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|  | Posted By: Sanya Thomas | 2003-11-14 18:53:07 |  |
| |  |  It got cold here on the East Coast. Let this extra long grab bag keep you inside and away from annoying outdoor chores!
Q: My character is a junior weaponsmith on a roleplay server. He refuses to serve nonhuman races; that is to say, he will not provide weaponry to Inconnu and Half-Ogres. When confronted by his "racism," he defends his right to not serve inconnu and other sub-human races. Sometimes he uses the word "peck," borrowed from the movie "Willow" – the intent is to make fun of the small size of the Inconnu.
Many players believe that it is role-playing and not a violation of the Code of Conduct, and whether or not they have fun with it, they leave me be. However, I'm also frequently being told by other players that I am violating the Code of Conduct on areas of both racist comment and verbal abuse, and that a report will be filed with a CSR.
I have no problem if someone wants to argue with my "no subhuman" stance in character. However, I get really bothered by threats to contact a CSR. As such, I wanted to find out if I am indeed violating the Code of Conduct.
A: I edited your question just to keep it from being a grab bag by itself. ;) For the benefit of the rest of tonight's readers – the player made it clear that he never uses real life slurs or language, and that he's strictly going along with our own backstory in which we indicate the presence of tensions between the mythical races.
Short answer – no, sir, you are not in violation of the COC. Rather, you're enriching the atmosphere of your server. As long as your language is clean, and doesn't drag real world horror into the fantasy world, you're in the clear.
Long answer – I asked the CS guys to look over your email to make sure I wasn't about to say anything crazy, and our Roleplay CSR gave me this reply:
"Racism, in any medium, is a very touchy subject and with good reason. However, there's a definite difference between racism in the real world and racial enmity and hatreds in a fantasy setting.
"Many, if not most, fantasy settings from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy to Gary Gygax's Dungeons and Dragons to Mythic's Dark Age of Camelot contain racial and cultural tensions and feuds. Elves and Dwarves, in most settings, dislike each other. Dark Elves typically hate every other race other than their own (and often their own at that). Same can be said with Orcs, trolls, goblins, etc. Culture, race and religion are defining characteristics of potential conflict and strife.
"Dark Age of Camelot is a game built on such conflict. Three realms with several races, cultures and religions clash with one another in effort to put an end to their enemies. Trolls and Dwarves are bitter combatants against Elves and Firbolgs who are in turn dire enemies of Avalonians and Saracens. This animosity is what fuels the Realm Vs Realm aspect of Camelot.
"DAoC has recently provided further fiction for roleplay potential within the realms with new races that are often seen with distrust or outright hatred. The Inconnu and Shar are notable examples of this. Not that such inter realm conflict is mandated, but it isn't frowned upon either if players choose to go that route. There are plenty of examples from our quests and encounters to back this up.
"The difference between roleplaying in game racial tensions and being racist in the real world is being able to differentiate between In Character and Out of Character. Roleplaying a Briton who dislikes the new upstart races of the Inconnu and Half Ogres is perfectly fine within the roleplay aspects of the game settings, and adds more depth in roleplay interaction. However, when real world terminology is used, and we all know what that is, then the line has been crossed and it is no longer "in character."
"We can't fault anyone for wanting to roleplay the tension between uneasy allies in game. It's definitely not a violation of the Code of Conduct, in any way in my opinion. At best the term "peck" may be considered a RP violation since it's from the movie Willow and even then I would think it's not a violation, no more than calling a dwarf, shorty or stubby or what have you. ;o)"
So there you go. Keep real world language out of it, be consistent, and hope that your fellows on a roleplay server understand that there's a difference between a character and a player.
Q: Why is my level 34 Mercenary (with 34 DW) getting Flank at 29 and Dark Tendrils at 34, when the Herald states that 29 DW is Hypnotic Darkness, 34 is Flank, and 39 is Dark Tendrils?
A: The Herald was wrong, and I thank you for letting us know. The correct information should read that level 29 is Flank, level 34 gives
Dark Tendrils, and level 44 gives Hypnotic Darkness.
All of you with character builders out there on your websites, please update, and accept my apology for the wrong information.
Q: How exactly is one supposed to make Mythic aware of peeving text? For example, Saffa in Tir na Nog says "Oh, a enchantress..." and, being a spellcrafter, I see that message a LOT. Needless to say it's gotten on my nerves, and I've tried appeal channels to no effect. If there is an appropriate place to send these sorts of concerns to, I would love to know. Or perhaps I've found the right place? ;) Oh, and what's with the badger?
A: You found the right place. Those things make me crazy too :) This particular one is fixed now, and we welcome hot tips on the others.
EDIT 7:00 PM EST - The badger is an extremely silly joke. SNAAAAKE!
Q: We recently acquired the Fool's Bow artifact for a guildie and are looking to level it. What classifies as a magic using class?
A: From the Item Prince: "Any class with a usable power pool and/or a class that creates magical abilities with health and endurance (e.g. savages)."
