Feral Heart

Game & Forum Discussion => Game Discussion => Topic started by: Lady_Alizarin on December 06, 2019, 12:26:46 am

Title: Is Roleplaying in Local Chat Frowned Upon? Since When?
Post by: Lady_Alizarin on December 06, 2019, 12:26:46 am
It's been a long time since I've posted anything on this forum, but I gotta ask this since I've been dealing with this in the game itself.

Whenever me and some friends do some roleplaying in the public maps, especially the Grounds, some players have make objections or rude comments about it. They either tell us to roleplay in party/group chat, or go to a private map. We often times suggest they block us, but instead they'd rather harass us and make a fuss over it.

(https://i.imgur.com/SBJyMW1.png)

(https://i.imgur.com/ieUp0DH.png)


I'm sorry WHAT?!

Since when was roleplaying in Local chat a big deal, and since when did players start fussing about it? First, people complain that there are no roleplays going on in the game, yet when one comes up in Local Chat they want it to stop?! Many local chat roleplays went on in old Bonfire Island, and no one batted an eye. Same with Fluorite Plains. Now when a local chat roleplay is happening, people complain? What has this community come to?

Some players aren't into roleplay, and I get it. If it bothers you to see a roleplay going on in local you can do one of the following.

1.) Block the players temporarily
2.) Move away from their location
3.) Ignore it
4.) Turn off Local Chat

To me, harassing others for roleplaying in local could be discouraging other players, possibly driving them away from this game. Most of the time these players who complain about local chat roleplays are the same people who complain that nothing really happens in FH. Which way do you want it?
What are your thoughts on this?

Title: Re: Is Roleplaying in Local Chat Frowned Upon? Since When?
Post by: Tanaman on December 06, 2019, 12:49:03 am
That’s just plain sad. You did literally nothing wrong. Feral heart is a MMORPG game. Old fh had a much better community who respected roleplays. Which is why i was driven from public maps and i spend  about 97% in private maps that i either build or download from DA. Also sidenote, cool choice on having the radio demon as your signature.
Title: Re: Is Roleplaying in Local Chat Frowned Upon? Since When?
Post by: SpicyDirt on December 06, 2019, 01:08:31 am
It is sad to see that happening.

Since the update roleplaying has gone down in popularity in the game (it is still pretty common to find FH groups that roleplay mostly on Discord though) so often people are a bit taken back when they see that it is happening. I would say that if they continue to harass you then you should ignore them, take screenshots and see if the staff could take some action (if the harassment is getting to be a lot), and maybe even block them.

It is still saddening though that this is happening to you! This game got a lot of its players because of roleplaying and it is sad that the roleplay is declining and people are even finding it "annoying." This is supposed to be a very happy and accepting community and it is saddening to see this happening to you. I know that it probably is not worth too much, but I am sorry that this is happening to you and I hope that you do continue to roleplay without a care in the world.
Title: Re: Is Roleplaying in Local Chat Frowned Upon? Since When?
Post by: Oddonelynx on December 06, 2019, 01:40:24 am
What meanies, FH has been a roleplay game from the start. They could just turn off the chat, or go to another map.
Title: Re: Is Roleplaying in Local Chat Frowned Upon? Since When?
Post by: SpicyDirt on December 06, 2019, 02:21:07 am
I'm not gonna lie, and I know that I already posted, but this actually infuriates me. I am just so stunned that people would act that way to someone roleplaying. "Weirdos" "can you not please" Those are just two very rude statements that are not acceptable. It is just so sad that people are getting upset at people ROLEPLAYING in a ROLEPLAYING game. I am just absolutely stunned at all of this.
Title: Re: Is Roleplaying in Local Chat Frowned Upon? Since When?
Post by: BirdieBeep on December 06, 2019, 03:28:50 am
I'm sorry this happened, it is a bit upsetting to see RP in local chat to become I guess 'frowned upon', it was very common place back in the old days, and not even just the old days, right when the 2016 update came out there was a lot of TLK people in that little pond area in TG. But the chat is a shared space and I'm sad to see that isn't respected.
Title: Re: Is Roleplaying in Local Chat Frowned Upon? Since When?
Post by: Telluric on December 06, 2019, 04:08:40 am
..Since when was roleplaying in Local chat a big deal, and since when did players start fussing about it? First, people complain that there are no roleplays going on in the game, yet when one comes up in Local Chat they want it to stop?! Many local chat roleplays went on in old Bonfire Island, and no one batted an eye. Same with Fluorite Plains. Now when a local chat roleplay is happening, people complain? What has this community come to?
/
..Most of the time these players who complain about local chat roleplays are the same people who complain that nothing really happens in FH. Which way do you want it?
What are your thoughts on this?

