Shattered Kingdoms

I've noticed alot of very strange handling of the 'greet' command recently.
The way I've always viewed it as an ooc command to acknowledge that someone else knows your name, but there's bit alot of confusion surrounding it's ooc/ic nature. Methods of using it that seem inappropriate to me include, but are not limited to:

1) Not giving a 'greet all' when you clearly state your name to one person in the room. We can hear you, you know..

2) Giving someone your name, but not greeting them (A very annoying habit of a certain Miran mercenary some might remember..)

3) Prodding someone with a stick, and screaming, very ICly, to the heavens: "Greet me." Which not only casts an annoying, unfair disadvantage about lying in reguards to your name, but just seems crude.

4) Not coughing up a greet when your name is stated, in clear context as to it's pertinance to you. I've seen people, or parties, fly up to someone and say "Hi there, name." Which, while being a bit of a heavy-handed way to extort a greet from a possible enemy, it just seems rude to withhold one.

A little more continuity in the command's use would also help us with all those sweetly adored people who name their pet after their adjective, not to mention all our beloved FIREy-eyed and ELEgant warlocks.

I'm sure we could have a very long, bitter thread to debate the use of this, but I'd really love for an IMM to set it straight about exactly how exactly this command should be used.

I'm actually torn on the subject, because it has both IC and OOC uses. I feel it should be a common courtesy to greet someone after you give their name. (Just don't expect a response, as characters have a right to hide their name. ) If you say it to the open room, you should greet all. (This is something I'll often not do if it seems like the other person(s) in the room aren't paying much attention.)

At the same time, there's characters I see frequently, but because I don't constantly greet them, I'll forget their name. (Even though I spoke with them not more than an IC week before). This is a particular instance where I'll just greet them, and hope they get a clue and greet me back...

sleeper

You never really know. There could be a hidden/invis stalking you, for one. I usually seem perfectly disinterested while spying on someone in an inn room. That said, if I see that someone's greeted me at some point in their life, but I have no idea when they greeted me, I make it a practice of 'forgetting' their name.

The way I perceive 'greet' is that it contains both a gesture and acknowledgement components. Such as a nod, a glance, clasping of hands, body facing the person we are speaking with are all acts of greeting someone. Then there is whether or not we care for them to know our names.

By that token, it is not necessary to greet everyone in a room after introducing oneself to just one other person. They may not care, they may not have earned the respect yet, and/or character is shy, etc.. Personally, I have my auto greet turned on to minimize typing while playing, and to avoid controversial issues like this.

While we are on this discussion, previously when this greet issue came up, someone once brought up an idea of manually allowing player characters to 'remember' others' names instead. That was a good idea.

I agree. Something along the lines of:

'Remember <target> <name>'
For example:
'Remember disorganized Othet'

It would still be subject to the memory rules, but it is a pain to have to keep re-greeting your mortal enemy.

It's just a single thread away.

Now a situation arose lately in a busy inn, where I greeted someone, said my name, and some character who hasn't greeted me, that I wasn't talking to demanded OOC I greet them. There was no RP, and thus I felt no obligation to greet them. I pretty much ignored said character after a fair number of OOC exchanges trying to get said individual to simply RP and ask if his character wished to know my name. Ultimately I was at a loss, and the OOC conversation was well out of hand, and I chose to just ignore/not continue to interact.

So many ways to handle a missed greeting IC. Sometimes people aren't including you in a conversation. Sometimes a player can make an honest mistake and just need a RP clue of 'oh right, duh.' It just seemed very harsh to have someone go OOC and issue a complaint, without any RP.

On the flip side, if someone is speaking their name to your character, and not greeting you for some tactical/mechanical reason that seems like an OOC issue, esp if you try IC to get them to clarify (greet you), and they don't seem to have a good reason they aren't.

In any event, I am sorry to have crossed someone's apparent pet-peeve.

You know Amadeo, when someone greets you, it's a friendly exchange, and it means that they want to socialize with you. It's only polite to return the greeting.

Quit being a dick and trying to get people to jump through hoops to appease you.

I don't know that there's any real requirement for a person to greet. I mean its polite, but who you've greeted really makes no difference codewise. I mean there's a certain skill that works based on greet. That skill works only when you yourself have greeted others, not vice versa. It makes no difference who you do or don't greet in regards to voodoo anymore. Personally, I always greet when my name comes up. I think its polite, but there's no coded reason someone would ever need to greet you. Is there a rule about greeting?

A

Hrmph. Said character never greeted me, and I apologized. Why don't you stop being one yourself.