Explaining OHOL lives without telling it's ohol.

Amon · 2019-11-01 10:20:35

My dear people and gamers, have you ever written down your life experiences in OHOL and decided to share them elsewhere? OF COURSE, whitout ever telling anyone that it is OHOL of course. That it is just a game.

Well, what kind of responses have you've gotten?

'What game of throne's drama is this.'
'What? I thought it was really happening to you and you have some kind of weird family.'

Some responses were pretty fun. But I do suggest writing down your one hour one life family lives. If only just to marvle at how intriguing they end up being.
And when you share them to others, they might just wonder how great of a story it would make if you rendered it into a book or a plotpoint somewhere.
Like battle royale princesses in a tower.

Kaveh · 2019-11-01 12:08:23

As a streamer I notice this a lot, since people often join in mid-story AFTER I mentioned it's OHOL (which doesn't seem to happen as much IRL). They're like "What? I missed a bit, what happened? Are you okay????".

If people don't know I play OHOL a lot, they generally think I'm either talking about real life or a movie, depending on what happened in the story. Thing is that I often mention 'my kids', but people know I don't have kids so they get confused lmao. Usually they'll just ask though.

Screenshot from when I was playing/streaming OHOL in my Discord:

MultiLife · 2019-11-01 13:27:37

They knew it was a game but were like "what game is that?" and were very impressed of all these crazy things that happened. Can't remember which lives I was telling them about, it was over half a year ago.
But all those stories sound way better than actually playing and experiencing them. Majority of the stuff in the stories are dramatized by imagination and story-telling skills. Even just saying "I killed three murderers and saved the town" makes a way cooler image in my head than how it actually was: me running and clicking on a sprite flailing around tile to tile, default smile on their face, occasionally eating berries and running in circles like Benny Hill theme was playing in the background.

Once I told a foreign lady about the racists in the game and she was quite glad people get to feel how it feels to be attacked by a racist. Even if it's inside a game, where it's not really personal.

Last edited by MultiLife (2019-11-01 14:00:07)

Starknight_One · 2019-11-01 13:57:03

MultiLife wrote:

They knew it was a game but were like "what game is that?" and were very impressed of all these crazy things that happened. Can't remember which lives I was telling them about, it was over half a year ago.
But all those stories sound way better than actually playing and experiencing them. Majority of the stuff in the stories are dramatized by imagination and story-telling skills. Even just saying "I killed three murderers and saved the town" makes a way cooler image in my head than how it actually was: me running and clicking on a sprite flailing around tile to tile, default smile on their face, occasionally eating berries and running in circles like Benny Hills was playing in the background.

The song known as the Benny Hill theme is titled "Yakety Sax" and was written by Spider Rich and Boots Randolph. Not sure who performed the version used on the show, but it was Boots' signature tune. The original idea came from the saxophone solo in "Yakety Yak" by Leiber and Stoller.

MultiLife · 2019-11-01 13:57:45

This makes me think, the game can deliver great stories, but perhaps the experience rarely holds up to the level of awesomeness the told story has.

Let's see. As a story:
"I was born into cold little camp as a boy whose mother wanted to kill a nearby town and wanted me to join her in her plan. My mother wouldn't clothe me, keeping herself fully clothed. Not a single rag was given to me. The moment my mother birthed my little sister, she left me on my own. I couldn't trust her to come back to feed me before I'd starve, so I ran. I was so cold and I was starving. But I managed to find wild berries and then fences and a road, which led me to the town my mother had told me about. There were farmers farming, children running around adults who were talking and a man selling drugs from a cart. Unnoticed, I made myself at home, ate their food and grew up there, nobody questioning me even once.

I tracked my mother's camp as a teenager, and as she was nowhere to be found, I stole her knife. Now she couldn't kill anyone with it. I hid it in a forest near the town, behind some trees.

I visited my mother's camp again, this time I saw her remains. Suddenly, a wild boar ran in, stopping right before me. I realized that boar had killed my mother. ...Good. The boar ran back to the forest.
Then a warmly clothed woman walked to the camp, with a small boy in her arms. I realized it was my little sister. A bit worried if she was like my mother, I carefully asked her about things. We'd exchange our stories, and I realized she was against my mother as I was, fortunately. She wasn't in on the plan of murdering the town. We decided we'd move to another town further away. A nice and quiet northern town.

I bumped into a teen girl on my way to the northern town. Out of nowhere, she asked me about "the plan"; how was it going. I realized it was my mother reincarnated. Swiftly, I pulled out her old knife and stabbed her then and there, and she died on the road, far from everything.

