Exclusive "RPs" in highly public areas.

[eldoth_terevan]

* eldoth_terevan chuckles.

[Cyl]

LigH, let us step away from the matter of who is in the situation to complain and who isn't, for a moment.

 Even though there is little to nothing that can be done about it, there is a problem with "exclusive RPs", wether or not they are held in public areas. As far as I can see, say is and will allways be public, free for everyone to observe and free for everyone to participate as well, and by the pure principle of it, it is meant for participants to communicate. There are other channels, such as "group" "tell" and "guild", which are suited for private conversation, "say" however is not one of them.

 I do know very well, that it is tempting to ignore that "blasted n00b", who just wouldn't fit into the RP context right now, however, as long as this "blasted n00b"'s actions are in character you are supposed to take them in character, or, should you really find out that the pure IC reactions of someone else disrupt your RP, rethink wether it is appropriate to RP in a public channel. I know out of first hand, back from the days when I foolishly thought myself a "good roleplayer", to roleplay in say channel, hoping that someone "leet" will come by and join in, however, it is rather foolish to categorize people, without sufficiently knowing them, and further exclude them from the very purpose of this game.

Last but not least, I would like to remind everyone that Roleplaying is a group activity, not a solo experience. You might have thought up some nice storyline, but still it is not "Your Personal Roleplay", but the roleplay of everyone who is or gets involved. Be open-minded, you might actually find something new, and exciting.

-Cyl

Disclaimer
Whenever I used the referrence "you", I did not mean any particular person, but the concerned reader. I did not point my finger to anyone, and I did not try to offend someone.

[zanzibar]

You can not Roleplay everything, nor every story that others are playing. It is not possible. Some things must be ignored. Deal with it, as that is never going to change.

I agree completely.



LigH:  I don't see how you've "caught" me.  I responded to your posts politely, even your post that was rightfully deleted, and I gave you the benefit of the doubt until the end.  In keeping with that, if there's any way I can help you avoid such mistakes in the future, send me a private message.

[Kalika]

i have a question...why are rp's so incredibly dramatic?
not only do i find them EXTREMELY exclusive to not-so-new people like me, but i find them so outrageously ridiculous that i wish i could go
*kalika pulls out a gun and shoots herself*----except guns arent real here

i see people running around screaming about rape, about murder, about being a vmapire...and yeha ok thats great for rp...but isnt there any resemblance of relaity in this game? do people REALLY run around screaming about being raped? to people really murder each other in fronts of a hundred innocent bystanders...and then when you try and say something about it...you get dirty looks

well at least i ahve...

maybe im being too much oif a realist..which i find funny seeing as that im told i spent too much time in fantasy

but...i dunno...cant there be otehr types of rps where it isnt so exclusive and dramatic?

and if it is why cant we jsut move it somewhere far away from civilization

[Kezzik]

sounds like you need a hug :]

I don't have much to do as of late so I go wandering, if i bump into people I'll have a nice chat if they can spare the time, it's generally the quiet people that can really bring things to life.

ooh, and pop into Kada's for an ale, or milk, or something wet, I'm sure Hyuken will be happy to listen to you, if he's not asleep underneath the bar

[zanzibar]

Kalika, I agree with you.  I think there are a few reasons for why things are the way they are now.  First, a lot of the regular players here see RP in terms of pre-written linear scripts.  To them, roleplaying means to act out the script.  Deviation isn't encouraged, and endings are predetermined.  I'm exagerating, but people who have been around for a while know there's a lot of truth to what I'm saying.

So we have this emphasis on story writing and play-acting.  At the same time, there's been a real escalation of plotlines.  Instead of mending the wounds between two lovers or finding someone who's lost or some sort of conflict between guilds, every RP is an attempt to out do the last RP.  So instead, we have RPs that introduced Octarchs and world leaders with ridiculous background stories.  We have new gods and new races being introduced by players.  Every RP has the fate of the universe hanging in the ballance.  It's pretty silly.

[Thoughtcrime]

I haven't been on Planeshift in over a month, and honestly this was one of the reasons. If you'll follow Zhai's link on the first page I started a thread about this a while ago, and it makes me angry to know that there are still problems.

Now, I don't want anyone to stop RPing. I love RPing, I even moderate a huge text-based RP forum. However, if the RP isn't going to be open to everyone and people are going to be booted up the arse for trying to be included—or even just asking questions—I don't want to be a part of it. Just like in the real world, there are cliques on PS, and just like in the real world there's nothing we can do about them. However, I really do think that, if you're doing something private, take it to a private area. You're asking for a curious bystander's question if you're doing something out in the open, and if you're going to lash out at them for that, then you really need a reality check. Don't act like you own this world, kay?

