Matsu's thoughts and suggestions regarding Amat for new players.
If you're curious about Amat, what the gameplay is like, how fast it is, and what we're looking for in apps, then this is the post for you.
If you're not, then I guess you can still read anyway.
Pacing
One of the things you hear most when being told about Amat is the pacing. That the game moves extremely fast, especially during events. And it really does. Screencapping from the calendar view, which only gives you the number of posts in a day, here's the activity from the entire year of 2010.
While our event times vary from month to month, you can generally tell when the first couple of days of an event occurs. We still get at least 15 posts a day, if not at least twice that. We also tend to get a little more from the 7-20th as well as people are introing the bulk of new characters.
This is just to give you an idea of how many posts a day we get! Don't worry if that's too intimidating, because not all of them are going to be accessible.
In any given day, we have several locked/privated posts that go up on the main comm, since it's representative of a network that's the only way of communicating outside face-to-face. There's also a variety of accidental posts, many of which contain people being recorded having sex/making out/that sort of thing, which isn't everyone's cup of tea. You'll also have people (especially in the middle of the month) asking for help finding work/a place to live, since Atia's palace kicks people out after a week. Again, you can't always reply to those.
If you come into the game and are overwhelmed by the pacing (and we have several like that each round, one of the downfalls of being a locked community), my honest suggestion to you is not to worry about trying to keep up with every post in the game and instead focus on either subject matter your characters are interested in, or in your castmates, if you were lucky enough to app into a cast. At least until you get settled into the game. A lot of people are so taken back by the pacing and sheer amount of posts that they find themselves unable to keep up and drop quickly. Obviously, this is a little sad, especially when people WANT to play in the game.
I know a lot of people complain about cliques, but as long as you're making an effort and frequently reaching past your group when you can, I personally have no problem if you default back to playing with who/what makes you comfortable if you need to. There's a problem if you're continuously only making locked posts and logs to certain people and not commenting elsewhere for a period of months, but for the most part, giving yourself time to adjust to the atmosphere of the game is fine. I personally skim the comm several times daily, but I don't answer every post, as much as I would like the CR. Burning myself out or spreading myself too thin would be worse, IMO.
Apps
Or more specifically, what we're looking for in them, and something that's a bit more comprehensive than our app page, hopefully.
PLAYER
» Journal: We need either your personal journal, a sockpuppet, or your character journal. This is mostly just used for information and alternative contact purposes. If you reserved, you need to put down the same journal you reserved with, so we can match up your reserve to your app.
» Birthdate/Age: Self explanatory. Since Amat is an 18+ game, by putting your age here, you're stating you're over the age of 18. We'll definitely remove you if we've found out you've lied about it.
» Characters Played: If you're a new player, putting N/A is fine. If you're an existing player, then you MUST put down all of your characters. If you don't wish for the app team to know who you play (for testing out the muse, or because you're embarrassed or you're worried about bias or something) then you must contact the mods at their separate email to give us a heads up (again, this only applies if you've already got characters in the game). It's against the rules to app under a new name if you already have characters under another persona, and we WILL ask you to adjust your character roster if we catch you.
CHARACTER
» Name: Self explanatory. We ask that you give character names in Western order if you absolutely possibly can, which is First name > Last name.
» Fandom: All fandoms must be published in hardcopy somewhere and must have some kind of English translation, whether it be fan or official, since we often need to research the series somehow.
» Reference: a reference to wikipedia or some other website that either sums up on the canon, sums up the characters, contains the canon so we can review it if possible, or something. The more you give us, the better. Depending on how obscure the canon is sometimes, we will go out and read/watch it. We might ask you for a rundown on the series if there's very little unbiased source about it.
» Canon Point: This isn't very important for all characters, but some characters DO change drastically depending on where they are in canon, and this helps the app team determine what to look for, for instance, Harry Potter pre Deathly Hallows and Harry Potter post Deathly Hallow are going to have two very different reactions.
