Room Disruption

[Fenmarel]

Excessive out of character comments should be considered as room disruption. Everyone's seen it, the thought bubbles or actions being used over and over again for out of character comments. Some even go as far to do this and mask it poorly as what their character thinks when they are bashing players.

Quick fights between a small group I don't consider room disruption. Though I do believe that fights involving say five or more parties or ones that continue for long periods of time are disruptive. When you get half a room in a fight that is disruptive for the rest of the players because at that point it is EXTREMELY hard not to have your character react to what is going on. Sure you can simply ignore the actions but that does get a bit unbelievable when you basically have a bar brawl and your character sits there with his/her arm draped around whoever is sitting next to them discussing the rising price of grain in Greyhawk City.

The one thing that gets me at times are the spelling corrections. Some players will misspell a word then try to correct it two, three even four times. Most of us have gotten used to spelling mistakes and have learned to read through them and figure out what is meant, if not we ask in pm's for a clarification. Not saying it shouldn't be done at all. We all know sometimes if people didn't do it the whole room would be asking them what they meant in pm's.

Constant use of the caps lock key is one that irks alot of people. Several exclamation points at the end of a sentence or stating the character is raising his voice is more than enough to get the point across that they are shouting.

 

[Ricohard_Draconis]

Spelling corrections can be cover ic by having your character correct themselves but yes they can get a little irritating especially if people have got to their third or fourth try and still getting it wrong (but thats the english student in me i suppose)

 

[Krystal]

Err, I know this is off topic, but I'm curious:

Did my response get removed or just lost in the change?

 

[WizO_Pounamu]

Lost in the change I'm afraid. You might notice that appart from Arcia's Riddling post on the isrp general board, there's pretty much no posts on here from between the 23rd of August and the time the boards got switched over.

In the upgrade announcement (top thread of all forums over the past week or so) WotC Mel warned that this would happen.

I was debating which threads might need parts recovered, if possible. Can't do them all, but this one should be one...

I'll have to see.

Sorry Krystal.

- Pounamu

 

[Krystal]

I had figured as much, but wanted to verify. I'm sure you're getting this question often.

Thanks Pounamu.

-Krystal

 

[WizO_Adele]

All the replies from that time period are gone, and cannot be recovered. I'm afraid everyone will just have to repost. Unfortunately I was also out of town at the time and lost internet connection halfway through my visit so I was not checking the boards. I never even saw the messages. I'm sorry everyone.

I did want to say that Gabriel and Dontella's last posts were very well thought out. Dontella especially nailed exactly what I am looking for in answers, and Gabriel's post was very nicely written with clear logic. The only thing I have some concern over is the fighting issue. I do agree that an extended fight between two people that does not move outside in a reasonable time period can indeed be disruptive to the room, even if it does not involve others. But that's my opinion.

I really need to make a decision on this soon, after UnCon, so the more discussion we can squeeze in the better.

 

[Articifer Nathan]

I don't know if it's already been covered yet, ( too many long posts, and little patients to read throughly) but one other kind of thing I think is a room disruption is when a newby enters the isrp based rooms and starts generally talking to those present. Some do ask for help, but even then that can be a bit of a disruption, and others just jump in to interacting without trying to ask for help. I know this and what I'll say next may sound rude, but is there any way to set up a program a newby has to go through before entering into the ISRP based rooms? Once again, sorry for sounding rude, just thought I'd ask.

 

[Tharivious_Meliamne]

The only thing I have some concern over is the fighting issue. I do agree that an extended fight between two people that does not move outside in a reasonable time period can indeed be disruptive to the room, even if it does not involve others. But that's my opinion.

I would also think that the severity of the fight would and should apply to this. A fight without weapons done only with fists and feet, for instance, would be less of a challenge setting-wise to justify than a full blown arms race of blades and magic. Unfortunately, this falls into that same subjective line as has been mentioned on other matters.

