Thoughts on Bender Limitation....

[rase]

Honestly I am really impressed by this site and really look foward to roleplaying here, but this ban on benders leaves a sore taste in my mouth. I just feel the 'fun' of being a non-bender is being force-fed down the throats of aspiring rp'ers. The fact of the matter is if I wanted to roleplay a standard average character, I can do that on any other RP site out there. I know and have been part of plenty of roleplaying sites that are set on periods of time rather than animes. The fact I come to an anime roleplaying site is because I want something different than your average run of the mill character. Not to say being an normal character in a supernatural setting is bad. It presents its own unique worthwhile experiences and possibilities. But I firmly believe that is a choice that should be left to the role player. Not a coin toss or other third party. Players should be given options, not have them taken away.

Now I can respect what you are trying to do. Which is why I am so impressed with the site. But I think this ban on benders is more so the equivalent of 'racial profiling'. I've read in one post, that the reason there is a band is cause a majority of the players that make a bender usually abuse said power but more so are those more likely to make a character and just stop rp'ing them. So this is more so a screening gate for bad/wishy-washy rp'ers. By bad I don't mean new or still learning roleplayers, but those who are unwilling to learn...you know the kind. n00bs.

But for the heart of the reasoning is realism. The fact is not everyone in the world of show is a bender. But then another fact is not everyone in the world is included on this site. So is it unreasonable that the 200-300 members on this site when compared to the populuation of an entire world too many? Its just like joining a Samurai X rp. Was everyone in fuedal japan an aspiring swordsman? No. But the rp is based within that social circile or setting. To bring up my point before. You typically joined a Samurai X/Kenshin rp because of the sword play. So typically a person would want to join this rp because of the bending. So for alot of players you are taking away the very core of why they wanted to joing the site.

But then to maintain realism EVERYONE can't be benders cause in the actual interaction between characters it would all be bender on bender action. And that can get old fast. This is easily fixed with true GM's who set up events and make the enviroments and the NPC's that make up the 'average' world around the players. By true GM's I mean those with no characters and who's only function is to set up roleplays for the existing members. But then being a GM in that sense is alot of work and yeah, I'd happily volenteer to do it part-time, but to do it full time for THIS many people. Well yeah, that's just no effecient.

So limitations must be made, so here is my proposal:
Bender Probation.

It basically works like this, you count up the benders vs non-benders. And you get a population percentage you want. I remember someone mentioning 1/3. So count off. So for every three non-benders characters you can allow one bender into the general population.

Now what about all those people who don't make it in the percentage limit? Well they can still make a bender if they want to but conditions must be met. These are the benders on probation.

Benders on probation are first put on a waiting list on a first come first served basis. Now they can simply just be patient and wait for a spot to open up. If a bender goes inactive for too long or quits, their spot is reliquished and the first bender on top of the probation list gets taken off. For new non-benders, they don't count towards the 'general' population until they reach a certain post count. This is to ensure people don't make new non-benders just to get off probation faster.

Now if benders on probation don't feel like waiting they still have an option. Taking up probation character(s) along with their bender. A probation character is simply a non-bender character that they are obligated to roleplay in order to roleplay their bender. These characters are to be made on their own account so stats for that character can easily be accounted for. These characters don't go towards the general population and are posted on a special board just for 'probation characters'. In order to keep their bender, their probation character's posts must be within a three day limt of any post made by their bender.

Once a spot is open, the player can opt to drop their probation character if they so choose or add that character to the general population if they wish keep roleplaying them. (And help the next person in line to get that much closer) Dropped characters can be put up for adoption, which are open to be rp'ed by anyone. Be it for general population or probaton character. Or they can be frozen in which the character still belongs to the maker but taken out of rp. Or lastly the character can just be convieniently killed off.

A small note: New players making their first profiles can not choose to adopt a pre-made character. I think you should have your own character before you start looking to take up someone elses.

And thats my idea. Its fair. Everyone who wants to be a bender, can be one to some extent. Its just those that aren't in the 'general' population have to put in more work. But if you really want something you should be willing to put in the work required. So those benders that are messing up the natural percentage are putting in work to keep it balanced. I'd say that a bender on probation in some extents can be asked to maintain 2 probation characters, at the administration's discression. Or even giving bonuses to those who volenteer to pick up extra characters. Like for every probation character past the second one you roleplay, you move up one notch in the probation line.

By keeping a time limit between bender and probation character posts, it works for the active and not so active roleplayer. Basically goes on the principle if you have time to post on your bender you have time to post on your probation characters.

