New Player, Broad Thanks, First Impressions

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Caliber
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New Player, Broad Thanks, First Impressions

Post by Caliber » Fri May 26, 2017 7:34 am

Hey Guys!

I'm a new player. The crash recently caused me to feel like I needed to do something that wasn't loom IG for a while (my character being corrupted and all) so I figured, hey, why not do a fancy introduction post and discuss some of my impressions of the server? Great. Time to do that.

I rolled a drow priestess right out of the gate because I'm a crazy person.

First thing that happened to me in the first fifteen minutes was being grabbed by a pair of houseless drow (Zau'myr, now) who shuffled me over to a desecrated shrine and were like "Fix this plz." I had to PM a few people to figure out how to reconsecrate shrines. I then had to bullshit my way through a neat little ceremony in order to do it.

This hooked me immediately. Subsequently, I've met and interacted with a lot of fairly well played characters, which has enamored me with the server well and beyond what I had expected when a buddy of mine told me that he was playing over here. Now I'm involved in multi-house intrigue, and I'm only level 9. Been on a bunch of small adventures, met a bevy of cool people.

But I've got something else to say here that I think people might disagree with me a little on, so let me preface it.

I come from a server, and a philosophy and play mentality, that promotes conflict between characters. Conflict, I feel, is healthy and important to good stories. Every hero needs a villain - every villain needs a hero or another villain. It's important, I think, that as we're playing the old game of cops and robbers that we accept that sometimes the robbers win, sometimes the cops win, and that's how you tell a good story. If the Hero beats you, you should have the courtesy to RP fear or humility; what they did was well played. If the Villain gets to be evil, that's great - hate them! Revile them! Hate them boldly! But you should let them have their fun too.

I don't mind getting my Snuggybear beat and put on the ground and laughed at, and that's already happened once or twice. It's led to some good RP afterward. I've also managed to have one or two up on other characters, although that's been RPed, in my opinion, a little less marvelously - still, I was able to pull some joy out of the sincerity of being truely evil and drow-y.

Anyway I'm just trying to say, I don't hold it personally against anyone. ^^ You shouldn't be afraid to conflict with me. I try hard as I can to treat people courteously and look forward to playing with you folks.
Last edited by Caliber on Fri May 26, 2017 7:42 am, edited 1 time in total.

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High Primate
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Re: New Player, Broad Thanks, First Impressions

Post by High Primate » Fri May 26, 2017 7:41 am

Sent you a PM.
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Charisma Battlecleric
"E-Dodge Brycer"

Stath
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Re: New Player, Broad Thanks, First Impressions

Post by Stath » Fri May 26, 2017 7:50 am

*Any problems you're experiencing right now with the character corruption stuff should be getting sorted out fairly soon, possibly even as this post is being typed as the servers are restarting. They need to be rolled back four hours or something and after that everything should be returned to normal.

Welcome to Arelith, by the way. The server is a ton of fun, and you definitely have a great outlook on it. Hope to see you ingame again sometime.


*I'm not a dev or anything, this is just what I heard.
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Astral
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Re: New Player, Broad Thanks, First Impressions

Post by Astral » Fri May 26, 2017 8:18 am

First of all, Welcome!

Let me first point out that you are indeed a crazy person for drawing out a priestess of Lolth as your first toon here. Jumping straight to the deep water there :P

The issues you address aren't foreign to anyone. Conflict in game has had it's share of causing tension between players in past and its not something that's going to magically disappear I feel. But on the more optimistic side I can tell you that there are plenty (probably the majority of the player base) who will gladly 'lose' for a good story (and a good laugh in my case). I dare you to play the hated, the unpopular, the weird, the pathetic. If a player comes on an ooc lvl and tells you "you're doing it wrong" in a PM... I think their motives speak for themselves. At the very worse, a DM input will make a final judge. -Notells is not really my thing personally. If someone wants to say something go for it. I'm all ears. From my experience, even when people show their disagreement over something on an ooc lvl (and sometimes people have been rude), usually they mean good and should be listened to at least, in my opinion.

