Why so many AFK people these days

[argonian 12840]

7 hours ago, Rat Hat said:

Gonna be real, my reason for afking 90% of the time is I underestimate how long I’ll be in the bathroom tbh

u need prune juice dude

[Salvo 1831]

It's a symptom of the overuse of Discord, as nothing is spontaneous anymore

[camocat9 1021]

On 4/13/2022 at 12:14 PM, Booklight12 said:

I think there are multiple factors which add up to contribute to what we may perceive as many people being "AFK". The one factor which i'll focus on is on @Narthok's distinction between RP takers and RP makers.

 

An RP maker is the person who, as the name purports, creates roleplay. And an RP taker is the tendency for a person to receive RP without adding something of value which would progress the RP. I'd begin with the premise that most people exhibit both tendencies at different points in time, and that there are times to be both an RP maker and taker when playing a character.

 

Firstly, on "RP takers". Under this theory i'd say that a lot of people on the server assume roleplay will come to them, or that they will stumble upon roleplay which would intrigue them. This is likely one of the primarch reasons for an apparent lack of RP, as you see people standing around cities, or travelling from city to city only to log off because 'there's no RP'. Off the top of my head there seem to be three reasons for this.

 

(A) Many characters on this server, especially played by younger less experienced rpers, do not have coherent goals to work towards. With so many options for what one can do on a character it may be cumbersome to decides "I want this character to just be X, or just be Y". Because of this, we find players just wandering primarily because their characters are not developed enough to generate RP. To those people, i'd recommend joining a guild, nation, guardforce, or community and dedicating the majority of your RP time to that individual group. Instead of being a jack of all trades, you can become a master of one, and in that you will find an immense depth of roleplay you otherwise would not have came across by just lingering at the surface of LOTC.

 

(B) Event Team often acts more as 'dm's', as opposed to facilitators of players RP goals. This isn't entirely true, as I have seen ET on many occasions create roleplay on a whim, or at the behest of other players. Despite this, the majority of ET are the the 'dms' of lotc, having preplanned events that larger communities are afforded the luxury of participating in. However, this doesn't quite boil down to  smaller scale communities or players who may be skirted the OOC political clout to coordinate with ET and create events, and instead are expected to create it themselves. Because the accessibility to ET events is scant, many plans which many players may want create are effectively rendered implausible which limits the scope of RP a character can create.

 

(C) Limited Scope of RP possibilities, and a lack of creativity. On the coat-tails of (B), I think that the limited scope of what players can do without ET assistance is limited to non-consequential RP, casual RP, Political RP, criminal RP, family rp, Lore-finding rp, and then group rp which usually boils down to a mixture of the previously mentioned RP streams. While no RP type is greater than the next, and there still remains unmentioned niche rp types such as philosophical rp or occult rp, I think the mentioned types of RP are the majority types of RP people participate in, with the widest being casual/non-consequential RP. Because an LOTC player is generally limited to these particular forms on a daily basis the actual allure of meeting strangers is mitigated. If the random person on the street is not a big name, a staff member, or does not come up to you with RP, The expectation that the RP will result in non-consequential or casual RP can be seen in the eyes of a moderately experienced LOTC player as high. And for those who are not interested in this type of RP, this can create the unwillingness to RP with strangers on LOTC. To draw an analogy, in real life how often do you actually create a long lasting connection, or actually progress something in your own life when you are just walking around in public? Generally you are loitering around waiting for time to pass, walking to a destination, or walking and talking with friends. I'd argue the public space on LOTC acts the same way. 

 

If you find that you're too heavily leaning on the side of an "RP taker", there are a few things you can do. 

 

(1) Is to create a particular goal for a given character that you can work towards, that also requires other people. Does your character want to be a criminal boss? He will certainly need underlings to raise into the syndicate. Does your character want to have a vineyard? He will need permission from a lord to purchase this vineyard. Or more broadly, does your character want to see world peace? Well, you will certainly need others to advocate for you.

 

(2) Be realistic in your goals. If your character wants to be a criminal boss he cannot start there. They will likely need to start with petty crimes, and will need to attract players towards his syndicate with the promise of many mina, he will also need a place of operations. You will also need to bribe many lawmen and guards to avert their gaze from your business, perhaps employ homeless people to be the eyes and ears of your operation to get a leg up on city intelligence. Does your character want to buy a vineyard? He will first need mina to purchase the land first, and likely, they will need a staff who would realistically guard, and upkeep the vineyard grounds. Does your character want world peace? They will need connections, and lots of them, they will need to conduct various meetings with world leaders and influence them towards good.

 

(3) Join a group. This same criminal boss could also start differently, if there already is a criminal boss maybe start by joining them and ranking up in this group. Your character will learn the ways of organized crime and be able to use the connections of this group to facilitate their own criminal syndicate. Do you want a vineyard? Perhaps to gain money you can work as a guard or diplomat for the lord or lady you wish to purchase from. After years of service to them you can then ask to purchase this vineyard. Or if you want to achieve world peace you could join a monastary, or the church of Canon, and spread world peace through theological discussion and the expansion of the churches power in the world.

