Posted by Cyradia on August 8, 2000 at 07:43:08:
In Reply to: A Question posted by Curious on August 8, 2000 at 05:43:46:
That's a good question. My answer will of course only be an opinion, and subject to just being plain wrong. However, my ideas of god roleplay have strong roots in different mythologies, but we'll use Greek mythology as one I'm sure most of us are familiar with. The idea there is that the gods are arrogant, petty, vain, and more often than not use the mortals as entertainment. That being said, the power to make themselves known to a mortal is just that...a power. Which can be used for power tripping...which many gods could be doing in character. A faceless, booming voice is scary. The fact that you don't know what to expect, what to plead with, etc...is part of that fear (in character). So if any god, and in character I think we need to assume it's a paladiny god, looked down and was enraged by actions...I can see it being totally in character to just push a button and give no explanation, no name, no nuttin. After all, they're breaking the code and they're not worthy. All of this, I'm immortal and you're mortal is obviously an IC view. This demand for taking responsibility and giving the player reasons (which I think is what people are calling lack of roleplay, but I think that title is misplaced) is a very OOC view. It may be a valid argument. That's a sticky topic, but it's certainly an OOC one. In Thera, why would a mortal think they are owed anything by the gods...your powers came from the gods and are theirs to take away...yadda yadda. But, you asked about being wizi. When you're visible, the answer is easy...you're in character. It says so in really big letters in the employee handbook. I've bent that rule, like I've vised in the description room to give an example description, but for the most part that's a solid rule. It'd be really nice if we could stay in character all the time. Then wizi would only be used for a booming voice, and such. However, that would require players that never cheat and characters who never go berserk. In cheating situations, we're wizi because we're not roleplaying...and neither are you, obviously. But where this becomes really complicated is the "berserk" character situation. It's not really OOC...for example...a Arbiter that starts wildly flagging (ok, maybe that's ooc...but I assure you 75% of those character swear they're roleplaying) might be doing so in character. However, if Bria and her gang aren't on, you don't want the rest of the pantheon ignoring the situation, do you? What if Pico is the only one on? Ok, what if a paladin is slaying other light walkers, orphans, and has generally flipped? Does he get to keep throwing his lightwalking communes to do it? What if there aren't any lightwalking gods on? In both of these cases...you're best bet is a booming anonymous voice. OOC, it needs to be done to keep the game realistic and to keep the illusion that punishment is swift when you cross your god/ideals. IC, you're only hope is to justify it as a power-tripping arrogant god that has a right to take away (or whatever fits). Was this a situation of a character gone "berserk"? Eh, not as serious as the first two examples, but remember we don't know all the details. I'm inclined to say that whichever immortal pushed the button had very good reasons and did so for the good of the game. I don't know anybody who ruins characters for fun. The lesson that needs to be taken away from this, it seems to me, is that neo-paladins will be very closely watched and don't forget to explain code-breaking in your role. I think I just wrote a whole hell of a lot without answering your question...but that's atleast a start.