Pulling back from the ooc

[Echohawk]

This is by no means a new trend, and by no means am I any sort of seasoned player.
But at this stage in my playtime I'm discovering something that's been poisoning my experience more and more. Simply put the presence of any and all out of character chats meant to coordinate factions and groups of players have been ripping the joy and enthusiasm I've had for playing.

I know that tools like discord and other group chats can be incredibly beneficial, they're tools just like anything else. They can be used to coordinate people on entirely different time zones. But more and more things lead towards emotional echo chambers, bringing like minds together to fixate on aspects of the game that have little or no business being discussed. Worse still when these aspects are not only promoted but then amplified by those with similar mindsets.

This is not a plea, demand, or anything like that. Slight PSA, and a means to explain my pulling back.

Rules are not being broken, at least not in game, but that doesn't remove the distraction and the amount of effort that's demanded to remain apart from those topics that ruin the experience for me. I admit to myself I did so out of a sense of loneliness, and wanting to be included on the fun and all the larger groups. But I'm realizing that's not a fair trade by any standard.

I'm sad to say that it doesn't matter what part of the server (good or bad guys, etc) this seems to just be a part of the environment now. I am free to be contacted one on one. I love this server too much, and will continue playing as normal.
This is my weird, little public pledge, notification.

[Baron Saturday]

Yup, Discord isn't for everyone. I've tried it a few times and realized it's not for me, either. You certainly shouldn't feel obligated to be part of it!

[susitsu]

I very much understand how you feel. In general, actually, I think it's a fact that OOC interaction and discord detract from one's experience and even their own writing.

It's an honestly healthy decision I approve of, I just can't stand the idea of having to wander around for weeks soloing to get any level progress ever again.

[Cerk Evermoore]

Having floated from RP community to RP community the no OOC in game rule is one of the secret gems of Arelith. Somehow with such a simple and counter-intuitive rule it's made such a wonderful RP community.

[fudgemuffinator]

I was expecting something a little different when I read the title but I'll toss my experience in here as well.

Skal has been littered with OOC as of late. I'm someone who would prefer people roll with or ignore a mistake.
I accidently addressed someone by name that I didn't know. The group around me ignored it, and the person later introduced himself. It was fantastic.

PLEASE stop doing tihs.
This*

Holy damn does it break the atmosphere. If you absolutely have to fix a sentence or word then :

*Cough* pardon me, this, rather.

Or

Ouch, sorry, I bit my tongue. I meant to say blah blah blah.

Personally, I just let the small errors roll.

--------------------

As for discord. I haven't had that problem yet. I'm not into the faction/large organized content yet. I've met a few of the players on discord that I know in-game. We chat a bit, but it's never anything involving the game. We may chat about some events that happened, but it's not something our characters know about. In fact, as an example, my character hates one of them.

--------------------

Above all else. NO OOC chat is the first of the five rules of Arelith.

[HallowedScars]

I think it's a fact that OOC interaction and discord detract from one's experience and even their own writing.

I don't think an opinion is a fact, let's not lot everyone in with what you feel disrupts your own writing.

[Iceborn]

I've been keeping a discord for the faction I've been half-running (it's more like a battleblock kind of ship drifting with the flow of the sea and shaking like crazy, more than running), and when we originally set it up, I was particularly worried we'd fall into cliche-ing. I've seen too many echo chambers and been the target of my due few (y'all know I'm a pretty vocal guy and I'm always voicing my opinion).

I'm pretty proud of the guys, since we have a lot of respectable folk, and many experienced-enough players that can teach our newer additions about etiquette and what pitfalls should be avoided.

Thus far it's been working pretty well for us to keep us connected when we are busy, since our timezones are pretty spread and we may not get everybody involved at the time. I personally started college this year, so I'm pretty time-constricted, so with the discord we can throw heads up for incoming events, we can help with builds, general RP advice, dealing with the salt that may surge for whatever reason.

Other than my own faction, I keep tabs in the Arcane Tower DIscord, which has its own very solid regulations, and Arelith's Discord, which I generally avoid for other reasons. In days of yore I used to send PMs all over to keep communication with the players involved in my stories (I've never been a fan of the message boards in game. I tend to just use the popular ones), but DIscord makes it far easier to keep a more stable OOC communication with everybody, for whatever purpose.

