>1) "-est ever" type declarations in player descriptions. CF
>is going on nine years old, and over that span of time I
>shudder to think how many times I've witnessed the the
>strongest or biggest giant that I've ever seen, ugliest orc
>that I've ever seen, or most beautiful elf with the largest
>breasts that I've ever seen.
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This one I agree with, but it doesn't annoy me as much as some of the other things mentioned here. My description for Xandrya was quite beautiful and as a half-elf she quite naturally would be...it also changed a bit as she got older. But I would never desribe her as being the MOST beautiful woman you have ever laid eyes on. An Orc might think otherwise, Huh?

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>2) Characters that exhibit great RP among their friends, but
>won't offer word one or any semblance of interaction to their
>enemies.
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I have always been bugged by those characters who kill me and then I ask why, just to get no answer at all or the all-encompassing "I had my reasons". Yeah, so you had reasons....Ummm What were they? Sometimes I might already know OOC what the reasons were...but it is interesting to get an IC response and give our characters a chance to interact on more than a pk basis. There are some that I just avoid though knowing that I would most likely get my butt kicked by them.
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>3) Characters that can quote their cabal/religion's helpfile
>very nicely, but falter quickly when a discussion/argument
>meanders away from it.
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Agreed. Each character is an individual and should have his/her own thoughts and ideas on whatever the philosphy is that they embrace. Also every character should be influenced by much more than their sphere and alignment/ethos. The character develops depth if they are multi-faceted. And this makes them more intriguing and interesting to interact with.
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>4) Cabal leaders or other authority figure characters who are
>afraid to reject applicants, toss out existing cabal members,
>or otherwise be harsh even when it's called for.

Being new to CF and having never been in a cabal I will not comment on this.
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>5) Players who try to bring the concept of game balance into
>the game.
>
>Yes, you as a player know the game is supposed to balance out
>in some way, shape, or form. For the most part, your
>character probably doesn't have that mentality. I have a very
>hard time even imagining how a statement of the form "X
>skill/spell/power is too overpowered, that's why you killed
>me" could be considered in-character.
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This is the worst example of a pet peeve you have brought up. Especially when it is done blatantly and OOC. It's just plain poor RP.

I do think that sometimes things can be said IC that might be misconstrued as complaining about game mechanics, but really might be very much a person's roleplay, though. An example of that would be someone who plays an envious character. With sphere envy, you might very well be a warrior and say something to a mage about how you wish you could cast a spell to become invisible. Or you are envious of the items another character has. But if you were to play that well you would also be envious of many other things as well.
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>6) Players who are only capable of playing one type of
>character.
>
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This one I think depends a lot on how long a person has been playing CF and their own personal preferences. Characters should not be cookie cutters of each other that's for sure. But if someone really enjoys playing a particular class/cabal/religion/race...or whatever. Or if they don't really like playing the goody...or the bad guy...why should they do that just to please an IMM? We are all here to have a good time. It's very hard to roleplay something you don't like doing. You lose interest quickly if you don't enjoy your character.

This is especially true for someone new to CF ...they may want to play a particular class over and over again until they get a really good handle on how to play it. That holds true even for older players who want to try a class they've never done before. They may screw it up a bit or get PK'd into oblivion and decide to try again. They should be allowed that privilege even if it takes a dozen tries to get it right or to have a character they really are happy with. On the other hand, the new character should always be unique enough that people do not look at this new character and immediately think..."oh that's so and so reincarnated".

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>7) The amazing halting role.
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This is a matter of taking the time to do it. And also having the opportunity to do it without ignoring what is going on in-game. I have found that I often log on with the intenions of sending a note to someone, or updating my role and then I get bombarded with invitations to go "learning" or if I am in the Inn, a lot of other roleplaying going on may be drawing my character in...so the good intentions go out the window. The way I have found to deal with this is to write up those notes/role adds offline then paste them on Dio's wrap chop and format them. I then try to take my character to a location in-game where I HOPE I will not be disturbed and then paste the text in. All that spamming as your role updates could be poetentially bad for your health. Another thing I do, if I am in the Inn, is to do an emote that I am writing in a journal or on a scroll or something so others can see that I am occupied with that and they won't wonder why I'm not talking to them.
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>8) Players who are only "on" in terms of roleplay for interviews, or >when they have reason to believe they're being watched. That one's >self-explanitory.
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That's the sign of a brown-noser who just does it for the rewards and/or Immteraction. Very poor and immature in my opinion. Anyone who enjoys roleplay will do it all the time..or most of the time. (It is kind of hard to do while you are constantly checking Where, Affects, Group, and doing whatever you need to while fighting.)
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>9) Players who don't think very hard about the implications
>of their character's beliefs/roleplay, especially when it
>comes to choices in who to kill or what gear to wear.
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Yep this is VERY true and something that bugs me too. I played at another MUD, which shall remain nameless, for about a week once. It was designed in such a way that everyone had to begin gaining exp by killing bunnie rabbits and ferrets. I had rolled a Druid character. I quit really quick because of the fact that I couldn't see how a druid would kill bunnies and ferrets and then call herself a good druid. At CF the game is designed so you don't have to do anything that is opposed to your character's morals. But a character's morals should not be based solely on alignment...they should include race, class, ethos, sphere, and most importantly role.
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>10) Recently mentioned in another thread: Characters that
>attempt to speak completely or mostly in a 'different
>language' drive me freakin' nuts. The odd one word here or
>there for flavor? That I have no problem with, especially if
>it's for a concept that doesn't really exist in
>English/common. To try to explain what I mean poorly with
>real-world examples, words like 'karma', 'machismo', or
>'bushido' might succinctly refer to non-Anglo-Saxon-ish
>background concepts.
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I agree with this too. I actually like an occasional word or two that can be easily understood or translated. Very strong accents are annoying to me too. I have a hard time understanding mino-speak as do many of us I think. And there was a ceratin character that I stopped going learning with just because I couldn't understand his thick accent. It made it hard for me to understand what he was saying half the time.

Characters that constantly whisper bug me too...although I know for some characters that is a big part of their roleplay. The problem I have with whisper is being able to read it. Whispers are hard to read in the color they show up on my terminal...kind of a muddy red-brown on black background...depending on the lighting in my family room, sometimes I can't read them at all. It would be nice if they could be changed to be more readable.
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I have one other pet peeve with RP that wasn't even mentioned here. And that is with those people who only RP with high ranking characters and ignore the new ones as if they don't even exist. One of the things I find to be fun is meeting the new characters that are coming up...learning what their character is all about. Observing and interacting with them can give you a good idea of what to expect from those who are up and coming and might one day soon make a great ally or a formidable foe.