Standardizing RP Symbols

[That Canada]

Hi, new guy here. I feel like i'm one of the culprits for this.

First of all, I think this is unnecessary.

If someone uses - - v.s. * * it shouldn't make a difference. In fact - - is more common (in my experience) then * *. It also doesn't take an idiot to figure out what someone is trying to communicate at all. Even if they don't use any symbol for their actions it isn't hard to figure out what they're trying to convey.

I'm not sure its best to have enforceable rules on how we roleplay. I think its best that moderators give guidelines and suggested styles of roleplaying, I think I can safely say this: "We're not stupid, we know what we're all saying." -snaps fingers and walks out the room-.

(I really hope this doesn't come off the wrong way).

 

[Immerael]

I'm not sure its best to have enforceable rules on how we roleplay. I think its best that moderators give guidelines and suggested styles of roleplaying, I think I can safely say this: "We're not stupid, we know what we're all saying." -snaps fingers and walks out the room-.

(I really hope this doesn't come off the wrong way).

I can safely call this false. If you don't use something to differentiate between actions and emotes you just ask for needless confusion and headache. While I lean more towards the using the quotes for speech as I think encouraging good proper writing techinques that applicable everywhere not just a server is a better idea. So long as standards are agreed upon I can live happily.

For example suppose I am RPing with Glados.

Glados: *Points behind him towards the land in the distance across the sea* "Thats where you can find Anhald lands."

Immerael: I'll walk there.

Here we see some confusion. Did I just emote how I'll get there because if I'm walking across a sea strait I got some issues. Was it something I said? Meaning can Glados respond to me based on what I said. Or heck was it even OOC because without OOC ( ) or using a different chat I don't know. Not for sure.

Normally I agree less regulation on folks RP ability is better but this is something that is basic and needs to be done to limit server wide confusion. Also it doesn't really adversely affect me all that much anymore. Its a habit.

 

[French Roast]

May I suggest adding the accepted marks for alternate languages I.e. Elven, Mok'yra? They are <>, correct?

 

[NIAH]

May I suggest adding the accepted marks for alternate languages I.e. Elven, Mok'yra? They are <>, correct?

You can find the notation for languages, thoughts, OOC, and emotes all in the Roleplay guide. ^_^ This particular post was just focused more on emotes.~

 

[Ray1333]

Has there ever been a study done of the ratio of actions to things being said? Like how often people do one or the other? I was just curious, as it made more sense to me to have the one done less often need symbols.

 

[French Roast]

Has there ever been a study done of the ratio of actions to things being said? Like how often people do one or the other? I was just curious, as it made more sense to me to have the one done less often need symbols.

Considering it's very difficult to RP without either, I'd imagine they're pretty evenly used.

 

[Rosary_Omen]

Because often times folks don't quote what they are saying, and we're not playing a novel here.

No, but we're writing. If you can't discern action from speech when quotation marks are used... uh... you might want to practice reading? XD I honestly don't think it should matter if we use asterisks or not, they just clog up what little room we have for posts as it is.

 

[Somnastra]

No, but we're writing. If you can't discern action from speech when quotation marks are used... uh... you might want to practice reading? XD I honestly don't think it should matter if we use asterisks or not, they just clog up what little room we have for posts as it is.

It does matter, Rosary, and you know it. Immerael had an excellent example of why. The funny thing about language is that it can be ambiguous. And that's okay, but we have to avoid it this way for a reason. Quite honestly, the only RP I have ever seen not use some kind of marker is forum RP... and we don't do that. I know it offends your sensibilities, but it's our convention.

 

[Somnastra]

Guys, I want to make clear that we're not trying to shut anyone down, but there has been absolutely no compelling reason to loosen these standards or change them.

I have also been RPing for close to 20 years on the internet, and I started with chatroom RP ::using gorram double colons:: (a few years later, it shifted to single colons, which was weird and different). We have as much reason to go to that as we do anything else, except that it's not the established standard. And I have to say, I have almost never seen dashes used, except in very few, limited circumstances... such as when Skype decided that asterisk meant bold. (Skype, you're dumb.) If we had something like GW2 has (or various mucks and muds), with range dependent /me emotes, then we could use those instead. But we do not have them, so we have to differentiate.

 

[Sankera]

I have also been RPing for close to 20 years on the internet

is the internet that old??

 

[Centurion]

Can somebody please explain to me exactly how using the SERVER STANDARD is evil and bad and unnecessary? - - looks sloppy and unprofessional. Hyphens indicate pause. And we are not writing a novel. We are playing a video game. /Me has even less range of flexibility, because it will always start with your character's name, no matter what.

This has always been the standard here. Enforcing it makes sense, because it makes a lot of people's experiences more smooth and easy to understand.

 

[Baron]

For the Skype RPers, one can exit autoformatting by using the "!! " or "@@ " escape sequences before your text. Take note of the spaces included in the sequences, they're part of it.

Note: The escape sequences strip all formatting, including font. You'll go straight to plain ole notepad text.