To any new people, my main's name is Bubbacrush. I am a roleplayer in the AO community for many years now, and have been playing off and on since beta. I used to be one of the many organizers of RP on rk2, before the server merge. Many people, roleplayers or not - may be at least familiar with me from before that merge took place. I am bringing this thread up because a couple of us have been talking, and I thought this would be a good time to get some community thoughts/feelings together on a few subjects.
In the past, we have had RP meetings before. Some of them went decent, but most of them did not. We had 4 hour sessions of Q&A for a RP meeting and it seemed that sometimes it was hard to get all our thoughts and notions together in a decently paced way that was easy on the whole. On rk1, there were meetings under the name 'The Greencloaks' and that idea is being tossed around again.
So, I've decided its probably a good thing we can come up with a list of things before hand so we don't bog down sessions of Q&A for any of the upcoming RP meetings, especially any of us who could conceivably may not be present for the big RP meeting which final dates have not been released to us. The idea thus far in its evolution is that there is going to be a large RP meeting with us as players and with the ARK events crew. Another angle is entirely up to the RP community which may or may not have ARK eventers present. Both of these plans are a good start to establishing some closeness and awareness to the efforts of both sides of this coin.
So, if you guys/gals have any thing you want to get out before-hand with questions or answers that we can come together on, I think this is what is to be encouraged. As far as what ARK events can answer, I'll let them chime in as they see fit. What I'm hoping is that we can comb through the dialogue between us first and sort of manage things before it turns into a dragging session that some might not particular enjoy sitting through before having their own word in.
To get the ball rolling, I'm going to lay down a couple of things that I have been considering behind the screen.
1. My first priority to the role-playing community is awareness. To that end, I intend to answer most questions that are made available. If any reader here has a concern as to joining the roleplay community but isn't sure how to proceed, this is the perfect opportunity to step up and ask questions. I have no intention of calling anyone noobish or naive. The goal is to have fun. In order for me to have fun, its important to keep others up to date and/or informed. This community is a great place to start that ball rolling. If I am not available, there are some good people on this panel that would easily be willing to fill those shoes. I also encourage people of different perspectives sharing opposing views too, as long as its handled with some positivity. Awareness is absolutely key to keep people inside the ring.
2. If you wish to talk to ARK events, there are several ways this can be done. What I do personally is to put the ones I am familiar with on my friends list. When they log into the server, sometimes I may have a question for them or get feedback. This can work for you too. However, I do suggest to keep things brief for them. If there are multiple ARK eventers online at once, they may be up to something.. which means you may get the chance to be a part of the storyline. I also have a version of mIRC installed called Pidgin. Its a chat client that connects me to the #AO Events channel. The means of installing and getting that set up are found here in the All-in-one thread.
3. Clan side main roleplayers are sort of in the minority, and I barely count towards that end. When meetings and events proceed again at the pace we started with this month I fully intend to continue awareness into Clan-based RP, with the hope of getting people together with meet and greets. This is important because the current demographic seems to favour Omni-tek at this point in time, and I think its important to sort of even out the scales a bit. I have taken into consideration that many neutrals and OT roleplayers have clan alts, and there is nothing wrong with that. However, for big events where there is always going to be people that would be more willing to be involved on their mains, then their clan alts. Having more clan mains in addition to the alts we are accruing would be an extremely helpful boon. In between big sessions, is where the bulk of us tend to gather in small groups for simple social exercise. There is a short list of spots to sometimes check if there are more than a few of us online together. In addition to these hotspots, keeping people on the know of where RP can potentially happen is also a valid help. For instance, if you are interested in getting a small simple social RP together, you can simply announce your intent in the RKRPOOC or RKRP chat bots.
4. The bots I mentioned previously are very valid tools to getting started in RP. There is even a system in place for entirely Omni based RP, which has helped them organize their collective selves quite nicely. I'll let their operators speak for themselves on that front. For the OOC (out of character bot) you only need type /tell rkrpooc !join, and it will add you to the group. The same is true for the IC (in character bot) /tell rkrp !join, as well. If you have questions, then asking in the ooc bot is probably the wisest. Were a small but helpful community, so I doubt you'll have any trouble getting answers if you press hard enough.
