Mingling

[Riev]

I think the 'complaint' is that 5 people at a bar, and not a one is even attempting conversation with the others.

When I first started playing, it was kind of a 'thing' where once it became nighttime, unless you have shit to do you go to a tavern. Someone is telling a story, or playing cards, or whatever. You go there to make friends with the grebber that can't sell all his rocks, or the merchant who really needs to get to Luir's with all his new jewelry.

SOMETIMES (and by all means not all the time), you can walk into the most populated-by-PCs-room in the game, and there's nothing going on but Waying and grumbling.

[BadSkeelz]

Having spent several hours yesterday sitting next to a very inebriated gentleman of Hispanic descent, I am certainly feeling more inspired for how to be more proactive in engaging my fellow tavern sitters. Especially when I have a language to use that they do not understand.

[Dar]

Oh. Miradus I'm sorry. Gah. I didnt really mean to direct this at you. It's just I've heard this before and it always puzzled me.  The whole "look at me, nod, and nothing, until someone else that they know comes in" it makes it all appear so ... so cliquey it. But it really isnt. Sit down near some dude you know nothing about and if he doesnt have any extraordinary things about him, go ahead and 'try' to concoct a meaningful conversation out of thin air, with no real plots to discuss with a total stranger. It isnt easy. It's possible, if the character is social, or wants someone from the dude, or if the dude is hot and well ... you want something still. But quiet often it's improbable.

Kind of the same in RL really.

[Shoka Windrunner]

Having spent several hours yesterday sitting next to a very inebriated gentleman of Hispanic descent, I am certainly feeling more inspired for how to be more proactive in engaging my fellow tavern sitters. Especially when I have a language to use that they do not understand.

I'd love to see more of this.  People talking in other languages. I haven't seen much lately and it's really slowing down my attempts to learn all languages. Lol.

[Akaramu]

This is why I play in-your-face hyper-social characters every once in a while. SOMEONE has to do it!

[Dar]

A super inebriated dwarf sits by your bar, continuously talking at you in a language you dont understand. Periodically, he would declare something, raising a toast, but with only polite and rather confused smiles for company, he'd drink the toast down by himself.


Feeling puzzled, you think:
        "What the fuck language is this? I'm a linguist! I know all civilized languages of the known!"

skill language
Sirihish (Master)                      Allundean (Master)
Cavilish (Master)                     Murrukim (Master)
Heshrak (novice)                     Southern Accent

Feeling understanding dawning upon you, you think:
           "Oh."

[Miradus]

Sit next to these guys.

[Dar]

And speak Nrizkt .

[Hauwke]

If my language list was that long I would have all the accents by that point probably, knowing my luck atleast.

[IAmJacksOpinion]

It's like people would complain that Red Storm tavern has no interaction, when there are 6 PCs inside, each one idle, each one 'minding their own business'.

I've literally killed PCs just for talking to me at the bar in Storm. There's some things you just don't do. :p


Honestly, I feel like people mingle too much. Especially now with Tuluk closed, one of the major geo-political boundaries to prevent mingling is closed. There are no factions that are openly at cross purposes with one another (boo) so there's not a whole lot to prevent two people from sitting down in the bar with one another anymore. Every character is like 1 degree of Kevin Bacon from everyone else. This can be very problematic.

"Ever notice how you come across somebody once in a while you shouldn't have fucked with? That's me."

No Clint. I know everybody now.

[Stardust]

What we need is more RPTs where undesirables are welcome. 

[BadSkeelz]

Look at them as a chance to loot the Desirables' apartments while they're away.

[IAmJacksOpinion]

What we need is more RPTs where undesirables are welcome. 

Defeats the purpose of being an undesirable. Not being "welcome" is half the fun. Especially if you're the man half the attendees scorn publicly, but come to privately when they need something done. Tressies often lose sight of the game setting with all their costume parties and singing contests and crap. You can be that reminder.

Alternately, create more RPTs where Desirables are NOT welcome. (Or where Desirables are welcome, but in a Dinner for Schmucks sort of way. Except I don't think that movie had any sapping and subduing going on.) East vs Westside rinthi rap battle mixer at Hathors anybody?

[Riev]

I would laugh pretty hard at a rap battle in the 'rinth.

Though I suspect it would be taken more of a "LOOK THEY'RE WORKING TOGETHER NOW THATS AGAINST DOCS DOCSO DSOCSOCS" situation.

Mingling 'too much' isn't something I see, at least when I'm able to play. However, there's something to be said about some rich bored PC handing out work because you were 'mingling around the bar'

[nauta]

It's like people would complain that Red Storm tavern has no interaction, when there are 6 PCs inside, each one idle, each one 'minding their own business'.

I've literally killed PCs just for talking to me at the bar in Storm. There's some things you just don't do. :p


Honestly, I feel like people mingle too much. Especially now with Tuluk closed, one of the major geo-political boundaries to prevent mingling is closed. There are no factions that are openly at cross purposes with one another (boo) so there's not a whole lot to prevent two people from sitting down in the bar with one another anymore. Every character is like 1 degree of Kevin Bacon from everyone else. This can be very problematic.

"Ever notice how you come across somebody once in a while you shouldn't have fucked with? That's me."

No Clint. I know everybody now.

Good point, but I wanted to just emphasize (or clarify) what I meant by mingling: finding someone to interact (good or bad) with.

So take that notify idea -- the thought here would be that if you are playing a Soh and someone is playing a poacher, you could (in theory) notify each other so you (Soh) know that someone is in this area, and you could (if you wanted) leave camp to go look for them, or pause the mudsex to go out and mingle (read: arrow in the neck).

