TheJelloEmperor's Spleafnet RP Reviews

Holy Check!

2011-11-19T18:23:00.003-05:00

There may be a revival soon enough...

Things will be moving to tumblr, because as this site was initially for AcornRack/Spleafnet sites I think it would just be easier to make a new site. Also there will be changes to the system so I'll keep y'all posted. If I remember. :p

So how are those new posts going?

2011-01-13T01:34:00.003-05:00

.....Yeeeeah, as you can see it's been like one year since my last post. Really, that one doesn't even count and I wonder if anyone actually even visits this blog anymore (Though I checked the hit tracker and apparently people do.) In any case, I shall see if I can juggle writing this blog and school work.

Hoping for the best,
The Jello Emperor

Regarding the move to Spleafnet

2010-05-22T23:18:00.003-04:00

As you people should know if you're reading the blog (or if not...), Spleafnet is now hosting our beloved AR.. I mean SPLEAFNET sites. I know I've been saying I'll be writing soon but really I've had no requests and then the AR situation happened. So we'll have to postpone the date a bit further until people settle down and whatnot.

Which now brings me to the opening of my new blog... TheJelloEmperor's Spleafnet RP Reviews!! WOOOO!!! *cough*

~Jello

Woof [7.0/10]

2009-10-03T12:39:00.008-04:00

http://www.acornrack.com/up2nogood/

Greetings and salutations to all! As I promised here is the review that is LONG overdue, I suppose you'll have to forgive me for being a little rusty as I've been thrown into the lovely world of college and school work once again. BUT FEAR NOT! I shall move forward on with this little blog of mine and rate where no Jello Emperor has rated before!

... And now with that little thing out of the way... WOOF! No, I mean the site Woof! This site is probably the first werewolf site I've rated, yes I said werewolf. Wolves and horses are aplenty but werewolves I haven't seen much of personally so this will be a good venture for us all.

So the AD here, is fairly basic which is fine and I see they have site stats and such and overall I have no problems with a basic AD. It seems though that there are parts where it looks like a new paragraph and I'm a stickler for indenting those paragraphs but I think that it would just make it look a little nicer.

But toss your garlic necklaces into the trash bin because this is Werewolf county, punk! Grab your silver coins for good luck and walk softly and carry a large silver sword right into the review! (Jello points to anyone who gets that reference...)

First Impression:
Quick little personality test! Take a look at the wolf picture, is he looking away from you or looking at you? Post in the comments and let me know!

Anyway, the layout looks nice and neat and I have no problems with anything. The site it self makes good use of screen real estate while still framing it to look nice.

The Public Area:
Rules page is overall fine, I do have a nitpick though. I'm not a fan of curse words in the public area, as it is public. Do whatever you want in the private parts but when you're creating an image for yourself keep it acceptable for a parent to peek at.

(Also, there are various spelling errors: Ralphie in rule one, lightning in rule two.)

Ranks page is fine.

Dynamics page is overall fine, just various spelling and grammar errors strewn about the page.

The Application:
Your standard application, so not much to say about it.

The Private Area:
Layout Chaaaange! Well, actually it's more like an expansion but nonetheless the layout is still simple and provides everything you need on initial screen load. The space is used again efficiently so I have no problems.

There is very little information that's new in the private area, site setting and pack meetings and such so most of the info you need is in the public area.

Forums:
Good amount of forums and nice descriptions and of course I love the hot links, overall I have no problems with the forums. I do like how the forum posts look like speech bubbles though.

Other:
The member list looks nice, divided by user level and avatar pictures for both the human and wolf counterparts along with general user stats.

The member profiles look nice and organized, are all the fields are generally filled out with the ones that I looked at.

Roleplaying:
From what I read on the forums I categorize the roleplaying on this site to be Intermediate to High Intermediate.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10 Points

Overall it looks to be a good site, takes advantage of the site layout well but even though I haven't rated many werewolf sites I didn't really see much innovation or something that would pull me into joining and fleshing out a character.

So concludes my foray back into the reviewing world, hopefully many more will be showing up!

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Arcadia [9.2/10]

2009-08-21T18:45:00.007-04:00

http://www.realtruepern.acornrack.com/

Howdy, howdy, howdy! How are ya? It's time for another review on this fine.... Saturday? Yes! Real life is always a bother at times so this review is coming on a wondrous Saturday! Hopefully these random extension days won't happen very often but enough about myself, you're here to read about Arcadia, a Pern RP!

Now I first let me say I know very very little about Pern, and have never RP'ed on a Pern website. So if I harp on something that makes total sense in the Pern world then feel free to laugh at my lack of knowledge and move on! (Pern is dragons, right?)

The AD for the site is nice and neat and this site is already after my own heart. "You don't need to know Pern" , well I'll fit right in! And this is a good example of even if you don't have a pretty image, your AD can be just as good or even much better than one with a flashy image.

Lets hop on our dragons, fry up that evil aristocrat and... YOUR WISH HAS BEEN GRANTED!!! It's time for the review! (Yes... my dragon reference was from DBZ. I told you I don't know Pern!)

First Impression:
Is this a scene from Gladiator? This looks like the Fields of Elysium. Anyway, the layout looks nice enough I personally would have preferred it if it was a bit smaller but it looks like the owner was trying to use up all the space which is fine.

The Public Area:
There's lots of information but I must say, I FINALLY KNOW WHAT THREADS ARE! I've looked at some other Pern sites before but for some reason the explanation of what the heck "Thread" is absent. Also everything is nice and neatly organized and its nice to see all this detail.

In the ranks portion of the information, I would like to have seen the actual rank names in bold, in the previous pages (to this point) there has been bolding so it seems odd to not have any on this page.

In the Dragon Descriptions I really like how you posted the colors, some of them are a bit hard to make out because of the background BUT I still love the idea.

The Application:
You get the rules and application guide before you can apply which is a good idea, and I have no problems with any of it. So to the actual application!

As like the site is, the application is neat and organized, having OOC, Character and Dragon sections.

The Private Area:
Layout Change! Everything again, looks nice and neat and everything appears to be on the the initial page load. There isn't any extra pages in the private area that I can see, but all the info you need is in the public area which is great (aside from like the Firelizards and Calendar page).

Forums:
The forums (as expected!) are nice, and organized well. I would have liked to see some sort of jumping between areas or using a script to divide and show only certain areas. Also the descriptions of the area are both in the forum list and the topic list which is something I've never seen before.

Other:
The Member list is nice and yet very simple, and of course is neat so it works well with the theme of the whole site.

Member profiles are very nice, giving you information in sections and using code to only display the certain portions you want. This also goes for the dragons, so it's like a section in a section with a section in a section....? It's good, that's all that matters!

Roleplaying:
From what I read on the forums I categorize the roleplaying on this site to be Intermediate to High Intermediate.

Rating: 9.2 out of 10 Points.

For those wondering on how this affects the rankings I'm bumping everyone else up a point. Consider it a "Mini Score Review" but this site deserves a spot in the top! There isn't really much bad I can say about the site except for the forums not living up to the rest of the greatness. So there you have it, another site reaches the 9's. This Pern site has a bright future so join it TODAY! ... I'll post the bunny picture again if you do!

This Site has the Jello Seal of Approval!

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Serenity [6.7/10]

2009-08-18T13:37:00.009-04:00

http://www.acornrack.com/seren/

It's Tuesday so that means it's time for another Jello Review! Sorry I don't have an in-depth movie reference or random TV reference for today's site, but that's because today's site is... Serenity! And no, I'm not talking about the blind girl from the Yu-Gi-OH series (Hah! Got one in there!). Today site is another foray into the world of horses, herds, and territories.

First off I'd like to apologize if I start coming off a bit harsh, I've been battling illness so my annoyance levels are already high with coughing every 3 seconds. But anyway, the AD starts of honest in admitting that an equine RP isn't the most original! As always I skipped down to the bullet points first before reading the text, and so far it seems like every newer horse RP out there. Point system, herds, etc. I think the ability to be a domesticated or wild horse is new... but truthfully I lack the expertise to fully know.

Now put on those boots cowboy, saddle up and lets ride off into the sunset! .... After you read the review of course, of course, which this special horse will endorse, of course, the famous Mr. Ed!

First Impression:
Tornado!! Antonio Banderas was looking for you! The only problems I see are rather small. I see no link back to the index page and the other one small thing I have is that I shouldn't have tried to read the blurry text on the main image, made my eyes hurt a bit.

The Public Area:
The About page I always love these pages, and not because I'm a closed in outcast of the social world and love to keep track of people I can talk to of the opposite gender.

(What? I go outside... when the sun goes down, SOMETIMES...)

But I feel that these pages help connect with members a bit because knowing a little information about the admins makes them seem a bit more down to earth which is both good and bad.

Rules page is fine except for one part, where you talk about posting images and stuff. Those who lack any HTML knowledge will not know to take out the asterisks so you should probably tell them to. (I realize some people can deduce to take out the asterisks but if you've read my reviews before you know my faith in humanity is lacking.)

The Application:
It's nice and simple, so pretty much what you would expect from an application.

The Private Area:
Artax did you run away from Atreyu AGAIN?! And layout change! It seems like the links are kinda squished together here though, most notably in the recent posts section. I suppose there really isn't much you can do about that though. I suppose it's funny to note that I had to look through the links twice because I forgot "boards" is another way to say "forums."

I see a few pages in the private area but I cannot access them so I can't go over their point system or anything. Going over the point system is probably what I was most looking forward to actually, but no matter we'll just move onto the next section!

Forums:
There is a good amount of forums with good descriptions, but it's just one giant text wall of pain. There is no separation between areas and like I said it's all one continuous text-fest. Again it seems everything is squished in a little area so perhaps an expansion of the layout is needed to benefit the site as a whole.

Other:
The member list is just your basic list, not really anything done here to spruce it up. So probably something to look into.

The member profiles are at least organized very well because as I picked some random profiles there weren't filled out at all.

Roleplaying:
From what I read on the forum I categorize the roleplaying on this site to be Intermediate to Advanced.

Rating: 6.7 out of 10 Points

First of all make note that I'm giving them a bit of slack, compensating a bit for my irritability while being ill. Most likely if I was able to see the point system it would be a solid or close to 7 rating. Overall the site seems to be in the cookie cutter mold of horse RPs. I'm not really saying this is bad, but I didn't really see anything new or exciting on the site.

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Water Frontier [7.3/10]

2009-08-13T01:37:00.007-04:00

http://waterfrontier.acornrack.com/

Space: The Final Frontier, these are the voyages of the Starship Jello-prise. Its everlasting mission, to bring order to the Acornrack world. To seek out new innovative RP ideas. To boldly rate all sites where no man has gone before.

*cue Star Trek:TNG theme*

Okay, okay that was a long intro but it DOES tie into today's review of a RP site called Water Frontier! This is a space cowboy or space pirate RP that will probably cater to the fans of the anime Outlaw Star or Cowboy Bebop and if you're not sure what those are perhaps you should read a review of it... from a certain group on AR tentatively called The Acornrack Anime Rangers (That means the name might be changed!), that a certain someone is contributing on.

Anyway, the AD for the site is nice enough. The picture is neat and the story block is.. well a story block. This site really does remind me of Outlaw star kind of... but maybe that's because I just watched it a few days ago.

See you Space Cowboy... as we hyperjump into the review!

.........KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHNN!!!!
(I know you were waiting for that one!)

First Impression:
I'm starting to get thirsty... But I think this is one of the few sites that has a more light color scheme, and to me it kinda looks like a website for a water plant. If you don't read any of the text anyway, like "Water Fronter: Your leading water purifier and provider in the Arizona area!" (No I don't live in Arizona) For me the layout seems a bit too stiff but for some it may work.

The Public Area:
For me the little blurb on the Index page is what I would have put on the AD, and used what's on the AD for the main story section for the site. Maybe it's just me but ADs that are short and sweet always seem to be much better in the long run because it's an advertisement and not a thesis.

Ranks page, there isn't really a problem here just that I was surprised that since this is a sort of a "Wild Wild Space" RP I was surprised to not find a rogue or freelancer rank. Someone who takes on jobs that are too political for mainstream companies that would damage sponsors and whatnot.

Rules page, one of my favorite pages because I get to whine a bunch! So here we go! Rule number one! You say use realism and then pull out the eye color thing, and talk about technology in the same paragraph. So have multicolored contacts is a no-no? Or a formerly blind man from an accident who has robotic eyes that happen to reflect and act as a mini-prism! I'd argue that mankind would invent cosmetic luxuries before decent space ships any day.

And I'd probably rather play an alien of some kind instead of a human in a space RP, because it's spaaaace! So perhaps you should look into that as a suggestion.

Otherwise everything else looks fine.

The Application:
Neat and organized and generally your standard gambit. However, the RP sample actually has a small backstory so you're not just thrown into a whirling poop-storm of confusion and misery! So nice touch there.

The Private Area:
Layout stays the same more or less just the addition of the cbox on the left hand side if you look at the picture. Anyway there isn't any private pages to look at that I see so we shall move onto the next section!

Forums:
Good amount of forums and descriptions and I like the divisions and pictures and things. Overall all is good, no problems here!

Other:
Member list is a little different in that you just see the avatar picture with their name underneath and their rank and faction while being sorted into pirates, tankers, or civillians.

Member profiles are generally filled out well and organized nicely also. but more or less the same as you'd see in any decent site.

Roleplaying:
From what I read on the forums I categorize the roleplaying on thie site to be Intermediate to Advanced.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10 Points.

Overall a good site and even though it's taking on a genre that I don't see much of, it's what exactly I'd expect it to be. Which means I'm saying there isn't anything I found to be outstanding or anything that made think, "I didn't think about doing it like that." or anything of the sort. Probably a huge hit with any Cowboy Bebop or Outlaw Star fans though.

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Riylon [7.9/10]

2009-08-10T23:07:00.006-04:00

http://www.acornrack.com/riylon

Holy month-of-absence Batman! Yes, after a month of whining about college and school and stuff I AM BACK IN FULL FORCE! ....Okay not FULL force but I've decided that one month is WAAAY too long for me to stop posting so here we are, with a review of Riylon! Riylon is a fantasy, (mostly) freeform RP that promises loads of fun with 20 different races! Yeah I'm a bit rusty, can ya tell?

Anyway, the AD for the site is alright... truth be told I actually directly went to the points that were written out before I actually read the backstory. But when I did read the backstory it was more or less fine and dandy.

Let me put on my sexy leggings and lets grab a few customers, shall we? No? Well lets just get into the review then!

First Impression:
For some reason I feel like playing Dune... While I assume this is stylistic choice, the page is brown and... yeah. I don't have any real problems with the layout on functionality just that so far all I see is brown. Also, the little text there, I assume there trying to portray something deep and profound but isn't that the DEFINITION of darkness? But I digress, lets move on.

The Public Area:
The Races page is particularly impressive, I do have to admit that I didn't read through ALL of them. However, I am confident that if they spent this much time on them they should all be very well detailed.

The Magic page is also very nicely written as well, and now I feel like playing Magic: The Gathering (You hear that Wizards of the Coast, I play the game and you can sponsor me! ... HEY! Don't you be Jellocycling me!) Anyway, the magic page is nice.

Everything else in the public area seems to be peachy keen and I have no problems or anything outstanding to report on. So we move on to the next section!

The Application:
More or less your standard gambit, so no odd snafoo's or flashy shinies to report on. (I think I've reached my limit on odd random words on this article!)

The Private Area:
The Layout is just altered slightly for the c-box on the left hand side but it more or less looks the same! I don't see any new private pages to read and look over but there is a nice little affiliate thing in the lower left hand corner. So overall it's fine.

Forums:
Decent amount of forums with good descriptions for each forum here, I don't really mind the lack of hotlinks here because there isn't too many forums. If there are more to be added though I would suggest adding them in later to help with the navigation.

Other:
The member list is a nice and neat table with the normal things you'd find.

The profiles are nice and simple as well, but nice and neat. Overall they look nice without trying too hard to look flashy.

Roleplaying:
From what I read on the forums I categorize the roleplaying on this site to be intermediate to advanced. Though since this is my review I'm throwing in a few more cents, in that the way some of the posts are formatted makes it difficult to read.

Rating: 7.9 out of 10 Points.

Overall this is a good fantasy based RP I suppose it also have some post-apocalyptic tones and other genres as well if you pick the certain roles in the site. There are some good and detailed things here like the magic and the species that I really liked as well. Anyway like I said, overall good.

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Labyrinth: Hell on Earth [8.9/10]

2009-07-05T14:59:00.006-04:00

http://www.acornrack.com/lab/

All you peeps out there that didn't bother to watch me on Ustream will get to read this wondrous review of Labyrinth: Hell on Earth here on the web! This little wonder is a Dark, Futuristic, Religon... and some other good stuffs... RP all rolled up into one. Like a Wonder Ball! What's inside it? Who knows, lets eat the chocolate together!

So the AD for the site, I would have liked to see their name in the title.. so I could find it, but otherwise I love the little cartoon to make it look like ye olde cartoon times. Anyway the AD is good overall and there is a trailer for it but I really am not a big fan of trailers unless they're made by the owner with original content and not just a bunch of clips mashed together.

So.. it's time to go onward to the review! ... What, you want a semi-funny joke to segway in? Fine... What's blue and smells like red paint? BLUE PAINT! NOW ONWARDS TO THE REVIEW!

First Impression:
The secret is in the frosting, but I'll never tell! Anyway the layout is nice and compact, things appear and disappear... and then appear again.

The Public Area:
The first thing that comes to my mind as I read these pages is that the text should probably be justified, and the paragraphs I would maybe like them spaced out. Other than that it looks like it's overall fine. Truthfully though as I've read through all the pages at this point there isn't much for me to say except for I would suggest to justify the text. So lets move onwards to the next portion of the review maybe I'll have something to bash on in there! Oh wait, there is one small thing... the guest link doesn't work for me! I have to manually type in the guest/guest combination.

The Application:
The application is easy and simple, most of the profile work is done in the site.

The Private Area:
Layout Change Tiiime! Now there's another lady, but looks like she'll do more than just tell you that secret... she'll get you all cool with that fan! Anyway it looks fine, you can still see the news header in initial screen load so I don't really have a problem with all the things being so large. I don't see any private pages to look at but I would like to point out that the butterfly is a link back to the home page!

Forums:
Good amount of forums here, as well as the descriptions they have the hotlinks going down but none going back up so I'd maybe like to see that. Also I see there are special marking for who can go in where and whatnot, so if there's a way to make that more prominent I think that will help in the long run.

Other:
For the member list you get a list of pictures for each person on the site! This actually is something on what I consider to be ideal, you don't REALLY need to know post count and the last time they logged in. (Well the admins might but they have their own function in the admin section) All you School RPs out there take notice: Make your memberlist like a yearbook! Looks fancy and I think it's something rather new.

The member profiles are fancy with the whole javascript of things collapsing and such, maybe the basic portion could be automatically expanded since it is just the basic stuff. Oh and the member image changing thing is nice as well, just click the arrow and another picture! Lots of fun Javascript on the site... man if the code messes up I bet somebody dies in the mess of code.

Roleplaying:
From what I read on the site I categorize the roleplaying on the site to be Intermediate to Advanced.

Rating: 8.9 out of 10 Points.

Overall the site is great, little things here and there and lots of flashy Javascript. If you haven't noticed lately, the trend is if I have less to say and I'm more "filler writing" then you're getting a better score. It's just how it works, but anyway... just a few things here and there that I had problems with and some of them apparently are unable to be worked around so you'll just have to deal with it.

As I've decided to not have any duplicate scores once I hit 9.0, this is where Labyrinth shall stand. So Naveluce continues to be the 9.0 to beat, but this was VERY close. Get on that bilge Naveluce or else your 9.0 ship will be sunk soon...

This Site has the Jello Seal of Approval!

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Felix Felicis [9.1/10]

2009-06-30T01:18:00.007-04:00

http://www.acornrack.com/felix/

Hello my subjects! This is the long awaited review of...Felix Felicis a Harry Potter site! Now don't stop reading on me just yet! I'm sure this site has many things that separate itself from the other ones out there! Quick shout out to @MoonwaterBlu who is a follower of mine on Twitter! Those who are part of my social network have more pull when I decide to be lazy... or not.

Anyway, the AD for this site is short and simple. I think JACFC has a similar concept... or maybe that was another HP site, that basically everything is wiped and you just have the HP universe without the HP part. And as always I love the bullet points, 5 sentences is way too much information for me to process in one sitting... (Joking... mostly...)

Side Note: Can I claim a page for House Points for the Jello Faction?

Now I shall launch you into the review! Expelliarmus! *wave and a woosh and a BOOM!*

First Impression:
That telephone booth reminds me of the Wonka-vator! Anyway the layout looks fine overall and I have no major problems on first glance.

The Public Area:
On the index page is what I'd like to call the "Extended AD Edition" of the site. Basically what most people put on the main AD page is HERE, this is a GOOD thing. As I've probably said numerous times... my attention span is very little unless it is engaging. So if I personally have made it to this point the lore-y information is now filed under "engaging" or "important."

Rules page is overall fine, and I love the separate tabs for house spaces. And believe it or not that's the end for the public area stuff, not too much to take in and so far so good!

The Application:
Knowing what you can and cannot apply for comes first before you get to the actual application, and rats my personal favorites are gone. I was always an Ancient Runes or Potions Prof. I had fun doing the weekly lessons and stuff when I RP'd Harry Potter once upon a time.

Anyway, the application overall looks very good. Again with those lovely tabs! Still good and we're moving into the private area.

The Private Area:
Layout expansion! No major problems, everything is in initial screen load and again... I love these tabs! I don't see any new private pages to look at so we'll have to move on the next section!

Forums:
Gah! No super spiffy tabs for the forums here? =( In any case there are a good amount of forums and descriptions BUT they have the hotlinks which of course is the substitute. Individual post separation looks great as well.

Other:
Member list looks spiffy, everyone has their own little tab. The member profiles are very well done as well, lots of spiff and dish! (I have no idea what I mean there...)

Roleplaying:
From what I read on the forums I categorize the roleplaying on this site to me Intermediate to Advanced.

Rating: 9.1 out of 10 Points

Needless to say this site is very good! The only reason why it isn't any higher is because JACFC is the stopper. JACFC cannot go any higher in score because I cannot see the private area so the 9.2 slot will probably be forever given to JACFC. But anyway, overall this site gets a super high five? (Anyone want to think up a Jello catch phrase action thing?)

This Site has the Jello Seal of Approval!

