Cliques, Popularity, and Positivity

[Shizuno]

-snip-

 

You have a point, except for one flaw:

 

Just send a nice, polite, non-pressure request to someone you want to rp with.  If you think they are busy, give them an easy out.

 

"Hey, I really admire you for [insert praise about character/writing/attitude/whatever], and would like to rp with you.  However, I think you might be really busy, so I totally understand if you don't have time!  If you don't, absolutely no pressure and maybe I'll catch up with you in a month or so to see if you have more time.  If you do and wouldn't mind rping with me, I'd like to see when would be most convenient for the both of us. Have a good one!"

 

I completely agree. Absolutely zero argument there. Just trying to lend a new idea that hasn't been said yet, is all.

[SunTzu7]

Just because post count doesn't mean more popular, that doesn't keep people from thinking it does.

 

Then again, I'm not entirely sure what quantifies as popular in MMO RP and what it entails. I mean, a couple folks have said I'm rather popular (which I still find hard to believe)? And, oddly enough, I was told this because I was talking about having trouble finding RP! Apparently, I'm popular/famous enough that people are afraid to RP with me?

 

Well I'm never afraid to rp with you because I know that you're a giant ball of goof.

 

I agree it can be intimidating approaching established people or people in groups, but as far as I'm aware, I've only had one person leap down my throat about RP. And I don't even remember who that was which shows how much it mattered in the long run.

 

I feel a lot of people overthink approaching people, and hell I'm guilty of this too. In real life too but that's beside the point.

 

All I can say is that if you're dynamic and put some effort in, you'll find an audience for RP. Making a scene can be a great way to meet people.

 

I also feel people like people imagine RP has to be strucured and scheduled? I mean for bigger things sure, but I have a blast doing things on the spot. Don't be afraid to approach people but be considerate enough if they've got stuff going on. It is people with schedules and demands on their time behind the character after all. Nothing stopping you from rescheduling for later.

 

Also to quote Whedon, try to put some laughs in there. Something humourously distinctive about your character can be a great starting point.

 

So yeah my two cents and stuff.

[Max]

from a roleplay character perspective >>

There are a lot of things that could contribute to popularity. I'd like to think that to garner it around here you'd have to have a well-written, appealing character with distinctive qualities that draws others to want to roleplay with you. Also being active within the community.

 

With that said, I'd rather someone rp with me because they want to as opposed to them feeling the need to. This is my perspective as a newcomer in response to the implication that 'newbies are constantly being ignored'. I honestly can only speak for myself, because everyone has different experiences, but I have to look at both sides of the coin here.

 

I'll use my connections thread as an example. 267 views, 10 responses. Clearly a fair share of rpers peeked into the thread, yet only a handful responded. Why is that? I have to accept that Max didn't appeal to every single lurker. We're roleplaying for fun and excitement, not due to obligation to others.

 

I think the biggest, if not main drawback of being a newbie is being apprehensive to approach others for roleplay, and you sorta just wish that everyone would just come to you and guide you along. Sometimes it's just not that easy. You're gonna have to try and try. Attend IC events, do walk-ups in the Quicksand, whisper characters asking if they'd fancy a quick interaction. I know this is hard for introverted/shy types, and believe me I know rejection hurts like a bitch, but you'll find your people soon enough.

 

And if at this point you're STILL having trouble finding RP, then you might want to re-evaluate your character and maybe ask others for some constructive criticism.

 

 

from a forumer perspective >>

Personality, the way they present themselves, etc. Maybe they're a hella good artist that you admire. Eitherway people are naturally drawn to the like-minded.

 

 

As for cliques >>

When you go through the trials of a new character and you finally find some roleplayers with similar tastes who you've formed bonds and storylines with, it's understandable that you're more drawn to them than to strangers. I completely get it.

 

But with that said, I can see where Graeham Ridgefield is coming from when he says cliques can also have a negative side-effect on a community. If (most) people get so holed up into their exclusive cliques, then it'll leave a very daunting and inhospitable impression on newcomers. "Why bother? There is no place for me."

