'Uber' RPing

[Zan]

I don\'t mean to step on anyone\'s toes here and even though I am aware that this thread is most likely going to end in flaming and fighting before it is locked, I still would like to express my concerns.

First of all I would like to say that I am all for roleplaying and definitely encourage it. However lately I \'ve come into contact with \'uber\' roleplayers, people who in my humble opinion push roleplaying a bit further than comfortable. This is no personal attack to anyone, just my feelings and opinion towards this level of roleplaying.

More precisely the level where one is in character all the time and can\'t have an out of character conversation at all. They do not mention anything that doesn\'t exist in PS, including common terms from real life or fantasy related terms that aren\'t included in the game.
Now while there is in essence nothing wrong with such extreme roleplaying I personally find it without any entertaining values. I find it tiresome and draining to be in character all the time and always be careful about what I say because I can\'t say anything that doesn\'t fit in the PS world.

Rping is supposed to be fun and PS is still a game but I am not my character nor am I trying to escape reality so I don\'t RP 100%. Simply because it is too much of an effort and takes all the fun out of it.
Sure I try to roleplay and get in my character as much as possible when a good situation arises. But at other times when we \'re all just standing there not saying a thing because we don\'t know what to say I won\'t hesitate to talk about thing out of character or make jokes that wouldn\'t fit in an RPing environment. Even when I am RPing I probably slip up regularly and mention things that I shouldn\'t know about in character. I think it should be fine though and not made into a big deal.

For example yesterday I mentioned a fishy deodorant after someone was decorating the entire tavern with carp fish. Of course one guy immediately blinked and asked me what this deodorant thing was. Which I could have covered up by pulling out a story from Alchemists from the desert whom extract odors from certain items and capture them in a bottle .. but in the circumstances I didn\'t quite feel like doing that since I sensed a bit of \'hostility\' towards my loose roleplaying. So instead I just went out and walked around a bit.

Another thing I have noticed are the names over our heads and the /tell commands. Some people dislike it when a stranger already knows their name even though it is floating over their heads as a big neon sign, quite literally. My personal solution for that is that I believe the inhabitants of Yliakum to be born with certain telepathic powers which allows them to extract names from the energetic signature in faces or words. Basically allowing you to know a person\'s name by either seeing that person or hearing that person speak. A second elaboration on that telepathy is that we can communicate over a great distance with individuals we know the name or energy signature of.
That way I don\'t have to worry about only using the names whom have been told to me by the person self and I can RP even with /tell messages. The less I have to worry about and be careful not to mess up the more relaxed I am and more fun I can have.

To conclude this little \'rant\' I think RPing is definitely good but it should be in moderation and not strictly RPing to keep it fun. I hope you can accept my view or either respectfully disagree, just don\'t flame me for not being a 100% RPer.

[Karyuu]

That name thing bothers me a lot, and I don\'t quite agree with your \"solutions\" for it. There is no excuse, really, for anyone\'s character to know any stranger\'s name, unless he or she (the character) is truly telepathic, and the player behind the character roleplays a telepath the great majority of the time. And, in that case, the character whose name was \"fished out\" has every right to probe for more details to test the telepath\'s ability ;) (Of course at this point the telepath can send an OOC /tell asking for a tidbit to give back IC, and thus a fun RP session ensues). However, to give -all- Yliaki this ability is nonsense. First of all, not all characters come from Yliakum itself, as some have been transported by means of magic from elsewhere. Also, not all characters are able (or willing) to hold or use magic, my own included. And I don\'t think all characters -should- be able or willing to use magic.

As for communicating over great distances, Kariloy formed a nice solution in-game and IC once, for me - gave me an enchanted \"stone\" that would allow us to hear each other over a certain distance. [ Of course the stone \"hiccuped\" if someone was in the DR ;) ].

But my character will always frown and always be wary of those who know names when they haven\'t been given any. Nilrem knows. *grins*

[NeferuraBastite]

What drew me to planeshift was the rp and I find it extremely annoying when OOC talk isn\'t differentiated from IC. (I do alot of text/paragraph rp)

It\'s simple. Just use parentheses for OOC! Or if you\'re too lazy to type them simply state you are OOC when someone IC comes along. /me is OOC . Tada, problem solved

[Nilrem]

Originally posted by Karyuu
Nilrem knows. *grins*

Yes ladies and gentleman, i\'m always remembered because of good things. lol

Concentrating on the post, I mostly agree with Zan; at least with the essence of what he\'s telling us. Flexibility.

I always have this question in my mind:
What\'s more worth it, say a non_roleplaying_line and save a player or keep your role_playing and allow one player to be lost?

In my opinion, what makes a game are players. They need to be respected, and attended, so, if you\'ve to stop your roleplay to simply explain more deeply a thing, just do it.
Use /tell, brakets or whatever you want, but do it.
Human beings are able to realise, let\'s don\'t act as an NPC and, if anyone of you really wants more people roleplaying, then tell the newcomers about it, make them feel comfortable and maybe you\'d gain some more components to the \"roleplayers\".

