… minimizing OOC trouble

You cannot please everyone. Almost everyone knows this. But when dealing with roleplayers, many sooner or later find out that it is really easy to make everyone spitting (or rather, forum flaming) mad at you. Now making everyone mad at you at once, with one action – that’s difficult, especially when a number of roleplayers will suddenly become your best friend as soon as another group of roleplayers is mad at you, and usually requires a deliberate effort, and not many actually plan or even do this. But not so few might end up alienating a large number of roleplayers without meaning to – one roleplayer a time, or rather, one clique a time.

Why does that happen? There are a few reasons.

Every roleplayer has some rules and expectations which, if broken or violated, cause him or her to react oocly – usually by either stopping roleplay with said person, starting an ooc discussion or rant in game or on the forums, /addignore, blacklist, or – not too uncommon – start letting an OOC dislike influence IC decisions without saying anything. Often there’s a combination of a few of those reactions, and as often they are just a tiny bit less restrained and collected than a rabid wolverine’s reaction to someone kicking it in its side.

The real trouble, of course, is that those rules and expectations are never as universally shared as most roleplayers delude themselves or wish them to be - “common sense” when raised in this context usually means “in my opinion”. And given how opinionated roleplayers are – especially on the forums – a few of those “lines you shalt not cross” are placed awfully far out there. Sure, there are a few rules almost everyone shares, like “don’t post pictures involving farm animals and illegal sexual acts on roleplay forums”, and “SOE can’t do anything right!” (I say “almost” because some people think it’s ok to not consider SWG a complete failure no sane person would waste their time on, I think those people might still be playing SWG instead of roleplaying on the forums), but most “universal” rules are only universal in that the average roleplayer thinks the universe should revolve around himself.

So, what actions are likely to make a roleplayer spitting mad at you? Let’s make a list!

Emote fighting. That’s a big no-no, only evil godmodders and douchebags too lazy to actually play the game and level up a toon do that sort of stuff! It breaks immersion if a slap to the face doesn’t have some flashy special effect or if you try to use an emoted “presses her hand on her wound” instead of dropping a bacta bomb followed by a cloud of poison gas at your feet when someone is launching rockets from 1 meter away. Really! If you emote then that means you are some lazy CL1 noob and want to godmode yourself into the second Palpatine! Besides everyone knows that emote comes from emo, and is just an excuse for people to spam spatial with lines stolen from Dragonball Z and Twilight fanfiction! Real men, I mean, real roleplayers use /duel! Now come and /duel my buffed armored mandalorian, you trader pussy! And no, I don’t care ythat you’re not actually fighting me, but your friend – the very act of emoting is ruining my fun!

Duelling. That’s a big no-no, only evil non-roleplayers who can neither type nor read and always want to win do that stuff. It breaks immersion if you actually see blaster bolts flying, and people dropping during a fight without giving a 2 minutes farewell speech, and enough internal monologue in spatial to put half a kindergarden to sleep, and it’s especially damaging to immersion if a fight consisting of three expert fighters shooting each other at point blank range is over in less than an hour real time! Really! Only people too lazy to actually roleplay, and who spend their time getting all the best gear to win every fight duel! Besides, everyone knows that the game mechanics are not good enough to handle my character’s power, which should guarantee me winning... err, I mean, are not good enough to handle roleplay fights. And no, I don’t care that you’re fighting not me, but your friend, the very act of you using the combat system from the game is ruining my fun!

Dicing. That’s a big no-no. A fight should be decided by skill, not chance. The better fighter – read the better emoter / No! The better pvper / No, emoter! – should win. If you use dice in combat then you are too lazy to learn how to roleplay! Now learn how to fight in roleplay!

Requiring OOC consent. That’s metagaming! IC actions have IC consequences! If you won’t go along with my spontaneous but utterly great and funny “Let’s permakill the next human I see ‘cause I am bored... I mean, because my character is an evil criminal” idea, then you’re an evil metagamer who wants to weasel out of the consequences of her actions, which were being the first human I saw! It does not matter if your character is on the way to her wedding, which you have been planning for five months, if you do not accept permadeath you’re a griefer! Think of the roleplay experience, think of the fun spontanity creates!

