More Dynamic roleplay.

[Michikyou]

Hey guys.

Naih again.

 

I recently posted about the sort of 'coldness' in the community. Now while I have found some roleplay and joined more linkshells than I had before; roleplay is still a little stale. That is not what I am here to talk about.

 

I am here to rant about the closed-offness of the community.

Now i've had a few instances and I've heard from multiple people that this isn't just the case for me. It is hurting the community.

 

I walk pretty much everywhere. I rarely see any roleplay outside of three or four areas. You know there is something wrong with the community when you spontaneously roleplay with someone or respond to someone - and they tell you to back off, go away or ignore you because you aren't in their FC/LS or inner group.

 

 

I know this sounds mean, cruel. But the community needs to sort out its shit. There needs to be more public awareness of events. There need to be more event planners. People need to include other potential role play partners other than their Ic 'beau'. People get locked up with two or three people then exclude everyone else in the community. There is no central 'union' of characters. People don't know one another, they know maybe 10 people. No one understands rumors of another person.

 

I'm currently planning a bi-weekly 'Sanctum of the 12' event. For any religious characters. But I don't know if I anyone would even come given the amount of issues i've had so far in motivating any of my friends to keep looking.

 

 

What I ask of you:

• Plan more events if you can. Creativity and diversity drives the game.
  
• If you see others about who look like (even just look like) invite them to your roleplay. You may make a new friend.
  
• Check up on people after one scene. Don't wait for them.
  
• Start a 'rumor board' Spread your name passed more than 4 people.
  

[/b]

[Magellan]

There are 2800 members on this site. For the purpose of this discussion, lets just say 2000 of them rolled on Balmung. In any realistic town of that size, you'll be acquaintances with about 50, be friends with about 20, and know of about 100-200 (studies show the average facebook friend count is 150. But do you actually know all 150 of those people?)

 

And that's if you are an outgoing personality. For a lot of characters, it makes sense to only have a handful of friends ICly. To stay within what feels comfortable. IC rudeness, if it fits the character, is a non-issue.

 

OOCly, its a different story. A majority of people have rather diverse, yet generally specific tastes on RP, on everything from romance to combat, to how dark or humorous they like to keep things. It should come as no surprise that when you find people who share your taste, you tend to RP with them a lot, and develop rather involved interpersonal storylines. Its that progression of character that keeps people coming back, and you don't always get thet from random meetups.

 

That said, I do feel people need to break out of their rp shells more often, try out new things, and be prepared to see their characters go in directions they hadn't anticipated. OOC rudeness is pointless and not necessary. A little OOC communication can go a long way to avoid any sort of misunderstandings and hurt feelings.

 

But in the end, there are only so many hours in the day. I work FT, and dwell in an FC of 170+. Trying to juggle RP time with them, on top of work and trying to level is daunting enough, let alone trying to find time to interact with the greater community. I love my FC. Its a comfortable home I know I'm going to enjoy my time with, and that guarantee cannot be made in the community as a whole. Time constraints, and my desire to enjoy and progress several of my characters storylines should not be seen as 'cold'.

 

I have no problems interacting with random add ons when I am rping. I have no problem rping with anyone at least once. I find both to be a lot of fun, and everyone should interact with their community at least once a week. But in RP, just as in RL, it is the time spent with 'friends' that is the most rewarding, and it is up to each user to decide how they, the player, and they, the character, wish to spend their time.

 

Tl;dr: OOCly people should be polite and considerate of their community, but ICly their character dictates who and when they interact with.

[Rosekitten]

If anyone ever sees me around somewhere just message me odds are I'm not busy or i'll need just a moment to finish whatever I am doing and I can be ic after  

 

I've tried to not limit myself to just my FC mates or a circle of friends but to admit my life has limited that on me a bit so it's hard to just seek out random rp with my limited time frames. 

 

Though I have noticed some people seem to have a issue getting into groups or even feeling welcome into the community as a whole... so no I don't think it's just you OP =/

 

As far as myself going out ic'ly and starting things thats a bit of a tricky spot seeing as my character is a bit anti social at times. Though if spoken to he wouldn't be the type to blow someone off. Heck one of the best rp sessions I remember having was a lalafell asking me for directions randomly. 

 

I do agree that some groups seem to have such a story woven around them and the characters that it makes it hard if not impossible for someone to just jump in and help.. I tend to keep things dealing with my character rather open.

 

I've also noticed a good number of people I have friendly from here so in case we're ever in the same area we can see if both sides are free for a session or so seems to have vanished from the game ^^;

[Ildur]

Take in mind that private interactions not only do not offer many hooks for other people to jump in, but they also don't offer many hooks for people to include other characters. The "closed-off-ness", as long as it's in-character, is then a reasonable consequence of the nature of the interaction. You wouldn't invite a random stranger when you are discussing personal matters, after all (unless you were really, really outgoing).

