The meanning of the Look command.

[Cret]

More often then not I am sitting in the Market Square and I look at someone. Every so often I get an ill tempered responce: "WHy are you starring at me?" or "What? Am I *really* that interesting?". Im confused as to why my looking at someone would do this. And from what Ive seen it dosent happen just to me.

What I want to know is what people think of the look command:
1. Does it mean your starring at them? (there is a stare social, i use it alot)
2. Why do we respond to people looking at us? (How do we know exactly what there looking at? They could be looking to the person behind you)
3. If it is so offensive to look at someone, can glance be added to to give their description? (The only way I can tell who a young male human is, who never greets is by what they look like)

Any more Ideas on this? I know there was a discussion on the old board somewhere but I cannot find it..

[Ellian]

I don't see why it would be offensive to look at someone. In my opinion, it would be offensive if someone were rude to my character for using the look command. I really don't see it as staring when someone looks at me - Now, if someone were to use the look command four, five, six times in five minutes of roleplay, I might take it as staring.

I feel it is a necessary command in dealing with people, and those that give you flak for looking at them are in the wrong. Plus, it gives you a nice paragraph to glance to when waiting for a reply during a conversation.


Just my thoughts
-El-

[Gwain]

The way I see it is that when you look at someone you do so for a second really and poof you're finished and back to just looking around period. The thing is that it seems like a long time because fk is text and we have to read it or we have a long description.

But even in rl there are occurances when you look at a fellow and they get angry. Some people don't care, some do.

I propose something maybe, but it is a bit drastic.

Eliminate the echoe associated with look for everyone but the looker so that there is still a chance that they'll catch you looking at them but there is also equal chance they'll miss it.
Its like the echoe chance recieved when someone is speaking a different language, sometimes you are told what language it is by the code but other times you are not.
In essence you will look at the char but the char has the chance of missing your observation of them and the equal chance of seeing you looking at them.

[Paxos]

I agree that some people can be angry about it IRL. I feel the problem is more that people have been, as of late, almost inciting conflict for no reason just because someone looks at them, making it quite annoying when you want to look at someone and they begin to yell at you for it.

Paxos

[Andreas]

What I want to know is what people think of the look command:
1. Does it mean your starring at them? (there is a stare social, i use it alot)
2. Why do we respond to people looking at us? (How do we know exactly what there looking at? They could be looking to the person behind you)
3. If it is so offensive to look at someone, can glance be added to to give their description? (The only way I can tell who a young male human is, who never greets is by what they look like)

1. To me, the LOOK command is more than just a casual glance at someone. You're taking a head to toe look at them.

2. I feel it's a matter of personal roleplay how your characters respond to someone looking at them. However, the nice roleplay rules of Waterdeep should be kept in mind when responding.

3. I'd rather see GLANCE left just the way it is. It's a quick way to see if the character you're glancing at is wounded and I also use it as a roleplay tool.

Now, if someone were to use the look command four, five, six times in five minutes of roleplay, I might take it as staring.

I agree with Ellian's thought on how repetitive use of the LOOK command could be interpreted as staring. I've done so myself at times. Again, how your character responds to this situation is a matter of personal taste.

[Dalvyn]

1. To me, the LOOK command is more than just a casual glance at someone. You're taking a head to toe look at them.

[...]

3. I'd rather see GLANCE left just the way it is. It's a quick way to see if the character you're glancing at is wounded and I also use it as a roleplay tool.

I do not agree with you on that one. Glancing as is coded now allows you to make an exact survey of someone's wounds (critical wound to abdomen, scratch to right foot, scratch on right arm) and glancing does not produce any echo. Glancing does not allow you to have any idea about what kind of armour a character is wearing, or if his/her hair is black or red or white, but it lets you get the results of a precise medical examination? That, to me, shows that look is not a more aggressive examination than glance.

To me, the differences between look and glance are purely OOC. One gives you all the information related to what you see while the other one only gives you information about the injuries only, to cut down spam. I do not think that people should react to a 'look'. When you walk in the street and there are people around you, you 'look' at them (that is, you automatically see what colour their hair is, what kind of clothes they wear and so on). You do not need a very long examination to obtain the information that the 'look' command gives you on the mud [as an interresting side node, getting the "medical" info that 'glance' gives would take a much longer time, especially if the character has clothes].

That might lead to the idea "The 'look' echoes should be removed." I am not in favour of that either actually, for OOC reasons again. Look is also associated to the peek skill. Having an echo dissuades people from using 'look (charname)' repeatedly to train up peek in an un-IC way.

To sum up my opinion: no code change needed, but also, there is no reason to react to a 'look': it's not an aggressive examination and it's not similar to staring.