Things that annoy or puzzle you about Cantr

[Vega]

Them, and their "necessity" of kill or ban or spoil my chars. And then they ask why I don't play...

And I'm so stupid that I keep giving them a chance...

*Grumble grumble grumble grumble.*

[Chroma Key]

The following is a quote from an actual court judgment (which is in the public domain) that I read today...

“Histrionic personality disorder:
His seeking or demanding reassurance, approval or praise;
He is uncomfortable in situations in which he is not the centre of attention;
He displays rapidly shifting and shallow expressions of emotion;
Are self-centred, actions being directed towards obtaining immediate
satisfaction; he has no tolerance for frustration;
His style of speech is excessively impressionistic and lacking in detail.
Narcissistic personality disorder:
He reacts to criticism (real or perceived) with feelings of rage;
Shame or humiliation (even if not overtly expressed as such);
He is interpersonally exploitive taking advantage of others to achieve his own
ends;
He has a grandiose sense of self-importance, e.g. exaggerating his
achievements or talents;
Expects to be noticed as “special” even without appropriate achievements.
The corollary of this is his denigration of others without relevant cause;
He believes his problems are unique and can only be understood by other
special people;
He is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance,
beauty or ideal love;
Has a sense of entitlement and unreasonable expectation of especially
favourable treatment;
Lack of empathy, inability to recognise and experience how others feel.”

I was going to highlight certain parts, but I realised that I would have to highlight them all. However, the last one deserves it more than any of the others.

Cantr is full of characters carrying the above traits, and in many places, run by this sort of characters. Of course, I don't mean "run" in the sense of leadership, even though some of the leaders out there may carry these traits. Life revolves around those chars, and woe betide you if you dare to stand up to their manipulative, selfish, but worst of all manufactured drama. That puzzles and annoys me both. I have always said that I resented those who bent over backwards for the manipulators more than the manipulators themselves. That is still how I feel.

There is just so much to do in this game... so much to create, build and share, but all my chars seem to come across is the above... those who have the famous little fingers, and those wrapped around them. I want no part of that. I am not asking for a drama free environment, and some drama is interesting, but the same old s**t over and over again everywhere has got really tiring for me....

Cantr is far more than that, and I am thankful that there are still a few players who seem to think so also...

[Friar Briar]

For the above reasons that Chroma Key has outlined, most of my characters are either solitary explorers or actively involved in towns that do not contain said narcissistic characters. It's not really role-playing; it's more an extension of a player's real life drama and issues spilling over into the platform of this game -- and it entirely ticks me off. (It's not too difficult for me to weed out which characters belong to those players I'm trying to avoid. Their "tells" are very telling.)

[Snickie]

Most of my characters carry the unempathetic gene in the sense that they don't give a **** about how the other person is feeling. That probably stems from my general cluelessness on how to react when other people are having emotions iRL.

Person: "My dad, he's such an idiot, <problems problems legitimate problems>!"
Me: ".....That's unfortunate."

[Marian]

Wow, uncanny how spot on everything on that list is. Perfectly describes some characters I've met, though thankfully not recently. Some characters clearly ONLY exist to stir up drama at the expense of others, and it's frustrating, but it was also a good point that those that enable them are equally to blame. There are clear IC solutions if people would only be willing to take them.

[Cdls]

It is amusing that some complain about X or Y characters yet have some of their own who engage in the very same behavior they show contempt for.

On the flip side, I have also seen characters display those traits without making it obvious and in your face. Those who play such types should be emulated more, as they make those 'drama' moments enjoyable to both read and be a part of.

I think the high occurrence of these (the bad type of drama) types is caused by players getting frustrated that their RP gets ignored while those who display the traits listed above get the majority of the attention. This leads those players to adapt to try and mimic those traits so they don't feel left out.

There are clear IC solutions if people would only be willing to take them.

I have seen such solutions taken before and then quite predictably will see a new post in the "thinking about quitting" thread soon after.

[NancyLee]

It is amusing that some complain about X or Y characters yet have some of their own who engage in the very same behavior they show contempt for.
[...]

