A New Writer's Perspective
Hello all!
I’ve been a little absent for a while, but I’ve been wanting to write this and was finally convinced to do so. When I was an admin on an RP site a few years ago, a new member made a feedback post that I thought was very helpful. It gave me ideas and a fresh perspective, so I wanted to do the same.
In this post, I will focus on the areas where I feel Hio is missing something for me because that’s most useful to know, and also for me to get feedback on in return. Of course, there are tons of very good things about Hio, especially its community and people, but this post would be bible-length if I covered all of that in detail as well. I really like Hio, made great friends, met incredible writers, and even met someone special I get to call my girlfriend now. It’s an awesome place to be, so keep that in mind as you read all my thoughts below
Lastly, it’s just a personal opinion, and it’s totally fine if you disagree or enjoy something that I don’t. Please let me know!
Homework system
I’m going to start with the big one first. The progression system, which heavily revolves around the homework system, feels strange to me and isn’t all that fun. What I love about RP is telling stories with others and feeling immersed in the character(s) I make. The current homework system feels like reading personalized Wikipedia articles and then making an OOC multiple-choice quiz about it. Even the few lessons that still have “RP” tasks can’t even be written from my own character’s perspective, so it’s time-demanding but extremely forgettable.
It also means my IC progression is almost entirely tied to purely OOC actions/tasks that add nothing to the journey of my character. That feels like such a shame in a Roleplay environment.
A little while ago, I joined this thread, where we had to write as our own characters and practice learning a spell with a teacher. At the end, we got the spell! This was by far the most immersed I’ve felt on Hio, and the potential here is endless:
Where’s the RP in that? And I haven't even really touched on the fact that multiple characters means making these OOC quizzes multiple times. I've talked to older members who mentioned deliberately scoring bad grades in it just to get it over with and gain the spell for their characters. What's the point, then?
Currency system
The currency system sort of builds on my previous point: it’s used IC, offers very strong IC bonuses if you look at brooms, spells, and potions, yet the primary way I see people get money is with their OOC art or coding skills.
Again, where’s the RP in that?
Then some folks restart characters, graduate, or have multiple characters/inpcs, who gain money far quicker because they have more characters to click that button on once per day. There’s nothing logical to it from an IC perspective that this money is shuffled around and funneled into characters, yet it offers direct IC advantages. I had to spend a good while clicking a button every day with my single character, just to get a broom that allowed me to not fail at everything in an unofficial Quidditch game.
There’s nothing fun or rewarding about it, because all I had to do for it was click a button every day. No IC tasks, no fun writing challenges, or anything that makes me feel like it was a fun progression step to get this broom. It was just a chore where I had to make sure not to forget to click that button if I wanted to stand a chance in roleplay. And I’m on websites like Hio to roleplay, not to play a version of cookie clicker that determines important IC stats for me.
The same also applies to pets for me. What does anybody gain from having to click a button every day for a while before you can have something as basic as a rat? In the movies, the kids all go to Hogwarts already having an owl or pet, so I don’t see any Harry Potter lore reason for it either. But pets do offer RP story potential, and while I understand that it’d be weird for everybody to have super special pets, I feel like there are way more fun Roleplay-focused ways to balance this.
But nobody on this site gains anything in their roleplay from me having to spend weeks clicking a button to get a rat or cat. I do love that whole IC application for it, so why not build on stuff like that? It costs more “effort” than clicking a dumb button, but this is a Roleplay site, right?
I’d love to see Roleplay being more influential for IC progression.
Sports system
A big draw to Harry Potter Roleplay is Quidditch, and Hio offers both that and other sports for its members. The concept is great, the roll systems look intricate and interesting, but it feels very difficult to get into, depending on which House you happen to be put into. There can be very long waiting lists that make it difficult for newer members to participate in their early years.
I get that it’s impossible to let everybody participate because of the workload on DM’s and the sheer amount of first years that join the website, but a duelling waiting list like the one for Slytherin wasn’t giving me much hope to enjoy that aspect of the RP.