[Dasair]

Dasair, I think you're entirely correct.  What people are mis-attributing to popularity is actually just recognizability on the forum.  The idea that there's some division, some difference between how those who are recognized from the forum find and conduct RP, and those who are new or less recognized, is just plain wrong.  There's an entire portfolio of myth and projection that gets repeated over and over again about this very topic: my suggestion is just realizing that everyone you interact with in this community is just like you, faces many of the same struggles and has many of the same concerns and desires in terms of finding and enjoying RP.

 

I honestly think it's somewhat more variable than this; I can't say it's always exactly the same, (that there is no difference between a new person and an established one) but that's entirely due to exposure.

 

I am stupidly verbose, so TLDR: 'Popular' people on the forums have had more chances to make an impression to someone who might be interested in RPing with them than new folk. This can be good or bad, but this is what they have that the newer people don't.

 

--

 

Here's the butt-long version:

 

Basically, the 'popular' people have had more of a chance to 'make an impression' than the new people do, and that's completely a given by how anyone might consider someone else 'popular' in the first place. I say 'more of a chance' because people looking to RP can go to a 'popular' person's profile, look through their posts to see their opinions on various things, find more about their characters, go to their flushed out character wikis, and so on. Whereas with the new person, someone can't always do that so well; they've got limited sources to look to in order to decide if they want to get together with this person or not, and jumping in with some complete stranger with very limited.. anything to go off about them, can be intimidating.

 

I think it often might boil down to someone being able to get a better idea of a person / someone's characters since they are around and reacted to, and those are the 'advantages' that a 'popular' person might have.

 

On the other hand, you have the new person, who hasn't been around so long, they make a connection thread or two, but might only get a few bites. Since... either it jived with people or it didn't, but a lot of threads seem kind of hit or miss that way. Like what Max said, the views often greatly outnumber the replies on those threads. What the new person doesn't have is the 'forums exposure' that allows someone else to get a feel for them / their character, however vaguely, and potentially find something in common with them that maybe wasn't there in the connections thread. Maybe it's a character quirk they bring up somewhere, or maybe it's an OOC post about how they are influenced by certain authors. Maybe it's how they come off as a person or a writer, or their ideas about a particular sort of magic; there are endless possibilities. But every post someone makes might be 'the one' that opens up communication, and once that happens, then the chance for wanting to RP with a person can change too.

 

In all, I think, that yeah; everyone has a similar potential to get RP. That the RPC and IG situations are not at all the same, and shouldn't be based on each other blindly, because they're different things. And even then, the inverse might be true, that someone looks up to someone else and gets intimidated, and it stops them from contacting a person.

 

The thing that 'popular' people have that 'new' people don't on the RPC specifically is that they're recognizable. But that they're recognizable, that people have some small sense about them beyond 'Hi, my name is Dasair and I'm new', and that every post they've made had the potential to spark an interest and the courage for someone to have asked them about RP, is basically what they have that new people don't. So no, I don't think it's entirely even between them; however, the more a person puts themselves out there, and the more people get to know you, the more it might turn the tables a bit. It's definitely not the only way, and I'm in no ways claiming that this is always the case for every person; there are plenty of options to find RP that don't involve posting all over the forums, and a lot of it is luck; in terms of who sees what post, or who runs into your character IG. But that is a way, if there's someone who wants to be active on the forums anyhow, it might get them more recognized to just post in things when they want to.

 

The 'popularity' thing can be a boon or a vice, it's just one more thing for people to go on, in terms of figuring out who to try and RP with.

[Darien Cadell]

As someone who has been both popular and deliberately fled that popularity multiple times, I can say I much much MUCH prefer being unpopular. Being popular gets you accused of some very, very strange things by people who you've never interacted with and you have no idea how they know you at all.

 

If I wanted to become popular on the internet, I know exactly how it's done, but I never really want it. I have never deliberately tried to enter someone's group or a clique I perceived. I have never tried to befriend a particular person in order to get in on a share of their fame.

