Posting Rumours

[Pantoufle]

This is hardly a big deal but I've noticed a trend which, for me, has become something of a pet peeve.  This really is quite inconsequential, so consider it merely a suggestion for varying your post styles and not a significant gripe.  Here goes.

Posting rumours on the IC boards tends to always follow the same writing format (always, Always, ALWAYS).  Like this:

Something bad happened.  Nobody is sure exactly what happened.  Some people say it was <polar extreme> while others argue that what happened was <opposite polar extreme>.  One thing that is certain however is that <main point> seemed to have happened.

It starts to look as though it's the same person writing these rumours after a while but in reality -- or so I suspect -- people are merely following the same pattern, something which has (disappointedly) become a "tradition" in posting IC rumours.

Varying one's style of rumour posts might help inspire more creativity amongst players and staff, instead of the same old "Some people say X, others say Y but one thing is definately certain and that's Z" format.

Know what I mean?

[Larrath]

I really don't mind this trend, as long as the rumors make sense.
It beats the alternative - I don't want to read unusually detailed accounts of what happened, or to hear a rumor and know exactly how things came to pass.
This also lets PCs decide which side of theorizes their PC is sitting with.

Suppose a templar walked in and set the Barrel on fire.  Some people might think it's just another display of Allanaki brutality and templar corruption, and that the templar probably wasn't bribed enough, or because the templar was supporting the new Valika tavern across the road.  Someone else might theorize the templar set the Barrel on fire because an army of Drovians was in the common room, about to unleash all Hell, and the templar had to sacrifice the tavern for the greater good of the city.

A rumor like that is better than "On the 5th day of the Ascending Sun, in the Month of Whira's Very Annoying And Nearly Unreachable Itch, Lord Templar Mha Dceks set the Barrel on fire.  The fire was hot".

[sarahjc]

I also don't really mind how rumors are put up. While I like the creative ones that use a conversation, those are frequently posted without sentence structure and are hard to read. However, when they are posted correctly, they are much more interesting.

But my preference as of late has leaned towards the simple one paragraph ones that just let you know something has happened. They are straight and to the point and don't force opinions on the reader.

[jstorrie]

Good conversational posts are sometimes tricky to do, because the same message boards may be accessible from different regions - for example, in both cities, the high-class and low-class taverns share the same rumour board. Someone sitting in the Trader's Inn wouldn't hear 'a gruff conversation between a pair of dusty miners', so there is a limit to how much detail you can really put in.

At any rate, my board posts are always totally wicked awesome, and I'll try to do more from now on to make up for all the sucky ones.

[Pantoufle]

Actually, I dislike "conversation" posts and tend to disregard them entirely.  You know, the type where an NPC is animated and given dialogue with another.  I prefer posts written more as newspaper articles, but it seems that they're starting to be written with the exact same wording (the only difference being the actual "meat" of the post -- that is, the topic itself).  They always end with the all too predictable, "While no one is certain exactly what took place, everyone has concluded that <Such and Such> happened."  It always flows with the same format:

- Some people are saying this
- Some people are saying that
- But what is known for sure is <whatever happened>

I dunno, no big deal really.  Just something I felt like pointing out while I had a spare moment.

Cheers.

[Dracul]

You seem to be alone here Pantoufle.

[jhunter]

Actually, I prefer non-conversational ones vs. poorly written conversational ones. But I do like well written conversational type rumors best of all.

[Cale_Knight]

I don't really care what format the rumors are in. Any time you read a rumor on the board, you have to make a decision on whether or not your character heard it at all, and if they did, what exactly they heard. If I read a "conversation" rumor that mentions a Wyvern and a Bynner talking at a table, that doesn't mean I necessarily overheard a Wyvern and a Bynner talking at a table. I could have heard it from a whore, or from the barkeep, or anywhere else.

I tend to view rumor messages as simple tools, not as hard and fast templates for my RP.

[ale six]

I think rumor messages should have a little variation to them, rather than being the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Conversations are neutral for me. If they're written well, they can be okay. Poorly written ones are utter crap.

Kinds of rumors I absolutely DON'T like:

- "People are talking about a tall, brown-haired guy named Joe who says he's a _____ looking for work, you can find him at the Sanctuary."

- Rumors that nobody would actually talk about. For example, "word spreads that there was a brawl in the Gaj!!" is a rumor that does nothing but waste space on the board. Brawls happen in the Gaj all the time, who cares?


This is a harder point to argue, but I hate 'personal attack' type rumors in most cases. Stuff like "people are talking about how random person Jenny is a thief" annoys me in most cases. Unless Jenny is somebody important, does she deserve the whole city talking about her? I've always figured maybe these could work if there is some PC actively slandering that character in game, too, and maybe spending money to make people talk about her. As long as another PC is connected to it in some way.