So thats it you have three populations of benders.
General Population: Benders who are under the percentage cap and are not required to take up extra characters.
Full Probation: Benders that are waiting for a spot in the general population and are not actively roleplaying.
Partial Probation: Benders that take up extra characters to roleplay with the general population while waiting for their place in the general population.

On top of that, I propse a 3 strikes, 3 outs. System of consiquiences.

Benders on probation who don't upkeep their respective non-bending characters, get three warnings. After that they get put to the bottom of the probation list. First out.

If they continue to neglect their probation characters after three more warnings loose their option to be up for partial probation and are put on manditory full probation. Second out.

If they continue to post on their bender character during while on manditory full probation. Third Out. You're Banned.

And there you have it. Everyone is happy. Everyone who wants to be a bender.Can be a bender. If you only want to be a bender then you aren't obligated to make a character you don't want to roleplay. You can simply wait for a spot to open up for you. If you can't wait and are willing to put in extra work, even if there isn't room to be a bender, you can make room for yourself. No matter what you want there is a way of attaining it, so the players are happy. With the extra benders roleplaying probation characters, the site population stays balanced between bender and non-benders.

Though I'd suggest a population audit every 2-4 months. Since non-bending characters will quit and and throw off the balance. So in the event the number of benders in general population exceed the percentage cap. You can just put them all in a numbered list. Run a random number generator to pick random numbers. And those newly selected benders arre put back on probation at the top of the list.


On that note. Another factor that I think disturbs most of us, or atleast me. Is that just about every bender claims to be a 'prodigy' or 'master' of said bending style. Which leaves little room for growth, but more importantly just because you claim your character is a master and knows everything about bending doesn't mean you do. If you're going to roleplay as a master bender, than not only know the attacks and powers. But what dirves those powers, and what measures have you taken to reach that kind of level?

For this fact I think bending should have a numerical value and every one just starts at the same level.

To split the two styles in terms of areas of manipulation. I'd put earth and water bending under the section of weight and mass. S o the more powerful you become the more water/earth you can move.

The other two, fire and wind. Deal more with force and projection. So these skills are measured in the force in which it pushes against weight.

So all bending can be measured in weight.

So a character with a bending value of 5 would be able to move five pounds with ease. For water and earth benders they can move masses of their respective element For fire and air benders, that means their burst/gusts of their respective element can push back an object that weighs five pounds.

The use of an online random number generator will work here. All benders will get a random number from 1 to 100. That will be their starting value and grow stronger as their rp goes along. For those roleplaying older characters, like 30,40,50+ or whatever. Or those claiming to be masters no matter the age. I suggest a separate board be made. Call it "The Years Before..." where players can post about their characters past and roleplay them using their bending skills from beginner to the level they want to be. Their use of their bending skills can be assessed and judged. And if they really do grasp the concept of what it is to master their craft, they'll fly through the growth process. Dunno, just more under the idealism. Nothing given, players have to earn what they want in terms of bending.

I'd peg the limit of all bending skills at 10,000.

Anyrate those are my thoughts on how to effectively limit the number of benders to non-benders while keeping the largest number of people happy while still accomplishing what you want for the site.

PS: Its late. I'm sleepy. If the spelling is horrid and things are hard to understand cause of awkward phrasing I apologize, in advance.

[The Lion Turtle]

Simple answer: No.

[rase]

Simple Answer....No.
Well gee, I feel my input is appreciated.
I put all that thought and time into posting my ideas and kazaam. Shoot down in three words. Granted it was posted very late and a majority of it sounds a bit rant-ish. That's still a bit harsh.

Can I request a complex answer?

I mean my idea fits in with the purpose of the ban which I believe goes like this:

If everyone is allowed to be benders than everyone will opt to be benders and you feel that non-benders will be under represented in roleplay.

If this is not the purpose of the ban please correct me where I'm wrong.

I mean its simple. You want to bender you have to roleplay a non-bending character. Think of the non-bending character's post as rent for having a bender.

And there you have it. People who want to be a bender have a means of being one. And by having to roleplay non-bending character to do so, you get what you want. A balanced player ratio of active benders bs. active non benders.

Maybe the rest of my suggestions seemed too complicated or just too much work for your preference. I don't know, but that's the core of it. I mean fliping a coin to make benders will give you around a 50% bender creation rate. This is the same thing. If you have all benders maintain a non-bender character, thats a 50% creation rate.

