Could you give me a chance to say something??

[sarahjc]

I hate it when I feel rushed to say something by another player.. It drives me nuts.. Last night I was on and ended up making tons of typos.. my play was abhorrent at best..  This was partially due to the fact that I was really tired, but also that I was rushed to try and keep up with another player..

To me, nothing is more irritating than when the conversation falls two steps behind because I am typing out my well written phrase and then hit enter only to look up and see that the other person has said two things before my character has even sputtered out a word. And what my character said is now out of place, due to the other persons last two machine gunned out says..

Then it gets worse because I start to rush and keep up, I stop proof reading and then the typo's begin..

I normally give at least two minutes before type my next say.. And I tend to have much better role play with those that I don't have to rush with. It's like talking to my mother... :?

Any opinions?? Comments??..

[Candi]

They probably don't mean anything by it.  I might be guilty of doing this, but it's just because I type quickly and I often forget that it may take another person a little bit longer, whether it is because they might be sleepy or whatever the reason.  :oops:  I know that if I were aware that it was frustrating to someone else, I would slow down right away.  But I have to admit that when I get into the game, I can get on a roll and just go with it.  
I'll try to watch myself from now on, however.  It honestly never occured to me to consider it before reading your post.  Sorry, if I've done that to anyone.  :?

[Fast Talker]

*raises hand* I may be the guilty party for this one, if memory serves.  I'll try to be more patient next time.

[mansa]

Sometimes, it's the style of play that certain characters have.  I know some of the more influencial leaders of the game type way too fast, and overpower all the youngings, and therefore have their voice heard over everybody else.

[Larrath]

alias "heywait" say (with a somewhat irritated expression) Hey, if you want me to answer you then don't talk too fast!

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

alias "heywait" say (with a somewhat irritated expression) Hey, if you want me to answer you then don't talk too fast!

Alias No.
say (slowly narrowing his eyes and tilting his head) Don't speak over me, peon.

Slowly narrowing his eyes and tilting his head, the grey-eyed templar says, in sirihish:
"-What- did you just say to me?"

[Ayashah]

There's two ends to that stick though. Some that rush rush rush and give you a raised brow with a "Well??" when only a small amt of time has passed by. Especially when they are questioning your pc and it might be a touchy situation that you want to answer correctly to. I learned quickly who those people were and before even THINKING to type up an answer I would emote something like : emote holding up a finger, @ draws in a breath.  Then I would type out my answer. But I do LOVE the suggestion of the alias with the irritated look.  *snickers*

But then you have people that, though they rp beautifully, they take a good 5 RL minutes to put their answer together. No exaggeration. I once got up, went upstairs, used the facilities, checked on the kids, got a drink of water, came back down and the answer hadnt hit the screen. It wasnt just me. After my pc was no longer around, I gabbed once with another that had died in that clan. The first thing mentioned was "Do you remember <insert name>?? OMG I would avoid that pc because a conversation that should take 10mins tops RL took an hour!"

[Anonymous]

"Do you remember <insert name>?? OMG I would avoid that pc because a conversation that should take 10mins tops RL took an hour!"

I wouldn't be surprised if you and I are referring to the exact same person.  There are some people who can type fast enough to pull off a nice:

say (something cool about the way they move their hair, the light hits their eyes and their bosoms bounce) Some really cool dialogue that gets truncat..

And there are some who just flat out cannot type fast enough to make that work.  When conversations really get flowing, I become very intent on my dialogue and very spartan in emotes and flavor text for the say and tell commands.  I'm more interested in what my PC and your PC have to say than how a hand falls over a bulging crotch.  That's not to say that stuff isn't cool, flavor is awesome, but there needs to be a line drawn because after a while it stops being a conversation and starts feeling like player attrition.

Not every bit of dialogue or every emote needs be a work of art.  If you can pull it off, more power to you, but 3 minutes per response is a pretty good way to ensure that as a player I'll avoid interaction with you when possible.

[Gilvar]

I normally give at least two minutes before type my next say.. And I tend to have much better role play with those that I don't have to rush with. It's like talking to my mother...

Far too long for me. Unless the situation was extremely nescessary I'd probably walk away or shift my attention elsewhere.

I'd say that I've written this entire post in less then one minute, so I'd think that two would be hell, just staring at an open spot waiting for a response.

Though as the saying goes, slow and steady wins the race... But I personally couldn't take it.

[jmordetsky]

There is a happy medium, but worse case if you're getting cut off alot...just RP it.

