Exchange of IC information

Anything to say about roleplay? Want to share a story? This is the right place.

Moderator: Wizards

Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
Abharsair
Site Admin
Posts: 901
Joined: Tue Jun 21, 2005 11:24 am
Location: Regensburg, Germany
Contact:

Exchange of IC information

#1 Post by Abharsair » Wed Jul 27, 2005 11:20 am

Might not really belong into the RP forum, but it is at least related to the behaviour of characters:

I noticed for quite a while now that the exchange of information between the characters of a guild is pretty ... well... bad. Not everyone plays in the same time zone, which results in some characters rarely or never meeting each other. But rather than leaving messages for each other on boards, they pretty much just shut up about happenings in the game.

Example: Someone is killed by another player. Usually that's a quite important little piece of information to know for his fellow guild members (the enemy might be after them as well), but often the victim doesn't even bother to let others know about it.

Just like with my used "playerkill" example, the same happens with many other events, be it a new area, a new rumour, whatever. I don't know what the reason is (laziness, malice, shame, ignorance), but in my opinion this really limits the ability of guilds to act on something and take the necessary actions, not to mention the negative effects it has on the community feeling of a guild.

Now, if you can come up with other explanations why many people don't bother to leave notes on boards, or if you have an idea for improving the community feeling of guilds and the exchange of information within them, then out with it.
"The beatings will continue until morale improves."

User avatar
Devi
Hero
Posts: 332
Joined: Thu Jun 30, 2005 11:58 am

#2 Post by Devi » Wed Jul 27, 2005 11:27 am

One reason might be that someone can sneak into the guildhall and read the board.

User avatar
genesis
Wizard
Posts: 230
Joined: Wed Jul 20, 2005 10:48 am
Location: Finland, Helsinki
Contact:

#3 Post by genesis » Wed Jul 27, 2005 11:33 am

People want to keep the secrets to themselves, obviously.
Genesis the ideaSpawner

User avatar
Delia
Overlord
Posts: 2782
Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2005 11:22 am
Location: Finland

#4 Post by Delia » Wed Jul 27, 2005 11:45 am

I know I have been somewhat lazy at times ( a boot to the head )...though at times I might fill the board with some semi-useless - usable chatter, but I know what you are talking about Abh...*sighes* And what comes to the secret keeping, I think many characters feel overtly secretive and I tend to get paranoid around them ( or thenagain, I'm just plain paranoid ), but the secret-loving-thing sometimes seems a bit too much, like "No one knows that I travel between Arborea and Elvandar for no reason at all!*cackles evilly*"
I guess for some players its just more tempting to smash monster all day and night long or lazily gossip at the crossroads.Hmm...what if the crossroads are could be expanded by a few rooms...so the whole place could be avoided while travelling to Arborea? Evil, no?... :twisted:

User avatar
Abharsair
Site Admin
Posts: 901
Joined: Tue Jun 21, 2005 11:24 am
Location: Regensburg, Germany
Contact:

#5 Post by Abharsair » Wed Jul 27, 2005 12:35 pm

Devi wrote:One reason might be that someone can sneak into the guildhall and read the board.
You can't sneak into most (if not all) guildhalls if it's an occupational guild. And even then, the boards aren't even filled with trivial, non-essential postings. They are simply empty (or nearly). And no, not everyone likes to sit around at the crossing, and those people have not really a chance to find out what's going on if they play only occasionally.
"The beatings will continue until morale improves."

User avatar
Kortha
Master
Posts: 241
Joined: Fri Jun 24, 2005 1:31 pm
Location: US
Contact:

#6 Post by Kortha » Wed Jul 27, 2005 12:39 pm

I usually prefer to pass info on in person, if it's something the other guy can ask questions about or help me clarify my thoughts on. (Of course I play enough to get away with it, but there's still occasional timezone difficulties.) And yeah, someone being able to sneak in and read everything on the board is part of it too. On my old mud castles would hardly ever post big important stuff for that reason, even though it was fairly easy to predict when your castle would get broken into (i.e. whether there was a war on or not). I guess when political stuff comes up, ppl just get really paranoid heh.
If a squirrel is chasing you, drop your nuts and run.

User avatar
Abharsair
Site Admin
Posts: 901
Joined: Tue Jun 21, 2005 11:24 am
Location: Regensburg, Germany
Contact:

#7 Post by Abharsair » Wed Jul 27, 2005 12:47 pm

Even if someone manages to kill your guards and raid your guild (which doesn't happen all too often in Geas), what harm would there be if he could read: "<Put in name of someone> killed me today at <put in name of place>. Watch out, he might be after all of us!". Doesn't sound like very critical information, keeps the other fellows updated on events, and might even warn some of them in time. Just an example, but I hope you know what I mean.

