Emoting Guidelines Discussion

Yes, that seems accurate to me. Thanks.


Edit: I'll admit that I'm pretty tired of the back-and-forth on this, and I think we've all said what we wanted to say. I'll lock this thread tomorrow before the RPT, so if anyone wants to get in any last constructive note towards the guidelines we'll write up (at a later date) please go ahead. Or if anyone wants to bring up any final concerns in a clear and helpful way, that would be excellent as well.

It's partly because I love writing so much that I don't want to be focused on that when I'm roleplaying. When I'm writing -- narratively writing, descriptively writing, even writing a simple article on the wiki -- I'm putting serious thought into what I say and how I say it, into the exact words and phrasing, and into the simple yet complex enjoyment of writing itself. When I write, I am very conscious of the act of writing, and the writing is my focus.

When I'm roleplaying, I don't want my writing to be the focus. I don't want to spend minutes thinking about the perfect word, about the most satisfying turn of phrase, about style -- things I can't help thinking about when I'm writing to write. I don't want to think outside the character. I want to just be the character. That's what is fun for me, and what I personally enjoy. Thinking about writing when I could just be thinking about my character -- really, not even thinking about my character, but thinking as my character -- that feels tedious and unimmersive to me.

To me the differences between writing-to-write and writing-to-act also feel very striking, but I recognize that's not the case for everyone. To each their own individual style! We've got a lot of great roleplayers here, writing fun and dynamic emotes in all kinds of ways. However, maintaining a timely flow of emoting and dynamic in-the-moment roleplay doesn't necessarily have anything to do with style, and as we've discussed that's what we're far more concerned with maintaining. This also feels totally doable with the guidelines we've been talking about here, and I've seen nothing but positive results coming out of these suggestions. So thank you to everyone for having constructive questions and comments on this!

Rolling 00 on a d100 is rare enough that when you do it, it's worth celebrating. When there's a hundred people rolling it's close to certain. Whenever you say something as an admin there will be a worst interpretation and someone will find it. Just imagine holding a gun and saying everything in a menacing tone -- "I have a strong vision for how things will work here, and if you're not on board then go somewhere else." has a very different tone with the gun, even to people who showed up because they really like the vision. "I'm tired of this so I'm ending it." is also a fertile surface for creative minds.

Saying exactly what you mean is generally good, but this is a realm where it can start to work against you.

I understand what you're saying, and I'm making the active choice to ascribe the best possible motivations for you saying it: to help out a couple of game-runners who don't have experience with running games, to help them try to avoid causing misunderstandings and alienating players.

Another good cultural guideline that I'd like to have emerge from this alpha ... is for people to try to assume the best of each other, rather than searching for the worst. It's not really an emoting guideline, but it's something I believe is important for a healthy community rather than a toxic one. 



The main reason I planned to lock this thread (before 10 AM) was so I wouldn't be feeling worried about more not-even-playing-people getting upset while trying to run the RPT. But, I actually forgot about the discussion entirely (and thus forgot to lock it), so that accomplished the same goal.

Anyway, your last wording of concerns in a constructive manner is appreciated. I am going to be locking the thread now though because there are a lot of bugs to fix. Spending my energy on salving the concerns of people who perceive guns in our hands just because we're game runners with a vision for our own game... is not really my idea of a good time.