04-14-2009, 08:50 PM
((This has been a topic on my vent for the past week or so, it seems as if an increasingly large number of people have been meta-gaming there way into and out of RP situations. Tonight, after witnessing it myself for the fifth time this week, I have decided to write a little guide or FAQ about it, and how it dramatically can ruin an RP situation for everyone but the meta-gamer. I know it is shoddy, but I am half asleep. Advice is welcome, please add your own information about meta-gaming in comments below.))
Meta-gaming, as define by Wikipedia.com, is "...the use of out-of-character knowledge in an in-character situation." This may be applied to using out of character knowledge of class, race, gender, sexual orientation, location of players, guild(for those who do not wear known tabards), weaknesses, names or lore. Thoroughly prodding characters because you know this information OOCly is also a form of meta-gaming.
I will spend a few moments on how each one of these can be meta-gamed and how it can and will change the RP situation.
Class
Many people in a role-playing community such as ours do not have or use their class chosen. This is either because they are a common villager/towns person or someone who possibly has slight knowledge of the field, (I have seen many people have the class titled Mage because they have studied the arcane art-form but never practiced or used it.) Using a class from an out of character stand-point can make a class normally shunned from a society (IE. Warlocks or rogues, two classes which tend to hide their class affiliations, or even Death Knights, some of which are still in hiding.) quickly out-casted and kicked from cities. Remember, speculations of using the Dark arts in Alliance and most Horde cities is seen as highly offensive.
Race
There are characters who like to stay hidden in many role-play communities; the ones that think the less you know, the better for them. Taking in OOC information about their race can ruin RP-stories, situations and histories. One person shouting to the world that "Bob" is indeed a tiny Night-elf and not a human can make people treat him differently than before.
Gender
I have seen plenty of people play females pretending to be male, going as far as to wear loosely-fitting clothing or armor, changing their tone of voice, or even growing facial hair. (Crazy I know right?) All of things though, can and will fool your character. Yes, you may know that Joe is really Joanne OOCly, but would your character really spend a half hour inspecting her and asking her personal questions? I think not.
Sexual-Orientation
Knowing a private matter, such as this, in a roleplay where you shouldn't/wouldn't know can not only make the people involved uncomfortable, but the community uncomfortable. This is a matter that should be dealt with in private, if dealt with at all.
Location of Players
Out-of-characterly knowing where a character, friend or foe, is, is fine and dandy. But when you take the step over to metagaming, to move to a location where your character would normally never be seen just for the chance of seeing them can ruin RP. Many a times, people's characters are in hiding and the fact that you somehow magically found out in a dream (in other words, no legit reasoning) where they were hiding out, can and will ruin story-lines, along with killing characters before their times.
This includes knowing magically where dead bodies are located. If you have no reason to be in a place and magically know where their bodies are, then you shouldn't be rezzing them.
Examples:
Good!
"Melony was slaughtered on the road between Darkshire and Stranglethorn Vale. Marcus walked that road daily, bringing supplies between the two. One day, he saw her barely breathing body on the ground, he held on to her until she died. He quickly carried her back to the city of Darkshire and a local Priest began the long grueling process of rezzing her. She spent over two months re-learning to walk and function properly."
Bad!
"After being slaughtered, the murders took Melony's body far into the forests of Duskwood. Marcus, for some reason decided to go into the forests, totally out of routine. After rezzing her himself (he was after-all learning to become an apprentice) she told him of her killers, and walked with him into Darkshire."
I bet you can figure out why it is wrong.
Guild
Guilds, more than half the time they are used as OOC notes such as, "Tinker" "Hand for Hire" "Fallen Angel" (Yes, I have indeed seen that.). The other half is for legit guilds, people who come together for a common cause, good or evil alike, in order to easily know each other, pass along information or items for the guild. Many times ICly characters may be in a guild but slim-to-none will know they are associated with it(I have seen plenty guilds whose leader is ICly not known or where certain members aren't known by anyone but the leader), so using this information that they are part of it makes for awkward moments, and long OOC discussions about how they would ICly know. ("Well, I was told by so and so that you were in it!" 'Uh...I joined after they left...' You get what I mean?)
