MotD: A proclamation for residents of the Five Cities (who pass time in the Gardens)

[MotD]

By @Argent Agent Malachi
For over seven years, our Gardens has hosted its share of heroes and villains: conflict, drama, romance and yes, all-out war. We've seen families made and broken, lives brought into the world and lost, characters corrupted and redeemed. Roleplaying on this site gives you the chance to join an epic tradition that's been carried along since July 2003.

Or the chance to annoy everyone, get alienated and drive people away from the Gardens.

Gardens roleplaying (RP) should be:

*An act of communal creativity and personal relaxation. Other players involved expect you to recognise that you (the player behind the character) are not King of the Castle, and be considerate. The Gardens exist for everyone's enjoyment, not just your own.
*Undertaken with notable effort in creating unique characters and building plots.
*Something that even non-roleplayers can read and enjoy, hopefully enough to make them take interest in trying it out.

Roleplaying is NOT:

* A chance to “show off” how powerful you can make your character. Having a character that knows everything, can fix any problem or can beat everyone will get you called out for godmoding and ignored. Contrary to popular belief, such behaviour just gets people annoyed and makes them like you less.
* An outlet for mushy-gushy silliness. Most of us can tell apart (a) romantic scenes which demonstrate deep emotion or contain character development and exposition from (b) couples gratuitously drowning us in their marital (or pre-marital) bliss. Yes, yes, you love each other, but after a certain point, it's spam. Get a room. If it's a YoM room, keep it clean.
* A way to socialise OOC. Obviously, your characters want to meet and befriend others. And there's nothing wrong with YoMming people whose RP you appreciate to chat (heck, I do it). But if your Gardens interactions are as uninspired as something out of an uninteresting instant messenger conversation, you're doing it wrong. No fantasy world with so much magic and diversity should inspire flat roleplaying.
* A work-around for the family friendly rule, EVEN in the name of plotlines. I haven't seen problems with this recently - well, very recently - but it always needs to be said.


To the newbies: If you need more information on how to do it right, or what roleplaying is about, I am open to answer questions, as are my fellow roleplaying staff members, Balcon and Amanda (LadyAlchemist).

To the not so newbies: The power's in our hands. We choose what sort of roleplay we accept or not. If people aren't making the effort they should to get into one of our plots, no law says we HAVE to let them in. Still, remember that some players are genuinely new and need our help to advance. I learned to roleplay on this site. Other people can too. Friendly advice: don't be a total elitist. Everyone suffers for it.

@Observingly,
A.i.K. aka Malachi.