A Quick Rant About Something I Noticed

[Blue Haze]

I've argued about this a lot already to other members, but I thought I would see if I could get SOME feedback that isn't crap.

Yesterday there was an OTA raid on the Outlands. After a bunch of annoying bullshit, a group consisting of around 6 members ended up taking shelter in the bunker. Along those member were some well known characters like 'Beans' and 'Old Man', along with some not so well known, like Trent Marlow, and some others. Well, the OTA obviously knew the plan (it was quite simple really), and decided to come in bombarding us with flashes which was fine. Then 'Beans' tried to oppose them by throwing a grenade. In the middle of this, one of the OTA said "Wait" in LOOC after 'Beans' had been told to throw the OOC grenade. The grenade exploded and caused problems in OOC. It took a good amount of time for it all to be fixed, then suddenly 'Beans' disconnected for reasons unknown. Because of this, we spent over 30 minutes trying to decide what the hell would happen. Keep in mind, by this time, the even had lasted for over an hour. A little later, somebody else threw a grenade and the OTA threw grenades and grenades grenades grenades. Of course this situation got messed up too, causing everyone to surrender a little more of their time for [LOOC] rants and what not.

Eventually, after a freakishly long time OOCly, the OTA made their way into the room. A female character and my character were the last two alive, both without weapons. Everyone was dead. It was an event though, so they were allowed to NLR. Well, OTA came in and executed the female, then me. I complained a bit for a reason I'll get to in a bit. We were told by the OTA soldier that were were allowed to NLR.

Alright, NLR. New Life Rule. Don't go to the place that you died for a bit, forget everything that happened, and be on your way.

If EVERYONE died, then what was the point of the whole 3+ hours we spend hiding from the Combine (and dealing with BS OOC) only to get all murdered then forced to forget about it?! Nobody that actually battled the Combine lived. Their excuse was people can come back and ICly discover the bodies. Who the hell is going to go back to the bunker to discover IC bodies (which the OTA didn't leave anything explaining what the room even looked like for people not involved) that belong to THEMSELVES after they were told to NLR!?

I seriously think this is flawed. There's debate about everything being in-canon, or non-canon. This is where that doesn't matter. Why worry about canon on an RP server where everyone's time is wasted? The event may as well been done with NPC's and a few EVENT chat messages. At least that would give people a mystery to solve. So far what happened in the bunker either didn't happen or still isn't discovered because everyone disconnected and the only people left were the people who joined AFTER this happened. Not to mention there is no trace for anyone to discover it, such as a paper saying "Blood, shrapnel, pulse burns, and dead bodies fill the room" or something like that.

I said in game, at least leave one or two people alive so SOMEBODY can tell the story ICly.

[Tyrex]

If EVERYONE died, then what was the point of the whole 3+ hours we spend hiding from the Combine only to get all murdered then forced to forget about it?!

It's the whole experience, why do you RP at all?  Your RP doesn't carry over into real life, same effect with NLR.  It's all for fun, if no one can tell the experience, who cares?  You got to RP when it was happening, what do you do with the knowledge that it happened?  "Yo man there was this fight in the bunker and shit..." That's nice for passiveRP, but if the OTA ICly kill all of you, then the tale shouldn't be told.

[The Doctor, RIP Juggernaut]

Beans had to eat/do term papers which is why he left(He basically crippled us seeing how him and I were the only ones with primary weapons.)

[Blue Haze]

If EVERYONE died, then what was the point of the whole 3+ hours we spend hiding from the Combine only to get all murdered then forced to forget about it?!

It's the whole experience, why do you RP at all?  Your RP doesn't carry over into real life, same effect with NLR.  It's all for fun, if no one can tell the experience, who cares?  You got to RP when it was happening, what do you do with the knowledge that it happened?  "Yo man there was this fight in the bunker and shit..." That's nice for passiveRP, but if the OTA ICly kill all of you, then the tale shouldn't be told.

It's just the fact that the whole event was pointless in DEVELOPING anything. I RP to develop my character, not so I can have a moment of fun just to have it erased then going back to passive RP that hardly develops your character compared to surviving an OTA attack would. I really don't care WHO survived even. It could have been a warning to strengthen defenses, or come up with plans for these situations. Also, I don't think anyone has fun when the IC 10 min RP is getting interrupted with 2 hours of OOC.