Weaknesses
Weaknesses, we all have them, every single one of us does; whether it is having a sweet tooth, being allergic to cats, or not being able to handle hot temperatures, realistically all characters and peoples have them. Finding out from an OOC perspective that someone is a frost-mage and cannot withstand hot temperatures(and vice versa), and you intentionally make this character overly-hot in order to make them weak, is meta-gaming. Remember kids, unless someone is screaming that they are allergic to cats(or the like) you probably won't know these things ICly.
Names
We all have a name, this is normal in most if not all societies. Many of us also hold nick-names, whether it is a friend calling you Cherry-blossom, JR, or Dead-eye. But knowing these names ICly when you do not have a legit reason for knowing them, or being able to associate "Dead-eye" with "Melony" is meta-gaming.
Abusing the Meta-gaming Policy
Now, there are people who are going to abuse calling 'meta-game', we know this will happen, if you are reported for meta-gaming tell the GM you are discussing this with the information about the story. An example of this would be... "Melony" was giving off major hints of being a warlock; she wore dark clothes, talked highly of the dark-arts, always carried around books about Warlock-ery, and even always made sure to have her demon-skin spell up on her just in case of an attack. Well, Using all of these signs, most people would be able to tell she was a warlock, but when called out she called meta-gaming. The GM looked at the screen-shots and sent a message to the person accuse of calling her out, the screenshots that she had -presented- seemed to put the player at fault. When more detailed information on the event arose between the two conversing they realize, "Melony" was the one at fault. All cleared up with a chat to the GM.
Now are we going to be able to stop this all the time? Of course not, with new members coming and going this can and will be something that comes up every once in a while. But with people who -should- know better than that, this shouldn't be as big of a matter.
A few things to remember.
1) Prodding for information where a normal person wouldn't is indeed meta-gaming.
2) Using OOC information to make decisions on your character can ruin potential RP.
3) Knowing and using OOC information about people can ruin story-lines and be a pain to ruin it.
4) If you meta-game, it isn't just effecting you; it effects everyone involved, which could be an entire server.
5) If you witness a meta-gamer please send a whisper sending them what they are doing; if there is no logical reason why they know the information, replay the scene.
6) If the meta-gaming continues, please screen-shot it and send it to a GM with an explanation of what is happening. This can and will help stop this issue from arising.
Meta-gaming, as define by Wikipedia.com, is "...the use of out-of-character knowledge in an in-character situation." This may be applied to using out of character knowledge of class, race, gender, sexual orientation, location of players, guild(for those who do not wear known tabards), weaknesses, names or lore. Thoroughly prodding characters because you know this information OOCly is also a form of meta-gaming.
I will spend a few moments on how each one of these can be meta-gamed and how it can and will change the RP situation.
Class
Many people in a role-playing community such as ours do not have or use their class chosen. This is either because they are a common villager/towns person or someone who possibly has slight knowledge of the field, (I have seen many people have the class titled Mage because they have studied the arcane art-form but never practiced or used it.) Using a class from an out of character stand-point can make a class normally shunned from a society (IE. Warlocks or rogues, two classes which tend to hide their class affiliations, or even Death Knights, some of which are still in hiding.) quickly out-casted and kicked from cities. Remember, speculations of using the Dark arts in Alliance and most Horde cities is seen as highly offensive.
Race
There are characters who like to stay hidden in many role-play communities; the ones that think the less you know, the better for them. Taking in OOC information about their race can ruin RP-stories, situations and histories. One person shouting to the world that "Bob" is indeed a tiny Night-elf and not a human can make people treat him differently than before.
Gender
I have seen plenty of people play females pretending to be male, going as far as to wear loosely-fitting clothing or armor, changing their tone of voice, or even growing facial hair. (Crazy I know right?) All of things though, can and will fool your character. Yes, you may know that Joe is really Joanne OOCly, but would your character really spend a half hour inspecting her and asking her personal questions? I think not.
Sexual-Orientation
Knowing a private matter, such as this, in a roleplay where you shouldn't/wouldn't know can not only make the people involved uncomfortable, but the community uncomfortable. This is a matter that should be dealt with in private, if dealt with at all.