 

This is, of course, if the 'brush off' is strictly in-character. Ignoring or telling someone to go away OOCly when you are roleplaying in the open isn't acceptable: if you don't want to get interrupted, use party chat. The least you can do when roleplaying in /say is to acknowledge interruptions IC-ly. Then you can be as rude as your character allows you to be.

[Yloise]

If someone is standing by, I try to acknowledge them in a emote. If they are receptive they usually come forward and respond. But at times if I am occupied with a lot of people around, it gets quite distracting to try to pay attention to one person.

 

Because I am a part of a racial ls, I try to make sure I collect as many rpers as I can. oocly or icly, that way they can connect to more folk.

[Clover]

I've actually experienced the opposite, albeit my RP should have been more limited than yours because I'm mostly farming the endgame content. The day K'nahli and I decided to RP in Ul'dah, we made a few new friends. Also in Ul'dah, K'nahli decided to RP a waitress NPC just to help others, and ended up getting actually involved with several other characters. So I guess it all depends on the RPers you meet and how the RP plays out.

 

I didn't know that some people refused to RP with anyone who wasn't in their FC. Their loss, I say @_@

Hopefully, they're just a minority.

[Nebbs]

Sorry i don't see it.. I actually see RP all over the place.

[Lady Whiteraven]

^^ Same. I even will park Skaenmoen at places and start talks with random people who look like they might be interested in rp.

[Kismet]

While this is obvious to most, I'm stating it for the record anyway. Your experiences are not everyone else's experiences, nor do they set any sort of bar of what should be expected.

 

Just because the world of RP is going great for you doesn't mean it's great for everyone else. And it's not always the fault of the person being ignored. I have met some people who are masterful RPers, capable of creating some of the most mind-blowing storylines or writing beautifully constructed posts... who were blatantly ignored despite the fact that they're outgoing and doing literally all that they can to be acknowledged (for a multitude of reasons, if any at all).

 

Ignoring or telling someone to go away OOCly when you are roleplaying in the open isn't acceptable: if you don't want to get interrupted, use party chat. The least you can do when roleplaying in /say is to acknowledge interruptions IC-ly. Then you can be as rude as your character allows you to be.

 

I agree 100%. Many times I have done "closed" scenes with an RP partner or two, but I always do them in /say and not in /party. Why? Because I WANT outsiders, should they happen upon the area, to interact with us! My RP scene, even if somewhat pre-planned, is not a movie. There are people about, voices carry, and I am not RPing in an inaccessible area. If you don't want others to interact with you, don't do your RP /say. It's not hard.

 

If someone is standing by, I try to acknowledge them in a emote. If they are receptive they usually come forward and respond.

 

I cannot speak for others, but I definitely do this. If I examine you or see you emote but I'm involved with a RP buddy, I WILL acknowledge you in some way (typically by having my character look at yours or nodding politely).

 

 

My point to my entire post is that I never ignore anyone OOCly -- unless it's a huge crowd and emotes just get loss in the massive sea of posts. ICly, my character may "ignore" you, but I always emote that your character is being ignored (which is, ironically, my way of paying attention to you). Anyone OOCly telling you to butt out or that the scene is closed is just rude and has little excuse for such an attitude, in my opinion.

[Magellan]

Hmm, I'd like to clarify that I always RP out in the open too (using Say) because I love meeting strangers and new rpers. If I am on a rude character, or an impersonable one, I will frequently send tells just to let people know; 'hey! I'm not responding b/c my character is a b*tch!'

 

To me that is just common courtesy, but I can't say I expect everyone to adopt that. That's for them to decide.

 

Rosekitten touched upon it being hard to break into groups, and I think many people seek a highly detailed, intricate plotline that plays out like a movie or novel. That's well within their rights, but those type of stories can only realistically support a handful of characters.

 

It drives me batty when guilds offer these intensive plots as either mandatory, or as the only means of finding RP in that guild, because more often than not, it devolves into 'the officers get to rp a lot with each other, while everyone else stands around and watches'. And typically, those who are getting their RP fix don't seem to see why its a problem when others are not. Or they say 'theyshould find their own way into the story', which is impossible, frankly, because you are creating a gauntlet of barriers for them.

 

Imo, the best guilds offer a variety of different types of RP, with plenty of opportunities for everyone to get involved. Those who run tightknit, heavily involved plots, should really keep the numbers of their group low so as to keep everyone involved, or construct their story in such a way that it doesn't have a significant impact on those who were unable to get involved, and were therefore unable to play a role in shaping their futures.

