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Old 08-09-2012, 06:58 PM   #21
Burrytar
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Re: Dealing with OOC

I play games that are totally focused on rp. But I'm struggling to understand how OOC channels are a bad thing in the first place.

+gag and +ungag commands work great for people who are feeling spammed.

Really, the people who tend to use those commands feel spammed by poses/emotes sometimes as well, when it's a big scene. Are you then going to restrict rp because it's spammy?

And for the few people who have trouble focusing on the IC elements, are you going to require everyone to wear blinders and maintain fullscreen so that the real world doesn't intrude?

It just doesn't make sense to get worked up over OOC chatter. It doesn't even make sense not to join in. These are the people you are spending a lot of your time with. Why would you -not- want to get to know them on a personal level?
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Old 08-09-2012, 08:57 PM   #22
Darren Brimhall
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Re: Dealing with OOC

OOC Talk can be used to help speed up a newbie player to get them into the Game faster, or, as a friend found out after returning to Marrach, it can also be used to blister a player--namely her.

Its all a matter of how its used; the former is perfictly fine because there will be things in a Gameworld that will not be covered in the rules that only players happen to know. The latter is abuse, pure and simple, and in the case of my friend, Nancy, she now hates that game even more than before.

The point is you'll need to determine weither the OOC in question is good or bad for the Game, and take proper action.


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Last edited by Darren Brimhall : 08-09-2012 at 09:59 PM.
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Old 08-15-2012, 12:37 PM   #23
Guardian
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Thumbs up Re: Dealing with OOC

We have a verb to turn OOC chat off and on. In fact, OOC chat was once off for like six years and players sought each other out a lot more as a result.

At current, since we're trying to get more players into the game and staff isn't constantly available to answer questions, it's on. But if it gets out of hand, we warn. "Hey guys, cool it with the OOC please."

If that doesn't work, we turn it off for 5-10 minutes and that gets the point across.
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Old 08-20-2012, 12:49 PM   #24
Newworlds
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Re: Dealing with OOC

Perhaps 15 years ago (but maybe not even then). Today the internet gaming is a plethora of facetime, skype, irc, facebook, twitter, texting, and on and on. There is NO WAY on this planet you will stop people from multitasking and interacting on an OOC level with eachother outside of your gaming environment. To even attempt it is ludicrous.

Having said that, I do believe you should keep any "roleplaying" style game as much in character as possible, but you should allow for community and interaction as long as it doesn't destroy the feel and genre of the game. We have ooc channels, but they are blockable, tuneable, and can be shut off entirely for large events by the staff. Immersion is key but if you lose community you lose your player base.
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Old 08-20-2012, 02:17 PM   #25
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Re: Dealing with OOC

That's really a key point. If they're not on your game's OOC channel, then they're talking off-game. At least if you have an in-game OOC channel, you can see and regulate some of the things people say and do (people who want to cheat the system will still communicate through off-game means), and you at least get some of that OOC chatter locally on people's screens so people can get a sense of community and know what their fellow players are like. When there's OOC chatter on a public channel, I'm somewhat included. I can join in. When I'm a newbie and everyone else is friends from irc and are chatting off-game, I'm left out and I'm not fully integrated as a part of the player community.

It's silly to think that if you have no visible OOC communications whatsoever that you're improving the game atmosphere and environment. You're just changing it, and some people may prefer it changed in that way, while some people don't. But really, you're just shifting the OOC from one place to another in a way that makes your little niche community a lot more isolating and uninviting to regular people. The hardcore super-immersive, ultra-intense RPI freak is a very, very small minority, and that type of intense player can ignore an OOC channel pretty easily and get just as immersed.
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Old 08-20-2012, 08:18 PM   #26
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Re: Dealing with OOC

Agreed.

Better to have them chatting OOC on your game where there is some hope of it not getting totally out of control than having your players agree to some off game method where a 24/7 running commentary is going on.
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Old 08-21-2012, 03:18 PM   #27
Kitriana
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Re: Dealing with OOC

As part of a game that does not have any channels outside of a newbie help line -- I have to say I really enjoy the immersive environment it allows for. If someone needs to quickly communicate something ooc -- no one is sititng around looking for that conversation and will penalize them for it. Generally, people just police themselves in this regard because we enjoy the immersive environment that we have and want to maintain it. When a newbie comes in and they have questions that are ooc -- the ntell line works nicely and those who interact with that person in game will generally just shift the conversation to ensure it stays in character.

Yes -- a lot of people use out of game methods to have the ooc conversations with friends. Some of us choose to use them.. some of us don't. Ie MSN or our game's forum. You guys talk about how having an OOC channel helps you regulate what some of people are saying. If people want to cheat --- they will find a way to cheat and they won't be using the OOC channel. So I'm not sure what you accomplish by being able to "regulate" an ooc channel. Personally I prefer the uninterupted immersive environment to hearing a bunch of chatter across different channels.
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