Thread: The Impending Crisis of the South (URPG)

In the late 90's, a group of Pokemon geeks came together on Yahoo Groups. They decide that, while cool, Pokemon was far too limiting for their tastes. They wanted more. They wanted to change it up.

They created the URPG.

This is Our Game. Our Hobby. Our Community. We, like our founders, desire a place in which we can share in our love of Pokemon and engage in a level of play not seen in the gameboy games. Pokemon, to us, is so much more than 4-moves a mon and a single, built-in ruleset. What technology limits in Red, Blue, Black and White; we expand and adapt with human ingenuity.

We do it because it's more interesting. It's more exciting.

It's Fun.

So if we're bored, let's change it up! If we're tired of the same old, let's create something new! If we are looking for the next challenge, let's innovate!

There are no developers here, because we are the developers. We do not need to code, do not need to market, do not need to wheel and deal to release a product. If we want something done, we just do it. That's how it is. That's one of our best features.

So what if one of our branches isn't doing so well (it's not like this hasn't happened before). So what if we have a bit of lull in activity. So what if the system is a little stale.

It doesn't matter.

We have the power to change it. We have the power to create our own fun and excitement. To create our own adventures and events. To create our own challenges and goals. Because we literally control the system.

So let's start innovating! Let's start figuring something fun to do! It can be a time-tested idea or something completely new. Heck, it can even be something crazy. And if there is anything we know how to do, it's be crazy. URPGers are some of the weirdest people I know!


Why not have one of those 100+ FFA's? Always a popular draw and anyone can participate!

Or maybe something a little more battle-oriented? How about getting Champion Pidge to fight 20 people? AT THE SAME TIME!

Want more say? Let's take a vote! Perhaps WTP and I could have an epic duel with our Pokemon. But instead of us choosing our strategies, you can vote on our moves/actions!

A festive approach could work. What about a Summer event in which members can go to each gym leader and collect a "coin" that can be exchanged for money/prizes at the end?

Or open up a truly bizarre (and temporary) gym league in which each gym's rules... are random or just don't make sense! Random Types each round! Or every Pokemon battling must have the letter Q in its name. Or both battlers pick three Pokemon, but one Pokemon on each side is swapped with the other! The possibilities are endless.

The ideas can go on and on. A murder mystery. Find the Park Warden's missing teeth. A tournament in which every participant has to be a Pokemon character (like Ash or Misty) and can only use Pokemon they've been shown to have.

We can create other ideas, better ideas. We can do all sorts of things and if members think they're fun, I think it's safe to say the staff will support such entertainment/insanity.

This is the URPG spirit. The Pokemon spirit. The idea that, if you drive forward with all your might and heart, you can achieve anything. Let's then find our passions and use it to create a memorable summer together.

We're a community created and run by us. Which means we can literally do anything we want. And in this case, if we can do anything, I think we should choose to have fun.

We should always choose to have fun.

Or maybe something a little more battle-oriented? How about getting Champion Pidge to fight 20 people? AT THE SAME TIME!

Want more say? Let's take a vote! Perhaps WTP and I could have an epic duel with our Pokemon. But instead of us choosing our strategies, you can vote on our moves/actions!

I pick these.

LETS DO A BATTLE FRONTIER *shot*

I think one of the problems is that the URPG is too big for its current userbase. I'm not suggesting we should cut off or close sections. What we need to do is focus on the basics, as has already been mentioned. Battling, stories, roleplaying. The foundations of the URPG. Introducing new ideas to those sections is fine, but now isn't the time to expand anything. URPG is massive - but it's basically a ghost town. Expanding is only going to spread us thin, unless we are GUARANTEED of a MASSIVE increase in members.

As for the inactive staff, I agree to a point. A lot of us aren't as dedicated as we could be. However half the URPG is already some form of staff, approver, official or mod. There's not a lot we can do in that regard. We always keep an eye out for people we think deserve a chance to lead. But with no intention to offend anyone, we don't see it particularly often, and everyone has their own opinions on who deserves that chance.

