My thoughts on Hiddens.

[ScarecrowVT]

i feel like to a certain extent you are devaluing other's achievements and effort put forward just because you don't know about it...

Not devaluing them. I'm sure they've put in a bunch of work. I just feel as though that hiddens that were once rare in the past and had impact on the story are seen too much now days. Maybe that's due to the journal system that more people feel comfortable with than the app system of the past. Maybe that's why more people are seen with them. IDK. Also there is a lot of people I know who are like "Who is this? Why do they have a hidden?" over someone they've never seen before or heard of ever. ICly and oocly. 

People don't afk because they get hiddens. They afk because they feel like they've accomplished what they've set out to do, or just burn out. This typically happens when they've pushed the story, not the opposite. 

Gatekeeping hiddens because someone 'is' irrelevant or hasn't done as much as another person who has it is really toxic and annoying af in my eyes.

I'm not saying to gate keep them. I just remember when I first started playing the game and people would get mad at me for RPing things wrong or doing things wrong. Would correct me and give me criticism. I'd take what they said and take it into account then apply it. What I see a lot now days is people not doing things proper from a lore aspect of things set in stone by the wiki when it comes to specific things. Things like occult should be making someone crazy. While I can't tell you the last time I saw an actual crazy occultist.

 I just think the level of effort needs to be brought up to show this. Not just showing five logs and you're good to go.   

As for the afk when they get hiddens? 
If you make a character just to get a hidden and stop there... Idk chief. What was the point of that character? Cool you got super magi. What are you gonna do with it? To me if someone gets a hidden it should be to drive the story further and keep going. 

You don't see Goku get super saiyan and do nothing. 
You don't see Naruto get Sage mode and sit around. 
You don't see Deku get a quirk then say "why do I need to keep training?" 

They keep going and developing things. 
And honestly maybe that's why this world grows stale so quickly. People keep looking at hiddens as the end goal when really it should be the CLIMAX.