• Go into bunker to hide from Combine
• Combine come in and start flashing
• Somebody throws a grenade, it doesn't go off yet
• WAIT 30 MINUTES BECAUSE RP IS FROZEN
• Grenade goes off, OTA is injured, they throw a grenade in
• WAIT 30 MINUTES BECAUSE RP IS FROZEN
• etc...

[Tyrex]

If EVERYONE died, then what was the point of the whole 3+ hours we spend hiding from the Combine only to get all murdered then forced to forget about it?!

It's the whole experience, why do you RP at all?  Your RP doesn't carry over into real life, same effect with NLR.  It's all for fun, if no one can tell the experience, who cares?  You got to RP when it was happening, what do you do with the knowledge that it happened?  "Yo man there was this fight in the bunker and shit..." That's nice for passiveRP, but if the OTA ICly kill all of you, then the tale shouldn't be told.

It's just the fact that the whole event was pointless in DEVELOPING anything. I RP to develop my character, not so I can have a moment of fun just to have it erased then going back to passive RP that hardly develops your character compared to surviving an OTA attack would. I really don't care WHO survived even. It could have been a warning to strengthen defenses, or come up with plans for these situations. Also, I don't think anyone has fun when the IC 10 min RP is getting interrupted with 2 hours of OOC.

• Go into bunker to hide from Combine
• Combine come in and start flashing
• Somebody throws a grenade, it doesn't go off yet
• WAIT 30 MINUTES BECAUSE RP IS FROZEN
• Grenade goes off, OTA is injured, they throw a grenade in
• WAIT 30 MINUTES BECAUSE RP IS FROZEN
• etc...

I understand the OOC frustration, everyone has had to deal with it one way or another, but a few moments of fun shouldn't bother you.

[Blue Haze]

I wouldn't be upset if the OOC went to an outcome.

Imagine watching a movie with TONS of pointless dialogue just for it to abruptly end with one of the protagonist's grunts coming in with a chain-gun killing everyone in 5 seconds.

[tics]

Any event that occurs that doesn't contribute to the development of characters is completely pointless and doesn't belong in a serious roleplay environment. We roleplay to develop our characters, not to waste time with the intricacies of this and that, and situations that do not allow for our stories to continue.

This revolves around the overall debate on whether Overwatch should even exist in Outlands, and it usually boils down to an argument about canon. But here is why canon doesn't matter, and never has among decision makers here. The Half-Life 2 official canon is non-existent. What is assumed to be official canon is really a fan-made compilation of snippets of information collected from games and official releases. Most, however, is really assumptions. Therefore, there isn't a true canon to follow. We should be more concerned with the logic and reasonableness of our decisions, not our conformity to "canon."

It is my opinion that Overwatch on Outlands limits the freedom and creativity that we try to provide there, and the reason it was established to begin with. But that argument is for another day.

Ultimately, serious roleplayers should not condone events like this that delay roleplay with no escape and offer nothing to character development. Sure, fun is important, but roleplay is pointless if we can't develop our characters.

[Mr. Pettit]

I have to agree with what you've all said for the most part. I took part in this raid/sweep/whatever it turned into on my OTA. It was by far the sloppiest thing I have seen in terms of OTA roleplay, if you can even call it that. All together I probably got in 3 /mes in and a few radio messages. I had to stand outside the bunker for over a half an hour because of this poorly coordinated OTA event. And because of that and how it played out, I can understand the feelings that people who play on the outlands feel when a bunch of beeping assholes come in and cause frustration like that.
All I can really say is I wish it didn't happen like that and in the few instances where I was involved with the grenade issue I tried my best to be fair to everyone. OTA operations just need to be more coordinated than 3 soldiers running towards the bunker with no objective. And the fact that there was no realistic objective is why you shouldn't have been kept alive. We're not supposed to do that.

[The Doctor, RIP Juggernaut]

I have to agree with what you've all said for the most part. I took part in this raid/sweep/whatever it turned into on my OTA. It was by far the sloppiest thing I have seen in terms of OTA roleplay, if you can even call it that. All together I probably got in 3 /mes in and a few radio messages. I had to stand outside the bunker for over a half an hour because of this poorly coordinated OTA event. And because of that and how it played out, I can understand the feelings that people who play on the outlands feel when a bunch of beeping assholes come in and cause frustration like that.
All I can really say is I wish it didn't happen like that and in the few instances where I was involved with the grenade issue I tried my best to be fair to everyone. OTA operations just need to be more coordinated than 3 soldiers running towards the bunker with no objective. And the fact that there was no realistic objective is why you shouldn't have been kept alive. We're not supposed to do that.

