Out of Character Chat

[Cha0s]

I\'ve been in-game a bunch, watching for good roleplay and bringing a few NPCs to life every once in a while. While I\'ve been doing these things, I\'ve noticed a shockingly large amount of out-of-character chat. Without an RM known to be present, I\'d say that about 70% or more of chat is out-of-character. To be blunt, this is unacceptable. RMs don\'t need to be there for you to roleplay. We encourage and facilitate roleplay, but you players are the ones that actually do it; you can certainly roleplay with each other.

Basically, I have a request. It is pretty simple actually. Basically, do not go out-of-character in public chat unless you have to (i.e. to explain something to a large group of people); and if you do have to go out-of-character, please use brackets [] or parentheses (). Otherwise, use tells and stay in-character. In addition, if you see someone else speaking out-of-character in public chat, send them a /tell and ask them not to.

At the moment, out-of-character chat is ruining the immersive aspects of Planeshift. If everyone could make an effort to roleplay all the time, or at the least, not be out-of-character, Planeshift would be far more immersive. Thank you all for reading and I hope you\'ll remember this next time you go in-game.

Feel free to post comments and opinions if you like.

[Farren Kutter]

I often use /tell chat and guild chat and a lot of times group chat for my ooc stuff, and brackets for ooc in the normal chat and stuff... sometimes i forget to do brackets though But whenever i say \'hi\' to someone, I usually say it in character and hold my conversations in character... I do notice a lot of ooc though too...

[Induane]

Groups are a good solution for OOC chat. Keeping it there does no damage whatsoever to the imersiveness of the game.

[Kiirani]

I often drop the ooc brackets if nobody\'s around and there\'s nobody to rp with, especially if for instance, there\'s a newbie who needs a lot of ooc help, it can get quite hard to explain things while keeping in character.

[Draklar]

It would be a good idea to use the brackets while helping though. You could teach newcomers how to deal with the ooc conversations.

[Cha0s]

Or, if it\'s a single newcomer, tells are even better. That way, when the newcomer finds himself amongst a bunch of people, he or she would hopefully send a tell to one of them instead of shouting, \"y i not alowd to attk npc?\" or, even in proper English, \"Why can\'t I attack any NPCs?\" Both disrupt any RP that might have been happening. Teaching newbies the correct way is just as important as following it yourself.

[Kiirani]

Originally posted by Cha0s
Or, if it\'s a single newcomer, tells are even better. That way, when the newcomer finds himself amongst a bunch of people, he or she would hopefully send a tell to one of them instead of shouting, \"y i not alowd to attk npc?\" or, even in proper English, \"Why can\'t I attack any NPCs?\" Both disrupt any RP that might have been happening. Teaching newbies the correct way is just as important as following it yourself.

And if there\'s a large group, I\'m more likely to be talking in character in /say, and using /tell to talk to the newbie so as not to disrupt the rp

I just don\'t see the point if you have to discuss something ooc and nobody\'s around who\'s ic anyway

[Draklar]

Originally posted by Kiirani
I just don\'t see the point if you have to discuss something ooc and nobody\'s around who\'s ic anyway

Teaching newcomer of what is proper and what is not. Otherwise you\'ll have scenarios as that pointed out by Cha0s :)

[Kiirani]

Originally posted by Draklar

Originally posted by Kiirani
I just don\'t see the point if you have to discuss something ooc and nobody\'s around who\'s ic anyway

Teaching newcomer of what is proper and what is not. Otherwise you\'ll have scenarios as that pointed out by Cha0s

*shrug* whatever. I don\'t see the point and that ain\'t gonna change!

Don\'t get me wrong, I use ooc markings when I\'m meant to be ic.. I just take breaks sometimes if there\'s nobody to rp with.

[Ralas]

Trouble is, those most likely to use PS as a 3d chat room are also those less likely to ever see this thread.  I think a large percentage of players on at any given time probably consists of new players who don\'t realize that they\'re supposed to RP, never check out the forums or IRC, never get involved in the community, and thusly get bored after about three months only to be replaced instantaneously.

[r.guppy]

Now you see the huge Mountain to climb, try being a newbie for a day and walk around a bit find groups and just listen, it is normal for most to just chat about normal things.
 That is why i welcome your group here to help encourage RP.Good luck.

[Cha0s]

Indeed, it is quite a mountain. But we shall prevail! We just need your help. So stay in-character and use /tells. Not only does it mean that you\'re in-character, but it teaches those that interact with you to stay in-character. I\'ll be watching...

[Stephen McNaire]

I spend alot of time trying to explain good Rping to no0bs, so I have alot of OOC time every night. I hate it, but I figure if I get them doing it right, it\'ll help the whole PS world. Usually I try to force them out of OOC, by refusing to answer a question that could be asked In-character to my character, like a magic explanation.
I\'ll try to use tells from now on. That\'s a good idea, wonder while I never thought of it :|.

Edit: Wait, I remember now. I never use tells because I usually have at least two of the buggers around asking questions. Ha, I never really complain though because I remember what I was like when I first started^^. And because of help from you guys, mainly Gholmyrr, I was able to learn how to RP properly and now I truly am Hyung Shinn when I play PS.

[Farren Kutter]

Stephen McNaire, Hyung Shinn in-game if I\'m right because I\'m assuming you have kept your signature nice and updated, When you have more than one new player you\'re trying to help, and want to stay OOC, I suggest making a group and inviting them in. that way you can type at your leisure using the group tab and not worrying about the whole /tell [name] thing... But I agree, the new players must have the RPing brought to their attention. My guild, the Rangers of Yliakum (probably haven\'t heard much of us, we\'re small and only a few are active), which I just redid, now is going to be based mainly on RPing, especially the ranks... Members will have almost no choice but to RP because of the guild\'s set up. I used to be like all the other noobs and talk OOC a lot without brackets, but after I came back from my absence (my excuse in-game being private training) I decided to get into RPing a lot, and basing almost all of what I do on RPing...

[Cha0s]

And that\'s how it should be. Well-done Farren. I\'d talk to Seperot, by the way. He used to run a guild by the same name with the same goal of roleplay. You two would probably get along pretty well.