Should we halt any use of Master Rank Recycling?

[Tefka]

FORCE USERS

• All Force Users start out as an Apprentice or a Padawan.
• Force User Ranks must be requested and displayed as one of your two official Rank Titles.*
• Force User Ranks can only be approved by Staff.
• Force User Ranks are by character not account/subsubaccount and cannot be transferred
  *Characters under 50 posts are waived from this rule, as they can not request Rank Titles.

Red is the proposal.

The proposal is to prevent any transfer of a master rank from one character to a new one.

Why bring it up? The reason given is that it has turned into an odd mess of figuring out who is what and where a master rank came from.

So, the proposal is that one cannot transfer the master rank from an old master into a new one. What you get is what you get for a specific character once it is processed through the boards Master promotion system or falls under the guidelines of a rank transfer.

Personally, I'm against this. I think it's another step in the direction of conservative micromanagement and really relinquishes the freedom of choice inherent in the system for all writers on the forum. You're free to write your story, once you've paved the way to Master, the way you want - but now if you have this hovering over your head, would you really axe off an old character that no longer inspires you?

Plus the significant amount of overhead it would create. Some people just don't want to worry about organizing their old characters that they would've killed off but didn't because of this new rule, so now they just 'store' them.

Honestly, if the worry is you have to 'earn' your Masters... you still would have to earn your second account, your third, your fourth, under the current system.

All this implementation would seek is to rid you of that first if you decided you wanted to shake things up by killing off an old, no longer inspiring character.

But maybe I'm wrong, only the community will tell.

What are YOUR thoughts?

 

[Jorus Merrill]

I'd lean towards no. Recycling tags is often tacky, but there have been some cases where there were good and valid reasons. Also, a lot of tag recycles aren't 'human male jedi master becomes alien female sith lord,' they're cases where only a few things change. Different name, different faceclaim, changing a skillset, that kind of thing. Is that really tag recycling, or is it just a bit of a retcon, and should admins really feel the need to police the difference when changing tags?

For that matter, on my writer account I can change my display name, not just images and so forth -- and bam, I can make a slightly or completely different character with no admin involvement, unless I need new tags. I've never done that (I've never recycled tags) but I don't really feel staff should be messing with that.

No, far as I'm concerned, the whole thing would take a level of admin interference and work that's just not desirable for anyone.

 

[Grrwunhoooll Agaburry]

[member="Tefka"] Please do it. Ive transferred my Master tags so many times. Character deaths should be permanent and ill admit when i kill a toon and have the option to go back and make a new master its alittle eh. Idk how to explain it. Its lacking ill say that.

Start from the beginning for maybe forced a rank down for the next character.

 

[Judah Dashiell]

No.

 

[Jsc]

Nah.

Spoiler: Why

1. Hard to track, record, expose, and investigate.
2. Advantageous to people who want to kill off a character and towards those who want to see more characters dying.
3. More (alive) Master accounts = More teaching and combat opportunities for younger players.
4. Rank means nothing anyway. (We've already established that any character can defeat any other character in pvp, for fairness reasons.)
5. Try-Hards and Earny-Gurneys will still be free to try hard and earny their next gurney.
6. Because micro-management is bad.
7. Because Fabs is sexy.
8. Because I've recycled a Knight Rank sub-account about 10 times now and it's been wonderful in every way.
9. Because we can create Master Rank NPCs at-will already.
0. Because freedom.
1. Because Fabs is sexy.

 

[Kenrath]

I am personally in favor of this change. I never understood why the ability to transfer ranks was allowed to begin with.

We always say actions should have consequences. How does that apply if when things don't go the way we wanted or had hoped we can just transfer the rank to a different character and effectively start all over.....an infinite number of times as it would seem.

 

[Arage Bao]

Nope.

 

[Tydeus of Tion]

No. The community self polices with this. People who recycle often are ridiculed for it if it's seen as abusive and I've seen multiple instances of people knowing they could do it, but being responsible about it. Personally, I've never done it, but I don't see it as a problem w/I the community.

 

[Darth Ferus]

Nope.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

I can see reasons for both yes and no, honestly it doesn't bother me either way.

 

[Tefka]

We always say actions should have consequences. How does that apply if when things don't go the way we wanted or had hoped we can just transfer the rank to a different character and effectively start all over

The consequence is, as you put it, you have to start all over

 

[Darth Imperia]

Although hesitant, I vote no to stopping tag recycling.

 

[Kenrath]

The consequence is, as you put it, you have to start all over

How is it starting all over if you start at Master rank with that character instead of working from Padawan/Acolyte, to Knight, and then to Master?

To clarify by start all over what I mean is "cool that really stupid thing I did last month never happened so I don;t have to suffer the consequences of that stupid thing".

 

[Ignatius]

No.

For example, I had the master rank of my Morna account still sitting there doing nothing it was collecting dust. I wanted to start with a fresh character to reset my muse, and not have require me to work 5+ months to even have the situations that I wanted. Hence why I have the character Atheus. I love playing him, and I have other writers tell me they like his story, and ideals.

I haven't yet gotten someone to tell me I was a horrible person for making a new character under the same master rank. (It might happen, and I accept the fact, knowing full well, that some may not like it.)

I have earned the Master rank five times over the threef and a half years I have played here. Maybe this time, I just want to have fun with a master ranked characrer, without the hassle of going through his entire life. And, maybe I am a little lazy.

 

[Tefka]

It's okay to be a little lazy.

 

[Jsc]

How is it starting all over if you start at Master rank

1. Rank means nothing.
2. You have to build a new character sheet.
3. That character now has zero connections, factory possessions, canon items, or IC experiences in-universe.
4. Your Roleplay Threads starts back at 1.
5. See #1.
6. See #1.

 

[H3xle]

I'd say no.

Yes, you can have am instant master, give them a very detailed background, and a beautiful bio, but then you still need to build relationships and your new character's street cred.

This game is about more than just throwing force lightning or massive heals around. If a person has worked their way to a Master tag, they should be allowed to have that tag. If all they do is recycle it for PVP, they will soon be ignored.

 

[Tefka]

To clarify by start all over what I mean is "cool that really stupid thing I did last month never happened so I don;t have to suffer the consequences of that stupid thing".

You would lose:

1) any factory items
2) any companies
3) story progress
4) faction standing
5) popularity

Granted, there are ways around a lot of the above, and you could gain most back quickly.

...but isn't that the point? Post-by-post is such... a slow moving form of entertainment sometimes. Shouldn't we *try* to make things faster, where we can?

To get you quicker to the crossroads of making a meaningful decision IC, rather than OOC? (ugh but I don't want to kill off my character because then I'd have to do another 5 month journey to Master)

 

[Taheera Sollo]

I'd lean towards no. Recycling tags is often tacky, but there have been some cases where there were good and valid reasons. Also, a lot of tag recycles aren't 'human male jedi master becomes alien female sith lord,' they're cases where only a few things change. Different name, different faceclaim, changing a skillset, that kind of thing. Is that really tag recycling, or is it just a bit of a retcon, and should admins really feel the need to police the difference when changing tags?

For that matter, on my writer account I can change my display name, not just images and so forth -- and bam, I can make a slightly or completely different character with no admin involvement, unless I need new tags. I've never done that (I've never recycled tags) but I don't really feel staff should be messing with that.

No, far as I'm concerned, the whole thing would take a level of admin interference and work that's just not desirable for anyone.

I second this. I've never recycled a rank title, for the record, but I like having the option open to me.

 

[Darth Carnifex]

Go for it.

Down with Tag Recycling.

Make Chaos Great Again.