The NationStates Future Tech Community, like every other roleplaying community lurking in the forums, has all kinds of roleplayers. There are those that prefer to tell the story objectively without having to go into too much detail, and there are others that prefer to go into the deepest of details about anything—
whether it is the sensation of drinking from a teacup very very slowly, with a faint sipping sound to accompany it, or the agony of your workaholic character as he/she is forced to climb the flights of stairs to the 37th floor because the elevator had to be out of order, of all days. (See what I mean?) Some choose to write their posts in a single day (in fear the RP will move without them), and others just take their sweet time and draft a post an hour or two during the day, since they have to fulfill real life commitments. Some write like C. S. Lewis, while others write like J. R. R. Tolkien. Let's be honest, one way or another, we're all different kinds of players, who have different playing styles—in our case writing styles. And we have fun in what we do.
However, NSFT—by overgeneralization from many players from other communities in NS—is notorious for a certain trait that many FTers share: the infamous walls of text. Don't deny, you have come across an IC thread tagged "FT," and you certainly may have read FT factbooks, and you have seen that it contains stuff as long as the longest chapter you can find in your favorite novel. Your eyes start telling your brain, “This is too much for me to handle!” Then your finger scrolls the whole post down to the bottom. While there are walls of text in pretty much any community on NS, FT is well-known for such, and by the chaos gods are they all over the place. If you are just starting to dip your toe into the FT community, you may be feeling intimidated by the extremely long posts, thinking that this must be the quality standard FTers operate on, and that you should be like them. Let me stop you there and tell you, "Don't force it."
Why should I tell you this? It's because they were once like you when you first experienced roleplaying. Some of them began with only one-liners to crank out. But as time went on, they gradually improved their RP skills, kept on expanding their horizons in worldbuilding and in telling stories, and became the players they are today. To quote another guide on this thread, “Don’t rush, don’t worry, and don’t burn out.” This I believe applies to roleplaying not just in FT or in NS, but in any forum.
Yes, I know—this helpful post is a wall of text in of itself, which is ironic to the message I am trying to get across, but please continue reading. When I was starting out in NS, I began as an MTer, transitioned to PMT (which isn't that different from an MTer in my opinion), and then an FTer outside the greater FT community. All in a few months. At the time I wasn't sure if I should stick to a certain concept for my nation because I kept on retconning my nation's canon to whatever seemed cool at the time. I stuck to FT because it seemed like the tech level where my imagination had the least limits.
I'll be honest here, I was initially reluctant to participate in FT-Prime because the content that I would read was too much for my eyes to handle, and had avoided it for some time. Of course, I needed some kind of place to RP out my then-FT nation (Intergalactic Empire of Stormwrath), and so went for the threads that were tagged [FT, Open]. Back then I had no idea that such threads were actually within the purview of FT-Prime, thinking that because the Wall of Text FTers weren't around, this thread is outside of FT-Prime. After realizing this fact (and certainly being intimidated by it), I created my own Closed Roleplaying Group (Tanabiku Galaxy), and RPed the Intergalactic Empire there. Last year was when I finally worked up the courage to go back to FT-Prime again, when I had improved greatly in RPing, thinking that because I now write better than I did when I first started, it'll get their attention. Except I was wrong, and I got their attention in a whole different way.
I haven’t explained the reason why NSFT is full of walls of text, have I? Well then. The reason that FT has lots of those is because many FTers have been on NS for years, and many of them I believe are post-college adults. They don’t have to worry about having to post as soon as the other RPer posted, nor do they have the time to worry about posting. Instead they take their time in coming up with one—one with more than enough substance to advance the RP. Some of them even feel offended if they found out you skimmed through or just skipped their post entirely, and that certainly is to be expected. That is what many prolific writers have done with their work; going at it a part or two at certain time intervals, which works best if you have real life commitments.
