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+--- Thread: Rather surprised at the lack of community feeling (/showthread.php?tid=44526)
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Rather surprised at the lack of community feeling - technophebe - 07-29-2010
I'm an old time Freelancer player, old OLD time RP'er, and fairly new to Discovery. I just wanted to share my experiences on the server and message boards because I've been rather surprised by the cold reception I've received as a new player.
The mod itself is fantastic, and I was very excited to have discovered an online community based around a space exploration game, the genre has always been a favourite of mine. I've had great fun exploring the new systems, making a bit of money and getting back into the game, which I haven't played for a good long time.
Foe the first few days I tried hailing other players when I encountered them in game, trying to strike up (in character) conversations, as a bored intergalactic trader might, but after several days of one world responses to my attempts (and maybe a single actual RP conversation), I decided to try something different, and began reading the factions' recruit threads, to look for a faction that interested me.
My first attempt to join a faction, I joined their private boards as requested and wrote a lengthy character back story and recruitment request. I was told that my story wasn't good enough. I lengthened and adapted it. I was told it still wasn't good enough. I lengthened it again, and was finally accepted. I was then told that I could only fly a light fighter and could not leave a small set of systems. I spent a couple of days carefully following the rules that had been given to me, during which time I met only one other member of this faction, who would not engage me in conversation. Deciding this wasn't for me, I made another character and tried again.
This time I spent a good couple of hours writing and rewriting a back story for a character before posting on the boards here. The post was deleted by the mods for being in the wrong place. Now admittedly, having done a thorough search afterwards I did manage to find a post (at the *bottom* of the replies to a sticky) that explained why this might have happened, but it wasn't really placed very sensibly considering how seriously the rule is obviously taken.
Bear in mind, this was the first time I had ever posted on these boards, I'd spent the best part of an evening creating a story which I was (I felt) justifiably pleased with, and that story (and the several hours work it represented) are now totally lost to me. Now of course you can say "well, that's your own fault, you should have read the rules", and that's true - but there are a *lot* of rules to follow here, and they're not always posted in the clearest fashion. I've been doing my best to follow all the rules I've found, but I think considering it was my first ever post, the moderator might have done a little more than simply remove my post and not even PM me to explain what I had done wrong.
In short, my experiences so far have made me feel more like an intruder than a welcome new member of a community. Rules and regs are all well and good when they enhance the quality of RP, but ultimately RPing should be fun, and my experiences so far have been anything but. I've been playing on the server over a week, trying to communicate and get some RP going, and so far I've had *one* positive experience with a nice bit of actual RPing, and a whole other string of encounters where I've either been told that I'm not good enough or that I'm breaking The Rules.
Yes, I know that roleplaying is SRS BIZNS(!), but I don't think this community would be harmed by a slightly more welcoming attitude.
Rather surprised at the lack of community feeling - Adda-Leigh - 07-29-2010
' Wrote:And that's true - but there are a *lot* of rules to follow here, and they're not always posted in the clearest fashion.Here is the link the the Rules that are posted in what I might say a clear fashion: http://discoverygc.com/forums/index.php?sh...40&hl=Rules
The Reason why you have to write lengthy and very detailed Role Playing backgrounds is because we try to make it as hard as possible for "lolwuts" or in other words "people who have no idea what role play is" joining factions and having any ship they want, also, admins do not have all the time in the world to PM *everyone* that has posted something in the wrong place.
In end result, my suggestion is that you read the rules first (with the link provided) and then have a look around the forums for where everything goes.
p.s. I do not know about why nobody wanted to engage in a Roleplay conversation with you while you were playing (have no comment on that)
Thank you, Adda-Leigh
Rather surprised at the lack of community feeling - ryeguy146 - 07-29-2010
It's true. The Discovery mod/server/community isn't very forgiving to newbies. It also doesn't seem to expect much from them. Same thing happened to me when I was trying to join my first faction, except I never even got a response. Same with the second. Until I found the Rogues. As Adda-Leigh has explained, Discovery is quite jaded. We expect a certain behaviour out of most 'newbies.' Unfortunately, many are incapable of seeing anything but a potential 'lolwut.'
But if you power through it and learn, it's worth it. I'd be more than happy to fly with you sometime when the server is up. You describe a character, and I'll pick one that would potentially interact with yours and show you around. You won't get this attitude from most people, I agree, but we do have those that remember when they were new and having difficulties. I implore you to stick it out for a bit. If there's anything that I can help you with, do not hesitate to ask. Do so either here, PM, or through skype. My contact information can be obtained through my profile.
Why? Because this reminds me of a post I once made. And you sound like you could add something to the server/community, given a chance and direction. That, and it doesn't help for people to just keep pointing you at the rules, sometimes, you want to see them in the server for yourself.
As for people not wanting to chat it up on the server, we get that on occasion. Silent traders. One word pirates. Every community has their degenerates. If you can learn to avoid or to look past them, Discovery still has a lot to offer. It's not perfect, but it's still my favorite game for a reason.
Rather surprised at the lack of community feeling - Slainte - 07-29-2010
Hello there and welcome to the verse !
I am sorry you have had a bad start to Disco but rest assured its a great place and there are loads of good peeps out there as well as those who are "one word lolwuts".
