Activity Check Results / HMD

[lucetimods]

The results for the Activity Check are in. Please note that the following characters were either inactive, didn't post to the activity check, or failed to speak to a moderator about their activity. Also added were characters who have dropped recently, for your convenience.

Copy-paste the following here:

manage_circle del_read absolutewill manage_circle del_read brokenpromise manage_circle del_read chibifalenas manage_circle del_read devilsuppressor manage_circle del_read eyesofremorse manage_circle del_read faithfulstudent manage_circle del_read fowlplots manage_circle del_read gungho manage_circle del_read hark_a_suicune manage_circle del_read silpheed manage_circle del_read smackmywitchup manage_circle del_read tenerezza manage_circle del_read tibias manage_circle del_read trashed manage_circle del_read silpheed manage_circle del_read holyknights manage_circle del_read airbound manage_circle del_read sharpness manage_circle del_read penstabby manage_circle del_read chainedraven manage_circle del_read bereavement manage_circle del_read nikori manage_circle del_read divinacommedia manage_circle del_read mythmaker manage_circle del_read burningdownfate manage_circle del_read powdersup manage_circle del_read happierdays manage_circle del_read selfinteresting manage_circle del_read dogboy manage_circle del_read thelittlemacthatcould manage_circle del_read cladinthedark manage_circle del_read skyborne_mage manage_circle del_read former_third manage_circle del_read kindhearted manage_circle del_read abetteryoda manage_circle del_read handmotions manage_circle del_read returnthyname manage_circle del_read fearless_leader manage_circle del_read reversible manage_circle del_read illusionarymoon manage_circle del_read consultsdetective

A number of you passed the activity check, but barely. (You know who you are.) Try to pick things up, as it's no fun to character-squat.

If there are any mistakes here, please let us know! Additionally, if your character was removed and you're still active, feel free to appeal to one of us about keeping your character. However, please remember next time to stay active and post to the Activity Check. Thank you!

And as always:

HMD

How's My Driving?

This is a crit post for both the community and game and for your characters. If you have something you'd like to see us improve upon with the game, PLEASE TELL US HERE! Anon commenting is on, but if anything gets really nasty there will be warnings and thread-freezing. This isn't required but everyone is encouraged to take advantage of the advice of your fellow players!

Just some pointers: no taking cheap shots, no dragging personal issues into things and for the love of all that is wise and great, please double check your replies and comments before posting them. Sometimes a change in phrasing can make all the difference between a helpful tone and a condescending one.

ALSO ALSO: We'd like to clarify that HMD means HMD- which means it's okay to have both good and bad crit. Some people have expressed concerns about posting good/bad crit when a character already has bad/good crit posted. We'd like to encourage you guys to do it anyway! You can drive well or badly, and even good drivers make mistakes. So give it a try \o

Comments

[complicatedliar]

Loki | complicatedliar | MCU

[spohkh]

~I don't know if it's your or the TH icons that are getting to me. XD haha

Critique? You're an awesome player who writes like they've had lots of experience with RP's, and it's an honour to have a cr with you! The way you react to posts is so IC that sometimes I have to convince myself that, no, you are actually not Loki.....right? hahaha
I hope Loki and Spock can get into all sorts of mischief. ^_^
Cheers!

[complicatedliar]

Hahaha I know it's cheating to use regular TH icons but I DO WHAT I WANT.

<3

[saltprince]

Could I convince you to talk to me about where you're pulling the "Loki loves children" thing from? I'm not necessarily doubting it, it's just become increasingly prevalent in how you play him and I don't see it in the films, so I'm just wondering where it's from.

[complicatedliar]

I think that's a very fair question. There are two primary reasons:

1) I've pulled a bit of background out of mythology and some of the standalone comics where it doesn't conflict with what I'm getting from MCU because there is just no background in those movies for him. In The Trials of Loki there's a little story where Loki decides to save a farmer's family (farmer, wife, and the crippled son) from a troll when none of the other gods have bothered to help. He specifically intervenes because of the boy, when the other gods don't really care since it's just one family and Asgard doesn't really want a war with the trolls. Given Loki's background, the fact that he would care about this kid none of the other gods gave a crap about really made sense to me.

