Bingo Book Updates (And a Message to Members)

[Douma]

Heyo!

So it’s no secret that the mods always have a lot on their plate. They deal with their own busy personal lives, and whatever free time they have is spent “moderating” and taking care of big important duties. From grading to running canons to making changes to rules, there’s a lot that they take care of.

Which brings me to my main point. The mods have too much to do, and because of that, they prioritize their important jobs. Therefore, small and relatively unimportant but fun things are left on the side. MOTM and COTM are two examples, and those are interesting because Z reached out to the community via threads to have the latest MOTM and COTM decided by our community.

It was a good idea, but it’s hard to get the entire site to weigh in on something like that every month, so I’d like to propose a new idea. A committee of members. Active individuals who are willing to put in some time can volunteer and take care of those small duties that our mods simply don’t have time for. COTM and MOTM are two that come to mind, but there are others. The Bingo List needs updating, and mods simply don’t have enough time to go through every character and see who’s deserving. Members can take care of that and just get mods to approve and implement them.

We don’t even need to form official committees. The discussion box is a great way to handle things like that. My point is that, as a community, we definitely could contribute more to help improve each others’ experiences. I haven’t been super active in the past, but I’m planning on starting and I encourage y’all to do the same.

And so I’d like to start with this thread, which makes suggestions for the Bingo Book. I believe that we should instead focus on suggesting characters and bounties for the Bingo Book, so I’ll start with my suggestions.

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Shizuka Sanamizu

This girl’s a member of Xcution’s Seven Guns. I think she deserves a bounty. She’s surely been a part of plenty of high-profile assassinations in the human world, and even though it’s unsure whether she’s had a role in assassinations in soul society, she deserves attention. It’s likely that her water powers are known by now, but otherwise, her abilities are probably a mystery.

Suggested bounty: 65,000 Ryo


Zeich Yajuu

They guy defected because he turned into a Vizard. Nuff said. Soul Society already knows about his ash powers. Slap a bounty on him and move on.

Suggested bounty: 175,000 Ryo


Douma

I don’t know how much it means if I’m giving my own character a bounty, but I’ll try to be fair. He’s manipulating the black markets of both soul society and the human world. He’s been seen working alongside both Kayneth Wayne and Anarchy. Douma also participated in Saeki’s large-scale breakout. Those seem like enough to win him a notable bounty.

Suggested bounty: 150,000 Ryo


Feel free to disagree or agree with the three I mentioned above and suggest altering their bounties. There are a few others who come to mind when we’re discussing bounties, so I wanted you guys to weigh in on what you think.

Kaijin “Harle” Quinn – The girl’s taking over Tsunami and Kawada territory. I’m not sure if that’s enough to become wanted, but the fact that she’s amassing power is gonna make her plenty of enemies in the form of the Kawadas and their allies/business associates.

Hotaru Kuchiki-Masurao – She’s Sozen’s personal assassin. There has to be bad stuff she’s been involved in. On top of that, she’s helped fight off an Arrancar invasion.

Alexander Kuma-Hebi – The dude’s a monster. I think that his role in defending Soul Society when it was invaded in the KE cannons as well as his participation in other major Soul Society missions like the current events in KE-4 and the Arc 2 Finale in Hell may make him deserving of a bounty.

Sargon Denumic – He’s pretty strong. The guy also invaded Soul Society along with Ryunosuke and other Arrancar. He took on Taiho, and although the fight didn’t get a chance to really escalate, the fact that he did that makes him come to mind when I’m thinking about characters who might warrant a bounty.

Aight, so those I mentioned are the ones who come to mind for me. Feel free to pitch in. The more voices that join the conversation, the better. Afterward, if we can get mods to approve some suggestions, a couple of us can actually write in the entries for the Bingo Book. This project could be overseen by the mods but executed by normal members, so let’s get this going.

