Has your game shaped your players?

Not so much that but a few of the members have decided to give a try at becoming writers. I look back fondly at those who started out complaining. "I don't think I can write 200 words." (our minimum) And today- they post well over 500 words or more,

I'm always impressed when a new member comes in, uncertain, and by the end of their first story thread- it's old hat for them.

 

Exactly, new members usually ask "how many pages is 200 words?" It's a legitimate question- and most are relieved to know that 200 words aren't even a full page in Word. It doesn't take long for them to start thinking "that's awfully short" and slap out far more.

 

My site isn't too old at the moment, but even still I've noticed that a lot of my members have gotten more involved with interacting with each other. It's amazing to watch the chat grow from people who didn't know each other to everyone fostering new friendships. It's not even just in chat though since everyone will make more characters so they can play with other members they haven't met. It's really great as an owner to see the community grow and everyone being so welcoming and helpful who aren't even staff. I've also noticed people who said that they weren't normally active or didn't like forum roleplaying to be on constantly and even have admitted that they haven't had so much fun in a long time. Maybe because some of their friends were there, but nonetheless it has truly been an amazing experience to witness.

 

Yes, I have seen people who improved their English vocabulary and fluency. (Not only myself and my co=administrator, but also others who wrote regularly and who aren't native speakers). I have seen people getting better at storytelling too. But I have also seen people replying slower and slower.

 

On my Sci-fi RP we have an RPer who had very terrible spelling and punctuation. His posts used to be indecipherable and as an admin I had to help correct his posts so others could read them. I used to have to do that for all of his posts now it is just a few. A lot of players used to type up one sentence posts and with our admin team's insistence we have gotten most of them to start typing up longer posts.