Goblin Squad Member
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With a long background in the MUD world, it probably comes as no surprise that a big part of what makes or breaks a game for me is the atmosphere of the player community in that game. I think that pretty much every game develops an atmosphere for it's community and a sense of what is/is not generaly considered acceptable play in the player community, even if it's anything goes. This is entirely aside from what is enforced by the Dev's through the TOS.
As players that form an early part of the community for the game, I think we'll have a pretty big role in establishing the tone of that community and I'm very encouraged by what I see so far. Despite many passionate disagreements on specific issues, people seem to have been remarkably civil to each other here on the forums, compared to many other game forums that I've seen.
I'd like to offer what my approach to MMO's and honestly games in general and see if others might share theres. This isn't an attempt to be preachy or try to establish any unwritten standards or anything like that. I'm just honestly curious to see where other folks heads are at and how to approach playing PFO. Here are the 3 basic things that I personaly strive for in playing.... mind you, I'm not trying to say these are right or wrong...it's just the way I roll.
1) Winning is secondary to EVERYONE having FUN. That may sound corny, but it's honestly how I approach things. It's a GAME for me, not a job or a political debate. Winning/loosing just isn't that important and if it becomes that important, I've probably become too involved. That's not to say I won't play competitively in competitive games and I don't get annoyed when I play poorly - which is different from loosing - but ultimately if everyone else around me is having fun, I'm having fun.
2) A strict seperation from what happens in game to my character and what happens out of game is important to me. Joe's character may be a knuckle-dragging scumbag who just stabbed mine in the back, but I want to like Joe, the player and I want to be pals with him. Though I can never seem to bring myself to play villians, at least convincingly....I tend to really like having them around in game...as well played villians can be very interesting characters and cool to have around...it's fun to have an interesting antagonist to play off. When things that are clearly out of game start to get brought in, is when I start to get bothered.
3) I respect everyone elses play style and in return I expect respect for my own. I'm primarly a RP-er which tends to be a pretty rare breed in MMO's these days. I never try to force RPing on anyone but I do get annoyed when people go purposefully out of thier way to disrupt mine. That doesn't mean I expect people to hold off on a PvP raid so I can RP.... but if I'm obviously RPing you really don't need to come up to me and start asking me about the Jets game.
YMMV.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I definitely prefer an RP-lite play environment. I love RP, but I find it to be hard work, I like to be able to drop out of character freely and be myself. Not only does it produce a more comfortable play environment, but it allows me to say "Sorry man, I only play a jerk." It allows players that would normally be at each others throats based on RP to say "Wow, that fight was fun, want to go celebrate with an Ale in the tavern?" I also think that it brings the community together better by making it easier for in-character enemies to be friends out of character.
I kind of think it would be cool if players could label their areas as "RP only," "RP-Lite" or "Out of character" it would allow the players to set the social tone for their area so people don't get offended when someone acts differently.
I'm also a big fan of neutral areas where enemies can get together kick back and just have some fun socializing.