Traffic Lights: An Informal System for Announcing Willingness to RP

[Eralam]

For those of you that have had to deal with former JvS writers in Skype chats, you almost certainly might have noticed that we have a tendency to reminisce about the good old days, when men were men and sheep were scared. That's one of those things that comes with old age. One minute things are going fine, and the next minute you're pining after the glory days and cursing all this newfangled technology and rap music.

Anyway, a few of us got to talking, and one of the things we decided we missed was the Traffic Light System.

Long story short, the Traffic Light System was the way that one announced to the world what level of willingness they had to engage in spontaneous RP. It went a little something like this:

• Red- This writer is only interested in closed RP. They're probably just going to stick to writing with a few close friends.
• Yellow- This writers is open to the idea of writing with others, but shoot them a PM first. They might be down, they might not.
• Green- No need to ask, just waltz on in and make yourself at home. Green means go, after all.

After a while, another color was added:

• Blue- Hardcore mode. A writer with a blue light is not only down for spontaneous RP, they're down with genuine attempts to kill their character. Outside of special circumstances like a GBA duel, every fight might be their last. If you attack a blue writer with the intent to kill, however, you gave tacit permission for them to kill you back.

Despite some initial grumbling and ongoing complaints about people hiding behind their traffic light to get out of the consequences of their action, the system worked quite well. Red players mostly stuck to their corners of the galaxy. Yellow players were free to branch out when they wanted, but there was no pressure on them to write where they didn't want. Green players wandered around with abandon, striking up RP whenever the mood hit, and blue players, well, they mostly spent their time wishing a mofo would.

I'm thinking it might be a good idea to start up sort of an informal traffic light system on Chaos, so writers can let others know just how open they are to RP. Since we don't have fixed locations, it would require a bit of modification.

• 
  Not open to RP requests. They might be too busy for much RP, or they might like to stick to writing with a few close friends. Either way, don't call them, they'll call you.
• 
  Open to ideas, but not necessarily all ideas. It doesn't hurt to shoot them a PM, but don't get your feelings hurt if they're too busy or not interested.
• 
  Still means go. If you have an idea for a story, shoot them a PM to let them know, then fire up a thread and away you go.
• 
  Still wishing a mofo would. Down for pretty much anything, including attempts on their life. If you attack a blue player, however, you're giving permission for them to kill you back.

Anyway, this will be a strictly voluntary system, and we can assume it's suspended during large RP events such as invasion threads. If two blue players want to play for keepsies in an invasion that's cool, but it has to have the agreement of both parties.

So, anyone interested? We've got handy tags to go in the signature block and everything.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Blue are the feelings that live inside me.

 

[Alkor Centaris]

#BlueTeamWins

 

[Akhilleus]

I knew this was going to pop up sooner or later... *Straps on helmet and prepares factory subs*

 

[Ellie Mors]

[media]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BinWA0EenDY[/media]

 

[Gherron Dragovalor]

This is the first time I've heard of a system like this. (Granted, I'm not always around and I miss a lot, and I've also only been here for about two years xD) But honestly, this sounds like a pretty cool idea. It definitely has the potential to make things a bit more organized here when it comes to roleplay.

 

[Malia Afredane]

Dear god no.

Emphatic no.

NO.

Completely unnecessary here. If you want to write with other people in spontaneous RP, you join a public thread. You want to stick to your chosen group you're comfortable with, you write in faction threads. You don't want either, you write in the private forum.

All things JvS do not need to be migrated to Chaos.

 

[Eralam]

[member="Malia Afredane"]

So...don't participate?

 

[Progflaw99]

I am of the opinion (Having written on multiple boards) that this is entirely not required. We already have it broken up by threads, private and public in addition to not having static location threads but individual threads that can span multiple locations. I think it's an excess feature that isn't required.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Communicate with or PM writers, or join an open thread. It's that simple.

All things JvS do not need to be migrated to Chaos.

Also ^ THIS.

 

[Alkor Centaris]

I feel like the dissenters to this system are failing to undersrand that 0% of this is being forwarded to staff and introduced as a possibility to replace the old system.

It's literally "this is what kind of RP I want," and it will only effect people who want to participate.

 

[Nyxie]

I live by the Blue (non-mutually of course)!

Meh. I've always had it written down somewhere that I don't care about characters being killed (short of something ridiculous and powergamey) so I don't think I'd need a... light system ... to exchange that point with others. With no offense intended, it actually sounds a little cheesy. ^^'

But on the other hand, I see a wonderful opportunity to make little graphic whatnots for peoples' signatures, and to immediately know "what's what" once seeing their post in a discussion thread or an open RP. People might see Red or Yellow on others' signatures or whatever other space they might put it, and know whether or not to interact with them in a particular time or thread, or to expect spotty reply times/efforts. Maybe they will see mine and I don't have to answer three different PMs at a time about why I haven't posted to X or done Y yet by just turning Red! lol.

It's completely voluntary so what's the harm? Blue's the only grey space. I mean, it's not like someone can kill someone else without them actively writing that they are receiving a killing blow, as is with any other kind of character interaction.

 

[Progflaw99]

I have participated in this system before, and frankly, I find it of no use, especially in the given environment of Chaos. That's all I'm saying. I'm not saying it's wrong to have it, I just see it as a pointless change is all.

[member="Alkor Centaris"]

 

[Eralam]

But on the other hand, I see a wonderful opportunity to make little graphic whatnots for peoples' signatures, and to immediately know "what's what" once seeing their post in a discussion thread or an open RP.

That's a really good idea. If anyone would like to cook up something like rank tags for it, that would be marvelous.

 

[Darth Metus]

As a proud member of Team Valor, Mark this as the only time I will say #GoBlue.

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

Hmmm.... Blue or Green.....

 

[Eralam]

Okay, we have our tags, courtesy of [member="Joza Perl"].

 

[Bolt]

Blue are the feelings that live inside me.

I....


Soon™

 

[Eun]

Behind

Eyes

 

[Zaiden Dean]

The only one of my active chars not blue is tempist...

It saddens me but lol she's too new

 

[Titan]

Caution is always the best course of action. Awesome Idea [member="Eralam"]