Missing Persons

[ChibiTama]

How long do you tend to wait before you assume someone has either died or given up on their character? I'm just curious about this and wonder if certain clans might have guidelines, etc. Do you have a personal set time or do you just sort of play it by ear?

[Armaddict]

Kind of depends on their activity beforehand.

I basically have a 'sense of dread' that rises.  Once it hits a certain point...I give up hope.

[RogueGunslinger]

I assume you all died every time I log back into the game. The ones that haven't I plot to kill.

[little chicken woman]

I give them a week, unless they've been emoting their says.

[Vwest]

I really wish there was some method of leaving small OOC messages to players for this specific reason.

[Majikal]

That fear when your pc's besty has been absent for a couple of days is pretty sweet.

A question like this is hard to answer though, some pc's if they're unavailable for more than 3 days at a time I assume the worst, others I can not find for 2 weeks and can be comfortable assuming they're alright. Gotta know ur peepz.

[Asmoth]

Just for an ooc function, I would like a way to tell if someone is dead or alive.

I've gone weeks before looking for someone and fearing the worst to find out they just are a casual player who plays in bursts.

It would just be more efficient then me wasting stun trying to contact them multiple times per day.

[Riev]

Depending on who they are, sometimes I've sent in a request question just saying that I have a reason to be looking for this person (if they aren't clanned, clanned people I ask to see if they've mentioned being away).

That said, I also see less of people around Holidays. I, myself, havn't played since Thursday which might make people think I hit the sand.

[valeria]

Kind of depends on their activity beforehand.

I basically have a 'sense of dread' that rises.  Once it hits a certain point...I give up hope.

This.  It depends on how often I saw the character before, what kind of impact they have in my character's life (some people just might head off without saying anything, other closer associations probably would not), and what the last conversation was like.

"I'm going on [some RPT], way you when it get back" followed by nothing is a different level of dread than "I'll be manually masturbating chaltons as part of a Borsail breeding program so you might not see me for a while."

[IAmJacksOpinion]

There's also the dreaded timezone issues. I know I've had business relationships with other characters who I could only ever meet when I had a Saturday morning free or whatever.

[ChibiTama]

What about when someone was fairly active and around almost every day, give or take a few, of course. Then, they're suddenly gone. No sign of them anywhere.

[nauta]

If they're in my clan, the roll call thread or pm.  If they aren't in my clan, definitely I'd love a mechanism other than 'ooc i'm going on vacation so my gdb is nauta'.  Maybe an independent clan people can 'opt into' for ooc conveniences like this.

I'd love to have a way to sort of 'ping' a mind to see if it's dead -- then I know I can start shifting my RP to some other plot.  You'd get results like;

Code Select Expand


pcontact Gertrude

You feel this mind wavering, somewhere, but it is very weak (hasn't logged in for 1 yr+).

You feel this mind wavering, somehwhere, but it is weak (hasn't logged in for 1 month+).

You feel this mind wavering, somewhere (has logged in in the last month).

You don't feel this mind wavering.  (dead)


[manipura]

It's tricky because RL has a way of popping up and being a thing for people.

Three (I think?) characters ago, my PC had a mate who was around very often and then suddenly wasn't.  It was during a time when relations between north and south were particularly disastrous.  We were in Tuluk at the time but neither of us were inked, so things were...precarious, to say the least.  Especially for him since he was southern while I at least had a tribal/nomadic background.  He disappeared and after a few days I got a bit worried.  After a few more days, I worried more.  I got in touch with people in the south I knew he knew, people got in touch with me etc etc and no one had seen him.  My PC finally (after a good bit of time) made herself accept the fact that he was dead and tried to move on.  Had all sorts of emotional reactions to this fact and sent kudos and all that.  

I can pretty much say that I just about fell out of my seat when a good while down the road, he suddenly finds my head.  I assume RL had happened and Arm had to take a backseat.

It's an awkward situation, because now one player is a little shocked to find out the person they were sure was dead for a year or so is in front of them, and the other person is trying to come up with a suitable in-game reason why they disappeared and are now suddenly back.  I do find though that most players go along with the reasons and are good about understanding that sometimes real life happens.

I tell ya though, when you think someone close to your character might have died, and then it goes weeks and weeks and -weeks- without word from someone who usually is around regularly...more often than not you don't have a 'fall off your chair moment', because they are in fact dead.  That's my experience anyway.

