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What is RP?
Liquidvison
Member Posts: 112
Ok i have never fully understood what it ment to actually Role Play....i mean do you get into chacter? act evil or good depending on the game? really have no idea when people say they love to RP.....anyone care to give their explination?
Comments
Roleplaying, generally speaking, simply means what the name implies: Playing a role.
Roleplaying comes in many different forms, but usually it simply involves getting into character. If, for example, I went into WoW as a Night Elf Hunter and then started genuinely talking and acting like a Night Elf Hunter would if Night Elf Hunters were real, that'd be considered roleplaying. It's just acting, really. Some people find it fun, some people don't find it fun at all. But there are many definitions of roleplay and roleplaying, and some might find my opinions way off base.
It's a subjective thing.
As a LONG time roleplayer i'd love to delve into this one.
Now some people HATE the idea of roleplaying but honestly anyone who is playing a video game is already role playing. Pretending or acting in the role of something you are not, it the closest deffinition.
But in the MMO world MOST people want to just play the game kill the mobs get teh lewts and lvl.
Another small few like to actually roleplay.
Now there are different degrees. Some just act in the way of good / evil or factional. For instance in WoW horde / alliance type roleplaying. Talking about in game lore how much you hate the other faction general stuff such as that. Even farther is actually getting into the role of you Character more specifically. "I'm a paladin i do not aggree with attack those other people unprovoked" (in a pvp esque scenario) Talking with friends in character and maybe if you're in a guild having RP sessions where the quests you do are in character an such.
Alot of the people who enjoy RPing are those who play pen and paper or text based rpgs. Games such as dungeons and dragons to generalize. Games in which the whole game is based around acting the role of your character (even though these days i notice a more Roll Vs Role play attitude with the d20 system but thats another topic
)
Basically roleplay is AT the essence of EVERY rpg hence the name in the FIRST place of Role playing game, whether you like to actually get in the role of your character with chat or not.
Now you might notice with RP you get alot of I hate or I love attitude as most people have a VERY oppinionized view of RP. Some people who RP can be kinda "Forcefull" when it comes to General chat channels sometimes Yelling at those who aren't using the OOC or out of character channel. This has given some newcomers a bad oppinion of people who like to RP and this has taken a even bigger rise thanx in part to WoW (not blaming wow just saying ALOT of people who have never played an RPG before are introduced to RPing for the first time due to the number of newcommers it brought to the genre.)
But on the other side of the spectrum you have RPers who are now AFRAID to RP due to RP bashing sessions which i have been around to see in SEVERAL big name mmo's where someone RP's and everyone in chat starts to yell and bash the person. (Never understood this myself).
IMO both sides of the spectrum need to take a step back and say "Hey i'm playing an MMO a multiplayer game with hundreds of thousands of people. Not everyone is going to have the same oppinion of a enjoyable experience out of this game. So as long as i am enjoying myself kudos to everyone else"
On a closing note i enjoy RP very much partially due to my pen and paper roots. But i am finding it harder and harder to do so in an MMO unless i am in a RP heavy guild or clan. I find this disheartening at times when i think back to the older MMO's in which RPing was a norm and immersion was almost always. I still remember Days in UO and original EQ (early EQ) when i had whole sessions where it truelly did feel like a pen and paper experience. Not to mention all the Lore you absorb about the game world in which you are playing.
it's an RPG you're always roleplaying. It's just a matter of what YOU want to get out of your experience in the world in which your character resides. Just like in real life though there are always people who have a different goal or a different vision of enjoyment.
PS
Some games wheres i found RP to be the easiest and most readily available
LOTRO, SWG (pre CU mostly but it's still fairly decent), Eq2, Vanguard, EVE (since you can talk normal use everyday language and still be in character no matter what lol), COX (oddly enough)
Oh and sorry for the wall of text. BTW the wall of text hits you make a Fortitude saving throw against boredom DC18
I find it strange that people who play MMORPG's dont actually role play. I always tought the very idea of an MMORPG was to try and recreate pen & paper RP. I've played alot of MMO's and what has seemed to have happend with the RP side of these games is that they have become an optional part of the game. Take WOW for example. Here there are plenty of 'normal' servers to choose from. To me, 'normal' for a MMORPG sould automatically mean that you should be role playing your character. However, that is not the case. So you can also pick 'RPPVP' servers in WOW, but many players say that the RP part of that is entirely optional. I disagree, simply becuase there are also just 'PVP' servers to choose from too. However, there are no servers that are just 'RP'. I have to laugh at that decision.
