Anonymous RP

[Darian Darkmind]

Nowadays it's more than common that an "anonymous" person, or some random "Jack the vendor" of some random town makes an appearance, replies to RP forums trying to make the other player/side look bad and is never seen since. Quite frankly, in many cases this can be very bad RP. Let me explain.

Who are these people? Unless you really have an alt character called Jack who works as a vendor in a said town, you're either playing with an imaginary character that doesn't exist, or with an NPC that you have no rights to control. If the character doesn't exist there is no way he can make the post. However, now that the post is made, it is clear it was written by someone who exists. However if Jack doesn't exist, it means it is written by someone else than Jack, by someone pretending to be Jack… by one of your own characters. Now which one of your characters is it? Is it your religion character, your merchant, your random newbie? Which character has the most to gain and the agenda to pretend to be Jack… which character is the one you were thinking about when you wrote it? If you're trying to make another religion look bad, the answer is pretty simple: Your religion character is the one behind the post. If you're trying to make some merchant guild look bad, it is most likely your own merchant writing that message.

We have so many trolls here just trying to be "funny" or trying to ruin the topic. I'm pretty sure most of the players making these posts have never even stopped to think that it is in fact one of his own characters posting. Most of them seem to think they can take a role of a random vendor or a guard for a moment and do a post. No, you can't just like I can't take a role of Lord British's body-guard and make a story where I thrust my sword through his heart killing him. You can't make a post by an imaginary, non-existant character or by an NPC that you have no control over. The post-maker must always exist. Your character can pretend to be someone else, but whenever you make a post, it IS written by one of your real characters.

Posting stuff under false name is fine by itself and is not bad RP as long as we acknowledge that the pretend character was in fact one of your own characters under "disguise". Because it is one of our characters posting it, even if under false name, we should always think what we post and by which character. Is it common for your character to lie like that? For example, if I post a propaganda message from Julian, a pretend-maid in Lord British's castle claiming the Order of Law and the king himself is hurting and abusing her, I acknowledge it is in truth Darian Darkmind writing the letter just pretending to be someone else. I never claim Julian, my made-up maid-character is real. She isn't real nor is she being abused. I know it was the good old Tekstone priestess Darian Darkmind who wrote it trying to build a scandal. It is normal for her to lie and spread mistrust to people. It is part of her and her RP.

This is fine and as long as we don't metagame we can't tell who wrote it even if we all "know" it was Darian. However, there are few problems: 1. Metagaming, just because it was posted by my user-account people seem to know it is a lie, 2. Trolling and replying with same kind of post - for Darian it is perfectly normal to lie, because it is part of her and part of Tekstone's RP, but is it normal for someone else to do the same (this is something YOU, every player yourself must think when you decide your character's role) and 3. for religious characters, even if our characters can't know who the real poster is, our gods DO KNOW. Our gods see everything. If Darian writes a message pretending to be a damsel in distress, Dennac knows this and laughs. If, however Imperial, Nature or Law does this, there is the issue of possible "bad RP". Is it normal for your Law priest to spread such lies? And most of all: Does Esuna, Gaea or Winchester approve lying and deception?

At least I cringe when I see a Law guy posting a pretend anonymous message about horrors inflicted to a random fisherman by the Imperial or Tekstone. I know the player posting it doesn't even think about the RP-aspects I wrote above. For him it is a character that "exists" even though is not real. For him it's not his Law guy doing the post, for him it really is some random fisherman with no background story. However, the way I see it is, in truth the said Law guy or one of his alt characters (Though, what reason does his alts possibly have to do so?) sat down, took out a pen and a piece of paper and wrote a message filled with lies and then posted it on the public boards for everyone to see. This is fine if that's how the said Law player RP his character and I can't reply knowing it was the Law guy, because if I did so I was metagaming. The problem is, it is a lie done by a Law member and even if our characters don't know it, Winchester knows... and the way I see it, Winchester would cringe just like I did.

TL;DR: There's nothing wrong with lying or posting under false name pretending to be some random Jack, but people must acknowledge that every post you make is in fact made by one of your character, even if under false name. You cannot take a role of any NPC, because you simply do not have the rights to do so. Only the Staff of Pangaea can play their roles or give us a permission. It is also important to acknowledge when posting stuff under false name, even if we players can't metagame and "know" it, if we are in a religion our almighty gods do know it and not all gods accept lying. Also, whenever you feel like trolling a topic, know that it is in fact one of your characters writing so you should think twice before doing so.

[Biggs]

Just worry about your own roleplay.

[Zaradon]

Darian, incognito potions exist aswell.

So we have the ability to cloak ourself and use those "random NPC names"
But ofcourse, i dislike it myself cause it looks too much of OOC trolling in general RP forums.

[Monad]

Actually I have to agree with Darian and its been bugging me aswell. The recent topic on general roleplay, is that really the image you want to present of our shard's roleplay state to the newcomers?

Roleplay enviroment should be an opportunity for you to express different characters and different way of thinking from your own. That should be a priviledge and freedom to be able to act from some other and several different mindset perspectives. In that topic you're just creating some imaginary characters which doesn't exist in the name of roleplay to express your personal vendetta.

Roleplay the characters, not yourself.

[Darian Darkmind]

Darian, incognito potions exist aswell.

So we have the ability to cloak ourself and use those "random NPC names"
But ofcourse, i dislike it myself cause it looks too much of OOC trolling in general RP forums.

You obviously missed the point of the topic.

Like I said, there's nothing wrong with pretending to be Jack, Julian, Noah, Michael or anything else as long as you acknowledge it is one of your real characters and as long as you RP it accordingly. It is not a "sixth, fake character" posting it. IT IS one of your five characters and if all your characters are honest, law abiding, good citizens, the chances are none of them would post a fake letter filled with lies.

