OOC chat

[Leeloo]

Originally posted by Seytra

Originally posted by Leeloo
There aren\'t that many other free MMOPG-games (R deliberately left out), I have checked happypenguin several times before I found Planeshift, which is amazing compared to the other game I used to play.

The fact that you left out the \"R\" proves that you are not PS\'s target audience. Therefore, you don\'t belong here.

Forgot to reply to this one... I left out the R, because I was told to find a different game to play, and I was trying to avoid conflict with RPG\'ers. I.e. I didn\'t want to be told one more time that I don\'t belong in a RPG.

So, basically you\'re saying that I don\'t belong here because I was told to find a different game...

Maybe the golf comparison wasn\'t so bad afterall - \"more about prestige than enjoyment of a game\" is the feeling I get from the replies in this thread. \"Don\'t you dare trying to have fun, this is our game\". Maybe I should have listened to my friends, when they suggested finding a different game. Then I can try to roleplay some other time.

/me is sad.

[Cha0s]

You\'re sort of getting the idea now: Planeshift is about roleplaying. If you can\'t honestly dedicate yourself to roleplaying, then you probably should go find another game. At some point in the future, Planeshift may get a second server for hack \'n\' slashers. Right now, though, Planeshift is dedicated to roleplay, and if you\'re not, Planeshift probably isn\'t right for you.

It\'s not that you have to be part of some elite to play Planeshift. You just have to want to roleplay and be willing to dedicate yourself to trying.

[Androgos]

About /say and /shout..

We can make GMs recieve all those messages like if they were there and thus play more god

Of course this would be like level 4 or something

[Karyuu]

That would be an insane amount of text to keep up with :P

[Seytra]

Originally posted by Leeloo
Forgot to reply to this one... I left out the R, because I was told to find a different game to play, and I was trying to avoid conflict with RPG\'ers. I.e. I didn\'t want to be told one more time that I don\'t belong in a RPG.

Ah, I see. So you are saying that you abuse PS because there is no graphical chatroom to be found?

Originally posted by Leeloo
So, basically you\'re saying that I don\'t belong here because I was told to find a different game...

This information, which was not available when I posted, may, in retrospect, invalidate this particular statement of mine. However, it does not diminish the validity of my other statements.

Originally posted by Leeloo
Maybe the golf comparison wasn\'t so bad afterall - \"more about prestige than enjoyment of a game\" is the feeling I get from the replies in this thread. \"Don\'t you dare trying to have fun, this is our game\".

You hit the nail on the head. If your idea of \"having fun\" is not aligned with the intention of the game, then yes, it\'s our game, and you are not supposed to have fun in it.

However, we are not playing it because of prestige or whatever (I doubt playing an MMORPG gives one a prestige boost), but because we enjoy playing it the way it it supposed to be played.

Try showing up with a baseball bat to a tennis match and see how long you are allowed to \"have fun playing the game the way you like it\". :rolleyes:

Originally posted by Leeloo
Maybe I should have listened to my friends, when they suggested finding a different game. Then I can try to roleplay some other time.

/me is sad.

Yes, you most certainly should have. Play games that are not RP games until you are ready to roleplay. Once you are ready, you are welcome to play PS.

There is no reason to play a game that one doesn\'t feel comfourtable with.

Originally posted by Karyuu
That would be an insane amount of text to keep up with

Indeed. However, one could probably either have the GMs become invisible, or let them set up / attach to players \"spy tags\" which act as \"bugs\". It must be limited to /say and /shout, obviously. And to highest level GMs.

[Leeloo]

Originally posted by Cha0s
At some point in the future, Planeshift may get a second server for hack \'n\' slashers.

You mean spending all the time levelling up and killing stuff? That was one of the things I hated about the game that I left, those things where about the only things to do.

Originally posted by Seytra

Originally posted by Leeloo
Maybe the golf comparison wasn\'t so bad afterall - \"more about prestige than enjoyment of a game\" is the feeling I get from the replies in this thread. \"Don\'t you dare trying to have fun, this is our game\".

However, we are not playing it because of prestige or whatever (I doubt playing an MMORPG gives one a prestige boost), but because we enjoy playing it the way it it supposed to be played.

Admitting that one pays to be allowed to pay (golf) doesn\'t give one a prestige boost either. Well, not to the rest of the world.

Originally posted by Leeloo
Maybe I should have listened to my friends, when they suggested finding a different game. Then I can try to roleplay some other time.

/me is sad.

Yes, you most certainly should have. Play games that are not RP games until you are ready to roleplay. Once you are ready, you are welcome to play PS.

So, I should play Quake (or whatever) until I have learned to role play, and then I will be allowed to try a role playing game?

How many Quake matches does it take to learn to role play?

There is no reason to play a game that one doesn\'t feel comfourtable with.

From my point of view it\'s not I who doesn\'t feel comfortable with PS. It\'s PS players that don\'t feel comfortable with having me around.

[Cha0s]

If you honestly go into Planeshift with the goal to RP the whole time, you\'ll be fine; no issues at all. Sure you can use OOC chat to advance this RP (for the things I listed above), but otherwise it should all be IC. You\'ll find that you can easily stay IC even when others are OOC; it just takes some creative thinking. Trust me, though, Planeshift is meant for RPers. If you RP, you\'ll fit in just fine.