The entire reason for the genre existing has now taken a 'back seat' in these games. If you are a dedicated role player, like me, you find yourself having to look for specific RP guilds within these games since RP has become entirely optional. And for those of us who say to ourselves that we are just going to 'stay in character no matter what' you find yourself a victim of what one poster said, RP bashing. I've tried to stay in character and have had other players run up to me and my fellow RPers and start talking 'l337 speak' and trying to bring to our attention that we are playing a video game. Dont you think we didn't already know that?! Or when you see absolute 'immersion killers', things like another player with some real world reference name/non rp name on a RP server, a person whose guild is called 'I like grannies because their moist' on a RP server, or people dancing ontop of lamp posts in the middle of a town on a RP server. Why didnt these people have the decent manners to say to themselves 'im not going to rp, so i wont play on a rp server'?! Thats what bugs me. People like to ruin other peoples fun, thats a fact.
Anyway, if you choose to play a game where you go to the trouble to create a character in a fantasy world where the world has some lore for it, and its an mmoRPG, then you should be role playing that character all the time when your playing. Do i blame the companies who made these games for not enforcing RP? Yes i do & no i dont. Yes, these companies should at the very least provide 1 dedicated RP server where there are very strict rules, which are actually enforced, to allow for the RPG side of MMO's to take place more readily. No i dont blame the companies for people not actually role playing on non-RP servers simply because players should also have the option not to RP. Both choices should be catered for. However, in my opinion the server balance in most MMORPG's today is completely wrong anyway. RP should be the 'norm' and non-RP the 'exception'. The majority of servers should be mandatory RP with enforced rules with only a small few servers being 'non-RP' servers. Afterall, this genre of game is mmoRPG!
I agree with you totally, unfortunately that's the way the market has driven MMO's nowadays...
<modedit>
I cant understand who wouldent wanna roleplay? If you name your character something other then your real name......you have begun the rp.
And then its about how much of your self you can let go of. Maybe thinking, what would my chatacter think about this, and not what you think.
I dont have much for those "Shakespear" fellas. But there is avatar playing, character playing and role playing. Big difference between them.
I find role playing to be pretty strange. It is just not my thing I guess. I just dont see how people can enjoy it. Even way back when I did P&P we were never in character. Yes we controlled their actions and had to speak for them but we never pretended to be them.
I have nothing against people that want to do it. If thats your thing more power to you. Just dont come walking up to me in a MMO and try to interact with me like that and we will be ok. I avoid your servers (if the game has any). I want nothing to do with it at all.
I believe this carries two connotations in computer games:
1) To act as if you were the character within the setting of that character.
2) To perform acts and feats not possible by a normal person.
For most Pen and Paper (P&P) RP gamers the former is as vital as the latter. Having the ability to cast a fireball spell came from training, or some birth mutation or whatnot...there is a story behind this fantastic ability, and a character with motives and fears and cares.
But in computer RPGs (CRPGs) there has been much more emphasis on the latter. Simply having the ability to cast a fireball spell was roleplay, it wasn't necessary to create a reason for this, though many games still did.
In my opinion, the latter is all it takes to be RP. I see no reason whatsoever to demand other players adhere to some dogma of character personification. Too many elitists masquerade their righteousness in the role play robe.
Hi I'm a warrior where's some damage to tank I'll protect you'll. look they're playing a role.
omg the goons suckzors so much they're the scourge of the interwebs. once again role playing.
die bloody rogue just die I'm calling my friends and getting revenge. opps you're role playing again.
I find it amazing that by 2020 first world countries will be competing to get immigrants.
No, RP has nothing to do with being 'elitist'.
I RP, it's just playing a role, simple. It doesn't have to have any relation to pnp or even video games, it just infers that one is in some way acting out the role or archetype of whatever they choose. And the funny thing is that everyone who plays a video game is RP'ing.. especially MMO(RP)G's. Just tell someone who doesn't game that for ten hours a day you are a warrior with epic gear leading raids through Kara, and a top ranked Gladiator...or whatever game you might be playing.. and see what they think you are doing. If you aren't playing a role, noone is. It's just funny to me that anyone who games heavily would even try to insult another for using a language in chat more suited to the story of the game. meh whatever
It never happened me in any other game. EvE makes you actually "be" what you're doing: miner, pirate, diplomat, trader, etc. It's kinda roleplaying without any apparent effort, it's maybe more about immersion than really role-acting but it works wonders. As you said it's hard not to be in-char XD
And at top of this you have real "efforted" roleplayers acting as minmatar freedom fighters, imperialist amarrians, blood raiders, etc
I wanted to vote but you forgot the option for 'Sometimes'.
