APPLICATION EXPLANATIONS
Player nickname: The name you'd like us to call you.
Player LJ: Your personal LJ, not your character LJ.
Way to contact you:
Email: Self-explanatory.
AIM: Your AIM screen name.
Other: Plurk? MSN? Yahoo?
Are you at least 15?: This is a requirement for players.
Current Characters: Whoever you currently play on dramadramaduck!
Character: Character's full name.
Fandom: Your character's canon, whether it's a book, movie, game, comic, etc. If your canon has many distinct universes (example: Transformers) or large differences between anime/manga or book/movie (example: FullMetal Alchemist), please specify which one you're applying from.
Character Notes: Cannot be copy/pasted from another source. If you're reusing character notes from another application, please let us know so we don't suspect you of plagiarism. Feel free to combine history and personality, and add in anything else that feels necessary, as long as it's all in your own words! (See What is Plagiarism? below.)
History: There's no need to write a twelve-page essay. What we're looking for is information about the sort of world your character comes from, as well as their own involvement in their canon. This section will be pretty different, depending on the character you're applying for, so here's some ideas depending on the type of character:
A main character in a long series: You may be feeling overwhelmed here. We want you to explain all of Homestuck?? We're asking you to write about twenty-odd volumes of Fruits Basket?? You need to talk about a million seasons of Doctor Who?? Well, no. There's no need to talk about every episode or chapter, and don't worry about hitting every minor plot twist. We're looking for overarching explanations; try to give summaries of plot arcs, rather than worrying about a bullet point or five for every episode.
A minor character in a long series: let's take Lavender Brown from Harry Potter. Tell us what wizards are and what Hogwarts is; tell us what we know about her life before Hogwarts, clearly telling us what is headcanon and what is confirmed canon; tell us about the part she plays in the books. It's all right to give us a few sentences explaining that she goes to school with Harry Potter, who is trying to defeat Voldemort-- but it's more relevant to tell us whether she's part of Dumbledore's Army and who her parents side with, rather than give us a blow-by-blow account of the entire Wizarding War.
A character with no backstory: Some characters apparently sprang fully formed from the ground and immediately started getting involved in zany antics. Or, some minor characters move in and out of the plot without much deeper information being given. Don't worry! If there's no backstory, you don't have to give us one. Just tell us about their role in canon, the world they live in, and the sort of shenanigans they like to get up to.
Personality: Probably the most important part of the application aside from the samples. While we do look up each character and their canon using whatever source is available to us, we use this section to gauge how well you know your character and match it against the information we're able to find, as well as use it as a guide when looking at your first and third person samples. For instance, if you tell us the character is normally an upbeat, bubbly teenager and that description correlates with what we've found, yet we see none of that in your samples, we're probably going to ask you to take a closer look at character personality and voice.
Other: Quirks, habits, notes about abilities, anything you think is necessary!
Additional Links: Wikipedia/fandom wiki's/fan websites with good descriptions/etc. Especially useful when you're trying to summarize a long canon and need to cut out some details to keep it under twenty comments.
First Person (entry type): 100+ words. Here are two helpful guidelines:
Do not write an intro post. This is not a rule, but it's a very handy recommendation. It's difficult to make a generic topic into something that will show personality, and for every intro sample we've seen that makes us laugh or shows excellent characterization, we've seen ten that could have come from anyone on the street. Have your character write about something that happened to them today, an event that took place in canon, someone important to them-- feel free to google writing prompts if you need ideas!
Make it a journal entry. Or a blog post, or an entry talking to the community. Above all else, aim for 75% being words from your character's fingers. We get a lot of samples that are mostly action, a character fidgeting in front of the camera or being accidentally filmed, and while that might show us that you can portray a character's way of acting, we're looking for their way of speaking. A video post is fine, if that's the sort of thing your character is more likely to use, but make sure they're talking for most of it. If they aren't very talkative, you can provide a few short entries, or have them write a private entry.
Third Person: 150+ words. Rather than a he-said she-said account of an event, we're looking for a character's internal monologue, the sorts of things they think about and what motivates them to act. Naturally, actions and descriptions are allowed and encouraged-- just make sure we hear your character's thoughts about them. Tell us why they said and did what they did, not just the what. You don't need to provide paragraphs of introspection, just more than a straight description of events.
That's about it! As a general rule, QUANTITY =/= QUALITY. Please keep that in mind when you apply. We're not looking for novels, promise. ♥
What Is Plagiarism? with Norru Norryton.
☑ Writing everything yourself with some resource checking.
☒ Copy and Pasting straight from that resource.
⇒ Why?: Copy and Pasting straight from Wikipedia or whatever you use to find your information yourself shows us only that you know how to copy and paste. We want to know that you know your own character's information.
☑ Writing your history yourself.
☒ Paraphrasing another source.
