World of Darkness: Gotham - A Classic World of Darkness Chat

[Midgard]

Its a play per chat not a PbP, I for one am new to this forum but I am not new to WoDGotham, I been around it since pretty much it opened up.

I enjoy their tone, I enjoy the effort they put into the wiki and the completeness they have in the setting, something you lack in many sites nowadays. As for the tone of said wiki? I like it, far to often have I met people who cant make their character a personality but rather a snowflake that is special due to its powers or unique special specialness, these people are usually the ones complaining about the snowflake comment. For those who enjoy creating a living breathing character which is person reflected by an extensive and fleshed out sheet with a background its not really an issue.
WoDGotham is to me a complete setting and its well managed, its ticket system and other functions allows you to maintain your character and handle downtime efficiently, and get in touch with STs without them having to be online at the time you write it.
Its also a quite deadly place to be, PVP is active (no everyone isnt trying to off everyone else, but if you mess up you probably getting fucked somehow), the NPC and enviroment isnt passive, it reacts to your in game actions.
Another thing I like alot is the rulings and avoidance of metagaming. Due to not using venue specific icons, and having policies against talking about your character, everyone is on an equal level, anyone can be a mortal, vampire, mage or werewolf and interact without knowing what the other people are. It broadens the players you can play with and removes icon hunting completely.

I enjoy the game greatly and I hope you guys will as well.

[Rose Bailey]

Alright, at this point this is starting to look like cross-site drama. Everybody, please stand down from arguing over the merits or flaws of Gotham's chats or wiki.

If you believe another poster has breached the forum rules, please use the Flag button to report the post, rather than engaging them in the thread.

Thank you.

EDIT: My original post was perhaps overly broad. Here are clearer bullets.

- If you think someone's using multiple accounts or spamming, that's a rules violation, so it should be reported with the report feature. We checked the admin tools and don't believe we have to close any accounts.

- Sites running play-by-post, chat, or whatever are welcome to start a thread in the Gatherings forum to advertise their game. This is not a violation of the rules unless it gets spammy or unless the advertisement itself violates the rules.

- It would be ludicrous for Onyx Path to attempt to regulate games not run on our site. While advertisements need to conform to the forum rules, what people do in their private games has nothing to do with us and is not report material.

- People are generally welcome to post their positive experiences with a game. Again, it needs to not be spam and not be rules-violating. Nothing here is either of those things.

- This specific argument, over the tone of Gotham's wiki or anything going on on their message boards or chats, isn't okay. We're not going to make a bright-line rule that says that you're never allowed to discuss content on another site, because that would be silly. However, the Gatherings forum is not a place to critique other sites or games, and the forums as a whole are not a place to critique other communities.

[Blue Fox]

Endorsements from people who registered today and have written exactly one post, telling me how great this PbP is?! Why on earth wouldn't I be convinced?

Just because you have 64 posts doesn't make you any more "real person" than I am at these forums Loxo. Its just a number showing how active in posting you are.

More on topic:

WoD Gotham is a gaming community About cWoD but its not for everyone interested in cWoD. Were not interested in people who hang around for a month maybe two and then leave ofr greener pastures. What we're looking for are people who are willing to commit for long term and are willing to accept the same houserules and setting everyone else have. No exceptions.

If you don't like it, then its probably not for you. -Sure the wording on our Wiki is a bit harsh but it has kept the trolls, drama queens and layabouts out.

As far as gaming experience goes... after playing for more than a year I can say that it has been very different from my usual online gaming experience -in a good way; I actually get to play in a regular & consistent character tailored storyline instead of having just another WoD-Cafe experience with random events thrown in the mix.

[Froggy711]

As someone who has had some recent experience with WoD Gotham, if anyone wants to message me about it, feel free.

[Jinxed Oracle]

Froggy had recently submitted a character through our Proposal Forums and went on to the Sanctioning process. As part of our transparency policy, we have made the entire conversation between him and our Head ST available to our registered members in our Bans and Unpleasant Stuff Forums.

