Sorry for delayed response on this.
I am not really sure how Aya comes across as the center of attention, I very often feel like a side character in many discussions. I will try to be more aware of it though, it isn't something I really want or care for.
Couple things.
A) She often speaks as if everything she's involved with is larger than life. For example, the way she was pumping the war in null sec. It comes across as her viewing these things as so important just because she's desperate to be
part of something important. Now, it's fine when she does this IC, and it's a great and deep character motivation to play with, however...
B ) It becomes problematic when the bio actually reinforces it, with the amount of things she's been involved with, thus making her claims of being involved with super important events all the time legitimized-by-background. This actually contradicts the way she acts, because if she's part of such important events all the time, they'd be normal for her and so she'd be much less likely to get so hyped for yet another battle or yet another war. If she went through all of the things listed in her bio, then I'd expect her to show more wisdom and experience, seeing every death, every battle, every war as just another notch on the ladder and not something to get hyped about.
Basically, she lacks the
jade-colored glasses typical of a battle-hardened veteran, instead coming across as an impetuous youth who is still eager for some action.
Due to this, having important events both common in her background and the character trying to get involved with them in the present, makes it come across as if you the player, rather than the character, are the one trying to get involved in really important stuff all the time (this is where the 'center of attention' implication comes from). I'd pick one or the other. Either the character has a wealth of experience and no longer views every fight and battle they get in as the next big thing because such things have become normal to them, or that she's had a fairly quiet upbringing (for a Kameira) and so is desperate for action. And there's nothing wrong with playing the latter. It's okay for a character to have quiet, unimportant, and uninteresting periods in their life, and that having these things helps give more impact to the big things as they provide a contrast.
Sympathy sueing is something that to me seems like another thing I can chalk up to my own bad RPing. Sympathy and pity are two things I have never tried to play for nor have any interest or respect in. I am not sure what is giving off this vibe but it alarms me to hear it said.
For one, the amount of incidents she's been involved with. Other players will say this is a sign of badassing, but from what I know of Aya I don't see it that way. I see it more as trying to display the amount of shit she's had to do as a result of being Kameiras, and how that's negatively affected her as a person. It's a bit much, you don't need so many massive traumatizing incidents for her to be as damaged as she is.
The main thing, though, is the way Aya had been previously reacting in-game. She was wearing her emotions on her sleeve, and doing a lot of public wangsting (wangst is defined as overplayed public angst, see
this post on the IGS for an extreme example), seemingly for the intent of getting other characters to take notice of her and help her through her spiritual crisis. Something which, IMO, would be improper for a character like Aya who has almost certainly been raised to avoid showing weakness to anyone. I chalk this up to you being new, so it's nothing to be held against you. We've all done it before. Playing negative emotions is very,
very difficult to get right, because it's a delicate balance between making it noticeable enough for other RPers to latch on to, but subtle enough to not come across as heavyhanded.
Aya seems to have recovered from this since then, so that's good. I'm just talking about how it came across, and how you can avoid it in the future. I'd recommend taking cue from how I play Samira... emotional distance and self-destructive activities are often a much better way of displaying internal problems than overt moping, particularly for a character who is conditioned to avoid public displays of emotion. Though keep in mind that emotional distance is also something can be difficult to do right--it's hard to get the right balance of acting normal but "empty" in everything you do. You do seem to have the self-destructive activities down already, with how Aya throws herself into fights and aggressively taunts everyone around her, along with how she often reacts strongly to people criticizing her and has very malleable loyalties due to her trying to impress those people (leaving PYRE in response to the comments she was getting from Republic loyalists). It makes her come across as having a low sense of self-worth, possibly even an inferiority complex (subconsciously believing self to be inferior, and trying desperately to prove otherwise by masking it with displays of strength and power), without her overtly saying it.
I do like a lot of the ideas you put forth but simply put that is not my vision of how a Kameira should be. To me the far scarier and more dangerous person is one who knows what is up. Blind ignorance is very unattractive to me though I don't think you were really talking about that.
No one really knows what is up. We're all molded by the way we were brought up. A Kameira is lied to, this much we know. They are told they are Chosen when they are not, purely to make them feel superior to their (demonized) enemies. They are given an idealized view of the Empire--and particularly, their role in defending it--in order to build a sense of patriotism and willingness to fight and die without fear. It is standard military indoctrination, only taken to an extreme.
I'm not saying that most of what they're told is a lie. While some of it is, most probably isn't. They are probably well-educated in several areas. It's more a manner of
how it is taught rather than what is taught. You can say the same thing in many ways, and Kameiras are taught in a way that focuses on the strengths of the Empire and themselves, while the enemies of the Empire are displayed in a bad and inferior light. They are told things that is deemed important for them to know, and kept in the dark about things that is not important for them to know. When your masters can funnel the information before it reaches you, they can present it in ways to condition you to behave the way they want you to behave, even if the information they
do present is all factually true. Half-truths are typically far more convincing than outright lies, afterall, because they are actually true, just presented in a way that enforces a particular interpretation. I would expect Kameiras indoctrination to be built on half-truths.
I hope you don't take these comments negatively. You're new to RP, and you acknowledge this, so I'm trying to provide constructive criticism to help you improve. If you feel I'm being offensive in any way, let me know, as that's not my intent.
Author
Topic: [Character] Ayallah (Read 9354 times)