Location of Players
Out-of-characterly knowing where a character, friend or foe, is, is fine and dandy. But when you take the step over to metagaming, to move to a location where your character would normally never be seen just for the chance of seeing them can ruin RP. Many a times, people's characters are in hiding and the fact that you somehow magically found out in a dream (in other words, no legit reasoning) where they were hiding out, can and will ruin story-lines, along with killing characters before their times.
This includes knowing magically where dead bodies are located. If you have no reason to be in a place and magically know where their bodies are, then you shouldn't be rezzing them.
Examples:
Good!
"Melony was slaughtered on the road between Darkshire and Stranglethorn Vale. Marcus walked that road daily, bringing supplies between the two. One day, he saw her barely breathing body on the ground, he held on to her until she died. He quickly carried her back to the city of Darkshire and a local Priest began the long grueling process of rezzing her. She spent over two months re-learning to walk and function properly."
Bad!
"After being slaughtered, the murders took Melony's body far into the forests of Duskwood. Marcus, for some reason decided to go into the forests, totally out of routine. After rezzing her himself (he was after-all learning to become an apprentice) she told him of her killers, and walked with him into Darkshire."
I bet you can figure out why it is wrong.
Guild
Guilds, more than half the time they are used as OOC notes such as, "Tinker" "Hand for Hire" "Fallen Angel" (Yes, I have indeed seen that.). The other half is for legit guilds, people who come together for a common cause, good or evil alike, in order to easily know each other, pass along information or items for the guild. Many times ICly characters may be in a guild but slim-to-none will know they are associated with it(I have seen plenty guilds whose leader is ICly not known or where certain members aren't known by anyone but the leader), so using this information that they are part of it makes for awkward moments, and long OOC discussions about how they would ICly know. ("Well, I was told by so and so that you were in it!" 'Uh...I joined after they left...' You get what I mean?)
Weaknesses
Weaknesses, we all have them, every single one of us does; whether it is having a sweet tooth, being allergic to cats, or not being able to handle hot temperatures, realistically all characters and peoples have them. Finding out from an OOC perspective that someone is a frost-mage and cannot withstand hot temperatures(and vice versa), and you intentionally make this character overly-hot in order to make them weak, is meta-gaming. Remember kids, unless someone is screaming that they are allergic to cats(or the like) you probably won't know these things ICly.
Names
We all have a name, this is normal in most if not all societies. Many of us also hold nick-names, whether it is a friend calling you Cherry-blossom, JR, or Dead-eye. But knowing these names ICly when you do not have a legit reason for knowing them, or being able to associate "Dead-eye" with "Melony" is meta-gaming.
Abusing the Meta-gaming Policy
Now, there are people who are going to abuse calling 'meta-game', we know this will happen, if you are reported for meta-gaming tell the GM you are discussing this with the information about the story. An example of this would be... "Melony" was giving off major hints of being a warlock; she wore dark clothes, talked highly of the dark-arts, always carried around books about Warlock-ery, and even always made sure to have her demon-skin spell up on her just in case of an attack. Well, Using all of these signs, most people would be able to tell she was a warlock, but when called out she called meta-gaming. The GM looked at the screen-shots and sent a message to the person accuse of calling her out, the screenshots that she had -presented- seemed to put the player at fault. When more detailed information on the event arose between the two conversing they realize, "Melony" was the one at fault. All cleared up with a chat to the GM.
Now are we going to be able to stop this all the time? Of course not, with new members coming and going this can and will be something that comes up every once in a while. But with people who -should- know better than that, this shouldn't be as big of a matter.
A few things to remember.
1) Prodding for information where a normal person wouldn't is indeed meta-gaming.
2) Using OOC information to make decisions on your character can ruin potential RP.
3) Knowing and using OOC information about people can ruin story-lines and be a pain to ruin it.
4) If you meta-game, it isn't just effecting you; it effects everyone involved, which could be an entire server.
5) If you witness a meta-gamer please send a whisper sending them what they are doing; if there is no logical reason why they know the information, replay the scene.
6) If the meta-gaming continues, please screen-shot it and send it to a GM with an explanation of what is happening. This can and will help stop this issue from arising.
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