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Why shouldn't we have a role-playing server?
Thornwolf
Member Posts: 107
How can you offer a role-play PVP server, but not a role-play server? RPPVP is an offshoot of RP. So it is a derivative, how can you have a derivative without the type it was based on? I know the developers say "we may add a RP server post launch" but how does this make sense? I mean if you look at people like me, I role-play and enjoy the role-playing community. I also enjoy achieving, exploring, crafting, and I dabble in PVP but it is my least favorite aspect of any game.
How does it make sense to give me a choice of PVP, normal, or RPPVP but no RP? I mean if you are adding it later, add it now so that your players who enjoy this time of server do not have to start over when you decide to implement the change later. If you are doing this as lip service it is a bad move, because it does not appease really it just adds to the frustration.
Just my opinion, but I am sure offering a server for role-players to play on would not kill FunCom and based on server populations in WoW RP servers draw plenty of active players. Why not just give role-players a place to call their own?
Comments
Because in the eyes of FC and the AoC rp community at large, it has been said if you really want to rp in the conan world, you need to have the danger element that an ffa server provides.
There has been numerous polls on the official forums asking the communitywhat kind of rp server they wanted, and the vote was a landslide towards rp-pvp. There are going to be pve servers and anyone can freely rp on them as well. I am sure there will be an unofficial rp pve server as well.
To add to this discussion and directly address your personal dilemma, my guild is going to play on an RP-PvP server and we have many members that share your disdain for pvp. We accomodate all playstyles and those of us that enjoy pvp will look out for those of us that do not, and that in itself adds to the entire element of RP in the game atmosphere.
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This leads to the community being scattered across a number of servers and therefore fails to do what the ultimate goal of a RP server is which is to allow you a greater chance to meet and interact with players of a like mind to yourself.
If I join an RPPVP server I am more inclined to meet people who want to PVP more than just play the game for PVE. Personally I think offering that choice is the way to go. Give people a greater chance to meet and interact with players of a like mindset. Making your customer happy is not a bad idea, and having people around you who play as you do only enhances your game experience.
Again never a bad thing.
I think the reason they only offer RP-PVP servers as opposed to just RP is that AoC is billed as a pvp game and thus they want to inject as much pvp in as many places as possible. I'm all for people getting what they want but I also think that in the end it's FunCom's game and they can do what they wish with it. It's not really my place to say what they should do. If I feel they do not offer what I am looking for I would just move on to the next best thing. However AoC promises to give me plenty of what I want and I plan to at the very least give it a shot.
No required quests! And if I decide I want to be an assassin-cartographer-dancer-pastry chef who lives only to stalk and kill interior decorators, then that's who I want to be, even if it takes me four years to max all the skills and everyone else thinks I'm freaking nuts. -Madimorga-
I thought Funcom people are players ? Everyone and his cousin knows the situation on RP servers. The idea to have a RP-PvP server for a Conan world is nice. But absolutely unworldly unless GMs are allowed to play King Conan in godmode 24/7 to enforce the rules. What will be servername ? griefstation101 ? Every hardcore psycho ffa killer will have an alt on the RP-PvP server and grief people whenever he feels bored on the ffa server or if someone owned him on the ffa server.
I agree that it is their game, and they can do with it what they wish. FunCom however has shown that of late they are willing to listen to the community, and I think that is the right way to go. We are paying their salary and we will be the ones that determine the ultimate success of the game financially speaking. So while they can do whatever they like, it certainly is advisable to listen to your customers.
Griefing is a major concern. You can call a server RP-PVP and people will role there thinking, wrongly in many cases role-players are not good pvpers. This is simply not true but they will go out of their way to grief role-players as they always do. Do not believe me? Log on to Argent Dawn any day there is a major server down in WoW all the non-rpers show up just to get kicks out of interfering with role-play.
Role-play PVP will boil down to just PVP in short order and in no way will facilitate or encourage PVP. I think it is a horrible decision.
As a role-player I would go to a non-official PVE server before EVER considering RP-PVP and frankly no matter what anyone is saying about polls, you are basing this off polling done on the Conan site many moons before the game has launched that’s not a true reflection of their customer base it is a small sample of people who go to the forums and follow the games well prior to launch. Definitely not everyone, or even the majority.
I can assure you that in my experience role-players will frequent normal servers more than PVP servers because it seems the two concepts are at odds all the time. Look at the threads here, people assume saying RP means care bear. It doesn’t, it is a style of game play and one that will suffer under a PVP rule-set in my opinion and experience.
Again to use WoW, as they are the big guy in the market right now. Have you been to a RP-PVP server? Give it a go and let me know if you see any role-playing going on. You won't, or if you do it is in pockets so small as to be impossible to locate.
Now on the normal RP servers role-playing has fallen off quite a bit from the time of launch, and there are reasons for this I will reserve for another post but they still exist and the rule set on the server makes it easier to participate in.