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Abditi Caelus [7.1/10]

2009-06-23T21:00:00.006-04:00

http://www.acornrack.com/abditi/

Look what day it is! It's a good day for a review and that means there should be a review up on this blog thingy right? Well I best get to it then! Today I'll be reviewing a site called Abditi Caelus, a fantasy, elemental...y site that involves a bit of reincarnation of the elemental gods.

Anyway, the AD for the site is written well and interested me enough in the site itself but the text color is a bit light for me and I had to highlight the text to really read it. But otherwise it's a good AD, I always like overviews and such since with all the pretty words and fluff I tend to lose concentration. Sometimes... Maybe... Okay MOST of the time...

Maybe I should upgrade my status to Jello Deity! ... I'll have to look into that, but anyway onto the review!

First Impression:
Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your ... hair! ... What'd you think I was gonna say? Crazy people.... Anyway I have no problems with the layout it looks nice and all the links are easily seen.

The Public Area:
The index page double functions as to where you can read the story in lore form, as opposed to the AD form and it is always a good idea to be efficient with pages.

Rules page, just a small note first of all if I haven't said it yet. Placement of the links and information is important, as it directs the visitor how you want them to see the site as a form of soft control. Anyway, rules are short and sweet. Also I like the whole "fade to black" thing, it's good visual reinforcement even though it is the rules.

Races page, text... there's lots of text. Which is good and bad, first of all I'd prefer hotlinks to each section of the races so I don't have to scroll down past everything to find what I really want to know. Also, I personally would have put the short descriptions first and then linked to the detail as opposed to how it is now. (The quick info should be hotlinked as well...) Oh, and even though it seems redundant a link on the quick info back to the detailed ones would be nice.

Note on Wyverns: Overall fine, not a fan on the whole land based horse wyvern though. Wyverns should be as they are, legendary reptillian winged beasts. But I digress...

Culture page, the only thing I'd like to see is the separate cultures to have larger text for their names. Like "Amid" maybe in a larger font size insead of just white. This way one can quickly scroll down to whatever they want to see. Festivals page should link back to the culture page, for the same reasons as the races.

No real important comments on the other pages.

The Application:
Overall looks nice, the descriptions for what you should put in each section are writen on site as opposed to inside the text area. NO ROLEPLAY SAMPLE REQUIRED.

The Private Area:
Layout Chaaange! It's more like a remix really, but anyway... everything looks fine here the generally everything is within the first screen though the image does take up a bit more space than I generally like. And one small thing, your affiliates are waaaaaaaaaaaay at the bottom. Just pointing that out, won't affect the score.. lol

There are no new pages to review as far as I can see, so lets move on to the next section of the review which is of course...

Forums:
Good amount of forums and descriptions here, and they have of course my preached about hotlinks! The separation between posts is a little odd for me, there isn't any really distinction aside from a long line of -'s.

Other:
Member list is just the default listing more or less, so nothing flashy but sometimes simple is just as good as flashy.

Member profiles are generally filled out well and is organized into different sections. Again nothing too fancy here except some table coding.

Roleplaying:
From what I read on the forums I categorize the roleplaying on this site to be Intermediate to Advanced.

Rating: 7.1 out of 10 Points

There's a good amount of things going for this site, mostly the plot the layout for me is just okay but sometimes becomes a hinderance. Also with sometimes odd navigation routes and the rather lengthy pages of info it can discourage people from joining. But overall the site is good, and the idea is solid.

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Nocturne [7.7/10]

2009-06-18T22:10:00.009-04:00

http://nyx.acornrack.com/

Time for another review my subjects, as I'm trying to keep my schedule intact here! Anyway today I'll be reviewing a site called Nocturne, an RP based on the books of P.C. and Kristin Cast (I don't know who P.C. is... but it's on the AD so maybe other people would know) .

I really should catch up on reading because I haven't heard of this series either but it appears to be a school RP with vampyres and such and reminds me of an RP I made a long time ago aside from the whole goddess blessing tattoo...thing.

The AD is a bit hit and miss for me personally, I didn't really care about the Death Note (cue anime joke here) as it wasn't as interesting for me as the points below it. Most importantly the announcement that the site was being reviewed by yours truly. *cough cough* I love being advertised! .... ! .... !

Now lets move onto the review but first, I'll take a potato chip... and eat it! (Jello points if you got that reference!)

First Impression:
I think one of those buildings is trying to tell me something. Overall the layout looks fine, I'm always a fan of things being centered as opposed to things being oriented to one side though.

The Public Area:
The index page has something that I think seems more suited for the AD, like this was a second half to it that was cut out and pasted on the front page.

The Chicago link name is a bit misleading, it's really the story for the site.

The Vampyres page is overall written well and I have no problems with it.

FAQ page is self explanatory.

Rules page is fine as well, short and sweet and I have no problems.

The Application:
Basic application which seems to be all the rage nowadays, but for the ranks perhaps popping up in a new window would be better. (Like how you did the user profiles) RP SAMPLE REQUIRED.

Also, I don't remember reading anywhere about anything about the formers... or whatever. So I'm completely confused here, as you claim no book knowledge is necessary maybe bolding that section about formers would be good.

The Private Area:
Look the time changes with your computer at the top! Oh and there's a layout change also... also a thing of note is the plot related image/letter thing which is always nice to have. Images and thing to support your plot or the site in general. The private area pages have to do with solely IC things which is great. Small note though, since you have a Japanese class I'm going to look into it and slam you if there is wrong information. (As is my duty as a Japanese Lang. and Culture major =P)

Forums:
First thing I noticed was that the forums are separated with a code! This makes me very excited and I don't have to harp on hotlinks here! Anyway, there's a good amount of forums with nice descriptions.

Other:
Member list looks nice, everything is organized nicely with the standard info. Plus each rank has separate backgrounds for your listing. Also it's nice that the profiles pop up into a new window instead of going to a whole new page.

Member profiles are nicely organized and generally filled out nicely. The little music player on the top is also nifty on how it fits in there. Also Jello points for Mute for having the House theme song as her song on there. =)

Roleplaying:
From what I read on the forums I categorize the roleplaying on this site to be Intermediate to Advanced.

Rating: 7.7 out of 10 Points.

Overall the site is nice, with fun little things here and there for the detail loving person (like me!). And the whole Nyx goddess was nice but maybe this is just a bad side effect of your site being similar to one of my old ones that I'm just not really seeing that initial pull to join. That or it could just be that vampires just aren't my thing... It's a little complicated to explain, the X-factor that I look for in sites.
Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Blood & Iron [7.0/10]

2009-06-17T22:16:00.010-04:00

http://www.acornrack.com/ohmercy/

(Any of you pick up that the image is widescreen!?!)

Alright my subjects it's time for another review on this fine day! I'm going to be taking a look at Blood & Iron a dark, vampire, wolf, werewolf RP based on the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs. A quick note that the person who submitted the site gave me the link to their AD which of course is always beneficial to me so I don't have to track it down. So if any of you are keeping notes before you submit your site, something to write down there...

Anyway! I've not heard of this series so I'm taking this site at face value so you can whine all you want about how it's not true to certain details and it will simply fly over my head. The AD for the most part is written decent, maybe it's just because I've seen so many of these sites now that I'm over the "You find more of your kind..." approach, but since it's based on a book series I guess I can't fault them there for it.

I've no funny or witty comment here to segway into the actual review... so, WAKKA WAKKA WAKKA!!!!

First Impression:
Someone better get rid of that 5 o'clock shadow! (Get it... there's a clock...) I have no real problems with the layout aside from one small nitpick. There is a link back to the index page however you have to click the main image. Maybe it's just because it's 12 AM now but I'd generally like to not have to search for the link back home.

The Public Area:
The index page is portion of the AD and as you all know (hopefully...) this is perfectly fine!

Werewolves page is overall fine though some places look like they might need some spacing in between certain paragraphs. But I suppose that's just a stylistic preference on my account.

(Grammar: Last note on the Vampire page. "...excepting AIDS and Cancer" )

I'm a bit confused on the Fae's... are they humanoids or ogres or what now? You name all these things and names but I don't know what the true form of these people are... or I missed it. In either case it probably needs to be more prominent.

(Grammar: Walker's page "... ability to scent out emotions.")

The Application:
The application is rather basic and it's my preference to be able to weed out those mary-sues before they're on the site rather than afterwards due to this. RP SAMPLE REQUIRED.

The Private Area:
Layout Change! There aren't any new information pages that I see but the new layout is nice and fits in with the old one as well. Since there isn't any pages to comment on, it's a good time to point out at the time I was looking over the site there was chatter in the cbox and members online.

Forums:
Good amount of forums and nice descriptions here however it's time to play my old record that there should be hotlinks to each section. Again here also has where I think the forum descriptions should be spaced out more from each other but another stylistic choice I assume. Also the layout of the name, poster and description will take some time to getting used to as they are scrunched together.

Other:
Member list looks nice and give you a link directly to their history application link but otherwise you get the normal info and avatar.

Member profiles are generally nicely filled out and well organized, with multiple picture slots and other fun stuff.

Roleplaying:
From what I read on the forums I categorize the roleplaying on this site to be Intermediate to Advanced.

Rating: 7 out of 10 Points.

Overall a good site, just little things here and there that took things away. Also with the boom of vampire sites and other dark RPs probably on the rise with Twilight and the like the Fae's and Walkers gave a small sense of individuality but for me even that wasn't enough.

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Glenbard [6.3/10]

2009-06-11T21:25:00.011-04:00

http://glenbard.acornrack.com/

Alright my subjects, it's Thursday + a few days so you know what that means... Time for another review! Despite computer problems I'm still cranking these out but it figures that when I was basically on vacation for a week computer is perfectly fine and now BOOM! Problems. But I digress, this time we're reviewing a site called Glenbard!

Glenbard is an RP influenced by a few books and that make the concept of the site original in terms of that I've never seen one like it before. Maybe I'll have to coin a new term for this type of RP... Human Condition RP perhaps?

Anyway, the AD for the site is very nicely written and the plot idea is as I said original and quite intriguing. It's like Lord of the Flies but in a pre-civilized island. But anyway, grab your pitchforks and join forces with your local orphanage! The teenagers are coming! The teenagers are coming! (BOOM! I went colonial on your ass! ... and an orphan joke?)

First Impression:
Staring Contest, GO! Anyway, I have no major problems with the layout but seeing that the screen is mostly the image and not information is a little off for me. I generally like most of the page to be information maybe like 40:60, image to text ratio.

The Public Area:
The index page is the story from the AD and again I have no problem with this so lets move on to the next section.

The Plot page gives a little more in depth of the setting a bit but what I personally got most out of it is that the main antagonists in this RP are the Deuces Wilde gang.

The Setting page gives us the setting, not much else to say here.

Rule Page, no problems with any of the rules here. I have a minor "thing" with one of the rules but as I'm trying to be impartial I'll just keep you guessing!
The Application:
The application is rather simple, for some sites it works and some it doesn't. And I'm on the fence about this one. Putting everything about your character in a single box seems way too simple for me.

The Private Area:
Layout Change! In fact it's SO different it's actually kind of disorienting, I see two new pages... I think. The site function links and the site info links should probably be separated, even though there are only two new info links it should be clear that it's info.

The two other pages in the private area are self explanatory so no need to comment on them here!

Forums:
Good amount of forums and descriptions here, but there are no hot links and as always I advocate them especially for lots of forums like they have here. The hover color link is the same as the background of the forum (The brownish...color) so that threw me off a bit.

Other:
Member list page is nice avatar and basic info.

Member profiles are organized nicely and generally well filled out.

Roleplaying:
I am unable to give an opinion on this, the individual topics were blocked from guest access.

Rating: 6.3 out of 10 Points.

The idea for the site was good... and then it sorta went downhill from there, it's hard to expand on something like this I suppose since it's a good plot + city RP + battery currency? . I can probably count on one hand how many city RPs I consider "successful" so this is difficult genre to make your mark in.

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Macabre Re-review [8.9/10]

2009-06-10T17:18:00.011-04:00

http://macabre.acornrack.com/
FIRST OF ALL: Take a look at the picture (Right click on it and "View Image") Now look at the Google AD.... BEST THING EVER... RIGHT!?!?!

It's time to take a second look at Macabre due to certain factors I'll be conducting this re-review slightly different. In this re-review I'll just be comparing and contrasting the comments I had made before and re-comment on those subjects as I assume the re-review is more for the returning site owner to obtain more insight and criticism and not the average Jello Viewer.

Find the full FIRST review here:
http://arrev.blogspot.com/2009/05/macabre-8710.html

Right off the bat I see the menu has been made into a collapsible menu which makes navigation much easier. So that has been taken care of so yay!

I'm going to simply assume that all the spelling errors I pointed out were fixed, so I'll be looking for new ones! So I'll be "taking a peak within" the pages to find any.

My general comment about genetics still stands.

In the fighting page "* apostrophe refers to objects/items that ward/avert/combat the darks" still confuses me... maybe I'm not seeing something I'm supposed to. I see no apostrophe's ( ' ) in the text below nor the word apostrophe or even any asterisks (*).

There is still no info for Important Darks or Angels (Micheal or Gabriel, anyone?)

As for the rest of the site it's still as good as it was before, as this is a re-review I was trying to point out some new things or additions that may be beneficial. However I wasn't really to come up with much and I feel rather weird that this post will be so short because of the newer re-review format. But anyway onwards to the verdict!

Rating: 8.9 out of 10 Points.
Overall Change: +0.2 Points.

The reason for the small change was that Macabre was already such a good site and the improvement to the aesthetics can only count for so much, and with Naveluce as the 9.0 barrier aesthetics alone can't surpass it.

This Site has the Jello Seal of Approval!

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Fandomonium [6.8/10]

2009-05-27T22:42:00.002-04:00

http://www.acornrack.com/desert/

The next site up on the list is a little site called Fandomonium, basically what you got here is an underlying plot and then... THROW EVERY CHARACTER YOU CAN THINK OF INTO IT! Yeah, that's pretty much it, simple and awesome all at the same time. Though I can already think of some inherent problems as I've read through the site somewhat we'll cross that bridge when we come to it!

The AD is written well, keeps the reader interested with odd tidbits here and there along with the required story on how this all came into being. There's also a trailer if you so wish to view them, I personally didn't.

Anyway, grab your forbidden long lost katanas, your utility belt and dodge that Kamehameha, because it's time to move onwards to the review!

First Impression:
There's a lot of trees here for a desert.... Overall the layout is fine, since it's in the desert it keeps with the theme and everything is kept simple.

The Public Area:
The Index page is just a part of the AD and again I have no problem with it, so we move on to the next section!

The City page is fine one small thing though is that I would have liked to have the map pop up in a new window. Or get a script to show/hide the map on the same page.

The Rules page, and now we cross the first bridge. The rules themselves are divided into IC and OoC rules but this is the rule that's a problem. "Any powers that allow a player to escape or call for help will be stripped..." So lets go through the great Superman's powers shall we?

Flying - Taken away
Freeze Breath - Taken away
Super Strength - Taken away (Can swim/row quickly and escape)
Heat Vision - Taken away (Can signal planes or whatnot)
X-ray Vision - Keep it!
Telescopic Vision - Taken away (Can see people coming to signal them)
Super Speed - Taken away (Running across the water is escaping!)
Super Breath - Taken away (I'm sure if there were enough odd waves, cyclones, etc someone would notice)
Hypnosis - Taken away (Could suggest people use their collective abilities in a way to help him escape)
Cellular Absorption - Keep it!

So, the almighty Superman can only peep at people and absorb... stuff. (Another good example might be any of the Z-Warriors from DBZ, they use their life energy to fly and such... you going to take away their life before they even get there?)

FAQ & STC's -I'm not sure how the whole random event thing will work in this kind of RP... to me it doesn't make much sense to have it.

The rest of the pages I don't consider content, so we move onto the next section!

The Application:
Pretty much the standard, however the boxes to fill in things are small. They take up maybe 35% of the space that's available. ROLEPLAY SAMPLE REQUIRED.

The Private Area:
Layout is slightly different with images but more or less the same. I didn't see any private pages to look at but I do have a small comment. There are various links outside the side and I would have liked if they opened new windows also.

Jello's 2nd Rule: When links go to outside links they should be in new windows! (Maybe I should eventually list all of these one day...)

Forums:
Decent amount of forums and description, for this site I'm torn between the hotlink thing here. I'd put them in for aesthetic reasons and just because you have the option to freely extend the forums without any navigation problems in the future. But I suppose it's not really neccessary in this situation.

Other:
The Member list page is pretty much the standard nowadays, avatar and the basic info.

The Member profiles are generally filled out nicely as well.

Roleplaying:
From what I read on the forums I categorize the roleplaying on this site to be Intermediate.

Rating: 6.8 out of 10

Overall the site is good, however while TMoW has the whole anime thing, in Fandomonium you can get some really REALLY odd pairings. Like Juggernaut and say... Steve Urkel dueling to the death! While it seems amusing it would be rather odd in the long run. With that said its weakness is also the strong point so Fandomonium is a double-edged sword and how its run will sway it one way or the other.

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Penumbra [8.0/10]

2009-05-25T23:25:00.007-04:00

http://pen.acornrack.com/

Greetings on this Tuesday! I hope you all had a great Memorial Day and all that good stuff but lets all settle back down now from the 4-day weekend and get your nose back down and sniffing the scent of a new review! (I tried to get a wolf reference in here, didn't work so well.)

Anyway, the site I'm reviewing today is called Penumbra a wolf RP! The AD for the site gives a decent backstory on why said wolves are on an island and why no human interference is there. Near the end of the AD I saw some things that interested me and I'll be ready to pounce on. (pounce is more of a feline word isn't it? ...FOILED AGAIN!)

Noses to the ground now people and get ready for the hunt, for the review!

Quick shout out to Tess my loyal follower on Twitter, Jell-O Points for you and Penumbra!

First Impression:
147, 148, 149, 150 paces! "X" marks the spot! Layout is nice and I like all the colors, and the random people I talked to on the Cbox were friendly. (Or maybe I'm just that influential that people just want to be nice to me... HAH! We all have a good laugh there?)

The Content:
~~Live Chatroom - I was in there for a while and no one was using it so, I see no reason to have it there. Plus you have an auto-refreshing Cbox.~~ (Note: This was my mistake I had overlooked what its intended use was!)

Avatar List - No real comment here, I just found it amusing that the artist who will take upon drawing the looks of your wolf is named Vanity.

Inhabitants - Very nice.

Seasons - Overall nice, however if there is any seasonal differences with pups in terms of elemental affinity, (Like winter pups normally bring about fluffy wolves manifesting snowballs or things like that) or if fighting is more difficult in certain seasons for certain elements it's not explained here.

Event Calendar - Just would like to see here some maybe more styling, bold things here and there (or increase font size a smidgen) because there is quite a bit of text.

Element Specific Pages (General) - On the skill trees, for the 3rd tier, all the moves are connected. So from what I understand all the final moves are interconnected even if you chose a different path at the start? If this is so then that's something I have a problem with, it's akin to saying that since I've specialized as a kidney surgeon, brain surgery is just a walk in the park because it's all medical right?

(Side Note: I personally would go for these blessings;
Zephyr: Speed -> Agility -> Teleport -> Invisibility .
Because I'm sneaky like that, and start a renowned wolf pack of super spies!)

Fight System - Overall fine, it's not my favorite type of system but it works.

Abilities Guide - Overall fine, just a small thing to point out here. Under "The Ability Listings" section, first sentence: "If you look to your right, ..."

Rules Page - Split into various sections, overall fine no real problems here.

Packs Pages all look nice, though I don't understand why "PoW" is used for those who are in the pack but are shunned for the Embers. Maybe "court martial" or something would be a better term?

The Application:
Nice and simple here, NO ROLEPLAY SAMPLE REQUIRED!

Forums:
Good amount of forums and descriptions for each, along with hotlinks! Also I like the whole map thing, much more convenient that a separate page of its own. However, some of the actual posts though the text is a bit too narrow for me. Seems like a newspaper column and uses like 40% of the width given.

Other:
Member list is nice showing quite a bit of info in a small space, plus there's the personalized wolf avatar...thing!

Member profiles are organized well and are generally filled out nicely.

Roleplaying:
From what I read on the forums I categorize the roleplaying on this site to be Intermediate to Advanced.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10 Points

Overall the site looks very nice, and polished. Obviously a great wolf RP but I personally am still looking for the next leap in this genre. Just an overall comment here I did catch some language on the info pages and since the whole site is viewable it should be parental friendly. Such is the burden of having a public site, and having a right wing, church boy reviewing it.

This Site has the Jello Seal of Approval

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Happy B-Day Jello Emperor!

2009-05-23T15:05:00.011-04:00

Today (May 23rd) is a great monumental day! The day in which The Jello Emperor was brought into this world. I also share this wonderful achievement with greats like Ken Jennings (The Jeopardy Genius), Jewel (Is there another person whom I can connect with the female crowd with?) and Drew Carey (Current Host of The Price is Right).

So feel free to give me your well wishes in the comments. =P

Update: I'm thinking about writing another blog about just random rants and things but I don't think people care about me enough to warrant such a thing. (Evidence is already apparent in the comments section....)

Greystone [5.7/10]

2009-05-20T23:26:00.009-04:00

http://www.acornrack.com/greystone/

I have to say that Thursday keeps creeping on me fast! But anyway it's that time again so today I'm looking at a City RP called Greystone!

So the AD, personally I don't really care much for the first half no amount of description is really going to sway anyone from not joining. So what really matters in my opinion is the second part, being a relatively simple RP. Overall though it's fine City RP's are generally harder to make ADs for anyway though the text is a bit small. But lets move on towards the review!

First Impression:
Reminds me of like a postcard of some sort. Anyway the first thing I noticed was the mass area of negative space. I'd like to see like the first part of the AD maybe posted here on the main page to get rid of aforementioned negative space.

The Public Area:
The Rules page is fine, but maybe space out the rules a bit more to get rid of negative space.

The History page is fine, the story is overall decent and gives a little bit of character to the RP. Perhaps this might be something to built upon in the AD as well.

The Application:
The application so far is the most complicated part of the site, and it's your normal application. ROLEPLAY SAMPLE REQUIRED.

The Private Area:
Layout Chaaange! This private layout gets rid of all the negative space issues and is overall nice. The rest of the pages are unviewable by the guest account so I'll have to move on to the next section.

Forums:
Good amount of forums and descriptions, however the size of the forums is a bit small so maybe extend the table to maybe 70%. Also the use of hotlinks to the separate sections would be nice to curb navigation time. The text in the topic listing is a bit small though.

