Every online RPG I’ve played has had these problems:
1) IC actions cause OOC grudges/hurt feelings/clicks
2) IC actions are believed (sometimes fairly, sometimes unfairly) to be OOC driven
3) OOC player actions impact how characters are treated IC.
4) OOC player frustrations drive away players with IC characters who are successful in the world

On the CvC games I’ve played (character verses character battle), these OOC conflicts have come in the form of outright anger, usually voiced on a channel, followed by “I’m going to get you, I don’t care if I have an IC reason, and I’m going to have all my OOC friends, even if they don’t like my character IC, come get you too”. I am absolutely not saying everyone does this, but it happens enough, and grudges are held enough, to cause problems. Also, in CvC oriented games, people get paranoid about alts, afraid to tell anything to a character who they “think” might be the alt of one of their perceived enemies. IC and OOC lines blur like mad.

On rp oriented games the conflict is less blatant in some ways, but just as problematic. Issues about clicks, backstabbing because of OOC grudges (no, not the skill, rather the rp *grin*), characters hating folks for something done to their alt, pointed OOC posts on internal or external boards, etc, are all very problematic and very present. Again, IC and OOC begin to blur. Only instead of happening in a nice, obvious CvC style way, it happens in a manner that leaves Admin and other players uncertain what is IC driven and what is OOC. Leading to paranoia and distrust and eventually, dissatisfaction with the game.

Not all games have these problems, I’m guessing. But between what I’ve experienced and what I’ve heard, it is a serious problem on many, if not most games. So here is my question to all you admin out there and any particularly involved/ingenious players as well.

How do you guide players to immerse themselves IC and not take things OOC?
What has been tried and been successful, what has been tried and failed dismally?

Sapphar