We’ve reached another midweek point, and while I’ve eagerly dived into the depths of roleplay, I’ve once again noticed how little I can tolerate some people. So either click away quickly or endure another session with me, where I treat myself a little.
Attention! Anyone who has no understanding of RP and can muster little sentimentality might feel out of place here. Clever know-it-all quips are always welcome, but they must reckon with the banhammer if they are unfriendly.
When IC and OOC mix …
Every roleplayer can sing a little song about how wonderful it feels to be completely engrossed in their own character. Nothing is more wonderful than the immersion when I play my Draenei/Sith/Aurin and experience their emotional world. A sad scene in the RP makes my character’s heart bleed? It’s wonderful to simply cry along! The avatar in the game is overjoyed, and I can hardly sit still in front of the PC from excitement? Fantastic!
However, whenever the emotional bond becomes so strong, it can easily happen that players drift into quite negative consequences. If my character only does something because I, as a player, find it the most satisfying action (even if it doesn’t fit my character), the boundaries of “In character” and “out of character” – that is, the needs of the character and the player – quickly mix.
A golden rule: Your character may lie, you may not!
Lying and intrigue are firmly part of roleplay; they are often the driving forces behind the stories and experiences that remain in the players’ memories for months. However, the fun of the game is ruined as soon as feelings for one’s own character (or that of a fellow player) become so strong that one falls into a kind of obsession or becomes a notorious liar – mind you, not the character, but the player.
By the Nether, I could name a lot of examples that surely border on cyberstalking. Players create rogue characters and level them to 100 just to eavesdrop on the RP of others. Why is that? Well, this way one can perfectly check whether the character of player XYZ is actually loyal or likes to twist the truth.
It gets even more drastic when one also starts to badmouth a (actually very appreciated) fellow player behind others’ backs. Free according to the motto: If other players avoid my beloved character, then that person has more time for me!
Conversely, it works the other way around: Whoever claims “OOC” things about their character and clings firmly to that until the last person understands that it cannot be the truth, will soon be alone.
Yes, people can be terrible sometimes. Yes, this week I experienced a lot of what I’ve described above – from pretty much all sides. Meanwhile, I just want nice roleplay to distract myself from work. I want to lead novices to their downfall and gaze dramatically at the sea with my Draenei – without having to overhear whispering about who is badmouthing whom to impose strange demands on the RP. A little more honesty among players would really be desirable. The fun of the game truly suffers from that.
P.S.: Yes, I only used “darbt” because the word is great! It should be used much more often.
Now I’ve talked a lot around the hot porridge again, and one could probably end this well with a #JustRolePlayThings and nod along. But I still ask the players out there: How do you deal with lies in the virtual space? Is that as big a breach of trust for you as in “real” life? Or are the boundaries looser because everything is “just virtual and a game”?