For me it's both amusing and intriguing. In one particular situation, being really fed up with a certain pattern and behavior, I posted a rant here. I had one particular player in mind when I did. Later on, that same player was posting his/her full agreement and stating how much he/she disliked that very same behavior. For me it turned into a moment of self-examination. I often wonder if it's only that it feels easier to spot what we dislike in others while we're more oblivious when it comes to our own acting (or our characters' acting, more precisely) or if it's just that we have different concepts of what is good and bad drama or enjoy different degrees of subtlety.

[Cdls]

I often wonder if it's only that it feels easier to spot what we dislike in others while we're more oblivious when it comes to our own acting

I think it is this, and everyone is guilty of it to some extent. To claim otherwise is (in my opinion) just ignorance. I think it becomes more pronounced over time, at least in my own experience. There are things my old characters did that I would find to be rather ridiculous now, and things that my characters do now that I would have found ridiculous then.


I think a lot of the frustration comes from a lack of accountability. In the real world, when people act out, there is accountability for those actions. In the game, there may be limited accountability, but the player is free to remake that same character type somewhere else to let it happen all over again.


Another problem is that there is no real way for there to be a limited group conversation (what most people take for city wide drama being really meant for a small group of people). Everyone within hearing range will hear it all and there are very limited options for such things. Basically, it is go inside and close windows (which most people understandably don't want to do, and in some cases it isn't possible) or have it become a town spectacle.


Does give me some ideas for a couple new suggestions to write up though.

[returner]

...

Another problem is that there is no real way for there to be a limited group conversation (what most people take for city wide drama being really meant for a small group of people). Everyone within hearing range will hear it all and there are very limited options for such things. Basically, it is go inside and close windows (which most people understandably don't want to do, and in some cases it isn't possible) or have it become a town spectacle.


Does give me some ideas for a couple new suggestions to write up though.

Yes, multi-whispers or group-whispers. Awesome idea (I'm guessing that's what you're thinking, at least). I imagine there might be some difficulties in maintaining the group... and could anyone join in on the group at any time? I'm sure it could be figured out.

[Alladinsane]

Yes, multi-whispers or group-whispers. Awesome idea (I'm guessing that's what you're thinking, at least). I imagine there might be some difficulties in maintaining the group... and could anyone join in on the group at any time? I'm sure it could be figured out.

Like a huddle!
I have wrestled with that in the past too.

"Everybody go long, on two. Ready, -break-!*

[Marian]

Another problem is that there is no real way for there to be a limited group conversation (what most people take for city wide drama being really meant for a small group of people).

Most cities pretty much are just small groups of people, though. When 50% of your population is in the midst of some kind of extreme emotional turmoil bringing all progress to a halt it is pretty much a city-wide issue whether the people doing it intend it to be or not.

I remember one of my characters in my old account witnessed a town guard having multiple very public freak outs and meltdowns where they tried to kill themselves and did a bunch of crazy ranting and sneering about how they thought the entire civilian population should be locked up and raped by pirates and torn apart by wolves (or actually it might have been 'raped by wolves and torn apart by pirates'... ) and afterwards the other two guards would try to play it off as being 'just a personal matter' that they were dealing with and no one should get upset about.

And it's like, I'm sorry, no, that guy represents 1/6th of the active population of the town and he just personally threatened half of the rest, and not only that has the power to carry it out, there are some things that can't just be handwaved away as a personal matter. Though again it's the ones enabling that behavior that I consider the most to blame, but I took an important lesson away from it all...I see a leader allowing that kind of thing now, or doing it themselves, and I start making plans to get my character the heck away from them ASAP. If that's the kind of RP they want, that's what they'll get and their welcome to it, but not from my character...the Cantr world is a huge one and I don't have so much free time anymore that I can waste it voluntarily hanging around people who make the game stressful and unfun to play.

[miirkaelisaar]

For the issue with group-whispers, it's cumbersome but whenever I've had to do that, like in a group chasing a thief or something, I would copy-paste my text to each member in a whisper, as if whispering to all of them at once, and then hopefully they would whisper the same way, copying to everyone involved in the conversation.

Also I just realized when reading this:

I just love when you run into another character that just 'clicks' with yours in every possible way. The most basic conversation becomes a joy to have.