I am again not asking for PVP to be turned off. I am saying give role-players a fair shake at being surrounded by other role-players, the same way you are pvpers. Are role-players any less deserving of this? Increase my chances of playing with other role-players by making an official role-playing server and watch the population level. They tend to go through the roof.
Argent Dawn in WoW right now is offering free server transfers. Why? Extremely high population. Now it is the original east coast RP server so that contributes as well. As does its name I would imagine, but it does not change the fact that it is clearly viable and popular.
Why are you just saying no to it? It is a good way to turn customers away from your product, or to decrease the possibility of them staying when they can not find players of a like mindset.
Give us a regular RP server I say, so the RP-PvP server can act as bait for the unwashed barbarians.
And to the person above you, I'm not completely sure but I'm wondering if WoW had RP servers at launch or were they added later?
No required quests! And if I decide I want to be an assassin-cartographer-dancer-pastry chef who lives only to stalk and kill interior decorators, then that's who I want to be, even if it takes me four years to max all the skills and everyone else thinks I'm freaking nuts. -Madimorga-
I always thought PVP added to the RP, being the true roleplay, having the possibility to atack anyone if needed.
In WOW RPPVP servers attract PVP players not interested in RP, specially when the server is new, but in this case, if all the RP community go to a RPPVP server looks like it will work.
I've examined both sides of the issue here, have played both WoW RP and RPPvP servers, and many other RPing servers across 13 other MMORPGs.
The real question for Funcom is: Is our pvp centric game going to attract enough RPers to justify a RPing server? Since this game has been hyping the PvP battles and such, I would imagine creating a RPing server is not a wise monetary decision. I agree with the pros and cons already listed by everyone here, so I agree with having a RP server, however, I am also a reasonable person, so I would never expect and get mad at Funcom if buying another server just for RP isn't worth the cost and upkeep. I also agree with others that a plain RPing server is a contradictory to RP. RPing is immersing yourself in the game and playing as a person would act in that day and age in your designated profession, agree? Well then how can you call yourself a RPer if you aren't killing other people when you are a combative professional?
I am one of those hardcore RPers that prefer a FFA environment, because it MAXIMIZES the RP in the game. However, I have played on WoW RPPVP servers and have seen non rp pvpers come in to grief the RPers for shits and giggles. RP PvPers only kill other players when it is justified by RP, not for the hell of it. For that reason alone, I roll on a normal RP server in Wow and most games.
On the other hand, as another poster pointed out, if all the RPers are playing on the RPPvP server, there will be enough RPers to kick the griefers off. In my experience in MMORPGs, the community polices their own. If the community allows griefing and harrassment by not banding together to do something about it, it will overrun the game. Same thing applies to normal RPing servers. In WoW, a normal RPing server starts off strong and then eventually gets taken over by non-rpers, because the RPers don't band together to report those who violate the RPing rules. You compared RPing to RPPvPing servers in WoW. I actually have found no difference between several RPing servers and Emerald Dream (RP-PvP) when it comes to RP. On the other hand, Moonguard (RP) was different because the RPers banded together to report the non rpers. Not sure how strong the RP is still on that server, since I haven't been there in 8 months, but 6 months after server start, they were still going strong. Other RPing servers RP dropped off big time within a couple weeks.
So what is stopping the RPers from claiming that RP PvP server and banding together to keep it RP and to keep the griefers away? You know griefing works both ways right?
MMORPG's w/ Max level characters: DAoC, SWG, & WoW
Currently Playing: WAR
Preferred Playstyle: Roleplay/adventurous, in a sandbox game.
Indeed, outside of WoW with its huge number of subs, no game has enough online true RPers to fill one server, let alone multiple.
Sadly, there's plenty of people who "RP" the sociopath, psychopath, and ***hat to fill up many servers on most games. Not too many, but they vastly outnumber the online RPers by a lot. In Pencil and Paper RP, your actions mean everything. If you kill someone, they stay dead (hopefully
). In MMORPG's, killing someone merely irritates them. If the death penalty is high, it irritates them a lot, if the death penalty is low its only mild irritation (WoW like).
But a lot of people only play these games to CAUSE that irritation in others. They are the bane of the PvEer, the RPer, and the developer. They cause far more problems than they solve, they cost far more subscriptions than they bring in... its a sad, but true, statement about human nature, especially online internet anonymous human nature.
I think the more "serious" RPers could easily get by with a RPPvE server because they'd have to "RP" solutions to problems OTHER than killing (Like many MOO's and MUSH's I was involved in in the early 1990's) because the person you "kill" will be right back! Kinda breaks immersion there.
I always found it funny how these people (yeah, I said these people) talk about "true roleplay" and such. It's just funny how they want to dictate to others how/what roleplay is and yet if you try to apply a roleplay set that has an element they don't like, then oh my god, we can't have that. Rar Rar Rar.
Thorn, if you want the dev panel videos over at TTH you'll see a (imo distrubing) response by Gaute about how FC "views" RP. From his words, it seems RP equates to different fighting rulesets, and not the typical idea of what most gamers think when they hear RP server. Most of us think a ruleset like DAoC had on it's servers, where you had to "speak" in character in certain channels and there were naming conventions, etc.