2) In how he plays Loki, Tom Hiddleston has said pretty often that whatever Loki has convinced himself he wants or need, what he truly wants deep down is acceptance. Children and animals both generally just accept people and love them as a default until that trust is proven to be wrong. (As an added bonus, they give that love and acceptance without really demanding any personal vulnerability in return.)

Let me know if you have any more questions about it or would like to discuss it more. I definitely don't want to be weird and OOC with him, though he's already experiencing some character drift just because he's having to deal with so many humans constantly.

[saltprince]

Okay, that makes sense. I confess where I started to become confused is where he's going to great lengths to still be buds with Elicia (making that anti-lying stone (which struck me is odd for me to do because it would entrap him? Maybe I'm reading too much into that), dealing with Stark&co, making a somewhat pleading argument to Elicia's guardian (Winry) ) and when he's making the argument to Molly that her being in the village was endangering the children. While I was like "oh, cool" about him liking kids (though I still wondered where it came from) when he was going to such lengths for kids, I felt a little baffled by it.

Put into the context of the troll story it does make more sense you went in that direction though.

[all7seas]

I love your Loki! Your activity levels are really strong and he is always interesting to stalk/read. Great work with him!!

:D

[complicatedliar]

 

[not_a_troll]

Katsu, you're a tagmachine. :"D

I love your Loki since it does show that he is so torn between emotions and how closed he is about those. Your tags always give me something to think about and I really like that. It also challenges my English because I'm not a native speaker

I am very curious to see his truly mean side. And I look forward to how things develop between big- and bitty!Loki :D

<3

[complicatedliar]

I really need an opportunity for him to be mean... I've played it before and it's kind of fun even though inside I'm cringing and being like OH GOD HOW CAN YOU SAY THOSE THINGS.

I'm having a hard time finding that opportunity, since he's not one to be mean just because considering he's in a weak position right now. Maybe someone will finally make him lose his temper. XD (Hell, if anyone can get him to go off, it'd probably be bitty Loki...)

[not_a_troll]

I think bitty!Loki could do that, yeah. :D

[but first the horribleness that is the zombie event ;A;]

[(Anonymous)]

Looking at the things Loki has done in the first couple months he has been in Luceti, I want to say that you're very active and that's good. Definitely no complaints there. But, I feel like you may be moving almost too quickly with Loki's development.

He has been in the game roughly a month long, going by the timestamp of your intro. At first, looking over the post, I think you were doing well. You captured Loki as a complicated guy, who was morally ambiguous and had a superiority inferiority complex. You had the best of both worlds in his character. But I think it was some time after the thing with Elicia and Hawkeye that you began to sort of falter with that. I think a lot of what people see in Loki is someone who feels he has been wronged by Odin and by Asgard, because he's considered to be an outsider among them. Naturally that isn't completely true (Thor in particular begged for Loki to come back peacefully) but that is beside the point. While Loki can be a sympathetic character, I think you're pushing that angle a little too hard and trying to turn him from a villain to an anti-villain.

If you took him from Thor I think I would understand this development a little more. In Thor while what he did was very wrong, he only did it in the desire to be accepted by Odin and show that he can be as much of a hero as Thor can be. He seems almost remorseful when talking to Odin in the very last scene before he drops down into the abyss. A Loki from Thor would act much like he does right now. You're taking him from Avengers, where his desire was to become ruler of an entire planet and didn't care who died along the way. This is the guy who planned to take over Earth with an alien race and enslave all humans. He didn't care who he was hurting and was ready to even kill an old man face to face. He also doesn't show much remorse, if at all, about everything he did. If you want to develop Loki into a more sympathetic character then I don't think that is a problem, because that is a road he can go down as a character. I think the issue is that you're going down that road illogically fast. Not even a month into being in Luceti and he seems almost like a different character from that in Avengers.

