Goonhub
09-14-2025, 03:16 PM
Thought that it might be pertinent to bring this conversation up again and give some thoughts on it, specifically about metacliquing through ingame relationships, because it's been bugging me for a while. There is also this thread (mentioned earlier) that goes more into detail on metacliquing, but given that the last post was from over 2 years ago I didn't think necroing it would be wise.
I've been noticing a few new players coming to our ranks recently, and with that I've also noticed that, sometimes, they've been excluded from an interaction and put off because people wanted to focus on their established friendship's RP. This phenomenon is especially prevalent when it comes to deeply connected characters, to the point where two characters' lores are interconnected.
Obviously, these are allowed. But I saw these types of things as a way to show these friendships, lore drops, and ingame romances off, and then move on. Looking further into this and noticing that it's not just newer players being excluded, I think it's turned into a crutch, to a point where even when one player is an antagonist, they'll go out of their way to include their deep connections, or interact solely with the people they have relationships with. It's frustrating to play a round and be treated a wildly different way than someone just because I don't have an ingame marriage with them, or be excluded from an RP because it involves "Hey guys, remember this funny thing that happened to us?"
People will always interact with each other differently based on how long they've known each other; it's human nature to do so. But I think the key difference between not knowing someone, therefore talking to them differently and fully excluding someone because your friend just got out of cryo and you want to go talk to them is how many times it happens across multiple rounds. One round, could be coincidence. Two rounds, maybe not. Three rounds, definitely not. Unfortunately that means that it's hard to pick up before the affected person has already decided that the rest of the server might be like this, and goes somewhere else instead. This means the people participating in it have to moderate themselves, which then creates another problem of not having the kind of game you want because you're not talking with the people you feel comfortable expressing yourself with. It's a vicious, frustrating circle for all involved.
I think jan's put it best: "Play the round." Roll with the punches that come, not the crew you know.
I've been noticing a few new players coming to our ranks recently, and with that I've also noticed that, sometimes, they've been excluded from an interaction and put off because people wanted to focus on their established friendship's RP. This phenomenon is especially prevalent when it comes to deeply connected characters, to the point where two characters' lores are interconnected.
Obviously, these are allowed. But I saw these types of things as a way to show these friendships, lore drops, and ingame romances off, and then move on. Looking further into this and noticing that it's not just newer players being excluded, I think it's turned into a crutch, to a point where even when one player is an antagonist, they'll go out of their way to include their deep connections, or interact solely with the people they have relationships with. It's frustrating to play a round and be treated a wildly different way than someone just because I don't have an ingame marriage with them, or be excluded from an RP because it involves "Hey guys, remember this funny thing that happened to us?"
People will always interact with each other differently based on how long they've known each other; it's human nature to do so. But I think the key difference between not knowing someone, therefore talking to them differently and fully excluding someone because your friend just got out of cryo and you want to go talk to them is how many times it happens across multiple rounds. One round, could be coincidence. Two rounds, maybe not. Three rounds, definitely not. Unfortunately that means that it's hard to pick up before the affected person has already decided that the rest of the server might be like this, and goes somewhere else instead. This means the people participating in it have to moderate themselves, which then creates another problem of not having the kind of game you want because you're not talking with the people you feel comfortable expressing yourself with. It's a vicious, frustrating circle for all involved.
I think jan's put it best: "Play the round." Roll with the punches that come, not the crew you know.