Especially when I also see strange balancing issues. I participated in the observer thread for this duelling game, and I see two Y3s and a Y2 up against one Y2 and two Y1s. I’m no expert at the roll systems, but this seems wildly unfair, and one of the participants in this thread even told me that she was just waiting for someone further down the waiting list to finally be on the team so it’d be slightly more balanced.
I feel like there are solutions that could solve both of these things a little. The unofficial games that people host sometimes are a very good example of that.
People leaving staff
This last topic is more of an observation without a conclusion. Ever since I joined, I’ve noticed that a lot of people are constantly moving in and out of staff positions. I understand it’s all volunteer work and that it’s natural to an extent, but it always felt a little strange to see how often it happens.
I’m curious to hear people’s thoughts on this.
Last note
Obviously, my perspective is limited, and I don’t have the entire history of how things came to be. So there might be very good explanations for a lot of my points, and that’s fine. Hio and its systems obviously work because a ton of people enjoy it. But I don’t think it ever hurts to hear different perspectives.
Hope this was an interesting read!
I’ve been a little absent for a while, but I’ve been wanting to write this and was finally convinced to do so. When I was an admin on an RP site a few years ago, a new member made a feedback post that I thought was very helpful. It gave me ideas and a fresh perspective, so I wanted to do the same.
In this post, I will focus on the areas where I feel Hio is missing something for me because that’s most useful to know, and also for me to get feedback on in return. Of course, there are tons of very good things about Hio, especially its community and people, but this post would be bible-length if I covered all of that in detail as well. I really like Hio, made great friends, met incredible writers, and even met someone special I get to call my girlfriend now. It’s an awesome place to be, so keep that in mind as you read all my thoughts below
Lastly, it’s just a personal opinion, and it’s totally fine if you disagree or enjoy something that I don’t. Please let me know!
Homework system
I’m going to start with the big one first. The progression system, which heavily revolves around the homework system, feels strange to me and isn’t all that fun. What I love about RP is telling stories with others and feeling immersed in the character(s) I make. The current homework system feels like reading personalized Wikipedia articles and then making an OOC multiple-choice quiz about it. Even the few lessons that still have “RP” tasks can’t even be written from my own character’s perspective, so it’s time-demanding but extremely forgettable.
It also means my IC progression is almost entirely tied to purely OOC actions/tasks that add nothing to the journey of my character. That feels like such a shame in a Roleplay environment.
A little while ago, I joined this thread, where we had to write as our own characters and practice learning a spell with a teacher. At the end, we got the spell! This was by far the most immersed I’ve felt on Hio, and the potential here is endless:
- You actually develop your own character.
- You get to learn alongside others and make friends/rivals/connections.
- You get really funny/memorable moments as you write both failing and succeeding at IC tasks.
- You learn your spells, and your IC progression is actually IC.
- Professor characters have a way more fun IC role, guiding students into learning spells. You could even reward them for hosting these classes with money, which makes sense IC, too, with this being their character’s job.
Where’s the RP in that? And I haven't even really touched on the fact that multiple characters means making these OOC quizzes multiple times. I've talked to older members who mentioned deliberately scoring bad grades in it just to get it over with and gain the spell for their characters. What's the point, then?
Currency system
The currency system sort of builds on my previous point: it’s used IC, offers very strong IC bonuses if you look at brooms, spells, and potions, yet the primary way I see people get money is with their OOC art or coding skills.
Again, where’s the RP in that?
Then some folks restart characters, graduate, or have multiple characters/inpcs, who gain money far quicker because they have more characters to click that button on once per day. There’s nothing logical to it from an IC perspective that this money is shuffled around and funneled into characters, yet it offers direct IC advantages. I had to spend a good while clicking a button every day with my single character, just to get a broom that allowed me to not fail at everything in an unofficial Quidditch game.
