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Veritas Falsus prohibits the use of lists in applications. The only exception will be when the field demands an explanation of the individual features. Examples of such fields include the character's relations and connections, power list, and possessions. These are obvious, because they inherently ask for the writer to list out what connections, abilities, and possessions he or she has.

Please do not make a list in any other part of your application. I understand that it's become a very popular shortcut to simply list out your character's likes and dislikes or their strengths and weaknesses. This is not allowed here, and we will ask you to rewrite the section that's written like a list.

And please, do not try to subvert this rule by squishing lists into paragraphs. If it reads like a list, whether it's nicely bulleted and bolded, or if it's pushed into paragraph form, we will not accept it. In fact, even if your application is wonderful, we will ask that you rewrite any violating part of the application into a more agreeable format.

Our reasoning behind the policy is pretty simple. We want everyone to think critically about their character. Good character designs = more realistic roleplays. The staff at VF put in a lot of work to create as immersive and interactive an RPG as possible, and we will continue to put in a lot of work to try to make this place a fun and expansive place to play. We hold ourselves to the same standards, and we expect all of you to make this effort.

Lists do not encourage any critical thinking. In fact, lists are the lowest form of written communication. It's very arbitrary, lacks connectivity within itself, and oversimplifies things into various subsets. No matter how comprehensive a list gets, it is never comprehensive enough. For example, if your character lists "chocolate" as a like, does he also like hot cocoa? Mocha cappucinos? Chocolate ice cream? If so, why aren't those on there? If not, why not?

We feel that a good application is where the writer challenges him or herself to think through every bit of the character's psyche. You should be delving into the character, much like a psychologist delves into a patient's character. The focus should be on why, and what makes it so, and what does it indicate, rather than simply what is. Anyone could tell us what it is, we want you to explore why it is, what it indicates, and why we should care about it. Lists simply are unable to accomplish this. Even if you explore each item on the list, you are still missing how it connects between items.

We also find that writing lists does nothing for the character. People who write lists rarely utilize those likes and dislikes in a meaningful manner. They simply brainstorm a number of arbitrary and often pointless things to add, with only limited relation to each other and connection to the character at large. Lists also change the focus of the character from process to result. The most important aspect of what makes a character is the process. Literally, a character is the sum total of their aptitudes, experiences, memories, emotions, and relations. Creating a list ignores process and skips straight towards an 'objectively' assumed reality. Unfortunately, that is not how things work.

Furthermore, we want to focus on depth. We care more about 'why' rather than 'what.' We don't want to see a long laundry list of things that we assume your character to just "like." Every heterosexual girl likes attractive men. Most everyone with a palette likes good food. Most everyone with a healthy auditory cortex will enjoy music (of varying cultural styles). Many of these things should be assumed, and many of them don't overlap much. The much more fruitful venture is to explain "why" and "how." How does your character enjoy these things, and why exactly does he (i.e. what underling cause and aspect of his personality enables him to enjoy these things)? You can't get that from a list explaining each individual like or dislike.

Mostly, however, it's just distracting. Instead of figuring out a list of X, Y, and Z for things that your character likes, is like, or dislikes, you could be actually exploring much more fascinating details, such as why your character is the way he is, what made him the person he is, and what motivates your character to continue to progress along the lines that he is on. Keep pushing the in depth issues, and you'll get there.

So for all of these reasons, and perhaps a few others, we are forbidding the use of lists in all applications in all fields that do not lend itself to lists. We at VF have complete faith that if you follow this policy and think critically about your characters (while focusing on process rather than result), they will be more lifelike, three dimensional, and more fun to play.