An Explanation, Roleplaying, Nudity, Respect & Other Cra

[Darth Bootay]

You know, I never really thought much about how common it was for people to NOT roleplay in AO until tonight. What brought the subject into PAINFUL relief in my mind, was a question posed by a friend, Veldron.

"Why do you let them get to you?" he asked me, more or less, in regards to an asshole from Storm who crashed KittenFu's party in a thong, boots and not much else on, who ruined the end of what had been pretty much the perfect party.

It all boils down to two factors, really. RolePlay and Respect.

Now IRL, I couldn't give a rat's ass if someone stripped to the skin, stood on their heads and sang the Star-Spangled Banner. Unless I was trying to have a classy outing with conservative friends, relatives or business associates. Nudity's so overdone and two minutes ago that it really doesn't phaze me as long as it isn't inconveniencing me.

HOWEVER. I play a few characters who do not share much in common with my IRL views and attitutdes. It's all part of that thing called ROLEplay. If my characters all shared my personality, it wouldn't be roleplay, now would it? My characters are not thin little constructs without background, motivations or opinions. Most of them have more history and personality than some real folks I've met. It's what makes them interesting. It's part of why some of you have come to be so attatched to some of them. I make them as real for those who interact with them as I can without being completely out of my mind.

Now let's look at the two people you know best. Yin "KittenFu" Koresawa and Alchemy "SaintBootay" Blue.

Yin is the product of a conservative, Japanese upbringing. This means that she can be very prissy about some things, depending on the situation. She's nineteen years old, unmarried and takes honor and social convention very seriously. Public nudity is something that is very often viewed as a form of distasteful and inappropriate behavior. It doesn't take a sociologist to understand that a person of this background would find public nudity and sex distasteful and objectionable in most circumstances. Anyone who's dealt with a nineteen year old female will tell you that disgust moves from brain to mouth fairly quickly, usually followed by a hasty retreat if requests or demands are not met with a vanishing of the cause of distress.

StBoo is the product of an even more conservative family background. Her mother was a significant stock-holder in Sol Banking Corporation. Her upbringing was so conservative and restrictive that she rebelled by running with the wrong people and got herself into trouble with the law. Despite her rebellion, it was always pretty clear that the basic conservatism and values ingrained in her by her upbringing held true. Bootay very rarely engaged in anything that wild without the help of huge quantities of alcohol and an enourmous amount of peer pressure.

One of Bootay's trademark pet peeves has and will always be having to do with sex, most ESPECIALLY public sex and nudity. Bear in mind that Boo IS more than a little crazy (long story), and that her loathing of promiscuity, nudity and the sexual act is more than slightly phobic. This is so integral to her personality and so pronounced that she will never willingly have what is commonly defined as sex and barring some truely heinous tragedy of RPed violence, will remain a virgin until the day she is deleted. Her reactions to being placed in situations that involve these things are predictably blunt, even in her more sane moments.

It irks the LIVING CRAP out of me to be continually forced to temper down and sometimes outright step out of character to preserve the peace when disrespectful, stupid little wankers think it's cute, shocking and rebellious to (males & troxes particularly) drop trou, throw on a thong and rub their bare backsides in people's faces when doing so is completely out of character and obviously a form of disruption. (No, Metalynx getting wasted and dancing around in his red undies isn't out of character and while my characters might find it shocking or disturbing, I have to laugh my ass off while they're covering their eyes. That's just the kind of stupid shit Lynx has done since he woke up on Ka. He's Ka's answer to the drunken frat-boy, but smoother when sober.)

It also irks the shit out of me when people use AO as their own personal America Online Stupid Horny Housewives Looking For Hot Sex chatrooms. I don't give a crap what people do in private as long as they take it to private or move it to an apartment or condo. Excuse the hell out of me, but it's far beyond anyone's suspension of disbelief that two or more people would have sex in a public place filled with other people that could both see and hear every detail and NOT be made to move along by the proprietors or local authorities, unless they were in a whorehouse or a sex show. And that doesn't even BEGIN to address the bare common courtesy to other people who have no desire to see people getting it on. Give them a choice instead of chasing them out of a public place with your intimate behavior FFS.

Trust me, not all my characters are as conservative as the two you know best. And for the record, Yin can melt cold steel behind closed doors (and pretty much DID on one very unusual occasion for an extremely good and mature friend whom I trust enough not to be a freaking psycho who can't distinguish between IC and IRL). Oh and Maephina, one of my characters really did enjoy watching (and slapping) your toon's bare bum at Reets one night.

