Feral Heart

Game & Forum Discussion => Game Discussion => Topic started by: Silhouette on August 11, 2013, 07:14:21 pm

Title: We can't RP together? [Species clumping issues]
Post by: Silhouette on August 11, 2013, 07:14:21 pm

Now before anyone says anything please let me clear up that I am NOT talking about species hate necessarily. (There is a thread for that someone else made.)

I have noticed an ever growing trend among role players in Feral Heart that was practically nonexistent during Impressive Title's (the original). It appears to me that some people now seem to have the opinion that you /cannot/ role play a wolf and a lion (or a tiger and a fox, or a racoons and a hyena, or anything for that matter) together in a role play and that they HAVE to be the same species OR if they're not they HAVE to be at war. .....What? Now I know some characters, on behalf of the player have hate toward a species for one reason or another. I'm not talking about that. I mean people who just have this idea stuck in their head that you HAVE to play the same species as them in order for a RP to work, be it filled with hate, discontent, and conflict....or not.

[ALSO note I am NOT talking about joining into someone's RP who is "Lions ONLY" or "Hyenas ONLY" or "Wolves Only" etc. I'm just talking about people you randomly advertise or ask to RP with you and they go along with it.] It irks me to no end that half the time I ask someone to RP, they ask what species that /I/ am on, jump on a character of that species and then come find me when they really would have preferred to play their other species char, and I wouldn't have minded, and I told them that.  OR they don't switch because they don't know what species I have until they come find me but then they're overly apologetic to me when they get there because goodness forbid they're roleplaying a feline while I have a wolf out.

.....Where on Earth did this cats vs dogs vs everyone else trend come from? I remember a bit of it existed in Impressive Title, but this trend is all over the place now. Just.....why? Why do people feel the need to keep hyenas with hyenas, wolves with wolves, lions with lions, even when its not a one species-only group roleplay. Like if its just a two or three person RP? What is it that is so wrong with having different species together [In an UNREALISTIC roleplay, not a realistic one because I realize its not realistic for an African Lion to encounter a North American gray wolf in the wild] I don't get it.

Title: Re: We can't RP together? [Species clumping issues]
Post by: SteampunkWolfdog on August 11, 2013, 07:54:36 pm

I didn't notice this until you just pointed it out. Not sure where it could have come from...perhaps people are becoming increasingly antisocial towards other species... O.O
There's nothing wrong with RPing with another species Who ever came up with this thought need some sense knocking into them. I RPed as a fox with a dog once, and it was pretty fun.
It makes sense when people make RPs with only wolves or lions in them and they don't want any other species in them, that's all fine and dandy. But I have seen some roleplays that people call 'multispecies' roleplays, which I like the idea of. I imagine it makes things infinitely more interesting than a single-species RP.

Title: Re: We can't RP together? [Species clumping issues]
Post by: Tearless on August 11, 2013, 09:18:39 pm

I've noticed that as well; it's really too bad. Understandable if it's an RP group that's specifically geared toward one species, but I've had some fun times in the past with spontaneous multi-species RPs, they can make for some really interesting character dynamics.

Title: Re: We can't RP together? [Species clumping issues]
Post by: Blackiebelle on August 11, 2013, 09:19:21 pm

I don't see the whole 'no rping with different species' anywhere but the plains. Then you don't even go NEAR some group made up of warrior cats/lions with a fox/hyena unless you want a sob story or be brutally murdered.

Then again I hang around Bonfire a lot, where you have elephants roleplaying with dragons, or the Doctor rping with horses.

Even if I do go into the plains, my horse(s) can't speak wolf so its sorta difficult to roleplay as them unless I do a paragraph of just body language, which gets old pretty fast.

Title: Re: We can't RP together? [Species clumping issues]
Post by: Lady_Alizarin on August 11, 2013, 09:20:07 pm

Now that you mention it, you're right about all this. I have noticed many people who don't want to include someone into their roleplay all because they weren't playing the same species as they were. With me and many of my friends, it's never the case. I could be playing as a fox, and they would be playing as cats. Or they would be playing as a hyena, while some of us are playing as foxes and cats, etc. There have been times when my friends would be roleplaying as warrior cat characters and I would be roleplaying as a fox.... and some random people would come up to us and tell us that cats shouldn't be friends with foxes, vise-versa.  It's crazy I tell you.