mostly want to highlight these here points.
i've gotten this a few times[and just by looking at the typing style of some of the jeers, i can wager a guess to who these people might be, in which case yeah, figures they'd be like that.]
but yeah, this has happened to my overwatch group plenty. people will go ahead and spout how chat is dead and the second we get in character and start interacting, they'll complain that we're annoying or say stuff along the lines of "can you move it to party? you're clogging up the chat." y'all who do that sort of stuff in the same breath, shame on you and knock it off.
some of us are here to have fun and naysayers don't affect us in the long run, but it's the spirit of the people who say that kind of thing that gets old fast. the spirit that says "i want everyone to cater to what i want to see in chat." the attitude that says "i'm entitled to control what the current topic of local is"

i have a question to raise to the people who whine about this sort of thing:
if we don't rp in local, it's dead. if we do, it's obnoxious and disruptive to a chat you can disable/block us.
what do you WANT local to be?

if you don't understand an rp, read some of the posts, get the gist of the characters and world or whisper one of the people who are rping- they might even offer you join them for pete's sake!
if you don't want them there, tough. there's plenty of other maps you can sit in silence in, after all, a lot of you debby downers are on about how the game is dead.
if there's simply nothing else going for you in your life, please for the love of god stop taking it out on people trying to enjoy some downtime with either friends or strangers. you don't want someone to start yelling at you at a coffee shop for ordering and drinking a peppermint hot chocolate. we don't wanna get yelled at for doing something we enjoy.

..i'm very tired of this happening, if you forumgoers couldn't tell.

in short: if you complain abt rpers in local: don't! : D
Title: Re: Is Roleplaying in Local Chat Frowned Upon? Since When?
Post by: LordSuragaha on December 06, 2019, 05:59:18 am
You’ve always been one to post interesting and thoughtful discussion topics and this one is no different. This whole topic you’ve brought up here is something I’ve noticed and been bothered by for a while myself.

Way back in Feral Heart’s early days I remember when roleplaying was extremely prevalent. Roleplaying in local was especially common, in fact that’s often how I joined roleplays and made friendships in the game. People roleplaying in local kept the chats active alive and interesting. Back then groups were more welcoming and people who weren’t even in the roleplay could often just jump right in simply cause the roleplay was being had openly in the local chat. If you weren’t in a mood to chat or roleplay it also gave you something to do by just sitting back and reading others’ fun roleplay adventures... a lot has changed. It just always seems like the Feral Heart of then and it’s community is very different to the one of now.

Now a large part of the roleplaying community has just gone or died off. A lot of the roleplay communitys’ death was thanks to the removal of general chat. Advertising lost its sense of ease and traction and with it changed the dynamic of the community and it’s “culture”. The game has become a lot less attractive for roleplayers and has become more of just a chat place. As a lot of the roleplayers “disappeared” it’s become far less common to new users and some old alike to see people roleplaying yet alone in general... so I can see why it seems unfamiliar and possibly “weird” to some who aren’t used to it.

