Welcome to Gaia! ::

>.> I happen to think we are a crazy dysfunctional family, while we won't be prompted to kill each other there are obvious cliques and we have our squabbles. Though, we are more adult about it and talk it out in private on MSN or in PMs.

but yeah, for the most time we get along, we don't see eye to eye all the time but we get over our petty problems for the betterment of the guild. 3nodding

Ahhh, good little Mini Vacation up in Seattle

Yep

Once...

A. I find out he isn't Dead
B. We figure Really some sort of AI who was shut down
C. Imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay for some reason
D. He stops being Busy

Clearly, when the issue if being frozen come up. Its linked with Van (At least recently)

I think that the top three that you put out are within my own top qualities as well Ninko-chan.
I think that the rps I've had the most fun with where those that had a good solid leader to them to make sure that there was a direction to the story and the plot, it doesn't have to be scripted- nor should it- but at the same time it should allow enough flexablity were all playing characters involved can feel as though they have at least a strong part to play in the final outcome. I have seen soo many rps fall thought the holes because of either poor planning, unwillingness from the creator to take up the reins and make sure things move ahead or make a roleplay and only focus on one other person and ignore the others. I feel that a good roleplay balances character development and action. Too much action and things get stale really quickly, too much character development and things get boring for everyone who is not involved. Character development is also difficult if the players are far too stubborn to move characters along and the character ends up mooping about things for the entire roleplay (if they have a reason for the character to do so and its within their character to be hestitant to change their attitudes right away is one thing. Stopping character progress all together because the player wants to play an emo/tragic character is another.... but this can be stopped with Quality control.)

Overall, I think that you have hit the nail on the head as far as my views of what makes a good rp for me. I admite I'm getting finicky in my gaia golden years and it seems that everything is all about werewolves and vampires now. The 'stories' that alot of these rps have in one of my guilds is just the same recycled thing, and even if it is a good story, I find that its ruined either by may sue's, power moders, or just... idiots who try far too hard to make one of those comic relief characters and all that they succeed in doing is making an annoyance.
People who also don't read things and just through randomness in stirs my ire too. /rant

On a side note... is there anything that we can do while we're waiting for Van, crew? Could we maybe, like, make a section were we could put up our characters/clans/jutsu lists up so that we can get things ironed out and ready for the next season? There have been people waiting very patiently for months now in order to get in and I feel like this pause is kind of a slap in the face to those people. Not to mention if we get things all ironed out and ready now it would make the transition to next season smoother and we could jump into it that much sooner.