[Rose Bailey]

I really don't want to see a conflict between people in this thread and Gotham, which is another community that has its own rules and procedures. Please refrain from discussing Gotham-specific policy and moderation issues on this forum. To be clear, this applies to everyone in the thread.

If this continues, there will be sanctions and potentially a thread closure.

Thank you for your cooperation.

[Karzon]

I'm a new fellow to the WoDG setting and will probably be a newbie for quite some time! It is a rather enjoyable place to go to for good, challenging Roleplay both on the PbP side and for the chat based side of things. It does take a bit to get used to and the character creation process can be a bit tough but the STs are like that to help with character generation to make sure everything is at its best!

I enjoy playing along with different aspects of a character being more pronounced like the Beast for a werewolf. Its a good learning experience to someone who's played in the WoD setting and is trying out a venue that they've wanted to play but never got a chance to. Overall its a challenging experience that is can be very rewarding.

[FallingSnow]

I've enjoyed my time at Gotham a great deal. I've been playing there going on three months and have been extremely surprised at the quality of play from other players and the STs. It isn't for everyone I guess, but the fact the rules are hard and fast has been more inspiring than stifling. I find it drives me to be creative in new ways. The creator of Gotham has done an excellent job of crafting an environment that is both believable and utterly complete.

I've played on other java based chats, mostly the old WW run ones, and this isn't anything comparable. Every played character is well thought out and multidimensional. During the character creation process I find myself being asked questions I would have never thought of, leading to a more complete and interesting final product. I was trying to describe my experience to someone the other day and the best thing I could come up with was everywhere else I've played was a game of checkers and WoDG is like playing chess against Bobby Fischer. It's challenging and different, but why would I waste my precious free time on something mundane.

As a side note, everyone is super friendly and mature. The lack of peripheral OOC drama makes me feel more comfortable to fully explore the depths of my character in game. The Wiki can be overwhelming but it will become your best friend. If you're the kind of person that is interested in quality and consistency more than ego, WoDG is the place.

[Chaostrophy]

As one of the newbie players on WoDG who also happened to discover the site via this thread, I think I'll add my opinion about Gotham and my initial impressions.

- There's huge amount of information on the wiki pages, so it takes a bit long to get familiar with the setting, the mood and theme Gotham places emphasis on. It takes some time to read all the stuff but once you’re done, you’ll get a solid picture about what you can expect. Every RP troupe, ST and RP site has their own rules and their take on WoD. If you happen to like Gotham’s ways of World of Darkness (which I did) it’s worth trying to get into the game (obviously those who find the material too offensive for their tastes or don’t like the themes, mood or the strict policies, shouldn’t bother but even they can find plenty of useful stuff on the wiki).

- I fully agree with Karzon, Gotham’s emphasis on Werewolf psychology with all the possible hardships and challenges your character will meet (and generally the psychological aspect of playing one of the available splat types in a really dark setting) is great, that’s just how I like my W:tA as well. With my tabletop group we follow different set of rulings and have a different take on WoD and some of the stuff seemed weird at first but it's easy to adjust and you’ll find solid explanations beyond the rules and policies to make you understand what's this game about and what's not. I like what I see.

- You can choose your play style based on your activity and the level of involvement you’d like to go with and also your content limitations, so casual and hardcore players and everyone in between will find their preferred type of game easily. There's also endless amounts of themes and possible storylines to experience and play in each Venue (I haven’t tried crossover yet but this is a great place for that as well and is encouraged).

- The process to get allowed into the game is rigorous and depending on your time-zone, activity or free time, might take a bit long. My character prelude and then the sanctioning process went on smoothly even though I started with a restricted character type, but the HST is very helpful, patient and he reasonably pointed out what elements of the concept and the character I should change or elaborate more but don’t get intimidated by the tone of the wiki. The feedback or criticism is constructive, more like a couple of suggestions with explanations and solid justification and I found it quite useful. The complicated process is needed to make sure you’ll enjoy the game with your character and create a three-dimensional, rich and interesting personality, which is an excellent way of making sure you’ll get into the character quite easily.

