* Induane strains to move...
AHHHHHHH I'm paralyzed!!
OK, am I the only one this happens to? I'm so struck by being able to see both sides of the issue that I'm not even sure which side of the line to stand on. First I was immediately put on the defensive by Ganamede, then that turned even further south when Zan made a fairly reasonable post (albeit a bit prodding) and was subsequently insulted. Insults directed at people I consider friends, and whom I have a tremendous amount of respect for tend to hit closer to home, and I'm often more angered by someone insulting or attacking a friend than I am when its directed at myself.
This is what I was intending on posting, so I'm posting it anyways as an example of my little temper:
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The i dea of a rp game created by players seemed very appealing. sadly though i ran into your players.
would read better as:
The idea of a rp game created by players seemed very appealing. sadly though I ran into one of your players who wasn't nice so I immediately judged the entire community by this one person and am such a baby that I decided to cry foul and insult the whole player base and the management thereof.
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As you can see not the most kind, helpful, constructive, or level response I've ever designed. Then I thought to myself "OMG I'M BECOMING A DREADED OLDBIE!!" Which scared me because while my ingame experiences were good when I first arrived here almost 3 years ago, I was not treated with a good deal of respect by "oldbies". I was new and therefor my ideas and points were immediately disregarded as invalid. Over time I thought this had improved, however I think that it was simply because I stuck around, my post count grew, and my name was more recognized, so I realize that there is a need for more tolerance, but I understand how easy it is to slip into defensive mode after all these years. Its easy to become cynical about the state of the player base, easy to become defensive of your ideas which you've come to over years of experience, and easy to be a jerk without realizing it. I like to think I do a somewhat better job ingame. I usually keep about 10000 trias on me to dish out to help get people started, or a weapon or so. I often buy mid ranged weapons at auction to give to players just starting out, but in the forums I think I've turned more one sided, and single minded over the years. When you are a part of something for so long you get ideas of how it really should be changed, so when new people with fresh ideas come to challenge things its almost second nature to respond in a dismissive and perhaps even rude method.
The only reason i even bothered to post this was because i thought a game like this was a really awesome idea
but as long as you've got players like that your not going to be getting any new ones
Zanzibar is correct when he asks how you can do this. Its true you can moderate to a certain extent but you can't put everyone through a "jerk test" before they join. I think all you can try to do as a community is encourage positive attitudes towards helping new people get started in a strange world.
Ive played neverwinter nights for several years on rp persistent worlds and you dont find players like that because it isnt tolerated.
Im not sure what your doing to atract the as i like to call them wow players but if you plan to build a rp world you better do something to stop it.
I don't know what servers you were playing on but I quit because of the snobby elitist attitude and accusations that my character was "hacked". Got annoying. I spent hours getting the stuff to craft that halberd!
Jerks!
Under the Moon also brings up a good point about people who RP jerks. This doesn't mean much other than perhaps you ran into someone who was a very convincing jerk
lol ... I wonder if he asked an NPC ... they call me annoying a LOT
Man if that is what happened I would soooooo die laughing. Just thinking of it brings me enough of a chuckle to clear my head for a moment of all the conflicting emotions this thread brings out.
Maybe i was wrong ..... i thought this was a rp based game. If so you shouldnt even have powergamers
Do you have in game dm's rules enforcers?
Not sure about here but when someone is OOC or just a general asshat the dm's in nwn can warn them
If they keep it up there gone.
I might give it another try later but if its full of powergaming uberleetdudez its not for me
I think most games have a certain percent of these. As long as they aren't bothering anyone's RP there is no reason to kick them out or warn them. Did you consider contacting a GM? DM's in NWN cannot keep tabs on everyone at once, so my guess is that they remove the players or warn them when they receive complaints. You can report people which is a legitimate step depending on the situation.
But back to what I was trying to say before I got distracted like I usually do... the part about seeing both sides. As I said before my initial response was defensive - like most peoples, and I was feeling pretty good about the funny insults flung about as the thread went on, but then I got to Xillix's thread and realized that there were great points there as well... suddenly I didn't know what to think.
When this happens, and you feel both sides of an issue have legit points what does this mean? I'm leaning towards conceding that its the sort of thing that needs to be decided on an individual level, instead of being black and white with one side right and one side wrong. Its too easy to simply pick a viewpoint that is more selfish in nature rather than examine both sides, but is being tooo subjective just as bad? I almost feel wishy washy.
Honestly I am beginning to believe a good chunk of our players are somewhat intolerant and insular. I have seen the number of active players decline significantly since i was a player. I don't know what to say about it other than to appeal to you all to be a bit more patient and helpful with new players and try to take them in and teach them. If you already do this do not respond, i am not talking to you.
Maybe not but you invoked a bit of an emotional response, at least from me. In the end I don't think most are intolerant or insular though. I think some of the more vocal people might be and that makes it seem like its more predominant than it is. I find more people ignore than insult, which if you don't have the energy to deal with a player at that time might be the best choice. If I don't have time, I usually try to explain how I'm on an ore run, and if I don't make my shipment date, I'll lose my client, or some other RP reason so that it doesn't seem quite like I'm brushing people off. I feel bad every time anyways though because I remember what it was like to be new.
I'm not quite as worried about the community as a whole as you Xillix, but then I don't have to be. I believe in it, and many others do as well. If we all keep up the faith the possibilities are never ending.