Other:
Member list gives you an avatar, rank, and a sentence of info. The Member profiles though are much more complex, various pictures and organized well and are generally filled out nicely.

Roleplaying:
From what I read on the forums I categorize the roleplaying on this site to be Intermediate to Advanced.

Rating: 5.7/10

Generally when I review simple oriented sites like this I tend to try to expand my thought processes a bit more and maybe explain reasons why I want a certain word here for like a paragraph to extend the length of the review a bit. (Sort of like how I'm just rambling on right here!)

With this site however I couldn't really do that just because of the type of RP and what I was able to access. So my apologies for the short review but I can't review what I can't see. With that said, it overall looked fine and I didn't really have any problems with the site in general.

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Isilme [8.5/10]

2009-05-18T22:22:00.014-04:00

http://isilme.acornrack.com/

Another Tuesday and it's time for another review! Today I'll be reviewing a site called Isilme, and just for those who actually check the AD and such often I had it written down as "Islime" for a few days before I realized it. One of my random thoughts wondering why a horse RP would be called "I Slime" ... but I suppose that's a story you'd rather I'd not tell.

While I'm not exactly the the biggest fan of horse RP's and the like I actually found the AD very intriguing. It has a nice backstory and it's written well enough to interest even someone like me. (That's intended as a compliment, though it may not really sound like it... )

Anyway, blink and nod or twitch that nose of yours to magically move out of the way before I SLIME YOU! (I Dream of Jeannie and Bewitched references, High five!)

First Impression:
For some reason that picture makes me think of The Neverending Story, except there is a flying horse instead of a flying dragon. The green color scheme is half and half for me, I don't mind the dark green background but the lighter green in the center is not my cup of tea.

The Public Area:
The Index page has some of the text transplanted from the AD, which works fine for me. There is also a bit of music and the only thing I have about music is that I really prefer them to not be on autoplay because some people may not be in a music friendly environment (Like a library or supposed to be working...) or slower connections and would hinder their experience.

The Rules page, has quite a bit of writing although the larger portion are guidelines. But even though you only have to read the rules to join, I will stampede through the text and give my comments! (Extra points for using a "horse-y word?") I really only have one comment on rule 3, I think the word count your aiming for is too low. But I don't have experience in these types of RPs so I don't know if that would make it too difficult for admins to enforce or whatever.

On Challenging Guideline 1: You say you have a point system rubric, but since it's based on writing I'm not sure how it would work in terms of fairness. So I guess my general comment is be careful with the system. I'm personally interested on how the system works, since I create new battle systems for every RP I create.

On Invasions: I'd like to see a more detailed example in the forums on how this works. (I've not seen the forums at this point if there is one in there)

On Stealth: I like this idea, it's very interesting!

I'm generally against cursing in the rules page even though you've established this as a more mature RP. This is the public area where you are still responsible for content, save the language for private area.

On Breeding #7: You state stats are settled with random dice, and I'd like to offer an idea for you to ponder. While those foals are born in different seasons, perhaps the chance of being born healthy weighs the risk of a strong offspring like such. Foal A is born in spring and gets a combat stat of: 3. Foal B is born in winter (and remains healthy) and due to harsh conditions Foal B is more suited for battle and gains +2 to combat stats due to weather conditioning. Different seasons could yield different bonuses to help the herd.

On Dragons: I'm not a huge fan of this idea although I understand the need to level the magic playing field with Equines. It all seems a bit too Eragon-y to me though.

Finally, you have hotlinks down to sections but none that go back up. My general rule is what goes down must come up! I call it the Law of Resonant Hotlinks! Okay, not really but it IS my general rule...

The FAQ Page, overall fine the item page links to the AR1 site so that should be replaced with a more current link. Also I'd also suggest to make the links in this area target separate windows for convenience for the YouTube links or those external to the site.

The Application:
Your standard application, NO ROLEPLAY SAMPLE REQUIRED.

The Private Area:
Layout Change! More or less though it's just a navigation bar extension so, don't fret!

Herd pages are overall nicely formatted and looks neat.

Another small comment, since you are an AD driven site you can afford to post private layout oriented rules and FAQ pages. By that I mean simply make a new rules page with the header, footer blocks for the private layout.

History is fine, perhaps some neater formatting would be nice though.

Adoptables and Affilates are self-explanitory. No comments here.

Contact page is fine, would like to see which characters are played by the admins though. Makes it easier for guests to pop in and ask things on the cbox/tagboard for clarification on things.

Items, Magic, Record, Magic in Battle and God Titles page link is not viewable to the guest account.

Points pages are fine for their purpose.

Forums:
Good amount of forums and description. No hotlinks but I think here is a rare balance of forums and space taken up that works without them.

Other:
Memberlist is a basic listing of users by userlevel, the profiles are generally filled out well and are organized fine.

Roleplaying:
From what I read on the forums, I categorize the roleplaying on this site to be Intermediate to Advanced.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10 Points.

To be perfectly honest I wasn't thrilled to review a horse RP, however this site has given me some hope for the genre! The site is executed very well in my opinion and is something other should try to emulate. Small improvements here and there can be made but other than that I have not much else to say.

Final Note: I'll record myself trying to speak Swedish for that contest thingy as a Dark Horse entrant! (Get it!?! Dark Horse!?!? Horses... and the RP... Oh and I'm serious, I'll be in contact with the admin probably with my entry.)

Here is my entry!

Or you can download the file here:
http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/3/8/1803698/JelloSwede.mp3

This Site has the Jello Seal of Approval

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Sunny High [5.5/10]

2009-05-13T22:38:00.004-04:00

http://www.acornrack.com/sunnyhs/

As we near towards summer vacation for all you people still in high school and such, we'll take our sights to a school that never closes for the summer! (Well maybe it does IC, I haven't actually looked at this point...) Anyway, the site I'm reviewing is Sunny High!

The AD is somewhat odd in the way that there is no "real AD." Rather it's basically an inviting sentence or two. For sites that are more reality based, (City, School, etc) these type of things actually work well. Alright everybody, grab your plate because these eggs are ready just like you ordered, Sunny High up! (Egg jokes are always full of win!)

First Impression:
The football picture reminds me of the movie Facing the Giants. Anyway, the layout is centered and the colors look fine to me. There is however a few nitpicks I have right off the start. First I'm not all that big a fan of the image overlapping the links. Second, I have no idea where the links start and end so I'd like maybe more obvious separation between them.

The Public Area:
The index page has the default text when you create a site so I'd like to see that changed maybe some sort of minor introduction.

The Rules page to me looks unfinished, the rules aren't separated clearly enough in my opinion and I think maybe rewriting the rules to be a little more formal would be nice.

The Sunny High page is just the reposting of what is found in the AD more or less.

The Application:
The application is rather short, not requiring character descriptions and what not. The trade off on the easier application is the quality of RPers sometimes suffers though, so I guess you pick your poison. NO ROLEPLAY SAMPLE REQUIRED.

(Hey! If you look closely in the image or view it directly you can see that I'm mentioned! Yay me! *cough*)

The Private Area:
Layout extension with the addition of the cbox and recent threads portion. I still have my nitpick about wanting links to be more obviously separated and look neater. If you notice though in the picture you see the scroll bar for left and right movement. That may be something to look into after other things are finished.

Otherwise I cannot comment on the rest of the areas of the site because I don't have access to them. However, I've seen enough RPs like this to know what SHOULD be on those pages.

Forums:
There is quite a bit of forums here and again it's time to play the old record, I highly advocate the use of hotlinks to allow for easy navigation especially with a large amount of forums. It may be difficult to do this without clashing with the links at the top but it is definitely worth having them.

Other:
Member list has the avatar and little bits of info on the character as always.

Profiles are organized fine and are generally filled out well.

Roleplaying:
From what I read on the forums I categorize the roleplaying on this site to be Intermediate to High Intermediate.

Rating: 5.5 out of 10 Points.

Overall the site is slightly better than average but I don't really see anything that makes it stand out from the crowd. Some parts of the site seem incomplete and other parts just need more work in general. Probably good for the more casual RPer.

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Macabre [8.7/10]

2009-05-11T22:11:00.013-04:00

http://macabre.acornrack.com/

Today on this Tuesday we're going once again into the depths of the darkness... More vampires, werewolves and slaves, Oh my! Welcome to the world of Macabre, were evil isn't isolated in a defined location but spread through the world taking your Popes!

Since it seems important for the site, perhaps would be a good time to know what macabre means. Yes, it is actually a real world so I'll wait here for you while you go off and search for the definition.

...

Back yet? Fine, if you're too lazy to do it click this link here: http://tinyurl.com/oqu4hr
(I promise it isn't one of those stupid scare things.)

...

Alrighty, know what it means now? Good! Lets move on to a short blurb about the AD! The AD is organized well and the concept and story for the site is interesting, that's more or less all I have to say about the AD. So moving on!

First Impression:
Ol' man statue, dat ol' man statue... The colors for the site are fine but already theres a little nitpick I have, more than half the site is on the bottom half of the page. Hopefully the site scales, because if my resolution was smaller the site would need like 5 or 6 complete wheel turns to see everything.

The Content:
The home page has the same info as in the AD, but no problems with that. So moving on.

I would like to point out at this point the navigation system for the site is very confusing. So I'm going to take a few minutes and figure everything out. (Okay, above Cbox = members. Below = generally non-member stuffs)

The History page is fine, it's written well and interesting if you're into the whole religion twisting thing. Onwards to the next section...

The Dark council page is fine, only one small comment... there's a grammar error. "There were too man Dark on Dark fighting..."

The Dark Court page explains how the government is set up between the races and it contains their ideals or positions on slavery, territorial boundaries and how they choose whom are rulers. Perhaps a separate title for the "ideals" section or else it's misleading. In the Devil section there is talk about a threat coming from the motherboard...

The Papacy page is fine, no problems.

The World page is more or less fine, again no problems. Just a small comment, there is comparison between the Americas and Europe but I don't remember Europe's condition really being explained. So I really have no real idea how the dynamic of the world is.

The Humans page is fine, no problems.

The Werewolves page is generally fine, though here I do have a nitpick. Mostly the werewolves shape shifting, thing. Trying to break the mold on werewolves in my opinion doesn't work, ever, especially with shapeshifting. While my definition of werewolf allows for it, (A being suffering from Lycanthropy) saying every werewolf can have abilities outside the Lycanthropy affliction doesn't work for me.

(Grammar Error: Sigmund, the 3nd ...)

The Vampires page is overall fine, vampires having telepathy is new for me but I'm not much of a vampire person so whatever.

(Spelling Error: ... "drawl" to virgins... )

The Devils page is overall fine, coding error in the images section though.

The Halfbreed page, aside from simplifying genetics to a 2 piece puzzle, I have no problems. Generally it seems like Halfbreeds get the short end of the stick... just as a general comment as well.

Fighting Page, I don't quite understand the reason for the asterisked comment, something about apostrophe referring to items or something... Next I was under the impression that generally a new moon is devoid of light considering there is no sun to reflect light off of it. So saying the phrase "light under the new moon" is a bit odd. In the Vampire portion there is no need for the comma after despite, otherwise no problems.

No problems on the Turning page.

Love page is overall fine aside from (again) turning genetics into a 2 piece puzzle.

Misc page, first it's "double edged sword" not double edge sword. Second, the currency system is confusing me. You say "Gold: 100" but 100 what? Is it based off of Tin? (Yes if you read the chart it IS based off of Tin, but as I have little faith in peoples intelligence it might be useful to write it down.)

Ranks page, generally everything is fine except for one thing. All comparisons are made to humans, but it would be beneficial to define what an "average human" can do. For instance you say this rank is 4x as fast as a human is this Usain Bolt fast or Fat Albert fast?

Laws page, grammatical error when listing the punishment for slave thieves. Spelling error in the last sentence of first paragraph, "forfeit." Otherwise the rest is fine.

Research page is fine, except for the lack of information for Important Darks and Angels.

FAQ page is generally fine, number 6 should probably be more like 5b though.

The Rules pages is overall fine, lots of writing but I've come this far so might as well continue. 3lite? It's called leet (1337) speak! (1337 5p34k FTW!) Also, just pointing out the term hentai is a rather exclusive term. "Any pornographic pictures" would be a better phrase. Again listing grammar is incorrect. (A LOCK)

Adoptables is self explanitory.

The Application:
You get a little thing in before the application like a guide of sorts and I have a nitpick about it. In the rules page you say you prefer people to not be prudes yet you say you're one, so that kind of clashes in the overall picture.

The application itself is standard fare, ROLEPLAY SAMPLE REQUIRED!

Forums:
The forums are split up over 5 areas, 4 under the cities navigation the other in the basic forums link in the basic navigation. Aside from the basic forums link being out of the way everything is fine here. Good amount of forums and descriptions for the cities and quite a bit in the OOC forum area.

Other:
Member list is fine, nothing too special here but I'm not really looking for it either.

The Profiles are generally filled out well and *points at Erik Shin's picture* Jaejoong! n_n ... *cough* ... are organized fine. (Hey I know my Tohoshinki/DBSK members!)

An interesting thing is when you log in under your "HUD" you get 4 quicklinks which I assume you can set in your profile, a nice little innovation there.

Roleplaying:
From what I read on the forums on the site I categorize the roleplaying on this site to be Advanced.

Rating: 8.7 out of 10 Points.

Overall very nice, there is really quite a bit of text to read so if there is a way to shorten it and keep the same quality it would do wonders. The main problem I have is that all these pages extend the page so perhaps if you could expand and shorten the menu with Javascript to avoid having people scroll down so much for certain pages..

This Site has the Jello Seal of Approval!

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Blood Lust v2 [8.7/10]

2009-05-06T23:07:00.003-04:00

http://www.acornrack.com/Blood_Lust/

Welcome denizens of the night to the review of this Thursday! The site I will be reviewing (or rather, re-reviewing) is Blood Lust. This is a dark, modern, vampire, lycan RP and with the assortment of random humans in there.

The AD for the site is kind of weird, the colors clash with the AR2 site so it makes it slightly harder to read. The story part of it I didn't really understand so much, how it tied into the site and what it's importance was.

In any case eat your cloves of garlic, arm yourself with a silver sword and press onwards towards the DVR to watch a rerun of The View! (Re-View ... get it? ....)

First Impression:
I think she likes me! No problems with the layout and the colors are fine as they attribute to the blood and dark nature of the site.

The Public Area:
The home page has a little blurb about the setting, no problems here.

The Rules (Laws) page is organized into 3 sections. Overall it's written very nice and I have no problems. And the problems I had before are fixed now so.. yay for them!

The Races page, lots of text and information here and obviously the Vampires and Lycans have more detail because we know what humans are like.... I think. But I really have no problems with anything on this page. If there was anything I'd nitpick at it would be that there really is quite a bit of text to read but since it's all detail, this is not so much of a problem.

The Pravus page has everything and anything you need to know about Pravus, it's districts and things like that. Everything is well written and I have no problems with it.

The Adoptables page is self explanitory.

The Application:
More or less your standard fare, however the red text on red background is difficult to read. ROLEPLAY SAMPLE REQUIRED.

The Private Area:
I'll just copy/paste from the old review since my feelings are the same at this point, I think the image at the top is different but I can't be for certain because I have a bad memory and no pictures!

"The layout is also very nice and everything has its own little place. I have no complaints, all the links are nicely organized and any clutter is taken care of because of the links across the top of the page."

Forums:
Good amount of forums and descriptions, use of hotlinks is good for easier navigation. No major problems here.

Other:
The Member list page looks nice, each member gets like a little card. This holds the avatar and other bits of info, overall nice.

(Side Note: For all you city RPs out there, if you superimpose an avatar picture to be on top of a "driver's license" I think it would be neat for the members list.)

Member profiles are generally nicely filled out and are organized fine. No problems here.

Roleplaying:
From what I've read on the forums I categorize the level of this site to be Intermediate to Advanced, leaning more on the Advanced side.

Rating: 8.7 out of 10 Points.
Overall Change: +0.2 Points.

With the new and improved version the points are bumped up slightly for fixing various errors and updating a few things. Overall very nice.

The Site has the Jello Seal of Approval!

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

New York: Hell's Kitchen [7.0/10]

2009-05-05T00:24:00.003-04:00

http://www.acornrack.com/NewYorkHK/

This week we take a look on the darker side of things... No I'm not talking about Star Wars and The Force! This RP is a city RP with gangs, the mafia and other things that go bump in the night. The site I shall be reviewing is called New York: Hell's Kitchen , obviously set in New York!

The AD for the site is short and sweet and for some reason I think about Yu-Gi-OH! I'll play my cards right though and just stick to the AD for now, as I said though the AD covers the basics of the site and I have no real problems with it.

Anyway, grab your frying pan and cooking utensils and LEARN TO MAKE SPAGHETTI TO ORDER AND SOME -bleep-ING RISOTTO! ...Ahh wait, wrong Hell's Kitchen... but feel free learn how to make risotto and send it to me anyway.

(40 Minutes Later with a Hell's Kitchen Episode watched...)

First Impression:
Where the heck is Gordon Ramsay!?! *cough* I mean, Yay for Statue of Liberty! I have no major problems with the layout, the monochrome is a bit dull, but I understand the reasons for it with the site setting being a dark city RP. So again, no major problems.

The Content:
The main page has a small blurb about the site, this is different than the AD but has the same feel. No problems.

The Rules page, everything is explained nicely enough. I have no problems with this page... though I did have to google what a "scene kid" was...

The Gangs page, will have all the information for the different gangs on the site. I say "will" because at this time there either are no gangs or it hasn't been updated into that page yet.

The Adoptables page is self-explanitory, however I'm not a fan of the smaller text overlapping the large ones. And, I want Frodo as my accountant. >_>

FAQ page is also self-explanitory. No fun comments from me though. Post-scripts ARE ALLOWED.

The Application:
The application is standard fare, ROLEPLAY SAMPLE REQUIRED. Took me a second to figure out that NYFD was the Fire Department in the affiliations portion.

Forums:
Good amount of forums and descriptions here, and they use hotlinks for easier navigation. I have no major problems about the forums. (I think that may be the first time I've said that...)

Other:
The memberlist has little target cursors over the avatars of the individuals of the site which I thought was neat.

The profiles pop out into a separate page which is nice since it doesn't give the restrictions of the site layout. The profiles themselves are generally filled out nicely, and I also like that most of the member that I saw used "heterosexual" instead of "straight". One of my weird quirks I guess at work here...

Roleplaying:
From what I read on the forums I categorize the roleplaying on this site to be Intermediate. Some of the posts are formatted oddly in my opinion, so sometimes the reading was difficult.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10 Points.

Overall the site was okay, nothing as a whole struck to me as original or anything so that's the reason for the rating. The site is executed fine and I have no real problems.

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Elusia [6.0/10]

2009-04-29T23:57:00.001-04:00

http://elusia.acornrack.com/

On this Thursday I bring to you a site that goes back to the days when RPs were simple, back to the times where all you needed to do was become a knight, serve your princess and slay the dragon that has been razing your village lands and burned your fellow villagers and family until they were a bunch of ashes and left you homeless and were brought up into an orphanage which happened to catch the eye of the royal family to allow yourself to be seen and recognized as a potential knight and loyal servicemen to the kingdom! *deep breath*

(Note: Yes, I know that was a run on sentence. But it was used for effect! EFFECT! O_O )

Seriously though, this is a fantasy, medieval RP that prides itself on being simple called Elusia! So the AD for the site starts off with a rant, more or less. My opinions on the matter won't be included in this segment, but if you're really interested feel free to contact me. For now though, grab your quiver, mount that horse and ride off into the sunset which is this review!

First Impression:
Holy Simplicity, Batman! There's like 7 links on the site... and that's counting the advertisement on the top! On the front page is a paragraph which is also on the AD but considering all the writing that is on the AD I'm sure some people may have skipped some of it. Small thing here, perhaps another space would be needed for the "w h a t you need to know part" to make it look nicer. (As opposed to: "w h a t you need to know")

The Content:
While there is technically a private and public area, I'm condensing the two because there isn't much information on the public side to comment on.

The Site Rules, Alrighty I already have a problem with the rules page. There are two stated rules which are fine but the other rules are unwritten. They say these are common sense, but as much as I like to believe in the human race we all know that 9 out of 10 people don't have this. Especially in our selective community...

(For you slower people out there that means I'm calling 9 out of 10 of you stupid.)

The Ranks page, it is as it states the page which lists all the people you can be. I would suggest that perhaps you split up the ranks page into 3 divisions and include hotlinks. Maybe order them alphabetically or something.

From now on is technically the private area but I feel these areas should probably be in the public area as well since it impacts the user before one applies for the site.

Forum information, first of all this page needs hotlinks there is way too much information on here to NOT to. It's already divided into sections anyway, so a simple anchor tag next to these will make easy divisions. In the beginning there is a little FAQ about the forums that answer some questions one may have about it. Afterwards there are all the listings of the areas of the forum. (I'll go into more detail into this in the forum section) There is also a map for each area which is nice for a visual aid.

Elusia information, is all the information about the area and background that you really should know before applying. As I've said before I think this should be in the public area as well. No problems here, but again there is a map which is nice.

The Application:
The application is true to the site's mission: easy and simple, so it's your standard fare. NO SAMPLE REQUIRED!

Forums:
There are 6 forums, 3 OOC and 3 IC. Now as I've said before I'm going into a little more detail about this system. In the forum information page, there is a list of areas in the large area. The one large forum encompasses all the areas listed in the information page and as thus you can go from area to area without switching boards and whatnot.

Alright, I understand the whole simplistic nature of the site and wanting to go against the grind. However, sometimes this backfires and creates more confusion and too simple and not enough structure is bad as well. In my opinion this is a case where the idea is good, but the bad outweighs the good, if any. Most sites expand the areas of the forums to acheive this and if you want to move then creating a new thread isn't all that hard. The burden is too heavy on the roleplayer and doesn't take advantage of the structure provided by the AR system.

In short: I'm not a fan of it.

Other:
The member list is plain but I have no problems with it, the profiles are rather plain as well but are generally filled out nicely.

Roleplaying:
From what I read on the forums I categorize the roleplaying on this site to be Intermediate.

Rating: 6.0 out of 10 Points.

Overall I'm rather torn, I'm all for going against the trends but sometimes the reason their trends is because they work and they work well. This is the case for several things, and especially for a medieval fantasy RP which I think is rather simple anyway. Moving that simple nature even more upsets the balance with no real plot guideline. Perhaps throw in a small plot that someone is trying to take advantage of the king in his sick state, but I'd like to see some spark that I can latch onto aside from: "Well what am I doing today?"

