(07-02-2015, 10:22 AM)Sylentmana Wrote:(07-02-2015, 09:16 AM)Gegenji Wrote:Its no problem. I had a feeling after I posted it, that this phrase would cause some confusion. I should have better clarified what I meant.(07-02-2015, 09:03 AM)Sylentmana Wrote: -snip-
-snip-Â First of all, you're right. Â We the players are ultimately engaged in a game of pretend, whether RPing or not. The phrase "let's pretend" was used for lack of a better phrase, but I really meant it within the context of being IC. Â When performing a wholly text-based RP, it seems to me as if the characters themselves are playing a game of "let's pretend." Like they came up to each other and one said, "Pretend I'm swinging my sword at you" or something similar. Â
It just makes me think of the characters themselves as if they are engaged in a child's game of pretend, chasing each other around, swinging invisible swords, and making swooshing and clanging noises. Â It all just seems a bit silly to me.
I hope this helps clarify what I meant. Also, your reaction pics made me laugh.
The thing is, that MMO RP isn't all that much different from text-based RP. Â It's similar to my tabletop games as well, because I often let levels slide around when a player comes to me with a really good character concept (someone in one of my DM'd games is playing a princess who happens to be level three right now). Â You pretend to be something you aren't, and represent it in type because the MSQ/assigned story doesn't fit anything outside a particular niche (Warrior of Light from a far-away land not anywhere in the current city-states, like Gegenji pointed out).
There are currently a lot of character concepts seen in RP that aren't really represented in the game. Â Doman's, for example, would have to just be Ninja's, and would be pidgeonholed into that class because as far as we know, only Ninja/Shinobi come from Doma. Â I haven't seen much representation of other classes from Doma. Â But I've seen other Doman RPer's who are other classes, and use those classes as a representation of that other class (Gladiator for a swordsman, or Dark Knight come to mind). Â
You'd also have to dismiss a character who is void-touched or voidsent, because those aren't things we can technically represent through our characters and levels.  There are a lot of character concepts that you'd end up having to handwave away using this mindset, because either the players behind the screen just don't have time to level, or, like it was said way earlier in the thread, their main PvE character is on another server, and they primarily come to Balmung for the RP, not the PvE.  Viewing OOC character strength (and note that they call this OOC achivement in the thread title for a reason) as an indicator of IC power level has always seemed rather..Â
Well.. let's just call a spade a spade. Â Using OOC achivement to determine IC power level is technically what you'd call metagaming, because metagaming is using out of character knowledge (I know your character is level 10 because I targeted you and saw it OOCly) in an in-character context (My character won't take you serious despite the fact you say you're an active gladiator who has been in the arena for a few seasons, and are wearing gladiator gear and a sword, because I saw that you're level 10).
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