But, as for i\'ve seen, the community tends to stay in a too easy position, that is, now that there\'s a core of roleplayers formed, it\'s so high the scare of loosing any of their members, that it\'s almost impossible for others to even try to get close to that core.
This only leads to form subgroups that act as satelites around the core, often those satelites are only formed by new players, and thus, can be considered a dust satelites that can be left to their own luck.
I understand that there\'s a core of people that knows each other for many time, but i think that indeed more flexibility should be showed with the newcomers.

Believe me when I say they aren\'t here to brake anything.

[Seytra]

I agree with Karyuu and NeferuraBastite on this. If you must talk OOC, then clearly designate it as such. There are some things that might be IC or OOC, and this confusion can lead to quite bad things. Yes, I most definitely am not always IC. But if I am OOC, I speak and act in parenthesis, even in /tell.

The telepathic idea is an easy cop-out IMO.

As for the RPers driving players away by being IC: with a clear and consistent designation of OOC there could never be any doubt whether one is IC or OOC, therefore a player can be sure that chars are talking and being talked to. In an RP game, it is expected to have people RPing, so if in doubt, it is RP, at least for me. This is exactly what I meant by \"leading to bad things\".
However, when it becomes obvious that someone is undesignatedly OOC, I quit RPing with them, because he obviously is not interested in RPing. Maybe I switch to OOC mode, maybe I just leave. Trying to force RP on others isn\'t going to work, so why bother?

Also, it is my impression that it is quite easy to get accepted by me if you are trying to RP well. And I know for a fact that I\'m not the only one like this.
There seems to be a certain elitist mindset with some older members, but this stems more from having been here for longer or postcount than from quality of RP, or RP at all. I don\'t agree with that. However, I rarely see these ingame, anyway, so there is little danger to encounter them AFAICS.

[hitancrias]

Originally posted by Nilrem
But, as for i\'ve seen, the community tends to stay in a too easy position, that is, now that there\'s a core of roleplayers formed, it\'s so high the scare of loosing any of their members, that it\'s almost impossible for others to even try to get close to that core.
This only leads to form subgroups that act as satelites around the core, often those satelites are only formed by new players, and thus, can be considered a dust satelites that can be left to their own luck.
I understand that there\'s a core of people that knows each other for many time, but i think that indeed more flexibility should be showed with the newcomers.

Well I highly disagree with this. Of course, there is a group of people who are frequently around and usually RP. And of course they know each other. But if you wish, you can be part of that group in a week or so. Really. If you are a good roleplayer you\'ll be welcomed with open arms. (Or even if you\'re not, but willing, like I am )

Originally posted by Seytra
There seems to be a certain elitist mindset with some older members, but this stems more from having been here for longer or postcount than from quality of RP, or RP at all. I don\'t agree with that. However, I rarely see these ingame, anyway, so there is little danger to encounter them AFAICS.

Indeed, nothing to be affraid of.

[provisionist1]

I agree with what Zan is saying, but then it makes sense as well to do \"uber roleplaying.\" Personally I try to use brackets or ooc if there is something that is not in character and definitely when it has nothing to do with planeshift.

The name\'s thing is a bit irritating, yes it is useful to just have the name floating above the persons head, but it\'s just entirely unrealistic. I have thought of a solution for the devs to implement to fix this problem, go to the wishlist forum to see it as it truely belongs there.

http://www.planeshift3d.com/wbboard/thread.php?threadid=17102&boardid=11&styleid=3&sid=00eec9c3a24ca7fec7dabbc966752674&page=1#1

But yeah, I think everybody needs to keep in mind the enjoying of planeshift more than uber-roleplaying. Also Zan, isn\'t it possible that the roleplayer who didn\'t know what deodorant  was seriously didn\'t know what deodorant was? Hehehe, they do exist, generally 7th graders. Hehehe, just kidding.

Right, yeah... roleplaying is good but should be done with a grain of salt so the saying goes...

Xirius

[Taurenthefirst]

i think that roleplaying should be held up as much as possible in game. if you need to be ooc, it\'s not that hard, press three, just 3! keys on your keyboard-
O-O-C.  not that hard.

i have a problem when people try to roleplay in the forums and expect others to rp in the forums when they are not in the roleplaying forum.
for example,
a month or two ago, in the newbie help forum, (i don\'t remember the thread now and can\'t find it using search. oh well, that\'s not the point.) a noob was asking if planeshift was fun.  he used a few \"non-rp\'ing\" terms like omg and lol and stuff like that. then a whole bunch of people came in (veteran players from what i could tell... very high post counts) and flamed him and told him not to play the game and that the game wasn\'t any fun (trying to keep him from playing the game) because people who can\'t roleplay are not excepted! that was very rude i thought, he was in the noob forum! you don\'t roleplay in the noob forum!  from what i could tell, he left the game and decided not to play... we lost a potential new player all because of some over-controlling jerks got upset because he didn\'t roleplay in the noob forums!... so much for planeshift\'s amazing community...

and another thing, if someone talks OOC in game, don\'t be a whiny baby and complain about them being OOC... just use your imagination and stay IC.  if someone says something ooc that your ic character wouldn\'t understand, act like you don\'t understand! not that difficult...

however, overall, i disagree with zan concerning rp\'ing in game... it is not really that hard to stay ic, and if you can\'t, just hit 3 keys!

