After reading the responses in this thread, I was curious to find how much role play matters to the population of Lusternia.

I was attracted to Lusternia, because I thought RP was strictly enforced. After 2 years, I've concluded that strict RP will never be enforced, at least not on the level that I had hoped when I first started playing.

I voted that some is necessary (when teaching a novice, for example, or when trying to coordinate an activity and explain when you'll be around) but these shouldn't happen where people can hear it. That's what Tells are for and messages. And entire clans where people agree to be OOC together.

Sitting in a public place discussing out loud in says how much you wish your race had more than 12 con or how you were bleeding over 200 during part of some fight isn't cool though, IMO.

This poll assumes you are in a public place, around other people.

But see, you didn't say that, so all the current votes are skewed now.

Bleh, yeah. Would've voted for strictly enforced then. -.-

I think roleplay is very important, but I also am not going to be all miffed about someone using some OOC slang or terms, like "K" instead of thousand, or level instead of circle. I recognize that it's just a game, and things do slip in. As long as people stay in character in public, on public channels, etc. I don't get bothered.

I think you need an option that says roleplay should be enforced in public, but that I don't think people should be skewered because they mention experience or something like that by accident or without realizing it's not acceptable.

I don't really care about OOC, with the exception of lol, rofl, ur, OMG, emoticons, and all the crap that drive me nuts, though I stay IC of course because thems the rules.

I changed my vote and Ash's vote... and I changed the question.

Do weapon stats or other quantifiables, skill levels, and non-acronym abbreviations bother you?

I've come to believe that you think "strict RP" means the melodramatic, monologuing, stick-firmly-lodged-in-your-uberhonorable-rear cliche present in so much high fantasy.

In a real world, people speak with a fair bit of slang. They shorten common words and phrases (see phone/rezz), sometimes with acronyms (see TV and GR). These will often move from the realm of slang to a formally accepted part of a language.

In a real world, things are quantifiable. The only measurements I can't wrap my mind around are health, mana, ego, willpower, and endurance. My suspension of disbelief is strong enough that I can accept that my character isn't me, and that my character can perceive things I can't. He sends tells and talks over org channels. Who'm I to question his ability to discern his most vital statistics precisely?

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Self-righteous pettifoggery aside, I do think that some small degree of real out-of-character communication is a necessary evil. Novices are the big one. In-game government can be another (role is secondary to my responsibility for other people's enjoyment). Then there's a smattering of things typically discussed privately with a very flimsy IC veneer, such as "travelling beyond the Basin." We all ask what's going on OOCly and make IC plans to account for the loss of the character.

The amount to which Roleplay matters to me does not correspond to my tolerance of OOC. Such a correlation is highly reductive...

I think roleplay is important, but I also think the RP Gestapo should just butt the hell out

RP is what keeps me into this game. A little bit of OOC is a necessary evil.

RP is not the opposite of OOC.

I think talking about real-life things - other computer games, what I ate for breakfast, where I live and what I do, talking about modern technology and society, etc - these things should be banned. This is what I consider really going OOC. So I definitely agree these kinds of OOC things should be monitored and kept in check. I think being IC should be enforced.

RP is more difficult to monitor. I can remain completely IC but do whatever the hell I feel like and have no real consistency to my actions. I'm not RP'ing except on an extremely primitive and fundamental level, but I'm not breaking any rules. In another example, I might decide that although 'hard' RP might dictate that I throw away my life repeatedly in an action I as a player know is doomed to failure, I refuse to do that pointless exercise just because RP enforces it. I am not going to put 'hard' RP above my continued enjoyment of the game.

In summary:

Enforce being in-character.
Encourage quality roleplay.



Edit: I didn't vote because I don't agree with any of your options.

Roleplay is everything to me, until it becomes something absolutely anal like hating someone for using the term 'K' for thousand. You'd might as well fight with your prompt turned off, because it's unrealistic to see a numeral output of your health! It's breaking your immerrrrsion!

Read my rant on the other thread. He best just turn the game off, almost everything comes from real life and is thus OOC.

I agree with what Avaer said. But people can often put aside RP-actions for plain convenience. At this stage I'm not sure what can be done, it'd be hard to suddenly enforce rp-ness rather then if it was enforced strictly from the very beginning. A lot of peple have become accustomed to the loose atmosphere and don't care anymore, e.g. I remember in the early days when people were very adamant about acting properly IG and 'read HELP INSANITY' wasn't uncommon to hear, and we'd even have admins monitering the aethers.

I'm sorry if it seems to me like I've offended several people, in this topic and the other. I was just expressing my opinion and feelings. I understand people have different opinions.

However, when it comes to enforcing IC actions, it seems like people want to bite your head off for politely reminding them (privately, mind you) that what they are doing might seem OOC to some. Emphasis on "bite your head off." The mere mention of it seems to provoke some people into swearing me out with obsenities.

That's certainly an insightful way to look at it.

The problem is so many people get their panties in a twist about things that break their own, personalised view of OOC.. Like your thread.

I'm fine with OOC from time to time... some stuff like "The quest needs to reset" are just plain STUPID if you say them in ICly terms (usually). I'm working on trying to RP a bit better (slowly getting there), but I hate when you ask a simple IC question- "How are you?" gets an OOC answer cause people think Oh! Tells! I can be OOC! There's people now I don't talk cause they flip OOC/IC everytime they are in a manse/tells. Worst part is I've picked up the habit (names with held to protect innocent, and I know I picked it up in the Aquamancers >_>)