Keeping it IC when possible

[The Lonely Hunter]

Heya folks!

I just wanted to kick up thoughts and ideas about creative ways to keep something IC instead of having to go OOC. I know that this has been discussed before but how about some fresh thoughts and collaboration.

For example, if you need a 10 minutes RL for something instead of "OOC 10 min quick, need cig break!" how about something like "I need an hour to prepare, pardon me." or "Gimme an' hour to sharpen my blades."?

Ideas, examples, flames?

[MatisseOrOtherwise]

I've seen something similar for when people need to quit - they say they have "gate duty" and such. There seems to be an understanding by the players that sometimes IRL stuff interrupts things. Hence the adoption of the term "krathstruck", too.

[Lizzie]

The OOC/GONE commands are useful but I see them used in a way I personally feel is inappropriate. For instance - I really don't care WHY you are AFK for a moment. The more information you include, the more out of the scene you draw everyone else. Simply "afk a few minutes" suffices.

I'll admit I use the OOC command to say "AFK a few" instead of the GONE command, but with very few coded exceptions, the result is the same. Short and sweet, and hopefully not too scene-wrecking.

If you need to be gone for more than a few minutes, if you're in a place where you can safely log out, I'd rather see you just log out, and log back in when you're done doing whatever you're doing.

I'm more nitpicky about that, than I am about coming up with IC explanations for an OOC situation.

[Kankfly]

I try keeping it as IC as possible.

If I need to handle something RL, 'help time' helps a lot. Since 1 IG hour = 10 RL mins, 1 IG day = 1 RL hour etc, I normally just go: I gotta handle something for an hour/a day/a couple of hours/half a day/a couple of days/etc. Get in touch with you later. Same with logging off.

Then if I get dced from the game, I normally go: Shit, sorry! I went krathstruck! Did you say anything to me? Usually, the other player gets it, and will repeat whatever he/she/it said back at me.

There's moments where you -have- to OOC though, such as when you need to set up time with the other player, or if there's questions about syntax, etc. Otherwise, I keep it as IC as possible.

Sometimes, there are new players to the gamet, so you can always gently remind them to keep the OOCing as little as possible.

[Samoa]

Just don't ooc. Like, at all. Ever. Just pretend the command does not even exist. If someone says, "When are you available (OOC: I'm available 8-10 EST)" you read the time helpfile and you break it down into days and hours.

If someone asks you a question OOC, don't answer it. If someone asks you anything, ignore it.

The only case in which I might make an exception would be IF it was a newbie, AND you were alone with them. Otherwise, point them to helper chat or extract them from an area in which they are around others.

Past that, you can OOC if you are about to skin someone alive and need permission.

[chrisdcoulombe]

I used to keep it super in game, but then I waste a bunch of time explaining myself when I really need to go.   To the point it makes it more jarring than if I just ooc, or gone afk.    "I need to take care of some things, be back in an hour or two."...'What things?'..."You know stuff for the house"...'That can wait.'

I've had lots of in game conversations that went like that.   I still try to keep it ic usually, but it depends on how intrusive the people with me are.

[path]

I agree with Samoa. The less said the better.

Also, to those of you who decide to correct minor typos through OOC, I wish you would not. It just makes you look self conscious and persnickety. Also, I rarely notice the typo until you take the time to point it out.

[nauta]

It doesn't bother me one way or the other, but what does bother me is when someone does an IC thing and I'm left wondering if it is code for I have to log out or if they are just ditching my PC.

This isn't a big deal, except when you have situations where you can't ditch.  To that end, I always try to think of some very explicit way of signalling the other player that, yes, I am logging out right now because of RL.

So in the military clans, you have Gate Sarge, who trumps all other PCs.  That's simple.

Shady types I just type 'hide'.

Tribals/elves: it's /mother/ and she wants me home /now/.

More awkward are aides.  I've never thought of a good way of telling my Lord/Lady that I have to leave.  One suggestion was to appeal to another Lord/Lady in the House, but... you know... I'm not /their/ aide.  Maybe I should join the Atrium and find out how to log out as an aide.

[path]

Excusing aides:

One way I've handled that in the past is to come up with a code phrase with the noble through PM on the GDB. So once when I was a whatsit for Fale, I would explain that there was some dramatic gossip I simply had to look into and the noble would swiftly excuse my aide from any social gathering, regardless of circumstance.

