Metagaming ('player knowledge' to us old-skoolers) is a big no-no. But some power emoting should be allowable depending on the venue. For example, I can, in a few games, /kiss or /hug your character, this will animate my avatar and will power emote to the local chat. It is assumed that my avatar/character actually did lean over and peck you one and you may react as you would if some random (or not random, depending on our realtionship) did that to your character. The types of god-moding or power emotes that are frowned on most are emotes that dictate the response of characters that are not under your own control. That's where the line is. (In my experience and opinion, of course ;) )

I likewise agree with the Night-Elf quote. My persona lfeelign as a longtime proponent of RP is that your RP shouldn't assume another players, and should stay in-world. I also find that a good way to split out OOC and RP speech in game is to keep OOC chat in private, group-only, guild-only or otherwise non-public channels. Or to use the usually provided OOC chat channel for exactly that. My guild and friends use a voice server that allows us all to chat with one another in real time and that is all OOC. However, I try to keep anythign that will be heard in local, public chat in character.

EQ2 has a wide and varied set of public and private channels that cna be individually configured to allow whichever channels you want displayed per chat window, so you could put all OOC channels in one pane and all RP channels in another.

I tend to turn all global (worldwide) OOC channels off when I play, and keep my OOC interactions limited to private/tell, group only, and our voice server. When I was an experienced Jumpgate player, I would also keep on the 'newbie help' channel which was entirely OOC, to keep the newbs up-to-date, but this was a choice I made to improve their quality of gameplay in the inbetween times when I wasn't participant in a world event.

I find that sometimes, power-emoting isn't so bad. The situations where it's acceptable are limited, though. I'd only do it with people in the game that I know well. I trust them, they trust me, and we know we'd never force eachother's characters into something that would not fit them.
I would never do it to strangers, though. In general, I'd say "just don't do it", because a lot of people, especially if they're new to roleplaying, somehow don't know or can't sense by themselves where that line is that you just don't cross.

As for (fairly) strict RP guilds, I enjoy them. I wouldn't join a guild where no OOC at all is allowed in guild chat though. I am most comfortable in a guild that allows OOC between brackets (( )) (or the equivalent in that game, it varies), because somtimes you just have to be able to talk to each other about the game, or to tell people you have to go away for a while because unexpected visitors are standing in the middle of your living room.

What constitutes RP, for me depends entirely on the story/world that the game is set in. Anything that is just not possible in that world, or that is just too hard to explain or where the explanation would feel strained, should be avoided.
For example, talking about cars and football would be very much wrong in most MMos, but not in all. In URU-Live, it was not so strange, since that played in the here-and-now, and the setting was that people had travelled from all over the world to gather in the old D'ni city. That they would talk about things like cars and football is only natural, since that was a part of their daily life until they came to the Cavern.

I find that sometimes, power-emoting isn't so bad. The situations where it's acceptable are limited, though. I'd only do it with people in the game that I know well. I trust them, they trust me, and we know we'd never force eachother's characters into something that would not fit them.
I would never do it to strangers, though. In general, I'd say "just don't do it", because a lot of people, especially if they're new to roleplaying, somehow don't know or can't sense by themselves where that line is that you just don't cross.

As for (fairly) strict RP guilds, I enjoy them. I wouldn't join a guild where no OOC at all is allowed in guild chat though. I am most comfortable in a guild that allows OOC between brackets (( )) (or the equivalent in that game, it varies), because somtimes you just have to be able to talk to each other about the game, or to tell people you have to go away for a while because unexpected visitors are standing in the middle of your living room.

What constitutes RP, for me depends entirely on the story/world that the game is set in. Anything that is just not possible in that world, or that is just too hard to explain or where the explanation would feel strained, should be avoided.
For example, talking about cars and football would be very much wrong in most MMos, but not in all. In URU-Live, it was not so strange, since that played in the here-and-now, and the setting was that people had travelled from all over the world to gather in the old D'ni city. That they would talk about things like cars and football is only natural, since that was a part of their daily life until they came to the Cavern.

I find roleplaying-enforced/encouraged guilds not to my liking. I think roleplaying is something you spread by doing it, and that is fun, and interesting.

I do not consider talking about items' stats to be in-character, and I consider most /emotes and usual chatter to be done in character.

