Where is everyone?

[Dreme]

Historically, bright colours were generally reserved for people with money. Notice the reds and blues on royalty. These were expensive to produce colours. Although there are exceptions (blue woad dye was cheap).

Well, we aren't exactly peasants... *starts counting her gold again* .. three hundred forty eight thousand seven hundred nin.. *face palmes* I lost count! Anyway.. still I would have to recheck my references but I remember I read/heard that browns were uncommon.. that dyes were actually cheap.. And black was definitely not common! A special note of that made due to the historical inaccuracies in movies based on midieval settings.

[MopKnight]

I am not trying to be condescending (although I realize I probably am), but I am trying to make a point... Being evil doesn't mean being obviously evil, and it doesn't mean avoiding people.. Surely your character has to have some goals.. realizes they can't achieve them alone? Needs other people to achieve those goals? Being antisocial wont get you far, and I don't think you should be surprised when being antisocial limits your social interactions...

Dont really care about what you think some evil character has to act like.

A PC rping slightly antisocial yet still doing emotes & other things and not getting approached by your goody2shoes social butterfly. I dont think the issue lies with the slightly antisocial one when he gets ignored.

Anyhow i merely commented on your obvious evil character stereotypism.

Please don't take this personally - I have no idea who you play or why, but I would like to make a few points on this.

1. The most evil men of the 20th century were powerfully charismatic, popular and committed genocide while wearing the military uniforms of their own nations. They appealed to the worst aspects of other people, warped those aspects into collusion and fear and then used it to seed the demise of those they hated.

2. An anti-social PC is going to provoke the same response an anti-social person will - feigned confusion and frustration with eventual ignorance. When that antisocial person periodically babbles about murdering half the tavern, at best they are going to be written off as mad and at worst, killed themselves.

3. If you play an anti-social character and the bulk of your emotes are passively cool scowling, grunting, adjusting their hood, short and sharp witticisms made at the expense or others and calling anyone around them an idiot, realize that anyone who has ever roleplayed longer than six months has been drowning in these types of characters and whether you mean to or not, you -are- playing the stereotypical loner. That does not mean that this kind of character is fundamentally bad. It lends itself to certain types of roleplay - as an example, Tegeus Cromis is a fantastic example of a well connected anti-social golem because when he actually -does- connect with people, he softens significantly and suddenly all the anti-social stuff vanishes.

As an example, I myself am anti-social in real life but I am anti-social for mental reasons. I actually quite like people. I am friendly, chatty and I tell jokes. I just get drained around other people. If you want an example of how to play an interesting anti-social character, look no further than our very own Sparrow. She practically defines anti-social and yet roleplay blossoms around her.

4. Other people do not have to provide roleplay for you. Their characters are not at fault if every character on the server is ignoring you. When the experience is that broad, look inward.

[Dreme]

I am not trying to be condescending (although I realize I probably am), but I am trying to make a point... Being evil doesn't mean being obviously evil, and it doesn't mean avoiding people.. Surely your character has to have some goals.. realizes they can't achieve them alone? Needs other people to achieve those goals? Being antisocial wont get you far, and I don't think you should be surprised when being antisocial limits your social interactions...

Dont really care about what you think some evil character has to act like.

A PC rping slightly antisocial yet still doing emotes & other things and not getting approached by your goody2shoes social butterfly. I dont think the issue lies with the slightly antisocial one when he gets ignored.

Anyhow i merely commented on your obvious evil character stereotypism.

No where did I say an evil character should (much less "has to") act in any way, to summarize, I said an evil character is going to get more social interaction far more easily by doing this: *insert above*

But no.. A PC standing off to the side in the shadows eyeing my character with a scowl as she talks amongst friends isn't going t result in me walking over to find out what his problem is.. It is going to result in me saying, "Hey, let's go talk somewhere else, this guy is creeping me out." Not from my goody2shoes social butterfly, or from any other characters I have made aside from that one and only good aligned social butterfly.