We also don't encourage canon mixing. For example, anime and manga of the same series can be VERY different and you shouldn't include anime filler in your background for your manga character. The same is also said for books and movies (using Howl's Moving Castle as an example) or well, movie adaptations in general. You may take personality or background information from other sources as long as it doesn't directly contradict the canon point/original source but definitely do not try to take events (X anime and X manga are incredibly different, don't try to take a Sorata from the X manga timeline with the X anime ending). Since the events of a series can impact a character's personality and development, try to keep that in mind.
» Gender: Both their physical sex and their mental gender, please. If there's any special circumstance here, feel free to note it.
» Age: Since Amat requires characters to be aged up if they're physically under 18, please note this here. If you have one of those characters that's thousands of years old but looks like 12, note that here as well. (Like Evangeline from Negima or Hitsugaya from Bleach, they would still need to be physically aged up.) We do not accept characters under the age of 11.
» Orientation: Quite simply, what turns your character on.
We need at least a sentence or two explaining WHY you choose this orientation as well. It might be obvious to you that Harry Potter is straight because he marries Ginny or Hokuto Umeda is gay because he states as much in canon, but people who aren't canon familiar aren't going to know that, and sometimes, people try to justify characters' sexuality in strange ways.
We aren't saying you can't make a character bisexual or gay, but we do need to see that claim reasonably supported by canon and not fanon or blatantly incorrect claims. Additionally, you're more than welcome to develop your characters and their sexuality in the game, once you're in. It's just for that the application, we're going to be looking and judging against canon.
Examples of things we don't want to see are:
He's straight because of his appearance.
He's pansexual, because even though his only romantic pairing in the series is with women, he's pretty open and sexual and would go for anyone.
He's gay, because the series revolves around him attempting to look normal, and it's obvious that he's in the closet and can't come out.
She's bisexual because she doesn't have good relationships with men and is more comfortable with women.
Claiming that any character is any sexuality because of a close friendship or a relationship with someone in their family. Unless that familial relationship is sexual in nature, most people aren't gay or straight because they're close to their siblings.
To that note, if a character doesn't show any romantic or sexual interest toward anyone in the series, it's fine to put that. Asexual is still a sexuality, after all. Again, just tell us your reasoning why you're putting this. Unknown is also acceptable. Your orientation section doesn't have to be long and involved, it just has to elaborate a little bit. Really, a sentence or two is fine! My orientation for Sheryl was simply "Straight, the only one she shows romantic interest in is Alto."
» Personality: This needs to be about 200 words minimum, though obviously this is going to change depending on the character. 200 really IS the minimum and if you can't write that much for the main character of a long running series, then we're seriously going to question if you understand their personality. Of course, if you're apping a much more minor character, 200 words is fine. The same as anything, if you can't prove this with canon evidence, we're going to question it as being headcanon or fanon, which is something we don't want to see in your application.
Why not? Because headcanon is your personal interpretation of the character and while it's fine to use it to flesh the character out, we want to see that you have an understanding of the character in canon before you go out and fill in all the missing details, which sometimes obscures the canon character. People have headcanon that sometimes doesn't match up and not everyone agrees with it, and we also have to discourage headcanon that may be godmodding another castmate (for instance claiming your character slept with a friend, while the player who plays that friend may not agree).
What we want to see is their basic personality, both what is seen by people outwardly and what they're really like inwardly. People such as Muraki or Aizen have drastically different personalities that they show to people, compared to what they're really like. We want to see their motivations and what makes them tic.
We want to see how their world affects them, if applicable, and any important relationships and how THAT affects them, especially if the character is defined by their relationships to others (for example, Orihime from Bleach should probably have at least a little mentioning how she feels about Ichigo and how that affects her). If a character does anything special in their world, such as be a mafia boss or an assassin or a ninja, mention that as well. Tell us how their job defines them or how they feel about it.
This is basically your place to tell us about your character. Anything you want to tell us or show us, though there's nothing wrong with being SOMEWHAT concise as long as you try to cover what you feel is important about the character.
You may use "word of god" information from interview or something similar, though you may want to tell us you're doing so if the source isn't well known.
» Appearance: Basically just tell us what the character looks like. It's most important for characters who are being aged up or turned into human- what's the difference between their canon appearance and the one they'll be using in the game. You can link to a picture of either their canon/new appearance or a PB, but we do want at least some description.
