Jump to content

Scythe

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    999

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Blog Entries posted by Scythe

  1. Scythe

    Griffons!

    By Scythe,

    This is how your griffon OC could look like!
    Well hey there,
    I was bored and took the griffon template that is offered quite hidden inbetween the RP guidelines and made a large PSD file in which I can easily and quickly change the colour of every part of the griffon template. With that I created the image above too.
    If you have a griffon and you want a picture of him that you can use for your application to give people some eye-candy but don't know how to make one - ask me. The PSD file I made is not super high quality and I miss a few features, but I am sure I can quickly make something up.
    Don't forget, its not necessarily the perfect image of your OC, just so people can look at something. Imagening a character just from description is partially very aggravating and hard.
    If you want a real good picture of your OC you should rather ask someone who can draw very well. I can only alter the template to your liking.
  2. Scythe
    I post this as blogpost now because I actually want to hear the communities thoughts and not only Artax defending himself.
    Every day I see new confusion in the introduction forum and from time to time I even get a PM from a new member how to deal with this site. (Here I want to note that I always send them directly to the help staff). I speak out of my own experience when I say that Canterlot is very confusing for a new member, especially those who are careful and want to know what to look out for - like in my case.
    Before you register you might be looking for the rules. I for example always look for the rules before I register to a forum. But they seem very hidden in the "Extras" tab here. Usually Forums have a sub-forum entirely dedicated to one or two threads that contain the rules. I do not think that would be optimal. Given the strictness of the rules themselves and the handling of those I really advice pointing them out more though.
    The easier the rules are to access and the more they stand out the more likely it is that people actually read them.
    (To avoid confusion - I'm talking about the site-wide rules).
    Next thing I personally came across was the huge amount of guides, guidelines and other "helpful" things here which confused me a lot. Remaking or reworking the guides is not necessary, they are all well-written and good.
    What people need is an overview.
    When you register, at the latest, you will be confronted with the three different roleplay areas here. FFA, CO and WoE. (Here I want to point out that these abbreviations have to be avoided at all costs when talking to new members, also the term "Mane RP". Other roleplay specific terms like "canon" or "OC" can be confusing too.)
    An overview would make it much easier for new members to understand what those areas are for and give them the possibility to decide based upon their personal desire where to roleplay. Then all the guidelines and rules for the WoE area could be linked, listed or otherwise mentioned without adding to the confusion.
    Especially WoE could need a new guide. The current one (when you click on Extras -> Info, Rules and Guides -> WoE) was written by Artax because noone else wanted to write it (at least that is what I remember from our conversation about it). I think it needs to be more simple and cover other areas than currently. It should give an better and more structured overview of the way a new roleplayers goes. From registering and introducing himself (optional) to creating an application, how it is approved by an RP helper and later an SRP helper and then how you are moved into the roleplay group (which is covered too much for example in the current guide). I hope you don't mind the critique.
    Then, even if all those issues are solved or don't come up in the first place there will always be questions. I do believe we all understand the hesitation of a new member to ask a probably stupid question in the Q&A area, especially if he thinks it has been asked a hundred times.
    So what to do? Right, we ask a helpstaff member. I have to say though, that the helpstaff is somewhat "hidden" aswell.
    If you are on this site for a while you will all know Helix, Rosewind and other famous help staff members, but a new person?
    The helpstaff list is, for someone not familiar with forums, very hard to access and the members themselves are only identified by the small award in the signature. I also don't see much posting of the list. QuickLime did a perfect example of explaining and linking the helpstaff list in her blog entry (point 3).
    We have this "RP Helper" Rank with the awesome "RP Help Staff image" which is currently not in use. I think it's a pity, it would make it much easier to identify a member of the helpstaff.
    ←
    (Personally I would leave it up to every RP helper if they want to wear this rank or not, simply because someone might don't like it and I don't want to be responsible for forcing it upon them. If I'm not terrible mistaken... for the sake of easier identification a lot would be okay with that, wouldn't you?)
    The award would obviously stay, since there is a need to distinguish between the normal RP Helper and a Senior RP Helper.
    One might argue the difference is negligible - it is not. A new member usually tends to categorize quickly. Awards are seens as rather irrelevant. Avatars, ranks and other fancy things on the left are mostly considered interesting if not important.
    Now to the ease of use of this suggestion a TL;DR/summary:
    Rules should stand out more and be easier accessable, less hidden
    The RP areas (FFA, CO, WoE) need an overview, explaining them shortly
    An overview would also reduce confusion caused by the WoE guidelines
    WoE needs a new guide, which is simpler and covers certain points more thoroughly
    Helpstaff should be easier to find and identify

