How to Use/Play

[Choh Lehko]

I'm going to make this very clear and easy for everyone. It's not like the site is too complex, to begin with, but I want people to get a grasp of it even if they've never been introduced to such concepts.

To begin, this website is not your standard "gaming forum." We do not come here to write about games. We do not come here to read about games. We do not come here to meet other gamers and socialize. This website really has nothing to do with any other games. The website is a game.

This is not an especially popular game because it is not a troll game. Seinvocc does not exist for lazy/stupid people. If you just want to sit there and kill time by clicking your mouse fifty times to watch some guy swing a sword with no skill at a zombie until it falls over, go play Minecraft or some other worthless, boring excuse for a game. Alternatively, you can shoot yourself in the foot. It's a bit more expensive, but it's more entertaining.

Still reading? Good. So, you want to play a real game. You want something that doesn't cost money, doesn't obligate you in any way, and, most of all, you want something that applies your mind. Something like that, eh? On Seinvocc, we challenge you to be creative. Other games may give you a bunch of appearances and combinations to choose from (You can be the sword guy, lance girl, or axe machine.), but all that you're doing is picking some stuff that others came up with and programmed, then calling it your own as though you did something. Here, we compel you to do the brainstorming. You come up with your stuff; you're not limited to what can be/has been programmed. You can let your mind run wild, here, which can't be honestly said anywhere else.

If you are unfamiliar with role-playing, think of it as acting. Think back to when you were knee-high to a grasshopper and remember "playing pretend" or whatever you may have called it. It's a lot like that, but with a lot more maturity, thought, and freedom. In stead of one kid being Batman, the other Superman, and both flailing at each other randomly, you make a character that's all yours, and you pretty much live as them on the site. You play your character's role in fictional life, often striving to become stronger, bash monsters, and have fun. It really is like acting, but more fun, only as time-consuming as you want it to be, more thoughtful, and cooler. You make up a plot as you go along, and it depends on what happens to your character in addition to who your character meets. In a sense, it's a lot like a lot of video games; many are, after all, called "role-playing games," just as this is.

Does this sound fun? Maybe you're still unsure. You haven't tried stuff like this before and don't know how cool it is, or you've tried some form of it and had a bad experience. Okay. That's fine. Keep reading and try it out; you won't regret it.

[Tori Keheraht]

Now, you know what the site is "about." Whether you are going to start playing or just creep around and read others' awesomeness, you're going to have to know how to navigate the site. As mentioned before, this is a forum website. If you are very familiar with forum sites, you can skip the rest of this post. If not (or you're just interested in how I phrase this lesson), click the "spoiler" button and check it out.