RP is when I become my character. They each have their own personality, their own desires, pet peeves, friends, and quirks. Here is my SWG RP:
In SWG I had two sisters and a brother that I RP'd. The oldest was the big sister. Tough, ambitious, fiercely loyal to her friends with an occasional soft side. She left home at a young age against her parents wishes to join the Empire and fight the Rebel terrorist, which was really a deep subconscious desire to please her father, a retired Imperial Colonel. She was quick with a pistol, and a dead eye shot.
Her sister was artsy fartsy. A pascifist. If you gave her a gun she would probably scream because guns hurt people. She was an image designer and architect, and touchy feely. She thinks her sister needs to relax but she still loves her because she's family and family is what's important.
And their brother was the youngest. He was the impulsive and rebellious one in the family. He left home to join the Empire because ultimately he knew he would be a general, and crush the terrorist rebs under his imperial boot. Only he starts dating a rebel girl, refuses to break it off, and gets in a fight with his commanding officer. He also refuses to attack a rebel town where the girl lives, and finally gets booted out of the Imperial army. Only, now that he is no longer a storm trooper, the rebel girl no longer thinks he's hot and breaks up with him. Disallusioned, he pulls strings with his father and rejoins the Imperial Army. Now his desire to punish the Rebellion goes way beyond a job. Now it's personal.
LOL, that's it in a nutshell. RP'ing all three and only two people knew that those three people were the same person, even though we all lived in the same guild and city. So, everyday there was something to do to advance their characters, which became a kind of game of its own. Sandbox mmo. No quests, but always something to do.
no mate,im playing a game. if the game is about swords and magic, its ok.if the game is about terrorists vs counter terrorists is ok.if the game is about potatos vs tomatos, its ok. i never play the role of my char, i play an application, reach the endgame,and test my skills in PvP/Boss hunts.
but thats not Rping, get your facts straight. thats playing the game. period
{ Mod Edit }
like if you and aanother gladiator friend are Raiding some instance,then you cant just chat
"hey stu,wasap! how was the exam?" or "40 more minutes and we'r out to get drunk,ok?"
playing a MMORPG and RPing is not the same for the above reasons.
thats why the first is ok,while the second is plain stupid.
People that take the RP too far, .. sort of .. freak me out lol.
You know the person..
-Talks to an npc as if it were a living breathing person, complete with "hi" and "bye" and "how are you"....!!
-Talks in broken 15th century english..!!
-Uses emotes to explain themselves..like a mime =/..!!
-Adjusts the roleplay completely and talk to you differently when they switch toons..!!
-Talk to their bot..although it's just their own toon..aka they talk to themselves..!!
That REALLY freaks me out, sorry. lol.
But people RP'ing with everything they say and act. That totally freaks me out and I try to avoid them.
I don't disrespect them at all, it's way cool that they find that enjoying, more power to you. But it has freaked me out before, I found it strange sometimes, sorry.
I'm more freaked out by the people that treats the game like a "client" to get loot and stuff in. Especially those of them that also demand immersion in their game... How can a game be immersive, when they themselves are the major breakers of immersion?
If you don't want immersion from your game... Stay outta RP servers, and don't argue or cry when developers for games in developement asks if they should also have RP servers.
Most importantly... If you ain't a RP'er... stay outta RP servers..then you won't get freaked out. Even if you don't like the bad community on the regular servers, and prefer the more casual and friendly community on a RP server..stay out.. We get those servers so we don't have to freak ya out
I didn't really mean it that way. It can freak me out a bit because I have no clue when I see the person talking how he really is you know. It's really hard to get a sense of how they are really like.
I wouldn't mind if you RP'd, because you talk fluently and seem like a very normal person
.
It does depend on the person doing it.
I didn't really mean it that way. It can freak me out a bit because I have no clue when I see the person talking how he really is you know. It's really hard to get a sense of how they are really like.
I wouldn't mind if you RP'd, because you talk fluently and seem like a very normal person
.
It does depend on the person doing it.
It's the same as getting "freaked out" by actors, you just have to distinguish between the actor and the character he is acting as. Good roleplaying is, being perfectly honest, not just random roleplaying, but instead a character being placed against a backdrop and a storyline like a book or movie character.