    P.S.: Alot of this could be easily covered with a good guide as a sticky in the introduction area. (IMO)
    Also as I am sure there is always something planned already... you could tell me what you are up to.
  3. Scythe
    Now this blog entry is about these two ponies. They are T3 cast characters, both pegasi (obviously) and both still free to play. I'm not sure how much press we have in Mane RP, but I wouldn't mind seeing someone apping them! Flash Bulb is just incredibly HANDSOME and I would totally app him myself but I'm afraid I cannot handle so many characters yet. Same for Shutterfly or how some call her, Tracy Flash.
    I would definetely ask you for shipping (with my OCs) and to act as press on the coming Shadowbolt events, but that doesn't mean you have to do those things - but be prepared that I WILL ask you. Since I don't want to ship with myself and also not write articles about my/our own team I ask anyone who is bored and looking for a new character to app one of them.
    It would be my pleasure to assist you creating their app if you lack ideas for their history or cutiemark story etc.. Just don't app for them if you don't actually want them - every character, even those background ponies, deserve some love.
    Now go ahead. Make me happy^^
  4. Scythe

    Trust

    By Scythe,

    Well hey there,
    I feel really good currently, especially for my mental condition. I feel like I can be very creative and finally I feel... active, not like a puppet thrown on the bed.
    Also I'm gaining back my trust. I don't feel so much pain anymore looking at this site and I think I can start doing things again. Oh well, I already did, I started the Cloudsdale Gym RP I have promised. When things work out I will have posted a bit more Shadowbolt stuff and the adventure I designed by the end of the day.
    I wish I could credit someone here for helping me regain my trust, but it happened just like that. Not by someones help. That said, I still feel unsecure - don't destroy what I regained by now, I will be eternally mad at you if you do.



  5. Scythe

    The Shadowbolts

    By Scythe,

    Vinyl Scratch the previous leader of the Shadowbolts has officially given Tales and me leadership over the Shadowbolts. I leave it to Tales to be the leader for now, I will instead manage the team by organizing the roleplays and setting them up. A lot is already planned!



    I have created pictures and banners (for example the one that probably led you here) and now we can finally revive the Shadowbolts.



    And we are also recruiting new members, since half of the old Shadowbolts have become inactive during last year.

  6. Scythe

    Faith

    By Scythe,

    That's the word of the day for me.
    I don't have it anymore!
    There is no faith left in me, not in the world, not in the people, not in myself. Whatever I believed in is just gone.
    I believed humanity might would understand someday.
    I believed I will be happy one day.
    I believed there is someone who truly cares about me aside from my family
    I believed I had a best friend.
    I believed there was more to life than just ... THIS.
    I believed so much more.
    But there is nothing left. There is only melancholia, sweet wonderful melancholia. I am lucky to be a goth, otherwise this would be the purest torture, but there is a glimpse of pleasure. What brings me down now is that sad stories are great, but a sad life isn't. Mine definitely is sad until now.
    I have hope, on a thin thread, if it doesn't rip today, it will some day. That day, I will die.
    Faith, is what I have lost,
    the only happiness I have once crossed,
    was to see my life,
    oh for once not in pieces,
    I wish I could still strive,
    but the sorrow increases.
    What do you fight for,
    if there is no reason,
    to life no more,
    You are just waiting for the door;
    a friends treason;
    and you will step through.
    This is it,
    here you will face the end,
    a candle will be lit,
    while you descend,
    towards heaven or hell,
    farewell.
  7. Scythe

