Group Size: Does It Matter?

[yourlocalcrow]

Ah, the wonderful ol' "Does size matter?" question. No, get your head out of the gutter! This is a family friendly game, IVYFUR.

What I mean is this: does the size of a group play into your decision to join?

For me, it plays a large role. If a group has over twenty active members, I find myself swamped with the struggle of learning all of their names and who they are. A handful of active members, to me, is more manageable, and I get to become better friends with them. Don't get me wrong, being suddenly shoved into a group of people and trying to learn their inside jokes and their dynamics is difficult, but it's easier when there's less people. A group shouldn't just be people that you roleplay with, you should become friends with some of them. I've carried friends over from roleplay groups, and even now that the group is dead, we still roleplay with those characters, and try to find them new groups. What could have been just another one-off group that was active for a week and then died lasted for months on end, only dying once it tried to change platforms to Skype. That's the type of group that I love: a small, close-knit family that cares so much about each other and their characters. I just feel like a smaller group is more suited to the type of person that I am.

[ArcticGalaxy]

I'm with you on this. I like much smaller groups. Like mine, with only 4 members. Much easier to keep track of everything and plan things out without having 3.4 Zillion people needed to all be there and stuff.

I mean....there are times when larger groups are rather cool, shows how much your group has grown. But it takes a lot of management that one person alone can hardly do and then you have to find more people to help out and then chaos. xD

[Kynvuu]

Before joining a group, I definitely do take the size of it into consideration. My favorite type of groups to join are the ones that are just starting off. It gives you a chance to get to know the creator of the group very well and allows you to connect with people better. When joining a large group with say, 100+ members, it already feels as if relationships have been established and you are the outsider. This is not always the case, but it's just difficult sometimes to really have a voice in a larger group. Also, in role-play, the plot can become very confusing with tons of people and tons of characters getting involved in tons of different events. It does make a very interesting sort of feel though to have a fast-paced, large role-play.

[Pearbear]

As much as I dislike admitting it, I'll admit it has swayed my opinion of a group at times. With fewer members in a group, it can be more difficult to get good role-play going at times, or for people to be more active. If there's a larger group, I'll notice that I'm more attracted to that group & I'm more tempted to join them instead, because the chances of members being more active & more people role-playing are higher.