Alright so I wasn't the only one to think that.

Personally I agree with Ricky, OTA, Like the CCA should be there to enhance roleplay, not what they did.
And the few times I've been involved with OTA operations(On both sides) the roleplay has mostly been horrible and far sub-par then what I would expect(With the few good ones being the ones that challenge and Molly ran.)
OTA should be there, but not NEARLY in the force they attempted to be like.

Often OTA say "You have numbers use them" We don't have any ammo or supplies to use to fight because you won't let us.
When it gets to the point where we're at it, if the OTA continue the act like this there's no point in having Outlands because it'll just be city with a few more guns.

[aeiou]

I have to agree with what you've all said for the most part. I took part in this raid/sweep/whatever it turned into on my OTA. It was by far the sloppiest thing I have seen in terms of OTA roleplay, if you can even call it that. All together I probably got in 3 /mes in and a few radio messages. I had to stand outside the bunker for over a half an hour because of this poorly coordinated OTA event. And because of that and how it played out, I can understand the feelings that people who play on the outlands feel when a bunch of beeping assholes come in and cause frustration like that.
All I can really say is I wish it didn't happen like that and in the few instances where I was involved with the grenade issue I tried my best to be fair to everyone. OTA operations just need to be more coordinated than 3 soldiers running towards the bunker with no objective. And the fact that there was no realistic objective is why you shouldn't have been kept alive. We're not supposed to do that.

Alright so I wasn't the only one to think that.

Personally I agree with Ricky, OTA, Like the CCA should be there to enhance roleplay, not what they did.
And the few times I've been involved with OTA operations(On both sides) the roleplay has mostly been horrible and far sub-par then what I would expect(With the few good ones being the ones that challenge and Molly ran.)
OTA should be there, but not NEARLY in the force they attempted to be like.

Often OTA say "You have numbers use them" We don't have any ammo or supplies to use to fight because you won't let us.
When it gets to the point where we're at it, if the OTA continue the act like this there's no point in having Outlands because it'll just be city with a few more guns.

Then stop making these threads and talk to the leader of the Overwatch instead of pinpointing it as an outlands issue

[Airborne1st]

A few of you keep saying that OTA are there to enhance RP for everyone else, but what none of you seem to understand is the fact that OTA units are people's character's too. Sure, those of us who have OTA units get on to make an exciting experience for both ourselves and those of you who RP on your citizens and rebels, but we also like to build our unit's "service records" as we call them, or basically, our unit's backgrounds.

Now, moving onto the issue yesterday. I was helping to administrate for awhile during that event, but I had to go eat and help do something around the house towards the end with the grenade dispute. Honestly, I saw quite a few things I thought were unacceptable on the citizen end of things from the very start, up to the grenade dispute. First off, when the OTA units were first spotted, I feel it was highly unlikely they would have actually been spotted, given the terrain and conditions. Next issue, there was something going on with a truck. There were way too many citizens trying to RP being in the truck and some of you didn't even RP getting in or starting the truck. After myself and a few of the other administrators on brought the issue to light, the truck was abandoned. The next small issue I saw was the fact that the group of citizens hauled ass down the steep cliff next to the Inn. ICly, I feel that area should be RP'd to be much more steep than it OOCly is. The citizens were literally down the hill and at the tunnel entrance by the time the OTA team even got to the edge of the top of the hill. That was ridiculous in my view. The next problem I saw was the issue where the group of citizens stopped in the tunnel for a little bit and the OTA team was just getting to the entrance of it. Someone walked up about 10 steps ahead of the group and claimed they ICly could see the units coming. I was in observer and went to the same spot and I could barely see the units coming OOCly. So we continued on from there to the grenade issue in the bunker. With that I will agree that the OTA team should have done things a little differently. As I said, I left to go eat during the start of the dispute and 25 minutes later, I came back and it was still being redone and disputed. I suggested that grenades just be removed from the RP situation and everyone just use firearms to continue the RP, but no one wanted to do that.

Regarding Kai's views on NLR and that everything was pointless because of it, Tyler said it rather well. You do the RP for the OOC experience and the fun of it. If NLR is a waste of your time, maybe PKing everyone who died and denying appeals for them would be more of an RP experience to remember, rather than something that's just a waste of time because of NLR.

[aeiou]

I'm going to lock this thread now, the situation could have been handled differently and they will be in the future

Both sides have to grow up