» Suitability: This mostly applies to characters who are mentally/chronologically under 18 and need to be aged up. If you're apping a character who's over the age of 18, you may put N/A but please don't omit any parts of the app. What this section is for, is-- tell us about your character and why you're think they're 'suitable' for the environment of Amat. How they're going to react to the sex-based atmosphere, any canon examples of them adjusting or dealing with 'adult' or sexual issues, etc.
Characters who're thousands of years old but look 10 generally don't need to fill this out, as long as they act adult. We do occasionally ask other characters to fill this in if we're not sure.
Characters who are mentally unstable or suffered from circumstances in their canon which may make it difficult for them to adapt to the sex environment on Amat may be asked to provide suitability as well. If you're in doubt, it can't hurt to include it.
SAMPLES
» "amatomnes" Entry: Essentially, the first person sample.
amatomnes is the network community, in which interaction largely takes place over a network accessed by wireless devices. There's some exceptions when people co-post (that is, one device is broadcasting two people talking/kissing/etc who're in the same area), then they'll have ACTION they'll be doing in the post rather than split it up between two posts just for that interaction. The three types are video, voice/audio and text.
What we want to see here is your character addressing the people over the network for the first time (and many people will recycle this first person sample for their intro post). We want to see how they're reacting to seeing the device and network for the first time, their concerns about the island or how they woke up, if they're looking for anyone in particular, etc. Actions are a plus in voice or video posts, which is as simple as "[ Character X turns on the device, looking more than a little concerned right now, even if they're trying to hide it. The hand not holding the device has a finger hooked into the black leather collar around his neck, tugging at it slightly. He glances around even as he speaks, as though looking around for more personal interaction.]"
We're looking for character voice in both what they say and how they react in general, so while five sentences is a minimum, we really encourage more than that.
This doesn't need to be set on a character's first day because we know there are some characters who would go out to find as much information as possible themselves, either in person or in the comments of another post.
» "amatomneslogs" Entry: Is the third person sample.
While in the past we allowed people to give us samples in any environment, we've begun to request samples set directly in Amat, and more specifically the waking up scenario. If you don't know, that is essentially the character waking up in one of the rooms in Atia's palace. Every character will have had a sexual encounter the night before, which is at the very least a wet dream (or a near sex encounter, what...ever that may be), or at the very most, the soreness or even pain associated with sex or one's first time. You may write a sex dream, or the character reacting to having sex, but we really don't want this to be the bulk of the app. In fact, it can be something as simple as them blushing over "that" dream with "that" special person or feeling like they've had a nice time. No details necessary.
We want to see how they react to this, both with being in a new place when their home world is completely different (or the character should be dead), and with waking up after that sex encounter. Atia's palace should be unlike anything they've seen before, depending on the canon of course. The theme is Greco-Roman with gold columns and silk and expensive furniture and details.
As far as the sex encounter, depending on what it is, your character can react with either disgust or concern or however they would react to having a wet dream/having had sex with an unknown person the night before. Some characters won't bat at eye at waking up in an unknown bed, and will just wonder where their partner went to. Other characters may react with anger or mortification simply at even being naked.
We also like to see the collar approached, though some characters just may not notice it, either because they have a canon necklace (you may want to note this, either before the sample or even the character wondering why they're already wearing their choker/necklace) or they're busy focusing on other aspects of waking up the island.
Characters who are being aged up should probably react to this in some manner. If the character wasn't human before their arrival, we'll look for them to react to that as well. That also goes for people who've had powers in canon, since those will be stripped upon arriving in the game, especially if it makes a large part of their personality. A ninja might wake up and immediately go to stalk people to find out information. Characters can describe looking at the device, whatever. The one thing we discourage is NPC/maid abuse-- we don't like to see the maids beaten/killed/etc for information or other reasons. Additionally, you should be able to portray character voice without NPC puppetry in general.
At least half of the app, if not more, needs to revolve around the character's reaction to their new environment.
* As a note for reapps, you're welcome to have your character remember their previous stay in the game. But if you're doing so, we like to see how that character will react upon seeing the environment for a second time. So basically, don't reuse your samples. Show us, not tell us.