Tl;dr enjoy your time, and stay IC. Don't let the human nature interrupt a fantasy world :)
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Septire
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Re: New Player, Broad Thanks, First Impressions

Post by Septire » Fri May 26, 2017 8:43 am

Hi. Welcome to the server.

My advice would be -notells or simply ignoring it for the most part. As much as you may not want players to behave in this fashion, there's really not much that can be done about it. The best advice I can give is to try to remain above it and don't feed into the problem if it can be helped. If you suspect that people are motivated more over OOC than IC you might want to speak with a DM about it. If it's happening with you it's probably happening with other people as well, and those problem players ought to be addressed in a timely fashion.

I'm not sure how the toxicity can be fixed really. Some players consider toxic banter all in good fun and just a part of the process. It's the internet after all, just look at 4chan for comparison. Or don't. Actually, now that I think about it, comparing something with the worst entities rather than the best ones probably causes a slide towards the worse rather than the better as a new middle-ground is found between what is and what the worst is.

Banning players isn't a solid reform process in its own right, but if the players in question don't want to improve or don't care, not much more can be done. I believe the only real solution is positive reinforcement of desirable behaviors and no reinforcement (or punishment of) undesirable behaviors. This takes coordination and effort on the part of the DMs and possibly alterations to the DM policies. I feel the policies we have now are good but could be better, and doesn't seem to be working at all in other areas. If the DMs don't want to get involved or try to fix it, players try to, and it just turns into the wild-west and exacerbates the problem. From what I have seen, the DMs want to be fair and don't want to pick sides on such matters, thereby leaving it alone for the most part unless someone seriously steps outside of the rules.

Smart trolls play on chat platforms and the metagame isn't logged, then show up IG and ensure that all the rules have been followed. Even though the situation might smell heavily of OOC and be very suspicious, there's no logs, so they don't get caught or punished. No Proof, No Punishment seems to be the process right now, and I really wish it wasn't. Even if these players do get banned, a simple cycling of CD key and use of a public VPN service and presto they're playing again. Hopefully they'll get caught again for making the same mistakes over and over, but in my 10+ years playing here I've seen a lot of old faces and am not too hopeful. It seems to be the same players year in and out, just different usernames and different characters.

It's a situation that has devolved and progressed over time, with past transgressions and bad experiences feeding into new ones in a twisted competitive scene. The perception of what is justified has shifted over time. Some players have an easier time separating IC from OOC, and given the amount of investment that is required to get things going people tend to become very attached to their characters, especially when someone threatens their virtual assets and pride for their characters. As you said, clan/tribal mentality, though I prefer the term tribal.

Some other advice might be to roll up a surfacer (or any non-drow really), good-aligned helps if you want to get far and away from what you've experienced. Rolling up a drow is jumping right into the thick of it. Another option would be to simply avoid conflict RP altogether, buy a quarter or guildhouse, jack the DC up to 120+ and enjoy yourself with trusted associates behind closed doors where the risk of running into undesirable players is minimized. Invite-only RP in obscure locations can also help with this, just make sure to conceal yourself from scrying. Some players have taken to this method to avoid OOC drama, but I fear that judgments are ultimately unavoidable either way, as I've seen these players also critically judged.

Then again... I've also been told there's no real issue (or if there is, it is greatly exaggerated) and it's all in my head, so please take it with a grain of salt. It's possible that this OOC toxicity is localized to a very small/insignificant subset of players and isn't representative of the entire community, but you're always going to hear about the bad people. Or it could be a large and very serious issue others are trying to downplay, don't want to deal with, don't know how to deal with, don't recognize the scope of, or don't understand the effects of their seemingly innocuous actions. Sooner or later, some player is going to rub you the wrong way, or you'll rub them the wrong way. You'll have to decide for yourself if this toxicity thing is a big issue and whether it will relate to you. The most important thing will be how you deal with those issues when they arise.