In the end, I never really kept in touch with my little sister, instead, I focused on writing poetic things, and started getting highs from mushrooms to add some excitement to my life. I died telling a small girl to not judge me for my choices, as I held onto my last poem."

In reality:
Oh great, this type of mom. I don't want to kill a town, it's stupid. I'll stop her when I'm older if she goes after innocent players.
Damn it, I'm not old enough to eat, and I'm in a tundra-swamp area, I'm gonna starve as she probably doesn't come back in time. I have to run now or it's gonna be too late, let's try south, maybe the town is close.
Phew, wild gooseberries, and hey, that's a fence and a road. Oh nice, a town.
Great, drug roleplayer, whatever.
Okay I'll just yoink a few clothes and start working.
Hmm, I wonder if mom is going to attack, I'll go see the camp.
It's empty, but there's her knife. Yoink dat shiet. Hide it, I don't have anything to hold it in. Yeah Yew tree should do it.
Ok round 2, is mom here now? Huh, this random boar probably got her, nice.
Oh that's my little sister, I wonder if she wants to kill the town, playing along with the roleplay murder-mom. Oh nice, she's cool, great. Her son is cool too.
Well maybe now I can do some paper. Wait who is this teen girl, oh of course, mom reincarnated, UGH, well she doesn't know I'm against her so insta STAB, nice, she is down.
Okay NOW I get to do paper. I'm almost dead.
Yay paper, I'll write some crazy stuff and do shrooms. Haha I look like a unicorn.
Aaaand dead.

Last edited by MultiLife (2019-11-01 14:11:20)

MultiLife · 2019-11-01 13:59:45

Starknight_One wrote:

The song known as the Benny Hill theme is titled "Yakety Sax" and was written by Spider Rich and Boots Randolph. Not sure who performed the version used on the show, but it was Boots' signature tune. The original idea came from the saxophone solo in "Yakety Yak" by Leiber and Stoller.

Okay, will call it Yakety Sax, I've heard that before but tend to revert to calling it Benny Hill theme.

Starknight_One · 2019-11-01 14:05:34

MultiLife wrote:

Okay, will call it Yakety Sax, I've heard that before but tend to revert to calling it Benny Hill theme.

I did for a long time too, but once I became a DJ in high school I kind of got into the habit of finding the real name of a song and pointing it out to people. Do you know how many times I've been asked to play "Teenage Wasteland" by The Who?

(The song's title is "Baba O'Riley"... 'teenage wasteland' is just a lyric. /pedant)

Kaveh · 2019-11-01 15:08:27

MultiLife wrote:

But all those stories sound way better than actually playing and experiencing them.

I definitely recognise this. As someone who is fairly into RP, most the stories I tell will have to do with that (I rarely tell anyone about how I crafted something or w/e unless I'm talking to someone who knows the game and how high tech or important it is). The RP makes the game sound really cool and interesting, and I get a lot of friends saying they want to try it too. However, when they play themselves, they often think it's a bit boring ("nothing like that ever happens to me, I just farm berries").

I guess the thing is that you, the player, are vital in making these stories interesting, both to you and to someone else listening/watching. Some people probably never get to that point, which is why they get bored as soon as there's nothing 'important' to be done anymore or they dont know how to do that thing.

MultiLife · 2019-11-01 15:59:37

Kaveh wrote:

MultiLife wrote:
But all those stories sound way better than actually playing and experiencing them.
I definitely recognise this. As someone who is fairly into RP, most the stories I tell will have to do with that (I rarely tell anyone about how I crafted something or w/e unless I'm talking to someone who knows the game and how high tech or important it is). The RP makes the game sound really cool and interesting, and I get a lot of friends saying they want to try it too. However, when they play themselves, they often think it's a bit boring ("nothing like that ever happens to me, I just farm berries").
I guess the thing is that you, the player, are vital in making these stories interesting, both to you and to someone else listening/watching. Some people probably never get to that point, which is why they get bored as soon as there's nothing 'important' to be done anymore or they dont know how to do that thing.

Yeah. I think it's really shining a light on some areas of this game and player experience. And retention.

We do know that OHOL attracts attention but only minority stay. The stories and other players' experiences sell very well, and there are aspects in the game that draw in people. But it seems that the loyal players are the ones who can make their lives interesting or the ones who want to master the game. Then there is the big slice of people who feel like crafting is hard and give up, then those who get bored before getting to interesting stuff; people who felt like the game wasn't as epic as it sounded after all. They couldn't quite pull out enough entertainment out of it, and/or they expected the game to offer them more.