I agree with Chainy, the staff could do more to be actively participating in the URPG, and not just manage it. But I also agree with Alaska - we're busy. We have real lives, and we can't always dedicate the same amount of time to the URPG as we used to. Hell, some of you probably remember when I ref-botted for a while. Other people put in that same level of dedication to their areas. And we do burn out. I lost interest in the URPG after a while. I still enjoy the community and I help manage the URPG, but I lost interest in participating. Battling, for me, became very stale and boring in the later stages. I enjoyed basic battles with 2v2's much more than I enjoy a 6v6 defensive switchfest. Having a counter to everything is boring.

I don't know what else to suggest. I just don't think shitloads of new features are going to help things.

I joined URPG back when it expanded to BMG. Back then there were plenty of people to battle with and the refs were pretty active. After a few weeks I even got my girlfriend and my sister to join, YellowMagikarp and WhiteWove Cleric respectively. Yellow and I are back and intend on staying for a while and my sister is at least showing some interest in URPG again. In addition to that I just introduced a friend of mine to URPG last weekend and he said when he gets some time he may actually join.

Now, I am more than willing to do my part. I know plenty of people that would enjoy it here, but I don't want to be that guy that invited half the active users. So one good place we could start for more active users is think of your friends that you haven't told about URPG that would be interested. Give them a tour of the URPG and help them get started. Introduce them to other players.

As for the activities, I have seen some great ideas here. And that is a chunk of what we need right now is ideas. Then, we need to follow through on these ideas. Instead of just talking about what we can do to fix things we need to also go out and do them. I know I am willing to do my part to increase activity. When I came back to URPG a few months ago I told myself that I would jump in and be as active as I can and pull my weight in the community. So that is what I intend to do.

If more refs are needed I will do all the studying I need to to become a ref. If we need graders I will dust off my writing skills and take the grader test. I intend on trying my hand at the National Park soon. And if Contests need activity, I suppose I will dress my Pokemon up and apologize to them later for making them go out in public dressed like a dandy. If the URPG Times needs more people or submissions, I see what I can toss in.

We all need to pull our weight and get active and get more people to join. That's what really needs to happen. As was said before, we can choose to do whatever we want to do here and we should choose to have fun. But after we choose, we have to do. Otherwise it is like buying a book and never reading it. It sits on the shelf looking nice but never actually doing anything.

Now, for an obligatory suggestion, right before I went inactive for two years there was a huge Forum FFA. It wouldn't be a bad idea to have one of those again. More people tend to join those and they are more fun because you never know where the attacks are coming from. Beyond that, I seem to remember quizzes happening more often than they happen now.

As for new and exciting things, the Ultra Frontier should have a place on the forums and be a real thing instead of just a group sitting in people's signatures. We could toss in a new way to get Pokemon. As was mentioned, the core here is battles, stories, and role playing. Stories and role playing directly get you new Pokemon. Battles get you money which can get you Pokemon. What if we have something set up where you can battle someone that instead of using one of their Pokemon uses a random "wild" Pokemon rolled from a list. Pay it like a 1v1 and if the challenger wins they get the Pokemon.

Originally Posted by Sormeki

I joined URPG back when it expanded to BMG. Back then there were plenty of people to battle with and the refs were pretty active. After a few weeks I even got my girlfriend and my sister to join, YellowMagikarp and WhiteWove Cleric respectively. Yellow and I are back and intend on staying for a while and my sister is at least showing some interest in URPG again. In addition to that I just introduced a friend of mine to URPG last weekend and he said when he gets some time he may actually join.

Now, I am more than willing to do my part. I know plenty of people that would enjoy it here, but I don't want to be that guy that invited half the active users. So one good place we could start for more active users is think of your friends that you haven't told about URPG that would be interested. Give them a tour of the URPG and help them get started. Introduce them to other players.

As for the activities, I have seen some great ideas here. And that is a chunk of what we need right now is ideas. Then, we need to follow through on these ideas. Instead of just talking about what we can do to fix things we need to also go out and do them. I know I am willing to do my part to increase activity. When I came back to URPG a few months ago I told myself that I would jump in and be as active as I can and pull my weight in the community. So that is what I intend to do.