Now, that's just what I got from the vids. Won't know until we actually see the RP "rules" that are applied. Additionally, the inclusion of RP PvE servers has not been totally ruled out. Athelan mentions it still a possibility in his dev blog on this site and some fan sites are still making FC aware that there is a substantial amount of gamers who play who are not PvP fanatics but still like to RP and would enjoy having a DAoC style ruleset.
Honestly, as it wouldn't hurt anyone who wanted to play on a RP PvP server if they included RP PvE servers, I don't see why some pro RP PvP people rail against having RP PvE servers. They won't have to play on them, it allows more choice and thus may attract more gamers. The only reason I can see is they are just mean-spirited.
"Many nights, my friend... Many nights I've put a blade to your throat while you were sleeping. Glad I never killed you, Steve. You're alright..."
Chavez y Chavez
I suggest all of you visit the following site if you think there isnt enough "rp" people to fill up a server-
http://www.aoc-rp.com/forum/index.php
I myself am not much of an rp'er at all, quite the contrary I am an avid pvp player. However, I will play on an rp-pvp server simply because the quality of opponent tends to be much better. I prefer to pvp against adults to can win or lose with grace and class. Im not alone either, I have my entire pvp clan from swg following suit.There are multiple clans for AoC committed to the rp-pvp server, and all ahve formed a pact agreeing to keep the griefing kids at bay and look out for each other.
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Heh, that website has 1000ish members. Definitely not enough to fill a server.
That said, there's plenty of sociopaths who want to RP the "bad guy" to fill a server. Many servers in fact.
OK! I get to be Arnold, you have to be Tracey Walter.
Plenty of sociopaths and griefer types only means there will be plenty of pvp and no shortage of fun.
Oh, there may be 1k members on that particualr site registered (im not even registered there), but I know at least 8 guilds with over 200 members each comitted to the server as well, so I dont think theres going to be a shortage on the rp-pvp server at all.
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Agree with Joe to an extent. Memberships like that, you are only seeing those gamers who like to hang out on message boards and such. there are many more less vocal/visible RPers (both who like and also dislike PvP) out there. They just prefer not to hang out on message boards and be called weirdos, noobs, carebears, etc, etc.
"Many nights, my friend... Many nights I've put a blade to your throat while you were sleeping. Glad I never killed you, Steve. You're alright..."
Chavez y Chavez
Plenty of sociopaths and griefer types only means there will be plenty of pvp and no shortage of fun.
A kamikaze wins always. You cant touch a griefer alt. The griefer doesnt care for his alt. Right in that moment you hunt him he has won. He is wasting your time -> griefing. Sad but true.However, i really hope this pact works out. I so do miss a real mature PvP server. Last time i played a PvP ruleset people didnt attack me for no reason. There where guilds on war, there where fights for rare stuff and sieges for outposts, but i was able to sit down and afk for 2 hours without dieing. I have good memories from that time and i really would like to play in a similar environment again. But most probably i ll roll on PvE at release.
Plenty of sociopaths and griefer types only means there will be plenty of pvp and no shortage of fun.
A kamikaze wins always. You cant touch a griefer alt. The griefer doesnt care for his alt. Right in that moment you hunt him he has won. He is wasting your time -> griefing. Sad but true.However, i really hope this pact works out. I so do miss a real mature PvP server. Last time i played a PvP ruleset people didnt attack me for no reason. There where guilds on war, there where fights for rare stuff and sieges for outposts, but i was able to sit down and afk for 2 hours without dieing. I have good memories from that time and i really would like to play in a similar environment again. But most probably i ll roll on PvE at release.
A kamikaze alt? Sounds like easy pvp ranking points for me, bring him on as well. I will enjoy decapitating thier worthless alts just the same.
]Alts or mains makes no difference to me, kill them all and let the cloner sort them out!
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I don't think we have a rp server because the game rules are the same as a normal server. I don't think they announced 3 servers just because of player preferences but rather each of these server types will have different game rules. Normal will likely not have world pvp or maybe will have a flag system. PvP will probably be world pvp. And RP-PvP will maybe be faction pvp or perhaps have some other unique systems.
So I think they are talking about different server rules not player preferences. A RP vs Normal server will have the same rules the only difference will be the player behaviors. As with most games I'm sure there will at least be an unofficial RP server. I hope they do make it formal cause I'm definitely interested in an RP server as I think the maturity levels on an RP server are usually better.
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Ethion
I will PVP in AOC, but I want to do so in character against others who are in character, and enjoy my time in game with other ole-players or at least those who
and granted there are several versions of what role-play is. For me as long as people remain true to their character and make some effort I will not judge them or run them down. I do not think it is so much to ask for a server where the FOCUS is Role-play. On A RP-PVP server the FOCUS is split and that bothers me.
Again you can't offer RP-PVP and not RP it doesn't even make sense to me.