You know, I love a lot of these ideas, at their base. And I'd love code to enforce some of the things that we feel about magickers being scary and whatnot.
But really, a lot of you are suggesting that the onus is on code to dictate your roleplay. And that's just not the case.
Roleplay.
We know that we are supposed to be afraid of magickers. So be afraid of magickers. Do what's right, of your own accord. Being afraid of all magickers is no different than treating elves like shit, or thinking half-breeds are nasty because racism. It's acting out part of a role. Do your job and treat magickers the way the documents say you're supposed to.
Now all of that said, I absolutely want coded reinforcement of some of the fears we're supposed to have. That, or I want docs and the roles a magicker can legally have in clans changed to suggest a more integrated acceptance of them on some level. But until these things change, don't ignore the world you live in or the way your character has been brought up. Don't ignore your character's reality.
Roleplay.
Let's look at the docs that you're saying are getting ignored.
Magick is a mysterious and very rare power on Zalanthas, about which the general public knows very little, and generally fears and hates a great deal. While magickers are tolerated in some places, they are generally feared and distrusted by the vast majority of the population of Zalanthas. In many places, magickers are killed upon discovery, and even the rumor that one is a magicker can lead to one's death.
1.) Knows very little: I'd say that this is roleplayed just fine; to my knowledge, most players aren't spouting details about magick unless they are playing a magicker or one of the rare cases that work with gemmed or templars, all of which are not the "general public."
2.) Fears and hates: Note: there are two words used with the conjunction "and." Hate, is more common now than fear. However, one can roleplay a hatred of magickers which is predominantly expressed with the "killed upon discovery" part. You kill and destroy that which you don't understand...the exact amount of fear needed to be expressed is up to the roleplayer.
3.) Feared and distrusted: Again, two words with the conjunction "and." Distrust is something that also stems from fear or lack of understanding; I'm HOPING that people aren't bonding more and building trust more with magickers. In my experience, people would rarely if ever trust me, even though I was a codedly weaker magicker than I used to play, so I'd also say people are doing this.
--- In summary, there is no requirement that fear be the predominant expression of the same exact IC concepts, because in the docs that currently exist for magick, the concepts of hate and fear, distrust and fear, and destroying and avoiding are all linked to the same idea.
So, I really don't see why folks in this thread seem to think that yelling at the playerbase that they "aren't doing their job" is a solution.
again: if you brought back mainguild magickers, and added back the variety in spells that are used that we used to have, then you would introduce more
uncertainty. This is a form of fear. It'd also bring back more coded power, yes, but overall I just predict that the fear half of the emotional reaction would be enhanced.
And if you don't bring back mainguild magickers, there are lots of other things one can do: we can come up with more incentives to spread fear and hate (A bounty on mages..such things existed in Tuluk before it closed). There are lots of ways to do it, but right now the culture around mages is stagnating..due to the step-by-step trimming away of content that has reduced the uncertainty and fear factor over time.
I like Lizzie's idea right above, also. It also helps to add that element of uncertainty, which is key to building fear.
