In the following piece I will give my opinon on the concept of Godmoding
EVE if a fictional game world. It is also a very limited world. Only a very minute part of it is observable through the game interface. There are no houses to be seen on the planets, no odors to be smelled anywhere, you cannot see inside your ship none of your crew that will ever respond to your questions. The fact that those things aren't directly observable doesn't mean they aren't really there. The background story and logic all dictate that the should be there. However, the fact that the game interface doesn't provide any tools for interacting with them means that they only exist in our imagination.
Each player imagines the world his character lives in differently and many of those visions are in conflict. Whenever you make something up that is not available for interaction, and another player disagrees with what you imagine, you risk being called out for Godmoding. In its very basic nature Godmoding is making something up another player disagrees with. The problem is, in normal play is practically impossible not to make things up, so how does one avoid this kind of unwanted attention? If you make something up, pay attention to the following things:
Scope
Scope is about impact what you imagine has on the game world. The greater the impact of your fiction, the greater the odds of it being considered Godmoding. Inventing you are a son of an insignificant NPC farmer on a remote world is perfectly fine. Making up you are the only remaining son of an NPC Emperor ruling one of the largest domains in the Galaxy is not. Imagining you own a small house is fine, imagining you own several planets and are head of one of the Galaxy's biggest megacorps is not. Making up the clothing style of one NPC is fine, deciding the clothing style of an entire culture is not.
Distance
Distance is about how close what you imagine is to your character. The greater the distance between your character's sphere of influence and what you are making up, the greater the odds of it being considered Godmoding. Your own clothes and physical characteristics are fairly safe, as is the decoration of your home and the names and mannerism of your servants or employees. Making up NPCs of your home town is getting more dangerous, making up NPCs living on the worlds your character never visited more dangerous still.
Ownership
Each player has a sphere of influence close connected to their character. The deeper what you are making up is intruding into that sphere of influence, the greater the odds of it being considered Godmoding. Making up the architecture of a world which no other character has any relation too is usually fine. Making up traditions of a culture that another PC is heavily invested in is treading dangerous ground. Controlling the servants of another PC, making up what happens to his property: no. Determining how another PC looks or acts: absolutely NO.
Logic and Appropriateness
If what you imagine it isn't easily grasped by the regular player's brains and sensibilities (which are very-much oriented into our own world) then the odds are greater that your fantasies will be considered Godmoding. We all have concepts of time, space, cause and effect, and of what is proper in an SF setting. If you invent a new plant-like organism that behaves as a tree, you are usually good to go, however, if you invent one that starts big and is gradually grows into a seed, expect a lot of questions and challenges. If you imagine Pokemon into the universe, expect to be ridiculed or ignored.
Sometimes you just want to present something large in scope, something distant from your own character, something that is like in conflict with visions of other players. How do you go about it getting it accepted or at least prevent damage to your character? Some tricks:
It is just my opinion!
Presenting your imagings as your character's opinion instead of a proven fact goes a long way to get your imagings accepted. Rather than challenge the fact, they can challenge your credibility, or even just consider you mad or ill-informed.
Get input from other players
If you include input from other players, especially those with very different visions on what you are going to make up, odds are better of getting it accepted.
Someone else told me!
In this instance you let a stand-in (like an unnamed NPC) present your ideas. If it turns out your fictions aren't very much accepted by the community, they can challenge the credibility of your source, rather than attacking you directly, which can help prevent damage to your character.
Baby steps
If you have a potentially dangerous idea, trickle it into public awareness bit by bit. That way you can gauge the reaction better, and perhaps adapt your imaginings based on initial feedback. Announce your news item first, giving just a glimpse and only after judging feedback post the whole thing.
Presentation and documentation
If you present it well and back it up your tale with likely references to more generally accepted material, you'll increase your chances too.
Avoid making people look bad
If your imagings make other characters/groups look bad, odds are that you are going to be called out on it, and maybe asked for proof (which is obviously not there). If you imagine something about an issue that another player holds dear then making him look good is much more likely to get your stuff accepted.
The bottom line: consistency
You can take the factors and tricks above into consideration and reduce the odds of your imagings being opposed by other players. If you have a good sense the other player's vision of EVE and manage to fit your imaginings into that vision, you can get away with a lot. Many times people won't even notice that you are making stuff up, so natural does it seem to them. Having what you make up being consistent with other visions is the most important consideration of all.
As a beginning player, consistency is an absolute bitch. You likely haven't absorbed every minute detail of the new game world, let alone grapsed the general nature of other player's visions or identified which groups that have invested heavily into a particular aspect of the game world. You literally don't have a clue who the current leader of each Empire is, or if it is a king, Emperor, man or woman. Don't be afraid to make things up nonetheless, but be extra careful! If you apply the principles mentioned above odds are that there won't be a horde of angry RP-ers swooping down on you for disrupting their vision of EVE.
Author
Topic: Merdaneth on Godmoding (Read 1394 times)