And concerning the super-secret stuff, well, it's usually not posted anyway or it's on special leader boards which are even better hidden/protected.

But again, imagine you're someone who can maybe play an hour every week or two, and who logs in just to find out that nothing new and interesting has happened, because the boards are empty. How should he know that there are dragon attacks, duergar attacks, insect attacks, ancients writings, new areas, etc. if no one bothers to inform him? I would imagine those people then decide to log out, and try again next week in the hope it might then be worth to play for a little while.
"The beatings will continue until morale improves."

lirynel
Veteran
Posts: 112
Joined: Fri Jun 24, 2005 6:01 am

#8 Post by lirynel » Wed Jul 27, 2005 12:52 pm

With a prervious character I did post on guild bb's. I posted being killed by or kiling other players and why, in my opinion, the fight had ocurred. As Lirynel is guildless at the moment it no longer applies but I did always get the impression that people took it almost as whining as I was the only one that did it.

My reasons were as Abh suggests to exchange information but it wasn't how it felt once things were posted, noone ever referred to what I'd posted and, as I said, I ended up feeling as if I was complaining.

Perhaps others feel the same way.... Or perhaps I'm paranoid...

User avatar
Kortha
Master
Posts: 241
Joined: Fri Jun 24, 2005 1:31 pm
Location: US
Contact:

#9 Post by Kortha » Wed Jul 27, 2005 1:16 pm

I just tend to go by the conventions I see being used in whatever guild I'm in. Like if they post a lot and/or talk a lot on guildline, I do too, but if they don't, then I don't. I could easily spam everyone to the point of annoyance, so I try to hold back if I get the feeling that kind of thing would do more harm than good.
If a squirrel is chasing you, drop your nuts and run.

User avatar
stilgar
Champion
Posts: 503
Joined: Fri Jun 24, 2005 7:01 am
Location: Pecs, Hungary

#10 Post by stilgar » Wed Jul 27, 2005 1:38 pm

Well.. guild NPC's could post attacks on the guild board. Maybe make notes about promotions/demotions. Why do I say that? As poKortha pointed out players (including me of course) do have some kind of "herd instinct" and do what most others do. If they see that kind of information posted there regulary they might change their opinions and start to post everything like that.
Future is NOT what it used to be

Pecs, European Capital of Culture 2010

Erika
Newbie
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2005 6:22 am

#11 Post by Erika » Wed Jul 27, 2005 5:55 pm

I post quite a lot of things that I see, but when I think about it there's not much reaction or decisions taken about them. Some things which I expected a reaction to didn't come, but I suppose it is like that with no real leader. I guess what I'm trying to say is that you don't write the note because you like to write it, it's for someone to read it - and hopefully it leads to something when the leaders do. Perhaps there's too little in return sometimes? I can only speak for myself, I post much either way. Then there's always the OOC factor.. Maybe some pople don't trust wizards, their guild mates (especially those who suspisciously play seldom) and so on. If it's more about "events" than "secrets", I guess it could be announced by NPC's like stilgar said on the city boards - I like that idea! It could also be written in news papers, libraries, journals.. I guess it matters on how much code you want to write =) I also belive that the "herd instinct" is quite true.. even though it might be more of a matter of how "far away" the characters are from eachother - I think two RL friends wouldn't converse on the board a lot and not two strangers in different timezones either. Could be somewhere in the middle =)

User avatar
tannorath
Experienced
Posts: 47
Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2005 4:57 am
Location: Italy
Contact:

#12 Post by tannorath » Thu Jul 28, 2005 3:30 am

Personally i think people are just to lazy to post :) Or maybe is just a bad abitude, either way, i agree: this is BAD for the game. I know because i don't have the chance to log in too often and sometimes, when you see the boards empty you just have the feeling that nothing is happening ...

I think players(me included) should make an abbitude of communicating more ...

User avatar
iza
Veteran
Posts: 105
Joined: Fri Jun 24, 2005 9:37 am
Location: In my secret Lair

#13 Post by iza » Thu Jul 28, 2005 6:24 am

Right now you should enter a city or one of their bars and hear tons of rumours about what's been going on. However unless someone feels like talking about it you probably won't know about it. It really isn't fair to some who don't play as often or have that many informed and chatty friends.


As of now we have over 1600 posts on this forum, in about a month and a half time, of being up . Half of it does have to do with laziness, posting in-game is a pain and not as convienient as posting out here. As you can see alot of people have alot to say.

In other games the ic board are part of the web forums, i suggest you try the same. As a test the wizards should try adding city Public Ic forums. Elvandar, Arborea and Underground. Things like a dragon attacking Elvandar, insects in Arborea, and minecrawlers in the underground should be big news in those cities and should be talked about ICLY there.
There should be different rules though some which should extend to the rest of the boards.

