A concern

[Dorian]

Hello fellow Pantheon players

I must inform you all of a steadily growing concern I have had over this game and some of the players of it.

As we all know, this game is extremely popular. I mean, of course it is, its a great game! Truly one of the best online based games I have played.

However I feel the personal attachment for some people, as well as their attachment for their characters could be a concern. As some of you know, I have been playing roleplay games for many years, and ran many in my time. Sometimes, players can grow attached to their characters or the games tat they play and as such begin taking things related to their character or game personally. this is particularly noticeable in people who have not had many characters in their time, or have developed one character or characters over a particularly long period of time. It almost gets to the point where the line between their character and themselves is blurred. To offend their character is to offend them, to attack their character is to attack them and so on.

Now by now your probably wondering where Im going with all of this. Well im starting to worry that some players may be themselves exhibiting such behaviour. Ive noticed players snapping at one another in the Rules and Comments threads etc and this worries me as at the end of the day Pantheon is a GAME and the last thing we need is people getting agro or losing friends or whatever over it.

Call me paranoid but it just seems that as the game heats up, as we all begin to head towards war, dispute or whatever, such emotions as mentioned above can come to a head.

I just want to know that if we are going to carry on with this game that it is seen as just that? I mean, if The Void was to attack Brid (God chosen at random) Id like to think that Stone wouldnt get angry at me. But can that be said about all players?

Im probably worried over nothing but can all players truly dissociate themselves from their gods? Can we all bicker amongst one another as gods but then go on as players as civil people leaving the arguments to the game thread? This worries me in particular when you have gods in the rules and comments thread addressing players. I feel for the sake of ones sanity both should be kept separate.

Well, this post has turned into a big paranoid ramble, but I am concerned. Theres not much need to say anything, if you think you are fine then thats good I just hope that anyone who may take teh game a tad personally will read this and become aware of it before its something to worry about.

Also, I like to know that when I do get around to destroying you all in horrible ways that you wont all hate me

[stonemaybe]

Good points. I know I'm guilty of this, though I am trying hard this game to separate Brid and Stonemaybe. To be fair to Xar, I think I've seen a direct correlation between how well Brid does and the amount of effort I've put into submitting turns from Brid's point of view rather than mine. That is a good encouragement!

[Madadeva]

I promise I will NOT call Dorian an EMPTY VOID




I do think your comments are a fair caution - but I think most players have gotten past that in general with perhaps occaisonal slips. After all, most have played together since P2 and many P1.

[lucimay]

altho i'm not playing right now, i feel compelled to comment and i hope you all don't mind if i do.

i think dorian is absolutely right that there is a tendancy to transfer feelings about the character to one's self. its easy to get caught up in
role-playing and take things to seriously.

i know that when i was playing P2 there were several occasions when it was assumed that i was, as mithyaat vam, being unreasonably catty and nasty. a couple of other players actually pm'd me to ask me what my problem was!

like dorian said, its a GAME! a ROLE-PLAYING game. i played the character the best i could according to what i thought her personality was and other players took it personally.

so i think its good that dorian remind us all (even tho i'm not playing right now i miss it and hope to play again in the future) that it is a game and that we are not our characters in the game.

good post dorian.

[Fist and Faith]

Yep. A good reminder. Thanks, Dorian.

[[Syl]]

I'm going to play devil's advocate here. Just because it's a game, you shouldn't expect people not to take it personally. Like playing a game against any other friend, if you beat up on me, hell yeah I'm going to do the same to you. If you 'go cheap,' you can bet I will too. And if you're pissing me off and know it, don't be surprised when I start talking s***.

Sorry, RP'ing is different than chess or backgammon. Whether you choose to acknowledge it or not, it is still a form of communication between two or more people. Thus, the responsibilities not to offend and play by a fair standard still apply. If you're bullying or sniping at a player in the game, it's your responsibility to make sure your non-game relationship is still in working order. Otherwise, people are going to be perfectly justified in being pissed at you, and as long as their reaction falls within the acceptable guidelines, who are you to tell them how they should take it?

"It's just a game" is no more excuse than 'It's just politics,' 'It's just business,' or even 'It's just the way things are.' (or 'It's just a dream' for those of the Donaldsonian persuasion)

[Xar]

Syl, you should get back in there and show them how it's done Besides, it looks like the Eiran deities are sorely in need of some wisdom... but anyway, I agree that while one should try to keep feelings in-game separated from feelings out of the game, it's also every player's responsibility to make sure those they speak to know that insults, sniping and bullying are in-game things, with no bearing on the out-of-game relationship between players.

In general, discussions in the Game thread are safe enough since they are by default held between characters, and what is said there stays between characters (or should, at any rate), i.e. a player whose character is insulted in the Game Thread should know that there was no insult aimed at him or her as a player.

Discussions in PMs are more complicated, which is why I suggest that if you're about to use a PM to insult, belittle or threaten another deity, and you're afraid the other player might take it personally (perhaps because they have thin skin or their character is very similar in personality to themselves, or maybe because you know they're under a lot of stress lately and barriers between character and player might be thin), you might want to put an OOC disclaimer before the in-game text, explaining it's all just in-game.

It's also why I would reiterate that when something bad happens to you in game as a consequence of processing - if you have a string of catastrophes, for example, or your followers are not growing quickly enough, or a beloved character gets killed - you should not take it as if it were a sign I hate you and I want you to fail, or as a devastating experience which leads to mourning and grief: rather, understand that as a game, Pantheon needs to be impartial (so apart from the "newbie immunity", no deity or mortal enjoy privileged treatment) and because of the laws of statistics, it may be that you'll have a string of disasters, butr it may equally be that later you'll have a string of good events...

[Creator]

Does that mean that Xar the GM won't HURT Deva's player just because Deva the character is dissing the AllFather? And consuming his birds!!

[Actually, I know he won't, since Xar the GM approved the Raven post before I posted. It would have been RUDE of me as a player not to ask permission.]

Though I am looking forward to seeing what the AllFather's smackdown is!

[Arcadia]

I agree with Xar, Syl, we need you back in the game.

[Loredoctor]

Dorian, I am glad you made this thread, because it is something that you and me have been discussing. And certainly, I have been having some concerns with the issues for some time.

Look, Pantheon is just a game. The gods are all make believe, Eiran is just a pixellated map, and those followers really just represent the character's 'hit points'. I think everyone should just enjoy the game.

[stonemaybe]

*bump*

[Dorian]

*CoughcoughcoughBUMPcoughcough*