YJUTT Infinity

I realize that this is a bit long, but please read the entire thing.
No, seriously. Do it, this one's important.
I said do it!

I'm going to start this off bluntly: I have been utterly sick of role-playing for quite some time.
Now, before you all pick up your virtual pitchforks and run me out of the city-site, please hear me out because this isn't some personal gripe session or, in fact, personal at all.
RPGing has many problems. First and foremost is the fact that we have a very slow pace, due to lack of activity. If an active player loses interest in the story or goes on vacation, a storyline might be put on hold for weeks. Not only that, but due to schedules and time zone, as well as small teams and limited characters, you can not always get the people you want into a story.
I think we all know of the disasters in JLA and JSA boards where we have one or two person teams and are unable to even start wonderfully thought-out storylines due to lack of characters.
Not only that, but solo-stories and OC development becomes much more difficult when any player can just barge right in and take your ideas off track in a different direction.
For these, and many other problems, we have come up with YJUTT Infinity.
YJUTT Infinity would not simply change YJUTT, it would revolutionize the way the entire site works.
It would add many things that almost no other site on the web offers and should drastically increase activity, creativity and even site traffic.
It would abolish the RPG, replacing it with a new advanced joint story system.
All characters would become NPC, meaning that you could play any and everyone you want, with multiple characters per post and drastically increased opportunity to spin creative stories.
A fanfic-based board would also be created so that if you want to write the entire storyline without others cramping your creativity, you can.
These changes would mean that only a few characters could carry on a story if necessary and if one or two people lose interest it doesn't mean the story has to change or come to a complete stop.
And, since you wouldn't have to wait for a specific person to get on for the storyline to continue, there would no longer be any concern over time zones. Everyone doesn't have to be on all at once to keep a storyline moving rapidly.
Problems such as schedules, lack of activity, dead storylines and limited characters would be things of the past.
A group storyline could continue with just one or two players, so you would no longer have to worry if a character in your story loses interest or quits. The story could progress smoothly with only a few people. You would no longer have to wait for hours or even days for your interacting characters to be online. Teams would suddenly be full. No more one person JLA, now you could have as many characters as you need involved, as long as you can keep up with them. With YJUTT Infinity, you would control every character and every action in the story you created. The universe is at your command.
As stated, storylines would be able to develop much faster, which would allow many more events and much more creativity in each story. With multiple characters and no worrying about waiting days to see the next post, your creativity and imagination is the only limit.
Solo stories could now involve as many characters as you need, because they're all at your fingertips. You can write about your characters without others taking away from your purpose. If you have a good idea for a story, you can run with it as much as you want in the fanfic section, which would include elseworlds as well as continuity, so again your only limit is your own mind.
Also, you no longer have to worry about choosing a character you wish to stick with for years to come, because now everyone would be able to build upon and play with each character, offering not only much more diversity, but much more freedom.
And best of all, you already know how to do it! Stories like "Insanity Inc.", "YJUTT Does Romeo and Juliet" and "The Once and Future King" are all examples of successful attempts at both fanfics and joint stories.

The Group Story board:
The GSB would be similar to the RPG, but with no restrictions.
Think of it as a joint effort fanfic. You would write as much as you like of your story, but then others could add on, turning it in entirely new directions and progressing the story wherever it can go.
Each member of the site would have control over every character, allowing stories to progress rapidly; and with all the teams full, you don't have to wait for other people with similar interests to join just so that you can continue your storyline.
These would take place in standard YJUTT continuity or in Elseworld depending on where you start the story and can go for days at a time or months on end.
Everyone active in the writing, however, would have to agree before ending the stories, so they have the potential to last for a very long time until they reach a stopping point.

The Fanfic board:
The FFB would be your personal haven. Here you could let your creativity run wild.
Also based on the YJUTT Continuity or Elseworld storylines, but would also allow Out-of-Continuity Stories. Fanfics would be closed to all members except you and who you specifically ask for help. This means that if you already know how you want your entire story to play out, or just don't want other people there cramp your style, you can write it out just how you want it.
If you wished to keep on the YJUTT Continuity, you would have to make sure that everyone knows what your plans are. You can't have a story developing a character and not tell everyone or it would be confusing. These also couldn't change the outcome of a GSB story, which is why the Out-of-Continuity section would be in existence. You can then go by comic continuity or no continuity at all and write freely without worrying about changing a character that is going to be actively used in the GSB.