• Seinvocc: That's the name of this website and the dimension-intersection that Houcm exists in.
• Houcm: That's the name of the main role-playing (RP) universe of Seinvocc, its solitary galaxy, and its main planet.
• Index: The index page of a forum site is its home page, usually. That is the case on Seinvocc. It acts as an index from which one accesses the forums of the site. The index page can have categories and forums on it: All of the small, blue names of places (such as Important Stuff and OOC Area) on the index page are categories, while the Character Adoption Center and Purposeful Deleted are forums.
• Category: This is a heading under which forums exist. It's pretty much just a classification for those forums. Examples include Important Stuff, Universe of Houcm, and Outsources. Notice the other writing in blue on the index page? Those are category names, too, and there are a few more: Character Information, Houcm Planet, and Guild World are categories within the Universe of Houcm category. Chao Stadium is a category in the Chao World forum. Categories contain at least one forum or link each; categories are completely invisible and intangible until they contain at least one forum or link. Categories can contain forums, the contents of those forums, links, and more categories. You can not make a new category, but you can ask an admin (such as myself) about making a new one, if you think of something.
• Forum: Aside from the type of site that this is, a "forum" is a website's area for topics. This is completely admin-defined: While the Guest Area (password = honestguest) is a forum for topics that a guest would make about questions, comments, and concerns about the site, the Neo Classroom is a forum for learning junk, the Flint Ranges are a region of Houcm Planet in which role-playing occurs, Inventory is a record of the ownings of RP characters, and so on. Don't worry; every forum is described, so you can't really mess this up. Forums can contain categories, links, more forums (called subforums), and threads (also known as topics). Like categories, you can't make them, but you can always ask an admin to make one for you.
• Subforum: This is the term for any forum that exists within another forum, such as the Umbral Island (subforum) in the Abyssal Sea (forum) or all the areas of each guild within that respective guild. (Grigori Observatory is a subforum of Xuten, for instance.) Aside from the fact that it exists in another forum, it's just like a forum that exists on the index page or a category; it can contain more subforums, categories, links, and threads.
• Link: Well, you know what links are, but you should know that an admin can attach a link to the index page, a category, or a forum/subforum without starting a thread. If you have an important link to share with others, ask an admin about adding it somewhere.
• Thread (a.k.a. topic): This is the real meat of forums. These are the sections of posts. What you're currently reading is a post within a thread; "How to Use/Play" is a thread. A thread is simply an organization of posts on a certain topic (hence the alias) that exists within a forum/subforum. That's about all that there is to it; every time that you click on something and it takes you to a screen with a bunch of posts, it's a thread. It has a pertinent title and is the collection of the posts, which are the real meat and potatoes. You can make a new thread within a forum by going to that forum and clicking New Topic (which can also be seen on every thread of a forum, so, if you click it here, you'll make a new thread in the Site-Wide Rules and Guides forum), which brings you to the Full Editor screen, where you compose a new post and a thread title. This new post will be the first post of the thread; they are created together, as there is no thread without a post.
• Post: A post, such as what you are presently reading, is a collection of content, usually including text. If there's a picture, text to read, a vid to listen to, or whatever else, it's a post. It's what you write when you reply to something; it's everything that everyone says on the site, except for the thread titles, forum descriptions, and category descriptions. Technically, even the signatures are considered to be posts within posts, and even everything that we say in the chatbox is considered to be a post. If someone reminds you, "Don't forget to post in your guild-joining topic," they are telling you that it's your turn again to reply, i.e. make a new post, in the mentioned thread. To make a new post, either type the desired content into the Quick Reply box (the box that you see at the bottom of a thread for typing in) and click Submit or hit the Full Editor button. You can also access the Full Editor by clicking Post Reply. In any case, BBCodes will work and everything in accordance to your defaults, which you should set in the UCP. The only benefits to the Full Editor are the abilities to use file attachments, click buttons to insert BBCodes easily, and set the post to behave differently than your defaults (If you set your posting defaults to disable smilies, but you want to use a smiley in just one post, you can use the full editor to re-enable smilies for that post.). Oh, it also allows you to save your posts to finish later, if you have to leave the computer before you're finished typing. Once you're finished writing your post, click Submit. Advice: Before clicking Submit, hit CTRL + A (select all), then CTRL + C (copy), so, if you mess up, lose your internet connection, or whatever else, your computer will remember the content, so you can then just re-load the page and paste it into the Quick Reply box. Of course, if that includes file attachments, you'll have to enter the Full Editor, re-upload the attachments, and place them in their appropriate places again. That's a lot easier than re-writing the whole thing, though, especially when it's a post that took over six hours to write. =w=" Pasting a post into Wordpad, OpenOffice, LibreOffice, Microsoft Office Word, or something else could also help, especially if you're multi-tasking or if your internet goes out for hours or days at a time.

Let's review:
Categories are more there for looks, directions, and classifications than anything. They are impertinent without the forums and such that make them up.
A forum can be just like a category, but it can contain threads. If you want to tell whether something is a forum or a category, see if individual threads and go into it. If there's no New Topic button, it's a category.
A subforum is just like any other forum; it's just the name for a forum within a forum.
Threads are found in forums, and they are collections of posts.
Posts are what we read and write; they're the content.

[Tixxi Eldixac]

