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A Fart in a Hurricane


WrathOfQuacken
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As the title suggests, this post is nothing more than a fart in a hurricane. It isn't the first of its kind and it won't be the last. It's a rant without any solid structure or nice formatting, so bear with me.


Lord of the Craft, as a concept, is absolutely wonderful. It has plenty of potential, arguably way more than any other server. Every day is different and unique. Tonight you may be having slice of life RP with friends, the next you may be out hunting a brigand or a monster, all while bonding with other players' characters, making friends and enemies. I don't know about you, but I can role-play for hours on end without getting bored with the right RP partner, only to resume our adventures the very next day.

It has its flaws, like any other thing. How many times has lore been ripped out of the server? Or, how many times has a staff member taken way too long to help you with an issue? Or maybe you're annoyed because the path you want to take is being gatekeeped to hell? Personally, I can live with all that- I accept it for what it is. With that, you can still turn around and leave the server on neutral, or even good terms, like "Had my time here. Not my sort of place, I guess." My main issue, however, is way worse. It's like a game-breaking bug there's no patch for; OOC Toxicity. That, on the other hand, will make your depature from the server bitter, like "Damn, these guys are real these and thats."

I'm not talking about DoingUrMum420 (Not an actual player) calling your grandma gay after you hit them one too many times. On any other RP platform I have been on, there's a sense of good sportsmanship during conflict. I recall taking part in Discord roleplay servers before joining LOTC. Whenever conflict arose, I recall all participants being pumped and excited for it. Other players' plotlines and OOC emotions were taken into account, and antagonists focused on making conflict enjoyable for the group the way a DnD Dungeon Master wants to keep his party engaged. There is none of that on LOTC. Whenever enemies are formed, be it in a war between two factions or an interpersonal conflict, there seems to be a lot of resentment in the air. Insults are exchanged between the two player bases and spite takes place of enjoyment. Instead of sorting out a potential issue, the first course of action for some is to straight up try to get the other party banned. Instead of trying to make conflict enjoyable and tolerable, people will go out of their way to pretty much ruin someone else's RP for the sole reason of the other player being on the other side of the conflict. There's no fun in that. And I can't see how it can be fun for the people actively doing these things. You get nothing out of being spiteful, apart from knowing that you may have just ruined the other person's day. I honestly don't get why the server needs to be treated as a PvP factions server.

I've had the absolute pleasure of taking part in conflict RP with friends. When one character antagonized the other, the others went along with it, roleplayed and had fun without going off on each other OOCly. In particular, I recall one of my characters, Shoes, being the local ne'er-do-well who always picked fights, and more often than not, got beaten to a pulp for it. I remember it being fun, for myself and for others. Despite dealing with the menace that was my character, we've always been on good terms OOCly, and haven't argued about it. Any differences we had, we could easily resolve through communication and vibe checks.

On the other hand, I've also had a lot of terrible experiences that left me feeling upset OOCly. I had negative remarks tossed my way in LOOC during conflict RP, like being belittled for being upset over RP, or being insulted by someone you thought was decent because you killed them IRP. I found myself being a part of a fledgeling RP-focused community that was relentlessly bullied by a much bigger one. It was a community we formed as a bunch of friends, wanting to RP as our characters, develop bonds and have a little corner to call our own. I have left the server itself a few weeks back, but to this day the remnants of the community are being bullied by the same party. It sucks seeing really wonderful people getting upset because of it. It hurts knowing that no matter how much they try to maintain that safe space, nothing's going to change. People are leaving the server because of it, and it's not even funny.

