Social Mode

[blindndangerous]

Not sure if this has ever been suggested before, but on another RP-enforced mud that I play their is a feature called something to the effect of social mode. It disables most of the gaining features of the mud and is just used for players to log on and chat ooc with each other if they wanted. If this command exists in Clok then you can delete this, but I just thought it'd be a nice thing to add as I don't want to go through all my food if I would like to come in and chat with others and then do game related things at a later time. This could disable hunger and skill increasement, and probably other things that I'm forgetting about right now.

[merin]

I think that if you are wanting to come and just chat, then, don't move. as long as you don't expend energy or do anything useful then food/hunger won't go down so much.

Also, this is an RP mud, so, if you're around you should be prepared to play -- sadly, I vote no on this.

[jilliana]

I vote no on this as well.

One of the things I do love about CLOK is that it is very RP intensive. The people who get around and about and socialize do it for the RP. Like merin said- if you want to socialize OOC, just don't move. I wouldn't count on that happening too much though since they do turn off OOC mediums occasionally. It's a pretty well-known fact that Rias isn't a big fan of chat to begin with so I tend to view it as a privilege, not a right.

And no, there isn't a way to be OOC other than on question, chat or tell. There isn't a place where people can go to be OOC and mix and mingle other than the Mentor Lounge and that's rare.

[Rias]

Here's my idea!

1) Remove the OOC chat channel
2) Set up an OOC chatroom out of game dedicated to clok, like the existing #clokchat IRC channel. I'm in there right now!

[merin]

oh man I forgot all about that.

[merin]

Hi all,

Since the IRC channel came up in a post earlier, I wanted to give a few programs that are accessible with screen readers that will work with them.

The first is Miranda NG (I recommend getting the one from http://onj1.andrelouis.com/programs). This is a popular instant messaging client, and IRC plays just fine with it.

The second one is talkingirc (talkingirc.net). If you go to the download talking irc link and read through, you will be able to download and use it with the Mirc irc program. Note however that I have no experience with these applications; therefore, I can’t provide support on them as of now. I will, however, be checking them out.

You may also use an older, deprecated client called BOFHnet irc, obtained from talkingirc.net, too.

The address for irc is:
Irc.freenode.net 6667

Once you have connected with your client, it is advised you do the following:
/msg nickserv register <password> <email>. This will allow your nickname to become registered so no one else can snatch it.
To log in with it do:
/msg nickserv identify <password>.

Once that is done, simply type /join #clokchat

I can provide help for Miranda if needed. Either reply to this post or PM me here on the forum and I’ll walk you through getting it set up to be configured with IRC.

I don’t know the other two – I’m going to have a look at them later tonight or tomorrow so I can provide minimal support. Read documentation, though, and all should go ok!

[jilliana]

Mirc With Speech is supposed to be a good one. The info can be found at:

thefudge.net

[Jirato]

Not sure how VI-friendly it is, but I've been using KVIrc for my twitch.tv streams a lot over the past half year or so. It's pretty nice and minimal, can turn off a lot of the fancy features and just have a simple chat window with input bar, which is all I really want with IRC.

Irssi is also pretty nice client if you want something that can be ran from a Linux terminal/console.

IRC is one of those things that has like a billion different clients and everyone has their preferences. It's good to shop around and find what works best for you. Plenty of free/open-source options out there.

[baerden]

I like Xchat

You can also try http://webchat.freenode.net/?channel=

Since its web based, it might work well for VI, but you have to get through the Captcha, but I think there's an audio version for that.

[Xzean]

Here's my idea!

1) Remove the OOC chat channel
2) Set up an OOC chatroom out of game dedicated to clok, like the existing #clokchat IRC channel. I'm in there right now!

Just curious Rias, effectively this does the exact same thing except with the added step of having to open another program. I see it dividing an already small player base. What benefits do you see in it?

[blindndangerous]

I'm curious of what this would do myself. Seeing as how currently their are only 5 people connected to the mud right now, I don't know how dividing it further on IRC would help. But, at least I tried this suggestion. I forgot about the IRC channel though, maybe I'll come in their and see whose around. I just use regular IRC. If you have NVDA, it works out of the box (and you can disable all the things you don't care to see from the view menu), JAWS users are the ones who will need to find the other programs because JAWS will not read the chat as it comes into the window without scripts.
Thanks for the feedback guys, and thanks for the suggestion. I thought that it would be like "no. this is stupid. Get outa here." hahaha. Anyway, hope to see some of you in game or on IRC.
Everu

[Rias]

Here are the things that bother me about having OOC chat implemented in-game:

