Chat/OOC Updates Pt. III

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Rias
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Chat/OOC Updates Pt. III

Post by Rias »

Chat/OOC Updates Pt. III

It's that time again! We're going to see some changes to in-game chat/OOC communications soon(tm). Staff has been mulling this over since the thread brought up back in October, and there's been a lot of player feedback getting to us during that time as well. Here's a rundown of the changes that will be happening:

== The #GAME channel will no longer be available in-game when logged in as a character. ==

There has been plenty of good discussion and substantive discourse on #GAME. Unfortunately, we've just become increasingly convinced that the pros are not enough to outweigh the cons of leaving it available while logged in and playing a character. The channel will of course continue to be available on all the bridged third-party platforms (currently Discord, IRC, Matrix, and Slack; see https://cogg.contrarium.net/chat.html). The channel will also still be available when connected to the game and logged into an account, but not yet logged in as a character. This should be useful for those who are comfortable in MUD clients but not so much other chat clients. Feel free to have two MUD clients open, with one for chatting and the other for playing a character.

We've long been at the point where every member of staff has this channel ignored in-game as well as on all third-party platforms because of how distracting it can be and how frequently the guidelines are forgotten, stretched, or ignored. Use of the CHATREMIND command often leads to people feeling discouraged, upset, or offended, and we definitely do not want people feeling that way. Self- and peer-policing aren't working out, and we don't want anyone spending time and effort acting as an official moderator and dealing with the demonization that inevitably comes along with that role.

Considering all of these things, the #GAME channel is just not something we're comfortable leaving in-game and influencing the tone and feeling of the in-game environment.

We also continue to feel confident that not having a constant flow of OOC chatter in-game will help the game feel more immersive and get people engaged in the actual game itself and its events, instead of the constant OOC distractions that are -about- the game, but still distracting from actually -playing- the game.

== We're going to try an in-game #QUESTION channel ==

The rules will be simple: It's only for serious questions about the game and serious answers to said serious questions. Extended discussions should be taken to TELLs, the #GAME channel, or the BBS. Jokes, puns, and clever-but-unhelpful comments are not allowed, regardless of whether they're technically in question or answer format. Breaking the rules will result in being temporarily banned from the channel, and multiple cases of rule-breaking will result in a permanent ban from the channel. We'll see how it works out having this in-game. It will be particularly useful for new players, and also our Mentors who are eager to answer questions and offer advice but shouldn't need to sift through all the other noise on #GAME to find opportunities to help their fellow players.

== The AFK command will no longer allow custom messages ==

It's being reported increasingly frequently that the AFK custom messages are being used as a local room OOC chat. This is not in any way how the command was intended to be used. There have been several complaints now from players who have found it jarring to walk into a room and be met with unwanted OOC banter occurring via the AFK command. Its purpose will still be fulfilled without the custom messages. If it's imperative that someone know where, why, or how long, go ahead and send them a TELL.

== We're considering a TYPO command ==

The TYPO command would only allow a single word to be given, and would be significantly rate-limited. But please allow me to give this exhortation: Roll with typos, both your own and those of others. It's fine. Everyone makes them! The vast majority of typos don't need to be corrected and people will still easily know what the text meant. If it's a particularly bad typo that's completely incomprehensible, or the meaning was changed by the typo forming a different word, then go ahead and correct the typo. If it's just two people who are concerned with it, the TELL command can be used to communicate an important typo correction. Which leads us to ...

== Don't forget the TELL command! ==

A large amount of the issues with OOCism in-game could be avoided by making use of the TELL command. Typo corrections, AFK explanations, witty-but-out-of-character remarks, WTF declarations - they're all fine in a tell! Players can still communicate these things and anything else to the specific people who need to hear them without having to potentially jar a large group of uninvolved people with OOC commentary that they don't know the context of in the first place. Note that it's possible to target both an account name (see the WHO list) or the name that has been assigned to another character via the NAME command. And don't forget that it's possible and perfectly acceptable to use the NAME command to assign placeholder names to unknown characters in order to help differentiate them before learning their real names!

Note: The possibility of group tells was considered, discussed, and ultimately decided against. If a particular group wants to OOC it up together, the tried and true method of getting everyone into a third-party group chat works just as well today as it did back in the 90s! Probably even better, with all our improved chat platforms and options we have these days.

== Conclusion ==

Ultimately, we want a deliberate layer of separation between the in-game RP environment and the OOC community environment. When people are in the game, we want them to be in the game. We're aware that making people alt-tab into a third-party client for the random public table talk and whatnot will not be popular with everyone. We do sincerely believe it will be a good thing for the atmosphere and feel of the game, though. Similar measures were tried in the past, but were eventually reversed to try and help people feel the sense of community while in a very low-population earlier alpha stage. As the game's population has grown and staff are focusing more on in-character interactions and events, we've become increasingly convinced that we don't want that casual OOC element constantly distracting people from what we hope to make an involved and immersive roleplaying experience in a game that now has a pretty healthy population. We're certainly not going RPI (Roleplay Intensive), but we want to be firmly on the roleplay-focused end of RPE (Roleplay Enforced, AKA "No OOC behavior by characters in the game world").

The only thing I'm really struggling with is: How do we keep OOC titles relevant? They're just too fun to give up.
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Maina
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Re: Chat/OOC Updates Pt. III

Post by Maina »

I had taken a bit of a break over the holidays, partly due to busyness, partly due to how oppressive the #GAME channel was while feeling like I couldn't turn it off for #QUESTION-related reasons. This is a profoundly welcome change, and I feel like I can come back sooner than I'd planned for it. Thank you.
Rias wrote: Thu Jan 06, 2022 9:19 pm The only thing I'm really struggling with is: How do we keep OOC titles relevant? They're just too fun to give up.
Have them on the who list? With a 'quick who' command for people that don't want the spam? I don't know if there already is a quick who. I don't use who much.

If they remain as rare as they have been, maybe allow #ANNOUNCEMENT to display when they are given out? Or some lower-priority version of the channel that people can opt in/out of.
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Re: Chat/OOC Updates Pt. III

Post by nobody »

Rias wrote: Thu Jan 06, 2022 9:19 pm == Don't forget the TELL command! ==
And don't forget that it's possible and perfectly acceptable to use the NAME command to assign placeholder names to unknown characters in order to help differentiate them before learning their real names!
There are still some limitations to tell that I haven't taken the time to completely poke at, but it is not possible to send a tell-via-character-name to a character who is disguised using their undisguised name. For example, if I see an undisguised character and name them ultraviolent-prune, and they later disguise themselves, while they are disguised `tell ultraviolent-prune` will fail. I don't know that this is a big issue, but it is a weird gap in the communication availability of tell.
Rias wrote: Thu Jan 06, 2022 9:19 pm The only thing I'm really struggling with is: How do we keep OOC titles relevant? They're just too fun to give up.
You could have titles used in the #GAME channel from the account screen and that would be mostly similar to how it is now. Alternatives I can think of are adding a #title channel for announcing new titles given or just announce new titles via the #who channel, which can be turned off by anyone, and then have who show account names with their titles. For that option, an enclosure of some sort () or [] or "" would be helpful for avoiding confusion..
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Lexx416
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Re: Chat/OOC Updates Pt. III

Post by Lexx416 »

I'm pretty glad to see these changes. I'm already not a big fan of scenes and rooms with a whole bunch of people in them (it gets hard to keep up), but seeing folks using the AFK command as a local OOC has made me much more wary of (and likely to avoid) hanging around in crowded rooms, so I greatly appreciate that. Likewise with the #Game/#Questions channel - this seems like an overall positive change.
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Re: Chat/OOC Updates Pt. III

Post by nobody »

After sleeping on it, I'd like to change my recommendation from a new channel called #title to a new channel called #achievement, mostly because seeing things like these would make me laugh:
achievement channel (that doesn't exist... yet!) wrote:#achievement Creeper Nobody
#achievement Tulpa the Long-Armed
#achievement Arithmetical Tester Nobody
#achievement Arithmetical Tester Nobody is defying physics. Again.
#achievement Wonky Wilderness Wanderer Marcuson
#achievement Wonky Wilderness Wanderer Marcuson draws courage from his cloak
#achievement Sophie just has that effect on people
#achievement Marcuson has discovered Greek Fire
#achievement Solstice Cheermeister Fridley is breaking eggs to make an omelette
These were pulled from discord chat history by searching for title (because good ones often provoke a title comment).
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Karjus
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Re: Chat/OOC Updates Pt. III

Post by Karjus »

Like the changes myself. Pretty much muted OOC across platforms for a while despite wanting to answer genuine questions. Feeling sorry for mentors!
- Karjus

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Re: Chat/OOC Updates Pt. III

Post by tulpa »

I really like the idea of an achievement channel, Nobody!

Anyway, I'm pleased with the changes too, thanks. I hope people are mindful of their language using ESP, boards &c., especially in the absence of an in-game ooc chat channel now, though. I'm still not sure of the best way to handle things when someone is using immersion-breaking language/making puns [edit: with reference to real-world stuff, I mean] supposedly in-character. It's happened already, but I guess I'm not immune to it myself. Sorry if I'm just being up-tight
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Re: Chat/OOC Updates Pt. III

Post by Rilulth »

I'm still not sure of the best way to handle things when someone is using immersion-breaking language/making puns [edit: with reference to real-world stuff, I mean] supposedly in-character.
At this stage, I would hope players can ignore and not react to one-offs and we will delete as necessary. Should it become a regular occurrence with people running around spouting frequent OOCisms IC, we would like to know about it. You can email us and we will address the character in question. But I do stress this is for regular and frequent disruptions, not someone slipping up and saying "lol" once (I've done it, I was embarrassed but it was thankfully just ignored.)
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Re: Chat/OOC Updates Pt. III

Post by artus »

May I request one thing? Since I use #game to ask for soundpack strings as well as updating those who are eager (sometimes way too eager) for the pack to come out, can we have discord room under technical or something for it? Once it done, links will have to be thrown around anyway and not everyone will have #game or whatever on for it. Just figure it'll be a bit harder for people to access the soundpack without any universal ooc mean to do so.
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Rias
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Re: Chat/OOC Updates Pt. III

Post by Rias »

Yeah, I think it's fine to just ignore occasional little OOC slip-ups, but if someone is frequently being OOC or making pop culture references or using out-of-genre slang or such, go ahead and use the REPORT command and let staff know, or email a log to cogg (at) contrarium.net.

There's also nothing wrong with sending them a tell and saying something like "Hey, just a reminder that this game is RP-enforced so we try not to make real-world references and stuff here." But I get that that can be awkward all around, and as a devout non-confrontationalist myself I understand that not everyone is comfortable doing that, so folks are free to just use the REPORT command or send that email if they prefer.

@Artus regarding soundpacks, see my other post I made today about soundpacks and MUD client stuff here: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1190

But having a channel specifically for technical talk isn't a bad idea!
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