Is the chat policy driving people away?

[raynes]

Tonight I had an interesting conversation with a new player and it brought up an very interesting point.

You see the player was interested in RP. But there was no talk of RP in game. The help/universe channel was no help as the minute rp talk started it was hushed out. I sent the player a message and talked about pvp, the factions, what the game was like in those areas. After my discussion they said "thanks so much. I think I will subscribe. I wasn't sure as no one would answer my questions, but now I plan on it".

Ryzom is supposed to be a very RP friendly game. Yet anytime some comes up in chat it gets hushed out. It just makes me wonder how many players have been driven away because of this.

The point? We need a global RP channel badly.

[totnkopf]

Originally Posted by raynes

Yet anytime some comes up in chat it gets hushed out.

I won't comment on other channels, but universe is meant for helping a player out, not RPing or casual chat. Its all on the box that pops up when you clicked on that universe tab.

[tavenni]

It doesn't really bother me atall - more often than not I have the chat off. Roleplaying, however - there's loads of it everyone. Can't move for the stuff, as I was getting rp the instant I arrived on the mainland (and I do mean INSTANT).

If you want to get some roleplaying going, using general to say you're assembling in a general place for rp would work. Most people don't seem to like to use general for roleplaying, but that's mostly because they prefer to rp face to face, not that they're completely anti-rp.

So no, it hasn't driven me away at all.

[chessack]

A global RP channel?

I think most real RPers would wonder, how does one RP globally? There are ways I suppose, but most RP tends to take place in "local" chat, i.e. what Ryzom calls "around."

I am a devout RPer. I did not consider the fact that Universe was not a global RP channel, to be a turn off. I normally consider all forms of chat other than "around" to be OOC unless otherwise labelled (at least in other games).

Now it turns out my guild happens to have a reverse policy (all chat is IC in every channel including tells unless otherwise labelled), and I respect that, but it's not normal for most RP guilds I have ever seen in other games, and it's the first time I've ever encountered it. The far more normal condition is that non-local chat is OOC... so I'm not sure why Universe being OOC is a problem.

I have no need for a global RP channel and probably wouldn't use it if there were one. I tend to prefer local RP between a few people to large giant chat-spam fests that are conducted semi-IC "tones of voice" (which is what I have always observed to happen in non-local "IC" chat).

C

[cloudy97]

The reason /universe is not IC is to avoid flamewars, K*-aligned players would try to taunt each other and before you know it - there will be no place for questions. We do have a huge amount of channels already that can be used for roleplay; /tell, /around, /party, /guild, /region and the two faction channels.

I agree completely with Chessack, it isn't the norm using meta-channels for roleplay and I would even go further and claim that the more you avoid guildchat RP and say it out loud in /around instead, the more roleplay friendly will the game be.

[rundll32]

Originally Posted by raynes

I think I will subscribe. I wasn't sure as no one would answer my questions, but now I plan on it".

If he was asking questions about roleplaying in universe, im sure they would have been answered. If on the other hand he was waffling away about firewine and yubo wigs then its no surprise he was asked to stop.

[codwin]

in reply to people saying why would you want to rp in global chat ?
Well for one:
You could meet up then with the person if you do like to rp up close.
But haven't you ever heard of RP forms.
Thouse people are across the globe and yet they still rp?

[xeraphim]

just a personal view.. but RP is about immersion for me..
The concept of talking to soneone via a chat box on the other side of the rootball kinda brings that down for me.. my humble oppinion is that deep RP sticks better face to face.
The RP forums are a place to seek out like minded people and to maximise your chacees of encountering other RPers IG.
Then again I'm no heavy RPer so i might just be talking baloney.

Just my thoughts.

X

[chessack]

Originally Posted by codwin

in reply to people saying why would you want to rp in global chat ?
Well for one:
You could meet up then with the person if you do like to rp up close.
But haven't you ever heard of RP forms.
Thouse people are across the globe and yet they still rp?

Yes, but the roleplay takes place within the medium in question. I am not roleplaying myself, communicating with people on the far side of the world without an internet. I am using the tools of the internet to roleplay a character who is most often in the same room as his roleplay mates. There is a difference, at least to some of us (including me).

My guild roleplays that there is a psychic connection between the guild members and I accept that, but I do not believe there is any lore-based reason why every single homin on the planet should share a psychic rapport. After all if that's so, why is their faction fighting and so forth?

All homins being able, in character and without restriction, to instantly communicate with one another all over the world just doesn't make in character sense to me. You don't have to agree with me of course, but I've never felt that instantaneous IC communication makes sense shy of a psychic bond, which I have no sense of my character sharing with most other homins. Even if we were "RPing the real world" rather than Atys, yes we have fast communications, but not global, universal, worldwide communications. I have a cell phone but you still have to dial it up, and I can still only talk to one of you at a time.... etc. It's hard to see how a global chat channel can double for something like that.

Now, a channel set up for the planning/co-ordination of RP I can totally see... but such a channel would not be an IC channel, but an OOC one designed to help people get into RP... rather like this forum is an OOC forum, but can be used to plan and execute in-game RP scenes.

C

[grimjim]

Originally Posted by chessack

My guild roleplays that there is a psychic connection between the guild members and I accept that, but I do not believe there is any lore-based reason why every single homin on the planet should share a psychic rapport. After all if that's so, why is their faction fighting and so forth?

Its generally taken that it is down to the nanoseed.
I'd consider all of the channels in their current form, apart from Universe, perfectly alright to RP in.

Around - physical speech and actions
Region - General nanoseed broadcast
Guild - attuned nanoseed rapport (similar with team)
Tells - direct one to one nanoseed message