OOC Channels

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Maina
Posts: 172
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Re: OOC Channels

Post by Maina »

I usually mute OOC channels on any MUD I play, except for a help channel. I do find random chatter pretty distracting and hard to roleplay through. I would, personally, support changing #GAME to #HELP and having all other OOC communication be through Discord, though I know I'm a bit more anti-OOC than the average player.
Rilulth
Posts: 178
Joined: Sun Nov 11, 2018 6:22 am

Re: OOC Channels

Post by Rilulth »

To add on to Rias from a staff point of view, I also have ended up muting #CHAT on all platforms and just checking it every now and then.

I am in full support of trying to implement #QUESTIONS/HELP and having all other forms of OOC discussion in either a third party or a separate client window. My reasoning is distractions making it hard for me to run events.

-Several times I have attempted to grab player attention via scripts or NPC actions, only for it to be ignored despite the player being active on #CHAT. I will not name names.
-I get bored and decided to bring an alteration merchant around. I do not announce these ahead of time and I usually only announce it OOC once. People have complained they have missed my merchants because I do not constantly mention it OOC. I've even run a merchant where two people turned up, despite mentioning I'm around several times over ESP. This is disheartening.
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alila
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Joined: Fri Mar 29, 2019 11:16 am

Re: OOC Channels

Post by alila »

Hi,

I have been trying to not post here, fearing my dislike of mixing OOC and IC at all was an unpopular opinion. However, for as much as the point about diluting the consistent communal welcoming chat carries some weight to it, it feels as if such a fragile barrier between in and out of character will only lead to long term problems. Focusing more on OOC solutions to problems which could be made more interesting in-character, moving focus away from rp to talking about rp and possibly even missing out on more of the latter in the process, and pervasively detracting from the immersiveness of the setting.

I understand the game is in alpha at the moment and so have generally been trying to be less bothered by it, especially given how helpful general discussion can be to work out ideas, identify issues, and so forth before bringing them to the forum, but if the staff themselves do not feel comfortable enabling chat as it is, then maybe this needs some adjusting? There will always be tells and such of course as a means of general ooc type chatter as well as an avenue for this kind of ooc-ic fogginess, but it feels like the difference between being polite and holding your private conversations in, well, private, and answering the phone in a crowded vehicle. Either way, streamlining public OOC channels to draw focus to the game and so everyone is comfortable keeping them enabled is hopefully not an unreasonable move to support.

Thank you,
-Alila
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Lukepop
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Re: OOC Channels

Post by Lukepop »

I think that people, myself included, will tend to look for an OOC discussion channel in-game and renaming chat to help will either result in people still using it, or negatively affect some people's experience of the game and community unnecessarily. I don't think out-of-client would be particularly used, just like the offtopic channel in the discord is very rarely used. As such, Rias' idea of #Help and #Tabletalk or #Game and #Casual (Something along those lines) would be the best compromise. People who dislike the silliness can disable #Casual whenever they're not using it, whilst still preserving access to #Game to ask or answer questions or discuss elements of the game.
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Candelori
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Re: OOC Channels

Post by Candelori »

I enjoy the connection with my fellow players, yet I understand the worry over the OOC talk disrupting the in-character activity that should ultimately be the focus of players while in the game. It is not so simple as keeping the casual chat in-game and telling those who dislike it to disable it. This does nothing to address the issue of their fellows being distracted, slow, or inattentive in-character because they are instead engaged in OOC banter. I think I would prefer the deliberate separation of in-character and out-of-character communications, with the exception of a help or question channel with strict rules keeping it to serious questions and answers, and disallowing casual banter. Players can enjoy all the casual banter in another window when desired during a character's down time and lulls while keeping their focus on the actual game and the characters in it when actively playing.

I know there have been many points in the past when something of interest occurred in the game and it spurred much discussion on the OOC channel when this discussion could have been had in the game between our characters, helping shape their relations and driving further in-character reactions and responses that would be of benefit to the game's in-character health. There are moments when a scene is being played out between multiple characters until an OOC comment is made that draws several of them out of character to leave a very sudden and awkward silence for the characters.
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