|
Two reviews were posted regarding TP MUD today. One by "IMP" is a spoof, since no IMP wrote that. I've asked that that be removed since it is clearly a disgruntled player of some kind pretending (poorly I might add) to be an IMP.
As for the second one, I feel I need to respond.
This has occured in the past - and the reason is simple - a person plays a race incorrectly. What does that mean? It means that the vast amount of detail we've put into a race's history, personality, stereotypical concept, etc. is thrown largely out the window.
When it gets to a certain point that the roleplay, say of a high elf or dark elf, is so far from the original concept of the race, the Gods (ICly) change that person's race. Dark elves and high elves are representations of evil and good, their outer shells are a reflection of their souls (which are God-driven). It says so clearly on their help files and when you create these characters.
So, if you like to play well defined races, with history, concepts and stereotypical personalities, that actually enhance roleplay, TP MUD is the place for you.
I doubt anyone enjoys this. But the reality is, TP MUD is designed to be an RP intense MUD and not everyone meets those standards. Contrary to the way it sounds here, we do help people, considerably, and have had people start as total newbies (to RP) and become great contributors.
TP MUD isn't for everyone. The person who posted this (educated guess) was told to create a human character (and not play a high elf) because there was more flexibility in the human concept.
Bottomline, TP has a standard of RP set by the tenets, mission statement, rules, guidelines and the Staff. We don't expect everyone can meet it, that's the way it is.
So, if you want a very high standard of RP that the Staff pushes intently, try TP MUD.
I imagine not. But considering we have roughly 5 or 6 detailed help files with examples and explanations on how to write a proper description, it is clear we take considerable pride in making sure people have well written ones. If you are incapable of writing a proper description, to -meet- those guidelines, then we change it. In fact we work hours with people helping them improve their descriptions. Sometimes it may be faster to rewrite or edit parts - instead of booting people for a lack of writing we actually help them.
TP MUD is a text-based game. That's not changing. And, since your mode of communication is text-based it seems imperative to put effort into spelling and grammar. RP isn't solely about these things, but I can assure you that RP comes off appearing better when things are spelled properly and formed into grammatically correct sentences. When you communicate to someone via a text-based game it because difficult to remain in the IC zone and really get into the environment when people are utterly incapable of spelling and writing correctly. That's what a text-based environment is about.
It should be noted that people are rarely actually punished for something like this. We ask people to put effort into typing (capitalizing a sentence and using punctuation is not -that- hard), but we are far from banning people due to a lack of spelling and grammar.
There are only constant demands on those who are RPing poorly. And contrary to what some believe, you can set guidelines to good versus bad roleplay. All we ask of people is that they maintain the concepts and themes of the races we've developed. It can't be said simpler than that.
Concepts are designed to be followed, otherwise why have one? Concepts are also designed to change, and people certainly do that, but not to the point that they go so beyond the boundaries of what one of their race would do that it becomes ridiculous. Characters develop, absolutely - there's no doubt about that. But certain things simply make no sense, and it's those things that we fight against, it's those things the Staff have issues with.
TP MUD has an OOC tell channel. If people want to talk about OOC things, that's absolutely fine. Heck, I know many RP MUDs don't even have an OOC channel.
In this particular case, the person who wrote this review was playing with an alt (an alt of the char that he feels was so obviously hampered above). This alt sent a tell to an enemy of the character discussed above, where he was about to reveal the characters he plays (I hope that was clear).
I suggested to this person that he not tell this person via OOC the other character he plays, because it's really not worth it. The enemy in question could take that information wrongly (not saying he would) and then go after the alt. Countless IC things could happen from doing this that aren't worth it.
After I suggested to this person that he not reveal his alt via OOC means, he sent the person a tell like this, "Hey you have MSN?"
All I was attempting to do was help this person become a better roleplayer by focusing his attention on IC things and not OOC things. Instead of revealing all the characters he plays (which absolutely weakens the environment for everyone), this person could have been focusing on character development. I explained to this person that he should concentrate on these things, but clearly he was upset and chose to ignore me.
This person could not adequately RP as a high elf. It's as simple as that. There is enough background material provided within the game, and there is enough help provided by the Staff (I had several conversations myself with this person on how to improve his RP) for people to be able to roleplay the races properly.
TP MUD is about RP. And yes, the world has a certain theme, history and concepts that drive a certain kind of RP. High elves are high elves, not humans with pointy ears.
People will come to play TP MUD and succeed here who are willing to RP the way the game was designed. You don't play soccer with a football.
And we don't enjoy punishing characters at all. It saddens me personally that people seem unable or unwilling to follow the guidelines that have been developed. But we must maintain the environment that TP MUD was set out to be, we must maintain the quality of RP that we've built the game upon.
I'm sorry this fellow did not feel that we treated him properly. In fact, more than anything, I'm disappointed because he did show signs of promise. I hope he comes back and tries again, perhaps as a human or another more flexible race that will allow him to develop his RP talents *within* the pre-designed world of TP MUD.
Pleos
|