I feel a strong desire to drop a little stink bomb here. When there is something, that goes on my nerves, then it's people, trying to tell me, how I should enjoy something. Having an etiquette may seem like a fine idea, but my experience with this game is, that certain people will just print it out, put it under their pillow and wave it in the face of anyone daring to violate it. I have had it with "roleplayers" (and even GMs), bullying me into "correct" (from their point of view) gameplay.
So, lets see, how we can ridicule those "rules" in an RP way.
Like this version of the basics a lot, Sangwa. The change of titles was definitely for the best and the tweaks you made I think are all improvements. Merged the "Basics" with the "Principles" and "Ideals" sections. There may be some redundancies now that need to be moved/merged/deleted and any ideas people have on what should go under what heading I'd appreciate hearing.
1. This is a Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Play Game (MMORPG).
You and your character are not the same person. Live as the character you create, enjoy as the civilized person you are.
Good one. Print that out, nail it to Kada-Els door and preferably to the forehead of it's regular patrons. Either they violate this rule or they lack any social life.
2. Respect PlaneShift's unique game world.
Always keep your character’s chat, action, and history consistent with the PS universe.
Note: Make sure you know what exists in PlaneShift before making anything up. Cell phones, vampires, hobbits, etc. do not belong in this game.
Gee, we better close down all the taverns at once now. They are places of heavy carousing and as we all know, there does not exist a single outhouse in the whole world, let alone a hospital to treat wracked bladders. Do I have to stop talking about my weapons research program now? You know, trying to combine the light glyph with a sabre, because the sewers are so dark? Can't I call the hot girls at the tavern "vamps" anymore? Till know, I was almost sure, that "Hobbit" was a word in the gobble language, refering to a small creature with hairy palms. Oh and did I tell you about that time, when Tyrus tried touring Yliakum with his own band? They called themselves "the phones". Of course, if you know his lyrics, you wouldn't be surprised, that they eventually ended up in prison for turning the stomach of the octarch upside down. Afterwards, they disbanded, but "cell phones" really became a running gag.
On a funny side note: It's typically the roleplayers, that do not know what exists in the world, because unlike the powerlevelers, they often do not care enough about questing.
On another side note: You might have noticed, that the essence of roleplay IS to make things up. Otherwise, you are just plain you. If you do not have any fantasy, what are you doing in a fantasy world then? Things I make up, may in fact exist on the lower levels or maybe I am just plain lying to you and making shit up as I go. Whole religions are build on that foundation in the real world. So where exactly is the problem with me playing a swindler, sharlatan or quack, who'd tell you anything, if it just serves my needs? My character is not required to tell you the truth in any way and if you want an example of my point, try visiting Alderaan Phostle.
3. Respect other players.
The fun of an MMORPG is interacting with other people. Be sure to treat other players with respect.
Note: Remember that a player should always have a chance to react to another player’s action, so everyone has a role in this play. Ideally, all players involved should agree with the outcome or on a fair method of deciding the result.
I thought, we were roleplaying here? So my choice for roles is limited to "carebear" now? A fair method to decide the outcome of something ... ... Gee, I wish there where game mechanics for that. Oh wait, there are! How about this: You try to godmod in front of me and I kick your behind all the way to the death realm for it?
4. When in doubt ask a Game Master (GM).
They volunteer for the love of the game and are there to help.
Please attach a shovel to your petition. The petition interface sucks (at least it did, last time, I saw it) and I bet, GMs wil just love to dig through piles of petitions, asking trivialities, just to be on the safe side.
5. Be consistent.
Stay true to your character. It will make it more realistic and fun to role-play with.
Why? Roleplaying is about playing roles (mind the plural). I like to switch occasionally between a lot of different personalities (some are even nice and helpful). I could of course make different chars to please my schitzophrenia, but unfortunatly I prefer to skip the hassle of leveling several avatars to usefulness.