The bottom line of what I'm putting out is that I think you're skewing his dual-sided personality and trying to make him out to be too much of a good guy, who has everyone after him and they're wrong for doing that. I'm not saying Loki has to be cackling like an evil maniac all the time or making plots to take down the Avenger squad. But I do think you should reevaluate some things about the way you approach his character. From what I have seen I think you may be taking him from an ambiguously moral character and turning him into a "oh woe is me" guy, who regrets everything he has done almost too quickly.

On a side note I was also going to ask what was up with him being so engrossed with Elicia, but Zero beat me to the punch on that so I won't ask you to repeat it.

[complicatedliar]

Thank you for the feedback. I'll definitely put some thought into it.

I would ask that you take three things into consideration:

1) All good villains are the heroes of their own stories. They don't believe they're evil at all and feel that everything they have done is completely justified. So Loki does feel that he's been terribly wronged and misunderstood (and this holds true in Avengers, whence him claiming that Thor basically threw him off the Bifrost), whether that is true or not. But since Loki's posts are from his viewpoint, of course he thinks he's the good guy and everyone else just doesn't get how rough his life is.

2) Loki is in a position where he has no allies and has a group of people after him. Since most of the people in Luceti are clearly "good guys" and he doesn't have a lot to bargain with right now, it's in his best interest to try to convince people that he's really misunderstood and the Avengers are giant meany-heads since that will hopefully keep them off his case. But if he's trying to convince people to be on his side through force of personality alone, he really can't be that outwardly uncaring.

3) The dude lies like a rug. And beyond that, he's very adept at telling people what they want to hear. (Such as "maybe I do regret things but you know, I had to do them.")

Obviously, it's my own failing if point #2 and #3 haven't been coming out clearly.

[complicatedliar]

I should also add, it's a fair assumption for players to make that Loki is lying and/or bullshitting and/or telling people what he thinks they want to hear unless I specifically note within tags that he's not. I've kind of avoided putting that interpretive spin on the tags for the most part because it is really supposed to be impossible to tell if he's being truthful and I feel like it colors the tones of the post in a way I don't really like if I'm overly specific.

I will see about putting more of his manipulative inner thoughts into tags where appropriate, but I will still probably be very sparing with it.

[fleurdesel]

I never expected anything remotely close to a friendship when I tagged Loki initially, but I'm so very glad things have worked out into the weird little thing they have going. It's a very interesting dynamic between the two that fluctuates depending upon either of their moods and it's so much fun to write out. You make him engaging, bring out the embittered and vicious nuances, and lay out his manipulative standpoint so very well.

All in all <3

[complicatedliar]

Blame his weird liking of aggressive, pissy women. (Thanks, Sif. -.-)

Thank you. <3

[thefinaljedi]

Right. I should comment on this I think.

I think your username for him pretty much sums up the character. I'm glad you've chosen the mishmash characterization of comics, mythology, and movies for him because frankly I don't think the movies alone really show enough of his history to really let you know where he's coming from. I have seen a lot of Loki players around the web, and most of them are really just not good at portraying him as anything other than a woobie joke, or a completely unhinged megalomaniac. The fact that you try and show all of his facets is very, very nice and a refreshing change of pace.

That said, while my characters (Saori in particular) do generally assume Loki is lying or at the very least trying to manipulate them to his side of things, I do agree that sometimes it may not always come across clearly. It has been clear in our threads, without question, but I could see where others might be tripped up. That's really all the critique I can offer.

And now the fun part.

I enjoy writing with you. You're creative and clever, and fairly easy to talk to. I appreciate that, its nice to see someone being so open and interested in getting around. I've thoroughly enjoyed our threads with Luke and Loki, and I've also really liked our threads with Loki and Saori. The dichotomy between his worldview and hers is very interesting from my perspective, and while I think with time they might grow to like one another I'm definitely enjoying playing her off him as distrusting him. She wants to like him, but its a really conflicting point for the character that I'm really having fun with, and I hope it's interesting for you too. Luke is a whole different matter, and its playing with a different side of Loki that I'm digging as well. Its not nearly as feelspunchy, but Luke has gone out on a limb for Loki and I look forward to seeing where that goes.