 

(4) Do not get comfortable. There is always more RP you can do. Once you have become a criminal boss in Providence now it's time to expand. You can increase the amount of roleplay your syndicate does by expanding to the next duchy, or barony and plant your tendrils further to generate even more money and power. After you've gotten this vineyard perhaps you should sell your grapes and turn it into a famed wine bought and sold in Taverns across the continent. Or if you'd like world-peace, how would you achieve this ever distant goal? Facilitating a treaty between warring nations? When there is no war your char can create orphanages, or monastaries.

 

(5) Create longevity. In America of our three branches of government, we have two the Legislative branch and Executive branch. The legislative branch is in charge of 'creating' laws, and policies within the country. In a symbiotic relationship we also have the Executive branch which is in charge of 'facilitating these laws'. Through various executive agencies this branch must bring legislation from the world of 'ideas' to have a physical manifestation so that these laws can come to fruition and be 'real' overtime.

As an RP maker, your goal is to generate fun RP that other players, but it doesn't stop there. I'd also argue RP makers have two other responsibilities which are (A) to create fun roleplay, and (B) to make sure their ideas are actually being roleplayed.

 

Ultimately, there's a time to be an RP maker and a time to be an RP taker. Its entirely possible to be both at once. It's a balancing act which you must find a middle ground on. Otherwise you will be an RP taker that never creates rp for others, or you will be an RP maker that only furthers their own story. Find balance.

 

end rant

I love everything you state here, but there is one major problem with the steps you provide in order to be an RP Maker. This server is based so heavily out of character that unless there are some serious changes on the parts of the players, it's very unrealistic that anything could happen to an effective degree- all your examples are things that should be able to be done, but truly can't reach their full potential.

 

Want to be a criminal boss? Sure, start small with your pickpocketing and mugging, but get ready to slog through hours of people emoting *spots you pickpocketing and grabs you* and the metarallies of ten guards coming online all at once to PVP you.

 

Want to be a vineyard owner? Sure, spend hours trying to figure out how to contact the owner of an inactive vineyard who hasn't been on the server in weeks and hasn't roleplayed in that vineyard in months because roleplay is being centralized in large cities.

 

Want to be a monk and create a new monastery? Sure, join the Church of the Canon before trying to wrestle with the local government to get them to agree to a vassal through your OOC friend on the council that decides these things, and spend hours trying to get a moderator to actually take your ticket and set up the region.

 

I don't like being negative- I love the potential that this server has, but in the four years I've been online it, I've learned that the convoluted systems, rules, and OOC focus means that your characters won't be able to reach their full potential or achieve the full goals they have set for themselves. The truth is, the restrictions of the server don't lend well to the player experience, and 'uninteresting' characters usually come into existence because the only thing that many people without copious amounts of OOC connections can achieve is joining a guard force or wandering around and hoping that any time they start roleplay they won't be met with a two word response boiling down to "stop talking to me, you're not part of my discord group."

 

[Priceflash 757]

I do wanna say that I don't think the onus should be on players to create fun for others. If someone simply wants to participate in roleplay and not create it, I think that's very reasonable. Given this is a roleplay server with like 200+ active players online at a time depending on the time of day, I would expect there to be some sort of roleplay occurring. 

 

I do think the onus should be on the server, its directors, and its staff. If players can log onto their nation capital at peak and there isn't any significant roleplay they can actively participate in, that's an issue. If everyone's afk, there's a reason.

 

Now, what's the actual issue? I think there's a lot of reasons, but I think some of it comes down to pure avolition. There's absolutely no motivation to do anything. The economy is driven almost by complete out of character means and no roleplay is required (i don't considering running a command or going to voting websites roleplay, im willing to bite that bullet). As a result, there is little reason for individual actors to actively participate in the economy. Individuals can also create their own roleplay items using commands that are as good as any other, so there's even less of a reason to seek out someone else, especially outside of your circle.

 

My detractors may say "how is an economy integral to roleplay" & "minas isnt roleplaying" but let's imagine a scenario. Picture this: food is free, the government gives you more than enough money to survive every month for free. You can buy a house, pay your rent, and live very comfortably. Employees at every shop are robots that are capable of saying phrases but not responding or holding conversations.

 

What do you picture yourself doing? Honestly, would you still want to pursue a job or business? Would you want to do more than watch videos on your phone in bed all day and order doordash? Would you realistically see yourself going out into the world and participating in wider society every day, or do you see yourself spending more time with your family and friends? Do you think you'd be more active & seen in society in the current era, or in this scenario?  Even if your stance is still "you could still go and do it" or "i would", how many others do you see willing to go to the same lengths as you? 

 

The server has been moving in a direction away from gamification, away from real player-driven economies, away from player responsibility & agency, away from mechanics, away from conflict, and as a result, there is less and less incentive to engage with others as well as less dynamic roleplay opportunities.

 

I think the admins and other staff are too concerned with optics of their decisionmaking to make choices that will actually benefit players. 

[Gavin_ 1834]

LOTC really lost its RP spirit a few maps ago. The server feels more like a factions server where people only put in the minimal amount of RP required to justify their OOC driven agendas.

[Caelria 2618]

All requests for roleplay must be filed by direct message at least 24 hours prior and include assurances of perceptible financial or emotional benefit to me and/or my peers (listed at time of scheduling).

Applications that fail to assure accommodations which lead to my character's success will be ignored.

You gave your communities to wannabe lawyers with no scruples or social skills because they promised you success, knew how to argue, and were good at sounding smart; and a society of wannabe lawyers with scruples no social skills you received.

 

This is all your fault!