[Garret]

You mean you want normal members to start helping out the mods? I've been yelling at them to let me do that for quite awhile! Fuck, I've even suggested for them to let me grade threads! I can count damn it! At least sometimes. Anyways, ZK, I am here to add some discussion to your post. Full disclosure..."Fuck sleep am on medicine holy shit FML". Anyways, let's go ahead and talk about Bingo Book, Bounties, and ryo for a little bit. But first I wanna address a few things.

Jun 29, 2016 3:24:02 GMT -5 Douma said:

MOTM and COTM are two examples, and those are interesting because Z reached out to the community via threads to have the latest MOTM and COTM decided by our community.

I did try getting that going again, at least saying "hey do you think its time we do this again" but no response. I like this idea. It worked well last time. I wanna do it. Me! LET ME DO IT DAMN IT I WANNA HELP!! Anyways.

Jun 29, 2016 3:24:02 GMT -5 Douma said:

A committee of members. Active individuals who are willing to put in some time can volunteer and take care of those small duties that our mods simply don’t have time for.

Yes yes yesssssss

Jun 29, 2016 3:24:02 GMT -5 Douma said:

We don’t even need to form official committees.

No, quiet you I want titles damn it. I demand to be referenced as something. Even King of Shitposts is acceptable.

Jun 29, 2016 3:24:02 GMT -5 Douma said:

We don’t even need to form official committees. The discussion box is a great way to handle things like that. My point is that, as a community, we definitely could contribute more to help improve each others’ experiences.

For some reason or another people are terrified of posting in the Discussion Board. My Raygins Rants series has always intended to be open forums, a communication of ideas between something I perceive as an issue and what other people think of it. They were never intended to just be "Mod steps in, tells Ray to hush and here's my thoughts" (playing around). Back when I wrote my Vandenreich piece I had people in chat actually say "I don't want to add anything because I don't play a Vandenreich so it's none of my business." No, it IS your business. You're a member of this site, your opinion is wanted. I hate discussions in chat. Chat should never be used for serious discussions, its a place to goof off or for quick announcements. Discussion board is supposed to be for serious shit, but people don't wanna contribute to it.

Anywho, stupid Ray nonsense aside lets get to whats actually important here: Bingo Book. The bounty board is one of the better ideas we've had in a while, but I believe that it's something that has not been used to its full potential. Currently it is little more than a "Whose Strongest List" 2.0, and that's a terrible use of what it could be. The Bingo Book can be greatly expanded on and made into a very interesting mechanic on our site. But before I get into my ideas, I wanna explain a little bit, in my eyes, how selection for the book works. See, the Book ISNT a list of who is strongest, it's a list of people who are on notice in all three worlds. It combines things such as "Fame, Power, and Feats." Let's look at an example. Sozen Kuchiki, do you even need to ask who he is? He's known throughout the Three Worlds as the defeater of Kuroi, wields a "das booschit" power, and overall is a very important figurehead. He's in the Bingo Book because of his notoriety.

Now lets look at, say, Zack. Does Zack have the same feats as Sozen? Absolutely not, but that doesn't mean he isn't as well known. Zack has a reputation, a very bad reputation, for being someone whose very name could throw a wrench into someones plans. Does Zack have the combat feats of Sozen? No (because everyone of his fucking pvps kept dying...), but from what combat that has been threaded has shown that he fights very specifically and has a high success rate. Zacks been involved in numerous goverment, country, state changing events because of his role as an assassin. He's dangerous to all three worlds. He's in the book because of his notoriety.

Now lets look at someone who isn't in the Bingo Book. Garret. Garret is a very well known individual because he is a walking hurricane of Hollows. Soul Society sees him as "that guy who keeps fucking up the balance but we cant do shit because we dont know how his thing works". The Human World knows him as a walking plague. Hueco Mundo knows him as "the guy who keeps killing our people." Garret has a good track record in pvps, he's strong, and he's well known. So why isn't he in? Its, once again, notoriety. Garret isn't dangerous to other people (I mean...he is...but you get what I mean). He hasn't been involved in any major events that fucks over one world or another. Garret may be an important individual for the worlds, but he doesn't have the notoriety that the Bingo Book requires.

