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An Odd Standard to Have?
#1
My fellow WoW RPers, I beseech you once again for opinions.

I'm someone who's always had problems with guilds in MMOs. If it's not a guild war getting me constantly targetted, it's guild members being less than communal. So I try to swear off guilds, but like a sucker I keep getting pulled back in by A) in-game loneliness and B) an attempt to still find RP in WoW Live.

I do still see some guilds advertise as RP guilds, but I've noticed a budding trend that has made me politely decline some of them. Most RP guilds will have a channel designated for being In-Character, whether it be the Guild chat channel itself, or one they give a unique name to. The ones I've willingly stepped into considered their IC channel a communicator of some sort: The hearthstone enchanted with the ability to relay sound (rarely including picture) between guild members; a Gnomish/Goblin walkee-talkee; magic crystals; etc. But the guilds I usually refuse tell me that their IC channel is:

"An inn/guild hall/soul plane where our characters meet up even though they may be in different parts of the world physically."

It just doesn't sit right with me, personally. And I'm wondering if I'm being just plain odd or picky. The idea that, while I'm trying to hunt Clefthooves in Nagrand, I'm somehow simultaneously walking into an Inn someplace, just makes my eyelid twitch. Because this guild is going to assume that the things which go on in this nonexistent Inn are a part of continuity, and in my personal continuity, my character was hunting Clefthooves, not watching McStabbie steal bread off the plate of McCreepy. But, if my character is out hunting gets a buzz on the ol' Enchanted Stone that McStabbie is being a jerk, she'll either listen in and offer her own verbal response, or hop on her Flying Machine and find their actual location.

Anybody else feel somewhat like this, or am I alone in that thought?
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#2
I actually like the communicator idea more than the virtual inn. If only because I like to incorporate my questing into my character's IC life and a virtual inn isn't nearly as satisfying as meeting folks in-game and roleplaying with 'em there. I especially love grouping/questing while roleplaying; some of my best RP WoW memories are of me and a buddy grouped up and hunting together, making IC comments in /say or /emote about what we're doing. And stuff.
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#3
Oof, that was a problem my old guild had... it felt very odd, trying to RP being in the hall and out in the world at the same time. I like the idea of a generally non-visual communication system.
[Image: Q1-1.png]

"We are here on earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different."
~Kurt Vonnegut
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#4
Glad to see I'm not alone. >_> But it just seems like more and more RP guilds are going with the virtual inn idea, and it just feels awkward to me all around.
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#5
I've never been a fan of IC guild channels. I've never supported long distance communication. It's just my personal preference to keep things in real time. If I'm going to whisper someone, they should be as close as they'd have to be to hear my lowered voice. I don't fault others for it. But I prefer not to abuse whispers as a long distance communication tool.
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#6
Well.. EU Live doesn't have none of those "Virtual Inns". Most guilds have walkee-talkees or the hearthstone thing which I think is fine, I suppose.

Virtual Inn sounds like a load of bull droppings, seriously..

Personally if I'm making a guild I usually have the walkee-talkee idea rather than a hearthstone that's enchanted but either works. It's like a red door and a blue door? Both are doors, just different colours. :P
"I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition!"
"Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!"
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#7
Fawee Wrote:I've never been a fan of IC guild channels. I've never supported long distance communication. It's just my personal preference to keep things in real time. If I'm going to whisper someone, they should be as close as they'd have to be to hear my lowered voice. I don't fault others for it. But I prefer not to abuse whispers as a long distance communication tool.

Well it's not beyond the realm of possibility for WoW that guild mates would have some form of long-distance communication. There's scrying orbs/bowls you use for quests, too. I do respect your feeling, though, as that's my main one for not liking Virtual Inns. It's more feasible to me that a person would be able to talk to fellow guildmates real-time at a distance using some magical or technical object, than be expected to be out levelling myself/adventuring someplace, and also the place they describe their Guild chat to be.
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#8
For me there is long distance then there is LONG DISTANCE.

Long Distance probably being on the same continent, around Stormwind or from Stormwind to perhaps Hillsbrad. That's when I'd use walkee talkees and really, with my RP guilds we haven't strayed much further than that for RPing.

Then there is LONG DISTANCE. That being more like Booty Bay to Darnassus.. or from Azeroth to Outland in which case I think a magical object like a scrying orb is more appropriate.

Perhaps your radios can go far but I think different.. err.. planes of existance? :P is a bit far.
"I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition!"
"Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!"
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#9
My feeling on Goblin/Gnome communicators, probably the most fair type of IC guild communication. I've had all my guild members in the past who used them, post what they said in both guild chat and say, that way those around would hear as well. It's always bugged me when a whole guild magically appears in one spot and throws a tantrum. Using a communicator gives people the chance to destroy them, overhear conversations, and react appropriatly.
Siv, "A line o' ratchet white, and a scrape of gunpowder lata'...I was wonderin' round Stranglethorn Vale havin' soul searchin' conversations with raptors. Three days lata ah came back t' Booty Bay. Lo'n'behold, ah 'ad dreadlocks."
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#10
Ruder Wrote:Using a communicator gives people the chance to destroy them, overhear conversations, and react appropriatly.