[unexplored]

I want to support Dreme's posts. Well spoken.

The reason for me to wear black is to attract others like minded.
The freak that sneaks and behaves weird is still to the one I just leave alone there in his hiding spot.

[joleda]

... The freak that sneaks ...

If that ain't the title of a poem or song, it oughta be!

[joleda]

I'll tell you how I feel about all this.

More often than not Higher level people barely interact with lower level PCs ... [snipped]

It sounds to me the population has segregated itself and stirring the pot would do the server some good. I would suggest the W-word, but I would probably get lynched.

[Calodan]

Are we done pointing fingers everywhere yet?

Negs contact me. I have a toon that is anti social and evil that needs friends to progress and is on hold until then.

Other toons needing RP contact me. I have multiple leads into RP across the coast and would be more than happy to set up times and RP with peeps.

I am available. For your RP needs. Want to kill Kory? I am game. Want to kill something or someone else? I am game for that too! Need a friend to talk to? Sure thing! I am there for you! Just be advised that my PC is much nicer than I am.............

[Dreme]

I'll tell you how I feel about all this.

More often than not Higher level people barely interact with lower level PCs ... [snipped]

It sounds to me the population has segregated itself and stirring the pot would do the server some good. I would suggest the W-word, but I would probably get lynched.

lawl.. Talindra has been gaining popularity with the noo.. I mean low levels! Throwing them gold and items for.. reasons.. A ring of might here, regen cloak here, bracers of dex +3 there, 10k gold there.. whatever! Even did a little mini event for the players to bring her a gibberling heart! (Though IC it was to keep them from slaughtering the poor lizardfolk!)

So.. yeah wipe the vault of everyone but her!!!!!

[thids]

How did you people manage to turn this thread into a discussion about evil characters? That has little to do with the issues that this server is facing. People are not absent "because it's summer", people are not absent "because nwn2 community is dying" (it's actually slowly gaining numbers if you follow nwnlist), or because...

You know what? I'm done. I give up. Carry on.

[MopKnight]

How did you people manage to turn this thread into a discussion about evil characters? That has little to do with the issues that this server is facing. People are not absent "because it's summer", people are not absent "because nwn2 community is dying" (it's actually slowly gaining numbers if you follow nwnlist), or because...

You know what? I'm done. I give up. Carry on.

Reading these forums has become like watching a tsunami of negativity perpetually swelling over everything and bears no real resemblance to the server itself. There are a few systemic issues (I originally posted on these but I am no longer so sure of my opinion) but nothing that can't be overcome.

[Jaden]

Being a go to evilizer for the past five years on this server, I feel one of the big issues is that many of our evil brethren get driven away by the constant metagame/ OOC drama. Many goody goods feel entitled that they should always win and if they don't quite a few will create a ruckus to a DM or proceed to metagame the crap out of the evil player. I personally have encountered this to some minor extents, but, I will say most of the marauding i do is RPed well on both behalfs.

One that is a often brought up is the lack of DM support of Evil plans, on this I only somewhat agree. I've only had a DM once thwart my plans, and overall most DMs have been accommodating to the sketchier side of the moral scale, and several ( Narshe, Fugue, Vudoluk, Absolution, and Setanta to name a few) have been most excellent to the evil doer.

Another issue, of course this isn't really fixable, is that it's hard to find likeminded amigos. First off many evil characters you find want different things, and that is if you can find a ally. Brent lucked out finding Shur while he was on the surface, but, now (especially now) it's much much harder to find and gather a coalition of evil.

But all said and done those goody goods might think they're having fun, but, they don't even have an idea of what fun is 'til you butcher several players and leave there heads lying around the campfire with signs that warn the reader about Bhaals return to his temple!

[Grimcheese]

How did you people manage to turn this thread into a discussion about evil characters? That has little to do with the issues that this server is facing. People are not absent "because it's summer", people are not absent "because nwn2 community is dying" (it's actually slowly gaining numbers if you follow nwnlist), or because...

