With the way real life tends to go, it is hard to get scenes in at times but I'm seeing more and more that people are excluding those around them or are blatantly ignoring actions that would affect them in some way. Yes, if you have an obviously private scene going on, it may be the polite thing for others to ask if they can join. However, if you are in a public area (street, hospital, bar, etc) where others are around, your scene then becomes public. Of course there are ways to whisper, call, text, write, gesture, etc someone else so you have the sense of secrecy. You can even get up and go to a back room or around a corner to gain more privacy.

The issue I am seeing is people ignore the others in that area. If you start something in a crowd, people are obviously going to notice and rp off of it. If you crash your vehicle into a shop, there will be most likely police and witnesses involved. If you start a fight in a bar, staff is going to notice. People seem to think that they can just "ignore" the reactions. Yes, everyone has the option to struggle, resist, fight back, etc but if security is yelling at you or the guy at the table next to you threw something at you, you will notice. Yes, dodging the bottle thrown at you or glaring at the security is a response. Posting "ignores.... and continues" is a cop-out. It gives you and your group a bad rep and makes those around you feel unwanted. If its a constant issue, people will leave the sim or group.

Another side of the issue is people just ignoring the obvious disturbances around you. If you are having coffee and a car crashes into the shop, you're not going to sit there sipping your latte and read your book like nothing happened. If there is a huge bar fight, the manager shouldn't just sit there and serve up drinks while the place is trashed.

Yet another side is being include in story lines in general. I've seen people and gone through it myself where you try over and over and over and over (and over!) to get involved and it is just left unanswered. For an example, I've personally tried to sell drugs and weapons to a few only to get a "well I'm busy now so maybe later". After weeks of trying to get it going, I'm not going to try with those people anymore.

One other thing is the use of NPCs instead of real people standing right there. Everyone needs help at times, but it is up to the role player to NPC that help. I used to spend most of my time at the hospital, but I kept getting patients that would walk in call an NPC nurse, see an NPC doctor, get NPC treatment, and be discharged by and NPC. Through those scenes I would be standing there like a good doctor trying to ask whats wrong, take charge of the treatment, etc but it was never acknowledged. It happens at the bars as well. People walk in and order a drink from an NPC, have it served by an NPC, and pay the NPC rather than taking advantage of the staff that is there to roleplay.

I want to challenge the community as a whole to be accountable for their actions and be more aware of what is happening around them in roleplay. React to people and try to include them so the community can flourish and grow. We all get caught up with real interruptions, deal with lag, and can get confused in big scenes, but it is not excuse to be rude and disrespectful to others trying to make their way.