I'm going to agree with some of the earlier points stated here. There is a definite disconnect from our characters (not a bad thing), that leads to a lot of people either not understanding that IC actions have IC consequences, or not being willing to take those consequences into account. Chill is right that a lot of people want their character to be their idealized self, and so don’t like dealing with failures that might influence their character in a negative way.
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The biggest time I often see the ‘consequence lapse’ is with characters who run their mouth or cause trouble, start arguments, or purposefully goad people, but then counter the IC negative reactions with an OOC comment of 'lol, but this character doesn't fight'. That’s a terrible attitude to take. If your character does something that will cause someone to hate them, you have to be willing to accept that while there will be characters who find it funny, there will also be characters who will be ready to drag your character out into the street and whip their ass for them like they’re a twelve year old. Physical conflict happens in any dynamic world. People shy away from it in real life because there are harsher laws preventing assault against someone.
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But Eorzea isn’t the real world, and people fight all the time. The best example is in the MSQ,very early on, where you’re in a street brawl in front of the Quicksand in Ul’dah. Against a guy and his hired thugs that were hassling a woman. The very world, while yes, there are some peaceful locations that aren’t touched much by direct conflict between people, is generally full of people who start fights and do terrible things to one another.
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I’ve always been of the opinion that if a character exists, they will come into conflict at some point in time in their life. This is especially true in a world where conflict is a central point of most people’s lives (class conflicts in Ul’dah that sometimes escalate, conflict in Limsa between pirate/privateer groups, conflict in Gridania with the Ixali, the Dragonsong war in Ishgard). I feel as if the character that has never been in any conflict would feel too sheltered. And while that isn’t a problem, it’s a little disgusting that players use ‘My character doesn’t fight!’ OOC as a valid excuse to start fights, arguments, pick people apart, and be insulting ICly, and then avoid the consequences of their action as their character. And while yes, you can say ‘Just avoid the people who play that way,’ it’s actually a pretty hefty chunk of the player base (not specific to the RPC, but role-players in general) that do this.
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Or if there are consequences, they're waved off. As far as the fearless thing, I think with me personally it depends on the character. Glioca is fearless because she's older, so she doesn't feel as if she has to worry too much when someone is trying to intimidate her. She’s fully prepared that someone will eventually be able to beat her, but that doesn’t mean she’ll back down. That said, she does her best not to start fights at organized events, with just one or two exceptions. Aelden doesn’t show a lot of fear because he’s young, arrogant, and doesn’t know any better.
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If someone was playing a character who didn’t respect authority, I could see them being arrogant and fearless, trying to ‘stick it to the man’, because that’s what they’re going for as their character. But most of the time, it’s just a bleed over of ‘Well, without my permission, you can’t do anything to my character, and I don’t have to acknowledge you trying to intimidate me, so I’m going to have my character stand here and keep being a jackass, knowing you can’t do anything to get rid of me.’
Sorry about the length, got a little rambly there.
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The biggest time I often see the ‘consequence lapse’ is with characters who run their mouth or cause trouble, start arguments, or purposefully goad people, but then counter the IC negative reactions with an OOC comment of 'lol, but this character doesn't fight'. That’s a terrible attitude to take. If your character does something that will cause someone to hate them, you have to be willing to accept that while there will be characters who find it funny, there will also be characters who will be ready to drag your character out into the street and whip their ass for them like they’re a twelve year old. Physical conflict happens in any dynamic world. People shy away from it in real life because there are harsher laws preventing assault against someone.
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But Eorzea isn’t the real world, and people fight all the time. The best example is in the MSQ,very early on, where you’re in a street brawl in front of the Quicksand in Ul’dah. Against a guy and his hired thugs that were hassling a woman. The very world, while yes, there are some peaceful locations that aren’t touched much by direct conflict between people, is generally full of people who start fights and do terrible things to one another.
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I’ve always been of the opinion that if a character exists, they will come into conflict at some point in time in their life. This is especially true in a world where conflict is a central point of most people’s lives (class conflicts in Ul’dah that sometimes escalate, conflict in Limsa between pirate/privateer groups, conflict in Gridania with the Ixali, the Dragonsong war in Ishgard). I feel as if the character that has never been in any conflict would feel too sheltered. And while that isn’t a problem, it’s a little disgusting that players use ‘My character doesn’t fight!’ OOC as a valid excuse to start fights, arguments, pick people apart, and be insulting ICly, and then avoid the consequences of their action as their character. And while yes, you can say ‘Just avoid the people who play that way,’ it’s actually a pretty hefty chunk of the player base (not specific to the RPC, but role-players in general) that do this.
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Or if there are consequences, they're waved off. As far as the fearless thing, I think with me personally it depends on the character. Glioca is fearless because she's older, so she doesn't feel as if she has to worry too much when someone is trying to intimidate her. She’s fully prepared that someone will eventually be able to beat her, but that doesn’t mean she’ll back down. That said, she does her best not to start fights at organized events, with just one or two exceptions. Aelden doesn’t show a lot of fear because he’s young, arrogant, and doesn’t know any better.
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If someone was playing a character who didn’t respect authority, I could see them being arrogant and fearless, trying to ‘stick it to the man’, because that’s what they’re going for as their character. But most of the time, it’s just a bleed over of ‘Well, without my permission, you can’t do anything to my character, and I don’t have to acknowledge you trying to intimidate me, so I’m going to have my character stand here and keep being a jackass, knowing you can’t do anything to get rid of me.’
Sorry about the length, got a little rambly there.
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