Post by Pyro on Oct 31, 2010 12:50:12 GMT -5
WARNING. This is probably one of my worst works ever, to be honest. >>; so uh...yeah.
Five hundred characters really isn’t enough to say what I have to say. Normally I’d try to keep myself within the limits, but I feel that in this situation my criticism (as well as my suggestions for improvement) must be heard in full. The topic I’ll be focusing on is the boards.
The boards, as I’m sure you know, are frequented by many Neopians, many of them thirteen or older. This is most likely because of your restriction on it, which does not allow members who are younger than thirteen to visit the boards without parental permission. I have no problem with this…Or at least, I wouldn’t if your other restrictions matched up with this rather large one. Your minimum age requirement implies that this area of the site is PG13. So why, exactly, do the additional restrictions you’ve made, reduce this rating to the cuddliest of G-rated movies? I can understand your hesitance to allow gore and…other such unsettling things on a children’s site. Clearly such things as ‘mating’ have no place here. However, I would like to point out that not all roleplayed fights get gory. Not all parties, and my personal favorite, masquerades/balls, are being stalked by people trying to find an online girlfriend/boyfriend. This might occur in the roleplay…But then, it’s just a roleplay.
You don’t allow fighting on the boards….and yet in your plots, there are fights. Wars even! Why there’s even a BATTLEdome. You don’t allow romance…but in your plots, what do we find? Romance. A little mulled, but romance nonetheless. I can’t quite understand the logic in this. It is very frustrating for us roleplayers to see such things and yet be denied them for a good reason we just can’t seem to find.
If you’re trying to keep things ‘kid-friendly’, I’d like to kindly point out you’re going a bit overboard. Have some courtesy for your older fans. We’ve been around for a while, and we’d like a little attention too. Take a look at disney. A grand emblem in the culture of youths, no? They’ve certainly been deemed children-friendly by many parents. The majority of their movies have some amount of violence/fighting and romance, yes. But those movies aren’t rated PG-13 or higher though. They’re rated PG. G even! And look at other G/PG-rated movies. They have fighting and romance too. It’s what makes them interesting. Yet while making them interesting it DOESN’T poison the mind.
Rather than ban fighting and romance in general, why not ban gore and graphic romance? Many of us can make do with just having our characters flip around ninja-style. You’d be surprised how few of us want to literally spill guts in a roleplay…it’s just not necessary. A little blood from a sword wound? Well that’s just for accuracy’s sake. And honestly, even the youngest child on the boards has probably seen blood before. Why, I can remember getting quite a few nasty scraped knees and elbows myself.
As for cussing…once again, I can understand your reasoning. However, you seem to be taking this too far as well. No one needs to be seeing ‘F-bombs’ dropped all over the place. However, mild curses like hell and damn, aren’t so bad. They certainly aren’t enough to bump a G or PG movie to a rating of PG-13 and most children thirteen and up have heard them both before, perhaps even on a favorite movie or at school. The latter should not surprise you. Children today are using more mature language at a younger age all the time. Maybe not in elementary school, but in middle and high, yes.
Like many, I find myself becoming more irate with each passing day over the restrictions on the boards. Why must we accommodate for children who have faked their birthday or have had their parents sign the permission form? For those who faked their birthday…well, they aren’t supposed to be on the boards, are they? So why make rules to protect them? As for those with a permission form…Their parents no doubt understood that areas restricted to those under thirteen are a little more mature than the all-access areas. Those children must surely understand that as well. If they find they don’t like mild fights or slight romance, than there is always the option of not using the boards.
Speaking of using the boards…the four hundred character limit is a little irksome. The Neopian Times gives evidence that you support writers. Why not support the writers who use the roleplay boards? Yes, I realize that if I want, I may purchase a green pen and receive an additional one hundred characters to type with. But for that measly amount, I might as well just keep on struggling with four hundred characters. I’ve heard some of the older oldbies speak of a time when the character limit wasn’t this extreme. Here’s a thought: Let’s bring that time back. And if it never existed, let’s create it. Four hundred characters is simply not enough for us more advanced writers (and even some of the beginners and most of the intermediates as well) to get all our thoughts out. Please extend the character limit…and not through a method those of us without funds to spare in these bad economic times will miss out on. Perhaps you could make it an account age thing? Like once you hit one month you can type with, say, 1000 characters. Not really an efficient amount to encompass a full intro…but then, we must be nice to the poor server, mustn’t we?
I’m sorry this letter is not singing praises for all your hard work throughout it’s over-five-hundred-character-length. It’s not that I don’t think you do a fantastic job…you do…it’s just that there are some issues that need to be resolved. Namely the ridiculous restrictions on the boards. If you must be thirteen or older to access the boards without a special form, than surely it makes sense that you must be prepared to deal with things that might hover around the PG-13 rating.
In short, I humbly request you:
1) Change the ban on fighting and romance to something less extreme, such as ‘Fights and romance are not permitted to be overly graphic.’ That is a restriction many of us would be happy to bend to, given that it’ll allow us to have more excitement within our roleplays.
2) Allow mild blood spill. Many ‘child-appropriate’ movies and shows include fighting and yes, blood.
3) Allow mild cussing. A thirteen year old in these times has no doubt heard, and perhaps even used, mild cussing such as ‘damn’ and ‘hell’. At the very least they’ve used ‘heck’ or ‘frick’.
4) Extend the character limit to something more accommodating to those used to more space to write.
I’m sure many would be happy to see these changes made, myself included. I thank you for your patience in reading this letter and your continued work in the maintenance of Neopets.
