Character uniqueness

[Halloween]

1 minute ago, vortus said:

I've encountered two people doing this now. I want to die inside.

The whole point of making your character mute, to me, is to impose a restriction on them and create a hurdle that they must learn to surpass as part of their character development. If you're just gonna type "(TTS) Hello" instead of adopting a notepad, or having a friend with you who speaks sign language with you who can translate to those who don't, you create a character that has essentially no development. At that point, you might ask yourself, why even do it? I attribute it akin to something like having a character who is blind but now has robot eyes that allow them to see. Why even have them be blind at that point? It's no longer a unique story point, it's now just a "rule of cool" visual change. They're trying to be unique just to be unique, rather than being unique for the consequences, setbacks and the story that drives.

I'm basically venting into the void because nobody's listening, but people should really stop picking disabilities and immediately fixing them in the same breath. It creates a stale, uninspired character that blends into the crowd of mallrats already on the server. Let your character's shortcomings and their struggle to deal with them be their selling point, not how they've immediately conquered them.

 

It should be like this honestly

 

 

[DLimit]

2 hours ago, vortus said:

I've encountered two people doing this now. I want to die inside.

The whole point of making your character mute, to me, is to impose a restriction on them and create a hurdle that they must learn to surpass as part of their character development. If you're just gonna type "(TTS) Hello" instead of adopting a notepad, or having a friend with you who speaks sign language with you who can translate to those who don't, you create a character that has essentially no development. At that point, you might ask yourself, why even do it? I attribute it akin to something like having a character who is blind but now has robot eyes that allow them to see. Why even have them be blind at that point? It's no longer a unique story point, it's now just a "rule of cool" visual change. They're trying to be unique just to be unique, rather than being unique for the consequences, setbacks and the story that drives.

I'm basically venting into the void because nobody's listening, but people should really stop picking disabilities and immediately fixing them in the same breath. It creates a stale, uninspired character that blends into the crowd of mallrats already on the server. Let your character's shortcomings and their struggle to deal with them be their selling point, not how they've immediately conquered them.

Because it's 2023. All it requires is a phone to engage in "Text-To-Speech" conversations. Now adays, migrants literally use "Google Translate" to communicate ideas to strangers. These hurdles are less challenging due to the easy accessibility to technology that caters to various disabilities. It'd be a bit abnormal to be a grown human being, living with said disability for most to all of their life, and NOT have access to such equipment. Want to see a hurdle? Take away their phone. There's a disadvantage.

Edited May 12, 2023 by DLimit

[ERPQM]

Oof this shit is spicy
 

I don’t think having facepaint and a persistent mask makes a character unique. It’s very cringe, but if their RP slaps? Sure, I’ll deal with it maybe 

 

RPing a disability and immediately fixing it is boring; same thinking as all the others in this thread with enough brain cells to rub together. It takes a special kinda person to take a disability as a whole, good and bad. Rare af on this server. Much respect to the ones that are out there rocking it and doing their best

 

research research research 

[Vice_]

Perhaps it's not what you do, but the way that you do it.

 

Expressing uniqueness is an invaluable quality; but it's done through creative writing, not brute force. I feel as though this discussion is under the umbrella of a much larger, much broader topic: "what the fuck are we doing here?" Because... I honestly don't know, sometimes. It seems to me that a majority of the player-base is untrusting of others, afraid of others, and generally cynical of others. Quick /me's and lazy one-liners galore. A plethora of people racing to the next thing, always quick to move on to an exciting venture, when in-fact, a player's experience will always and forever be limited to that box at the top left of the screen.

 

It sounds like hyperbole or illusive opinion, but let's get concrete. The day to day experiences happen within that box of text. That, one's sole experience and measure of compatibility with others is dictated by how well they can express themselves through creative writing. It's all there is, regardless of visual stimuli and "gameplay" features. I think, to be fair, we need to take a breath and really ask ourselves... "What the fuck are we doing here?"

 

Is it a writing game? If so, what are the themes, what are the parameters, what's the tone? And how do we successfully collaborate to make it worth while to read? How do we lend a hand to teach people new skillsets to read and write? If it is, then why are we constantly concerning ourselves with making it fun for lackluster players who want to "shotcop" and "bang-bang"?

