Woah! A thread! More appropriately, a tangent. The below paragraph is irrelevant to the thread, so read it at your own warning (of wasting some of your time!)
I spent about half a day musing over a word or prefix to accurately and snappily give the idea behind this thread to y'all, but soon realised that wasn't going to happen. I mean, 'metagaming' probably comes from 'metaphysics', which was derived from the Aristotle's article of the same name. Once we get to the base 'μετά', well, its closest definition is "after", and I can't find a good antonym for that. Beforegaming? Withingaming? Heck no. I then realised that metagaming wasn't something to be antonym'd, it was a coin what had two sides to it rather than one. Etymology is irrelevant though, as cool as it is, so this paragraph will leave for the next.
So, we all know what metagaming is, and if you don't I ain't gonna say it again at the risk of patronising everyone else! What took my fancy is the opposite - the point of this thread - RPing things ICly that you don't know OOCly. The issues of this range from trivial to mind-bogglingly difficult, and I think I'm going to do some fancy categorisation, if only to make the thread look nicer. Thus, I'll separate what I'm talking about into passive and active ... Reverse-metagaming.
Active, uh, other-metagaming:
The easier of the two, not only recognise but to deal with. You've got an engineer character, right? Who doesn't! Are you an engineer? Oh... Oh, you're not? Well, how do you know what the dielectric strength of that piece of metal wire you're about to use to conduct 20,000 volts into that poor chicken's caboose is? You... You don't? Well, how can you be an engineer! This is appalling! Well, actually, no, it isn't. I'm certainly not an engineer, and for the most (all) part I don't represent any of my characters in their professions or hobbies (this sentence open to rescinding should I roll a dumb kid who makes bad threads in the future), but in character I, we, have to deal with that.
How do we deal with it? Well, we usually open wikipedia, don't we? But here's a question - what level of 'research' do you think is enough? Do you find too little to be not doing justice to your character, Fiona the master blacksmith? Shouldn't she have some idea of what liquation is when a noble comes asking her to melt down all his precious gold coins (surely up to some kind of noble tricks) for him? On the other hand, is too much research extraneous - does it simply bite into the time you could be expounding on your character's character rather than, well, just being accurate?
As someone who tends to go beyond the cursory with this kind of gubbins, my viewpoint is skewed, but I think that these kinds of things tend to give to your character as much as wastin' time researching boring stuff (like what pasteurisation really is!), perhaps even then some - their knowledge is relevant to who they are, because they learned it for a reason, be it at knifepoint, begrudgingly or happily in school. However, there's a point where you're given something that you simply cannot find out in such a short time - or, should you figure it out, it is too difficult to ICly portray without twenty emotes and the possibility of putting your pals to sleep.
Even then there are still compromises, and they are commonly used too! Again, this is a matter of preference - some are okay with just going "Jyu'irtahn begins to work his magic on the portal", others find their personal zen by writing something like "Hyoo'man would draw mana from the ground - and the ley line beneath it - before directing it in a cone towards the portal". Of course, the cone is the #1 primitive shape for disabling portals. But... What if you get approached and specifically asked about information you'd know ICly? This is far more common than actually practising it, since social RP's more common than trade/craft/complexmagic RP, and so you've all probably had a run-in with this. From as little as "Bubber nods sagely" to as much as "Gorky nods once. 'The refraction of pyrite is well known to me - but the properties of amethyst when half-submerged have been known to allow communication with the spirits of the dead'", both are again a matter of preference and, more importantly, reflecting your character's personality. A character who knows things doesn't necessarily want to divulge those things. Or maybe they're just lazy.
