InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Simplify, simplify."

shoot you in the head is my rob zombie cover band (zombiephile) wrote,
@ 2011-09-12 10:35:00

Entry tags:

poll

poll born out of curiosity!
Okay so. In one of the games I'm in, I've already missed out on two big IC things because the format of them (both parties) is the Mass IC Thread, and those always wig me out. I see the Mass IC Thread posted in the game's community, and even if there aren't many comments yet, I get overwhelmed. And, once there's a bunch of sub-threads already going, I get even more overwhelmed and lost. If I'm late to the game (as I am with the most recent one, as it was posted on Friday and I'm not around on weekends), I never know where to throw my characters in, especially since people have already started journaling about what was going on at the party. Combine this with the fact that I have a really hard time reading large blocks of text on a computer screen for very long, and I basically have no idea what I missed because I simply can't go back and just look at all the sub-threads.

I far prefer the OOC post, with "here's the set-up of the party, comment with whether your character(s) went or not and what they did!" and then you can sort of plot out what happened and, if you want, post singular threads or logs separately. It's a lot easier for me to figure out what happened (and what my characters might know about and, then, journal about), and I spend less time wigging out over "Oh god where should I comment with my characters? Should I start a new sub-thread with them? Should I comment to one of the existing threads? MAYBE I'LL JUST GO OVER HERE. :|"

Which, naturally, leads to a poll.

** JUST A NOTE: I'm not talking about BIG PLOT STUFF like battles and such, where the actual playing-out of it is actually important. I'm more referring to the social kind of things where your character being there is more the point than necessarily what they did.

Poll #6400
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

For big events with lots of characters involved, which do you prefer?

View Answers

An OOC post to say "this is what my characters did"
9 (56.2%)

A mass thread with lots of sub-threads to actually play everything out
3 (18.8%)

Something else I will explain in comments
4 (25.0%)

Ticky box?

View Answers

TICKY BOX!!
11 (100.0%)

I BLESS THE RAAAAAAINS DOWN IN AAAAAAAAAAAFRICAAAAAAAAAAA

View Answers

GONNA TAKE SOME TIME TO DO THE THINGS WE NEVER HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD
9 (75.0%)

Screw you, that song is stuck in my head now.
3 (25.0%)

Any expansion in comments on your answer to the first question, as to why you prefer one over the other, would be nice. :) Ty! ♥

(Post a new comment)

	chaseharperr 2011-09-12 03:50 pm UTC (link)
	I already explained my thoughts on this. <3 But ilyface. (Reply to this)

	diadem 2011-09-12 05:48 pm UTC (link)
	I think if it's for a large group of people, OOC is so much easier. If it's just a small group of friends then either way could work. I totally understand though, I've missed out on a couple large thread (with sub-threads) and it gets to the point where I don't even feel like reading it because it's an overflow. (Reply to this)

onethingreal
2011-09-12 05:49 pm UTC (link)

I picked the last because sometimes I like OOC threads if no one has the time to do anything else or if it's just like... a big gala with no big bad events planned. I don't really need to read about 10 different characters dancing and eating.

HOWEVER if it's going to be like ~a battle~ then obviously an OOC thread would not be enough and I'd prefer to see that actually written out. But those take a lot of planning/dedication/etc.

(Reply to this)

	wingedthing 2011-09-12 05:51 pm UTC (link)
	OOC threads are just easier for me, when it comes to large groups, and I figure that if there's some IC stuff that people want to happen, that is what GDocs and logs are for. At least for me. Maybe not for other people :x (Reply to this)

trudging
2011-09-12 06:17 pm UTC (link)

I'm a huge fan of OOC for mass parties. It's a good way to figure out what happened and hash out things without having to keep up a gazillion threads at once. If something is important enough for IC writing, that's what posting a separate entry set within the party is for. I just think it saves a lot of hassle. And I can still include if my characters say something particular without having to wait around forever for them to actually do it.

