(got longer than i anticipated, see tl;dr at the bottom if you arent interested in my rambling and old man grunts)
man i want to like fh like i used to but… ugh. its such a hassle trying to get into a group now, for me. i absolutely refuse to do samples firstly- not because i cant pass them, because im generally pretty capable of it, but because usually people who ask for those are the sort of elitists that i have to watch rag and mock everyone around them while refusing to help them improve. so that already rules out 90% of advertisements.
secondly i dont really like just asking to join groups- i find it vastly funner to initiate rp with the group and rp my character into it rather than just.. exist in it and have to be like “ok pretend im a loner” or “ok pretend im new,” but groups seem a lot more closed off nowadays than they used to?
i dont know if i just have bad luck but whenever i try to interact with a group (mind that i wait until theres little happening if i can, i dont try to butt into their dramatic moments usually) im either ignored for the longest time until i explicitly comment on the fact of how strange it is that theyre letting me get this close or whatever, or they just.. never say anything to begin with that i can interact with. i can only assume theyre staying in group/party chat because they still move around as though rping, which is very frustrating to me because in my time groups basically always rped in local and used group/party to ooc. maybe im just not social enough and too picky in that regard, so shrug.
from my time i recall that everyone nearby was acknowledged in one way or another (unless they asked not to be,) everyone was included, and rp was almost constant. sure at the time it was all cheese and edge, but man if my two first groups werent the most fun ive had on fh- nothing has matched them.
in general i feel like theres barely any groups around? unless im just on at the wrong times, but i feel more like that with the many maps we have now the groups are all spread out, whereas in the old maps with fluorite being the hub you could basically see or find all the groups. though also the login thing probably contributes to the less people.
(please, fh, add a nice big open map, one that isnt so cramped and busy.. theyre beautiful, definitely, but the longer im in them the longer i wish i could just see further than a few feet. bonfire islands are open, sure, but theyre islands. the grounds is open, sure, but its also empty and just used as a hub basically; a missed opportunity. it couldve been nice big plains, like fluorite v2.)
something i also super miss are the unrealistic or loose/relaxed groups. every advertisement i see is just “semi-literate to literate realistic mature RPSR” and it reminds me of that phase of kids who like, pretend to be cynical and above others. those two funnest groups i mentioned? in one i was a fennec fox who got picked up into a demon/powers wolf pack and later made a deal and sold her soul for strength because she, being tiny, was tired of being the weakest link. in the other i was a wolf raised by (warrior) cats who was integrated into a lion pride because they were desperate for a healer. you would never, ever see either of these nowadays and its just these sort of fh-logic fun moments or decisions that i loved and miss, as well as just powers or fantasy groups in general; they made things interesting.
how interesting can “REALISTIC WOLVES!!!” or any animal be, and for how long? i was in a very realistic pack once. other than the occasional interaction or hierarchy squabble it was hunt, sleep, hunt, sleep, scout a bit, hunt, sleep. as wolves do. because realistic wolves are boring to roleplay for a long time.
im kind of low-key hoping that the next wave of little kids will come along eventually and bring their edge with them and make fh like… fun again- cheesy too, certainly, but fun again, with their relaxed groups and silly characters, but i feel like with how fh’s login situation is right now they wont be able to figure it out or will be less inclined to deal with the hassle, leaving only the older and more boring people like me who can work with it.
speaking of, i really wish they would do something about that.
tl;dr: im nostalgic for the older days when edgy magical scenedogs ran amuck and every group wasnt caught up its own ass about realism and “”“literacy”“”“” and also i wish the grounds was bigger and an actual map like fluorite v2 rather than just a hub.