In my 8 months or so on this server, I've learned a heck of a lot, and have a lot more to learn as well.

But I've learned that most of the negative experiences and ill will that I've experienced have been due to OOC Tells from other players. I'm sure the DMs have spoken on this repeatedly, and nobody has been awful, but by far the most repellant aspect of my playing experience has been through Tells. And I'm sure I've been guilty of it from time to time as well, so I usually try to make a concerted effort not to be negative via Tells as well.

If I have, like when a character got fugued and I was being immature about it, my apologies. And thanks to wscherry or any other DM that has patiently allowed me to vent or have explained some OOC info to me that made things clearer. Do appreciate it.

Please don't elaborate in great detail your character's backstory or IC rationale for doing things without good cause. I'd rather learn it IG, and I'm sure many would as well.

Please don't try to question how people play their characters. I'm not a great player, but that irksome as hell. If they want advice, they'll ask.

And PLEASE, if someone asks you to stop sending them Tells, be respectful.

I do enjoy "hey, what's up?" type OOC stuff, or when people let you know they have to log soon, had fun, OOC jokes and stuff. But I think a good general rule is that if the tone of a Tell is negative or even vaguely hostile, don't send it.

Again, I'm not perfect, but the more I play, the more I realize that OOC tells often take more away than they add to game play. Apoloigies to those who I've been guilty of this myself, but we're all learning, and all trying to have fun.

Rock out EfUers, have a Merry Christmas to those of you that celebrate it, and peace to everyone.

-gwydion-

I'm glad you shared. A nudge to keep things on a positive tone while we're having a blast immersing ourselves in the worlds that we love is a leap in the right direction.

Agreed. I don't especially need to know the origin of your scars, or what happened to your parents; we're just killing rats.

I think you've got the wrong end of the stick, LTS. This is about being told OOCly. From what I can gather from your reply, you seem to think it's about IC speech. And if you know it's about OOC then erm, I'm not really sure what to say.

Anyway, back on topic. I wholeheartedly agree! That is all.

I don't think you know LTS well enough.

I'm glad we had this talk, children.

Anthee I don't think you know LTS well enough.

I know I'm really bad about the OOC thing >< Sorry about that.

Gwydion Please don't elaborate in great detail your character's backstory or IC rationale for doing things without good cause. I'd rather learn it IG, and I'm sure many would as well.

Please don't try to question how people play their characters. I'm not a great player, but that irksome as hell. If they want advice, they'll ask.

And PLEASE, if someone asks you to stop sending them Tells, be respectful.

Gwydion, thank you for this thread.

As this topic usually comes to mind when I'm frustraded, I appreciate the respectful tone in which you've launched discussion.

Let's also consider that sometimes, that when you send someone a Tell and don't get a response, rather than sending three or four Tells asking "Are you there?", perhaps the player is too busy to even ask for you to stop.

For the record: don't do that. It's annoying.

My personal opinions about OOC tells:

They should be as brief and as infrequent as possible, and preferably have immediate relevance to the current IC interaction.

While some may enjoy "hey, how's it going?" or "you should've seen what happened to me earlier" tells, they distract me from the IC experience, and can just as easily be done out-of-game through instant messaging, e-mails or forum messages.

I'm also not a big fan of "hey, come down to the Blue Mushroom", or "dude, you want to do Trog's?". Not only do such tells distract from IC, they can border on metagaming.

I don't mind seeing occasional "ack, lag just made me jump 40 feet into the middle of those drow!", or "gods, I can't believe that trap just did 100 points of damage!" Major events, especially those that kill your character, can stir up emotions and such OOC tells are often a knee-jerk reflex. However, it's good to know the difference between a quick vent and a long dissertation on game mechanics, and the difference between making quick observations and making excuses for bad judgment.

Nobody's perfect, though. I'm sure I've been just as guilty at one time or another of a bothersome tell. And people have differences of opinions of what's enjoyable/appropriate and what's not.

Myself, I usually log off when I start getting tells that bug me. It's too easy to become annoyed or resentful of someone spoiling your game immersion, and 9 times out of 10 that you ask them to refrain, they send you a dozen more tells asking "what do you mean?" or excusing why "it was OK this time 'coz..."

But these are just my thoughts on the matter...

JackOfSwords It's too easy to become annoyed or resentful of someone spoiling your game immersion, and 9 times out of 10 that you ask them to refrain, they send you a dozen more tells asking "what do you mean?" or excusing why "it was OK this time 'coz..."

After a session of dealing with exactly this, I hope and pray that Arkov's tells-filter-script-thingy gets finished as soon as humanly possible. Yes, I know Arkov is actually a gnome. You know what I mean. Folks: it's not okay to just keep sending tell after tell after tell to someone. It's not okay because it makes the game not-fun.

I don't care that I misspelled something.

I don't care what the game mechanics do or don't allow me to do. After years of playing NWN, if I don't know by now, I don't consider it important.

I don't care to know your opinion of a third party's roleplaying abilities. I think that's in very poor taste. We were all beginners once. We should all be here to have fun, not judge someone else. Worry about your own roleplaying.

And I especially don't care to hear your interpretation of how things *should* be run, if only EfU were tabletop D&D and not NWN. In tabletop D&D, I'm used to playing by House Rules. And I hate unsolicited ruleslawyering.

So yes, they are my "precious DMs." These tremendous guys put in hours of their own time to make this server the amazing thing it is. I've been around since Alpha because I like it here. If you're reading this, then you know it's probably just a silly idea to bitch to me any more about what the DM team do or don't do. This is, without question, the most respectful DM team I've ever encountered. And you should be taking your questions, concerns and complaints to them directly. Don't tattle to me OOCly about another PC. I don't care. If it's relevant to my PC, I'll FOIG eventually. Or not. Either way, I'm happy if I'm having fun.

Tells are only appropriate when you have a very crass joke to make.

I laugh at the flood of tells you get when you set the server to hostile

alstromeria, I noticed that as your post went on, the text got smaller and smaller. Does your computer have a virus? It was very odd and unnecessary. :shock:

I laugh at the flood of tells you get when you set the server to hostile

lol, I should do this once :P

I personally don't mind tells. Being a chat regular I'm friends with a lot of these people out of game and as such enjoy keeping up with them. Sometimes it's nice to hear an OOC opinion on something or simply to know what they're up to. I don' really consider it a threat to the immersion of the game. I've truely never found tells to be a problem.

alstromeria So yes, they are my "precious DMs." These tremendous guys put in hours of their own time to make this server the amazing thing it is. I've been around since Alpha because I like it here. If you're reading this, then you know it's probably just a silly idea to bitch to me any more about what the DM team do or don't do. This is, without question, the most respectful DM team I've ever encountered. And you should be taking your questions, concerns and complaints to them directly. Don't tattle to me OOCly about another PC. I don't care. If it's relevant to my PC, I'll FOIG eventually. Or not. Either way, I'm happy if I'm having fun.

I may not have been here as long as you but I know exactly what you are talking about. And I want to say I am sorry because I am the number one offender in telling in large amounts whether or not its bad information. I have no excuses but I'll do better to not do it.