Personnaly, I never include myself (the player) in any conversation, unless I am saying things like "I can't play now; I'm at work". Everything I do, I type, I say, is my character's point of view.

Simple things like using your abilities in guild-chat (For instance, some stabs another player, you spontaneously uses *Covers him!*) is fun, and is easy to do; Other ways to role-play are sticking to your concept. My character in final fantasy 11 is a bit of a crazy one (mithra= cat girl) and she likes to smash things, as well as kill sheeps (they look like oversized mouses!) even if there is nothing for me to gain by smashing them.

If players frown on my killing, she will be sad, and probably shun the player for a while; you can't stop a cat from messing with play-things, after all.

Something that is also annoying, is when players use extreme emotes to win a fighting situation. In AO, i once experienced that. It was like: " fires a burst at " And then: " avoids the incoming projectiles by leaning so far backwards that his neck touches the floor, then he jumps back up and throws himself at and stabbing him to death with his backup weapon, a dagger" Matrix moves such as these are not RP if you ask me :)

People who have problems with "Meta-gaming", or heck, people who put any kind of rules on RP'ing in general have always been the ruin of RP'ing. I think of it as an art form, it's open to interpretation and it is a form of expression. To put rules or limits on this is just silly.

The place I was introduced to roleplaying was a small place, and there was a sense of community. There weren't "rules" but if you were clearly out of line everyone knew it and you were either pulled aside nicely (and privately) and talked to, or you were killed. The more control people, and even GMs try to place over RP'ing the more stale and fake it becomes. The more people try and segregate, or judge other RP'ers the smaller their own world becomes.

I'm fine with anyone RP'ing any way they want, but I prefer to personally go with the flow and improvise as things come up... sticking with only a general persona. I've seen many people who are "consistent" roleplayers who can do this, but it's just like any other "rules". The more you place on yourself, the less free you are able to "act".

It's the ones who want to control things that ruin it for those who just want to enjoy the endless possibilities imagination can bring.

Very interesting stuff here. I made my online RP chops in the old text MUSH/MUX environment, so I think that made me much more sensitive to people power-emoting. Of course it's an entirely different environment where your emotes might be two lines long. In most MMORPGs the entire emote system comes out of the much simpler MUD environment, with simple /kiss, /hug, /slap commands, so I think that really encourages people to fire them off without thinking about other people's actions. That said, I don't really give people a hard time for this because it's really not their fault. Of course you almost always have the option of doing a full emote such as /em in WoW, but it seems that few people do, even in the RP guilds I have been in.

/em thanks you for the fine article!

"For example, talking about the inner layout of a high-level dungeon as a low-level character who could not possibly have first-hand knowledge of such a thing. [WoW, M, 29]"

This kind of rubbed a sore spot on me, because you're talking about etiquette to the point where it strangles legitimate histories.

As an example from the same game as the writer of that, say you have an orc warlock who was Rend Blackhand's protege in talking to the Burning Legion for a number of years, then was captured by a Horde raiding party, and promptly defected for good.

It wouldn't be metagaming to say that this warlock has an extensive knowledge of Blackrock Spire's inner workings; saying otherwise is just smothering roleplay due to the limited world, which is against the entire working of roleplay in the first place.

Thunder - I think the person who you're quoting would agree with what you're saying. Note that he said "who could not possibly have first-hand knowledge". In your example, you provide the circumstances of first-hand knowledge.

It is if the Orc Warlock had extensive knowledge of the dungeon without any convincing rationale for it that it would fall under meta-gaming.

(But a character who had extensive knowledge of every dungeon because of a whole collection of background rationales would probably not be very convincing either.)

On the question "Is it RP?", I've been hearing lots of "what's ingame is RP by definition". But I can't agree. Even if it's a hard job and may lead to arguments, you must sort out what's coherent and what's not.
For example in The Saga of Ryzom, you can't jump. Does this mean that your character can't jump? A quick analyse of the world gives you the answer : yes he can. Just emote it.
And in every game you have characters' names floating above their head. That doesn't mean your character knows everybody's name.
So RP is not limited to what gameplay gives and what gameplay gives isn't necessarily RP. You must sort out.

