[[steps in as a mod]]
Small plea to remember to be kind and considerate to other users on the forum.
There have been a few comments in this thread that are skirting too close to the fine line between a discussion and people making snide comments/callouts.
[[takes off the mod hat]]
Let's not forget that everyone in-game is paying for the game. There are also no "rights" within an Online Game. There's an End-User License Agreement, yes, but there's no rule that requires one player to interact with another player.
There is a common courtesy to keep private RP private though. Within my time playing the game, there have been multiple scenes where people have basically done he Bob, Jane and Frank example. (Especially in the Quicksand!). However, like most RPers, I would bet that Bob, Jane and Frank probably all have "walkups welcome! in their search info, which does create an implicit agreement that if they're RPing someone public, that the public can, and maybe -should-, react! ...if the RP was not supposed to be open, then it should not be typed openly. Simply as that.
From a personal example, I actually started a few fights in the Quicksand back in the day. (Ask Kage about it some time!). While Kage and I had planned our scene out for the most part, it was still emoted in /em and we spoke in /say. There was a SURPRISINGLY LARGE group of people who immediately tried to react to it. Something that we both accepted. We later had to take it outside because there was a rising number of OOC tells and comments such as "can you please not have this closed off scene somewhere where there's already a massive chat scroll?" and once someone made that intention known IC, we did! The character I was even RPing at got yelled at by a few people later for his behavior. (All IC)
Had we done the same exact scene in /party or in a linkshell, nobody would have looked up. Personally, I would find it kinda rude for an untouchable scene to be RPed out in the open like that.
--
But let's make another proposed scene, one I've also seen in the Quicksand a lot.
Characters Alice and Jimmy are sitting on the stools having a conversation. Alice tells Jimmy that she's recently bought some -very- strong poison and plans to murder her husband with it. One of the fellows besides them Mr Steel, the Brass Blade, who has been following a string of recent murders by poisoning in his own RP. Steel turns to Alice and as an official law-enforcement officers, asks her to hand over the poison. Jimmy, who has been silent the whole time since Steel turned around suddenly says OOC "((omg, this is a private scene.))"
Steel's player follows with an OOC message of "((Then why are you talking about it in a bar? And loud enough for everyone else to hear it?))
Would we still argue that Alice and Jimmy are perfectly fine to continue their scene ignoring Steel?
Should they not have picked a more appropriate method of having a "quiet" or "private" conversation if they did not want other people to involve/intrude?
Is Steel's player somehow going leaps and bounds beyond consent because his game client picked up the public chat next to him?
Small plea to remember to be kind and considerate to other users on the forum.
There have been a few comments in this thread that are skirting too close to the fine line between a discussion and people making snide comments/callouts.
[[takes off the mod hat]]
Let's not forget that everyone in-game is paying for the game. There are also no "rights" within an Online Game. There's an End-User License Agreement, yes, but there's no rule that requires one player to interact with another player.
There is a common courtesy to keep private RP private though. Within my time playing the game, there have been multiple scenes where people have basically done he Bob, Jane and Frank example. (Especially in the Quicksand!). However, like most RPers, I would bet that Bob, Jane and Frank probably all have "walkups welcome! in their search info, which does create an implicit agreement that if they're RPing someone public, that the public can, and maybe -should-, react! ...if the RP was not supposed to be open, then it should not be typed openly. Simply as that.
From a personal example, I actually started a few fights in the Quicksand back in the day. (Ask Kage about it some time!). While Kage and I had planned our scene out for the most part, it was still emoted in /em and we spoke in /say. There was a SURPRISINGLY LARGE group of people who immediately tried to react to it. Something that we both accepted. We later had to take it outside because there was a rising number of OOC tells and comments such as "can you please not have this closed off scene somewhere where there's already a massive chat scroll?" and once someone made that intention known IC, we did! The character I was even RPing at got yelled at by a few people later for his behavior. (All IC)
Had we done the same exact scene in /party or in a linkshell, nobody would have looked up. Personally, I would find it kinda rude for an untouchable scene to be RPed out in the open like that.
--
But let's make another proposed scene, one I've also seen in the Quicksand a lot.
Characters Alice and Jimmy are sitting on the stools having a conversation. Alice tells Jimmy that she's recently bought some -very- strong poison and plans to murder her husband with it. One of the fellows besides them Mr Steel, the Brass Blade, who has been following a string of recent murders by poisoning in his own RP. Steel turns to Alice and as an official law-enforcement officers, asks her to hand over the poison. Jimmy, who has been silent the whole time since Steel turned around suddenly says OOC "((omg, this is a private scene.))"
Steel's player follows with an OOC message of "((Then why are you talking about it in a bar? And loud enough for everyone else to hear it?))
Would we still argue that Alice and Jimmy are perfectly fine to continue their scene ignoring Steel?
Should they not have picked a more appropriate method of having a "quiet" or "private" conversation if they did not want other people to involve/intrude?
Is Steel's player somehow going leaps and bounds beyond consent because his game client picked up the public chat next to him?