---

Things we plan to help:
1. Increased activity.
2. Increased creativity.
3. Open to a whole new crowd of people.
4. Make it easier for you to run with your ideas.
5. Allow more freedoms.
6. End the problem of time zones.
7. Fill the teams.
8. Give you the ability to write whatever you need for your ideas to unfold.

Things we plan to eradicate:
1. Lack of Activity
2. Time zones and Speed
3. Limited Characters
4. Dead Storylines
5. Character and Plot Development
6. Stunted Creativity
7. Complicated RPG Problems
8. Application Problems

Things we plan to change:
1. The RPG board, and the site in general, would have to undergo major archiving and remodeling.
2. Application sheets would have to be changed. Rather than being designed to see how much you know about your character, they would now be more focused on writing style, dedication and overall knowledge of the DC Universe.
3. Site rules would have to have some minor changes. For example "don't control other people's characters" would have to go away.
4. We would appeal to a new crowd: The fanfic crowd.
5. We plan to increase activity and fun!

---

We realize that this would be a monumental change, but many of us feel like it would be a wonderful idea that would help the site for years to come.
Still, we are here for our members and it is therefore up to you to decide. We won't change your environment without your consent, but we implore you to read through and see the many steps that this would take to better the site.
We implore you to go for YJUTT Infinity.

Please give your opinions and any questions.

Edit: Some concerns that have already come up:
1. "Some of the veteran members have grown attached to their characters and won't want to give up their control."
This is true, however let's face it; very few newbies will want to play in YJUTT continuity. This means that mostly "veterans" will be playing there and they won't wish to change it.
2. "They'll do crazy things with my character."
One of the things we'll add to (or rather, enforce in) the rules is that all cannon characters must keep their characters. You can't portray them in a different way than they always have been. Wonder Girl isn't going to run off and get married in Vegas, Batman isn't going to join the circus and Superboy isn't going to turn gay. That kind of thing just doesn't happen.
3. "Original characters are harder to play."
If you're going to have an original character in the story, you must ask it's creator first. You can't just decide to put them in there, you have to ask to use them.
4. "Everyone doesn't know about every character, so how will they play them?"
Two ways. One is that they can do research, ask people who would know, or just not get too in depth or,
Two, don't. Make a shorter post and let the next guy incorporate that character.
5. "There could be confusion due to too many stories going on at once."
No there couldn't. The GSB will be limited to only one per section like the RPG is now and in the FFB it won't be an issue. You shouldn't start more than one or two stories at a time anyway.

I am totally in love with his idea, man. I'm not sure what I can add to it (since you managed to cover pretty much every aspect) but, I think it's just the kinda shake up YJUTT needs to get it back to the top.

....
Hm.
Well I'll admit it totally sounds like a cool idea, and I agree with it...
*everyone waits for it*
buuuuut
I don't like the idea of getting rid of the RPG section for it. If I'm alone here then I'm just alone but I like RPGing and if you remember I also agreed with trying to shorten to posts so it's not quite so intimidating to get more people to do it. If the majority rules I guess I'll be forced to give it a try.
*everyone waits for it again*
buuuut
I think we should have both RPGing and the fanfic idea. Maybe restructuring the Fanfic section to allow for those stories or something like that.

Well, the GSB would be an RPG still, just with some major changes.
You would still get to roleplay, it would just be multiple roles instead of two or three. But it still is the same basic concept in principle.

I guess that's true, but as someone whose controlled multiple characters in a story before, getting past that 5 character mark gets a little trying (I wasn't going to have DV8 in 2 straight stories for that reason) and it just seems like more or less the same thing could be achieved by saying that you can control as many NPCs as you want(would get the one character teams moving, also say...me helping to keep a JLA storyline moving even though I have no JLA characters.) and allowing double posting.
*everyone waits for it yet again*
What? I'm not gonna say it...
But anyway...*ignores the "but"* As I said I'm not against the idea, but I think we should have the option to do the each player controls three characters way as well. It might mean that some of us will spend more time on one side of the board than the other, but if it gets people who aren't posting to post again, I guess it works for me. Though I don't see how a long one character post will be more intimidating than a long 5 character post.

Ah! But a Long Post with Five Characters is less intimidating since, it'd be expected to be longer, you've got to show five characters views and emotions and junk.

I think what Matt said is correct.
Also, while I'm not totally against letting people keep certain characters, it would bring back the time zone, dead thread, etc. problems that are one of the main reasons we're proposing this idea to begin with.
Of course it would only be a problem in the YJUTT Continuity, everywhere else it wouldn't matter much and the FFB wouldn't be affected... But I still am not sure how much I like the idea since it brings back some of the original problems.
As you said though, it's up to everyone, not just me and you.