I don’t think what was said to you there was very nice though... That kind of tone and attitude can really discourage others... I can only imagine a younger or more sensitive user dealing with that sort of reaction and taking it far less well. I don’t think these type of people really realize how much words like that can hurt a person and a community of users.

I agree that they could have taken a better approach if they didn’t like it and done as you said:


1.) Block the players temporarily
2.) Move away from their location
3.) Ignore it
4.) Turn off Local Chat

That’s the thing though, FH’s community has changed a lot. As years go by you get different sort of subcultures forming even in video games. Wherever there are groups of people of different ages and backgrounds interacting you’re going to get constant changes in the community. The simplest way to look at it is like meme culture and the coming and going of memes and or trends. FH itself and the subgroups of people and their interests in it are constantly subject to change... and while you have an ever changing community with a barely changing stagnant game you can start to see why conflicts begin.

The less of a roleplaying community we have, the less understanding and respect for it you have with newer and ever changing faces. It’s sort of like generations who grew up not having something and becoming adults who do not care for that something or show interest or understanding in it since they never really were exposed to it.

Then there’s the whole “cringe” culture thing now where some folks are especially comfortable making fun of or criticizing things they don’t understand or like.

It’s a pity really. If you or anyone else ever get harassed again though never hesitate to throw the screens and messages our way though. I do hope no one ever has a negative experience like this again. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with roleplaying in local especially if you’re not spamming the chat and being respectful about it.

Title: Re: Is Roleplaying in Local Chat Frowned Upon? Since When?
Post by: Ame88 on December 06, 2019, 09:54:58 am
It's really sad to see but I come across it all the time, and honestly it's heartbreaking. As said before, there's nothing wrong with roleplaying in local whatsoever. I cannot agree more with what Sura has said already.

I remember when local had players roleplaying left and right, generally a group having so many players involved in the roleplay it was difficult to find an opening to start posting. Usually no matter where you went there was always activity, and it always felt so lively. Nowadays you're shunned for roleplaying in local or in certain areas, completely ignoring the fact that this is a roleplaying game. It's very unfortunate but I do hope to see that change in the future.

My best advice really when it comes to situations like this is to just ignore it, and or block the person who's making a fuss and keep doing you. As Sura said, if anyone ever runs across this again, never be afraid to shoot us a message about it =)
Title: Re: Is Roleplaying in Local Chat Frowned Upon? Since When?
Post by: Astraea on December 06, 2019, 09:54:20 pm
This is indeed saddening. I am not sure when this started. Role playing in local has never been an issue that I have personally witnessed and this makes me upset. The way it was said, and the context was disappointing and awful in my eyes. I hope the users who that was directed to still are able to after that. There is no reason to not be able to role play in local (except obvious rules), and this was not fair to them. I don't ever remember this happening! Though, likely stated - communities change, people change and the game changes. This is a huge factor in the situation and it can turn out in many ways for the games, etc.

Sura has stated a lot of good points and opinions I agree with in this scenario. Back in the day, local was the place to role play. Anywhere, really was. But nothing like this I have seen. As Sura mentioned, I hope this doesn't happen again and please speak up if it does! I hope to not see this happen again as it makes me very sad and disappointed.

They definitely could of done the following listed and it would have turned out peacefully and nicely. It's sad that this happened and I hope I don't see it again like I've said before :(.
Title: Re: Is Roleplaying in Local Chat Frowned Upon? Since When?
Post by: Kuri on December 06, 2019, 11:36:55 pm
Not frowned upon to sane people, some people just need to be hot glued to a ceiling fan.  Do what you want as long as you're not hurting people, i say.
Title: Re: Is Roleplaying in Local Chat Frowned Upon? Since When?
Post by: bailmint on December 10, 2019, 01:16:03 am
I'd like to present a counter-argument to this post, and I'll willingly say that I was the yellow censor in that second screenshot. I was kinda playing around with the 'weirdos' thing but I see how that can be hurtful and I apologize. By the way, the last two messages were *not* related to you roleplaying in the grounds, that was me complaining about being sick in real life to my friends I was sitting with.