I see nothing wrong with people roleplaying with someone who is playing as a different species. Animals of different species interact with each other in the real world, but it's not always an enemy issue. I guess most people on this game want to play "realistically" and only participate in a roleplay where everyone is of the same species; and all other animal characters are considered enemies or prey.
It's human nature to be part of a group of individuals who share similarities. It's like the stereotypical cliques in middle school and high school, for example. Jocks like hanging around with other jocks, nerds hang with other nerds, cheerleaders with cheerleaders, the fashionistas hang with other girls who are fashionistas too, emos cling to other emos, so on and so forth. And in most cases of middle school/highschool society, most other cliques aren't supposed to mingle or talk to each other. And if someone were to talk to someone of another clique, someone would say, "Why are you talking to him/her? He's/She's not one of us." I'm not saying it's not the way things should be. In fact, I was one of those kids in middle school and high school who didn't mind talking to anyone of any little "clique". There are people in this world who don't mind socializing with people of other "cliques", backgrounds, beliefs, cultures, ect. I applaud them for not being discrimative.

When it comes to roleplays in FH, I often times wish people would be more open to new ideas such as roleplaying with characters that are of another species. I have RPed in some interesting roleplays that involved speices mixing together to create a good story.  

Title: Re: We can't RP together? [Species clumping issues]
Post by: darkknight on August 11, 2013, 09:50:07 pm

I really haven't taken this to attention, but with thinking about it, it is true. Most people find that if you role-play a certain species, you must interact with only that type of species you are. It's not taking into the "realistic" atmosphere if you only interact with your species of animal. Also, it's doesn't make it fun for people who like to be the types not to be in a group and interact with random groups or individuals of another species. I can understand some interactions of animals are rare or unlikely to happen, but for the sake of just general play, I don't think it should have to apply too much here.

Title: Re: We can't RP together? [Species clumping issues]
Post by: Tigerheart08 on August 11, 2013, 10:37:47 pm

You know what, I /have/ noticed this. I've spoken (more argued) with some people about it and they all point out the same thing. The idea of 'Realistic Logic' is growing.
     I was RPing a doe the other day and my charrie went up and sniffed a zebra. Obviously that doesn't happen in real life, but I was kind of lonely and thought he wouldn't mind. I was even RPing in a nice, kind way and the zebra completely turned against me and told me off about how does and zebras don't actually interact. I was like 'Whatever -.-' '. I was really upset about it cause they were really harsh about the whole concept of it.

Title: Re: We can't RP together? [Species clumping issues]
Post by: Silhouette on August 11, 2013, 10:58:04 pm

Glad I'm not the only one who's noticed. Its made finding some roleplays for some characters difficult. For instance, my main character May, who is canine, was raised by my friend Kasai's cheetah character Parki. Parki had already adopted a tiger cub and later adopted a cougar mix. For a short part of her "childhood" she also had to stay with one of my other friend's lion characters. Consequently, except for the ones that politely ignore it or don't seem to mind her cat-like quirks, now that she is grown she usually gets along better with felines than canines as her behavior is geared toward such. So when I try to find other people willing to RP a feline character with her, I usually don't get a reply. When I advertise to RP with someone that does not specify, they find out she is canine and either apologize for being feline even though the feline is the character they wanted to use originally (Why they do this is still confusing to me o_O) and they switch or they just log out and switch to a canine and come back, even when I tell them its OKAY and they can play whatever they want to be it feline, canine, or a tangerine colored kangaroo.

And I agree with those who pointed out real animals of different species do interact all the time and its not necesarily in an enemy way. Two species can interact without having to be "RAWR IM GONNA KILL JOO BECAUSE YOU'RE NOT MY SPECIES." I mean, not all dogs hate cats and vice versa and you don't /always/ have to raise animals with animals of another species for them to get along. Sometimes its by a sheer streak of luck. I found out the other day at the vet, my dog loves ferrets. Before then, she had never seen a ferret in her entire life and chases rabbits out in the yards, yet she liked the ferret and was gentle toward it.