I'd agree that an extended fight should qualify, but the question then becomes how we define extended. Number of actions taken? Number of injuries? Length of real-time? A number of factors enter into any of these, and leaving them to be subjective only leads to more problems and more time used that would be better placed elsewhere.

If a character is unwilling to enter a fight (and their player is, naturally) and tries to evade leaving in an attempt to remain in a presumed 'safe zone', it makes matters more difficult on the player of the agressor in attempting to move the target out, adding to all three of the factors mentioned. I've seen a number of cases like this occur as an observer and while being among an agressor's allies in another, and this does add a bit of a strain when constraints are placed on what is excessive regarding time.

Combats/attacks have been subjective for as long as I've been around the chats. I remember the days when one character was on a killing spree and would day-to-day slit the throats of his victims in the non-combat rooms while a WizO was on, and I've seen others enforce non-combat rules far more strictly to the degree of issuing soft-warns for a brief altercation that was leaving the room already. Setting an arbitrary and absolute guideline would help with this as it could take some of the edge off of the players' shoulders knowing the exact parameters that they have.

It does, as Ricohard said, come down to whether it's handled reasonably and respectfully in character in many cases. I know my first instinct as a player is when combat begins, suggest in character a change of scene and move to the proper combat room, and vice versa once combat is over, but in both cases there are in character circumstances that can prevent this, and being a roleplaying site, penalizing players for maintaining in character integrity seems overly harsh in some cases. But again, this is unfortunately a subjective matter, making a ruling based upon it unwieldy at best.

I would suggest the following as basic tenets for what would and would not constitute room disruption for combat, from my point of view at least:

Not -

• Pursuit of an unwilling character (of a willing player), when it does not directly interfere with others not involved in the situation who do not wish to become involved.
• Brief, weaponless scuffles, as long as they are small in scope and not raging bar-room brawls reminiscent of pro-wrestling matches.
• Single strike assassination attempts, as long as the blood and gore is kept below the normal for even the combat rooms and is done respectfully toward other characters present in a way so as not to draw massive attention (as true assassination attempts should avoid doing).

Should -

• Sweeping bar-room brawls as mentioned above, the kind with tables and chairs being used as weapons and battle platforms, using other patrons as shields when they aren't involved in the altercation willingly.
• Prolonged weapon battles lasting more than a handful of strikes without exiting the room, which is just needless and messes up the floor.
• Flashy spell duels, especially when using area of effect spells that could easily end up including unwilling patrons.
• Assassination attempts that go on, and on, and on in needlessly long detail simply to attempt to draw as much attention as possible.

I'm sure there are others, but I'm a bit tired at the moment, so I can't think of more right now. (Looks like the post of a tired person, eh?).

As for non-combat situations that could be considered room disruption, it does fall into the subjective realm. Cases where a scene between a small subgrouping of characters can polarize an entire room could fall into this category by some definitions, but other cases of the same thing would fall into good roleplaying. An old example from my own experience of this was an ocassion where Tharivious had gotten into an argument and drawn the interest of over half of the individuals of the tavern, who rallied around it. It got the room going, distracted some from what they had been doing, but it was from the feel of the incident rather than intrusiveness. It was a pure case of roleplaying and remains one of my favorite moments playing the character. At the same time, by some standards it could have fallen into the category of being disruptive.

Jardel and Dontella pretty much said what I would say on most of those matters, so as rarely as I get to say this, I agree with both of them on this one.

Wow that got long. Now, off I go. :zzz:

 

[Fenmarel]

Personally I don't think it should matter if there are weapons used or not as a factor whether something is disruptive or not. If you say that fights without weapons aren't disruptive people will then start bar brawls where they are punching, kicking, biting and clawing. Even though half the room might get involved in the fight it isn't room disruption because they aren't using weapons. When you do that type of action you favor one type of character the unarmed specialists or wannabe specialists. Why should a monk that only uses their hands and feet be able to fight as much as he/she wishes where a shortsword weapon master can only use his/her weapon of choice in the combat rooms only. This would be very prejudicial to certain types of characters and not a very fair way to go about it. Besides regardless of how they are fighting a long fight, whether it be magical, physical or psionic can be disruptive when your screen constantly is filled up with the actions of a few involved in combat in a room that isn't supposed to be combat heavy.

