The Players Corner Archive

Well, the other day I was merrily multi-accounting away, running three characters hunting. Each had a hunting script going and I was at the keyboard. Here is where the tricky part comes. Normally I have a wizard window that fills half my screen so that I can watch two characters at once and I leave the third screen open behind one of the others and switch back and forth occasionally. Now when something happens in the game that anyone can see I am covered. I see it in the two windows I have split-screened and can switch to the third character and react. That apparently will be my downfall as you will soon see.

Well, the other day a GM (lets call him GM Stoopids for the sake of anonymity) decides to check if I am AFK by sending the following paraphrased message, "A voice whispers, "Please respond."" or somesuch. As luck would have it he sends it ONLY to my character whose window is currently hidden to me (while I was looking at the windows of the other two characters). He sends it three times and on the third time the character responds. I get a SEND that I have to be more responsive to my environment. GM Stoopids comes down to earth to have a lovely little chat with me. After exchanging pleasantries and idle chit-chat, I am told that I have to be more responsive while insinuating that I was AFK, which I deny. He leaves and I go back to script/hunting. I few moments later ONLY the character in question sees this message, "You feel a tiny pinprick," and is poisoned by a mysterious entity! Augh! Scary! Oh, wait its my friendly GM. Anywho, I immediately unpoison the character and make a comment about how annoying this all is at which time *BAMMO* (or the onomatopoeia of your choosing) that character finds himself in a consultation lounge and is forced to read policy and given a non-warning warning. During this delightful exchange GM stoopids asks me by my real first name, "Not to play him" (We have met at gatherings and such). This familiarity during his strongarm tactics naturally rankled me and I asked him not to do it in the future. He also knew I played all three of the characters and if he had sent something ALL could have seen, then we wouldn't even be having that conversation.

So the moral of the story is - "Be sure to eat your vegetables!" Oh wait, wrong moral. Um, anyway, just thought I'd point out that the AFK policy might be used against multiaccounters if they are not careful. For myself, now I have three windows visible at all times, one half-screen and two quarter screen, which is a pain to watch and process (especially when one character is scrolling the screen by Mstriking). I think to be on the safe side what I might end up doing is squelching every normal hunting response in the smaller windows so the only things I will see will be out-of-the-ordinary events.

~some evil multi-accounting guy

reg

You are inconvenienced at having to actually play this game a bit more like the way it was intended.

Best thing is, you'll figure out a way to keep getting over. reg

Any scripting activity that lasts over 10 minutes may be considered long-term scripting. Long-term scripting for the enhancement of experience and/or silver is specifically forbidden, though other types of scripting may fall under this guideline as well. In general, if a player is running a script that does not affect their experience or silver, and does not run consecutively for more than 10 minutes, it does not fall under this policy (EX: the Wizard FE hunting macros and AFK resting script do not normally fall under this policy since the macros do not run unattended and the resting script does not gain a player experience or silver).

It seems to me that you're nitpicking the GM's phrasing to justify your violation of policy. No, technically you were not away from the keyboard. But you were using a script to gain experience, which is forbidden, as stated in the policy.

Personally, I think they should change the wording of the policy to state that UNATTENDED scripting and UNATTENDED existing in the game is forbidden. That would mean you not only have to be at the keyboard, but you have to be watching the screen and be capable of responding to things. Staff has no way of knowing whether you are physically at your keyboard or not, and so policies that forbid being AFK activity or non-activity is not enforceable.

But if you cannot or do not respond to a direct page specifically asking you to respond, it's a damned good indication that you're scripting unattended.

In any case, scripting for experience is against their policies, and you violated that policy. You broke a rule, you got caught. Own up to it and stop trying to justify it.

Roberta

[This message has been edited by Desharei (edited 09-03-2001).] reg

GemStone III player policy: Scripting Policy

=Any= experience gaining activity while being unresponsive to the gaming environment will be considered against policy. AFK scripting of =any= kind is entirely against policy and is an immediately warnable offense (If your attention is not in the game window, you should log out of the game or stop any experience, skill or money gaining activities to avoid being warned. The excuse that you looked away from the keyboard or left your desk only for a few minutes will not prevent you from gaining a warning since the staff will have no way of verifying that fact). In addition, =any= activity that allows you to gain =new= experience while using Rest Mode may result in a warning.

Warnings for scripting or any unresponsive activities are based on the staff's observation of the character, and the staff's judgment may vary from instance to instance. Therefore, each instance of long term scripting will be judged independently. Furthermore, GMs have the right to verify any and all characters are following this policy at any time.

Exceptions: In general, if you are running a script or are in Rest Mode and are not gaining any =new= experience, skills, money, or an in-game advantage, it does not fall under this policy. Being AFK or in Rest Mode while absorbing experience you have already gained is not a violation of this policy. However, =any= activity that's deemed by staff to be disruptive or not in the best interest of the game or its players can be warned when discovered. (E.g., if you script moving in and out of a room a warning may be issued because it causes undue screen scroll, if you are gaining skills passively a warning may be issued based on your being unresponsive to the gaming environment, if your "Rest Mode" message is determined to be inappropriate a warning may be issued based on the message being Out of Character or disruptive.)