Title: Re: We can't RP together? [Species clumping issues]
Post by: AlphaEclipse on August 12, 2013, 12:27:28 am

I have actually never thought of this... I see this a lot with the Warrior cat RPs and TLK Rps, for example, I was sitting in bonfire today when someone caps locked into the chat, "Kills all hyena and foxes". O_o Why can't they just get along...? If this really happened in the wild, ( Lions and hyenas are naturally not all that "peaceful"), there would be no hyenas. They would have gone extinct because of all the lions killing them. -_- I was once in a cheetah RP with hyenas AND zebras, and we didn't all kill each other... It was actually quite pleasant. One of the best Rps I was ever in. :/  Very rarely do I find a RP in which two species coexist peacefully together. Like you said, they either are the same species, or a war as different species.

Title: Re: We can't RP together? [Species clumping issues]
Post by: unnbrellas on August 12, 2013, 12:40:31 am

I have noticed this, and its really annoying. It can be really boring to RP with just your pack/pride in the map. When you have other animals it more realistic and more fun!

Title: Re: We can't RP together? [Species clumping issues]
Post by: JasmineFlower on August 12, 2013, 12:35:43 pm

I remember once trying to find a Dragon RP with my wingless, feathered dragon. After a few hours, I found one, and asked to join. Nope, "Winged dragons only".
Why? I was the same species, I just didn't have wings, yet I couldn't join. Maybe because dragons without wings aren't so common?
I usually don't see many people rejecting other species from their RPs' (probably because I don't RP in groups much), but my melanistic serval got accepted into a lion pride once. Luck I guess.

Title: Re: We can't RP together? [Species clumping issues]
Post by: nubeees on August 14, 2013, 04:02:19 am

I too have noticed this, and I don't like it. Personally, I do a lot of cross-species rp, my cheetah characters for an example often interact with my friends' lion characters.

Title: Re: We can't RP together? [Species clumping issues]
Post by: Arkayy on August 14, 2013, 08:07:25 am

I just think people being picky like this is ridiculous. Same with things like bright colored markings. Why not someone let them be the character they want instead of commanding them to change or rejected them because their different? v.v

Title: Re: We can't RP together? [Species clumping issues]
Post by: Neowulf on August 19, 2013, 02:58:20 am

I've actually roleplayed as a character named Sock(Dark Cani with toxic abilities) and I don't know if my groupmates are Dark Cani or some other canine type thing altogether. But I actually went and crashed a few warriors groups. It's not rivalries. It's just, Felines.... Lemme put it this way: It's like felines own the plains with the occasional slave canines. It feels wrong to me. But otherwise, outside of ragespurts, I'm fine with roleplaying with cats and lions and, well... Feline characters in general(Not the deceased chat, why would I talk about that here >.>). And about dragons, if I made a group for them, I would include every type whom would roleplay. And is it true about Bonfire? Btw I'm considering a multispecies group accepting any character, as long as their colors be semi-realistic.

Title: Re: We can't RP together? [Species clumping issues]
Post by: Phatom on August 19, 2013, 12:57:30 pm

I don't like it when this happens, neither does anyone I think but great thread post!

When I'm on my fursona and my best friend's on her Leopard character, we always role play together. We've even had a few people accepting her in just lion based role plays because they were kind enough to do so but we've also had our bad times as in such, we were just sitting in Temple of Dreams, minding own our business we weren't even role playing. So this person who's a Hyena, comes up and tells me a Lion and Leopard can't be best friends because it simply doesn't happen in real life but what should it matter? We're comfortable and happy with what we've produced with our characters!

Title: Re: We can't RP together? [Species clumping issues]
Post by: Kona on August 21, 2013, 11:56:59 pm

I do see a lot of this, but I've been in a few groups not to just one species. Like a Lion/Wolf group or a group that accepted any type of cat...But it's true, if a Hyena even gets close to a lion pride, all the lions throw a fit and start yelling at the Hyena...

Title: Re: We can't RP together? [Species clumping issues]
Post by: zady on August 25, 2013, 11:26:32 pm

well thing is hun, i'v atempted to make a multi-species RP before, and well.. no one joined, not a single person or when they did they joined withthe species of y character. .... infact the warrior cats seems to be better at muli-species RP than any other species. Either way it may just be a preference, a habbit, a trate that we feral hearters have gained over a long amount of time, we like things to be the same, and we physically cannot RP with another species. it's ingrained into pur minds.