As for penalizing characters for remaining true to character by participating in wanton destruction........what would happen if the town guard came in? They would be at the least tossed in jail. Anytime you play online it is very difficult to play your character true to form 100% of the time. You might have to ignore certain actions of a character to keep from breaking CoC by outright slaughtering them and their friends in a spray of blood and gore. You can't have both rules governing what characters can do and then want things more free so not to penalize them for being true to character. Alot of that boils down to common sense on the part of the player. Yes a barbarian might tend towards fits of rage but even the most dense of character is going to realize sooner or later if you keep blowing up in bars you might soon find yourself either not wanted or hunted because of your actions.

Maybe limiting the amount of actions of a combat nature in a non-combat room. Say five per character involved before it is to move to one of the designated combat rooms. That would give the player and character plenty of time to move to an area where they wouldn't have to worry about innocents(if they worry about such things) or others getting involved in such a manner they wouldn't be able to defend themself from countless attacks.

 

[Tharivious_Meliamne]

Personally I don't think it should matter if there are weapons used or not as a factor whether something is disruptive or not. If you say that fights without weapons aren't disruptive people will then start bar brawls where they are punching, kicking, biting and clawing. Even though half the room might get involved in the fight it isn't room disruption because they aren't using weapons. When you do that type of action you favor one type of character the unarmed specialists or wannabe specialists. Why should a monk that only uses their hands and feet be able to fight as much as he/she wishes where a shortsword weapon master can only use his/her weapon of choice in the combat rooms only. This would be very prejudicial to certain types of characters and not a very fair way to go about it. Besides regardless of how they are fighting a long fight, whether it be magical, physical or psionic can be disruptive when your screen constantly is filled up with the actions of a few involved in combat in a room that isn't supposed to be combat heavy.

That's exactly my point in saying brief scuffles, bar room brawls were included in what I think should fall under room disruption. Most public places would have set an advantage to the unarmed specialist, weapons in motion would raise more attention, logically speaking, than a swinging fist, and while no public establishment wants fights within its walls, less lethal methods would likely be deemed lesser offenses. Likewise with lengthy battles compared against short duration altercations.

As for penalizing characters for remaining true to character by participating in wanton destruction........what would happen if the town guard came in? They would be at the least tossed in jail. Anytime you play online it is very difficult to play your character true to form 100% of the time. You might have to ignore certain actions of a character to keep from breaking CoC by outright slaughtering them and their friends in a spray of blood and gore. You can't have both rules governing what characters can do and then want things more free so not to penalize them for being true to character. Alot of that boils down to common sense on the part of the player. Yes a barbarian might tend towards fits of rage but even the most dense of character is going to realize sooner or later if you keep blowing up in bars you might soon find yourself either not wanted or hunted because of your actions.

Absolutely, that's a prime example of where OOC and IC backlash would be appropriate. Bounties, emnities, and the like would all grow from that sort of thing, as would OOC warnings where needed.

[/quote]Maybe limiting the amount of actions of a combat nature in a non-combat room. Say five per character involved before it is to move to one of the designated combat rooms. That would give the player and character plenty of time to move to an area where they wouldn't have to worry about innocents(if they worry about such things) or others getting involved in such a manner they wouldn't be able to defend themself from countless attacks.[/QUOTE]
I think that's a fair number, as long as pursuit actions are either discounted or placed against the avoiding character (with a willing player of course) rather than an attacker. I've seen a few entertaining chase sequences over the last year or so, and many went beyond five actions due to a cleverly evasive target who didn't quite know when enough was enough.