1. As a faction leader/command, always empathize with your enemy. - To understand the thoughts that lie behind other factions in OORP terms and InRP terms, you mustn't be afraid to open up dialogue even at the most tense of situations and always try to advise on where things may go InRP. I've seen often, a disconnect between faction leaders based solely on OORP opinion of that faction and having that disconnect means many misunderstandings or poor judgement.
   
   
2. Be prepared to reconsider your thinking. - Countless times I've seen things go one way and then almost being forced to go in that one direction because you yourself think that's the right avenue for the faction InRP or a character InRP. If that's wholly your character or factions opinion, then I don't mind too much but if it is an opinion formed on OORP basis of "Winning" against another faction then you should re-examine the problem. Basically always review what started problems in your character or faction and see if it could have gone a different way.
   
   
3. InRP is InRP, OORP is OORP, always. - I'm a purist, always have been in RP and always will. I have friends here now, but I've always said to them that sometimes character actions should not be influenced by OORP behaviour. Too many times, I feel characters act wildly and unpredictable due to players opinion of each other. This ties into what I like to call "Lite-metagame" meaning that everyone in some capacity metagames a character based on what they know, OORP. It's kinda unavoidable, you can only limit.
   
   
4. Never expect RP to come to you. - When I first started, it was very much a learning curve of "Okay, everyone is really far from each other but there are hotspots for rp". If I honestly didn't start RPing with people like Dime, Smokesden, Darkstar & Riehl then I doubt I would have remained around. You also might miss opportunities that will greatly affect your character later on. For instance, if I did not meet Immo's Alexandra Conley on Sun I doubt I would have eventually had Sun as FP9 Administrator INRP or be currently 2IC of Velvet. If I didn't meet Riehl and RPed with them, I wouldn't have the learning experience of leading a Disco faction or developed Val. Just a side thing, for the longest time I wanted to try to RP with Sombra but that has yet to happen :V
   
   
5. Never be elitist, RP with everyone or, attempt to - Now, there are people who don't RP and simply hover around and power-trade, this is fine it's part of Disco. I am more talking about not being elitist with people who either have a poor grasp of English, are new or simply don't really understand RP. In my opinion, as long as they respond to basic RP you are doing then you shouldn't judge them nor honestly, make fun of them. It can be difficult, but one must ignore elitism.
   
   
6. Avoid cliques, but recognise you may have to engage in them - I tend to minimize myself in OORP in order to do this, I very much feel that now I am seen as part of some clique or whatever and that's unfortunate as, I honestly have avoided them by trying to remain neutral in my opinion of them. It's very hard to avoid them, and I don't think it's possible unless you make yourself an island. You can minimize it, however.
   
   
7. PVP Skill is good, but don't rely on it - Too many times I have seen judgement in some cases made solely on the fact that one player in a faction has great PVP skill. Now, don't get me wrong I don't mind PVP, it's an ends to a means but basing your faction's InRP behaviour or how they log on the sole fact that you got a "PVP God" is kinda in my opinion cheesy. If you lose, you lose. If it's not in an event or something that matters, I don't think it should bother you too much. You must always consider both sides on it.
   
   
8. Find the truth of a character - Build a character on moments that feel true to that character, don't make decisions that are out of character, for that character. For instance, in my experience you must always hold onto the core aspects of individual characters so that they feel different. Or else you, basically have the problem of "Avatar" characters, where you are just rping yourself. This is not a bad thing, as long you develop that character beyond that core. I don't like feeling comfortable with my characters, I always want to see RP happen with them that develops them.
   
   
9. Don't be flippant, people care - People often care a lot about discovery and being flippant, or taking advantage of this I feel is wrong. I don't like people insulting each-other, especially with some of the language used. I admit, it's the internet and edgyness is everywhere and I also admit I find it amusing but I dunno, some people are passionate about Discovery, including me.
   
   
10. Never say never - Take chances in your RP, or in Discovery.
    

Quote:As a faction leader/command, always empathize with your enemy. - To understand the thoughts that lie behind other factions in OORP terms and InRP terms, you mustn't be afraid to open up dialogue even at the most tense of situations and always try to advise on where things may go InRP. I've seen often, a disconnect between faction leaders based solely on OORP opinion of that faction and having that disconnect means many misunderstandings or poor judgement.

Quote:InRP is InRP, OORP is OORP, always. - I'm a purist, always have been in RP and always will. I have friends here now, but I've always said to them that sometimes character actions should not be influenced by OORP behaviour. Too many times, I feel characters act wildly and unpredictable due to players opinion of each other. This ties into what I like to call "Lite-metagame" meaning that everyone in some capacity metagames a character based on what they know, OORP. It's kinda unavoidable, you can only limit.