Obviously, it wouldn't be that extreme.

Put another way:

1. Do you (general you) find it too easy to mingle (that is, find someone to interact with if you'd prefer to be alone)?

Right now, in the wilds, the 'hunt' command is sort of like the 'notify' command, such that (perhaps this is good) you can hunt tracks down and find people to interact with.  (That's how I use the hunt command even when my goal is to just find someone to shoot the shit with rather than shoot the shit out of.)

[IAmJacksOpinion]

So take that notify idea -- the thought here would be that if you are playing a Soh and someone is playing a poacher, you could (in theory) notify each other so you (Soh) know that someone is in this area, and you could (if you wanted) leave camp to go look for them, or pause the mudsex to go out and mingle (read: arrow in the neck).

I'm initially hesitant of the notify idea. There's two scenarios I see for it; finding people you know and finding strangers.

Every PC starts with master contact now, while Barrier can still take 3 days played or more to master. (And frankly isn't that reliable.) I don't think we need more ways to find the folks we're looking for. It would be a real pain to be in the Byn and have your Sarge be able to find out, with zero IC effort, whether or not you've skipped sparring that day. (Sometimes having a job IG can make you feel like you have a job IRL, and if your playtimes don't align with your PCs days off, you can go RL weeks without having an hour to yourself IG. That's bad for morale, and for character development.) And if you could search out specific non-clanned PCs with notify then, well, I foresee a spike in House Merchant character storage requests.

The regional aspect is a little more intriguing, but at the end of the day I see it as an OOC construct that WILL cause a change in IC behavior. "Someone's in the Grasslands region? Better log my mage out for a while."

I think someone mentioned that this could be an optional system and my thoughts on that are:

• I have no faith that it would be optional. The look echo change started as someone complaining about spam and was a shoe in for the optional settings treatement. A year later I'm STILL trying to get used to it.
• How long before someone starts a thread in RP Discussion trying to nag me to turn my notify on because "it's just good RP."
• How long before someone tries to ask me IC to turn on my notify.
  

  
  The idiot who somehow got a leader rank says, in sirihish:
      "Ya know Jack, I never know when you're around. You should be more -notable-."
  
  While flailing your arms wildly and hopping up and down you shout in caps-locked sirihish:
      "IS THIS BETTER SARGEANT!?"
  
  Without emoting, because he only does that when "girls" are around, the idiot who somehow got a leader rank says, in sirihish:
      "No Jack. You need to be more -notable-."
  
  Lifting his chin, waxing his mustache, and donning an air of false sophistication you say, in Sirihish:
     "I do say, how about now, my good sir?"
  
  Carefully so that he doesn't risk putting his fingers anywhere near the parenthesis keys, the idiot who somehow got a leader rank says, in Sirihish:
     "It's a whipping for you if you don't get more noticable right now!"
  
  Sighing and hanging your head, you say, in Sirihish:
     "Hhhhh... Fine."
  
  change notify on
  
  The frankly 'meh' chick arrives from the west.
  
  Straightening up and snapping a firm salute, his bulging bicep glistening in the crisp morning air as his rock hard fist hits his broad, powerful chest with the barely restrained power of a typhoon, but the precision and tenderness of a skilled lover, the idiot who somehow got a leader rank says, in cursive:
    " That's better soldier. Dismissed! ... Oh, Talia, didn't see you there.."
  
  

[bardlyone]

I like the idea of a notify command, the way I saw it implemented in Southlands/Evoluion of ESOS was nice. I would prefer a scenario where the helpfile on it clarified that it is a mechanic, and not something you should force others (or try to force others) to use ICly. I would go a step further, and suggest it would be something where you can use your sdesc or be anonymous with it, or perhaps even default to anonymous unless you are a leader pc with access to the who c clan job, so that people have an 'idea' where people are, but not who it is, unless they are pcs who can hire you. As to leaders and notify, since I know that who c is a clan job and that some pc leaders have it, I would think this scenario outlined by jack would be more likely if you were someone's aide or a kadian crafter and the other person was a templar or a noble from a rival clan, as the leaders from your own clan should be able to tell pretty easily when you're on most of the time unless you're expending the time/effort/skill to prevent that already.

[LLama]

What we need is more RPTs where undesirables are welcome. 

While "welcome" might be a stretch, there's a pretty big RPT coming up in 3 weeks. Participation at some of these events may be more acceptable than at others.

[nauta]

So, the notify idea would be something like:

o domain specific (rinth, Allanak, Storm, Vrun, Tablelands, Mantis Valley, Dashra, Grey, Grasslands, Red Desert, etc.)

o anonymous

o opt-in

So you'd type:

notify on
You are now accepting notification alerts.

You would then type:
notify

And if someone is in your domain and they have notify on they would receive:

You have this ooc feeling that someone is in the general area.

I guess I can see Jack's view that it would grow to be a requirement... perhaps it would be disabled in Allanak.

I think what motivates it is (a) being an off-peaker, (b) spending a lot of time spamming hunt to find people to interact with in the wilds and (c) once staff animated something to point me in a direction where some action was going on.

[Delirium]

Speaking personally...

I've never really had a problem "mingling" as long as I'm actually circulating around the gameworld with my PC, both offpeak and onpeak hours. Heck, it gets to be a challenge NOT to encounter anyone, if you don't want to.

I just really get squeamish when we start introducing OOC channels, even something like this.

I also played SOI but the difference there (and I still didn't use it because I didn't like it) was the lack of a mechanism like the Unseen Way, which allows us to seek and find interaction without being in the same room.