Breaking Character -- When to Break Character?

[touringCompl3t3]

Sometimes I like when people break character, like if they want to get my AIM or invite me to a game of Halo or something.

Often people break character to express their opinion on my role play.

Is this really necessary?  There are so many other options, including:

IMing me
Making a post on the board

And a much nicer way to improve people's role play is to lead by example.  Or....heaven forbid....try to understand that people have different styles of role-play and emoting in the same way that there are different styles of music and practice plain good old-fashioned tolerance.  In my opinion, improvisational music and improvisational role-play have a lot in common.  Being disruptive seldom improves things.  I don't think that you can successfully jam with someone and teach them at the same time, and I'm not really looking to learn from people really we're emoting a scene.  From a training standpoint, your words are falling on deaf ears.  I've read the docs and I already get feedback from staff.

But hey, what do I know?  I'm just a Virginia Country Boy with a desert elf character!  Does anyone else want to share their opinion on when it's a good idea to break character to correct someone's role play?

[Only He Stands There]

Sometimes I like when people break character, like if they want to get my AIM or invite me to a game of Halo or something.

I don't. Ever. I don't ever want someone asking for my AIM over the Way or via OOC or say or shout or anything. Ever. Seriously - ever.

Often people break character to express their opinion on my role play.

I only like to see this when it's something that BLATANTLY needs to be corrected, not "opinion" - i.e. if you're emoting something completely wrong about something you honestly thing is another way - the streets being empty when there are really vNPCs, etc. If someone's saying "it's unrealistic for you to run that far without stopping," report 'em to staff.



The way I correct someone's roleplay? I report what I think may be bad roleplay to the staff, and I leave it at that. I've been wrong before - you can't see everything - and other people will be wrong about you.

[staggerlee]

I doubt I'd want my rp corrected through the ooc channel in the game, I'm pretty good about noticing little hints like "A what... I've never heard of a blender."  Whereupon I smack myself in the head and realize I can't make smoothies in Zalanthas, I don't need an ooc. Unless I was doing something really wrong.

I don't mind the occasional use of the ooc channel when appropriate, it's there for a reason.  But it is jarring, so I'm glad people avoid it.  People here seem great about that from what I've seen.

Aside from that, it sounds like you might be referring to a specific incident, so I can't comment on that.   All in all though, I've found people here are pretty awesome about staying ic, I've had no complaints myself.

[Malken]

You can only break character with me if you're a girl in real life and want my phone number after a hot mudsex session. (Or when I start arguing with you OOCly as to why I'm denying you your request to fade.)

[Kalden]

I doubt I'd want my rp corrected through the ooc channel in the game, I'm pretty good about noticing little hints like "A what... I've never heard of a blender."  Whereupon I smack myself in the head and realize I can't make smoothies in Zalanthas, I don't need an ooc. Unless I was doing something really wrong.

I prefer that OOC mistakes are corrected OOCly. No sense in further disrupting the game world. I don't want to hear blender twice IC. So I guess it all depends on the person.

[Mood]

I'm bad about breaking character.

>sit table
You sit at the table.

>talk Thank you, Lord.
At your table, you say, in sirihish:
   "Thank you, Lord.

The noble says to you, in sirihish:
   "What was that?"

>...
What?

>stand
You stand up from the table.

>sit 2.table
You sit at that other table.

>ooc Let's pretend I'm not retarded.
You say, out-of-character:
   "Let's pretend I'm not retarded."

>feel a flickr of amusement.
You feel a flickr of amusement.

>feel a FLICKER of amuesmetn.
Your feel a FLICKER of amuesmetn.

>feel like not using feels until you learn how to fucking type.
You feel like not using feels until you learn how to fucking type.

[Gimfalisette]

I doubt I'd want my rp corrected through the ooc channel in the game, I'm pretty good about noticing little hints like "A what... I've never heard of a blender."  Whereupon I smack myself in the head and realize I can't make smoothies in Zalanthas, I don't need an ooc. Unless I was doing something really wrong.

The issue isn't that you don't have a blender. It's that you don't have ICE.

Code Select Expand

The tawny-blonde Zalanthan looks at her shiny new obsidian-bladed blender, and the Elkrosi it's plugged into, and has no idea what to do next.

I do not correct people's RP by going OOC. Who am I to do that? I am not the roleplay police. If it's THAT bad (which it almost never is), then that's what the complaint tool is for.

Generally speaking I only use OOC to communicate a code issue to someone--and that's usually some kind of warning: I.e., I see a noob about to get involved in a brawlfest in a tavern, I'll OOC to make sure they know how to do it and not get killed. It makes sense to me to OOC about safety issues or important code syntax issues (like how to title your mount so you don't get it lost during the huge RPT we're about to embark on) when they come up, to help other players.

Oh, once I did OOC to a player (not Mood!) who kept OOCing apologies and corrections to his RP, just to let him know I really didn't care about his errors, thought he was doing fine, and he could stop OOCing

And yes, Mood, you are bad about breaking character, and you should just relax and correct yourself less often. Seriously, you do fine. Everyone understands what you mean.

[Mood]

And yes, Mood, you are bad about breaking character, and you should just relax and correct yourself less often. Seriously, you do fine. Everyone understands what you mean.

*blush*

[Kalden]

Correcting yourself is generally another error. But don't make the mistake of going OOC to apologize for going OOC.

[Mood]

Correcting yourself is generally another error. But don't make the mistake of going OOC to apologize for going OOC.

Calling myself a retard via OOC amuses me.

[Rhyden]

I only like to use the OOC command when coordinating good OOC times for IC events, really.

