I'd hate to see Lusternia turn the way of many MUD I've seen and just lose the roleplaying feel. I despise seeing people talk about the character as numbers before. "Woot I've got 4000 mana with 19 intelligence." - It doesn't strike me as great... and I've seen some extended conversations about these numbers that our characters would have no clue to.

You need some OOC for talking to a newbie, but generally you can dab at them with in character talk and find most have played a MUD before and know the kinda things to do. Those who don't you take off to a quiet corner and explain through tells.

I've been impressed with the capacity of Lusternia's setting to provide a potentially more immersive RP environment than others. As previously mentioned, Aetherwaves and Amnesiacs.

Please keep up the roleplaying people!

People have similar converstaions in real life. "I can lift 5,000 lbs" " I can run for a mile without needing to rest" "I can read 30 pages a minute" "I can type 6,000 wpm" The language in the mud is 19int and 4K mana. If you want some file that standardizes how much a person can lift and how fast they can read or type, then maybe go a head and do that, in the mean time.. we will use the numbers we know. If you really want, have zmud substitute those words for words you like... it makes it look like everyone is being complex when they arn't....

Brings a whole new meaning to delusions of "reality:"

Ehh... the point is we all know it's a game, I just don't want to be continually reminded of it when I play it.

but thats my point your charchter says things like 19str instead of "I can bench 260" and 4000 mana instead of "I stayed up till 4am studying" its just the language of the world.

It's because I cannot envisage the characters talking about mana the way they might about benchpressing. Just can't enter my mind. I as a person can understand the concept of benchpressing, understand how it is measured, and so on. I can't grasp the concept of magic as this powerful force while there is a simple measure of magic there.

Fantasy isn't necessarily supposed to have science and measuring applied to it... it just IS. At least that's my opinion. If I wanted measurement of brainwave activity, I'd play cyberpunk or something. I can't, and do not wish to, grasp the idea of magic or health being measured in that way. To me, it detracts from the experience.

In a similar way, I've seen a higher ranking guild member have a trigger to act on the "new novice joined" message. Now I despise that. It really feels mechanical and also makes me think "This is a game. I don't want to see this". Kinda demanding I guess... but it aggravates me a lot. What irritates me more is that I can't really say it to the guy because that would also detract from roleplay... *sighs*. I suppose I've been spoilt by my IRL roleplaying group *grins*

I hate that too, Angel, especially when there are several people around at the same time who have such triggers. That's why I always manually greet them and wait a moment for the trigger-happy people to say what tey have to say so I don't have to repeat what 5 other people just said.

Oh stop whining! Some people want to play Lusternia as a game, and not as an immersive RP experience, stop being so inconsiderate. It's fine being immersive, this adds to the sense of reality of the world, and it enhances the playing atmosphere, but the moment that you take RP to its reductio ad absurdiam, and completely ignore the fact that you are playing a game "for fun" then you spoil things.

Being a game player, not a role player, sometimes involves accepting the boundaries of the game and enjoying it for what it is - not real life.

M.

P.S. If you want to ignore the discussion of numbers just presume that there is an IC quantifiable magical test, much like a lung-capacity test, or a blood pressure test, or even an IQ test, and that this is translatable into a number measured in units of health, mana, or ego. Bada-bing-bada-boom, it's IC!

Also global channels genuinely are IC, they involve the subtle manipulations of the aether waves, which you can either attune yourself to or not. This was done in the histories of the Empire, for example, by Lolly Pringle, and your ability at listening and broadcasting across planes is increased by your skill in PLANAR, a real (in game terms) part of the physics of the world in manipulating the aether.

"Roleplaying Encouraged"

Believe it or not, that does not mean optional. Would you really say the same long spammy thing to someone all day, every day? I've worked over the phone enough to know that it's just not possible, you can get into a habit but if you say the same thing over and over, you feel like a robot.

I agree that the discussion over numbers is irritating though... you learn to ignore them, or become nice and blunt like some.

That or repeatedly hit them with blunt objects. Big deal, you have 9000 mana. If you want to talk to me about it in-game, I want to hear something more along the lines of "My mind feels stronger than ever before" than of "W00t, I'mma r0XX0rz j00r b0XXorz with my uber leet bazillion mana points!" If I hear the latter, I'm apt to tell you to stop "point"ing that "mana" thing in your boxers at me.

I've already said it a few times, but I'd like to restate my opinion here. I'm not one to do much roleplaying (which might be a side effect of Achaea being less than RP happy most days) and I see great potential in Lusternia for roleplaying. The fact that conflict brings benefits to the winners or the fact that you must rely on crafters that are actual, real people for so much gives credibility to the roleplaying environment and provides us with a truly immersive experience.

