Talk:Gor RP Etiquette (Rules)

Let's talk about metagaming. This term get's thrown around a lot on role-play servers and every community has a slightly different perspective on it. I am going to walk you through want is and isn't the standard for this community and more specifically what the staff will and won't enforce.

First, Wikipedia defines metagaming as

In tabletop role-playing games, metagaming can refer to aspects of play that occur outside of a given game's fictional universe. In particular, metagaming often refers to having an in-game character act on knowledge that the player has access to, but the character should not.

To be specific - metagaming is not PROVIDING the information out of character, but rather USING the information received out of character as part of your in character actions/knowledge.

Example: If someone says on voice or in discord that their character's like apples THEY are not metagaming. If you take that information into game and your CHARACTER says "Mary likes applies", then YOU are metagaming.

Second, there are two extremes on how meta gaming is handled in most RP communities.

Staff implement rules and punishments to stop it from happening.

Staff educate players on how to manage metagaming themselves and handle only the outlier issues.

This community is comprised primarily Gen Xers who have been playing Gor on Second Life. Was a generation and a community we tend towards encouraging self reliance and a certain "don't sweat the small stuff" mentality. As you may guess from this - we are going to focus on how you can manage metagaming themselves so that we only need to focus on the egregious issues (outlined here).

Talking about Role-play Out of Character

We are absolutely not going to restrict players from talking about THEIR role-play. If someone wants to talk about their role-play that's on them. However, it's also on them if someone uses that information in game.

If you do not want people to metagame knowledge you've given them, then don't give it to them. Don't tell anyone your characters secret name. Don't tell them where you are. Don't tell them what you are doing. Keep the information to yourself. If you accuse someone of metagaming and we learn you were blabbing about it all over voice and discord we are going to link you to this page and tell you to use some sense.

If someone ELSE talks about YOUR character revealing information you wouldn't share or want shared then open a ticket with a screenshot of what was said and we will remind the player not to do this. We would prefer that you tell them yourself and that they would respond appropriately, but we will handle this on your behalf if we need to. If the conversation was on voice, we will investigate and educate.

Finds you on the map

We want players to find each other on the map and have in fact provided a tool to do this. If someone finds you on the map and you didn't want to be found only a few things could have happened:

• You had your location tag on the map turned on. This is an invitation for people to come find you and role-play with you. If you do not want that to happen - Turn off the location option.
• The person is in your clan and can see where you are. Talk to your clan mate or guild leader. If you can't come to some agreement on protocol within the clan, find a new clan.
• Someone blabbed about where you were - either you or someone else with you. Stop blabbing about your location. Tell the people with you not to blab.
  

Finally

It's a very small map and we have players who know the map very well. It is common to be found while out in the world, no matter how secret you think you are. If someone finds you and you are surprised by it please first consider if any harm has been done or if you are just being overly paranoid or persnickety. If you feel harm has been done: ASK them politely how they found you - and if necessary tell that the scene is locked.