Freeform Roleplay. You bloody griefer! Why do you think you should be able to attack my character just because you’re a criminal and my rich noble insulted you when she saw you in this side alley in the worst slum of this hive of scum and villainy, all alone, just herself, and her 150K ballgown, and her choice vocabulary of “peasant” “servant” and “unwashed cretin”, when she walked in on you while you were in a meeting with your goons and told you to leave so you’d not stink up her air? If you don’t ask for OOC consent, and then fill out this form for “spontanenous interactions of other than worshipping nature”, complete with a list of acceptable consequences – if you ask nicely I may let you glare at my character after she kicks you in your groin – and then wait until I am ready to play this scene – I think next saturday would work well, enough time to plan it out some – you’re ruining my fun!

Playing an exotic character. That’s breaking immersion! We’re playing Star Wars, not Star Wars Galaxies, or whatever you think you are playing! If you’re playing an imperial then you have to be male, human, and evil! Anything else is not Star Wars anymore! You’re ruining my immersion if your character is supposed to be a droid, but actually is a twi’lek using the droid costume 24/7! Play what the game offers – but only if it conforms to canon, no male twi’leks that do not look like Bib Fortuna, or else! And clean your bio up, your sad attempt to make yourself uber-special by claiming your imperial stormtrooper actually has a family that was killed by rebels is ruining my immersion! Rebels are the good guys, and would never do that, not even when they help slavers or pirates!

Playing a standard character. That’s stupid and boring! Why would you want to play a cliche like a twi’lek dancer, or a non-force sensitive character, or a species that we can actually pick from the game menu? Be creative, be original! Play a sentient mutated giant mynock the size of a house! That’s a challenge to roleplay properly, starting with making sure every player actually reads your bio first, and does not assume you’re a fat mon calamari just because you picked that race! And don’t forget to relish in the anguish your emoted special mutant power “Drain energy from anyone, droids and people alike” causes your character to feel when you’re using it to win a fight against the imperial fleet! And spice up your bio! True roleplayers know that the more creative the bio is, the better a roleplayer you are! Make sure to mention you’re actually a reincarnated jedi master’s mentor from the great hyperspace war, who was forced into a clone body by Palpatine himself during the clone wars before breaking away by taking over a mynock's body and had visions of the future crimson empire, and not just some boring smuggler or mercenary!

Playing a Jedi. BOOOO! Heathen! Immature powergamer! There are no jedi in this time period! I do not care that your character is actually a force user following another tradition and never uses a saber IC, his character sheet says “Jedi”, so he is a jedi, and Darth Vader killed all jedi! You should accept the consequences of your actions and permadeath this abomination. What? My character? Hey, I wrote in my bio on the forums that she was rescued and trained by Yoda, and given special powers to hide from the Empire, but there can only be one with that bio and power, so you can’t be a force user too! Oh my god, you’re using a lightsaber? I want the saber tef back! Order 66! Order 66! All unite to kill the jedi and save the game! And the robe hidden by the appearance tab screams jedi!

Cybering. WTF? That’s disgusting! You actually kissed that character? Like, on the mouth? Eeeew, you damn sicko, you sexual deviant! I don’t care you did it in the privacy of your home, such icky stuff has no place in SWG! Your characters are probably not even married to each other! Get away from me, you freak! I need to concentrate on detailing in the cantina how I am ripping out this character’s liver while she is still alive, then feed half of it to my pet while forcing the other half down her throat, healing her with the force to keep her alive so she can taste it, before I skin her and wear the skin as a trophy! And then the real torture can begin! What, you’re still here? Get away before you ruin the game for everyone, there are minors playing this game as well, you know!

Talking OOC in spatial without using parentheses. ((You stupid non-roleplayer, you answered that new player’s question how to open her inventory without using parentheses! You broke my immersion! I almost missed your line in between the ((LOL)) and ((/hug)) spam from my friends, but that’s no excuse! Go learn how to roleplay, you’re setting a bad example for new players!))

Talking OOC, period. True roleplayers are IC 24/7. Only losers lower themselves to talk out of character. The biggest and most fun roleplay experience is to handle all things, even a server crash, IC! If my superb roleplay plots cause drama, then that’s because the idiots cannot handle real roleplay, and try to turn it into ooc drama to escape the IC consequences of their actions! Now stop being a dick and stay IC while I curbstomp your character – she brought it on herself when she did not answer my question five minutes ago, when you were linkdead!

Telling people to take it to tells. What are you smoking, how dare you to tell me to take my OOC discussion to tells! The whole cantina, the whole server has to know what an ass this player here is being, for not going along with my “Silence, I kill you” idea! I do not care that I am spamming shouts and drowning out your stupid roleplay scene, this is more important! Everyone blacklist this idiot! It’s hard enough trying to put the idiot in his place whithout losing track of my friends’ ooc discussion in spatial about the merits of Coke Zero.

Not wearing a “roleplayer” tag. If you do not wear the roleplayer tag you are a griefer! I don’t care that you’ve been in character way before the tag was available, if you’re not showing the tag you’re no roleplayer! Everyone, addignore him!

Most readers will have noticed a trend by now – that those things one should not do are so numerous that you cannot do anything without pissing someone off oocly. Not even doing nothing helps, since that usually makes your player association mad. So, whatever you do or do not, someone likely will take offense oocly. The only one sharing all of your preferences perfectly is likely to be the girl or guy you see each morning in the mirror. And playing with others is more fun than playing with yourself, in SWG too.

So, what can you do to at least minimize OOC trouble? There are a few things.

The most important one is to not try too much with one character. Most people won’t stop roleplaying just because of a single thing you do they dislike. But the more you load up on controversional subjects – and as you saw, almost everything is controversional – the more likely you are to overload the “I can only take so much of this” meter of others.

Playing a Falleen will likely be ok for many, especially if you do not overdo the pheromones. Adding Dark Jedi to the mix will put more people off. Adding cybering to it even more (though both might also attract more people as well). Slaving is controversional by itself, doubly so when in conjunction with cybering. A Falleen/Twi'lek genetically engineered hybrid dark jedi using force powers and pheromones to turn other player characters into pleasure slaves without regard for OOC consent while using poweremoting, and with a bio that makes him Darth Vader’s special apprentice, able to drop ISDs from orbit by his force power, as well as the heir to the Black Sun, will likely cause some of the more excitable roleplayers to try to track you down in real life for some hands-on discussion about canon, immersion, and the practical uses of various blunt instruments.

Generally, the more controversional an action or plot is – and most conflict falls under this – the less it should be done to or with people you don’t know well. It’s not as if even your serial killer has to kill everyone you see, for example. Dexter doesn’t do that either. Generally, the less violent a roleplay scene is, the easier it is to play it out. Contrary to some people’s opinion, not every player has no fun unless she is attacked and mutilated. And if you have no fun unless you're mutilating someone... well, the pool of players you will be able to have fun with will be very small.

Try to find out potential pitfalls before stepping in them - if halfway into an attack you discover that the other side expects /duels and not emotes then something went wrong far before that.

Limiting exposure helps a lot too. I know, many have an exhibitionist streak, but not rubbing the noses of everyone within 65 meters into the fact that your character is a hidden sithlord plotting the downfall of everyone he sees helps a lot with avoiding OOC trouble. So, shelve that internal monologue detailing your character’s powers, views and past. If you really feel like exposing all that, use a journal. You’ll have a much, much easier time avoiding metagaming too, since people who do not know you’re actually a sithlord won’t suddenly “discover” that you’re a sithlord by your smell. And maybe by the time they do find out IC you’ve been roleplaying together for some time, and they’ve noticed you’re not actually a bad person for playing a sithlord.

And of course, develop some tolerance. If you freak out – in spatial or on the forums – each time someone roleplays in a way you’d not, then you can’t really expect others to cut you some slack when you roleplay something they’d not do. Despite of what you may think, your way is not the only correct way to have fun in roleplay, and preaching to others – in spatial even – won’t actually make them grateful for having been taught their errors, and their place by a roleplay master.

Lastly, accept that no matter what you do, even if you have the best intentions, someone is going to get mad at you. Don’t try to roleplay with everyone, find out who is comfortable with your playstyle and shares many of your preferences, and limit your most controversional scenes to them while playing it safe with the rest. You might discover that even though the guy at the bar is a douchebag emote fighter or an immature pvper wanting to /duel, as long as you don’t actually fight each other you can have a lot of fun roleplaying with each other.

And you might even pave the way for some more controversional roleplay later on.

... Jedi

Yes, I said Jedi. The single most controversial thing in Star Wars Galaxies. Idolized by fanboys as gods and blamed by players for every bad thing that ever happened to the game, including hurricanes in the mexican gulf and the loss of the noobie melon.

The veteran players saw the game without jedi, with the first jedi, then lived through the hologrind, when dedicated role- and powergamers who wanted the power err... roleplaying challenge of a jedi were rapidly going through such in-character professions as chef, musician, image designer, architect and droid engineer (hey! Anakin was a droid engineer! It’s in character!) in order to unlock jedi, in the process wrecking the game for entertainers and crafters alike. It’s not surprising that this created a lot of resentment towards every jedi.

Then we saw the village come, and suck away most of the players who wanted to play a jedi but didn’t want to hologrind, or had joined too late for that, or wanted their original character to be a jedi. Once they unlocked, they were sucked even further away to actually grind up their jedi skills – alone, since any PC or NPC seeing a saber got a jedi on the bounty hunter terminals. The CU, and the respecs it allowed sped up unlocking, since many jedi found out that one could trade in cheap lower tier skill boxes for expensive higher tier boxes every 12 hours. So, after about 2 years, jedi were, to quote a signature from the SOE boards, “as common as Starbucks Cafes, and about as cool”.

And then came the NGE, and jedi were suddenly a class like every other class (with the difference of having a history of grievances and troubles, and the unique “feature” of having one half of the players hating the other half in the Elder/Respec wars.)

It’s not as if the NGE was not the logical progression of the jedi profession in game – anyone with half a brain could have seen that jedi, who started out as “gods” – a game designer was cited as a jedi master being able to take on 20 other professions – but kept in check by permadeath grew more and more “normal” with each patch, first losing permadeath and power, then losing visibility and more power (“1.5 the power of a non-jedi character!”) as more and more players unlocked jedi.

So, one would have thought that once jedi was just another profession to pick in the game, the whole “only powergamers play jedi” “roleplayers should be the only one to play jedi, they know how to” and “jedi shouldn’t even be in game, they unbalance it” would die out.

Should, but did not, for see – roleplayers covetted jedi for a big part, and resented them at the same time. For many, the ideal jedi system was simple: They would be the only jedi on the server, maybe allowing a friend to be their padawan. Anything else would ruin canon and immersion.

So, naturally, having everyone, even the unwashed masses who did not study canon at the holy G’s feet, being able to put on a robe and use a saber was impossible to endure for those roleplayers. It was kind of hard for those who defined their characters as unique special snowflakes by the simple virtue of being force sensitives to cope with the fact that everyone else was force sensitive too.

However, permadeath was gone, even the skill loss through bounty hunting was gone, so how could one make sure those evil jedi did not ruin the immersion of all the other, canon-bible following roleplayers with their hybrid bothan/wookiee mandalorian characters wearing saber proof armor donated by Boba Fett and being genetically enhanced as well as sporting cybernetic parts that made them a six-billion-credit man?

Peer pressure, that was the answer. Also known as mobbing. Jedi would not be allowed to play like everyone else with a potentionally deadly secret (meaning, flaunt it whenever they choose to), they would have to effectively vanish so as not to hurt the immersion (and fragile ego) of those players who wanted to keep the illusion that they themselves were the only jedi in game worth interating with. Almost everyone was allowed to go crazy with canon (usually called “original concept” and “roleplayed well”), but jedi? No, sir! Kill’em all, sir! Don’t care how good they roleplay!

Where criminals could “quietly” discuss their latest heist, kidnapping or planned murder, where smugglers could openly boast of a run through Kessel, where characters wanted for an assassination attempt on the Queen of Naboo could remain safe by wearing a fake mustache, where people could wear rebel armor “with the insignia filed off” and no one bat an eye, wearing a robe became something to trigger hostility on a scale to rival the jedi forums themselves, and flashing a saber turned hardcore rebels and gutterpunk criminals into upstanding citizens willing to enforce order 66 with emoted headshots.

Of course, it was just an in character reaction – after all, no good roleplayer would ever act on ooc motives, no sir! It was just good roleplaying to plot against the Empire in the corner wearing “I hate Palp” T-Shirts, yet consider the couple in the other corner discussing the force untolerable.

OOC Consent, the holy grail for every player town unwilling to be facing invaders, and for every criminal unwilling to go to jail, was either ignored or explained away as “jedi players have to face their ic consequences”, despite dozens of examples of how much worse stuff than being FS was revealed, acted out, and then glossed over so people could still hang out in the main cantina. Jedi players had no right to require consent.

And why? To protect canon and the immersion of people – often people playing with so many mods and “unique original concepts” that they would have made George himself ask the next bystander if he happened upon the Firefly or Farscape universe. To keep people from realising that they were about as unique as a drop of water in an ocean.

And, of course, to keep jedi special, and powerful. For, as long as one made sure every other jedi was mobbed into hiding, one could demand greater (emote) powers in compensation for being hunted. Of course, getting more powers for playing like you wanted to play – feeling special and hunted, hiding yet known to every friend, and protected by ooc consent yourself, since no one ever could find out you were a FS or reveal it – looks a bit unfair to outsiders, but who cares about them?

Because, as we all know by now, there’s only one true way to play a jedi for everyone but a select few, and that’s not to play a jedi. At least that is what they want us to think.

… the Great Roleplaying Community Unification Theory

One complaint one often hears when talking with roleplayers on the Starsider server of Star Wars Galaxies is that the roleplayer community is divided. Often, this is blamed for everything that irks people. According to this stance, everything would be fine if the roleplayers were just united.

I don’t really understand this theory, to be honest. Even if we just take a look at the cousin of MMOG roleplaying, pen and paper roleplaying, it does not work that way. Playstyles are different from group to group, from the “Me kick in the door, slay monster, grab loot” hack and slash fests to “Woe is me, I am immortal yet doomed to drink the blood of mortals” goth meetings. Anyone trying to tell those people that they would have more fun if they were one big group playing together would, in all likelyhood, get asked what he or she was smoking. Now take a look at other hobbies, and the “Unite and we all are better for it” theory fails again. Combine hunting and bird watching? “ohh… look, a specked treesi… BOOOM!” Football and Basketball? Reading and athletics?

But, wait, wait – it’s roleplaying in Star Wars Galaxies, so it’s all the same, so united we stand, dividied we fall and all that!

Yeah, right. This is a game, not a labor union. Anyone who plays the game – heck, anyone who reads the forums – knows that playstyles in Star Wars Galaxies vary as much as the players vary.

We have people with various background knowledge, from “I saw spaceballs once” to “This is not true, George, you meant something else, since in graphic novel 2 from 1981, which you clearly authorised or it would not have been published, there’s a panel on page 3 that shows a TIE Variant in the left corner, therefore…” experts.

We have players with various playstyles, from “I am IC when I am roleplaying, ooc if I do PvE” to “I am always IC. In fact, I am so IC, I don’t play the game!”. We have emote fighters and duellers, we have roleplayers who pvp, RPvPers, and people who hate PvP. We have people who think Star Wars is about the Force and lightsabers and the dark side, others who think Star Wars is just space, people who consider anything but gritty criminal Roleplay boring, and those who just want to play heroes facing evil stormtrooper NPCs.

We have roleplayers who want epic plots, others who want comedy, people who would feel at home in telenovelas, and those who want to feel the bleak drama of life’s suffering hit their characters over and over again until Hiob looks like the luckiest guy on earth in comparision.

Now, why would anyone try to unite all those? Leaving masochism aside, there’s one reason, and it does get back to the labor union thing: United, we would be stronger – when dealing with Devs and non-roleplayers, that is, and asking for more stuff we can use in game.

However, try to unite us in game, and you are not just asking for trouble, you are dragging trouble there, kicking and screaming, and then forcefeed it until it grows exponentially to the point its mass will cause it to collapse in itself, forming a black hole of trouble that sucks up any fun you may have in game.

Just the “Jedi are the best, you are just jealous cause you ain’t a jedi” players and the “Jedi are what ruined the game, they should be extinct” players will guarantee that you’ll see epic conflicts daily – but not in game, and not in character, but on the forums. Add emote fighters vs. duellers, “I follow game reality” vs. “Canon dictates that this should not happen”, “Let me play my character” vs. “You should play this right!”, and the whole united roleplaying community starts to make Somalia look like a peaceful place to take a vacation in – that is if the nice men at the asylum think your medication is working, and let you leave.

In short, roleplayers in Star Wars Galaxies should be separated into smaller, more homogenous communities for their own good. We simply can’t live and let live if we’re playing in the same place.

So, why do people ask to unite the roleplaying community? There are a few possible explanations.

Bigger is better!

Those are people who honestly believe that the bigger the community, the better it is. I don’t really get that – it usually runs counter to “quality before quantity”, and all I experienced was that the bigger the crowd, the bigger the trouble between people, but at least those people mean well. Maybe they dream of big epic battles and plots, who somehow would not turn into petty feuds over whether or not that last move/power/emote was canon/legal/fair or not, started by two people, and rapidly pulling in their entire PAs and allies. I usually get nightmares right after "Epic" is mentioned.

Look at ME!

Those are the players who simply want an audience. Those attention-seeking players are usually convinced that whatever they are doing is the epitome of good roleplaying, and that everyone should see it, and be at awe of such roleplaying. The more people who watch (watch, mind you, don’t take part and mess it up! That’s why we are whispering, so it will fill your spatial chatbox, but you can’t, without evl metagaming, react to it! Just sit back and watch!), the better, so the roleplayers should unite into one big audience!

A variant of that player is the one who can’t stand to miss out on roleplay. Whatever it is – dark side drama, GCW, criminal plots, comedy, soap opera – they need to be involved, and it’s easier to have that if all roleplayers are united, best if concentrated at one point in game. Those people also often play the “jedi/sith/master smuggler/ISB agent/rebel operative/master cook/master dancer/master spy/crimelord all-in-one” characters.

I found the one true way to have fun in roleplaying!

The Messiah. Those people believe that whatever is most fun for them is most fun for everyone – be it PvP, PvE, canon, force roleplay, or dramatic torture. Uniting the roleplayers means converting them too, for those, so naturally they want as many people doing stuff their way as possible – best we can say for them is that they too mean well, misguided as they are.

One player to rule them all!

Those are the power-hungry players. They want to unite the roleplaying community under their guidance, leadership, etc. The more people following their rules the happier they are. Sometimes this is just out of a fear to lose control, and getting forced to bend their own rules, sometimes it is a sincere wish to build a roleplaying community that provides the perfect way to roleplay just like they want, but often, it is a pure conscious or subconscious craving for power. If the roleplaying community is unified, then such leaders gain a lot more leverage. From powerplays using the unity as leverage – “do you want to rip us apart? Destroy what we worked for? No? Then don’t do this, or I’ll have to leave!” – to simple “play with me, by my rules, or you won’t get any roleplay at all” blackmail.

Those people want to unite roleplayers so they themselves have more power, and removing alternatives is a key to this.

I don’t want to do anything!

The lazy ones. They do not want to do anything to get roleplay, preferring to let roleplay fall in their laps. If all roleplayers are united, then the odds of them getting that without making contacts and being active increase – especially if concentrated at one hub- and so they are generally for any unification. After all, the more people, the bigger the chance someone will roleplay with them – or so they think.

I want those people gone!

Those people have issues with other players, and can’t stand them. They are not happy having fun themselves, they want the other players gone. Uniting all roleplayers they see as a way to remove those “Non-roleplayers” through peer pressure or mobbing. One can easily spot those sad if sick people by listening to them bitching about others in ooc chat channels, and generally trying to slander other roleplayers.

Faced with all those, I honestly prefer the roleplaying community as it is: divided into niches, where many playstyles can flourish. For me, personally, I simply want to have fun in game. And I do not subscribe to the Great Roleplaying Community Unification Theory.