Responsibility (transparent skull)

[Seeker]

This quote from jmordetsky got me thinking.

Rule of thumb - It's your *responsibility* as a player to make sure your characters psychology and motivations are completely apparent to the staff if you are doing something out of the ordinary or risky.

I think its good advice. Its likely to help in your relations with the staff, especially Clan IMMs (if you have them), and will go a long way to helping the staff -understand- your PCs character and motivations, which is generally a Good Thing.

It is the use of the word "responsibility" that sent me to the GDB for discussion.  IS such behavior an obligation?  It's smart, sure.

What's the opinion of the players and staff?  Acting in character is enough?  Using the provided RP tools to make all of your PCs motivations and internal conflicts transparent specifically for the staff is also the player's burden?  What do you think?


Seeker

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

If you don't care in any facat how the Immortals view you or your actions, then no, it's not a responsibility at all. Just be aware of potential misunderstanding, summary judgement, and likely conflict that might arise because the Staff considers your goals and actions to be OOC or Twinkish.

If you want to make sure that nothing happens to your character that should not happen in the context of the game wor5ld, and you wish the staff to continue to view you as a stalwart player, then by all means, it is your job and task to fully reflect your character's emotions and feelings and settings. In this manner, even if the Staff does not agree with you or your actions, they will not automatically go to the proven and tried TWINK or OOC flag.

[ibusoe]

I'm not sure where my opinion falls on this one, but it's a really neat topic.

[Seeker]

If you don't care in any facat how the Immortals view you or your actions, then no, it's not a responsibility at all. Just be aware of potential misunderstanding, summary judgement, and likely conflict that might arise because the Staff considers your goals and actions to be OOC or Twinkish.

If you want to make sure that nothing happens to your character that should not happen in the context of the game wor5ld, and you wish the staff to continue to view you as a stalwart player, then by all means, it is your job and task to fully reflect your character's emotions and feelings and settings. In this manner, even if the Staff does not agree with you or your actions, they will not automatically go to the proven and tried TWINK or OOC flag.

I understand your points, 7DV.  I understand the benefits.  I am still asking, though, is this what the staff and players feel is expected now.

It changes the focus from playing and enjoying your character (staying within the few simple rules of required RP, consent laws, single account/single character restrictions, and being guided by the docs), to conscientiously playing and displaying your character for the staff's benefit.

It is a shift from playing for your enjoyment and immersion to deliberately playing for and explaining to an audience as your focus. This seems to be a change in direction from a few years back.  Just looking for opinions.

Seeker

[Rindan]

I don't think it is 'expected' in any way more then that if you don't do it, you run the risk of your actions looking like non-sense.  The consequence of your character running around doing things that look out of character is likely going to be less trust for other roles.  I doubt that you are going to be punished for not having a "transparent skull" unless you are spamming skills, but it probably is not going to make you trusted either.

[Many Faces]

I feel akin to this as if you were on a stage.  An actor may very well play the part for him/herself, and not care that others are looking on.  It may be simply a personal want to perform for your own mental health.  They don't care about the audience, they don't care about properly getting across the emotions to anyone but themselves.  This, while it may be entertaining, will at times leave the audience clearly wanting for a more fulfilling role to be played.

This is what most players on Armag are when they don't think or project emotional state or facial expressions.

The people that play with thinks, and lots of facials (har har), are the ones who are playing for the audience.  The staff built us our stage to play on, and then they took positions in the audience and behind stage to help manipulate props.

By not using the think/feel commands, you are removing amusement from the people who gave you the ability to amuse yourself.  Kinda like pissing on the plumber, you know?

[Yang]

As for psychology and motivation... just remember that real live people are not -always- consistent. A margin for near random actions, or ones contrary to usual behavior should not be left unaccounted for.

However, I do think its helpful to think, feel, email clan imms and whatever. It's important to not tread on people's feet when they are involved in plots, because it can really disrupt some hard work, whereas if you'd been careful and kept staff informed, they will probably be able to roll with it much easier (even if the players involved can't because you do something awful like kill them).

I want to try to use think and feel, biography and objective much more but I find it hard. It's something to work toward, and I do believe it has extremely positive potential.

[wizturbo]

Depends.

If you're playing a Templar, or another role where you have an extreme amount of power that could potentially be abused, I believe you do have an obligation to make sure the staff understand why your character is behaving in a certain way if that deviates from the norm too much.  The added responsibility comes with the role, in my opinion.

