Anvilsmith

The worst obstacle, along with the most interesting tool for good prose in Play by Posts, is the discrepancy of style between the players. They don't write the same way, and almost always, they don't bother. I don't... If every other player in the thread writes whole posts in quotations or gives no description of his character's thoughts, I find no impulse to conform. The reason for this (and I suspect this applies to everyone) is that, while role-playing in a forum, I rarely consider the ammount of exposure my texts receive. When I do acknowledge it, I merely tell myself that "strangers" are reading my threads, and since they won't be likely to criqtique me, influence my character or at least pop in and congratulate me when I write well, there's no point in striving to satisfy them. It would be a hopeless venture, for even if I succeeded, I would have no means to know it.

Which is sad, because the best way to attract players into a PBP, once they've stepped for a glance into the forums themselves, is to show them quality prose. Tending the players like a hedge is mandatory for a good influx of desired players, as usually, the players who look for good writing skills won't join a game tormented by streaks of hollow one-liners. Since good prose befits good players, whose patience and respect for detail often spills into their actual role-playing, it becomes a sort of emblem... Through it, new players of matching quality may be brought in, especially when visitors will rarely spend enough time reading an uninteresting IC thread to judge the story itself. Sadly, even when its contents can do nothing but impress, a short and trivial bit of text may project its taint upon them, making them seem just as trivial, yet painfully longer to read. This way, the bit of text would become a sort of self-irony, more visible to the reader than the great and unspoken entire.

How does one deal with the differences of style? To ensure that the writing styles match, the PBP game's owner may either openly enforce it (by, say, giving penalities to those who fail to disobey the style imposed throughout a thread) or subtly encourage it, by helping players who write in the same manner group together.

The former method has too many flaws, at least within the context of PBP demographics, to even be worth considering... Not only does it drive away those who cannot conform their styles (in other words, genuine players, who may also possess genuine characters), it also narrows the potential player-base so much that any game applying it would manage to scrounge only half a dozen players at best. The latter method, while appropriate in some types of games (those in which characters don't need to rely on other, specific PCs - in other words, games stripped of economies and social complications, or games that use GMs and heavy NPC interaction), tends to detract from the role-play experience, particularly when the players struggle to resist it.

The solution might invovle redeeming, rather than suppressing, the medium's troublesome aspects. Many players already come in expecting fractured prose, or at least the sort that couldn't be turned into static fiction - by bringing out the qualities within this kind of prose, the wise GM could overwhelm their expectations. Consider that drama applies its own vagueness to inspire, and that most skillful plays can be enjoyed just as fervently on one's couch as on stage.

What benefits could there be to fractured prose? None, so long as the fracture occours abruptly and without the reader's notice... If, however, he is allowed to prepare for the new style, to slide instead of crashing into it, he may appreciate the new style without associating it with its precursor. The graphics could help in this: I could give the players "sub-skins" for their posts (that is, their posts would be framed by special graphics, which can be distinct for every post), to give their writings different "moods". While I'm reserved about merging graphics and text in such a way, it might have a good effect if the readers find it easy to associate a certain style with a certain graphic. Titles (and perhaps small epilogues) are another way of easing the transition - demanding them for every post not only sets a framed environment, distinct from that of the main body of the post, but also stimulates the players' writing skills. Why is it important for the framed environment to exist? Because it's easier to copy the technique you see in a small frame than seize the essence of a skillful, page-long post. At once inspired and provoked, the player will try to imitate and compete with those who have written a more impressive title - this allows the thread's writing atmosphere and his own style to coexist.

An hour and a half just doesn't seem to be enough for this... I'll write more about the subject tomorrow, but I'd like some opinions until then. Any advice that can help me find another way to mend the fractures of style, hopefully without resorting to some brutal measure, will be just as useful as an actual cure.