I realize that this might mess with the "RP Awards" because we want to acknowledge the CHARACTERS in that context. That being said...
As a new player I have been enjoying discovering the game. That discovery includes new places, new gear, new things to do and most importantly new characters.
It's been almost a year and I still get excited about riding the lev and seeing new characters who I have not seen before. It gives a sense of wonder about just how large the population of characters is. It gives a sense of newness when I come across yet another character that I never knew existed.
When I went to my first town hall and saw all of the CHARACTERS there it was kind of disappointing. Specifically there were characters who I had interacted with via SIC, but never seen face to face. And yet here we were, face to face and free to "look" at each other and get a bunch of information that otherwise would have been unavailable. I resisted the urge to do that because I wanted to run into those characters ICly, but still it sucked to have the curtain pulled back.
Given the huge emphasis placed on avoiding IC / OOC crossover at all costs, it seems strange to me that we participate in town halls as our characters instead of as our players.
What is the logic there? Why not make the town hall room in OOC space, just like the bar at the end of the universe that we pop into when we @ooc?