I mean if you want to keep it simple. You can leave it at that. All benders must maintain a non-bending character. You can even tack on level requirements like:

Beginner Bender: Requires 1 non-bending character.
Advanced Benders: Require 2 non-bending characters.
Master Benders: Require 3 non-bending characters.

Using my idea about Bender Value as a marker for in character limitations.

Beginner Bender: 1-100
Novice: 101-500
Advanced: 501-1000
Master: 1001-3000
Grand Master: 3001-8000
Avatar Level: 8000-10,000
Avatar State: 10,000+ (Unachieveable unless you're the avatar)

To give an idea of these levels and how they are incorporated to the show.

Beginner Level: In the beginning Katara started out here, having to learn basic moves such as the water whip. Beginner level is capped at 100 as its in proportion with body weight.

Novice Level: As Katara grew in the show, so did does her bending. The episode I can recall her using a technique of this level is the first episode with Jet where she and Aang had to push and pull the water to fill the river.

Advanced: This is where I put Katara at now. During the fight with Zula and Zuko, she uses two techniques at this level. The first is that much larger version of the water wihp the she used to catch Zuko's arm and leg in, and the Octopus Form where she surrounds herself water. If you can imagine taking that water and putting it on a scale to weigh it. I would imagine it would fall in this weight range.

Master: Forgive me for forgetting his name. But the guy who was to train Aang in the Northern Water Tribe would be considered a Master. That is the first idea that comes to mind.

Grand Master: Toph is would be in this range. The clearest example of this is the episode at the Great Library in the desert, where she is holding up the tower from sinking. At times doing so one handed even! Also I would put the fire bending ability to bend lightning at this level.

Avatar Level: The one example of this I can recall off the top of my head. Is the episode with the lady who told the fortune by reading the clounds and Aang saved the town from destruction. That I would consider Avatar Level Bending. Which is the highest level of Bending I'd say is achievable by anyone. I believe one can match the Avatar in terms of power when it comes to their respective style of bending, but what makes the avatar the avatar is the mastery of all four elements.

Avatar State: Not to be confused with Avatar Level. The Avatar State is the collective power of all previous Avatars in one form. I'd say the capabilities of this level are limitless. This level can not be matched, and is the ultimate level of bending.

I think this is what the site really needs. A collective idea of what a master really is. Cause some thin mastery is able to move one or two tons. Others thing a master earthbender has the power to make an entire mountain range or destroy one. So when you get two players together in one rp, and one says I'm a master bender and ther other says I am too. Both of them are right in their own personal idea of what a master bender is. Giving a Bender Value will eliminate this as the site provides that definition for the player.

As for the rest of my post. Before. You can throw out all that junk aout maintaining general populations and probation populations. Thinking about it, thats alot of work monitoring each benders post activity to make sure they post within the three day limit and then counting characters each month or two to reassess the population.

So bender application goes like this:

Beginner. Advance. Or Master.

Beginner Benders get a random number between 1 and 100 for their value.

Advanced Benders get a random number between 501-1000.

Masters get...you guessed it, a random number between 1001-3000.

On top of that, Advance and Master applicants must go through a three part audtion phase, Beginners are only responsible for the first part..

The first part is required in their profile. Instead of a sample RP, they are required to give a bending demostration to see if their out of character skill/understanding matches their in character skill/understanding of the art.

The second part is them using their bending to defend themselves in a small RP, to make sure their actions remain true to their character.

The third and final part is a three posts of their character using their bending outside of a fighting context.

Once they have completed their auditions to the satisfaction of the admin's. They have to make a new account for their required non-bending character(s). The account name should have the non-bender character's name with the name of their bending character next to it. So if I made a bending character named Bob, and making a non-bending character named Sue. That account name would be. Sue(Bob).

So that way when you do your monthly activity check. And see that Sue(Bob) has been inactive yet Bob has been more than active. A strike is give. Three stikes and both accounts get deleted. If you have a strike or two strikes and have kept your character active for three months one strike is taken away.

You aren't stuck at the level you start out at. But your Bender Value grows with your post count. Boosts to bending abilities can also be given as a reward for good rp. Or even better yet, as rewards for participation in organized rp's, be it small story based mini-sagas, or simple tournaments, not only limited to fighting, but sports, bending exibitions, cooking contests, or skills of any other trade.

The only problem I see is this kind of reward system is geared for benders and have little to no insentive offered to non-bendrs. So I believe non-benders should have a value as well. A simple Ability Value, which can be applied to any skill they wish. Be it fighting, fishing, dancing, or sleeping. It also works as a counter measure for bender vs. non-bender altercations. Ability vs. Bender Value will balance themselves out in battle. For characters that are outside of the fighting aspect of the game can declare innocense. An innocent character can not openly be attacked as they are protect by law. And attacking an innocent will brand you as a criminal and thus detained to face the consiquences of your actions.

