@tragedyjones said in What MU/RPG opinions have you changed or maintained?:
Don't punish a player for playing the game you advertise to be playing.
The issue I frequently run into is the opposite: players playing something entirely different (usually this is someone who knows absolutely nothing about the theme or setting and just wants to play somewhere active while investing low effort into learning).
I have been one of those people who is a staunch believer in playing to theme. And I know I've upset some people over the years by being that stickler, but I don't regret it. I'm still that way. I will remain that way.
And the reason is because if 9 out of 10 people are within spec and the 10th person goes off the rails? That's one person ruining immersion and potentially even gameplay for nine. It's a collaborative environment: fucking collaborate. Be a team player.
That said, I absolutely regret some of the angsty RP I engaged in during my formative years (as it were) as a MUer. Drama and angst are big deals and drive story in media (books, TV, film), but they aren't great for people you're playing with. It pretty much strongarms people into RP they may not want to engage in.
Is all drama or angst bad? No. But some of us (and I totally did for my first 5 years or so!) take it to an extreme it need not be. Don't get your character horrifically injured in an on-camera scene just to explain your absence while on vacation. If you need to explain it (srsly usually you don't; our characters are presumably doing things off-camera all the time), there's a plethora of options that don't corner people into either RPing out this OMG TERRIBLE THING or looking like an uncaring asshole.
Communication. Arguably, it could be said that joining MSB or getting to know people is a terrible thing and maybe (probably definitely in MSB's case) it is. For me, however, it was beneficial. I spent the first, oh, 13? years of my MUing career playing in a vacuum. I rarely got to know people. I rarely established myself anywhere. As a result, I never knew what plots were going on. What the 'greater story' was. I often sighed from afar as people I wanted to play with did things that I wasn't a part of.
I did know people. I did go out and RP and generate RP. But I kept this massive wall at all times and in turn, it made me afraid to even page people to ask things (to RP, to have BG hooks, to...).
It was on a game with @Ghost where I wanted to see a possible path of RP that I finally swallowed down the fear and reached out. And I'm glad I did. It led to months of great RP. So I try to be social now. I try to be open. I communicate: even if it's the unfun ('Hey what you're doing is bothering me.') stuff. It has enhanced my engagement and RP so much.
