The geas wave syndrome - how to fix that ?

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glorfindel
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The geas wave syndrome - how to fix that ?

#1 Post by glorfindel » Sun Mar 18, 2012 6:43 am

Hello people,

Before I start to explain my issue, if you feel being offended by what I write down, please take a step back and read again. I know the issue is a very delicate one and am not out to blame anyone, neither single nor a group of players, but I am getting slowly tired of the whole thing and I would wish we could together think of a solution for this whole thing. Ok, here goes:

I have watched for the years I've been off and on to geas always the same phenomen: Side a starts to get a little overhand (char getting stronger, good tactical player, ancient one waking up, new feature, you name it), another side suffers a few critical hits and suddenly that side becomes inexistant and the side having the upper hand gains drastically in members, while the 'loosing side' looses in members till nonexistance.

Then this will continue till somebody takes a heart, bring on their ancient butt kicker and roundhouse kicks everybody into place and then the whole process swaps again.

So here's my proposal and my appeal on all of you:

if you have a character on both sides of a battle... play them both if you can handle to keep the ooc information appart. Really, try to play the loosing side. Make arrangements with the other side if you feel too weak to fight, keep to off places, spar to regain strength but do show presence. Everybody deserves to have the winning side once in a while, but that doesn't mean you have to give up. If my feeble char back then could get up himself against 5 sathos (and you did loose XP back then for dying) then you can as well.

So please, if you have suggestions, etc... bring them forth.

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luminier
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Re: The geas wave syndrome - how to fix that ?

#2 Post by luminier » Sun Mar 18, 2012 6:21 pm

Im sure people have noticed I've been playing Luminier less, and this might have been a part of what prompted you to write about this Glorfindel.

I don't think the problem of people stopping playing is something you can fix. If something stops being fun to do you can't really ask the person to keep playing if it's not fun for them. People play games to have fun and if it's not fun anymore they generally will want to play something that is.

Having said that, I was just tired of playing... quite a few people rely on me to play so when I can't I usually feel bad about it. So sorry if I've let some people down.
The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world.

glorfindel
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Re: The geas wave syndrome - how to fix that ?

#3 Post by glorfindel » Sun Mar 18, 2012 7:08 pm

Yeah, well. I was not talking about that. I was talking about this phenomen that people always play on the 'winning' side. If you get tired of geas or of a character, am the last person to blame you, I can really related to that and it's just a game.

But what really unsettles me is that people just see like 'ehm... yeah, this side is loosing, I hate loosing, I'll just make a goodie/baddie and play that while it lasts, then switch back once the tide's shifting'. Because that, in my opinion hurts the game. A lot.

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Allurana
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Re: The geas wave syndrome - how to fix that ?

#4 Post by Allurana » Sun Mar 18, 2012 10:21 pm

Personally I'm not a fan of people playing both sides. I'd prefer they participate in, and end, the conflict with the same single character that was drawn into it. Concerns of trust or OOC abuse cast aside, I've often found it annoying when a character instigates conflict, and then is never around to be hunted for revenge because the player switches to an alt before the dust is settled.

I am supportive of aid for the little guy, but I would prefer people wrap things up with their current character before jumping into the middle of conflict with another.

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Re: The geas wave syndrome - how to fix that ?

#5 Post by ferranifer » Thu Jun 05, 2014 8:16 am

I have tried doing this in multiple occasions and I must say that it gets tiring to play different sides. And I mean mentally tiring. Keeping OOC things separated in your head becomes quite draining and it has led me to try to avoid commitment with all my characters, which is far from ideal. As in, it doesn't make any of them special and playing them is kind of boring when you purposefully avoid getting involved with sensitive information. Not to speak about how you end up with a character with rather bland RP options.

After trying this multiple times, I settled with playing a neutral-good character that doesn't have any IC reason to get involved with any high-level political stuff. I think there's some other characters like this in the game right now. It also leads to a boring, empty game.

What I would say is that we all should be a little less scared of getting involved in big interesting things and take the hit when we lose. The solution shouldn't really be to switch sides to buff the losing one. The solution must involve staying with your character and roleplaying the outcomes. If the losing side needs more numbers, then we need more PLAYERS, not more characters.

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