Get IC annoyed, be like,

talk (looking perturbed) "Um, did you want to have a conversation, you kank shit? Or did you sit and spout off all night."

[sarahjc]

I try to take my time in reading what the other person says and absorb how they say it..

This may take a second to do.. it may take 30 seconds, depending on what they said and how they said it.. Then I type my response, read it once over, fix a few things, read it again and hit enter. And sometimes I have to head to thesaurus.com to find the word I need if I am going for a particular feel with what I am saying.

Then there are times I just say things and it takes a second..

That being said, 2 minutes is not a lot to ask. And most of the time, most people don't even take that long. But if you say something, at least give the other party a chance to respond before speaking again..

I am really not attacking anyone at all..  I just get a bit irritated when my conversations are out of sink, it kind of takes me out of the game a little.  

But I like the subtle IC suggestions presented…

Thanks all, I feel better..

[Carnage]

There is a happy medium, but worse case if you're getting cut off alot...just RP it.

Get IC annoyed, be like,

talk (looking perturbed) "Um, did you want to have a conversation, you kank shit? Or did you sit and spout off all night."

Ugh, I've encountered this before with nobility/important people. It's a pain.

They'll look like they're finished, you wait 30-45 seconds (a good amount of time), and speak and you'll get scolded for interrupting.

[sarahjc]

Honestly, if what you said warrents a response.. Why not wait for one.. why the hurry??

[X-D]

I normally give at least two minutes before type my next say.. And I tend to have much better role play with those that I don't have to rush with. It's like talking to my mother...  


Far too long for me. Unless the situation was extremely nescessary I'd probably walk away or shift my attention elsewhere

Heh, I type 50wpm on a good day and 2 min is far to long for me.

As far as what the hurry is, I really hate 5 response conversations that take 25rl minutes, or half a day ic...ugh.

[Kalden]

Yeah. I might be guilty of this some of the time, but I really only have fun when I can banter in conversations. It has to flow, and move at a fairly brisk speed. I will outright avoid people who take forever to say simple things. Sometimes it even bothers me off the point where my character will find their character annoying, and very "slow".

[sarahjc]

I normally give at least two minutes before type my next say.. And I tend to have much better role play with those that I don't have to rush with. It's like talking to my mother...  


Far too long for me. Unless the situation was extremely nescessary I'd probably walk away or shift my attention elsewhere

Heh, I type 50wpm on a good day and 2 min is far to long for me.

As far as what the hurry is, I really hate 5 response conversations that take 25rl minutes, or half a day ic...ugh.

I meant that as a standard point of reference, that so that I don't talk over someone, not very often, but sometimes I can take a couple minutes or so to say something myself..

But the thirty second rule sucks..Because at that point I just feel  that I'm not really role-playing with someone.. I'm just typing out a conversation as fast as I possibly can.. I can find a chat room for that..

[Northlander]

I doubt actual typing speed is the main reason for these delays.

There are plenty of players with some other tongue than English as their primary, not to mention Americans, who just aren't too comfortable with forming coherent sentences. Furthermore, newcomers to our mud are always struggling with their tell emotes, speaking in a Zalanthan fashion, and saying what their character would indeed say.

Try using thinks while waiting, ponder what that other character is thinking, or drop emotes if that helps time go quicker. Let's just not make the game harder for newcomers and "foreigners" by running them over with monologue or avoiding them entirely.

If you know that you need time to think about what to write, then please save in some of that time by keeping your emotes concise and focusing instead on what will be said. It's certainly the more important part of a tell, and you'll be taking that step towards respecting the other player, who might be of an impatient sort, just like you hope he'll respect you back.

Zalanthan hours don't agree with Earth hours and although we are making an existing problem worse by thinking through our sentences it's still an old problem that we already know how to ignore. I prefer this over the maximum wpm alternative.

[Anonymous]

Sometimes if it takes them too long for a response I wonder if they went linkdead. *shrug*

[EvilRoeSlade]

I also think two minutes is too long.  I'd venture one minute as an absolute maximum to avoid annoying somebody else.

By the way, I've always wanted to play a character who, when having a conversation, would wait for the other person to say something so that they could immediately interrupt them.  Unfortunately, I don't know how to make it work within the constraints of a MUD.

[Candi]

not to mention Americans, who just aren't too comfortable with forming coherent sentences. Furthermore, newcomers to our mud are always struggling with their tell emotes, speaking in a Zalanthan fashion, and saying what their character would indeed say.