There are always going to be some things that need to be a little bit OOC, but keeping it to a minimum and avoiding the repetition would be best. Instead of saying that you've got a 19 INT and over 4k mana, just say that you're a smart person with excellent mental stamina. And, remember, being intelligent or old doesn't automatically make you wise or experienced.

It's all in the histories. Globglob used them to broadcast and that was more than just cities, that was world-wide. The part about being an amnesiac is proven when you step through the Portal of Fate and you have to try and remember what guild and age you are.

This drives me crazy. They also -never- have any sort of racial background.

All three human races in Imperian had backgrounds if I am not mistaken?

As far as historical racial backgrounds go.....let me say that being a Dwarf and HAVING a history but parts of what make it up are missing is rather frustrating..

Case in point:

Kaark'Krazul--Dwarven stronghold--For a LONG time there, no one knew where it was so I RP'd out my search for it, even going as far as buying a Band of Fasting, refusing to eat or sleep until it was found. -=Thankfully it finally was=-

The Gongon Mountains--How does an entire mountain range vanish? Well, finally it came back as well thankfully.

And if you read the histories of Imperian carefully, you'll read of gnomes-----did any of you ever see a gnome in Imperian? Me neither

You're right, Imperian is the exception. Huzzah for Imperian. No humans, the "human like" races did have backgrounds... The other three, however, still have humans with no backgrounds, which irks me to no end.

Having a weird/incomplete background doesn't bother me so much. After all, history happened a long time ago, so it doesn't make sense that it's all completely accurate. Plenty of it could be legendary, or refer to things that are now called by new names. (Atlantis, for one, is either made up based on something else, actually collapsed under the sea, or was a real island that still exists that no one knows is Atlantis.) Having missing pieces gives everyone a chance to "discover" new things. Imagine how much more boring it would have been if you hadn't had something like that to quest after.

The newbie channel is meant to be OOC anyway, so answering newbies' OOC questions with OOC answers is fine. I mean, there's no way around that.

And yes, I agree Guido, that some things you just can't cover up. But you should try and roleplay WHERE POSSIBLE. Some things can't be helped, we can't be complete RP nazis else it just wouldn't work and it would be horrible. But we can restrain ourselves from turning Lusternia into a chatroom.

And I'm sorry daganev, but I think I disagree. (your wording was a little confusing). zMUD is definetly OOC and should be avoided. Yes, its part of the game, many of us would be lost without it. So what? You don't go around talking about bugs, and TopMudSites, and what system Lusternia is based on, or whatever. I mean, they're pretty vital but it doesn't mean you need to discuss them in public.

I think a mix of the two is best, leaning heavily on the IC side. There is definately a need for some minor OOC to help the everything run smoother. As a side note, thank goodness Daganev has an "assistant" to help him with IC posts (obviously here on forums too) and the like, as his words are quite annoying to decipher at times.

Angel and Marlow both bring up good points. I hate the automated greeting triggers as well; it saves you ten seconds but is so impersonal.

And I think it is perfectly acceptable to talk about stats; filling a game with numbers, ect. and then not allowing anyone to discuss them would be stupid. If you want roleplay without the solid RPG game elements then go play a MUSH, I can suggest several excellent ones. I've never seen anyone bragging along the lines of 'omg, i hav so much mana!', and would just ignore someone if they were. But something like...

Guido says, "How much strength can a Viscanti Ur'guard have?"
Miakoda says, "Up to 18, I think, unless they're undead."

Guido says, "What would be a good about of size to keep yourself from getting knocked down by WindLord's gust wave?"
Hickory Smoked Sausage says, "15 should be enough."

...should be considered fine.

I still don't understand how people can consider the newbie channel as IC, its name defeats the whole thing, let alone anything that's said in it. Plus people ICly on IC channels make faces and stuff.

The thing is, the Guides are supposed to regulate the newbie channel and try to make sure that people aren't using smiley faces and the like on that channel.

I have to agree with Bau here, I have been mudding since I was 13, but have neevr seen anything as advanced as IRE muds in terms of roleplay environments, save LoK which is still in Beta. I don't know how many times I was grilled as the newbie of newbies on my first mud Legends of the Lakes, for saying something OOC, such as the aforementioned "Days" or, "Hey someone named just gave me this , whats it for?". This seriously discouraged my will to even attempt to learn the mud in any way. Later i moved onto muds but took that experience with me, and So I never said days anymore.
Still I must Agree with Bau here, and as a moondancer novice aswell, he has a good point, It is better to correctly them softly in tells than grind them infront of the entire guild, how would their character feels getting steamed infront of all of their friends?
Chok Dee Na! Lagon Krup!
Citan LeFae