If more refs are needed I will do all the studying I need to to become a ref. If we need graders I will dust off my writing skills and take the grader test. I intend on trying my hand at the National Park soon. And if Contests need activity, I suppose I will dress my Pokemon up and apologize to them later for making them go out in public dressed like a dandy. If the URPG Times needs more people or submissions, I see what I can toss in.

We all need to pull our weight and get active and get more people to join. That's what really needs to happen. As was said before, we can choose to do whatever we want to do here and we should choose to have fun. But after we choose, we have to do. Otherwise it is like buying a book and never reading it. It sits on the shelf looking nice but never actually doing anything.

Now, for an obligatory suggestion, right before I went inactive for two years there was a huge Forum FFA. It wouldn't be a bad idea to have one of those again. More people tend to join those and they are more fun because you never know where the attacks are coming from. Beyond that, I seem to remember quizzes happening more often than they happen now.

As for new and exciting things, the Ultra Frontier should have a place on the forums and be a real thing instead of just a group sitting in people's signatures. We could toss in a new way to get Pokemon. As was mentioned, the core here is battles, stories, and role playing. Stories and role playing directly get you new Pokemon. Battles get you money which can get you Pokemon. What if we have something set up where you can battle someone that instead of using one of their Pokemon uses a random "wild" Pokemon rolled from a list. Pay it like a 1v1 and if the challenger wins they get the Pokemon.

Let me tell you of my experiences with bringing people to the URPG from real life

1) Girl stalked Monbrey for about 8 months and had a picture of him shirtless in her binder. To this day I don't know where it came from. She scared DODO.
2) Different girl picked fight with ST and Jr. then left.

Either way... If you know people that aren't psycho bitches, please, bring them.



In any case, you are an amazing example of a dedicated URPG member. I tip my monocle to you, sir.

Originally Posted by Alaskapigeon

Let me tell you of my experiences with bringing people to the URPG from real life

1) Girl stalked Monbrey for about 8 months and had a picture of him shirtless in her binder. To this day I don't know where it came from. She scared DODO.
2) Different girl picked fight with ST and Jr. then left.

Either way... If you know people that aren't psycho bitches, please, bring them.

She stalked my Facebook page and stole it from there. Bitches be crazy.

I think that Battle Frontier's a good idea. I think that we should do a World-Tournament-esque event with EVERYONE!

While I can't speak for everyone, I can speak for why I left and why I don't care for coming back. It's not simply one reason, there are a lot of things that really made me grow to hate it. The way it was run by those in charge, the need for drama and bitching, the lack of good battles and the lack of activity/general excitement by those who do frequent.

Originally Posted by Central African Republic*

While I'm not 100% sure what exactly went on, I'm fairly certain that we slashed all our ties with BMG outside of URPG after HiPS left. It was apparently a huge deal that kind of left the mods not-too-chuffed with us. I routinely talk with people from The War Room on Skype about URPG, but the general consensus seems to be that URPG is THAT place of the forum. Said with raised eyebrows, a tut and slight disdain.

You did not slash all ties. That's a stupid mind-frame and I expected better from you of all people. You are quite active in TWR and MM, and also on Skype from what I've heard. I can safely say that the rest of BMGF doesn't know about this section or they think it's a crappy RPG game with no interaction with other members.

Originally Posted by Captain Dude

You guys are getting too immature. The reason I left is because you all are so cliquey and care too much about it. You're treating it like real life and its weird. I joined URPG cause the handheld games were too easy and boring. Once everyone stopped battling and the leadership went in the shitter there was no reason for me to be here. You log on to talk to eachother and you don't do any URPG activities. And christ, it seems like all you need is a pulse to become a ref. You guys have no one to blame but yourself. Quit using the URPG to make friends and treat it like what it is; an MMORPG.

I miss battling, nothing else, just the battling. But it never happens, so why bother logging on?

EDIT: Sorry if this came out as rude, didn't mean that.

