List your age and gaming experience on your on profiles?

#1

After reading through some submissions and seeing how harshly a few have been judged I got to thinking, would we as Strolenites have judged thread x as harshly if we knew it was written by a 12 year old or someone new to gaming and not some college student?

Depending on someones age they may very well produce subs with spelling errors and perhaps simplified concepts compared to a adult/more experienced gamer. (The adventures and characters I came up with when I was 14 were far, far, simpler/silly then the ones I create now I'm 29)

If we could tell someone's age by viewing their profile it woudl perhaps help provide a bit more understanding when someone's subs don't live up to the lofty expectation we Strolenite's hold most people to. (Expecting a 12-14 year old to create subs of the same maturity/complexity of an older gamer is a bit unrealistic)

As far as gaming experience goes, knowing if someone is new to the hobby can also help temper our jaded view points when replying to a sub and not immediately drag down it's vote because it's not original enough for us or has other short comings. (To a person who just got into gaming they probably have no idea how over done Drow are, or magical swords or developed the techniques for writing in depth characters and adventures many of us on Strolens take for granted.)

This addition to a users profile might help prompt everyone to comment with advice/suggestions on how to improve the sub and withhold voting for a while rather then slap a low vote on the sub and a lengthy comment on all it's short comings and failings if it turns out the person is younger then most of us or utterly new to the world of dice and paper rpgs. (Especially fans of WOW/EQII MMORPGS just discovering the wonders of pnp rping that think adventures in dice and paper rpgs are done the same as the simplistic quests you find in mmorpgs.)

Granted people could lie about their age and experience level, but they really wouldn't gain much expect harsher criticism and loftier expectations or a lot of unneeded advice.

Re: List your age and gaming experience on your on profiles?

#2

I actually think this idea has ALOT of merit. Sil has a very valid point, it is easy for some of who have been at this for a decade or longer to forget that more and more people are being introduced to the hobby via MMORPGs and console RPGs (Elder Scrolls, etc) than from face to face tabletop.

Re: List your age and gaming experience on your on profiles?

#3

I agree. Optionally there could be a site setting issuing a warning about a user's age/experience when we provide feedback. That would curb the most vicious tongues, I'd expect.

Re: List your age and gaming experience on your on profiles?

#4

Another idea I had to help the people new to the hobby (and/or the site) was for some of us "experienced" members (as in those used to the lofty expectations Strolenites hold each other to and meet them more often then not) create a few example posts of a sub done in as poor and simplified a manner as possible; and then a "revised" version right underneath as part of the same sub to give a good example of what the same sub would be like in a "beginner" and "advanced" style.

A few such "learner subs" would help the new arrivals have a clearer picture of what makes a sub "good" and how to improve a sub without needing to go through as much "trial, advice and revision." (and generally improve the sub quality all around for everyone since we all can improve somehow)

Re: List your age and gaming experience on your on profiles?

#5

I have to take the opposite side of the line here. Submission quality is submission quality. If I'm voting on something, I'm voting on the quality and value of the submission itself, not how good the sub is in relation to the author's experience (age or otherwise). A good submission is going to get a good vote, regardless of whether the author was a 15 year-old newbie, or a 40-something veteran who's played everything from a/state to Zone (Moonhunter, I'm looking in your direction).

In the same vein, I fully intend to explain why a submission isn't all that great, whether or not the writer is a rookie or a vet. I try not to be rude about it, and generally I want to be as helpful as I can. We don't want to drive people off, but if something is bad, it's just being pigheaded to not point it out to the author, so that they can fix it in the future. There are good reasons that we don't like child-assassins and demi-god munchkin items, and obviously the author doesn't know that it's not high-quality material, or they wouldn't have used it.

Depending on someones age they may very well produce subs with spelling errors and perhaps simplified concepts compared to a adult/more experienced gamer. (The adventures and characters I came up with when I was 14 were far, far, simpler/silly then the ones I create now I'm 29)

Age is no excuse for spelling errors. Period. We have a spell-checker available in the submission page, and I can't think of a single time I've seen people being grammar nazis around here (there/their/they're, etc.). I was spelling correctly when I was in middle school, and it's not that hard to look up a word if you're unsure about the proper spelling or usage (especially now that we have Google).

I've seen some pretty amazing presentations of short, basic concepts. The Tales of Adventure are the best example of this, in my opinion. Simple isn't necessarily bad, just as long epics aren't necessarily good. However, a single paragraph submission should be just as self-contained as any other submission. It just has a lot more fighting against it to be able to do so.

If we could tell someone's age by viewing their profile it woudl perhaps help provide a bit more understanding when someone's subs don't live up to the lofty expectation we Strolenite's hold most people to. (Expecting a 12-14 year old to create subs of the same maturity/complexity of an older gamer is a bit unrealistic)

Personally, being held to a higher standard has always made me strive harder to meet that expectation. Knowing the age of the author would help with understanding why the submission is the way it is, but it doesn't make a lick of difference in whether or not it needs improvement, nor in how that improvement can be achieved.

As far as gaming experience goes, knowing if someone is new to the hobby can also help temper our jaded view points when replying to a sub and not immediately drag down it's vote because it's not original enough for us or has other short comings.

I completely disagree. A badly used cliche is still a badly used cliche, whether used by a child or an adult. And since the focus of the site is on whether something is usable to other GMs or not, that means that it's still a bad submission. Ergo, it gets a lower vote.

This addition to a users profile might help prompt everyone to comment with advice/suggestions on how to improve the sub and withhold voting for a while rather then slap a low vote on the sub and a lengthy comment on all it's short comings and failings if it turns out the person is younger then most of us or utterly new to the world of dice and paper rpgs. (Especially fans of WOW/EQII MMORPGS just discovering the wonders of pnp rping that think adventures in dice and paper rpgs are done the same as the simplistic quests you find in mmorpgs.)

Suggestions for improvement can't be given without also telling which parts of a submission need improving (it's shortcomings and failings). Such suggestions should always be given in a friendly manner, however. We're not some childish message board here, we can act and talk like adults.

I strongly disagree with non-voting. We have low-votes exactly for the reason of saying, "I don't think this submission is very high quality." We can also CHANGE those votes, completely for free if the author changes the submission, or for a minor xp penalty if we just think we were too harsh the first time around. People should definitely change their votes if the submission is improved, and if the general tendency is to not revote even after improvement of a submission, then that just means an author needs to spend more time on their work before clicking "Submit". Otherwise, they just need to deal with the fact that some people can't be bothered to re-read and revote on something, and take solace in the fact that they've improved the submission, and the votes aren't representative of the work in it's current form.

Re: List your age and gaming experience on your on profiles?

#6

I have looked at this thread from afar as I do with almost all threads nowadays. There was a time when I would probably jump right in, spill out my guts and hammer down my opinions. These days I don't, but that do not mean that I do not care about the Citadel.

Wait a minute!

Let me fastforward my rant a little and cut to the case...

I totally agree with Chaosmark on this!

Re: List your age and gaming experience on your on profiles?

#7

What CM said.

Re: List your age and gaming experience on your on profiles?

#8

I must also agree with CM. What he said was pretty much what I was thinking as I read this, with more added in, though.

Re: List your age and gaming experience on your on profiles?

#9

Thanks for the thought Silveressa! It was a very valid suggestion that merited some discussion. In this case however, it seems that they Nay's have it.