 

Or, is it a unique MMO, with opportunities for RP? If so, let's focus on gameplay functionality, grinding quests and jobs, NPCs, and fun activities that aren't just waiting in line for coffee, boring to tears the players that simply want to find their next victim. Let's forget about the writing and simply focus on the gameplay. And, if it is a unique MMO, why are we concerning ourselves with the problems of the writer? Why should he or she even be given a voice? Why are we straining ourselves to provide them with creative outlets?

 

I dunno'. Just a thought experiment.

[vortus]

26 minutes ago, DLimit said:

Because it's 2023. All it requires is a phone to engage in "Text-To-Speech" conversations. Now adays, migrants literally use "Google Translate" to communicate ideas to strangers. These hurdles are less challenging due to the easy accessibility to technology that caters to various disabilities. It'd be a bit abnormal to be a grown human being, living with said disability for most to all of their life, and NOT have access to such equipment. Want to see a hurdle? Take away their phone. There's a disadvantage.

It's lazy, in poor taste and makes a mockery of the actual condition of being unable to speak. If you think it's good roleplay to give characters debilitating physical or mental conditions and then handwaving all the problems away and acting like it's totally normal to have deep conversations in 0.1 seconds using text to speech (which requires typing, which takes time) then I don't know what to tell you. Most mute people are not social butterflies and 400 WPM typers, roleplaying it like that is very silly and an insult to those in the community who might be mute themselves. In my mind, it is very similar to this trend of making super hot transgender characters who blend in perfectly - the reality is much harsher and a lot uglier, and it becomes comical glorification rather than a nuanced, educated and well-developed take on the subject.

There's not necessarily an issue with using text to speech on your phone, but in the manner in which I have seen it done I am less than impressed. Your head is going to be down at your phone for half a minute while you type. People are going to be talking over you, the conversation will have moved on by the time you type out what you meant to say, or everybody has to be quiet and wait and then listen to the voice on the phone talk on a small, most likely bad quality phone speaker. This is completely forgotten in the examples of which I have seen.

[DasFroggy]

Roleplayed a blind character once before. The fun wasn't in the disability alone, but rather the narrative challenge of researching the condition, learning the life adjustments of those afflicted, and incorporating it as quietly as possible to make my character ter seem entirely normal.

 

Shockingly, not one person realized said character was blind. There were clues in every emote (the character would only greet people that approached, only recognize people who spoke, needed unique markers for colored fabrics when sewing, etc...) and interactions required more exploration (because they literally couldn't see, so they'd ask for descriptions)...

 

...but nobody really caught on to the secret.

 

That's probably the single best way to approach disability roleplay - don't make it super obvious, and let others discover it at their own pace. Having the invisible lines within which your character is forced to operate and cannot go beyond is all the more satisfying when others cross thise boundaries and then notice that you're not so quick to keep up... It's better than just wearing a sign everywhere hoping for attention.

 

That said I'm in agreement that suddenly cheating out of it with some miracle fix like robot eyes goes a long way to cheapening the roleplay. 

Edited May 12, 2023 by DasFroggy

[Natala]

 Constancy is the problem with roleplay handicapped. 

It's easy to rp blind, mute, or handicapped for the first few days, but most people eventually starts doing shortcuts.

It goes from, someone using a notepad to write as they are mute, which they emoted in length as it isn't a fast action. To suddenly three weeks later all their emotes is like.

"Hello Tom of you are"
[Notepad] "I am well"
"you feeling better?"
[Notepad] I went to the doctor, but they only told me to get some rest so that's what I am doing. 
Posting as quickly as the speaking person.

The issue with roleplay a disability, is that disability isn't conveniently NOT there when you want it to be missing, and that is where most people fail.

People start off as roleplay a well rounded blind person, but when they realize it's not just a cool feature of their character but something that effect every single thing the character do and all aspects of their characters life, and existence and prevents them from doing a lot of things or needing constant help. The character slowly shifts into a lazy light version of Daredevil.

Yes they are blind, yes they are mute, yes they have a metal leg, but it is no longer a handicap, but a convenient quirk they bring up when they want to, or they do the minimum to pass. 

I am not saying there isn't well roleplayed handicap people out there, of course there are, and I am sure if someone who lived with a blind person began to rp it, they be able to do it justice. 

Just that the pitfall is that people start off well meaning and then forgets about the challenges a handicapped person in real life can't forget or ignore, when it becomes inconvenient, repetitive, boring or prevents them from doing things they want to do.