I think it's unfair to assume that those of us who don't like roleplaying in the grounds (not just the grounds, specifically the spawn area) are new players. I've been here since 2011 and I know how the "old" FH worked. Yes, it was okay and don't get me wrong, it still is okay to roleplay wherever you want! But frowned upon? Yeah, generally it is because that specific area of the grounds is what we tend to use as an area of casual conversation and, sometimes, RP advertisement. Again, you're perfectly allowed to roleplay right there, nothing says you can't! Just maybe expect some scrutiny from the players around you when you're sending long paragraphs and clogging the chat flow of one of the only populated areas in the game. I know the grounds chat is often dead, but I remember there being a good conversation flow at the time you had sent the long paragraphs into the chat. It was just annoying to some of us users and we have the right to ask you to do it elsewhere. I didn't see any harassment in the screenshots you provided but if that did happen, that's not okay either.

Again, I mean this in all due respect and I do apologize if my comments made you feel upset or uncomfortable in-game. I'm sure I could've worded it differently but I believe in the moment I was just annoyed that you had chosen to send large paragraphs of roleplay into an area of which we have chosen to be casual discussion. I know you said you haven't been online recently, and that's okay! You may not have known and my apologies for not taking that into account, but in the future, FH has many different maps and most of them go relatively unused! You can roleplay wherever you want but sometimes it's still good to take others into account.
Title: Re: Is Roleplaying in Local Chat Frowned Upon? Since When?
Post by: Lady_Alizarin on December 10, 2019, 02:45:06 am
After reading all these replies it's sad to see that I'm not the only one whose experienced this situation. It really saddens me.

I'd like to present a counter-argument to this post, and I'll willingly say that I was the yellow censor in that second screenshot. I was kinda playing around with the 'weirdos' thing but I see how that can be hurtful and I apologize. By the way, the last two messages were *not* related to you roleplaying in the grounds, that was me complaining about being sick in real life to my friends I was sitting with.

I think it's unfair to assume that those of us who don't like roleplaying in the grounds (not just the grounds, specifically the spawn area) are new players. I've been here since 2011 and I know how the "old" FH worked. Yes, it was okay and don't get me wrong, it still is okay to roleplay wherever you want! But frowned upon? Yeah, generally it is because that specific area of the grounds is what we tend to use as an area of casual conversation and, sometimes, RP advertisement. Again, you're perfectly allowed to roleplay right there, nothing says you can't! Just maybe expect some scrutiny from the players around you when you're sending long paragraphs and clogging the chat flow of one of the only populated areas in the game. I know the grounds chat is often dead, but I remember there being a good conversation flow at the time you had sent the long paragraphs into the chat. It was just annoying to some of us users and we have the right to ask you to do it elsewhere. I didn't see any harassment in the screenshots you provided but if that did happen, that's not okay either.

Again, I mean this in all due respect and I do apologize if my comments made you feel upset or uncomfortable in-game. I'm sure I could've worded it differently but I believe in the moment I was just annoyed that you had chosen to send large paragraphs of roleplay into an area of which we have chosen to be casual discussion. I know you said you haven't been online recently, and that's okay! You may not have known and my apologies for not taking that into account, but in the future, FH has many different maps and most of them go relatively unused! You can roleplay wherever you want but sometimes it's still good to take others into account.


I accept your apology, and understand where you stand on this discussion. I was not upset by what was said, but more confused and concerned as to why an activity that is (or was) so common in FH is now getting such negative attention. Trust me when I say these screenshots I've provided were just 2 different instances that have happened involving the issue. I never took the time to get screenshots of all the cases that have happened around different parts of the FH game.