So why do I let them get to me?

Because I HATE with a capital H-A-T-E ignorant, immature little jerkoffs who think it's cool to disrupt RPed events, use sex and nudity as grief and attention-getting tools and ignorant idiots who think AO is just another cheap public free-cyber room.

/rant off

[Tacz]

I agree with you on this. It is funny to see a 'trox in a thong or something of the like, but only when theres only one of them and they're maintaining some kind of dignity while doing it. But when they start harassing people, that shouldnt be playing this game here called "Life" with social situations required.

[Jairyn]

Put it Bluntly... Schuyler-esque = Good... Anything else... Bad..

Oh.. and Not married? Yin, why didn't ya tell old Jai? Now ya got the one track mind workin

[Tristalyn]

*applauds*

VERY well said.. and I agree wholeheartedly with every statement.

[Jugsmalone]

Hoot yes indeed Now i certainly agree withyou here and i guees most ppl dont expect me to becuase well I try to maintain the Sex Incorprated attitude tho i try hard to do it descreatly and with a bit of class.... My role in game is to live as a young and free sprit and be seductive aluring and kind to every one i meet.... I do not think Vulgar and inapropriate acts are sexy or apealing to others its just plain rude... a bit or romace and spanking here and thier or a llittle flirting and hugs is apropriate in my view but down right out and out porn belongs in PMs or in a private room.... so I applude you for your words and your views on this matter.... Bows to Stbooty

[Ashval]

I hope I made it clear last night that I agree with the sentiment wholeheartedly. The only thing that I didn't understand is...well, the guy was just standing there in a thong. Compared to other behavior he's exhibited in said thong...from my perspective as a DJ....I was happy there was no humping involved. After talking with you about it, I certainly understand your perspective.

I just hoped it wouldn't be so bad as to force you to leave your own event. It was. And, for me as the DJ...that was upsetting. I wish I had a magic button to force people to act appropriately, because it really sucks to have the hostess leave what was a kick butt party because some fruit loop wants to show off their flat ass.

[Darth Bootay]

Jugs, honey, you have ALWAYS had a lot of class. Others who strive to be as desirable and sensual could learn a LOT from watching you in action. Even SaintBoo can relax in your presence, and has. Kinda says a lot.

Schuu...LOL...What can I say? Before the accident, before the madness, Schuu and red ties was Boo's doing. She wanted to prove to him that he was just as hawt as anyone else. She wishes he'd ditch that ugly white thong tho. It makes him look fat.

Jairyn, hee hee! Do you actually propose to become General Ramagano's rival for the affections of the Jedi Cute Master Yin? Oh my. That could get scary. Like Robotech in reverse. EEK!

Veldron, honey, no. Don't be upset. Neither you nor any of the GSP DJs has any real control over the behavior of others. You showed your disapproval of his actions and that's all you could do. It's all that could reasonably be expected. In a perfect RubiKa, there would be a small troup of ARK bouncers for your shows and for other RP events. But it's not a perfect RubiKa and FunCom doesn't have that kind of resource. If they did, I'd be on it, drumming out the griefers and the wreckers onto the pavement with a smile and a "move along, citizen, you've had enough".

As it was, the party was a success. People came. People had fun. The inevitable jerkoff didn't arrive until things were beginning to wind down. No one gave the DJ any grief. It was a good, rocking and CLASSY party. Omni, clan and neutral came together and, in the spirit of the event, were all friendly and fun with each other. Isn't that what we set out to do?

[Riviques]

you know, its same exact thing as a 'trox doing that annoying as hell "hump the dj" thing. or that time when some little maggot told nex to shutup. its about respect, always has been. if you cant respect someone to atleast have the common curtosy to grin and bear it, then you deserve to be monkey stompted and have your brains mailed back to your mother.

it seems that once this world finds respect, then all this halfassed fighting will end.

the guy who screwed up kittenfu's party was an ass who need to learn respect. i a pissed that he had a lack of class to do that and i am sorry boo for not being there to kick the crap out of him *smirks*

[Jairyn]

Ramagano, Shmamagano..