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Creations Between Worlds [9.4/10]

2009-04-27T23:50:00.006-04:00

http://cbw.acornrack.com/

This Tuesday I, Professor Jello will introduce you to world of Pokèmon! Pokèmon are wonderful creatures that can become great friends in our journey to becoming-- Alright, that's enough of that... but seriously the next site is a Pokèmon site named, Creations Between Worlds!

*cue pokemon theme music!*

Alright, everyone done picking their name and their rivals? Well too bad! I've already left Pallet Town for greener pastures! The AD for this site basically says "just look and be amaz-ed!" and of course all of us that love Pokèmon will check it out. So no waste and no worries about writing a long AD, this approach works well with a specific audience like this. Well maybe Gary will be nice enough to give you a ride to the next few towns because I've already made it to Saffron City, and don't forget your extra underwear!

First Impression:
Ba-by Lu-gi-a in the deep blue sea, swims so wild and he swims so free! The layout for the site is very nice and organized but somewhat like Trip it is nostalgic because I've used such layouts many moons ago. No real problems with the layout aside from obvious flaw, there's no link to this review site or my AD! Pfft, Negative -100 points! Just kidding....a little bit.... >_> Seriously though, the whole right column is dedicated to updated threads.. which I think is a bit much.

The Content:
The Ranks page obviously holds the ranks and is nicely organized with nice picture references. No problems here.

The Rules page, plus paragraph! The rules portion is divided into different sections no major problems except that I really dislike the use of profanity in the public area. Especially with a family friendly franchise such as Pokèmon language should be watched.

Rare Stuff, clearly outlines all the rare items and Pokèmon as well as how to obtain them, so there should be no disputes. I personally would have loved to grab 6 Eevee's and be an "Eevee Gym Leader."

The FAQ page, before I get to the comments I would like to suggest a Cbox. Har har, I am an advocate of the more interactive communication you get with a Cbox or Chatango. I have no real problems with this section. (Note: This was intended as a joke... I know it says in the FAQ there is no chance. So... har har.)

The User Manual should be look over 4 or 5 times because IT IS IMPORTANT! I just thought I'd help out a bit by pointing out that knowing that manual like you wrote it would be beneficial for you. No problems here.

The Team Rocket page, nicely explains everything. No problems here, I did notice that the RedLetter inc wasn't there when I was around... I think..

The Gyms Page, These people sure have high leveled Pokèmon! A beginning trainer is going to need like one year before attempting this league. That would be my first problem, the levels are too high. Second, I'm not the Forsythia Gym Leader. Third, while having the image description show levels, it's nowhere said that if you hover the levels will be shown. Also, it wouldn't be that hard to write "Lv. 20" or whatnot would it?

The Application:
Aside from some odd... things they ask you in the application it's your standard fare, however the part about the Dark and Water Gym Leaders needing applicants isn't current. I'm sure I saw a Dark team in the lineup. ROLEPLAY SAMPLE REQUIRED

Forums:
There aren't too many forums however the long descriptions decieve you! The forums are large expanses of areas though so it isn't too much of a problem. With the long descriptions it's difficult to navigate, so perhaps a forum splitting script would be good for this.

Other:
Member list is plain and shows a little bit of info on them. (Their age?) The profiles however are the opposite, divided into 3 sections and generally are filled out very nicely.

Roleplaying:
From what I read on the forums I categorize the RP level of this site to be Intermediate to High Intermediate.

Rating: 9.4 out of 10 Points.

Overall the site is very good, I have little problems with the site and most of the ones I do have are space issues. Obviously the detail and little pictures to help explain everything or just adding color to the site give it the polish it needs to get the high points. The leveling system is functional but it seems to be it could use more tweaking.

This Site has the Jello Seal of Approval!

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

TRIP [9.5/10]

2009-04-23T00:06:00.008-04:00

http://www.trip.acornrack.com/

On this Thursday I bring you a website tha- *falls over* ... looks like something gave me a little TRIP there! Physical web humor doing anything for you? Anyway, today's website is called.... TRIP! It's a cyberpunk, future RP so you should all watch The Sixth Sense with Bruce Willis! (I really had no point or joke there... I just like that movie.)

The AD for Trip is well written and while I'm not much of a cyberpunk RPer, the mention of Cyborgs (Is the term "Mechanically Enhanced" the politically correct term?) is something that caught my eye quickly. It has the standard "wealthy above the clouds people oblivious to those underneath" and for some reason I keep thinking about the Jetsons... Meet George Jetson! Jane, his wife! Daugh-ter Judy! The Anarchist Elroy! (Hey! I needed someone to cater to the ground people!) Okay then, lets grab our phasers set them to kill and then- *trips again* ... Gah!

First Impression:
Robocop's wife is the mascot! The layout for me looks very classic, much like the ones I used to make in HTML when I used Angelfire way back in the day, it's a nice touch to add the URL thing on the page and as well in the title coding. Depending on how the NASSA24 thing and the Chatterbox is executed it may look like there is too much information and things on the initial screen but overall it looks like and "tech-y".

The Content:
The About page is an expansion on the AD giving you more reason to why the Rebellion exists, why they are losing people and all that important plot stuff.

The World page tells you about the world, of course! The technology, how things work in the city, what kind of interesting people and different ethnic races. Overall this page is fine, it has great information but, I've always liked having topics distinguishable from the actual text. So when "Internet; text text" comes up perhaps the "Internet", portion could be white. However, I can understand wanting the site to have a monochrome feel.

(Word Error: 2nd sentence in the NASSA section, "The use over hover cars" , should be "of" not "over" or something to that nature.)

The Internet page expands on the new age internet, on how all of that works with the story and all the fun stuff like that like the 3 methods of getting online. I just have the same comment from before on aesthetics but not a big deal.

Corporations page explains more on the relations and doings of each corporation, I would have liked to play a Ghost personally but I'm sad that you can't. Overall no problems here.

The Resistance page I have no problems with, it talks about the leader of the group and their doings.

(Grammar Error: 2nd paragraph, "keeps the motivated", "the" should be "them")

Rules page, I have 000 problems with. (That's a Trip site reference if you didn't get that...)

The Application:
Before the application there are a few more things to read, RP SAMPLE REQUIRED. No problems in this area.

Forums:
There are little arrow thingies next to all the forums! No real point here, I just like them... Not too many forums but each forum covers a large expansive area so this is fine. The descriptions for each forum is also very nice. Also, hooray for hotlinks! (Also there is a nifty image for the user levels in the forum, which is as I said, nifty.)

Other:
The member listing for the site is rather plain, just the avatar and a few bits of information, but just because it is plain doesn't mean it's bad. I don't really mind this, since all needed information is here.

Member profiles are well organized and generally filled out well. There are some here and there that haven't been filled out completely however.

Roleplaying:
From what I read on the forums I categorize the RP level of this site to be Intermediate to High Intermediate.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10 Points.

The attention to detail and just it's overall presence is the reason for the rating. Coupled with the fact that this is one of the few cyberpunk RP's out there this one will surely attract many. While the plot itself is rather expected I don't think it takes away from experience because of the lack of said sites so the pool isn't saturated with these plot lines. The only real major complaint I have is the index page being overstuffed with information, the news and chatterbox and the site news and quote and et cetera. And of course, NOT BEING ABLE TO BE A GHOST! O_O ... kidding! =P

This Site has the Jello Seal of Approval!

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Hollywood [8.0/10]

2009-04-21T13:30:00.011-04:00

http://www.acornrack.com/hollywood/

On this Tuesday I bring you this site under the spotlight and under the eyes of many people, Hollywood! We've all had our fun I suppose making fun of these celebrities and wishing we would have the life and glamor and beauty of certain celebs. Well you still can't do that, BUT, you can continue to dream the dream in this RP site.

The AD for this site is rather... well I'll just say it plainly, I'm not a fan. It's all centered so it makes it difficult to read and it's double spaced so it just takes up way too much room in my opinion. But otherwise it fine, it's written so people will be interested to join and gives a good description of how the idea of the site is. But anyway, call your private jet and tell your publicist to meet us at the start of this review!

First Impression:
I want it all! I want it, want it, want it, my name in lights in Carnegie Hall, I want it all! (Finally worked a High School Musical reference into one of these!) Overall the layout looks nice and clean, perhaps I'd like it centered on the screen and a slightly wider text area, but that isn't a big thing.

The Public Area:
The front page has the AD blurb reposted and again, I have no problems with this sort of thing.

The About page has a further longer explanation of what was already said, I don't really think this sort of thing needs to be said twice. This page also contains the ranks for the site, no big problems here though.

In the Rules page the rules are separated into categories and this is why I would have liked a larger text area, the rules look all squished together and it's a little hard to read but overall no major problems.

The Application:
The site has a quite small application (probably to accommodate the small text box!) Just name, rank, RP sample and the "Word." I would have maybe have liked to see a drop down menu for the ranks just for aesthetic purposes, but not a big deal.

The Private Area:
Time for a Layout Extension! Basically it just extends downward and gets rid of the text area problem of the public area. I was unable to read the private pages, so I cannot comment on anything else at this point. I was sad I was unable to learn about more of the admins, I'm always on the lookout for potential internet girlfriends. (Am I kidding? You decide! AcornRack Votes 2009!)

Slight note: Maybe it's me but I get annoyed when the links aren't capitalized, so I'm just going to throw that out there also.

Forums:
Good amount of forums and good descriptions and I like how the forums are styled to match with the rest of the site, so aesthetically it looks very nice. But again, with all these forums it almost begs to have hot links to each individual section, scrolling all the way down is a pain at times so invest in those or a script that breaks up the forum into parts.

Other:
The Member list is fine, showing an avatar of the celeb and a little bit of info on there as well, no problems here.

The profiles themselves are nicely organized into sections and are generally filled out, the extra pictures open in a separate window which is fine. So no major problems here either.

Roleplaying:
From what I read on the forums I categorize the RP level of this site to be Intermediate to Advanced.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10 Points.

This site has a good concept and is looks very nice however I think that the gimmick of being a celebrity/journalist needs to ends at some point and the RP itself needs to take over as the driving point and I myself didn't really see that happening. It's still a good site, however I believe it can improve much more and be one of the bigger RPs out there.

This Site has the Jello Seal of Approval!

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Sunset Beach [7.0/10]

2009-04-16T11:17:00.011-04:00

http://www.acornrack.com/sunsetbeach/

The next site on my list is Sunset Beach, a city rp based in the lovely state of Hawaii. I've never been there though so I guess I'll have to graciously accept a complimentary trip to Hawaii from the owners to fully see the parallels between the actual experience and the site.
(Obviously I'm joking... but wouldn't that be GREAT?!)

The AD is nicely written out, telling you that again it's located in Hawaii and throwing in the "AD" portion trying to draw you in to the site. Now that we've gotten that established, drop it like it's hott (with two "t's"!), show me your bikini, and lets head onwards to the review of Sunset Beach!

First Impression:
I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts! (That's what she said!) The layout is very nice and simple, a nice image on the top with links under it. And the colors look like it's emulating a sunrise or sunset. So overall very nice.

The Public Area:
The Front Page is a rehashing of what was posted on the AD and that's fine, so no problems here.

(Spelling/Grammar: "concerthall" is two words, "dont" needs an apostrophe)

The Rules Page is split into 3 sections for easier separation of rules. Overall it's your standard gambit, so no problems here.

(Spelling/Grammar: "instant massagers" should be "instant messengers", and OCC should be OOC in Rule 2. [Both Errors] )

Face Claim Page, Adopt and Affilates page are self explanitory, moving on.

The Application:
The Application is the standard that generally everyone has, however NO RP SAMPLE REQUIRED. (Jello Points for you! ... it's like Brownie points.. but I'm Jello.)

The Private Area:
Layout Extension! Woo! Basically there is a navigation bar on the side now so everything still stays nice and simple. Everything for the private area is on the intial screen load so that's also nice. As with most City RP's they generally do not have private pages so that means less work for me and onwards to the next section!

Forums:
Good amount of forums and each forum has a nice description however this is where I have my first little nitpick for the site. The forums for me seems like a giant text block, aside from the large text separating each section the actual forum names, and descriptions seem to mash together and there's no clear definition of their space. I see the little ">>'s" before each name but it still feels like it's hard to navigate. This brings up my next point, with great forums comes great unnavigability (Booyah! Spiderman reference!). The scrolling is somewhat of a pain since the descriptions are in fact good, so the good turns into the bad in this case. I've always been a fan of hot links to each individual section and subsequent hotlink to top, or the script to separate forums entirely.

Other:
Member list is organized fine, showing the avatar and a short bit of information on each. The names themselves aren't links so for me that was 10 seconds of staring at the screen but I quickly noticed the outline of the pictures as the links.

Member profiles are nicely organized and are generally filled out well, though there are some who have been on a month and their information is still "coming soon."

Roleplaying:
From what I read on the forums I categorize the RP level of this site to be High Intermediate to Advanced.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10 Points.

Overall Sunset Beach is a good site with a nice layout and where I think the simplicity makes it all the more better. The Gossip accounts are also nice and adds a bit of uniqueness to the site, however after that point in the end it is a city RP. The location obviously gives the opportunity for nice events along the way to encounter celebs or international stars (hint hint?). Don't worry, the first one's free, tell your friends. (No really, I could use some publicity...)

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Lachrymose [7.0/10]

2009-04-14T12:56:00.014-04:00

http://lachrymose.acornrack.com/

Marking the second review upon my return, the site that is next on my list is a Dark, Modern, Fantasy RP lightly based on the video game, Devil May Cry. Now since I have no previous knowledge of the game, I'm effectively eliminating any bias if they've changed or edited things from the game whether it be a positive or negative response.

The AD more or less is just a small blurb of background story, and even though it is quite short, I'm all for the idea of short and sweet ADs. Even though I have no idea of the previous games' stories or whatever there is enough text and information for me to understand what the RP is about which is all you really need in an AD. Furthermore, there is a small trailer posted on youtube as a supplement. Since this review is on the site itself, I will not give any comments on the trailer. Alrighty you better hunters, go track the start of the review for me! Don't shoot it though! Capture it alive because people still need to read it!

First Impression:
I smell a Magical Mew. Magical Mew's layout's are generally built the same way in all the sites I've seen them on and I have no problems with them. If it's not broke, don't fix it! (Edited for proper English, FTW!).

The Content:
The Index page has another little blurb for you to read, and at this point I'd like to point out some that the text is formatted weird so that some words are still together when they should be separated, or there are no spaces after periods.

Backstory - This page obviously has the backstory of the site, and I want to point out that to hitch a ride on a vehicle unannounced is called a "stowaway" not "stole away". The story as a whole is fine but it was a fairly quick jump from 4 years ago to "now" so perhaps a little tidbit to expand on that portion would be nice.

Races - Your basic races information here, given with some background information and some knowledge on what they can do as a force in the world. However this is where I have my first nitpick. The devils portion in the note it says that dragons will be declined solely because of the fact they are not incarnations of a devil or something to that effect. Satan (aka The Devil) has been referred to as a dragon multiple times so in fact a dragon is not a spawn of a devil but more over THE devil.

(Spelling Error: 3rd word, last line in Humans.)

Overview - This page basically states that this is a freeform RP, and there is no preset plot for you to follow. I'm a fan of another method myself, but I find this method generally works fine for a beginning site well.

Rules - Overall fine, I have no problems on how it is written. However I have two problems within the rules. First, You say you allow swearing then say you'd like to not use certain words. It is of my opinion that you can either accept them all or none at all. Just because they are "extremely offensive", is being based on individual perception.

Second, you say to use your powers responsibly because your character are not Gods. So I will now point out my problem. Humans are obviously the weakest in terms of strength on the site, however Sinner Demon's can kill them "relatively easy" and "they (Sinner Demons) are "nothing compared to that of a Devil". While Valkyrie's are not painted in this picture from the rest of the text it seems to me that Devil's are clearly Gods in comparison to Humans and Sinner Demons.

FAQ - Your standard Question and Answer section, so not much to say here besides the fact that I am an advocate of having a Chat of some kind on a site.

Abilities - Unique abilities are fun, and gives another layer of character to a character itself. Not much to say here except this is what my 4 abilities would be (Since 3 minor ones are required for the 1 major).

Major: Silencing (Nullifies Magical powers)
Minor: Physical Strength, Weapon Master, Heightened Reflexes.

Occupations - Self explanitory, words here are oddly spaced as well as in the index however.

Adoptables - Self explanitory also.

The Application:
More or less your standard fare, RP Sample Required but can be from another roleplay.

Forums:
I can't comment on this because I am unable to see the IC forums.

Other:
The Member list is more or less the basic list just separated into user rank (Human, Valkyrie, etc.).

The Member profiles themselves are divded into 3 portions separated by script, and are generally nicely filled out. Some members at this point haven't filled all of the fields in and others seem to have put a few things here and there.

Roleplaying:
Unable to comment on.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10 Points

Overall it looks like a nice site but there is no real genuine feature that seems to draw me in personally. Nihilum has it's event system which I liked but this site to me feels a bit narrow in its target audience (Post-Apoc, DMC Players).

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Liberation [8.9/10]

2009-04-04T16:31:00.005-04:00

http://www.acornrack.com/liberation/

The next site on the list I've been personally excited about and it should be no surprise to the score to those whom are reading this review. I apologize to the owner for the lateness of the review but as we all know real life sometimes tears us away more than we want. Anyway, buckle your seat belts. NUMBAH ONE, ENGAGE HYPER DRIVE!

The AD for the site is very impressive, it gives a great background story and lots of information that gets you into that mood that the site wants you to be in. While the whole plot line of society vs. government has been done before I think, but this situation gives the idea more credibility. So overall I like it.

First Impression:
Looks Amazing. I love the layout for this site, it looks very professional and doesn't go into the stereo typical "left hand menu" or anything of the sort. If I didn't know better I would have guessed this was some sort of browser space game. (Not an RP of course.)

The Public Area:
The front page contains a small snippet of the AD which is nice, we've most likely read the whole AD so no need to repost the whole thing. Also, the text is a bit too small for my tastes but not much else.

The About Page, this is the history of the site or the plot rather. Only one small nitpick here, Justify the whole thing and it will look so much better.

The Weapons Page, is just a small little blurb stating that the weapons are up to YOU! I would have maybe liked to see a small selection of "standard issue" weapons given to police so they have some baseline of what officials would have and what may border on illegal parts and things like that. Again, Justify it.

Alliances Page is just a description of the two main forces on the site the Liberation and the Anarchists. The only problem I have with this is that there is no middle ground. Once again, Justify the text!

The Ships Page, this is where I run into a little trouble... this page basically lists the ships and specs and whatnot. However the centering and organization of this in my opinion isn't very good and it's hard to remain focused. So I simply suggest to (again, justify the text) and maybe do some reorganization to that page.

The Planets Page, is a basic listing of the planets and their characteristic and again I suggest justifying the text. Aside from that I think they should order the planets in a certain way, maybe by political influence from Hardcore Liberation to Hardcore Anarchist or just by their orbits. Otherwise, I have no problems.

The People Page, is basically the "ranks" page as most people would identify it with explaining the different jobs and positions on the site. Black text on dark grey background does not work for me. So perhaps change that color. In the boxes the text is justified! I love it!

The Application:
Before the actual application you get a few little guidelines which are in the stead of a dedicated rules page. This is an interesting idea and hopefully it works out for them. Otherwise the application is the normal fare.

The Private Area:
Layout Change! Very nice the links are at the top and everything is on the opening screen so there is no fishing for links. The only nitpick I have is that the links at the top are the same names as the information in the public area so that can create some confusion on where the forums are and things like that. There are no new pages of information so we'll just move onto the next section...

Forums:
Good amount of forums here however the text descriptions are black and again on a dark grey background it doesn't really work for me. Also perhaps some hotlinks to the different sections or using the script to divide forums would be nice to reduce scrolling time.

Other:
Member listing looks nice with the little plates behind the information, but where the site shines is the actual member profile. The profile opens in a new window with all the information and doesn't take you away from the main site. Again the only minor nitpick is the black text on dark grey background.

Roleplaying:
From what I read on the forums I categorize the roleplaying on the site to be Intermediate to Advanced.

Rating: 8.9 out of 10 Points

Overall I really liked this site, the idea was fresh the look of the site was very professional but the small text and the layout of the text made it hard to read so the score suffers very slightly from that. Liberation is nipping at the heels of JACFC but with a review of scores I may forsee another site passing over our current reigning champion.

This Site has the Jello Seal of Approval!

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Equinex: School of Horsemanship [7.0/10]

2009-02-11T21:50:00.005-05:00

http://equinex.acornrack.com/

This next site I'm reviewing is an Equestrian RP, not horse, but you a person are joining an equestrian riding school. Not only a equestrian riding school but THE school the best of the best school where those from around the world only dream of attending.

The AD gives you a bit of background on what the site is and how the actually school came to be and the mixing of a real world event with a bit of fiction to blur the lines. Now all you equestrians out there grab your gear, saddle up and lets gallop onto the review!

First Impression:
Lots of Affiliates... I have no major problems with the layout, however the "welcome" text with the large blank spot surrounding it looks a bit odd. Again this isn't really major.

The Public Area:
The Front page is more or less the rewriting of the AD aside from the cold cut section dividers which is fine.

The Rules page is where I have my first nitpick, I've never heard of it referred to as "Godmocking" but rather Godmoding. Other than that small thing the rules are well written out and define everything fine.

(Spelling/Grammar Errors: "...have a copyright on the picture if it doesn't will will asume that the image is copyright free.", "asume" should be "assume" and there's a grammar in that same sentence also signified in italics. Very last sentence on the rules page, "delected" should be "deleted".)

Positions page is more or less a list of the ranks, student and teacher positions and the like. However a few nitpicks here, striking out whole things of text isn't the best way to indicate something is taken. I still want to be able to read what they do without too much difficulty. Also, I would have liked more creativity on the house names. Since it's a horse RP why not just do horse names, I'm sure there are horse personalities that match up for each of the descriptions.

(Spelling/Grammar Errors: "striked" is not a word, stricken, or struck out would be the past tense you are looking for. "English Pleasure Instuctor" also in that same area "english" should be captalized. "incharge" is two words, this appears multiple times in the page. The Eventing Instructor has "inchange" instead of "in charge", "This is to based off of USDF regulations to some degree, another country's regulations is fine but, those basic gists, not the Eventing dressage regulations." this whole sentence needs to be reworded and "gists" is not a word, "gist" however is. "endurance" is spelled wrong in the endurance instructor area.)

