Franks PC once kicked me in the forehead!

[The Lonely Hunter]

    Alright, I've been wondering how people know who plays who? I've read several posts now that say something along the lines of "this guy's character did this to mine before", or "this guy always plays badass characters".

    Back in my day, when we didn't have -any- water and the sand was sharper -and- we had to walk uphill both ways just to buy some rat meat...people didn't talk about who played what. Most people didn't know who Joe plays and it was like a tabboo. I think a time passes when it may be cool to say, "yeah, I played Jeff" but I think that time should be at the least one year after the PCs death. Any PCs involved with yours should be long gone. Hell, I've played a few really cool roles that I would love to spill the beans on

Anyway, just my 2 'sids.

[FantasyWriter]

Probably from those of us too lazy or don't find it worth the effort and extra work keeping up with alt accounts, using our GDB "personalities" on clan discussion boards.

[mansa]

Also, popular people's names get thrown around a lot.

/chops off dicks to put in a bag for Ghost

[The Lonely Hunter]

I had considered that, but it has been that way since we have had clan discussion boards and I can't seem to remember hearing things about who played what in the past. I'm not trying to be anal, I'm simply curious if there is more OOC communication going on now and people are more open about it.

The game has changed in a few notable ways, in my perception at least. Both good and not so good but I believe the good outweighs the not so good so far. That is the cycle of all things though and the only thing consistent...change, right?

The new code additions, more room echoes, edescs, etc are just amazing. Really well done. And the majority of people I've had the pleasure of RPing with have been top-notch.

[SMuz]

Lol, I used this alt for only one character. But being as talkative as I am in game and on the boards, people tend to figure out who I play. The really long lived characters who hop between clans get even more noticed thanks to the damn roll call, combined with whatever other threads on the clan forums that future players will read. I actually kinda hate it when people discover who I play, but after a while I learn to enjoy it. Might as well make some in-jokes about it

[Mr.B]

    Alright, I've been wondering how people know who plays who?

That's easy. They probably talk, or have talked OOC, or knew the person played in their clan via GDB handle.

I do think there is simply more OOC communication going on. In the past several years the average logons to
armageddon rose. That meant alot of newer players were kicking around the dust bowl, learning the ropes.
In their hunger to learn more about Armageddon more quickly, they reach out to their fellow players and
hopefully, they eventually learn to have strict discipline with regards to what they talk about and who they
play, through OOC channels.

For some people, it takes them a long time to learn that shit. For others, it seems like common sense.

That's Mr.B's 2 sid.

[Jenred]

Player gatherings, IRC, artist renderings of characters, logs of characters posted by people, players playing the game in the same room in real life, AIM, AIMBlast, Helpers, prior staffers now not, writing styles, emoting styles, player-PC trends, etc.

That is a few.

[mansa]

I think the idea behind Armageddon2 and the world ending opened up people's ideas about what is okay to talk about.

[WarriorPoet]

Probably from those of us too lazy or don't find it worth the effort and extra work keeping up with alt accounts, using our GDB "personalities" on clan discussion boards.

That's me.

[Reiloth]

Probably from those of us too lazy or don't find it worth the effort and extra work keeping up with alt accounts, using our GDB "personalities" on clan discussion boards.

That's me.

[Ampere]

Probably from those of us too lazy or don't find it worth the effort and extra work keeping up with alt accounts, using our GDB "personalities" on clan discussion boards.

That's me.

Guilty.

[Yam]

Oh come on Ampere, you don't have a strong personality.

[Synthesis]

The #1 reason is the inclusion of clan-specific boards on the GDB.

It's not a big deal as long as people are mature about it.  I'd really hate to see any "OMG Synthesis PK'ed my last 'rinther for no reason but now I'm his boss haha I'm going to make him paaaaaaay!" bullshit.

[Rhyden]

Oh come on Ampere, you don't have a strong personality.

You should speak. Yams aren't people.

As for the "I know who plays who", this is exactly the kind of thing that takes away from the game. I've had to resort to creating different GDB handles for clan boards to avoid relation with previous characters and eliminate any possibe bias. Personally, I think the clan forums are a double-edged sword. They're handy, sure, but it's hard to get rid of that bias when everyone knows who everyone else is/was.

[Synthesis]

Oh come on Ampere, you don't have a strong personality.

You should speak. Yams aren't people.

As for the "I know who plays who", this is exactly the kind of thing that takes away from the game. I've had to resort to creating different GDB handles for clan boards to avoid relation with previous characters and eliminate any possibe bias. Personally, I think the clan forums are a double-edged sword. They're handy, sure, but it's hard to get rid of that bias when everyone knows who everyone else is/was.

On the pro side:  when everyone knows who you're playing, it tends to put you on your best behavior.