[Kalika]

i like your name..thoughtcrime...

(is it based on 1984?)

[Croconil]

I totally agree with you Kalika. I have seen many people running around protesting 'How evil they are' and 'How they are going to murder people.'

If you did this in real life it would be..

1. A padded cell...
2. A padded ce..
3. A padd..

You get the idea.

[Kalika]

ahahah  oh today was SWEET

i was trying to amke a weapon, had like 5 murders *possible exaggeration, possibly not*

and on the laanx worldserver:..........stop fighting at the plaza of hyldaa and move the fights to somewhere else....."

ieeee made me so happy

hate to sound all whiny and etc...but i got so tired of being asked to duel

[Croconil]

Haha. I love it when people ask you to duel after they say im going to murder you.

* Croconil walks up to someone. Can I murder you please?

[LigH]

Many thanks, Kalika - now this topic starts to get interesting...

For a long time, I took part in a very deep plot, let's call it "The Fate of the Purrties". With the term "deep", I mean especially that it lasts already months, if not years. Most of the time, there was a lot of talking, get-to-know, developing of characters. Now and then, a nuisance interrupted the sweet life, and brought exciting action - but without god-playing, and usually without eternal death.

Well, true ... there is a determined plot behind. But in contrast to other roleplaying "events", there was not much hurry, there was no enforcing of "visitors" to take serious part in it, and most of all: Personality and interaction was the main concept, and plot related "instructions" (via tells) were just recommendations or offers, not rules.

Unfortunately - real life struck, and the plot was suddenly finished before I knew. But I always enjoyed when I could take part, and I will try to be there in case the plot may be continued one day.

What I want to say with this reply? -- That there are also good examples. And that success takes some time. It is possible to make a flexible plot - but probably only when you avoid a few things: Invulnerability, tight schedules, and detailed roadmaps. Fun cannot be forced, it will just happen.

[zanzibar]

Keep in mind I have nothing against things being written out before hand.  I think that's part of what makes things good - when there's someone controlling things and setting variables.  But it should ALWAYS allow individuals to make choices based on their characters, and the players involved shouldn't be aware of everything that's going on and what every outcome of every decision is.  I think everything being improvised is bad just as everything being pre-written is bad.

[Croconil]

So what your saying Zanzi, is that it is better if things arn't toally planned out, but have a loosely fitting storyline/direction?

[zanzibar]

So what your saying Zanzi, is that it is better if things arn't toally planned out, but have a loosely fitting storyline/direction?

When I write an RP, this is what I do:  There's some sort of conflict or goal.  There are people who are "in" on it who are helping to run it.  There are people who are not "in" on it, but are involved.  Those are the ones who are truly playing it.  I set up events and conflicts and goals for the playing players.  They're then left to interact with the people who are "in" on it, and during this they make choices.  The outcome of everything depends on the choices they make.  It might be as simple as "success" versus "failure", or it might be more complex.  Let's say there's some sort of incredibly important item that someone ended up being entrusted with, perhaps a piece of paper.  They might have discovered that there are different things they can do with the paper.  There might be some sort of slimeball who offered to buy it (reward = trias), there might be some sort of arcane guild who expressed interest in it (reward = trias, perhaps membership in the guild), and there might be a hero character who needs it but can offer no reward (but might give a reward anyway, but that's secret).  The player might know that if he doesn't give the item to the hero, some one might suffer, but he thinks there's no reward for doing the right thing.  I tend to like situations like that because it forces players to think about who they are as a character.  Even if they're approaching the game without any sense of staying in character, as human beings they're still thinking in terms of doing the right thing.

Another example is when I framed a kran for murder.  He was relatively new to the game, and a number of my friends helped me have some fun with him.  We got him to buy a dagger in the plaza, then deliver it to someone in the tavern very secretively.  A lot of really suspicious things happened, but the kran went through with it and recieved a large sum of money.  The result?  We made a very convincing case for the kran being guilty of murder, and the entire community was manipulated into hunting the kran down.  The community even put him on trial without me or my friends encouraging it.  We all got off scott free and the kran was freaked out as heck.

One problem with such things is that you might end up having more characters orchestrate it than you end up with characters playing it.  That's when alts come in handy, but you're still weighing effort versus reward.  That's why I want to set up some sort of infrastructure that allows me and others to run events concurrently and renewably.