QalliFlower

I'm over thirty and generally like playing characters who are well into their adulthood. That tends to skew me toward male characters simply because you can make them look that old more easily.

People want what people want. Trite or profound, it just seems more fair for them to be upfront about their priorities. I tend to write characters who fall somewhere outside the "cute singles in your area" genre, and while it's still entirely plausible for someone to find them dateable, they just aren't built with romance in mind. And while most folks looking for contacts who say "romance is nice if it happens" mean it sincerely, it's pretty clear that others really really want romance that also ties into their larger story. And that's fine - I'd just really rather they were more forthcoming about it so I'd know they didn't want what I was offering.

Something akin to this scenario has happened to me more than once. Heck, it's happened in open forum RP, which is a more direct comparison. Someone posted a thread where their character from Faction A accidentally wound up in Faction B territory, where the setting was a PVP-heavy game. They didn't specify what they were looking for OOCly, so I posted that my character (a member of Faction B) was showing up to fight. Turned out the OP was looking for a star-crossed friendship. I pointed out that they really should have disclosed that from the start (which was right) and then insisted on continuing my RP posts (which was, at minimum, unhelpful and didn't make me any new friends). People can and will flake. People can and will duck IC responsiblity. People can and will be hypocritical. I think these are important things to accept, and I don't think that trying to fix others' flaws is a constructive use of my time. You can, of course, hold them to account in the form of not interacting with them/inviting them to your FC. That's about it.

So is standing in the middle of the street a private dinner? Or is it a bar? Or...maybe it's just standing in the middle of the fucking street, where other people can see and hear you? And react? Like, jesus...I've tried, but I literally can't comprehend the idea that people RPing in an obviously public, busy area should be ignored unless we beg permission to be able to acknowledge them. That's crazy. That's just..no. I just can't. I really can't. I've seen people be more absurd over less. And while I definitely have my views on what they should do and expect, that has nothing at all to do with what they can do and expect of me.

I mean, the main reason I ever ask someone to join is because I'm lazy, and if they're going to be prickly or ignore me that's a quicker way to find out. I'm generally polite to other players because I'm a selfish creature and know they'll be more amenable to my funmaking if they aren't put off. YMMV.

Of coulrse you don't have to. There are very few things any of us have to do in terms of interaction. However, any one of us could come up with a list of things we can do that make things go more smoothly. If someone is concerned about an OOC snag, they can make OOC contact. If they're not concerned? No real need for the precaution.

It never hurts to ask before joining a scene.

I don't know how to art, but I was working on some possible vocal cues for my Qalli and, well, the band geek in me ran with it. Happy: Trill Sobbing: Portamento Guilty: Decrescendo Enraged: Tremolo Scared: Glissando Smug: Crescendo Offended: Staccato Drunk: Flat Tempered: Sharp

We know that 1) the Xaela live a nomadic lifestyle 2) each tribe controls territory, and wars with neighbors over it. That leads me to think that the entire tribe doesn't always stick together. If you're constantly defending your borders, and you don't have permanent frontier settlements, it stands to reason that you're going to spread out a bit.

I've painted myself into a corner moer than once myself. A few thoughts: 1) It helps to set a central point, theme, or other kind of guiding star. Try pinning down what aspect made this character the most enjoyable to you, and get as specific as you can. Once you know what you absolutely must keep, finding ways to change the rest is a lot easier. 2) Needing IC help from others helps to keep you with others, not above them. He can (and probably should, from your description) be reluctant and unhappy about it, but seeking aid from others is a real and relatable lesson in humility. The more open-ended your character's problem, the better - you want other players to decide what they'll contribute. 3) Downsides, mistakes, and losses are all cool. They add to the story. I don't mean to suggest that you have to dump a fresh list of flaws onto your character, but rather that you can think about the sorts of situations where your character would end up not in the right, and portray them honestly.

Server choice tribalism is one of the sillier things I've seen. The best way to counter it is to not opt in. Have as much prosocial fun as you can, bond with individual people as you will, and if server history comes up it's somehow more a point of trivia than a central defining fact. It's harder than it sounds, especially for people who spent a long time on one particular server and made a lot of great memories there, but the fact is that these things stay with you regardless of where you go. No cranky stranger can devalue it.

These are all good points. I was mostly aiming to answer the OP's question of "what would a racist character say to a Miqo'te" and also emphasize that such attitudes aren't strictly a "bad guy" thing. If the aim is for the OP's character to have faced racism as part of his background, it seems like the choices are either an extreme case like Silvairre (whose underlying motivations might or might not be explained) or the more subtle "microaggression" type talked about earlier in this thread. That's an argument based purely on what's in the game, though - players write their characters and NPCs how they will, and that affects our IC experiences as much as backstory does.

My exposure to the game's content is far from complete but yes, while race relations are definitely a theme of the game it isn't laid on terribly thick. What I found interesting was in the ACN story, where your first big antagonist is a Roegadyn who utterly terrorizes your Miqo'te colleague. IIRC he never made a dig at her race specifically, but focused more on her being small and weak and not in charge. He likely had less reason to think or care about race than the NPC quoted earlier (a Wildwood member of the Archers' Guild who wanted to keep his craft "pure").

When it comes to in-game examples, this is the most specific I've found.

"What makes people bug my friend for ERP and not me" is the philosopher's stone of RP. Whoever definitively figures it out will be truly enlightened. I first started MMO RP in WoW BC, and it was often a really upsetting experience. I'd engage some random new person who seemed really interested, and I'd think "wow they must really like this character profile I've lovingly written", only for things to take a swift turn to the explicit. I'd nope out, confidence bruised over the fact that my character was some interchangeable avatar with a body type/hair color/whatever that the other person was into. That hasn't happened to me for several years now, and there are too many variables to really pin down why. Like I said before, though, I don't mind being asked and saying no. What's more of a bummer is when someone springs the idea after you've scened together a bunch of times, and when the answer is no they up and vanish. I haven't had that happen in a good while either, but I've read posts here from those who have.