Sadly I've never had this, I just can't think of any character who liked my character and also had interesting conversations.. my characters always wind up falling out with people they like, or winding up totally alone because everyone they know dies. Every time I think my character is "clicking" with someone, they say something wrong or accidentally embarrass themselves (usually because I can't hear sarcasm and joking in written text through the computer and a lot of people don't bother to indicate said emotions, leaving me and my character utterly confused) and that person falls asleep and never wakes up, they just give up so easily. And all of the people who have been in relationships with my characters for a "long time", who haven't died yet, are usually boring, either sleepers or wakeful but lacking in emotion or motivation of any kind, which holds back my characters because mine are all very alert and emotional characters but they have to be "sleepy" and boring to fit in or else I feel like I'm annoying all these players who just want "peace and quiet" and hate when you initiate RP because then they have to play the game (oh no!), it feels like all I do anymore is start projects so the whiny characters who can't set up their own work will stop griping at my characters (of course they still fall asleep), and respond to the very few characters who pay mine any attention, as briefly and un-annoyingly as possible so they won't get fed up and have random heart attacks because my characters don't do every little thing everyone wants them to. And I'm online basically all day, just wishing against all odds that I'll find another character who wants to interact with mine besides five minutes of idle chit-chat repeating the same things they say every single day. I've never had a successful character relationship, friend or family or otherwise, they're all total nightmares as far as real relationships go. None of my characters go on vacations with their loved ones or beach trips, most of them refuse to even show mine affection in public, it's like my characters only attract people who are too embarrassed to be in a relationship but just HAVE to be with my character, for whatever reason, and then I'm stuck with RPing this awkward non-compatible couple that don't even belong together..

It'd just be nice if more than 5% of the characters mine interact with didn't get fed up after three days of RP and give up, or stay by my character's side and just be boring for years and hold them back and then die because my character isn't good enough for them. And for the record I think if you hate one of your characters and are always thinking about killing it and intentionally don't play said character or make them boring, you should avoid letting them get into a relationship, I try very very hard not to let my boring or "sleepy" characters find love (even though it gets forced on them) and then someone is "in love with" them and pushes and pushes and then gets disappointed that mine is boring and not relationship material, and dies, and then mine is upset, when they were perfectly happy single and not in love.


EDIT: something I need to add...

I was copying down a long list of vehicles and my computer made me restart, and I lost the document.. and the way cantr is coded now, I have to remove the words of every button in front of the vehicles whenever I copy-paste a list, and materials and buildings, it used to just copy as a normal list like it's viewed on the page, but now the buttons are copied too.. very inconvenient, that's why my characters rarely trade now. Once upon a time when cantr was simpler, I could copy and paste a list of materials into a notepad, or straight into a note in cantr, and make a trade list or whatever and hand it over. Now I have to copy and paste in notepad, and go through every single line, and highlight <b>"Point to this object Pick up this object drag this object store this object in a container use this object on a project "</b> and backspace, and enter, and realign all the text, and then go to the next line, and the next, sometimes it takes half an hour to edit a list of resources in a building that I want to trade, so more often than not I have to just ignore people who want to trade with my character, which is very detrimental to my character and their town. I don't know when this changed or why but it's been annoying me for a long time, I didn't have to do all this painstaking highlight-and-deletion before, if there's a way to fix this I'd really be grateful, I try typing them down individually but this takes up even more of my time because I have to switch between pages to scroll down, or I make slide errors (typing an amount for a resource in front of the resource UNDER it and getting them mixed up) or miss something completely. It's like this with any browser I use, and I can't copy-paste lists on phone because they copy as a block of text rather than in list form, slightly less painstaking to correct but still messy.

[Pies]

Now I have to copy and paste in notepad, and go through every single line, and highlight <b>"Point to this object Pick up this object drag this object store this object in a container use this object on a project "</b> and backspace, and enter, and realign all the text, and then go to the next line, and the next, ... it's been annoying me for a long time, I didn't have to do all this painstaking highlight-and-deletion before, if there's a way to fix this I'd really be grateful

HEY! This alt text is a important thing. For you it's only inconvenient when you copy list (really? And in real life you also can look at heap of sand and say "This heap weights exactly 76235 grams?"), while in same time it ALLOWS blind to people play the game?!
(and some other, as for example I often use text browser)

[Swingerzetta]

I use textpad for my text editing, and when I am making lists like these, I just use the Find and Replace function to replace every instance of that text with a single space. End up with a perfectly formatted list with just a few clicks.

It's probably possible in other text editors too, just don't know exactly what it would be called.

[*Wiro]

http://joo.freehostia.com/cantr/itemlist/