APP VOTING
To clear up a couple of questions regarding apps, here's a brief (brief!) rundown of how the app system in Amat works.
We have a lot of communities. The main/network comm, the logs comm, the ooc comm, the info comm, and our two crack comms.
The first three are self-explanatory, I think. The info comm is where your info posts for your characters go. This includes your contact info, what the character looks like, their name, age, personality, etc. We do these as posts so that you can go back and edit, and so that they can be easily found later (they're linked on the taken list). It is mandatory to include your character's canon age here. If you're worried about spoilers, then use white/gray text. ( SPOILER TEXT HERE )
The first crack comm is where the memes for the game go. Things like the IC anon meme, or IC secrets, etc. NOTHING in this community is taken as game canon, since it's all just for fun.
The second crack comm is used for multi-day special crack events, where there would be way too much spam to do it in one post, or on either of the existing communities, like our fourth wall event. We would also do use if there was any other special, cracky event or something like Dayrisen. Again, unless specifically stated, nothing here is game canon.
The two crack comms are optional, but recommended, but the others are required. Participating in the memes is also optional, but a lot of CR can be started that way.
We have an HMD post in the OOC comm every two months, on the 26th. It's not mandatory that you comment here, but if you wish to get feedback for your characters, you probably will want to. If you have crit posts in your character journals, you may link to them. The HMD post in the OOC comm is locked, so only members can participate.
Activity checks take place every middle of the month and are open for a week. The activity we're looking for applies for the entire past three/four weeks-- basically from the end of the last activity check to the end of the current one. All characters must be accounted for in the check or they will be idled, unless you've called hiatus before the AC went up or you were accepted in the month the AC is for. Valid activity is 30 comments in the past three weeks, or two posts/two logs in that same time (or a combination of both- 1 post/log and 15 comments). We'll always have at least two warning posts with journals that haven't replied to the AC. We do allow people to contact us with exceptions for the ACs.
Even though the game's premise is sex, it still doesn't mean instant sex CR or that every post is about sex. Those who've been there for a while can tell you that once the character gets into a routine of sleeping with someone every week/two weeks, it becomes just that, a routine. Most posts end up being about daily life- finding a job, finding workers for their businesses, or just talking about stuff, etc.
Events happen roughly once a month. Not all of them are sex related. Events can range from collars suddenly needing a new requirement to loosen, to powers being unlocked temporarily, to aphrodisiacs affecting the characters in some way, to characters suddenly finding themselves "bound" in some way to another.
All events are opt in, with the exception of the "game plot" events, which happen every few months. These are events in which something on the island changes, either for better or worse.
Any and all questions can go to our mod email account, our FAQ page, by IMing us, or you can simply ask me here (though I don't have anonymous enabled). Sometimes we can take a while replying to emails (because some things requre us to talk about them as a team), but we do try our best to address concerns in a timely manner.
I will add more when I think of it.
Police/Law System
Amat's police/law system is completely player run, from the people who patrol and answer crimes that occur on the network, to the occasional trials that take place.
Amat's laws can be found here and the characters who are in charge of the police force will take action in pursuing those responsible. More information can be found on that page.
There is also a police/law comm at amatfuzz where you can find more detailed information there regarding the IC force and how they handle things. If your character commits a crime, you should report it to the appropriate venues so that the consequence can be played out. Remember, in character actions = in character consequences.
Of course, this only applies to crimes that are either publicly displayed or in which the perpetrator didn't cover their tracks well enough to not be found out. We have plenty of crime that occurs off screen, but it's just that-- off screen and not publicly shown. In the same vein, as a moderator, I need to discourage godmodding and rule breaking, so if you post publicly on the network about a crime and never report it/allow the police-muns to take action that's IC for them, we may need to talk to you.
But for the most part, the player run system works well.
If you're not, then I guess you can still read anyway.
Pacing
One of the things you hear most when being told about Amat is the pacing. That the game moves extremely fast, especially during events. And it really does. Screencapping from the calendar view, which only gives you the number of posts in a day, here's the activity from the entire year of 2010.
