[Milawe]

For graphical games, I completely stay away from forums. They really are nothing more than cries for nerfs or buffing and flame wars.

I feel that it is a bit different for MUDs. Forums are excellent ways for people to share RP ideas, suggest events, ponder new characters, and find like-minded roleplayers. Let's face it, roleplayers were not created equally. There are some roleplayers who simply are not as good at it as others, but they try really, really hard. Then, there are roleplayers who simply come by it naturally. They shine in every event, scripted or spontaneous, and they engage other characters in multiple plots and storylines. Encouraging and allowing both to mingle and help each other can result in very beautiful things.

I had been sucked into the mindset that "good" RP comes only from spontaneous RP without scripts or plans. Having played MUSHes and discussed excellent MUSHes with some of our players, I find myself more drawn to cooperative and staged RP where whole scenes are planned in advance, coding is done in advanced to support these events, and they are basically run by a combination of players and administrators. Forums can aid greatly in planning things like this, and many players will actually plan negative consequences to their own characters in order to further the RP. While it is staged for some, players who weren't part of the planning always get involved, and then change whatever was planned into something more spontaneous. The storyline is cohesive because it was planned, but then it is also organic because it evolves as more and more people get involved.

Because of the nature of the type of games we make, there will always be a bit of meta-gaming and OOC chatter. People play multiplayer games to socialize in addition to playing a game. I think it's very important to make it clear to players that they go OOC at their own risk, and that going OOC with IC information in an RP enforced environment can and will likely ruin their fun in the long run.