It's ironic that your comments in this thread have been pretty TLDR in comparison to other people's Wankgate style.
I think you might be working with different goals than the players you're talking about here. They're doing what they need to do to depict the character in a way they feel is ic. You're focusing specifically on interaction... what you want on the other end. You're not wrong, but... the other player in a thread isn't the only person who most players are worried about satisfying. They also have to feel ic (the fact that their character is thinking of important information doesn't mean they'd be ready to say it) and they may have people who aren't you watching their threads and judging them for icness.
I have the feeling we may be talking about two different extremes, so if you're in a thread where this is going on, why not tell the player that you need a little more in terms of dialogue, and/or ask them how many tags they think it will take to get out the information you want? One of my characters is introspective, and I tend to make their early log dialogue short and open, so the other player has some room to move. I could change that on request, but I wouldn't know to do it without the request. The same kind of thing might be going on with people you're playing with.
I lean toward writing long tags, even in script/bracket format. I do it for description and to let the other player know that mine is relaxed and off their guard, or hiding things, or lying, or uncomfortable, completely not serious but being deadpan for effect, shifty, how they're doing the world's worst impression of someone, that they're about this close to cracking and spilling the info and sometimes what might be needed to push them over that line, how they're acting seductive, what kind of tone they're taking, how they're failing at lying convincingly, what they're up to out of the other character's sight that the other player might want to know about, what of their body language and attitude completely contradict their words, etc etc etc etc.
Basically, I lean TL;DR specifically to give the other person a whole lot to play off of. Hell, I have lines with zero dialog at all, because everything else is enough already. How much spoken dialog do I need, for my character to try and almost fail to hold in tears at something the other did or said, and then turn around and start slamming things around the bedroom packing a bag? That's not nothing to go off of.
Seconding what the above anon said entirely. It doesn't matter if it's prose or brackets. It's about intent. If someone constantly writes a lot of introspection that you can't use and doesn't give you enough to go off of, send them a PM or hit up their HMD or ask in a little OOC line at the bottom of a tag, or something.
Personally, I find that players give me less to play off of in brackets/ But that's mostly because players often only give me a sentence or two of dialog....and then joke around OOC in their brackets rather than actually supplementing their barebones dialog which might answer my character's question, but does nothing to invite further discussion. :(
I would crit the hell out of that, but so many players in my game do it, I'm just looking into other games instead of trying to have a heart-to-heart with so many people. I'm not particularly attached to the game I'm in anyway. I'll bring it up with the next gamewide HMD, but if that's what everyone else is used to and fine with, uh, good for them? It's not for me.
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I think you might be working with different goals than the players you're talking about here. They're doing what they need to do to depict the character in a way they feel is ic. You're focusing specifically on interaction... what you want on the other end. You're not wrong, but... the other player in a thread isn't the only person who most players are worried about satisfying. They also have to feel ic (the fact that their character is thinking of important information doesn't mean they'd be ready to say it) and they may have people who aren't you watching their threads and judging them for icness.
I have the feeling we may be talking about two different extremes, so if you're in a thread where this is going on, why not tell the player that you need a little more in terms of dialogue, and/or ask them how many tags they think it will take to get out the information you want? One of my characters is introspective, and I tend to make their early log dialogue short and open, so the other player has some room to move. I could change that on request, but I wouldn't know to do it without the request. The same kind of thing might be going on with people you're playing with.
+1000
(Anonymous) 2013-03-31 10:48 pm (UTC)(link)Basically, I lean TL;DR specifically to give the other person a whole lot to play off of. Hell, I have lines with zero dialog at all, because everything else is enough already. How much spoken dialog do I need, for my character to try and almost fail to hold in tears at something the other did or said, and then turn around and start slamming things around the bedroom packing a bag? That's not nothing to go off of.
Seconding what the above anon said entirely. It doesn't matter if it's prose or brackets. It's about intent. If someone constantly writes a lot of introspection that you can't use and doesn't give you enough to go off of, send them a PM or hit up their HMD or ask in a little OOC line at the bottom of a tag, or something.
Personally, I find that players give me less to play off of in brackets/ But that's mostly because players often only give me a sentence or two of dialog....and then joke around OOC in their brackets rather than actually supplementing their barebones dialog which might answer my character's question, but does nothing to invite further discussion. :(
I would crit the hell out of that, but so many players in my game do it, I'm just looking into other games instead of trying to have a heart-to-heart with so many people. I'm not particularly attached to the game I'm in anyway. I'll bring it up with the next gamewide HMD, but if that's what everyone else is used to and fine with, uh, good for them? It's not for me.