OOC No More?

HEM

HEM

former
Jorts Connoisseur
Honoured Citizen
Citizen
Pronouns
he / him / his
Out of Character No More?
Written by Hem Tiberius

The April 2007 General Election in the Land of Kings and Emperors was one of epic proportions. The upstart young party builder, Holy Ekaj Monarchy, stood against a longtime political veteran -- Anumian Captain -- for the Premiership of the region. While popular opinion polls had the race close, the edge was consistently given to Anumian Captain. However, in the LKE, popular vote had no credence. It was the number of citizen divided constituencies that determined the winner.

When the race appeared to be heading for a tie, the besieged young Member of Parliament called upon one of his oldest friends. Stressing how they were friends, and how Lord SenatorTC promised to always aid his friends, Mr. Monarchy carried the election.

The result was grumbly and unhappy on the Social Democratic Party side. How could SenatorTC have betray the coalition he was apart of? On account of what? A personal relationship?

As we examine why things have gotten so negative in Europeia, we must first consider how friendships and relationships have changed over the last five years in Nationstates:

When new members would join Europeia, they would often speak as a "delegate" from their nation. Roleplaying their way into the region, they would describe intricacies of their nation and government. This still happens today, but no longer is Verteger around to repeat his storied quote: "Mate you don't have to talk IC, most of us never do. OCC all the way."

While in that day, seasoned players scoffed at those who spoke "In Character" the difference between In Character and Out of Character has vanished completely in the last few years. Not only do friends on Nationstates vote for each other, stick and with each other, they often connect their political careers together.

People have always been backstabbing each other in Nationstates history. Why does the negativity seem so particularly...terrible here? Because of how the personal nature of our politics have changed. People tie each other to their friends, and are shocked when their friends do anything outside their immediate interest. Furthermore, they are shocked when their friends so something to someone who may not be mutual friends.

Hence, the departures of April 2011.

With skype, face to face meetings, intimate details shared, there is no In Character anymore. We except and demand the same person on MSN as we do on the forums. Lethen is the exact same as Mark. HEM had better be the same person as Jake. There is no out of character. Indeed, we begin to see characters fade altogether, seeing only the person behind the computer.

This is a problem, because Nationstates is a game. We play to win. And yeah, there are some unbreakable rules. There are things that are nasty. But the insane depth of alliances and relationships have lead to the insane depth of our disappointment and frustration.

Lethen voted against me the first time I ran in Great Britain and Ireland. He openly said I didn't have enough experience. We were as close as it got in NS during that time.

Would that happen today? Probably not.

People follow people around. "Families" have become cults, and degraded the level of our conversations. Loyalty is to "people" not to regions. Which is a shame, because the interests of an entire region is usually better than one unilateral person.

During Rachel's term I would talk to her casually about her life and then criticized her Presidency on the forum. People thought I was blatantly two faced. Rather, I honestly see an OOC and IC part of the game. IC is vanishing though, and the expectations we consistently act IC as we would OOC is borderline absurd.
 

This is one of the best things I have read on Nationstates. Fact.

Well put, well voiced and a good opinion.

Those will see - I - Roleplay a man on this game, Lothar Prolark [aka Daniel Bahr images bla bla] Why do I do this? Because its damn fun!

Hopefully some will take note of these words and stop to think on them
 
I'm not sure if I agree fully. I did, however start out in 2009 so I don't have memory of what NS was like before that. The people who are closest to me who play the game won't always support me and I know that when I and many others vote, it's about who will be the best XXX and who has the best idea's (although lately, I've found myself holding the previous higher up). I think that there will always be that IC edge and while it may be crossed and be blurry at times, that it will continue to exist for most players.
 
I don't think many will disagree, but I don't think anyone will change either. To be perfectly honest, I think the biggest issue is that many of us see NationStates as escapism, and invest not only too much time but bring in strong emotions and the baggage of our real lives. I think that the intense positive relationships which form between NS'ers as a result of us all spending way too much of our time on this game is at the root of a lot of conflict.
 
PhDre said:
I don't think many will disagree, but I don't think anyone will change either. To be perfectly honest, I think the biggest issue is that many of us see NationStates as escapism, and invest not only too much time but bring in strong emotions and the baggage of our real lives. I think that the intense positive relationships which form between NS'ers as a result of us all spending way too much of our time on this game is at the root of a lot of conflict.
Click to expand...
I think though, that with the emotional aspect that there are different ways to do it and not always in bad ways. I used to do a lot of sports, so if I had a bad day... I'd put those emotions into working harder but even if I was trying to beat the person beside me and was really competitive, that never meant that it was ever directed at the person. Sports I'm sure can be called an escapism. That competitor wasn't me as a person. I was going to beat you, but that didn't mean I didn't like you. Note: It was a racing sport, rather than team sport.

If you use those emotions to influence your decisions and I think we've all done this at times, that that's not the way the game should be played.
 
I actually think this is a interesting concept, that may be being applied in RL for RL stuff.

NS is a simulation, an online, mostly anonymous, political sandbox emulating RL politics.

Thing about anonymity and the internet, is we all can be more personal and emotional (We're not as restrained by cultural social rules), without involving our true identities directly.

I wonder how these experiences end up affecting us in RL. I, hope it is for the better.

I am still not sure how it has an effect on myself.
 
This has been an interesting read. I've held for a long time that there should be a difference between real life and in-game and that that difference should be recognized often. We have many times over gone to the point of enveloping ourselves so firmly in the game (as PhDre said, some for escapism) as to become too real in our machinations; too ferocious in our advances and repartee's.

The problem with it isn't so much the fact that we become overly involved in a game, but the fact that we become overly involved in a social circle designed as a game. We develop personal feelings for everything; complete with expectations of how we expect things to turn out.

I think that our recent inactivity; not just in Europeia but around NS as a whole; isn't just a matter of people losing interest or failing to recognize the difference between IC and OOC but a matter concerning rising tensions of a community where many ideas are scoffed at and imagination has run its course for many people. I think it's a case of being too close to the source to see the bigger picture and that there's a good many people who could use a step back from the game to relieve in-game tensions and come back with a new perspective.

Our challenge isn't in playing the game, but in keeping people active and interested and to do that we have to continually find new ways of playing the same old game. We need to find a way of communicating wherein feelings aren't hurt; wherein we are able to say what we wish in proper contexts and prevent mountains being raised from molehills. Anumia's recent post concerning Klatonia and his controversial bill is completely out of context and even though the context is supplied, it's past the point of happening and does not hold the same meaning as a person having watched it firsthand. Instead of launching attacks against our peers in such a manner, I think that there are better ways of approaching these problems, as it did blow the whole thing out of proportion.

I spoke of respect and decorum in the Senate in a recent post of mine, but I believe that respect and decorum should extend past the senate to any encounter people have with each other. Not to say that we should bite our tongues, but to consider better the manner in which we approach certain situations. By we, I definitely include myself as I have had many encounters which were by no means respectful or having decorum.

We're all learning as we go; all having to experience much the same stuff albeit through different perspectives and at the moment when these cause us to lash out at each other, we need to stop ourselves and consider the value of saying it in the way that presents itself most easily. We harm not just our own relations with others by allowing our lesser emotions to run rampant but the very fabric of Europeia.

I don't think that we have the luxury of declining any idea that people wish to bring to Europeia. We have lost so many people by fighting amongst ourselves over what we will and won't allow. We sit with a book of laws as complete as any real government and a judicial system that is so efficient as to not have many cases to actually deal with. We have to recognize how hard it is for people to get involved and we need to encourage people to separate the lines of IC and OOC. If we can do that by re-integrating the IC/OOC dynamic of player nation RP, then so be it.