Very personally, when I play it is usually with 95% of my attention. My Discord is always muted and I only check it when I tab, and I only tab when there's nothing going IC or I need to look up for something. I'd encourage other players to keep it muted as well, since I do agree that having it pending can be pretty distracting, but that's not my call to make.
/2coppers

[MissEvelyn]

This is exactly why you will rarely ever see me on Discord. I typically block out the #general chat (by muting and hiding it) when I'm in a Discord that is Arelith-oriented, simply because there is way too much out of character information being shared on such a level that shouldn't be shared.

The occasional "Yay I leveled" doesn't bother me at all. It's the details that should only be found out in game as a result from Roleplay and actually playing the game that I don't want to see in any OOC chat.

[susitsu]

I don't think an opinion is a fact, let's not lot everyone in with what you feel disrupts your own writing.

Hook line and...

Dw about it. I just speak dramatically.

[Skibbles]

I got rid of discord/skype and have substantially enjoyed Arelith more ever since.

[PinataPlethora]

I got rid of discord/skype and have substantially enjoyed Arelith more ever since.

I just keep them separate. There's fun stuff on Discord, and there's fun stuff in game. It's when you mix them that everything goes wrong.

[HallowedScars]

Hook line and...

Dw about it. I just speak dramatically.

[Huelander]

Social media, in general, is an amplification of human communication. And human communication is by definition, design, and nature not always meant to be a positive experience. It is even said that social media greatly contributes to the development of depression in younger generations.

So eliminating the amplification offered by the software is indeed by no means a strange decision to take. And we have not needed it since time immemorial. So may you enjoy your time on Arelith in light of this decision.

[Seven Sons of Sin]

Problem with chatrooms is that you only have so much to talk about and go over before everything goes to shit. Arelith is no different from the mantra of any other gaming community - the more time you spend talking about it, rather than playing it, the less fun you will have, and you'll just rage more.

I've always preferred forum PMs because I feel they're more genuine in communication (someone is actually taking the time to write to you), but I absolutely loathe this Inbox cap on messages - it should be utterly abolished.

[Rebel4ever]

You can make much better friendships with discord and its got massive benefits for the likes of guilds and such. Used skype and TS in World of Warcraft with my guild and we were together around 3 years and talked loads. Joined a guild in guild wars and been playing with the same guys for over 6 years across multiple games. So it really does work...however for random people especially roleplayers... I don't see that working out.

[Void]

Thus far it's been working pretty well for us to keep us connected when we are busy, since our timezones are pretty spread and we may not get everybody involved at the time. I personally started college this year, so I'm pretty time-constricted, so with the discord we can throw heads up for incoming events, we can help with builds, general RP advice, dealing with the salt that may surge for whatever reason.

I'd recommend to stick with IG boards instead.

OOC means of communication, especially if there's some RP happening there - are poison.

An OOC channel creates parallel world RP, meaning few characters can do whatever the hell they want in situation where it can't be observed or affected by another characters.

It is a very bad thing, long term.

[Conversations With Your Car Alarm]

Sounds like a good plan, Echohawk. Years ago I almost let OOC communication screw up the server for me. It was nothing that the people I was Skyping with did, really. It was just that I was not being very good about protecting my own play style. I have a hard time maintaining my character when I am in OOC communication with people, other than what is needed for consent and so on. I have a hard time getting into conflict with them, I have a hard time betraying them. I have a hard time treating characters as characters, rather than players. I found my RP watered down with some people.

At the end of the day you've got to do what makes you happy. Some folks are happier with more OOC. I'm not one of them.

[DM Always This Late]

I agree that avoiding Discords built specifically for IG things is a good idea. More general discords are better, it's great for info sharing, mechanical conversations, asking for help and just being apart of a community! But it can quickly become dangerous in the way OOC influences may affect the way one might react IG.

Ultimately though, Discord is a tool it can be used well or poorly. How that plays out is up to each player using it and how other players choose to interact on that platform. So each player has to choose what works best for them.

Also, there was a mention that it's hard to find people to level with without discord:

I'd consider this, if people lessened discord use, maybe more players would exist in game more naturally. Right now, many may be using discord looking for players to level with instead of searching IG or going to places where they can find a leveling companion IG. So the difficulty to find a leveling companion may simply be that everyone waits on discord to contact players they already know instead of more naturally going out to find partners or advertising that they are looking for a companion.