[SMuz]

On the pro side:  when everyone knows who you're playing, it tends to put you on your best behavior.

Sometimes you don't want to be on your best behavior

[Ampere]

Oh come on Ampere, you don't have a strong personality.

Sorry, I thought by framing "personality" in quotation marks FW was implying the opposite.  Oh and fyi, next time I see your toon, their ass will bleed.  See you sand-side sexy.

[Rooster]

Oh come on Ampere, you don't have a strong personality.

You should speak. Yams aren't people.

As for the "I know who plays who", this is exactly the kind of thing that takes away from the game. I've had to resort to creating different GDB handles for clan boards to avoid relation with previous characters and eliminate any possibe bias. Personally, I think the clan forums are a double-edged sword. They're handy, sure, but it's hard to get rid of that bias when everyone knows who everyone else is/was.

On the pro side:  when everyone knows who you're playing, it tends to put you on your best behavior.

Personally, I'd rather only the staff knew. Maybe that's just me.

[Yam]

Oh come on Ampere, you don't have a strong personality.

Sorry, I thought by framing "personality" in quotation marks FW was implying the opposite.  Oh and fyi, next time I see your toon, their ass will bleed.  See you sand-side sexy.

I was just kidding.

My toons always die to scrabs anyway. Good luck getting to me before the mobs.

[Riev]

There are also some people that have openly admitted to what characters they have played. That, plus the inclusion of GDB clan-related boards means SOMETIMES you know who is playing what role. It is a bit OOC, but it serves a higher purpose.

[Posts for the Post God]

It's a timeframe thing to me.

If people are bullshitting and reminiscing on the GDB about the good ol' days and everything's a year or older, all the PCs are dead, and nobody's breaking any rules, I can't say I care.

Sometimes, I make aliases for certain PCs for the use on clan boards. Other times, I don't bother.

If your anonymity is that important to you, by all means, make a new account for each character. I don't think anyone's arguing against that.

[IAmJacksOpinion]

What? No one's got the balls to point out the obvious: This southern templar plays basketball with this northern templar on the weekends, and the both chat on Ventrillo with this defiler, while they're not busy trying to ignore and deflect these 15 other lesser calibre players' questions about code, or convince this other uber player to app a mindbender to eat brains for them ?

[brytta.leofa]

What? No one's got the euphemisms to point out the obvious: This southern templar plays basketball with this northern templar on the weekends, and the both chat on Ventrillo with this defiler, while they're not busy trying to ignore and deflect these 15 other lesser calibre players' questions about code, or convince this other uber player to app a mindbender to eat brains for them ?

This was prob'ly written tongue-in-cheek, but it's my morning to be a HUMORLESS JERK.

If you really think that players of high karma and/or apped roles are colluding out-of-character, you should report that to staff.  (Heck, you can report colluding grebbers, too, but that's not quite as visible or destructive an issue.)

If this is all just supposition or projection or you're otherwise just runnin' your mouth...please don't.  Templars and such are already in a position where they're liable to upset lots of people; yacking about how they're Probably Cheating, Too is verging on unhelpful.

[Gagula]

What? No one's got the euphemisms to point out the obvious: This southern templar plays basketball with this northern templar on the weekends, and the both chat on Ventrillo with this defiler, while they're not busy trying to ignore and deflect these 15 other lesser calibre players' questions about code, or convince this other uber player to app a mindbender to eat brains for them ?

This was prob'ly written tongue-in-cheek, but it's my morning to be a HUMORLESS JERK.

If you really think that players of high karma and/or apped roles are colluding out-of-character, you should report that to staff.  (Heck, you can report colluding grebbers, too, but that's not quite as visible or destructive an issue.)

If this is all just supposition or projection or you're otherwise just runnin' your mouth...please don't.  Templars and such are already in a position where they're liable to upset lots of people; yacking about how they're Probably Cheating, Too is verging on unhelpful.

Wait, it was your morning to be the jerk, not mine....OS, brb!  lol

in all honesty though, even if you do create a new handle for each and every character (good luck with that by the way), chances are, someone's going to figure out who you are by the way you type and your reactions to certain topics.......basically, we will find you, even if you run, even if you hide, the bogey man's gonna getcha!

[Vessol]

Probably from those of us too lazy or don't find it worth the effort and extra work keeping up with alt accounts, using our GDB "personalities" on clan discussion boards.

That's me.

[Lizzie]

A lot of times, it's pretty obvious who plays who. Once you know they've played -one- specific PC...you can sometimes tell all the ones that come after that one, if your characters ever interact.

People slip on the GDB all the time..it makes it obvious. "Oh well I have this opinion about this subject, and I should know, and these changes were recent, and I should know that too, especially in this location."

