IC taken OOC

Grim wrote:And Arli, both our characters are gits who don't get on with anyone and every time they meet they clash - but we've never fallen out OOC!

No we haven't, because we both understand it's all IC and we both love the clashes you arrogant self-important feckin' orc, I swear throw me out one more time and I'll have the Thorns on your back

I no longer roleplay many characters, just don't have the time to get as immersed as I like to in roleplay but no one ever really had OOC issues with me over my other chars, just Arli. I've played incognito in other guilds, not letting them know who my main was, and had zero problems even with people who actually hated me ooc as the person behind Arli.

VT is supposed to be a disciplined fighting force of assassins so although Arli can play the fool and come across as an idiot, he's pretty switched on and can easily drop into "complete bastard" mode when he needs to - including to Thorns who may not be making the grade in his eyes. I've also had people take offence when he stated clearly that if he dies, he doesn't want to be raised as some emotionally void forsaken, rather be dead that that sort of abomination (tact isn't his middle name) - someone who had rp'd their belf dying and being raised as forsaken took it as a personal ooc attack on their rp and rage quit the guild even though I wasn't a high ranked Thorn at that time >.<

So yes, I do avoid those I know will be dissecting every IC statement for OOC malice but it isn't always possible to that that :/

I have a secret weapon that I bring out in times of OOC-IC confusion.
Do you want to see it?
Are you sure you can handle it?
Ok fine, I'll show you.
First, you whisper someone after said character interaction and you chuck this weapon at them:

XD


That's all you need.

Ehh, smilies only serve to annoy me when someone is being passive aggressive. It's like a shield that people hold up and I quote from numerous people; "I put a smiley up, you can't take offense!"

Well, I see that condescending smirk in your closed bracket you fiend, and I will not have any of it! Nor will I take your crossed eyes large mouthed laughter as anything but direct laughter at me!

*Shrugs*
Then you are clearly an offender of people that take things IC, OOC.

I only get annoyed when people meta

((I was joking))

Senariul wrote:((I was joking))

You rascal.

I think the conclusion of this thread is: If people don't like me based on something my character did. In short, they are an idiot.

Arabella Greene wrote:

I think the conclusion of this thread is: If people don't like me based on something my character did. In short, they are an idiot.

Sadly, I can't find myself agreeing with this conclusion and I think it's a gross oversimplification - but I guess as a rule or maxim it works.

Don't be suprised if it doesn't work like that in practise though. Characters are still played by people and role-playing effects people on a deeply emotional level. You can't expect people to remain stoic all the time when their characters are concerned. I don't believe in a strict divide between OOC and IC. Characters are people and people are characters.

I know Thelos, too well.
Life is circumstantial.
No one person can ever be summarised by how they were at that particular moment due to the ever-changing variables of life itself.

But my gross oversimplification was purely for the OPs benefit since he was down on the issue.

Also lets not forget at the very core, most people kinda poor something of themselves into a character.

But yeah its a difficult thing and for me the best solution has always been, not trying to just explain you don't think what your character thinks, but hit up a conversation that shows you're a human other then the character the guy/girl sees in-front of him/her.

That usually requires being social and typing full sentences in my case and being *shudder* nice... but I cope.

Sometimes in emotes, I add small little commentary notes on my characters actions just to convey the mood I feel they should be portraying where the text may lack.

If my character is being a jerk, I will say "What a jerk!" at the end of an emote. If my character is being a ditz, I will add "Such a ditz". Granted, these are like spices that should only be lightly sprinkled onto your emotes to not saturate it with contextual flavouring, but it adds a nice zing to the end of the odd bite of emote.

Senariul wrote:If my character is being a jerk, I will say "What a jerk!" at the end of an emote. If my character is being a ditz, I will add "Such a ditz". Granted, these are like spices that should only be lightly sprinkled onto your emotes to not saturate it with contextual flavouring, but it adds a nice zing to the end of the odd bite of emote.

I like to do this sometimes. It emulates the style of the default emotes nicely as well!

It was a habit I stole from you actually.

YOU INSPIRE ME OKAY?!

Arli wrote:This has reared its ugly head again - any idea how to combat it? Explaining ooc that your character is an arsey git, but you are not, seems to rarely work. Kinda getting fed up by people assuming I can't rp and that I am in fact Arli ooc too.

Usually people are able to separate the IC and the OOC quite well, unless they are too intimately involved with their characters.
These characters are characters they strongly identify themselves with, sometimes even expressions of things they dare or cannot do in real life considering the consequences.