Passive, uh... Polar-gaming:
Same basis as before but a far greater deal of subtlety, and also a much more ubiquitous part of your character. Rather than 'things they know', this is dealing with their experiences, their memories - how it effects their actions. These characters have lived (or are in the process of living, for you non-Forsaken) their lives and, barring patchy-memory-syndrome or targeted amnesia, should have a pretty good handle on what they've experienced, and these things would shape them on a conscious and not-so-conscious level. A lot of these experiences would have little drastic impact on a character, but even then a character is dictated by his past - Geoffrey of Stormwind, having had a nasty run-in with some muggers in the Old Town half a year back, would probably take the long way home to his house in the Trade District after Sunday mass, through the Mages' Quarter!
That's a larger example though, and is more indicative of just being in-line with your history rather than what I'm trying to type about. So, for a more abstract example, imagine one of the soldiers you most likely play - how much thought-cicles have you put into what being a soldier would be like? I mean, your character knows - he is a soldier, after all - but can you replicate it appropriately? It's still weighed in by his personality, but it could go as soft as him being a 'little gruff' when he meets people, to as hard as having multiple tics and patterns of behavior specifically because of his tours of duty. Perhaps he'd feel more grounded in reality than the people around him, pouring scorn on these kids who get to sit around in taverns and talk about nothing, and that's why he'd be outwardly gruff.
It's hard for me to say since, as is probably easy to pick up, I'm not a soldier and I'm hardly the kind of person to dictate such thoughts. The problem is that we have to, on a regular basis, at least if we want to keep some level of congruence with our characters and what they've done.
In closing, I guess all I really want from this thread are peoples' thoughts on the matter. How much do you research for characters with advanced (in relation to your own knowledge of it) knowledge in artistry/artisan-ry? Do you use that knowledge only in actions and conversation or do you let it influence how your character acts? Do you consider what things in the past - ingame or in your history section - could influence your character in the now? Did you even get to the end of this thread? I hope so.
I spent about half a day musing over a word or prefix to accurately and snappily give the idea behind this thread to y'all, but soon realised that wasn't going to happen. I mean, 'metagaming' probably comes from 'metaphysics', which was derived from the Aristotle's article of the same name. Once we get to the base 'μετά', well, its closest definition is "after", and I can't find a good antonym for that. Beforegaming? Withingaming? Heck no. I then realised that metagaming wasn't something to be antonym'd, it was a coin what had two sides to it rather than one. Etymology is irrelevant though, as cool as it is, so this paragraph will leave for the next.
So, we all know what metagaming is, and if you don't I ain't gonna say it again at the risk of patronising everyone else! What took my fancy is the opposite - the point of this thread - RPing things ICly that you don't know OOCly. The issues of this range from trivial to mind-bogglingly difficult, and I think I'm going to do some fancy categorisation, if only to make the thread look nicer. Thus, I'll separate what I'm talking about into passive and active ... Reverse-metagaming.
Active, uh, other-metagaming:
The easier of the two, not only recognise but to deal with. You've got an engineer character, right? Who doesn't! Are you an engineer? Oh... Oh, you're not? Well, how do you know what the dielectric strength of that piece of metal wire you're about to use to conduct 20,000 volts into that poor chicken's caboose is? You... You don't? Well, how can you be an engineer! This is appalling! Well, actually, no, it isn't. I'm certainly not an engineer, and for the most (all) part I don't represent any of my characters in their professions or hobbies (this sentence open to rescinding should I roll a dumb kid who makes bad threads in the future), but in character I, we, have to deal with that.
How do we deal with it? Well, we usually open wikipedia, don't we? But here's a question - what level of 'research' do you think is enough? Do you find too little to be not doing justice to your character, Fiona the master blacksmith? Shouldn't she have some idea of what liquation is when a noble comes asking her to melt down all his precious gold coins (surely up to some kind of noble tricks) for him? On the other hand, is too much research extraneous - does it simply bite into the time you could be expounding on your character's character rather than, well, just being accurate?
As someone who tends to go beyond the cursory with this kind of gubbins, my viewpoint is skewed, but I think that these kinds of things tend to give to your character as much as wastin' time researching boring stuff (like what pasteurisation really is!), perhaps even then some - their knowledge is relevant to who they are, because they learned it for a reason, be it at knifepoint, begrudgingly or happily in school. However, there's a point where you're given something that you simply cannot find out in such a short time - or, should you figure it out, it is too difficult to ICly portray without twenty emotes and the possibility of putting your pals to sleep.