[Rosekitten]

Actually that was one of my hardest problems when looking for a FC was trying to find one that didn't have this huge thought out story... I'm all for some sort of story or foundation but don't force it on people as most of these grand adventure tails I've found my character just flat out doesn't fit in. He has no interest in such things thus he'd never be part of that story or the main focus of rp in that group. 

 

I have seen a few Companies that are more laid back so to say like the one I found recently that says they do have a story but they encourage their members to have their own story as well. Plus their story isn't anything over the top that or requires you to read a novel just to understand the basic idea behind it

 

 

Also I forgot to mention this before... I do see RP in more then just a few spots. Granted there are hubs. More often then not tavern spots. But I have seen random groups about in the same area every so often. Though maybe its all about timing.

[K'nahli]

I honestly become annoyed when I see roleplayers in public not roleplaying publically. Look, whether or not you want people to join in on the conversation is totally up to your character, but don't literally hide your voices from passers-by. Apart from looking bad, something you say could easily influence other people either directly(should they try and approach you) or indirectly(should they learn something useful or remember something as a result). Honestly I see it as rather unfair and selfish to hide RP if its not actually supposed to be whispered to each other. For the record though, if you want speak to someone in the form of a whisper for the whole conversation then don't stand in the middle of the streets of Ul'dah because people don't do that. They take themselves to the sides or find themselves a quieter spot.

 

Having said that, just because you see roleplayers doesn't mean they are openly inviting you to take part. I don't like the idea of people inviting themselves for the sake of inviting themselves when really their character has no business involving themselves. That is OOC influence and its not good. At least find some excuse to end up interacting with them or ask someone to create an excuse for you to become involved. This is what I often did when I tried RP'ing a waitress in the Quicksand. Often enough there were people sitting alone, obviously hoping for some roleplay but unable to involve themselves with the scenes around them. So instead, I approached them myself to break up their inactivity period and on a couple of occasions played a part in involving them with nearby groups. Try helping each other out in similar ways, it really makes for a more ideal and realistic cause for interaction than suddenly spilling your drink every time.

 

 

 

As for ideas, how about a 'Market Day' where people congregate in the three cities and serve as salesmen/women? If anyone is involved with that or crafting, fishing etc then you could create a small dynamic for yourself and others that way. Only problem is that I'd suggest against the actual markets. They are far too crowded in my opinion.

 

People could also organise regular trading caravan groups. I'd LOVE to see more RP in the outside world. It'd be really nice to encounter a group of people with some chocobo mules following them that are selling random wares and supplies. ANYONE can participate in that even if it is a small encounter. What can also happen from that are bandit raids and such. I have a bandit character that I would happily level up rather soon if I saw more events and outside RP going on.

[Magellan]

K'nahli, I love ur market day idea and would gladly participate. I had actually been having a similar idea, and I have ICly been a waitress at the Bismatck

 

It's just.... can we not have it in the actual marketplaces? Those spots lagfreeze my computer like crazy >_<

[Maril]

Though I do not know the community well enough to truely comment on the subject here, I would like to contribute my recent experiences, as someone new to the rp scene on Balmung: 

 

I'm a EU player which means that I should theoretically be seeing less RP around than anyone else, yet walking into the inn in ul'dah at random chance one day actually created a chain reaction of roleplayers joining in. From that, one player whispered me with an excuse right off the bat, about not wanting to intrude the RP me and my guildee were doing, though we came with the intention of finding other rp'ers, so there wasn't really a need for it. Anyways, in general chattyness, I explain that I am new around here, and without even blinking I got a warm welcome and a soft lay-down of the community, how things seemed to be to this person, etc. And whilst it wasn't entirely positive, I greatly appreciate something like that - the fact that there's negative points only makes it seem real and credible. No RP community anywhere is perfect  

 

I'd imagine I'm not alone in appreciating getting intro's like that. Even if the forecast didn't bode well, I decided to power on with the FC that I am an officer in. It'll probably be tough as nails to survive but so be it. We're going in with an open concept, hopefully it'll be good for both us and the community.

[Val]

I've certainly noticed it can be very hard to walk up and RP with a random group of individuals. I also attribute it to the fact that Val's personality is generally hated and disliked and don't expect people to really respond kindly to him.

 

Also, Naih'ir, we need that one-on-one sometime  I'll message you soon to try and set it up.

[Michikyou]

I know. This isn't about me.

 

This is about a few people I have known who have found the community so hard to break into. I understand the community is young. But there are very few events. I have only seen 2-3 on per month and the ones publicly on are usually very crowded and hard to even converse in.

