I love the many discussions going on about roleplaying at the moment and would also like to bring a subject to the group, the issue of character info and metagaming. The reason for this is a long discussion I had with e new player about this.

It happens sometimes that a new player IM's me and asks me for advice. I always try to answer to the best of my abilities, guiding them to the rules of course and offering explanations if they don't understand something. Some weeks ago such a new player approached me, asking what was needed to play in DE, so I told him what to do. He was really looking forward to playing and because of that I asked him if he already knew what he was going to do. This was purely out of interest and although he did not mind I asked, he did refuse to tell me. He also said he did not want to use a title, since it would give away too much. I frowned at that, since wearing a DE title or approved group title is mandatory, as far as I can tell. So we started talking about this and we ended up in a discusiion about character information, background stories and using profiles and picks and even titlers to give information about yourself. He was furiously against all of that, calling it metagaming. He went so far as to say he was not playing with people who were reading that sort of info and I opposed that by saying I preferred to play with people who had some background story in their profile, since this proves to me they are not just one day flies and make an effort to really make something of it. Anyways, he called me a metagamer, was disappointed and left. First time that ever happened to me.

Since then I have been thinking a lot about this. I have always given a lot of information about my character by means of ooc-media. Not only do I use my profile to tell about who Syn Rosa is and what to expect from her, I also wear a titler which has a full background story. And then I also use the forum here to write a diary about thoughts and storylines that are happening. The question that has started to bug me is this: is this a form of metagaming?

Now to me it's all about how to deal with information about a character. For instance, I know a lot more ooc than I know ic. I have read on the forum about mind9light, but ic I have never encountered them, so Syn Rosa has on occasion displayed her ignorance on that. And when I see someone wearing a titler saying they are covered in blood, I go to them to offer help, even without being acquatined by them. However, if someone is being raped two buildings away, even when it is my own daughter I ignore that, since there is no way Syn can have knowledge of that. On the other hand, if I really need to talk to someone and I see them on the mini map, I don't hesitate to come up with a reason to walk past that area, provided there is nothing going on there (so no rape or fight taking place). And when I meet a new player with a very interesting bio, I make more time for them than for someone without a bio.

In short, I do metagame sometimes, but only for those moments where I think it can enhance roleplay and never to spoil things. So even when I say in general, metagaming is bad, I also think there are uses for it, as long as you know precisely when you can and when you can't use ooc information and in which way you can use it.