Chat/Tell-free period

[Rias]

I've disabled Chat and Tell so people can focus on being IC. Go out there and get an Roleplaying Award to stack with the holiday bonus!

The Question channel will remain active, but if people abuse it and use it as a way to chatter inanely because Chat is disabled, it will be disabled as well.

Remember: Your characters are capable of chatting - that's what ESP is for. Just keep it IC.

[Orris]

Thumbs up!

[Kiyaani]

Is there an estimate on how long this period is going to last? I enjoy RP as much as the next person, but sometimes people like to socialize OOCly as well and I for one would like to at least know when this might be possible again. I understand you want to help enforce RP and it's nice to have chat disabled sometimes, but that's why there are options to disable chat or ignore tells.

If people are using the channels inappropriately then education might be better than forcing the whole community to be chat and tell free for extended lengths of time. We are a social community and this is really taking away from that aspect of gameplay. Honestly, into the third day of this, it's starting to feel like a punishment or time-out instead of enforcement. Not everyone has skype, IRC, teamspeak or other methods of communication to just chat with and people like talking OOCly while they grind skill or do other activities. If permanent no chat and no tells is a direction the game is moving towards, I'm not sure I will continue playing.

On a less personal note - we also have the potential for new players to show up and have legitimate questions. Question is currently disabled. It would be nice to be able to help them out somehow without them seeing messaging saying we abuse chat too much to use it.

*edit* - I think the reason people even started using Question inappropriately is because there was literally NO means of other OOC communication. The question was even asked if it was 'ok' to whisper ICly to players OOC information to ask them things. I honestly think this is just taking it a bit too far and tells should not have been disabled even if chat was. Past chat-free weekends were a success because people still had an outlet. My personal opinion is just that though - my opinion.

[Avedri]

How long is the holiday bonus lasting?

[Rithiel]

It generally lasts through New Year's Day.

[Rias]

Chat/Tell are re-enabled now.

These OOC-free periods aren't necessariy a "you've been bad, so I'm taking away toys" measures, they're also there to help the RP atmosphere of the game. A good number of people like the OOC-free periods, and a good number don't, I know. They don't happen too often, though, and there was no expressed intent to make chat/tell disabled permanently - that's why it was referred to as a "period" instead of a new policy or something. No need to worry that the doom of the OOC social aspect of CLOK is nigh.

[Kiyaani]

Good to hear and sorry if I came off a bit harsh.

[Drayla]

I usually enjoy OOC-free periods, but I wasn't too crazy about TELL being disabled as well. It is nice to have some way to communicate with other players in case a bug occurs during RP or something. Trying to explain to someone IC why you're twiddling your thumbs and staring at something while you promised to do something for them makes encounters awkward, and can kill RP.

[faylen]

I would like to add my agreement to Kiyaani and Drayla. I definitely encourage the occasional chat free periods, but I'm not so sure about disabled tells and definitely don't prefer the question being turned off. My opinion is that if people are abusing tells, i.e. using them to get IC info, or using question as a chat channel, those people should be worked with rather than forcing everyone to go without. I wasn't concerned about this becoming permanent due to previous discussions on the matter, but just posting my thoughts for future reference. Again, the chat free part I actually like, not permanently but I think occasionally it's kind of nice.

[Barius]

I don't mind chat-free, but tell should NOT be disabled. I disagree highly with it. It's private communication between two players and if two players want to chat OOCly in private, they should have that ability. A player that wants to immerse fully can turn off their own tells in options.

Generally, I think if the playerbase is interested in RP, they will whether or not they can chat. Forcing chat off even for a short period might do more harm than good overall unless there are intense GM-run events going on where chat would be a genuine distraction to the game environment.

[Rias]

We're currently on a chat-free period. Use the opportunity to strengthen your IC socializing skills!

If people start using the QUESTION channel for general chatter, bad things will happen.

