Alicorn voting poll! (The Alicorn Conundrum)

[Blueblood]

As I don't have strong opinions as a player, I decided to look at the issue from the perspective of a hypothetical staff member.  If the alicorns become a separate race, would I want to have to write that lore article, and subject it for approval/enforcement?  If it was a matter of ascension, would I want to adjudicate it?

 

In both cases, the answer is no.  I see this creating a lot of work and headaches for a group of volunteers already heroically helping to run the site as it is.  I don't see this offering much benefit to this community, balanced against the potential stress.

[Zeig]

I think the idea wasn't so much that the pony who ascend was the end all be all of their talent, but having been called to -try- and represent their talent to the best of their abilities.

I know logistics and details haven't been broached within staff at all yet, but if this is true, then the idea of Ascension makes even less sense to me. Why would a character be rewarded when they haven't actually achieved anything? If the point is that they are called to try and emulate their talent and become a paragon of it, then wouldn't it make more logical sense that they are ascended to Alicorn state after they actually achieve this? Which then brings me back to my original concern. Twilight was made an Alicorn because she reflected all the traits of a good friend, not because she was asked to try and reflect all the traits of a good friend. Seems very counter-intuitive, in my opinion.

 

I see just as many problems as positives with the idea, but ultimately my view is; if it becomes to much the admins and staff can retract and remove the Alicorns to repair any damage they might have caused. so why not give it a try?

Not sure how the rest of the community feels on this, but honestly, I think this is one of the worst things staff could do concerning this. I know for a fact that I, personally, would be royally pissed off if my character was deleted in this way. Hours, days, weeks, even months spent on character creation, development, RP, interaction - and then staff decides your character is too much trouble and deletes him/her? For people with multiple characters, it might not be a big deal, but for someone who pours their everything into a character, or a handful of characters, this would be a huge kick in the teeth. If Canterlot suddenly decided Earth Ponies could no longer be played and removed all relevant characters and RPs, I would be out of here without looking back.

I'm still keeping with my first choice of "No" for now. The inclusion of Alicorns just seems unnecessary, and more for people who want their character to be unique or special rather than wanting Alicorn status for any real character developmental reasons.

[SteelEagle]

As I don't have strong opinions as a player, I decided to look at the issue from the perspective of a hypothetical staff member.  If the alicorns become a separate race, would I want to have to write that lore article, and subject it for approval/enforcement?  If it was a matter of ascension, would I want to adjudicate it?

Can't speak for all staff obviously but I would like to do so on both cases. The workload we have really isn't all that much. Something creative like lore or exciting like ascension seems more like a good time to me than work.

 

I voted for ascension, but I'm really 50/50 on it to the extent that I am just as okay with there being no alicorns.

[Imagination]

It's a tricky issue either way, really, but certainly doable. 

 

On one hand, if we created a race, yes we'd have to write up the lore, but that's really the easy part. The difficult part would be discussing which elements of alicorns we want to implement and in what intensity, for lack of a better word. Do we want to make them god-like, or keep that sort of power reserved for the royal sisters? Why would they suddenly just reappear? What sort of social implementations could there be for these alicorns whether they were omnipotent or not?

 

One the other, ascension can also be tricky to implement, as then we'll have to decide what the criteria is for candidates and how they're judged. It's been suggested that ascension would be based on character development, but just how much would that character have to develop? I was also in favor of ascension, mostly because I think it would work out much better that just having a new sudden race pop up, and would give players something to strive for. But again, just how much do they have to strive? As an example, Starswirl the Bearded was a pioneer of magics in his day, even inventing some spells of his own! Yet he did not ascend. Twilight, also a powerful and talented scholar and magic user, did. 

 

Food for thought. While I think it could be very possible to implement alicorns, either way we go about it will still take a lot of time and deliberation.

[MudBug]

Honestly curious to see how this goes as I have no strong feelings one way or the other.

[starswirlthebearded]

I've been long debating posting my thoughts in this thread. I'm going to be as brief as I can.

 

I have no opposition to the idea of alicorn OCs, as an actual thing. What I actually oppose is the method in which they are implemented. So we have the three options...

 

Creating a new race would mitigate any logistical issues I have, but at the same time, it takes away some specialness about the race. The specialness is what makes them desireable. What essentially happens is they cease to be "Alicorns" as depicted in show, to being Winged Unicorns without any specialness. I, for one, would not like to see a grand race subjugated in such a way. So to me, that would be less "Alicorn OC" and more... I dunno, a means to make special snowflakes for those who want their OC to be more special than the rest, especially in looks. It really would just irk me.

Ascension is the next option. While this would be the method I would normally choose, there is logistical issues. First and major one is that it favors those with preexisting OCs, especially those whom are highly active. This creates an air of unfairness. If someone comes to the site hoping for an Alicorn OC, and is told they have to make [insert other race here] and have to play for [x] number of months before they can even be considered is... well frankly unfair. Naturally for the game this is desirable, as it would create an additional hurdle so that the alicorn players are all well known and skilled, however if we want to be fair we would need to devise a method to make it open even for new players. Considering that I have not figured a way to do this, this to me, poses an issue. Then we have the fact that it would have to be either staff or community appointed. It would most likely be the former, which would mean that it would be similar to cast voting. With cast voting though, the protocol is very straight forward, to match the character in the show, while proving competency. Now with alicorn voting there are far more questions. How do we determine who is eligible? How do we determine the standards? No matter the standards we use, they must be transparent and easy to understand, so that people can understand why some characters are allowed to ascend while others are not. 

 

In the end, I chose "No" for the reasons that with the methods presented I see more issues than benefits. The site itself has survived without alicorn OCs for as long as it has been around. And I see no reason why to force the issue. If someone can provide a clear and direct idea that would avoid most of the issues, and most of all make it fair for both new and seasoned users, I would rescind my "No" vote and move into the Ascension camp. However as I have had this discussion multiple times and have mulled over it extensively myself, and I still don't see a way to do it, I choose to go with no, until such a time when I can be convinces otherwise.

[Rosewind]

Alicorn OCs are tricky to make, most of it bearing on lack of information about alicorns and how they can fit into the lore we've created for this roleplay site. It would be terrible to allow them, then receive a revelation about them in S5 that would need us to reconsider canon for characters we've already written.

 

Dio and I have been having an internal discussion about this particular conundrum. As of right now we don't feel the need for this species/character/subtype/whatever in active roleplay for a myriad of reasons, all of them good. That's not to say "alicorns will never be allowed," but rather, we'd like to wait and see if any additional canon is made available before we make any broad and lasting decisions about including this character type in Canterlot roleplay outside of FFA.

 

We are listening! Thanks for your understanding and feedback!

[Parker_Izing]

What if you RP crew place a system taking in count the prevalence of each race in MLP universe? (to not flood with 'corns) Series had 6 as long I know, Celly Woona, caddy, Twily, That random Alifoal on Lesson Zero and a grown Stallion on Rarity takes Manehattan, and concede "Alicorn licences"

[Dio]

The issue has been resolved for now.  Thanks for your feedback.