just look at most MMOs end game all there is to do is RAID or PVP endlessly (this is what hell should be) shouldnt a veteran be a a priest managing a church? or a warrior that is a lord of a castle or a wise wizard? or the ruler of a band of thieves? think to yourself, when your charactor maxes out, ask yourself, did my charactor make a difference in this world? is the world fundementally the same as when you arived? the painful answer is yes. make a world, not a game, we dont want another game.
I think you've really hit the nail on the head here.
And I think these words:
"make a world, not a game, we dont want another game"
should be branded onto the forehead of every MMORPG developer until one company finally gets it right. Then they can go back to making new WoW clones /spits in disgust
I agree with both of you. Heres the thing though: For this to happen the way mmorpgs are made needs to change dramatically. They need to stop basing the whole game around leveling. It should be an afterthought, a perk if you will.. not the main focus..
if you go back up to what brenth first said... priests should be taking care of the church... thieves should be at the thieves guild... etc... and i agree (not all the time, but you get what i mean...)... the game developers need to make props for the players to RP.... that is the key. What they are doing nowaways are making things too linear... ok... you want to make a big boss for people to fight? OK THATS FINE... let me repeat myself.. FINE... but dont lead us to it... make that big boss send things to our player cities and provoke us to kill him or go to his lair... THAT is true rp conent...
im not asking for a hardcore game here.. im asking for a total change in dev thinking and design... give us the props and make levels or skill bars a perk.... otherwise... people will keep doing the same thing... and race each other to the max level.
Remember... its not the end of the story that counts... its the adventure to that end... and beyond...
"Do not fret! Your captain is about to enter Valhalla!" - General Beatrix of Alexandria
"The acquisition of knowledge is of use to the intellect, for nothing can be loved or hated without first being known." - Leo da Vinci
I miss RPGs. I guess it goes to the fact that I started out with PnP D&D back before there was an AD&D.
Same for me. RPing was a must as I had a hardcore DM. (He would roll spot checks if you whispered questions across the table saying that local encounters might hear.)
Since I joined MMOs, long ago I've RP'd some and avoided Rp in others. Depended on the group I was with and the mood I was in. In some cases I would RP in general and whisper in 'normal' conversation.
One thing which was mentioned in the article was the idea of killing mobs which respawned taking away from the 'end' result because there was no real impact on the game 'world'. That's just silly. If that is the type of world you need to play in, go get a copy of NWN or NWN2 and roleplay with the NPCs. MMOs have to be dynamic and refresh themselves to be a persistent world 'for the next guy'.
I'm not fond of 'forced' questing driving a game but if it isn't overdone then so be it. Allow temporary insanity or a spell to overcome you to kill those gobbos and move on. The end result is enjoyment on the part of the player in RL and not the saving of a world. If you allow some forced directionality in a game and look at as a 'small investment on a larger return' then your RL end result is much greater.
When folks go out to do a quest, what do they expect? Gold, XP and maybe a bauble from the 'quest giver' to say nothing of the random junk dropped in the process of killing/exploring. If you really want to get 'real' with RP, you shouldn't ever collect XP from a quest end reward. Why? If you were a novice swordsperson or spellcaster, you gain XP by doing the right thing to kill critters. You learn by making mistakes, figuring what does work and doing all of that while not getting 'dead'. That is your experience. A quest giver shouldn't be ale to make you more experienced just from returning. Once you get to the quest giver, you are DONE. Get some gold and a shiny trinket or two and head to the tavern (or milk barns for the underaged). I am sure 'hardcore' roleplayers don't bemoan end quest XP which shouldn't be possible to gain. If you can't justify killing a 'mob' because you don't feel it fits your RP persona, don't ever collect end XP rewards (and ESPECIALLY don't be happy about it!)
(Okay. Giving the benefit of the doubt might suggest that the quest giver could theoretically offer 'pointers' or give some stirring speech which lifts the hearts of the wanna-be adventurers thereby enriching their lives forever more but you have to MAKE that RP happen in your head.)
You'll be able to find problems with EVERYTHING (I know because I have). Instead, try having fun folks. If you can't, move on and find a new hobby.
I roleplayed my first few weeks in a MMO (Anarchy Online) before coming to the same realization; that everyone in my guild and around me spent their hours hunting stats. Now I do the same.
So based on a personal frame of reference I'd say there might be more widespread roleplaying in roleplaying games if there weren't for the fact that new people get disillusioned by veteran players' xp-craze.
I was never a roleplayer, never played PnP games or single player RPGs like Baldur's Gate or even Final Fantasy. I came from consoles and action adventure games, started playing MMORPGs because I liked the idea of playing online with a bunch of people in a persistant world.