The Application:
The standard application, I would have liked to see simple drop down menus for the houses, rank and gender area.

The Private Area:
Again, I have no problem wit the layout because it is generally the same as the public one. There is however the addition of the cbox and word count script in the bottom left.

(Spelling Error: "Calendar" is spelled wrong in the link.)

Teacher's Handbook, under the heads of houses rules I don't understand why rule number 8 is there. If this is the teachers handbook then it should be implied that you'd have to be a teacher to apply for said position. Otherwise the page is fine.

Student's Handbook, under the horse rules you explain that a student and instructor is allowed to have only 2 horses. Since this is the student handbook the information for instructors has no use here in my opinion.

(Grammar Error: Student Handbook, selecting a horse, first sentence, "a equestrian" should be "an equestrian")

The House pages are all generally listings of the members and a short description of the characteristics of the house.

The Horses is where the site starts to shine, there is quite a bit of detail on which kind of horses there are and pictures of each of them with a short description. I personally only read through a few pages, but the ones that I read were all organized nicely.

The Shows page is also generally a listing of what is required for each show, I really don't know much about horse shows so I assume all of it is written out correctly. I would liked perhaps better separation between them and perhaps a bit more style involved instead of just the "grocery list" of what is what.

H. Point Shop, or is it the Horse Point Center... one of the things will have to be changed. This page along with the other pages linking off from this page are generally listings or explanations of things. Overall no problems.

Forums:
Good amount of forums with nice descriptions also there are picture that correspond to the forum you are in which is also nice. I would have liked to see a few things here though, first of all more separation between the OOC and IC areas. I was having a hard time trying to see where one section ended and one began. Also, I'm a fan of hotlinks to each section if you don't use forum separation code. So the other think I would have liked to see is that, hotlinks down to the IC sections and subsequent "to top" links.

As for the posts I also would have liked to see a bit more separation at some points I wasn't sure where the posts ended for some members and it confused me at times when trying to read the forums. Also, the default text size was a bit large for me.

Other:
Member profiles and the listing was not available to be seen, so I cannot comment on things in there.

Roleplaying:
From what I read on the site I categorize the majority roleplaying to be Intermediate. However there are people who can clearly roleplay in the advanced area.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10 Points

While the horses page was very nice everything else didn't seem to have the polish that I was looking for. Lists and lists instead of more in depth writing and explanations, or more aesthetically pleasing pages that could make reading them easier. The Forums also were a rough patch as well, so that should be taken a look at.

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Naveluce [9.0/10]

2009-02-10T20:07:00.010-05:00

http://www.acornrack.com/Naveluce/

The next site on the list will sure give you a reason for your ship to set sail because it's a Pirate RP! Okay, I suppose it's REALLY "nautical" and "fantasy" RP but I like pirates so... yarr... but anyway the site that I'm reviewing today is called Naveluce!

The AD of course is well written, especially because there is the mention of a floating pirate city! I suppose a reliable mail service would be difficult and whomever got that route really drew the short straw. Don your eye-patch mateys, turn the wheel hard to starboard and head straight onto the second star until morning! (Ahh, wait that was Peter Pan....)

First Impression:
Gondoliers, on my signal commence invasion! I have no major problems with the layout, although the picture edging the top of my window sometimes makes me think I'm not scrolled up all the way.

The Public Area:
The Front page is essentially the bulk of the AD but it's written well enough that I don't mind it, (Floating Pirate City... remember?) and it gets you into a chantey mood.

The About Page, is basically everything and anything you need to know. Descriptions of the nationalities, pirates, ship crews, professions.. it's all here! Of course there are hotlinks to each individual section if you want to read individual parts and the "return to top" links as well. Just wanted to point on the amount of detail that the site goes through to create the feel and the world of the site as a whole. I myself didn't realize how finely detailed and well thought out the whole thing was.

The best way I can describe it is like a Documentary film, you see everything and you go "Well yeah that makes perfect sense that's how it's supposed to be!" But it was specifically created that way that perfectly, you didn't even realize it was an imitation. (Something like that...)

The Rules page is well written out and I have no problems with it. There is also an FAQ on the bottom which is also to my liking.

The Application:
The application is very neatly set out for the user, with certain choices needing to be filled for each specific rank. But overall it's the standard.

The Private Area:
Layout... extension! That would be the more appropriate term, generally everything is within initial screen load so overall it is nice. I see no link back to the public area of the site however.

Look at that no private pages! Although as it said in the About page, there is details on the jobs on the ship in the forums.

Forums:
There isn't too many forums but each individual forum encompasses a large area so it cuts down on the need for them. Nice descriptions on each of the forums and it overall looks nice. The posts are formatted nicely also, giving the site a distinct flair.

Other:
The Member list, now brace yourself because I think this is actually the first nitpick I have about the site! It's essentially a listing of course of the members but I would have liked to seen perhaps a sort of organization to them. Like divided into the Good, Bad and Neutral or something so it's not "just there."

Member profiles are generally nicely filled out, while there is sometimes a bit of information the scrolling of the page actually works with the theme of the site. It's like reading a work of a scribe or something like that.

Roleplaying:
From what I read on the forums I categorize the roleplaying to be Intermediate to Advanced.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10 Points.

Overall the site was nice, I had nothing really major against the site as a whole. Everything was written and organized out neatly. This sort of site isn't my cup of tea, but if you really like the era of pirates and 18th century things and that culture this will be a great site for you to join. At this point I see no major plot involvement but other than that this is something you have to really look into yourself to get the full feel.

This Site has the Jello Seal of Approval!

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

The Wolves of Joukai [8.0/10]

2009-02-09T14:54:00.015-05:00

http://joukai.acornrack.com/

Time to start the work week with a review of this RP: The Wolves of Joukai. For those who haven't caught on already, this is a Wolf RP but more specifically a realistic Wolf RP. And for those who aren't sure what Joukai means I'll tell you that as well! Seeing as "joukai" has multiple meanings depending on kanji I've listed them below (My apologies to those who do not have the Japanese font as this probably will be full of kanji):

常会 - (n) (1) regular meeting; (2) ordinary Diet session
上界 - (n) (1) upper world; heaven; superkingdom; (2) {in math} upper bound
浄界 - (n) sacred ground; the Pure Land

Many obviously would choose "sacred ground" or "heaven" even, but because I find it amusing I'm going with the "ordinary Diet session." (Note: Sarcasm... maybe)

The AD itself is very nicely written out, with images to liven up the AD a bit as well. And of course I like having the contact information for the admins on the bottom of the AD it makes it easier for me to ~~annoy and get on their nerves~~ offer small tidbits of advice before the review. Anyway, grab that Slim-Fast® and get ready to power walk onto the review!

First Impression (第一印象):
Paw print, Check. Welcome to... Mozilla Firefox, or http://joukai.acornrack.com/ ! The point I'm trying to get across here is that the site has no title code, so that's the first nitpick of the site. The layout is quite nice and is all a very nice image map. Also the image at the top changes depending on which page you are at, I've decided to follow this trend and use my own kanji for this review.

The Public Area (共用部分):
The Front page is the AD's story written again but shorter, I'm not sure if this is intentional or not but the reason I have for it intrigues me. I'll have to ask about this particular reason personally.

The Rules (概則) page, is nicely written out and divided into OOC rules and IC rules but I have a small, nitpick here. In the "In Character Rules", the last rule is to "Have Fun!" This is more of an OOC rule.

The Application (志願書):
While initally at first I thought this was a normal application... the more I looked at the more it actually confused me. First, there are two RP sample to be filled out. Second, in the first sample request... I'm really not sure what I'd write in it even though it says something about appearance and personality. Third, the second sample request they say "quality over quantity" yet in the first one they want "a paragraph or two."

The Private Area (試写):
Layout Change! Subtle though, there is the addition of other general things wolf sites seem to always have (Moon phase, season, etc.) I personally would have liked to see who's online in the initial screen load instead of the lower left. Also, perhaps inserting commas to separate peoples names a bit in the who's online section would be nice. Also maybe have the text links remain the same color after being clicked.

I was only able to see two of the private pages but I'll shall comment on them anyway!

The Map (地図) page is a map! Not really much to say here because it's a drawing of map, a nicely drawn map...

IC Rules (キャラの概則) page, is basically an expansion of the public IC rules in addition to some things that are purely in site things, like claiming territory, fighting, and things of that nature.

Forums (電子掲示板):
Good amount of forums with nice descriptions for each, there are hotlinks to the IC and OOC sections. I expect there to be more divisions when packs have claimed certain areas but there are no links to go "Back to the Top." Again I'll preach my rule- If you have links down, you should have links up.

Other (雑事):
The Member List (会員名簿) looks neat and admins are identified with colors instead of marks before or after their user rank.

Member profiles (ユーザープロフィール) are filled out quite nicely with their information I would have liked to see perhaps a hotlink to the OOC information since it's sometimes a few scrolls away. It's nice to see that quite a few members have pictures of themselves on the site especially the admins, gives a sense of knowing them more and a better sense of community. (And I think they're rather cute, so yay for... actually I'm not sure whom this is better for.)

(Side Note to Admins: I'm 21 years old, like taking long walks on the beach while looking at a beautiful sunset, and am ready for a commitment. I'm also an animal rights activist and adore wolves.... This is also an attempt at humor if you didn't catch on.)

Roleplaying (能文):
From what I read on the forums most of the roleplaying on the site can be categorized at Intermediate to Advanced.

Rating (格付け): 8.0 out of 10 Points

Overall I like this particular site, it's a simple wolf roleplay and it seems to work well. While wolf RP's aren't exactly my thing something simple like this might be something I might try in the near future as a change of pace.

This Site has the Jello Seal of Approval!

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Caligation Territories [8.5/10]

2009-02-08T14:33:00.009-05:00

http://www.acornrack.com/ct/

Today I'll be reviewing a site called, Caligation Territories. This is a Dark, City RP with a dash of fantasy and gangs for the additional fun. I suppose it would be foolish of me not to include a warning at this point that this site contains MATURE THEMES and is rated for M for MATURE!! (That's Mah-toore! Fancy, eh?)

The AD is a quite an in depth look at the overall plot, but it's very well written and should draw any passersby to at least look at the site and check it out. So overall it accomplishes its goal, so lets go onwards to the review hopefully it will give you a bit more information about joining "The Calt."

P.S. - I'm going to watch the AD like a hawk so I can name the next page, A HAWK! I'll name the page... "Pudding! (An annexed territory of the Kingdom of Jello!)"

First Impression:
GREEN LIKE MON-EH! I have no problems with the layout but there is something that I want to nitpick at, there is no link back to the index page.

The Public Area:
The Front page is essentially the AD, but like I said it's written well so no problems with that.

The Rules page is overall fine and well written, minor nitpick though, I'm not sure how many people know that 2IC means 2nd in Command (at this point) and may just confuse them a bit.

Ranks page is also overall fine, a few things though. In the Head of Department under Police ranks 10/4 positions filled.

(Spelling Error: In the doctors area, "practise" is supposed to be "practice" , "practice" is the noun spelling while the "practise" spelling is used for verbs. I know my UK English...sorta!)

Creatures (Races) page, overall very nicely written but perhaps write a small note under vampires that "blooding" will be explained further down the page.

(Spelling/Grammar Errors: "...they have often lost their skills enough so that they are hunted down." I understand what is being said but is odd sounding to me. Perhaps something like "...their skills have dulled considerably and are hunted down easily.", Lycan in the Creatures - 2nd to last sentence "...request via the admni.", Lycan in the Changing section - "simples" should be "simplest".)

Effigia page, written fine but I would have liked a little more space between each individual point for them.

The City page I also have no problem with each section of the city has its own personality and is generally the case with any rp like it.

(Possible Error: in the North section "northside" might need to be spaced... )

The Gangs page, I like how the gangs have their own font. I'm personally not a fan of bold text and then following is the explanation (Something like this) like in the inductions. I like dashes or colons or something to separate them.

(Spelling/Grammar Errors: Killing Spree "4 or members and 1 or 2 hierarchy keep an eye on the pup as he/she is placed...")

Site History, this page said I didn't have to read it so I didn't... kidding! It's the history of how things happened on the site.

The Application:
You get a nice little pre-application page explaining some of the finer details and then it's on to the generally normal application.

The Private Area:
Layout Change! And of course this site also does it well, pictures at the top and everything you need within initital screen view. Also the drop down menus are NOT activated by hovering but rather CLICKING! Thumbs up from me.

There are more or less 3 private pages in the private area, the Census, the Important People and Gang Relations. These pages are more or less overall fine since they are mainly lists but what I would specifically want to point out is that this is what I believe the private pages should be, aside from the admin listing (On the Important People page), all of these pages really only are worth anything to those who are members.

Forums:
Good amount of forums with nice descriptions. Also they have hotlinks to each individual section and the return to top hotlinks. Generally all my major normal concerns with forums are dealt with nicely here.

Other:
The Member list that Caligation Territories uses is actually quite effective in terms of displaying information for multiple characters. It's organized by gangs however it would have liked better separation or I guess something more aesthetically pleasing than large text.

Member profiles are generally filled out well and are split into 3 parts (not physically though), the OOC section, the Short IC and the Long IC. While the memberlist does a good job of showing the multiple characters the profiles themselves need a bit of work. All the text and information is all together so it's hard to read (Maybe take something out of Andraste's member profile splitting system). Also those who have 3rd characters, the hotlink doesn't work so that's something you might want to look into.

(Side Note: I wasn't aware us Michi-ganders had a specific accent, Shippou/Rachel)

Roleplaying:
From the posts I read I categorize the roleplaying to be Intermediate to Advanced.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10 Points.

Overall very nice, while "The Calt" isn't exactly my cup of tea, those that like this sort of RP will definetly like the atmosphere and the site in general. The only problem I had was the flooding of information on the user profiles but again overall nice.

This Site has the Jello Seal of Approval!

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Twilight: Meeting of Worlds [7.2/10]

2009-02-07T12:46:00.006-05:00

http://www.acornrack.com/tmow/

Next RP on the list is one called Twilight: Meeting of Worlds, it is a fantasy RP which takes place in a land where all your favorite characters from Games, Anime or Manga come together and then you get to see what happens.

The AD basically says the same thing as I just did, except with more words and of course with a bit more detail including some of the plot points. Alright everyone, dodge the Kamehameha, deflect the Vine Whips and steer clear of the Dragon of the Darkness Flame and onwards to the review!

First Impression:
It's Blue! I have no complaints about the layout everything is nice and compact.

The Public Area:
The Front page is just the story from the AD, in this case it's fine because as far as I can tell at this point it is a user facilitated plot. When a more in depth site plot comes around however I would like to see the expansion of that on the front or a separate page.

The Rules page is overall fine, but I would have liked rewording on the very last rule. The one that asks what anime your Made-up is from. If it's made up then it's not in any anime, but I took it to mean that if the character is based off principles off a certain anime then that's what you should put down.

(Spelling/Grammar Errors: Rule 4, last 3 words.)

The Userlevels page is just a basic listing so I have no major problems here however I would have liked dashes or colon or something separating the userlevel from the explanation.

Taken Characters page is again another listing, I did see at least one person who was not on the listing however.

Filling out an Application page is written well and I have no major problems. Again I would have like to see a dash or colon or something separating the text.

(Spelling/Grammar Errors: "indepth" is two words: in depth)

The Application:
The general application, however they at least tell you to save it before you submit which is always nice.

The Private Area:
Layout change! ... kinda. Basically everything is the same except for the recent threads at the top. There are no new pages in the private area so we move on to the next section.

Forums:
There are a good amount of forums for the site, with decent descriptions. I would have liked some hotlinks to each individual section for quicker navigation. Also, a bit more separation between each section would have been nice, it helps avoid the giant text wall effect.

Other:
The Member list is a neat and organized list divided into the userlevels. I've always been a fan of creating a new account for separate characters, very few member lists can show each individual character well. There seems to a be a problem going from the member list to users profiles, it puts 124548 in front of the actual user ID.

Member profiles are generally filled out well, again the multiple character thing is sometimes a problem trying to sort out all the information. If anything they should link to their profile in the "Multiple originals" section in the OOC boards.

Roleplaying:
From what I read on the forums I categorize the roleplaying on the site to be Intermediate to Advanced, however some of the postscripts and whatnot made the text hard to read.

Rating: 7.2 out of 10 Points

The inital concept of the site is the main reason the site is and will be successful, having multiple "main" characters interacting is intriguing. While there looks to be the beginnings of a site wide plot at this time people interacting is the main driving force of the site which may or may not be a problem.

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Score Review #1

2009-02-06T08:23:00.004-05:00

Today is going to be slightly different, I am NOT reviewing anyone today but the scores I have already given to them. In order to create a somewhat reliable set of ratings I am going through each site once again and giving them a new rating. I won't be adding or removing any comments from existing reviews but the scores may be revised. Any changes are listed below:

Wolves Fly: -0.5 Points
Overall: 2.0/10
Reason: Layout change makes the overall experience worse.

X-Men: School of the Gifted : +2.0 Points
Overall: 7.0/10
Reason: Although as I said I feel the site's execution of X-Men is average it's well explained and well written out. (And Magneto is great...)

Lost Days: -0.2 Points
Overall: 5.5/10
Reason: Balancing.

Naruto: Shattered Pieces : -0.2 Points
Overall: 8.5/10
Reason: Balancing, using as a benchmark for the 8.5 rating (the overall feel).

JACFC : +0.1 Points
Overall: 9.1/10
Reason: I had stated originally that since I am unable to see the private pages I couldn't up the score, however the fact that there ARE private pages is a good foundations to raise the score on faith that it is good. (Albeit seeing the pages would raise the score higher)

These are the only changes at this time.

Re-review of Cellar Door [8.6/10]

2009-02-05T09:09:00.013-05:00

http://www.acornrack.com/CellarDoor/

Welcome to the re-review of Cellar Door, for those who are only reading this particular review, fear not as this not a simple supplementary for the first review but a full review (however some parts that still apply will be copied and pasted). This is a RP set in the Afterlife. Also worth noting for the site is that each and every member has a unique ability, emphasis on the unique portion. That's right you alone will have this power to taunt and tease the other members on the site until they cease to exist.

The AD gives you the background story and what you need to know for the review such as how your appearance and powers come to be and things of that nature. The text for the AD has been increased so easier reading from the old AD and the contact information is more clear. Now, choose your death wisely and lets enter through the Cellar Door.

First Impression:
I'm reminded of the movie Death Wish. This layout in my opinion is a step up from the old one, it allows complete access to every area and easily editable. The colors match well and overall I have no problems with the layout.

The Public Area:
The Rules page is overall fine, it doesn't seem to have changed from the previous review. So there is still the lack of a "Godmoding" rule, I THINK there has been more emphasis on the powerplaying rule then previously but I'm not sure.

(NOTE: IE users, at the time the owner is trying to fix problems found with the layout. However it doesn't look like it affects the site too much, just the aesthetics)

The Overview, it looks to be the same thing as in the AD which is fine but that leads into my next point. Now I'm sure I read the full written out story but I didn't comment on it, but after a second read though I have something I want to comment on. I didn't notice at all that the shortened version was the "shortened version" all the details that needed to be captured were done perfectly. So, I applaud the writing on that.

(Spelling/Grammar Errors: Plot Line Page, "... thats right! Two wishes.", should be "that's", "What other fun tid bits of information...", I'm fairly certain tidbits is one word, "Hmm is there anything else..." possible comma after the "Hmm".)

Wish One, organized very nicely and details out the races well. There is a picture corresponding to each race and hotlinks to take you up and down the page.

(Spelling/Grammar Errors: "Another mis-conception is that all weres..." misconception is one word)

Wish Two, everything seems fine as it is a simple listing of the categories.

Taken Page is a list of taken powers so there isn't much to comment on here.

(Spelling/Grammar Errors:
TICKTOCK - I couldn't find a Morganne in the memberlist but I assumed Morganne is a person and it isn't captalized.
Untitled, Manipulation of Shadows "trashcan" should be "trash can",
Liqefy - "orphises" should be "orifices",
Cryokinesis - Last sentence "creats" should be "creates",
"Biokenisis" is "Biokinesis",
You Can't Catch the Cheshire Cat - "He's' still there..." should be "He's",
Untitlted - Jaydn section "ect" should be "etc" in the parentheses portion,
Pixie Dust - "... exposed to the skin the particals" should be "particles",
Hack - "internet" is supposed to be capatalized (multiple times), "comuunication" has an extra "u", "eachother" space is needed,
My Guardian - "syth" should be "scythe"
)

All of the Sects are written out well (sans Accidental, as it has none) and with pictures to help with the image for the mind. Overall very nice.

(Spelling/Grammar Errors: Murder Sect - "... the unique tastes of Skelter's inhabitance" should be "inhabitants"),

The Application:
More or less the same as the others, noting that history, appearance and personality are not in the application to make application more user (and admin) friendly. I'm still a fan of this approach because after acceptance I find it easier for one to get more involved into a story with a character because you're already in as opposed to might be getting in.

The Private Area:
Layout Change! Everything looks really nice but I do have a small nitpick, for links that haven't been clicked the font color is a bit hard to read. Overall very nice though. It looks like all the pages are in the public area which is different from before, but I like it. Less bothersome on someone joining.

Forums:
Good amount of forums with very long descriptions for most of the forums. The forums themselves are divided up into the sects they are in, and given hotlinks (and subsequent 'back to top' links) for ease of navigating.

Other:
I think the problem with the default avatars not showing up on the members list is still around 2nd section down (The admin is aware of this and previously contacted me about it). The members list is divided up into the sects they are divided in and their personal avatars are shown as well. There are also hotlinks to the different member sects which again helps with the scrolling part.

Members profiles are filled out very nicely, good descriptions and such. The people that have multiple pictures don't take up large amounts of space because a small separate window opens when you click on the smaller thumbnails.

Roleplaying:
The roleplaying on this site I catagorize as Intermediate to Advanced. Sometimes it appears the post go on for too long and too many things are happening in a post however in my opinion. Also some people's formatting of the post is distracting which may or may not be a result of the use of the postscript.

Rating: 8.6 out of 10 Points
Total Change: +1.6 Points

Great site overall. The few problems I see with the site are that the powers people get borderline the powerplaying/godmoding line because of what they can do (And my stand on time manipulating powers) and sometimes the font blends in a bit too well with the background. The line is considerably different or blurred because of the lack of death however it's still there.

This Site has the Jello Seal of Approval!

