To OOC Room or Not to OOC Room (and Other Artifacts)

[faraday]

Ares has an OOC room because it supports the onstage/offstage system where players go 'onstage' (IC) to engage in RP and go 'offstage' (OOC) when they're between scenes. Because of the way MUSH client interfaces work, the character object has to be somewhere when you're not actually roleplaying.

Personally I find it preferable to have that be in a designated offstage area rather than an IC private room (especially since not all themes support such a thing - e.g. Battlestar) or worst of all just idling on the public IC grid somewhere.

Whether people chat there or not? I'm indifferent. I get that some folks like it. I find it too spammy and prefer the quiet room over the lounge.

Ares also has a configurable option that ties the OOC lounge to a channel. I think that's preferable, because it lets folks who aren't in the lounge still participate in the chat, and it enables the other channel features like recall and abuse reporting.

[eye8urcake]

@Derp IDK, it seems like semantics to me because typing chargen to teleport IS a dedicated exit, isn't it? So we agree in principle with the idea of letting people choose to sequester themselves to do it or just type it in?

I tried a few games that used the OOC room as point of origin to go into chargen, and also to buy things you earned through roleplaying like perks or whatever and you could go in or out of it from anywhere, IIRC. While I've never been into the OOC room as a general rule (I have an incredibly hard time going OOC at all, even for the most important things) this setup was actually one of the better I've seen.

I also come from MUD origins, and the idea of a tiny OOC Town area where all that stuff was always seemed to make sense intrinsically to me, so perhaps it's one of those weird little differences in culture more than anything else.

[mietze]

It is kind of weird, I find myself not attached to those things either.

These days I am much more attracted to active staff who seem to have a cohesive vision and are not afraid to cull people who just refuse to abide by community standards, large or small.

I am willing (after some internal screaming and foot stomping of course) to learn new systems and commands if that is present. If it's not , even if the game has every tchotchke and sphere and familiar code and even people I love there--i know that's the kiss of death for me as a player there, as far as being willing to invest my time.

[krmbm]

@faraday said in To OOC Room or Not to OOC Room (and Other Artifacts):

Ares also has a configurable option that ties the OOC lounge to a channel. I think that's preferable, because it lets folks who aren't in the lounge still participate in the chat, and it enables the other channel features like recall and abuse reporting.

This is what we do. It weirds people out the first time they talk in the OOC room and it winds up on the channel, even though the room desc says it does that, but they get over it.

[Derp]

@krmbm said in To OOC Room or Not to OOC Room (and Other Artifacts):

@faraday said in To OOC Room or Not to OOC Room (and Other Artifacts):

Ares also has a configurable option that ties the OOC lounge to a channel. I think that's preferable, because it lets folks who aren't in the lounge still participate in the chat, and it enables the other channel features like recall and abuse reporting.

This is what we do. It weirds people out the first time they talk in the OOC room and it winds up on the channel, even though the room desc says it does that, but they get over it.

They can leave the channel, yes? That might actually be ideal.

[Bad at Lurking]

I am working on a MU right now and thus thinking on the nuts and bolts of running and playing on one. For me, OOC rooms are a very mixed bag, with a moderate slant towards the negative.

My go-to examples are with superhero games and the weird queen bee cliquishness of most OOC rooms, wherein somebody playing a female character (usually a highly sexualized one) decides she owns the room. Lots of flirting with the objects of the player's desire, lots of in-jokes and scene analysis, etc. New players, or players with characters that person doesn't want to type fuck are generally ignored or given fairly unsubtle hints to shut up around her majesty. It's especially jarring when the welcome channels are actually welcoming, but your first interactions with the players are not.

But beyond that, I remember back when Fallcoast had this guy (and my apologies if anyone reading this IS that guy) who would spend 24/7 in the OOC room talking about how his were-spider could and would kill and eat your character. You would log in with a new character, somebody would ask what you are making, and the dude would explain how his character was going to murder yours. Every time. For hours on end. With page references. Over the years, I made a dozen characters on that game and that dude was doing the same shtick all day, every day, forever. He's probably still there. And I watched it scare off a few new players.

I agree that OOC communication and a sense of community are a good thing, but I tend to find the idea of policing an OOC room for politeness and a general lack of predatory behavior (sexual and otherwise) distasteful and a little exhausting just to consider.

[Macha]

Right now, I'm in a scene that just popped up from people talking in the OOC lounge. Because people all were like. "You wanna do something?" And there's at least 3 people in this scene that my characters haven't had a chance to meet before now, but now they will.