⇒ Why?: Paraphrasing is pretty much fancy copy-pasting. I'd honestly rather you have little to no history than a paraphrased one from another source; I can look up wikipedia myself.
☑ Writing your own sample.
☒ Taking lines from canon or fanfiction.
⇒ Why?: As like the first explanation, I don't know that you know your character if you just pull lines from canon (this excludes popular catchphrases that the character would say a lot) or lift lines from fanfiction. Plus, this sort of thing honestly pisses me off. Don't do it.
☑ Working/Building on characterization from many sources/your own imagination
☒ Copying someone's characterization nearly word for word.
⇒ Why?: This is less to do with applications and more so to do with imitation not always being flattery. It's fine to see someone's characterization and build off it, but make sure you put yourself into it as well.
☑ Writing your own posts/comments.
☒ Copy and Pasting posts/comments from someone elses version of that character.
⇒ Why?: What even-- no. Do this, you and I will have a very stern talk.
☑ Writing YOUR OWN APP.
☒ Writing someone elses application for them; having someone write your application for you.
⇒ Why?: WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE. SERIOUSLY. WHAT EVEN-- I CANT. WRAP MY HEAD AROUND THIS. NO. NO. But seriously, if I catch you doing this (writing apps for people/having people write your apps for you), I will ban all those involved from the game. By willfully submitting information that is not theirs or willfully accepting information you didn't write, you have the intent of getting (someone) into the game untruthfully. Not kosher.
To also clarify with applications:
I am okay with you using a history/personality section/sample(s) you've written for other games/websites/whatever so long as you LET ME KNOW IN YOUR APPLICATION and, if you can, link me the source.
In conclusion:
The way these things work is, I will judge your chances based on how well I know you and if I think it was intentional or not. Before now, people have expressed that they didn't know that you couldn't copy and paste histories or personality sections or what have you, so I have let it pass-- that's also why I wrote all this haha-- but that being said, it's generally a three strike rule (which was upped from the previous one strike policy). The third time I catch you plagiarizing, you will be banned from applying for three months. The fourth? You will be banned from applying all together.
I will not request your characters or you be removed from the game, don't worry, but I take this seriously and you should too. If you feel I have acted unfairly, you can talk to me about it and maybe we can work something out; despite my fairly strong stance on this, please don't feel like I won't be compassionate. I understand misunderstandings, it's okay if it's an honest mistake.
Thank you for reading all of this. Consider this your warning. :B ♥
Player LJ: Your personal LJ, not your character LJ.
Way to contact you:
Email: Self-explanatory.
AIM: Your AIM screen name.
Other: Plurk? MSN? Yahoo?
Are you at least 15?: This is a requirement for players.
Current Characters: Whoever you currently play on dramadramaduck!
Character: Character's full name.
Fandom: Your character's canon, whether it's a book, movie, game, comic, etc. If your canon has many distinct universes (example: Transformers) or large differences between anime/manga or book/movie (example: FullMetal Alchemist), please specify which one you're applying from.
Character Notes: Cannot be copy/pasted from another source. If you're reusing character notes from another application, please let us know so we don't suspect you of plagiarism. Feel free to combine history and personality, and add in anything else that feels necessary, as long as it's all in your own words! (See What is Plagiarism? below.)
History: There's no need to write a twelve-page essay. What we're looking for is information about the sort of world your character comes from, as well as their own involvement in their canon. This section will be pretty different, depending on the character you're applying for, so here's some ideas depending on the type of character:
A main character in a long series: You may be feeling overwhelmed here. We want you to explain all of Homestuck?? We're asking you to write about twenty-odd volumes of Fruits Basket?? You need to talk about a million seasons of Doctor Who?? Well, no. There's no need to talk about every episode or chapter, and don't worry about hitting every minor plot twist. We're looking for overarching explanations; try to give summaries of plot arcs, rather than worrying about a bullet point or five for every episode.
A minor character in a long series: let's take Lavender Brown from Harry Potter. Tell us what wizards are and what Hogwarts is; tell us what we know about her life before Hogwarts, clearly telling us what is headcanon and what is confirmed canon; tell us about the part she plays in the books. It's all right to give us a few sentences explaining that she goes to school with Harry Potter, who is trying to defeat Voldemort-- but it's more relevant to tell us whether she's part of Dumbledore's Army and who her parents side with, rather than give us a blow-by-blow account of the entire Wizarding War.
A character with no backstory: Some characters apparently sprang fully formed from the ground and immediately started getting involved in zany antics. Or, some minor characters move in and out of the plot without much deeper information being given. Don't worry! If there's no backstory, you don't have to give us one. Just tell us about their role in canon, the world they live in, and the sort of shenanigans they like to get up to.