Anyways! That's just my two cents on it, I'm sure you'll agree and disagree as you play. For the most part, the game is great, but when bad stuff happens... it really comes down to how you deal with it and being a good person.

tl;dr It's about how you handle toxicity when it happens. Don't feed the trolls please. They come in at least two forms. Either they know more about game mechanics than social etiquette and morals making them dangerous adversaries, or they have spy networks and will bring down the hammer in ways you cannot possibly fathom, or so I hear.

Some disclaimer: I almost always play evil Underdarkers, so as I pointed out, that's where the worst of it seems to be, so my perspective is probably off. Then again, I've talked to a lot of players who have experienced the same things, from the Harpers, to the Elves, to the Grove, Kobolds, Cordor Council... many places now. So, again, please take all my words with a grain of salt and decide for yourself if I am right or not. The bottom line is the less you feed into their OOC methods, the better. The less you listen to the OOC drama, the better. If they want to manipulate, don't allow yourself to be a victim. If they just want to vent... *shrugs* I don't know what can be done. I disagree with the methods but such as it is.

FrozenSolid
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Re: New Player, Broad Thanks, First Impressions

Post by FrozenSolid » Fri May 26, 2017 9:52 am

You are in the UD and stuff is intense down there i would say mostly because there are a lot of very driven players and people who love pvp and can be "trigger" happy.

But such is the UD it's supposed to be wild.

I would just RP your character and always look at situations through your characters eyes. Sometimes ooc stuff gets in the way. If you feel like thats the case then don't be afraid to talk about it. Your opinion or feelings are valid which sounds sappy but is legit.

Sometimes i get pissed off at ooc stuff or what i perceive as ooc influence and instead of stewing about it i prefer to confront it. Just dont confront it in the heat of the moment :3

But if you RP it's been my experience that you will always find a way to progress your story by simply continuing to RP

Im an ecpert at getting exiled sometimes for a few dats i find my character alone but I've never not been able to find more players and continue stirring the pot it just gets rough occasionally
Last edited by FrozenSolid on Fri May 26, 2017 9:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
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The Patriarchy
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Re: New Player, Broad Thanks, First Impressions

Post by The Patriarchy » Fri May 26, 2017 9:56 am

just keep that mindset and keep being gucci!

things get weird sometimes but we should just try and keep positive about one another because at the end of the day we just wanna have fun!
I love elven communism.

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Xanos950
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Re: New Player, Broad Thanks, First Impressions

Post by Xanos950 » Fri May 26, 2017 10:24 am

^ what Sharps-Daddy-Arakh said.

Just stay chill and you be you. Underdark-protip; ignore any OOC drama, pretend the green stuff in your textbox is spinach, and only Good-aligned folk look at that stuff... ew.

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kittenblackfriends
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Re: New Player, Broad Thanks, First Impressions

Post by kittenblackfriends » Fri May 26, 2017 10:26 am

Gallant...

You've got friends here :3 You might be able to find an angry badger, but unless you do surface raids, you won't find me :3
Last edited by kittenblackfriends on Sat May 27, 2017 12:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Gandalf wrote:Some believe it is only great power that can hold evil in check. But that is not what I have found. I have found that it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.

OverTheSeaToSkye
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Re: New Player, Broad Thanks, First Impressions

Post by OverTheSeaToSkye » Fri May 26, 2017 12:10 pm

-notells was like the first thing I told you, and I stand by it wholeheartedly ESPECIALLY in the UD, simply because there is more evil, more conflict, and more desire to "win", which...as we know....can't happen here.

You got this.
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Caliber
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Re: New Player, Broad Thanks, First Impressions

Post by Caliber » Fri May 26, 2017 4:53 pm

kittenblackfriends wrote:Gallant...

You've got friends here :3 You might be able to find an angry badger, but unless you do surface raids, you won't find me and the LaFing twat :3
Target acquired.

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kittenblackfriends
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Re: New Player, Broad Thanks, First Impressions

Post by kittenblackfriends » Fri May 26, 2017 5:34 pm

ily2 you crazy riajuu

Also, you can find me on darkmyst. Just ping the usual name.
Gandalf wrote:Some believe it is only great power that can hold evil in check. But that is not what I have found. I have found that it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.

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