General RPG Discussion Forum: Guidelines and FAQ
First of all, a preamble, if you will. For over a year, this forum has made do with little to no moderation, with the exception of occasional blatant trolls and spammers. Now, sadly, some kind of moderation has become necessary. I don't want to have to become a board nazi, as this will scare too many of you away, and it'd take up too much of my time. Instead, I'm going to aim for a form of self-moderation. By following the guidelines listed in this post and reading and understanding the frequently asked questions, there should be no need for excessive or heavy handed moderation. So,
without any further comment, we start with the guidelines.
Guidelines
1) Intelligent posts.
You may take it for granted that all of your posts are pure gold, the most intelligent writings that have ever been known to man. Even if they are (unlikely), you still need to read over your own work before you post, to ensure what you have written isn't complete crap, and to provide other forum members with material that they would enjoy reading. If they don't enjoy reading your opinion, they're likely to not read your posts at all.
Things that you can do to make your posts more intelligent
- Read over your post. Have any gaping holes in your arguments? Is your spelling and grammar up to scratch? Is your post hard to read because of formatting? Basically, a good deal of problems can be solved by simply reading over your post before others get to see it.
- Figure out what you have to contribute. Do you actually have anything to add to the discussion? Is your post a simple me too style statement, has your opinion already be stated by somebody else? If so, do you have a new spin on that opinion or can you state it more eloquently? In the case of short witticisms; is it funny? Try to view your reasons for posting objectively if you can.
- Stay on topic. Simple concept, you'd think, but look how many topics get thrown into the region of completely unrelated tangents in the space of twenty posts. If a tangent interests you so much, start a (quality) thread about it, rather than hijacking somebody elses. If the tangent isn't worth creating a thread about, is it really worth posting about at all?
- Don't contribute to pointless arguments or debates. If the same argument is one that keeps popping up every few weeks, and never gets resolved, continue at all? Generally, there isn't anything new to add when these arguments pop up, so basically, all you are doing is wasting your writing talent (even if you have none) on something that could be much better spent expressing your thoughts on new and interesting topics.
2) Trolling, flamewars and other forum degrading actions.
Simply:
DO NOT Troll, spam or engage in personal attacks on other forum members. If somebody is trying to bait you into doing so, do not humor them.
Why? Because, and this may come to a shock to some of you, these things really destroy the quality of these boards. If you want to find an RPG board that allows and even encourages these things to a certain level, you can try the IPLY forums. If you came from the IPLY forums, know that this shit doesn't fly here. We may be angry and bitter folks, but that doesn't mean we don't treasure the intelligent discussion we have here at RPG Codex. If you just can't help yourself and have to spam, troll or engage in flamewars, we really don't need you here.
3) Post Length
This ties in with figuring out what you have to contribute in the earlier section on intelligent posts. At RPG Codex, many of us prefer to read longer posts (if they are written
well). So longer posts are generally better. However, if you have nothing really to contribute, long posts filled with pointless and nonsensical crap are not the thing to do. If your post is short, you may have to re-assess why you are posting and what you have to contribute. Don't post things without thinking about them first. Develop your arguments if your post seems too short. Flesh things out wiht (good) examples, use metaphors if you know how to do this properly.
And remember, this message board is not a public IM service or chat room. If you want to chat with people, try our IRC channel, or use some kind of IM client such as ICQ. Use the message board for in depth discussion.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What games should I play?
1.1 Commercial CRPG's.
1.2 Independently Developed CRPG's.
2. I think BioWare does/doesn't suck. Am I right?
2.1 Notes on BioWare discussion
2.2 Notes on NWN discussion
2.3 Notes on Infinity Engine game discussion
1. What games should I play?
Games that you should play are split into two categories. Commercial RPG's and Independent RPG's. These are games that the majority of us who post at RPGCodex have played, and therefore, if you want to contribute with an informed opinion, you will need to play these too.
1.1 Commercial CRPG's
- Fallout - Regarded by many here as the best CRPG ever made. If you haven't played this, you may find it quite difficult to contribute on these boards.
- Arcanum - A decent CRPG with quite a few problems, which are arguably made up for in the excellent NPC dialog system.
- Planescape: Torment - <I haven't played it, so somebody else needs to write up a short, objective description of it>
<<I'm debating putting BioWare games in here as opinion is quite divided as to whether they are quality. Even though I dislike them, other folks here recommend them and I'd like to be fair.>>
1.2 Independent CRPG's
- Avernum series - Consistently excellent party based CRPG's.
- Geneforge - Turn based CRPG with a unique setting.
- Prelude to Darkness - Good CRPG with an interesting turn based combat system.
2. I think BioWare does/doesn't suck. Am I right?
In short, you might be, but it has gotten to the point that on this forum, we no longer think it is contstructive to discuss the merits of BioWare's previous games. We cover BioWare games in the news section of the site, if you feel it completely necessary to do so, talk about your opinions on BioWare there.
2.1 Notes on BioWare discussion.
Ever since this site opened, one of the main topics has been BioWare. Basically, the staff and a large portion of the readers think that BioWare suck. Nearly everything about them has been gone over numerous times, and people are getting sick of hearing the same arguments over and over. So, before you start another BioWare related post, just don't do it.
2.2 Notes on NWN discussion.
It is virtually uncontested that the single player campaign that shipped with BioWare's NWN was of low quality. We've heard it all before and nobody disagrees with it. If you decide to discuss the NWN OC with praise, then prepare to be laughed off the forum.
2.2 Notes on Infinity Engine game discussion
This isn't as old as NWN discussion, but it is generally more contested. If you want to discuss specific implementations of the Infinity Engine, don't get emotional about it.
Notes: The FAQ is really incomplete, I'm kind of tired of writing at the moment.