No, RP has nothing to do with being 'elitist'.
No.
I am saying that too many elitists masquerade their righteousness as roleplaying.
I am not saying all roleplayers are elitists. I am saying there are elitists who use roleplay to mask their righteousness.
Reading comprehension is key here.
Playing the game is not testing skills, it's merely playing a game. Roleplaying is testing more skills on it's own, through subjective thought processes and the need to quickly INVENT things your character would think or feel.
<modedit>
No, RP has nothing to do with being 'elitist'.
No.
I am saying that too many elitists masquerade their righteousness as roleplaying.
I am not saying all roleplayers are elitists. I am saying there are elitists who use roleplay to mask their righteousness.
Reading comprehension is key here.
Ok. Well in that case, let me also make my counter-point clearer. There are also too many non-RP elitists in MMORPG's today. Like your point, i am not saying that all non-rpers are 'elitists', but that there are too many that are.
RP'ing is like acting. If people get freaked out by rp'ers makes me wonder how they cope with real life.
Some people's imagination/creativity IQ is very low. They are more analytical and goal oriented. Others are more creative, and some are a blend of both. That is how humanity is, different people like different things. If this freaks you out, live in a box and never come out, because for you life will be scary and wierd and freaky.
Not everyone RP's the same. Some people are quiet and cumbersome while others are more theatrical and sometimes annoying. I have friends that role play and we game together but I don't get into it and start speaking like someone from the Old Testament.
"I'm not a racist...I only hate stupid people..."-SinisterCB
Tuor plops down on the stool next to Liquidvision. He gestures to the bartender for a beer then says to Liquidvision, So, I hear you want to know about RP. He smiles to the bartender and exchanges some coins for the beer, then turns back to Liquidvision, Well, I know a little something about that.
Tuor takes a gulp of beer, then turns on his stool to face Liquidvision, RP is about using your imagination. You imagine youre someone, in some particular place, in some particular circumstance. You then act in a manner appropriate for that person in that place under those circumstances. Thats it in a nutshell.
Sighing, Tuor swirls the beer slowly around in his mug, careful not to let it spill out. But I dont do that on MMOs. Seems silly, really. Oh, sure, I maintain the façade. I dont run around trying to ruin things for other people. But, honestly, I regard what people call RP on MMOs with scorn almost with contempt. He smiles faintly, Ill explain.
MMOs, or Graphical MUDs, as I sometimes call them, are not suited to quality RP. For really good RP, you need a text-based environment (like a MUSH). Why? Because the graphics mess up the RP. MMOs are to text-based games the way TV is to books. When you read a book, the author is limited only by what he can imagine and express. An author imagines something and writes it down; if he is good, you will get a pretty good idea of what hes trying to convey. Imagination is the only limiting factor. But TV is different. You can SEE what is happening on TV. You dont have to imagine what anyone looks like because they are there on the screen. You dont have to imagine what any place looks like because the set is there. You dont have to imagine what people sound like because you can hear them. TV makes your imagination lazy because it does everything for you. You just have to absorb it.
Tuor takes a healthy swig from his mug, runs his hand over his mouth, then gestures to the bar and tables around him, You can imagine anything sitting around here. Gunslingers, swordsmen, sorcerers, spacemen, aliens, animals, weird geometric shapes that like tequila. Whatever. But the Cantina in Star Wars you saw what Lucas wanted you to see. No need to interpret. And he was limited in what he could show by his ability to construct/hire/decorate the creatures he wanted. You following me? he asks. MMOs are limited. You cant play out a scene about fighting a bunch of MOBs because the game fights them in real time. You see the mobs and then you see them dead. There is no imagination really going on. What RP there is is essentially lobotomized. It seems shallow to me, and out-of-place in that sort of environment. Too constricted by mechanics and graphics. So, yeah, I mostly ignore it.
Tuor drains his mug and sets it on the bar with a soft thunk, Times have moved on. No one cares about text-based games anymore. The days of intense, quality RP are gone at least On-line. There is still some of it in pen-and-paper games, but Im usually too self-conscious to get very into that. Kinda sad, really. I was pretty good at it back in the day, but things change and I guess I have, too. Evening to you.
Tuor gets up, nods to Liquidvision, and threads his way through the tables, avoiding paws, claws, and other appendages as he makes his way to the door. He waves good-bye without looking back, then heads on out into the night.