The Xavier Institute Mod Journal (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
astonishing_xmods) wrote2014-08-24 06:54 pm
astonishing_xmods) wrote2014-08-24 06:54 pm
Entry tags:
(no subject)
APPLICATION
BEFORE YOU APP please make certain you have read over the HISTORY, RULES, and FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS to assure you have a complete understanding of the game, its setting, and what is expected of you as a player. Thank you.
PLAYER INFORMATION
CHARACTER INFORMATION
SAMPLES
APPLICATIONS ARE CURRENTLY OPEN
PLAYER INFORMATION
PLAYER: Your name, as in you the player
ARE YOU AT LEAST 16 YEARS OLD?: You must be at least 16 to join this game
IF UNDER 18 YEARS OLD, PLEASE STATE YOUR AGE: Self-explanatory
CONTACT: Plurk, aim, OOC journal, or just set up for private messaging, the mods need some way to contact you.
CHARACTERS PLAYED: The names and journals of any characters you already play in the game.
CHARACTER INFORMATION
NAME: Your character's name
CANON: What your character comes from
CANON REFERENCE: Any info links will be accepted here. If apping an OC, this doesn't really apply to you.
AGE: Your character's age in this AU. If it differs from their canon age, please make note of it here as well.
GENDER: Your character's gender in this AU. If it differs from their canon gender, please make note of it here as well
YEAR IN SCHOOL/FACULTY POSITION: This should match what is on your reserve.
APPEARANCE: This does not need to be a detailed section. A picture and/or short description is all that's really needed. However, if you're apping an OC, we'd like at least a little more thought put into this section. IF THERE ARE ANY MAJOR PHYSICAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE AU AND THE ORIGINAL, THEY SHOULD BE NOTED HERE.
PERSONALITY: We would like at least four paragraphs here. If you can do more, that's great, but anything less will be given an automatic revision. What we want here are the ins and outs of the character. Their motivations, personal strengths, and weaknesses. What makes them tick, so to speak. This is not a history section. If at all possible, please back up major personality points with canon examples. Site canon whenever possible. If there are some differences in the personality due to the AU nature of the game, please note them here, but remember that your character's personality cannot be too drastically different. The core character should remain the same.
POWERS/ABILITIES: Please give a detailed explanation of your character's mutant powers here. Literal strengths, weaknesses, and the upward limit of their ability. Spare nothing here, as we will be scrutinizing this section heavily. If you need to link wikipedia for scientific explanations and whatnot, you are free to do so. Remember, any multiple powers need to be related in some way to the core ability. The only exception to this rule are physical mutations. For example, Nightcrawler can teleport, but he's also a fuzzy blue devil man who can scale walls. These two are not related, but because his devil nature is a physical mutation, it would be allowed.
AU HISTORY: This is the meat of the AU. We want a detailed history of their character. Their early life, how they came to discover they were a mutant, and what lead them to the institute. If they've been here awhile, we'd like to know what they've done since coming to Xavier. If they're a returning character, we want to fill in the gap between when they were here last and now. Once again, spare no detail. There is no hard limit on how long this needs to be, but if we feel it is too barebones, there will be a revision, so please do what you can. HOWEVER it should be noted that there is such a thing as too much information as well. Please do not make your history overly long or bogged down in ultimately unimportant information. Be kind to the mods reviewing your app.
SAMPLES
NETWORK SAMPLE: You may link from an outside source, either our Test Drive or other places, but they MUST be set in the game. An acceptable linked sample for this prompt must be have at least seven comments from YOUR character in the linked thread.
This is basically to show off character voice in the form of a network post. It can be text, vocal, or video. We want at least some dialog, though in cases of less talkative characters, we are willing to accept character 'voice' in more subtle ways. Make it work!
LOG SAMPLE: You may link from an outside source, either our Test Drive or other places, but they MUST be set in the game. An acceptable linked sample for this prompt must be have at least seven comments from YOUR character in the linked thread.
This is an example of your ability to write the character's introspection. Their thoughts, feelings, and reactions to a given situation. Get inside their head. Remember to show, not tell. These are off network, what would normally go in the log community. You do not necessarily need to write this prose style, and can do a bracket style if you choose. But we still need to see a healthy amount of introspection.
Hikawa Makoto I Kamen Rider Agito/Kuuga I Not Reserved
Also, apologies for the bad journal layout. That's gonna be fixed when i can figure it out.
REJECTED
Secondly, the history seems to integrate said powers too heavily and would need to be completely rewritten. There are also several formatting issues that just make the app plain difficult to read.
We apologize, but because of the number of issues with the app and the severity of those issues, we cannot accept it at this time or ask for revisions. We recommend a total rewrite, save for the personality section, which we will say was very very good.
