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Using /me's less, script more.


TommyX

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Using /me's less, script more.

 

Comparing to the GTA 5 RP population, players know about FiveM more, which most servers are voice-based roleplay. Text-based roleplay is old, and pretty niche among them. Text roleplayers write /me's all the time, which I do agree that it add details to roleplay. Most write really long and detailed /me's. But when I think about it, I wonder if it is really necessary or does it really affect roleplay that much. 

 

Having experienced both roleplay on text-based (SAMP & GTA:W) and voice-based (FiveM), I'm thinking what if we use scripted feature (more usage of animations) MORE than text roleplay to be more modern as in to be more like most other GTA 5 RP servers? I DO understand this is a HEAVY text-based server, but I would like an opinion to another perspective of how roleplay can be done. View my examples below.

 


EXAMPLES of when I think /me is NOT NECESSARY, and can be replaced with scripted features.

 

EX #1 : "/me takes a seat." "/me pushes himself up from the seat."

— I don't believe this is necessary because you can just use animations. We have A LOT of sitting animations and when you get up, a simple /as would do the work. Same goes for any other things that animations help.

 

EX #2 : "/me slides out his firearm, aiming it towards the driver.", "/me spins around" "/me pivots."

— This is what I see a lot, roleplaying in an LEO faction. And while I still do it myself, I don't really get why a line of /me is needed. When you can just TAB, select weapon and aim or do /anim aim2. Or when you can just... literally move your character using WASD.

 

EX #3 : Roleplaying the usage of a command and scripted features.

— Paying someone, withdrawing money, opening vehicle doors, trucking job, etc. I think animations would do the work. Question that may come, so should truckers deliver WITHOUT any lines of /me's or something? Well, I think that's fine as long as they are not rushing as in running and jumping for no reasons, and just walk normally. Something in that sense. 

 

EXAMPLES of when I think /me is NECESSARY.

 

1. Actions & things that can't be replaced with scripted feature. For example (/me smiles, /me nods, /me taps someone's shoulder, etc.)

2. Type of roleplay that requires detail (medical RP, mechanic RP sometimes, etc)


 

Don't get me wrong. Being in 2 legal factions, I write /me's ALL THE TIME and in every opportunity, and I still roleplay every action of the abovementioned examples. But I would like to see what the community think on a different way to roleplay.

 

DISCUSSIONS:

1. What do you think would happen if we significantly reduce the usage of unnecessary and long /me's?

2. Would players doing less /me's, but using more animations for their actions be seen as "worse" roleplayers?

3. Would doing so affect the roleplay quality in any way?

 

Some may disagree with this right away, which is fine, but CONSTRUCTIVE OPINION please!

Edited by TommyX
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people /me whatever actions they want and feel like are necessary, despite them feeling unnecessary to you. it’s text roleplay, so no one can ever cut down on /me’s since that’s quite literally what you are here to do. plenty of anims to complement your /me’s with, but definitely wouldn’t use them to replace rp lines 🤐

 

if you (the general public) don’t want to read too much text, move on over to voice rp!

Edited by Katherine
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1. What do you think would happen if we significantly reduce the usage of unnecessary and long /me's?

If there's an animation or another way to show what I am doing, I won't do a /me personally. Unless it's a rule I have to, I am doing something specific such as aiming somewhere specific or just want to add more emotion for whatever reason.

 

2. Would players doing less /me's, but using more animations for their actions be seen as "worse" roleplayers?

Using /me makes your roleplay clearer to others. Imagine if you didn't have to roleplay pulling out a gun for example, so cops just shot you no matter the animation you did because you might have been reaching for a gun.

 

3. Would doing so affect the roleplay quality in any way?

We'd probably have to test and see to be honest.

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1: If you can use /me’s properly you do more than showing others actions you cannot see in game. Using /me’s properly simply slowly reveal who your character is. It’s more than actions. /me’s slowly reveals personality too; something NO ANIMATION can show. The details are important because those are the most important part. Through details you can catch inner parts of the personality of a character that couldn’t ever be described through any animation.

 

2. I wouldn’t catch the same immersion with them. They could impersonate their character perfectly through words and animations, but I would feel like I’m missing a piece of who they really are.

 

3. I believe I pretty much answered to this. It would affect the quality for people who, like me, love to show some part of their character which his hidden from words and action; through the way they communicate, the way they express, the way they make actions.

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Not only as already mentioned with desync and such, I think relying on animations completely removes the creativity to express character and attitude with actions. I agree with how many people will day needless emotes of drinking or sitting are in fact, needless. But that's only cause they're done with no expression at all.

 

I'd never tell or imply anyone should roleplay in a certain way, but overall if you're going to perform an action that is character-less with no personality that the animation does anyway, then perhaps the animation alone will suffice. But I'd always say add character or personality to how your character does things. Pretentiously, lazily, excitably, etc.

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Even something like /me nestled awkwardly into the chair, or /me maintains a stone-cold stare to John Doe as he places his right hand over the blood-stained switchblade, these tell the story of our character and how they interact with the world. Who are they? How do they see the world and people? How do they greet others? The way they hold a cigarette, butt it out or toss it? 

 

All of these /me's are a means to define the interaction of different characters. I admit that animations do compliment scenes and one where my character threw their hands in the air when they got excited and thought a friend was arresting them when they weren't would have been as funny if I hadn't used "said anim". But I don't think they're mandatory to the /me's for story telling. I've RPed with quite a few people that didn't use a single anim while interacting but they had the right length of /me, not too short or overly complicated. 

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