Good day to you, Neopets Team,
--Jessica
Five hundred characters really isn’t enough to say what I have to say. Normally I’d try to keep myself within the limits, but I feel that in this situation my criticism (as well as my suggestions for improvement) must be heard in full. The topic I’ll be focusing on is the boards.
The boards, as I’m sure you know, are frequented by many Neopians, many of them thirteen or older. This is most likely because of your restriction on it, which does not allow members who are younger than thirteen to visit the boards without parental permission. I have no problem with this…Or at least, I wouldn’t if your other restrictions matched up with this rather large one. Your minimum age requirement implies that this area of the site is PG13. So why, exactly, do the additional restrictions you’ve made, reduce this rating to the cuddliest of G-rated movies? I can understand your hesitance to allow gore and…other such unsettling things on a children’s site. Clearly such things as ‘mating’ have no place here. However, I would like to point out that not all roleplayed fights get gory. Not all parties, and my personal favorite, masquerades/balls, are being stalked by people trying to find an online girlfriend/boyfriend. This might occur in the roleplay…But then, it’s just a roleplay.
You don’t allow fighting on the boards….and yet in your plots, there are fights. Wars even! Why there’s even a BATTLEdome. You don’t allow romance…but in your plots, what do we find? Romance. A little mulled, but romance nonetheless. I can’t quite understand the logic in this. It is very frustrating for us roleplayers to see such things and yet be denied them for a good reason we just can’t seem to find.
If you’re trying to keep things ‘kid-friendly’, I’d like to kindly point out you’re going a bit overboard. Have some courtesy for your older fans. We’ve been around for a while, and we’d like a little attention too. Take a look at disney. A grand emblem in the culture of youths, no? They’ve certainly been deemed children-friendly by many parents. The majority of their movies have some amount of violence/fighting and romance, yes. But those movies aren’t rated PG-13 or higher though. They’re rated PG. G even! And look at other G/PG-rated movies. They have fighting and romance too. It’s what makes them interesting. Yet while making them interesting it DOESN’T poison the mind.
Rather than ban fighting and romance in general, why not ban gore and graphic romance? Many of us can make do with just having our characters flip around ninja-style. You’d be surprised how few of us want to literally spill guts in a roleplay…it’s just not necessary. A little blood from a sword wound? Well that’s just for accuracy’s sake. And honestly, even the youngest child on the boards has probably seen blood before. Why, I can remember getting quite a few nasty scraped knees and elbows myself.
As for cussing…once again, I can understand your reasoning. However, you seem to be taking this too far as well. No one needs to be seeing ‘F-bombs’ dropped all over the place. However, mild curses like hell and damn, aren’t so bad. They certainly aren’t enough to bump a G or PG movie to a rating of PG-13 and most children thirteen and up have heard them both before, perhaps even on a favorite movie or at school. The latter should not surprise you. Children today are using more mature language at a younger age all the time. Maybe not in elementary school, but in middle and high, yes.
Like many, I find myself becoming more irate with each passing day over the restrictions on the boards. Why must we accommodate for children who have faked their birthday or have had their parents sign the permission form? For those who faked their birthday…well, they aren’t supposed to be on the boards, are they? So why make rules to protect them? As for those with a permission form…Their parents no doubt understood that areas restricted to those under thirteen are a little more mature than the all-access areas. Those children must surely understand that as well. If they find they don’t like mild fights or slight romance, than there is always the option of not using the boards.
Speaking of using the boards…the four hundred character limit is a little irksome. The Neopian Times gives evidence that you support writers. Why not support the writers who use the roleplay boards? Yes, I realize that if I want, I may purchase a green pen and receive an additional one hundred characters to type with. But for that measly amount, I might as well just keep on struggling with four hundred characters. I’ve heard some of the older oldbies speak of a time when the character limit wasn’t this extreme. Here’s a thought: Let’s bring that time back. And if it never existed, let’s create it. Four hundred characters is simply not enough for us more advanced writers (and even some of the beginners and most of the intermediates as well) to get all our thoughts out. Please extend the character limit…and not through a method those of us without funds to spare in these bad economic times will miss out on. Perhaps you could make it an account age thing? Like once you hit one month you can type with, say, 1000 characters. Not really an efficient amount to encompass a full intro…but then, we must be nice to the poor server, mustn’t we?
I’m sorry this letter is not singing praises for all your hard work throughout it’s over-five-hundred-character-length. It’s not that I don’t think you do a fantastic job…you do…it’s just that there are some issues that need to be resolved. Namely the ridiculous restrictions on the boards. If you must be thirteen or older to access the boards without a special form, than surely it makes sense that you must be prepared to deal with things that might hover around the PG-13 rating.
In short, I humbly request you:
1) Change the ban on fighting and romance to something less extreme, such as ‘Fights and romance are not permitted to be overly graphic.’ That is a restriction many of us would be happy to bend to, given that it’ll allow us to have more excitement within our roleplays.
2) Allow mild blood spill. Many ‘child-appropriate’ movies and shows include fighting and yes, blood.
3) Allow mild cussing. A thirteen year old in these times has no doubt heard, and perhaps even used, mild cussing such as ‘damn’ and ‘hell’. At the very least they’ve used ‘heck’ or ‘frick’.
4) Extend the character limit to something more accommodating to those used to more space to write.
I’m sure many would be happy to see these changes made, myself included. I thank you for your patience in reading this letter and your continued work in the maintenance of Neopets.
Good day to you, Neopets Team,
--Jessica
We have a cbox again and we're opening the place up as a closed, members only rp