*grins*

[Demenzia]

Coming a little late, but just an observation after some stuff that happened to me recently as well: why do we RPers always get labelled as "RP nazis who don't respect other people's desire to not RP", when the tendency I see the most often is non-RPers harrassing/causing grief to people who're trying to RP? I'm not the most prude girl on earth IRL, but I'd never put on a string and wiggle my ass against the face of some unknown man or woman in a bar or something, so the fact that certain people (and obviously here, non-roleplayers and non-socializers) do that "just to have fun" sort of eludes me.

Don't know why, but it seems really persistant these times. I can't spend two hours straight in a bar in-game without some jerk thinking it's fun to sit on my char's lap, ask for a lap dance just because my char is female, o. It eludes me as well that people scream "get a room!" when I'm RPing my char spending some time with her fiancé (and who IRL doesn't kiss her BF from time to time... or am I really such an indecent girl who kisses hers in public, and all the other women in the world are pure and shy virgins?), while they wander around in thongs and emote /me pees on XX and stupid stuff involving scatologic references and crap that only disturbs the ambience (yes I saw it happen).

What I know is that I've already had to leave some public places because of such crap, so I can understand the frustration about all of this, especially if it was your own party *sighs*. Sometimes I wish that the /ignore command would not only mute words, but would also completely erase the incriminated toon (it's just as annoying to have someone "harrass" you through emotes, sitting on your char and crawl on her/his lap than through words).

And then people say we're RP nazis and have no tolerance. I really wonder why *smirks*

(Yes I'm irked at all of this, it's not new. It's not FC's job to teach to people how to behave and respect others, and if they can't behave in a frigging game, then I consider they can't behave IRL either.)

[Darth Bootay]

Demenzia, I'm with you. Public displays of affection don't equate with some of the genuinely foul public behavior I've had to put on ignore or actually get up and walk away from. F'rinstance... MsIce and Everwatch are an EXCELLENT example of tastefully done PDA. They have a very touching, very sweet and very physical relationship. But never have I seen them cross the line from natural, affectionate and appropriate IC PDA into the realm of grossy disrespectful public cyber.

I think it goes without saying that there are a few regulars at Reets and Rompas that show no such respect to their fellow barflies. I won't name names, as I think these people do quite well enough at tarnishing their own reputations without any help from me.

When contrasted to free spirits like JugsMalone or loving couples like MsIce and Everwatch... well let's just repeat that the offenders could learn a lot about real sensuality, class and respect from the likes of those three. You, Demenzia, have managed to be so subtle as to not even get a twitch out of Our Perpetual Virgin of the Gridstream.

And as for the people who can't resist buffing a stranger's face with their mostly naked buttocks... well I have a nice dancefloor down in Hell waiting for them in the afterlife where they can toss each other's salads for all eternity. And I must point out that they'll all have bums the size and consistancy of Rakishi's (WWE wrestler of LARGE proportion known for humiliating his opponents by sticking his ass in their faces and rubbing it in real well).

Oh... and on a humorous note... SaintBootay has come up with the funniest charity yet. The "Give A Shade Some Clothes Foundation". She's concerned that they might catch cold running around completely nude. Poor Boo. One of these days, Ithalidral will come back to Ka and demonstrate in private why shades prefer so much nakkie time. Ya think?

[Metalynx]

WHat...no more thong for me??

Guess its back to skirts for me!!!!

I wholeheartedly agree with you Boo. One of the main reasons...hell THE main reason I stopped coming to the glass dancefloor..or any GS gathering lately..has been becasue almost everytime I show up..thers alwasy someone haxing SEX on the floor somewhere. No..I mean SEX!. Not kissing in public..but all out sticking it in/rubbnghtmeslevels/rubbng someon else sex. PDA is all and good..and I am all for it...if tastefully done ffs. Roleplaying aside, the want to do something ddiffent thatn you nromally do aside...does everyone in the world have to grope their partner when they walk up? or hell..grope anyone that walks up for that matter

Guess I just got tired of walking in.sitting down..and seeing emots and vic chats flying around that resembled more like the sounds from a whorehouse than a social event. Its been better off and on sometiems..but by and large..last times ive showed..someons always fdoign such.

Its rude...and irritating to us frigid prudes. I want to enjoy a cup of Prune Juice in my rocking chair in peace Damnit!!! how can a old man enjoy listening to his favorite music...watching scanty clad weomen dance on the dance floor, and pay attention to what amounts to public Cybering?