Let people be imaginative. Don't just dismiss ideas offhandedly but actually consider them as if it were the first time you'd ever considered them. Find the sense of wonder we all had when we first started here: that fascination and will to learn anything and everything we could to make things better. I think that we've constantly hit a blockade in our minds where after so many accomplishments in NS, we become overly-confident in our abilities and we cease to make new accomplishments, instead riding on the backs of accomplishments past. Same with our discoveries.

At the end of the day, even though this is a game, it's also a job and just like any job you'll ever have or ever had, there has to be a separation from it and your outside life. Don't bring your real life baggage here and don't bring your NS baggage into real life.

This is such a great engine for learning life lessons and for applying what you learn to personal encounters and seeing the effects of using what you've learned almost instantaneously. I believe it will always be hard for people to completely break it all down into ooc/ic due to how real it all seems at times. Anyone who has ever seen a forum deletion firsthand or been a victim of one can easily tell you just how real it can get; how much it can hurt. Anyone who has had a friendship dissolve because of a contrast of political beliefs and the fire with which those beliefs were pursued.

I believe this game to be a lot like life, and if you play to win, you'll miss out on so many things that shouldn't be missed out on. Same as life, winning and losing aren't important. It doesn't matter how big you make yourself or how well-known you become, how big of a part you play. What matters is simply playing the game; having fun with it and learning new things from new people on a constant basis. Many of us are or have been caught up in our own minds in traps where we feel we have to act a certain way in a certain situation. Our prides cause us the most harm in our friendships and as I have been saying for quite some time, we need to keep a constant eye on how we act towards each other as well as worry about the direction of Europeia.

In a lot of ways, this game is life. Just as much a part of it as anything else with as complete a system as anything else. Every so often, we have to change it up a bit.
 
So much for a fresh start and some respect, I guess. You can read long posts by other people without such disrespect but you feel the need to disrespect me for some reason. Thank you. You've helped to make my points better.
 
Henry said:
So much for a fresh start and some respect, I guess. You can read long posts by other people without such disrespect but you feel the need to disrespect me for some reason. Thank you. You've helped to make my points better.
Click to expand...
... what are you even talking about? Don't get your panties in a knot there, brohan.

It was entirely in jest. I'm overly gay, and I was making a joke in regards to being distracted by your avatar's body. -_-
 
I'll just respond to the bit that invoked me for the time being: if I had seen his Bill a day after it was posted, or a year later, my reaction would have been the same.
 
Crist Seymour said:
Henry said:
So much for a fresh start and some respect, I guess. You can read long posts by other people without such disrespect but you feel the need to disrespect me for some reason. Thank you. You've helped to make my points better.
Click to expand...
... what are you even talking about? Don't get your panties in a knot there, brohan.

It was entirely in jest. I'm overly gay, and I was making a joke in regards to being distracted by your avatar's body. -_-
Click to expand...
Do you understand what tl;dr means, then? It doesn't mean that you were distracted by my avatar. It means 'Too Long; Didn't Read.'

Tl;dr itself is a sign of disrespect when posted and I expect more from people not holding office, let alone the person designated to be our Senate Speaker.
 
Henry said:
Crist Seymour said:
Henry said:
So much for a fresh start and some respect, I guess. You can read long posts by other people without such disrespect but you feel the need to disrespect me for some reason. Thank you. You've helped to make my points better.
Click to expand...
... what are you even talking about? Don't get your panties in a knot there, brohan.

It was entirely in jest. I'm overly gay, and I was making a joke in regards to being distracted by your avatar's body. -_-
Click to expand...
Do you understand what tl;dr means, then? It doesn't mean that you were distracted by my avatar. It means 'Too Long; Didn't Read.'

Tl;dr itself is a sign of disrespect when posted and I expect more from people not holding office, let alone the person designated to be our Senate Speaker.
Click to expand...
Just a few points to correct you on:

It was a joke.
It was a joke.
It was a joke.
[hide=And just for good measure...]It was a joke![/hide]

I expect more from humanity, but I guess we can't have it all...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top