I’d skip the the stealth and just walk through the crowd selling popcorn for that show.
1 Like
My name is Cryptstalker and I used to and still do stealth watch people RP from time to time. In the capital cities and random out in the world RP.
Whenever I stealth watch people in open world RP, I do it because it feel like it’s more polite to do so. People RPing out in the world feels like very rare bird watching, so if I see emote and dialogue happening, of course I’m going to drop everything I’m doing to admire it before trying to remember what I was doing.
Not every stealth user knows or remembers that hunters can track hidden, so them getting so close is pretty upsetting to hear, since that instantly ruins the atmosphere. Now if they’re deliberately close and in stealth, then I would start to get leery of them.
9 Likes
Out of pure curiosity-- if a RP is meant to be private, why not have it in party/raid/whisper chat?
Whenever I’m RPing in /say I feel as though there’s an unspoken acknowledgement that using the public chat means people can see the RP happening. If I’m having a private RP that I don’t want people to eavesdrop on, it’ll happen in raid.
This sorta feels like having a loud conversation in a restaurant and getting peeved that someone from the next table over is listening. That’s what whispering is for.
I don’t blame you one bit for finding it weird, but the reason they’re stealthing is probably social anxiety, or wanting to read your RP without bothering you or awkwardly standing close by.
4 Likes
It took me a little bit to respond to this because I got busy IRL.
I do not ERP, I am intimacy positive (the other word seems to be banned by blizzard, which is fair) and I support consenting adults and their actions in private. I just don’t partake personally.
I am not so bothered by inns and taverns because I see them as having discussions in the common area of McDonald’s. And you cannot mandate who is occupying McDonald’s with you.
I was in a small house in Ashenvale as a proxy for my character’s personal house. I do not “own” this spot, and there are times when I have had to find alternate buildings because someone was using it before my scheduled RP. The essence of it was more a personal RP, I use RP lately to explore myself and my identity. And at the moment the scene was about their social transition which I wasn’t entirely ready to post in a public space anywhere.
It was less private and more personal. I don’t think I would have issue with someone so subtle their presence was never even felt. But having a stealth sound constantly pinging off near me is what gave me a weirded out vibe.
They never spoke in chat, never came out of stealth, and never engaged. They just stood uncomfortably close so their stealthed character would phase in.
Someone watching, or just reading, can easily do that behind a wall. Not three inches from the participants.
I am probably paranoid because in my past I had a stalker on my old server (this was when Earthen Ring was still highly active with RPers) and routinely used the who feature and character level friends lists to always be around me. So I could be translating a bad experience onto other unrelated similar experiences.
My worst case scenario being approximately twelve years later my stalker finding me again and starting the same crap but that seems unlikely.
I appreciate all the takes posted. It gave me a few things to think on too. I do still believe there should be etiquette for watching, even if it cannot be enforced. Just as a simple way to make all participants comfortable and safe.
3 Likes
I think this is key and probably plays into why many feel it’s creepy to watch others RP from stealth. My earlier example of not feeling like I, the actual OOC person behind the character, am being watched during a vulnerable moment doesn’t entirely apply if RP is being used for this purpose. And with that, I think it’s important to acknowledge that RP means different things to different people. For you, it’s a tool for self exploration. For me, it’s an exercise in writing something decidedly not me and totally separate from who I am IRL. This could spark an entirely separate discussion on the separation between IC and OOC and the thin, blurry line that divides them. But suffice it to say that your stealthy observer may have a different perspective on what RP is and means as well.
It could be that the person was being weird, but it could also have another explanation.
If a character is lower level than you, you can see them in stealth from farther away. I know I’ve had many occasions where a lowbie rogue was watching a scene I was in while standing what appeared to be far enough away not to be seen. Of course, I could still see them and just let them be with slight amusement as I knew what they were trying to do.
Or maybe the person genuinely doesn’t know or have a feel for the minimum effective range of stealth. It might have been weird; but if the person never did anything to grief, I’m inclined to think it was just curiosity and the desire to observe without interacting.
An experience like this is always going to make you think twice. All you can do is to be observant and report any actual griefing or ToS-breaking behavior you come across every time. Screenshots and chat logs are your friends in these situations.
There will probably never be a universally-agreed-upon etiquette with this. There are things that were common etiquette in the RP community ten years ago like strict lore adherence that are now looked down upon and even routinely mocked in the present day. The community is full of different people with different perspectives, personalities, sentiments, and expectations. Best thing you can do to feel safe is to keep anything personal, private, or otherwise sensitive to party/raid/whisper and to relentlessly report anyone who tries to grief you.
Anyway though, soapbox relinquished. I wish you the best in your RP journey and in whatever you seek to get out of it.
There should be etiquette for watching. If a player is going to stand there for longer than a few seconds, they should whisper one of the RPers and mention it, along with what their intentions are.
Generally I prefer the direct approach.
I recommend ICly noticing that there’s something moving in the shadows with comments and actions pointed at realizing there’s a spy. Comment on them, then ICly emote lowering your voice to a whisper and move the conversation to party chat.
Alternatively, you could whisper them directly and OOCly ask what they’re doing.
6 Likes
Regardless of intentions, IF -
- you’re inside a house that has no npcs or quest objects in it
AND
- the rogue is inside the room where you are or very near
THEN
yes it’s creepy, and yes there’s not much you can do about it.
My inclination would be to target them and SAY “Oh look there’s a rogue. Hi, rogue!” Then keep targeted on them and talk about them until they leave. At least that’s seemed to work in the past.
It’s creepy for sure. OTOH I find it much less annoying than all the people who yell unnecessarily, and all the yaks purposefully blocking through-ways.
4 Likes
Personally, I don’t mind it at all. I take it as a compliment that someone could be so interested in what I’m writing that they are willing to literally just sit there and do nothing for 15-20 minutes or more just so that they can read more of it. Anything I put out in /s or /e is meant to be a performance, adding some life to the world for bystanders if they happen to stumble upon it, because it’s fun to be questing out in the middle of nowhere only to find a little story unfolding.
5 Likes
Oh, so just because it’s someone using stealth, it’s gotta be a rogue, huh??
1 Like
I’m a warrior who cannot stealth so I like to just gormlessly stare at RPers in view full and then keyboard turn and run away when they target me
2 Likes
These people need a lesson about personal space, people who stealth then just make their presence obvious are trolling at that point and I’d just /ignore the bunch of them, since the chances are high that they’re rude.
Sometimes it can be fun to mess with them but given the context of the scene, I can understand why you would resist to put toys, flares and hunter traps all over where they’re standing, as a display of supremacy.
Unfortunately, there is no real way to mandate basic decency. When I have the power of stealth, I always use it responsibly and give RPers a wide radius away from me and double that if anyone is hunter.
I can’t exactly remember to how to get to it but TRP3 has [had?] an option that hides your profile from their “scan for roleplayers” tool, which is likely how they found your scene, if they didn’t naturally happen upon it.
If anyone knows what I’m talking about with TRP3, please do share where it is because I’m currently unable to find it.
1 Like
Smart plan. If you use your mouse to turn how will you click on Rend?
I see both sides on this and unfortunately it depends on the person roleplaying - maybe adding something in your TRP3 could become a standard thing to suggest your preference.
I would prefer someone be stealthed and thus less disruptive if they are watching me but not IC / participating. It is less immersion breaking for me and they are easier for me to ignore. I can understand for others that it feels creepy though.
2 Likes
I feel there is a distinction between spying on someone in RP from stealth versus observing RP in general from stealth.
As Cryptstalker stated, these people need a lesson about personal space. I also use stealth on occasion to briefly observe role playing out in the world, but I do this for a few reasons.
- I do not wish to interrupt someone’s role playing and will only stop momentarily out of curiosity’s sake.
- If this is an event, then I am curious to see what the overall vibe of the role playing is like. There are just some events I feel are better left to the confirmed attendees and better suited for myself to keep it moving.
- I am scouting areas for story and/or role playing and will often stealth before entering buildings because I don’t want to interrupt someone role playing. If I see there are people in a building, then I will immediately excuse myself out of respect for those in attendance.
That pretty much sums it up for me. I have witnessed many role playing events I felt were just not suited for my character, but was interested in observing to see how people pulled it off with so many different personality types. I may arrive in stealth for a little bit, but will usually just unstealth and become a non-involved background member as if I were a NPC.
Oh, and I wanted to update this by stating distance is key. If you can easily spot someone watching you, it would make me wonder whether that person wanted to get spotted to see if or how you would react. They may have their reasons, but I would potentially feel I were being casually trolled. On the other hand, perhaps that person desires to be included somehow, but are not sure how to approach it. You could always whisper them to find out which is the case.
2 Likes
It makes sense that it would be a stealthed rogue. Imagine how awkward it would if a druid in bear form were just sitting there in the room.
With heavy bear breathing sounds.
1 Like
To be fair, a Druid caught sneaking around a mansion and having to pretend to be a stuffed bear to avoid being caught, while a pair of guards stop by in the room for a bit of spicy gossip sounds like a hilarious story prompt.
Give us the ability to freeze in place mid-emote, Blizzard!
3 Likes
I really feel like a lot of this just comes down to a benign lack of awareness/ignorance of game mechanics on the part of the rogues. Stalkers are horrible. Which is why I don’t think it’s fair to place that label upon RP-watchers who possibly just have social anxiety. Or neurodivergence. Or any number of other number of innocent explanations.
The comments within this thread of “harrumph, they should simply know better” just feel a little weird to me. “why don’t they just send a whisper” – to someone who’s already concerned about being disruptive or seen as creepy, I can understand why they’d want to remain unobtrusive as possible.
I suppose I’m just trying to use a little empathy and steelman the stealthers.
But again. If it’s important to me for a RP to remain private, I’ll have it in raid/party/whispers. Which still seems like the all 'round best solution here.
4 Likes
I think this exact scenario happened in the movie Brave. As for a freezing emote, there are a few toys that could somewhat recreate the effect.
2 Likes
Yeah, I don’t want to be overly empathetic to the particular players who made Rhyra feel uncomfortable but players with stealth need to learn acceptable RP server behavior so they can at least be a tolerated presence.
Hearing the constant sound effect of a stealth user in and out of your radius going off is absolutely awful and I imagine Rhyra had to put up with that or mute sound effects.
RP servers are supposed to have a policy that encourages reporting problem players that actively disrupt RPers, I’m not sure if the players who bothered Rhyra would be eligible if they weren’t chat spamming, tea bagging, abusing toys, oversized mount emote spam to really destroy the vibe.
While I’m not thrilled at the idea of any world RPer pair or group instantly swapping to party chat when / if they notice a stealth user, it’s entirely understandable why people would rather do that than risk a stranger invading their perhaps super personal character development scene.
2 Likes