The wait

[grog]

The only time I've ever played karma required characters is before they were karma required,  I find my roleplaying skills to be barely average at best, and seem to have the most fun the minutes before I die.  But everytime a character dies I find myself checking my email in regular intervals for those oh so welcome words that mean I can play again.  

Hello my name is Grog, and I'm an addict.

[gfair]

Not sure if this is better off in the OOC forum or not.

I'm sure lots of people are in the same position.  The best possibility is to get some sort of client like MSN that will pop up a new email the instant it arrives.  It's almost too bad MSN won't automatically allow you to display and respond to that email just as if it were an instant message, not so much for Arm purposes, but because an instant message and email are virtually identical.

So get a client that will notify you the moment email comes in, and then try to tear yourself from the computer, go for a walk, hang out with warm bodies, and the wait seems much shorter and you know as soon as possible without being tied to the PC.

Just a thought.

[ashjpd]

Yah....
Get out, take a walk, work out, go out with some friends, you shouldn't be spending hours waiting, and waiting for the e-mail.

Unless you don't have any friends... :wink:

[grog]

Friends by the dozen and four sisters that I'm taking care off (don't ask), I'm was just balancing the books, and looking around for an escape.

[Angela Christine]

So get a client that will notify you the moment email comes in,

I have this, and it makes spam much more annoying.  I leave my computer eagerly waiting for that approval email while I try to get "real life" stuff done.  I hear the ding that tells me I've got a new email, and rush over to the computer only to find it is someone wants to sell me discount perscription drugs or something to increase my penis size.  I don't even have a penis, and while I do consume hundreds of dollars of perscription drugs, I don't pay for them.  Even if I did I'd be reluctant to buy them from a spammer who can't spell but promises they can get me cheap drugs.  I think pharmasists should be able to spell, otherwise there could be some unfortunate incidents.  Most of the time I can just ignore and delete these things, but getting teased by these bastards while I'm waiting for the precious approval email fills me with rage.

AC

[Zacharai]

Since this post is about Armageddon, and not about the Paris Hilton video, it seems perfectly appropriate in this forum.

You mentioned that you didn't think your RPing abilities were up to snuff... best way to overcome that hurdle is to join in a clan with good roleplayers.  Most of the helpers, I imagine, can point you in the right direction.

Most importantly, if you want to gain karma, make a character that lives a long time.  I don't mean be lucky and always win your fights... but pick them, very carefully.  Remember, your character has lived to be X years old by not fighting gith alone, by not venturing outside the gates, by understanding their position in life and taking few chances.  Yeah, playing conservatively isn't quite as much fun short-term as running around, stealing from anyone you can, and getting into fights you don't know you can win just for the experience.  But, if you play conservatively, the rewards are so much greater.  Stay around for a while, prove to the staff that you're a good player, and you'll get all kinds of perks over time that make the wait so much sweeter.

Really, there isn't a better feeling in the world than talking to someone and having them mention off-handedly your previous character.  You didn't just play the brown-haired man, one in a thousand of commoners that acted crazy and died, you played someone that people are going to OOCly remember for quite some time.  I wish I knew a lot more of the people I've played with in the past.  It's great to know that I have had an impact on someone else's play.

It's all about the experience.  Keep playing, and learn from your mistakes.  I'm of the view that if you've played fifty characters, you haven't really learned how to keep them alive, or how to play better.  Anybody can keep a character alive for a week.  Try a month.

I'm a supercilious bastard anyway.

Best of luck with the new character, and oh, don't get too caught up in the background you made for them.  You don't need a great idea to have a great character.  Just keep going with the idea and relax.  Things will happen, and next thing you know, you're important.  Have fun.

--Zach

[gfair]

I have this, and it makes spam much more annoying.

MSN distinguishes between junk mail and non-junk mail, so you know what you've gotten as soon as it arrives.  Put the Arm domain on your safe list and you can tell in a moment whether or not you have non-junk mail, at which point you can spend the time sitting and checking email.  The whole process is a lot more efficient and fun

As for the sound - turn it off.  I turn off all IM sounds, they're a useless bit of special effects rather than a genuinely useful feature unless you want to know instantly when you have some new form of contact.

Compared to waiting, using MSN can save a heck of a lot of time, even though you support the evil Empire.

[Angela Christine]

Oh, I don't have MSN, I just have an email cliant that tells me when I have mail, Eudora 1.5.2.  I seriously doubt the MSN wants my buisness, I heard on the news recently MS has stopped supporting Windows 98, so I guess that they probably aren't real friendly to people using Windows 3.1 either.    But damnit, I paid for this program and I'm going to get my moneys worth if it takes another 8 years!

I don't use IM or ICQ, or any of those other invasive messaging programs.  There is nothing so important that the few seconds it takes for an email to wind its way to me will be too long to wait.

AC