Making a New Character and Fitting In

[maxcell]

tl; dr.

this.

i wish i had done that.

[johnlewismcleod]

tl; dr.

I probably shouldn't ask, but what does this mean? Is this a saggy britches thing?

If I were wiser I'd leave this thread lie, but of course I'm not.

I've got to give a +1 to Bog's pointing out that we all need to make new players feel welcome and help them become part of our community. We've got to avoid cliques. It's human nature to form cliques and we usually don't even know it when we're doing it.

We spend a lot of time together and develop shorthand dialogue amongst ourselves and have lots of fun. Then someone shows up from WoW or whatever and they have very little idea what ALFA is about or how to enjoy ALFA for the wonderful place it is...and if they wander about alone for hours on end trying to figure out alone what all the fuss is about they are likely to come to the conclusion alone that ALFA is no fun at all and all the players here are [fill in the blank].

We all need to interact with new players as much as possible and give them that chance to see what it's all about and how it works and give them a chance to understand and be part of our community. Some won't stay, of course, but if we don't continue to get more players ALFA will eventually die.

Help keep ALFA alive...be inclusive and friendly to newcomers.

[Veilan]

tl; dr = Too long; didn't read.

[johnlewismcleod]

tl; dr = Too long; didn't read.

Ahhhhh....thanks, Veilan

From the support shown for "tl; dr" , it seems it's a good idea to let people know when we think they are boring and verbose

Anyway....the cat's out of the bag: I'm not one of the cool people. But I still treasure
our community and feel part of something very special.

Enough said by me, heh

[Zelknolf]

I've got to give a +1 to Bog's pointing out that we all need to make new players feel welcome and help them become part of our community.

I found Bogs to be needlessly negative and to have generalized about a group of players, using overtly-hostile word choice and posturing (i.e. "You high levels best realize...") and a pointedly-divisive rhetoric.

I also found his rant about using tells to be curious, as he is scolding some players for failing to metagame enough. In the ALFA I joined, failing to metagame was a virtue-- so was keeping a character who was sensitive to light indoors, having the loner interact awkwardly and avoid conversation, sending professionals and artisans to their crafts, and roleplaying social bonding in those requisite small groups.

The "don't shoot the messenger" stance seems to me as similarly weak, as the same post posits that the statements came from personal observation. The "asking," which he defaulted to after the "observation" part was challenged, seems likely to be biased, as those people who feel marginalized by Bogs' rants, plots, and perceived favoritism don't seem to have been asked anything.

[I-KP]

Only ALFA can turn a positive thread into a string of diatribes.

Carry on...

[Burt]

Only ALFA can turn a positive thread into a string of diatribes.

Carry on...

Actually many online forums can achieve this same feat with relative ease.

[lakhena]

tl; dr.

I probably shouldn't ask, but what does this mean? Is this a saggy britches thing?

If I were wiser I'd leave this thread lie, but of course I'm not.

I've got to give a +1 to Bog's pointing out that we all need to make new players feel welcome and help them become part of our community. We've got to avoid cliques. It's human nature to form cliques and we usually don't even know it when we're doing it.

We spend a lot of time together and develop shorthand dialogue amongst ourselves and have lots of fun. Then someone shows up from WoW or whatever and they have very little idea what ALFA is about or how to enjoy ALFA for the wonderful place it is...and if they wander about alone for hours on end trying to figure out alone what all the fuss is about they are likely to come to the conclusion alone that ALFA is no fun at all and all the players here are [fill in the blank].

We all need to interact with new players as much as possible and give them that chance to see what it's all about and how it works and give them a chance to understand and be part of our community. Some won't stay, of course, but if we don't continue to get more players ALFA will eventually die.

Help keep ALFA alive...be inclusive and friendly to newcomers.

+1

This is why the people I've been recruiting haven't been staying... it's not because they don't know how to make PCs that fit in. It's not like I don't know how to get people to interact with my PCs. They don't like logging in and wandering around alone for hours, and neither do I. I have enjoyed the people I've encountered from time to time (Voric has been really helpful, and probably the reason I still log in occasionally), but I just don't get why ith keeps bugging me to play here.

I'm sorry if this sounds like a rant. I'm really trying to like this place.

Please delete if this is offensive.

[Blindhamsterman]

lakhena

When we (Aglaril (Ithildur), Sywyn (keryn), Laniara (gribo), Maeredhel (Ronan), Ethan (killthorne) and Elenaril (me)) get out of the underdark in a couple weeks, we can try to arrange play times together (all of the above, or some, depending on desires). Keep in mind that half the players listed above, are GMT so our times are basically opposite... but if you want to coordinate, It'd be cool.

I know that Keryn, Gribo and myself (along with various others that have since died or retired) have tried to arrange elf groups multiple times as we've quite regularly had a decent number of low to mid level elves (plus a couple higher ones) That would like to get a campaign going... we have some of the nicest areas on TSM that would be ideal. But the DMs we asked to do it usually switched servers or left ALFA before anything could lift off. Saying elf only might be considered 'eliteist' or whatever by some, but its actually more a case of sticking to the ALFA Canon for the above areas... There has been a bit of movement IC to get rauthars (elf friends) to be allowed access too, but thats all open to debate between involved players and DMs.

aaaanyway, point to the post... lakhena, we'll be done with stuff keeping is below ground soon enough, when we are, we can try and get together (some or all of us) to play some. a group so large (7+ PCs) would surely entice a DM as well.... (or not, who knows... we've had similar sized groups before to no avail)

[Veilan]

Actually many online forums can achieve this same feat with relative ease.

Good sir, I would in fact venture to say the ease with which this is achieved is truly consummate.

[Swift]

We cant cover every timezone with players and DMs, in every location on every server.

We can try, but it is not possible. Sooner or later, a new player will log in for the first time and see no-one for hours.

[paazin]

+1

This is why the people I've been recruiting haven't been staying... it's not because they don't know how to make PCs that fit in. It's not like I don't know how to get people to interact with my PCs. They don't like logging in and wandering around alone for hours, and neither do I. I have enjoyed the people I've encountered from time to time (Voric has been really helpful, and probably the reason I still log in occasionally), but I just don't get why ith keeps bugging me to play here.

I'm sorry if this sounds like a rant. I'm really trying to like this place.

Please delete if this is offensive.

This is great and useful. Read it, peoples.

[Castano]

+1 lakhena, paazin.

[Ithildur]

It strikes me as interesting, and perhaps not coincidental, that the HDM's of the servers that are well populated find Lakhena's concerns something to take into consideration. Not saying anything against Curm btw, in case it comes across that way - my point is simply that two individuals who obviously are trying to look out for new players also both happen to be heading up servers that have a lot of activity.

To be fair, what Lakhena's experiencing is also probably at least in part because all the US players are currently most active in BG or MS. Plus she has horrible timing so far; I can't remember how many times she came online right after everyone, including DMs, logged off of TSM.

And I'd have to agree; we ALFAns can get silly as heck but this thread, which started off as an attempt to contribute something positive, has elicited some unnecessary defensiveness and negativity thrown in with the usual harmless sillies.

[CloudDancing]

My thought, let's bring back the two character idea. One PC for above and one PC for below. This would open things up for a REAL Underdark population character group. And it would help out with boredom on other characters. I think it would encourage more campaign style play that requires seclusion while leaving an outlet for being extroverted too.