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Andraste [8.8/10]

2009-02-04T12:41:00.012-05:00

http://www.acornrack.com/andraste/

Today we'll be talking about that special someone that makes you feel like you can do magic. A person? Of course not, I'm talking about Murmurs. More details will be provided below but in the mean time know that a modern day fantasy RP called Andraste is on the schedule for today!

The AD is overall well written, and give you the basic rundown of the site. It also states they hope the main draw of Andraste is the Murmurs, which are something like familiars except they control when you receive your magic. Alrighty then, lose that habit of speaking unclear (get it? Murmur!) and lets head onwards towards the review!

First Impression:
Hope that girl is good at the limbo. Overall the layout is nice, I only have one minor nitpick and that is I see no way to get back to the index page other than using the back button on the browser but other than that no problems.

The Public Area:
The History is divided into the school history and world history and both are overall well written and though I do have a few problems. In the section about Northrend there is an odd word combination "...retired warriors for searching peace.", perhaps should be "retired warrior searching for peace." Also in the world history you state that the Metal City of Genosha is in the deserts near Egypt. Even though it is stated that water mages created the ecosystem to be more like a tropical forest, that still means all the buildings are giant ovens baking those who are inside.

(Spelling errors: Recent School History - "alot" is not a word, last sentence "recieve" is misspelled. World History - under Cities, Genosha, "ecosystem" does not need the hyphen.)

Elements page, In the light section.. I have some serious problems with the illusion part mainly the fact that you state these illusions are four-dimensional in all entirety. I'd suggest to just simply say they're 3 dimensional and move on. I realize this is "magic" but this is going too far in my opinion.

Warning Science Rambling Ahead
(Skip Ahead if you Wish):
The main problem I have with the indication that the light illusions are 4 dimensional is really that you don't explain the 4th dimension at all. The 4th dimension is disputed to either be a spatial movement in which case we can't tell it's 4 dimensional or it's time in which case people can be haunted by light illusions for all eternity. Even if you simplify the 4th dimension as "tetraspace" that can be implied that time is a spacial dimension in special relativity. In which case you're entering the realm of parallel universes and a realm of movement that cannot be described aside from "A 4th dimensional direction." Of course this also begs the question on what these illusions entail since a 4th dimensional entity can only be seen when crossing the 3rd dimensional plane, a description to fit even a 4th dimension spherical object can only be described as a sphere that grows and wanes. And thus description of the object is harder for one to understand and explain as a whole.

I also have a problem with the whole explosive kinetic energy thing, I realize that sites using magic require a suspension of disbelief but with something as easy to understand like kinetic energy it's hard for me. I would have preferred controlled atomic energy bursts personally.

Ahh, Time Manipulation... while restricting the use of this or it's power as a whole on the site is done quite well, my opinion will stay the same. Time should never be able to be controlled.

The Corruption element seems like it needs to be closely monitored as well (to prevent powerplaying/godmoding), however it is interesting.

(Grammar/Spelling Errors: Near the beginning - "And how is that children and the school find out exactly what sub element is adept in?", in the Mind Section around where a mind is "too" complicated to read)

The List, a listing of the members on the site by elemental affinty along with their nationality in parentheses .

(Spelling Error: Marcus Kreuger's nationality is misspelled.)

Murmurs page, I generally have no problems with the whole page. I do like that Murmurs are admin generated and not user chosen.

(Spelling Error: "... in the awkward state of adolesences" should be adolesence.)

The Rules page overall is generally fine, in rule 5 however it's grammatically odd to me in the first sentence.

The Application:
First you get a page describing the ranks that are availble and what they particularly need on the site, and then you head to the application which is the norm.

The Private Area:
Layout change! But everything is still in the same theme so it's not too much of a distraction ever all the content is on the right side so any confusion is minimal (also yay for hullabaloo!) . There are 4 pages for the private area that aren't on the main page and I cannot access them though I do have a small nitpick. Anyone who has followed my reviews, knows that I prefer the FAQ page to be right after the rules (and public information) and this is no exception.

Forums:
There are a good amount of forums with good descriptions for each one, also the hotlinks to each section help navigating. Also the forums look nice overall.

Other:
Member list very nice, it shows the avatar of the user as well as an avatar of the murmur as well as giving a little information on each of them. (The link directly to the murmur section doesn't work but that is a result of code)

Member profiles are coded nicely, split into 3 parts for the Sage (IC Character), the Murmur and the Player (or OOC Info). The profiles themselves are filled out nicely, and due to the 3 sections it is organized neatly.

Roleplaying:
From what I read on the site I categorize the roleplaying on this site to be Intermediate to Advanced. Some of the posts however seemed a bit wordy and some seemed to fit too many things in one post in order to have a longer post length.

Rating: 8.8 out of 10 Points.

Overall a nice site, the only problems I had on the site were some of the things that I percieved to be rather farfetched. Everything is nicely detailed and the murmurs NOT being a member choice is something that I like. Again, overall very nice.

This Site has the Jello Seal of Approval!

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Shayz'renth and Beyond [7.0/10]

2009-02-03T12:45:00.003-05:00

http://www.acornrack.com/shayzrenth/

For today's review we'll be going back into the days of kings, castles and knights courtesy of a Fantasy/Medieval RP called Shayz'renth and Beyond.

The AD as a whole is very well written, giving each of the countries a backstory of sorts and explaining the hardships and troubles of each. There is however a few things I'd like to point out, under the "Land of Magic" section, the second sentence seems grammatically odd to me. "another murder, and the royals and nobles ignore." perhaps can replaced with "another murder, and another royal or noble feigning ignorance." In the section below that, it talks about the "dessert", it should be "desert." As always the AD plays no impact on the actual score, so grab yourself some dessert and lets move onwards to the review!

First Impression:
Where's the drawbridge? The layout on the site is rather basic, but I have no problems with it. Links are at the top with images and the whole page is used for space effciency as opposed to other layouts who try to squeeze everything in the middle.

The Public Area:
The Front page has the same story as in the AD and also contains the rules, this is linked to at the top as well. The Rules themselves are separated into 4 categories: The Main Rule, Extras, Activity, and Consequences. First nitpick, "The Main Rule" is 3 rules so the title should be changed. Other then that little thing, I have no problems with the rules.

The FAQ page is overall fine however there is something that I do want to nitpick at, in the first OOC question it tells you to look inside the site for certain information. Species, Occupation, etc. I would have liked these pages to be in the public area because it is my opinion that anything you need just to apply should be in the public area.

The Application:
Generally a normal application. As I said before, I would have liked pages that are required the application to be in the Public Area.

The Private Area:
Same layout as the public section which is nice, and towards the bottom of the page there is a rather extensive Credits list. Always nice to see people giving credit where its due.

All the Countries page have their own sections divided into at least 4 parts with hotlinks to each section, and other pertinent information. They also have their own map which is also nice and the background changes as you go into each different area to reflect the country itself, which I thought was simple but very neat. All the countries seem to have the same position that men are dominant in society, and homosexuality is frowned upon. This could be in the rules so it is implied unless stated otherwise. It would also lessen the amount of text to read. Any problems in the specific country pages will be located below:

Shayz'renth - first sentence "countryy" has an extra "y", I would also like a pronunciation help for the rulers name, in Civil Rights section for non humans there is a lack of space after a quotation before the 2nd to last word.

Calendar Page, Special dates for countries and holidays like we have, noting however that "calendar" is spelled wrong in the January section.

Races Page, There is A LARGE AMOUNT of information, all hotlinked which is nice and mostly hidden until you check the box for that specific race.

Occupations Page, describes the occupations well, overall no problems.

Currency Page, I generally have no problems except for one thing. It says a Gold Slip = 2.5 Goldens. From the conversion chart it looks like to be 2.5 Golden Coins, but it says "Goldens".

Magic Page, is overall fine it defines who can do what and what spell are in which element area and difficulty. I have a small problem with the Summoning plant-growing, the Earth Sage magic is Advanced to grow yet it's child's play comparatively to Summoners. I did see some spelling errors, in the description for Spellcaster, "wide variety of magics" the plural for magic is magic. In Necromancy, Re-Soul, "mentally" is misspelled.

Forums:
Good amount of forums divided into sections with decent descriptions for each. There's hotlinks to each section AS WELL as hotlinks in each section to every other area. I really like this, it's quick navigation all the way.

Other:
Members list is divided into 3 parts, OOC info (basically), Characters and Absent list. Each of these parts is filled out with a good bit of information however I would have liked in IC information first as opposed to the OOC.

Members Profiles are generally filled out well, however the people with many characters all that information is sometimes hard to navigate through even with the hotlinks. I'd like to see maybe at least a little more separation, even if it's just an "HR" code or something.

Roleplaying:
From what I read on the forums, I categorize the roleplaying on this site to be Intermediate.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10 Points

The site overall was very well written and with all the detail and effort put into the site it's clearly something to look at. Aside from minor inconsistencies that I thought should be fixed, all the systems seemed fine and if anything the biggest problem with the site is just simple information organization because of how much is actually there.

Aeris [8.2/10]

2009-02-02T11:26:00.008-05:00

http://www.acornrack.com/aeris/

The next site on the list is aeris, a steampunk, science-fiction RP set in a post-apocalyptic Rome.

The AD is nice and easy to read giving you how the world ended, and the pull at the end to join the site by showing you the corruption of Rome. Anyway, so far, so good, watch out for the Hindenburg and head on towards the review!

First Impression:
Dodge the Hindenburg at all costs. The layout looks nice and is in the center of the page, so overall nice and I have no problems.

The Public Area:
The Front page is an expansion of what is said in the AD, showing what is happening "now" as opposed to what had happened. I did want to note that in the AD in says something about escaped genetically enhanced humans while it isn't mentioned in the front. At this point I can only assume that the government is involved with the police again because they want to recapture them, sort of like the show "Dark Angel" .

The Prologue the very nicely written and does it job of fleshing out the background story very nicely.

The Setting is broken up into 3 parts for easier reading, Technology, Environment and Government. They are also hotlinked if you should feel the need to reread them over again, I always have the rule that if you have a hotlink down you should probably hotlink back to the top. So, so far this is my only nitpick. The Technology portion is where we hear about the first mention of the genetic enhanced humans, but only briefly, so perhaps a link to the Angel Project page would be nice in this area. Also the mechanical limb attachment gives me a "Full Metal Alchemist" vibe. Overall everything seems well thought out and written.

Races page is also hotlinked and again, I like the rule where if you have hotlinks down, you have hotlinks up. By the way, I call dibs on Post-Apocalyptic Rome MegaMan Bounty Hunter with Automatron Siberian Tiger Pet Action... unless someone beat it to me first! The Automatons section gives me an I,Robot feel about how they are slowly evolving. Again everything is well written.

The Angel Project Page, again reminds me of the show "Dark Angel" somewhat. Also wondering if it was intentional about the YHWH Coporation naming. (YHWH or Yahweh, the Jewish name for God.) I assume it was intentional considering the amount of effort put into the story at this point.

The Classes page I don't have much to say about except that perhaps hotlinks would be useful. You have them for the 3 sections of setting and 3 sections for races but not for the 9 classes.

The Rules page, are numbered... in Roman numerals! Get it?!? They're in Rome... and they're... using their numbers.

The Application:
More or less the standard application, but it is simplified for easier completion.

The Private Area:
The transition from the public to private page is basically what looks to be just a widening of the layout. It keeps the same feel as before so there is no initial confusion.

Character Stats, first off let me say that I personally love the stats system (All my sites use a stats system) . However pulling it off effectively is difficult. So far everything seems to be fine however the battling system will be the true test (Which at this point looks to be mainly a guideline).

Airship Crews, the page looks generally incomplete. The writing isn't English and the picture doesn't work. So that should probably be fixed.

Crew Guide, everything seems well written out here, no complaints.

FAQ, first of all I'd like to say that I prefer the FAQ to be after the rules page in the public area. After reading all kinds of information you might have questions before joining and want them clarified. Not everyone comes browsing into the private area to search for specific answers.

Credits page, Always nice to give credit where credit is due.

Forums:
There are just a little amount of IC forums for the site however these forums are vague and cover a large expanse of area. So this counteracts the problem of having a large amount of forums but having to scroll all the way down the page. The only thing I'd like changed is, the labels at the top (Area Name, Posts, etc.) I would like the background to be black. The individual forums would stand out more and my opinion would look nicer.

Other:
The Member List is divided by ranks and lists little info about the actual characters aside from race. The races don't fill in the table after the administrator portion so the original coder should relook at that portion to see if they can fix it. (This is apparently only a Guest user problem)

Generally the member profiles are filled out nicely, those that aren't active at this point though obviously have profiles less filled in.

Roleplaying:
From what I read on the forums I categorize the Roleplaying on this site to be Intermediate to Advanced, leaning on the Advanced side.

Rating: 8.2 out of 10 Points.

Overall a very nice site, everything is well explained without getting too heavy on the text and although the Post-Apoc theme is a bit niche I think, the little flairs added onto it give the draw that it needs. Stat points are a nice especially since they are used a simple guidelines to define strengths and weaknesses so post quality does not suffer.

This Site has the Jello Seal of Approval!

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Welcome to Santa Monica [7.9/10]

2009-02-01T14:12:00.009-05:00

http://www.acornrack.com/santamonica/

On this Super Bowl Sunday, I bring you now this review on Welcome to Santa Monica! This RP is a city RP, based in... Santa Monica, California!

The AD itself is nicely written out, giving the who, what and why's of what you need to know. Being a city RP it's difficult to write an AD that would draw in members who would otherwise not join a city RP. Now, onwards Steelers and Cardinals! Time for the review!

First Impression:
I need to visit a carnival. Now where I said just a few lines above that writing an AD to draw in people is difficult. This is where I feel most successful City RP's draw in there members, in the layout. The layout is nice it looks professional and it looks simplistic in nature.

The Public Area:
The Front page is basically an extension from the little blurb in the beginning of the AD, it's always nice to see admins expand on the initial writings instead of just copying and pasting. Nice opening kick-off though.

Rules page, the numbers are written out! Fancy. Just wanted to note that in rule Three, the last sentence, there is no space after the period before this sentence starts. (Yes, I generally read that much in detail.)

The Application:
I like the neatness of the process, there are a few guidelines for the application and then you choose which application type. Otherwise it's your normal application.

The Private Area:
Layout change! But still looks very neat and actually a rather seamless transition. Everything you need to see is on the screen when you enter so it is rather efficient also.

All the pages are written out and organized nicely, so there's not much to comment on them except that it's good.

Believe it or not, there are "technically" NO private PAGES! All the links that would seem to normally be pages are actually posts in the forum. I'll comment more on this in just a few lines down so hold the line and get ready for the snap! (Are you getting tired of these sports transitions?)

Forums:
Good amount of forums, and nice descriptions for each area. There are also hotlinks to each section and is overall very neat and clean. Now, remember when I said before that the "private pages" are actually forum posts? Well I really, really, REALLY like how the admin did the forums like that, it is something you don't see too often. Most sites have lines and borders and define things while this is rather open styled.

Other:
Member list is nicely organized, each member looks like they have a little card which contains their avatar with other pertinent information. Also there is a link to their "contact" information (if filled in) which is both in character and out of character.

Roleplaying:
From what I read on the site I categorize the RP level of this community to be Intermediate.

Rating: 7.9 out of 10 Points.

Overall I really liked this site, and this particular rating was the most difficult so far. This city RP is probably one of the best out there that can stand proudly next to Soulmate as a decent contender. However even with all the things I liked, the one thing that makes an RP tick I couldn't really find. And that little thing is the idea that makes the RP stand out as opposed to other ones. The layout makes the SITE stand out, innovations in the forums make the ADMIN stand out on creativity, but there wasn't anything that I could solely atrribute to this RP. So with that reasoning, the site misses the final Point Conversion to turn the tide. (Had to sneak in a final one!)

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Naruto: Shattered Pieces [8.5/10]

2009-01-31T18:37:00.011-05:00

http://www.acornrack.com/nsp/

The next site on the list is a Naruto based RP called, Naruto: Shattered Pieces. This is obviously based off the hit Anime, Naruto.

The AD is rather oddly formatted in my opinion, everything being left oriented, but overall the plot seems to be that in the distant future from the current Naruto timeline. Evil is rising again and it's your job to stop it, or encourage it.

(Note: Even though they have their contacts listed apparently just randomly adding them will still warrant a good cbox conversation.)

Onwards to the review!

First Impression:
One-eyed, Many Horned, Green Tentacle People Eater. The layout is nice and compact and the drop down menus are nice.

The Public Area:
So I've read the AD and the front page at this point and I'm having a bit of trouble connecting the two. The AD talks about how Akatsuki and Akusuna are coming back into power and the uneasiness over it and then the front page changes to a giant climate shift.

(Bijuu's cause global warming, I KNEW IT!)

The Rules page, Oh well this wont take too long there are 3 rules... I mean 3.0! (That's 30 for all you people who didn't understand the significant figures reference there) Most of them more or less make sense but, Rule 2.0, "No run-on sentences", is something that should be common sense. Also I'd like to see the rules organized into section like: General, Posting and Application rules or something like that.

(Spelling/Grammar Errors: 0.8 - Oinin is not capatilized while the others are. )

The Storyline, This is what I was expecting coming from the AD... but now I'm wondering what is happening with global warming and all sand and such.

Bijuu, on Rokubi I would suggest reordering "fire creating by lightning, lightning, and thunder" so it easier to read abit. I had thought you said lightning twice before I read it again.

Adoptables, For the Akusuna/Akatsuki you have 2 positions open but 3 Bijuu of the 4 which were available for them.

The Application:
Application guidelines! I was scared for a moment those were more rules. The collapsable applicaitons I like and there is a newer application created to "decrease application time" by combining History, Personality and Appearance in one box. Either way I look at it you're going to spend the same amount of time on those 3 areas because they're still there, it's a good illusion though I suppose.

(Note: NO RP SAMPLE! I don't particularly like RP samples, so seeing a site that doesn't require it is always nice.)

The Private Area:
Layout change! And Kyuubi is watching you from behind the Cbox! I don't have any particular problems with the layout though the right column seems a bit squeezed.

Akatsuki/Akusuna page, generally have the same info on how to join and the requirements and all that good stuff.

Clans page, give you all those nice little details about them and all their nifty things including who the member are. I like this quite a bit. Would have liked it centered on the page though.

Bingo Book, this is also a nice thing. However with this innovation with the profiles I would have like to see you able to turn individual pages for each profile. To make it feel more "book" like. I would have personally loved a cheesy title page on the book for laughs.

Jutsu, overall fine. Again as was with the Clans portion I would have liked it centered.

Timelines, again another feature that I particularly like. Shows who graduated when and important events on the site in plot details as well and member accomplishments.

Honourifics, information on the use of certain suffixes in the Japanese language. For those that choose to use them should use the right, after all.

Forums:
There is quite a bit of forums on here and nice descriptions for all of them. Though again I have a few things. Hotlinks are there to help with navigation however I would have like to see them separate each section more, the headers have a different background but are otherwise no different.

Other:
Memberlist is nice and divided by village and in a table. I would like to point out that in all the "Kage" positions it's not capatalized. "Konoha kage" as opposed to "Konoha Kage". Member profiles are filled out nicely although whatever else was on that page (I assumed music) didn't work for me.

Roleplaying:
From what I read on the site I categorize the RP level on the site to be Intermediate. However I was fortunate to come across an RP where they actually drew out what was happening.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10 Points.

Overall I didn't have much to complain about the site, everything was nice and thoroughly and THOROUGHLY ... explained. There was alot of text but it was nicely organized. Innovative use of separate forums was also nice to see to get around the page limit of a non-paid site.The plot seemed to lack some originality for me but Naruto is fairly confined on what you can do with it. Again, very nice site overall but I'm still confused on the whole global warming, Bijuu... thing.

This Site has the Jello Seal of Approval!

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Lost Days [5.5/10]

2009-01-30T12:28:00.016-05:00

http://www.acornrack.com/bend/

For now I'm trying to do sites of different themes or genres as often as possible which lead me to this site, Lost Days. This is an RP based off the hit Nickelodeon show, Avatar: The Last Airbender.

The AD for this particular site, basically is just stating that the story of the show is playing over again and at this point I'm not buying the whole "loosely based off the show" bit. But anyway, at least they put a nice gradient for the text at the top. Onwards to the review!

First Impression:
Left-oriented. The layout as a whole is fine, but I would have like it have been more centralized. It isn't that much of a problem and they tried to offset it a bit by extending an image across the page. The text however still draws you to the left.. at least for the front page.

The Public Area:
The Story, I read it and aside from it being 200 years later it's more or less the same as the original story. The text spread across the whole page is a little disorienting from the front page.

Rules, the first problem I have is the order of the rules and placement of the godmoding and powerplay rules. The first "rule" is actually not a rule but an explanation of the rules page. Another small point is that you say "((Again, look at Ty Lee))" however I have no recollection of Ty Lee being mentioned before. Under posting you say to post 2 paragraphs, 8 sentences total... it's always been my understanding that 8 sentences minimum is ONE paragraph.

("Lightning" is spelled wrong in point 3.)

I generally like OOC rules to come first, then IC rules after. Also this gets rid of the redundancy of essentially having "no powerplaying" in two different locations.

(Spelling/Grammar Errors: "skill" in the fourth point, fifth point - grammar, "person" in Character point 1, "quotations" in Posting point 2)

The Benders, a somewhat organized list of people on the site. However at the top the text is a little wierd for some reason. And also.. you state if you want to know more about the benders go into the private area to look and decide, those pages can't be seen by visitors.

Information page, again wonky text in the first sentence. I'm not sure that encouraging people to break copyright laws is also something you should be having on the main page. Alluding to it is fine, "You should watch clips of Avatar on certain video sharing sites" or something like that. The link to the creatures, that page is deleted AND you probably should have summarized the information on your own and placed in on this page.

The Application:
Normal application.

The Private Area:
FIREFOX ERROR (Edit: ERROR on MY END! VLC PLUGIN FOR FIREFOX) ! Not sure what causes this, but might be something to look into, also layout change! There are no new pages to look at because as I've said even though they tell you to look here, the pages are blocked from view. At least there is what looks to be an upgraded cbox, it refreshes on its own.

Forums:
Giant Text Wall. There are a good amount of forums and descriptions but as I said it's a giant wall of text. The sections aren't spaced out from one another and I'd like to see hotlinks because of just how many forums there are. The headers for each section are bold and a bigger font but I'd like to see a little more distinction.

