Preference for IC Time On A Modern(ish) Game
-
@bear_necessities said in Preference for IC Time On A Modern(ish) Game:
Are people really celebrating holidays EVERY SINGLE YEAR in-game though? Birthdays? Like, I guess if it's only happening once a RL year, cool, but on games that are 1:2 time or whatever - why? Why would you do that to yourself or be worried about missing an IC holiday or... why?
Judging by the number of times I've had folks request a coded alert of some kind when it's somebody's IC birthday, I'd say yes, folks care about it
I suppose if it's an important milestone type birthday (somebody turning 18 or 30 or whatever) it might actually be relevant to the storyline, but generally I'm in the 'couldn't care less' camp.
I've had mixed experiences trying to do some kind of IC holiday thing at the same time as RL holidays. Sometimes it's an interesting thing to break up the everyday RP grind (an IC secret santa or harvest dance or costume ball or whatever).
-
@bear_necessities said in Preference for IC Time On A Modern(ish) Game:
@Roz No I get that, but if it causes anxiety or whatever because you miss a birthday. Like. It's just a game!
Heh funny story. I rped and got into an ic relationship over time. The person oocly knew I wasn't on over weekends. Their ic birthday was on a weekend they planned some plotfu and got injured. My pc shows up Monday to wish well and fake apology missing a bday. They got dumped for being insensitive. It was good development but on a small game I basically ended up ostracized because everyone else was in group (how dare you do that to my sister, bestie, my friend's kid, etc for every other PC).
Some folks stick strictly to in game ic time apparently. I try to figure out preferences ahead of time and plan character development of the social ic sort based on that now. I prefer 1:1. I can't remember RL bdays and special dates.
-
@Lotherio Yeah I mean, regardless of what sort of time structure you're set on, I can't say enough about a "date hand-waive" policy. Like, the expectation that you can only play Christmas ON Christmas, or the birthday ON THE EXACT DATE, is ridiculous and should never be imposed on anybody
-
Oh good. I almost forgot a birthday. I don't manage to do it every year, but I like sending this person random junk and this is an excuse ICly to do it.
-
So, taking everything I've read into consideration, if a game had an IC Time policy that read something like what I've listed below be acceptable to most people?
Our IC time runs on a 1:1 ratio with time with the real world. That means if it's 3:48pm on May 16th on the East Coast in the real world then it is 3:48pm on May 16th in the game. That said, you should not freak out about what time of the day it is or even what day of the week. What's important is that it's "Early May" or "Mid-June" or whatever.
You should not feel constrained by the IC time. Not going to be around for IC Christmas because you're busy RL Christmas? Play it early. Missed a character's birthday and want to RP it with them? Go ahead. It's not going to break the game. In fact, Ares allows you to set what date and time your scene actually happens at. It defaults to the current IC time but you can set it to whatever you want. Want to play a flashback scene from 5 years ago? Go for it.
The only thing we ask is that you try not to set things too far in the future for continuities sake. We don't want to have to start retconning scenes because something you RPed a RL month ago but was set in the current IC time period conflicts with what is happening now.
-
The progression of time in a game should be a loose suggestion that only exists if there's some actual need to track time but that can be ignored for the needs of any given scene.
-
My preferred ration is .75 in-game day to 1 real life day and an adjusted calendar of 30 days per season. This results in scenes moving at a somewhat more believable pace (The scene started at 10 pm in-game time and ended at 12 pm in-game but took 3 hours real life time, instead of the scene started at 10 pm in-game time and ended at 7 am in-game time for what was essentially a few drinks and a bit of conversation) and you can still get 2 in-game years in 1 real life year, so the server as a whole moves at an accelerated rate.
-
@ZombieGenesis I think that might be getting too detailed for what should be a very simple hand-wavium policy: "The game runs on a 1:1 time ratio with the real world. However, players should not feel constrained by the IC time and can hand-waive the time or date as necessary for RP purposes. All we ask is that you try not to set things too far in the future for the sake of continuity."
-
@bear_necessities It's not about being anxious or worried about missing something, it's about being surprised when you're playing along day to day and then you realize that the game is in September when the real world is in May, and you were just starting to think 'hey, it's almost June, that's when my character's birthday is.' It's one more step of remove from the real world.
I definitely agree that there are benefits to increased time ratios (marriages, pregnancies, learning, promotions, research, etc), but I just like it when things synch up. When it's hot out, I often want to RP by character either reveling in the heat or avoiding it -- I don't want to have to think about whether it's actually January ICly and my characters should be worrying about snowshoes.
Just different strokes for different folks.
-
I hate accelerated time. Hate it. I always feel like I'm behind, I miss stuff, I don't have time to play out what I want to, and if it's my main game I get weirdly confused on what month it is RL or IC at any given time. The last of those I'd put up with for something like 2:1 or maybe even slower, because it helps so much with the other issues, but 1:1 is the absolute fastest I won't quietly hate every day.
And that IC Time policy looks fine to me.
-
@Seraphim73 So yeah I mean I'm not arguing that people find it easier when the game's 1:1 and time moves at a slower rate. I live in a place where it's summer 9 months out of the year so I guess I never really struggle with the RL weather matching up with my IC weather. But I still do think there has to be some give or take because our MUSH life moves WAY faster than real life ever does. It's why I always felt a 1:1.5 rate was the best solution for everyone, because time moves JUST FAST ENOUGH where progression/relationships make sense but isn't so incredibly disruptive where you could miss a week and end up actually missing an entire month or anything.
I guess at the end of the day, @ZombieGenesis you aren't going to please anyone. I wouldn't go slower than 1:1 and I would PERSONALLY flip the seasons but that's just me. I also would be really hesitant to do time skips, or use them SUPER SPARINGLY, because that can be INCREDIBLY disruptive to people.
-
I prefer NOT 1:1, or at least not paired with RL time. I grew up on Pern games, where 4:1 was standard. Nowadays, I find that way too fast for as little as I RP.
1:2 is my current comfort zone. But, even then, I'm all about fuzzy time. No matter where you land @ZombieGenesis, someone will bitch and moan. Even if you're like "whatever date you like," you'll have people freaking out about continuity or how they're getting left behind or...
Basically, just go with what you prefer. People will either play it or they won't.
-
@Seraphim73 said in Preference for IC Time On A Modern(ish) Game:
When it's hot out, I often want to RP by character either reveling in the heat or avoiding it
-_-
-
I think the seasonal association is akin to the reasons why networks don't generally re-run holiday episodes of TV series out of season. You won't see the Christmas episode of Grey's Anatomy airing in the middle of the summer. Some would enjoy it (Christmas in July!), others might not care at all, but some find it downright jarring. It's all just personal preference.
-
@Coin Yes, I know, for those south of the equator that doesn't work as well. Yes, it's cartographic imperialism.
-
@Seraphim73 said in Preference for IC Time On A Modern(ish) Game:
@Coin Yes, I know, for those south of the equator that doesn't work as well. Yes, it's cartographic imperialism.
