OngoingWorlds blog

News & articles about play-by-post games, for roleplayers & writers

Oct
26

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Things All Ongoing Worlds Members Should Know

Category: Behind the scenes - running RPGs, Character Development, OngoingWorlds guide, Roleplaying community, Writing tips Tags: , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

The Ongoing Worlds community is about as open as you get. Anybody who can access the internet and understands English can join. There are no rules nor protocols listed anywhere except in the game information sections and descriptions of some of the games on the site, and those vary per game. Yet despite that, really becoming a comfortable member of the Ongoing Worlds community and getting the most out of the Ongoing Worlds experience is not quite as simple as it may first appear. Ongoing Worlds offers a substantial number of tools whose value and utility may not immediately be recognizable, and the Ongoing Worlds community itself has a unique microculture, with a lot of values and beliefs that may not be readily apparent either.

In an attempt to help newcomers and veterans better understand the tools at our disposal, how we use those tools, and understand the beliefs of the Ongoing Worlds community, I have worked with the people of the Ongoing Worlds Community Platform to put together a list of ten things that we would like everyone to know and understand about Ongoing Worlds. Many of these are lessons that I have learned through making mistakes, resulting in hurt feelings for me or those that I have interacted with. Hopefully, by sharing this information, others can learn what I have learned less painfully than I did.

Tools

1. Email is Ongoing Worlds’ method for Private Messaging. You can find the email address of any given member by clicking the links to their profile page. Email communication is extremely valuable here on Ongoing Worlds, as it is the primary means through which different OW members can discuss things that don’t need to be publicly displayed for everyone to see. The Ongoing Worlds experience is not meant to be enjoyed alone, and email is the primary means of bridging the physical distance between you and other OW members. Keep in mind that you cannot see another member’s email address until you are an accepted member of a game that they are also in. A quick way to be able to see the email addresses of a lot of other members is to join the Ongoing Worlds Community Platform. Read More

Nov
19

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I've created a new game, now what?

Category: OngoingWorlds guide Tags: , , , , 1 Comment

So you’ve just created a new game, given it a title and a description (if not, go back and see my article “How to create a game in Ongoing Worlds”). And you might be wondering what you have to do next. Your game is merely skin and bones, and you need to do a few things to flesh it out, by adding an image, some initial characters, and develop the story by writing some posts. You’ll probably want to do either of these things next, but you can do them in any order.

Brand new game

Add an image to your game

The image will display on your game’s homepage, next to the description you’ve already written. This image will be shown on the “All Games” page so make sure it’s inviting to the kind of people who you want to join your game. Click “Edit this image” under the default image and choose an image from your computer.

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