The Players Corner Archive

In all honesty, I think I'm on the lower stairs. I tend to respond quickly, and think later... and I've made some huge blunders. At times, someone that I think is near the top of the staircase will reach down and help me up a few stairs. Other times, some that are higher up will just look down and sneer.

This whole line of thought came to me after I posted on the official boards about an incident I was involved in. I was amazed at the number of people that displayed such a snooty attitude... it just made me think of people walking around with their noses stuck up in the air, barely able to breath the same air that the rest of us peons breath!

I agree that some people won't even try to climb that staircase, people that sing the latest song, use modern slang, etc., but others are sincerely trying. It would be nice if more of the top dogs would step out of their little "heaven", remember it is a GAME, and help those that are still struggling to make the climb.

Summer
reg

So the people at the top of the stair look down and think to themselves...

"Do I really want to wade through the throng of drunken, drooling, disgusting, filthy partygoers in an effort to pull out the ones who look like they just need a hand? Or, will I just end up flat on the floor, stomped on by some fool in a toga who didn't notice that I wasn't part of the furniture?"

The answer, for the majority, would likely be disappointing. But are you really all that surprised?

Roberta - ON the stair, climbing slowly to the landing.
reg

quote:

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Originally posted by Desharei:
"Do I really want to wade through the throng of drunken, drooling, disgusting, filthy partygoers in an effort to pull out the ones who look like they just need a hand? Or, will I just end up flat on the floor, stomped on by some fool in a toga who didn't notice that I wasn't part of the furniture?"

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None taken.

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~Nindy
"Don't take this the wrong way." reg

I think its simply a matter of perspective. You just have to go at it a certain way. If you understand basicly two main concepts then i think there is no right/wrong actions, only actions.

'lood reg

Oh, Poo! Why am I ALWAYS the one that has to appear so clueless! I waited and waited and waited... but, NOoooo, I have to be the one to ask!

What exactly are the two main concepts?

Summer reg

As far as roleplaying goes, the two main ideas are looking through your characters eyes and seperating yourself from your character.

The latter being the first and probably most important, as well as the most scarcely practiced in gemstone.

I see roleplaying as a third person event, not a first person. Meaning you are watching events going on and not participating in them. "The omnicient view" i believe your english teacher called it.

Having this perspective helps you seperate yourself from your character.

You are just watching characters in action, a spectator, not a participant. It might seem silly to have this distant view, you might be saying to yourself "well, i control MY character, im not just a spectator".

I like to take a different slant on things. You help guide A character. Instead of saying you control YOUR character.

What may seem like just semantics really hits and the heart of the issue here. Your preception of events.

When you attach such a powerful word like YOUR in describing a character, you subconsciously attach a piece of yourself to that character.

Thats what im talking about by seperating yourself from your character. When you attach that little YOUR tag on the character, little by little, that character becomes less a character and more an alias you use to enter a virtual world.

Your characters strengths/weaknesses becomes your strengths/weaknesses, your feelings becomes your characters feelings, and vice versa, and (this is alot of peoples SOLE reason for playing gemstone): your characters accomplishments becomes your accomplishments, which leads to your characters defeats and embarrasments becomming your personal defeats and embarrassments.

And this ultimately leads to a blurred distinction between player and character. In a sense, there becomes no difference. When that happens, things like jealousy and bitterness transcends player/character boundaries. A character in game acts like a jerk, all of the sudden the human person behind the character becomes a jerk. Or vice versa. Your real life friend's character becomes your characters best friend.

Alot of the anger in the lands source is that last paragraph.

So, the key here is seperation, draw a big line in the sand and tell your character not to cross it .
But what does this do except make you feel like a big retard? Well, when you mentally make this distinction, your character turns into a whole other thing. It becomes like A character in a book, your favorite character perhaps.