[Pestilence]

Role Playing. I like to roleplay now and then I certainly like adding in character comments, but do I want to talk with people all the time in character?

In my opinion with all the bugs and all the things effecting the game OOC it\'s almost impossible to have a long meaningfull conversation most of the time IC. I mean ofcourse you can always work around it with lines like \"the powers that be\" and stuff but then your out of character just by having to think up the stuff and the rest might not even get what you are saying.

As for expectations. Can you expect someone who joins PS at this stage to want to roleplay? In MB there was only the crystal hunt and RP so RP was a bigger element of the game. Now with CB there are only few skills but those are almost all fighting skills. Quests aren\'t working so the new players don\'t get into the RP that way.

Also a point already made is that a some of the \"uberroleplayers\" are getting plain rude when they think you stepped OOC and the rest is hard to reach if you have no idea of the stories between them. This will discourage most roleplayers and leave the \"levelers\"who come for the game and not the roleplayers.

This I must add is one of the reasons I don\'t like \"roleplayers\" complaining about new people who don\'t roleplay well becuase few of them exually make an effort to get RP into PS and some even plainly kill any attempt to come into a group by being way to harsh with mistakes in my opinion.

To conclude I just want to say I know there are good roleplayers out there and I know there are several out there that are patient with new players and that I admire.

[Taurenthefirst]

i agree with you for the most part pestilence, but i think roleplaying is more important than you make it out to be at this stage of the game, because it is pretty much the only thing to do in game. ooc talk should be kept to a minimum except for /tell, because that doesn\'t affect anyone else\'s roleplay (except the person you are telling, and they can /ignore you if they wish) and guild chat if your guild isn\'t into roleplaying.
however, for the agreeing part, i agree that many people take the roleplaying way to far, and veterans are usually rude to new players, which discourages ne players from wanting to roleplay, leaving the \"levelers\", like you said. i also agree that veterans hardly ever make any attempt at trying to help new people learn to roleplay and explain the importance of it to them. they just expect everyone to automatically know how to roleplay and if they don\'t then they shouldn\'t be allowed to play the game, which is stupid, because people can learn.

[Ralas]

I have a thought about the name thing.

It is, actually, somewhat realistic to see someone\'s name floating above their head, even if you\'ve never met them.  It is a substitute for a recognizeable facial feature.  That way If you see someone you\'ve met before, but whos name you don\'t know, you can ask something like, \"Excuse me, have we met somewhere before?\"  The player sees the name so that the character sees the face.  Now ideally the character should not know the name without being told, I do agree with this.  However, it is easy to forget, as I have done quite a few times, and should not be reprimanded too heavily.

And you don\'t have to get in with the \"Uber\" RPers to have RP fun in this game.  Some of the most fun I\'ve had is simply playing the role of my character around others doing the same.  Merely conversing, usually.  And yes, someone walking up to your group and talking OOC can have a negative effect on the experience.  But it is important to be nice to them regardless, because not everyone gets this at first.

This thread got too long for me to remember all of, even after having read it diligently.  sorry If I repeated anyone else\'s thoughs unecessarily.

[Taurenthefirst]

yeah you repeated pretty much my thoughts exactly... i think.... i can\'t remember, you are right this thread is really long.... anyway it\'s still always nice to have someone agree with you... i think you are agreeing with me atleast

[Zan]

I \'m very glad to see we managed to disagree quite a bit here without resorting to immature tactics. Aside from that I just wanted to say I read all the replies with interest.

Personally I put roleplaying on second place and fun on first but I understand and accept that for some people it is one and the same or the other way around.

I \'ve just felt roleplaying being a bit too forced to be fun sometimes lately, that\' s all.

[Darkblade]

Well... In regards to the names and stuff, If I have seen the character RP in the forums (official and otherwise) and my character was present, I\'d use that as a way of knowing their name, or at least recognizing them.

Futhermore, if I notice that a character has the same last name as another character, my character notices similarities, and would inquire about that.

But otherwise, no, I\'d roleplay as if my character did not know their name...
(unless somebody else mentions it when I\'m present. ).

[Karyuu]

Originally posted by Zan
I \'ve just felt roleplaying being a bit too forced to be fun sometimes lately, that\' s all.

There are times when I certainly agree. For example when a new player comes in who has no idea that conversations in /say are considered to be IC by default, and discusses OOC subjects, and other IC players immediately come down on him or her with (often but not always) snobby attitudes of \"What the bloody \'ell are you talking about?\" I think kindly pointing out that OOC talk can be designated through the use of parentheses is the only real practical approach. However if that new player is simply rude, has a stupidly chosen name (e.g., Greatest Ofall), or has done absolutely no reading of anything at all before downloading the client, I think others have a sort of right to pester him or her ;) I know I certainly would, and have before.