[Vitello]

Or people could stop getting all upset and just use <options IgnoreChat>

[Rias]

This isn't a response to players getting upste over chat. This is partly because on numerous occasions, we've seen people use CHAT to talk about IC matters while their characters were literally in the same room, partly because people use CHAT to get info that they could/should be getting IC via ESP, and partly because I've always thought CHAT is overall more detrimental than beneficial to the game, especially considering CLOK is an RP-enforced MUD.

[Vitello]

I apologize for my initially snarky comment.

Is it not a tool, it's help or harm dependent upon the competency of the user?

Everyone must suffer over the actions of a few people? Is it not possible to take away chat from a specific few?


Now that I'm finally getting off my butt and visiting outside the outpost it is a handy tool. Ask around if anyone is looking for rp, then find a way to build rp around that. I'll make up an excuse to be in Mistral to rp with Jaster, but I'm not going to risk travel just to sit on my duff and hope someone passes through. Is that not a reasonable use?

I ask other options be considered.

[Jaster]

Nobody needs an excuse to have manure flung at them.

[Rias]

It's a tool that I loathe. I'd prefer to just get rid of it completely (as I've said many times before in many threads similar to this one), but people say they like it and that the game would be lost in darkness and despair if I took it out completely and that they'd totally leave the game if chat went away, so instead I just temporarily get rid of it occasionally.

I commented about it in game when I turned chat back on: People are social as all heck on chat, but they appear to be terrified to socialize via ESP. I don't understand that. Just because a few people grouch and complain about "noise" on ESP doesn't mean it shouldn't be used as a social tool (they can take off their pendant if it bothers them so much). That's the primary reason it was implemented: To give people an IC way of global socialization and communication similar to the OOC chat mechanic. It seems most people wouldn't be caught dead sending IC greetings or asking a perfectly IC-appropriate question over ESP, though. It's usually done via the chat/question channels.

If you're seeking RP outside Corvus and want people to know you're going to be around Mistral, maybe say something on ESP about heading to Mistral on some laborer (I'm not using the term "trader" anymore) errand. If people are interested in roleplaying with you, they'll know where you're going to be and they'll show up. If you want to set up some specific meeting, then do it IC. Show off your wealth and success as a Laborer by offering to buy drinks for people at the Shandy Gaff. Throw a dinner party. Ask to meet with someone to share info about where you can go to labor for some rarer tree types or metal ores. Gather some of your crafted stuff in a wagon and say you'll be showing off your goods in the Mistral market for anyone interested in checking them out and possibly comissioning something. Start a darts club. Start a drinkers' club. Ask if someone is willing to show you interesting sights in/around [insert area you're interested in here].

[Baylee]

Just when I was about to start logging in again. *sigh*

[Rias]

Just when I thought people in a roleplay-enforced game wouldn't mind the temporary lack of an OOC-encouraging social medium. *sigh*

By the way, the current chat-free period ended earlier this afternoon.

[jilliana]

I cannot tell you how many times people have gotten smarky or rude to me just because I point out exactly what Rias said in this thread.
One would think that since some people are all about the roleplay and want to get their nose into other people's business, they'd want to actually seek the IC interraction.

I do see more IC interraction when there is no Chat on, and people are a bit more communicative. Not only with Chat, but when Tell is turned off too, it feels a bit less metagamy or suspicious when PC's and their buddies suddenly start showing up in a random place for a seemingly random reason.

Two thumbs up! Keep doing what you're doing, Rias!

[Vitello]

I think we should explore and define metagaming better, scold/punish abusers and direct them to a help/wiki file with a deep explanation. Lets be honest, all mudders are not familiar with rp enforced God knows my first experiences on rp-e muds were terribly full of fail and awkward, but I grew into it.

I like the idea of a sticky'd thread where do's and dont's are listed. It would also help educate if we had clear cut answer to what is considered common knowledge IC and what wouldn't be.

[jilliana]

Well some things are pretty obvious.
Lesson#1: Don't ask to meet people in *some location* on chat and ask them to send you tells to discuss said meeting.
That is a pretty fast way to get chat removed not to mention slightly metagamy.b