Quote:Never expect RP to come to you. - When I first started, it was very much a learning curve of "Okay, everyone is really far from each other but there are hotspots for rp". If I honestly didn't start RPing with people like Dime, Smokesden, Darkstar & Riehl then I doubt I would have remained around. You also might miss opportunities that will greatly affect your character later on. For instance, if I did not meet Immo's Alexandra Conley on Sun I doubt I would have eventually had Sun as FP9 Administrator INRP or be currently 2IC of Velvet. If I didn't meet Riehl and RPed with them, I wouldn't have the learning experience of leading a Disco faction or developed Val. Just a side thing, for the longest time I wanted to try to RP with Sombra but that has yet to happen :V

Quote:Never be elitist, RP with everyone or, attempt to - Now, there are people who don't RP and simply hover around and power-trade, this is fine it's part of Disco. I am more talking about not being elitist with people who either have a poor grasp of English, are new or simply don't really understand RP. In my opinion, as long as they respond to basic RP you are doing then you shouldn't judge them nor honestly, make fun of them. It can be difficult, but one must ignore elitism.

Quote:Avoid cliques, but recognise you may have to engage in them - I tend to minimize myself in OORP in order to do this, I very much feel that now I am seen as part of some clique or whatever and that's unfortunate as, I honestly have avoided them by trying to remain neutral in my opinion of them. It's very hard to avoid them, and I don't think it's possible unless you make yourself an island. You can minimize it, however.

Quote:PVP Skill is good, but don't rely on it - Too many times I have seen judgement in some cases made solely on the fact that one player in a faction has great PVP skill. Now, don't get me wrong I don't mind PVP, it's an ends to a means but basing your faction's InRP behaviour or how they log on the sole fact that you got a "PVP God" is kinda in my opinion cheesy. If you lose, you lose. If it's not in an event or something that matters, I don't think it should bother you too much. You must always consider both sides on it.

Quote:Find the truth of a character - Build a character on moments that feel true to that character, don't make decisions that are out of character, for that character. For instance, in my experience you must always hold onto the core aspects of individual characters so that they feel different. Or else you, basically have the problem of "Avatar" characters, where you are just rping yourself. This is not a bad thing, as long you develop that character beyond that core. I don't like feeling comfortable with my characters, I always want to see RP happen with them that develops them.

Quote:Don't be flippant, people care - People often care a lot about discovery and being flippant, or taking advantage of this I feel is wrong. I don't like people insulting each-other, especially with some of the language used. I admit, it's the internet and edgyness is everywhere and I also admit I find it amusing but I dunno, some people are passionate about Discovery, including me.

(10-14-2019, 11:07 AM)Lythrilux Wrote: I think cliques and elitism are one and the same really; groups of players who think they're above everyone else

(10-14-2019, 10:31 AM)Sombra Hookier Wrote: Discovery is a reflection of real life political parties and other kinds of groups in that sense. I sort of liked the idea of factions trying to sort their issues out, but as soon as group mentality is involved, and because Discovery with the current guidelines rather encourages people to take the first-best issues to Feedback threads or get mad about on Discord, where other people mindlessly join the rant for the sake of ranting about someone they don't like, they are more likely to bond on that hate for certain people than actually try to solve the issues. To be perfectly honest, while it of course would be cool if things would be more harmonic, Discovery only lives because of these issues. People love to eff over other people. Activity is low when there is no drama.

The other thing is that many faction leaders pretend to be open for negotiations but mostly fall back into their old patterns, which is why many stigmata remain to be true about certain factions, especially the old ones.

(10-14-2019, 10:31 AM)Sombra Hookier Wrote: That's something I'm still sticking to, even after 3.5 years. I think that made RPing with Foxglove so fun to me, because his most notable characters are clearly representing the evil side but see themselves just in what they do and try to convince others of adapt that perception. Like Gul Dukat does in Deep Space Nine in the first six seasons. It's a constant back and forth of loving and hating the magnificient bastard as guile hero.

(10-14-2019, 10:31 AM)Sombra Hookier Wrote: Finding hotspots for RP is sadly more and more difficult as the player count lowers. Back in my days, there was always a bunch of people at Freeport 11, which was also the very start of my very first RPs. Then, when Forlorn was doing their first baby steps, Trenton Outpost was a big hotspot until Forlorn grew in a very different direction, and I feel like the Trenton Talkshow only stopped
because of a bunch of vocal people complained about these people sitting there and not doing what they thought was right. A few months ago Velvet was founded and I had hopes that they would give FP11 some more life again, which seemed to have worked out. I was quite happy back then to give them a few supportive nudges. Now they are super active and hopefully don't do it like Forlorn but stay on their road.

By the way, while I'm flattered when people say they want to RP with me, I often feel like people have too high expectations on me. My characters are pretty limited in their acting and aren't very open to strangers. Makes me often feel like I disappoint people when they fly over to me and try to get as much information out of my characters as possible while the point of having a stealth warship is to literally try and remain ignored as much as possible. (That and I'm highly demotivated with all the drama going on here, so don't expect anything to happen anytime soon. Right now I only get to enjoy Lanakov and Foxglove.)