Personally i'm all for something that will make the RPG side of YJUTT fun again, My one comcern is that i wanna keep my characters because, well i've had WonderGirl since day one and i have an affinity with her. Thats a real word now.

Well, as we said earlier, if you're posting in the YJUTT Continuity then it's mostly going to be YJUTTians. You have three options.
1. Trust them not to mess up your character, sense they most likely won't and you can fix anything they do.
2. Make an agreement with them at the beginning about how Wondy gets played.
3. Let what happens happen and live off the FFB.
I would say that either of the first two are likely, we've all known each other for a long time and most newbies probably won't care to post in the YJUTT Continuity considering that we've been building it up for two years now.

Rock on then!! :) :D ;) :lol:

::wwoman:: ::wwoman:: ::wwoman:: ::wwoman:: ::wwoman:: ::wwoman:: ::wwoman::

From where I sit this can go two ways. It might work or it will crash and burn like Kid Flash driving the Batwing while on speed (fun anaology isn't it?). I can understand that you are attempting to make the site more active, but it seems like a LOT of problems will occure from this.

The whole GSB sounds like a novel idea, but I have little doubt it won't develope into chaotic argeuments about control and what can be done between players in relation to character. You say it won't but if we have problems about that in a structured site, then we're going to have even MORE problems with a free-range site.

And the whole concept of Characters is going to raise problems in general. By letting players use all the characters at NPC it will be impossible for continuity to take place and it will of course mean more arguements.

There will also be debates of who plays who and other players might steal control of one NPC and do something another player doesn't want them to do. For example, one player sets up a Harm and Wonder Girl storyline where they are a happy couple. The next player might end up taking that and in their storyline returning Harm to villain statues and hooking Wonder Girl with Superboy. So long as the characters keep their personality, then no one can argue with what happens.

And of course you say that player will need to play the character in their proper context. That's impossible for some players who have never read the comics. Players are going to play different versions of characters whether it be comics, movies or cartoons. For example, one player might play Starfire as she is in the comics, but others will play her as she is in the cartoon. Another player might play Batman like he is in the BATMAN AND ROBIN movie. There is no way to keep a character's personality going in the same way since everyone has a different interpetation of a character.

If all the characters are NPC's then there is no need to ask another players permission on how to play them. And Original characters... well I dont' even want to imagine the problems that will come from that.

And as Marx said, the posts in these kinds of story will be even LONGER than the ones we currently have since we have 5 more characters to write for than just one or two. You'll be setting it up to where you dont' feel like reading posts because again they are too long.

The Fan Fic section is going to get little work on aslo. Something I've noticed about Fan Fic sections on any RPG is that players get bored easily and don't finish them or dont' even start them at all. Fan fics need dedication. If we can't get them to be dedicated when working with others, its going to be hard to get them to be dedicated when working alone.

I'm not saying this idea is a horrible one, for all those who are already rolling your eyes at me. It sounds nice in theory. But I see players have more problems with it then we even do now. You want it to be a site where everyone can have fun. Only problems is, when anything goes, people are going to spend more time b**ching about how they don't know what's going on or what their favorite character is doing that its going to quickly lose novelty.

I like the Batman and Robin Movie idea! So you're on that one then right!!

*pinches bridge of nose* Why do I even try...?

Because you overestimate us all, Alan. Thats why you bother :P

I agree with Marx and Alan. If I have to wrtite for so many characters and read so many long post, I don't know how I could have time to look through everything. Some days I only have enough time to skim post and give a one sentence reply, other days I read everything and post a post thats nearly one page in length. Don't know how I could keep up with everything in a few fanfics all going on at once.

Plus, I know I'm reiterating Marx and Alan here, but everyone has a different take on a character. As hard as someone might try to stcik to another persons continuity for a character, theres always going to be something that just doesn't quite fit his/her style. Plus, trying to write other peoples characters too hard can suck the fun out of things. The current system might not be perfect, but if you stick with it *feels own guilt of dead storylines* it can still be fun. Endless at times, but fun.

However, don't get me wrong. I love the idea, but I wouldn't want to get rid of the current rpg. We've had this system for two years and its made it this far. Where as, most rpg sites last only a few months. Perhaps we could make one section for joint fanfics like we had back on YJUTT 1.O, if you can recall it, where we can do this and still keep the current system? Why not give people the chance to do both instead of taking a toltarian path with it? Make everyone happy.