See what I mean? The Bingo Book is, more or less, a check list of individuals who are dangerous to all three worlds and, as a result, need to be hunted down and taken out.

Now before I post my ideas for the Bingo Book I do want to look at the names you have posted.

Shizuka Sanamizu: Yes. I do believe she should be in the book. Like Zack she is notorious for assassination and has no doubt been involved in some serious shit thats gotten her in trouble.

Zeich Yajuu: Again, yes, but for all the wrong reasons. I think Vizards should, naturally, be put in the Bingo Book because naughty naughty Hollow filth must be killed. But in Zeichs case he's done a lot of shit to get on a lot of peoples bad sides.

Douma: Okay, getting cucked by Adalo isn't a reao- Lol. I mean...he's a Rank 4 Merc and all but I'm not sure Douma is there yet. I wouldn't be bothered if his name got put in, since I am sure there has been some story shit thats made Douma important...but eh. It's cool, he's in.

Kaijin “Harle” Quinn: And here is where we start to say no. I don't think Harle belongs in the book quite yet. As of right now, and no offense to Harle of course, but she is, right now, just another Captain. Sure, Harle is ABOUT to get into some serious shit that will piss people off...but that's just it...she's ABOUT to. Has Harle pissed off the Three Worlds? Has Harle been involved in serious change? I don't think she's ready yet. But she will be once this Kawada take over happens and where she goes from there. I'd expect she'd have a small bounty though, since she's really only affecting SS.

Hotaru Kuchiki-Masurao: Again, I don't see it. No offense to Hotaru, as I really do enjoy reading her character, but like Harle she isn't there yet. Like Harle she's most likely seen as just another Captain.

Alexander Kuma-Hebi: Kenpachis deserve death. Moving on.

Sargon Denumic: ...damn you ZK. Personal prejudices aside...why? Let's say Sozen is planning a birthday party, and he's getting all the best shit in the world. A fifty story chocolate red velvet birthday cake, a giant bouncy castle, and 500 presents. His Le Happy Merchant assistant comes up to him and says "Oy vey, Zackary Jensen might be crashing your party." What does Sozen do? He ups the security, paints everything red and hides in the birthday cake. Now what happens when Sargon comes to crash the party? "Lol who?" Whether or not Sargon is strong doesn't really matter here, it's that Sargon is literally a "literally who." He's shadowed by Arrancar of fame like Myzaraphiston, Ryunosuke, Adalo, Rio and Kuroi. Hell, more people know who Asuka is. Sargon hasn't done enough yet to be warranted an entry in the book.

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Alright, now that that is out of the way I think it is time I get on with the real point of this post. The mechanics and purpose behind the Bingo Book needs a bit of changing. With the fairly recent site wide nerf on items, the value of ryu has plummeted faster than my chances at being a mod. Ryu is near worthless now. Nobody does DE pvps so you cant use it to buy immortality, items aren't valued near as much and...well yeah ryu sucks now. Unless the mods can figure out a way to suddenly make ryu valuable, the rewards for taking out Bingo Targets has to change. And here is my proposal:

Change it from Ryo to TP.

Like it or not, TP is more valuable than ryo by a long shot on this site. By changing the reward you suddenly make people WANT to go after these targets. And I am not talking about some dinky little 100 tp, no, we go big. These are people who people have hired to have killed. We go BIG. We make people WANT to hunt. We make people WANT to kill. I submit to you a steady Bount Rate of...2500 TP. Holy hell that's a lot isn't it, and we double that for DE threads. THAT is an incentive. THAT is a reward. THAT will get people motivated. THAT will get people interested in the Bounties. 2500 is enough to give someone a serious jump, or power them up, which should be expected after beating "one of the most dangerous." But that's not enough, well it is for rewards anyways, the Bingo Book needs to be spruced up a little more.

People can say no to pvps. We've all seen it. We've all done it. So here's MY suggestion on fixing this. Allow for Bounty Hunters to take on a Contract. One Hunter per entry. Say...Zack is hunting...oh hell who is even in the damn book...Schultz...since he was the first up. Zack becomes Shultz's Hunter. Granted, I believe that Hunters can only take Targets that ARE THE SAME CLASS OR HIGHER, NOT LOWER, than they are. Only Zack can Hunt Schultz. As a result of this, if Schultz doesn't want to do a PvP, then we either do 2 options.

1) We do what we do for Ranked Battles. That means that Mods basically say "you're doing it or you suffer some penalty". Idk what, I dont think its fair for someone to say no then the other person gets the TP...idk

2) We allow a Thread Invasion ( mfw ). I think Invasions are a awesome feature (you're welcome I started it) that could be integrated into a few more things. I know Kyomei likes the general idea of invasions, maybe not this. So basically, the Hunter is allowed to invade ONE thread of their choice, but of course there would need to be restrictions placed on this and kinks would need to be worked out.

But yes. My ideas. My thoughts. My post. Thank you for your time, now let's talk this shit out.

SPOILER: Click to show

{PS}
If someone was triggered by my comments in the portion listing people for the Bingo Book then I am sorry. At this point you should know how I talk and being sleep deprived and on medicine doesn't help. I like to make some entertainment in my posts and that was the point and plan.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Double PS}
I called Ryo ryu a few times...kek[/spoiler[

[Shizuka Sanamizu ✮]

Am honored

[Kento Waffles]

What a coincidence. We were already discussing this before you guys put this post up. You've even mirrored some of our already existing and discussed ideas.

Don't worry, things will happen.

[Amagai Kuchiki]

First off, I support Kento's statement as the general mod one: As I mentioned, we're working on this, we want it to happen, and it will happen.

However, I do want to encourage this behavior. I do appreciate members helping out, in this type of manner, rather than people just generally saying "Let me know if there's anything I can do to help out (also can I be a mod please I won't burn everything down and I swear I'm professional despite posting porn in chat)" I think it's unlikely that we will recognize a group of members as deputy mods, but I'm open to the possibility, if this works.

This discussion thread itself should be open to all members, but ZK and Ray, I'd like for you guys to pick anyone else you think could prove helpful in this endeavor, and do something simple for me. I want you guys to make a rubric of how someone should end up on the bingo book, and run existing bounties through it. Figure out who doesn't and does deserve to be on there. Once you've done that, look through other prominent forum characters. Is there anyone else who should be in the book? Then, for your final step, I want you to make a mockup of TP bounties. Assign values to each character. These should be sane, and appropriate to various threat levels. Beating Grimoire should be worth a shit ton of TP, but fragging Zack shouldn't give you Class 0 for free. You get the idea. Once you've done this, PM me what you have, and I'll look over it before sending it to the other mods.

What you send us won't be binding. Hell, there's a chance I might look at it and say "This isn't what our vision of the forum is," and chuck it. But that's unlikely. It's very likely your thoughts will be taken into account, and if it makes the lives of the mods easier, you can bet I'll remember it.

I'll leave you gentlemen to that. And also, regardless of the success of this, I do sincerely encourage you guys to continue to make threads like this. Question the system, offer improvements, see if you can do the things that are mod responsibilities but not priorities (COTM, MOTM, Suggested Race changes, Suggested Type changes, various overhauls, etc). There's a lot of shit to do, as those waiting on Hasons changes can tell you.

Ultimately, however, despite the positive attitude of this message, and the genuine enthusiasm I feel for this, remember one thing: The mods are mods for a reason. We all earned these positions, by support of members, as well as the other members of the mod team. Your help will be appreciated, but it is the help of members. I suppose it's best phrased this way: Members can suggest changes, but ultimately, it's the mods' decision to implement them. And that fact can't be changed by walls of text.

[Douma]

I'm glad to see that this got a good amount of attention so far. 


Ray:

I wouldn't say that the Bingo Book is a "Strongest List 2.0" as it stands, but it definitely has the potential to be. I did suggest names that probably didn't deserve to be on the Bingo Book (not yet at least), so thanks for politely disagreeing, but the fact that we're discussing why they shouldn't have a bounty is important. Both Kento and Rudy mentioned a criteria for who's name belongs in the Bingo Book, and making that clear is really important, so we'll have to talk that over if you and I are gonna do this.

Because mods are still undecided (as far as I know) on whether bounties should be in ryo or TP, we should just set a conversion rate specifically for the bounties. It doesn't have to be the same as those in adventures or PvPs as long as it fairly represents what defeating somebody on the Bingo List is worth.

Invasion threads is tricky because it can potentially hurt a character's thread if he's developing and then KA-BLAM, a bounty hunter appears! It's safer to give the bounty holder an incentive to take on challengers. For example, winning the fight would allow him to gain his own bounty bonus, but in turn, his bounty will go up, inviting new challengers.

If any other members wants to help Ray and me out, feel free to shoot one of us a PM or PC. The more voices that weigh in, the merrier.

SPOILER: Click to show

{PS}

As for titles, you can be the King of Shitposts. I'll be Nightwing. I think that's pretty solid.

Sana:

Anytime


Kento:

I'm glad that you guys are on board with something like this.


Rudy:

I don't think being "deputy mods" or giving us an official position really matters as long as we can freely suggest projects and ideas that we do the dirty work for. Then, all you and the rest of the mods have to do is give a thumbs up and copy and paste. If we don't get the thumbs up, then it's all good. You guys call the shots. That's why being deputy mods wouldn't make much sense if we lack any authority that a mod might have. It's all about suggesting improvements and taking some busy work off your plates.

I'll definitely start reviewing things with Ray and whoever else may be interested, so you can expect a new draft of the Bingo List in the near future.

[Jin Yamada]

I know this was awhile ago, but I would like to speak on the Ryo thing. Ryo, in actuality, is not completely useless like Ray says. I disagree with him on that part. For those that think it is, you are missing out on the full potential of Ryo. Remember that in real life, you don't always have to be the strongest fighter in order to get people to respect and listen to you. This forum is no different just because it focuses on abilities and fighting. For those who don't have powerful characters, play on your other strengths. This forum can still be fun even if you don't have the strongest character. You can still influence the plot even if you don't have the strongest character. As you've seen with Saeki Kuchiki, someone who lacked physical might, she became powerful because of her knowledge. She had secrets about people she could trade for their loyalty. She was able to sway two of the most powerful members of two respective Noble families to her side simply because of the knowledge she possessed that could potentially destroy their families. Not one, but two. She played up her other skills to sway them to her side.

Ryo can potentially be one of those other skills too. Who ever said you couldn't bribe an NPC or even an RPC? I know for a fact Jin wouldn't mind taking Ryo in exchange for not fighting someone, depending on the circumstances. Currently, he needs as much Ryo as he can get to accomplish his goals. Who ever said you couldn't talk an NPC into submission or distract them long enough for someone stronger to arrive? No one. You just have to try different things. While this is a fighting-based RP forum, there is still room for creativity when it comes to handling matters. You don't always have to have the strongest power and you don't always have to barge your way through every NPC. I feel like Kento making the human world more realistic with the drug trade now allows for bribing and use of Ryo to get around. Now you see that it isn't just the most powerful combatants that are respected in the drug trade. It's also who has the most money. The more money you have, the more potential you have to sway people. Maybe not any races living in Hell or Hueco Mundo, but Soul Society isn't left out as an option and that would definitely work against HWD NPCs. So before ruling Ryo out completely, just sit a moment and think about that.