    Marked by Sorrow

    By Scythe,

    I really don't know what I am doing anymore. I just feel horrible. Wether its the fact I'm so terribly lonely or my mental state. I can't tell, the only thing I can tell is that if this keeps going like this for much longer I don't know if I can live up to my own words.
    "If I die now, my life would have been pretty sad, so I have to carry on and make it worth it."
    Slowly I'm loosing faith in what I said, slowly I'm dying inside. There is nowhere for me to go, nowhere to feel good and there is no sanctuary that gives me a break from this horrible feelings. When not even games, RP, music and a good TV show aka a lot of alternate worlds, can distract me, there is something ... something terrible lingering inside of me. I just hope the soothing tears of mine will fix me for another time.
  8. Scythe
    So where are all you super active, excited and enthusiastic roleplayers? I need you!
    I had this idea for a great and dangerous adventure, which is pretty simple, doesn't involve terrible cliches and fits just perfectly into Mane RP. Read all about it in my OOC thread. Who knows? Maybe you will find new friends on this trip, maybe you will find an enemy? And there might be a small reward at the end of the RP. This is also a very positive thing about this RP. It has a definite end. Three days in RP time are the deadline, after that it's over, so those will be eventful days. Go check it out, I really need some interested pegasi.
    I would love to have at least 4 people total for this RP (including me).
    P.S.: This has nothing to do with the Shadowbolts.
  9. Scythe
    So this is a different kind of forum entry today. I am quite bored and that probably won't change the next days so...
    ... if you need help with a Mane App because you are out of ideas or because you are unsure if the character makes sense and you want unbiased eyes look at it, throw me a PM.
  10. Scythe

    Desperate

    By Scythe,

    I don't know whats going on. I wanted to go back to my hobbies so badly and now I can't seem to get started. Is it just me? Is all I believed in wrong? Am I that kind of person who doesn't want to play an instrument and sports like I believed I like to do? I know for sure I love those things - but why can't I just start then?
    *sigh*
    Sometimes life really sucks. I really need to get going or I will have lots and lots of trouble very soon. I also need to think about what I want to do in my life. There is no time for me to wait and think anymore, I have to make a decision, find my destiny.
    I'm afraid, so afraid to make the wrong one, wasting more of my precious time.
    So long~
  12. Scythe
    ... really?
    No!
    But who cares right?

    So I have to start somewhere and this is it. Let's put some info in my opening entry:
    I'm 20 years old
    and I have no freakin' idea what life is going to be for me. This is what most entries will be about.
    God, how boring.
    No I was kidding. There will be entries about that topic, but due to the amount of time I have at the moment, most will rather be about entertaining things like images, music, stories and more.
    Of course I will also adress things happening in the forum like the thing with Imagination challenging Artax on the topic of eg[colour=#000001]g[/colour]plants.
    If you still didn't come across that hilarious event here is it:
    Okay back to serious business.
    I just quit college because I realized that physics is - even though I am really good at it - certainly not what I want to do in my life. They might say it gets better and blah. I don't want to bite myself through one year of boredom and hard work for more years of hard work to end in something that is no fun to me.
    I rather want to do something creative. Playing in an orchestra, design stuff for a company - anything!
    Now the world is open for me, but I don't know where to start looking. My mother has serious issues; because she is stupid. Yes I am sorry to write that, but she has to stop worrying in her life for once. I understand her concerns but its really getting on everyones nerves.
    Back to myself: I'm very intelligent and a fast learning person with an quite creative mind.
    So I can be everything! Sounds awesome right? Well no. I might be good at adjusting to changes, but even the slightest bit of routine and work can entirely screw my day. Not saying it must - a bit of work is really pushing me up in terms of mood and attitude - if I start cleaning my house I will really get it THAT clean - and I'm happy afterwards. But 90min train to college, annoying readings and endless pages of exercises that you don't even understand in the slightest? Yes that will make me come home and just fall into my bed. I cannot have that. Sorry, I don't work this way. I need way more "chill" and relaxing in my life to actually do something besides work like sports or music than someone else might need.
    I just seem to have terrible trouble to get something going. I want to do sports as example but signing up to something? Or just going to the gym? Oh the effort! Oh the trouble! Drama!
    What I want to do:
    - Sports (a ball sport and martial arts)
    - Music (Guitar, Piano and if I ever ever have the power for it - violin)
    - Art (I already do that a lot, since I can just sit on the PC for it)
    - Writing (I work on the plot of my novel since over a year)
    - Science (if not as job I still want some science in my life)
    A last word:
    I have chosen this blog title for a reason. Not only do I know the trailer/cinematic music company "Two Steps From Hell", but also it describes my situation quite fittingly. I'm not directly at it, but I am very close to deciding how my life is going to look like, what my destiny in this world is going to be.
×
×
  • Create New...