Tharivious
First Post
As far as the main point, I think that's been covered quite nicely. People get bored, want to branch out, try something new, and make new characters to do so. I know I've fallen into the same sort of rut as Jeajea for the most part, since I interacted almost strictly with Sril've Cress players up until the last month or so. It's not a matter of ignoring people, or of not wanting to interact with them, it's just simpler to stick with who you know. But, that's also where having a circle of friends that mix a tight group with a few very outgoing players can give the best of both worlds, and expand that circle quite easily until the site looks like one big Venn diagram.
But at the same time, in that expanding of circles, you're going to run into characters that rub yours the wrong way. Just looking back over the last two months, I can count several. Can we expect everyone to continue socializing with people they consider backstabbing manipulative jerks? Of course not. Just like real life, there has to come a point where a character can honestly say, regardless of what the player thinks, that enough is enough. There's nothing wrong with that.
It's unfortunate, but that seems to be the most common situation from people who claim that they find themselves ignored or shut out - their characters wind up being more abrasive than they want to believe they are, and they can't take the heat of being an antagonist. And no, that isn't a role for everyone, it takes a certain sort of player with thick enough skin to play the bad guy that says things that others don't like. Of course, on the flipside, there are those who take the role far too seriously and fail to see the line in the sand when it comes to OOC antagonism, and those are the ones that find themselves shut out as a player. It's human nature, unfortunate though it may be for the ones being shut out, but there's nothing wrong with that.
I'm going to take a different track from what KC puts forth, at least as far as vampires and other obviously not-normal characters are concerned. We're talking about a community where, at best, you're going to run into seasoned adventurers that have seen a lot, and at worst, other unusual types that have seen a lot. For every character that becomes jaded by their travels and is willing to deal with strangeness, you're going to find two that haven't, and have decided "I'm not going to talk to something that drinks blood (or eats flesh/steals souls/can break me in half/etc...)". The onus is not on the more normal characters to provide a reason not to interact with the more unusual sorts, but rather on the unusual sorts to give them a reason to interact with them.
As much fun as a Jeff Foxworthy style "You might be [insert something here] if..." list would be, it all sums up to, if you play a monster you can't expect to be accepted universally. Even if morality is subjective, seeing a hybrid of four or five different creatures, a vampire in demonic armour, or a golem lumbering around, or a half-mechanical lizard creature (I always kick myself with that one, good old Nocturan), or even something as simple as an orc, a drow, or a goblin... is going to get a negative reaction from someone. And it should, because those things don't look like us, the don't think like us, and they're generally beyond the scope of an acceptable dinner companion for even the most well-traveled adventurer. And really, there's nothing wrong with that, either.
But at the same time, in that expanding of circles, you're going to run into characters that rub yours the wrong way. Just looking back over the last two months, I can count several. Can we expect everyone to continue socializing with people they consider backstabbing manipulative jerks? Of course not. Just like real life, there has to come a point where a character can honestly say, regardless of what the player thinks, that enough is enough. There's nothing wrong with that.
It's unfortunate, but that seems to be the most common situation from people who claim that they find themselves ignored or shut out - their characters wind up being more abrasive than they want to believe they are, and they can't take the heat of being an antagonist. And no, that isn't a role for everyone, it takes a certain sort of player with thick enough skin to play the bad guy that says things that others don't like. Of course, on the flipside, there are those who take the role far too seriously and fail to see the line in the sand when it comes to OOC antagonism, and those are the ones that find themselves shut out as a player. It's human nature, unfortunate though it may be for the ones being shut out, but there's nothing wrong with that.
I'm going to take a different track from what KC puts forth, at least as far as vampires and other obviously not-normal characters are concerned. We're talking about a community where, at best, you're going to run into seasoned adventurers that have seen a lot, and at worst, other unusual types that have seen a lot. For every character that becomes jaded by their travels and is willing to deal with strangeness, you're going to find two that haven't, and have decided "I'm not going to talk to something that drinks blood (or eats flesh/steals souls/can break me in half/etc...)". The onus is not on the more normal characters to provide a reason not to interact with the more unusual sorts, but rather on the unusual sorts to give them a reason to interact with them.
As much fun as a Jeff Foxworthy style "You might be [insert something here] if..." list would be, it all sums up to, if you play a monster you can't expect to be accepted universally. Even if morality is subjective, seeing a hybrid of four or five different creatures, a vampire in demonic armour, or a golem lumbering around, or a half-mechanical lizard creature (I always kick myself with that one, good old Nocturan), or even something as simple as an orc, a drow, or a goblin... is going to get a negative reaction from someone. And it should, because those things don't look like us, the don't think like us, and they're generally beyond the scope of an acceptable dinner companion for even the most well-traveled adventurer. And really, there's nothing wrong with that, either.