Etiquette

The following is a list of proper manners and etiquette for playing Hollow.

General

• Common manners are very helpful. Lack of them means people will be less likely to want to RP with you, and will probably not be polite in return when dealing with you.
• Remember that this is not your game. When you add in other people (who each have their own free will), your RP is not going to go the way you originally planned it. Know that, and work with it; do not try to force others into your set plans.

Chatting

• Do not use IM chat abbreviations. You have a full keyboard and no limits on message size. Use them.
• Do not use all caps. Shouting at people is annoying
• Do try not to blow your top or go berserk on the other players when you have disagreements. Being abusive can get you muted or proomed.
• The OOC channel is for Hollow-related topics. Occasionally other discussions are allowed, but "Rping" on the channel or excessive talking is disruptive to the RP of others. If asked politely to tone it down by player or admin, please do so. A response of "If you don't like it, turn off your ooc" is just rude. Many keep their ooc channel on to help when a valid Hollow question comes up, spamming of off-topic messages simply gets in the way. Use discretion, please.

Items

• If there are items on the ground when you enter a room, it is polite and expected that you ask before helping yourself. Failing to do this will typically result in you being confronted by the owner(s) of the items. Often, the items are there for RP purposes and not necessarily up-for-grabs.
• If given the go-ahead to pick up items on the ground, please be courteous and only take a small amount of what is there. There are other players in the game, after all, and they might like a share of the goodies too.
• When the time comes for a mass consumption of food/drink, please be considerate of other players and move into an unoccupied room. Screens heavily spammed with "Player A ate a biscuit" is incredibly frustrating and highly disruptive to RP.

Statting

• If you come into a room and there are people and a mob (Monster you can fight) it is only polite to ask, either in a series of tells or an ooc say or an ooc action, if the mob is available for you to kill. Sometimes there is a queue and you might find you need to move on. Do not be upset or irritated about this. Some mobs drop more or better than what you had originally wanted to try and kill.
• If you happen to enter a room and get attacked by an aggressive mob, whether or not you intended to fight it or not, you should attempt to escape and see if anyone was in the room, possibly waiting to re-attack the mob. This is especially true if the HP of the monster is down. So please, check the HP before returning the attack. If, however, the hp is full on the mob, you can take it or leave it since it did attack you first.
• If everyone waiting in the room has been idle for more than 5 minutes, it is assumed to be safe to take the mob.
• Should you accidentally kill a mob that belonged to someone else (through either of the two above scenarios) compensation should be remitted, either in the form of gold or any extra drop that might have come from the mob.
• Healers are your friends. Whenever statting and you ask for a healer, don't take them for granted. They are there to help you when you need it and if you happen to ask and not get a response, don't get so upset about it. It really doesn't look good when you do get upset. Also, when they are healing you and request either half drops from a mob, which is usually a given anyway, or don't request anything at all, a 'thank you' is always appreciated.

Mining

• It isn't expected but it is courteous to forewarn others in the caves if you are about to use quickmine. Mining spam is expected when in the caves, but players do appreciate a heads-up if their screen is about to be instantly clogged with mining results. If you can, choose an unoccupied cave to quickmine in.

Dueling

• Duels are a display of combat skill, and an honorable bout (no matter how dirty your character fights), and such a ritual should be conducted with manners. Win or lose, insulting your opponent's style, choices, errors, and so on is incredibly rude and is a quick way to get yourself ousted from the dueling community. Good sportsmanship is key.
• If asked for a critique on another's duel, remember the construction criticism format: -two- compliments for every criticism. Be polite, even when pointing out flaws, and gently suggest ways they can improve. Being asked for criticism is NOT an open invitation to tear apart a person's dueling.
• Stop whining. Honestly, complaining if a duel goes against your favor is pointless and only makes you look worse for it. Claim any number of factors for the outcome (bias, outside influences, bad timing, etc), a loss is a loss and there is no changing that. Unfair or not, accept it as it has gone and move on. Nobody likes a whiner.
  • Additionally, don't try and whine to the admins to 'overturn' the duel just because you don't agree with the decision. Admins are not amused and it is extremely disrespectful to both your opponent and the judges. Suck it up. The only exception is if you have reason and proof that your opponent honestly 'cheated'(Someone else wrote the duel, for instance).
• Please adhere to restrictions, limits, and so on agreed upon before the start of a duel. It is an insult to fellow duelist and judges alike to disregard the set standards.
• Attacking judges for a vote that didn't go your way is not only immensely rude, it's downright childish and paints you a sore loser. You may politely -ask- why the vote went against you, but the judge always reserves the right to refuse stating his/her vote or the reasoning behind it.
• Judges are not your personal advisers. Do not automatically assume they are going to provide critiques after a duel. If you desire one, ask prior to the duel's start if any of the judges are willing. Not all judges like to give critiques, while others greatly enjoy it.
• Please refrain from stat-training while in/judging/watching a duel. The battle-spam is highly distracting to duelists, risks duel posts being lost while clearing the spam, and is just outright rude (especially if you're dueling and spamming your opponent). There are a large number of mobs in Hollow, very likely there is a similar mob nearby so just move-along.
• As with statting in a room during a duel, RPing should be considered with discretion. Ask the duelists beforehand if they are okay with it. If they aren't, please move to another room for your RP. If they are, it is still polite to keep posts short and sparse if possible. This is entirely up to the duelists (if they were there first), so please be respectful of their choice.

Death Duels

• If you lose a Death Duel, your character is dead. Permanently, irrevocably, dead. You may not bring the character back in any shape, form, or fashion unless you obtain the permission of the person who killed you and provide it to the admins as proof.
  • If the person who killed you no longer plays Hollow, then you're pretty much out of luck, and your character may not come back at all.
• It is considered bad form to make your next character an identical twin or otherwise clone of your dead character. If you weren't willing to lose the character, then don't Death Duel in the first place. Merely replacing them with a carbon copy cheapens the value of even having a Death Duel, as it shows that there wasn't really any point to it in the first place.
  • Again, the person who killed you is probably the best person to okay your new character if you think it might be too much of a clone. If they don't mind, then there's not really anything against it.

Useful Links

1. Rules of behaviour
2. General Policies
3. Dueling 101