 

For me, popularity seems to be an unfortunate side-effect of enthusiasm. If I am really enthusiastic about something, I reach out to other people who are also enthusiastic, other people who are also enthusiastic reach out to me, and our enthusiasm becomes one big pile of positive happy enthusiasm that... negative unhappy less enthusiastic people see and react to on their own without ever reaching out to me personally. The sadness and accusations that result bother me and discourage future enthusiasm on my part.

 

Whereas if I stay relatively quiet, I can enjoy my small contributions to small things in my small voice and not suddenly be told that I'm a vast unapproachable monolith of intimidating glory by someone who's never said a word to me otherwise.

 

It's much comfier in the quieter corner, although the number of people I RP with these days can be counted on one hand.

[Aya]

I honestly think it's somewhat more variable than this; I can't say it's always exactly the same, (that there is no difference between a new person and an established one) but that's entirely due to exposure.

I think there's a category error here, I am discussing in-game RP, and I think people vastly over-estimate the role of the RPC and any perceived RPC reputation on in-game RP.

[Nebbs]

I honestly think it's somewhat more variable than this; I can't say it's always exactly the same, (that there is no difference between a new person and an established one) but that's entirely due to exposure.

I think there's a category error here, I am discussing in-game RP, and I think people vastly over-estimate the role of the RPC and any perceived RPC reputation on in-game RP.

 

^ Yep

[Kage]

I won't lie. If -anyone- has posted somewhat regularly and they have either a) character image as the avatar or b) their character name in-game, I will be more likely to take notice of them in-game purely because at some point in time I have taken an interest. They'd gotten my notice.

 

Same thing with people who've recently followed me on tumblr for tagging lalafell pictures of kage @_@ So I've seen their name, their character etc.

 

In-game, that gives me more notice.

 

The next thing that gets me to take notice is then when they're RPing, what they say. How they say it. Does the character sound interesting?

 

Am I actually going to RP?

[Erik Mynhier]

I honestly think it's somewhat more variable than this; I can't say it's always exactly the same, (that there is no difference between a new person and an established one) but that's entirely due to exposure.

I think there's a category error here, I am discussing in-game RP, and I think people vastly over-estimate the role of the RPC and any perceived RPC reputation on in-game RP.

 

I agree with her. Of the people I rp with regularly, only a quarter I would say actually use the RPC with any regularity. Most of the people I rp with are reddit or tumblr folks. In fact I have been making a lot of connections lately with people who use none of the above.

 

Clio and I saw/helped a very new person the other day and she was game only. The fact that no one had spoken to her at all until we did made us a friend. The rpc or any community at all played no role in it. Just being friendly is all thats needed. If I am known well at all it is not from the rpc or even my ingame rp. Its the fact I hang out in starter areas, hand out free hq gear and help... as we all should. There is great rp amd friendships to be had by saying hello to a new person.

[Dasair]

I honestly think it's somewhat more variable than this; I can't say it's always exactly the same, (that there is no difference between a new person and an established one) but that's entirely due to exposure.

I think there's a category error here, I am discussing in-game RP, and I think people vastly over-estimate the role of the RPC and any perceived RPC reputation on in-game RP.

 

^ Yep

 

Nah, I agree with you there. My whole point was that's the only difference between newer people and 'popular' ones here; that the 'popular' ones got exposure on the RPC forums, which may be in addition to how they were already known. Not that the forums were more or less important than any other way of finding / talking to people.

 

There are some people I follow on tumblr I'd consider 'popular' (get a lot of notes, a lot of people reacting to thsir posts, etc.) over on that site too, but who barely post at all on the RPC, if ever, and don't even have wiki pages. But I wouldn't be surprised if very few people knew who they were, unless they'd met in-game. .. Or saw them on tumblr. Nevermind that I imagine there are people well-known in-game who aren't either place at all.

 

I figure it's just a matter of where the people who would really click with a person are to be found, and actually finding them; the medium you happen to find them in, be it the RPC, some other social site, or the game itself is of little consequence. It's just where and how it happens.

 

But yeah, people assuming the RPC is THE WAY AND THE ONLY WAY to find people to rp with probably don't have it quite right. It's just a useful tool if forums are your thing.