Birchwood Isle has been open and going strong for about three months now and during that time we have noticed patterns in the types of characters we see coming in the most often. While we rarely place a restriction on a certain character type, we would like to make our members and potential members aware of the types of characters we see the most often, because these are always the character types that we are most on the verge of having to restrict.
You are still welcome to create characters in these groups. We love your inner kids and believe in the reality and importance of inner children, so our doors are always welcome to your inner child or children. However, if you are experimenting with a new character or are looking to fill a void on Birchwood Isle, we suggest you first check out our list of Character Types We Want to See More of at Birchwood Isle. This will help you to understand what we need the most and to fill actual needs.
We are not asking that you don't bring us these types of characters, only that you think twice about a different character type first.
More than any other character type at Birchwood Isle, we see a lot of little girls. We define "little" as younger than ten years old.
We see so many seven year old little girls that our staff literally takes bets on whether or not the latest character is going to be a seven year-old little girl.
Birchwood Isle currently has far more female children than it does male children. It has far more children below the age of ten than it does children in other age groups.
Most of these little girls are seven years old. Most of them have dark brown hair. Most of them have blue or green eyes.
We are running out of celebrity face claims for these girls!
Our staff suggests that you consider playing an older child (10-14 years old) or, even better for our site, a high-school-aged teenager. These groups have far more opportunities to role play and are more likely to get attention from staff characters than younger characters are. Let me repeat: Our staff prefer teen role playing with teen characters to role playing with younger characters!
We would never make the argument that children shouldn't read or that reading isn't good for the children of Birchwood Isle, but it has come to our attention that we have a relatively large number of very young children reading far above level. First and second graders do not, in general, read chapter books and carry these with them everywhere they go.
Our interview process won't catch this before the character is in play, and we won't ask you to make your child less of a reader in order to combat this problem, but we ask that those reading this consider a different hobby for their introverted kid.
Other options include art, independent science, playing with dolls, and other creative pursuits.
We do not recommend children adopt writing as an alternative for the same reason.
Whatever you choose, remember that even introverted children should interact with their peers and with adults at the New Beginnings home (or whichever home they live in). Keep in mind that no child who isn't social will be able to find an adoptive family!
Everybody wants to be intelligent, and our staff appreciates that many of our members relive parts of their own childhood through their inner children, finding ways to improve themselves by making their inner children everything they were not. While we understand this, however, it is overwhelming the number of highly intelligent kids that we get at Birchwood Isle.
I'm going to be very frank with you here: It offends me when a person feels the need to include their character's presumed intelligence quotient (IQ) in their plot pages or their biographies. While this is something that the player should always keep in mind, it only comes up publicly when the character is meant to be very high on the scale.
Your character doesn't need to be inferior in order to be realistic, but a group and community take all kinds. As the head admin, I play characters who struggle with learning disabilities, or who simply lack the skills and intelligence that other characters have. These characters are generally considered to be more interesting because they are less common and it adds dimension. Remember that if your character is a grand list of positive traits, this is what we would define as a "Mary Sue" character. Birchwood Isle is looking for highly developed characters.
Birchwood Isle currently has enough kids coming from wealthy backgrounds into foster care on the island, and we do not need any more of these. There's nothing wrong with children coming from a wealth background to a life of poverty in foster care and the character development that comes through their transition, but we would like to see some variations from this point forward.
Please allow us to make it clear that any child coming to New Beginnings or Second Chances with a trust fund will not have access to that trust fun until she turns twenty-two years old. No foster child, therefore, will have special privileges and access that the others will not.
All children receive an allowance that pays for their bus pass, their school meals, and leaves them between $5 and $10 pocket money. Teenagers may obtain jobs in town to give them more spending money.
Trust fund children will be treated exactly the same as any child without a trust fund, and it will not make it easier for your inner kid to find an adoptive family: In fact, it might make it harder because these trust funds can make your character boring and less desirable. Think twice before doing this!
Administrative characters make up the majority of the teen parents on the island, and we have to admit right out of the gate that teen parents themselves are not the problem. In this setting, kids coming from foster care, they aren't unrealistic. However, the problem that we've faced with most teen parents we've seen at Birchwood Isle is that they use their children in order to get into trouble.
