As users bail from Tapestries and relocate to Wolfery, all their idiosyncratic behaviors come with them:
Multi-characters: Playing more than one character under a single profile.
Stalker alts: Characters that communicate with no one and exist for no reason other than to wander from room to room, stalking people, so that they can send in their other character specially designed to be a perfect match for them at just the right time.
Foyer lurkers: Characters that exist for no other reason than to sit in the foyer room just outside any popular area and watch people go in and out so their actual character can pop in just as someone they find interesting arrives.
Denial characters: Characters whose players love nothing more than denying anyone everything they want. They will lead you on and slow burn you until your wick is out, then theyâll ghost you, only to pop up as a new character in two days and do it all again.
Log Bots: Characters that are nondescript and sit in rooms doing nothing and talking to no one, running an anti-idle script so they can capture all the activities in the area so that their owners can filter and grep the logs at their leisure instead of going to all the work of actively participating in the world.
âWouldâ posers: Thatâs nice, when are you planning to do all those things youâve been speculating about?
And of course the toddler characters. Oh yes, the toddlers. There for absolutely nothing but the most innocent and straightforward of RP!
Iâm not entirely sure I can agree with all of these observations. And I say this in the politest way I can: not all of these examples of players are inherently malicious or harmful to the RP environment, if thatâs what youâre getting at. If I understood this wrong, I apologise.
Though some of these points paint the picture of someone intentionally acting a certain way to achieve a certain goal (whether at the detriment to anotherâs RP experience or whatnot), they can also be reasoned as just being shyer players - ones who might not be comfortable with, or ready to try certain ideas, scenes, or situations, even if they have shown or stated interest in them. Likewise, not everyone is prepared to RP with anyone.
Multi-characters have existed in Wolfery since the beginning as far as Iâm aware. I donât see an issue with them besides the potential confusion, which could easily be cleared up in the characterâs about tab or just by asking them privately.
Iâm sure there is some degree of suspicion that could be thrown around with regards to these examples, but⌠Iâm just rationalising these from my own perspective and experiences on Wolfery. Sometimes players are just shy and still finding their footing around here. I canât really speak on much else though.
Multi-characters: these existed for a very long time and probably serve as a low effort way to circumvent character limit for non-supporter users. But how is that harmful to anyone? Are you suggesting people not play as characters they want to play as?
Stalker alts: sometimes people wander around looking for things to do. If they find someone who would match well with another character they have, whatâs the problem with that? Even an alleged âvictimâ of such behaviour doesnât lose anything from being approached in this way. All this speaks of is social awkwardness, and can you blame people for that?
Foyer lurkers: exactly same thing as above, except this time someone is idling in a room. Perhaps they are doing something else in the meantime?
Denial characters: while this may be a problem, I donât think it has a malicious reason behind it. Lack of commitment, social awkwardness, being burnt up. Also, despite all of it being a written text about fictional characters on an anonymous forum, ERP can be an intimate practice regardless. If a person changes their mind or âchickens outâ, continuing the scene can be hard and unpleasant, same for stating it outright and explaining it to another person. Instead they could excuse themselves and leave, and not feel like contacting them again.
Log bots: you highly overestimate the value your RP logs may have to a random bystander. Itâs way less than effort it would take to read. What would they ever gain by that? Do you think someone actually spends their time reading public RP logs? Does that concern you?
In reality they just came in to see if someone is interested to play with them. Perhaps they are currently whispering with someone there, and you wouldnât know.
Would posers: not everyone here is a seasoned player who has read The Extensive Rule Book For Text Based Role Play. Different countries, languages, dialects, writing practices exist, and not every user is accustomed to specific practices that are common on this site. Again, how is that harmful to anyone?
The original post has been put in moderation for rewording. But I will address a couple of points evident by other posts in the thread.
Wolfery explicitly wants to be an open and welcoming place for everyone. Our rules are straight forward and easy to follow. As long as you comply with these, you are welcome here.
Wolfery explicitly supports having profiles, which include not only descriptions, but also character image, species, tags and more. âMulti charactersâ is explicitly allowed.
Players are under no compunction to interact with anyone. Whether they want to just sit somewhere and pull in their ambiance, or be selective in who they do interact with, that is entirely their prerogative.
What tense someone uses, or whether they pose in first, second or third person perspective, is also entirely up to them.
It is up to the individual player whether they feel these factors amount to a showstopper on playing with someone. Thatâs fine. Personal preference is just that, and youâre allowed to have them.
What we will not allow is someone plastering their personal perspective as if it was a global problem that needs to affect anyone but themselves.
If you donât like how someone plays their character - go play with someone else.
Characters whose players love nothing more than denying anyone everything they want. They will lead you on
From the other side of things: It is entirely possible these are people trying to be polite and not directly say âNo, I do not want to deeply interact with you. You are not interesting to me, and I will be polite and respond, but thatâs about it.â Most people donât like to say âI donât like you.â directly.
I have been on both sides of this; eventually I understand polite hints of disinterest, even if there was former interest, and leave someone to their own devices and allow the level of interaction to settle to what seems the most comfortable to the other person.
As it would seem the original talk given in private messages on this matter did not actually suffice to point out the futility of the âkidding defenseâ, Iâll repeat it for the rest of the room.
No, this was not a joke, nor was it âsatireâ. This is a statement that ended up polling poorly, and the poster trying to distance themselves from the matter.
We chose to give the user the opportunity to edit their post and tone it differently, if they wanted to express their beliefs and opinion on certain types of player preference, and hide the original post until they did so. But if they want to play this up as an attempt at humor, we have no compunctions about making that post visible again as we close this thread, as it is not humor, nor a debate we need on these forums.