There is no rp'ing to evade authories when attacking an innocent. Its automatic capture and trail. Penalties can range from prison time (IC suspension of that character), to death. Or even charity work, where a player is detained to only rp in a certain thread for a set period of time.

So those are my thoughts. Care to share yours? Anyone.

[chamir]

*hefts a large monkey wrench over shoulder*

Just so you know: This is not a fast paced nor thoroughly action-packed RP forum.

Things IC and OCC wise tend to progress a tad slowly. The fact of that alone will make many of your suggestions ill-advised as to the time it would consume.

Well for one thing you’re looking at giving our staff a lot (more) work than they already have. Not just with the forum work itself but the workload they also have in their personal lives as well. (Even more so for those on the staff who are in college.)

Keeping track of the numbers, keeping track of player activity, keeping everyone updated, etc. Though it is not as complicated as your plan would make it become if instated, they already do this to some degree.

And not every player wants to or can maintain multiple characters, so why should they bother going through the extra trouble for a bender when they can just take a 50/50 chance on a coin toss. It’s better than not getting the chance of having a bender at all. And even if that one character they make can’t be a bender they can also submit another to become a bender (though the mods, and maybe a few players, look down upon people who will immediately scrap a character because they won’t become a bender and immediately make another bending-chance character afterward).

As for that value system of a bender’s skill: it is highly unnecessary, especially since RPing here is more free-form than stat based. With the exception of canon characters, the mods try and insure that a bender’s skill is adequate for their background, i.e. no 13-year-olds who can rain down flaming meteors or hurl a tank through the air and few benders, of any age, can bend a person’s blood or bend lightning.

With your suggestion, a random number could render a 30something year old bender with the skills of a 5year old bender and vice versa—despite age, training, skill and profession in that character’s history. And then there’s the additional amount of work for both the applicant and the mod just to prove the new bender player’s competency?

That’s a lot of “redtape” to go through just so you can play. I’m not entirely sure how that’s any easier than having someone flip a coin…

I’ll reiterate that this is more of a free-form than stat based game. The abilities of characters may seem vague or incomplete profile wise but are fleshed out (mistakes, innovations, etc.) and fine tuned during RPing sessions and player cooperation. Also keep in mind that basing a character’s ability on post count might seem a bit useless as even a two person non-combat RP can go for at least half a dozen pages. And because this place isn’t very face paced it’s hard to rack up many rewards or have a character get in many RP sessions.

As for bender vs. non-bender altercations—that is easily resolved between the players, whether they can fight or not.

[jialingjin]

I am sorely upset that my denial to give you a coin toss without a profile before I could gain permission from our Admin led to this, I am sorely upset that your unwillingness to create a skelton character, like I suggested in our converstation, to get a coin toss and then build your character up as you wish depending on the coin toss resulted in this.

Alright- let's look at it.

Hm.. for every three charcters.. a bender can be accepted. Well now that allow has it's own issues. We did consider that idea when we were tyring to come up with a system so we could end our 5 month long bender ban. Yet, the five profile mods do not review in any sort of order. We review randomly and we try to review the oldest profiles first and we review when we have time to review. It takes about an hour to review a profile, sometimes more. Forcing up to keep track of who reviewed her, whether that person was a bender or not, forcing us to update a list so we wouldn't have to correct eachother and members about "Oh, Can we accept a bender now?" is, I believe, to much work to ask of us. And is it really fairer than taking your chances with a 50/50 coin toss?

You mention bender probation - Yet more work for us. So.. people wait and wait and wait for a spot to open us. This sounds an awfully lot like our Bender ban where we had people signing up and daily asking us when the ban would be lifted or trying to bribe us to allow their bender through. What makes you so certain that spots would open up in the first place? Certainly, we do have many inactive benders, but do they affect the outcome of a 50/50 coin toss? Not at all. So why choose a method where they would? Sure, we try to clean out our members every few months, but it's a difficult and time consuming process to try and contact every member to see if they are still interested.

Oh I see.. People who don't want to wait can create a non-bender at the same time.. and have a bender. Why.. isn't that why we give you the option of having three accounts and more with permission? Why some of us have 3,4,5 characters! Some of us are lucky and have more than one bender. Some of us have taken Canon Benders from the show, like Katara or Zuko. Hell we'll probably need a new Aang here soon since our second Aang has vanished! Imagine that! Playing the Avatar! Looks like we already have this option. Members can play more than one character! Genius!

