[Jamchop]

(is this topic in the right place?)

...and how they're shunned from RP unless they have a friend who is already playing or do the long-ass grind to Level 60.

Lemme start by saying - this is from MY experiences and what -I- have deduced, interpreted and generally otherwise experienced or seen.
Newer players' characters are disregarded in RP. Completely ignored. I've seen it, I've experienced it.

I stood in Cellsvich square for 4 hours. I was watching videos, playing games, but even I saw how many people walked passed, sat down, RPed, there was even some crazy stuff going down. NONE of it involved me. I didn't do emotes, say anything (except OOC shenanigans) even walk/look around.

I tried the same thing the next day, doing the occasional casual "stretches arms" or "yawns" or "sits down" emote when there were people around. Nothing.

I even tried talking to someone. Yes, -TALKING-. Crazy right? 2 second conversation before their long time "we're basically (meta)buddies irl" showed up. Then I was cast aside.

The point im trying to make is - this game helps new players WITH the game, people tell newer players good places to RP in and when they show up for the RP party the same people don't even include them.

You may be asking (or arguing) but why do you have to be level 60 (or close) to RP? There's no requirement.
Because that one, tiny little tent on the world map called Badlands Arena where all the Level 60s or close have RP pvp that newer players can't have (unless they enjoy being a punching bag).

I could sit next to someone on a chair or something and look like i'm involved and they'd completely ignore me.


You may be thinking :roll: just some newb thinking their opinion is right and how they've done all the made up research like they know how to perform social experiments and to be honest you could be right. It could be just my introvert personality making me too scared to try and engage in a conversation properly, or the fact that im too lazy to make a decent profile (even though I'd say its fine), or even the fact that I lack the energy to edit/draw art for my characters which is giving people a bad impression of me (or that could be me thinking the world revolves around myself).

Maybe i'm just jealous that people are having fun in a completely fair way, that I can't copy or recreate. Maybe i'm just being a dick.

[Egil]

Heya. I think you have it twisted just a smidge. Yeah, if you don't know folks OOC'ly and don't hunt for the new meta after every update, your chances of interaction are going to drop a bit. But do you know what is actually killing your roleplay prospects significantly? Never initiating. And the -single- time you tried in FOUR days, you got unlucky and got someone who didn't want to RP and was looking to grind/RP with someone else. That's no one else's fault but your own, and I would've just let someone else tell you that if it hadn't been for the fact that my character -did- try to interact with your's but, for whatever reason, you didn't respond even though I stood there for 10-20 minutes waiting for a response. So.

If you don't initiate and don't have folks you know from elsewhere to RP with, then atleast be sure to respond when someone -does- finally walk up to you.

[Zakizo]

It's in the right place. I've never had trouble finding RP, even when I was on a new character and no one knew who I was (or so I thought, but my profile style might be a giveaway to some). To be honest, it doesn't sound like you're being aggressive enough to spark RP with the players here. I've noticed that when I play a "passive" character no one ever tries to talk to them, but it's easy to pull them into RP if my character is the extroverted type (and I'm heavily introverted so I know it can be difficult, but it shouldn't stop you from playing an extroverted character).

It's important to note that there are a lot of introverts in our community. That means if you're being passive, there's a good chance the people around you are also going to be passive. Areas like the arena sometimes fall silent even with a decent number of characters present for this very reason. That, and to be honest, they usually don't really have much to talk about until they decide to beat on each other, considering the characters aren't usually deeply involved with one another.

I wish I had something helpful to offer you, but I don't do much on SL2 right now. There's not much going on in the public space, and like much of the community I'm not fond of "small talk" RP. I like something with substance, and at the moment that's lacking. Hopefully something will stir soon. Until then, making an appeal to someone to involve you in what they're doing might help alleviate your trouble. An alternative but more difficult solution would be trying to start something up yourself. In either case, best of luck. I'll see what I can do to make this less of a problem soon, so thank you for bringing it to our attention. A lot of older players have a sort of immunity to this in the form of acquaintances, and it's difficult to see a problem when it's not affecting you.