:shock:

Sorry, I just couldn't resist, really.

[John]

If I'm saying somthing, I'll continue saying it and split it up over several "say"s so the person has something to do while I type. Am I stopping them from replying? Yup. But I don't expect them too, so waiting 30seconds each time would be silly. If they say something, I RP they said it just after I finished saying what I just "said" and go on that tangent of the convo.

If I'm waiting for a response, I'll wait 2mins before emoting out me waiting for them, and wait a bit longer before saying "well"? Sometimes someone has had to go afk for a bit and couldn't warn me.

As for people who are consistantly slow. I've only encountered 1 person who warranted me staying away from them. I didn't treat it IC, I just found alternatives to dealing with that char.

Never found any indication they weren't a a native English speaker.

[Angela Christine]

I try to take my time in reading what the other person says and absorb how they say it..

This may take a second to do.. it may take 30 seconds, depending on what they said and how they said it.. Then I type my response, read it once over, fix a few things, read it again and hit enter. And sometimes I have to head to thesaurus.com to find the word I need if I am going for a particular feel with what I am saying.

You are kidding, right?  Unless you are playing someone excruciatingly obsessed with what they say, this is insane.

When you are talking with someone in the face to face world, do you stand there silently for up to 30 seconds as ponder what they said.  Then stand there silently a while longer as you mentally compose your response, and edit it mentally a few times before opening your mouth, occasionly pulling out a copy of a paper thesaurus to check for just the right word?  If so, do you have OCD?  I've seen people that speak very deliberatly, that will wait for 10 seconds or so before replying, that gives you the idea that they are really listening and thinking about the topic, but none that check reference books durring a conversation.  

If I can't think of the word, then I assume may character can't think of the word either.  It happens to the best of us.

I am not a fast typist.  Back in highschool, after two years of typing classes I was up to 35 words a minute when 45 was supposed to be the minimum to pass the course (I passed anyway, by comming in durring lunch and actually working durring class, so that I turned in more assignments than anyone else in the class despite my slowness).  I think that trying to keep up in MUDs has made me faster than classes ever did, I may be up to 40 or 50 WPM on a good day by now.

That being said, 2 minutes is not a lot to ask. And most of the time, most people don't even take that long. But if you say something, at least give the other party a chance to respond before speaking again..

I am really not attacking anyone at all..  I just get a bit irritated when my conversations are out of sink, it kind of takes me out of the game a little.  

Checking a thesaurus doesn't take you out of the game?  :boggle:  Some characters, like some people, are just chatter boxes.  Some people are uncomfortable with prolonged silences.

You can't change other people, only yourself.  That's a basic principal of life.  So I'm going to concentrate on things you can do.

* Aliasing a slowdown statement may help, but only if the other PC is willing and able to slowdown.  Some chatterboxes really do talk that fast.

* If someone speaks while you are in the middle of typing something, just stop where you are and append a ... then hit enter.  Quickly drop out an emote about stopping abruptly as ~otherguy speaks.  Sometimes in real life two people really do begin speaking at the same time, so it reasonable for it to happen IC too.

* If this happens to you often, you may be responding more slowly than most players consider reasonable.  Respond faster.  One way to respond more quickly is to use shorter statements, and more of them.  Enter your statements and emotes seperately.  Someone says something, and you begin to respond.  

A quick reactive emote, if necessary.  Ex:  Em gasps, eyes wide.  or Em laughs as she listens to ~otherguy.  Something short.

A statement.  If you use an embeded emote, keep it short.  If your statement is going to be longer than you think the other person will wait, then type half of it ending with a ... to show you mean to continure.  Start the next statement with a ... to show it is the continuation, or "say (continuing) blah blah blah".  
A followup emote, if necessary.  Maybe you break into laughter after you finish speaking, or pound your fist on the table.  You don't need to put that in your say with a (), you can put it after.  The emote doesn't need an individual response, so your followup emote won't disturb the other player if they have already begun typing their response.

The () is a cool feature, but it isn't meant to slow conversation to a crawl.  Sometimes seperating your emotes and says can speed up the spoken conversation.

* Be imperfect.  You aren't being graded on your performance, and not everything has to be a masterpiece.  If you take two minutes to enter a response, you may be over-thinking things.


AC

[Lasakar]

The () is a cool feature, but it isn't meant to slow conversation to a crawl.  Sometimes seperating your emotes and says can speed up the spoken conversation.