That was simpler than you thought, right? It's not brain surgery; this site isn't for savants only. At this point, you may be wondering what the categories, forums, subforums, threads, and posts are in game terms. Again, this post is for n00bs. If you are familiar with RPing forums already and already understand what's what, you can skip this one. Simply put, the site pieces are as follows in-game:
Categories- They're still just categories. "Character Information" is pretty self-explanatory, and it has a description for you to read. "Universe of Houcm" obviously indicates that everything under there pertains to the site's main universe. The universe is monogalactic, so you don't have to segregate things by different galaxies. So far, the known worlds in which RPing occurs are Houcm (the planet), Guild World, and Chao World. (Note: Chao World is not a category. However, within it is Chao Stadium, which is the category of Chao Karate and Chao Race.) The "Other Universes" are, quite obviously, universes that aren't the primary one, Houcm. That's basically it. Everything that's in-game is either the character info for Houcm chars, the actual role-playing in Houcm, or the character info and role-playing in other universes. Simple.
Forums- The forums of Character Information are simply the different subjects of characters (Abilities, inventory, and Allies, for example). On Houcm Planet and Guild World, forums are regions. Chao World is a forum. Because most things go on in the small world that is all lumped together, threads can be posted directly in it. Within the Chao Stadium category, there are the forums of Chao Karate and Chao Race for the respective threads. I changed The Legend of Zelda back to a forum, so you simply have each forum under Other Universes as an individual universe.
Subforums- In Planet Houcm and Guild World, they're sub-regions. Threads in the Hydra Yggdrasil subforum occur on/around the big tree in the center of the Void Meadow. Threads in the Umbral Island subforum occur on the little island in the middle of the Abyssal Sea. Cities, towns, and guilds have their little areas, too. I'm sure that I don't need to explain this more. In Other Universes, subforums may be added for separate galaxies, planets, regions, and some particularly comprehensive, organization-requiring role-plays (RPs).
Threads- Each thread is a series of events in the given place.
Posts- Each post is simply a given person's participation. If the Noah Ivaldi account posts in a thread, it posts what Noah and/or Noah's allies does/do. If Standard Foes posts, it posts whatever some standard foe(s) does/do, what they drop upon defeat, and such. Apply the same concept all around.

Again, pretty simple, right? Even if you've never seen this stuff before, it's bloody easy, right? Right.

[Learpabru]

You know what goes on, here, more or less. You know how to get around. Now, what about what you actually do? Again, it's basically, "Learn how to be fair and all the cool stuff that you can do, make a character, and play as it." I'll make this painfully easy to follow for everyone.

1. Open your eyes. The site does a pretty good job of explaining itself, guiding you around, and helping you to see what you haven't already read if you pay attention to the little symbols, buttons, and stuff. I seriously haven't bothered to do much explaining in site navigation before because I always thought that it was so self-explanatory.
2. Don't be afraid to click around. You can't hurt the website. You can't screw everything up beyond repair. Chill. Click around and read around. Notably, read all category/forum descriptions and click into them to see any subforums. (Note: Clicking a category will take you to a list of recent threads in forums within it and a list of the forums that are within it. Hence, clicking on a category and going to its forums from there is no more productive than simply going to a forum straight from the index. You'll get a feel for it, and nothing bad happens when you click things unnecessarily, anyway.)
3. Read the rules and guides. I can't stress this enough. Stop whining that they're long; they're not even as long as they look. I know a girl with mental disabilities that read the majority of them in about 1.25 hours. Most people spend more than that in one sitting on Facebook or a video game, and you don't have to read them all in one sitting. They're not super complex. They're not so long that your eyes fall out. Seriously, I spent hundreds of hours writing and refining these for your benefit. You really should spend a couple hours to read them and reap the benefits. You're not going to have a clue about anything if you don't read them. If you have played similar games before, you still will miss out on some big concepts. You still won't be able to play fairly; every site has their own set of BS rules, and most of what I've written is about your freedoms, not rules, so you should read them and open your mind up to what is fair. This is not a "point and click" game for six-year-olds. You have to use your head.
4. Read other threads in the Important Stuff category. You absolutely have to read the Announcements forum; they're site-wide announcements, so it is, in fact, important stuff. The Suggestions forum has good stuff, too, especially sticky threads in there. You should check out the Moderator/Administrator Discussion, Guest Area, and Forum Issues at some point, but they aren't quite as imperative and immediately helpful as the suggestions, rules, and guides.
5. Go to the Character Information and make a character. Optionally, you can (and should) read about others' to get some ideas, see what discussions have taken place about what is and isn't fair, et cetera. It doesn't matter whether you start with the character's bio, abilities, inventory, or even the allies; just start coming up with cool stuff that is logical and fair, write it down, and put it out there. Yes, it's fine to post something before it's done; you don't need to save a document to your computer and work on it until you have a finished product to present. Post what you can come up with, keep adding to it, and we'll help you.
6. Continue reading around the site. The Purposeful Deleted has threads that are deleted but, believe it or not, still have a purpose. The Character Adoption Center has some great pictures and concepts for you to use. It should be helpful to read others' RPing instances.
7. Once your character is finished and approved, pick a region in the Houcm Universe. Make a thread. Give it a creative title and have your character start there. Play as your character. If you don't already have a specific motivation to work toward, you can just wander around, get stronger/richer/smarter/better/blah, and find things to do. You can participate in little quests, spars, and tournaments for fun and prizes. You'll figure out fun things to do.
8. Keep reading. I delete useless threads, so there's nothing that has been posted that you can't derive anything from.
9. Keep playing until your character dies, at which point you should go back four steps and repeat.

