[Your View] Metagaming

[Harri 4815]

 

PLEASE READ BEFORE VOTING ON POLLS

 

Hello friends.

 

Intro

Over the past year or so, the enforcement of one of the fundamental rules on the server has become less impactful as time has gone on. This particular rule would be ‘We prohibit metagaming.’ Metagaming has become near common practice among many groups on the server - whether it be messaging one another in game, talking over teamspeak or skype to eliminate ‘proof’ of it happening or spamming public chats that something is happening and people need to get on immediately. All of these are forms of metagaming. Of course, people always use the excuse of how they were ‘out on patrol’ or ‘just walking around’ when their friends are taking a terribly long time to respond to emotes or even come up with farfetched excuses in LOOC, so that when they join in the fight they can’t be punished. Normally Moderators would say that they can’t do anything since there’s no proof, but that may be changing too, depending on how this thread goes.

Tl;dr - Metagaming has become common practice amongst groups, which needs to be moderated better.

 

Birds

A large issue with metagaming right now is the current use of birds and the terrible rules and precedents set around them. Thanks to no currently feasible mechanical representation of messenger birds existing on the server, it leaves the option for someone to find a very cheap way to get around the metagaming (or even powergaming) rule. Our current use of them is unrealistic, unfun and unproductive to a dynamic RP environment.

 

So, the solution that the GM team and I have come to is that we would like to remove Birds in their entirety… until a better and more developed system is put in place to replace them. This could be a mechanical representation that you build in game or buy from a GM which can then get ‘approved’, it could be an actual plugin which could have a new ruleset based around it etc. Please vote on the polls above about what you’d like to see.

Tl;dr - Remove our current ‘birds’ system and replace it with a functional and fair messenger system.

 

Options for what might replace our current messenger system are as follows:

1. Nothing. Simply have people act as messengers in RP and be trusted with a message to be ran between two parties, deliver the message yourself etc.

2. GM approved aviaries, that revolve around a system where you must be in range to send and/or receive messages from other players.

3. A system revolving around having a parrot act as a messenger bird and allowing you to send messages or not.

4. A plugin created by the Dev team which revolves around an aviary item/block.

5. A plugin created by the Dev team which revolves around representations of birds flying to send delayed messages based on variables like distance.

 

Skype Rallying

Another large issue that people regularly complain about is meta-stalling and the sudden appearance of twenty armed men who just logged on. This would happen to be Skype rallying - yelling into a Skype (or Discord) chat that “X is currently fighting Y, go to there right now!” and having people run over to help despite having no knowledge of it happening beforehand ICly, claiming to be on ‘patrol’ or something similar.

 

Now, before I get all the arguments of ‘oh but i’d be there ic!!!’, simply put, if you are not there, you are not there ICly. Proof of this type of metagaming occurring will now land you punishment, as it is flat out metagaming, something disallowed on the server. I get this rule has been cloudy before, but this is a clarification and a warning to all groups on the server to be sure that they now follow it.

Tl;dr - Meta-stalling, Skype rally combo is no longer allowed. Skype rallying for an active situation (ie: raid, fight) does in fact count as metagaming.

 

(Note: Skype rallying to gather people for something BEFORE it has occurred is still permitted. We do not care if you wish to rally people for an event or to schedule a raid party. There is a difference between the two.)

 

Skype Roleplay

This isn’t as big of an issue as the other two points, but it is still something I see or hear of quite a lot. People will post ‘roleplay’ announcements in Discord servers or even have ‘roleplay rooms’ in Skype chats, which they will then take onto the server. The bottom line of what we want to make clear is that, if the roleplay didn’t occur on the server, it didn’t occur.

Tl;dr - Roleplay occurs on the server or it didn’t occur at all.

 

(Note: If you want to do roleplay that wouldn’t affect other players on the server over another medium, the GM team will not mind/care, to a degree of course. For example, if you wanted to have some fun mother-daughter bonding or wanted to RP… something else… between two romantically involved characters.)

 

Polling

As this is something that fairly affects all groups, no matter whether you’re mechanical based or roleplayed based, I’d like to gather feedback from the community on what they’d like to see. It will rather drastically change the dynamic of the server across the board, so it’s important that the community is involved 100% of the time. Please take your time to carefully and truthfully vote above. Every vote matters, as every player’s opinion matters.

 

Comment below too, if you’d like me to try and answer any queries!