I don't think you have to stop and write out 10 thinks and have some kind of interior monologue before you act, but maybe send an e-mail to the imm's after and explain what's up if you just did something out of the ordinary.  Or when things cool off, do a little bit of solo-roleplay with thinks, or pacing around your inner sanctum talking to your carved statue of the Highlord like it's a real person if you wanna keep it IC.  :-)

If you're just playing some joe-shmo non-karma class though, I don't think you have an obligation.   It's still a good idea though.

[Falconer]

wizturbo writes:

or pacing around your inner sanctum talking to your carved statue of the Highlord like it's a real person if you wanna keep it IC.

Brilliant.  I love that image.

[Nusku]

Is a "transparent skull" expected? Well, in some roles, in some ways, yes. If you're in a high profile or leadership role like a templar or noble, we do expect regular email updates to keep us posted on what's going on. I think that's really the extent of what's expected, if we're using the word expected in the sense of "required."

However, it -really- helps us out when players go the extra mile to let us know what's going on in their character's heads. Let me illustrate why:

Bob the commoner says to Richard Noble: "Look, I can't talk about this, I've been sworn to secrecy by Lady Templar Jane."

Richard Noble's imm on immcomm: "Anyone know what he's talking about? Is there some big secret going on?"

Jane Templar's imm on immcomm: "I dunno, no one's mentioned it in an update."

Feeling nervous, Bob the commoner thinks: "This bluff had better work."

Imms: "Oh, ok. Now we get it."

With one short think, Bob saves us the trouble of emailing him to find out what's going on, him emailing back to tell us, and saves us all a lot of speculation upstairs. Also, other things that Bob is doing might now suddenly make sense, saving us from having to try to figure out what's going on with that. In any case, the point is, it's really helpful to us to be able to see what's going on in your character's heads as things are happening. Also, when we know what's going on, it really helps us out with NPC animations and the like. Speaking personally, I'm much more likely to hop into an NPC in a scene when I know what's up.

So, required? No. Very handy? All day long.

[Vesperas]

You mean the staff can't just use their leet brainworm powers through my terminal? :O

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

It changes the focus from playing and enjoying your character (staying within the few simple rules of required RP, consent laws, single account/single character restrictions, and being guided by the docs), to conscientiously playing and displaying your character for the staff's benefit.

It is a shift from playing for your enjoyment and immersion to deliberately playing for and explaining to an audience as your focus. This seems to be a change in direction from a few years back.  Just looking for opinions.

Seeker

I see what you're saying.

I guess that if you feel like that, if you feel like you're no longer playing for your enjoyment alone, if you're feeling like you're playing for the Immortals', that you shouldn't use it.

I personally feel like it's just another added tool for my enjoyment. There's been plenty of times when I would've liked to think something not said out loud in the past, and so I'm pleased that folks suggest using the think command nowdays.

I don't think the Staff is expectant of it, I think they are appreciative of your use of it.

[Delirium]

My main problem is that during a tense situation or when I'm tired or when I want to keep the scene flowing without overlong pauses, I find it difficult to type fast enough and think fast enough behind the screen to include all the thinks, feels, emotes, and says that I want to.  Obviously, that's something that gets better with practice: but when I am interacting with others in those sorts of situations, I will always favor external RP to keep the other person entertained over internal RP to keep the Immortals/myself entertained.  I can always make up a bio entry or email a response to any questions later, if it's that big a deal, instead of grinding the scene to a halt.

If you play a consistant enough character, and your bio entries are detailed and up to date (something that is a lot easier said than done), then a lot of their actions will explain themselves without you needing to 'explain'.

Of course, that requires the immortals to know your character at least half as well as you do, which is rarely possible.  So we're back to explaining ourselves in thinks and feels - and my main point there is, I will play a scene primarily for myself and those playing alongside me.  The ones snooping up in the clouds (sorry guys) come third on that list.  I enjoy fleshing out my character with thinks and feels whenever I can - whether to improve the story or explain things to anyone "watching" - but I will always go for external over internal RP when one must be sacrificed for sake of time/inspiration.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

Oh, I agree with that. Never let it be said that I thought the Staff needed more RP than the PCs around me. I go for long periods of time without thinking when I'm in a terse or encompassing situation.

The point I want to make is that the Think command is really for you, and not for Staff. You should use the think command for yourself alone. The added advantage that the Staff now knows your intentions is just that: an added advantage.