You have the exact same reasons as me. I couldn't agree with this more.

Originally Posted by Alaskapigeon

While I'm not 100% sure what exactly went on, I'm fairly certain that we slashed all our ties with BMG outside of URPG after HiPS left. It was apparently a huge deal that kind of left the mods not-too-chuffed with us. I routinely talk with people from The War Room on Skype about URPG, but the general consensus seems to be that URPG is THAT place of the forum. Said with raised eyebrows, a tut and slight disdain.

I've talked to several people who are BMGers and not URPGers and to people from URPG who were pretty active outside of our section of the forum and this is more or less a misconception. Perhaps in some circles we are THAT section of the forum, but definitely not to everyone. I can't speak for HiPS or the BMG mods but I don't think they would refuse interaction with us because of something that happened over a year ago. After all, we're still here, aren't we?

Your idea of some big incident(s) that have happened in the URPG is literally nothing compared to what the staff deals with on a daily basis. Seriously, they don't care about some little quibble that happened years ago, and I'm sure most of the staff now weren't around as staff then or don't even remember it. Honestly, the URPG excludes itself time and time again. Pe2k elitism and a sense of authority elsewhere on the forums is what gets you guys excluded. I get along much better with regular BMG members than I ever did with you guys.

An expansion is not the answer. BMG is the most widely recognised Pokemon forum on the Internet thanks to its own success as a forum and from Bulbapedia.

Why not just post elsewhere and try and enjoy it like the rest of us. It shouldn't be a chore.

I do think we need to be more active in the day to day goings on of the forum as a whole. We all enjoy Pokemon and this is a Pokemon forum. It should not be that hard. As a general rule, a forum rpg does better when it's members are there for the forum as well as the rpg. Look at PE2K, we are pretty much deeply ingrained in the community there. We can do that here as well. And, if we were to do that on TPW we might be able to salvage at least something from there. When we expand we shouldn't just be putting the URPG out there hoping someone will notice it and pick it up, but rather actually join the community and let people come as they will after seeing that we care about being a part of their community and not just about extending URPGs grasp.

Beyond that, I like the World Tournament idea. Perhaps we could also do some sort of Coliseum league similar to Battle Revolution.

Originally Posted by Sormeki

I do think we need to be more active in the day to day goings on of the forum as a whole. We all enjoy Pokemon and this is a Pokemon forum. It should not be that hard. As a general rule, a forum rpg does better when it's members are there for the forum as well as the rpg. Look at PE2K, we are pretty much deeply ingrained in the community there. We can do that here as well. And, if we were to do that on TPW we might be able to salvage at least something from there. When we expand we shouldn't just be putting the URPG out there hoping someone will notice it and pick it up, but rather actually join the community and let people come as they will after seeing that we care about being a part of their community and not just about extending URPGs grasp.

Beyond that, I like the World Tournament idea. Perhaps we could also do some sort of Coliseum league similar to Battle Revolution.

Both Sormeki and Synthesis raise good points. If we want to not only survive, but to thrive as a community, we need to integrate ourselves with the forums we're on. We're already huge parts of PE2K and TPW due to their size and I don't think we'll ever have the same impact on BMG, but we can at least have SOME relevance. We should all go take part in other sections and I know a lot of members already do. If you like the Park, go join RPs. I've been trying to get more active in the Writer's Workshop and if you like writing stories than you could go do that. If your favorite part of the URPG is battling or doing contests, go check out the Wi-fi threads, And if you don't know what else to do, you could just go be a part of random discussions.

Pe2k elitism and a sense of authority elsewhere on the forums is what gets you guys excluded

Personally, I don't really see PE2K elitism anymore and I haven't in a long time. We're all one community, where we come from no longer matters, but if we want to become bigger and better and make more friends, we need to get out there and do something. That's how you can save the URPG.

The URPG hits a low point almost every year. It's just the way it works. It'll recover eventually.


Meanwhile, I'd like to ask all the "URPG heads" to think about what they've been doing lately.