 

Just hopefully we can get some more activity on the site and some more events open.

[Val]

I know. This isn't about me.

 

This is about a few people I have known who have found the community so hard to break into. I understand the community is young. But there are very few events. I have only seen 2-3 on per month and the ones publicly on are usually very crowded and hard to even converse in.

 

Just hopefully we can get some more activity on the site and some more events open.

 

Oh, without a doubt. I've CERTAINLY noticed that there are VERY few events. Hardly anything seems to go on aside from the "meet and greet" stuff. I wouldn't mind helping to coordinate and try to get something else going on.

 

Edit:

My problem is my availability. It's very sporadic due to life/school/whatever. Sometimes I can make it weekends, sometimes I can't. It's really hard to say. So I can help try to plan events and stuff, but I can't guarantee I'll be able to attend.

[Rosekitten]

I personally would love to see a market day type of deal that was mentioned. It would be a good way to introduce crafters and none crafters to one another ic'ly ^^ (pretty sure we have a few FC groups and LS groups that are for crafting)

 

But I do agree there aren't a lot of events community wide... and the ones that have happened seemed to be crowded (kinda why I avoided them.. all for a crowd but there is a point when its too many).

 

A though if there are smaller events maybe advertisement in game would be good as well... there is a good number of rp'ers that don't come here or check here often enough to catch events if there were any.

[Val]

A though if there are smaller events maybe advertisement in game would be good as well... there is a good number of rp'ers that don't come here or check here often enough to catch events if there were any.

 

Advertising in game would be a good idea, but I'd be far too afraid that it would attract trolls. And, if you're like me and tired of SE's incompetence at fixing their chat/spamming system, some run around with most of the channels turned off.

[ArmachiA]

I don't really ever RP in party unless we're supposed to be at someone's house that doesn't exist or something. If I do anything in /say people are welcome to react, come over, whatever. The other day we did RP in /party at the hot springs because there were trolls about, but we even invited a dude into it we didn't know because he sat down next to us.

 

My FC generally always tries to get people involved in things who are outside the FC. You'll actually notice Dennthota running around doing this a lot and I've had some awesome RP sessions because Denn is like "INVITE EVERYONE, DO THINGS". I appreciate Denn for that, he tends to be a lot more outgoing on that than me as I tend to worry I'm bothering people.

 

THAT being said, its really up to the individual player wither or not they want to rp with strangers or rp with their friends, and we probably should try to guilt them into changing their mind? When you RP with people your comfortable, they understand your RP style, your character back story, they're probably apart of your storylines that you can talk to them about without someone going "THAT'S NOT EXACTLY LORE." or "THAT IS SO STUPID, LET ME SOLVE ALL YOUR PROBLEMS WITHOUT ASKING.", you can RP fight them and not have to worry about them constantly overpowering you, you can get into a romance with them and know they aren't taking it too seriously.

 

That is comfortable. And it's their 15 dollars, they are allowed to use it to be comfortable.

 

Getting to know strangers can be daunting, just like real life. Will this person like my backstory? Will I ever see this person beyond tonight? How deep should I go into things? Will they just talk about themselves? Are they just gonna hit on me? How many "Hello, I'm ____" so I have to do before something sticks?

 

Should people get themselves out there and RP more with strangers? Yes, it's always good, but I understand it can be scary. I rolled a character, Armi, with the specific mindset of wanting her to go out and meet new people, so she tends to get involved with conversations and meet people. I rolled Loki to not care about that, though she does tend to be chatty at a bar. We also have to consider the character mindset. Maybe they just don't care your standing 5 feet from them, and that's okay. We shouldn't force all characters to be chatty.

 

My guild also has about 7 or 8 people who rolled Garlean evil alts specifically to antagonize people who want to be antagonized (You can hire our villiany ways at our forums in the Bad Guy Inc Section: http://nightblades.shivtr.com/forums/1005125 - you don't even have to register to post!) and this has actually become quite a boon, we've been hired out before and it worked wonderfully. We even have people not in the Night Blades who have rolled baddies to help plan terrible things! When we don't have anyone interested in hiring us, we generally Antagonize ourselves and our alliance guildies over at the Grim Echo. It's made for some really fun storylines.

 

We try. We do what we can.

 

On Events... My guild wouldn't really set up events, it's not really in our nature, but I would like to see more. Maybe an event planning committee of some kind? I know there are a few, the Grindstone on Saturday's and the Wineport thing is trying to start but the organizers never show up >.>. A lot of people seem to be going there anyway though.

