Are long /me's signs of a good roleplayer?

[friendlyman]

conversation>/mes

 

people only do long /mes cause they dont know how to get to the point

[Satanic Chicken]

1 hour ago, Aquila said:

I'm coming across more and more people who take ages to roleplay because they choose to type out long /me's and /do's.

 

Please stop doing this. If I'm driving you in a cab, or filling up your car with gas, or serving you stuff in a store, don't make a single action take more than 30 seconds. Nobody wants to deal with "/me slowly moves their right hand down to the back of their jeans and stares at the cab driver with a seductive stare, they reach into their back pocket and nods to the driver, withdrawing a wallet. They unflip the wallet and smiles, withdrawing $100 with a cheerful smile. They pay the driver" or something. I can't think of a long enough example, but many people do it.

 

I would rather have that time spent having a conversation rather than watching you do five long lines for a simple action that has little bearing to either of our stories. I wish it didn't look condescending to ask people to make their /me's short and simple. Nobody is saying half-ass the /me, but don't make them longer than they need to be. 🙂

Just type faster

[Aquila]

2 hours ago, friendlyman said:

conversation>/mes

 

people only do long /mes cause they dont know how to get to the point

 

Or they lack social skills, or have an ego that they'd like to boost with length. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

 

2 hours ago, Satanic Chicken said:

Just type faster

A lot of people can't, somehow, despite a lot of the playerbase being young and having been raised around keyboards and phone screens. I type slower than the average person but there are still people who type extremely slowly, and often it's because they choose to elongate their action texts.

 

If people can't type fast enough, keep the action texts short. We have to take into account our OOC weaknesses and combat them.

[Viscaria]

As many others have said, it depends. Coming from FD, its often needed to write up long /me's with how you're treating a character, mostly to explain in the emote what you're actually doing. We try to avoid using long medical words, or explain what it means usually, such as intravenous (IV) and many more. We're not gonna type out that we suspect a person having pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis because let's be honest, unless a lot of people google these words then they have no idea what's going on, and that should be avoided where possible. In short, sometimes long /me's are required to better explain what's going on or to highlight an expression, other times not so much.

[Aquila]

On 7/8/2021 at 1:28 PM, Viscaria said:

As many others have said, it depends. Coming from FD, its often needed to write up long /me's with how you're treating a character, mostly to explain in the emote what you're actually doing. We try to avoid using long medical words, or explain what it means usually, such as intravenous (IV) and many more. We're not gonna type out that we suspect a person having pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis because let's be honest, unless a lot of people google these words then they have no idea what's going on, and that should be avoided where possible. In short, sometimes long /me's are required to better explain what's going on or to highlight an expression, other times not so much.

 

 

I respectfully disagree with this. By no means should /me's be short and spammy, but nor should they have unnecessary jargon, opinions, or adjectives. They should be like radio transmissions - short and to-the-point. This way, roleplay can flow better and there isn't time being wasted.

 

I'd be happy to see long /me's only if they contained multiple actions in one or two lines, instead of 5 separate lines showing one action, for example. One action in one /me with a lot of unnecessary words is just tiring to read, and nobody has time for that.

[Viscaria]

When it comes to medical roleplay, if we did that it would be along the lines of "/me slaps a dressing on the GSW, checks the airway, provides oxygen, throws into the ambulance". We do our best to describe exactly what we're applying and where, so that the patient understands what's happening to their character. If we were to use less words describing then some would surely feel that we're not putting in enough effort, thus its about finding the middle line most of the time. Often I try to judge how long people have been on a scene for, some can last hours, so I'm not gonna write out long /me's when applying an IV, I'll speed things up a little so that people can be on their way while not taking from the experience. I feel like it's situational a lot of the time, at least when it comes to FD roleplay, but then again, its probably situational for a lot of other types of roleplay as well for sure.

[Aquila]

15 minutes ago, Viscaria said:

When it comes to medical roleplay, if we did that it would be along the lines of "/me slaps a dressing on the GSW, checks the airway, provides oxygen, throws into the ambulance". We do our best to describe exactly what we're applying and where, so that the patient understands what's happening to their character. If we were to use less words describing then some would surely feel that we're not putting in enough effort, thus its about finding the middle line most of the time. Often I try to judge how long people have been on a scene for, some can last hours, so I'm not gonna write out long /me's when applying an IV, I'll speed things up a little so that people can be on their way while not taking from the experience. I feel like it's situational a lot of the time, at least when it comes to FD roleplay, but then again, its probably situational for a lot of other types of roleplay as well for sure.

FD roleplay is very dynamic, and it takes a lot to:

1. know what you're doing

2. try to explain what you're doing in layman's terms

 

FD members aren't at fault here with the matter at hand. I haven't had much roleplay with FD members except one fairly recently, and the /me's were relatively short, in that they weren't lines and lines of needless words and sentences, but they weren't short nor spammy either. They were straight to the point while ensuring that it's descriptive enough for the patient (myself in this case) understood what was going on. So I applaud people who do that.

 

Meanwhile, there is someone somewhere on the server typing out 5 lines to open a door and check their phone.

[Imp]

I feel like the most important part of determining whether or not someone's a good roleplayer or not is most definitely how their mentality towards roleplaying is. Are they a play-to-win type of player or are they more poise when it comes to the result of roleplay. Of course nobody likes to lose, but you're going to take a loss eventually. Another thing that I really think is important to look at is their portrayal. Your /me's could be magnificent, as @Pádraigsaid, but if you're roleplaying an Italian-American mobster and you completely shit the bed in regards to portrayal, your /me's are completely irrelevant.

[KaythPlus]

On 7/6/2021 at 5:34 AM, Aquila said:

 

Or they lack social skills, or have an ego that they'd like to boost with length. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

 

A lot of people can't, somehow, despite a lot of the playerbase being young and having been raised around keyboards and phone screens. I type slower than the average person but there are still people who type extremely slowly, and often it's because they choose to elongate their action texts.

 

If people can't type fast enough, keep the action texts short. We have to take into account our OOC weaknesses and combat them.

 

Completely disagree, people here seem to give opinions but word them as gospel. Lacking social skills may be the reason a couple individuals decide to pump their /me's but in the completely opposite regard, the whole 'show not tell' type of storytelling is just lost on most people here. They seem to want to tell everyone everything and rarely try to emote it because conversations > performance. 

 

Each their own, roleplay how you want to roleplay and World is big enough that you'll find the people you enjoy roleplaying with and viseversa. It is entirely situational and this whole mentally people have where they hard-state their opinion as if its the most valuable one is a little silly.

 

Some people roleplay through actions, and showing instead of telling. They're accused of lacking social skills.

Some people roleplay entirely through coversation with brief couple word /me's thrown in. Accused of being unable to emote emotion, and have to tell instead.

Edited July 22, 2021 by KaythPlus

[eTaylor]

This thread pretty much just confirms and highlights that it’s merely a preference and style thing. Shouldn’t be a problem as long as you deal with the fact that this server is a mix of different styles and forms. You can enjoy long actions, but don’t be an asshole because someone types a little faster and shorter. And don’t be impatient when someone likes a few extra words. It ultimately comes down to the player whether they suck or not.