Exactly! With one guild, I started an event where my character had been captured by the Alliance and her stuff sold to Goblins, and her guildmates had to figure out where she was by sound. Listening in on the Common they couldn't understand, then eventually yelling/bartering with the Goblins on the other end for information. It was mad fun. ^_^
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#11
My problem with the idea of a goblin/gnome communicator is that Azeroth is intended to be portrayed as a (relatively speaking) low-tech world. We have guns and we have gadgets, but they're unreliable and still relatively crude. The idea of talkies isn't beyond the realm of possibility...but with the addition of Outland and Caverns of Time? These communicators are able to transcend space, magical barriers, and time?

A magical means of communication works alright I guess...but I just never liked the idea of an IC /guild chat. Better to use /guild for organizing groups and RPs, and let the IC stuff happen in-person.
Have you hugged an orc today?
- I am not tech support. Please do not contact me regarding technical issues. -
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#12
I prefer direct face-to-face communication as well, inventing magical walkie-talkies usually leads to odd RP situations, like: "Why don't I just call for help?" Any fun self-inflicted RP adventure you may want to have (like being trapped on an island somewhere) becomes moot (see above); and it invalidates some others, like having to rush from BB to SW to deliver an urgent message. So no, I don't like them, and they always make me feel uncomfortable.

I play MMOs to get away from my cell phone, thank you :)

-Shmoo
Shademoon - Human Priestess, Humanitarian
Chayne - Human Paladin, Tradewind Mercenary
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#13
Radio Communication wasn't founded until 1888 (on the real world timeline).

I think it's ridiculous when people use a Guild chat channel as an In-Character speech forum. When someone is talking to their friend 400 miles away it destroys the physical dimensions of in game RP. Its a convenient way to be lazy and cheap.

Theres a reason why telephones and radios exist in the real world. Its because you cant hear someone who is talking in a house thirty miles away.

The notion that there are "soul taverns" and all that non sense is (to me) an in game disease. It will propagate itself as more and more people continue to resort to such third rate methods of RP. It condones Metagaming (Tommy learning of an Observation that Jimmy has made hundreds of miles away) and it insults the quality of the community of people who make RP decisions based on logical and realistic reflections of reality (Example: Talking in a low whisper behind a building to avoid people hearing you).

When this kind of stuff goes on... It basically reduces the communities RP experiences to that of an AOL chat room. Things like character outfits, physical dimensions and physical interactions all become irrelevant to those RPing their character over /guild chat.

Not to mention that theres no such powers specified in lore. Being part of a guild is an event of character culture. When Tom decides to join a guild, he joins the guild under an oath or agreement of character. It doesn't morph his DNA and give him special powers that are exclusive only to those mortal creatures who have joined a guild. It's kind of like believing in the Boogey Man, or despising black cats. It is a decision completely void of logic.

I don't like getting to in depth with sticky issues like this. But I just had to throw my two cents in. I've had tons of RP experiences ruined by people doing this. I've come to completely despise the practice.
Is the world in order not profit enough?

Turtles; a Gnomes best friend.
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#14
Just thought I drop a note here. The tool my old guild (Curse - Thorium Brotherhood) used for communication that we found fit really well with the warcraft-fantasy setting and live roleplay setting alike was the use of a magically enchanted tome. Each character would posess a "copy" so to speak, of the tome. Certain "sections" were designated in the sense that they displayed constant messages. (such as IC codes and such) that acted in conjunction with information displayed on the website as well as MOTD's. On the other hand, there were also blank sections of the time in which the character could write in his or her own copy. As they wrote in their copy, what they were writing appeared in the tome of everyone else (explaining IC guild chat), or writing on a specified page where the text appeared in only the tomes of designated characters. (explaining IC cross continent whispers and party chat). It also allowed for incorporation into live RP as it is both simple and feasible to emote out:

/em pulls out a dark, enchanted tome and begins writing. (or something of this nature)

Simply done, and far more realistic to the warcraft universe than walkie talkies or magical telepathy stones.
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#15
As far as whispers, I do use them IC'ly (hence those obnoxious double-brackets when you whisper me), but only in the sense of a real whisper. In other words, my character has to be right next to the character I'm whispering, and I'll usually put up an emote like "/e leans over and whispers something into ____'s ear".
[Image: Q1-1.png]

"We are here on earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different."
~Kurt Vonnegut
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