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Okay but I wanted to ask about the preteen rule... I do like it's effect overall, not a complete thing on "You can't have that many D:<" but still enough to give some newbies a chance. I don't really wanna change wether it's preteen or not, afterall preteen is third stage, and I think it's fairly easy to get to but still requires some work. Whereas like.. toddler is pretty simple. XD

But my worry is for the special event ones like the valentines day raffle that some owners can't participate in.

On the one hand, it's kind of a reward to those who have worked to get to preteen and have had a good time around D-corp. Like some of the older kids, first to mind is Nero or Anoki. You work up to preteen, you get the chance to participate in such events again.

But on the other hand some people arn't at preteen, and it's not just because they didn't work hard. Some could just be waiting on the time requirement. XD And then in the case of specials they miss out.

So, I want some owner input on this, what do you guys think would be best for the preteen rule? and the pros and cons as to why you think so?

There's alot of options I can put in, like some exrtra qualifing thing you have to do (write an extra prompt, pay a fee, ectect), or just editing it for special cases, or making sure to void that rule more on the special contests. Add qualifiers. Or something not even thought up here, theres lots. XD or theres always the option of "Nothign at all, people can deal with it." So again, inputplzkthx. :3

I think that as long as your child is close to growing. Say, you have all your PDs and journal stuff done, and you're just waiting on a teacher to finnish a class, or waiting on the time requirement, you should be allowed to get another kid, as by the time the new toddler is certed, chances are your older child will already have grown to preteen. But if you've been lazy about RPing and you're not even close to finished with the requirements, or your kid has just grown to second stage, the rule should still apply.

Ditto on Lithle. D-Corp is far from a closed shop, there are events all the time and missing one is not the end of the world. And preteen does give the player a chance to develop personality, and there's less of a chance that they'll get bogged down trying to fill two sets of reqs at once.

If you DID want to give chances for people with non-preteens a chance to get more D-Corp kids, I could imagine a special contest for such an occasion (say, raising two kids with close ages in a home, or whatever). Or, if time is the only factor, maybe some sort of appeal system. But if time IS the only factor, the person won't be hurt by more RP... bah. I'm contradicting myself. Ignore this.

My basic opinion is that the rule is fine as it stands. ^^

(and on an unrelated note, I'm honored that 'Noki's an example. <3)

Personally I like the preteen rule. I think it allows more space for new owners so that someone doesn't go on a gank fest with event kids.

The only exception I would see even being slightly fair is if the person has sent in their growth reqs and is simply waiting on the art. Meaning the time, and RP has been done. They're simply waiting on their slot/turn to grow.(Things the owner can't control) In other words their growth is going to be approved/has been and they're just waiting on the artist.

This only counts for special events BTW. It wouldn't be brought in where the person has a kid reserved and is waiting on it(like through an auction or bribe). Frankly, I think they can wait for the first kid to grow before they get a reserved kidlet. XD I'm merely saying for special events like the V-Day.

Anyway. The 'The form for growth has already been approved and it's being workedon by Ara/the artist' is the only time I would make a special case of something for an event like the V-Day. Otherwise I say they can sit and twiddle their thumbs. They can go grab a few more RP's with their kid in that time they have left instead. X3

I hope that makes sense?

The only problem is when we run into things that we can't control, like teachers taking a long time to get classes going, but you've met time and PD reqs. I could see making a few exceptions in a case like this, but where you don't actually get the kid until your other kid grows to preteen, or something like that.

Then again, on some events, I could see waving the preteen rule. Maybe on something that won't happen again very soon. Like a special sort of contest, perhaps. Something like the special dragon concept contest. But only in these sort of events, because, like mentioned, D-corp has several events to help keep a good number of kids going through.

I like that there isn't a "You can't have more than X number of kids" rule. Because, truthfully, if you can keep up with 20 kids and their reqs, then you should be able to have that many kids! It takes some owner discretion on how many they can handle, but that's for them to decide.

I also like how D-corp has a lot of newbie-only events. There are a lot of shops out there that are hogged by the same people over and over.. *cough*SOA*cough* And it's hard for a new person to get in. Fresh blood is always nice when doing PDs. RPing with just the same small group over and over can start to get old fast...

I'm kind of divided on the issue. I can see reasons to both arguments and special acceptions, etc. that can be made.

