Pet Peeves

[Vox]

Just to spice things up a bit...

These are my pet-peeves... regarding this thread:

1) There's been far too many 'what do i hate today' threads and not enough, 'what are the coolest parts of this game' threads. People have joked about the irony of having a pet peeve being a pet peeve thread.. but it's the truth. These things lost their charm in '98.

2) Justifying your playing style by listing a pet peeve as other people's objection to it.

3) Mansa.

4)  People complaining about long emotes. I LOVE long and involved emotes.. it's a text based world for Tek's sake.  Immerse yourselves in a sea of language called MUD and discover colours and flavors in the living literature pulsating before you. When I take breaks from Arm I find my typing ability slows slightly and my command of the written language dulls.
There's nothing like having to type while your hands are shaking from the massive amount of adrenaline flowing through your veins, barely able to punch the appropriate keys as the screen scrolls and you realize the death of your character is nigh. I love the 'Arm Shakes'. I often wonder if the same people that complain about fruity emotes are the ones that have 'brief' mode on and spam walk across the world without reading the wonderfully detailed room descriptions.

Anyway... i'm gonna start a 'stuff that you love about Arm' thread, and wait to see how quickly it derails into a flame fest.

yee ha.

[jstorrie]

Bad nouns in sdescs.

Good, acceptable nouns include: man, woman, boy, girl, young man, young woman, elf, dwarf, templar, half-giant, halfling, robodragon.

Terrible, I hate you nouns include: lass, maiden, damsel. No, no, no. Especially since you all end up playing your lasses and maidens as f-me aides. Bad. Not consistent with Arm's general atmosphere.

[Cuusardo]

Yes, some adjectives are silly, but I can live with those.  It's the really subjective ones like nubile, or comely that I don't get.  It's like literally saying "MY PC IS ATTRACTIVE AND YOU HAVE TO THINK SO!"

[EvilRoeSlade]

What nubile actually means is that you've come of age and are ready for your maidenhood to be taken in intercourse.  In Zalanthas, nubile means that you are at least twelve years of age and probably no older than seventeen.

Yeah, I'm confused as to why people use that in their sdesc as well.

[amoeba]

What nubile actually means is that you've come of age and are ready for your maidenhood to be taken in intercourse.  In Zalanthas, nubile means that you are at least twelve years of age and probably no older than seventeen.

Yeah, I'm confused as to why people use that in their sdesc as well.

"The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48"
Nubile Nu"bile, a. L. nubilis, fr. nubere to marry: cf. F.
  nubile. See Nuptial.
  Of an age suitable for marriage; marriageable. --Prior.
  1913 Webster

  2. Sexually attractive, sometimes used as a genteel euphemism
     for having well-developed breasts; -- of a young woman.
     PJC

[Intrepid]

Yes, some adjectives are silly, but I can live with those. It's the really subjective ones like nubile, or comely that I don't get. It's like literally saying "MY PC IS ATTRACTIVE AND YOU HAVE TO THINK SO!"

I do believe in allowing the reader some leeway to determine their pc's
opinion regarding my own character's looks, but when I'm playing a truly
hideous character and I'm being flirted with by numerous characters, I
do feel sometimes like I put the effort into the desc for nothing.

[Sanvean]

Vox said:

There's been far too many 'what do i hate today' threads and not enough, 'what are the coolest parts of this game' threads. People have joked about the irony of having a pet peeve being a pet peeve thread.. but it's the truth. These things lost their charm in '98.

I've got to agree here, because I think threads like this end up really scaring and turning off new players, particularly when the discussion turns to something that's as subjective as emoting style.    If I were a new player and saw some of the threads that have blasted people for not knowing enough Zalanthan trivia or intricacies of the code, I'd be more than a little intimidated.

The help files list emote-related things you shouldn't do, like conveying internal and unguessable things (in the school of the "emote wonders if you would sell him some water) but for the most part it's up to you.  If you're not emopting things that are a) impossible (i.e. "emote Flames and sparks begin to shoot from me's eyes as ~templar approaches" or b) unknowable (emote sighs heavily like she's had a hard day and is at the end of her limits because people keep asking her for stuff) then it's okay.   If you're doing either of those, you'll probably hear about it from someone else.

[Scarborough]

Alright, I know this thread derailed into silly whines and agree with Sanvean's post entirely -- those are the things that really turned me off of this game for many months and often still does.  I don't like emote snobs in this game that dictate how long or short they should be, or the perfect vocabular.  Perfect is what works for me and feels right to me.

But... I have to vent, in the most general way possible.  

My pet peeve is when someone who obviously knows how to play the game, and understands how to emote just doesn't do it.  Ever.  On purpose.  If they're psi-ing, they emote nothing.  They stand there like a statue.  If they say, the says are flat and emotionless, nothing added to them.  There's no way to get inside or wrapped around a character like this.  Then they get upset when you don't want to hang around and deal with them, because you're bored and have done your best to encourage something, anything.  And once in a -great- while you'll see an actual emote, so you -know- they know how to do it...they just choose not to 98% of the time.  At all.  And occasionally they just ignore you completely for a really long time while they talk to someone else, no indication of why to help me RP my reaction, and possibly they just log off.  