You know what? I'm done. I give up. Carry on.

It's the forums version of a wiki walk. One moment you're discussing the lowered number of players available, and the next you're knee-deep in a debate regarding the merits of anti-social characters and wondering how you got there.

I don't know why the server's population is on the low end of late, nor will I pretend to know; it could be any multitude of reasons, and not necessarily just one. I know for my end that between working stress and all, I didn't feel it worth the free time I had to sit around and do nothing/wait for people to come to me. I did that in Ulgoth's Beard, but that was a long time ago!

I'll try to be around more often once the server comes back up.


Spoilered off-topic discussion:

Hidden: show

Anti-social characters are easy to start and play when most of what you're after is leveling to 30, since their personality lends well to common dump stats and you don't need to talk much to agree to exterminate the hostile populations of gradually more difficult areas, but anti-social characters become difficult to maintain once you realize what the term entails in RP. More socially inclined toons can just walk up to some pleasant-looking fellow and exchange hellos, how-are-yous, and other such niceties without much eye-batting, but when you have a character who displays a notable aversion to those usual icebreakers, you need to get creative.

When it comes to Sparrow, she is a character I would not recommend, ever, to someone who hasn't had a lot of experience roleplaying in a mature manner, as in the act of roleplaying they will be exploring the character's various aspects that you could write a psych paper on, there will be hours and hours of frustration trying to get around the character's limitations, and the character is virtually guaranteed to "lose" certain conflicts that other, more "normal" characters would be able to handle, so the ability to roll with the punches is essential. To a lesser extent, I would also strongly recommend players wanting to RP a similar character to do some research to understand how such a character thinks and perceives the world on a daily basis, and how that translates to their current behaviour, and for verisimilitude if nothing else.

The main thing with getting RP as an anti-social character is to reward the players who dared to step forward and take the bait, so they're more inclined to continue meeting the person. MopKnight mentioned Tegeus Cromis, and I agree; he nailed that by letting those who dared approach and talk with him see the gentler side of the man. Sparrow started out mute and illiterate, but she still got a lot of RP anyway because I try to reward the people who make a point of interacting with her, and after over a (RL) year of certain characters teaching her how to write, she can now write in Common, albeit awkwardly. If you want people to keep coming back, you have to give them the impression they're making progress prying open your character's shell. If you don't, and your character just ends up snapping at everyone, don't be too surprised if in the end you barely get anybody to talk to.

"But it's my character's personality to snap at everyone!" It is, and that's a valid form of RP, but in that same vein you should be ready to accept the consequences of that kind of RP, as I have accepted the consequences of Sparrow being the way she is. There are people who can have fun being that kind of character, but there is no shame if you are not, and there is nothing wrong with throwing other peoples' characters a figurative bone on occasion.

[Dreme]

How did you people manage to turn this thread into a discussion about evil characters? That has little to do with the issues that this server is facing. People are not absent "because it's summer", people are not absent "because nwn2 community is dying" (it's actually slowly gaining numbers if you follow nwnlist), or because...

You know what? I'm done. I give up. Carry on.

This isn't off topic.. The question proposed by the OP:

What's happening to our Beloved BGTSCC and its population?

Some have expressed their reason for not being as inspired to play: I play an antisocial evil character and other characters don't respond to me the way I would like to bring out further RP development of my character. (Or at least, that is how I read it) We are answering why we believe that to be the case based on how our characters react to said character type.

[joleda]

[snip]
... I am not even talking about all of these carefuly distributed +5 cheated items ...
[snip]

Say what?

[clean_slate]

What is interesting for me is the fact that NWN1, while being 4 years older game (which is huge) has 3 times more players according to NWN scry. So while NWN2 playerbase is small, it is up to BGTSCC staff and playerbase to attract and keep new players.