[ChibiTama]

If they're in my clan, the roll call thread or pm.  If they aren't in my clan, definitely I'd love a mechanism other than 'ooc i'm going on vacation so my gdb is nauta'.  Maybe an independent clan people can 'opt into' for ooc conveniences like this.

I'd love to have a way to sort of 'ping' a mind to see if it's dead -- then I know I can start shifting my RP to some other plot.  You'd get results like;

Code Select Expand


pcontact Gertrude

You feel this mind wavering, somewhere, but it is very weak (hasn't logged in for 1 yr+).

You feel this mind wavering, somehwhere, but it is weak (hasn't logged in for 1 month+).

You feel this mind wavering, somewhere (has logged in in the last month).

You don't feel this mind wavering.  (dead)


This is a really great idea! It would love to see something like this implemented in the game!

[manipura]

As nice as it would be to have some function that let you know if someone was dead or just not logging in, I can see that being something that risks abuse and that negatively affects player's storylines.

[MeTekillot]

Maybe it shouldn't work the same as them being dead if the logged off person is barrier'd.

[th3kaiser]

Mmmm, I dunno. This is a super OOC construct. How am I supposed to murder my boss, keep his body in a closet, and continue passing orders along for a few years if people can simply contact him and have OOC information about him not having been around or dead.

[manipura]

Mmmm, I dunno. This is a super OOC construct. How am I supposed to murder my boss, keep his body in a closet, and continue passing orders along for a few years if people can simply contact him and have OOC information about him not having been around or dead.

This.

It becomes pretty difficult to embrace the murder, corruption, betrayal aspect of the game when someone can check just OOC whether someone is really dead, or they aren't logging in.

[nauta]

Mmmm, I dunno. This is a super OOC construct. How am I supposed to murder my boss, keep his body in a closet, and continue passing orders along for a few years if people can simply contact him and have OOC information about him not having been around or dead.

Yeah, I'd be comfortable just having the 'pcontact' proposal tell you about relative login rates, and not actual death, so maybe just:

This mind wavers (logged in in the last IG month -- useful for telling you if you are just missing each other due to playtimes -- or dead)
This mind wavers, very faint (1+ month not logged in or dead)
This mind wavers, extremely faint. (1+ year not logged in or dead)

Fiddle with numbers as you please.

This has come up before (can't find it right now), and your objection is one that comes up a bit in these contexts.  The response I'd give is that such plots as the one you put forward don't actually work on Zalanthas.  The way is mysterious and inconsistent, and this is coded into the way contact works already.  Hence, after one try or even a whole day or a week of trying and not finding a mind: could just be the way being inconsistent... But it isn't so inconsistent that we would never be able to reach that boss over the course of a month or so of trying -- unless you used magick or some poison or something.  

So after a month or so of trying (or, in my view, after a few weeks of trying) and not reaching anything, the appropriate in-game reaction (it seems to me at least) would be: well, they are either being fucked up by a witch or dead.

The OOC construct of being logged out compels us to gloss over this little quirk and suspend a bit of disbelief.

That's at least how I kind of see things.

ETA:

I also believe the other big worry here, other than the knowing-when-they're-dead meta-quasi-cheat, would be the burglar worry: knowing when they aren't logged in so you can rob their apartment.  My proposal helps burglars out quite a bit, probably too much. 

So, you know, for me it's the realism of it and how I dislike suspending disbelief, on the one hand, and playability, on the other.  Every time I sit down to think about it, though, I keep thinking: There's got to be a solution!

[Armaddict]

I feel the dread of not knowing whether someone is dead or alive adds more to the game than knowing does, honestly.

[BadSkeelz]

Being able to know someone hasn't logged in (whether because they're dead or not playing) removes the uncertainty either way. Can't say I'm a big fan.

As a leader, I would like to know more easily if what my minions may be up to virtually (including not showing up where they should). But for non-leader PCs I think the uncertainty we have now is fine.

[MeTekillot]

Barrier could have extra input whether to block yourself completely from the way, or for people to be able to perceive you faintly/extremely faintly/etc.

[Patuk]

'People will have an instant way of knowing you're around' isn't false, but then it's perfectly IC as well. The Way functions well enough that I don't see why Zalanthans couldn't use it as some kind of check-up measure themselves.

[Jihelu]

If someone stored would their be another message?
Maybe something like "Their mind seems distant"

[Dan]

I like the fact that people can just disappear.  I feel like it would take away from the game to know right away when someone is dead right away, without speculation.  I for one enjoy the periods of uncertainty and the elation when someone winds up still alive.