Order Server and Lack of Roleplayers

[neva]

Or so it seems like it at times.

Call me old fashion or call me a stickler, but I remember a time when the Order server had some d@mn nice roleplaying going on. The channels were telepathic communications that the gifted had the ability of doing and all says unless marked by (()) were ic chatter.

Lever were called ranks or sessions(seasons?) of experience, and marking something on a map was done like:: "Here, let me see your map, and I'll mark it for you." takes the map from the other and then marks it. (( You can find the location here: 10002,22093))

Now its like, says are all combination of ooc chatter and ic chatter, and you can't ever tell the difference anymore, and channel chat is about no better.

Order is suppose to be a roleplay server so what happened?
Did everyone get lazy, go off and forget how to roleplay? Or does no one give a d@mn anymore and no one is willing to teach?

Like I said, maybe I'm just being a stickler, but I guess when you remember RP everywhere including in the newbie areas, then you don't see it anymore...
Its.. just disheartening.
And I love Horizons, I give the game always high praise and sure I wont stop playing, but for crying out loud!!!

Grrr..

Ok, I'm done. -_-

[neva]

Lever = Level

Sometimes when your ranting you forget to spell check

[Hraefn]

Haha... actually. There was a /HUGE/ drama debate (there have been a few, really) that kind of killed much of the more advanced role-player's will to RP in the public channels. Add that with something of an exodus from the server and or/game and there were few people who really role-played and even fewer sources of RP plots and ideas. The darker and more (IC)drama inducing characters were shunned and thus became slightly taboo.

In order to make everyone happy, the much more in depth and dramatic RP was taken into private places or disappeared altogether. RP, as it once was on Order, has become something of a myth unless you know where to look.

It's not that there aren't people willing to teach others about it or RP seriously, it's more that it has become a touchy subject with how much OOC drama bubbled up because so-and-so said, or he-and-she did, and misunderstandings occured.

[BrightCat]

Yeah, good RP for me is now relagated to just between me and a few others unfortunately. I don't really RP in dragon chat anymore because now it's just bleh (I know that technically it's not an RP channel and blah blah blah, but that's not my point). There's generally very few in the actual RP channel. And yes, say is often cluttered with none RP chat (at least in New Tris). That can be understandable though because it's an area with new players and they may not nessesarily know the rules yet.

[neva]

Huh, really? But isn't the point of RP to have some drama here and there and sometimes to have some character that go against the grain to make things interesting?

And honestly, I always saw the Dragon channel as the RP Channel, since many Dragons would RP there, though most of them were Lunus and didn't like the bipedals, and those who did like them all hung out also on the RP channel with all the bipedals.

General was for all the ooc jabber and Market Place was also very IC and dealt with people selling items or services

Though I do see myself as a Hardcore RPer, that was actually what I gave the Order server high remarks on, so--
I guess I'll have to chop up my high remarks and call it another wanna-be place with very few good rpers and more like oocers who just jabber on there cause they don't want to bother with the normal server. -_-

However, I guess I can keep my hopes up since I believe the game is still recovering.

[Raptress]

Like Hraefn said, there've been a couple absolutely huge OOC-drama fights about this or that, the most recent being RPing in Dragon Chat and how "elitist" all the high-end RPers are probably because of one bad experience with one player or stories of such that got spread around and blown out of proportion. So yeah, most of us hardly RP in Dragon anymore; most of my chat in Dragon is OOC, answering questions, nowadays.

The new players aren't helping either, especially since whenever any of us tries to do any educating, we're called rude or told it's uncalled for no matter how politely we try to explain using brackets and a big, unnecessary OOC dramafest starts up, killing any RP that was going on in the channel beforehand.

I've virtually given up on trying to influence the new RPers because I'm either told off or ignored, and the roleplay quality in DC (whenever it actually gets going) is generally so low or so borderline-OOC, that I can't really bring any of my characters into it, without stepping out of character myself. :/

I know what you mean though, Neva. I remember when DC was mostly IC, and RP was quite easy to find. Sadly, I've had to watch this happen. Around November or so is probably when this started happening; the population plunged for some reason, and RP dropped to a trickle at best as the result. We've lost a number of the better roleplayers for various reasons. Only now do they seem to be coming back, though I know at least a few are gone for good.

Like you though, I am hoping that this is just a temporary crash and that things will, at some point, recover. They're at least better than they were during the holiday season of last year.

[Dhalin]

I know several times I've tried to participate in RP when I saw it (on channels, as I'm usually goal-oriented), but yet the few times I tried, I got absolutely no responses, except for just one night and it was kinda bleh (no offense to anyone OOCly meant).

I can't help but to admit that posting several posts in the channel, ICly, amongst other IC roleplay and getting absolutely no responses to anything I said whatsoever at all, isn't exactly encouraging to a new roleplayer.

I know how easy it is to get caught up in cliques and such, and how easy it is to get absorbed in talking with your friends, but if you want RP to thrive, you gotta look towards the newcomers/strangers now and then too. Otherwise they are going to try, get ignored, and just shrug and not try again.

'sides, I can get roleplay elsewhere, outside of Istaria.

[Raptress]

Not in any way saying that you did this, Dhalin, as I don't know one way or the other, but I often see people complaining about being unable to participate with other roleplayers when it's really their fault, and not anyone else's.

Often, I will see people roleplay idle actions such as "sits by the tree and looks at the others" or "cleans his claws" and get fussy when they are "ignored", sometimes by other roleplayers who are actively engaged in actions or conversation. It isn't fair to put the fault on the other roleplayers.

Say that you're in a park, sitting on a bench and talking with your friend. Across the path, on another bench, is a stranger and they are looking around at the goings on of the area. Suddenly, that stranger complains at you and your friend for ignoring them, even though they A) are a stranger and B) did not directly interact with you or your friend.

That's what I see happen most of the time when people complain that they are being ignored. Again, I am not directing this at you, just explaining that I see this situation quite a lot.

When I roleplay my characters, I roleplay them as if they are a normal person. If someone directly says or does something to me, I'm going to respond. If someone is sitting off to the side, twiddling their thumbs, I'm unlikely to have much to say or do with them, especially if I'm actively engaged with someone else.

An example recently occurred not long ago in Dragon Chat. My more evil-aligned character was talking to a hatchling, and being at least threatening enough that I honestly expected someone to intervene, or at least notice, that the hatchling character could possibly be in danger. There were a few other players IC while this was going on, and my character and the other hatchling character were more or less left totally alone except for maybe glances.

Now imagine my surprise when a player who was IC at the time brought up the fact that they felt ignored, even when their character had not done anything towards my character or the hatchling character that we could reasonably respond to.

We weren't making it hard or telling anyone off if they tried to interact with us. We were in a public channel, so we both expected that others may become involved in our roleplay. The only thing we did not do was step out of our roleplay (or even, in some cases, our character) to interact with someone who was not making an effort to get directly involved with us.

You can't expect others to RP with you simply because you're there, and, imho, they shouldn't have to. You have to take responsibility for your roleplay and get involved. Walk up to a character, say "hi", wave, anything that gives another player something to respond to. Simply glancing at or noticing someone guarantees a response in the same way that noticing someone in a supermarket does.

However, if you do try to get directly involved and are completely ignored, then the fault rests with the other roleplayers, especially if they tell you not to bother them (in an OOC manner) when they are in a public channel or place. If you want an RP to stay private, do it in private. Otherwise, it's fair game.

Again, this is not directed at anyone, it's just my observations of what's really going on most of the time when people complain that they feel left out.