(p.s. if peoepl wanted to have such a thrill about doig stuff like that...why not goto one of many various websites and public chatreoms dedicated for such.....stuff...and yes..I was ther trhe one day Dem mentioned when someon was getting pee'd on...(ungh)

[Boinky]

Metalynx a prude eh? Role-playing indeed

Anyway, I generally agree with the sentiments outlined in this thread. Occasional behaviour of this type is somewhat understandable, and personally I think some of us have done something at least slightly similar in-game at one time or another. For one thing in this setting, i.e. an online game where we are generally annonymous, it's understandable to be less inhibited in your behaviour than you'd be IRL. But that is also a trap of sorts, because it's easy to cross over the line from slightly amusing to downright vulgar behaviour that's inslting to some.

Now to play Devil's Advocate for those who rail against some of us "RP Nazis". I think the main reason some folks tend to dislike us is that they look on it simply as a game. It's a game where they are determined to come in, have fun, level their asses off, and "win" in their eyes. So they end up hating us for the reason of the difficulty in interacting with us.

Ex. (considering I'm a Neutral on Rubi-Ka & lets place this somewhere up in Elysium)

OmniUbah4: Boinky what's the drop rate for Omni tatoos on Ely mobs
Boinky: Excuse me?
OmniUbah4: what mobs drop Omni shade tats most
Boinky: I'm not certain I understand your terms - mobs?
OmniUbah4: yes, which ones drop the tats Omni ones
Boinky: I wasn't aware anybody was dropping anything? Other than you and I didn't notice any of the local wildlife carrying anything, except for those shady looking types over at that dark temple
OmniUbah4: If you didn't know why not just say
OmniUbah4 ::runs off::

OK not the best example, but I've had conversations like that in the past. I've even had such problems talking to possible recruits for Circle G. I'd talk to them about becoming an employee of our company and what that entails & they'd respond confused with stuff like "So can I join your guild?" "What security company?" etc.

Not sure if this is the real truth behind it, but I think it's part of it. Think of the non-RP folks as somebody who wandered here straight out of a game of Quake.

[Darth Bootay]

You know, it's funny you should say that, Boinky. The "only a game" part. No sarcasm at all, I honestly thought RP was part of being in a game. I get what you mean though. Or I think I do. But to be honest, the FPSers of the world have nothing to whine or grief about when they come into a game like AO.

You see, my IRL BF and his circle of friends are total FPS junkies. They love the lewtz and the thrill of the PK. A number of them have returned to AO, following him. And to a man, they have had no trouble with being respectful to the roleplaying community. And it's not just because they know I'd give them a world of hell for being jackasses. It's not even because they're mature adults... because to be frank, I think a few of them are assinine boychildren. It's just because it's not at all cool to dick with people who are just trying to have their own version of fun.

It's not all that difficult to respect one's fellow players even if the playstyles are different.

LOL Lynx! Like I said before... it's in your character's nature to get wasted, drop your pants and do the drunk Lynx dance. Just like it's in Schuu's nature to put on the old red ties and proclaim the lesson old Boo taught him a long while back "Schuy so sexxy!" And there's nothing wrong with that at all, even when a lot of other characters are doing /scared EEK! "Put on some pants!" I haven't been to an IRL party in the last 15 years that didn't have someone that did something equally silly and freaky. It's not only plausible, it's just 'one of those things' like Tarryk and Leet Piss. Course if you stick your bikini-clad face in Boo's face, she might just bite it so hard you won't be able to sit down for a few days. Because that too is 'one of those things'.

[Palla]

I love roleplay, I've yet to find any consistent RP in any MMOG I've played so far. Note there are two letters I've left out of that -- in my 5+ years of MMOGs, I've learned that, while you have RPers, you also have, in just as large numbers, anti-RPers. They WILL set out to ruin your RPing, because they can.

If I could find a few quality people to consistently roleplay with, I'd actually consider coming back to AO. But, sadly, I don't see that happening anytime soon :/

[Boinky]

Palla makes a decent point. I will admit that even though I consider myself a RPer to some extent I believe nobody can RP in these games 100%. Even 50% might be hard without being a complete gimp as far as gameplay goes. To level and aquire useful items for your character requires down & dirty gameplaying even for those who mainly look to RP as their venue.