To me, roleplay is not so interesting. It's players playing pretend to humor themselves. I don't want to have to pretend and craft scenarios, I want the game to spur them for me. Made up challenge like roleplaying a murderer is just not good enough for me. It feels cheap and imaginary instead of an actual challenge to conquer. It's not a must-do, so whoever does it, seems quite crappy.

I hate chasing griefers, but if I make a dramatic, realistic story of it, it's epic and inspiring. That's how my fan art happens. The life might've been crappy and stressful, but if I extract the story, I could animate a whole movie around the scenarios. Yet, I don't want to live a life chasing griefers ever again. The story is great but the experience was crap.

Will Wright said that people attach a whole bunch of story to a simulation. We give reasoning and thoughts to things even if the simulation is something very simple.
In Sims, they made a game where simulation was vague enough yet detailed enough to appeal to majority. It could attract a lot of loyal players with never ending drama you would deal with however you'd like to. Some details were left for the player's imagination to fill to give them some room for interpretation, but players could engage with things to spur game side challenges for them. The game may have offered a limited amount of scenarios, but every time it'd be different because the character or the player is different.
Very imaginative player would relish with their imagination and interpretations, always crafting stories with all kinds of people and scenarios.
Average player would find enough things to do and learn, finding things they enjoy, while the game pokes at their sparking imagination.
Not so imaginative player would find the challenges of living interesting, scanning the game and trying out everything, then creating their own challenges.

Maybe this could all somehow help OHOL to become more hospitable for everyone, so it caters to more player types than "I love RP" and "I love challenge" and "I love trolling".

Kaveh · 2019-11-01 16:27:04

I think a lot of people dislike "RP'ers" because all they associate it with is people who go around killing others or destroying things and then call it RP. What I call RP is doing things in-character for that life, for example being a loving mother or taking up a job when someone tells you it's your destiny. IMO, RP isn't necessarily a drama-filled experience. It's creating an emotional bond with what is going on around you, whether that is positive or negative, eventful or not.

It's interesting that you say that to you 'roleplay is not so interesting', but also '[...] if I make a dramatic realistic story of it, it's epic and inspiring'. Do you mean you create that story after the fact? Because tbh that's exactly what RP is, you just live the story _while_ playing. If I chase a griefer, I do it because my character would. I don't (have to) turn that into a story afterwards, it's already there while it happens. Therefore the experience is as great as the story, since effectively they're the same thing.

Edit: I guess the difference is that to me, RP is a result from an existing scenario, instead of me creating the scenario myself. Obviously there's some decision making in how I want my character to act/react, but in general this happens automatically.

Last edited by Kaveh (2019-11-01 16:33:25)

MultiLife · 2019-11-01 17:41:37

Kaveh wrote:

I think a lot of people dislike "RP'ers" because all they associate it with is people who go around killing others or destroying things and then call it RP. What I call RP is doing things in-character for that life, for example being a loving mother or taking up a job when someone tells you it's your destiny. IMO, RP isn't necessarily a drama-filled experience. It's creating an emotional bond with what is going on around you, whether that is positive or negative, eventful or not.
[...]
Edit: I guess the difference is that to me, RP is a result from an existing scenario, instead of me creating the scenario myself. Obviously there's some decision making in how I want my character to act/react, but in general this happens automatically.

I'm the kind of player who's in it for survival and challenge, and mastery. Occasional heart warming stuff and praises helps keeping it from going stale. I'm the player who is happy to work on stuff on my own, and receive a "thanks uncle" after it, I don't need more. Chatting in-game is tiresome.

I've played along as a daughter of two roleplayers (marriage RP), but I didn't enjoy it. The peeps were sweet but I just get nothing out of it.

I'm the type of person who dislikes fake things and pretending, like acting. So playing a role makes it fake for me. I don't care about the made up character you're living through, I care about people, players. Having a filter in between as a "my character does/think" makes me disinterested. I think, I say, I do, with a slight accent of RP due to family ties being part of the game.

Me talking about murder RPs was an extreme example. Negative RP is easy to use to point out stuff, but don't worry that that's the only view people have on RP.

RP can be reacting/acting to prompts, but RP is oftentimes a way to create prompts. Such as trying to get married to start marriage RP and get marriage drama and family roles. It's a made up scenario to make way for roleplaying. I'd like a game-driven scenario.

Kaveh wrote:

It's interesting that you say that to you 'roleplay is not so interesting', but also '[...] if I make a dramatic realistic story of it, it's epic and inspiring'. Do you mean you create that story after the fact? Because tbh that's exactly what RP is, you just live the story _while_ playing. If I chase a griefer, I do it because my character would. I don't (have to) turn that into a story afterwards, it's already there while it happens. Therefore the experience is as great as the story, since effectively they're the same thing.

