rpanons | [D] Haa. Haa. Haa.

[D] Haa. Haa. Haa.

Rundown:

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Do not treat this comm like your personal Plurk or Twitter. Off-topic happens, but it should be open for discussion and not just a play-by-play of your life. No one cares.

Concerns?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

are tags typically so...sparse here? i've been thinking about apping and have been looking at some in-game threads and i'm kind of surprised at how little there is to go on in most of them.

but maybe i'm just used to games where writing more is the norm. idk.

I wouldn't say there is little to go. You don't necessarily have to write hundreds of words in order to give hooks— aather's sort of style relies a lot more in giving hooks in the conversation itself, and generally uses icons to convey the character's expression and general mood.

IT'S A VERY SPECIFIC STYLE THAT IS NOT FOR EVERYONE. It's absolutely fine if it's not your thing, but if you think you can't work with that it's probably best if you look for something else.

To clarify, there are times when people get really really wordy, but it's typically when there are actual things to do! For example during games (you can see them in the dramaticpersonae journal), when characters have to do certain tasks, they tend to write more-- which is normal, because it's necessary.

If a scene is particularly emotionally charged the same applies-- it's just people are likely to write more if it's in something the scene will actually benefit from it, rather than casual conversation (since the conversation itself is usually enough to go on).

wow, no need to get the bold capslock out on me. i'd already said that it might just be me not being used to the way that the games operates, gosh.

i was just wondering how people found anything to respond to when the tag was literally something like '[does x]' and nothing else. it just seems like outside of the games you mentioned everything is kind of superficial or relies on one or the other character to carry the thread rather than having a give and take.

idk, maybe i'm just having some kind of weird rp culture shock. this is probably how foreign tourists feel on their first day out, haha.

I think the anon overreacted because we've had this discussion once or twice before very recently on this meme or maybe it was acj I forget. I'll admit I also kind of rolled my eyes and went god haven't we been over this already. It must just be coincidence that you've brought it up again so soon. It is just culture shock though, because I can't see how [does x] can be hard to respond to as long as there actually is something they're doing. Most threads I have have a lot of give and take, some threads are superficial but I persist at them because friendships often start out superficial and it's part of building relationships.

yeah, honestly i haven't been following your thread here or at acj at all. i only started looking into the game a few weeks ago, haha.

this is very likely! the specific tag i was thinking was [tilts head] when the other character was busy doing something of their own, so. i think it must just be my natural tl;dr nature to kind of boggle at people with huge-ass threads that never say more than three sentences to each other (at best) at a time.

i promise not to speak loudly and slowly if i do end up apping, though.

Whereas the idea of characters constantly monologuing at each other for three sentences at a time seems bizarre to me. The style I'm used to is meant to mimic how actual conversations go, and most people don't have conversations that consist of spouting paragraphs at each other. They also don't constantly internally reflect for paragraphs every time they talk either, so it doesn't make sense to me to do so. But I think in terms of cultural differences there might be a difference in how much you're meant to read in to a tag? Like I would read [tilts head] as "this character is curious and interested in what my character is doing" and I'd probably reply to it with something like [notices her watching and x]. Or if the character was very involved in what they would doing it'd be something about them eventually finishing or turning and noticing. That said, I'll agree it's not the most interesting thing to be tagged with, especially if you get a few in close succession. But since it's just the start of what could turn out to be several interesting threads it wouldn't bother me much.

... I guess when I say most people don't have conversations that consist of spouting paragraphs I am referring to face to face verbal conversations, haha.

mmm, that's understandable. i found that one deep in a really long thread between characters that seemed to be pretty close already, hence my ???? HOW YOU TAG reaction.

i think that what trips me up is that mimicry you were talking about. i always assumed that bracket tl;dr was less for the benefit of the other character so much as the players - like, yeah ok, A won't know whatever's running through B's head when he says 'ok' but it's nice for A's mun to know. kind of like a story, whereas aather seems to be more of a movie in the show not tell sense? if that is understandable at all, haha.

but uh, i also don't want you assuming that i throw paragraphs at my rp partners all the time. i do play wordy characters, but even the more terse ones do a little more talking than ten+ tags of things like 'ok' 'yeah' 'don't please' and the like. i am naturally tl;dr but i promise i know when to stop.

Yeah, the difference between adding what's going on in the character's head to a tag or not seems to be the major playstyle difference between CFUD/Aather/Thusia etc RPs and the majority of DW RPs. There is a ton of chatting about what's going on in characters heads when something interesting is going on, but almost all of it happens OOCly in plurks, IRC, question memes on character journals and essays and probably other things I'm forgetting. So players do get the benefit of it, it just is done somewhere else.

which is probably why it's a little weird for an outsider who doesn't have access to/knowledge of those other places. thank you for being so patient, aathernon, i think this all makes sense to me now.

honestly i think if i did app i'd just keep doing it the way i'm used to just for my own peace of mind, since i'm a fast enough of a tagger that it wouldn't slow down the thread. those tiny tags just look so sad to me. :c

Nah, it's cool, glad I could explain it well enough. I don't think anyone would mind if you kept doing it the way you were used to as long as you weren't offended by getting tags that seem really short back. We do have a couple of people here or there already who tag in the style you're talking about so you wouldn't be alone either.