(Reply to this)

	pitterpat 2011-09-12 06:21 pm UTC (link)
	I like OOC for large events as people can actually figure out what the heck is going on, however if say Character G and Character P want to play part of it out, it should be open for them to start a thread with the two of them (and invite others if they so choice)... Just so that they don't feel cheated from playing out whatever it is that is important to those character. (Reply to this)

	meanmeanpeople 2011-09-12 07:14 pm UTC (link)
	Seconding Laura! OOC threads are great for parties, charity events, etc, but I really love the IC documents/logs/threads/etc. for big battles. (Reply to this)

	bafflednoob 2011-09-12 09:23 pm UTC (link)
	I agree with most of the others that massive OOC stuff should just be plotted out. It is WAY too intense to do them. Dude, do you remember the big OCS parties? LOL. OR THE GUILD MEETINGS. When we needed like 7 different rooms full of 30 people each. Jeez. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	zombiephile 2011-09-12 09:28 pm UTC (link)
	Oh man, the OCS guild meetings. xD SO MUCH CONFUSION EVERY TIME. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	bafflednoob 2011-09-12 09:29 pm UTC (link)
	I remember the first time I had to host my own room after becoming Commander. I was SO SCARED. And it was insane. Hectic beyond belief. OR THE COMMAND MEETINGS AHHAHAHA. With all the LCs and Vader at once. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	zombiephile 2011-09-12 09:31 pm UTC (link)
	I think all the OCS big group meetings were doomed to hecticity. Though it's actually like that IRL. >> I had a meeting last week for all the House Managers at the theatre I work at, and there's at least twenty of us. It took four hours to cover everything because we kept going off on tangents and getting distracted. xD (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	bafflednoob 2011-09-12 09:38 pm UTC (link)
	Yeah so those are just IC and OOC examples of how it can be such a clusterfuck with that many characters. And then if there are like 10 different threads going on, and you have to read ALL of them just to keep up? I'd go completely crazy. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	morgielefae 2011-09-12 11:37 pm UTC (link)
	OOC posts make me feel robbed. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	zombiephile 2011-09-13 03:54 pm UTC (link)
	Why's that? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

morgielefae
2011-09-13 07:02 pm UTC (link)

Because playing something out and saying what happened are two different things. When you say what happened, you kill any chance for interacting that large events should otherwise promote. When you play it out, things can change on you, evolve. The best part about rp is you don't always know what your character is going to do. Sometimes they go off and do their own thing, taking you completely by surprise. OOC threads don't allow that. They're boring and cheat you out of characters running into people and talking to people they might not have spoken to otherwise.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	squidtastic 2011-09-14 03:57 pm UTC (link)
	Couldn't have said it better if I'd actually tried. (Reply to this) (Parent)

thelocalnut
2011-09-13 02:33 am UTC (link)

I kind of prefer both. In the sense that, an OOC post initially, with then the individual threads or logs for smaller/various things that have happened at the party, or whatnot. Because I tend to always get lost in the big ole group scenes. I usually end up getting skipped over in the posting order (last few games I’ve been at anyway.) And then soo many comments stack up that IF I did reply it’d be a lot to reply to, and just causes so much anxiety I tend avoiding it completely. Which sucks.

(Reply to this)

hafren
2011-09-13 07:15 pm UTC (link)

I am completely undecided on this because I do think it depends on my mood.

Generally speaking I would say that I probably prefer to log things through gdocs, which means that an OOC post to say 'my characters were here and this is what they wore and probably whom they interacted with' is perfectly fine. However I've been in games -- particularly ones where I'm struggling to figure out where to fit my characters into the social sphere -- that a party thread has been really helpful, because it's allowed me to jump in and talk to a character.

For me the nice thing about threads is that you can sort of take them or leave them. If you don't have time, it's totally all right to just ignore them, but if you can take time you can interact with characters/players you might not have thought to ping or put together in a doc or log.

I honestly think my major dislike of threads IS that they are difficult to read/keep up with. There's also the possibility of comment rot later on, so they aren't my favourite way to do gaming, but I do think they have some good qualities to increase interaction that get lost if you just leave it up to individual players to log out a specific event if they want to.

So yeah... I'm terribly undecided.

(Reply to this)