Powergaming/Metagaming/Powerplaying

[Athenian]

This is the post Dab was referring to, it was something he and I were discussing last night. Now, as you know, I am not one for defending Dab, but in this case, it was not about the Joker, but instead the post above this writing, a shining example of power gaming from one of our Moderators.

Ugh. You should have said. Could someone sort this out? Maybe on skype? Couldn't you have discussed this with the person responsible? Can't we at least try to play without getting into this pointless and unconstructive way of interacting?

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Former member of "the most paranoid group of people in the community"
Discovery Community Forum Rules

[Zelot]

Ugh. You should have said. Could someone sort this out? Maybe on skype? Couldn't you have discussed this with the person responsible? Can't we at least try to play without getting into this pointless and unconstructive way of interacting?

I actually wasnt going to bring it up or respond to it (cause it was in a private comm) and I told my guys not to, but when I was talking to Dab, we got on it, and he said it would be a good time to bump his old thread, he showed me a post that was not directly saying anything about the incident, and I told him I was not opposed to him posting it. I wasnt going to bring it up, thats just not the way we like to deal with things, but when everyone started accusing Dab of trying to address whatever situation he was with the Joker by posting it, I felt it wasn't right to leave him swinging in the wind, taking blame for something that was clearly not what was going on. Thats why I posted it. On a side note, I tried to PM you yesterday to see if we needed to set up any oorp ground rules, but your box is closed.



A note on the other side, I dont think Unconstructive is a word:P

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[Dab]

As I said before (and kudos to Joker, and to an extent Zelot [you get kudos and anti-kudos for that..:dry:]) this is -not- about the Joker in any way, shape or form. Nor was this thread entirely focused on Agmen's post. As I said in the first post; There were several examples that prompted me to write this. I will not list them as this is not a trial by forum in any way, shape, or form. This is why no one here was named, nor any examples given (at least by myself). I was simply going to bump an old generic 'Powergaming is bad.' thread that existed awhile ago, but it seems to have been deleted during the forum cleanup a month back. Since it wasn't available, I simply made a new one. This thread is not targeted by anyone, nor was it based off a single situation.

The only message my post was sending was; Powergaming is bad, don't do it.

That doesn't mean people shouldn't go along with someone's RP, even if they are powergaming.. But remember; One person powergaming leads to the other side powergaming back, and then it just escalates, and that isn't something anyone should want.



@Joker; I've been a bit swamped with my Senior Paper/Presentation, and the bazillion other Zoner-related issues going on when you popped up, which is why most of my posts seemed short and blunt. However, there are a lot of meanings behind the lines. The posts aren't as simple as they seem, they are just more focused towards other Zoner players, and except for the Zoner vets, most probably won't get the meaning of those posts.. I'm also stuck trying to defend myself from the plethora of people who don't want me to be chairperson legitimately, not because of your threat.. So I'm having a hard time keeping up with it all. Hopefully I'll have some more free time soon, with winter break coming around the corner, though I've got two on-going stories I have to devote some time to as well.

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[Zelot]

and to an extent Zelot [you get kudos and anti-kudos for that..:dry:]

Thats the kind of Kudos I like best;) (we need an evil laugh emoticon)

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[Anunaki]

there is always gonna be some unhappy I-don't-have-girlfriend-and-I'm-generally-unpleasant jerk who'll type something negative.

That's uncalled for. Dont use your girlfriend as an instrument to be the uber-dork amongst the dorks. Kinda like the one-eyed guy is king of the blinds. She is probably fat anyways. She is in my mind. Thats why you are here. Whatever... moving right along...

As for Dab's forum RP - I'll just say that I expected more (which DOESN'T mean that I think it was bad) from a veteran player such as himself. Again, let me point out - I mean ONLY his forum RP.

You should be thankful that Dab was brief in what he wrote. Look at his other posts. I looked... but I aint never gonna read them. Too long.

About powergaming....
Saying: 'resign or I will blow up a freeport and you will be a monster for not resigning' is powergaming.

But both you and Dab handled the situation well.

About those who said Dab shoulda resigned: no he shouldnt. Send me 1000 euros now or I blow up your parents house! No? Damn!

For those less smart people who think (not thought) I'm copy/paster...

I R less smart. You copy pasted the photo of the joker, and his name, and copied his personality. From a batman movie. To play it in a freelancer video game. Not that I mind... you can do what you want. But you did copy pasted the joker picture and name. I never liked any of hte batman movies. DIdnt watch the one with the dead gay cowboy as the joker, so I cant judge it really...

I don't mind that you don't like me, but I don't belong here? Is this how you THANKED ME after I didn't report you when your Reaper Luxuria posted in comm channel NOT ADDRESSED to your char? Btw... Aren't you a Phantom? This is rhetorical question.