Other:
For some reason the member list is causing my firefox to crash when I go to there from a member page or going to a member page from there. So something to look into there. At this point I used Internet Explorer for the rest of the review. (Edit: AGAIN, ERROR ON MY PART. VLC PLUGIN FOR FIREFOX)

The member list is your basic listing of information and the profiles are filled out decently.

Roleplaying:
From the posts I read I categorize the level of RPing as Intermediate to High Intermediate.

Rating: 5.5 out of 10 Points.

Overall the site was fine, allowing people to play the Avatar story in their own right and distancing themselves from the Canon timeline. The little problems around the site including the crashing of my firefox (twice) brought down the score a little bit but not enough to dilute the overall impression.

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Laurel Hills [2.6/10]

2009-01-29T16:13:00.008-05:00

http://www.acornrack.com/laurelhills/

The next site on the list here is called Laurel Hills, a Fantasy/City RP. From what I've read on the AD it's a city RP (there's a nice picture for it also) but of course it's inhabited by Angels and Demons and other creatures and things. This is what looks to be a fairly new site but just as always I'll be nitpicking as much as I see fit.

First Impression:
There's white... ALOT of it... and the eyes, they hurt. The layout would be fine if the colors didn't clash so much, as I said before there's alot of white! The background behind the links at the bottom of the picture is black and the link are purple (after visiting them). Overall this leads to a not pleasant experience mostly because it feels like you're trying to squeeze everything in the middle. Actually the white background is okay, but the link color isn't. Also I'd like to point out that there is no way to get back to the index page other than the back button on the browser.

The Public Area:
Laws are generally okay, I'd like to see them individually spaced and also elaborate on the whole vampire with the singing blood... thing.

Species page, I'd like to see a link back to the species page on the individual race pages. In the Dragon page you list a "Worm" rank... do you mean "Wyrm" ? Overall I'd just like to see more information for each race, you talk about that singing blood thing for the vampires but don't expound on it any in it's page.

At this point I'm a bit confused, so explaining everything in more detail about the races and what each can do and such might be something to look into.

The Application:
There is a little bit before the actual application helping you along with the process and I have some nitpicks here. In the "Other", section of the text you say something about a special abilities page. I saw no page named Special Abilities unless I completely missed it.

The application is the norm, but I'd like to see a little more effort on the application. Drop-down selections instead of typing what you want, and things like that.

The Private Area:
Layout change! Better on the space side, but still not good with the colors, also the left column seems a bit cramped. The default avatar is not working, or isn't coded in which should be added in if you plan on having something like the avatar show up on login.

Aside from that there are no new pages or information.

Forums:
Giant Text Wall, more so than most because it's black on white and the headers from each section are hard to distinguish. The descriptions of the forums are at least fine... but that's about it. Suggesting to add hotlinks to each of the sections, separating the sections a bit bold the headers, and maybe add a bit of color (grey even is fine) to offset the large amount of white just in the forum table.

Other:
Member list is... Odd to say the least, I'm not sure what else to put in there. It's just the avatar and the name in the center.

Profiles aren't filled out fully and the other person on the site hasn't even touched the actual profile page it looks like. At least the main admin put in a nice picture I can look at... *cough*

Roleplaying:
No posts at this time to base my opinion off of.

Rating: 2.6 out of 10 Points.

Why 2.6 you ask, well bascially because the plot is interesting enough to me to pass for some sort of decent roleplay. Otherwise the site as a whole looks unfinished and unpolished. Basically this site needs a good amount of work done. Also the layout is to squeezed in the middle for my tastes and should try expanding it a bit.

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

X-Men: School of the Gifted [7.0/10]

2009-01-28T13:31:00.010-05:00

http://www.acornrack.com/XSGII/

It's now time to review the next site on my list, X-Men: School of the Gifted, or XSG for short. As you expect from the title of the site this is an RP about X-men, mutants, powers, sentinels and all things X-men-y. I'm treading into hardcore fanboy/girl area but I'm not going to be all nice because of it.

On the AD there are several things to point out, first would be the that there is an FAQ on the bottom of the AD answering some questions about the site. This also leads to knowing if you can apply as canon characters (You can, though originals are encouraged.) Well I guess its time for the main portion...

First Impression:
Meh. The current layout of the site doesn't really do anything for me, it's black on black on black with some grey. While the reason for such a layout is explained in the FAQ (which I beleive should be also on the site), to me it just shows laziness on the admins part.

"I think that the main point of a role playing site is the actual role playing. In addition to the ease of loading due to a comparative lack of images on the site, XSG's layout is clean and simple. Which allows the quality of writing to be highlighted, rather than the layout-of-the-week."

I'm fine with a simple layout and simple colors with no images but don't give me crap on about how you want to "focus on RPing" it's laziness any way you slice it. Just click the premade layout and go. Devil's Pass is a very simple layout but it is a nice layout and it isn't dull. One banner image and simple color changes isn't going to kill loading time off of anyone's computer.

The Public Area:
The Plot, it is the ultimate cookie cutter plot. There is no innovation here at all, X-men VS Magneto VS Sentinels. I'd be fine if I saw even a little bit of originality but I see nothing.

The Rules page, generally it's okay it's nice and organized however I have a few nitpicks that I'm going to point out. Is it really necessary to have a rule stating that new applicants HAVE to start their first thread? Also, I'm sure somewhere along the way in the history of X-Men there has been a genius kid who has advanced abilities for his age. Though I understand why the rule is there it's not unplausible for it to happen.

Ranks, not really a big issue... but I'd like to point out that for ranks you list "X-Men" and in the memberlist everyone happens to be Jean Grey's son, "X-Man".

Restricted Powers, no real issue here except I'd change "Watch List" to something else, like Semi-restricted or something. I wasn't sure what you initially meant with the "Watch List".

By-Product Powers, There's one particular thing I don't understand... this section is all about by product powers and yet you're still talking about how if the primary is on the restricted list it will be declined...

After Applying, I don't like the name, it implies that after you've applied under this link are things you need to do before you actually get involved in the site stuff.

The Application:
First, I've never come across where AR sends out a password prematurely. It might be just in the settings in there- but at least you're given a warning about it.

Generally it's a normal application however I have nitpicks on it.

Second, having an actual word count minimum is something I don't like. Certain sections make it much harder than it should be like describing powers if one has a simpler power.

Third, in the RP sample you use the word "haranguing". I'm trying to figure out if this is a stroke of genius or you really just whimsically decided to put that word in there.

The Private Area:
First thing I noticed, oh well geez that thing I had about simpler powers it tells you to contact admins about it but nowhere does it say it on the application. That little tidbit should be posted in a public area because not everyone browses the private area.

Second, there are 10 "recent posts", which is more than I like especially with a ShoutBox under it.

I see no new information pages so that means we move on to the next section.

Forums:
Giant Wall of Text. There is a good amount of forums with decent enough descriptions, however it's all a giant block. I'd like to see the different areas spaced out and of course with hotlinks directly to them.

Other:
The member list is your normal list but there are also avatars. I don't particularly understand the admin at all, 25 images loading at the same time coming from multiple servers I thought was slower than 1 image which gets cached after the initial load.

Member's profiles are nicely filled which I suppose has to be to reach the word count minimum but overall I have no problems. However I read some profile where the powers aren't really as descriptive as I thought they should be and left some questions to be answered. I'm not going to single out any people but from JUST the profile it left questions.

Roleplaying:
From what I read I categorize the roleplaying on this site to be Intermediate to Advanced. Some posts seemed to have too much going on at the same time and others seemed wordy.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10 Points.

This site... what I can I say about it other than it's completely average though some parts are very nice (Magneto's Posts for example). Nothing on the site really screamed out to me that this RP is trying to be sucessful in its own right. The only stroke of genius I saw was in the application however brief it was. As a final comment I find it ironic that the site encourages originality and yet it's the perfect cookie cutter RP.

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Devil's Pass [6.0/10]

2009-01-27T13:43:00.016-05:00

http://www.acornrack.com/dp/

The next site to come under my inspection is called Devil's Pass, a RP set in the wild west. A time and place were vigilante's and outlaws scurried across the plains... only to be smacked in the head by a tomahawk.

The AD for the site obviously states the setting and is also a tribute to a site on AG2 called Duke's Crossing.

First Impression:
Looks to be promising. The colors give the wild west feel in a sense, and I also like now the news page is also present here in the public layout. Again I'm a fan where the public layout is the same as the private layout to ease confusion on the member.

The Public Area:
The Setting, this is where I have my first little nitpick. They give you a set of links to wikipedia articles, I'd like to see the staff take the time to summarize those articles and place it in the setting page. The same goes for the fashion links, they could make a separate page or a new paragraph summarizing this.

The Ranks, nothing major to note here just simply that about halfway down the page instead of the names just being bold everything is bold.

The Rules, generally fine however I have a nitpick on rule 4. We're in a western theme here yet you use the phrase "army of ninjas". Stick to the setting of the RP at least and say a group of Native Americans or something.

After Applying page current has no content.

The Application:
Your normal everyday application. Perhaps I'd like a portion to place a "West Style" nickname like "Pit Bull Pete" or something.

The Private Area:
Generally the same layout, however there is a few things I will nitpick at. First, at first I thought the link back to the Index didn't exist but then later on realized it was moved so my suggestion would be to move it to the top. There is a ShoutBox (Not a Cbox!) and other then that, everything is the same. I would have liked the "Online" list under the Navigation section as it was in the Public Layout to make it them look more alike.

Forums:
Good amount of forums with decent descriptions, however even though the headers for each section are defined I'd like more separation so it doesn't look like one giant block. Also I'd suggest hotlinks to the sections as well to make it easier on the user so they don't have to scroll down to each section.

Other:
Members list is generally the list of the basic information, along with the users avatar.

Member's profiles are filled out nicely, with a good amount of information. Some have pictures for their character while others don't and some images are broken which should be looked at by the user. If it's a coding problem then it's something the admin should look at.

Roleplaying:
There are only a few posts for me to base this off of so I cannot give an accurate summation.

Rating: 6.0 out of 10 Points.

The actual setting of the RP and the Wild West theme brings this site over the average edge. With the fixing of the little things and addition of the info on that one page, this site earns the solid rating of 6.

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Nihilum [7.8/10]

2009-01-26T22:14:00.009-05:00

http://www.acornrack.com/nih/

The next site on the list is Nihilum, a Post-Apocalypse RP. Of course the draw for this site is the human psychology of what people do in dire times of need, and how other people react to what is the new set of arbitrary rules now that society has been changed. And this is what this site feeds off of, the human condition.

The AD essentially says what I just did, however in more "story-ish" words. Also a note for this site is that everything is done in roleplay, there isn't any pre-planning or discussion which is another draw for this site. Also I look forward to having my rating posted on the AD under ticklebear's :) Now... onto the review!

First Impression:
A nice and compact layout. Reminds me of like a newspaper somewhat, I'm not sure if that's what they were going for but anyway I like it. IC and OOC news are both present on the front page which I also like, there is no need to login to see what's new within the site unless there is a particular news article you want to read. One minor thing here, as you navigate the pages if at any point you want to head back to the index page you're going to have to edit the URL or use that back button because I found no link. When you're logged in, you have the links at the bottom of the picture, however those just browsing are out of luck.

The Public/Private Area:
Aside from the normal member things, Forums, memberlist etc. These two are one and the same so therefore I am knocking out two birds with one stone here. (Jello cups for giving me less work. Hey, I'm The Jello Emperor here, not Bonnie Brownie.)

The About Nihilum page gives a good sense of what the site is about if you didn't bother reading the whole AD, once again repeating the finer points of the site.

The Basic Plot page is just that, sticking true to the "back to the basics" approach the site takes. It tells you what happened and it's your job to do the rest.

The Apocalypse page gives you further detail on how the setting came to be and how generally people reacted. (For those of you keeping score, I still have no complaints at this point.)

The Setting page obviously tells you where you're at, I'd like to point out at this point I like how they divided up the information into small sizeable bites instead of creating one giant page and going: Alright here's all the info... now go read it and understand.

I'm skipping now to the FAQ page because I don't have anything to comment up to till this point. Generally the page is fine except for one thing in particular, "fo srsly". Up until this point I had the image of a professional site, taking everything back down to square one to revive the roots of the glory of RPing and then I get hit with that.

Now even though you tell your members to stop nitpicking, this is my job, (okay, not really my job, but a hobby I invest time in) and I've always been a fan of having the FAQ after the Rules page. Because I generally find that questions stem from after reading the Rules and the next place they visit should hopefully answer them.

Random Events, I quite like this idea it gives a sense of spontaneity of any RP in which things can go from one mind set to another. However, I would have personally liked it if users were only allowed to decline and know beforehand of a Red event. Up to orange the Random Event account would just simply post their event and they would have to react accordingly, a more truer random event as it were. People will cater their posts if they know something is going to happen to their character towards a safer RP route.

Example with a Rabid Dog case:

Sue and John are talking while walking inside a building and the random event person shows up for an orange event. They post both accepting but they've now moved their conversation into a hallway with rooms with lockable doors. So now all they need is to run into said room and lock it and boom, safe from event.

The Application:
I love the collapsible applications, and also the two part personality things. A nice innovation on the simple application here.

Forums:
10 IC forums (with nice descriptions), however in this particular case the amount of forums work well because it's one singular city and doesn't make the forums page long enough that I have to play my old record of the scroll bar suffering. There are also hotlinks to the OOC and IC sections. I question the IC section hotlink and there is no "Back to Top" link from OOC but I suppose people can just hit the "Home" button.

Other:
The Member list is a simple list of info, and I have no particular problem with it. Members profiles are nicely filled out in Nihilum's particular style and I also want to point out that while the history can be filled out it is only seen by you. The reason for it is given in the FAQ section and you'll just have to go and meander over there to find out what it is.

Roleplaying:
The roleplaying on this site I categorize as Intermediate to Advanced.

Rating: 7.8 out of 10 Points.

Overall a very nice site, things are well organized and the seamless transition so that a public and private layout is essentially non-existent is also nice. Though this site is very nice, it seems to lack a certain something that I can only describe as a community spirit. The OOC posts don't feel like a sufficient amount of contact with people out of character, and it sort of gives the site a melancholy feel.

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Cellar Door [7.0/10]*

2009-01-26T09:58:00.013-05:00

http://www.acornrack.com/CellarDoor/

UPDATED REVIEW - Feb 05, 2009

The next site on the list is Cellar Door, a RP set in the Afterlife. Also worth noting for the site is that each and every member has a unique ability, emphasis on the unique portion. That's right you alone will have this power to taunt and tease the other members on the site until they're de- ... until they are no longer active!

The AD for the site gives the background story and a simple explanation of a few other things you need to know. While I generally don't go into the realm of nitpicking at AD's, for me the text was a bit small but onwards to the review!

First Impression:
Nice Socks. Overall the layout looks nice the colors meld well and there seem to be nothing out of place. However, when you first go into the site you are presented with something like a "Choose Your Own Adventure" book, you click a link, which leads to more links, which leads to pages. Afterwards all the links are nicely put in a collapsible menu on the lower left side, I would have rather seen this type of layout from the start. Another minor thing is that the background doesn't perfectly align when it repeats.

The Public Area:
The Rules Page, I have nothing to really say about this portion except for the lack of the common sense rule of God moding, also a slight comment from me at this point. I read through the powers that some of the people have, and some of them seem very God mode or essentially lends themselves to powerplaying. For example... time, in my opinion should not ever be something a user can control.

Wish One, organized very nicely and details out the races (aside from the perfection one) well. There is a picture corresponding to each race and hotlinks to take you up and down the page.

Wish Two, at the top the text is too small for me. And other than that it's a simple listing, so nothing to really comment on here.

All of the Sects are written out well and with pictures to help with the image for the mind. Overall very nice.

The Application:
More or less the same as the others, noting that history, appearance and personality are not in the application to make application more user (and admin) friendly. I'm still a fan of this approach because after acceptance I find it easier for one to get more involved into a story with a character because you're already in as opposed to might be getting in.

The Private Area:
Layout Change! I generally have no problems with the layout, aside from the minor backround image repeating issue as the public layout.

The private pages on the site are blocked from my view they look to be the same as from the public area though. I do have one small nitpick here! One of the member pages is the FAQ- this seems to me more of a public sort of page but other than that there isn't much I can comment on.

Forums:
Good amount of forums with very long descriptions for most of the forums. I personally would have liked a little less description on some of them or at least reduce the word count. The forums themselves are divided up into the sects they are in, and given hotlinks (and subsequent 'back to top' links) for ease of navigating.

Cue the broken record, I'll cut this one short this time. Lots of stuff in the forums means lots of scrolling, hotlinks are there to help though.

Other:
The person who had sent me a message had indicated they knew of a problem with the default avatars not showing up on the members list. I assume this is from the 2nd section down, if I have time I'll look through the code. The members list is divided up into the sects they are divided in and their personal avatars are shown as well. There are also hotlinks to the different member sects which again helps with the scrolling part.

Members profiles are filled out very nicely, good descriptions and such. Allowance for having multiple pictures which brings up a little window to view them in.

(Small note: MPD Psycho Adoptable ... Ichi, Ni, San, She, Go. "She" should be "Shi")

Roleplaying:
The roleplaying on this site I catagorize as Intermediate to Advanced. Sometimes it appears the post go on for too long and too many things are happening in a post however in my opinion.

~~Rating:~~ ~~7.0 out of 10 Points.~~

UPDATED REVIEW - Feb 05, 2009

Nice site overall in general though the initial layout is confusing, after a quick run through it is easy to overlook. The few problems I see with the site are that the powers people get borderline the powerplaying line because of what they can do. The line is considerably different or blurred because of the lack of death however it's still there.

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Plague of Shadows [3.0/10]

2009-01-25T22:40:00.010-05:00

http://www.acornrack.com/soeki_kumori/

Alrighty, on this Sunday night I'll be reviewing Plague of Shadows. This RP is a fantasy based RP with a light elemental side to it, as it so claims on the AD. The main thing on the site is the current war between Light and Shadow with The Watcher being neutral in the conflict.

The AD has just the background story and of course some other things you should know before joining, as well as having admin contacts.

(Side note: As I review these sites, I add at least one of the admins from the site to my AIM list. To see if they have anything they wish to discuss.)

But now, onto the review!

First Impression:
The Layout is... okay. I don't particularly feel one way or another, the colors match well and everything seems to be fine. The front page has a small portion of what is in the AD, and of course invites you to look further into the site.

The Public Area:
The History page gives you a nice sense of how the site feel is, I have no problems with this page except for one minor thing. While you can easily use the back button or hit the logo for the site, there is no "Back to Home" link or whatever.

This is the same on all the other pages so I won't comment on it again.

The Elements page, generally is a list of what the elements do and which category they fall under: Light or Shadow. Not much to comment on because the list is thought out well, and explains any questions I had. I'll this time to point out a small mistake in the writing.

In the Mind Section, the second to last sentence: Telekinesis is also possible, but the laws of physics remain and obstacle. "And" should be changed to "an"

The Laws page, actually has no laws! It has rules, a bit of inconsistency but nothing major so anyway to the actual rules. (Rules start at 0 apparently on this site.)

Rule #1 - Maybe it's just me again, but I've seen people use "god modding" a bit. I've always known it as "God moding". I just assume this is a spelling mistake... however I actually do have a nitpick here, so in the elements page there is only 1 person who controls time- The Watcher and this watcher is... the main admin. In my opinion, this is a direct violation of this rule and should be NPC (controlled by the admins) and the admin should have a different main character to invest their time in.

Rule #5 - It's more like a list, it would be easier to simply create a new section for these rules entirely.

The Application:
At the top of the page there is a mini-guide on filling out the application, the only problem is there is no spacing between them so it's a mini-text wall. Also, if you look at the elements selection there are two elements that don't seem to be on the list: Justice and Illusion.... oh wait, they're different names. Order and Chaos, better names in my opinion but you have to be thorough and change every part where this is.

Next, there is one text box for your RP sample and Character History. Creating another text area for the history is easy... there isn't even any hard coding involved, copy/paste and change the variable.

The Private Area:
NO Layout change! Again, I'm a fan of this. The text links are swapped with image based links which are also nice however the size of the same makes the images seem a little pixelated. Perhaps if they were slightly smaller it would make it look a bit nicer. Also, there is no "immediate" form of communication such as a cbox. I would invest a short amount of time in a cbox or some other form of immedate communcation.

Also, the news page apparently is inverted. The newest news is on the bottom and not the top, this will be more annoying as more news items are posted so it would be in their best interest to change that order.

The other private pages I cannot see (In a drop down menu, by the way) although from the names they seem to the be same as the ones from the public area.

Forums:
There are... ten IC forums which have decent descriptions. Obviously my first suggestion would be to add more forums people need a large sandbox to play in and some other random metaphor. I will say though that the sections are at least separated.

Other:
The members profiles are ... filled out? They are all actually filled out however, not very well... just short phrases essentially fill the fields. No appearance information or history even though the history part is requested in the application. The user information page needs a overhaul so it will contain more detail for each character.

Roleplaying:
I cannot give an accurate estimate of the roleplaying on this site because at this time there are no threads to base it off of.

Rating: 3.0 out of 10 Points.*

Now you may question my rating here because generally it seems like a sub-par site, however I see potential here which is why I give it a higher rating then Wolves Fly. The plot is fairly interesting and it can be used to gather members. This site essentially just needs more detail and more time spent on it. I personally mark this site for Re-review at a later date for this reason (and expect a higher rating).

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Wolves Fly [2.0/10]

2009-01-24T23:17:00.012-05:00

http://www.acornrack.com/wolvesfly/

I've decided to give you a three-fer for today, so here is the third site I'm reviewing today: Wolves Fly! This is I assume a wolf RP and according to the AD it's a Fantasy Wolf RP. (I suppose wolves with wings would be...) Anyway, the AD itself give you some plot for the site and contact information, so onto the actual review!

First Impression:
Alright now to review this... Wolf site? The main picture of the site looks like a dog to me... so is this a wolf site or a dog site? That was my initial reaction, the layout itself is not really a layout just the AR basic thing they give you with some color changes. As for the colors themselves, I don't really like them. The stars background I can deal with, but the black text on a dark blue background doesn't work, and the moon cursor fits with the background but in my opinion is unnecessary.

The Public Area:
The Packs page, is more or less just text describing the packs. I note that there are a few spelling errors on the page.

The Herb page, is a giant text wall listing off herbs. There is no table or attempt to make it organized except for the bolding of the herb names.

The Main Plot page, same as the AD... well almost. While the AD has no spelling mistakes that I saw, the one on the site DOES. Normally it's the other way around since you do it on the site, complete it and then make the AD after everything is finished.