For example in the "Murderers in White", Tyrion signs the post as "Scholarly Merchant of Vesper". Unless he really have a character who is a scholar and works in Vesper, it is one of his five possible characters pretending to be the scholar and posting under a false name. Unless he has a scholar himself, the scholar doesn't exist because he can't make a post acting as an NPC (Because only the Staff has the rights to RP them), nor can he make a post from a character that doesn't really exist - because it the character isn't real, he can't write anything! The conclusion is: If Tyrion doesn't have an alt who is a shcolar in Vesper, one of Tyrion's other characters, most likely Tyrion himself, wrote that letter and signed himself as the "Scholarly Merchant of Vesper" trying to make Order of Law look bad.

This is fine, there's nothing wrong with it, except is it in Tyrion's RP to lie like that? Is the priest of Imperial, Tyrion a liar? And does Esuna accept that? The same applies to all those Laws, Natures and Tekstone (Except, we know we are liars) as well.

P.S. Thanks Monad, that means a lot. I don't see you agreeing with me too often these days. ;)

[Zaradon]

No i didn't really miss the point, Darian.

I do agree that players here are doing nothing than taking the OOC reasons to the RP boards in the fear of topic locks and that's why they cloak themself there.

The debates are taking start from the religious PvP and thus in a roleplay manner, though they are talking in a RP manneer as they would be the ones in the game, not the characters themself, which is pretty lame and lack of RP input.

[Jyrgen]

This is fine, there's nothing wrong with it, except is it in Tyrion's RP to lie like that? Is the priest of Imperial, Tyrion a liar? And does Esuna accept that? The same applies to all those Laws, Natures and Tekstone (Except, we know we are liars) as well.

Or it could just be called propaganda.

Anyhow, I agree, it's silly and something needs to be done to improve the quality of those posts.

[Mike]

Yeah, it might be obvious but someone had to write it so kudos to Darra.

Most people probably understand that what they do is to post a note under a false name. But in case someone really thinks that they really play John Dough, Concerned Citizen on the forum they need to shape up.

[Johnny Walac]

Honestly I thought it was against the rules to write an RP post without signing it with one of your 5 chars. I checked this before when alot of people starting writing spam in the Telborea thread. I only checked on the Rules Forum but couldn't find it. Doubt anything like it existed but perhaps it's an idea?

[Darian Darkmind]

This is fine, there's nothing wrong with it, except is it in Tyrion's RP to lie like that? Is the priest of Imperial, Tyrion a liar? And does Esuna accept that? The same applies to all those Laws, Natures and Tekstone (Except, we know we are liars) as well.

Or it could just be called propaganda.

Yes it is propaganda and as such it is fine as long as we acknowledge that the person who wrote the letter was Tyrion of Imperial, not "Scholarly Merchant of Vesper" or any other non-existant imaginary "sixth character". Of course our characters don't know the difference, but we players do. If you have only one character, for example Elya Neyli, then everything you post under any fake name is actually posted by Elya - because she is your only character. Therefore you must think twice before doing so, just to make sure if pretending to be someone else is what Elya would do. You should ask yourself "who is Elya and how does she act"? Would Elya go as low as lie and try to frame her enemies for crimes they have not commited or will she stay truthful to the end? What would Winchester think of Elya if she lied? My characters, or anyone else might not know it was Elya who posted it, but Elya and Winchester knows. Even if you, as a player don't care, both Elya and Winchester might have doubts about going that low. I hope this clears what I mean.

Also, too often it is taken too far and all you see is only anonymous and fake people writing letters to each other. Jack from Vesper claims Law hurts them, John replies from Minoc saying Imperial is holding them captive, Marcus in Britain joins the conversation and says the king is stealing his chickens while Daniel from Moonglow makes a bold claim Imperial is secretly sacrificing living humans. What none of the players realize is that all those letters were written by their own characters just using a fake name. All of those are actually letters from members of Imperial and Law writing to each other... and it sounds childish... and like Monad says, gives a very bad picture of our shard's RP.

Using the "Murderers in White!"-topic as another example, if you now join the shard and read that topic for the first time, not knowing who is who, what is your first thought and impression? The way I see it, someone makes a claim about Law killing innocents. Instead of getting any serious reply from the Law, all they get is trolled. The new player of course doesn't know this. He doesn't know the people trolling him are members of Law. This gives him an impression Law doesn't care at all and maybe there is truth in the Scholar's words. Law should take it seriously and swear they will look into it instead of reply with trolling - even when they know it isn't real. Right now it's metagaming, because even if we, the players know it's a fake post, because the forum-user Tyrion posted it, the Law characters cannot know for certain if someone is trying to frame them or if someone is actually killing innocent citizens. Which ever the case, being framed or a real thing, it is a serious issue and they must investigate. Same applies to Imperial. If some random Joe posted by a Law officer makes a claim that Tekstone is sercretly killing citizens, Imperial should take it seriously and investigate instead of go ahead and troll just because the post was posted by a forum-user who is in Law. You should forget who posted it and instead read what the letter is all about and react according to that, because one day it might be "real", one day it might be a post by a newbie who is actually being sacrificed by Tekstone or killed by Law. One day it might not be a fake post.

Right now the players on this shards have forgotten the very principle of RP: Your character has his own past, thoughts, feelings, personality and life and he acts based on the facts he knows. He is not the same person as you, the player, nor does he know the same things as you know. We're all guilty at this sometimes, but right now it seems like this is all we do.