Unwelcoming Game
Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2020 8:49 am
So over the past few weeks that I've been playing TI again, I've come to realize that as a whole, the game is particularly unwelcoming to me, and players like me for a number of reasons. I've mentioned that there are cultural differences that I've experienced here, that I haven't in -any- other game before.
In any other game, the mechanics, and the mechanical strings related to IC actions are typically taken as a support to your roleplay, and doesn't count as a pose in and of itself. In all of my experience as a player over the last nine years of roleplaying, this is the only game I've ever been on when people pose me into a scene, before I've actually posed my arrival, which honestly, I kind of feel is a bit disrespectful. Every other mu game I've played, mostly MUSHes, the players allow for either A, a set pose which is that one player will write out a longer than normal pose that includes a general synopsis of what's going on in the scene. Where players are, loosely, and a general understanding of what they have posed themselves to be doing. OR B, the player will wait for a full round of poses to go by, before they pose their own introduction into the scene, and THEN it is appropriate to pose interacting with them and their arrival. Sometimes, both will occur, honestly. At least, from my experience. But it's weird for me to have people pose my arrival for me, or pose a reaction to me drinking or eating, just because I ran the code, even if I haven't included that into my pose yet.
Secondly, this is the only game that so sharply encourages lower quality poses as described in this https://ti-legacy.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2243 post. Personally, this makes the game entirely unwelcoming for me. I'm a slower poser, as I take my time to write out and detail how my character is involved in the scene they are in, and how they are reacting to everthing. At one point, someone commented on this that longer poses is more for private scenes, and that seems... Wrong to me. Firstly, it's the sort of thing that will encourage me to ONLY do private scenes, with those players that I know I can RP with. Secondly, like I mentioned during staff discussion a couple of weeks back, this is the ONLY game I've been on that doesn't inherently default to a pose order, EVEN for larger scenes. This is an important courtesy for all of the players involved, as it allows each player a chance to interact, and to have their roleplay be impactful to the scene. Granted, for those larger scenes, typically I've seen 3pr adopted, which is a tactic to still follow a much looser pose order. Essentially, you just wait until three other players have made their pose, before you yourself pose. Even going to that typically players will OOCly discuss it before doing something like that unless it's a particularly large scene, like six or more players.
Which brings me to my third point. This is also the only game I have ever scene that actively discourages OOC communication as described https://ti-legacy.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2299 here. In every other game, there are OOC channels related to individual Guilds, groups and families, etc. This is the only game that I have ever seen that using 'osay' is discouraged to the point of having an XP cost associated with it. Granted, it's minor, but it's still INTENDED as a discouraging mechanic, to prevent people from getting too involved with the OOC chatter. For me, OOC chatter is absolutely necessary to clarify things, to arranged RP as mentioned above... Some times, I might just be passing through a scene and don't really want to stop and roleplay walking through something, or I'll just be peeking in to see what the RP atmosphere is like before I decide to join in... Or, using those Guild based RP channels or Jail channel, or whatever, to arrange RP or just generally hangout.
Ultimately, with all of this said, I find TI personally to be unwelcoming to me for anything OTHER than small, private scenes with players that I know I can enjoy RPing with. It's also why I feel like I've been bugging certain players for RP a lot. Because I just don't feel comfortable sitting in like, the Queen's and waiting for a scene to spark up.
EDIT: Also, another thing that I think I may have forgotten to mention... Is pose order. This infuriates me immensely, and there is no swifter way to kill my immersion and my involvement in a scene than to not automatically default to a pose order when you arrive in a scene. I've had RP where it was just three people. A (me), B and C were all that were left after a large scene ended. A posed saying goodbye to those players leave, and then B posed, and then C. And then B, and then C, and then B, and then C, before A even had a chance to even attempt to be involved in the scene. Which really goes back to the on-going discussion mentioned above. In an other instance, I was in a scene with someone, and everything was fine, and then someone shows up and begins to pose after every single pose, rather than waiting and allowing people to write out their pose. A would pose, and then C, and then B would pose, and then C, and then C, and then A, and then C, etc etc.