Anyone choosing to play a teen parent must be playing a parent first and a teenager second, especially if you are going to have somebody play the child to your teenager.
Because of what we've seen, we no longer accept teen parents as first characters, as many of our members now and in the past have chosen to abuse the privilege of playing them and it often turns into a disaster. If you wish to play a teen parent, consider a permanently pregnant female, or consider playing your own child so that abandonment only hurts you and not the person you're playing with who relies on you to parent their younger child. If you have a strong desire to play a teen parent, please note that abortion is illegal on the island and that all teenagers are encouraged to parent their children rather than give them up for adoption. This is a serious undertaking!
I'll have another article out tomorrow about which types of characters we'd like to see more of on Birchwood Isle, but if you're reading this before that article is available and linked, please consider bringing us a high-school-aged teenager, a boy child, or an adult.
More tomorrow!
We are not asking that you don't bring us these types of characters, only that you think twice about a different character type first.
 |
| CC BY 2.0 |
We see so many seven year old little girls that our staff literally takes bets on whether or not the latest character is going to be a seven year-old little girl.
Birchwood Isle currently has far more female children than it does male children. It has far more children below the age of ten than it does children in other age groups.
Most of these little girls are seven years old. Most of them have dark brown hair. Most of them have blue or green eyes.
We are running out of celebrity face claims for these girls!
Our staff suggests that you consider playing an older child (10-14 years old) or, even better for our site, a high-school-aged teenager. These groups have far more opportunities to role play and are more likely to get attention from staff characters than younger characters are. Let me repeat: Our staff prefer teen role playing with teen characters to role playing with younger characters!
 |
| CC BY-NC 2.0 |
Our interview process won't catch this before the character is in play, and we won't ask you to make your child less of a reader in order to combat this problem, but we ask that those reading this consider a different hobby for their introverted kid.
Other options include art, independent science, playing with dolls, and other creative pursuits.
We do not recommend children adopt writing as an alternative for the same reason.
Whatever you choose, remember that even introverted children should interact with their peers and with adults at the New Beginnings home (or whichever home they live in). Keep in mind that no child who isn't social will be able to find an adoptive family!
 |
| CC BY-NC-SA |
I'm going to be very frank with you here: It offends me when a person feels the need to include their character's presumed intelligence quotient (IQ) in their plot pages or their biographies. While this is something that the player should always keep in mind, it only comes up publicly when the character is meant to be very high on the scale.
Your character doesn't need to be inferior in order to be realistic, but a group and community take all kinds. As the head admin, I play characters who struggle with learning disabilities, or who simply lack the skills and intelligence that other characters have. These characters are generally considered to be more interesting because they are less common and it adds dimension. Remember that if your character is a grand list of positive traits, this is what we would define as a "Mary Sue" character. Birchwood Isle is looking for highly developed characters.
 |
| CC BY 2.0 |
Please allow us to make it clear that any child coming to New Beginnings or Second Chances with a trust fund will not have access to that trust fun until she turns twenty-two years old. No foster child, therefore, will have special privileges and access that the others will not.
All children receive an allowance that pays for their bus pass, their school meals, and leaves them between $5 and $10 pocket money. Teenagers may obtain jobs in town to give them more spending money.
Trust fund children will be treated exactly the same as any child without a trust fund, and it will not make it easier for your inner kid to find an adoptive family: In fact, it might make it harder because these trust funds can make your character boring and less desirable. Think twice before doing this!
 |
| CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 |
Anyone choosing to play a teen parent must be playing a parent first and a teenager second, especially if you are going to have somebody play the child to your teenager.
Because of what we've seen, we no longer accept teen parents as first characters, as many of our members now and in the past have chosen to abuse the privilege of playing them and it often turns into a disaster. If you wish to play a teen parent, consider a permanently pregnant female, or consider playing your own child so that abandonment only hurts you and not the person you're playing with who relies on you to parent their younger child. If you have a strong desire to play a teen parent, please note that abortion is illegal on the island and that all teenagers are encouraged to parent their children rather than give them up for adoption. This is a serious undertaking!
I'll have another article out tomorrow about which types of characters we'd like to see more of on Birchwood Isle, but if you're reading this before that article is available and linked, please consider bringing us a high-school-aged teenager, a boy child, or an adult.
More tomorrow!
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