Seperating in a complex converstion and in converstions with several people simultaneously has a big advange.

1. A short emote (or just some alias) to the person is a fast reaction and shows him that you are listening to him.

2. The person (or persons) will await now your answer. You win some time to type carefully what you want to say to him.

[spawnloser]

Now, I am a fast typist...but I am playing a character that has been trained from birth in the mannerisms that this person has.  I am not that person...sometimes, it takes a moment to edit how I would say something to how my character would say it.  I'm careful about that...when playing a noble, you wouldn't expect them to say, "Fuck off and die, bitch!" to someone that has upset them...you also wouldn't expect a 'Rinthi to say, "Well, that was by far the most abominable display of gregariousness I have yet witnessed."  Now...people speak like that in real life...and there are people that speak like both of those that play this mud.  You have to give them some time to respond.  If you're getting antsy looking at the screen, too cracked out waiting for the screen scroll to give you the comforting glow of moving lights on your display, do something yourself.  Think, emote, something.  I agree that we don't need scaring off those that are trying to add something to the game by making sure they are completely in character...we want these people, trust me.  We don't want to scare off newbies...without them, we will not grow.  As was already mentioned, people that are not native english speakers need to be cut some slack as well.  Calm down...lay off the speed...let's give people a chance.  If it takes two minutes, I will agree...that is too long, but thirty seconds to a minute?  Not too long, especially with all the options you have.

[wizturbo]

I'm one of those chatterboxes.  I type extremely fast, and I usually like to respond very quickly unless its a situation where I really need to think.  My best advice, is to just keep the character your interacting with knowing that your still there.  If there is a long gap between emotes/says, I think they went AFK and I get annoyed/bored/tired.  

I'm a big supporter of using short says and emotes just to keep things flowing, and longer, more elaborate emotes and dialogue in dispersed in with the fast stuff.  This keeps things moving, but also throws in some more rich emotes/says.

I'll admit I look through thesarus.com sometimes too, but infrequently and only if i -really- can't find a word to use that fits.  If its not he perfect word, but it'll convey the idea well enough, I usually just go for it and elaborate with a following emote if i dont think the character understood me properly.

[Bestatte]

Confessions of a speed typist:

The only time I've noticed that my fast typing has interrupted the flow of RP is when I'm trying to leave a room after a conversation. I've gotten feedback from a couple of people, who've said to me, "Hey - I had a "c-ya" say/emote all lined up but you left too fast!"

Because I -know- that I type fast, I try to be patient with those who don't. If my character is reporting information, she'll blurt it out as fast as she can, tell after tell after tell til someone tells her to shut the fuck up.

But that's when she's being asked to report something. She's going to expect (and so am I) that the information needs to be delivered quickly so the other person can get on with other things.

In a situation of casual conversation, however, I tend to be far more relaxed with my interaction, and have no problem slowing down my responses. I generally try to match my own responses with whoever I'm talking to. This also actually helps me with my RP, because it gives me more time to think about what my character is saying/doing.

For speed typists (anyone who types *English* higher than 60 wpm with a good grasp of standard American or British grammar), I would suggest relaxing during casual conversations or emoted interactions. In urgent situations, however, taking your time could result in someone getting killed.  I'd say to the slower typists in those situations, throw out your fancy emotes and just tell me what the hell you want to tell me. I promise not to get bent out of shape if you spell "the" wrong or add a comma where it doesn't belong.

The only time slow typing bugs me, is when the typist is taking 3 minutes to toss out a 4-line emote about nothing. If I have to wait 10 minutes from the time you walk in, to the time you sit at the table, I'm probably going to be out the door by the time you get halfway across the floor. Nothing personal - I just have more interesting things to do than hear the precise sound of your bootsteps.

[sarahjc]

Good Points all of them Bestatte.. and SpawnLoser

And how fast you type really does depend on what you are saying and who you are saying it to.. It is all relative to the situation..

I tend to blurt out stories or information that I am relaying with a bit of speed as well..Who wants to sit through a ten year update on what happened yesterday?

But in casual conversation I am a very say emotey kind of person. So.. some of my says can be a bit lengthy.. Plus My Character is the type that must be careful of what she says and how she says it..

And not that two minutes is way to long or way too short.. The basic gist was.. If you know that your railroading someone.. and that they are constantly a step behind you, Slow down.. They obviously for whatever reason aren't as fast as you..

I mean does the Rp have to flow like a spam scrolling screen??