In any other game, the mechanics, and the mechanical strings related to IC actions are typically taken as a support to your roleplay, and doesn't count as a pose in and of itself. In all of my experience as a player over the last nine years of roleplaying, this is the only game I've ever been on when people pose me into a scene, before I've actually posed my arrival, which honestly, I kind of feel is a bit disrespectful. Every other mu game I've played, mostly MUSHes, the players allow for either A, a set pose which is that one player will write out a longer than normal pose that includes a general synopsis of what's going on in the scene. Where players are, loosely, and a general understanding of what they have posed themselves to be doing. OR B, the player will wait for a full round of poses to go by, before they pose their own introduction into the scene, and THEN it is appropriate to pose interacting with them and their arrival. Sometimes, both will occur, honestly. At least, from my experience. But it's weird for me to have people pose my arrival for me, or pose a reaction to me drinking or eating, just because I ran the code, even if I haven't included that into my pose yet.
Secondly, this is the only game that so sharply encourages lower quality poses as described in this https://ti-legacy.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2243 post. Personally, this makes the game entirely unwelcoming for me. I'm a slower poser, as I take my time to write out and detail how my character is involved in the scene they are in, and how they are reacting to everthing. At one point, someone commented on this that longer poses is more for private scenes, and that seems... Wrong to me. Firstly, it's the sort of thing that will encourage me to ONLY do private scenes, with those players that I know I can RP with. Secondly, like I mentioned during staff discussion a couple of weeks back, this is the ONLY game I've been on that doesn't inherently default to a pose order, EVEN for larger scenes. This is an important courtesy for all of the players involved, as it allows each player a chance to interact, and to have their roleplay be impactful to the scene. Granted, for those larger scenes, typically I've seen 3pr adopted, which is a tactic to still follow a much looser pose order. Essentially, you just wait until three other players have made their pose, before you yourself pose. Even going to that typically players will OOCly discuss it before doing something like that unless it's a particularly large scene, like six or more players.
Which brings me to my third point. This is also the only game I have ever scene that actively discourages OOC communication as described https://ti-legacy.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2299 here. In every other game, there are OOC channels related to individual Guilds, groups and families, etc. This is the only game that I have ever seen that using 'osay' is discouraged to the point of having an XP cost associated with it. Granted, it's minor, but it's still INTENDED as a discouraging mechanic, to prevent people from getting too involved with the OOC chatter. For me, OOC chatter is absolutely necessary to clarify things, to arranged RP as mentioned above... Some times, I might just be passing through a scene and don't really want to stop and roleplay walking through something, or I'll just be peeking in to see what the RP atmosphere is like before I decide to join in... Or, using those Guild based RP channels or Jail channel, or whatever, to arrange RP or just generally hangout.
Ultimately, with all of this said, I find TI personally to be unwelcoming to me for anything OTHER than small, private scenes with players that I know I can enjoy RPing with. It's also why I feel like I've been bugging certain players for RP a lot. Because I just don't feel comfortable sitting in like, the Queen's and waiting for a scene to spark up.
EDIT: Also, another thing that I think I may have forgotten to mention... Is pose order. This infuriates me immensely, and there is no swifter way to kill my immersion and my involvement in a scene than to not automatically default to a pose order when you arrive in a scene. I've had RP where it was just three people. A (me), B and C were all that were left after a large scene ended. A posed saying goodbye to those players leave, and then B posed, and then C. And then B, and then C, and then B, and then C, before A even had a chance to even attempt to be involved in the scene. Which really goes back to the on-going discussion mentioned above. In an other instance, I was in a scene with someone, and everything was fine, and then someone shows up and begins to pose after every single pose, rather than waiting and allowing people to write out their pose. A would pose, and then C, and then B would pose, and then C, and then C, and then A, and then C, etc etc.