[LandStander]

 

 

On Events... My guild wouldn't really set up events, it's not really in our nature, but I would like to see more. Maybe an event planning committee of some kind?

[Raccoon]

I know. This isn't about me.

 

This is about a few people I have known who have found the community so hard to break into. I understand the community is young. But there are very few events. I have only seen 2-3 on per month and the ones publicly on are usually very crowded and hard to even converse in.

 

Just hopefully we can get some more activity on the site and some more events open.

 

Unfortunately, most people are like you -- and me, don't get me wrong -- who want more events but aren't willing to start one themselves. It's a pain to organize and host these events, plus you kinda need to limit participation somehow, or you're going to have hundreds of RPers and maddening scroll. But by limiting participation, you get called all sorts of things, with elitist being one of them.

 

The only times I've ever seen anyone turned away is when Mysterium is having a super-secret FC meeting and our catgirl-guarding-the-stairs turns them away IC, or when someone tries to walk up and RP without asking first. In which case we're usually in a scene that's typically not located where we're sitting, or it's got a month-plus worth of story behind it that's just plain awkward to have a random person walk into. In both cases, they get told politely OOC that that's what's happening.

[Magellan]

Events are often chaotic, crowded, and confusing as hell. They do little in serving any of my rp needs, and I think a lot of people feel the same way (though not all).

 

There are many good events (and I've been to some =) ) but they take time, thought, and dedicated people to plan and run. 2-3 community events per months honestly isn't a bad number

 

Part of the problem lies in the fact that people seem to think events need to be these grand, elaborate schemes that people will talk about for years to come. No. Just... no. An event can be simple. Something as simple as; hey let's have a footrace from Ul'dah to Vesper Bay!

 

The very core of an event is to try to get people to interact, and the core often gets buried under layers of complexity. The simpler, more easy to understand, and more accessible an event is, the greater chances there are that many people will enjoy themselves.

 

Its possible to run an event that doesn't need a big setup and weeks of planning, and we need more of those going on!

[Claris]

There are 2800 members on this site. For the purpose of this discussion, lets just say 2000 of them rolled on Balmung. In any realistic town of that size, you'll be acquaintances with about 50, be friends with about 20, and know of about 100-200 (studies show the average facebook friend count is 150. But do you actually know all 150 of those people?)

 

And that's if you are an outgoing personality. For a lot of characters, it makes sense to only have a handful of friends ICly. To stay within what feels comfortable. IC rudeness, if it fits the character, is a non-issue.

 

OOCly, its a different story. A majority of people have rather diverse, yet generally specific tastes on RP, on everything from romance to combat, to how dark or humorous they like to keep things. It should come as no surprise that when you find people who share your taste, you tend to RP with them a lot, and develop rather involved interpersonal storylines. Its that progression of character that keeps people coming back, and you don't always get thet from random meetups.

 

This.

 

I think the problem is that this is such an open-ended world with so many different storylines going on, that it's hard to include everyone. There is no single DM running a plot. There are multiple DMs - officers of FCs/LSes, the players - running their own storylines that may or may not mesh well with others' storylines.

 

As an example, over a month ago my character was involved in an FC storyline event in Limsa where HOLY CRAP MULTIPLE EXPLOSIONS AND MAGITEK AND EVERYTHING. While this is going on, other roleplayers not involved in this event are happily getting drunk on their ales at the Bismark. What gives? There's explosions afoot! C'mon people, get your swords! What gives is that there are essentially multiple universes going on that may or may not intersect with your own universe. If you want in, all you gotta do is ask!

 

As another example, I'm currently running my own storyline that involves a smattering of people. It branches out as the characters choose to involve other characters. It's their own choice whether they want to include the entire Free Company or not, or if they want to include outside help. This really all depends on the characters' personalities, motives, etc. Hell, some characters know the hooks but choose not to be involved. That's perfectly fine too! I'm planning on writing up a separate hook once a different FC storyline is "settled" - if I get the coolio from the officers. Will I post it up on RPC? We'll see. Too large a group makes me nervous.

 

As for events, I will be more than happy to run stories for people. Not huge MEET N' GREET events like I've seen, but rumors going around town or even personal storylines if people want outside help.

[Naunet]

As an example, over a month ago my character was involved in an FC storyline event in Limsa where HOLY CRAP MULTIPLE EXPLOSIONS AND MAGITEK AND EVERYTHING.    While this is going on, other roleplayers not involved in this event are happily getting drunk on their ales at the Bismark. 

 

Explosions in Limsa? @.@ That all sounds rather dramatic and something a citizen of the city-state should at least have overheard. Care to elaborate? Cause I had no idea anything had happened!