(05-01-2015, 11:29 AM)Verad Wrote: Here's why you shouldn't walk up:Firstly, thanks for the advice everyone has given so far.
1. There's no quality control. A simple "Walk-Up RP is loved!" comment in the search info will tell you nothing about how much you'll actually enjoy interacting with a player. They could be boring. They could be predatory. You are taking a chance every single time.
2. The RP is superficial. As somebody who engages in walk-up RP constantly (why is he writing this post if he does it so often, you wonder; I'll get to that), most of the interactions I have don't go further than the initial encounter. I sell people things, they have a laugh at Verad's behavior, I move on. The encounters that developed into more meaningful, long-term RP are vastly outweighed by transient one-shot transactions. If you're looking for walk-up as a gateway to more substantial RP, it is frankly difficult and you are probably better off planning something with somebody in PMs or on the RPC.
3. Reasons 1 and 2 both collaborate to create this one - in order to overcome them, you have to take a shotgun approach, constantly walking-up to as many people as possible for the walk-up RP to have any meaningful effect. If you are already grappling with introversion and social anxiety for the act of one walk-up, stretch this out across weeks of effort.
4. There will be days when, by relying on walk-up RP, you come up short through no fault of your own. The Quicksand will be empty because of IRL events. There may be an IC event drawing everybody's attention. Everybody might be engaged in other conversations or go afk just seconds before you approach. You have to learn to deal with rejection that has nothing to do with you or anybody at all, really. But it will still happen.
So there's plenty of good reasons why any given player shouldn't walk up. I nevertheless do it frequently. I have my reasons. For those of you who are struggling to get past shyness or social anxiety to do this: Why do you want to do this awful thing so bad?
As to why I would want to, the answer is practice and to actually roleplay, I've roleplayed in forums and MMOs a lot before, but it has been a long time, I'm out of practice.
In addition, I don't want to just up and join a Linkshell or Free Company all willy-nilly. Even if I did I don't necessarily know what I want me character to be.
If you don't do roleplay through walkups/tell messages, how do you set up roleplay, is it on forums, through your guild? If so, what did you do before you were in a guild, was it exclusively with friends you made through the game? how did you make those friends?
These are questions I'm trying to find answers for.
Xavieraux Reinardes, Balmung, EST, Send me a message/Add me as a friend!