Re: REJECTED
I'm not entirely surprised by the rejection, I expected a revision, which I would have been more than happy to do (and still am) so I would have some guidance of where I am going wrong. BUT to be flatly rejected without any recourse has hurt me. I apped here to play with friends, who got in. I spend a lot of time working on this so that it could fit with the world. From what I have gathered in the reply is that your issues aren't so much with my app (besides some minor formatting things) just the canons powers in general? The reasons why 'the laundry list of abilities that aren't at all noticeably related' is because of the the way the actual Kamen Rider powers were written to be. I attempted to the best of my ability to compromise this au with canon both reasons and story. I even noted that I wrote more so that when a revision came I could cut a lot of it out. I was also given a 'tentative approval' for the immunity to death and I thought I didn't make it overpowered at all.
In regards to 'these aren't even the powers of the character in question' There appears to be some grave misunderstanding. When I had asked about this in the plurk that went up answering questions before it was stopped because of length, I came away with a response and understanding that YES, it was acceptable to make an au character in this au setting. I suppose it was partially my own fault for not noting that under the app link. He canonically has no powers. But he shares the same universe/timeline with the two series. There are two of the Kuugas in the universe. Each of them different. One of them was in a novel so i thought it would be interesting to see what this other character would be like to play if he DID get powers instead of fretting about how useless he feels about not having anything. It also made it so I am not technically stealing a main characters powers.
If I had been given a NO for that first question about using an au character in this au, I wouldn't have apped with these powers at all. The other canon powers I would have used would have been Agitos, which resembles and pretty much does exactly what Kuuga powers do anyway but with wayyy less clutter. Minus weapons and an immortality factor, they aesthetically and functionally do the same thing. Change into a karate bugman. If you want uncomplicated powers, Agito powers are the best bet (there isn't even any immortality). They are far more succinct, and canonical. At least it would have been rejected on grounds for something I had approval to do in the first place.
'Secondly, the history seems to integrate said powers too heavily' I really am honestly sorry but I've had three different people read this and not make sense of this statement. Isn't that the purpose of a history? Have I missed something? I think this needs a bit of clarification. Are you meaning since all the powers are rejected, so is the history? I had to make some concessions for the history and I took a lot out of it, but I was trying to follow canon and amalgamate somewhat without walking all over the marvel/x-men universe and interfering too much with the greater world. I could rewrite this easily enough. Only half of it matters anyway since the first half would remain the same.
As for the 'several formatting issues that just make the app plain difficult to read' I had to link to my borked journal since Dreamwidth wasn't working for almost half a day for me and I live on the opposite side of the world and was not given enough time to properly make a cut version. I was told by another applicant that you guys had extended the app period because of this but found out that you hadn't in fact. Unless this is about a couple of bracketed notes in the actual sections? Or the subcategories for the powers? And I assumed you would have wanted general abilities in there since the section is named Powers and Abilities.
I suppose what I am trying to say is that given this great amount of misunderstanding, that I could at least be allowed to rewrite the powers and the history going off now what it is you want from it?
I do thank you for complimenting my character profile portion though, I was pretty wary if i did get his personality written right and it's a relief that that was good in your eyes. Given that you also didn't mention the samples I am assuming they were adequate as well and hopefully his voice came out correctly.
I've never written a proper app before or applied for anything. I had no help with writing this whatsoever and it shows. Could I please not be the embarrassment of this apping phase by having a flat rejection and have a few days to rewrite the thing? I really want to play in this game and with my friends. I like this character, I like the universe the game is based on.
no subject
Allow us to clear up some of the misunderstandings that seem to have taken place. Firstly, it is absolutely acceptable to make an AU of your character in this game. Encouraged, even! The fact that Hikawa doesn't have these powers in canon was brought up not to discourage playing around with the AU, but as a way of pointing out that the powers are AU-specific, and need to be adapted substantially to fit this particular AU.
As we have mentioned, powers which manifest in multiple ways must have a clear connection to one central power. The mod team felt that the various aspects of the power as written felt too scattered and unrelated, and the number of unrelated powers was enough to render a simple revision difficult.
The AU history integrating the powers isn't a bad thing in and of itself, and in fact is very good in principle, but because the powers in this particular application require substantial rewrites, the history needs to be adapted to reflect the new powers, leaving us with two sections in need of major changes -- a little bit more than "revisions" can cover.
As to the extension of the application period you mentioned, it was an option that was discussed, but decided against. Not sure where the wires got crossed there, exactly.
We hope that this doesn't discourage you from trying again, if you're so inclined! Our canon-familiar mod suggested as one possibility that perhaps you could modify the G3-X armor into a mutation of sorts, something like Collosus's power.
Applications will be open next on October 7th at 11:59pm CST, if you change your mind about not being able to apply again next month. Thank you for your time and your interest!