(Disclaimer: This is not an attack, it's not a gtaworld problem, it a general statement, coming from roleplay in many games.)

Edited May 13, 2023 by Natala

[vortus]

1 hour ago, Natala said:

 Constancy is the problem with roleplay handicapped. 

It's easy to rp blind, mute, or handicapped for the first few days, but most people eventually starts doing shortcuts.

It goes from, someone using a notepad to write as they are mute, which they emoted in length as it isn't a fast action. To suddenly three weeks later all their emotes it is like.

"Hello Tom of you are"
[Notepad] "I am well"
"you feeling better?"
[Notepad] I went to the doctor, but they only told me to get some rest so that's what I am doing. 
Posting as quickly as the speaking person.

The issue with roleplay a disability, is that disability isn't conveniently NOT there when you want it to be missing, and that is where most people fail.

People start off as roleplay a well rounded blind person, but when they realize it's not just a cool feature of their character but something that effect every single thing the character do and all aspects of their characters life, and existence and prevents them from doing a lot of things or needing constant help. The character slowly shifts into a lazy light version of Daredevil.

Yes they are blind, yes they are mute, yes they have a metal leg, but it is no longer a handicap, but a convenient quirk they bring up when they want to, or they do the minimum to pass. 

I am not saying there isn't well roleplayed handicap people out there, of course there are, and I am sure if someone who lived with a blind person began to rp it, they be able to do it justice. 

Just that the pitfall is that people start off well meaning and then forgets about the challenges a handicapped person in real life can't forget or ignore, when it becomes inconvenient, repetitive, boring or prevents them from doing things they want to do.

(Disclaimer: This is not an attack, it's not a gtaworld problem, it a general statement, coming from roleplay in many games.)

This is exactly what I've been getting at, thank you for summing it up similarly. When you pick to roleplay a nuanced topic, with that burden comes responsibility not to half ass it. If you're not prepared to give it 110%, then don't pick to roleplay something that requires 110%.

[Kari]

On 5/12/2023 at 5:34 PM, vortus said:

It's lazy, in poor taste and makes a mockery of the actual condition of being unable to speak. If you think it's good roleplay to give characters debilitating physical or mental conditions and then handwaving all the problems away and acting like it's totally normal to have deep conversations in 0.1 seconds using text to speech (which requires typing, which takes time) then I don't know what to tell you. Most mute people are not social butterflies and 400 WPM typers, roleplaying it like that is very silly and an insult to those in the community who might be mute themselves. In my mind, it is very similar to this trend of making super hot transgender characters who blend in perfectly - the reality is much harsher and a lot uglier, and it becomes comical glorification rather than a nuanced, educated and well-developed take on the subject.

There's not necessarily an issue with using text to speech on your phone, but in the manner in which I have seen it done I am less than impressed. Your head is going to be down at your phone for half a minute while you type. People are going to be talking over you, the conversation will have moved on by the time you type out what you meant to say, or everybody has to be quiet and wait and then listen to the voice on the phone talk on a small, most likely bad quality phone speaker. This is completely forgotten in the examples of which I have seen.

Big agree. It's never not annoying to see all of the issues inherent to rping being mute simply ignored because "text to speech :)". At some point, if you're not playing a disabled char to RP the disability, and rather just have it be a cool conversation .. starter(?) why do it. Super dehumanizing & degrading to us in the community with these disabilities. 

That being said, 90% of the time it isn't bad faith. It's people being either weak-willed or ignorant. 

[Kari]

On 5/12/2023 at 4:50 PM, DLimit said:

Because it's 2023. All it requires is a phone to engage in "Text-To-Speech" conversations. Now adays, migrants literally use "Google Translate" to communicate ideas to strangers. These hurdles are less challenging due to the easy accessibility to technology that caters to various disabilities. It'd be a bit abnormal to be a grown human being, living with said disability for most to all of their life, and NOT have access to such equipment. Want to see a hurdle? Take away their phone. There's a disadvantage.

The point isn't that it's unrealistic or improbable, it's that at a certain point, if your disability is just adding brackets before you speak and a quirk to be shy, why rp a disability? just be shy. When people ignore or refuse to rp the negatives of a disability, it's poor taste. That is how [Text to speech] is used a majority of the time, as a simple substitute for talking, and that's the ONLY part of the character that showcases their "disability", that they have to have a quirky way to communicate.