While our event times vary from month to month, you can generally tell when the first couple of days of an event occurs. We still get at least 15 posts a day, if not at least twice that. We also tend to get a little more from the 7-20th as well as people are introing the bulk of new characters.
This is just to give you an idea of how many posts a day we get! Don't worry if that's too intimidating, because not all of them are going to be accessible.
In any given day, we have several locked/privated posts that go up on the main comm, since it's representative of a network that's the only way of communicating outside face-to-face. There's also a variety of accidental posts, many of which contain people being recorded having sex/making out/that sort of thing, which isn't everyone's cup of tea. You'll also have people (especially in the middle of the month) asking for help finding work/a place to live, since Atia's palace kicks people out after a week. Again, you can't always reply to those.
If you come into the game and are overwhelmed by the pacing (and we have several like that each round, one of the downfalls of being a locked community), my honest suggestion to you is not to worry about trying to keep up with every post in the game and instead focus on either subject matter your characters are interested in, or in your castmates, if you were lucky enough to app into a cast. At least until you get settled into the game. A lot of people are so taken back by the pacing and sheer amount of posts that they find themselves unable to keep up and drop quickly. Obviously, this is a little sad, especially when people WANT to play in the game.
I know a lot of people complain about cliques, but as long as you're making an effort and frequently reaching past your group when you can, I personally have no problem if you default back to playing with who/what makes you comfortable if you need to. There's a problem if you're continuously only making locked posts and logs to certain people and not commenting elsewhere for a period of months, but for the most part, giving yourself time to adjust to the atmosphere of the game is fine. I personally skim the comm several times daily, but I don't answer every post, as much as I would like the CR. Burning myself out or spreading myself too thin would be worse, IMO.
Apps
Or more specifically, what we're looking for in them, and something that's a bit more comprehensive than our app page, hopefully.
PLAYER
» Journal: We need either your personal journal, a sockpuppet, or your character journal. This is mostly just used for information and alternative contact purposes. If you reserved, you need to put down the same journal you reserved with, so we can match up your reserve to your app.
» Birthdate/Age: Self explanatory. Since Amat is an 18+ game, by putting your age here, you're stating you're over the age of 18. We'll definitely remove you if we've found out you've lied about it.
» Characters Played: If you're a new player, putting N/A is fine. If you're an existing player, then you MUST put down all of your characters. If you don't wish for the app team to know who you play (for testing out the muse, or because you're embarrassed or you're worried about bias or something) then you must contact the mods at their separate email to give us a heads up (again, this only applies if you've already got characters in the game). It's against the rules to app under a new name if you already have characters under another persona, and we WILL ask you to adjust your character roster if we catch you.
CHARACTER
» Name: Self explanatory. We ask that you give character names in Western order if you absolutely possibly can, which is First name > Last name.
» Fandom: All fandoms must be published in hardcopy somewhere and must have some kind of English translation, whether it be fan or official, since we often need to research the series somehow.
» Reference: a reference to wikipedia or some other website that either sums up on the canon, sums up the characters, contains the canon so we can review it if possible, or something. The more you give us, the better. Depending on how obscure the canon is sometimes, we will go out and read/watch it. We might ask you for a rundown on the series if there's very little unbiased source about it.
» Canon Point: This isn't very important for all characters, but some characters DO change drastically depending on where they are in canon, and this helps the app team determine what to look for, for instance, Harry Potter pre Deathly Hallows and Harry Potter post Deathly Hallow are going to have two very different reactions.
We also don't encourage canon mixing. For example, anime and manga of the same series can be VERY different and you shouldn't include anime filler in your background for your manga character. The same is also said for books and movies (using Howl's Moving Castle as an example) or well, movie adaptations in general. You may take personality or background information from other sources as long as it doesn't directly contradict the canon point/original source but definitely do not try to take events (X anime and X manga are incredibly different, don't try to take a Sorata from the X manga timeline with the X anime ending). Since the events of a series can impact a character's personality and development, try to keep that in mind.
» Gender: Both their physical sex and their mental gender, please. If there's any special circumstance here, feel free to note it.