For the purposes of this policy, all offenses by any character on an account can be treated as having occurred to the same character. As with other policy violations that lead to lockouts, accounts that are "linked" by any method including but not limited to name, address, or other billing information can be treated as the same account in regards to disciplinary action.

- First offense: Character receives a formal warning, is moved to a consultation room, loses =all= field experience (unabsorbed experience) in =all= skills, and must reread and agree to policy before being released.

- Second offense: All characters on the account, plus potentially all other related accounts, can be locked out of the game for 30 days. In addition, substantial penalties of experience points may be subtracted from any or all characters on the account(s).

- Third offense: The account, plus all of the other related accounts, can be locked out permanently. reg

You can script to your heart's delight, but you have to be "responsive" to the game world at all times. Talk about temptation!

The mechanics of the game doesn't particularly benefit multi-accounting, but as long as all characters have personalities and display them when they encounter other people, go for it. Have a dozen accounts! Just make sure each one is a separate entity with its own personality and is completely and utterly in-character and in-genre.

I double dare ya
reg

quote:

---

Originally posted by Desharei:
The mechanics of the game doesn't particularly benefit multi-accounting, but as long as all characters have personalities and display them when they encounter other people, go for it. Have a dozen accounts! Just make sure each one is a separate entity with its own personality and is completely and utterly in-character and in-genre.

I double dare ya

---

Now, if you would have double dog dared me, then maybe. Naw, when Gemstone kicks the bucket, thats the end of online RPGs for me.

I have no problem with the seperate entities requirement. You never seemed to have a problem with my multiple personalities before. All my characters are quite distinct.

~Jay (yes, that Jay)

P.S. Little late but thanks for the comment on Jeeves on the other board.

reg

P.S. Little late but thanks for the comment on Jeeves on the other board.

<<

Well Jay, you know the answer to your question. ;> You, like me manage to piss off some of the staff. We are to outspoken and know to much for staffs comfort level.

Btw on a side issue, I was sad to see some of your gear floating about from your many personas. Though I fully understand why and actually support why you unloaded stuff.

I've actually had whispers to my persona's with things like "What your speaking to me, the terrible BB monitor? Or I can't believe your flirting with me after the bbs".

My response was usually.. "that's the bb's this is the game and I try to keep the two seperate, though I sadly see you don't".

Anyhow nice to see you still posting Jay.

Jim/Celtar

reg

-John

------------------
AIM: High Lord 42o
EMail: djdisapate@djdisapate.com
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www.djdisapate.com
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(Ever wonder if rubber chickens think people are funny?) reg

R
reg

First of all you need 3-4 Monitors, you can get refurb 14-15 inchers for 50-80 bucks. Then you also need seperate graphics cards for each monitor. To eliminate alot of compatability issues, you also should have all the graphics cards the same. Which is fine if your running a 4MB 2d card (10 bucks each), but if you got a geforce 3? 2 grand just to play GS?

Not to mention the deskspace required for 4 monitors, unless you get lcd, which in that case even the cheapest are 300 bucks a pop.

In fact, wallmounted LCD (I think Sylvania's cost 500) in a array type set up is the only way to play a game with any real efficiency.
If you think playing GS in a tiny window is bad, think of trying to keep track of 4 different monitors. Its like playing a video game while watching a movie on your comp and listening to the stereo and reading a book.

The trick is sound strings.

make highlight strings for the common words:

respond
[send]
whispers

etc. etc.

Make the sound seperate for each window.
If you got a mic record your own.
"{Character} recieved a send".

Save it as a .wav and drop it in your sounds directory. (Goto options aths)

Nothing like your computer talking to you

'lood
reg

-John

------------------
AIM: High Lord 42o
EMail: djdisapate@djdisapate.com
---------------------
www.djdisapate.com
www.eternalbeats.net
www.eraver.net
---------------------
(Ever wonder if rubber chickens think people are funny?) reg

Sonic reg

-John

------------------
AIM: High Lord 42o
EMail: djdisapate@djdisapate.com
---------------------
www.djdisapate.com
www.eternalbeats.net
www.eraver.net
---------------------
(Ever wonder if rubber chickens think people are funny?) reg

quote:

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Originally posted by Alfador:
If you are multiaccounting and script hunting several different characters and you get busted tough luck. When I think of 'legitimate' MAing, I think of spelling up another character or healing another character or simply hunting 2 characters in the same party. When you start spreading yourself to 3 totally remote parts of the game and are even more unresponsive from scripting, I can understand why you got the warning.

Sonic

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If you read my post, you'll note that all three characters I was running were TOGETHER. To use some of your words, I was merely hunting 3 characters in the same party. (A hunting area by the way that nobody and I mean nobody else was hunting in or even passed through during my entire time there.) The GM feelers for scripting were targetting to a single character which only appeared in that character's game window. As I said, I have the windows sized to have two windows side by side to watch at a time with the third behind one of the visible two. As luck would have it the temporarily hidden window was the one that got the message. I learned my lesson, I now have all three visible.

reg

Sonic reg