Help me, please, cardboard people.  I'm relatively young at this game yet, after only a year, but please... emote something once in a while if you're one of these cardboard characters who is either too lazy, or too busy to want to try.  If you're feeling scared, well, ok...you'll figure it out eventually and that's just fine.  That's just not the case with what I'm thinking about though.  This applies to a very, very, very small minority of people in this game, obviously, but I -have- to roleplay with a character like this often, thus my frustration.  I'm no emote queen, or emote snob. I screw them up often, forgetting what takes ( )'s and what doesn't and where the ~!$% modifyers won't work.   I don't care how long or short peoples' emotes are.  But toss me some kind of an emoting bone, even just a couple words, please??  Thank you.  

*steps off her soapbox with a sigh
and wearily heads for bed*

[Nusku]

If they're psi-ing, they emote nothing.

Eh, that's a tough case at times. It's really easy to get caught up in a psi conversation and forget that somewhere, your character is sitting in another room where other people might be watching who have no idea that you're not just idling and are in fact going 120 WPM on your poor keyboard.

[Ghardoan]

If I were a new player and saw some of the threads that have blasted people for not knowing enough Zalanthan trivia or intricacies of the code, I'd be more than a little intimidated.

This has in fact happened to two people (both of which had a solid roleplaying background) whom I attempted to introduce to the game.  Since then, I've learned not to let people read the GDB until after they have played (more than) a few times and gotten their hands dirty.  This is tragic, really, as the forums can also be an excellent resource for new players.

Ahem, back to the topic...  My only personal pet peeve (which, by the way, I do not think will deter new players) is those who practice the deadly art of vestric taming (you know who you are!) for a living; you people are too nuts for me.

Ghardoan pwns your soul.

[Wykydtronn]

I'm still kind of new but one thing that bothers me a lot:

Is when, no matter where ('rinth, desert, city streets, evil defiler hide out)  that a fellow pc will purposely approach you despite whether its natural for their character to do so or not.  I know sometimes players can feel a little lonely and Solo rping isn't the most fun thing.  
But its just not normal for characters who are usually distrustful of each other stop or go out of their way to see what some breed is doing on the salt flats.

Its the freaking desert, the more people you can avoid the better.

Bah still thats just me, most of my characters would sooner walk past you with out a word then stop and ask to why you're 30 leagues away from the city too.

Anyways its a pet peeve, approach me anyways my characters don't bite... usually.

[Scarborough]

It's really easy to get caught up in a psi conversation and forget that somewhere, your character is sitting in another room...

That's true, and I agree entirely.  My gripe was about the person sitting right next to my character, psi-ing with me.  If I crack a joke, or say something disparaging, and don't get any response at all, I don't know how to respond back.  If my character is psi-ing someone in a different location, I might not emote many responses myself.

[ianmartin]

Someone roleplaying that I am not roleplaying because I waited all of 45 seconds to react to a situation that was rather difficult.

[RogueGunslinger]

Threads like this.

People don't need an excuse to complain, they do it enough anyways.

[musashi]

RGS. I just ... ugh. I hate the holier than thou attitude  

More seriously: The notion that it's some kind of cardinal sin to use the OOC command to explain syntax to someone.

"Go pick a fruit off that kalan bush."

So and so sets to work on a lock.

So and so OOC's: How?

"What are you doing retard? Just pick the fruit. Pick it!"

So and so sets to work on a lock.

For the love of Christ just OOC them the syntax already.

[Talia]

I'm not sure why this thread really needed to be necroed, but if it strays too far toward picking on particular players' roleplay, I predict there's gonna be a lockin'.

[MeTekillot]

There's no way to tell if that (Ledge over the cliff) to the north is a climb exit or a fall exit, and god forbid you know if there's any scrambling for purchase under it.

[Zoan]

My pet peeve: Look w or whatever doesn't show there's a pit, whether intentionally or not. And then we go for a tumble.

Yes, it can be bugged, but that doesn't help me now does it?

[Cind]

people who act weirded out, in all seriousness, that i didn't start speaking to them at the bar when i sit down, despite the fact that there are probably literally a hundred people in that same tavern, some of whom are also sitting at the bar.

along with a few other times when people shouldn't act like npcs don't exist.

[Fathi]

This thread was originally about gripes on the GDB! Medena, save your thread!

[Barzalene]

Oh GDB peeves. I hate when people don't agree with me. Completely. Especially when I'm right.

[Cutthroat]

It's funny how the pet peeves players had six years ago still exist in some ways today.

[Barzalene]

It's funny how the pet peeves players had six years ago still exist in some ways today.

I have always hated people not agreeing with me.

[X-D]

Well, I hate people that hate people that don't agree with them...so there.

[Qzzrbl]

Pet peeve.... How NPCs seem to ignore action delay sometimes.

I once chased a guy -all the fuck over- 'rinth with a high-agility character typing "kill" the instant I got in the same room as him, hell, I even had the "kill" command set on an alias so I could hit it right after I typed the direction. Never managed to catch 'im.

Not complaining about spam-fleeing, it was justified in his case, as he was running for his life and all....

My complaint is that dangerous wasteland critter #298 can initiate "Operation: Mantis Head" the very microsecond they step into the same room as you.