[Rindan]

I personally think that people have been doing a good job with rumors and I like the style they have been done in.  Usually when an event happens something happens that everyone agrees on.  There was some magik in the Barrel for instance.  Then there is something that is only rumored to have happened, but the details are sketchy.  For instance, a Templar and a Krathi were involved with the magik that happened.  Then there is something that is simply wild speculation and that different people saw differently.  Some say the Templar tried to throw a fireball at the Krathi, others say the Krathi say that he threw a fireball at the templar, still others say a delfier stepped in and threw a fireball at the Templar and the Krathi.  The idea is that 'someone threw a fireball' and in the confusion, everyone saw something different in the confusion of the moment.

As to what rumors are appropriate, the only ones that really bother me are the obvious smear posts.  "Almost everyone in Red Storm agrees that Kurac pretty much rocks and that anyone selling spice to anyone else pretty much sucks and should be lynched" is bad because it judges the opinion of an entire population.  "Rumor has it that Lady Inbreed is a total whore and was caught fucking 'rinth elves" is bad because unless Lady Inbreed was caught fucking 'rinth elves in the public and it was seen by a lot of people, that kind of crap should be spread using your character, not a post that can't be linked back to you.

As far as a bar fight in the Gaj, who cares?  It isn't hurting anyone.  Nothing is wrong with mundane rumors in my opinion.  At worst no one cares.  At best, it is mundane conversation starter.  I don't see it as being totally unbelievable that people in the Gaj wouldn't talk and laugh about a random fight that broke out.  The rumor might not last for months, but people still might be talking and laughing for a few days.

Rumors about so and so looking to sell X or looking for work in clan X are a little cheesy and best handled through other means, but don't cause me much heartburn.

[Pantoufle]

You seem to be alone here Pantoufle.

With a whopping total of 7 other posts aside from your unproductive comment, I couldn't disagree more.  It was a topic in the mIRC channel which spawned my initial post in the first place.  

It's important to remember that the GDB populace does not represent the whole (or even a large portion, in every case) of the playerbase.  So even if I were truly "outnumbered" as you childishly feel the need to point out (without adding anything substantial to the discussion), that only means one group of the players disagree.  You're also not taking into consideration the GDB posters/readers who don't respond to each and every post in the first place.

In response to Rindan's productive feedback, I too prefer "traditional" rumour posts over dialogue.  However, I only wished to suggest spicing up the structure.  They start to look like a template after a while.  Templates dispel creativity.  That was really my only point.

[Pantoufle]

Rumors about so and so looking to sell X or looking for work in clan X are a little cheesy and best handled through other means, but don't cause me much heartburn.

Really?  That's interesting, because I don't suffer any heartburn at all while you report minor symptoms.

None of the post styles on the IC boards cause me grief, I just felt like discussing and critiquing the current setup.

[jstorrie]

Oh man, I despise "so and so is a stonecrafter and is looking for work." That is not a rumour that anyone would spread. Poor use of the rumour boards!

[marko]

Any rumor is a rumor.  It can be posted on the rumor board.  Basically, to me, the rumor system is fine and so long as people follow a few in-game activities first I see no problem with any rumor.

Let's take the X is looking for work.  Why is that such a bad rumor?  So long as X has taken time and spoken to a _lot_ of people about it.  Perhaps they have gone to a variety of tavern's and announced their intentions there.  Perhaps they dropped off a few 'sid at said establishments or paid a few kids to spread the news.

The type of rumor post I dislike are the 'conversations' because they don't make sense.  I've been in Trader's and read about the 'dusty and burly mercenary at the table over' or I've been in a tribal bar and had to read about 'a couple of silk clad human merchants' - they don't work for all bars.

When making a rumor the criteria I adhere to is this:  A largely public event that many people would be talking about (magickers in Sanctuary for example) or a small event that someone made an effort to spread (let's say a byn sergeant lost his favorite sword and thus paid a few kids to spread the news).

People gossiping about Y (who is a nobody) is not a problem.  The problem only comes into play when the person posting the rumor does not work ICly to spreading the news and simply posts the rumor.  And even then, it isn't that big a deal to me although I'd appreciate seeing the effort being made in the game first.  I prefer seeing more rumor posts than less.

[Cenghiz]

I hate it when...

-X logs in to the game for the first time.
-You see X sitting with his newbie clothes at the bar.
-You read a new rumour that X knows to ......... and X seeks employment.

Oh please! Slow down! I even once met a person writing a rumour about selling ...... and my char needed that, sitting aside that person while he typed the rumour.. Please do really ask around first, then load the rumour.