OOC drama

The Constrainer · Post by **The Constrainer** » Sun May 23, 2004 2:05 pm

Two weeks proir I was completely ignorant of 95% of the OOC drama that I know of now. I do not understand why it is there is so many people upset OOC about things. The Avlis team does a damn good job at being stable moderators who can unbiasly rule on things when there is OOC disagreements. These disagreements do not have to end up in OOC anger. We have to remember that although our characters are pitted agaisnt eachothers we as players are NOT! This was a hard concept for me to grasp about 2 years ago when I first started playing here. I never have played D&D and came straight from Diablo 2. Now I have come to think of it like this. DMs are sort of like everything but the main actors. DMs play the role of the directors, pirotecnitions, extras, costume disigners, and so on and so forth. As players we are like the main actors. We play our characters role as best we can and make the movie which we call Avlis. This movie is Avlis' IC history and its future. These main characters fill Avlis' history with interesting events of fighting betrayal and much more. As players we should treat eachother like actors would. Could you imagine on the set of The Lord Of The Rings after they yell cut Ian McKellen yelling and being pissed off at Christopher Lee that his character Saruman betrayed Gandalf? That is luticris! As it is when I see people getting upset at eachother OOC for things mostly becasue thier characters are on different sides. We have to unite like a cast to make this movie called Avlis and enjoy it.

Draegloth · Post by **Draegloth** » Sun May 23, 2004 3:17 pm

Internet drama is the most pointless thing one can participate in. Whats the point? Why argue over a fucking game? There are two things you can do. You can suck it up and keep playing. Or you can cry about it and continue to think that this digital representation of another character is ruining your fun when in reality the only one that is ruining your fun is you for taking this shit too seriously. When I was running my own gaming community we had a no bullshit attitude. If you had a problem with somebody you took it up with me and my admins and you kept it between me and my admins. Crying on the forums and in public view of everyone arguing and bickering in a public venue only leads to EVERYBODIES fun being ruined. Not just yours. Keep in mind the newbies that come here too. What do you think they are gonna say when they see all this bickering and arguing on here? If I had seen it months ago when I joined.... I wouldn't of joined.

The Constrainer · Post by **The Constrainer** » Sun May 23, 2004 3:23 pm

Very true its real important just like in RL. If you have a problem with something someone did respectfully speaking to them privatly can usually stop most of the problems before they start. Gossiping to other people about what so and so did never solves anything it just makes more problems.

Fuzz · Post by **Fuzz** » Sun May 23, 2004 3:30 pm

The problem is simply summarized by the fact that a lot of people just get too damn attached to/involved with their characters, and that IC/OOC boundary gets blurred. Another character wrongs your character, you get all worked up OOC, thinking that player was trying to screw you over, and thus the OOC drama begins. People need to step back and realize it's just a character you play. Yeah, you invested a lot of time in the character, and the character has his/her own plans. Guess what, everyone else does too. The breaking point is the fact that some people have their set plans, and can't roll with the punches and adapt to other people's RP. Is this indicative of bad RP on their part? No. It's human nature to have self-serving bias, so people will always think of themselves and their fun first.

The sad part is, the example above of CvC leading to OOC drama is often the opposite. I've found several times an IC conflict is sparked due to OOC dislike/grievances with another player. That's just a function of people being vindictive, and the anonymity of the internet only serving as a catalyst to act out on that aggression, since there's a distinct detachment when it comes to the repercussions of things you do online. People generally have no problem shirking responsibility for their actions, simply because when you can't put a face to those names, those names are impersonalized and thus you're less empathetic towards them.

On the topic at hand, I agree 100%. Then again, I've always been a big proponent of people lightening up and taking the game with a grain of salt, because it is, after all, just a game. If you find yourself losing sleep over stuff that happens on Avlis, I would really suggest taking a break to reassess your priorities, because while Avlis is a whole shitload of fun, addictive and great pasttime, it's still just a game.

Vipact · Post by **Vipact** » Sun May 23, 2004 7:05 pm

Well said. I think this is a great community, but I have to say that whenever I run past OOC drama it ruins my fun. "Ignorance is bliss" holds true in this case -- oh well.

Truth be told, that is just a minute faction of what goes on here. The good stuff surpasses the drama. In fact, many of my most memorable moments have been circumstances where one could become easily offended or misunderstood. Nevertheless, it usually ends in chatting and laughing in tells talking about what just happened. ( Hey Chasman, you owe me a Robe of light you *beep* !)

From the wisdom of Sir Grano Goodman, if you have some OOC drama, I don't want to hear it!

Everyone that posted here has read my mind and summed it up well. Relax, breathe, and let us have some fun. It is just a game.

~ Vip.