Take a Valium, drink a beer and enjoy the scene. You may find that those who take a minute or so to say something.. May actually have something good to say..and/or may have a really cool way to say it..

[X-D]

I give benefit of the doubt first time, I'll even wait that 2 minutes, though it pains me, but, if after that 2 minutes I get a 3line emote on a tell of 4 words, specialy words that don't make any sense (really thick ic accents) I'm off like a prom dress, and don't expect my char to interact much with yours. Now, if after the two minutes it is a tell with 3 lines of info, I'll happily wait around for the next installment.

Now, if it is 1-2 minutes and it is a simple tell with few words, I assume slow typist or second language, either way, I'll stick it out, but I will be doing other things, emotes, way, talking to other people in the room, maybe even saying other things to the person typing slow, not that I expect them to answer everything, but it fills the space:)

Also, it feels to me, when I find somebody who constantly has to pull 2-3line emotes on a say and it takes that person 1.5-3 minutes every time, it feels selfish too me, that person -has- to be aware of the amount of time they are taking, they have to be aware that the other people around them are waiting on them, and it does not always mean just that room, other people may be waiting on the person they are talking to in other areas of the world/game, Not everybody has 10hours they can be on at a time, mostly it is 2-3 hours at a time, but one person can monopolize an hour for a 5 minute conversation, curtesy works both ways if you type 25wpm, you know it, this is not going to come as a shock to you, if you type 25wpm and do 3line emotes attached to your says that describe how your cloak is laying out behind your chair and you have to consult dictionary.com then rewrite it then finally hit enter after people have been waiting for what seems to them an eternity, then you are being selfish and not reguarding others.

[Quo]

In the field of human communication, there is a term coined for the variations in need of feedback. Subject is, that in any communication, the listening part is expected to give some kind of 'nonverbal keepalive packet'  (usually some sort of grunt or acknowledging "hm").
It was found that the duration of "silence" a listener was allowed before the speaker showed signs of irritation and eventually asked back varied a lot based on region and group.
Together with that came a different sense for how long a gap in speech had to be to allow the listener to actively start speaking himself. Not surprising, both time spans were closely coupled. With long intervals of acknowledging sounds went the need for long gaps to start speaking without being considered rude while fast-talkers needed frequent acknowledges and left only brief gaps for the other part to take over.

Something similar might come into play here, it seems to me. Some players feel ignored when the other doesn't respond immediately, and be it just with a brief emote preceeding a longer sentence. The counterpart feels rushed when the other side continues generating messages, or worse, speech without a chance for them to chime in. Digital communication inherits our speaking habits and models of communication.

Knowing that, a lot of effort can be made to make both sides feel comfortable, and I have had the luck of playing around chars whose players had been truly excellent at that. Not only did their chars feel in sync with their surroundings, they also managed to make me feel comfortable about my own playing, even if lacking.

To me, that is one of the best qualities a roleplayer can have (to answer another thread).

It is obviously the more experienced player, or the faster part who has more control over such a situation. Upon him I'd put the major part of the responsibility for timing a scene for an entire group. Seeing that one part is significantly slower, they have a world full of means to ease the situation for that player while including the char into the timeline of the scene without obvious breaks. It is up to their judgement (and the self-portraying of the slower char) to decide if the other player is hindered oocly or if the char is reacting slow in a faster environment. Often a combination will work well.
Also there's a lot that can be done without rushing the other player. The slow player gives you all the time you may want to portrait the world around meanwhile. Nice chance to do more about the conversation than just a ping-pong of communication-related commands. That kank-fly pestering you, the weather making itself noticed, vnpcs around rushing past - plenty of things as long as they're not overdone. Or, if you feel that it's the other -char- that is being slow, all kinds of things you can do ic about it. From discovering the inner secrets of your nose to shifting your attention elsewhere, you don't just have to stand there and wait until time itself comes to an end.