The Application:
While this part of the site doesn't have anything special for the application this actually is probably where I have the most comments at this point. It says at the top that people are not required to fill in all the blank in the application. However... there are 5 or 6 blanks in total and these should all be filled in because of the lack of actual fields to fill.

Also, there is a spot for your rank and this I think actually doesn't need to be there. As far as I see there can be three ranks (At the time of this review) with my limited experience with Wolf RPs. They are: Pack Leader, Pack Member, and Rogue. This can all be settled after they have joined and commited to the site.

The Private Area:
Things are moving.... the text I mean, and it's not exactly my cup of tea. I'd rather have them stationary, but I suppose the site needs some kind of flair. At a quick glance I have no idea what half the links go to and only by looking at the URL did I know that where these links go to. Also there is a clear spelling error in a link... The opening news portion also helped me find the key to unlock one of the question I had, it tells you first off that head to OOC talk for some other rules. So I skipped over to there and what did I find? The Ranks! This is where they are, instead of being put on a general starting wolf info page it's in the forums.

And there are no other information pages so that means we move on to the next section.

Forums:
The forums are a giant wall, at least there is clear indication of where the section start with the green header but other than that its full on text from there without hotlinks to the subsections. There are decent descriptions for the forums and other than that it's the same as AR basic things.

Other:
Member profiles aren't exactly filled out to well, and those that do fill it out it's a few sentences at most. Mostly pictures. Some of the other things on the site I don't particularly understand, such as the moon... chart thing. Maybe it's essential to the RP for something but I didn't read anything about it.

Roleplaying:
The roleplaying on this site I categorize as Beginner from what I read. RPing is done in the 3rd person.

Rating: 2.0 out of 10 Points.

Initially I was going to give this site a 3 out of 10, then something had dawned on me. There is no rules page for this site! You can have free for all anarchy here and it would techincally be within the rules. That and also spelling mistakes on the site while the AD was free of them as well as a site that generally appears to be not done.

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Soulmate [8.3/10]

2009-01-24T17:26:00.014-05:00

http://www.acornrack.com/cupid/

This next site here is called Soulmate, a City RP but with a twist of course... Soulmates. That's right, on the site there is our loveable friend Cupid, upon joining you gain a soulmate which of course you have to figure out yourself! You can't pay off Cupid... (Well, maybe candy would work?)

Anyway, the AD for the site is short and sweet. I read it over a few times and that's all it really needs, City RP with soulmate twist... no need for fancy plot stories or anything. It works well for this particular kind of site. But I digress, onto the actual review...

First Impression:
The layout is as sweet as candy... and I HATE CANDY!! Seriously though I quite like the layout, it portrays the overall image of the site quite nicely. Nowhere am I bogged down with details like where it's at or other random information aside from being welcomed with a synopsis of the site (which is again on the AD).

The Public Area:
The rules are divided into two sections, general rules and application rules. The general rules are commonplace on all sites but I specifically like the application rules. It defines what is acceptable in your application and what you shouldn't do.

Only one small minor nitpick for me: The use of curse words in the rules page, even if the site were to be rated mature, in the public area of the site things should be parentally friendly in my opinion.

Since this site is not an original idea of the current site owner it is also nice to see that they have given credit to the original author on the Credits page.

The Application:
There is a nice table at the top indicating what kind of characters are being accepted and this is where I have my first nipick. The sexual orientations listed are: Straight, Gay/Lesbian, and Bisexual. Though I understand the use of both terms, "gay" can be used to describe same sex relationships on both genders. Or simply just use Heterosexual and Homosexual in lieu of Straight and Gay/Lesbian.

The Private Area:
Layout change! It's subtle though so it's the same effect if having the same layouts, overall the look is nice.

There is a map of the city that they are currently in, and here is where I have my next nitpick. There are names of roads and certain notable locations, however not all of the streets are named. This would be initially fine except those same streets have named locations (Swifty's, Baxter Cinema, etc.) .

Site Awards, I like this idea. While initially I thought this was where they put all those lovely awards they get (from such esteemed people like myself.... *cough* ), but in actuality these are awards they give to the members of their site. Like how in your high school year book everyone voted for best dressed and such. This is basically the same thing as that, with those who've earned those awards getting customized pictures for them.

Forums:
A good bit of forums on the site, all with detailed descriptions. And again it's time to put on the broken record... With all the forums the scroll bar suffers, while this is mitigated somewhat with the hotlinks to the sections (and subsequent 'Back to Top' links) since the forums are divided into sections the forums can be divided like such as well.

Again a small nitpick here, when you go into the forums to the individual topics. All the topics are in a red background which spans across the remainder of the page with the text in white. All that red hurts my eyes. Perhaps changing the red from spanning across the page to maybe 75 to 80 percent would offset this.

(Note: If you are looking at the site forums hover over the forum section title you are on, and then click! It changes!)

Other:
The member profiles are generally all filled out very nicely some with pictures some without but overall very nice. Here is where I'd like to point out the message alert, it's very nice. You'll always know when it's "Mail Time!" and won't be leaving message laying in your inbox for too long.

Roleplaying:
The roleplaying on this site I catagorize as Intermediate to Advanced from what I read. As the rules state, it is done in the 3rd person.

Rating: 8.3 out of 10 Points.

This City RP is definetly one of the better ones I've seen out there, with the soulmate twist it makes for a much more viable and long-lasting RP than those who simply go about daily life. The small little details for the site, such at the PM notification, and the forum headers changing fonts when clicked are nice bonuses. The site community also seems very nice when I was lurking about their Cbox, again overall very nice.

This Site has the Jello Seal of Approval!

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

High Risk, No Return [4.0/10]

2009-01-24T10:18:00.018-05:00

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

JACFC [9.3/10]

2009-01-22T21:35:00.013-05:00

http://www.acornrack.com/JACFC/

Just Another Chocolate Frog Card, or JACFC for short, (which I'm sure many are thankful for..) is a RP site in the realm of Harry Potter several centuries ahead of the canon storyline. The AD has all the needed information one would need for the site, including the rather humorous beginning:

"Your favorite Harry Potter character...

...IS DEAD. They died. And so did all their little friends and enemies. In fact, everyone died- and not a sad, dramatic way, either. Old age got most of them- that's what happens when the wizarding world has moved past Harry Potter's time by about five centuries."

That little thing right there already showed me that this site is going to be well worth any time I spend browsing the site for this review. Now prepare yourselves for my review and watch out for that flying chair! "Wingardium Levio-sa!" (Ahh crap! It's Levi-osa!)

First Impression:
Wow.... simply, Wow. I love the layout, everything is easily able to be read and if you don't like reading white on black well that's just fine because they put a brownish background on the text. This gives it a more scribed feel even though it's the same old text you're reading right now.

The Public Area:
Very nice, everything is all neatly organized . The rules pages is sectioned off into OOC and IC rules and at the bottom is where the application link is to facilitate some sense of actually reading the rules. There is also some more background information to facilitate the general mood of the site which explains some of the finer points of the site itself.

I have no other comments because the rest of the site is up to par with the rules and background information -- very high. However there is one thing I want to point out, the Student Ranks page is very detailed and appealing to the eye, however I wonder why this particular part isn't centered like all the other parts of the site? I took a quick peek at the source code and it doesn't seem that it would be too much hassle to center it.

Aside from that I have one more minor nitpick, the font, it's a bit small for me. That may be because of my screen resolution so this isn't anything major.

The Application:
The application for this site is more or less the general norm, asking for personality, history, etc. etc. Nothing major worth noting or any innovative things here.

The Private Area:
First thing I noticed about the layout, I found a chocolate frog! ..And it congratulated me! I am so special... *cough* . The second thing I noticed is that the layout is still as clean cut as the public area, it's different yet the majority of sites have the layout in this fashion. The Cbox is a staple in many sites now and this one is no exception, it fits nicely however the "Recent Threads" and "Who's Online" is under it so that makes it a bit out of the way. Looking at the layout though, there isn't much else they can put it since they use the space effectively.

As what seems to be the norm, the member pages are super secret information and I cannot access the wondrous info on Hogwarts and the like. However I'm sure the info is all very nicely organized...

Forums:
Ah the forums, again what seems to be the page lengthener for all. There are a good amount of forums with decent descriptions, and these forums are divided up into categories. To facilitate quicker navigation, the site links to the sections which take you directly to that section BUT, the return link to the top (at the time of this writing) doesn't not work because somebody forgot to code out the anchor.

...Which I shall be pointing out on their Cbox so I assume it shall be fixed before anyone decides to actually read this...

Members Page:
Each member is given their own little stub which shows their avatar and some little bits of info. With the amount members they have however, efficiency trumps flashy things on a member list.

Other:
Member profiles I viewed were very nicely filled out with lots of information pertaining to their character. Even those who had not logged in seemed to have their profile nicely filled out, which means the applications are generally very good.

Roleplaying:
The roleplaying on the site is Intermediate to Advanced, generally leading towards the advanced side. As it states in the rules the RP is done is past tense, 3rd person with no unnecessary fluff.

Rating: 9.3 out of 10 Points.
(Note: As I was unable to view the private pages, this prevents the score from going any higher.)

This site is clearly one of the top RP sites I believe to be in existence, and there is no question as to why the site has so many members. When I first saw the site I was immediately enticed to join and that is one of the many things about it which earns this high rating. I expect this site to be one of the few and far between to get such a high rating.

This Site has the Jello Seal of Approval!

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Succession [8.0/10]

2009-01-21T22:46:00.016-05:00

http://www.acornrack.com/Succession/

The next RP on the list is a mutant wolf RP set in a world where humans have died off and left the world to the wolves (literally). The teaser for the site is detailed with the full story of the RP along with a quick rundown of the rules and some other do and do not's.

First Impressions:
The layout lends itself to the mood of the site and the actual main picture at the top of the page. The picture also seems to be a representation of a reformed Pangaea after a drastic climate change and great continental shift.

I have no complaints about the public layout, any point where the opacity might possibly create a harder environment to read the text the staff has offset it by bolding the text or by other means.

The Public Area:
The rules page is very nicely organized in an outline format, with quick links to each particular section. This makes reading the rules at least for me much easier since they're organized per section, not numbered individually.

(Small nitpick on the rules: I've always known where you are essentially invincible as "God Moding" not, "God Modding". Generally not a problem, it's explained so it won't be confusing.)

Minor comment about the Aging rule, it says you may possibly get banned from aging your wolf too fast, while I'm not the expert on wolf roleplays in the least this I think is a bit odd. There is no reason I would see why anyone would age their wolf faster, as the aging system is lenient already.
(I suppose if you want to get past the infant stage perhaps the premature aging is plausible)

The Wolf Guide page is also in the same line of organization as the rules, in an outline format and although text heavy, the nature of the RP more or less calls for it if one wants to have attention to detail.

The Application:
The application itself is more or less the same as any other, allowing the lack of a personality or history so one can fill it out after acceptance. There is however, one little thing that draws my attention. On the application it asks you to describe... you.

I question the staff for putting this in the application. This is the internet, land of lies, deceit and false hopes.

The Private Area:
The layout is the same as the public one, which is always a plus as it doesn't disorient the user or any guests who want to check out the site. The news is at the top of the page in a frame and is rather small for my tastes, however with the relocation of the news page it allows for direct access to the forums as opposed to navigating to another page.

The rest of the pages I am unable to access but all the information needed is in the public area for the application and furthering your wolf character.

Forums:
There are quite a bit of forums and also separated into Lands and the IC forums are given nice pictures to go along with the descriptions. The problem is generally the same in all forums, there are so many that you have to scroll quite a ways. As opposed to previous pages, the forums aren't given links directly to the sections as in the wolf guide in its sections.

Members Page:
This site sorts the users into packs (or Rogues if they have none) and it looks like those that are actually in a pack have custom avatars.

Other:
The member profiles I viewed were filled out rather nicely, and the profile itself has a nice layout. Overall very nice.

Roleplaying:
The level of roleplaying on the site is intermediate to advanced, leaning towards the advanced side in terms of length. There is no unnecessary fluff in the posts and all posts are done in the 3rd person.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10 Points.

This site overall is very nice, having an interesting storyline to go along with their roleplay. Overall I have no major slights against the site, however for me it lacks a certain aura that would draw people in. Rather this is the sort of site you'd love if you're looking for one of this genre.

This Site has the Jello Seal of Approval!

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Blood Lust [8.5/10]*

2009-01-20T07:06:00.016-05:00

http://www.acornrack.com/Blood_Lust/

The second RP I'm reviewing is a vampire, modern slave RP called Blood Lust. While the teaser doesn't effect the score in anyway I just wanted to point out that the teaser does its job well. The plot has a nice twist to it and even though I'm sure it probably has been done before, those same little twists make it original enough to attract a good member base.

First Impression:
The layout, I like it. The colors are nice and attribute to the dark, vampiric nature of the site and the layout itself is simple, yet very neat and organized.

The Public Area:
The Rules page... or rather the Laws page is very organized, I very much like that the staff can count and they have TWO golden rules, and.. there are TWO rules! The rest of the rules are divided into OOC and IC rules which are nice for quick reference, however I have 2 small nitpicks on the rules.

1. While the organization of the rules are nice, there is so much text that the rules page is fairly intimidating.

2. The little analogies used at the end don't work for me, taking jabs at Michael Jackson: that's a no. And don't try to fit a circle in a square? I did it, it's called inscribing.

(Small nitpick: no pictures from the caste of Twilight, fairly certain it's supposed to be "cast")

The Creatures page, lots of text again but nicely organized so at least it looks nice. Lopsided amount of information on Lycans and Vampires compared to Humans, but that's not too much a problem. Now for the small nitpicks:

1. Humans being the most powerful beasts: Not true in the slightest, Lions, Tigers and Bears (OH MY!) are clearly stronger beasts.

2. Though it states 'gifted humans' have abilities always of mental nature, it seems kind of vague. Powers that involve mental nature include: Pyrokinesis, Cryokinesis, Telekinesis, Mind Reading, Mind Control etc. etc. Perhaps a more defining term would be more suited (unless this is the intended reading of the rule).

3. In the vampires section it is clearly stated that vampires have Mental/Psychic abilities. While it seems that the vampires are more limited than the humans it is infact the opposite that they have the same limitation. The slash indicates "or" so it is read as: Dark Gifts are inheritable and always of Mental OR Psychic Abilities. In essence you've used more words to accomplish the same thing in the humans.

I have no problems with the Lycan section, it seems to answer all questions of how these are to be portrayed.

The information on the location of the RP is something the rest of the site should take after, short and to the point. While long descriptions are nice at times before joining it might be easier to keep things light and to the point and in the members area have all the heavy detailed descriptions.

The Application:
I really like that the availability for each position is posted on the page, and the application itself is rather straightforward. For all the text and the information of the site, the application is the odd one out here. Though it makes complete sense, there is no need for someone to think up a character history and personality and such only to be declined because their RP level wasn't as high as desired.

The Private Area:
The layout is also very nice and everything has its own little place. I have no complaints, all the links are nicely organized and any clutter is taken care of because of the links across the top of the page.

Forums:
There are a good amount forums for the site but yet again I have a few small nitpicks. With all the long descriptions for the forums it elongates the page and there is a rather simple code to have separate pages for the forums by means of arrays. This solve more or less the few nitpicks I have but otherwise I have no problems.

Members Page:
Just wanted to point this point because, I love it. It's all separated by user level and you can see avatars of each individual which are all pictures of their respective character on the site. Very nice.

Other:
Members profiles are very nice, probably due to the time they have to construct it because it is done AFTER the application is accepted.

There is quite a bit more information in this area and the length is fine since you're already comitted to the cause at this point. I DO have a problem however with the font, it is quite small and with all the text you need to read it's troublesome.

Role Playing:
The level of Roleplay on this site is as it says in the rules, Intermediate to Advanced - though most that I've seen are more towards the Advanced level. There is no unecessary fluff, and each post contributes to the furthering of the RP.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10 Points.

Overall a very nice site, there are some minor things here and there which I think might be explained in the FAQ however, from the perspective on somewhat solely basing their opinion on the public area those issues still need to be addressed. While there is quite a bit of information one needs to process for the site, everything looks neat and organized enough so it doesn't become too large of a problem.

This Site has the Jello Seal of Approval!

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Windriver Valley [4.5/10]

2009-01-19T15:52:00.034-05:00

http://www.acornrack.com/windriver/

This website has the honor of being the first of many site reviews that I hope to bring to this website. Now without further ado the review which I'm sure, at least one person, is waiting for.

First Impression:
Well, the front page is rather bland... the single picture in the middle with the horses is nice but it is too small and is disproportionate to the rest of the page to create any real impact on me as a whole.

(Note: This will not effect the score, however on FireFox3 the front page layout doesn't work so well, the mouse disappears from site and it's rather hard to navigate. Internet Explorer however works fine which is what the majority of this review is being based on.)

Truthfully I did not even notice the "Menu" was there until I accidentally hovered over it to reveal the rules, and apply page.

The Iframe for the rules/apply page doesn't align into the image where I assume it's supposed to be. While it isn't too big of a deal, it's something I want to point out. Also, the background image itself interferes when reading the text.

The Rules:
The Golden Rule... this indicates that there is one main rule that has high priority over all the others, yet there are quite a bit more from what I see.

"Respect your fellow players, respect the staff, and respect the site. Keep swearing limited out of character, and be mindful of others’ feelings. There should be no god-moding or power-playing in any post (unless agreed upon between players). "

1. Respect your fellow players.
2. Respect the staff.
3. Respect the site. (I don't personally know how you would disrespect one, but I digress)
4. Limited swearing when OOC.
5. Be mindful of others feelings. (Redundant, this should fall under respecting others)
6. No god moding or power playing (unless agreed upon beforehand)

The rest of the rules seemed fine, I'm not too experienced in the ways of horse RP so I assume all the rules here are the norm. I will say that I did have trouble reading throughout till the end because of the confined space and interference from the image like I stated before.

The Application:
Nice and simple, the only problem I have with it is that it says "rank" ... Now I'm fairly sure I've read through all the material on the front page and I don't remember any instances where you define what rank they should be. I even went back into the rules page and searched for rank and those findings brought up each section in the rules but none which contained information about the ranks themselves.

Into the Site:
First thing that comes into mind when I enter the members area of the site, "Whoa! Layout change!" Also, the particular layout is too wide for my screen and have to use the scroll bars and I'm not a fan of the colors. While generally it seems I'm not missing anything just the sight of those bars plants the thought that I simply might if I don't check. The recent threads section is somewhat out of the way, being under the cbox and I didn't know it was there until I had to scroll down on the forums page.

Forums:
There is a good amount of forums with nice detailed descriptions of each and that creates a problem itself. While it's nice to have all those long descriptions, my scroll bar suffers from going through looking for what I need to find. Other than that issue everything seems nice.

Other:
Members profiles seems rather nice for the ones I skimmed through, some had too many images for my taste and the background and writing text seemed to clash on others. But overall seemed good. Any of the member pages were blocked from my view so I am to assume at this point that all the information needed for the site has been properly explained.

Roleplaying:
The RP's that I looked at seemed to RP at an intermediate level, though most seemed to me a bit word happy to me. Describing every nuance and little thing distracted me from the point they were trying to get across, while others RP'd at a different POVs,(1st person to 3rd person) which also distracted me from trying to understand the whole thread. Truthfully I kept reading one persons post throughout one of the threads I looked at because it was the only way I could understand what was happening without having to read through 5 adjectives per object and it accomplished everything it needed to do without any fluff.

Rating: 4.5 out of 10 Points.*

This site didn't have anything that drew me in that I might even consider on joining on. While initially it would have an average rating of 5, the little problems here and there along with the layout and what seemed be some lack of information for ranks brings the score down to a 4.5.

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

The Introduction

2009-01-18T23:04:00.027-05:00

First of all I'd like to say welcome to my little blog, while normally I would create a new Acorn Rack website in which to hold these reviews. It came to my mind that just using a simple blog would be both easier and less time consuming on my part because I don't need to fuss with layout creation.

The main purpose of this little blog is to rate and review the many RP's out on Acorn Rack. There are many RPs out there and obviously not all of them are as "user friendly" or as well thought out than others. In the blog posts following I would like to try to create some sense of order and review each site appropriately and give them a rating.

I'd like to personally say that I'm going to RATE sites, not rant on every little minute detail. I don't really care if you're using 12.375 font and I think it should be just 12. I don't care that your colors are cliche and have been used on every Dark RP out there, what works... works. Finally, I'm only generally going to write what I think is necessary (Unless I give a warning and feel bored at the time...) I'm not going to always say "Woo there are names on the member list!", everyone knows that! I want to provide good general criticism without harping on superficialities.

As for the rating system it will be a culmination of several factors and be done on a 10 point scale, with 1 being the absolute lowest, 5 being average, and 10 being the model of perfection people should model future RPs after. I reiterate, a score of 5 is not BAD nor GOOD, just average.. this isn't school grades we're talking about. Expect the majority to be 3-8's, with 1, 2, 9 and 10 being extreme outliers.

Every so often I shall institute a Score Review, at this time all sites rated prior to the date shall be re-looked over and their scores may have a possible revision. This is to ensure to get a more accurate score by eliminating any prejudice that may be had at the time or personal issues. Note that a Score Review is not a full review, so if there have been changes to the site it may not be noticed.

For the comments I include I would also like to point out that I will try to be brutally honest, beating around the bush is not my style and (generally...) I am not trying to be rude or mean-spirited or anything like that. Also the paradox which is reviewing, I will do my best to leave my opinions at the door (mouse click?) and review things only from a practical standpoint.

For now I (The Jello Emperor) am the only reviewer, but as time passes I hope to add others who will aid me in my quest to bring order to the chaos in Acorn Rack.

I've been personally involved in the RP scene for at least 10 years by creating, managing, and helping others on projects both in the times long ago on AvidGamers and now Acorn Rack.

Note:

I will try my best to be as comprehensive and thorough as possible. While I may not correct every spelling mistake, harp on grammar and whatnot, I shall try to do so as overall it adds professionalism to the site.

Also, if you are the owner of the site I review and feel that I need to re-review it (due to changes to the site feel free to contact me in someway.)

Contact Information:
AR2 Screenname: Jello Emperor
AR2 Forum Thread: AcornRack Link
AIM: TheJelloEmperor
MSN: TheJelloEmperor (at) hotmail.com
Yahoo: TheJelloEmperor
E-Mail: TheJelloEmperor (at) hotmail.com

At this point this is the only way to contact me, I will try to check on a daily basis however for messages.