I use to do a lot of role playing back in the day but now it seems like it's way to much work. It seems as if you need to have a small story just for the character you're making and to me that's just not something I wanna have to worry about just let it come out in the role play if necessary. The other thing that turned me off after awhile was having to do walls of texts and then reading everyone else's wall of texts.
But that's just me.
I wanted to add to this post in hopes of maybe bettering the area in the future and possibly bring people back.
One thing I have noticed, that didn't used to be so, is that it seems like SU are graded too hardly now days. I understand that it needs to interesting. But some RPs are just being to harsh with things. Of course there needs to be boundaries, but when you grade too harshly with things, it pushes people away.
Rping is supposed to be fun, it isn't supposed to feel like a job. Why would I want to put so much work into something, that I am not going to sell or get published?
One section I hate when it comes to some Roleplays are strengths and weaknesses. Some of these possibilities can be both and I just think it is redundant if there is a personality section already.
If an RP starts to fill more like work and not really fun, I am just going to take my ideas else where so it doesn't feel like a job.
If you are like me, you write a lot. I have won 3 writings contests with hard work and I just want to enjoy and practice writing with RP. But sometimes, people grade SU's way way too harshly and you get declined small things, even though everything else is fine. When it gets to that point of nitpicking, it becomes more like a job. Which I want nothing to do with if I am not going to get it published.
Things that should be simple, are getting push far beyond what should be fine for an RP. I think that is why this area is having so many dying RPs and not many new people are coming in.
One other thing is realism. People want to make the story too real. Too logical, and yes again it need boundaries, but if it is a Pokemon RP, what is logical? That was just something that annoyed me a few year back and made me quit RPing for a long time.