Dead Air
In a previous post, Lloyd helped set down his ideas on how to build a character personality. Over the last few days with the City of Heroes Halloween Event going, I've had opportunity to team with some good teams. One ting I have found interesting though, is how each team, or more properly, members on the team handle long silences, or 'dead air'.
As a player I do not mind dead air at all. If I am in the middle of a fight, answering someone is not my top priority. Outside of action, there is time for conversation, which does not always happen. There are a few players that HAVE to fill that silence with a comment, a /tell, something so that the silence feels not so long and/or uncomfortable. Others, possibly because of shyness, or natural/character reticence, do nothing to fill that empty space.
You don't have to fill the 'dead air' with conversation, but you can do little things like ::looks around:: or some other small non-verbal activity. This doesn't have to happen all the time, nor should it. The idea is that if you are uncomfortable with long silences, this is a way to relieve that pressure and add to the game in some way for your teammates, that doesn't require a response from them. Odds are you might get one though. People are curious, and nothing piques curiosity like :: picks something up off the ground:: . My two cents.
As a player I do not mind dead air at all. If I am in the middle of a fight, answering someone is not my top priority. Outside of action, there is time for conversation, which does not always happen. There are a few players that HAVE to fill that silence with a comment, a /tell, something so that the silence feels not so long and/or uncomfortable. Others, possibly because of shyness, or natural/character reticence, do nothing to fill that empty space.
You don't have to fill the 'dead air' with conversation, but you can do little things like ::looks around:: or some other small non-verbal activity. This doesn't have to happen all the time, nor should it. The idea is that if you are uncomfortable with long silences, this is a way to relieve that pressure and add to the game in some way for your teammates, that doesn't require a response from them. Odds are you might get one though. People are curious, and nothing piques curiosity like :: picks something up off the ground:: . My two cents.
posted by JD at
3:37:00 PM
2 Comments:
During silent moments, my characters always ask, "So where're you from?" I love stories, and I know people will talk about themselves. Their stories will often give me ideas - and it's amazing the rich backstories people have for their characters. Although what they tell me is pretty much in their info screen (i.e. "database"), I like to hear it in their own words.
Dead air, to me, is evil. I'm guilty of blah, blah, blah, DEAD.
I hate dead air. I hate it because I feel like if there's silence, then someone on the team is thinking, "RP team, my a**. They're a bunch of powergaming douchebags!" and s/he is mentally preparing a post-session rant to someone about how the team doesn't satisfy his/her RP needs instead of talking with the team about it.
When a team is silent as a whole, I take it to mean that the members are not interested in RP, so I start focusing more on playing the game. After all, why should the burden of initiating RP fall on one person's shoulders? Why is it dependent on one person to take initiative to begin the discussion? And why is it dependent on one person to carry that discussion once it starts? That's not to say that I don't try to initiate a dialogue. I often do and the efforts are hit-and-miss.
I attribute dead air to several things:
(1) A player is talking at length to someone else in tells. Hanging behind the rest of the team saying nothing for long periods of time is a dead giveaway that s/he's not focused on the team, in which case s/he needs to politely excuse her/himself from the team so s/he can finish what must be an important conversation. Or at least say, "I need a minute, guys."
(2) A player is tired and brain fried after a long day. ("Hey guys, I'm tired and brain fried so I won't talk much.")
(3) The player is less interested in RP and more interested in just playing the game.
(4) The player is a timid RP'er or is general shy and s/he relies almost exclusively on the teammates to carry the dialogue.
(5) The player doesn't read the chat log so has no idea that the character was asked about 5 questions that haven't been answered yet.
(6) Multi-tasking is challenging, so the player feels the need to focus more on one aspect of playing than the other.
(7) The player isn't a very skilled RP'er and prefers to just watch the interaction like a bystander.
Communication goes a long way.
For example, one of my regular teammates said one night, "OOC: Sorry I'm not too talkative tonight. I'm really tired." I know that his silence isn't because of dissatisfaction, and we play accordingly. I'm grateful to him for informing us.
If there's dead air, that's fine, as long as it's the player's choice and it's communicated to the team, rather than the player feeling like s/he can't talk freely because of perceived pressure from other teammates.
I like player participation on the team. If the player isn't going to interact with the team, then why is the player on that team? Out of obligation? Desperation? Nothing better to do?
I like players to contribute positively to the team dynamic. Communicating and putting in an effort for the team's sake are big parts of that. Even if it's "OOC: I'm still working on character personality, so I may not be too talkative today." or "I'm sooo close to [next level], I'm just interested in hitting it," or "I'm having trouble focusing so my playing may be sloppy today." Communicating what your needs are to the team and what you are capable of doing at that moment help a ton.
I agree 100% that emotes and action descriptions contribute tremendously to the team dynamic, so those seemingly insignifiant ::coughs:: or ::traces a symbol in the dirt:: can open lots of doors. In some cases, a costume change will initiate a discussion. Those moments can lead anywhere and that's where the fun stuff happens.
So to conclude: Communication = Positive and Dead Air = The Devil.
I guess I could have said that up front and saved the trouble of writing everything else. But that just wouldn't be my style.
--Kit
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