There’s nothing fun or rewarding about it, because all I had to do for it was click a button every day. No IC tasks, no fun writing challenges, or anything that makes me feel like it was a fun progression step to get this broom. It was just a chore where I had to make sure not to forget to click that button if I wanted to stand a chance in roleplay. And I’m on websites like Hio to roleplay, not to play a version of cookie clicker that determines important IC stats for me.
The same also applies to pets for me. What does anybody gain from having to click a button every day for a while before you can have something as basic as a rat? In the movies, the kids all go to Hogwarts already having an owl or pet, so I don’t see any Harry Potter lore reason for it either. But pets do offer RP story potential, and while I understand that it’d be weird for everybody to have super special pets, I feel like there are way more fun Roleplay-focused ways to balance this.
But nobody on this site gains anything in their roleplay from me having to spend weeks clicking a button to get a rat or cat. I do love that whole IC application for it, so why not build on stuff like that? It costs more “effort” than clicking a dumb button, but this is a Roleplay site, right?
I’d love to see Roleplay being more influential for IC progression.
Sports system
A big draw to Harry Potter Roleplay is Quidditch, and Hio offers both that and other sports for its members. The concept is great, the roll systems look intricate and interesting, but it feels very difficult to get into, depending on which House you happen to be put into. There can be very long waiting lists that make it difficult for newer members to participate in their early years.
I get that it’s impossible to let everybody participate because of the workload on DM’s and the sheer amount of first years that join the website, but a duelling waiting list like the one for Slytherin wasn’t giving me much hope to enjoy that aspect of the RP.
Especially when I also see strange balancing issues. I participated in the observer thread for this duelling game, and I see two Y3s and a Y2 up against one Y2 and two Y1s. I’m no expert at the roll systems, but this seems wildly unfair, and one of the participants in this thread even told me that she was just waiting for someone further down the waiting list to finally be on the team so it’d be slightly more balanced.
I feel like there are solutions that could solve both of these things a little. The unofficial games that people host sometimes are a very good example of that.
People leaving staff
This last topic is more of an observation without a conclusion. Ever since I joined, I’ve noticed that a lot of people are constantly moving in and out of staff positions. I understand it’s all volunteer work and that it’s natural to an extent, but it always felt a little strange to see how often it happens.
I’m curious to hear people’s thoughts on this.
Last note
Obviously, my perspective is limited, and I don’t have the entire history of how things came to be. So there might be very good explanations for a lot of my points, and that’s fine. Hio and its systems obviously work because a ton of people enjoy it. But I don’t think it ever hurts to hear different perspectives.
Hope this was an interesting read!
A New Writer's Perspective
I think I can offer some insight on some of these things so! Here goes
Homework system
Honestly... I agree with most of this. It didn't use to be quite as extreme, because up until about 9-10 months ago, we used to get all spells from the current year automatically upon graduating to the next year. So if you graduated to second year, you automatically got all first year spells. There was a major system overhaul a bit less than a year ago, intended to streamline things for staff/index as the graduation process is manual and receiving all spells upon graduation was also done manually. I understand why this was done - reduce workload, reduce errors, etc. But I can't say that I enjoy the system as it is right now; my time for hobbies and HiO is limited, and I'd rather spend it on RP than slogging through homework. That said, I appreciate that a lot of the homework assignments have been simplified in light of the system change. It's still tedious, but at least I can rush through multiple choice/fill in the blanks rather quickly when it used to take me an hour or more per homework.
Currency
Here I mostly want to say that more characters doesn't mean more income. Graduated characters do not generate extra income and neither do iNPCs. Only active staff characters get additional income for their staff work; specifically the same as prefects do, so that is independent of the number of characters you have.
I also don't think needing to wait a month or two for a pet is a big deal, idk. I don't really have much issue with the site economy, but I'm also stubborn and stingy enough that I'd rather do homework than spend money on spells/potions. I agree that I'd love to see more errands with spell rewards. Brooms are usually sponsored by sports teams.