Another time I worked with a noble who had children, and we agreed privately that just about any reference to them would be reason to excuse my aide.

[WithSprinkles]

I would think that asking to be excused would work too as a base thing. If they ask why, as an aide, you should have tasks they have set for you, so you could very vaguely refer to having to deal with one of them in some way or some made up thing.

[Kankfly]

Just don't ooc. Like, at all. Ever. Just pretend the command does not even exist. If someone says, "When are you available (OOC: I'm available 8-10 EST)" you read the time helpfile and you break it down into days and hours.

If someone asks you a question OOC, don't answer it. If someone asks you anything, ignore it.

The only case in which I might make an exception would be IF it was a newbie, AND you were alone with them. Otherwise, point them to helper chat or extract them from an area in which they are around others.

Past that, you can OOC if you are about to skin someone alive and need permission.

Actually, for RPTs, I don't think that's a really good idea. I like confirming time OOC just to be sure since time conversion from OOC to IC is hard - especially for someone bad at math like me. If there's something scheduled an RL week from now, and you don't know who is the player playing that character, it will be extremely hard to coordinate.

There are times when you just have to use OOC IG. But how can you tell if it's excessive use of OOC or not?

Here are examples of the excessive use of OOC:

Example One:

ooc I'll brb. I gotta water those plants. Those plants aren't going to water themselves you know! I mean especially the roses. It's so hard to tend roses in winter! Does anyone know any good tips on that? But lololol don't tell me that yet! Let me brb first.

Example Two:

ooc Omg did anyone SEE THAT? It's a BIG GIANT ROC WITH GREEN AND RED FEATHERS! Am I seeing things? Is this a game bug? Seriously am I the only one that sees this thing? What's going on, guys? SOMEONE EXPLAIN TO ME!

Example Three:

ooc Lol oops I mean the OTHER GUY!

ooc sry not shit, I mean shift***

Example Four:

ooc soz guys, gotta go. nice rping with you guys.


For example one, I'm not saying that typing 'gone afk' or 'ooc afk' is too oocly excessive, but I don't think people are interested in knowing why you're going afk, especially since it's unrelated to IC.

It's sad to say that I've also witnessed example two. If you think it's a bug, the best way to go about it is use the 'bug' command (help bug), wish up, or put in a request to the imms. In the meantime, RP out your PC's reactions, unless someone tells you to cut it out.

Example three can be easily fixed by redoing the emote with the correct spelling/target. Whenever I see 'so and so says out of character', my mind automatically hits the pause button on the RP, and it's now switched to OOC zone. This is just a small thing, but little tweaks like that all contribute to the RP atmosphere. There really isn't anything more jarring than when you are in an intense scene and someone oocs: "LOL! Wrong target/Oops, I mean assassin**" or just plain "loses*".

Example four can be easily translated to IC, like what some have suggested before me. "Going to gate"/"need some rest"/"Wall duty"/etc are all great IC excuses for logging off.

[nauta]

Favorite gone message:

ooc omg guys gtg a tent just flew up onto my roof

then they quit

[Insigne]

The best IC excuse for AFK-ness is needing to take a nice, long shit.

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say (loosening ^me breeches and rushing off) Feck! I feel a big one comin'. Musta been all the peppers.

[Kialae]

If I have to go, I'm OOCing it for the most part. If I try to make an IC excuse that I have to leave I can be held accountable IC for something I can't control OOC.

[Miradus]

I don't get hung up about this. And I try not to play repeatedly with people who do get hung up on it. They're going to already freak out when I get caught up in the moment and say something. This game has more than enough roleplay police without the self-appointed ones.

I'm really only going to draw the line if someone wants to spend 20 minutes using OOC to tell me about their dog's birthday party or something.

[Riev]

If I have to leave a scene, and its intense/emotional/important (especially behind closed doors), I'm OOCing that I need to leave.

If I'm alone at the bar, I'm not putting in a gone message.

If we're trying to plan time together, I'm going to OOC tomorrow at 8pm. I'm not going to say "ON THIS DAY, BUT IN ONE WEEK, EXCEPT SUBTRACT A DAY OR TWO, AND THEN.. MAYBE AN HOUR AFTER". It sounds stupid, and its more jarring to have to interpret the meaning than get the information you're supposed to have.

