This is an ECATS thing, I think. You won't hear anything like it outside of ECATS, but it's absolutely rampant inside. I play in an ECATS game myself and I enjoy it a lot, but this is one thing that drives me fucking insane. Players literally outright refuse to put any information about what is happening with their characters because they're so worried about being "infomodded." Infomodding in this case entailing any reading of mood/body language/anything whatsoever other than straight dialogue.
It's gotten to the point where I literally will ask people OOCly straight up - what is your character getting at here? And I'll be shot down. They consider any request for more info ( even just on body language or demeanor, much less god forbid actual feelings/thoughts) to be an attempt to "infomod" their characters.
This is also especially annoying because it often leads to circular conversations that end up going nowhere. Sometimes having some clue as to a characters internal monologue/feelings will be a good cue as to what might be an interesting thing to come up in a thread. This doesn't necessarily mean something silly like I SENSE YOUR BROTHER DIED AND YOU FEEL SAD ABOUT IT if I've never met your brother... but it's possible for me to nudge the conversation in some direction that would play off that so that SOMETHING is accomplished in the thread. It doesn't even have to be a good thing - maybe my character would say something stupidly insensitive about the death, or maybe she would say something sweet and comforting, or maybe she would just flounder and feel bad. But it wouldn't have to be 100 comments of guessing games before getting bored and walking away.
It's gotten to the point that I just drop threads with some of these people. Like sorry, not interested in the small talk. I guess I am just a horrible infomodder or whatever.
I've played in ECATS games for years and this has never even slightly been a thing. Like, to the extent that I can't think of a single time "infomodding" has come up outside of the normal "IT'S HARD TO PLAY VILLAINS" line as a concern. And I've asked and been asked for further clarification on body language pretty routinely in threads.
I'm not saying you haven't had this experience, but holy balls which part of the ECATS playerbase are you hanging out with anon, tell them to chill the fuck out.
Who are you playing with in ECATS? I can't think of a single person who wouldn't love to tell you, in excruciating detail, what their characters are thinking about given the slightest provocation.
Example: A character's coming from somewhere that isn't their home at a funny hour and explicitly says he wasn't visiting a friend, just someone else. He's told you in previous conversations he has no family in the game. Isn't it safe to assume it's someone with a different relationship? People don't generally go over to other people's private spaces and say HELLO MY NAME IS CHARACTER X AND I'M HERE TO BECOME BEST FRIENDS.
But I guess that sort of thing counts for infomodding in the games I'm in, because no you shouldn't ever pick up on the fact that the player includes "he's sneaking back" in the thread! You should just assume it's normal for him to be out at buttfuck dark o'clock sneaking around. Clearly.
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Re: -1
(Anonymous) 2013-04-08 05:06 am (UTC)(link)It's gotten to the point where I literally will ask people OOCly straight up - what is your character getting at here? And I'll be shot down. They consider any request for more info ( even just on body language or demeanor, much less god forbid actual feelings/thoughts) to be an attempt to "infomod" their characters.
This is also especially annoying because it often leads to circular conversations that end up going nowhere. Sometimes having some clue as to a characters internal monologue/feelings will be a good cue as to what might be an interesting thing to come up in a thread. This doesn't necessarily mean something silly like I SENSE YOUR BROTHER DIED AND YOU FEEL SAD ABOUT IT if I've never met your brother... but it's possible for me to nudge the conversation in some direction that would play off that so that SOMETHING is accomplished in the thread. It doesn't even have to be a good thing - maybe my character would say something stupidly insensitive about the death, or maybe she would say something sweet and comforting, or maybe she would just flounder and feel bad. But it wouldn't have to be 100 comments of guessing games before getting bored and walking away.
It's gotten to the point that I just drop threads with some of these people. Like sorry, not interested in the small talk. I guess I am just a horrible infomodder or whatever.
Re: -1
(Anonymous) 2013-04-08 06:22 pm (UTC)(link)I'm not saying you haven't had this experience, but holy balls which part of the ECATS playerbase are you hanging out with anon, tell them to chill the fuck out.
Re: -1
(Anonymous) 2013-04-08 09:32 pm (UTC)(link)Re: -1
(Anonymous) 2013-04-09 06:05 am (UTC)(link)If I am asked for info on what I am going at, of course I will give it. Why wouldn't I? This isn't a game of paranoia.
Unless you're playing Paranoia, in which case you'd be doing it wrong, but I doubt it :P
+1
(Anonymous) 2013-04-12 01:04 am (UTC)(link)Example: A character's coming from somewhere that isn't their home at a funny hour and explicitly says he wasn't visiting a friend, just someone else. He's told you in previous conversations he has no family in the game. Isn't it safe to assume it's someone with a different relationship? People don't generally go over to other people's private spaces and say HELLO MY NAME IS CHARACTER X AND I'M HERE TO BECOME BEST FRIENDS.
But I guess that sort of thing counts for infomodding in the games I'm in, because no you shouldn't ever pick up on the fact that the player includes "he's sneaking back" in the thread! You should just assume it's normal for him to be out at buttfuck dark o'clock sneaking around. Clearly.