Sports system
I get the waitlist frustration; I'm not sure there's much that can be done about that though, because of limited mod capacities, unless you want to start rotating people after every game which I don't think is optimal, either, as it will cause frustration in other ways. This is an issue that has mostly arisen with the growing size of the community, it didn't use to be quite as bad. Unofficial games exist and are done pretty regularly, so those are an option. You can't win stat points that way but frankly the sport stat point reward is another issue and if it were up to me, we'd just phase those out lmao
Re balancing: Take it from someone who used to be a duelling captain: That issue has been talked about a lot, several different approaches were tried, you can't really do much better than this and keep it neutral. If one house has first years and the others don't, there's just... nothing you can really do about it, unless you want to start skewing things with stat scaling or similar which is also not a feel-good solution. Believe me when I say it used to be much much worse; we had first years duelling fourth years on the regular when we started out, and changing the duels from 2 vs 2 to 3 vs 3 also helped. Is it ideal? No. But I don't think an ideal solution exists here.
Staff turnover
Can't really say much on that; I left staff almost a year ago. I do feel like the team used to have lower turnover, but on the other hand we also had people sitting on their positions for years while barely contributing. Expectations have changed. I don't know what the situation within the team is now, but I'd rather have people switch out more often and be active and motivated while on staff than sitting on staff doing the bare minimum.
Homework system
Honestly... I agree with most of this. It didn't use to be quite as extreme, because up until about 9-10 months ago, we used to get all spells from the current year automatically upon graduating to the next year. So if you graduated to second year, you automatically got all first year spells. There was a major system overhaul a bit less than a year ago, intended to streamline things for staff/index as the graduation process is manual and receiving all spells upon graduation was also done manually. I understand why this was done - reduce workload, reduce errors, etc. But I can't say that I enjoy the system as it is right now; my time for hobbies and HiO is limited, and I'd rather spend it on RP than slogging through homework. That said, I appreciate that a lot of the homework assignments have been simplified in light of the system change. It's still tedious, but at least I can rush through multiple choice/fill in the blanks rather quickly when it used to take me an hour or more per homework.
Currency
Here I mostly want to say that more characters doesn't mean more income. Graduated characters do not generate extra income and neither do iNPCs. Only active staff characters get additional income for their staff work; specifically the same as prefects do, so that is independent of the number of characters you have.
I also don't think needing to wait a month or two for a pet is a big deal, idk. I don't really have much issue with the site economy, but I'm also stubborn and stingy enough that I'd rather do homework than spend money on spells/potions. I agree that I'd love to see more errands with spell rewards. Brooms are usually sponsored by sports teams.
Sports system
I get the waitlist frustration; I'm not sure there's much that can be done about that though, because of limited mod capacities, unless you want to start rotating people after every game which I don't think is optimal, either, as it will cause frustration in other ways. This is an issue that has mostly arisen with the growing size of the community, it didn't use to be quite as bad. Unofficial games exist and are done pretty regularly, so those are an option. You can't win stat points that way but frankly the sport stat point reward is another issue and if it were up to me, we'd just phase those out lmao
Re balancing: Take it from someone who used to be a duelling captain: That issue has been talked about a lot, several different approaches were tried, you can't really do much better than this and keep it neutral. If one house has first years and the others don't, there's just... nothing you can really do about it, unless you want to start skewing things with stat scaling or similar which is also not a feel-good solution. Believe me when I say it used to be much much worse; we had first years duelling fourth years on the regular when we started out, and changing the duels from 2 vs 2 to 3 vs 3 also helped. Is it ideal? No. But I don't think an ideal solution exists here.
Staff turnover
Can't really say much on that; I left staff almost a year ago. I do feel like the team used to have lower turnover, but on the other hand we also had people sitting on their positions for years while barely contributing. Expectations have changed. I don't know what the situation within the team is now, but I'd rather have people switch out more often and be active and motivated while on staff than sitting on staff doing the bare minimum.
"One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar."