How's My Driving?

[arielmods]

HMD

It's that time finally! Here's our first How's My Driving? post. This sitewide meme will go up on the 20th of every month and it's encouraged that everyone post! Please post a list of your current in-game characters as a reference for other members to use for comments or critique.

Remember to keep it civil. Outright flaming will not be tolerated and we will deal with any hostile comments as soon as possible. Critique should be constructive. Offer ways a player can improve their characters, solve any problems you might have, etc. rather than just telling them they're horrible with no examples or pointers.

Likewise, this isn't a love meme. It's great to tell someone you think they're doing a good job or you love playing with them! Just give reasons for why you think they're awesome or what they're doing well. We're not discouraging positive comments. Love is great, but so is hearing why you are so you know what to keep doing.

Anon comments are enabled and IP logging is off for those who'd prefer a little anonymity, but please don't abuse this feature to be rude to other players.

If anything comes up, please visit the concerns page to let us know or contact us through any of the other various ways listed.

Form:
<b>Character Name</b> | <i>Series</i> | <user name=JOURNAL NAME> | <a href="URL HERE">Journal HMD</a>

Comments

[knifedances]

Izaya Orihara | Durarara!! | knifedances | Journal HMD

[luciferspromdress]

Sam Winchester | Supernatural | luciferspromdress | Journal HMD
Daryl Dixon | The Walking Dead | theonlyzenone | Journal HMD

[(Anonymous)]

I find your muses delightful. I think my only complaints, voice wise, are minor ones. They both come off as a little overly mild sometimes. With Daryl, I would like to see his more abrasive side played up a little more. I know you've got an opt out for his more coarser behaviors so you may be hesitant to offend people, but I think there are fewer delicate sensibilities than the anon comms would suggest.

Writing wise, there are two small things you could work on. The first is the multiple conversations in one post thing. It gets a little tedious when Muse A asks four questions and your muse answers all four of them in sequence like they're having four complete conversations. That's not all on you, because it's kind of bad writing on their part to be puking up four questions at you without giving you a chance to answer the earlier ones, but I thought it was worth noting. Sometimes, it's okay to skip the earlier parts to answer the most recent, like most conversations. You could even have Sam or Daryl -think- how rude it was not to give him a chance to answer the others, if you're feeling snarky.

The other is that I've noticed sometimes you tend to repeat back a large chunk of what the previous comment says. I'm not sure how to best phrase this, but I think it's an effort on your part to make sure you address everything and react to what all is happening, but it reads less like a reaction and more like a repetition. I don't have a link handy, but it seems to happen more in the smut threads than his general CR.

I hope none of this sounds harsh. I think you're a wonderful player and I think your muses are wonderful. It's just a few things I noticed while reading your threads, but it's certainly not enough to put me off wanting to tag with you.

Star

[rookie_turk]

Elena | Final Fantasy VII | rookie_turk | Journal HMD

Haku | Naruto | broken_tool | Journal HMD

Will get to replies/questions when I get back from class. o7

[(Anonymous)]

I don't have anything to say about your playing, but I do have some crit I hope you'll keep in mind. I don't want to be harsh, but please learn how to have a conversation -with- people. I lurk in the chat a lot and there's a very obvious pattern I see happening over and over. There will be an active, lively, interesting conversation going on about Thing One, but when you come in, you immediately begin spamming your ~feels~ about Thing Two and completely derail everything to make it all about you or whatever's on your mind at the time. I get that you're excitable and want to share things with people and that's great, but there's a time for that and if you absolutely can't wait, then that's why you've got a plurk you can spam to your heart's content.

[notbocceball]

Ba'al | Stargate SG-1/Stargate: Continuum | notbocceball | Journal HMD

A small note, his canon point is moments before his death at Qetesh's hands in Continuum.

He is evil and is a bad guy who relies on deception and manipulation. I would like to know how well that's coming across. Am I being too subtle? Not subtle enough?

[(Anonymous)]

Reading his threads, I really don't get the impression he's a bad guy at all, so you may be going a little overly subtle. Otherwise, I think he's delightful, although I'm not familiar with his canon, so I can't say about ICness.

[dragonfetish]

Garrett Hawke | Dragon Age II | dragonfetish | Journal HMD

[vishante]

Fenris | Dragon Age II | vishante | Journal HMD

[meanlook]

Silver | Pokemon | meanlook | Journal HMD

[savioress]

Lightning Farron | Final Fantasy XIII | savioress | Journal HMD

[cawfullyironic]

Davesprite | Homestuck | cawfullyironic | Journal HMD

Faed pa'Varuun | Original | virioncomplex | Journal HMD

[(Anonymous)]

Faed is a fascinating muse. Mine wouldn't approach him sexually, but he'd find him very interesting. You have a very detailed and rich background for him that I admire and that seems rare for an OC. I'm glad you're getting such good play with him.

[gloryride]

Tony Stark | MCU | gloryride | Journal HMD

[onehotnight]

Spitfire | Air Gear | onehotnight | Journal HMD

[hyapponzashi]

Gin Ichimaru | Bleach | hyapponzashi | Journal HMD

I'm not playing Gin from his typical canon-point, so I've had to make a few inferences about what his younger self was like, along with trying to balance his mental age with his physical immaturity. And feedback on how I'm doing would be most appreciated!

[compensatingfedora]

Kuroudo Akabane | Getbackers | compensatingfedora | Journal HMD

[noticing]

Sherlock Holmes | Sherlock BBC | noticing | Journal HMD

Specifically, I really need help with his voice. It's been the bane of my existence since I picked up this character, so if you have any suggestion as to how I may fix it/make him sound better or smarter or sharper/etc., it would be more than appreciated. Otherwise, feel free to tell me anything else you think could use a change, maybe his interactions with people, am I making him too friendly, too much of a prick, or anything else. c:

[(Anonymous)]

I don't watch the canon, so I can't say for specific voice ICness, but I can tell you that I found a lot of his early behavior incredibly puzzling. The first event log, especially. It seemed like you were focusing entirely on the one aspect of his personality that has him being a total ass, which is fine to a point, but it seems to me like there'd be more curiosity to him? He doesn't seem the slightest bit interested in his new surroundings, how he got there, what's really going on, etc. All I saw was how bored, bored, bored, bored he was and how everyone else was sooooooo stupid.

Again, I don't watch the canon so this may be totally on par for the BBC Sherlock, but I can't help but think there must be more to him than that.

[pactum]

Ciel Phantomhive | Kuroshitsuji | pactum | Journal HMD

[kissofthewhip]

Mavros Shahrizai | Kushiel's Legacy | kissofthewhip | Journal HMD

I have been pretty shaky with his voice up until very recently but things have seemed to click again. In any case, let me know if there's anything I can work on!

[(Anonymous)]

Please tag out more. Mavros seems delightful. I'd like to see more of him.

[reddirtydeeds]

Character Name Reno | Final Fantasy VII | reddirtydeeds | Journal HMD

[noilikegirls]

Character Name Kanji Tatsumi| Series Persona 4| noilikegirls | Journal HMD

Character Name Fran| Series Katekyo Hitman REBORN!| needsapose | Journal HMD

[pulledfromthepit]

Dean Winchester | Supernatural | pulledfromthepit | [Journal HMD]

[(Anonymous)]

You said on the anon memes that you were open to crit, so here's hoping it's true. :) Although I think you have a fairly good grasp on Dean's character, I feel you've slipped on the details when it comes to the way Dean reacts to sex with different genders in ways that the chip doesn't entirely compensate for.

Now I'm totally down with Dean being played as bi-sexual and it's more or less proven in canon that he isn't really homophobic, but Dean has been raised in a very hetero-normative society and he definitely has different expectations of different genders. He likes the ladies to be impressed with him and flirts accordingly, but with most men there's sense of competition and posturing. He wants them to know he's badass and not to be messed with...which isn't to say there aren't dangerous ladies in his life who sometimes get this treatment, but with the kind of life Dean's led he's more used to aggressive men getting in his face and has had to learn to deal with that.

My issue is, from what I've seen of your Dean in Ariel, is that he treats both genders pretty much the same in regards to sex which doesn't seem quite right. Given his character, I sort of feel that he wouldn't lose that need to establish a sort of pecking order, even if he was choosing to bottom, instead of just approaching guys with the same sort of open flirtatiousness he'd use for women.

[itsatrep]

Luppi Antenor | Bleach | itsatrep | Journal HMD

[comfortyou]

Hiling Care | Gundam 00 | comfortyou | Journal HMD

[dawning]

Dawn | Pokemon | dawning | Journal HMD

[(Anonymous)]

I will freely admit that I don't know Dawn's canon, but I've got to ask: Is that much stuttering when she talks really necessary? I find it extremely off-putting. There's nothing particularly wrong with -what- she says, just that the stuttering makes it painful to read and I find myself skipping anything she's in to try and avoid it.

If it's canon to the character, then I guess keep on keepin' on, but if it's not, you may want to consider cutting back some.

[dickwithfangs]

Damon Salvatore | The Vampire Diaries | dickwithfangs | Journal HMD

Jake Dallas | (Original) | thatsnotmygun | Journal HMD

Kenzi | Lost Girl | sawyourwolfjunk | Journal HMD

Skylar Jordan | (Original) | codedvixen | Journal HMD

[(Anonymous)]

I've noticed with some of your threads, and with Jake specifically, that if you're actively trying to not have him have sex it doesn't leave a lot for him to actually do. There's only so long two muses can chew over one another's life stories, the weather, and other mundane stranger talk before they're left blinking at one another with nothing to say.

By all means, make him discriminating about his sex partners, but since being easy makes the threads easy, if he's not going to be getting down, then you need to consider what's going to make him interesting in the threads. I've seen a couple and been in one where it was like the other muse was dragging him along by the nostrils to continue the thread once the initial Typical Stranger Conversation A was complete.

I don't know how to word it any better. I just think maybe you're playing him a bit -too- cool sometimes.

Skylar seems sort of unmemorable in general. Off the top of my head, I can't really say anything about her except that she likes machines. My advice to you for her is to maybe branch out a little and find other things that make her interesting.

This may all be kind of premature, too, since it's still the first month and they're all still finding their feet in the game, but it maybe will give you some ideas to think about.

[volatility]

Mello | Death Note | volatility | Journal HMD

[(Anonymous)]

I don't know your canon, but reading your threads makes me want to. I don't know if that counts as crit, but I -hope- your muse voice is IC, because it's very fun to read and play off of.

[7th_was_closest]

Fon Master Ion (Replica) | Tales of the Abyss | [Bad username or unknown identity: 7th_was_closest"] | Journal HMD