About the strict rules of some guilds, I disagree with "The rules begin to constrain, rather then enable, creativity."
While it is easier for beginners in RP to learn with a light rules RP guild or just a friend introducing you to RP, guilds with strict rules are very efficient. I'll mention the Guardsmen of Yew guild of Ultima Online (Europa server), who are the most interesting RPers I've ever met. I personnaly don't belong to this guild and I understand the problem of recruiting they may have, but I have to admit they have a RP of a quality I won't reach.
And of course I just speak about constraints like staying IC and not even using brackets for OOC, starting a new character specially dedicated to the guild. The constraints like guild's background, codes and uniform are the root of creativity. "Art is born from constraints, live by struggles and die from freedom."* Letting your character with no rule to follow won't help you at all : without foundations you would wander dazed and would fall in the stereotypes (the good ol' slaughtered parents and oppressing authority or the drizzt syndrome). Once you decide to join a guild of Paladins, you will have to follow the codes of the paladins, whether yourself are rebel or not. From the constraint of loyalty, you can draw a lot of different interesting characters. From the fanatic believer to the dumb follower of who-is-smarter by the traitor that will patiently follow the rules until...
Guilds with constraints are there to help you not to fall into the rebel paladin, the nice vampire, and all the absurd characters that real life feelings of the player create. If you don't give at least yourself constraints for your character, he will be another hero. Give him real flaws (being psychopath is not a flaw, just a justification to behave stupidly) and other will like him. Don't insist too much on the drama though, attentionwhore! ;)

*: "L'art naît de contraintes, vit de luttes et meurt de liberté." André Gide

Role playing is all well and good, but it doesn't have to be mandatory. It may be called a role playing game, but that means you play a role such as a knight or tanker or whatever your class is. I think the people who actually change their personality get confusing and get very mean when someone else doesn't role play.
It is much better to be yourself in a game. That is still role playing because you are effectively playing the role of yourself. That may sound strange, but it is technically true and almost everything will be in character comments. It also raises another dilemma. If a person starts to like another player, how do they know what that person is actually like? Some role players get too involved and feelings do get hurt, especially when that nice helpful elf turns into a real jerk.
I have played role playing games since the original Final Fantasy on NES and mmogs for 6 years, and it hasn't caused me any problems by being myself. It seems to me that anyone that can easily role play may have done it in real life, and I wonder if anyone truly knows them well.

"And in every game you have characters' names floating above their head. That doesn't mean your character knows everybody's name."

I have played one immensely enjoyable game, Illarion, in which RP is strongly encouraged throughout. It has the excellent feature of not displaying names until someone introduces themselves to you. Additionally you can assign names of your choosing to someone that will then appear above their heads (eg "Woman who I saw crying by the well"). At some later point I might get to know her and be introduced, at which point I will learn her real name.

For power emoting, what worked well with the Illarion system was sorting out results by private chat and reporting them publicly. For example, I might put:
/emote starts sneaking up on the orc
then a quick OOC private conversation ensues where the orc's player and I compare my agilty with the orc's perception. Once done the orc's player knows if the orc heard me or not and can react appropriately. However this method requires a great deal of trust between players.

Alec Baldwin asks for his voice to be removed from an "unfair" documentary about Arnold Schwarzenegger...

Hi,

I've only been roleplaying for a few days and, while I might be a literate player, I try to keep my entries somewhat short and sweet. (Around 2 to 3 paragraphs) I wanted to try out a new roleplay so I looked around and found one I liked. The member who started the roleplay didn't ask for a bio, intro or picture of my character but simply asked for the address to a current roleplay I was in. I entered in one of my more eventful roleplays and his response was, "I'm sorry, You guys suck." Hurtful as it may be, I'd like to know is there a proper way to write an entry in roleplay? I understand grammar and staying in character but how literate do you have to be, how much detail do people expect? I don't want to write too much, I feel like I'm talking over the other characters. If someone knows a place where I can get great examples of roleplay writing, I'd like to take a peek at them just to get an idea of what kind of writing they're looking for. Then, maybe, I could work on expanding my vocabulary a little and being more vivid when I set the atmospheres and situations. If anyone can help me out, please e-mail me at Mutedconfusion@aol.com.

Thank You,

Roeau