[Breakaway~totheweird]

I agree with Zakizo to an extent. Everyone was a 'new player' at one point or another; everyone had to go through the ringer.

A tip: Step out of your comfort zone and create a character that's aggressive/ outgoing. That's the beauty of roleplaying. You can be anything you want to be (within lore's guidelines). Making an introverted, quiet character was not your best move when starting off in a new environment with no connections. Have that memorable, well-played personality shine through without depending on another person.

Tip #2: Don't randomly come out the woodwork, and complain about not "getting RP" on the game. Yes, it's frustrating, but there's a more appropriate way of going about it. I was sitting around in Cellsvich, and you got all huffy with two completely, unrelated people, like we can magically resolve the issue. Maybe if you asked for some advice, and dare I say it, ask for RP, then you may have received a better reception. All you did was leave a negative impression.

There is one point I agree with, in all of this: too much focus on PvP. Something that I can write a freaking novel on. But, I won't. Instead, I try to find ways to create my own storylines, or produce interesting characters. Do what I can within my own power.

Tl;dr Don't sit in a chair and not say shit, expecting for RP to be handed to you on a silver platter. Work for those character interactions.

[Jamchop]

I should have known better than to even post this. I got jealous and now I've basically messed up my first impressions, I know all of this already because its happened before and it worked out before and i'm stupid. This was stupid and I now want to kill myself.

[Sarinpa1]

obligatory note : if you are serious about your issue and the desire to commit suicide, please contact your local psychologist and/or suicide hotline. It may be helpful to aproach relatives regarding your mental problems.



in the case that you dont suffer from these serious issues
what to not do : shove it in face of random strangers, just makes you look like you're a twelve year old fishing for attention
"bwah nobody goes out of their way to rp with me even through i offer litteraly no appealing qualities everyone must hate me" you must be fun at parties


ill tell you outright this community isnt for you
if not being center of attention makes you do a scene like this, you'll have a very bad time with whats to come

[Jamchop]

well, my week of playing this game was fun, time to go i guess

[Soapy]

All you needed for Christmas was some self-esteem.

[Slydria]

Sarinpa, what you said was pretty unhelpful and basically ended in a less than friendly shove out the door. Don't make posts like that.

[catabur]

RPing in an active environment like SL2 is a lot like the real world. People don't know what to expect from strangers aside from looks and what they've heard, established and liked friends are going to get more attention mostly as oppose to the stranger, and introverted people tend to stay rather by themselves unless an extroverted person comes up to them. Since there are plenty of introverted people already in SL2, it gets hard to actually break them out of their shell, so to speak.

What I'd say to do: make a good first impression with your profile. No one's asking for an HTML profile that rivals famous websites, but throwing some text sloppily onto a picture in some awful font color might make a really bad first impression on people.

Secondly, try being extroverted with your characters. I have plenty of characters who sit around and wait, with some of them being much more introverted (and practically tsundere, if you want to throw that title on) than others. My catgirl loves sitting under a tree, being lonely and grumpy to any who dare come near her. Of course, this kind of attitude doesn't give her much newly-acquainted friends. She's either with the "comforting" type of characters or those who are actually tolerable despite her constant name calling at them.

It could be literally days before anyone decides to come up to her again, but to go on the flip side, I have a character who randomly goes up to people and drops awful pick-up lines relating to SL2's lore that causes some of my more OOC friends to hate me. She isn't too annoying (personal bias aside anyway), so she could befriend just about anyone in due time.

So, really, make a good impression and be active. Don't take IC actions and words seriously, don't act too dumb ICly and expect no one to care, ect.
(Heck, I just sat around in Cellsvich a lot myself and didn't really know anyone OOCly. Now, due to a few lucky incident, I'm in, like, 500 chats with SL2 players and participate in projects with them.)