Hmm, when you can't bash, lack any guild objectives to pursue, have no real source of gaining gold, have no other RP avenues to pursue at the moment, and your morale is shot by getting your hopes up and then dashing them, what reasons can motivate someone to log in?

I'm trying to find some reason to play. However I have no guild skills, nor could I afford to join another one and waste the sizable pile of lessons I have. So I can't really pursue any personal gain at the moment. Without a guild I have nothing guild-wise to pursue. The city I'm a part of is drowning in ennui, so trying to interact on that front is nearly pointless given I'm pretty much ignored. The friends I associate with are all out of realm. The event I'd hoped would mark the opening of the guild I'm waiting for seems to have nothing to do with it, so my morale has gone from spiking to a crash.

However.

I still want to play.

I'm just trying to come up with a reason to log in. Right now it just seems like the only thing I'd be doing IG at the moment is getting hungry, getting sleepy, and mindlessly hunting lizards.

I could use any advice here. When you don't have any reason to play, what reason do you come up with as an excuse to anyway? I wonder if anyone else has ever gone through this problem.

Edit: On second thought, this should probably be merged with some other thread like Twits or something. Dunno. Can a mod help?

Friends are the best reason to log in.

Goals and achievable things are nice in the interim spaces, but it's the relationships you forge in the game that keep most people coming back, I think.

Have you considered becoming a raging griefer? It's fairly obvious that causing misery and irritation is the only reason certain people even show up nowadays. Also, I always found that designing t hings keeps me interested, maybe you could look into that.

I don't really understand what the problem is. You have lessons but consider using them on guild skills a waste, even though you cannot hunt or do much else without guild skills... there is usually a hunting skill in each guild that only costs a few lessons to get, too. Maybe you should elaborate a bit more. From what you said, I'd advise you to join a guild, learn the skill required for hunting and start doing it.

Need the guild before I can start griefing. I'll also have to rebuild my system. It's looking good so far, especially the enemy profile/strategic analysis bits, and in testing it handles things like sap/aeon fairly well with the balance locking things.

Problem is I'm not the type that enjoys combat much. It's a bit boring when you have a good enough system.

Edit: My character is waiting to join a currently unavailable and joining another guild would be a bit pointless except for said bashing skill. Of course I'm also of the school of thought that guild/city hopping is tacky, which influences that issue.

See, I don't understand you, or Arcanis for that matter, in this regard. You both joined Templars so you could get Paradigmatics and then quit the guild to sit around doing basically nothing other than talk about how things don't work in the city, should work in the city, the city isn't what you expected it to be, all the while ignoring what the city really is. Of course you are bored. You shut yourself out of a good portion of what makes logging in fun and then alienate people by coming out of the blue after 6 months acting like you are the wise one who knows all about Gaudiguch.

Most of the city isn't drowning in "ennui", and I am pretty certain that's not the word you meant to use anyways. If you can't hunt or do anything that is nobodies fault but your own. If the city is not what you expected it to be, perhaps that's cause you read three paragraphs in a history and made perceptions that were based on a slice of the city. Have you even talked to any denizens in the city? I see you graduated the collegium, but did you do everything there or did you skim it and not pay attention to the sub text?

This isn't meant as an insult, rather than an observation of your character, either. Really, all I can say is get involved in more than "it would be so much better if Gaudiguch was the way I dreamed it." If you have to search for reasons to log on, there is no point in logging on.

I log in to remind myself how adorable my character is, how adorable my manse is, and to get random commodities and items from people who think I'm cute and witty. I also send people fish. I don't hunt. At all. Or fight. Basically, I show up to socialize and that's just about it. So if you don't have friends, I don't know what to tell you. Eat a few bugs and see if you can make some.

Yes I have talked to many of the city's denizens, and yes, the lack of skills was a personal choice. I could have worked as a Templar, etc. The problem is, I'm not a Templar. It was a bad decision in the first place and I regretted it, not because I didn't like the guild or anything, but because it was a compromise of character.

As to the 'knows it all' issue, I don't. I just have suggestions and observations. As far as wallowing in ennui, the most common line I've heard from any of the people I've spoken to when the subject of trying to help improve the city comes up is 'there's no point in trying' or 'it's pointless'. Suggestions get ignored or shot down on even the basis of 'nobody cares'.

As for sitting around doing nothing? Hardly. Helping novices, helping gather power, doing research into RP interests that are city/illuminati-centric etc. etc. etc. As for bitching? Most of the conflict I've had with the people I'm in close association with concerns me encouraging giving you more time to work on improving things. You deserve the benefit of the doubt.

But this isn't a thread on the city, nor on how to get guild skills, etc. It's a question about what there is to do in -absence- of such things.

Edit:
Ennui –noun
a feeling of utter weariness and discontent resulting from satiety or lack of interest; boredom

also of note: I don't know Paradigmatics. Didn't learn it. Could have, but didn't.

as for friendship it's more of an issue of when friends aren't about.

