((The Divide))
(Disclaimer: I’m a very tongue and cheek woman with a sense of humor. You have been warned… repeatedly.)
I’ve returned with those pesky questions. Aren’t you glad they’re mostly hidden behind cuts? Anyway, today brings the question of the IC/OOC divide. This was a HUGE problem on my last MUSH. (For those interested in finding "whyI left my last mush", poke me... Otherwise, I will forget.) You see, people wanted to ‘help’ or felt their perceptions to be the only ones that matter. You may be able to imagine the stir and drama this caused, but it does lead me to the following questions:
Why do IC actions, at times, receive OOC fallout?
Why do people judge the ‘player’ actions rathar than the character's?
Why do we take the pain and turmoil of the character and believe it holds true to ourselves?
When these stories come to an end, or a character dies... why do we mourn?
The reason I present these questions is for a couple of reasons.
1) I’m very curious as to how others perceive these questions. Or even if they realize how committed to the character they have become that one action or slight becomes upsetting in RL.
2) I’m new to Mushing. I have been that person who sat and watched a character butchered to death over the course of an hour. Tears and everything. Is it wrong to feel... upset?
3) Feeling constrained to live up to another’s ideals because they differ from your own perceptions. Or feeling that you’re signing into DRAMA ™, when you sign on. The sense of dread over a hobby you love.
What is IC/OOC divide? It is when we can no longer divorce ourselves from our characters. That you truly see yourself as Sir PranceAlot.
To illustrate my point better, I have included an example from my days back on EQ. It started like all good stories. It all started with a man who decided to play a villain (man, we need more of those brave souls).
There was a man on EQ named Zemerick. He was a doll and the nemesis to my RP guild there. This was determined and outlined in many IC stories, all of them posted to external links for people to enjoy. We would sit and discuss the conflicts that we wished to present with our characters, along with the solutions. Who would win, who would lose? What would be gained? Yes, it was an MMO, but we wanted that MUSH feel (For the record, I did NOT know what a MUSH was or even existed at the time).
Then IT happened. People started approaching me OOC, complaining of his treatment to ME (Lynn), not my character. How unjust and cruel that he had been to kill my character’s cousin, that his fixation on our guild was insulting. Well imagine my surprise?
Here we were building stories, and I’m having the poor boy ripped to shreds in tells/whispers to me. So I ask: what is he adding to the story? Or better yet, what is he adding to your story? Conflicts are why stories grow, are they not? If we win all the time, then what is learned or gained? Course, no one is ever obligated to participate, and I think that is even true today with RTA and many other MUSHes.
Needless to say when people realized that Zem and I were buddies and enjoyed giving these bouts of conflict to the guild, the OOC chatter faded away and actions were purely seen as IC again. You see, they had to remember why we played… which was the fun factor. Now again I state, I’m a RP’er… period. I’m that annoying girl you find on WoW, EQ or any of their various iterations that has built that back story of family and friends. I loved it.
In a sense, games need a re-discovery period. I believe this was stated to an earlier comment. Also, someone may/can/will play a character you despise (ala King Pooba) and another you adore (Shrek). It is the same player, but they’re building constructs (characters) to tell a story. Constructs are nothing more than vehicles to tell that story, right?
Now, I’ve waxed poetic about sharing my experiences as well as presenting the first question. Now for the second: Why do not more logs get posted? I love to post them, but my computer has been hungry and eaten three so far. This is an annoying fact, especially when trying to locate said logs. Needless to say, what is the use of telling a story that you don’t wish to share? Then does a Mush become nothing more than a social interaction? Do the stories lose their meaning?
These are questions that were presented to me over lunch and as such… I pass them on to you.Tomorrow.... the monkeysphere.