Guldorand City Crier

[Morgy]

Hello!

Please, please, please can we move the crier near the city fountain somewhere slightly less central, or reduce his shouting frequency? I don't think anyone enjoys some of the constant spamming to the chat log we are getting. Rarely anything shouted is particularly exciting/useful/atmospheric. It's a common complaint for this area both IC and OOC. I don't think a shorter character limit would go amiss either, as some of the shouts are less traditional-town-crier yells and more just verbalised posters/notices.

Thanks for reading!

Here's an example of how disruptive it can be.

[Arienette]

Seconded!

[Alyxnia]

Please. There are other issues I have with criers I'll make a thread about eventually, but this needs to happen first for sure.

[Deryliss]

I've stopped hanging out in the taven square out of frustration with the town crier.

I rue the day I meet Durzali.

[jmm2222]

Hard agree. If anything just lower the frequency.

I want to murder Durzali.

[Party in the forest at midnight]

This is the third thread about town criers since new guld opened.

I have no idea why everyone hangs out around him, we can stand around the main gate which has 4 temp stalls and is thus superior.

[Morgy]

This is the third thread about town criers since new guld opened.

I have no idea why everyone hangs out around him, we can stand around the main gate which has 4 temp stalls and is thus superior.

Some folks do. It's a matter of not everyone wanting to be around everyone else's conversations at once or having a little variety.

[Red Ropes]

I love that it's disruptive. It's a town crier - how else will people know about things?

I think town criers as a concept could use some thinking out / making them more friendly because their conversation is a bit confusing but to be honest I think what's been done in the town square needs to be replicated in any non-tavern locations that is a social hub.

The Cordor criers are worthless because people barely pass them, the Brog & Bendir ones wander around, and the Andunor ones are not in the hub.

Not really good investments. Very low audience.

(and all of these places have taverns and inns and stretches of street which don't have them, so I don't understand why people don't use those.)

[Morgy]

(and all of these places have taverns and inns and stretches of street which don't have them, so I don't understand why people don't use those.)

Because they prefer to use the places they do. That's not going to change.

People like being outside because a lot of people pass by to interact with spontaneously.

I don't see how criers dominating chat logs brings any kind of richness to RP. Criers don't translate as well to games as they function IRL, because you can't tune them out like you can environmental noise in an actual real street. It's not IC disruptive, it's OOC disruptive.

Personally, I think the Cordor outskirts crier is well placed because people see the shouts when they pass by into the city, but don't have to repeatedly scan through the same endless text.

As for how will people know about things? Well that's what poster boards and interactions with players provide, which is far more immersive than the same spammed message.

[Red Ropes]

That's more of your opinion though. A lot of the criers and their messages may have contexts not entirely for you, or anyone, except a small audience. They can be coded messages intended to alert someone of something. There's a lot of cool RP going on especially in Guldorand with those criers that some people are just not aware of and think it's some infuriating trollpost which I find kind of funny.

I do think there are some things dated by their mechanics but I do not think they're so obnoxious being that, well, I am someone who also roleplays in those places and finds them both atmospheric and interesting. Part of why (and someone more knowledgeable with the scripts can weigh in) they "spam" is I believe they're a heartbeat script is pretty frequent.

Could they be set up slightly different? I think so. But I hope they don't move - they're useful, fun, and sometimes they're meant to be annoying but not in any malicious OOC sense.

I also am of my own opinion, that, people should probably spread out more. Big city, lots of stuff to see, and you can do "porch sitting" RP in several (IMO better) locations that still have traffic and random encounter aspect.

[Flower Power]

Agreed.

The criers are super useful, and I've personally gotten a lot of mileage out of them in the past for both legitimate and shady things. They're also super funny. If they're going to be tuned down, they'll be less useful and may as well be removed entirely - and that would be a shame.

Just do what Party suggested and hang out 20 feet to the right by the shop stalls in the city's entry square. Or go talk in the tavern. Or set up tables in the art gallery and have a tea party.

[Deryliss]

Real life town criers spoke with the voice of authority. They carried missives from nobles and aristocrats, and anything that came out of them was real and relevant to the audience. It was forbidden to attack them even if they brought bad news, because their voice was the noble or aristocrat's voice.

They stood up, called the public to attention, read their missive, then left.

What we have in Arelith is not a town crier. It's just spam. Spam you can pay for cheaply. What's worse, you don't even have to format the text that's spoken in any immersive way. You can have a lawful abiding town crier of Cordor preach the dogma of lolth for just a few gold coins.