I am aware of what ennui means. However, given your context of it, you either used the wrong word or didn't know what it meant yourself, because the city is most definitely not "drowning in ennui". Maybe you are drowning in ennui, but the city is not. Again, though, putting yourself in a bad position is all on you. You have the ability to change everything. Choosing not to do so then running to the forums to say "tell me what I can do if I don't do anything to change" in multiple threads is just... well, I am at a loss for words to describe it without a forum ban.

This might come off as sounding completely negative... but you say that you have no guild, no friends around, and don't want to hunt or fight... there's really nothing else for you to do in absence of all of those things unless you like writing stuff or designing things. If you can't come up with a reason for logging in, then logging in probably is a pretty pointless thing for you to do. Just saying.

Constantly with personal attacks and slanted misinformation.

*sigh*

Either cut them out or stop directing them at me. They don't help me, they don't help you, they don't help anyone.

Edit: I'm thinking of just waiting until some friends are back on to log on.

I really want to see the code for this system of yours now, if it's good enough to make combat boring.

Yes, disagreeing with you and taking your own words in your very first post and saying "you did this to yourself and asking people how to fix it when you are not willing to change, as admitted by yourself" is a personal attack and misinformation.

I'd IM you about it if your inbox wasn't already full.

It's more of a pet project honestly, and still in early stages. I might use it once or twice when it's completed, then maybe hand it off to whoever else wants it. Still, it'll keep me busy when I have writer's block.

I had that same problem for a while - not really seeing any reason to log in (I even just kind of shrugged at 100 credits from a Bardic). You just have to be proactive about making new friends and talking to people.

You don't have to break character. Just think of something about a particular character that might interest yours (say, they have a strange tattoo in their description, and your character likes tattoos, and wants to know where or how they got it).

At least, that's what I did. Now I'm jacked in happily playing a lot of the time again!

Gregori isn't using personal attacks. He has a habit of bluntly smashing your face in with the truth when you'd rather he stop doing so.

First off- if you're not going to participate in combat, why are you wasting your time making a system? That's totally unproductive. If you're going to make something, make sure you at least get some use out of it.

And then, you can't hunt, because you haven't joined a guild. Why? Easy remedy, there.

You're evidently alienating yourself from the rest of your city, which means you won't have social reasons to log in, either.

When you combine those two - no hunting skills, and not connecting with enough people - you'll never go on group hunts with anyone, which is the way most midbies develop their first friendships in-game.

Helping novices doesn't quite count as socialization, sometimes. You're just performing a service for other people. A duty. Personally, I find it dreadfully boring, but you might not.

Overall: If you have to ask others for a reason to log in, chances are your priorities are messed up, or you need to take a break in the first place.

You strike me as a person who will read suggestions and then dismiss them out of hand because they don't fit in with whatever it is that you actually want, but:

1. Learn a design trade and join or make a cartel (beyond Gaudi's, which you'd automatically be enrolled in), then while away the hours designing for that cartel and be a "merchant-type", at least temporarily. Design-based tradeskills are portable, so unless your heart is set on cosmic enchanting you won't have a problem when the Illuminati come out.

2. Make new friends.

3. Have a schtick - eat bugs, or give everyone cookies, or what have you. Akui does koans.

There probably a feeling of frustration right now for the people who are waiting for the Researchers/Illuminati to open when they log in.

It's quite difficult to really get into much when your first thought after logging on is "lame, the guild is still not open... *sigh*"

I enjoy coding, just for the mental exercise, and it'll give me an effective system should I ever decide to use it.

The guild issue is a bit complex, but not joining a guild is an IC choice by the character. Yes, I acknowledge that I'd be able to bash if I did, but if I want to hold true to my character's values and themes, then I'm stuck waiting for a while still.

As far as alienating, I have a decent number of friends IC, but they all seem to be on at about the same time, which means that I (who am usually writing and alt-tabbing between that and Lusternia constantly) end up being on a lot of the time when they're not, so it's more of a timing thing.

I enjoy helping novices though. I like helping them get accustomed to both the game, as well as their city/guild, and I've got a fairly extensive grasp as far as all around aspects of the game (though some are still out of date, though I've brushed up most of them). It gives me a feeling of personal satisfaction knowing that I might have helped them make the decision to keep playing rather than giving up.

The reason I'm asking is because I'm trying to cut my habitual temp alt-ing down (which is my usual answer to ennui) and focus on just one character, rather than just hopping to an alt when bored. Strangely enough, my alts all do quite well for whatever duration they're played, though their temporary nature prevents building the kind of long term bonds I enjoy. (Honestly it's kind of hard to dedicate enough time to creating and maintaining those types of bonds when you have more than one character. Time constraints and all.)