This is a game. I have a life that occasionally gets in the way of my playing it. Sometimes I get a phone call, or a sudden meeting, or I'm told we're going out for dinner. I feel I owe it to the people in the scene I'm engaged in to know that I, the player, am leaving. It isn't the PC who got bored, or has things to do, there's nothing to worry on. If I, the player, had the time to continue the PC would still be engaged in the scene.

[valeria]

I mostly try to keep it IC except for dates/times.  Times are that one thing that the work arounds are too complicated, awkward, and open to misinterpretation.  What is "late in the week"?  What is "every third week but once or twice every fourth week early in the week"?
Does early mean 1 am or 7 am?  It's just too confusing and it kicks me out more trying to pin down details than a brief OOC.

I also can't recall a time that I was ever penalized IC for giving an IC excuse to leave, and I'm pretty sure that most players understand that "urgent business/gotta poo" is just handwavium for having to log out.

I've found that most people's use of OOC is sparing and doesn't grind my gears.  Typo correction makes me roll my eyes but it doesn't take me out of the game.  Knowing that you're AFK to smoke versus knowing that you're AFK generally doesn't take me out of the game more one way than another, but it does give me an idea of how long I can expect you to be gone.  I think most people are pretty responsible about not overly using OOC.  But I find that the tried and true AFK excuses work the best. Krathstruck, wall duty, dizzy a minute, etc.

[Riev]

I HAVE been prone to minor OOC conversations, depending on the scene and the comfort level of the characters involved, but sometimes its bordered on unnecessary.

Keeping it simple, is fine, but because of my playstyle and level of immersion, I'm not broken up by someone using an OOC channel for something. Some of you are great at being IN your character, into your thinks and feels and story, and sometimes having to think in OOC terms is jarring. Its a curse, I'm sure.

I honestly don't care whether you care if I'm OOC walking the dog or "gone bathroom". I'm letting you know the time its going to take before I respond, so you don't take time out of YOUR playtime waiting on my ass to finish with RL things. If I'm in an apartment or in a scene where I could reasonably be attacked? I'm going to let them know I'm away from the keyboard for <x> time so I can properly RP the scene when I'm back.

And if someone is using it too much? Just send in a player complaint, and let staff bring it up to them (IN A NICE, CORDIAL MANNER, PLEASE). Staff are great with complaints, and its less of a 'complaint' and more of a "neighborhood watch". We don't need GDB threads complaining about how people use OOC communication.

[valeria]

To be fair to the OP, I don't think this was intended to be a complaint thread, I think it just went that way.

[nauta]

As for correcting a typo, instead of ooc (which doesn't bother me), you might try just doing something like:

say So there I was with my rock in my hand...
say (coughing into a fist) I meant sock, not rock.

Although for the most part, I leave it alone unless it's a /very/ jarring mistake, more jarring than the correction.

On emotes, I will sometimes redo the whole emote (rarely), and sometimes do:

em said that to ~bob not ~george, obviously

[Riev]

To be fair to the OP, I don't think this was intended to be a complaint thread, I think it just went that way.

Its an early, angry morning. I was just meaning more of "A reminder is great, but if its actually a problem, letting staff have the opportunity to check in is much better than vague-booking".

I also do like Nauta does, if the typo is glaring, or targeting the wrong person/object.

[Yam]

I tend to find contrived excuses for something that's blatantly an OOC issue more jarring than an actual simple OOC.

[RogueGunslinger]

An OOC newbie channel would solve a lot of problems. 90% of the time I see an OOC it's newer players needing help or getting the hang of things or feeling the need to apologize for something. They aren't used to the very IC nature of the game yet.

[nauta]

Also: Nothing wrong with a good old OOC whisper now and then.

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whi newbie (OOCly) What's your number?


But I gotta agree, sometimes working things out in IC terms is more jarring than a simple and judicious OOC.

[Samoa]

If I wanted to talk to anyone OOC, I'd be in IRC/Discord talking to them OOC. Barring staff members interacting with one another, the in-game is not a vehicle for learning about one another, it's a vehicle for learning about one another's characters.

I have never, in just barely under two decades on and off of playing this game, not even once, seen someone penalised for making up an excuse for having to go.

Furthermore, I don't think 'gone' is appropriate in most cases either. I would only use it if I was (ostensibly) alone and wanted to inform staff. It's jarring and disruptive and I don't want to see it.