When it comes to roleplaying in the Grounds, I'm well aware that there's casual conversation going on near the Lonely Cave portal. Because of that, I've tried my best to keep my distance so I don't disturb others around me with my walls of text.
HOWEVER, I have one or two friends who want to park themselves near that location to do roleplays, even if I've tried convincing them to move their character away so our RP posts don't get lost in chat spam.  ((Beleive me, I try to avoid it so the chat spam does not get in the way of the posts I need to read)) Why they want to roleplay closer to all the casual conversation, I don't know. Maybe they like listening to the conversations while roleplaying. Maybe there's a chance others will join in, since I once suggested that if other players see an open roleplay they too will follow. I don't know; I don't speak for them.

THEN there are the times we do move away to another location, other players follow us to either listen in on the roleplay OR to disrupt us. One of those screenshots was from a time we were away from the casual conversation crowd, but some random players decided to come into our range to complain. It's just those cases of people seeing a roleplay and they want to disrupt it for no reason. There were times we were in other less populated maps doing our roleplays and some randos come out of nowhere to ask us why we're roleplaying in local chat/public maps.
No matter where we go it happens. That's the point I was wanting to bring up. Why is it frowned upon in local chat at all? I don't see why it's a problem, because it was never a problem before. As others have suggested, the game has changed since it was first released to what it is now. The community has changed, and not in a way I was hoping for.

Thanks again for your input. I try to steer clear of that spot in the grounds, while still remaining close, but not close enough to disrupt anyone up near the entrance.
Title: Re: Is Roleplaying in Local Chat Frowned Upon? Since When?
Post by: bailmint on December 10, 2019, 03:05:33 am
Thank you so much for your understanding, and you do bring up some good points! I think roleplaying anywhere else is perfectly socially acceptable and I too don't understand why people would scrutinize that. Feral Heart has no hunting or questing or anything so it is largely reliant on roleplaying to be fun. People are gonna feel different ways about roleplaying by that portal, whether it's annoyance or interest, but you know that all too well already.

I agree, while nobody should ever harass you about roleplaying, it should especially never happen away from the hot spots. It's definitely a new culture we're in in-game, and it's not fair to those who still love roleplaying. I guess you'll just have to take each one as they come and report those who harass you. Keep doing it if it makes you happy.

I also appreciate you for bringing this topic up and validating both forms of responses instead of shutting the opposing side down as many do, so thank you for that as well!
Title: Re: Is Roleplaying in Local Chat Frowned Upon? Since When?
Post by: LadySigyn on January 12, 2020, 08:21:34 am
It's shocking to see how much of an anomaly roleplaying is in the community nowadays. I remember when there was ALWAYS a roleplay happening somewhere in game, and you were able to find them easy. It's upsetting to see it being shunned, especially when this is an online animal based roleplaying game, as said on the home page. I remember roleplaying in local myself countless times with groups and friends.

I agree with Sura in the sense that when general chat was thrown away (our main rp advertising platform besides movies), things changed. It may have been a slow decline, but eventually the roleplaying community became smaller and smaller.  Being a user from back in the days where roleplaying was a common and daily occurrence, seeing this kind of attitude towards it is unnerving to say the least, and I wish people could have more respect for what makes other's happy. But there'll always be people like that, it's inevitable.

As long as you're not doing any harm and following the rules, you're not doing any wrong. So don't pay any mind to the whiners, do what you love.
Title: Re: Is Roleplaying in Local Chat Frowned Upon? Since When?
Post by: zRichtofen on January 12, 2020, 08:16:34 pm
Ever since the new transition to the new maps ruined the roleplaying areas, i've found roleplaying in local annoying when the only real popular social area is The Grounds. Though I would never go directly to a person to say something about it cause yes it would be disrespectful.

Before the map changes it was perfectly fine to roleplay in local because there were centralized areas of roleplay. Fluorite plains for example, L island was for lions, and there were other spots for public based groups. If it got crowded, they could easily whisper, party chat, or form a group if they were asked not to do local roleplaying.