I get it, a lot of people like them as a way to 'spread the news', but they are an immense nuisance. They're just ooc annoying, and directly interfere with roleplay as per the screenshot that was shared. They often are worded 'cleverly' to make it sound like 'city authority' is sponsoring the message, but in actuality such a claim would get them dragged into the nearest town hall for a stern talking-to by the actual city authority for impersonation.

Real life town criers were also rendered obsolete with public education , widespread literacy and the printing press. Suddenly you didn't need to pay some schmuck to go and interrupt people's lives to loudly shout at them the words they couldn't read. Notice boards, pamphlets, newspapers and eventually the telegraph reduced town criers to little more than quaint reminders of medieval times to announce royal births.

They're ooc annoying, immersion breaking and not needed in any way. At the very least move them to where interaction with them is at the bare minimum for the little function they do represent.

[Morgy]

That's more of your opinion though. A lot of the criers and their messages may have contexts not entirely for you, or anyone, except a small audience. They can be coded messages intended to alert someone of something. There's a lot of cool RP going on especially in Guldorand with those criers that some people are just not aware of and think it's some infuriating trollpost which I find kind of funny.

I'm sure there are some coded messages in there, but I don't see why that means we need to have chat logs filling up as demonstrated in my original post. Surely we shouldn't have to just detour inside whenever we bump into someone, just to avoid that kind of spam?

I reckon if you dumped a crier by the Hub portal and Cordor's main gate/outside the mercantile, you'd find a lot of people frustrated at that too.

Also, I know it's my opinion. All of this is opinion.

[Eira]

Is it possible to put an upper limit on how long a message can be going for? Maybe even limit how often one PC can hire the criers so there are fewer spam messages?

[Aniel]

I'll say I actually love the Guldorand town crier. I'd like it if there were one somewhere around the Hub (though not in the bar area) and the one in Cordor moved to the square itself.

Guldorand's town crier is one of the only ones done right IMO

[LichBait]

Only if the Cage results would stop being cried, heh.

[Kessarin]

They're ooc annoying, immersion breaking and not needed in any way. At the very least move them to where interaction with them is at the bare minimum for the little function they do represent.

This.

Town Criers in the town square of Guldorand is a good idea on paper and in theory.
In actual game play, the deleterious effects of the constant spam far outweigh any positives.

[Party in the forest at midnight]

I think all the town criers need is a time limit for what they shout. Maybe raise the cost a little bit. That way if people want to have the crier shout things for a long time, they'd have to go back and pay the crier to say it again. As it is now you can dump 7k on a crier to shout for a month. There's no upkeep to it.

[garrbear758]

I like the town crier, but I do agree that the cost should be raised, and it should increase exponentially with duration.

[Wethrinea]

Town criers are very useful for those who have somewhat out-of-way shops, or have an actual productive, RP-enabling message they want to send out.

But the sheer amount of anonymous slander make them in some cases a twitter-esque spambot, and also strains the suspension of disbelief. Not sure what can be done about it, but people could perhaps be a bit more considerate?

[Ork]

While the town crier is useful, the complete misuse of this mechanic grates my gears. Memeing through the crier should be heavily punishable, and if it isn't easy to discover who posted what - it should be.

[Party in the forest at midnight]

I also think it's funny that town criers weren't ever an issue before new guld came out. They've been doing this ever since I first joined the server. Back then, the only town criers were Cordor and Andunor, and Cordor got all of the Andunor trash talk, and vice versa.

[Ork]

I also think it's funny that town criers weren't ever an issue before new guld came out. They've been doing this ever since I first joined the server. Back then, the only town criers were Cordor and Andunor, and Cordor got all of the Andunor trash talk, and vice versa.

Truthfully, for me - they've always been an outlet for veiled OOC attacks or dumb memes. But that's not the crier's fault, that's certain players making poor choices. Similar players make ridiculous messageboard posts and inane speedy messages.

[Deryliss]

I also think it's funny that town criers weren't ever an issue before new guld came out. They've been doing this ever since I first joined the server. Back then, the only town criers were Cordor and Andunor, and Cordor got all of the Andunor trash talk, and vice versa.

I suspect that's largely because the other town criers are in out-there locations, not smack bang in the most desirable RP location. This has massively increased both the exposure to how awfully used they are, and increased the payoff for people using/abusing them.

[Dreams]

I think I made a similar point in another thread about criers at some point, but...

If you have a crier say 'This message from <character's real name>,' before the message, then you'll have people really making sure they're saying the right thing and from an IC perspective. Having disguised names be available in this won't help the problem at hand.

This would give some level of accountability.