(10-14-2019, 10:31 AM)Sombra Hookier Wrote: This is something that bugs me, actually, because I don't think we actually have elitist people in Discovery, but many people that accuse others of being elitist. Yes, there were some groups that were only interested in getting people with certain skills, mostly combat skills, but I've never seen this happen to anyone in terms of roleplay. The only thing I can think of is when people applied for a faction and got denied, but I mostly don't think that happened because of elitism and rather because of incompatibility with the pack. After all, people want fun people around, not their enemies. Might be wrong here, but that's sorta my perception.

(10-14-2019, 10:31 AM)Sombra Hookier Wrote: The biggest relief I felt during Discovery was when I left all factions I was in. Suddenly, there were no expectations on me anymore. That took a big weight off my shoulders. You don't need to bother with hypocritical feedback anymore, not with all those people who are like "no, my player faction is the best", you don't have to bother with all those guys who think their NPC faction needs more stations and more systems while they don't work with what they actually have and you don't have to bother with the hilarious faction rights and the three day activity border. Meanwhile there have been plenty of unofficial factions that have performed highly better than many officials now do. There are some people who pride themselves because the official faction status while they didn't earn the stuff they did but merely inherited it (which is why I always thought SRPs should never fall into the hands of people who didn't do the work behind them in first place).

Leaving all faction discords was really one of the best decisions I could have made, because they are all soaked in negativity. Evidentally.

(10-14-2019, 10:31 AM)Sombra Hookier Wrote: To most people, the stuff happening actually ingame is all that counts, and when you get ganked, die and get taunted, people take it personal and the guys taunting and killing are like "lol it's just a game noob". Discovery houses a wide variety of mentalities and you can't make peace with all of them. In those cases, ignoring them is the best. After all, you are the one who decides what you do, and if you do things that don't make you happy, you're dumb. They are right, this is just a game, and the point of games is to give you something you can enjoy.

(10-14-2019, 10:31 AM)Sombra Hookier Wrote: People complaining about self-inserts are often self-inserts themselves. I think the only people who play different roles are the ones who stick to a character sheet they made with random attributes. In the end, however, most people here play characters that usually have attributes they find attractive in some way. Not necessary bad, as I just mentioned you should do what you enjoy. The only thing that bugs me are the ones who do self-inserts merely to crap on other people, bringing their ooRP intentions into the inRP environment that way.

(10-14-2019, 10:31 AM)Sombra Hookier Wrote: That's the passion that kept Discovery alive despite the toxic environment. It's just as toxic as real life, just with the plus of being untouchable as the person infront of the keyboard. People feel like they can afford the recklessness they show on a daily basis and there is nothing that stops them. It's really up to everyone here themselves whether they want to stick to a place that CAN give a lot of fun and joy, but also a lot of anger and disappointment; or whether you move on. Luckily, while Discovery has many loopholes and ways of empowering people to do crappy things to each other, it also offers enough measures to keep yourself untouched from that. Alts, indies, forum. On the one hand, it can be good when you can do literally anything without anyone ever finding out it was you - I did that for example when I joined fights on my battleships and wrecked lots of ships before I sold all of them half a year ago, while people have been complaining about the Apahanta never being seen in fights and being nothing than a glorified camera ship - although on the other hand, if you are known for flying indies (which is something almost everyone does, by the way), then people think of you doing the worst things as indie just to troll them. Luckily I personally pride myself about the fact that I never did anything like that and love clean slate when it comes to sanctions. There aren't many people here who are around for more than three years without ever having gotten sanctioned.

(10-14-2019, 10:31 AM)Sombra Hookier Wrote: Looking forward to see your perception of the next year. You're still one of the most careful and ambitious people here and didn't adapt other people's opinions. A rare thing in a community where people love to let their faction leaders think for them.

(10-14-2019, 10:41 AM)Thunderer Wrote: Have you brought these from Mount Sinai?

(10-14-2019, 11:07 AM)Lythrilux Wrote: I think cliques and elitism are one and the same really; groups of players who think they're above everyone else

(10-14-2019, 10:31 AM)Sombra Hookier Wrote: People complaining about self-inserts are often self-inserts themselves. I think the only people who play different roles are the ones who stick to a character sheet they made with random attributes. In the end, however, most people here play characters that usually have attributes they find attractive in some way. Not necessary bad, as I just mentioned you should do what you enjoy. The only thing that bugs me are the ones who do self-inserts merely to crap on other people, bringing their ooRP intentions into the inRP environment that way.

Dark Knight Wrote:It's difficult to separate yourself from characters, I kinda see it like a play where you are just playing a part. I try to build characters that are wholly separate from myself, and then build on top of that their needs, wants, speech, behaviour and how they individually would act. As for the last part, yep...I kinda call them troll characters.