Harry Potter Role-Play Drama!!!
by Pixeleen Mistral on 23/05/07 at 8:35 am
Shock! – angry in-character and out-of-character role play results in shootings
by Hermione Ferraris, concerned role player
A conflict in-game has been going on for a while and some of us have never known. Oahu – a Harry Potter themed role play sim – has been experiencing difficulties with in character (IC) and out of character (OOC) conflicts between players spilling over into hurt feeling in real life.
The problems are caused by the people that are role playing or IC saying mean or hurtful things – causing a lot of anger and conflict between IC and OOC. Some people take personally what people say IC -then deal with it out of character. People have even been shooting or killing each other in the struggle to take what is IC from what is OOC.
For example, if someone came up and started saying your character was ugly and some hurtful things you might take it personally and make your OOC life more miserable. Some of the people who are working in the sims have even thought of quitting – and if they do quit some sims may go down. In another sim – Midian City – people are not following the role play (RP) and are getting themselves banned. Second Life is losing some good people because of role playing related problems.
Another problem is people who do not know how to RP very well. If you do not know what RP is you should ask some people to give you lessons. It is easy once you get the hang of it. If you choose your character’s personality carefully you can become better. If you were going to RP a lot then you should get lessons and build up a personality for your character.
RP advice for girls and boys:For girls I would choose a girly or tom-boyish personality – such as a girl with brains, good looks, flirty, skinny, and very very funny and laughing at almost everything. For boys – not my expertise – I would suggest smart, calm, cute or handsome, tall, slender and have flexi hair and a good dark outfit.
I spoke with Merlyn Beaumont from the Harry Potter sim, and he said that he is just going to maybe quit RPing and just keep up his shop there because of all the intolerance of the IC and OOC problems. Also Merlyn said, “In general, the attitude of the players towards each other lags a certain adult discipline”.
Now that pretty much speaks for itself. What would you do if you were in his situation? As another resident said “I am sick and tired of people being mad at each other for in character reasons even the victim of the problem is mad Out of Character.”
Perhaps things will improve – Merlyn suggests, “I might rejoin, when the sim has grown more into itself. But now I am not feeling able to support it as it deserves it”.
As one resident said, “Most people are quitting because of personal reasons and for the things that have been said and done”. Put yourself in other peoples position and try to feel as they would before you speak – if you have nothing good to say don’t say anything at all.
Finally, if you are looking for really good RP lessons go into search and places and search RolePlay lessons.
Morgana Fillion
May 23rd, 2007
skinny and laughing at nearly everything?
Dear god…why?
Lorelei Patel
May 23rd, 2007
Where to begin?
This is the bane of RP anywhere, and hardly news. If you want real RP dramas, try Gor. Makes this stuff sound amateur =)
My favorite role play faux pas recently was seeing a pirate ship in a sim for Wild West roleplay. You know, in the desert. A pirate ship. Yeah….
Lorelei Patel
May 23rd, 2007
Also, this paragraph is about the funniest thing ever I’ve seen in SLH, whether you meant it to be or not:
“RP advice for girls and boys: For girls I would choose a girly or tom-boyish personality – such as a girl with brains, good looks, flirty, skinny, and very very funny and laughing at almost everything. For boys – not my expertise – I would suggest smart, calm, cute or handsome, tall, slender and have flexi hair and a good dark outfit.”
Yes. Dark outfit ++.
Hazim Gazov
May 23rd, 2007
They should spend less time dresses up in wizard robes and screaming “FLIPENDO!” and more time griefing. It’s a good time.
Hazim Gazov
May 23rd, 2007
But on a side note, if I went to any of these sims, I’d be certain to put on my robe and wizard hat, y’know, just in case.
Ivy Norsk
May 23rd, 2007
Why is this article here on SecondLife Herald? These are very parochial roleplay troubles. Granted that the Slytherin-Hufflepuff rivalry is getting pretty vicious, but the game is set up for it to be that way. Hogwarts Reborn does in fact have roleplay mentors in place for people who need help. Classes just started last week and I think there’s going to be a natural shaking out period as people acclimate to their roles, novices adjust, and some people just decide they don’t want to be in the game. It’s not a big deal really.
Tenshi Vielle
May 23rd, 2007
Does anyone want a juice box?
NigrasOnMyLawn
May 23rd, 2007
I’ll RP as Seung-Hui Cho
Marc
May 23rd, 2007
Well, of course this happens. Happens in every role-play game- online, live action, table top- like it or not.
It’s just misunderstanding.
For the record the SIM has seen a awesome growth with over 300 new players last month alone- the misunderstandings of IC/OOC are a small problem given the sheer numbers of folks involved.
Role-play mentors will be fully in place next week, role-play classes for those new to the hobby start Friday, and the role-play team (with support) will be in place fully by next week.
Now all it needs is people not to over-react to something that can be solved by using this amazing technique called ‘talking’.
(grins)
Horus Salubrius
May 23rd, 2007
I thought you had to be over 18 to be in SL ???
Jimmie Juicebox
May 23rd, 2007
Heh – Tenshi.
Me, me, mee!
Jellin Pico
May 23rd, 2007
I play in another heavy RP sim, so I can relate to the problems. I think however, people often overlook what I call the RP griefers. I’ll try to give a quick and extreme example. Remember this is just a quickie example:
Good Guy: My what a fine day!
Evil Guy: Only an idiot like you would say something like that.
GG: Well I say, what a dark comment
EG: /me smirks as he thinks what an idiot Good Guy is
GG: Call me an idiot do you?
EG: ((Oh you read minds do you, all you know is I smirked. If you don’t know how to RP at least don’t act like an idiot))
GG: That;s twice you called me an idiot! I challenge you
EG (( what a moron, I never called you an idiot, one was an emote an unless you can read minds you don’t know what I said, and the other was an observation in OOC. If you can’t tell the difference don’t whine about it))
So we see above how an RP giefer can manipulate the RP environment with highly derogatory emotes and semantic twisting of OOC chat.
This sort of thing goes on ALL the time and it’s done deliberately to get other people riled up and because of how it skirts the edge of acceptable RP these people can get away with it as long as there are few people around to witness it.
GG:
General Cronon
May 23rd, 2007
First of all Gorean is not good role play. It’s based on friendship with admins, money, sex and looking cute. Something like High School. There isn’t much interaction. Just talk between the rich or people of skill in gor within there IM box. Face is Gor sucks, only the theme is nice. Makes the book like very boring.
DaveOner
May 23rd, 2007
“Also Merlyn said, “In general, the attitude of the players towards each other lags a certain adult discipline”.”
…that’s because it’s a bunch of adults RPing a kids’ book! These people probably also wear capes in public!
“Second Life is losing some good people because of role playing related problems.”
…I question how “good” these people are if they’re getting bent out of shape over a fellow hogwart (or whatever the hell they are) being mean to them. This is a school, right? Kids are mean in school!
Seriously, though, this is why I don’t associate OOC with anyone I RP with. I don’t want to know what they’re really like!
nick44 oyen
May 23rd, 2007
Ok this is getting quite ridiculus. If you have a rl problem with someone in the sim keep it in rl and dont bring it to the sim and ruin it for everyone who like me enjoys the SIM!!!!
Lorelei Patel
May 23rd, 2007
“It’s based on friendship with admins, money, sex and looking cute. ”
Pretty sums up life right there.
Daekar Yoshikawa
May 23rd, 2007
I want a juice box too!
Go get laid now, not in Second Life but as in actually go bone some chick(if your a guy) or jump some guys bones(if your a girl). Honestly you’ll feel a whole lot fucking(pun intended) better about life and won’t worry about meaningless stupidity that happens during your RP. Common kids chill out ^_^.
Anonymous
May 23rd, 2007
Oh just for political correctness. Ignore the whole jumping bones thing where I specify gender and replace that with “Just go screw someone”
Tenshi Vielle
May 24th, 2007
Daekar Yoshikawa, are you encouraging ageplay and sex? *gasp*
Dusk
May 24th, 2007
The fact of the matter is that there is virtually no quality Roleplay ANYWHERE on Second Life. I came to Second Life from IRC, an environment where we had to work a bit harder to make things come to life and where there was always clear definition between the character and the player. This lack of distinction between player and character is especially bad in the Gorean sims, but a universal problem with roleplaying in Second Life in general.
I have been involved with many different IN CHARACTER conflicts over at least a decade of roleplaying online. I have even lost characters that I played almost daily for years. I have never once taken IN CHARACTER stuff personally. This is one of the important distinctions of what makes a good roleplayer vs a poor roleplayer. Certainly someone who can construct amazing posts is an asset, but if they scheme out of character to make things happen, or to stumble on knowledge in character, or to manipulate the game in an in character fashion through their out-of-character friendships.
One classic example of what I would term poor RP (in my book anyway) was mentioned earlier: “EG: /me smirks as he thinks what an idiot Good Guy is”. Cheap little throw-away lines like that are the standard from the RP I’ve seen on SL – not only are they poorly constructed, short and provide little to the scene, but they also offer information that the other character(s) in the scene don’t neccessarily need or have access to. On IRC, it was frowned upon and seen as irritating. The universal battle-cry when confronted with statements like that, was “((I don’t have Auspex 5))”.
Another major problem I see is that a significant portion of RP on SL is free-form, without clearly defined and balanced rules, or worse yet, with some mishmash of homebrewed crap. Certainly there is an in-character “cultural” expectation, but there is no limitation to a character’s abilities/knowledges/talents/etc.
It comes down to the fact that the immersion SL provides for a RP community is for a lot of people, detrimental to the roleplay over all.
Also as a random aside for the lulz, I will grant that even the crappiest RP’ers I see on SL are better than the best escorts I’ve had the misfortune to “see” (read) at work.
If I had more time, I’d run a workshop or two on Good Roleplaying in Second Life and maybe even set up a Vampire: the Masquerade (yes, the old one – I don’t like the new stuff) or a Changeling: the Dreaming game. After all, it does get lonely meandering about as a rather observational bit of self-aware chimerical reality. (My one twinky character, give me a break
)
Justin Laviolette
May 24th, 2007
Boy, this sure is some awesome journalism!
Pirate Cotton
May 24th, 2007
Remember folks, roleplay is ALL about being cute and dressing well!
Daekar Yoshikawa
May 24th, 2007
Tenshi are you encouraging the HP fangirls?! Some of whom are the scariest breed of females in the world?
And I encourage sex and ageplay like I encourage pedophiles to go to a wiggles concert ^_^
cickmy lunt
May 25th, 2007
Today out of nowhere Harry Prefect decided my name is nooo good, kicked me out of the RP group and banned me from his sim. This is after I’ve been hanging out there a lot and buying stuff from the shops. Maybe I should consider myself lucky that I didn’t get e-shot !
Gaius Goodliffe
May 25th, 2007
“Boy, this sure is some awesome journalism!”
You must be new here.
Hazim Gazov
May 26th, 2007
Your flight attendant will now demonstrate the proper way to put on your robe and wizard hat in case of emergency.
http://voter5.mygeekspace.net/robe-and-wizard-hat.png
Ryan
Jun 14th, 2007
how do i download the game or what ever how do i play it?
jayzel ladines
Mar 11th, 2012
where it will begin??????????:P