Like your favorite literary character, your pulling for him, your with him every step of the way. Importantly, you know and except him. You can probably guess what he'll do next, but every once and awhile he'll surprise you. And other times he might dissapoint you, but afterall, hes just a character in a book, so its not a big deal.

Do you see where this leads? If you can succesfully make this seperation, everything else seems easier, and makes the second main concern so much more simple.

To take this in a logical progression, you probably know your favorite character pretty well, and know how he might react to a situation. You also realize that how he may react could be much different than you would react, or what he feels at a given time is not what your feeling at that time.

He can be happy while your disappointed, he can be scared when you know that there is nothing to fear, or he can be confident when you know he is in trouble. But, like any good character, his feelings are always realistic in scope, in other words, he is never Out Of Character. When first confronted by the BLack Rider, you would not expect Frodo Baggins to go "'sup". By your brief knowledge of him before those events, you could draw a reasonably accurate depiction of his reaction. And when roleplaying, that is what you are doing.

Now, that next idea is the next "step" ,if you want to keep with that analogy, in the roleplaying process. But, in order to do that well i feel you have to be able to sepereate yourself from your character first.

And, since i think ive blabbered on enough ill quit while im ahead and let that soak in and leave it open to tearing apart before going on to anything else.

'lood
reg

We all have our reasons for playing, or not. We all have our likes/dislikes, opinions and viewpoints. I think it would make for a much nicer place if we could all be a little more tolerable of each other's differences.

Do I always, always remember this is all just a GAME? "Yep!"

Do I think I could improve, and make it more enjoyment for myself, and others around me? "Yep!"

Do I take it as seriously as I could? "Nope"

Will I ever take it more seriously than I should? "Not only NO, but HELL NO!"

Summer reg

In helping me plan something, can I ask you all to answer some questions for me?

What can be offered to help players understand role-play? Like.. which do you think would be more effective, an actual class on RP or something more like an event?

What, in your opinions, are the worst aspects of RP.. meaning, as what's been touch on here by Kelood -- is lack of separation of character from player the worst problem in RP attempts? Or do some just not 'get' role-playing?

Is your concept of RP someone that just doesn't speak in OOC terms, or someone that has a developed character.. or both?

Hmm.. in short.. what do some of you think can be done, in-game, to help with RP?

Thanks bunches! reg

First, start with the Mentor system. This is an INCREDIBLE resource, but it needs to be changed.

Instead of Mentor Joe appearing out of the shadows, saying "Hi there Sue, I'm Mentor Joe!"

Have Mentor Joe (wearing a mentor pin, but NOT showing up as Mentor Joe - just plain Joe like every other PC in the game) *walk* in to the room where Sue is (if that means appearing in the room next door, or a special emit that shows up when they poof in just saying Joe walks in, whatever).

Have Mentor Joe say, "Hi there, I'm Joe! Have you ever been to this part of town before? What's your name? You look a bit lost."

Sue says, "Hi Joe, yeah I'm new. How do u get exp. cn u read my name on ur screen"

Joe WHISPERS to Sue, ("In Gemstone, asking about experience is an OOC thing. Maybe instead you might say you want to practice your skills with magic and want to know where to look?" And yeah I can read your name on the screen, but my character isn't reading a screen and he just met you so of course he doesn't know your name!)

Sue says, "liten up k its just a game"

Joe WHISPERS to Sue, (Yeah it is just a game, but we players really love getting into the RP, and it's hard to do that when other people don't try to stay in character. If you want we can go to a table next door and I can work with you on it so I don't have to keep whispering to prevent other people from hearing MY ooc. Sound good?")

Sue nods.

Joe takes Sue to the table and helps her understand about RP.

Now it won't always go so smoothly, and some folks just plain aren't interested in RP. But you want to work with the ones who ARE - but just aren't sure how to go about it...and you want to go after the new players, to teach them from the very beginning that OOC references are disruptive to RP.

Edited to add the thing about people not knowing each other's names until they're introduced.

[This message has been edited by Desharei (edited 02-23-2002).] reg