» Age: Since Amat requires characters to be aged up if they're physically under 18, please note this here. If you have one of those characters that's thousands of years old but looks like 12, note that here as well. (Like Evangeline from Negima or Hitsugaya from Bleach, they would still need to be physically aged up.) We do not accept characters under the age of 11.
» Orientation: Quite simply, what turns your character on.
We need at least a sentence or two explaining WHY you choose this orientation as well. It might be obvious to you that Harry Potter is straight because he marries Ginny or Hokuto Umeda is gay because he states as much in canon, but people who aren't canon familiar aren't going to know that, and sometimes, people try to justify characters' sexuality in strange ways.
We aren't saying you can't make a character bisexual or gay, but we do need to see that claim reasonably supported by canon and not fanon or blatantly incorrect claims. Additionally, you're more than welcome to develop your characters and their sexuality in the game, once you're in. It's just for that the application, we're going to be looking and judging against canon.
Examples of things we don't want to see are:
He's straight because of his appearance.
He's pansexual, because even though his only romantic pairing in the series is with women, he's pretty open and sexual and would go for anyone.
He's gay, because the series revolves around him attempting to look normal, and it's obvious that he's in the closet and can't come out.
She's bisexual because she doesn't have good relationships with men and is more comfortable with women.
Claiming that any character is any sexuality because of a close friendship or a relationship with someone in their family. Unless that familial relationship is sexual in nature, most people aren't gay or straight because they're close to their siblings.
To that note, if a character doesn't show any romantic or sexual interest toward anyone in the series, it's fine to put that. Asexual is still a sexuality, after all. Again, just tell us your reasoning why you're putting this. Unknown is also acceptable. Your orientation section doesn't have to be long and involved, it just has to elaborate a little bit. Really, a sentence or two is fine! My orientation for Sheryl was simply "Straight, the only one she shows romantic interest in is Alto."
» Personality: This needs to be about 200 words minimum, though obviously this is going to change depending on the character. 200 really IS the minimum and if you can't write that much for the main character of a long running series, then we're seriously going to question if you understand their personality. Of course, if you're apping a much more minor character, 200 words is fine. The same as anything, if you can't prove this with canon evidence, we're going to question it as being headcanon or fanon, which is something we don't want to see in your application.
Why not? Because headcanon is your personal interpretation of the character and while it's fine to use it to flesh the character out, we want to see that you have an understanding of the character in canon before you go out and fill in all the missing details, which sometimes obscures the canon character. People have headcanon that sometimes doesn't match up and not everyone agrees with it, and we also have to discourage headcanon that may be godmodding another castmate (for instance claiming your character slept with a friend, while the player who plays that friend may not agree).
What we want to see is their basic personality, both what is seen by people outwardly and what they're really like inwardly. People such as Muraki or Aizen have drastically different personalities that they show to people, compared to what they're really like. We want to see their motivations and what makes them tic.
We want to see how their world affects them, if applicable, and any important relationships and how THAT affects them, especially if the character is defined by their relationships to others (for example, Orihime from Bleach should probably have at least a little mentioning how she feels about Ichigo and how that affects her). If a character does anything special in their world, such as be a mafia boss or an assassin or a ninja, mention that as well. Tell us how their job defines them or how they feel about it.
This is basically your place to tell us about your character. Anything you want to tell us or show us, though there's nothing wrong with being SOMEWHAT concise as long as you try to cover what you feel is important about the character.
You may use "word of god" information from interview or something similar, though you may want to tell us you're doing so if the source isn't well known.
» Appearance: Basically just tell us what the character looks like. It's most important for characters who are being aged up or turned into human- what's the difference between their canon appearance and the one they'll be using in the game. You can link to a picture of either their canon/new appearance or a PB, but we do want at least some description.
» Suitability: This mostly applies to characters who are mentally/chronologically under 18 and need to be aged up. If you're apping a character who's over the age of 18, you may put N/A but please don't omit any parts of the app. What this section is for, is-- tell us about your character and why you're think they're 'suitable' for the environment of Amat. How they're going to react to the sex-based atmosphere, any canon examples of them adjusting or dealing with 'adult' or sexual issues, etc.