As a player who knows about his handicaps it can help to portrait the char itself as being slow to react, without necessarily reducing the commands per minute rate. A nod, a brief emote indicating that you intend to say something is often all it takes to make the others give you enough leeway to compose your message and bring it across in a thoughtful manner. Another possibility would be to shorten your sentences, or to split it into several commands at convenient breathing points.
Those situations when after a long pause, someone will speak with a 5-line monologue happen, but should be reflected by roleplay. If you're nervous in an interrogation, you can do all the fidgeting while carefully composing the message.
On a technical side, it helps if the client allows to compose a message without having to switch from keyboard to mouse, or other time-consuming tasks preventing reaction. If the client allows jumping to the beginning and end of a line typed as well as recalling previously typed lines from history (often by hitting the 'up' arrow, or Crtl-P), my own approach was to start typing my lengthy emote/say, and, if I needed to look up a word or do something in between (maybe to bridge the gap that was stretching already, or to react to a new situation) I would jump to the beginning of the line, invalidate the command by typing a letter that would make the mud just reply with an error message (such as -emote ..., or -say ...), do whatever I wanted to, and then recall the line from history and continue editing it. Sometimes little side emotes kept growing over an entire conversation like that, often I would discard something because it ended up being no longer appropriate, or done differently in the course of action.
Also, this allowed me to access webster. One of my most handy little things is to use the multiplaying capabilities of my client to connect to a webster telnet service. A simple "/def [word]" will give the illiterate foreigner me the help I need (and further scroll) without leaving my client or changing focus.

[Quo]

[...] occasionly pulling out a copy of a paper thesaurus to check for just the right word?

One of the things I never learned when I was learning a language at school was the first thing that hit me when I happened to learn french just by living in a french-speaking community:

It didn't matter if a word wasn't known, and it was perfectly understandable, and done by natives just as well, to replace that word with another. How often have you referred in speaking, in your own language, to "that big thing over there" and pointed at it just because a noun that was perfectly known to you happened to evade your mind right then? Feels silly, and happens all the time.
Don't be afraid of calling all kinds of '...things' to your aid. You're usually faster off describing them than you might need to look them up.

The webster is reserved for emotes. :-)

Good hints, AC !

Be imperfect.  You aren't being graded on your performance, and not everything has to be a masterpiece.  If you take two minutes to enter a response, you may be over-thinking things.

This last one I just had to quote. Nothing to add there.

[Akaramu]

I dont mind slow typers so far, I tend to just emote shifting my attention elsewhere for a moment, or adress a different character.

What really bugs me are people who afk very often, without any IC indication of being "absentminded", and do so during pretty much most of their play time. There was one person in my former clan constantly AFKing without indication, I was about ready to jump up the wall. He was my character's best buddy so I grit my teeth and worked around it.

As for myself, I seem to do better and better with my english vocabulary, so the emotes and says flow nicely most of the time. Whenever I try to do something a bit more fancy, I look up an online dictionnary. I also try to take notes about other people's emotes so I learn more different ways to describe that particular action my character wants to do.  :wink:

For complex scripts that will most likely not be affected by others, I have started to write them out in a word doc and then copy paste into the game when I need them. I copy them one by one, if someone reacts to it I make modifications to take the interaction into account.

Speaking in a Zalanthan way... ummm. I dont feel secure enough with my english to do that. I'd rather use no accent than a poorly executed one, I might try sometime in the future when I feel more secure with the non-slurred, non-accented speech.  

[Twilight]

Although I'm a fast typer, sometimes I am trying to figure out what my character, rather than myself, would say, given that he (or she) is a certain race, or a certain class, or has a certain secret... So I might delay a bit.

Now, as for a two minute wait or whatever, I don't think that is necessary.  I think based on your previous interactions with that character, you should form some idea of how fast the interaction is going to flow.  For new people, I would error on the longer side.

I've been in situations with two of us where we were both fast typers, so that even 15 seconds might seem a very long time.  It was perfectly fine, and we had great conversations because we had learned to expect the flow of conversation to be that fast.  However, I have been in situations where we each took five to ten minutes to respond.  Again, it was perfectly fine, and we had great conversations.

Just remember that in most cases the time you are allowing isn't for their character, it is for their player.  Who may not type fast.  Who may have to do some thinking to, oh you know, stay in character.  Or who may be at work, secretly playing Arm on the side, sneaking a peek at their screen every five minutes or so.

[Tmp]

Probably off-topic but it's not really a derailment, so here it goes anyhow:

I've noticed that people that get caught in a situation where their life is threatened, seem to freeze at their keyboards and take extremely long times to reply to simple questions like, "Hand over your sids or die."

(Needless to say, this are in situations where they can't spam flee and run like the wind ...)

So it's cool and all, and I make allowances for replies in situations like that. What was not cool was when one guy I was threatening to kill, didn't respond to any of my questions for like 5 RL mins or so, no emotes and whatnot ... until he suddenly went, "Muahaha, I've already Wayed all my friends that you want to rob and kill me, you're in big trouble."

Definately uncool. :roll: