The plague event

My personal view on this is BORING. While it started a bit interesting, and I was there for start of it, then it hit a narrative wall and stopped moving, with just the looming announcement about X days till cure.

This leaves a few groups of players as far I can tell:

1. Those infected. Those get some RP, in the end, you are dead anyway may aswell hustle, bustle, go out with a bang, whatever. Once they do that, they are not ill anymore and go to hole up into the ground until even ends. Fun till you vat out. Then you become part of group no. 2.

2. Those not infected and without ways to avoid/cure the disease. I am pretty sure that's the majority, which will keep growing as group 1 vats out. Those have to either sit in the cube and get bored to death, which is why almost everyone will tell them to do ICly - including key NPCs. Or they can ignore self-preservation and just go our, to from IC narrative is almost guaranteed death.

Not really fun choice, is it? We are supposed to be terrified of death, it's supposed to be a traumatic event. And yet if we want to have fun, we are to go against it.

3. Players from groups that got/make/can get cure/not get infected or just don't care about dying. This part is having a field day, can completely ignore the negative side of the event and just make mad stacks in any way imaginable. All fun and games for that group, though I can't imagine it's a big one.

So meh. I will personally likely log in to collect the UE and wait for it to be over. Because going to die is just no fun. Living in certain IC occupations and places is risky enough on its own. Maybe if at least the cure would also vaccinate you against getting it again would make this a bit better.

How would a group 2 character decide that "Nah, all those idiots know nothing about the plague", despite that they've been through it before, few times, and are speaking from experience?

So how with given all that your character knows that you won't get infected from walking around? More so when there were many NPC puppets who randomly infected people for walking, and you saw the same happening everywhere?

Also, I provided a number of things that someone uninfected could do. These include risk taking things for the sake of profit, and also risk taking things because of a deep need your character has (needs a fix, needs food). If you choose not to do these things, that's of course, acceptable, but these are just a handful of things I came up with in a couple minutes while writing the post. I believe enterprising players could come up with infinitely more.

1. Go into the badlands and explore (maybe you're infected and will cause a world wide plague)

2. Invite close friends over to ride out the 'storm'. Hype up the paranoia about being infected, possibly making or breaking your friendships on real or imagined symptoms you see in them.

3. Brave the 'storm' and go out into the disease ridden city to try to find a way to profit off of all the sickness and death.

4. Take pity on the sick and dying and go out, sacrificing your own health to minister to their relief

5. Spend your time trading favors to get ahold of the cure, and then sell it for a profit.

6. Use this distraction to commit some crime

8. Brave the 'storm' and leave your pad, not because you want to but because you're an addict and you've run out of your fix.

9. Brave the 'storm' and leave your pad, not because you want to but because you're out of food.

10. Mixer? Decide that fleeing topside is the only way you're going to survive, and see how that goes.

- Take some time to write down your known data ICly.

- Call up all your friends and enemies. They miss you.

- Browse the Grid. It misses you.

- Update your @describe and @naked. They miss you.

- Clean out your disgusting apartment. It won't miss you.

So if you're not going out, take this as an opportunity to do the things you've been meaning to do but haven't gotten to yet.

Is your character stuck in a deadzone with no phone, an unable to make contact with the outside world such that they are in what amounts to solitary confinement?

What about real life people that refuse to evacuate in the face of a hurricane? See: purl]https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/some-floridians-refuse-evacuate-worry-about-hurricane-dorian-s-unclear-n1048561[/url] are you saying they are suicidal?

People make choices every day.

I've already stated that if this kind of RP isn't for you, you don't need to engage with it. However I think it's poor form to insinuate that because you don't like it, and have more free time this week than usual, that the event is not good. There are plenty of people in the game enjoying the RP and the change of pace.

Sometimes, restricting a persons decisions and options, leads to innovative and interesting RP. If you are going to approach this event as some kind of OOC punishment then I think that is unfair to yourself.

You've outlined why the current state of affairs in the city is tough on your character, and why OOCly that is tough on you. I feel ya, I've been there myself. I once had a character who was banished in the middle of summer when I was on break from school and he spent 3 months out in the badlands before they were as developed as they are now (even now that would suck) and they only had two other players to RP with and no way to get back inside. There were also only about 30 active players in the whole game at that time and routinely 8-12 people online at any one time.

I get what it's like to be put in a situation where you don't have any RP and I'm hyper sensitive to it because of my own experiences. That's why I'm having trouble with your argument-- I just don't think that your character is being restricted in any large way.

This is a game. A text based game. From an OOC perspective, if you choose to stay in your apartment and not leave while all this is going on, what is the difference between RPing with someone in person versus on the SIC or the phone because IC events have led to a situation where it is not safe to be on the street. It's all text in the end. Having to work around IC circumstances beyond your control can be looked at in a positive light, one that challenges you to find innovative solutions.

