OOC Influence in AR.

[TheOneAndOnly]

So...I wanted to open up a discussion about the influence of OOC relations in AR and see if the OOC influence in your opinion is overall good or bad. I personally feel that OOC takes away from the game and that nothing positive comes from it. OOC groups do not require roleplay and roleplaying becomes a "chore" because it is easier to pull up AIM and tell them what you're really thinking without the thought of roleplay. On the PK side to get a fair or semi fair fight is difficult with "the magic poofing ally" coming in whenever the chips are down or having to face a super OOC ranking group. Instead of each player have their own minds and motivations you end up with one brain and different bodies (i.e Bob wants to get his necro to 35, alright I'm down for that. Get Joe he can make a warrior to tank. Alright good to go.) Disclaimer: This is not a real occurance, it is fiction and not based on actual events.)

I understand that OOC will always be a part of the game, but I ask you as players to curb it, it's destroying AR.

Here is an actual occurance in AR:

So I see this guy with the same group mates all the time namely Jaran- so I decide to give it a whirl - recruit some help because the odds are against me 3 vs 1 and go for it. My help makes a mistake and gets waxed and they can't find me so the Paladin goes into a plot of deceit with a thief and set up a trap..yes a paladin partook in a ploy of deceit..so now I am being hunted by a group of three constantly - again not complaining because they couldn't stalk their way out of a paper bag.. These are the last words said -take from them what you will..

Iriqeous tells you 'Flee Thera, quickly.'

Iriqeous tells you 'You are not welcome here.'

You tell Iriqeous 'You shall not have such an advantage on me Iriqeous.'

Iriqeous tells you 'Yes I will, always.'

Iriqeous tells you 'Hide and make yourself menial.'

You tell Iriqeous 'Or you and your army shall come for me?'

Iriqeous tells you 'Mhm.'

You tell Iriqeous 'The righteous preach from behind the bodies of many!'

Iriqeous tells you 'Many corpses of the fallen.'

Iriqeous tells you 'In defense of what is right, sweetikins.'

I posted everything in the sake of giving you a full view of the conversation. Please note however - "Yes I will, always" remark.

[thk]

hahahahah. i log on to chat and ar. i see this:

<@_Clifton_> shit
<@_Clifton_> lets gank rolfy's trash
<@_Clifton_> come find us XXXXXXX..

one minute later, i get gangbanged linkdead by iriqeous and aratis (i happen to know the people who play both), two people i've never spoken to before ingame. and near full looted.

You tell Iriqeous 'Did you slay me?'
Iriqueous tells you 'Yes.'
You tell Iriqeous 'Any reason why?'
Iriqeuous tells you 'You were purified.'
You tell Iriqeous 'You did not even speak to me before.'
You tell Iriqeous 'There are rules for such at these ranks.'
Iriqeous tells you 'I hear rumors.'

and that's it... umm that's great. "i heard rumors?" remember, i've never been in the same room with either of them before that, or even seen them in who.

sorry, i know this is whiny, but hey the same fucking people whine when i do shit not even half as trashy and i get fucked over. so i don't feel like bending over and taking it up the ass without raising a protest. merry xmas.

[_Clifton_]

Wow. slander. Rolfy, again, you got ganked. We took 4 items. Yes, it was horseshit. No it was not ooc arranged gangbang. I brought it up in chat to give you a heads up. The gank had already been planned. Kind hard to resist when you have fine amber sleeves, overlapping gray plates, spiked-light steel gauntlets, and sets of bone bracelets at 36.

As for theoneandonly, when you take risks in the game, you're going to be faced with consequences. Part of the consequence of the risks you took with the dark-knight is that you're not very well liked. Part of RP is prioritizing what should get done. At the moment, your character dying, regardless of how, is a priority.

As for Jaran and Iriqeous grouping. Well, it's kinda hard when no one else is really on. Plus you get comfortable with the people you group with. Like Yyni and Huotoyoxi ranked together, on and off, from 15-50. Part of it is that it's gonna be the same chars generally. Until they get bored, and stop playing the char or delete.

OOC grouping is not hard, it really isn't, nor is it against the rules. Going OOC to get help is a different matter. Getting help OOC is kinda lame, as are who lists.

"You tell Iriqeous 'You shall not have such an advantage on me Iriqeous.' " - I interpreted that as "You won't always be able to kick my ass." Sorry, that's my fault for misinterpreting. Most players I know can handle themselves and would never go out of their way to get superior numbers. In fact, they'd probably be insulted if you insinuated that they need superior numbers.

[thk]

More like I was left with four items, you also sacced the anti-good rares. Considering that neither of you ever looked at me once, there was no way that you could've known what I had. Even locate object cannot find those rares at your level. So that reason you keep giving me is horseshit.

[Burzuk]

In your own exact words from what you said in-game: "Basically they ooc gangbanged me at lvl 36 for valid rp reason."

Let's not waste time here. You had an opposite align char. Your char was decked. Your char had been racking up IC enemies and notoriety by merrily sitting there attacking and killing people while refusing to level up. And you yourself even admit that your attackers had "valid rp reason" for their in-game actions. They used numbers against you? Considering the circumstances I've listed above, what did you expect? End of story on the RP issue.

On the rules issue:

* Your attackers had been doing what they're supposed to be doing (grouping together to level up) when you logged in to interrupt them by trying to do something that you shouldn't have have been doing (sitting at the same level to pad/abuse our PK tracking system while making no attempts to level up). By the way, it really irritates us to see a featured we added for fun (PK records are supposed to be a fun way of remembering characters after they're done) get twisted around instead into an excuse to do what we've continued to discourage (i.e. sitting at one level PKing without leveling up -- see our hardcoded lowbie PK limits, for example). This is why we can't have nice things.

* At the heart of the matter, your OOC gangbang accusation: you falsely accused them of coordinating an OOC group to PK you even though long before you showed up to do your own PK record padding, they'd already been logged in and leveling for quite some time. If anything, your late login suggest that you logged in to disrupt their leveling, but instead they exploited their numerical superiority and turned it around, stripping you of your equipment. Your being upset at this unfortunate turn of events is irrelevant to me.

* You also falsely accused them of violating the rules, but the rules you cited were from our same-IP policy when they, in fact, were not playing from the same IP.

* In addition, you falsely accused me personally of favoritism ("only reason i filed a complaint is cuz if i did something like that, i know i'd get my char denied") when in fact, I've never dealt with you before and have absolutely no reason to be prejudiced against you, and I'm sure _Clifton_ can name lots of examples where I've ruled against him. Was your behavior supposed to be a deliberate attempt to give me reasons to do so? For the record, I've still taken zero punitive action for your unsubstantiated accusations.

* And finally, being unable to present convincing rationale to support the complaint you filed, you take it to the forums to pander to the court of public opinion, a misuse of this forum since additional appeals are supposed to be filed in-game to the Imms.

All things considered, I've shown exceeding restraint so far.

With regards to OOC: the vast majority of you players already know other AR'ers out of the game in some form or other, and it's well beyond our abilities to police all of your OOC communication channels (IRC, AIM, MSN, etc). What we do care about though is how they manifest into actual in-game behavior and whether they break any in-game rules. Therefore, if you can't demonstrate that someone's in-game behavior was even illegal, then your OOC soap opera is moot and should stay on whatever OOC communication channels they originated from.

I'm locking this thread because of the _Clifton_ and thk pissing match. Take that stuff to IRC or Invokation or wherever else you guys hang out to claw at each other. TheOneAndOnly, if you'd like to discuss the issue of how OOC behavior influences IC action on AR, I suggest you start a new thread on the subject.

[Burzuk]