Low Population Theory

[MikeH]

Being shy is not the same as being a recluse. Sometimes the two go hand in hand, but not always. And I never said everyone.

I don't want to give the impression I'm against someone RPing a shy character. That's fine, and logically, many towns will have one or two shy people.

My objection is to an entire town of people like that. With newspawns waking up in a town of 5 or more people that totally ignore them, even after the newspawn introduces themselves, reads the notes, tries to engage in conversation, etc.

Even worse is when the oldbies are interacting with each other and refusing to engage the newspawn.

One oldbie doing this because their character is supposed to be shy is one thing, but everyone doing it... that's just unpleasant and unwelcoming, and my guess is, it's a real turn-off to a new player.

[Arlequin]

Meh, It'll be enough if people stop being so rational and align with the wacky dude.

The church of the (insert animal/tool of choice) God can always use more followers. Consider the amount of stubborn heathen heads that are still to be knocked.

[MakeBeliever]

Mine try to help newbies when they can and you know why, because nothing gives more rewards then seeing a new character take shape and become colourful. I just remember when i was new Being as this was the first ever rpg game i ever played my early characters where lucky to meet some great players along the way a few years back now. They took time to emote and involve my chars even if mine were a little like card board cut outs to start. It doesn't take long to start making colourful characters, but you have to be led by example, without other players emoting and talking however are new ones ever going to get as hooked as you do get here. So thats why my characters help when they can.

Although thats a little tricky for me right now as we do have the odd lagging not to mention i'm typing one handed due to having a mangled Elbow from the dry ski slopes after taking a fall that only Johnny knoxville would appreciate. So some of my normally noisy older chars are on a quiet moment or quite slow right now due to that fact. And what idiot named your elbow your funny bone? Nothing funny there at all.

[rconley]

Although thats a little tricky for me right now as we do have the odd lagging not to mention i'm typing one handed due to having a mangled Elbow from the dry ski slopes after taking a fall that only Johnny knoxville would appreciate. So some of my normally noisy older chars are on a quiet moment or quite slow right now due to that fact. And what idiot named your elbow your funny bone? Nothing funny there at all.

That's because other people are normally the ones laughing. I did notice one of yours seemed quiet...er. lol Though with the lag right now I'm not sure it matters much either way. But I do hope you heal up well and am sorry to hear about your incident.

[Missy]

I think people fail to point out something important, often when talking about "ignoring" IC.


Sometimes people feel ignored when they weren't ignored. Sometimes people are ignored on accident. It's not like real life where you can actually "hear" somebody saying you're name and asking you a question. You read it. Sometimes you miss reading it because it's just a common err while playing this game.

I've accidently missed saying hello to people and I honestly wouldn't have done so on purpose------And they run off bitching about being ignored without bothering to give another chance.

I'm sorry, but sometimes you have to give some ooc leeway to things of that nature, in the sense that I don't feel it's right to always think that your character was flat out being ignored.

And what's ignored to some people? One day? Two days? Three days having gone by after you said "Hello my name is Poop...Who are you?" Sometimes you have to try again.


I've also personally missed events that I should have seen. For instance, when a character's running in and out of a building and if you say "HEY WAIT!" while I'm in the proccess of that? Strangely I've totally missed an event due to some glitch.


I don't think it's fair to assume that people are always purposely ignoring. You can't really KNOW without doubt why a person DIDN'T acknowledge your character.

[the_antisocial_hermit]

Exactly.

[Phalynx]

Exactly.

HTF can you say that she is totally disagreeing with you....?

[the_antisocial_hermit]

No, she's not. She's stating another reason why people might be "ignoring" others. It says nothing for or against my reasons that I stated. I'm not the one assuming that characters always ignore on purpose. I only stated that there are valid reasons for a character to purposely ignore others.

[SekoETC]

So now there's been over a page of this same old "oh no, I ignored a newspawn, now they're so gonna quit!" If a person doesn't have enough patience to wait for a day or two and realize that other people may have a thing called "life" and that you're not the center of the universe then they are in the wrong game. Some people may be ready to dedicate their life to helping newspawns and get satisfaction from it but that's not for everybody. If a person spawns and doesn't show any kind of personal flavor, they're just "Hi, my name is John Smith and I'm new here", ok, we've heard that before. A big percentage of people drop dead before they reach the age of 30. Heck, several people die before the age of 22. I don't think you can blame any environmental factors for that. The players just weren't fit for this game. This isn't a daycare center, everyone is supposed to make their own future and life. You can't expect people to start arranging activities to bored newbies. Ok ok, just saying "Hi and welcome to X, potatoes are found in the barrel" does not take much effort but not all characters are fit to say even that. So it would be good if all friendly but silent communities arranged a greeter.

[Chris]

I agree that not everyone has to welcome a newspawn, but someone should. If someone else has already given the newspawn the intro spiel about the name of the town and so on, I won't have to. But if no one has done so yet, it's good to fill the gap.

Also, it's a sign of something lacking when a newspawn asks for work and no one responds, or the response is, "Work on whatever you like." Doesn't the town have any ambition? Isn't more labor good to have, especially when the newspawn isn't making any demands for compensation?

[I_am]

If a person doesn't have enough patience to wait for a day or two and realize that other people may have a thing called "life" and that you're not the center of the universe then they are in the wrong game. Some people may be ready to dedicate their life to helping newspawns and get satisfaction from it but that's not for everybody.

Spawning in a welcoming and helpful environment is a crap shoot, and has been since I began playing in June of 2005. I was one of those newbies who didn’t bother to read most of the stuff I should have read before I started playing. My first character was hungry for about a week before I figured out that she was standing knee deep in spinach that she could pick herself. And in all that time, no one spoke to her. Granted, it was back in the day when no one might have noticed a newspawn unless they moved around. But my newspawn hunted, went in and out of a building, and made clothing, and when she did try to interact, she was usually ignored, unless she whispered to someone and even then she didn’t always get a response. I stuck it out, though; did a lot of observing and learning and she was eventually elected as a Senator in that town.

Since that time, I’ve had good and bad newspawn experiences. Interestingly, some of my best and most welcoming newspawn experiences were in towns that some might consider hostile: Olipifirovash Forest and Seatown Forest, to name a few.

My point in all this is that I agree with Seko. Cantr is what each person makes of it. It isn’t a shoot ‘em up, slam-bam, your dead game that’s grounded in instant gratification. It takes time to learn and that responsibility rests, for the most part, with the newbie. It’s an oversimplification to point the finger at confused newbies as a significant factor in lower population.

That being said, it's been my experience that helping a newbie usually buys you loyalty from that newbie so it's not such a bad idea to help out a newbie if it's IC.

Don't think for a moment that "MacGregors" or "Lad Empire" as seen over the past two real life years bear any relation to what they were when they were founded or what they had been intended to be.

The MacGregors are as blood-thirsty, merciless, power-hungry, and on the move as they ever were.

[SekoETC]

Sadly there are places without ambition. There are also places with big projects going on but people still choose to stand outside farming for potatoes (even though there's enough food in storage to keep them fed for years) and healing food (even though they never get hurt). It's so frustrating when you keep telling people they could be useful and they just ignore you. So it's not just the newspawns who get ignored, it extends to older people who are trying to motivate people. If your character has no ambitions, no desires then they might as well drop dead. I don't know why you bother to keep farming for food if you are doing nothing to get somewhere in life.

And yeah, the MacGregors are still rather scary.