There's something I like to call 'metaplaying'. What is it? When a character is roleplayed in such a way as to achieve in-game benefits in lieu of realistically portraying the character's story. This includes any and all decisions made through OOC motives and translating that into your characters actions without any IC motivation. I can safely say that almost everyone is guilty of this at some point in their roleplaying career - and by everyone, that includes yours truly. I like to compare it to metagaming, but instead one is concerned with having the most honour/power/positions of authority/benefits.

Now, I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting those things, but when you start controlling the mechanical outcome of various situations on the premise of using your OOC agenda to influence or manipulate your character or other characters it becomes an entirely different story.

Examples:
Completing certain quests that conflict with the character's org/alignment/morality just so they can get the honours line.
Citizen A raids enemy org, Citizen B sees the mechanical ramifications for being counterattacked by said enemy org and punishes Citizen A.
Beaurocrat A elects a relative for Ascension, but conveniently leaves Champion of Guild B off the ballot.


Do you catch yourself doing these sorts of things, and if so, how often?
If yes, do you do anything about it, or continue on as normal? Or do you consider it a normal part of playing Lusternia?
Also, what other examples of metaplaying have you seen in the game?

I joined Hallifax.

I'm not actually sure how examples 2 and 3 are meta, actually. You could actually justify it ICly.

This.

>.>

Well, everything is subjective. If your character's ethos changes a few years down the road and they decide to switch orgs, you can really justify anything "meta" as part of your roleplay. It's a matter of recognizing your intentions more than anything, otherwise it's impossible to differentiate it from pre-defined plotting.

2) Depends on the specific situation.
3)Something is definitely wrong if your Champion isn't worth considering for Ascension.

I think that roleplaying is not the only focus in Lusternia, and for at least some, myself included, not the main focus.

I don't think I would give much of a second thought to meta-playing if I did do it... but I can't really think of any times that fit the definition you gave off hand.

3) Champion isn't always best at combat. Seriously, believe me. When Seren supported Viynain back in the day, he wasn't a guild champion at the time. Even if this was not the case, to play devil's advocate, your character could just be indulging in rampant nepotism, as opposed to you-the-player (you-the-player aren't related to your IC family, in any case). It's a matter of semantics, but nevertheless an important distinction.

Nepotism is how I got into half of my elected positions. Never knock nepotism.

That is how I feel a lot of people play Lusternia. I'm not saying it's wrong. But I don't consider it roleplaying. At all.

The game is first and foremost a game, so do whatever you think is fun. If you love quests, do them, even if some of them might not go entirely with your character's IC beliefs.

It's a very fine line to draw though, and it's very hard to distinguish, as people have said. I know I've done many things simply because they provided the most mechanical benefit at the time, and I think it's just as valid a playstyle as any other hardcore RPers.

I'm not sure how nepotism isn't roleplaying anymore than being an extremist zealot for your organization or thinking your guild is better than another guild. Not that I'm supporting nepotism, since it's annoying, but saying it isn't roleplaying is a little silly.

The sort of thing that bugs me is when people move their character around a bunch, completely changing their character concept in the process. I know a lot of people do that, and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it, but I could never do it. When I got bored playing in Celest, I made a new character, because it didn't make sense to move Lilia. She might move to Ackleberry, but never another city.

I don't mean nepotism specifically. I mean the mentality of playing the game like it's a flat object.

For example, I've tried roleplaying certain situations with my aides. They don't get why I want them to visit this commune and speak with this person. They just want to be an aide and help citizen people. Does that make a bit of sense? It's treating everything like a SYNTAX or CITY FAVOUR that makes me feel like RP is dying.

I agree with Shuyin.

Lusternia is a game and people should be free to play it however they like, as long as it doesn't detract from another reasonable player's enjoyment of the game. This can cover things like metaplaying, nepotism, ganking or just about anything else. As long as your handling of the situation gives options for others involved to enjoy themselves there really isn't a problem.

For some players, especially those who have invested a lot of time/money into the game, just creating another character isn't always an option. I can't even play alts because I can't stand not having all my skills/artifacts to play with and I would change Arel's roleplay (multiple times) rather than create a new character and give up demigod, omnitrans, and about 20,000 credits worth of artifacts.


Yeah I get what you're saying. When I first started playing as Arel the Nihilist, it always annoyed me when I'd be like "omg people are killing demons! we must go defend them!" and the response would be "well, they are only worth 5 power, so its not really a big deal". But I've just gotten more and more disillusioned about the "infinite" possibilities of the game and really just don't enjoy doing things that don't have some sort of mechanical impact in the game. I can't really blame other players (especially the older/experienced ones who've been through the ups and downs of the immersion in the game world) for also not really caring about things unless there is some sort of impact involved. The only RP I really do anymore is with Elostian's Order (because it has always maintained its integrity and having Elostian as a patron has been far far far more rewarding that any other thing I've done in the game) and with Shevat (since the family system, even with its perceived problems, is still a new and exciting thing. Also no one has abused it yet.).

I think I understand what you're getting at, but your examples are absurdly horrible in portraying that, so you look like you're just being randomly picky about things.

EDIT: And yeah, about moving to other orgs. I don't think I'd ever move Sylphas out of Serenwilde, but if it was between play and alt and move him to Glom, his furry ass would be in Glom. I've spent far too much time and money on him to abandon.

Or switching through 3 different guilds, then moving back to to the one you joined in the first place. Again, not horrible, just sort of flakey.

Well. I guess I'm hugely guilty of it, since I hopped to tahtetso and back to Hallifax because I wanted to be a lobo monk instead of a lobo mage... I was a newb. All I wanted was to be a dingo man and a Hallifaxian, but the Aeromancers were the only guild when I started and I didn't like much of anything about the archetype or guild. But I worked the move all very carefully into Daraius's backstory and ongoing narrative, so I hope it didn't look too much like a guild hop.

There was also some behind-the-scenes orchestration of Daraius and Sylandra's engagement, but that was for logistical purposes and consideration for other players, not for mechanical advantages or anything.

I did put all influencing on hold when I got close to getting the double experience achievement, intending to save it for a great hunt (which I did) so I could power through Titan (which I did). It meant purposely avoiding at least one revolt.

Um... I also avoid all forms of PvP, because I don't find any aspect of that fun (with the exception of aethership combat). It would be fairly hard for me to justify it from an IC perspective, but thankfully no one's confronted Daraius about it. I still have a log of a discussion Gadritan had with someone who was badgering him about being a non-com. I'd rather not be put in that situation.

Am I going to RPG hell for my sins?

Yeah, I lost my train of thought half-way through the OP. I'm not very good at formulating obscure concepts into easy reading. This wasn't a "if you do this, you aren't playing right" thread, more like a.."be less afraid to roleplay actual things in the game" thread.



That kind of bugged me with the Air Lords at first, but Hallifax's relationship with them deviates from the norm. I still think it's kind of an 'excuse', but what can you really do about it at this point. Things like that, to me, are part of the org apathy syndrome. Nobody wants to do anything unless it means getting shiny medals. Granted, it's okay to be mechanical when you're playing. But if you're -just- mechanical? I don't see Lusternia being fun at all.

Meet you on the way down I suppose. People can have reasons to move around. (Dylara's move to Glom involved feeling being betrayed by Seren, brainwashed by a Crow follower and kidnapped later as an example, but I just genuinely wanted to move to Glom as a player )

Are some things metaplaying? Sure, what can't be meta'd? That has to be a pretty damn short list.