When my partner has to travel for work, I don't give her a hard time that we have to communicate only via text message and phone call while she is gone. In the same vein, you have plenty of opportunities to RP while still staying within what you believe is IC for your character--SIC, Progia, Grid/Gridmail, shouting from room to room.

These are not RP killers, they are challenges to overcome. And that's what Sindome is about. Overcoming challenges, both big and small. Some of my fondest memories are when I had to find interesting or innovative ways to communicate and interact with other players because of challenges and roadblocks the GMs put in my way--either directly, or in a world plot sense.

Embrace it and my bet is that you'll find yourself enjoying it.

You mentioned help files on suicide and other things. Those exist to reinforce that your characters life is valuable, and that they value their life. That doesn't mean they won't take risks though. It means that you don't just have your best friend kill you because you've got a 20k bounty on your head that you want to split the money for. That doesn't create RP, ya know? It's not meant to restrict you from making character decisions that you think are going to be fun or create RP and entertainment. You can of course feel your character would not put themselves in unneeded danger and leave it at that-- or you can spend a few minutes thinking up reasons why they would. Just like any author in any novel, you have to give your character a reason to be involved. A reason that would drive them out into an infected city searching for... something. Or you don't, and you play it safe and see how things play out. That part is up to you.

I don't agree that it's very different from staying in the path of a hurricane. Without delving into IC details, it's not like you step out of your cube and the GMs are like 'ROFLCOPTOR TIME TO INFECT THEM'. I understand there is an IC panic about the situation, and that's good, but that doesn't mean that everyone is insta-infected if they leave their apartment. Consider things from the GM perspective, do you think the GMs are doing this to punish? To cause everyone to die? Would that be good for RP? I don't think it would be. I don't think the GMs think that. I would hope that OOCly, players don't think that.

Thus, moving forward from that point, we can all assume that having an event where a disease runs rampant through the city isn't about punishing players, and it's definitely not about killing them. It is a tool for creating RP, a catalyst for action and reaction. A themely event to happen in a corrupt city with millions upon millions of people crammed together inside a giant dome. Speaking plainly, this isn't the GMs strapping you into a car and making you watch as they drive it off a cliff.

Risks are fun. Dying is fun. Surviving is fun. Engage with the event, and you'll have fun. Don't engage, and yeah, it could be boring. But I don't think the GMs bear the responsibility for that-- because the choice remains with you.

You don't have to lock yourself in your apartment and you can very well go outside and RP without getting infected. Or you could get infected and RP some more, that can happen too.

Like Slither said the admins won't auto infect anyone who steps out of their cube nor they're looking to punish players by forcing them to stay indoors.

that would be like them killing or attacking all PC's that step outside just because it's known that red sector is dangerous

you choosing to cube crawl and avoid action sounds like a problem on your end, not anyone else's

OOCly from a risk-averse perspective I would have preferred not to be in the position I was in, but it was a really GREAT opportunity to RP the consequences of imminent death. It really forced me to consider what I would be doing in that circumstance, in a way which forced drastic decisions. It also made the negative realities of a particular area MUCH more real. Events like this have an awesome way of shoving the reality of the Mix, and the general class divide, right in your face.

I saw Corporates having to do things they never did, I saw Mixers doing things they would never do. There were player-driven riots. It was awesome.

For the "to be infected group", Slither had a great outline earlier. In my opinion, I tend to play SD like those Marines commercials: Towards the sounds of chaos. Since I've played that way, I've had a lot more fun, and have actually made more money. I'm not calling anyone risk averse, but am saying that I try to risk more when I can, and it can pay off. Players who aren't infected during these times can bank on their health, and put plots in motion while other enemies or friends are focused on their own health. You have more room to commit crimes, as the streets are more likely to be empty. So a random passer-by is less likely to catch you.

I really like these events because they slam the reality of the Dome in all our faces. Some players may sort of ignore the abject horror of the Mix, and events like this really force them to come to terms with it.

This event was amazing for my character's growth. Decisions they got to make, people that were suddenly a concern. They had to make decisions I would not have had the opportunity to make otherwise. It was a complicated situation that spurred complicated emotions and now my character has memories to reflect back on.

I say bravo to the staff for doing this. It was well done from my perspective, and while my character was in a certain camp, there was no lack of RP for me.

Without saying specifics, that's exactly what my PC was doing during this plague. Some plans were side tracked because of others being or avoiding being infected, but meh. They could have been just been shot/stabbed or just plain busy. The plague was much more interesting than either of those possibilities.

God damnit.

Everyone who's saying they're sad at this thread, I hope you realize it's just the experience of one player who's frustrated rather than the overall opinion of the community. Huge events like this are always exciting. I've been infected in the past and had to get Nox for myself and my friends, I've had a 'safety' Nox on hand and sold it to the highest bidder when supplies ran out, as a new immy I went on a Nox quest on behalf of others. These are the times when the horror of poverty and widespread panic in the Mix are driven home.