Got that? Looking for more? It's good fun. Give it a shot.

[Noah Ivaldi]

You're following along with those, right? Are you wondering what to do while you wait for others (assuming that you've either read everything or read enough for one night), when you have new concepts to implement, and whatnot? I'll spell out several options.

• If you have suggestions to make, make them. We want your input, people! What do you think the site is missing that would make it better?
• Characters are reviewed mainly by mods and admins, but any helpful input is appreciated. If you saw something in someone's character information that you disagree with in terms of fairness/logic, post about it. Maybe you're seeing something that we're not. Other websites may have haughty admins that just want their members to fall into line while they crack the whip, but Seinvocc is a community effort to have fun. We can't all have fun if we aren't all being logical and fair.
• Make another character and play as that.
• Start or join an RP in an Other Universe. They're tertiary in comparison to Houcm, but they're still good for some fun.
• Have you introduced yourself, yet? Go to the Introductions and say something about yourself. Read about others, if you want, and socialize a bit.
• Do you have art or funny stuff to share? Go to the Artisan's Alley and Spam forums and have some fun.
• The Creative Commons forum is a new one where people can post stories that they've previously written for others to read. If you wrote one, put it there. If you read one and think that there should be an RP for it, post to ask for that.
• The Neo Classroom has a lot of educational stuff, mostly cool stuff. If nothing else, I'm sure that you all could learn to improve your English skills to more easily and accurately convey what you're RPing, right?
• There's plenty of stuff in the Character Adoption Center to check out, and you're free to add more of your own, too. If you just want to post your thoughts on pictures that you see in there, knock yourself out!
• You can work ahead on your characters. Obviously, you will be writing the actual RPing in accordance to what is going on; you must adapt. You can work ahead on some character information, though. Allow me to exemplify this: I intend for Choh Lehko to eventually develop a battalion of mus (from some Final Fantasy games) and related abilities. Hence, I have collected some mu pictures and have begun to write up specs for different mus that she will control. Clearly, it's useless right now because I can't simply write them in; Choh is already approved, so she has to play around to earn new stuff. I can plan for new stuff to earn and post them up as I earn them, though. Follow?

There's plenty to do, around here. You're not limited to playing as one character ever or one character at a time, so that alone is enough that you can never really run out of things to play with on Seinvocc.

[Leilani]

If you're new to forums, new to role-playing, or both, it's all right. Read around; don't be lazy, and you'll get plenty of respect. No one's expecting you to sit there and read around the site for 8 straight hours (unless you really want to), but try to at least familiarize yourself with as much as you can. It's important that you at least understand the rulestuffs and other site details, so read everything in Site-Wide Rules and Guides and Announcements at least once before you get going. It will help your memory and comprehension a lot if you follow the recommended order in the rules and guides, then check the announcements. In fact, it may help you to open each thread in different tabs or windows and refer back to stuff as you read. Reading others' character information and role-playing threads in the various universes of the site can be extremely helpful, but the important stuff should come first, obviously.

Remember that the first thing is to refrain from feeling stupid. If you're new, you have an excuse to be ignorant, so, if you just try and learn, you'll get things and be wizzing around the site in no time. Especially if you focus too much on tone, it may sound like people are talking down to you, but we're just trying to help you out and teach you from the ground up. Being new to things is, after all, being new to things. Besides, even a lot of supposed veterans have some troubles because they haven't payed attention when they could, so, if you're not going to be lazy, you'll do fine.

If you don't know about something, don't just sit around and wait for an answer to fall into your lap; even if it does, you may not notice it for a long time, if at all. If you don't get something, don't be afraid to ask. How else are you going to learn? We won't berate you. Just go ahead and ask us about stuff, and we'll help you!
Users that are most competent on matters of this site:
K
Noah Ivaldi
Leilani
Learpabru
Dycedarg
Laola
Choh Lehko
Tori Keheraht
Tixxi Eldixac
Jules
Dahxnil
Joanna Larken Shosmyth
Shir-Nuzreh
Ejio Tisco