[Leeloo]

Do you even read what I write? No, I don\'t roleplay. I never did, and I never had a chance to learn. And I get told to stay away from RPGs until I have learned, even though role playing is not something one learns by reading a couple of web pages.

But looking at it from another angle, I don\'t think PlaneShift is the perfect role playing game. It has too much focus on levelling in my opinion. Levels are a left-over from table-top RPGs, but haven\'t been succesfully applied to computer-RPGs. When was the last time anyone played a table-top RPG, getting told that to kill the monster that is blocking the entrance to the rest of the maze you need to level up. Go kill 1500 rats to get your levels up, then you can proceed. Unfortunately I am the the person to tell how to fix this - I have ideas, but I\'m sure they have a million faults that I haven\'t thought of - simply because I haven\'t yet learned to roleplay.

[Cha0s]

That\'s my point. You learn to roleplay by roleplaying. A paradox? No. All you have to do is try to act as if you really are your character. It\'s a simple concept. You\'ll refine it over time, of course, but in the beginning that\'s all you need to do. So, if you try to roleplay, you\'ll have no problems. No one teaches you. You just do it.

[MaidenIndigo]

Originally posted by Cha0s
So, if you try to roleplay, you\'ll have no problems. No one teaches you. You just do it.

Thank you, voice of reason. ~.~

I thought I made it somewhat clear in my earlier post that you learn to roleplay by roleplaying, but I guess not.

Originally posted by MaidenIndigo, earlier in this thread
Before this game, I never role-played before. At all. But slowly I am now able to stay in-character for a longer period than when I first started playing. I\'m working on my character\'s background and try rather hard to stick with it while I play. If you haven\'t even tried working on your role-playing abilities whilst playing PS, I really must wonder why you are here.

~Indi

[Kiirani]

Originally posted by Moogie
Well, I just don\'t see the point of an OOC channel if its range is only something like 5 meters, is all. People who want OOC talk want it primarily for reasons which require a more global or area-wide communication, for example in finding people to group with.

Eh.. Not really, in my opinion.. If that sort of people would be on a global ooc channel, I\'m turning it off and putting everything in ooc marks

I don\'t spend my entire game time rping, although I do try and stay in character... At some times I find it far easier to just have an ooc conversation instead of rping when I really don\'t want to.

As a person who spends equal time on both types of chat, I think that having an ooc version of /say would be wonderful... There COULD also be an ooc shout (/ooc /shout) :\\ maybe I\'m dreaming, though...

[Karyuu]

I hope you\'ve read the entire thread though ;)

If you don\'t really want to RP sometimes, why stay on the server? It\'s a genuinely honest question, to which I hope the answer is not pure laziness. I think it\'d be a lot easier to quit and fire up an IRC client for all your OOC chatting needs. Planeshift is primarily for roleplay, and as the chat is primarily for roleplay, I don\'t think OOC conversations should be made easier to have. It\'s a similar argument to making gaining skills possible only majorly through roleplay (GM events and the like) and not easy repetitive mob slaughter :>

[Cha0s]

Like I\'ve said before, the only purpose for OOC chat in-game is to enhance RP (i.e. explaining some IC actions that confused someone, teaching a newbie the basics, asking to set up a duel for some IC reason, etc.). Most of the time you can accomplish these OOC functions through tells. When you have more than one person, then you use \"//\" or \"(\" and \")\" but you should try to avoid it.

@ Karyuu: Exactly. IC chat is the only important kind.

[Verrliit]

I have spent the past week exploring the structure and society of PS.  I wish to contribute the following observations.

1.  The functionality of promised skills and objects is too limited at present to provide a reasonable backdrop to roleplaying.  There are no real prizes to be fought over, larger monsters do not drop more valuable items, there is no penalty for dying, no economy, no means of rapid transit, no criminals, no assassins, no vampires, no true villians to defeat.

2.  This is an alpha of the game.  There are not sufficient storytellers to create the leadership and context needed to give flavor to the PS world.  Noob players enter disoriented, unfamiliar with the controls, and no one approaches them for instruction.  If you want an immersive RP experience, the proper response to \"hi im new\" should be \"go over there for basic training\".  Which should be handled in part, by the following...

3.  To describe a couple of the many gigantic pieces that I consider to be missing from the current layout:  

First-time players should enter at the petting zoo, where they can learn to move, talk, act and fight, from the NPCs and baby monsters there, without disrupting the rest of the players.  

The promised update includes a description of item on a right-mouse click.  This function could be used to create a sorely needed place of proclamation in the plaza, where dynamically updated gameplay scheduling, Noob help, list of players currently assisting Noobs and storyline/quest/faction/breaking news, etc can be seen from inside the game.  I assume that the archetects of PS intend to put some of this function into the NPCs as well, so that players will continue to speak to NPCs on an ongoing basis, but like so much else, it is not yet implemented.

4.  I too am impatient for PS to become what it promises to be.  But in a game that doesn\'t even have five percent of the combat system completed, and things in backwards, time-reversed or mirror-imaged, it is much too early to worry about OOC conversation.

5.  As I see it, the most helpful thing to do in the meantime, is to speak in character as much as possible, and to lead by example.  If you create your part of the story, other players will come.

[Karyuu]

Actually several threads have been started in the Wishlist section about such \"n00b tutorial\" areas, so it\'s not a particularly new idea...