-In the ic boards player should be able to post anonymously exept to the wizards. There are various important reason for this, some people don't want others to know what they know or who they are oocly or icly. These could be ic reason or so oocly, i think this should be spread to the whole board, i'll start a new thread on it. With exception to defaming a character that has to be done in character.

-everything posted there should be taken as rumour, so posting the dragon was pink should be no different then posting a lie and saying it was another colour :wink:

- Everything you could do on the ic in-game board you should be able to do there.

-everything posted there should be IC, either that or posted annon and it should be considered rumour, or something you would hear ic over a bar or something.


If we see success, we could extend it to the guild boards, allow only char names with guild membership to see them. So if iza were asral i would get to see the asral boards in the web forum, if he gets kicked out, i would lose access with this login.
Geas. Imagination sold separately.

User avatar
jezz
Hero
Posts: 374
Joined: Fri Jun 24, 2005 7:06 am
Location: Spain

#14 Post by jezz » Thu Jul 28, 2005 11:17 am

In my case, not posting anything on the board is due to noone beeing in the guild :P And I won't post there just in case "a player that hasn't logged since 2 years, enters and reads a board full of my notes talking to myself".

In case there were a lot of members... I must admit paranoia often attacks me, and the feeling that you have a member in your guild, that has another char in the opposite guild, gives me the creeps, though I have always ignored that and posted anyway.

I have even written about strategy discussions for the guild... without a single response ;) And I'm easily discouraged with things like that...

User avatar
Kortha
Master
Posts: 241
Joined: Fri Jun 24, 2005 1:31 pm
Location: US
Contact:

#15 Post by Kortha » Thu Jul 28, 2005 11:34 am

I'd rather not see ic posts on this forum for the simple reason that as of now if I remember reading something here, I know that it's ooc and I should ignore it in game. If that changed, the way my memory works I'm sure I'd screw up sooner or later and say something ic that was supposed to be ooc, or vice versa.

While I've also sometimes thought that anonymous posts on ic game boards would be nice, I know from experience that mostly what happens when you allow that is guy x posts "guy y's a moron" and then 20 ppl post "dude have the balls to sign your post if you're gonna call guy y a moron". There were times on my old mud where stuff like that was practically all you'd see on a board, and it got old *really* fast.

As for rumors...well, there's a rumor that a wiz is working on something for this. :)
If a squirrel is chasing you, drop your nuts and run.

lirynel
Veteran
Posts: 112
Joined: Fri Jun 24, 2005 6:01 am

#16 Post by lirynel » Thu Jul 28, 2005 1:24 pm

In othe muds I've played I've seen guild boards used much more for posting things like -

XXX killed me and he stole my weapons. I'd really appreciate it if yoiu could get them back blah blah blah....

I've been thinking about the differences between there and Geas and the main thing that I can come up with is that you have to physically go to the guilds to read and write on the boards in Geas and that needs a bit of effort and a bit of time ir something happens not long before you plan to leave. In other places the boards can be accessed from wherever in the world your character happens to be.

Perhaps it could be made a little easier here, maybe if you could just go to the boards in the same way as you go to the OOC areas? It doesn't really affect me at the moment but it's a thought for you others

User avatar
Kortha
Master
Posts: 241
Joined: Fri Jun 24, 2005 1:31 pm
Location: US
Contact:

#17 Post by Kortha » Thu Jul 28, 2005 5:06 pm

I'm not sure that's it either, because my old mud had boards inside the guilds & houses and that problem wasn't particularly bad there, at least with guilds. I never actually had a char join a guild there, but from what others said the healers were always posting "this corpse is for Joe, don't accidentally throw it away" and so on. With houses it got a bit weird if things were quiet or if there was a war on and they were afraid someone would break in, but some houses got several hundred posts up.

Maybe it's the problem some of our players have with English and they don't feel like writing long involved posts in it a lot? I dunno.
If a squirrel is chasing you, drop your nuts and run.

User avatar
jash
Beginner
Posts: 10
Joined: Fri Jun 24, 2005 5:54 pm
Location: Southampton UK
Contact:

An infrequent player

#18 Post by jash » Sat Sep 10, 2005 9:04 pm

Geas is now the only mud I play, I have very little free time and have had to give up RP almost totally apart from geas, which is, as I'm sure you all know, uniqe and great.
However, on those rare occasions when I do visit it is really nice to read the bords in the town halls and such and feel like stuff has happened because I know that a lot of stuff does happen, but unless you are a regular player it is difficult to be a part of it.
:)

Post Reply