Don’t be like me back then, when I thought I had to be an expert to RP with them. Don’t be discouraged if your post is short compared to theirs. You just have to go to them and you know, RP to your heart’s content. The point of roleplaying with people is first and foremost to have fun. In our case, we have fun by creating a story and progressing it with new events, characters, settings, and developments. When you RP with other people with varying writing styles, or read books, you think to yourself, "Hey, why don't I take some of the good elements from his style?" Sure, why not? Take some good things Writer A and Writer B does in his way of RPing, and through these formulate your own style. Finally, have some love for what you do. Long post, short post, doesn’t matter—as long as you have put your work into it. After all, this place is great for stretching the limits of your imagination and creativity.
Who knows? After a while, you’ll eventually be writing walls of text, and inspiring more players to become like you.
Appendix A: Misconceptions Made by Players on NSFT
Of course, this post doesn't cover only the Wall of Text thing that has discouraged RPers from trying out FT. There are other things as well. Here is a list of expectations that we think the FT community has, which are in reality nothing more than hearsay. The list is in no specific order of importance. Apologies if I haven’t included other misconceptions.
- An FTer must be very knowledgeable at science and technology.
To this I say no. While knowing about stuff like quantum mechanics, the theory of relativity, and gravitational singularities can help with worldbuilding your fictional state or responding to an IC post, it isn't a requirement to go into FT, no matter how much the term "science fiction" or “speculative fiction” seems to imply. Faster-than-light travel, a staple of sci-fi and FT, isn't scientifically proven according to our current understanding of physics, for example. It is however encouraged to go and research about what you think could be possible for your fictional star-state.
- The more experienced FTers call the canon shots.
No pun intended there, but I should point out that there is a difference between conforming to the guidelines of the community in order to gain respect and friendship and conforming to what the canon is. To us, your image OOCly is more important than what you worldbuild or RP. After all, there are going to be a lot more FTers with similar concepts, ideas, and themes—and there certainly have been—and that's okay.
- It's not creative if it's not original.
Let's be honest, nothing is original, not even in worldbuilding. Just because you have thought of something that hasn't been thought of in existing works doesn't mean you're the first one to come up with that. Others may have come up with an idea similar to yours at one point, and they chose to go with it or not. Often what is considered original is taking something here, taking another thing there, and once you have your ingredients, mix it all together to create something new.
- Being competitive in an RP is a deadly sin.
It's not. Seeking to win an RP for OOC's sake is the deadly sin here. There’s nothing wrong with being competitive, just don’t let it get to your head.
- An FTer uses flowery jargon and descriptions.
Once more, it depends on your writing style. Simple words or erudite appellations, what matters is that what you post adequately describes your character’s thoughts, feelings, responses, and such. Those matter to people who go through your work.
- Using magic in FT is bad.
No it isn’t. FanT and FT aren't strictly polar opposites. However, the burden is on you to make sure it makes sense when you worldbuild or RP with others. In addition, players are free to negate the effects of your magic, or even ignore it entirely as a plot element. As much as possible, you should ask the GM (OP in NS jargon) of the RP if it’s okay to use magic.
- Using numbers, statistics, and other hard information is bad.
Numbers are of course up to the players, as it can be part of their worldbuilding style. There’s nothing wrong with using them. What is recommended though is that you don’t dwell on coming up with numbers a lot since that will tax your imagination more than what is needed.
- If you're larger than the Huerdaen Star Empire, it's bad.*
It is recommended to start out small and let the FT community accept you over time, as stated in this post, thus theoretically allowing you to grow larger and larger because everyone else chose to be okay with that. But it's not the 11th Commandment, not like the gameside population you have on your first day in NS. Hell, you can say you RP a thousand-system interstellar empire and no one can stop you. I will state this though, and this reflects what everyone agrees with, 'You can do want you want and no one can stop you, but expect people to react.' That means as much as you can have your 1000-system empire, others can choose to RP with you or not, depending on their own perceptions.
*This must not be misconstrued with the other misconception that the Huerdaen Star Empire is the largest sovereignty entity in the Galaxy as supposedly held by more prominent members of FT-Prime. If you do tell Huerdae you claim to be larger than the HSE, he'll invite you to an RP for glorious space warfare. Maybe not to put your nation in its place ICly, but for the fun of it.