[Seraphim73]

@Derp said in To OOC Room or Not to OOC Room (and Other Artifacts):

Big Grids with Player Builds

I've experimented with this on a couple of games now, and have come to the opinion that you need at least 20-25 non-PC rooms and that 30-35ish is probably a better idea. While I am an absolute fan of a small grid, and believe that there should never be a room that doesn't have 1-3 explicit RP hooks in its description. I prefer to remove connector rooms -- one "street corner" or "corridor" room in a game can be fine for random running into people, but I don't believe that you need many of them. I think much more than 35-40 rooms (for a game under around 50 players) is likely to mean that you've got too many connector rooms. Of course, if you have a game larger than 50ish players, you'll probably need a larger grid.

I don't count PC build rooms in this, because I generally think that they're unnecessary in Ares, even if having the description saved can be nice at times. I do, however, recognize that some people enjoy them, and I don't think they hurt anything.

Chargen 'Rooms'

I don't find the need for this, especially on Ares-FS3 games, but the lack of them can sometimes confuse new players. Ares-FS3 has the client-side chargen process split up into distinct steps, but it just doesn't require rooms to do so.

[Lisse24]

@Macha said in To OOC Room or Not to OOC Room (and Other Artifacts):

Right now, I'm in a scene that just popped up from people talking in the OOC lounge. Because people all were like. "You wanna do something?" And there's at least 3 people in this scene that my characters haven't had a chance to meet before now, but now they will.

Wouldn't it have been preferable to have that conversation on a channel though? There could have been someone already on grid waiting for RP, who was excluded from this scene and conversation because they weren't in the OOC room.

[Derp]

@Seraphim73 said in To OOC Room or Not to OOC Room (and Other Artifacts):

I don't find the need for this, especially on Ares-FS3 games, but the lack of them can sometimes confuse new players. Ares-FS3 has the client-side chargen process split up into distinct steps, but it just doesn't require rooms to do so.

One of these days I'll do a web chargen.

After I figure out how to do an in-game chargen.

[silverfox]

I am staring at many of my games (though I don't know about Arx?) and realizing they have OOC rooms. I've never actually used them for anything though. Ansible had the chargen rooms then rooms OOC dedicated to different OOC things. HT has an OOC room you can get to but I never someone hang out in once they joined their IC areas? Then Ankh-Morpork has one but I have no idea what it does functionality wise.

Are they really super detrimental to have vs just channels?

[Auspice]

@silverfox
did you ever finish the giant game on Ansible

[mietze]

I get most of my pickup RP either from parking by myself in public and inviting people on chan to stop by if they want bevause I am happy to set or flagging myself lrp. I would say about 75 percent of my RP time is with new folks/people I have no idea who they are oocly and like that very much or PCs i have seldom encountered. It doesnt bother me to be the loser that sits in public rooms on grid and is bypassed for RP. For whatever reason it does not make me feel as bad as I do when someone says OOC or on chan in a general group would anyone like to play and when I offer it is ignored and they ask again like 15 minutes later.

[Macha]

@Lisse24 said in To OOC Room or Not to OOC Room (and Other Artifacts):

@Macha said in To OOC Room or Not to OOC Room (and Other Artifacts):

Right now, I'm in a scene that just popped up from people talking in the OOC lounge. Because people all were like. "You wanna do something?" And there's at least 3 people in this scene that my characters haven't had a chance to meet before now, but now they will.

Wouldn't it have been preferable to have that conversation on a channel though? There could have been someone already on grid waiting for RP, who was excluded from this scene and conversation because they weren't in the OOC room.

Nope. Because I can say there is ONE person on grid that doesn't have an alt in the OOC or in a scene already. Channels can get spammy and people turn them off and forget to turn them on.

[TNP]

@Lisse24 said in To OOC Room or Not to OOC Room (and Other Artifacts):

@Macha said in To OOC Room or Not to OOC Room (and Other Artifacts):

Right now, I'm in a scene that just popped up from people talking in the OOC lounge. Because people all were like. "You wanna do something?" And there's at least 3 people in this scene that my characters haven't had a chance to meet before now, but now they will.

Wouldn't it have been preferable to have that conversation on a channel though?

And there are people - like me - who usually keep channels turned off. One of the biggest things I hated about Arx was the lack of an OOC Room. And I don't even make a lot of use of them.

[Pyrephox]

I am perfectly happy without an OOC room, and prefer games without them. They don't hurt me to exist, but I'd rather they didn't.

[silverfox]

@Auspice

No, but sometimes I still log on and remember how bad I was at all the puzzles.

[Auspice]

@silverfox said in To OOC Room or Not to OOC Room (and Other Artifacts):

@Auspice

No, but sometimes I still log on and remember how bad I was at all the puzzles.

I never finished it either. XD I'm not sure I've met anyone who did!

[krmbm]

@Derp If you leave the channel, you can't talk in the OOC room.

[mietze]

@krmbm that sounds like a great thing. Allows people to have an ooc room but also easy monitoring.