 

-Harrison

[Hydra 515]

First

[Zacho 2177]

Birds are a large clusterfuck tbh, only because that people dont always know the rules of 3 emotes and by the time they've done their three emotes the person who it was supposed to get sent to is 10 blocks away, saying they were nearby when the bird was sent. A plugin would be nice, but could cause problems if done poorly.

[Sky 0]

What happened to the avairy plugin from Anthos? I thoroughly enjoyed that.

 

Also as for 'roleplay must be done in the server' (apart from the obvious ecksdee cybering on skype) what about people who are learning a magic and their teacher is unable to be on the server for prolonged periods of time but are more than able to be on an IM software?

 

As for rallying, Leo makes the argument regarding people simply logging on rather than rallying from elsewhere. Is rallying people to fight, the same as telling people to log on?

[Harri 4815]

11 minutes ago, Sky said:

Also as for 'roleplay must be done in the server' (apart from the obvious ecksdee cybering on skype) what about people who are learning a magic and their teacher is unable to be on the server for prolonged periods of time but are more than able to be on an IM software?

 

As for rallying, Leo makes the argument regarding people simply logging on rather than rallying from elsewhere. Is rallying people to fight, the same as telling people to log on?

0

Upvote

 

I would say, most of the time, that it's fine to have a magic lesson on another platform if either player couldn't get online - as long as it follows the rules that it wouldn't affect any other players.

 

Rallying, however: no. Just logging in to deal with someone, after being told about them on skype, in the city to immediately log off is not allowed as of this post. It's unfair on villainous role-players as it makes it near impossible to achieve anything.

[Fawb 557]

I feel like city guardforces should be allowed to skype rally if some sort of alerting roleplay occurred from the person requesting backup. For example having alarm bells stationed around the city that you have to ring in RP before calling for backup. I agree with what Leo proposed that players should not be able to answer the call if they are arriving from where they couldn't hear the bell and must already be logged out. It could be mandatory that it was carried out RPly rather than just MC sprinting to the bell structures at the first sign of conflict and insta-rallying like "shouting" for a friend or blowing a previous non-existent warhorn be outlawed.

[gameingg 603]

41 minutes ago, Harrison said:

A plugin created by the Dev team which revolves around representations of birds flying to send delayed messages based on variables like distance.

This please :>

[Sporadic 2844]

BIRB PLUGIN!

 

Honestly I voted against plugin I don't want to code it.

[gameingg 603]

11 minutes ago, Sporadic said:

honestly I voted against plugin I don't want to code it.

Lazy bastard

[Harri 4815]

30 minutes ago, Sporadic said:

BIRB PLUGIN!

 

Honestly I voted against plugin I don't want to code it.

0

Upvote

 

42 minutes ago, Fawbole said:

I feel like city guardforces should be allowed to skype rally if some sort of alerting roleplay occurred from the person requesting backup. For example having alarm bells stationed around the city that you have to ring in RP before calling for backup. I agree with what Leo proposed that players should not be able to answer the call if they are arriving from where they couldn't hear the bell and must already be logged out. It could be mandatory that it was carried out RPly rather than just MC sprinting to the bell structures at the first sign of conflict and insta-rallying like "shouting" for a friend or blowing a previous non-existent warhorn be outlawed.

0

Upvote

 

If a large amount of players express that they'd like something like this, then we'll look into a system like the one you suggested. I'd just rather we started with a hard move away from the idea of spamming Skype for help at the first sign of conflict, as well as giving players a reason to stay logged in/patrolling their settlements.

[Sporadic 2844]

10 minutes ago, Harrison said:

 

0

Upvo

 

As always I'll code it if the community wants it but I'd rather spend all my energy (since I only have 1000 a day now thanks a lot dev team) on Removing Nexus which is on a very tight schedule. Also another dev can probably do it :)

[Thatpyrodude 2008]

Not allowing skype rallying is idiotic, its a part of LoTC, a practice that's happened for years. Guards should be able to log in to defend their own city and the rule is so unenforceable due to the ability to pm individual guards. Also I must say the wording for the polling is very biased " Must roleplay happen on the server" and Should Rule-Breaking skype rallying be allowed" are examples of very suggestive questions, you won't get anything of use from them

[Anderssn 1115]

Skype rallying should be alowed for; When your home or capital is being attacked, For warclaims and planned skirmishes, rallying to get people online to prepare for something. 

But it should not be allowed to rally people directly to a fight that has already begun unless it's their home.

[Tide1 4535]

Im against skype rallying but saying "Everyone get on, we're gona do some rp" or " an event team member is hosting an event for us, get on" should be allowed. **** the metasquad 6 though

[Mj. 697]

I'm gna meta anyway lol