I hate OOC

[Miravlix]

I don't think I've ever hated anyone or anything in my 40+ years on this planet, but I'm starting to think I should make an exception to it.

For various reasons some 20 years ago now I found the Internet and alt.fan.dragons and a big group of some would prolly call nutty dragon lovers, we didn't stop at just loving dragons, we created a IRC chat channel and became dragons. I became a 1 yard, mostly green, fairy dragon. It might just have been a fantasy and a virtual skin, but with 100+ dragon lovers regularly meeting in the chat channel, it became the best time of my life.

I was also a computer geek, so mixed in with my newfound love of dragons, I also ended up coding all kinds of open source software, but I still did everything as Miravlix and my virtual dragon identity.

Everything I've done from Linux Kernel coding, to playing online games or chatting has been done as my alter ego Miravlix. After 20 years and the way my life unfortunately developed, I've prolly lived more as the dragon than a human being.

That doesn't mean that I'm not just any other guy when I turn off the computer, but the enrichment to my life, because I found my inner dragon, is something I would thank God for if I believed in him.

Since my real world life died when I was 30 and I ended up in early retirement, the virtual possibilities became even more important for me to bring some sunshine into my life.

I'm willing to do almost anything, as long as I feel it doesn't ruin someone else's fun, to bring the dragon out to play, this is where my dislike of OOC comes in, I really don't want to be this total looser I am in real life and instead be this magical creature for a while.

Istaria is not a chat channel, it's a game, with all kinds of game rules to make it work, so since I love to teach how to play, I'm caught between a rock and a hardplace, because roleplaying fanatics, think I'm not a good enough roleplayer because I'm willing to talk about levels and stuff wrapped into me roleplaying a dragon teaching people how to be gifted.

I do try to compromise within Istaria's lore and avoid discussing non-game related topics in /say, because I'm perfectly capable of pretending to jump into someones lap as a dragon while discussing terrorism in the real world.

Too bad about Istaria's larger dragons, because chicks really dig small cute dragons, but thats my limit, when I login I'm Miravlix and I'm going to stay IC, even if I'm forced to make compromises and wrap teaching someone to change their /say text color or how to interact with a trainers weird chat interface into my roleplay, because it simply is that much more fun for me to pretend to be a dragon teaching someone how to color their /say text, than it is to go OOC all the time to do it.

[Raptress]

You don't have to stop being who you believe you are in order to talk in brackets. Just treat the brackets as stepping outside of Istaria-IC for a moment, rather than Miravlix-IC.

[awdz]

I like Miravlix's approach to rp, more of an "in istaria" mode than many formal roleplayers espouse and yet avoiding rl/pop culture references. Having already gone through a forums battle about it, I'm just going to leave it as everyone-has-their-own-preferences and continue playing with my approach while trying to be respectful of others' roleplay.

[Kryodrache]

Too bad about Istaria's larger dragons, because chicks really dig small cute dragons...

I maaaaay disagree with you on that one. I was always the girl that played with bugs and pretended to be dinosaurs and got extremely excited when it came to giant firebreathing destructive monsters.

But, that's because I'm weird.

I do agree (to some degree) about the OOC. There seems to be a lot less RP lately, but perhaps I'm looking in the wrong places for it. OOC is necessary to form friendships and get things handled quickly. It should be taken in balance, I suppose, rather than abundance, but most of the newcomers you see out playing the game appear completely unaware what OOC and IC even is.

One of my biggest peeves is that the Dragon channel is OOC, and the actual OOC-Dragon channel is completely ignored.

[Raptress]

That...isn't a problem with OOC. That's a problem with a player, and is probably grounds for a harassment report. It's also something to be handled in private, possibly via support, not the forums.

[Racktor]

Agreed with Raptress. OOC isn't bad when simply speaking to one another as friends. I act as a dragon OOCly no matter what, just not as my character. (AKA when someone joins a group or whatever and they're a good friend, I have no problem with tackling and slurping them :P )

[Velea]

Folks, please read the forum rules. No thread on the forum should turn into a complaint about specific players, ever. I have removed posts and references to them which were not appropriate, but have left the thread for now.

[Mensar]

OOC has its place just as IC has its place. Role play channel is there for a reason just as the marketplace is there for a reason.

Stepping out of the role play channel is a shooting match. You may or may not be confronted with someone in or out of character. But, I believe Awdz put it very eloquently: not judging someone else's play style is key. Not just for their enjoyment but for yours as well.

[Morinare_Blackclaw]

Like Miravlix, I try very hard to remain IC at all times; being Morinare is just too much fun, since he's very much my alter-ego. The other reason is that I learned to RP way back in the original D&D days, so, I've always tended to RP what I can actually see and hear (or, back then, what the DM told me I could see and hear!).

And, since I spend most of my time in Dragon Channel (*not* Dragon-OOC), I remain IC there, as well; I figure if there's a Dragon-OOC, then, the other MUST be Dragon-IC, regardless of any arguments to the contrary

[Cynny]

I'd normally stay quiet in those, but I feel I should say my opinion on this one.

Mira's right and wrong at the same time.

He's right that there is barely any real RP around, that people go OOC as in, their self-OOC not Istaria-OOC too much.

But he's wrong about how using brackets would be a bad thing. In OOC, just like Racktor stated, I also act like the dragon I feel - just like Mira feels it - but I don't act as the character IC. You may hate someone IC because they're evil and attacked you, but in OOC you could be best friends.

See what I mean?

There's a difference between Istaria-IC(Roleplay), Istaria-OOC(Levels, which people have been referring to as seasons and things of the like), Istaria code things-OOC (like the color codes which I believe should remain in brackets. At all times. As your character in Istaria doesn't use a CHAT ICly) and RL-OOC(Politics, school stuff, tehnology...).

The first two could easily be tolerated out of brackets, but the last two should, in my opinion, stay in.

So IC at ALL times is practically impossible, unless you ignore people that talk to you OOC or break the RP rules, I think.

Just a thought.

~Cyn