Only after. When I play, it's me. After I have played and I write things down, I extract myself and look at the shadow I left behind, and make them a character. Now everything that happened turns epic and awesome, while in-game it was a stressful click fest. I get a great story, but I don't want to live it again. If I didn't even get a story out of it, it'd have been a complete loss of time.

So yes, my difference is that when it's AFTER the experience, I have the epic story. I have no interest in storytelling during the experience. I have no need to make a character during the experience, so I do it after, and that's when I get joy out of it. If I act during the story, I feel fake. I let the experience play out and then look at it and what I can make from it.
I live a life of Tim Quint, but I don't try to act as Tim Quint. I act as myself, and then tell the story of Tim Quint after.

That said, I've also been that blushing wolf hat girl who has been gifted a white dress by an in-game childhood friend, and said love yous. I tend to adapt to others to enhance their experiences, it's part of my personality on the social sector; this means I play along, if I feel like it'd be the best option so they have fun too. I want the player's best, after all. It was nice to see someone try devoting their time to someone in-game, even if it was RP. I appreciated them and what they brought to my in-game life, and felt appreciated. These things fuel my interest when the game's challenge and survival starts losing its charm.

Saolin · 2019-11-02 00:44:20

MultiLife, what you describe in your "story" life and your "reality" life IS the same story. You're describing your real time third person thoughts compared to your later-on full consideration of the story that actually played out. Your "reality" life is a bit more cynical i would say. I don't like to participate in a lot of elaborate, contrived roleplay either. I put myself into the first person while i play, and while I play as myself, i will add in details that i find help with my immersion, such as talking about events as if i was experiencing them in reality. Personally I've played for genetic fitness since it was introduced, and before that lineage depth, and i would say these approaches are complimentary to one another, as emotionally investing in a life seems to help inspire more players to play their best.

Last edited by Saolin (2019-11-02 00:44:52)

MultiLife · 2019-11-02 09:32:27

Saolin wrote:

MultiLife, what you describe in your "story" life and your "reality" life IS the same story. You're describing your real time third person thoughts compared to your later-on full consideration of the story that actually played out. Your "reality" life is a bit more cynical i would say. I don't like to participate in a lot of elaborate, contrived roleplay either. I put myself into the first person while i play, and while I play as myself, i will add in details that i find help with my immersion, such as talking about events as if i was experiencing them in reality. Personally I've played for genetic fitness since it was introduced, and before that lineage depth, and i would say these approaches are complimentary to one another, as emotionally investing in a life seems to help inspire more players to play their best.

Yes, they are the stories of the same experience, but the real in-game experience is not as great as the story is, that’s why it’s cynical. That was the point. The story sounds more epic than the experience ever was. Same situation, but it’s just not that great in-game.

The third person thoughts show how bland the experience feels in-game. Forgetting the purely gameplay related things and reworking it into an experience outside of the game creates an epic story. Some craft the story while playing and some do it afterwards, but I feel like the majority don’t do either much, so they get bored or disappointed with the game and leave. Hence the talk about retention and player types.

Surely putting in some effort on the emotional investment side gives motivation to some players, but at the end of the day, it won’t be enough to make the game appeal to masses. I’m trying to think if we could see with the brains of an average player, who leaves after few hours; would they stay if the game dropped them into a life of a raider or into the arms of an angelic mother? I’m curious how the epic stories don’t match up with the in-game experience, and people say they ’just get the boring lives’.

One Hour One Life Forums

#1 2019-11-01 10:20:35

Explaining OHOL lives without telling it's ohol.

#2 2019-11-01 12:08:23

Re: Explaining OHOL lives without telling it's ohol.

#3 2019-11-01 13:27:37

Re: Explaining OHOL lives without telling it's ohol.

#4 2019-11-01 13:57:03

Re: Explaining OHOL lives without telling it's ohol.

#5 2019-11-01 13:57:45

Re: Explaining OHOL lives without telling it's ohol.

#6 2019-11-01 13:59:45

Re: Explaining OHOL lives without telling it's ohol.

#7 2019-11-01 14:05:34

Re: Explaining OHOL lives without telling it's ohol.

#8 2019-11-01 15:08:27

Re: Explaining OHOL lives without telling it's ohol.

#9 2019-11-01 15:59:37

Re: Explaining OHOL lives without telling it's ohol.

#10 2019-11-01 16:27:04

Re: Explaining OHOL lives without telling it's ohol.

#11 2019-11-01 17:41:37

Re: Explaining OHOL lives without telling it's ohol.

#12 2019-11-02 00:44:20

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#13 2019-11-02 09:32:27

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