It's like they're basically advertising who they play. And then..they start talking about a new subject, and you notice a certain PC in "this location" who "would know" about "that subject" from before, is dead/disappeared/stored/otherwise not available anymore.

Sometimes it's easy to tell because of certain emotes. I remember vividly someone who misused the capital letter on emoting the -same- way, every single character, and all three characters in a row had almost identical wording of their main desc. You don't need to be looking for this stuff. It's practically shoved in your face.

And then there was the one whose character went missing..never found out what happened to her. And three days later, a character showed up in the other town, with the same style of main desc (2 sentences first to describe hair. Next sentence to describe height/weight. Next three sentences to describe curves, breasts, and the same misspelled "flair" of the hips. Etc. etc.), who leaned against the bar the -exact- same way as the other PC used to do. I mean word for word. It was like a script or alias. I might not have known who the player was..but I did know that the player played both characters.

When people create formats for their characters, and stick with the same format - whether main desc, or emoting style..then it just becomes pretty easy to tell which other characters they've played. And once one of them is in your clan and posts on your clan board, you know which player that was, who was playing all those characters.

Unless as I said before, they basically give that information away on the public GDB by talking about things their current or most recent character would know about.

[tortall]

A lot of times, it's pretty obvious who plays who. Once you know they've played -one- specific PC...you can sometimes tell all the ones that come after that one, if your characters ever interact.

Too true. Apparently I have an mdesc writing style, and one of my friends just looked at me, I hadn't even emoted, and they were like, that's you. No question. Just stating a fact. Since then I've working on changing it. And I usually switch up my "stock emotes" and figure what they are BEFORE I get ig, so I'm not at a loss as to HOW to emote a smile, and not let everyone know it was me.

[Eloran]

pemote fur ripples

That's me.

emote purrs

That's Tortall.

[flurry]

I couldn't agree more with Lizzie's post. I would usually rather not know, but just reading the GDB or playing the game is enough to make it obvious in some cases.

Having said that, players who linger in clan forums long after their character is gone can't be helping either.

[flurry]

If you really think that players of high karma and/or apped roles are colluding out-of-character, you should report that to staff.  (Heck, you can report colluding grebbers, too, but that's not quite as visible or destructive an issue.)

If this is all just supposition or projection or you're otherwise just runnin' your mouth...please don't.  Templars and such are already in a position where they're liable to upset lots of people; yacking about how they're Probably Cheating, Too is verging on unhelpful.

I also think this kind of thing ends up being used as a rationale for cheating.

[Lizzie]

Having said that, players who linger in clan forums long after their character is gone can't be helping either.

Oh god yes. I hate that I have to -ask- to be removed from clan folders. I've actually forgotten once, but that was awhile ago. I always ask when my next character gets clanned, but that doesn't always happen right away. I really wish we could un-subscribe to clan folders ourselves.

[Ourla]

I really wish we could un-subscribe to clan folders ourselves.

[FantasyWriter]

one of my friends just looked at me, I hadn't even emoted, and they were like, that's you. No question. Just stating a fact. Since then I've working on changing it. And I usually switch up my "stock emotes" and figure what they are BEFORE I get ig, so I'm not at a loss as to HOW to emote a smile, and not let everyone know it was me.

I'm sorry.
I don't think that's any reason to change your mdesc, I'm just very observant.

I really wish we could un-subscribe to clan folders ourselves.

As do I.

[IAmJacksOpinion]

We used to be able to unsubscribe ourselves. If we can rebel ourselves IG, why not?

And I noticed, between this character and my last, that I make some very distinct emote issues. I remember thinking, about half way through that character, "Hot - damn! I've gotta slow down and think before I hit enter, or these cats'll pick out my next character, easy!"

And also, I can ALWAYS spot one of my IRL friends because he plays the same character again and again. Personality-wise, and also his sdescs always have one of maybe 3-5 common words he uses. PERSONALLY, I take an sdesc as a fucking ART. In a lot of situations, it's the only part of your description a player will read, so it's gotta be spot-on, in my book. I consider the emotions certain words inspire to the way I want my character to be perceived, and always keep looking for new words to use.

Some words just rub you a certain way.

svelte = warrior/ f'me
wiry = definitely an assassin
burly = Get this man a brown aba
thin = pussy.
lean = newb. Hasn't learned to type svelte or wiry yet.
etc.

Those're some of my personal feelings I get from words. Wish I could think up some more examples, but I don't have time right now.



Of course, I've got my list of all time favorites I'll pull out every now and again in a character, but never the same two unique ones in a year.  I wish I could share them, but that'd just be.. yeah.

[Ourla]

ROFL, dood.  That list is spot-on.

[shadeoux]

We used to be able to unsubscribe ourselves. If we can rebel ourselves IG, why not?

And I noticed, between this character and my last, that I make some very distinct emote issues. I remember thinking, about half way through that character, "Hot - damn! I've gotta slow down and think before I hit enter, or these cats'll pick out my next character, easy!"

And also, I can ALWAYS spot one of my IRL friends because he plays the same character again and again. Personality-wise, and also his sdescs always have one of maybe 3-5 common words he uses. PERSONALLY, I take an sdesc as a fucking ART. In a lot of situations, it's the only part of your description a player will read, so it's gotta be spot-on, in my book. I consider the emotions certain words inspire to the way I want my character to be perceived, and always keep looking for new words to use.

Some words just rub you a certain way.

svelte = warrior/ f'me
wiry = definitely an assassin
burly = Get this man a brown aba
thin = pussy.
lean = newb. Hasn't learned to type svelte or wiry yet.
etc.

Those're some of my personal feelings I get from words. Wish I could think up some more examples, but I don't have time right now.



Of course, I've got my list of all time favorites I'll pull out every now and again in a character, but never the same two unique ones in a year.  I wish I could share them, but that'd just be.. yeah.

Personally, I attempt to find new words and use them creatively when making desc.

[brytta.leofa]

svelte = warrior/ f'me
wiry = definitely an assassin
burly = Get this man a brown aba
thin = pussy.
lean = newb. Hasn't learned to type svelte or wiry yet.

slim = thin + svelte
emaciated = thin + experienced
compact = I secretly prioritized strength
male = breed
one-eyed = your doom

[tortall]

male = breed

Not true. I've seen several males that were the same race as me when I asses -v'd them.

[FantasyWriter]

i wish you couldn't identify breeds with assess -v.

[brytta.leofa]

male = breed

Not true. I've seen several males that were the same race as me when I asses -v'd them.

This can only mean that...   

[Bushranger]

pemote fur ripples

That's me.

Totally read that as fur nipples

[Vessol]

I am also guilty of using the same emote mannerisms in multiple characters :\. Unconsciously of course.

[Synthesis]

I am also guilty of using the same emote mannerisms in multiple characters :\. Unconsciously of course.

chuckle

[SMuz]

wiry = definitely an assassin
lean = newb. Hasn't learned to type svelte or wiry yet.

Lol, I've seen plenty of non-assassin wiry guys. But it does explain why my first character, a lean guy, was always watched by people. Hell, I seriously thought that the "He is watching you" code means that you're the last person he was looking at. And since the mdesc said he wasn't muscular, everyone assumed that he was a pickpocket or assassin, especially because he was carrying around some militia items from the wrong city-state.

[FightClub]

I chat on aim a lot with people I play the game with, it's just how I am.  And lonely, quit acting like you don't, you're just trying to score some karma but drumming up a thread, and acting like you've never heard of ooc, which is complete garbage.  Five bucks you're special apping a dual main class, and one of which happens to be psionics.  I always loved when people did this, it's the epitome of lying, and bad form.  I just wished the imms would account note every time someone ooc'd: "You got msn or aim?" to some fme they met, then posted it in threads like these when they say they don't oocly converse.

It's all about responsibility, if you're chat oocly about ic info, then use that in game, then do it, we're not going to stop you, but the imms probably are going to eventually.  If you're capable of talking to people ooc, and don't loose ic info, more power too you, but honestly, I don't see how you do it.  Talking to the majority of the players out there about anything other than the game quickly becomes boring, trust me.  That's right, all of you are boring, and I am too.

[Jenred]

I've never had more then a 24 hour wait with the "Request Tool - Leave Clan Forum". - So I don't know what the big deal is about being able to leave a clan forum on your own.


And to add to my list earlier, which addressed the question of "How do people know who plays who?" - A perfect example was also just posted in Player Announcement, which is common, when a player says "THAT ONE THING THAT HAPPENED -HERE- WAS AWESOME, THANKS GUYS", which allows most people by process of elimination to know who you are.

[Lizzie]

Yep, and now we also know that if you rp with someone who normally -would- be there, but logged out early, it was probably a specific player's character.

And people wonder how we know who they play? C'mon. STOP TELLING US AND WE WON'T KNOW.

[Gagula]

I will....but only because I know a god 

[RogueGunslinger]

Yep, and now we also know that if you rp with someone who normally -would- be there, but logged out early, it was probably a specific player's character.

Or maybe they're not even playing there, have no idea where they're talking about, but are just sad they missed something.


Don't read too much into what people post on the GDB about stuff, because then you're just as bad as people posting. Want to pretend you don't know anything? Don't ASSume anything. Random comments that are made could be made for something that happened a WHILE ago, and just HAPPEN to be related to something more recent.

DON'T LOOK SO HARD AND YOU WON'T FIND ANYTHING!

Thank you. :-)