Yes, I tl;dr HMDs the first time I give them. Thanks for the fun, I look forward with morbid fascination to seeing the horror that we've got coming up in this draft a lot.

[complicatedliar]

/nods I'll definitely keep working on it.

I am so looking forward to the awful murdery awfulness. :D

[want_take_have]

Maybe this is coming from left-field, because we haven't actually threaded yet....

But I adore your Loki. I've been stalking his threads with Gregor and Elicia and I love the way you're capturing how complicated he really is. And while it's not a game critique, I really appreciate seeing the thought processes you've laid out in your responses here. In addition to being a skilled writer, it's obvious you've also put a lot of thought into what makes Loki...well...Loki. I only wish we had a great Thor to play as his foil, because I really think you'd make the complexities of that relationship shine.

[complicatedliar]

We totally need to thread! ;)

Thank you muchly. I've still got things I need to work on but I've been trying to think it all through.

Oh my god a Thor. So much destruction. XD

[theoniongirl]

I would love that. Jilly and Faith both know Gregor (though Jilly gets along with him a lot better than Faith does). Maybe that'll give us an opportunity, at some point

[sketchingideals]

You are one of the best Lokis of all time. Just saying.

I wish I could stalk ALL THE THREADS but you're just so active! I wasn't kidding when I said I wish I could be as active as you.

Interaction-wise, I really have enjoyed Loki and Jeb's threads. Playing my boy, who tries so hard to believe in the best of everyone and is so full of ideals (despite questioning them at the moment), against someone who is such an opposite of that is nothing short of FUN. Looking forward to seeing where that might go in the future! :)

[complicatedliar]

/blushing

...okay, ngl, manipulating Jeb into bugging Hawkeye was more fun than I should legally be allowed to have.

[lostinmyway]

I have to say, you've really impressed me, for several reasons. First, I can think of very few characters who have integrated themselves so thoroughly in such a short period of time in the two years I've been a part of Luceti. It can be hard to find your footing sometimes--hell, it took me something like half a year--especially when you play a villain character. So kudos to you for that!

I also am impressed by and appreciate the amount of thought you're putting into Loki's character here; your responses above are a good example of that and are also reassuring concerning a couple of small questions I had about the direction of his character. To be honest, while I was excited when I saw Loki's name turn up last cycle, there was also a part of me that was kind of leery (I spend a lot of time on tumblr--no further explanation needed, I trust :P). But you've more than set my fears to rest, particularly with your...well, multimedia approach to playing him to fill in the gaps that the MCU has left.

And, what really impresses me is how well you're getting across Loki's charisma. That is a hell of a difficult thing to do; I've played a supposedly charismatic character before, and I know I didn't do half as well as you are right now. I mean, I frequently have to stop and remind myself that this guy is a rotten bastard when reading his threads, and I have a ton more information than most of the characters in Luceti!

I only have one tiny nitpick, and this is just a personal thing, so feel perfectly free to disregard it. Basically, I find it jarring when his default icon shows up in threads when it's not really appropriate, like when he was having his memory loss problems--I'm assuming it's from when you're phone tagging? I know it's a lot more convenient, but it also really throws me out of the moment and makes it more difficult for me to know how to respond. Also, I'm shallow and enjoy looking at all the pretty faces he makes. :P

But yeah, in summary, you're doing such a terrific job that I feel like I'm positively throwing Grune at a character I would normally keep her a million miles away from (I get stressed easily) because you make him so damn interesting. Thank you for being awesome. ♥

[complicatedliar]

Haha, yeah, most of the time the default icon shows up, it's either because I have no idea which icon to use, or I'm phone posting. (The latter is much more common than the former.)

I'm kind of tempted to switch his default over to the wings icon (the one I'm using on this post) but IDK. I'm never happy with the default...

I'm glad I've laid your fears to rest. Tumblr scares me. :X