[Taimaischu]

I first got into RP after a long stay on an old game called "Furcadia" it may seem a bit funny but a game with no built in combat like that makes you become IC more and more as time goes on and I've liked roleplaying ever since. I slip OOC every now and then but it's hard to avoid such things entirely for anyone, I'm almost certain... and I'm by no means an exception or even close. Certain times and places I stay semi-OOC like these forums among others. It's difficult to find decent RP on many mmoRPgs but AO is by far my favorite. The good thing about being IC is that you don't HAVE to be in total agreement over an issue to co-exist without too much hostility in my opinion. But I would definetly be more than a little angry about something like that as well.

[Oddysee]

What's with this sudden burst of forum necromancy?... Let old posts of over one month die already! Give them peace!!!




Tm

[Laerena]

Ok... I can't let this one die... simply because its the first time I've been here since it got posted... (work Sucks) but... time for me to put in my 2 creds... (blame boo... LOL Her rants rock and always get me keyed up (; )

Heaven knows I'm a socialite. I try to rp as much as possible but its hard sometimes... Hell I've got a shade that wont step foot in public without being fully dressed (when I'm IC.... Yes I'll ocasionally strip her down as a joke but she's quickly dressed again) ... She hates going out and fighting because she can't wear armor and her tattoos show... (s'why she doesn't wear a back item other than a sabertooth cloak)

But like my friend St.Boo said... There's a difference between being classy and between just plain vulgar... Anyone who knows me knows how much of a socialite I was and am... and have been since i started this game... I've been playing for almost 2 yrs and i'm only at Level 154...

Anyone who knows me will also know I have a few long standing.... issues... with people who don't show class in what they call their "Roleplay." I'll leave names and guilds out of it but yah... There were a few reasons I was vacant from AO/GDF for a while... Work was the main one...

The second was the fact that EVERY time I logged into the wonderful world of RK, if I was on the GDF I logged into the lap of some couple on the couch, even in the middle of the day... being very lewd in public... Parties got ridiculous and the immature children seemed to be coming out en masse and ruining it for the people who were there to enjoy themselves....

What made me laugh the most: I once got accused of not having a sensual bone in my body and of not being a good rper, by one of these children... Who thought sensual was defined by stripping down to her undies and trying to fondle other characters significant others...

I hated being away from AO and from my friends and the ability to RP with a great group of people that I associate with here... But at the same time I felt blessed to be able to avoid the idiots with good reason... (Yes... the Evil W word has dominated my life lately... Hopefully with the addition of several new-hires I'll actually be able to work only 5 days a week!!!)

I agree with Boo on the whole /ignore thing... I wish it made the toon invisible... or at least that every time someone put you on /ignore it sent a nice little red flag to the ARKs to let them know that something was up...

Though I must thank Lynx for something he insisted I make for myself about a year and a half ago... An Ignore macro... It has made my life so much easier on RK *laugh* So thanks hon... Though its also probably quadrupled the size of my "ignore" list... LOL Yah... so if you've ever seen me mention a macro.... *grin* now you know what I mean....

Now... As for the respect thing... It goes both ways... I understand that not everyone out there on AO is a rper... But damn it I don't go try to rp at your raids... don't try to turn my social event into the "lets see how many rpers we can piss off" event...

Thanks... that's all... Random Unscheduled Rant ending now...

PS: Love to ya all that I've missed lately!

[Maephina]

I love role play. I role play any time I get the opportunity and as you can attest St.Boo, sometimes I can "go to far" (but only when I'm dared to I swear! )
In spite of this, I totally see what you are saying and agree with it. It's one thing to have a cutesy kissy couple off in a corner being affectionate. It's another thing when some fat-assed trox in a string waltzes in shouting obscenities. In my mind it's just that poor, pathetic, lonely soul trying to get attention. And obviously going way to far. In my mind that is the problem with many of the people you seem to be describing. They want attention at any exspense and sadly much of the time it's those of us who are just minding our own business trying to stay IC.

My advice?
/me hands St.Bootay her own AnalJackhammer.
Next time hit'em with this and tell'em to piss off.
Sometimes all it takes is one thing to shock the piss out of them to make them stop..or go away.

Seriously though, I realize the chances of success there are slim and will really only serve to make the situation worse, but I know how ya feel. One thing I find especially irritating while trying to role play is tell hell from morons asking me for cyber, lap dances, ect.

This has given me an idea I think I'll post into game suggestions.

"It also irks the shit out of me when people use AO as their own personal America Online Stupid Horny Housewives Looking For Hot Sex chatrooms.

thanks for the new bot logon lol.