Oo.. Adopting Characters. Why look! We allow that too! I believe there are only maybe one character up for adoption right now, but you can find them under the Roleplaying discuss board! Granted, we could make this a bit known but there's no demand for us to make a special board though it might be a good idea just to get this little feature out there like you despertly want.

Now let's see.. Someone would have to keep track of these probation characters.. to see that they posting as they should. Certainly our RP mods could use some work and this would provide it.. but in all honesty, they don't just monitor RP but are in the midst of planning a great seige on Ba Seng Sei, organizing groups, finding members who are inactive, and not to mention checking to make sure people are making that 150 word limit. Shall we give them more work? When they have lives to lead

And a population audit? Why we do that every few months! Except we call it a genocide. We're in the midst of one right now. We delete non-posters and unactivated members on a monthly basis. We just need Admin Xia's permission to delete members who have accepted characters and have RP posts but haven't been online in months (like Taren Shi Dun). Just last week our members were over 300.. if I'm correct we're back down around 215. So we do keep up on our inactive members like you suggest, leaving more room for people.

Now let's see.. you suggest a numerical system for bending mastery.
Have you seen our profile reviews by any chance? We're very through in making sure that no one under the age of 13 really is a master of bending without a good explaination about their talents, their training, their unbringing and how they became so skilled. Everyone starts on the same level? Is that really fair for a 40 year general in the Earth army who has trained all his life to be reduced to the bending skill of a 6 year old?

Random numbers generated for each character? So a 5 year old bender could easily receive a 100? Why doesn't that contradict what your said before? The more powerful you become, the more you can move. So a 5 year old.. not very poweful.. can move more of their element than a 50 year old who has had years of training? That seems almost as crazy as a 50/50 chance of receiving a bender! A mere coin-toss!

Chamir said it best. We're a free form, slow moving RPG. If you want stats, Go whore it up in Rhy'Din. I RPed there for 8 years and trust me.. all it has become is stats races, vampires, and sex slaves. Fun times, my friend, fun times.

Honestly, looking at your suggestions.. it's brillant. Why more efficent than a coin-toss! And you thought of this all because you did not want to take a RISK at one of five moderators reviewing your profile, and flipping a bloody quarter. A quarter, a simple flip of a coin. It's not like we're rolling an 100 sided dice here.

Again - You know what we suggest to members who have their bleeding hearts set on a bender? Create a skelton character! A charcter who wouldn't get accepted any day or the week. Just bare bones! Guess what you get!? A coin flip! Yes indeed! And then the chance to MODIFY that character! As far as we care, you could create the basics of your dear bender, get a coin flip and who knows, Maybe lady luck will take pity on your whinny butt and give you a bender! Then you can make your character as wonderful as you like.

Xia gave you her answer, she read your proposal throughly, sadly had to go to work and couldn't give you a long winded answer. We've discussed this on the moderator's board, we have given you an answer and explainations. Your idea is simply too much work, and hardly a fairer method and yet you continue to fight us just because you want a guarenteed bender. Tough Luck. Try another RP that doesn't have a restriction if you're so deseperate.

[kura]

Okay... *rubs temples* First off, that's a lot to take in, so if I remembered something incorrectly or didn't address something, please forgive me. I can see you put a lot of time and thought into this, and I respect that... but at the same time I am aware that this stemmed from a PM conversation with Jia wherein you asked if you could get a coin toss before submitting a profile. Trust me, the mods have discussed this - both in the C-Box and in the staff board.

Basically, your proposal was shot down mostly due to the amount of work it would cause the staff here, and for what? A greater chance of becoming a bender? That's a lot of work for everyone involved, and not everyone can maintain the amount of characters you suggest. A coin flip provides a 50/50 chance, and not everyone will ask for the coin flip, so the way I (and many others) see it, the coin flip is best. It's simple, and it does the job.

We encourage members to create characters that don't rely on bending, and that shouldn't be the only thing going for the character. Both my characters are nonbenders, but I love them so much for their personalities and the situations they find themselves in. For example, my character Naoko is currently engaged to a man who is (unbeknownst to her) in a relationship with another man *cough*

I suggest you check out the thread Ideas for Non-Benders It should show you just how diverse the Ava-world really is. It's fascinating :3

Now, as for the numerical system with bending ability... well, as a profile mod, I can say that we are very thorough with profile reviews, and we would never let a 13-year-old be some master prodigy bender... at least, not without good reason (which is rare). Also, mastery of an element isn't as black and white as you make it sound. Every character is different, and mastery could imply different things for each character. For example, Azula and Iroh are both known to be master firebenders. However, the two have different abilities - Azula firebends with blue fire (which means her fire is hotter than others) whereas Iroh does not, yet Iroh knows many techniques and has applied techniques from other bending disciplines to his own firebending.