Q: Can a character possess more than one activated artifact?
A: You can have one of each artifact that is usable by your class. Have fun.
Q: Does the AoE effect on the Battlemaster MLA "Sapping Strike" break mez?
A: Yes.
Q: Is there any way to /follow a boat?
A: No, but the request for such a command has been passed on.
Q: Does the "Mastery of Magery" realm ability affect bolts as well as DDs?
A: It should – if it does not, please report it as a bug.
Q: The new items (from ToA) that increase the cap of any ability: Do they actually give an increase to the stated ability? (For example: the Ancient Wrought Hauberk has a "Bonus to Constitution attribute bonus cap: 5." Does it actually add anything to Constitution?)
A: From the Item Mistress: " The Bonus to (Stat) attribute cap does not increase the stat itself. It does raise the cap on the amount of +Stat items the player will be able to equip. For example, a level 50 player is normally capped at +75 Constitution. However, if they add an item with a Bonus to Constitution bonus cap: 5, they will now be able to equip items totaling +80 Con and receive the full 80 points."
Q: The Aten's Shield gains experience or whatever by killing Demons. Is it safe to assume that anything in Darkness Falls is in the demon category?
A: The overlord of encounters said: " The necyomancers are humanoid and the familiars are animals. Everything else in there is a demon."
Q: I was fighting near the haven city of Hesperos. A sphinx popped on the small harpy island I was on. Didn't think too much of it until I did my PBAE style and then it attacked me and I died!
A: Again, I called on the overlord – she said " The sphinx are wise and powerful and are tasked with monitoring the various areas in ToA, but they are not invulnerable. Attacking and/or killing them (even by accident) does nothing but anger the entire family.
Q: I need some faction information about buccas/bwcas/angry bwcas. For RP reasons, I need to raise my bucca/bwca/angry bwca faction to friendly. No, really, I'm serious. Is this possible?
A: Man, had a lot for the overlord today: " These guys are very grumpy and hate everyone equally."
Q: I should by all accounts have GREAT Mau faction. I've never killed anything to bring down my faction, and I even spent two entire days doing a faction quest even though they were already friendly to me. As I was on my way to turn in the results of the quest, I passed some Mau out on the desert. They attacked and killed me. I did not kill one of those that attacked me before I died. I released to the city and then went back out in the desert to con some Mau...one neutral, all the rest aggressive!!!! How could this be? My character was conning friendly to them after hours and hours of faction adjustment. Now she cannot even turn in the ears for the quest, because she cannot get near the Mau, let alone talk to them. She is back to square one!
A: I couldn't tell from your question if you went and checked your faction with the village that gave you the quest originally, or if you just checked the faction of those that killed you. It seems there are several kinds of Mau – allies to each other, but not necessarily you.
From the overlord: " There are two different Mau factions. There are the maubastet and the mausekhmet. They are allied. The mausekhmet, however, are a warrior tribe and are more distrusting than the maubastet. You can be friendly to the maubastet and still have the mausekhmet dislike you. As a side note, killing sacred lions will lower your faction with both."
Now, you didn't say you'd killed any sacred lions, so I don't think that's your problem. The things you said you'd killed in your letter should not have had any effect. Please go back to the village and check – and let me know if they specifically dislike you.
* * *
Got a letter asking why the writer wasn't listed on the scroll of valor – the answer is that the Scroll is not an automatic thing. Not everyone wants to have their new level fifty, or their new Grandmaster Status, announced to the world. If you would like the recognition, just click on the community news tab, and fill out the "submit news" form there on the bar. We're always looking for stories from our community, so don't be shy!
Gentle reminder: We play this game along with you, and most of us have played other MMORPGs – it's actually a requirement for hire in our customer service pit, you need to be an experienced DAOC player (read: 40+) and familiar with the genre overall. After all, if we didn't play, we wouldn't have the necessary empathy. So, the CSRs do know very well how frustrating it is when something goes wrong, and they try to cut angry people a lot of slack. Now, we need your help. Please understand that a human being reads each and every appeal, and usually the person reading the appeal isn't the one who can fix your problem. Skip the swearing and remarks on potential ancestry, and use the text buffer to tell us the /loc of the problem, the NPC name, and other factual tidbits. Cursing in an appeal is the same thing as cursing directly at a CSR or another player, and as everyone knows, those things generally result in a little time off. No one deserves to be cussed at or personally attacked. Thanks in advance.
And one other note – please, if your friend has a problem, encourage your friend to appeal. You can't do it for him – neither I nor the CSRs can investigate anything based on the word of a friend, and reading third party appeals means it'll be that much longer before we get to the person with the problem. Help us get to the person who needs us – don't appeal unless it's your problem. We appreciate it.
Goodness gracious, what a week. You guys have really been the best – I can’t tell you how much we've appreciated your feedback, questions, and comments. As you can tell from all the patch notes, read files, and posts, we've been taking it all in. Thanks!
Go forth and conquer, I'll see you Monday.
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