Jul 13, 2016, 3:03 PM

@Lotherio said in There's Nothing to Do Here:

I am of the mindset that 'nothing to do' is more on the player than staff.

Yes and no. Before you legitimately stone me for a cop out answer please allow me to explain. 🙂

First - yes, some players go and sit in a room expecting the world to provide for them. Where's my plot, bitch? I'm bored, entertain me! There's no real defense for that, we are all responsible for our own fun and failure to be proactive by trying to make something happen, reaching out and offering meaningful RP to others... generally being creative is at the very core of our hobby. There are after all no mobs to kill, we're all we got.

But the other half of it is, games can do a great deal to at least facilitate players if not actively encourage their interactions. For example at various times during MU* code evolution we didn't have handy commands like +meetme (no need to know the grid, if you want to join someone you just can), +where (see where RP is happening), assorted seeking-RP flags that show up in bright colors if someone's actively searching for scenes; those helped. The XP system itself can act as an incentive - yes, obviously people should just go play the damn game they're in without having to be rewarded for doing so, but I've spoken to people before who were still 'looking to cap their XP for the week' and were on the lookout for something - such scenes can lead to boring bar stuff but they don't have to, so that too helps.

The latest evolution has come from games like RfK, or so I understand from @Ganymede's gushing over its system - political environments tend to work well since they don't require the presence of a Storyteller (in fact in some cases they might actually discourage it since it introduces a degree of bias) and make characters each other's tools, adversaries and needed allies to advance their agendas. So in that way such resources can be great to have and give people both reasons and methods to engage each other.

Sure, if all other things are equal and the players involved are eventful and proactive none of this is really needed. I suspect many of us can bring up anecdotes where awesome RP took place with everyone contributing and adding elements to it without the need for external tools... but they sure do help.