johnlewismcleod wrote:Maybe it's a bit late, but could I declare a truce here on this?
We all know we have a wonderful player base here and I think we all agree that it's quite safe to say that any exclusion/clique behaviour if it exists is unintentional.
Valid points have been made on all sides of the issue throughout the thread and I, for one, have benefited by the discussion.
+1.
For clarification, my recommendation to Lakhena should not be construed to mean 'High lvls are mean and will ignore or PK you, so you won't have fun with them'. Perhaps I could've worded it better; 'high lvl/long established PCs that you may or may not have enjoyable interactions with on a regular basis.' might sound a bit negative I guess? I was simply trying to state as objectively as possible that, for the very reasons that several high lvl players have stated so far, sometimes you may not be included in things they're doing, or you might find yourself interacting with them, then suddenly they go off and have a private/secretive discussion for very good IC reasons. And the reality is, this is likely to happen more with established PC's that have a lot on their plate as well as established/trusted relationships than with other new PCs.
A simple tell from one of the established folks in such a situation should suffice in a case like that. "Hey, welcome, it was good RPing with you, but we need to have a private pow wow IC now; hope you don't feel like we're intentionally blowing you off. catch you later.'
It's a bit of a juggling act at times; back in the days of, say, SD 2004 or so, if that happened there were plenty of other lowbie Ducklings that you could seek out to continue to get your RP fix with. But say on TSM currently, it's not like that; those high lvls leave, and the new player is probably going to find himself alone, possibly in the middle of an isolated area with no way to go anywhere and not much to do. Heck, apparently that even happened with other low lvls 'checking out' to have a private discussion the other night so it's not even just high lvls.
It happens; it happens in RL, it happens during RP interactions. Where I see Bogg's viewpoint is that this is in the end a game, and there is some flexibility in RP choices many times (not always, i.e. Sharrans getting all cozy and warm friendly with X, etc.) As long as players are making some attempt to be as reasonably accommodating of RP interactions as possible with new players like the folks above are saying, I think we're on the right track.
Cliques are a rather subjective thing btw; most people who are in cliques probably are not aware that they are in one, and on the other hand, sometimes we can be too quick to call something cliquish when it's no more than natural bonding/cooperation, etc.
It's a cyclical thing too; help new players have fun, more new players stick around, player mass increases, they start to have fun regardless of what the high lvls or whoever/whatever folks are doing. Perhaps that's really where the focus/energy should be directed. The fact that we're seeing more active DM's on TSM is a good sign, that hopefully translates into more fun for the new folks.
I do agree, that DMs have a lot of power (and hence responsibility) to help even things out, though not exclusively. I certainly have benefited from a couple of players reaching out to me and helping me get into Viigas' sessions by providing both IC and OOC hooks.
So in the end, we all can do something, without necessarily compromising good RP. Or pointing fingers/getting defensive on the forums.
/end spiel
You see no problem with the statement that because a character is highlvl/established other characters may not be able to have fun/RP with them? 
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