The Fearless Roller Coaster!

[Termin]

I wasn't being specific to the case of yours Al, but the general message he is getting across is true. Many players will spit out rules and threaten with bans when it can be RPed.

[Oddedd]

Thanks Termin, yes the point of this thread was to provoke discussion on that point exactly, and wasn't intended to be about one thing exactly, I just used a couple of examples to illustrate my point.

Also Al, sorry if I exaggerated I am sure you can imagine the whole thing developed very quickly and I maybe wrote this post a little too close to it happening and should have maybe calmed down a little first!

Anyway, you raise a really good point, and I hope you don't think I'm singling you out, because I'm not, we're all guilty of it, and I'd like to hear what other people think of this. I have played a text based rpg called Cantr for nearly ten years now, and there your characters last real life years, and the whole affair is much slower paced, and it is very easy to get attached emotionally to your character, I've been guilty of it many times.

the point is that I was trying to do my job, and I couldn't because I was taken hostage.

You weren't trying to do a job, your character was, and if my character was stopping you, you have to try (as hard as it is I know) not to be annoyed at me as the player. Your character can be annoyed at mine of course, but bad things have to happen to get good rp, that's all about pushing the envelope of the human experience, which is where things get exciting and fun. So ultimately, had the situation played out better and not gone ooc, my character was stopping your character from doing his job, which is an in character action, with in character ramifications, for our characters, and the president and all the other people involved (police etc) to deal with.

Now you keep mentioning rules being broken, and yes they were, but that is the heart of the issue here, I broke rules by mistake, (albeit because I didn't read the rules thoroughly enough, a mistake which I am gracefully paying for with my ban, which is not being contended in any way) and what I'd like you to muse on, is how the situation may have played out if the first hostage had gone along with it, and ignored the rule break, being taken hostage. Would it have been better or worse for everyone's experience as a player? (not a character). Would people haven gotten upset stressed, had ooc arguments, would any *real* harm been done to the players, not the characters. I'd like to think I would have given the hostage a thrilling enough experience to be enjoyable even as the victim, or at least I would have tried my best to that avail. Remember we're not playing counter strike or call of duty (neither game I actually like), it is ok to be the victim, you're not losing by doing so, and often it's even more fun!

Now that's why I loved your suggestion of PM'ing you, you can't do that in cantr,
as the whole experience is anonymous, (for personal safety I wonder sometimes lol! as if you have a year or two invested in a character and someone kills you, it can get to you!) which is maybe why I didn't think of it, but that creates the separation between player and character, but as you said yourself meta gaming is a real risk with anything like that, but as I get more acquainted with the forums, and the servers, start to learn who to trust, it'll get easier I guess.

Thanks for everyone's input, this is actually becoming a very interesting, albeit slightly heated topic.