Even though I am not much of the actor type for roleplay, I do like more emersive worlds. LOLspeak and rediculess names do tend to break that emersion. I also do not not like having to chase after gear and XP, I would prefer more freedom to create my own character the way I want it, not being forced to wear particular gear or stay within a class, character creation and customization is one of my favorite parts.
If there were name restrictions and maybe a programm that translates internet lingo into real words, ur --> your, that would help a bit. More character customization, visual and skill wise would too.
But you can't really make a RPG though, it is a style of play not a genre, levels, classes, XP, and character developement does not a RPG make, you could potentially roleplay in any genre of game, I did a couple times in Gary's Mod. You just need a world that is enticing and has enough tools. Guess what people call RPGs would really be some kind of adventure simluation game, ASG :P
Don't you worry little buddy. You're dealing with a man of honor. However, honor requires a higher percentage of profit
Whenever you get a group of pen and paper guys together, you will have a sentence begin with "this one time..."
Like, this one time, I played a time bending mutant who was powered by alcohol. When the super hero group I was with failed to prevent World War III, I went on a bender that turned back time a week, giving us a second chance.
Or, this one time my party was captured and thrown down into this maze as a sacrifice to some monster. We had nothing on us but loincloths. The ranger made an improvised blackjack by taking off his loin cloth and filling it with sand. The halfling rogue took it a step further and made a sling from his, although it could only throw very small rocks.
The point is, no matter your definition of RP, we all do it for the same reason, to be a part of a unique and interesting story. We lose several hours to geekily crafting our character concept, back stories, mannerisms, etc. because these things will have an affect on the game. They advance the plot and make our gaming experiences uniquely ours.
What's the point of being a drunken super hero if every other time bending freak's powers work the same way? What's the point of being a surly dwarf with poor hygiene if it doesn't affect how you interact with NPCs? Why try to make ourselves unique when we're all going to be herded through the same dungeons, for the same loot, and get the same conclusion when we finish a quest?
Unfortunately, I don't think there's a way around this in MMOs. The problem with creating a user based or unique story is that it will exclude some players. Let's face it, if we really are going to play mighty wizards or cool spaceship pilots, some people will have to be not so mighty and significantly less cool. If, all of a sudden, everyone in the world is special, guess what? Being special stops being special.
If your gaming experience is uniquely yours, it also means that it's not anyone else's.
No game company is going to develop a game that will lead to the exclusion of its customer base as time goes on. Everyone wants the chance to save the day and everyone wants a piece of the big boss. That's what I'm paying to get, isn't it? And ultimately, that destroys the ability to RP. The story's the same, only the names have changed.
No point in sitting in the tavern and sharing my dungeon crawling experiences, because the guy next to me has already been there, done that, and got the chest armor.
Roleplayers should love a game like Darkfall (when it comes out) They (the Dev's) are shotting for a fully open world, which would allow for great RP chances.
I would not count on it, open world or not.
Most people do not play MMORPG to RP, they play it for the hack-n-slash. Diablo is a great example of distilling out what is important to gamers ... kill monster in fun ways and get cool loot to power up.
At the end of the day, MMORPGs are just games. Playing another persona takes too much work. It is much easier just to be yourself, make some friends and go kill some ogres.
Hun? Did you even read this thread at all?
This thread is about RP in MMORPG. I stated that Darkfall might be good for people that want an open world to RP in which is what the people on this thread want. They want to make the choices vs the game making the choices. Maybe I am wrong.
I read the thread. The thread is *about* RP and you are talking about Darkfall may be good for RP. I am saying don't count on it. There will be plenty of players on Darkfall (if it ever got released) that have no interests to RP.
A game that is conducive to RP does not automatically result in a large amount of it. You need the players to actually act out .. and i am saying most won't.
Roleplaying is about choices and consequences. Any choice where you have to pretend there is a consequence is not roleplaying.
Leveling / Classes, at least the current standard, is not roleplaying. There's no choice. You level and get the same exact stats and same exact spells as everyone else. There's no consequence. You don't like the fact your dwarf trained as a fighter / mage for years upon years? No problem, we'll just wipe his memory and give him a new one!
Quests, at least the current standard, is not roleplaying. There's no choice. Well, that's not completely fair, you do have the choice to attempt the quest at a later time. What is fair is that you have very little choice in how to complete quests. Most of the time you simply wade through hundreds of enemies. Very few times can you sneak through. There's no consequence. This one is obvious.