- It was always my intention to get rid of it after I got the game running smoothly and there was RP going on. The Chat channel was made so playtesters could communicate with staff easily during the really early stages of development.
- It seems to fly in the face of the whole "RP-enforced MUD" thing.
- Despite the fact that several people like it, I believe it still distracts and detracts from the RP atmosphere having it in-game, mixed in with all the in-character interaction.
- Many people bring up comments, questions, and complaints on Chat that they expect to be heard and answered by staff, since it's an IG-implemented system. This causes a LOT to fall through the cracks due to simple misunderstanding despite repeated attempts to inform players that GMs rarely listen to the Chat channel. I can't tell you how often I hear about legitimate and important complaints/concerns/bugs through the grapevine several days/weeks/months after the fact because people brought it up on chat instead of posting on the BBS, emailing a GM, or submitting a bug report.
- People expect staff to moderate chat. We get a lot of complaints and requests related to chat behavior, which is why we implemented the karma system - to let players moderate themselves. That just seemed to make things worse.
- Many investigating players have left because they enabled chat and were turned off by the pettiness or inane babble that seems to be 95% of chat content. I know they were the ones to turn on an OOC chat channel in the first place, but the fact remains that I believe overall it is far more detrimental than helpful. I also imagine it has to do with what I previously mentioned - simply having such an implementation in an RP-eforced game seems counterintuitive and against the intended spirit and feel of the game.
- It's often misused for things that should be either private (tells) or IC (ESP). This will be less a temptation if you have to use an additional medium that you have to switch focus to.

Here are the things I would miss:

- Occasionally participating in said inane babble on the OOC channel. I admit, I do it myself on rare occasion. However, I can do this just as well on #clokchat (or Skype, or any other medium where CLOK players gather socially), and I'm actually more likely to do so out-of-game.
- While I believe it is ultimately more detrimental in its current implementation, it does foster a sense of community in a way. This can be done on #clokchat or other social communication medium if we all know where to congregate.
- Announcing Skype voicechats. I can do this via the announcement mechanic instead.

On the plus side to using an OOG chat medium, we can all chatter even when we're not in-game, and keep connected more easily. You can always have a chat client running on a mobile device or whatever even if you can't be playing at the moment.

P.S. The #clokchat (irc.freenode.net) channel is hopping!

[Rias]

As far as "dividing", I think it would be less divisive and more "if you want to take part in OOC chatter, go to this OOC and OOG medium which is not part of the RP-Enforced game." People who like to chat will do so, people who don't like to chat didn't chat in the first place so it won't matter.

[merin]

I've been there the past couple days and it's been fun. People can just talk and what not and if I don't want to see it I don't have to.

Another side affect is if you may want to read and catch up on chat later you cant and it hardcore gets in the way. With Irc, I don't have to pay attention to it and all the messages will be there ten, fifteen, twenty, an hour, after I return to it and want to focus attention on it. Allows for conversation to flow better.

[Rias]

I like Xchat

+1

Pidgin handles IRC pretty well if you already use it for other IM services.

[Jaster]

IRC is like having a real-life ESP crystal!

[Lysse]

IRC is like having a real-life ESP crystal!

[blindndangerous]

I guess that's true. I have a separate set of scripts running in my mirc window which reads me any incoming messages in a different voice from my screenreader. Actually, this is the longest I've left my IRC window open. SO I guess this works. What are these skype chats though? I heard some one mention them yesterday in the channel, but they didn't say much only that they were paying more attention to it than to the IRC channel. Other than that, I know nothing.

[merin]

Just chats about clok related stuff.

[Rias]

If you want to add me on Skype, my username is: rias.clokdevski

I'm not on it very often though, unless I intend to do a voicechat. I'm mostly on IRC.

[Kent]

Here are the things that bother me about having OOC chat implemented in-game:


- Many investigating players have left because they enabled chat and were turned off by the pettiness or inane babble that seems to be 95% of chat content. I know they were the ones to turn on an OOC chat channel in the first place

How do we collect this information? The reasons for not playing?

[Rias]

They either alluded to as much in chat before leaving, or informed me via private communications (email, BBS PM, instant message, etc.). I do make an effort to find out why people lose interest or decide they don't like CLOK after a brief investigation.

[blindndangerous]

I guess that they are the really hard core RP players, as every other RP mud I've played has some way of communicating ooc in game and nobody seemed to care.

[Rias]

I dunno, if I log in to an RP mud and I see a bunch of OOC chatter about gross stuff or petty bickering, I'd probably be a bit leery about the community myself. I mean, if I went to a D&D tabletop session and the gameplay was constantly interspersed with OOC chatter about bathroom jokes, making fun of each other, complaining about the game, and bickering over inconsequential things, I'd say "Thanks for the invite guys, but I don't think this gaming group is for me." I'm not saying that was what chat was like all the time, but it happened a fair amount, and people did leave over it.

Then again, I might just be an elitist.

[blindndangerous]

Well the IRC channel has been getting a fair bit of traffic since you disabled it, now all that's left is to point the rest of the things like tell to the IRC channel as well.