Anon I'm sorry, my bold capslock wasn't a capslock of rage but honestly just meant to bring attention to it? There has been a lot of discussion about it, and some unhappy people about how Aather's playing style works, so I figured the more clear I was the better, since you mentioned wanting to app. I apologize if I looked like a raging anon!

That being said, honestly, it also kind of depends on the player and character, like in all games. Personally I always tries to give something to the other person to reply to.

nothing to worry about! i didn't really think you were raging so much as a little irritated, it's all good. i wasn't aware there had been previous talk about this kind of thing. c:

yeah, i figured that a lot of this had to do with player's specific styles as well as maybe some character being kind of reticent. i was just a little confused because i'd come across a character that i know to be pretty wordy and prone to inner reflection being played that way, so i just wanted to check and make sure that was the norm.

not your fault you weren't aware of it-- and I really should have been more clear. Glad this is sorted out, sorry again anon!

and yeah, pretty much it's the norm, though it really depends and varies. Like you said it has to be with player's specific styles, characters, then scenes and the like.

personally I prefer this sort of style since I feel like writing things like "[ he's looking like there's something off, a sad expression on his face while he thinks it's a pity bananas aren't ruling the world yet ]" is sort of trying to tell the other player "hey, poke him about that!" and it doesn't feel natural to me. I try to give subtle hints when my character is feeling off, and expand on it only if it actually comes up in the thread.

but honestly I think any playing style is fine! If you want to join and you prefer to be more wordy in your tags and go into a bit of introspection, I'm certain nobody will mind. The problem is really whether you think you can play against this style, rather than what you prefer to do yourself.

As others mentioned, it varies based on character and player. There are some that will make neutral-expression "..." comments, and there are some players that I have seen talk in plurk about how they consider an action tag with an emote in it a valid and full comment. I have even seen some threads where the characters are no longer interacting or even really doing anything, and it's just player observations in action tags.

It's not par for the course, but it is common enough that you'll want to consider how you'd handle it if you decide you want to try apping.

Personally, I find it's like talking to a brick wall when this happens, so have taken to considering the conversation over and turn my attention elsewhere.

It's perfectly legit to feel that way, but because I am honestly curious: do you feel like [smiles] would be a more legit tag than [:D]? Because if so I really don't understand where you're coming from.

I can see the difficulty that players from journalrps with other styles might have with the ultra-sparse commentspam used in that particular subculture easily, but I don't get why an emoticon used when the player is feeling casual and maybe a little silly to show a fairly opaque, spare description of the character's expression, body language, or inner mind theater is less informative than text when. . . you'd normally be getting an opaque, spare word or two on the character's expression, body language, or inner mind theater. Emoticons are part of the shorthand we usually use to represent our responses ooc in an absence of body language and vocal cues, so why not character responses in brackets, if you're being informal anyway? They give you information fine when you're talking to someone.

I've considered that the problem might be a mental block, or that people feel disrespected or brushed off by emoticons in tags, which is unfortunate, since I'm pretty sure that's not at all the intent of someone who's trying to be casual with their fun and use the same lexicon they usually utilize when telling a friend about their character's reaction on plurk or wahtever. But that explanation does make sense to me! Whereas I can't get my mind around

[8DDD!!]

being more of a brick wall than

[grins widely, excited!!]

at all. :|a

Again, whatever your reasons are, I'm not trying to police your tag responding mojo over here! Just explaining why it seems so odd to me, and where the people who feel ['-'......] is in fact fine as a tag in a fast-moving thread might be coming from.

I... kind of assumed the "emotes are valid and full comment" plurks were meant as jokes?

aather is definitely pretty bare commentspam, yeah! it's really just a play style. for me, personally, i swap depending on the rp i'm in because i like different aspects of the different play styles!

usually, aather tags only give description/insight where it's really necessary, but even then it's somewhat opaque (like recently, i had a thread where a character looked down at the ground before responding, and there was only a vague indication of their mood; i just didn't say what the gesture meant -- so the other character had to interpret what that meant icly, just like people would in actual conversations). it definitely allows for a different sort of cr, imo! but a lot of people also hate getting tags that are just like [stares at] or [walks past] or [exists] from character y, because unless there's a reason for character x to tag y already (like they were seeking them out) it can be a pain to think of some way to tag them back, though many people do roll with it anyway.

hopefully other anons will see these comments and get a little bit of insight into how we thread! admittedly, there are definitely weaknesses (for instance, i oocly couldn't tell a character was being snippy in tone until the mun mentioned it oocly, which would have been obvious in longer action tags), but it ends up being a matter of preference. if you or anyone does join aather, feel free to use the style you prefer most! it's a pretty trivial thing in the end.

I'm... probably an idiot and missing something that's been said/is in the rules, but how come that one knight spot isn't getting filled up?

All of the knight apps are on hold for one reason or another. I think it was mentioned in one of the announcement posts or something. They used to only tell us how many were in the pool that weren't on hold but they switched over to telling us the real total. I'm not sure what the reasons for it are but I do know the mods are very open to people asking about the state of apps if you want more detail.

Er, just for clarity I mean all the CURRENT knight apps are on hold for various reasons. If someone else were to app then their app would presumably get in next weekend.

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[D] Haa. Haa. Haa.

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