I totally metagame. All the time. >:D

I don't consider switching orgs/guilds RP-breaking if there's a story for it. If you can create a compelling plot for that move, why not? If you aren't having fun as a player in your org, you should switch. But when you hop to every org and do a bunch of randomly contrived things because you were bored, and then you make up some reason that your character did it later - that's sloppy.

Then again, your character could literally just not want to be there anymore, unhappy with the government, the job, whatever. It's nice when there's some kind of tie-in though.

I never metagame I didn't like.

I did. You ever play Superman 64?

I have a fetish for flying through rings. That game saw a lot of playtime.

Just maul anyone who tries.

From what I've heard about Daraius' time in Celest, I think it's a perfect example of making your character's RP work for what you want as a player. And I understand that most people don't want to waste their credit investment by starting over. I've never had to worry about that, as the few credits I ever bought on Lilia went straight to lessons, which I'd have to forget anyways.

Caerulo started out as a metagamed character. I started Lusternia as a Merian Aquamancer (because I have this fascination with water), but I got absolutely bored of bashing dream leeches and star suckers all the time, and no one else was around to teach me or tell me about other bashing spots, so I decided to try out influencing.

I looked at all of the races and guilds, and picked the combination that gave me the most charisma at that time.

It turned out to be an awesome decision though, because otherwise I'd never have played in Glomdoring and the Shadowdancers. (I still miss Penumbra.)

Some people strangely enough find the mechanics of the game a fun and compelling reason to play. There isn't anything inheirtantly wrong about that.

I'm sorry, Tetra, but I think this thread is a little superficial. Metaplaying as you define it is essential to the game's success as a game. It is important to look at the big picture and know that there are some IC positions or mechanics that ARE designed to be "just mechanical". They are primarily made for no other reason than to confer a specific mechanical effect, or give access to a syntax, nothing else. Any RP tie-in is tenous at best. An example is the Ambassador/Collegium Prof/Guide positions. Another is the market channel. The game NEEDS to give newbie helpers the tools to help newbies. The game NEEDS to have a semi-ooc form of game-wide market channel.

In any game like Lusternia, such mechanical-only positions will eventually have an effect on other positions. To become more efficient, positions which used to have some RP tie-in will follow the model and evolve into nothing more than mechanical positions that are pursued only for the syntax. Power aides, guild archivists, etc. Clans become used as a channel for specific, ooc purposes (combat, cartels).

And the presence of these positions, and their subsequent effect on RP, is essential to the game's overall "funness". This "metaplaying" as you term it, the act of doing something that appears to have some IC tie but is in fact only for an OOC or mechanical effect, is mandatory to ensure the game runs smoothly and that other aspects of the game are fun. Metaplaying as a rule is not only acceptable, tolerable, but essential.

You're not really annoyed at metaplay, Tetra. What you're angry at, Tetra, is laziness. This thread is a personal complaint not about the phenomena of metaplaying, but about the laziness of other people in their metaplay. You're annoyed at the people who don't make the effort to ICly explain their mechanical actions. Almost any form of metaplaying can be explained satisfactorily IC. Guild hopping around the entire org's guilds to get every skill and store them? "It's because the character's on a tour of the City's guilds as an undercover investigator." Conversely, it's possible to explain every IC action as an act of metaplaying. "Your character hates my character's guts, but you killed me because you wanted exp, not because of anything else." Getting annoyed at lazy metaplaying is a waste of your own time, and very subjective to boot.

Some people don't have the time to brainstorm a believable story to cover why their character would jump to another City and back. They just do it, and make up something when someone asks. Is this too little effort? If you're going to get annoyed at everyone who puts in what you think is not enough effort to make up a cover story, then all you're doing is making your own gameplay unfun, and nothing anyone does can make it more fun for you. Stop being a stickler for what you think is the "minimum standard of roleplay" someone must do, and you'll find your game improving. You don't have to get your knickers in a twist about it, there are sufficient IC and administrative checks for those who openly flaunt their metaplay (orgtheft to buy credits and transfer to an alt, etc).

Arix has incurable wanderlust. Also, sometimes he gets REALLY drunk

2 and 3 are definitely not 'meta'. Both could be referred to as 'politics'.

See:
1) The Cold War (standoffs through fear of what the other side would do in response)
2) Any millions of instances of friends being promoted / given jobs / etc. instead of someone more suited to the position.

Now, what I would consider meta would be a character breaking their entire roleplay and setup just to be able to participate in the new Family system, ala Eventru's "HELP 4.10" comment. Which is why I take some offense to that one!

Admin shouldn't encourage or promote metagaming. Just let me banner with my little family!

Well we can make everyone guilty then who has used the children or spouse thread. Or even just takes any kind of info from these forums. Or participates in the Facebook groups.

The metagame is unavoidable. Where I personally draw the line is if there is an IC explanation / reason / motivation. I can explain for example doing all quests or exploring all territory by the fact that my character is incredibly curious about everything and will act her way through everything for the sake of knowledge. And that ties in nicely with the tenets of Baalphegar. What I can't explain however would be to change guilds for easier leveling / cash bashing. Sure it would make my life as a player a whole lot easier, but it is not what my character would do, and thus not what I'd enjoy doing. I also prefer to keep reasons simple. Our characters are all thinking sort of like humans in the real world, so why make it difficult? Everyone is entitled to their own style, of course, but personally I like mine

Even if a course of action was untenable or even unthinkable for my character, if it was unavoidable OOC (due to say, a lack of fun in the guild my character is in) I'd direct my roleplay towards that end: because ultimately I'm in the game to have fun, and everything (my characters established roleplay included) is fluid comparative to that. For example, when I started playing Jack he was a Nifilhema-worshipping Nihilist who delighted in torturing and controlling people - he would not have fit in Serenwilde or Celest (since, y'know, Glomdoring, Hallifax and Gaudiguch weren't released back then). Due to OOC boredom I shaped his character (over the course of IC years!) into someone who could believably defect to Celest.

The only form of metagaming I don't condone is the stuff that's blatantly against the rules, like multiplaying or utilizing knowledge your character clearly shouldn't possess. You can excuse virtually any other action, that's the beauty of roleplaying.

Did Tetra give up in disgust with this thread after seeing the responses?

Certainly has been quiet, although some of the things she was going after were debatable.

I like how the word "metagame" has come to mean "something I don't like". Wait, what am I talking about, it's always meant that.

Also, I t hought we weren't allowed to make rant/troll threads?

Thank you for proving my point.

Can we close t his thread? It's only going to get worse