My advice is to start small and work up to the big stuff as Disco can be complicated as hell and it does take a while to get on top of it all.
And now for the shameless plug.........Start a trader in a good faction. Gateway is one and will help you out with starting up and getting to know all the ins and outs of most areas rp. Like i said it can be complicated and the guys at Gateway are helpfull and patient. Here's the link
http://discoverygc.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=74804
In saying that i have to say that all the house trader factions will do the same ( he says grudgingly :D)
I do hope things get better for you and when the servers back up i hope to see you in space. If theres is anything i can help with, look me up in game, Gateway)GlenCoe and ill help as best i can. Failing that look out for an Angel tagged char. They will also help out.
Rather surprised at the lack of community feeling - The_Scarlet_Pimpernel - 07-29-2010
Its rather unusual that someone who has been here only a week expresses it so openly , but unfortunately, you are entirely correct in your opinion of this community. If you were lucky you could have had a better start, if you were unlucky you could have had a worse one.
One part of the problem is that a lot of new people come here every day, and mostly they dont come to role play, read pages and pages of rules and role play stories (both of which are not easy to find and rather lengthy), they just come to casually play Freelancer the way they did, together with a large group of people. They come to discovery because its a nice mod and has highest server population, not because they like role playing or the rules of it. Not much is done for those people in the programming of the mod itself to help them play or integrate without getting into too much trouble because of rules or to attract the anger of hardcore role players. And its simply impossible for veteran players to explain everything to new people, because more keep coming every day. Unfortunately developers have not focused much on user friendliness for new people to take some stress caused by them off the game play. But thats only part of the problem.
Many people here look down on new players. Their use of the word lolwhut to describe inexperienced players is the easiest way to identify those people. The word expresses their opinion that someone who does not know all the rules, conventions, and role play cannon of this server is not only simply inexperienced, but also stupid and unworthy of their help or respect. Sadly, they have developed a kind of arrogance and elitism over a computer game which they have spent enough time on to know inside out and others didnt.
I think its partly caused by the fact that you need a lot of background information to play this mod in the way that you are supposed to, RP-wise and rule-wise. This gives people who know all of it the impression that they are somehow more educated and intelligent than people who dont and gives them a feeling of superiority.
Maybe players in role-playing communities naturally try to build their status in the community just like they do ingame. And for certain types of people this means not to lower themselves to being unfriendly to noobs, and to defend their own status and faction aggressively against noobs who try to hang out with or challenge them in any way. Its amplified by the fact that a high status or being on top gets you extra bonuses here, like leading a faction, joining certain factions, getting special equipment permissions. And an effective way of staying on top is not to help anybody up.
Rather surprised at the lack of community feeling - Dab - 07-29-2010
No matter where it was posted, your post shouldn't have been deleted if it was in the wrong location. Rather, it should have been moved. At the very most, made invisible and not deleted completely. If you can give me the title of the story thread, I'll see if I can find it for you.
I'd go into a longer post about the rest of the content about what you wrote, but it's 4 AM, and I'm too groggy to do that right now...
EDIT: Nevermind, I've found it. I can send you a copy of your post. Please, in the future, don't post in faction message dumps without prior permission from the faction leader. It's also a good idea to contact the faction leader before RPing as a character part of a faction that is invite-only.
Rather surprised at the lack of community feeling - technophebe - 07-29-2010
Thanks for your responses guys. I have to say, reading down these has restored my faith in the possibility of finding a nice group on the server, props to you all for your helpful and reasonable replies.
Rather surprised at the lack of community feeling - AeternusDoleo - 07-29-2010
I think you've just met the wrong people ingame. Whenever a trader or nonhostile hails me ingame I at least send a hello back and slow down a bit (IE drop cruise and go to about a speed of 50). Figured that was the polite thing to do. But so far my greetings ingame have been... well, shall we say... Spelling and grammatically challenged. (Comprised mostly of english/lolspeak/leetspeak hybrid systemwide hails)
Those I do not respond to.
Rather surprised at the lack of community feeling - Coin - 07-29-2010
The majority of the community spirit can be found here on the forums. You have an opinion; VOICE IT. whether tis ship submissions, faction creation requests, etc etc.
write a character, get it posted, and peeps will see who you are...
Rather surprised at the lack of community feeling - Varyag - 07-29-2010
Something I have found when I started and what I do now.... Just do your thing. Follow the rules, and have fun while making sure others have fun.
You can be an indie and have a great time with it. What keeps me playing is I found a great group of guys on here that I am not in a faction with and we just have the best time no matter what we are doing (pirate-lawfull-PVPwhore). You also have to find a good faction to be with. RHA is freaking awesome BTW. (shameless plug)
Much of the ranting on this forum and the general lulziness from some of the members that call newbs by a bunch of names are just complainers and Q_Qers. Read what you will on here and take everything with a grain of salt. A lot of times you can get questions answered just by doing a search. Everything has been covered time and time again by this group of basement dwellers in our boredom.
Have fun, stay a while and get a cap ship. Capwhores are people too and you can have some of the most engaging RP fun with a battle barge. Just don't get upset when you realize how much you will be a sitting duck for bombers and just about everything else and remember that it isn't fun for others if you swing your 12 turrets into situations where you are not needed.
-edit Spear I see you reading this! Welcome back dude!