Sources of political intrigue

[Muir]

You like intrigue, you just dont like pvp ( the two dont always go hand in hand). Ive always gotten a vibe in alliance, and to me it is weird, that a large number of people fairly closely associate their actual selves, with their character, and this is part of what seems to make conflict between characters and pvp (social or physical, or any stripe) a bit of a dirty word because it gets too real to quik or so thats the impression I get. Is this the case or is there something else I am missing? Its an alien mindset to me- I come from a basically all pvp background with wod materials.

Look at it from an out of game perspective. First here is an unhealthy attitude among some players that their character is an investment as well, so they are highly resistant to anything bad happening to it because 'I paid money to get that character to that level'. In a WoD LARP, if you get PK'd or dead via plot, the most you're out is usually a few months of EXP, which comes relatively quickly there. When you've got a lot of 10+ year old characters around (and there are a huge number of those in the Midwest alone, much less the coasts) you start to see people getting much much more risk averse.

Secondly, few people want to be 'That Guy' who killed someone else's cherished PC. Bad blood happens, and it isn't that easy to just go to a different Alliance game if you've made yourself persona non grata to the OOG social structure at the one you're at. I'm sure there are people around here who would rather not play with me because I have strong opinions on the Internet.

 

[James Trotta]

Unhealthy how?

Look at it from an out of game perspective. First here is an unhealthy attitude among some players that their character is an investment as well, so they are highly resistant to anything bad happening to it because 'I paid money to get that character to that level'. In a WoD LARP, if you get PK'd or dead via plot, the most you're out is usually a few months of EXP, which comes relatively quickly there. When you've got a lot of 10+ year old characters around (and there are a huge number of those in the Midwest alone, much less the coasts) you start to see people getting much much more risk averse.

If you mean that people think OOG that since they have been paying and playing a while, that their character should be immune to unpleasantness, then I have two things to say. First, that would be unhealthy. Second, are we sure that's what's happening?

However feeling the character is an investment doesn't seem automatically unhealthy. Resisting bad stuff is fine with me. Most personalities do resist bad stuff happening to them so the RP angle makes sense. And we probably want some resistance for intrigue to matter.

 

[B.Barber]

Look at it from an out of game perspective. First here is an unhealthy attitude among some players that their character is an investment as well, so they are highly resistant to anything bad happening to it because 'I paid money to get that character to that level'. In a WoD LARP, if you get PK'd or dead via plot, the most you're out is usually a few months of EXP, which comes relatively quickly there. When you've got a lot of 10+ year old characters around (and there are a huge number of those in the Midwest alone, much less the coasts) you start to see people getting much much more risk averse.

Secondly, few people want to be 'That Guy' who killed someone else's cherished PC. Bad blood happens, and it isn't that easy to just go to a different Alliance game if you've made yourself persona non grata to the OOG social structure at the one you're at. I'm sure there are people around here who would rather not play with me because I have strong opinions on the Internet.

-The comparison to the wod thing is not entirely accurate actually. For the long term organizations (like what I play), the same sense of investment exists for some- emotionally and at times financially, and there are 10+ year characters. I know some people dont know this about that style of game but its true. Now, that IS also why some of the same attatchment problems exist, no lie it isnt problem free -but the pvp goes on anyhow and for the most part a-ok. I think the additional mistaken attatchment in this kind of game (alliance) comes from the more physical nature of it somehow. Wod games dont tend to run for so long each session and there isnt anybody ever actuallybearing down on you in a fight.. not exactly anyway.

-Anyone who thinks of their character as an investment is horribly mis-invested in their perception of larp. A character cannot be an investment as investments are intended to have some ultimate payoff if done right, characters can grow but in the end they only grow based on what you constantly put into them and never become more than that in any real sense. The investment is in the hobby itself, in that your next experience may be greater than the one before based on things learned, freinds made and experiences had prior- an individual character is never an investment, only a purchase and one with an expiration date weather you retire it or it dies. I really cant stand the idea of mistakeing someone just being-invested, and something being an investment... Nobody is entitled to being sheilded from bad stuff especially not based on longevity.... but I do see where the attitude comes from.

...basically, this is why I tell people not to play themselves in larp, or avatars of themselves in larp. The sense of themselves dieing is unhealthy if they arent prepared to get over it and sometimes really hard even if they are. Same reason why I think new larpers should lose their first character early so they can understand that life goes on and its OK to lose a character.