Example: If your character wouldn’t associate with criminals, don’t have him/her/kra knowingly run an errand for a notorious crime lord. You might get a good reward, but your character will probably lose their chance of leading the lawful life you wanted.
Uh hm ... So if instead, I wanted to be that notorious crime lord myself, I should stop doing errands for the government, giving me all the requesites (you know, glyphs, insider knowledge, etc.) needed to become it in the first place? To stress that one out even further: How am I suppose to know the settings, which I am suppose to stick to, if I don't do the quests telling me the background story of the world, just because I am not suppose to like a certain NPC?
6. All out of character (OOC) chat must be enclosed within a type of brackets.
This reduces confusion and shows respect for the other players role-playing (RPing) around you.
Examples: [OOC comment], (OOC comment), {OOC comment}
Why? Do I have to assume, that all roleplayers are kind of stupid and do not realize, that something is spoken OOCly, if not stressed out by some markup language on *every* line of the conversation? How about respecting other people's intellect here? I have no problem with a convention of using an OOC marker to show [start of OOC] and optionally [end of OOC], but the bracket fetish, some "roleplayers" seem to have is utmost ridicolous. As for the other people around me, that may get confused: If they are not part of the conversation (e.g. because they came in late), why would they even care in the first place, because, they are *gasp* not part of the conversation.
7. No 1337 speak, IM abbreviations, or languages other than English in the main chat tab.
However, feel free to create a dialect or interesting speech pattern for your character.
So 1337 is not an interesting speech pattern? I find it about as interesting as fake scotish accents mixed with complicated Shakespear style grammar, which actually nobody ever spoke outside of theatres. That aside, I see chat as a means to convey an idea. Granted, something like "/me <expression of emotion> <what I want to say>" looks very stylish. But it is also complicated. If you want to alienate new players, impose that rule on them. Makes them leave PlaneShift rather fast.
8. Leave the official guarding to the government (and GMs).
GMs, Developers, etc. are the only people officially allowed to role-play legitimate government officials. If your character strives to protect/serve the citizens of Yliakum, do it under your own banner not the government’s.
Amen to that. Print it out, nail it to Kada Els tavern. If I had a circle for every time, some "roleplayer" tried to start roleplaying on me, that I should sheathe my weapons, because the guard said so and then has no clue how to deal with my answer, I would not have to mine platinum any more. Can we have forced PvP here? Just to make the outcome of that kind of roleplay realistic? I bet, that would make this rule surplus fast.
9. Role-plays should be “PG” rated.
PlaneShift is intended for a broad age range of players. Keep this in mind when creating RPs.
So, we can undo now with the marriage related mechanics? Fine with me. I always fear accidently sending a proprosal, when viewing someone else's character info. And yes: Marriage is not PG rated. In every MMORPG it's just a lame excuse or a license for having cybersex in one or the other ways. Here's a hint for all you "roleplayers": In medivial times, marriage was not about love and affection. It was about support. Also you typically did not marry, instead you generally were married. So until I see a couple that actually plays it's bond as something imposed on them instead of some cheesy Romeo and Juliet romance, I will not even consider marriage as an roleplay element, but see it as what it generally is: A poor excuse to have an online lovelive (but I digress here).
10. A character’s name is not known until it is heard IC.
Just as there are no floating nametags over our heads in real life, there are no floating tags in PlaneShift from an in-character perspective. In game nametags exist only for player convenience.
Curiously, I wear a nametag on my chest, stating name, profession and brasize (the later of course being a bit odd for a male character, but I have my needs). Here's a hint for you roleplayers: Roleplaying is about *gasp* playing a role. Unless your role is that of an introduction fetishist, who has dozens of introductions macroed, it is just an inconvinience.
Older players might remember the desaster, when this rule was enforced via gamemechanics and no names where shown. Experience tells us, that this does not work. Normal people just hit "fast forward" on repetitive tasks and there is really nothing wrong with mutually agreeing upon, that something just happened, even if it didn't (like for example, that your character occasionally visits the loo, even if there is none to be found anywhere).
