My take on spying in character.
a.) don't do it unless you have a good IC reason to (this usually means you've interacted with the group before, or are hired by another group they're interacting with, etc.)
b.) don't use game mechanics to hide yourself. Don't use the gatherer stealth skill, physically hide behind the tree.
c.) poke folks to ask "Hey are you all really there ICly." if it's not a common public spot. (read: if you catch them in the wild at a campsite or some such.)
d.) Emote. You need to give some indication that you're physically there and not someone idling around as a non-RPer.  Jot things down, tilt your head or raise your eyebrows in time with something said. Â
e.) Suck it up and deal with the repercussions if you're caught.
I tend to prefer open / world RP to closed. I'm of the belief that closed "no one should overhear it" RP should be done in private locations, party or non-overhearable methods. It's a minimum impact on the open world and the immersion of others thing to me. Just really a polite thing to do when in public locations and you don't want your RP to be overheard/interactable with, or taken ICly. Â
Open chatter in public places in public channels, to me, is a tacit invitation of interaction, otherwise why bother RPing in the open world? Â
But I'm an old fart, so take it with a grain of salt. I grew up on the dreams of virtual worlds. Dreams which have largely been tossed to the wayside by the masses.
a.) don't do it unless you have a good IC reason to (this usually means you've interacted with the group before, or are hired by another group they're interacting with, etc.)
b.) don't use game mechanics to hide yourself. Don't use the gatherer stealth skill, physically hide behind the tree.
c.) poke folks to ask "Hey are you all really there ICly." if it's not a common public spot. (read: if you catch them in the wild at a campsite or some such.)
d.) Emote. You need to give some indication that you're physically there and not someone idling around as a non-RPer.  Jot things down, tilt your head or raise your eyebrows in time with something said. Â
e.) Suck it up and deal with the repercussions if you're caught.
I tend to prefer open / world RP to closed. I'm of the belief that closed "no one should overhear it" RP should be done in private locations, party or non-overhearable methods. It's a minimum impact on the open world and the immersion of others thing to me. Just really a polite thing to do when in public locations and you don't want your RP to be overheard/interactable with, or taken ICly. Â
Open chatter in public places in public channels, to me, is a tacit invitation of interaction, otherwise why bother RPing in the open world? Â
But I'm an old fart, so take it with a grain of salt. I grew up on the dreams of virtual worlds. Dreams which have largely been tossed to the wayside by the masses.