High Risk, No Return [4.0/10]

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http://www.acornrack.com/BleachClan/


High Risk, No Return is a Bleach RP next on the list. This site allows both Canon and Non-Canon characters to interact and develop with the plot. Now as for the AD, its there... There isn't really any thing quirky or interesting to draw anyone to the site it's more or less a list of what is inside.

First Impression:
"Meh" , that's my first impression at this point. The Layout is alright I suppose and I see that they tried to make it blend with the red background and stick with a theme but it doesn't really work for me. Also, there is no text for the front page aside from the default stuff you get from making a site. That should have at least been changed to some random, cookie cutter welcoming comment. The red text on the picture is hard to read which thankfully is only the headers as opposed to the links. Also when you are logged in and you go back to the index page the "You are already logged in." comment is in white and is in front of a white section in the picture, I didn't even notice it was there until I accidently hovered over it. Finally there is a "Links" section, and a "Pages" section, these seems redunant and should be consolidated into one column of links.

The Public Area:
First off, "Stand Alone Appy" if they meant "apply", then that needs to be fixed if they intented "Appy" ... then they need to change it to "Apply". "Appy" is not one of the words I want to see when I'm looking to apply. Layout image problems at the bottom when the page (Rules page, Stand alone app page)

The rules page, on first glance is broken up into OOC and IC rules which is fine. On a more detailed inspection here are a few nitpicks I have:

1. Ships aim your cannons on the starboard horizon and fire on my signal! Cannons again, should be "canon".

2. Telling a potential member to "Go look it (powerplaying/godmoding) up" isn't exactly portraying of a welcoming environment.

3. Use of curse words on the RULES page? That's a big no-no from me.

4. "Everyone has limits" rule falls under Godmoding, therefore is redundant.

The Plot page, is a link (which is not coded correctly, mind you) to a forum which has the plot summarized in a paragraph or two (and is on the AD anyway) ! Why not just copy/paste that thing right back into the page? Short-cuts do not work for RP sites that plan to last for more than a few months.

As for the site wide plot, it's rather weak. It's a fairly common starting point however so no major points will be lost because of it but again, plot is weak because it isn't explained so well.

My suggestion would be to create a mini story out of it, get a creative writer to write something nice. This would be much better than the "Hey, look it happened so deal with it" approach that seems to be the case as it stands.

The rest of the pages, have no content... if I see an AD I consider the RP site finished or at to a point where 90% of the information is presentable.

The Application:
Overall it is the same as the rest with the exception that they add boxes for the Bleach objects. A normal application.

The Private Area:
There is no layout switch between Public and Private which is nice however those things that I said about the public layout still apply here. Red text on the picture is hard to read, also the "Pages" section on the left column has nothing on it. There is no reason for it to be there if no other pages are existent.

There are no new information pages that I see in the members area, so that means we move on to...

Forums:
The recent posts are before the forums, which I actually like a bit. It is where it makes the most sense to be, however, the forums themselves are not so great. the OOC pages are equal to the IC pages more or less, the descriptions seemed to be just churned out to get done as opposed to making them meaningful.

Also the forums are one long list, there are no breaks in between the section. No picture to ease the list, no direct hotlinks to the subsections of the forum, no text size increase to even indicate a different section just a minor background change. Also.. there are some spelling errors in there, I'm not going to point them out.

Other:
Member profiles are ... kinda filled out. Some leave "Will fill in soon!" though this should have been done at the application stage. If it's in the application there is no excuse for it to not be filled.

Roleplaying:
The roleplaying on the site is Intermediate to High-Intermediate from what I read. As the rules state, they are in 3rd person past tense.

Rating: 4.0 out of 10 Points.*

Overall it seems like your average Bleach RP, there is a minor plot which will probably evolve over time which has some promise depending on how the admins take it. The main reasoning for the lower than average score is that half the pages aren't filled out and lots of easy stuff that should have been done aren't. For that reason I will re-review this site at a later date when hopefully these issues will be fixed and a review based on its content can be made.


Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

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