I think that it\'s unfortunate that the thread started made his post as a rant instead of something more constructive. That said, I think that this is a worthwhile topic to discuss and I think it can be expanded.
There are a number of things that can be done to considerably decrease the amount of OOC-ness in the game, but I haven\'t seen them mentioned in this thread, even though so many other things have been talked about. Given that certain topics are reapearing in this thread, but certain things have not been mentioned, I\'ll just assume that at least some people aren\'t aware of all the suggestions. Here are a few off the top of my head:
- being able to see numbers
Being able to see numbers results in players talking in terms of numbers. Instead of saying that I have 130 agility (or whatever it is), I say that I\'m quite agile, or fast enough, or whatever. I put it in qualitative terms to avoid using numbers. The same goes for swords. I\'ll call weapons good, or excellent, or functional, etc, and will only resort to numbers.
If the numbers weren\'t visible, then no one would talk in terms of numbers. This would cut down substantially on OOC chat.
- GMs ending each event by asking who \"participated\"
To me, this is disruptive. There should be a better way.
- IC chat via /tells (extremely common)
Again, it\'s not just new players who don\'t RP the way one is \"supposed\" to. A lot of medium to old players tend to role-play via tells. If they weren\'t so convenient, I\'d rather there were no tells in the game. That way, you\'d have to actually look for someone, and ask around, and keep contact etc. Runners, guards. When trying to find someone, it would add colour. Also, if you kill someone, you don\'t get that person talking to you about the next time you fight right away. Instead, the person actually disapears for a while, and the next time you meet it will be an actual event.
The problem is, it can\'t really be done. It\'s too convenient, especially if you\'re trying to help new players. Which leaves three options:
- leave tells in
- change it so that GMs can /tell anyone, that players can /tell GMs at any distance, but players can only /tell other players when close to them (as if whispering).
That would still allow for people to talk via instant messengers if they have a friend that they\'re introducing to the game.