Personality: Probably the most important part of the application aside from the samples. While we do look up each character and their canon using whatever source is available to us, we use this section to gauge how well you know your character and match it against the information we're able to find, as well as use it as a guide when looking at your first and third person samples. For instance, if you tell us the character is normally an upbeat, bubbly teenager and that description correlates with what we've found, yet we see none of that in your samples, we're probably going to ask you to take a closer look at character personality and voice.
Other: Quirks, habits, notes about abilities, anything you think is necessary!
Additional Links: Wikipedia/fandom wiki's/fan websites with good descriptions/etc. Especially useful when you're trying to summarize a long canon and need to cut out some details to keep it under twenty comments.
First Person (entry type): 100+ words. Here are two helpful guidelines:
Do not write an intro post. This is not a rule, but it's a very handy recommendation. It's difficult to make a generic topic into something that will show personality, and for every intro sample we've seen that makes us laugh or shows excellent characterization, we've seen ten that could have come from anyone on the street. Have your character write about something that happened to them today, an event that took place in canon, someone important to them-- feel free to google writing prompts if you need ideas!
Make it a journal entry. Or a blog post, or an entry talking to the community. Above all else, aim for 75% being words from your character's fingers. We get a lot of samples that are mostly action, a character fidgeting in front of the camera or being accidentally filmed, and while that might show us that you can portray a character's way of acting, we're looking for their way of speaking. A video post is fine, if that's the sort of thing your character is more likely to use, but make sure they're talking for most of it. If they aren't very talkative, you can provide a few short entries, or have them write a private entry.
Third Person: 150+ words. Rather than a he-said she-said account of an event, we're looking for a character's internal monologue, the sorts of things they think about and what motivates them to act. Naturally, actions and descriptions are allowed and encouraged-- just make sure we hear your character's thoughts about them. Tell us why they said and did what they did, not just the what. You don't need to provide paragraphs of introspection, just more than a straight description of events.
That's about it! As a general rule, QUANTITY =/= QUALITY. Please keep that in mind when you apply. We're not looking for novels, promise. ♥
What Is Plagiarism? with Norru Norryton.
☑ Writing everything yourself with some resource checking.
☒ Copy and Pasting straight from that resource.
⇒ Why?: Copy and Pasting straight from Wikipedia or whatever you use to find your information yourself shows us only that you know how to copy and paste. We want to know that you know your own character's information.
☑ Writing your history yourself.
☒ Paraphrasing another source.
⇒ Why?: Paraphrasing is pretty much fancy copy-pasting. I'd honestly rather you have little to no history than a paraphrased one from another source; I can look up wikipedia myself.
☑ Writing your own sample.
☒ Taking lines from canon or fanfiction.
⇒ Why?: As like the first explanation, I don't know that you know your character if you just pull lines from canon (this excludes popular catchphrases that the character would say a lot) or lift lines from fanfiction. Plus, this sort of thing honestly pisses me off. Don't do it.
☑ Working/Building on characterization from many sources/your own imagination
☒ Copying someone's characterization nearly word for word.
⇒ Why?: This is less to do with applications and more so to do with imitation not always being flattery. It's fine to see someone's characterization and build off it, but make sure you put yourself into it as well.
☑ Writing your own posts/comments.
☒ Copy and Pasting posts/comments from someone elses version of that character.
⇒ Why?: What even-- no. Do this, you and I will have a very stern talk.
☑ Writing YOUR OWN APP.
☒ Writing someone elses application for them; having someone write your application for you.
⇒ Why?: WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE. SERIOUSLY. WHAT EVEN-- I CANT. WRAP MY HEAD AROUND THIS. NO. NO. But seriously, if I catch you doing this (writing apps for people/having people write your apps for you), I will ban all those involved from the game. By willfully submitting information that is not theirs or willfully accepting information you didn't write, you have the intent of getting (someone) into the game untruthfully. Not kosher.
To also clarify with applications:
I am okay with you using a history/personality section/sample(s) you've written for other games/websites/whatever so long as you LET ME KNOW IN YOUR APPLICATION and, if you can, link me the source.
In conclusion:
The way these things work is, I will judge your chances based on how well I know you and if I think it was intentional or not. Before now, people have expressed that they didn't know that you couldn't copy and paste histories or personality sections or what have you, so I have let it pass-- that's also why I wrote all this haha-- but that being said, it's generally a three strike rule (which was upped from the previous one strike policy). The third time I catch you plagiarizing, you will be banned from applying for three months. The fourth? You will be banned from applying all together.
I will not request your characters or you be removed from the game, don't worry, but I take this seriously and you should too. If you feel I have acted unfairly, you can talk to me about it and maybe we can work something out; despite my fairly strong stance on this, please don't feel like I won't be compassionate. I understand misunderstandings, it's okay if it's an honest mistake.
Thank you for reading all of this. Consider this your warning. :B ♥