[rase]

That's fair.
Here's where my problem lies. I believe a player should have options. Not have them taken away.

Like I said my original idea was a bit too much work. But the revision of it is simple. All benders need to have atlreast one non-bending character.

I mean managers already do monthly activity checks. And delete non-posters. So if they have a non-bender named Fong(Bozai) that has not been active, they'll know that Fong is the required non-bender for Bozai. So they'll check Bozai's activity for that month. If Bozai has been inactive as well. Well both accounts are deleted. If Bozai has been active then well, he gets one strike on his record.

As for multiple characters. I hate rp'ing mulitple characters myself. But if I have to rp one character to rp the one I really want to. Well that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make. To me that's a MUCH better choice than a coin toss.

Like I said I firmly believe in options. And a coin-toss, well takes away that options. You can make your character anything you want it to be, thats what I love about roleplaying. But like it said you can make your character anythng YOU want it to be. The choice of a character being a bender or not shouldn't belong to the management or a coin toss. It should be up to the player.

So this way if you want to be a bender you can be a bender. Its all about how much you want to be a part of this site and how much you are dedicated to the idea of being a bender. For alot of people that is VERY important thing to them, as it is for me.

This system also eliminates people who don't get the coin-toss to be a bender and just keep making new accounts until they get a bender. It just simplifies everything. Its simple being a bender is a special thing, its a gift not given to everyone. So if you want to be a bender, I think it should be something earned instead of given. So like I said. The non-bending character is basically rent for your bending character. Its the price benders have to play to keep the population balanced.

In the end, the choice of being a bender is not given randomly at the whim of a coin. But the choice is made by the only person that should have authority of this decission. Is being a bender worth rp'ing a second character? Yes or No. If that's too much for you to rp than you don't have to be a bender, or you can go to a site where the 'rent' is cheaper. But we all know what comes with a cheaper rent. Roaches. ><

As for Bending/Ability Values. That's just an after thought. Most people are stuborn and prideful of the characters they make. You have two characters in an RP that claim to be a Master. Each on thinging they are better than the next. You can argue logic, but you can't argue math. One plus one is always 2. So in the end this is just a very raw and basic figure to represent talent. Not skill. Talent is your ability to do something. Skill is how effectively you use that talent. Skill is based on the roleplaying. And skill will beat out talent nine times out of ten.

Like I said with levels like this people can place where they want to be. Someone might think a Master would be what I'd call an Advanced bender in my table. So instead waiting for misunderstandings like this to take place to distrupt the flow of rp. Why not form a collective system so there are no doubts how powerful a bender really is?

I haven't read much of the in character posts so I don't know how big of an issue that is among the current members. That was just a second thought that I've seen from looking at other rp siites.

As far as the 'red tape' goes. I just feel player knowledge should try their best to match character knowledge. If I made a character who was a japanese chef but knew nothing about japanese food or culture for the matter how well coud I really rp a master chef who owns his own restraunt. Same there here. Just a precaution so that a player's knowledge matches the knowledge they claim to give to their characters.

The precautions were just examples. I just wanted to put out as many ideas as possible, I know they all aren't to be used. But I'm just hoping in all my babble to contribute something uselful.

** The above was posted for Chamir's post***

As for Jia. I did not mean for this post to be a hostile one. This in no way shape or form has nothing to do with my request for a coin-toss. I actually appriciated your responses to my PM's and understood that the decission was not yours to make.

I was simply bored and couldn't sleep so I to just share some ideas on how to possibly find a better way to have benders without having them out number the non-benders. It was late. It was a bit rantish. But it was just suggestions. I was just post some ideas. Some parts of it I think are sound and others well, not so much. Remember I posted this cause you said you were waiting for word fom Xia, so I decided to post this while I was waiting.

I did not mean this as an attack on the site. As for me wanting to roleplay a bender. Yes, I want to be one. So. But I know I'm not the only one. I was just trying to come up with a system for people who, god forbid, want to be a bender on a site based on an anime about bending. To me thats like making a Naruto rp and then saying okay, lets put a ban on ninjas.