[Kalden]

I'll sometimes give tips to poor newbies over OOC. For example, if I'm following someone and they're running away from me, I have said before OOC: "help unhitch".

[Lizzie]

I usually do the same - I break character to mention my availability or help newbies with syntax. Things like "ooc my loyal faithful trustworthy character who would normally follow you into the krath-pits of hell themselves, can't go on a hunt with you right now because I have to logout to make supper. There is no IC explanation for this so there you have it."
or..

"ooc since we're both sitting at the bar you can use "talk" instead of "say," and that way people standing at the other end of the room won't think you're talking to them."

I use that last one a lot - for some reason I run into SO many people who use "say" and don't use any other form of communication. I don't know what that's about; some of these people have been around a long time, longer than I have. But yeah I do break character if I feel someone is OOCly lost, or missing syntax, or whatever like that. If I have a beef about someone's roleplay, I'll usually just yell at my computer monitor. If it's bad enough, I'll e-mail the staff.

[Barzalene]

I will often ooc with time issues: IE
The Guy says : Get your kank we're heading out.
OOC I'm going to have to log in 45 minutes, will that be enough time?

[BuNutzCola]

"ooc since we're both sitting at the bar you can use "talk" instead of "say," and that way people standing at the other end of the room won't think you're talking to them."

I use that last one a lot - for some reason I run into SO many people who use "say" and don't use any other form of communication. I don't know what that's about; some of these people have been around a long time, longer than I have. But yeah I do break character if I feel someone is OOCly lost, or missing syntax, or whatever like that. If I have a beef about someone's roleplay, I'll usually just yell at my computer monitor. If it's bad enough, I'll e-mail the staff.

Some people intentionally use say instead of talk, just as one might use say whilst the other person is whispering. Not usually the case, but sometimes might be. Not all of us use "table" voices. Or for the leader types who have a roomful of standing minions without listen, I usually just find it a courtesy to use say, if only to get them something to listen to.

[Lizzie]

Oh I know the difference between doing it intentionally and not, I'm talking about - if two people are standing in the middle of the road, there aren't any other PCs (visible) present, and they're having a conversation.

>You tell the green man, in sirihish, "Hey wait up, John!"
>The green man says, in sirihish "Hi."
>You tell the green man, in sirihish, emoting while you speak to include the environment, "Are you going to meet up with Lady Jaja? She invited us both."
>The green man says, in sirihish, "I didn't know I was invited. I have to do stuff."
You emote something to try and get the green man to direct his behavior toward you, instead of to the space in front of his nose.
The green man continues talking to no one in particular.
You lead by example, using "tell", but the green man's player doesn't catch on.
You emote some more, but the green man doesn't emote at all, so you don't even know if the green man's player realizes you are standing in the middle of the road in the middle of a sandstorm, and there's sand and wind swooshing over everything and getting in both of your clothing, eyes, nose..

You finally go OOC and say, "try using tell to direct conversation to someone, help tell is the help file"
The green man doesn't respond with an OOC "Right" or any other indication that he was paying any attention to you whatsoever.

You give up, and either avoid having to RP with the guy, or e-mail mud if there are other RP issues besides just that, which is annoying, but not really a big deal in the scheme of things.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

If anyone ever uses OOC in the game to ask me 'If I want to play Halo', I will kill them IC, for no good IC reason, too. I am not playing. I mean I will literally strike them with ninty volts of lightening and kick them in the balls and behead them and place it on Tuluk's gates.

I am flipping serious.

That is just an ugly ugly ugly use of the OOC command.

[BuNutzCola]

The jolly green giant has arrived from the south.
l

The Gladiator and Gaj tavern.

There are a ton of pc's here.
There's a couple npc's here, who have been drinking in this tavern non-stop since before most of your pc's were born.
A boxy wooden bar is here.

The jolly green giant says, OOC:
   "Who's up 4 some HALO!!!?"

[manonfire]

I try to keep OOC to a bare-ass minimum. If I'm getting into a scene and I've gotta go soon, I'll update the other players with my decreasing playtime That's about all I ever use it for.

[FuSoYa]

I use it about once every two hours to let people know if I need to run away from the computer for a quick smoke break or walk the dogs.  And even then I don't use the OOC command I use:

emote is away for a handful of minutes.

Other then that I use OOC if it's a time issue, if a minion in my clan isn't understanding something and needs a push or when I'm doing some hiring for my spiel.

Brandon

[Akaramu]

OOC is great when interacting with a new player who just logged into the game for the first time.

Like... OOC this is a safe room, you can quit here to log out from the game

OOC The command to throw your dart at the board is xyz

OOC you can buy food here, type list

While leading by example IC at the same time.

[Yam]

Sometimes when I am playing a character with low intelligence people mistake me for a newbie and OOCly tell me how to do things.

I just play along. It's kind of fun.

[Agent_137]

I use it about once every two hours to let people know if I need to run away from the computer for a quick smoke break or walk the dogs.  And even then I don't use the OOC command I use:

emote is away for a handful of minutes.

Other then that I use OOC if it's a time issue, if a minion in my clan isn't understanding something and needs a push or when I'm doing some hiring for my spiel.

Brandon

try the gone command for this. it's the proper in-between you're looking for.

[psionic fungus]

Because I'm "different", and everyone else seems to agree, I have to say these things:

I -will- use OOC to correct other's role-play if they are power-emoting or doing something else bordering on abuse...

I also find absolutely nothing wrong with using OOC to exchange IMs or coordinate play-times... There's simply no reliable IC way to do this.

Standard use is for explaining syntax and assisting newbs.

Other than that, I avoid OOC.

[Vanth]

I only like to use the OOC command when coordinating good OOC times for IC events, really.

I agree.