I wanted to bring up the topic of character bleed. It was a concept introduced to me by @Charbi, who's by far one of the most wonderful people I've gotten to meet on here. She describes it best, so I'll share her description of it here:
 

"Based on some of the interactions I’ve been experiencing as of late, I wanted to take a moment and do a quick reminder as an old lady who has done many years of theatre and roleplay on many different mediums. Disagreements are bound to arise whilst playing the server, as they do in real life. Conflict is not optional. LOTC can be intense and make you experience this phenomenon called “character bleed” which is a valid feeling and completely normal. For those who are unfamiliar with this term, this phenomenon basically means that you are able to no longer empathise your characters feelings but feel them fully for yourself so that some sadness or anger is no longer you playing your character, but your own frustrations and sadness as you, the player. It is imperative that when you begin to genuinely feel angry or upset at an IG situation, you take a step back and a breather, reminding ourselves that we are not our characters and the person on the other side of the screen you may be feeling a certain way toward is just as nervous a cucumber as you are. We’re all here to tell our character’s stories collectively together, that’s all. " -Charbi

 

If you at any point experienced character bleed, know that you're not the only one. It's okay to get upset over RP- there are no wrong emotions. If there are players tormenting you irp for BS reasons, you are not the only one. Remember that you're never alone in cases like this. LOTC can be fun, and it can be utterly horrible. There are two very different sides to that coin.

 

YOU ARE NOT ALONE!

 


As I said before, it's a fart in a hurricane, and I don't expect it'll make much of an impact. But here I am, getting it off my chest, and if it'll make a tiny difference to one or two people, I'm happy with that.

If you give a damn about the community's well-being, you can always do your part by checking in with the other players involved and offering a friendly attitude. I can guarantee that it'll make your own experience, too. You don't know if somebody had a bad day, a bad week, a bad month. Just be kind. If you're personally pissed or upset about something and feel like you don't have anyone to turn to, my DMs are open, just hit up- Quacken#4140. Not staff, not anything, but if you need a to rant, I'll lend an ear.




On another note, I hope you're having a great day. And to toss in a bit of positivity into this clusterf*ck- you're unique, you're special, and you matter!
HELLO THERE HOPE YOU'RE HAVINGA GREAT DAY Hello There Hope You're Having a  Great Day Meme - Kitten Timesheet | Hello Meme on ME.ME

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Couldn't have said it better myself. It's a shame that people are more focused on 'winning' and can't keep IRP from OOC instead of centralizing their efforts on telling a plot or story. If you're just here to cause meaningless conflict IRPLY, go join a factions server. If you're here to cause conflict OOCLY, don't. Period. Just 'cause a screen is protecting you doesn't mean your actions don't have consequences. 

 

Have a lovely day, lads. <3 Stay safe, take a break, have an apple and nutella. it soothes the soul.

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quacken wording things perfectly as per usual <3

i have my fair share of shite i could add to this - considering i've also stopped playing due to the same bullshittery they mentioned - but i just don't have the energy to care about it anymore

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Far too often we forget that there is another person on the other side of the screen. If Conflict RP becomes reduced to an OOC us vs. them mentality, nobody wins.

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You as always, put things into words better than the rest.
Ooc toxicity… it’s honestly heart breaking, because you end up hurting other people, and for what? To win? It’s not like playing Call of Duty where at the end the one with the most kills win, you move into another lobby and that kid swearing is a million miles away and you’ll never speak to them again.
This is a constant group of people, revolving but many of us constant and taking a lot of pride in our characters. 

Now the thing about character bleed is tough, because I care about my characters and I care about LOTC and other people, but it happens to the best of us. We put effort and time into our personas, and we don’t want them to take the brunt of something that will mess them up. 
 

However, making someone hurt or being rude or a slew of other hateful terms to someone, is just awful. It doesn’t make you a winner and it definitely doesn’t make you a good player. There have been many instances in which people have been toxic as to “win” something. War claims, raids and such, are all in good fun in moderation.

 

On LOTC I have a bandit character, and I don’t go out of my way to ruins someone’s day in roleplay. I do if occasionally for the fun of being a “bad guy”, but not to hurt others and I don’t persistently go after the same person or group of people as to cause them problems. I also know on my other personas, that eventually it will happen to me.

One of my personas recently was kidnapped. The kidnapper and I discussed stuff oocly, and we have become friends because of it and are making it into a bigger story for more people to be apart of. It’s a game at the end of the day, and it’s storytelling. Let’s be apart of something that even if we “win or lose” we are still proud of it.  
 

Thank you Quacken for writing this. Much appreciation. 

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