A friendly public service reminder about meta-info.

[Snarfy]

I'm pretty sure I've droned on about this before(and I do not raise this topic to single anyone out) but I just wanted to re-iterate about how sharing meta-info, either about your own character or someone elses, in an OOC fashion can be a very detrimental policy. And not just for the player sharing it, but for anyone and everyone who is involved in roleplay with the player who's info is being shared.

No matter how insignificant a detail may seem about another players character, the moment it is shared OOC'ly the greater the risk that two things will happen: 1. It opens the door to either deliberate or unintentional metagaming, and 2. It colors the OOC perception a player may have about IG events or characters.

To quote Valefort from a similar topic ages back, "Meta is a poison". Please everyone, do yourselves, your fellow players, and the server in general a huge favor and try to avoid engaging in sharing meta-info whenever possible. The only thing it's good for is polluting the greater story arc of the server by ruining the mystery and suspense behind our characters.

Cheers.

[gedweyignasia]

Well put, and couldn't agree more!

(Really painful to say, because I love to read forum bios and learn everyone's story, even if I know nothing about them IC, but it's definitely hurtful to RP.)

[Snarfy]

(Really painful to say, because I love to read forum bios and learn everyone's story...)

As do I. Every player, myself included, to a greater or lesser degree shares or subjects themselves to meta-info. To avoid it entirely would be nearly impossible. The nice thing about the biography and journal section of the forums is that we have the choice to partake in it, or to ignore it. And if we spoil the mystery for ourselves in that regard then we only have ourselves to blame. Personally speaking I almost never read character biographies, but I do enjoy a read of the journals once in a while. Some of them are just too good.

The kind of meta-info that I find especially detrimental is the kind shared via tells IG. The last thing in the (BG)world I enjoy reading is a PM from someone telling me about someone's character or about their own. It makes me want to headbutt my keyboard, seriously. For me it can suck the wind right out of RP'ing with that character. And then there's right clicking a character and seeing their entire history in their bio... yeah, I just close that window immediately. I'm sure I'm not alone in saying this but I derive a great amount of enjoyment from learning about a character through legitimate IC interactions. Some days I really want to disable the 'include tells' from my chat box, let me tell ya.

[gedweyignasia]

Right! It's one and the same a lot of the time, though... I'll get caught up in another character's story, and ask their player about details in how things are progressing because their RP is amazing and exciting. Inevitably, I'll have to play dumb some time in the future IC, or won't know how to act because it's impossible to perfectly pretend you don't know something. The worst is when someone sends you a tell because they care about your character, and warns you that continuing to do something would be bad for you... aaaand you kinda just have to keep doing it.

But yeah, I digress! The main idea I was trying to convey was that we do this because we get caught up in people's stories, and it's soooo hard not being able to read everyone's story from character creation to permadeath.

[Hidennka]

Well said, thank you!

[NeOmega]

I don't sweat it when people write entire stories in their bio, although I usually don't care to read them. If I have a chat with someone, perhaps my character will care. In which case, I will just assume we had that conversation.

I think it is a bit nitpicky to worry about it, unless secrets are revealed in the bio. I see it like this. In game time flies by at ten seconds per second. So if you read someones bio, they should be just fine with you talking to them as if they told you their life story in the present conversation. If they accuse you of metagaming, then they are just plain idiots.

Because really, telling the same tale over and over again, not to mention having to type it, can be boring.

I personally make my bios pretty short, but that is because my characters do not talk about their life stories to everyone they meet... ...nor do I in real life... ...but i know people who do.

Here's the thing. Everybody has their idea of fun. I know not everybody is the greatest RPer, but everybody also does not have time or energy to repeat everything 15 times. It must be remembered that every syllable, and almost every movement has to be typed and emoted. I think it is better to just roll with the punches sometimes, instead of worrying about how someone decides to convey their character. I mean if you want to have fun, and get along, have fun, and get along.

[Passiflora]

Aight guys. Since I don't currently play, this means you can all send your little character's secrets to me instead of other players.

Thank you.

[Heartfilia]

Aight guys. Since I don't currently play, this means you can all send your little character's secrets to me instead of other players.

Thank you.

Lucy is going to set the moon on fire and turn it into a second sun.

yw!

[Shamshir]

Metagame is the salt of lol

[Hitman Hard]

Writing character biographies is a double-edged sword, there's been times in-game where PC's will reference biographies for the lolz and on the inside i'm like: "Dude.... c'mon..."

What really sucks is the sneaker characters who listen in on your conversation and later your not sure if the intel was meta-gamed or not and it's just so aggro. The other day I was clearly in disguise and someone walks up and says, "Hey Val."

I ignore the illegal RP and moments later, I get a tell: "It's me," apparently an attempt for me to compromise my identity.

C'mon people! At least be subtle about your deplorable, meta-gaming tactics.

[Passiflora]

On the disguise-meta thing though... I personally also think it's metagaming to know who the person is, but it's also godmodding from the disguised person to assume no one is sharp enough to discover them with just a look.

D: THERE'S NO WAY OUT! Someone's going to godmod or meta, it can't be stopped! D:

[Karond]

I've seen some clever meta-gaming, where a character starts asking questions that will eventually lead to IC information, but he would never have done so if he didn't have the OOC information to begin knowing what to ask. For example, once my character where framing an event on some others, and these others knew it was me OOC so they started asking IC questions about it to characters they knew OOC had seen me framing them IC.

[Passiflora]

True true.


I've seen someone in 2010, who knew things OOC, stalking someone from stealth until they caught them doing something evil, and then took a screenshot of it, to justify they had learned about it ICly. Their character would probably never had stalked if they didn't learn it oocly.

But it's hard to prove, isn'it?

[Snarfy]

On the disguise-meta thing though... I personally also think it's metagaming to know who the person is, but it's also godmodding from the disguised person to assume no one is sharp enough to discover them with just a look.

D: THERE'S NO WAY OUT! Someone's going to godmod or meta, it can't be stopped! D:

I blame our names floating over our heads for this

Disguises are tricky because many players have a tendency to change into them in less than conspicuous places. I once watched a banite in disguise do the whole "bow down to Bane or die!" routine then walk across the road behind a rock but still in plain sight(no invis or stealth) and get out of his costume... then return to rp with the same group as if no-one would recognize him.

As for Karonds scenario... that's just lamesauce on the other players parts. When I encounter players who meta or go on OOC tirades they quickly get bumped to my 'do not Rp with' list.

A good general rule of thumb to follow is to not open yourself to meta by sharing details about plans or your character with players unless you know and trust them to be responible.

[Shamshir]

True true.


I've seen someone in 2010, who knew things OOC, stalking someone from stealth until they caught them doing something evil, and then took a screenshot of it, to justify they had learned about it ICly. Their character would probably never had stalked if they didn't learn it oocly.

But it's hard to prove, isn'it?

Unless someone is omniscient, things like this are impossible (or near it) to prove.

A good general rule of thumb to follow is to not open yourself to meta by sharing details about plans or your character with players unless you know and trust them to be responible.

"Those who mind their own business can live for centuries"