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title: "\n    All the World's a Stage: WTF is IC - OOC?"

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    All the World's a Stage: WTF is IC - OOC?</h1>
    <html><body><p><p><br/> All the World's a Stage is brought to you by David Bowers every Sunday evening in the pursuit of the mysterious art of playing the role of a character in the World of Warcraft.<br/></p><br/><p><br/> While many online gamers are famous for their use of "leetspeak," there's a certain portion of the community that places the most importance on complete sentences and correct spelling. Roleplayers are open and friendly but they also have their own way of communicating that other players may not be able.<br/></p><br/><p><br/> As a brand-new roleplayer, I recall having to work out many of these concepts. However I was fortunate to have many people who could assist me in understanding the issues. The most important thing I was able to grasp was the distinction between "in-character" and "out-of character communication. It is usually abbreviated as IC or OOC and how to use them in different situations.<br/></p><br/><p><br/> It is safe to say that anything that is posted in the /say and /yell channels on an RP server where roleplaying is still the standard it should be "in the character." It must be written with proper punctuation and spelling, and should only address WoW-related events. In situations where one must say something out-of-character in these channels, it's appropriate to at least wrap your OOC words in double parentheses to clarify the meaning.<br/></p><br/><p><br/> For instance:<br/></p><br/><p><br/> Annarielle says: What a beautiful night the night is! I would like every night to be as peaceful. Annarielle smiles at Karavar. Karavar says: I'm talking to her now. I'm sure she'll say yes! Karavar says: ((erm... eh... mistype! >_)) In general, however it is not uncommon for this type of out of character speech in the channels /say and /yell are discouraged if you can possibly avoid it, since there are numerous ways to "roleplay recovery" in such situations. In this instance dropping the ball, so to speak, Karavar needn't actually announce to everyone "I dropped the ball!" He can instead pick it up and continue as normal: Karavar says: "I'm talking to you right now." I hope she'll agree! Karavar says: Oh gods! Did I really say that? I was thinking... I meant... Karavar rubs his forehead and then his face in awkward embarrassment. Annarielle smiles at him, leaning closer to say, very quietly... Annarielle says"Yes... Annarielle says: ...I think now would be a good moment to take to take a walk with you do you think? Annarielle moves towards Karavar to follow. Annarielle is able to make her way around the error. She doesn't have to pick at the person unless it makes sense in this scenario. But, alas, I'm getting ahead of myself. We'll revisit the topic on roleplay recovery at a later time.<br/></p><br/><p><br/> In other channels, like /party,/guild, or /whisper, the perception of whether people are speaking IC or OOC is a matter of preference between groups, and is often obvious from the context.  <a href="https://datchley.name/">Here We Go Again</a> If you are unsure the distinction you can always use double parentheses to ask: "((Are we IC or OOC in this channel? ?))" or something similar to "((Do you mind if I ask a question about the most important stats of my character ?))"<br/></p><br/><p><br/> Usually, when you join an RP guild they'll inform you whether their chat room is IC or OOC. If it's IC and they usually have a separate channel that is set up to allow OOC chat to keep these conversations separate. Contrary to popular belief most RPers enjoy chatting around about the same stuff that non-RPers do, which is why these additional OOC channels are likely to see lots of use. Keeping guild chat in-character just helps to keep that feeling of complete immersion -it's a safe spot for you to roleplay your character even if nobody you know is within your distance.<br/></p><br/><p><br/> You might be wondering how people could play a game through guild chats or whispers, when they are typically on opposite sides of the spectrum (or in another time). In reality, many players are so casual that they've never thought to answer this question prior to. They assume that it's something everyone does and don't give it the focus it needs to hinder the process.<br/></p><br/><p><br/> For the more analytical players among roleplayers, however, there are a number of options, ranging from the notion that all people have telepathic abilities to the use of hearthstones as a sort of magical cell phone, which allows people to communicate across vast distances. For the majority of guilds, the use of hearthstones makes for an easy method to make long-distance communication possible, even if it's not officially part of Warcraft theorems. We don't stress about it because we are able to interact more frequently.<br/></p><br/><p><br/> The "/whisper" command is used only for whispering. It can also be used to facilitate in-character chat or for long distance conversations through hearthstones and Telepathy. It can also be used to create true whispers where characters are very close to one another and for conversations that players don't want others to overhear However, it's generally more beneficial to make everyone involved by using a custom emote in order to type out the whispered words instead of using private tells, since it feels more natural and lets everyone who happens be in the vicinity enjoy the story too:<br/></p><br/><p><br/> Karavar whispers to Annarielle as they pause at the lake, "I... made something for you." He pulls out an unassuming package and opens it for her. Annarielle says: [Crunchy Spider Surprise]?! Annarielle looks at Karavar for a long moment before smiling and saying, "It's my favorite! How did you know? Gloric can't help laughing as his catch of a fish. Others can decide to let their character in a state of obliviousness to such conversations, or to let them listen in however they want however it is a way to include players and builds a stronger sense of community.<br/></p><br/><p><br/> As you can see from these basics, the use of "/say" and "/yell" for in-character dialogue can create an atmosphere of spontaneous storytelling, which can lead to a myriad interesting and funny situations emerge naturally, thanks to the creativity of people. Even if you are not a role-player, it might be worth your time to seek some out, and take a moment to listen for an extended period of time. You might be pleasantly amazed by the sounds you hear as you walk through the streets.<br/></p></p></body></html>
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