- Even though I’m a difficult case as this is my first very chat based game and my English is far from perfect (and I’ve only played in English in a PbF before), I found myself in a very welcoming, helpful, superb and creative player community with high quality games so my first in-game experience was awesome.

- To sum it up: if you’re like me and like the atmosphere and mood Gotham presented in the wiki articles and you don’t back off from having to work on your character a bit more than usual, you definitely should give WoDG a try.

[Yawgmoth]

- This specific argument, over the tone of Gotham's wiki or anything going on on their message boards or chats, isn't okay. We're not going to make a bright-line rule that says that you're never allowed to discuss content on another site, because that would be silly. However, the Gatherings forum is not a place to critique other sites or games, and the forums as a whole are not a place to critique other communities.

So where should we post about it? Because it would seem to me that in order to have a frank and honest discussion about a site/game, we should be as welcome to post negative experiences as we are to post positives. My opinion: if they post a thread about their site, they invite criticism on that site. That includes their wiki, the tone they take with their information presented, and the game itself. To do otherwise is to take hardline opposition against actual discussion.

[JimB]

So where should we post about it? Because it would seem to me that in order to have a frank and honest discussion about a site/game, we should be as welcome to post negative experiences as we are to post positives. My opinion: if they post a thread about their site, they invite criticism on that site. That includes their wiki, the tone they take with their information presented, and the game itself. To do otherwise is to take hardline opposition against actual discussion.

I agree with all of this, but at the same time, I agree with the new rule. I know I was deeply relieved when the old forums instituted that "no cross-forums drama" rule, and this seems like it's intended to keep us from daring people from an outside community to come here specifically to pick fights with us over the rude things we've said about them. I really do not know which side of the line I fall on.

[Heavy Arms]

While we're getting a bit off topic:

There are forums out there dedicated to discussing online chat games like this one. I haven't looked at any of them in ages, so I can't say how active any of them are (if they are even still around). If any are still active it seems like the easiest thing to do would be to go one of them for the discussion. We could start a "useful links" thread for people interested in online play and include a review site/forum section.

[Rose Bailey]

So where should we post about it? Because it would seem to me that in order to have a frank and honest discussion about a site/game, we should be as welcome to post negative experiences as we are to post positives. My opinion: if they post a thread about their site, they invite criticism on that site. That includes their wiki, the tone they take with their information presented, and the game itself. To do otherwise is to take hardline opposition against actual discussion.

I'm going to clarify one more time: we have a forum for people to post advertisements for their games. I'm not about to see said forum become the place where people come to start arguments with the users of other sites.

Site policy issues are not to be discussed in the middle of contentious threads, either. You've received your official infraction. Anybody else who violates this ruling faces suspension or banning. Just relax, folks.

[FallingSnow]

As no one has posted here in a bit, I thought I would remind everyone what a great place Gotham is.

I've been playing on the site for a while now and my appreciation has only deepened since my last post.

The setting is vast and detailed in unexpected and imaginative ways. Each venue has hidden surprises. The creator's vision stays true to what cWoD is, dark, grown up and complex.

If you like playing horror and are a mature, well reasoned adult, there isn't a better game on the net.

Lately we have gotten new players and exciting things are on the horizon. If this sounds like the kind of game you're looking for I'd encourage you to check out the site and read the Wiki over.

www.WODGOTHAM.com

[Jinxed Oracle]

We're in our third year at World of Darkness: Gotham and we've decided to make some changes. Proposals have been removed for Vampire, Werewolf, and Mortal characters and we've further increased the creative interaction between players and Storytellers to allow for an even richer experience. Crossover is still our main goal and Alliances allow a player to have clandestine affairs with fellow players, sometimes at risk of alienating their peers.

With the changes in effect, it's a perfect time for new cWoD players to come check out WoDG. If you're interested in a challenging game with a friendly environment and a relaxed atmosphere for prospective STs, then we're the game for you.

www.wodgotham.com