Well I have seen lots of threads taking up the topic of power-levelers in Planeshift. However the threat from their side might sound real, they aren\'t the ones who trouble me most in the world of Yliakum. Well, getting back to what I wanted to say, as many of us know the server was down lately. Out of boredom I started reading a comic (to which link was posted by someone somewhere on these forums). Made me chuckle quite many times, but that is not the point. After some time I came across
this installment. Pretty funny way of showing the p&p sessions. However suddenly I felt that it is somewhat familiar (despise that I never had such players myself). Well I went through it again and realised how much it reminds me of the state of Planeshift roleplaying. Let me explain it a bit by describing relation with the characters:
The GM: This is the roleplaying type. Tries to keep roleplaying clean and free from any nonsense. This is the most fragile type when it comes to absurd appearing while playing. The roleplayer wants to get fun from real roleplaying and any signs of world setting shattering turns the game into horror. There is absolutely no way of getting fully into the character.
The rat-flail guy: This is the worst type I encountered while playing Planeshift. It could be titled \"roleplaying idiot\". However he might not step out of the setting, he turns game into absurd. Examples here might be people who talk about weed or type such things as \"/me steals all ale\". I have also seen such behaviour among the tavern bouncers who attack visitors from the most absurd reasons (they can challenge players for wielding weapons in tavern without even asking if they would sheathe their swords beforehand). Although it doesn\'t step out of the given setting, it is absurd way of roleplaying and can easily destroy fun for others.
The Card Duel Master: I would title this kind as \"bad roleplayers\". People who aren\'t going to stick to given setting because something else is more fun for them. They don\'t seem to understand that if they like roleplaying something else, they should go play game where it is normal. The example would be vampires and people connected to them. Such creatures don\'t exist in world of Planeshift, but they don\'t see it as a problem. Of course, it isn\'t as bad as the \"roleplaying idiots\", but still can be annoying for roleplayers. The more that spreading of trend for something that shouldn\'t exist makes it harder to get fully into the given world. They will have fun from roleplaying themselves, but also will be bothering those who want to stick to given setting.
The Krug: The non-roleplayer. Although he knows nothing about roleplaying, he is the least bothering one. Power-levelers seem to stay in shadows and don\'t socialise much. You don\'t see them hanging out in tavern and annoying patrons. Just passing by at best.
Now I would also like to point out the outcome of the event. The roleplaying type gets pissed off and finally leaves the place (The leveler also disappears. It turns out the game seems to be unproper for him).
Now many people will say I am whining (again), but let me share my experience from my mission to encourage roleplaying in tavern.
The first week was great. There were many roleplayers passing by and with me standing behind the bar, they often stopped by to have a drink. There were roleplaying events when some would sing a song or recite a poem. It was really fun, some patrons were quite generous and I earned quite nice number of circles. I even got officially employed in the tavern which also caused me to seriously roleplay the barkeep. But that was just first week. One day I encountered most interesting event. I was forced to watch a ritual of blood-sucking in front of the counter. Three thoughts came to my mind: \"The patrons would be disgusted by the ritual\", \"A vampire wouldn\'t show off with its existance in public place\" and \"What does a vampire do in the world of Planeshift?\". But that wasn\'t so bad. Later I heard about people talking about such things as weed and others challenging everyone who did something that they didn\'t like and being rude in general. I tried to make them behave but then occurred fights between \"idiot roleplayers\". There also appeared more vampires who as they said, were just following the trend. I tried to cut the vampire discussions in tavern - first by saying the are no vampires in Planeshift, then by telling to take it somewhere else - nothing worked. It was hopeless and I lost all my will to talk with people. To regain my patience I simply stood in a corner, spending less and less time behind the bar (even though my character was supposed to be barkeep). But it seems it was bothering some people who started making annoying remarks about me or decided it would be a good idea to send me a challenge. The last saturday it was enough. First I had to deal with some mu-online player, who unfortunately learned the /me command. He was pain but finally I managed to get rid of him. But before I could calm down, someone who I respected for roleplaying rushed in and told me that because of vampires playing gods, her friend is thinking about leaving. As a barkeep I thought it was good idea to talk about patrons\' problems and I always did. But at that time my first words was to take the vampire discussion somewhere else. As if that wasn\'t enough, some other patron joined in defending existance of vampires in Planeshift. I had to take part in the argument, trying to make it stop, while in background I could see someone who possibly was trying to roleplay. That was enough, I asked for a list of people in the vampire organisation so I could put them on /ignore and have some peace at last. But instead I had another few people freak out on me and with no list, I /ignored only those who I knew to be members of it. That including my friend. Of course then I couldn\'t understand discussions in tavern, as someone who was taking part in it was on my /ignore list. It was useless and I simply left the tavern. The roleplaying experience was completely ruined for me. Despise my character who lately is going in direction of barkeep and minstrel, I don\'t feel like coming back to that place.
Now that I threw it out, to the most important part. I\'ve seen people being fast to accuse power-levelers of being downfall for the community, but maybe everyone should look at their own actions. Maybe people like the bouncers should try to be more polite for others. Maybe people who want to have fun roleplaying themselves, shouldn\'t disturb the setting and ruin everything for other roleplayers. I think that would be everything.
Say I\'m a whiner, an idiot or simply overreacting, I don\'t care. Roleplaying was completely ruined for me and no longer do I see anything to do other than leveling. I don\'t feel like talking with anyone ingame besides my guildmates, who I chosen because of roleplaying skills anyway. I don\'t expect everyone to change their ways, but maybe at least few people would think about their behaviour.