Pros:

- Newbies get a chance. I know there's at least two people who don't have a D-corp that I'd love to see get one because they're dedicated rper's, have interesting characters and concepts, and they've been lurking silently or taking part in the events in the past. New blood in a shop is always a huge plus.

- It puts a cap on hording. We've all seen the "SOA Horde" sigs laying around and it kind of comes off as a badge of wealth sometimes and it detours good people from the shop while attracting 'ooh em gee lineart whores' in. Hording also in the sense of "I'm going to get a d-corp kid based off of every bred of cat!" kind of thing.

- It encourages character development. The more characters you have the more personalities you have to juggle, and while some people pull it off well, not everyone does. The general age group for people on gaia is between 13 and 17. No offense to anyone in those age groups but I know when I was between those years I had about three 'steriotype' character types that I'd repeat if I had...well more than three characters. xd

- Everyone's going to brick me for this one but it keeps a cap on making characters purely to breed or for "ooh em gee" fan "secksi" pairings. You have to play the character from a child and children take a while to develop a sense of what they like or don't as far as relationships. If you have seven kids you might get bored with playing toddlers and play them as older than they should be which...can lead to all sorts of problems.

- It manages the shop keeper's workload. Imagine having to grow everyone's eight kids because they all had playdates and all of them are ready to grow at the same time. c_c I couldn't imagine... and those that have just one kid would be totally blown in the dust.

Cons:

- Speaking for myself (and maybe a few other people) I have multiple 'guardians' and I have done a fairly good job at managing them both. (Thomas and Winter.) I know that it might be interesting to have one child in each household but with the preteen rule I have to wait to get them even if they're for a different character.

- Requirement difficulties, not that they're difficult at all if you put some effort into it but sometimes the unexpected does happen. The shots teachers are all during finals week or away visiting Aunt Tillie, etc. or you start a few playdates and everyone kinda stops posting or leaves gaia, goes on hiatus, etc. and you can't count them so you have to start over. That kinda stuff's a bit difficult.

Overall I'm in support of the preteen rule with perhaps a few strict exceptions.

Mm. But what I brought up was... we have a sort of waiting list thing now with the receptionist. Meaning... you send in a request for said class. You get a spot in line right then. When your turn comes up(meaning anyone who sent it in before you get's theirs first) you get your turn. If you DIDN'T get your turn and you sent in the request the day you grew then it would have been two months and something is obviously wrong to begin with. So yea. >->;; At which point we should, as a sort of staff, been working with Ara to fix the problem. Rather than ignoring it. I'm just saying that waiting until 50% through your time to ask for a class or later isn't the best option when we have something like 80 kids? There is bound to be a bit of a wait list when there are less than 20 teachers. People need to be willing to be patient.

So if the person sends it in early they can likely get through the class long before needed. Whereas if they send it in 5 days before the thing they might be stuck in line.

Also. I took into account if 50% of the teachers were gone. XD I said there could be exceptions then.

My thing is... we're talking about dismissing a rule so you can get a new kid from an event. That means you're likely planning to fork over some cash for this new kid. If you are in such a hurry to get another kid and MUST have it then I really don't see a reason it's not reasonable to say 'Well maybe a minireq is the answer.' You could always wait like everyone else for your turn in line to come up.

Perhaps with the teachers though... if the class isn't finished for some reason... maybe use the PD rule sort of thing. 5 posts by you and it can count? Or if the teacher hasn't posted in over a week and that's all that is holding you up.

In general I don't like the idea of letting a class be an 'ok you can ignore that req and try! XD' Cause frankly... it could have been a putting it off thing by the person rather than the teachers fault. It would bring in more work than it's worth to say we'd make a ton of exceptions for it. Mainly because we might get 5-6 people at each event going 'BUT IT'S NOT MYYYYY FAULT!' and maybe it's not, but perhaps they're new to D-Corp and didn't understand how much work there is for everyone and how the line is long so they thought 10 days or less was an ok time to send in a request for a Vacc class. You don't know. =.=;;

Course that's my two cents and I will stand by it I think. I just feel it would create a lot of work, too many iffy judgings that might cause bad feelings, and undermine the whole purpose of the receptionist being there to help people get slots as they ask for them. It's not a system where it's based on luck of being around when the teachers says they have room anymore. It's a turn based system with who sends in requests when. Perhaps if it was the old system I'd be more on your side about how classes could be given out in a slightly unfair manner, but it's not done like that anymore.

'OMG I SHOULD GO BREED WHORE MY KIDS! XD LAWL!'