean.. motivation changes, but I've never really experienced or heard of someone losing the ability to write simply by staying away from RPs for a handful of years. O.o

I think it goes back the point of how the Academy is being used. It was never finished, so it's basically just being used as all the prior Academies were until otherwise completed. It had a lot more purpose in it's initial design, it just never got past paper since the guild went down. I have a post at the top of 1111 that gives a lot of incite into original ideas, inspiration for working on it, so on and so forth. Worth a read if you're interested in what it was shaping into.

If you guys put half this much effort into posting right now, your characters would already be jacked. xD

I see both of your points. It aught to be somewhere in the middle. Because, as it is right now, the Academy is a joke. It doesn't teach you anything about the system at all, and it doesn't promote any learning about how you level or how it works. Which is a problem.

It aught to be more tight goals. Learning your first custom technique, as well as gaining a level or two, are definitely good starts. Even having to go through 1-3 rounds of a fake combat with an NPC proctor or something, so it forces you also to learn the basics of the combat system. *shrug* But, as it is, it does not currently educate anyone on how anything works.

This coming from a member who DOESN'T know how everything works. Haha. I still feel lost, and that shouldn't be the case when I've finished the academy requirements already. xD

A note on the "arbitrary" thing.

arrow I call 2000 arbitrary because it doesn't have any real meaning. It doesn't relate to anything. It's just a number.

arrow The 1080 words from NFS1.0 wasn't something you actually referenced- it was an estimate to compare to what we have going now. In NFS1.0, you counted lines of text. Every four lines was a post- and that was a metric of "power". 1 post was equal to learning 1 level of a jutsu. 10 posts were equal to 1 stat point. Using those numbers, you could figure out that a Level 100 jutsu was 100 posts, or 400 lines. Likewise, putting your stat from 0 to 100 was 1000 posts, or 4000 lines.

arrow Raven basically summed up what I had to say. You don't need to make this big majestic thing out of it. Set the number to a meaningful number (i.e. write X words to get Y level-ups) and make them make a custom technique. If you're super-duper ambitious, do a mock battle with each new person (I feel like that'd get tiring quick, though).

I get that you had big plans for it or whatever, and as cool as that all sounded- it can be easier for everyone involved.

I'ma need to cancel our fight sai. Also a heads up to everyone I'm not gonna be able to be as active as I had hoped to be, gonna be spending more time getting rl stuff rolling and I'm not sure if I'll have the free time to dedicate to the guild at this time. maybe later but we'll see, for now I'll be floating around on occasion. 3nodding

Sucks to hear that, hope everything is all good! If there's anything I can do, let me know!

Starting to really get into this guild, haven't been this hyped for anything on Gaia in a while. This is exciting stuff! ninja

Good, gooood. Let the narrative tendencies flow through you.. like some kind of potato/gravy volcano erupting with justice.