Characters who're thousands of years old but look 10 generally don't need to fill this out, as long as they act adult. We do occasionally ask other characters to fill this in if we're not sure.
Characters who are mentally unstable or suffered from circumstances in their canon which may make it difficult for them to adapt to the sex environment on Amat may be asked to provide suitability as well. If you're in doubt, it can't hurt to include it.
SAMPLES
» "amatomnes" Entry: Essentially, the first person sample.
amatomnes is the network community, in which interaction largely takes place over a network accessed by wireless devices. There's some exceptions when people co-post (that is, one device is broadcasting two people talking/kissing/etc who're in the same area), then they'll have ACTION they'll be doing in the post rather than split it up between two posts just for that interaction. The three types are video, voice/audio and text.
What we want to see here is your character addressing the people over the network for the first time (and many people will recycle this first person sample for their intro post). We want to see how they're reacting to seeing the device and network for the first time, their concerns about the island or how they woke up, if they're looking for anyone in particular, etc. Actions are a plus in voice or video posts, which is as simple as "[ Character X turns on the device, looking more than a little concerned right now, even if they're trying to hide it. The hand not holding the device has a finger hooked into the black leather collar around his neck, tugging at it slightly. He glances around even as he speaks, as though looking around for more personal interaction.]"
We're looking for character voice in both what they say and how they react in general, so while five sentences is a minimum, we really encourage more than that.
This doesn't need to be set on a character's first day because we know there are some characters who would go out to find as much information as possible themselves, either in person or in the comments of another post.
» "amatomneslogs" Entry: Is the third person sample.
While in the past we allowed people to give us samples in any environment, we've begun to request samples set directly in Amat, and more specifically the waking up scenario. If you don't know, that is essentially the character waking up in one of the rooms in Atia's palace. Every character will have had a sexual encounter the night before, which is at the very least a wet dream (or a near sex encounter, what...ever that may be), or at the very most, the soreness or even pain associated with sex or one's first time. You may write a sex dream, or the character reacting to having sex, but we really don't want this to be the bulk of the app. In fact, it can be something as simple as them blushing over "that" dream with "that" special person or feeling like they've had a nice time. No details necessary.
We want to see how they react to this, both with being in a new place when their home world is completely different (or the character should be dead), and with waking up after that sex encounter. Atia's palace should be unlike anything they've seen before, depending on the canon of course. The theme is Greco-Roman with gold columns and silk and expensive furniture and details.
As far as the sex encounter, depending on what it is, your character can react with either disgust or concern or however they would react to having a wet dream/having had sex with an unknown person the night before. Some characters won't bat at eye at waking up in an unknown bed, and will just wonder where their partner went to. Other characters may react with anger or mortification simply at even being naked.
We also like to see the collar approached, though some characters just may not notice it, either because they have a canon necklace (you may want to note this, either before the sample or even the character wondering why they're already wearing their choker/necklace) or they're busy focusing on other aspects of waking up the island.
Characters who are being aged up should probably react to this in some manner. If the character wasn't human before their arrival, we'll look for them to react to that as well. That also goes for people who've had powers in canon, since those will be stripped upon arriving in the game, especially if it makes a large part of their personality. A ninja might wake up and immediately go to stalk people to find out information. Characters can describe looking at the device, whatever. The one thing we discourage is NPC/maid abuse-- we don't like to see the maids beaten/killed/etc for information or other reasons. Additionally, you should be able to portray character voice without NPC puppetry in general.
At least half of the app, if not more, needs to revolve around the character's reaction to their new environment.
* As a note for reapps, you're welcome to have your character remember their previous stay in the game. But if you're doing so, we like to see how that character will react upon seeing the environment for a second time. So basically, don't reuse your samples. Show us, not tell us.
APP VOTING
To clear up a couple of questions regarding apps, here's a brief (brief!) rundown of how the app system in Amat works.
- Apps are sent to amatapps@gmail.com. This email account is available to every mod and app team member.
- All apps that are received are putting onto a voting page that's made new every month on the mod account, locked solely to member of the app team and the mods (with character journals and the regular "amatreserves" account on that filter).
