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Courtesy for other players; My thoughts...
Topic Started: May 23 2014, 07:08 AM (195 Views)
Systemics

I don't expect everyone to read this. However, I think if you appreciate good roleplay, you should read it.

Imagine you are enjoying some jellybeans with friends. You are taking turns, picking one jellybean at a time, tasting the various flavors, enjoying them together. Then, this other kid comes along and grabs all the jellybeans, shoves them in his mouth, and walks away. Now, you have to wait to get more jellybeans because that other kid wanted to enjoy the jellybeans in his own way.

This happens a lot with roleplay on Habbo, it seems. Not with jellybeans, of course, but with scenes. I will be engaged in a deep, character-building scene with friends, having a very good time learning more about them and building a story together. Then, in the corner of my screen, I see my name flash by in a wall of text, and suddenly someone is telling me I am dead and that I cannot play for another hour. There was no warning, no courtesy, no interaction.

I understand that many people enjoy this style of roleplay. It is fast-paced and competitive. However, not everybody likes to play that way. Some people like scenes that involve weaving a narrative together to create something deep and memorable as opposed to a typing race to the death.

I guess my only message in this is that people should be more courteous to other players. Maybe ask them if they are looking for a combat scene, or see what style of roleplay they prefer, be it emote, descriptive, spam, whatever. Because really, when one player's style of roleplay prevents another player from engaging in their own style, the whole game becomes less fun overall.
Edited by Systemics, May 23 2014, 07:11 AM.
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Ms.Venus
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Amen to this. RP is about being a community. It's simple- if you see a scene that looks very deeply rooted in character build, then lay off and go duel someone out of character. :unsure:
Edited by Ms.Venus, May 23 2014, 07:23 AM.
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Ben
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Lord of Night Sirius Wake
You have to understand that there is a certain... duality when it comes to this sort of thing. While I agree with you, people should want to aspire to become a greater caste of roleplayer and not kill people for the sake of it, freedom is a necessity in an RP community. Believe me, I very much prefer the exchange of dialogue and combat as I weave the two together, rather than *cuts to the head*, *cuts to the flesh* and so on; there's no satisfaction, no validation in just killing someone off.

At the same time, though, there truly isn't a way to regulate this sort of thing.

"What about banning randoming?" Sure, we could do that; however, how do you determine what is or is not randoming? If I enter the Dark Vale and I kill a human, I have a reason to do so: He or she should not have come to the Dark Vale alone and unprepared. I must feed in order to survive. I must ensure that Humans, Lycans and Vampires alike fear me or they will think I am weak and attempt to take my position. Any of these would work. The duality manifests because if x kills y for no apparent reason, y can claim that y doesn't have to accept death because x had no reason; at the same time, x could come up with any reason on the spot (even if it isn't true) as to why he killed y. It once more falls to the individual calibers of the roleplayers in question-- as it does now, before the implementation of any system or rule.

"What about enforcing emote? Switch descriptive dueling and emote dueling, so emote is the norm and you must agree prior to battle to descriptive duel." Why? Why should we allow people to hide behind emote? While a major dynamic of RP is the development of a character and their relationships, another major dynamic is the progression of their strength and their skill. The only way to truly determine a character's strength is the player's typing speed. Otherwise, you get modern SWRP.

Jedi Knight y has been playing for a year and is a terrible typist.
Darth x has been playing for seven years and is a great typist.
The two agree to emote and their battle begins.
Jedi Knight y refuses to accept anything Darth x roleplays because he doesn't have to.
Darth x, for the sake of preserving a friendship, accepts defeat and moves on, even though he or she should not have been defeated.


That is the major problem with SWRP and emote and that's what I see becoming an issue here if the two combat forms are switched.

In the end, even if a system or rule is designed and set in place, it still falls to the maturity and caliber of the roleplayers in question (as it does right now) to uphold that rule or system.
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Alba

I think that serious combat where someone wants to try and kill you should be agreed on both sides OOC before it takes place. I really despise combat rp, I mean that as in I do not like participating in it and I never attack anyone. I generally let people know that I'm not into that and they tend to be nice about it and go on to someone who does want to fight..most of the time. I completely agree with your statement.
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Systemics

Thank you all for your comments. You raise good points. It's funny because as I was writing a response, I was roleplaying at the same time and this happened.. (See the spoiler for the screenie)

Example Screenshot


This might be an extreme example of what I was talking about, because I believe he was trolling as opposed to actually creating a scene. But I think it is a good representation of how a lot of things happen in roleplay on Habbo.

In response to Ben, I agree that there will always be people with maturity levels that do not allow for the level of courtesy we would like to see in the roleplaying community. I also agree that there really is no way to enforce this kind of thing. However, in response to what you said about the typing skill of players, I have been roleplaying on Habbo since around 2004, and I am still a terrible typist. This has made it impossible for me to gain any sort of position of authority on my characters in anything that requires combat. I know I am a good roleplayer, but I am just not that good at typing quickly. I do not think the typing ability of a player should reflect the ability of their character, but this seems to be the case very often.
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XXXunknownXX

I just saw the example screenshot Systemics placed and wow... I think what Alba said that "Both party should agree to battle each other" is a good idea at certain areas of the rp for example, When you are in Kingsmouth - randoming should not be allowed. The attacker should make their victims acknowledge that they (the attacker) are there to harm them (the victim), not just jump in there and gut them like a piece of meat, but when you are in the Vale - Vampires/Lycans ARE allowed to kill any human because they are hunting or they just hate humans and has entered somewhere dark and scary...which vampires and lycans like.

I hope that made sense.
Edited by XXXunknownXX, May 26 2014, 01:19 AM.
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Alba

Yes, I completely agree with you. Other places in Kingsmouth, I think it's a bit rude to randomly storm in on someone and decide you want to kill them (I've seen people try to rape others before out of nowhere, horrible) or attack them and all that, you should both agree that you want to do this big battle thing. I wont attack you or try to kill you anyway, so I'm sure they could go find someone else who really enjoys combat rp, I'm sure there are plenty. Though, the Dark Vale has already been stated as a dangerous place, so everyone knows (or should know) that when you RP in there, you have to keep in mind that that particular zone is a place where Vampires and Lycans can and will feed and hunt. I try to only RP there if there's not many people, just a few friends. Anyway, thank you for your response and I completely agree.
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Systemics

I like your feedback, everyone. I will retort on the idea of the Vale being a place where random killing is acceptable. While people should feel vulnerable to attack while in the Vale, I do not think they should feel vulnerable to being killed suddenly out of nowhere, without being aware of it OOC. The Vale just means that random killing is allowed, but I still think making the other player aware they they are going to be attacked is a courteous move. This encourages them to role-play with each other as opposed to one player being caught unawares and trying to spam their way to safety. However, to counter my own point, people might metagame once they are aware OOC that they will be attack, taking IC actions to prevent this.

I guess my ideal style of roleplaying is noncompetitive, meaning that the players are not trying to score a victory over each other. If both players can interact with each other and create a fun, memorable scene, then everybody wins. However, the style I desire requires people to set aside their own egos and let the other player win a few every once in a while, a feat that many players are unwilling to do. I have had scenes where my character gets torn to shreds, but since the other player and I were not actively trying to one-up each other and instead were focused on creating an interesting scene, I enjoyed myself.
Edited by Systemics, May 28 2014, 05:48 PM.
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