Posted March 6, 2021, 11:45 p.m. by Captain Jennifer Ward (Presidential Candidate) (Jennifer Ward)
Posted by J Ridgley in Questions for the Candidates - Academy
This line of questioning is set towards candidates Jennifer and Brian regarding thier academy revamp. I belive these to be somewhat different to previously asked questions and more specific.I am intrigued to hear the plans regarding the academy revamp which by all means is always being revamped and how during your term it would be different and in which more successful than your predecessors?
How do you plan on turning the Academy towards having a more active and creative role in the generation of players and characters who can contribute fully and integrate completely into a ship giving them as mentioned “confidence and stability” rather than simply pass out with sometimes unfinished missions/character development/Bio development due to self imposed time restraints?
Many thanks,
Jake
So I am going to start by putting here the answer to Adam’s question because I think it applies. Specifically I think that the current requirements for graduation should stay in place, but add a component to it. Specifically that while on Challenger (or any other academy ship) cadets should work towards having a solid bio for their character. Now what does solid look like? That is something I would want to work with the academy with to decide. As for my personal experience let me start by clarifying this is not my first time at STF and I have experience writing backgrounds and bios for my characters. That is not so with every cadet. When my class left Challenger and arrived on our new ships a lot of us were told that we couldn’t keep our characters as we had envisioned them/wrote them. There was no bio nor detail of the character and so we got this situation where the CO approved us and then others on the ship pushed back and said no and it was a problem. To the point SEVERAL left STF all together
We feel that a better development of characters and writing quality will help prevent that. The Academy allows for weaker or new writers, and that’s amazing and the goal and purpose of the academy, but currently there is no requirement to help cadets build that character foundation. Without it going into the main fleet becomes a nightmare.
Now with that said I propose to create a template for a character’s bio and that while on Challenger Cadets can add information to it. Perhaps they create parts from scratch, perhaps some comes about from their interactions during their check-ins, side-sims, or even main-sims. Cadets will also be able to include links to examples of their writing from their threads on Challenger. The purpose of this is to help cadets have a solid idea of the character they are playing. A more solid character construction will provide confidence in the ‘who’ they are playing and how they might fit into a new crew that is already established. These bios would also help captains receiving cadets to determine if their character and writing style will fit with their ship, making for smoother transitions.
We also propose, with the help of the Academy and Personnel department that cadets actually get some choice in where they go. Right now cadets are placed where they are needed. That is the point of the Academy to help prepare players for ships that have openings. But we would like to see that cadets have some choice. Given a chance to check out the ship assigned and get a veto and then a second ship offered.
Jennifer and Brian, Supporting Creativity
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