I understand where one might be coming from with that. I think that is one harmful thing for Discord is that you naturally form OOC groups and the likelihood of reaching outside of that group is lessened when you can constantly be in contact with them OOC there's less of a reason to meet new people. Of course this isn't -every- situation, just a speculation!

Also, just 'existing' naturally IG without an OOC agenda to meet or align with certain players provides greater opportunities to mingle.

So, those are my thoughts.

[Echohawk]

It's been just shy of a day and I have to put out a genuine thank you to those who saw this and realized something was indeed wrong. I've had multiple tells and individual pings from various people and I am unfortunately one of those people who does bear the brunt of an issue until it gets to a dangerous level. Your considerate words to me are something that pulls me from my own dark thoughts and encourages me not to give into them.

That aside, I didn't really realize this would become such a forum for discussion, and I certainly wouldn't want to put down the good things about ooc communication. It is essential, but much like salt in your food, everyone has their own taste for it. Even just getting an idea and a set of characters or a faction off the ground can certainly require a little initial coordination.

Apart from the benefits are a lot of the unspoken dangers, which ATL above frames out nicely. These groups form, and pretty severely exclude others from interacting because they are not in the same stream of communication as the rest of the group. And in order to stay up to speed people are less likely to reach out to unfamiliar persons, missing out on all sorts of new stories and experiences. Which now, of all times, with Enhanced Edition, could be a sadly missed opportunity. We do have a lot of the more casual visitors out there, but I myself have found several new people I am thrilled beyond words to have met.

I appreciate the feedback and reinforcement and encouragement that very many people have shared with me thus far.

[TraumaTeam]

I've stayed away from ooc communications since coming to Arelith because of experiences in how on other servers and other games it can poison those games/servers.

What I mean is that people have OOC disagreements that inevitably enter into the game to one degree or another, this is simply Human nature and cannot be entirely avoided especially with virtue signalling and wishful thinking
Not only that but its a needless distraction from having IC interactions discord and other OOC media have a way of becoming or even taking over as the dialogue option of choice between the players and the IC just becomes an irritating sidebar to be grinded through in order to get a exp grind party together.

Now I am speaking of my experiences elsewhere and do not mean to impeach or impune the sever of Arelith or the players therein but I am now greatly reluctant to use discord here as a result, although the convenience of finding people to play with via discord is no doubt very useful.
Especially as no such mechanism exists in Arelith (which it should btw)#

The trouble is being discord for the purpose of finding people to play with in game is the shallow slope that soon becomes slippery into ooc and meta gaming and bringing ooc drama into ic.

That said it is getting awfully boring to play healer cleric (by role not by path) on a server will very little apparent need of party healing as everyone carries heal kits in abundance and even though they use them inefficiently and profligately, more so as I am more often than not forced to solo to do much of anything. So perhaps a little bit of discord rationed out just to find a group might be my single hope to stave of the boredom lol.

T.T.

[TimeAdept]

i just like shitposting and talking about builds tbh and the discord lets me do that

[Iceborn]

I'd recommend to stick with IG boards instead.

OOC means of communication, especially if there's some RP happening there - are poison.

An OOC channel creates parallel world RP, meaning few characters can do whatever the hell they want in situation where it can't be observed or affected by another characters.

It is a very bad thing, long term.

Let me be daft, and actually ask: Why?

[WinkinBlinkin]

OOC friendships mean that you see the same players forging the same alliances over and over, no matter which characters they are playing. You can't break them apart, they will never betray each other, there is nothing you can really do in game to affect their character's relationships with each other. They want to play with each other, and so they will. This is understandable, and it isn't so bad. It's when people, and entire groups, have the same -enemies- their old characters had, over and over, that it really starts to make me rub my chin.

[TroubledWaters]

People have had OOC friendships before Discord though, no?

[Wordless Truth]

This has been my routine for a few years now, I regret having handled this differently in the past:

>create a new alt for every character
>different behaviour, type of character and writing style for every account
>stricly no ooc communication beyond occassional tells and PMs which are almost exclusively exchanged with people you currently play with because you ran into them IG
>happy

There were times when the OOC drama was on the brink of killing every bit of enjoyment I could get from Arelith.

After all, to each their own!