Things that annoy or puzzle you about Cantr

[SekoETC]

I'm not sure if this is the right topic for this but I'm wondering what happened to the famous rat-skin cloak after Avren died? Did someone inherit it?

[Bmot]

I'm not sure if this is the right topic for this but I'm wondering what happened to the famous rat-skin cloak after Avren died? Did someone inherit it?

I recon this'd fit in the Lost and Found Cantrians thread


Also, for today's annoyance:

I'm lightly annoyed by non-descriptive item descriptions right now

[Wolfsong]

Cantr has been so boring lately that I've started to lose interest.

[sherman]

It's been really quiet on some areas yes. Feels like everyone waits for something.. Maybe it was that 5000th day and since we move beyond that it turns better?

[SekoETC]

Recently there's been a lot of fighting (verbal) and it has certainly raised my blood pressure, even though I should just think "okay, that's just ingame". Yet I can't help thinking, are people bringing in their real-life moralities and that's what bothers me the most. I have played many kinds of characters, some are open-minded while some are prejudiced, some are opposed to slavery, one would like to become a slave herself and some wouldn't mind owning them. It's difficult not being able to know if people play characters in different parts of the moral spectrum or if they're all copies of their real-life selves.

[ObsessedWithCats]

Recently there's been a lot of fighting (verbal) and it has certainly raised my blood pressure, even though I should just think "okay, that's just ingame". Yet I can't help thinking, are people bringing in their real-life moralities and that's what bothers me the most. I have played many kinds of characters, some are open-minded while some are prejudiced, some are opposed to slavery, one would like to become a slave herself and some wouldn't mind owning them. It's difficult not being able to know if people play characters in different parts of the moral spectrum or if they're all copies of their real-life selves.

My characters vary, but often have strong overlap with my own stances. I've played characters who absorbed their ideas of morality entirely from the people around them, characters whose inherent belief was that slavery, torture, theft and murder were perfectly acceptable, characters who will steal given an opportunity where they don't believe they'll get caught but would consider the others among that list unacceptable. But many of my characters are goody-two-shoes XD Some strong-willed, maybe a couple who would be comfortable as a slave under the right circumstances. I don't think there's anything wrong with spawning a character whose beliefs initially match your own, but I do think each new conundrum should be approached with only the character's existing beliefs and experiences to guide their response. That said if most people have 3/4 characters matching their beliefs on a certain topic, an idea that's controversial out-of-character will probably still be very much so in-character.

I believe that prejudices are primarily learned, so with the diversity you get in Cantr and that fact that it's generally accepted in most forms most of my characters haven't learned a great deal of prejudice. It's a self-amplifying acceptance loop I have noticed that a relatively high percentage of my characters over time have some strange expectations about Polish people because the ones that spend time in English towns are either rather adventurous or have been kicked out of their Polish hometowns.

edit: particularly on the topic of (non-consensual or dubiously consensual) slavery it's worth noting that for most characters who lean even slightly towards the 'good' end of things (which one would hope is a majority) there might be a great number of life experiences, personality traits and beliefs that might prompt the thought 'this would not be OK if it was me and/or someone I care about' and subsequently the belief that it might be a bad thing overall. That belief may have ended up in the same place as the player's and the majority's, but not necessarily by the same means.

[Mitch79]

Recently there's been a lot of fighting (verbal) and it has certainly raised my blood pressure, even though I should just think "okay, that's just ingame". Yet I can't help thinking, are people bringing in their real-life moralities and that's what bothers me the most. I have played many kinds of characters, some are open-minded while some are prejudiced, some are opposed to slavery, one would like to become a slave herself and some wouldn't mind owning them. It's difficult not being able to know if people play characters in different parts of the moral spectrum or if they're all copies of their real-life selves.

Could say the same about cannabalism and murder in game, couldn't we? Everyone's real life morals tend to be brought into that as well. No difference here.

[ObsessedWithCats]

Cannibalism is an interesting one because in real life eating a human corpse can be a rational way to avoid starving to death, but in game there's no sane motivation for it at all.

[SekoETC]

Yeah, you do have to stop and think, why is cannibalism such a taboo? I once wrote a story that had an alien race that performed ritual cannibalism because it was their way of carrying a piece of the deceased inside them. The humans found it weird and disgusting, but for the aliens, it would've been cruel or sad not to do this because then you're just abandoning your tribe member.

[ObsessedWithCats]

Partly because of prion diseases and such which can only be transmitted by consumption of infected brains, and other related health concerns, but then that again isn't a problem in Cantr.

[SekoETC]

I doubt it's just that. Before autopsies became commonplace, it used to be a taboo just to cut into a dead body. The first people to perform autopsies had to do it in secrecy because it was such a taboo. I think this is connected to how criminals used to be drawn and quartered, or suspected vampires buried with their heads cut off. Maybe there's a belief that if your body isn't intact, it will prevent you from entering afterlife. Edit: So basically, if someone eats your body, you cannot be resurrected and go to heaven. Also why some Christians are opposed to cremation.

[SekoETC]

Sorry for double posting but I just started wondering, are you allowed to use the term Freudian slip in Cantr? Since technically there was no Freud so there was nobody to name the term, yet there's no other way to say it. Or can anyone think of any?

[ObsessedWithCats]

People use far less hand-waveable terminology all the time - it's not something that would bug me to see. Don't know know the score on allowed though.

[SekoETC]

One thing that bugs me is when people talk about cats and dogs without ever being to an island that has them. It's just so ingrained in our brains that everybody automatically knows what a cat is or what a dog is, and no one considers that these animals actually exist in parts of Cantr. (Well, the cats are called wildcats but the dogs are called just dogs.) It might be hard to keep track of which one of your characters has seen which animal. Like if someone has never been to an island that has elephants, should they be able to draw one? It would be quite funny if someone upon being given an elephant tusk or a description of an elephant would then try to draw it without knowing all the details, letting their imagination fill out the rest.

[Bmot]

One thing that bugs me is when people talk about cats and dogs without ever being to an island that has them. It's just so ingrained in our brains that everybody automatically knows what a cat is or what a dog is, and no one considers that these animals actually exist in parts of Cantr. (Well, the cats are called wildcats but the dogs are called just dogs.) It might be hard to keep track of which one of your characters has seen which animal. Like if someone has never been to an island that has elephants, should they be able to draw one? It would be quite funny if someone upon being given an elephant tusk or a description of an elephant would then try to draw it without knowing all the details, letting their imagination fill out the rest.

Pure following the rules: I'd say their existence is documented in the wiki, so it's allowed to be known. No?

For my feeling, I'd feel a bit meh I'm not too much of a purist though, so I probably don't mind either way You can complain in the same way about how people know how to make iron or know of the existence of a non-regional resource.