OOC chat

[Leeloo]

Some people like to roleplay, and only roleplay. Other people just like to chat, and don\'t want to roleplay. You\'ve probably already noticed that the first group complains about the second a lot.

One suggestion has been to use parantheses around everything OOC, but those of us who never role play find that adding them to every single line is much work.

The chat window already has a bunch of tabs - All, System, Chat, Tells, Guild... How about adding another tab, for OOC chat, and of course in a different color? That way people can just select that tab when they are OOC, or use some kind of /ooc command if it\'s only a single line. Even better, add an option in the \"Options\" window to turn that tab off completely, and not show the messages in the \"All\" tab either, thus shielding people like Draklar from seeing OOC chat at all.

[Moogie]

A well-thought idea, which has its good and bad sides.

I am divided on whether I would support this or not. In its favor, having a seperate OOC channel will remove most of the annoying talk out of the roleplayers\' view. However, this then gives the message \"it is okay to spend your entire time here OOC talking, as long as you use the OOC tab\". And that is wrong, imo. PlaneShift is supposed to be RP-enforced.

If something like this was implemented, I would expect GMs to gain the added responsibility of ensuring all OOC talk goes into the OOC channel. This has two problems:

/say has only a limited range, and
not many people will use it unless specifically told to.

GMs will then have the impossible task of being everywhere in the world at once, ensuring OOC talk is not done in the /say channel. And then will have to push people into the OOC tab every time. And I\'ll bet my bottom dollar that the OOC channel will be global- and that, imo, is almost as bad as having Buy/Sell trading forums here in these boards.


Moogie\'s verdict: Dunno.

[Platyna]

Well, on some other game I moderated the channel with average 100 people
on it, it was a \"market channel\" and mainly I was the only moderator there,
and honestly keeping it in order wasn\'t so hard. I think people who like just
socialize in MMORPG games would appreciate it as well as Role Players
because, as you have said, it would take majority of annoying OOC talk out of
public aka. /say channel, which would be very helpful for Role Playing
enforcement. Currently people are talking via /say about misc things, starting
from Star Wars movies to cars and graphics cards models. It would be also
useful for GMs to answer people\'s questions which require them to be very
OOC (like technical issues, where to report bugs or when the new version
comes out). IMHO, good idea.


Regards.

[Leeloo]

By \"global\" you mean like /shout? If so, that\'s not what I intended, I want it just like /say, except in a different color (instead of parantheses), and able to turn off.

As for enforcing it, I don\'t think it will be harder to enforce than the parantheses rule - which is almost never enforced, but once people have gotten used to it, they will not forget it as often, because it\'s only a single click, not something that needs to be done on every sentence.

[Zan]

I actually like that proposition. Though I do understand Moogie\'s point as well. But is this game really RP enforced or RP encouraged?

If it \'s the first I honestly fail to see how. I don\'t mean anything negative by it but I just don\'t see how one could enforce RP in a free for all game unless the GM\'s start acting like RP nazi\'s. Which definitely isn\'t the case at the moment in my eyes .. I \'m just saying that strongly encouraging RPing is far more realistic than enforcing it.

And in that light creating a channel meant for non-RP chat is doing the opposite. However I don\'t believe you could ever halt any non-RP chat completely. So I think that in this case encouraging non-RP chat but in a seperate place would actually be an addition. However instead of labeling it directly as a non-RP channel, a more \'subtle\' label would be better. For example a \"social\" tab. Which would allow us to get to know the people behind the character as well, without always having to type between brackets.

[Karyuu]

I am strictly against the idea. If you need to say anything OOC, use parentheses or brackets. If you need to say something OOC to a single player, use /tell. There is absolutely no need to make OOC talk easier than it already is. In order to encourage RP, any (if not all) references to anything OOC must be eliminated, and I know for a fact that having a separate OOC channel with encourage and sanction usage of it.

If you like to chat and don\'t like to roleplay, go on IRC. Honestly. Planeshift has another use.

[Platyna]

In parentheses or not, it is still sent, so it ruins Role Playing anyway, ruins the atmosphere.

Regards.

[Karyuu]

There is no question that the atmosphere is ruined as is, but why add to it and \"sanction\" OOC talk?

[Platyna]

I believe if GMs will start banning for OOC talk Planeshift will get a bad press of
a game full of \"nazi\" and crazy GMs. OOC channel would make OOC talk on
public, for OOC people, simply not needed, and GMs could enforce using this
channel so OOC people will not ruin atmophere with their graphics card
drivers deliberation etc. That is what makes me believe it would solve OOC
talk problem.


Regards.

[Karyuu]

No one said anything about banning people for talking out-of-character ;) I too agree that this is a ridiculous extreme. But as I stated, there should be no need for public OOC talk at all. There are other mediums - IRC channels, messengers, etc. Not to mention there are already in-game mechanisms available, such as /tell, or /group if more people are involved, as these are more private.

Making OOC conversations easier than it already is seems like a slap to roleplay.

[Platyna]

It is not about making it easier but about to separate it from IC conversation in
the way acceptable for the people. Looks like they are not satisfied with /tell
and /group if they prefer to talk on public OOC...


Regards.

[Karyuu]

But is the satisfaction of OOC-ers of enough importance? I think that having a separate OOC channel will detract from roleplay and invite more OOC conversations. If they are not satisfied with /tell or /group, then that is too bad. The game is geared towards roleplay, not discussing the latest graphics cards. I believe that public OOC conversations should not be acceptable at all. Not enough to warrant a complete and outright ban, but enough to make it known that such talk belongs elsewhere.

I quote the original poster:

Other people just like to chat, and don\'t want to roleplay.

Granted that Planeshift seemed like a 3D chatroom in previous versions, and members joked around about this constantly, but this attitude is changing, as it must change. The sole purpose of the OOC tab as stated by the original poster is not to make occasional OOC remarks, but for entire OOC sessions that could be done on messengers. If these \"other people\" do not want to roleplay, then there is no reason for them to start the PS client (ignoring other possibilities such as testing, reaching an otherwise unreachable individual at the time, etc.). Planeshift is an RPG. If someone logs on with no intent of roleplay, or loses that intent after a certain period, then it is time to log back off.

One suggestion has been to use parantheses around everything OOC, but those of us who never role play find that adding them to every single line is much work.

Leeloo, those of you who never roleplay do not belong in Planeshift. I will be blunt. Either learn to adapt, or find another game ;)

[Moogie]

*Nods to Karyuu* Harsh, but utterly true.

Leeloo: /shout is not global, by the way. It has a range of about 50 meters. By global, I meant \'everyone in the world\' can hear it. If we had an OOC tab with the range of a /say message, it would be useless anyway.

[Zan]

Why would that be useless Moogie?

By the way I personally disagree with this anti-OOC attitude in the above posts, however as it is not my project I can either live with it it or leave as has been said.

[Cha0s]

I agree that an OOC channel would probably encourage OOC chat. On the other hand, it could be that people would be chatting OOC anyway and an OOC channel would provide a place to put that chat.

However, I think that the first issue outweighs the second: I\'d rather have smaller quantities of obtrusive OOC chat than larger quantities of unobtrusive OOC chat. The concept of more OOC chat just doesn\'t fit with PS. OOC chat should be used for utility purposes only, such as \"//afk\" and \"//dinner, I\'ll be back on in an hour.\" Things like, \"Yea, that Star Wars movie was awesome!\" just don\'t belong.

EDIT: format, grammar