Oh and yeah, everyone knew that when pidge left that the URPG would fail. Pidge held us up and did everything. Nobody appreciated him and a group of bmgers even tried to rival against him secretly. xd


You new generation of URPGers have caused Pidge to leave and have left us in this mess.

fix it plz and ty

Originally Posted by Captain Dude

Pokemaster hit the nail on the head, basically saying what I was trying to say when I said "you have no one to blame but yourself." If Chainy is serious about battling more then I'll log on tonight and battle as well.

Also, more officials/mods is a terrible solution. If anything, they should clean up the staff.

EDIT: Ya know, I was always quick to joke about a "Pidgeocracy" several months back. But after doing some thinking, I think thats what we need. We need someone to step up as a leader and grab URPG by the throat.

URPG needs a new villain.

Originally Posted by LS the Door Mat

The URPG hits a low point almost every year. It's just the way it works. It'll recover eventually.


Meanwhile, I'd like to ask all the "URPG heads" to think about what they've been doing lately.


Oh and yeah, everyone knew that when pidge left that the URPG would fail. Pidge held us up and did everything. Nobody appreciated him and a group of bmgers even tried to rival against him secretly. xd


You new generation of URPGers have caused Pidge to leave and have left us in this mess.

fix it plz and ty

>Doesn't URPG anymore
>Criticizes newer members over activity

Here's essentially what has happened:

A good number of upper-battling tier URPGers have left. People in their tier of battling skill have become bored because they have nobody to battle. They leave out of boredom. Essentially, Pokemaster's domino effect comment in action.

Meanwhile, with people leaving out of boredom and lack of being challenged, that limits what the staff can do to alleviate the situation. I mean, we can't just say "Hey, we're having X events this month! Come do this stuff!", because people have already resigned themselves to quitting. What needs to be done is to hold onto our current and newer members, try to draw in new activity, and hope that our more experienced battlers will come back, essentially, restarting the activity cycle. URPG activity is very much a science we can predict, to some extent.

Anyway, LS is in fact correct about this low point. He is, however, wrong to blame anyone for it.

First off, hi. I thought that needed to be said.

Secondly, to business.
To business!
Oh, sorry, thought you were making a toast.

Thirdly, I really think there are a few things you've overlooked. While it matters how people left, it matters more how people started. Most of us, for BMG, at least, started on the forums and forums alone. I know that I only battled on the forums for quite some time before getting AIM. And, a quick look confirmed my suspicions. There are quite a few people that are active on the forum battles and not in other places. This is good. These people can be taught to stick around. How do we do this? Faster battles on the forums and, possibly, even a tournament. All based on the forums. Most events, however, won't help solve the problem. While the ratio of people who apply for a starter to the people that stay for more than a month has always been a problem, it isn't one we need to worry about. We need to increase the influx of members, and to do that, we must advertise, like Alaska said. Be nice to the newbies on our fledgling forum. Integrate yourselves into the community outside URPG, be it through Mafia games or video game discussions. And carry something related to the URPG in your signature, whether its a link to the starter forum or your personal stats, or even just a random quote that links back to the Quote Compilation. Every bit counts and could help someone become interested in the first place.

Originally Posted by LS the Door Mat

The URPG hits a low point almost every year. It's just the way it works. It'll recover eventually.


Meanwhile, I'd like to ask all the "URPG heads" to think about what they've been doing lately.


Oh and yeah, everyone knew that when pidge left that the URPG would fail. Pidge held us up and did everything. Nobody appreciated him and a group of bmgers even tried to rival against him secretly. xd


You new generation of URPGers have caused Pidge to leave and have left us in this mess.

fix it plz and ty

This kind of attitude isn't exactly helping things. LS, you've contributed nothing over the past 6 months (probably longer), yet you always have problems you want others to solve for you. At least attempt to help things yourself before calling on everyone else to fix it for you.

Also the URPG Heads have been working their asses off for the past few weeks and have a lot of stuff planned for the near future.

And blaming every problem in URPG on BMGers is getting stale. You will have to come to terms with the fact that some people started playing URPG after you, I know it's crazy.