I quite agree, Cliques aren't bad when you manage them well - thinking from a guildleaders perspective here. I actively make shake-em-up events in my own guild where, unbeknownst to my members, I try to put them in situations where they get to roleplay with people that I've noticed they usually do not RP with. When they go bad it does spark a lot of problems though, and can have some nasty results like collapsing in on themselves in a mass-burnout, isolating them from other players for so long that once someone stops playing they feel lost, heck it can even cause smaller guild splits. If you can't introduce someone new to a clique then that's a sure sign that there's a problem which needs to be adressed in some regard. It's difficult being a new player in a guild and that's something I personally have a big focus on, and sometimes it only takes a little bit to solve.Â
I also think that cliques are completely unavoidable in RP communities, and there's always going to be bad ones around as well. But trying to do anything about it on a community perspective is.. Really I would just stick to making sure things are fine in the FC you're in. Don't worry about breaking in too much, I'd even say if you try too hard to break into a clique you may end up with less results than if you were to just go about your stuff - sometimes new cliques can form around you where you're in. And you might not really notice it's a clique either, which is also a thing for a lot of people. Â
Something I've also noticed a bit recently and - I really don't want to step on peoples toes - is the amount of talking people do about this supposed one big popular group of posters that exist on the RPC. I won't lie, even I have been under the assumption that such a group might exist but, after being here for so long I can more clearly see that there isn't just one big group, and actually some of the most popular posters don't seem to interact outside of the RPC. At least for what is visible. Anyways, my point with this is that the more you talk about and big up this group of populars, the more power you actually add to it and the more you give it the possibility to actually manifest. I know not giving a fuck can be hard, but that's really the only way that something like that really can get solved.. When you stop regarding those groups with awe/hate/starstruck-like levels of respect/upsetness they automatically become just regular people that post, sometimes a lot. It's also something I can imagine most of the targets for this attention are wanting to feel like. I by no means consider myself popular, but I've had whispers from people recently that - whilst nice, good intentions and all - creeped me out a little bit because these whispers seemed to suggest they'd seen me on the RPC a lot and placed me on a high pedestal because of it. To which I'm kind of like "let me down". It's not nice when others put you in a place where they assume you can't be reached.Â
I used to be really shy about posting here, I still am to some extend due to certain experiences, but it changed it for me when I stopped thinking that "Oh I can't jump in here because I'm just a new person and no one knows me" etc. Now I actually take comfort in the fact that most of my posts do not get responses, they sometimes get's +1's, and I've gotten just generally confident in that I can voice my opinion to some extend about some things. Which is very nice because I love talking about RP xD Like I have and I could go on about it for six hours in a skypecall. I'd encourage new people to post more anyday, just as long as they're nice about it and don't see lack of responses as the community ignoring you.
And Tiergan, I'm with you on fleeing from reputations. I was selected as a community ambassador in my past game, and I was very vocal about defending the server I was playing on (the only RP one for EU'ers at the time) when it went under the threat of getting closed down. Despite a 100-page thread it was shut down in the end, and I got shifted onto a server where there apparently was a lot of people waiting to go "HA-HA" at me. It got too much and despite leading a guild there, I passed on the leadership and left for FFXIV. I loved being seen as someone that people could PM for help, but the other side of the coin is something that makes me not want to do that ever again. It's horrible when you get driven away from something you enjoy.
I also think that cliques are completely unavoidable in RP communities, and there's always going to be bad ones around as well. But trying to do anything about it on a community perspective is.. Really I would just stick to making sure things are fine in the FC you're in. Don't worry about breaking in too much, I'd even say if you try too hard to break into a clique you may end up with less results than if you were to just go about your stuff - sometimes new cliques can form around you where you're in. And you might not really notice it's a clique either, which is also a thing for a lot of people. Â
Something I've also noticed a bit recently and - I really don't want to step on peoples toes - is the amount of talking people do about this supposed one big popular group of posters that exist on the RPC. I won't lie, even I have been under the assumption that such a group might exist but, after being here for so long I can more clearly see that there isn't just one big group, and actually some of the most popular posters don't seem to interact outside of the RPC. At least for what is visible. Anyways, my point with this is that the more you talk about and big up this group of populars, the more power you actually add to it and the more you give it the possibility to actually manifest. I know not giving a fuck can be hard, but that's really the only way that something like that really can get solved.. When you stop regarding those groups with awe/hate/starstruck-like levels of respect/upsetness they automatically become just regular people that post, sometimes a lot. It's also something I can imagine most of the targets for this attention are wanting to feel like. I by no means consider myself popular, but I've had whispers from people recently that - whilst nice, good intentions and all - creeped me out a little bit because these whispers seemed to suggest they'd seen me on the RPC a lot and placed me on a high pedestal because of it. To which I'm kind of like "let me down". It's not nice when others put you in a place where they assume you can't be reached.Â
I used to be really shy about posting here, I still am to some extend due to certain experiences, but it changed it for me when I stopped thinking that "Oh I can't jump in here because I'm just a new person and no one knows me" etc. Now I actually take comfort in the fact that most of my posts do not get responses, they sometimes get's +1's, and I've gotten just generally confident in that I can voice my opinion to some extend about some things. Which is very nice because I love talking about RP xD Like I have and I could go on about it for six hours in a skypecall. I'd encourage new people to post more anyday, just as long as they're nice about it and don't see lack of responses as the community ignoring you.
And Tiergan, I'm with you on fleeing from reputations. I was selected as a community ambassador in my past game, and I was very vocal about defending the server I was playing on (the only RP one for EU'ers at the time) when it went under the threat of getting closed down. Despite a 100-page thread it was shut down in the end, and I got shifted onto a server where there apparently was a lot of people waiting to go "HA-HA" at me. It got too much and despite leading a guild there, I passed on the leadership and left for FFXIV. I loved being seen as someone that people could PM for help, but the other side of the coin is something that makes me not want to do that ever again. It's horrible when you get driven away from something you enjoy.