Even then there are still compromises, and they are commonly used too! Again, this is a matter of preference - some are okay with just going "Jyu'irtahn begins to work his magic on the portal", others find their personal zen by writing something like "Hyoo'man would draw mana from the ground - and the ley line beneath it - before directing it in a cone towards the portal". Of course, the cone is the #1 primitive shape for disabling portals. But... What if you get approached and specifically asked about information you'd know ICly? This is far more common than actually practising it, since social RP's more common than trade/craft/complexmagic RP, and so you've all probably had a run-in with this. From as little as "Bubber nods sagely" to as much as "Gorky nods once. 'The refraction of pyrite is well known to me - but the properties of amethyst when half-submerged have been known to allow communication with the spirits of the dead'", both are again a matter of preference and, more importantly, reflecting your character's personality. A character who knows things doesn't necessarily want to divulge those things. Or maybe they're just lazy.
Passive, uh... Polar-gaming:
Same basis as before but a far greater deal of subtlety, and also a much more ubiquitous part of your character. Rather than 'things they know', this is dealing with their experiences, their memories - how it effects their actions. These characters have lived (or are in the process of living, for you non-Forsaken) their lives and, barring patchy-memory-syndrome or targeted amnesia, should have a pretty good handle on what they've experienced, and these things would shape them on a conscious and not-so-conscious level. A lot of these experiences would have little drastic impact on a character, but even then a character is dictated by his past - Geoffrey of Stormwind, having had a nasty run-in with some muggers in the Old Town half a year back, would probably take the long way home to his house in the Trade District after Sunday mass, through the Mages' Quarter!
That's a larger example though, and is more indicative of just being in-line with your history rather than what I'm trying to type about. So, for a more abstract example, imagine one of the soldiers you most likely play - how much thought-cicles have you put into what being a soldier would be like? I mean, your character knows - he is a soldier, after all - but can you replicate it appropriately? It's still weighed in by his personality, but it could go as soft as him being a 'little gruff' when he meets people, to as hard as having multiple tics and patterns of behavior specifically because of his tours of duty. Perhaps he'd feel more grounded in reality than the people around him, pouring scorn on these kids who get to sit around in taverns and talk about nothing, and that's why he'd be outwardly gruff.
It's hard for me to say since, as is probably easy to pick up, I'm not a soldier and I'm hardly the kind of person to dictate such thoughts. The problem is that we have to, on a regular basis, at least if we want to keep some level of congruence with our characters and what they've done.
In closing, I guess all I really want from this thread are peoples' thoughts on the matter. How much do you research for characters with advanced (in relation to your own knowledge of it) knowledge in artistry/artisan-ry? Do you use that knowledge only in actions and conversation or do you let it influence how your character acts? Do you consider what things in the past - ingame or in your history section - could influence your character in the now? Did you even get to the end of this thread? I hope so.
Move him into the sun—
Gently its touch awoke him once,
At home, whispering of fields half-sown.
Always it woke him, even in France,
Until this morning and this snow.
If anything might rouse him now
The kind old sun will know.
Think how it wakes the seeds,—
Woke, once, the clays of a cold star.
Are limbs, so dear-achieved, are sides,
Full-nerved—still warm—too hard to stir?
Was it for this the clay grew tall?
—O what made fatuous sunbeams toil
To break earth’s sleep at all?
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![[Image: 0e7357dcfe.jpg]](http://puu.sh/ohTmy/0e7357dcfe.jpg)
![[Image: 4ab673a110e5324a7acf57e330a6c8eb.jpg]](http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/236x/4a/b6/73/4ab673a110e5324a7acf57e330a6c8eb.jpg)
![[Image: anim_500.gif]](http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e209/yodelyfish/anim_500.gif)
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