Dont ask for favors for not 'reporting you rule violation'. Yes, phantoms are cheap-ass admin ****s doing everything they outlaw for others. Reporting them for anything is quite useless anyway. My favorite phantom is the guy who takes his Osiris to california to shoot traders and who hacked ships. Its best to ignore phatnoms, just shake your head and get on another char after they blew you up, and try to play the game as if they didnt exist, really.

@ Dab:
You responded well in the thread about the bombs. It was clearly an attack on the player Dab. I didnt really get the reason why 'THe Joker' would want Aurelia to resign, apart from some personal player vendetta and trying to please some other players.
What I kinda didnt like form your part ... is when Saronsen shot LN together with that phantom Osiris. That 'no its my responsibility not yours' thing... really didnt help. You looked like you were asking people to obey you for who you are... never makes people popular, that. A bit vain, maybe. You wanna be vain, try the 'humility is the highest form of vanity' saying.

[Thurgret]

People need to understand what powergaming is.

It's maintaining out-of-character that your character has done something beyond what is reasonable for that character to do. In-character lies are grand. It's writing 'And I went up to kick A&L Guy and A&L Guy died'. That's powergaming.

It's not 'Resign or I'll set off bombs on these Freeports'. Rigging a Freeport with explosives is not impossible. Nor was it something that harmed players' fun or enjoyment of the game (rather, it increased it), so what, in particular, was wrong with him doing it? And there was no action forced on anyone else's character. They were left free to respond as they wished.

So please drop that particular line of thought.

[Anunaki]

Thurget, I just placed a nuke under your seat.
Say goodbye.

[Dennis Jameson]

I just released gas which turns people into zombies on a random station in Sirius.



Make me emperor of the universe or I'll do it again.

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Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici

10/6

[Thurgret]

And are you screwing with other people's characters? No. You're screwing with NPCs. We -could- all just ignore NPCs. Great. The entirety of Sirius has a total of between 80 and 200 living people in it at any given time. Instead most of us use them in our RP.

The bases were not rendered unusable, so you can ignore it if it bothers you. The only one directly affected, on account of it all being addressed to his character, was Dab, and I don't see him complaining with regard to that specific incident. PCs were not killed, though I think one or two with multiple Zoner characters may have played it as having had one of them on one of those stations.

I've seen a Nomad Morph somehow infect a Liberty gunboat. Tense standoff near Norfolk. Great fun for all those involved. No-one complained. The gunboat played along. Even got some of the 'NPCs' in the gunboat to start blasting others. He -could- have gone '//Leave my NPCs alone!' But why? What was he losing from it?


ETA: if you -really- wanted, you could petition for a rule in which only admins may decide what NPCs do and what happens to them. You're not even allowed do so much as shoot down an NPC fighter. Would be powergaming, sure, not giving it a chance to bribe you or something.

[ProwlerPC]

Joys of Google this is what I got:

Powergaming:

In text-based online environments such as MUSH, MUCK, MU*s and other role-playing (RP) games that emphasize role-play over acquiring levels or skills (as opposed to most MUDs), a player can be described as a powergamer if he or she presumes or declares that his or her own action against another player character is successful without giving the other player character the freedom to act on his own prerogative. They may also be a player who tries to force others to participate in role-playing they don't want to engage in.[1] For instance, a player who unilaterally describes his character as doing something with (or to) another character that would usually require the other to play along such as having a fight or a sexual encounter is considered to be powergaming.[2]

In such games, in which a sense of community and rapport between players is seen as crucial and conducive to the game's overall well-being, powergaming is generally regarded as extremely offensive behavior if it is not stated in the rules as being a bannable offense, which it is in the majority of text-based role-playing games. [3] [4] It is often seen as synonymous with twinking and closely related to godmoding


Metagaming:

A recent slang definition of Metagaming, popular among computer and video game fans, is any tactic in a computer or video game that uses one or more features of that game that lie outside the intended gameplay use, or exploit errors in programming structures. For example, a player who took advantage of a bug in the game to gain some advantage would be metagaming. An example would be deliberately getting one's character killed in order to return to the last saved game.

Metagaming can also refer to realism in presentation. This can range from making actions take as long as they would in real life, such as a 10 hour military battle or a 24 hour car race, to making the gamer experience the game to how it is in real life and to add a bit of reality, so to speak.

In role-playing games, metagaming is a term often used to describe players' use of assumed characteristics of the game. In particular, metagaming often refers to having a character act on knowledge that only the player has access to (such as tricking a medusa to stare at a mirror when the character has never even heard of medusas and should not be aware of their petrifying stare). For instance, a player might adjust his character's actions if the player has some foreknowledge of the long-term intentions of the gamemaster, or, more commonly, the GM's tendency to have (or not to have) mercy on players whose characters do things that would cause them to fail at their objectives.

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