Another way IC character traits are taken OOC is when they reflect an aspect of the person OOC.
If an individual decides to, (without asking consent) RP out attempting to rape my character, I will believe this individual to be less then pleasant, and lack respect. Even though it might be purely your character that decides to take a certain action, you confront me with something I might not want to be confronted with at all.
And even though you are not a rapist, I will still think less of you for your OOC approach to the matter.

Or if your character would for example, start speaking ill of me in /say, with the added (low) to indicate it is just out of earshot, but when responded too would accuse people of metagaming (I added low, you cannot hear that!) I would also grow a dislike for you, because you are insulting my characters in a way that everyone can hear, but no one can reply to.
Similar to the horrible emotes of *thinks you're a twat* which is either an insult you can do nothing about, or one you should lower yourself to a similar level of childish emotes.
A much better solution would be keeping it to whispers and emoting *whispers, while pointing or grinning at -individuals name here-* or a disapproving look.

Characters and people have a small overlap.
A funny witty character, cannot be played by a humourless dimwit.

So, aside from the obvious, people are not their characters, I thought I'd shed some light on the other perspective.

Solanum wrote:Or if your character would for example, start speaking ill of me in /say, with the added (low) to indicate it is just out of earshot, I would also grow a dislike for you, because you are insulting my characters in a way that everyone can hear, but no one can reply to.

...Really.

I think even if people have unimaginative or lazy emotes for insulting, it shouldn't be turned into OOC dislike. Those are just different styles, whether the other player likes it or not.

Trouble is, everyone breaks this rule at some time and so everyone suspects others of doing so too. So suspicion builds and you end up in a race to the bottom and everything is mistrustful.

But as you rp and befriend people then slowly trust builds and counters this process hopefully, unless you subvert your friends into your own ooc politics.

But meh, breaking this rule is the worst sin of RP and kills more RP than godemoting.

Arabelle, edited my post to clarify.

I usually speak in (low) to keep the others aware of what's going on. The actual whispers are excluding people. So saying stuff in meetings with (low) is what I prefer over the actual whispers. It keeps the others aware of what is happening.

Aishling wrote:I usually speak in (low) to keep the others aware of what's going on. The actual whispers are excluding people. So saying stuff in meetings with (low) is what I prefer over the actual whispers. It keeps the others aware of what is happening.

Nod, would agree with this with the proviso that if the words do somehow be overheard that people do not get heated about it.

I dislike angry OOC rage emotes more...

Emrys ((All of your emotes suck and you should just cancel your subscription.))

That kind of shit ._. Or basically other OOC stuff I do not care about that get's thrown into emotes. Just send a short whisper to the person you're RPing with if you really have to go AFK.

But that may just be a silly peeve of mine.

And I do sometimes use them to correct annoying spelling mistakes or other mistakes, for example pressing the spacebar or my trinket in front of people because I did not get to emote correctly.

I had the gem of jumping like that whilst RPing with someone once which resulted in:
Emrys did not hump.
Emrys - Jump*

I hate when people respond to using /eyeroll. Seems a v lazy emote and it is often used as a critic of RP.

Solanum wrote:Arabelle, edited my post to clarify.

Ok. Was going to say

That is transparently OOC though. Posting OOC emotes into /e is generally shit anyway.

Vangrel - HAHA UR CAT IS FUNNY

Comes across really immersion breaking when you are typing or reading, I've found it to be most frequently found among the people who've not yet been asked/informed not to do so. For us? It's a guild rule.

Solanum, in reference to your own post. So in theory, you would be annoyed at me OOC because Vangrel would speak in his own tongue around elves and insult them, and if so, then you would agree that I have the right to be annoyed at the Silvermoon Council for speaking in Thalassian during their gatherings because Forsaken can't understand?

Or would you agree to say that it's easier to simply keep it IC and not judge another player based on his/her characters actions?

Speaking in [Low] is something I too have employed to insult people my characters doesn't like. It's just another form of role-play, shunning it is essentially opening the way to shunning all forms of role-play that you may in the course of your own RP find "insulting".

It's a failure to separate OOC and IC.

I use to let people see role-play when it isn't flowing. People like to read whatever is going on. Role-play isn't a RL conversation - people don't just take long pauses and then suddenly spout out one hundred words all at once; it's nice to fill in those gaps with a bit of ambience and background RP. Taking offence to seems silly to me.

Lexgrad wrote:I hate when people respond to using /eyeroll. Seems a v lazy emote and it is often used as a critic of RP.

... seriously? You don't like people using /eyeroll? I eyeroll all the time IRL, so why shouldn't my characters? Lol. If you do something stupid IC, and people /eyeroll (or /facepalm, or whatever), that's not a 'critique of RP', it's a critique of your character's actions.

Simple emotes are not "lazy". If they are adequately describing the character's actions, then they've done their job. KISS.


/eyeroll>Lexgrad