5. With some help, I've started a RP community site that is going to be hacker-centric. In a cyberpunk world, information and anonymity is king to the professional 'edgerunner' as it were. The site is already done, thanks to the efforts of Agrestus. It will have some fine tuning as I intend to have spots here and there for fun things like learning the hacker lexicon and hacker dos and donts, and the like. The goal of this site is a RP-centric homage to the group known as 'Anonymous' which has taken quite a controversial role in modern internet politics since their conception. Anyone familiar with some of the stranger sides of the internet may familiar with them or groups like them. Disclaimer is that it is in fact role play, and has no real world ties nor connection to that particular group. It is merely a thematic stage in which to engage role players in that sort of style. The groups' aim is to be a power based upon individuals, but those that can keep their identities a secret to the rest of the world. Factional lines will be crossed and murky. That is the beauty of this group is that openly pays very little loyalty to faction unless you as a player deem it to be important to make the distinction. It is not meant to be a site dedicated to grid crimes against opposing factions, though sometimes the group may collectively decide to engage in crime for a greater purpose they deem is necessary. More information on this group will be available during its unveiling. It is also not entirely just based upon Fixers, but anyone that considers themselves to have a respectable sense of computer literacy, and digital espionage.
6. I personally will be doing reports under my assumed reporter identity to bring a certain something to the roleplay community that is not entirely based upon warring between opposing factions. I believe that the conflict is integral to the game, and that has had its own stage for quite a while. I won't undermine that. But, I'd like to bring something to the table that isn't just all that, but dedicated to things that will bring a sense of immersion to the game that may not have been there before. This falls under my initiative of Science, Art, and Culture. If you feel that you'd like to be a part of that initiative, I full endorse any attempt to do so.
7. As some of you may be aware of, the RP professional program is already underway and we have representatives already available for you to 'interrogate'. You should take full advantage of that. The current list of them can be found at the very beginning of the All-in-One thread. One cannot stress enough how important some of that information may be.
8. I am opening Steadfast up for any clan based roleplayer or alt who believes it might be a good fit for them. I am currently on the fence as to whether or not I can get behind it 100% as a PVX (player versus everything) because its not really entirely necessary to go all the way with it, yet. I put stress on the 'yet' part. I'd likely invest every ounce of my game time to get it going that way if there was enough interest. However, in its current state it will remain just an RP guild/organization for now. The status of that may change in the future.
9. If you are curious about the storyline and how the world of Anarchy Online evolved from the days of the fictional history it was brought up on, there are people who are far deeper into the lore than I. These folks can easily give information and are likely eager to share their findings. These players may present themselves in this thread if they choose to, but I will leave it up to them to out themselves publicly.
10. Events are not just ARK run! Players do have a measurable amount of storylines they intend to share with other players. Over the course of time, even I have had story arcs that weren't dependant on ARK Events to see through them. It is however, largely a matter to take up with the individuals running them. Also, feel free to test the waters by creating your own! I'm positive there is someone here in the community who may have an interest in getting involved with other people's stories.
11. Which brings me to a final bullet point, and that's involvement. Involvement is important because unless people are actually involved and engaged in these things, then really all were doing is theorizing and talking about what's possible or plausible in the world of Rubi-ka. The great thing about role play and playing the role is that you, as a player, can choose your level of involvement. You can play on the sidelines and spectate, or you can jump full on into the barrel and hope everything explodes all around you. If what you are doing is entertaining to us, you'll find many of us will return the favour and continue the immersion to entertain you as well. Its a two way door, and has never been otherwise. Therefore - INVOLVEMENT! Its highly encouraged to get to know your fellow roleplayers, IC and OOC. Discuss ideas and networking is how we all plan these things out. Don't be shy!
The floor is now open to discuss things, or ask questions. I highly anticipate and am excited for the future of this storyline and this game, because currently the ARK Events team are numbering higher now then I have ever heard of before. Its gotten a huge jolt and is coming alive like Frankenstein's monster! The sooner we can all get things onto the table and managed, the quicker we can get to creating and maintaining the community in a fun way.
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Originally Posted by Effrit