- Every app gets its own comment with character name, series, and the applicant's journal so that we can tell which applicant is who in case of challenges.
- Each application must receive at least two agreeing votes before going onto the next part. Whether this is accept, revision, or rejection. Sometimes things need to be discussed (if we're unsure about a character or canon suitability, or there's a minor problem we have questions on) and sometimes things need to be researched, so it can take a while.
- We do ask all people giving their votes to be as detailed as possible, especially when it comes to revisions and rejections.
- Revisions are sent back to the applicant with what we're looking to revise. We will always answer questions about revisions if you're unsure, or we missed a minor detail in the application or canon that explains it. Sometimes it takes a while since we need to check in with those who voted on it.
- Rejections are sent back to the applicant with details as to why the application was rejected. Sometimes it's simply because there's too much to rewrite in one revision period (we typically only ask for revisions on three major sections, anything more we feel we need to give the applicant more time to rewrite the application).
- Because we're not canon familiar with every canon, we ask the app team to help us write these notices sometimes. Again, we're always willing to answer questions if there are any.
- Challenging/Duplicate apps: Both (or all) apps go on the page as normal.
- Apps are first judged by their individual merit and not against each other.
- If one of the duplicate applications needs a revision and the other does not, then we automatically accept the application that needs no revisions. It gets the apps through the system much faster.
- If both applications need revisions, then we do ask both applicants for revisions. (And if one app is a reject, that one gets rejected while the other application is either revised or accepted.)
- If both applications are equal, such as both need revisions and returning to us or both being accepts, then we judge them against each other. Samples generally have more importance than other sections, since that shows a greater ability and understanding of the character in play, rather than just talking about them.
- Reserve holder gets precedence only in the event we really, honestly cannot choose and we need to.
This doesn't always seem fair, but in dup app situations, one person will always be rejected. It's not meant to be personal, and we try to make this method as fair and unbiased as possible. - This system isn't perfect, but with the high number of applications that Amat gets (averaging 150 including revisions), this is what we feels works best. Keep in mind that all the mods and the app team members are human, and the app process is not multiple choice with clear-cut yes and no answers. The reason we ask for two votes is because we don't always agree on one thing, and we don't expect you to always agree with our decisions either. You can talk to us if you feel you must.
The first three are self-explanatory, I think. The info comm is where your info posts for your characters go. This includes your contact info, what the character looks like, their name, age, personality, etc. We do these as posts so that you can go back and edit, and so that they can be easily found later (they're linked on the taken list). It is mandatory to include your character's canon age here. If you're worried about spoilers, then use white/gray text. ( SPOILER TEXT HERE )
The first crack comm is where the memes for the game go. Things like the IC anon meme, or IC secrets, etc. NOTHING in this community is taken as game canon, since it's all just for fun.
The second crack comm is used for multi-day special crack events, where there would be way too much spam to do it in one post, or on either of the existing communities, like our fourth wall event. We would also do use if there was any other special, cracky event or something like Dayrisen. Again, unless specifically stated, nothing here is game canon.
The two crack comms are optional, but recommended, but the others are required. Participating in the memes is also optional, but a lot of CR can be started that way.
All events are opt in, with the exception of the "game plot" events, which happen every few months. These are events in which something on the island changes, either for better or worse.
Police/Law System
Amat's police/law system is completely player run, from the people who patrol and answer crimes that occur on the network, to the occasional trials that take place.
Amat's laws can be found here and the characters who are in charge of the police force will take action in pursuing those responsible. More information can be found on that page.
There is also a police/law comm at amatfuzz where you can find more detailed information there regarding the IC force and how they handle things. If your character commits a crime, you should report it to the appropriate venues so that the consequence can be played out. Remember, in character actions = in character consequences.
Of course, this only applies to crimes that are either publicly displayed or in which the perpetrator didn't cover their tracks well enough to not be found out. We have plenty of crime that occurs off screen, but it's just that-- off screen and not publicly shown. In the same vein, as a moderator, I need to discourage godmodding and rule breaking, so if you post publicly on the network about a crime and never report it/allow the police-muns to take action that's IC for them, we may need to talk to you.
But for the most part, the player run system works well.