I mean I'm sorry for trying to think of a system that would give players what they want while maintaining the kind of roleplaying envioment the managers want. I'm not really sore about having to make a profile before my coin toss. As you can see from my post typing is no big deal fo me. But its nice to know she said no, so I can get around to posting some generic character.

I've trying to go about this thing as respectfully as I possibly could. I don't think I deserve the hostililty you replied with in your post I'm all about respect and I'm not trying to step out of my place or calling you anything out of your name, which you seem too happy to be doing. Though when you're not trying to insult me your points are valid. I agree not ALL my ideas were good ideaas. But not all of them were bad either.

Intead of looking focusing on the bad ideas and try to bring it down. Why not try to look for a good idea and give suggestions how to make it work.

****Kura**

Yeah I read your thread on ideas and yeah I really appriciated it ^^. It gave me a few ideas for characters outside of the avatar.

As for random numbers you have to look at characters like Katara, Zula, Toph, and Zuko. These are all characters under 20 with immense prowless in bending for their age. Bending much like martial arts is based on strength of mind not of body. The value system is the medium. The bending is the expression. Like the ammount of paint you have is a medium. The picture you choose to make is the expression. Azula is more offensive where Iroh, is more defensive. In this case its not what you have, but what you do with it.

My issue is not having to make a non-bending character. I have a few ideas for non-bending characters. From my suggestions I volenteer making a non-bending character. The issue is not being able to make a bender from the start. I don't want to be rp'ing several ammount of characters. I'm more a one character kind of guy. I suffer favortism. I'd rather focus on one character and make them all they can be.

Sure I can make characters until I get a bender and drop the previous characters. I find that lame to no extent. Characters are like babies, and shouldn't be abandoned. If it was about me, I'd make a profile and then I'd complain AFTER I get a tails. I could make a character and be a bender and just keep my mouth shut. I just think other people are getting screwed out of what they want. I don't care what anyone says you really have your heart set on a bender and you get a tails? Fair or not. You still feel alittle screwed. So I just wanted to try and think if there was a way to hammer out a better system where benders are more openly available.

[jialingjin]

We are trying to hammer out a better system. The Moderators and Admin tried for months to find a way to limit benders yet make everything fair when we had our Bender ban that lasted 5 or months. We instigated the coin toss because at the time it was the only fair, undisputable and most convient method for us to decide benders by. Would you rather we just decide on personal preference? We have kept the cointoss because we've come up with no ideas that don't involve a major amount of numbers, stats that we will never have, nor huge amounts of work for both the moderators and the applicants. Under this system.. people just submit a charcter and hope for the best. It's the most we have right now, When we can we're brainstorming for ideas, and for the time being, until we find that elusive, fair, simple and limiting method that doesn't involve driving us up the wall the coin toss will stay in place. No ifs, ands or buts.

[rase]

Well what do you think of the super simpliifed version of my idea:

Like I said my original idea was a bit too much work. But the revision of it is simple. All benders need to have atlreast one non-bending character.

I mean managers already do monthly activity checks. And delete non-posters. So if they have a non-bender named Fong(Bozai) that has not been active, they'll know that Fong is the required non-bender for Bozai. So they'll check Bozai's activity for that month. If Bozai has been inactive as well. Well both accounts are deleted. If Bozai has been active then well, he gets one strike on his record.
_______________________

You can just leave it at that. People can have benders, if they are willing to keep the balance by taking up non-bender character.

[chamir]

Um... I think your arguement is in the can and set to the curve for collection. <.<

I'll tell you again that it is a slow forum. Its pretty common for a player to not have a character post for months on end due to life, waiting on other players, acquiring other players, planning, etc. All of that would throw off the mods quite a bit along with keeping tabs and tally on them to begin with.

And I still fail to see the need for an ability value system when it can be more easily hashed out OOC between players (and a mod if need be) working cooperatively--despite whatever disputes and/or problems arise beacuse of it.

Dosen't matter how well or many times you simplify and streamline it. Flipping a coin will be the more convient, easiest, quickest and least amount of upkeeping and "paperwork" involving method at the moment in comparison.

Unless anyone comes up with something better, it seems that'll be it for the time being.

If you really want a bender that badly then just take the shot in the arm. *nudge over to OC section*

Post your profile (can be just a barebones skeleton but don't make it bender necessary), get the coin toss, suck it up, walk it off.

If you don't get it that time then submit a second character (but try not to dump the first) and give it another go. If you fail a third time--well *throws hands up*

Or save yourself all that trouble and take up the role of a canon bender. BOOM! "Evwebod when," so to speak. =)

But since you don't seem to be the multiple character type that does seem to leave you in a rut. So I can't come up with any ideas for you there.

It may not be fair, if you or someone else does not get a bender, but you take the risk the moment you decide to add a character to the roster.

[rase]

Here is my arguement at its base core. I've already stated the value system was just a random idea. So ignoring all things here it is.

Problem: Benders are outnumbering non-benders.

Solution: Each benders makes a secondary non-bending character.

Effect: For every bender actively roleplaying this ensures there is a non-bender to balance things out.

This has nothing to do with the pace of posting. The same thing that passes for activity now, are the same that apply to the non-bending characters.

If a person can't honestly make it on to post. Then it will show when activity checks are made. It will show as both their bender and non-bender characters won't have recent posts. But if a person is posting every day on their bender character yet the last post on their non-bending character is 2 months ago, you know this is just blatant neglect.

Its not complicated math really.

Like I said if there is a greater reason to the ban on benders that I am not aware of please let me know. But if the only problem is that having too many benders and not enough non-benders. Than giving players the option to make a non-bending character along with their bender balances itself out.

If players don't want to rp more than one character and want to take their chances. They can try their luck with a coin toss. But its a win win situation to me.

Managers get what they want. A role playing environment that has a healthy population of benders and non-benders alike.

Players get what they want. A sure fire way to be able to make a bender. End of story.

What am I missing?

[jialingjin]

Excuse me but where did you get the idea that benders outnumber non-benders here? According the calculations, which I just did to prove this claim false..

As of the most recent update of approved characters (this does not include characters that have no been added to the index yet)

• Overall:
  
  • Citizens: 82
    
  • Benders: 34
    
  • Non-Benders: 48
    
  • Bender Percentage: 41%

You can find all the stats at Bending Percentages

but I assure you.. there are more non-benders than benders and with the coinflip system, this will equalize out to 50/50 within a few months probably which is better than the 80+% of benders we had months and months ago.

and I am going to outright say this so you can get your bender and we can move on with our lives,

1. Create a profile for a character as basic as you can make it. We don't care if the background is one word. We'll give you a coin toss.
2. If it's tails, delete profile, create a new skeleton profile with different name. That counts as a new character. Get another coin toss.
3. If you get heads on any of these basic profiles, continue to add on and develope your character and make your display name match the character's name.

There you go, insta-bender.

[rase]

I never said that benders outnumber the non-benders here. You misunderstood me...

I simply stated that managers wish to impose a means of limiting bender enrolement out of fear that with out some means of control they would outnumber non-benders.

When I said:
Problem:Benders are outnumbering non-benders.
I meant that was the reason the ban on benders was needed.

And as you stated months and months ago this true with 80% bender population.

You are trying to prevent that from happening again. So to get back to the point. If things are so even now. Having new benders make non-benders along with their characters will only keep things that way.

[aden]

Rase, the idea that new members must make a non-bender before they can have a bending character was already explored by the staff. It was pretty much decided that what we'd see was a lot of hastily made non-benders who were left to the wayside after one or two posts (if even that).

There is no GARUNTEED way to get a bender right off the bat. Maybe if you make 2-3 active non-benders and the coin flip still isn't on your side, a mod would grant special permission to let you have a bender.

But as it is, it seems like you're going to incredible pain to change a fair and simple system that seems to be working quite nicely for the board, just so YOU don't have to go through the agony of making a character who can't bend. You may say that you're just trying to make things better, but I truly think that your intentions are self-serving at their core.

The coin flip is fair, impartial, and keeps things at a 50% or less bender ration without even a hint of the massive paperwork your system would require.

[jialingjin]

So what is so wrong with the eventual 50/50 bender-nonbender split? It's lower than the 80%. It's better than nothing. Your method simply would do the same thing. People would create one non-bender, for a bender, thus canceling eachother out. It would even out to be 50/50.

"But what about the people who only make non-benders? That'll throw off the 50/50."

That'll happen with the coin flip too. People who create only non-benders exist.. and they'll help edge things a bit more to the non-bender side no matter what method we choose.

A method that involve more work than is necessary is not efficent for our RP. We've said that numerous times. Your method would give us the same results for triple the work.

And I must reitrate my point - you seem to just want a fool proof way to get your bender on the first go. That's the only reason we see behind you having such a problem with our coin-toss method.

*Points to her Insta-bender method in her above post* If you want a bender so bad - there's your answer. Guarenteed Bender without breaking our rules. Now that.. is more unfair than a meager coin toss.