City of Heroes: Internet Drama

Time to relate a couple of my personal experiences recently while RPing in City of Heroes. All the usual disclaimers regarding personal bias and so forth.

There has recently been a plotline going on involving a "possibly rogue hero", who has essentially wrecked almost every level of trust she has with other heroes. My character knows this hero (for ease of use, let's call her "R"), likes her, and hoped that she was actually trying to trick the villain.

R is now pregnant with the villains's child (whoah, that's some trick she's trying to pull!), but was instrumental in his (illegal) arrest.

Now, my main plays the perception game. A lot. By that, I mean that he thinks it's better for people to believe he knows more than he does, and is more dangerous than he really is. As a civilian, he's generally friendly, cheerful, cheeky and (I hope) likeable. As a hero, he's a serious, cold-hearted, ruthless bastard. The heroic persona is a complete fabrication. He believes that people who actually know him will recognise that he puts on an act as soon as he puts on the spandex. Obviously, this disparity is designed to cause potential in-character conflict as people try to work out what's the truth.

During the investigation to find and deal with the villain and his plot to kill a lot of people, my character got into a very loud and very public argument with R. The reason? The villain, despite knowing that R cannot lie, did not entirely believe that she was not working against him. Probably a sensible move. So, in the interests of convincing the villain (I'm going to call him "S") that R was on the level, my character made it very publicly known that he no longer trusted R, and thought she was roughly on the level of pond scum.

Now, when he's not actively acting out a role, my character is very honest. He doesn't lie very well, and tends to broadcast his feelings in the things he says. So it became clear to a number of other heroes that my character was hiding something. Well, yes, he was - his real intentions. However, they decided to interpret this as him hiding some useful knowledge that would help with the investigation of the villain.

Due to this, after things got settled, one of those heroes decided to call down the full weight of the law on my character, because of his (to paraphrase) "suspicious behaviour that may constitute obstruction of justice".

Fair enough, and that's a completely reasonable response, given the suspicions flying around. But in-character the response I gave was one of anger. My character thinks he should have been trusted to help people. He's been an active hero in Paragon City for over three years solid, has saved the world a number of times, knows most of the more powerful heroes on a first-name basis, and believes that he deserves the benefit of the doubt. So when someone he considers a friend states quite clearly that she believes he's pulling a fast one, he gets angry.

Result: If she decides to pursue calling the feds down on him, he will sue for harrassment and defamation of character.

To be honest, I really didn't think much more of it. It's one of those fun little character conflicts that makes RPing so enjoyable to me.

Which now brings us to last night. I'm still decidedly unsure how I feel about what happened. I think I'm a bit peeved, to be completely honest.

Anyway, the villain had put in motion a plot that involved the kidnapping and unlawful incarceration of an 8-year old girl. Or at least that's what was claimed. I still don't know if it was "true".

Here's what happened from my perspective:

A number of heroes are chilling out at the local RP hangout, chatting, enjoying themselves, discussing recent events and so forth.

Suddenly, out of the blue, someone mentions a kidnapping. No preamble, no set-up. Just "There's been a kidnapping!" On querying this, my character hears that there has been an announcement over the police radio. I go and check all of my chatlogs, including the channels I don't keep open when I'm RPing, but there's nothing. Nada.

Now, given that I had no interest in getting involved in another plot so soon after dealing with the whole situation involving R and S, and given that the only source from which this alleged kidnapping has come is the same character who thinks my character is guilty of obstruction of justice, I decided not to get involved. Wasn't in the mood, was enjoying the casual chat RP going on, didn't want to get involved in the plot.

At which point this same character (I'm going to call her "P"), starts harranguing my character for not taking action. Not any of the other half-dozen characters who were still hanging around chatting - mine, and mine alone.

Now, since my character only had P's word that there was even anything going on, and given that he's less than happy with P at the moment, he pointed out that for all he knew, there was a mass delusion going on, because the so-called police announcement had not happened.

P then spends an absolute age moaning and whining at my character for not helping. Other people observe that P could have spent the time looking for the kidnap victim, which would have been productive.

Maybe I'm reading too much into things, but eventually P left to help with the rescue attempt, which was apparently successful, and P's player said on an out-of-game multi-user chatroom of which I am also a member, words to the effect of "now to confront someone about this 'delusional' kidnapping".

WHOAH, THERE!

Taking a step backward in time, now, I figured out what happened. The kidnapping was announced on an in-game Out Of Character chat channel of which I am not a member. Which is why I knew nothing about it. And if I know nothing about it, my character sure as hell knows less. Which is why my character responded in the way he did. If it had been a public announcement, I'm sure my character's response would have been different. But it wasn't. It was on a chat channel that I am not on, and have no interest in being on. Since I was not party to the announcement (which could VERY easily have been made in local or broadcast chat), and since I didn't want to get involved anyway, I am reacting very badly to someone who a) tried to bully me into taking part and b) has come across, OOC, as wanting to gloat that my character was "wrong" about the veracity of the kidnapping report.

Some things to remember when running a plot in an MMO:

1) Every player has the right to decide if they want to be involved. Forcing plots down the throats of players who do not want to be involved is only going to piss them off.

2) When announcing an open plot that anyone can get involved in, ensure that the announcing event is available to everyone. If you don't, don't be surprised when people who weren't party to the announcement don't get involved in the plot.

3) Deciding what is real for characters that aren't your own is god-moding. God-moding is wrong. Deciding to gloat about it, and mentioning your intention to do so, OOC, is just petty and silly, and makes you look foolish.