Raids. Certainly not roleplaying from when I raided in WoW. Inevitably the encounters came down to one or two strategies that worked, hence no choices, or very minor ones at best. Consequences? We did the same raid every week, there was no consequence, the world never changed.
I know many (MANY!!!) will disagree, but I think MMOs should revolve around player interaction over NPC interaction. Instead of designing a world to respond to players, just give the players the necessary tools to respond to each other. Say someone wants to make his own castle, he can! And someone else wants to siege a castle, guess who just built one?! Amazing how that worked out.
After reading all these, two things jumped out at me ...
1) There are technological barriers to RPing in MMOs. These ranges from lack of enforcement, to the need to give all the content to everyone.
2) This is the most important point. Most players want hack-n-slash games with leveling & cool loot. Very few people want real RPing.
Combining (1) & (2), the market will not support a big effort to get RPing into MMOs. Your best bets are small games or even just MUDs. I really don't see RPing to take hold in any major MMOs. At the most, you may be able to get one server with a lot of RPers and have them self-police. However, unless the company would give power to exclude players to the community, you cannot prevent all the non-RPers from the world. And the problem of RPing is that you need everyone to do it. Otherwise, you may as well forget about it.
You need to look at the extremes. Too much World Simulator without Game can be bad (second job). Too much Game and little World Building is preditctable and makes your world the same as everyone elses MMO(non-unique).
SWG was incomplete at launch. It carried its IP with all that was expected to be seen but not experianced. I know players that quit in Pre-CU because it was too much of a second job and had little content in the form of Instance quests and other Directed game play.
The community grew from its dedicated players that were happy with existing content and always hopeing the next publish would bring a (positive) more. They liked that experiance but the game never grew beyond the select group of dedicated. Thats the point someone(SOE/LA) decided SWG needed more Game. This is the point of the CU and the NGE. WOW had 5 million subs with its semi-popular IP and SWG only got up to maybe 275k subs with its very popular IP.
Whatever the format of the MMO, World Sim roleplay heaven or Game Slagger paradise, make it complete, make it high quality and make it fun within its decided form. Don't rush it to publish because you want to cross promote your product with the coming of another big IP event (movie premiere). MMO's are self contained organisims that should be allowed to grow and develop at thier own pace to be a stable Cash Cow. They are not the new "box on the shelf" that is quickly forgotten a few weeks after launch.
What does this have to do with Role Play? First and formost, these are products for profit and thats how the companies see them. Is RP in a game a boon or hinderance to maximum customer coverage and what is the easiest way to cover its use?
RP is a personal experiance that you can't really price and put in a box. You can only provide a stage.
Roleplaying is about choices and consequences. Any choice where you have to pretend there is a consequence is not roleplaying. Leveling / Classes, at least the current standard, is not roleplaying. There's no choice. You level and get the same exact stats and same exact spells as everyone else. There's no consequence. You don't like the fact your dwarf trained as a fighter / mage for years upon years? No problem, we'll just wipe his memory and give him a new one! Quests, at least the current standard, is not roleplaying. There's no choice. Well, that's not completely fair, you do have the choice to attempt the quest at a later time. What is fair is that you have very little choice in how to complete quests. Most of the time you simply wade through hundreds of enemies. Very few times can you sneak through. There's no consequence. This one is obvious. Raids. Certainly not roleplaying from when I raided in WoW. Inevitably the encounters came down to one or two strategies that worked, hence no choices, or very minor ones at best. Consequences? We did the same raid every week, there was no consequence, the world never changed. I know many (MANY!!!) will disagree, but I think MMOs should revolve around player interaction over NPC interaction. Instead of designing a world to respond to players, just give the players the necessary tools to respond to each other. Say someone wants to make his own castle, he can! And someone else wants to siege a castle, guess who just built one?! Amazing how that worked out.
I agree with this. There are many elements existing in MMOs that are not RP. Personally I don't really RP, or I do it lightly (since it is an extension of my own personality), but I do like to see others RP. I remember in SWG (Pre-CU time). One night, I just logged on and was just walking around. I head to Theed's Cantina on Sunrunner server, and there were a few who were RPing. I sat down on the chair, and I stayed there for 30+ minutes just reading the text of their RP story. Very very interesting and I was amazed by the creativities of the players.
When MMORPG focus on being a world instead of a game, we will see much better systems being made for RP'ers and with the combination of the elements existing now and these better systems the MMORPG would truly fit its namesake - Role-Playing Games.
One aspect of anti-RolePlay which I don't see addressed is the the age factor. The younger gamers who form a large swath of the population in any current game are not going to roleplay if it has the slightest hint of being not "cool." The first person to openly mock RP will turn nearly everyone under the age of 20 off of it... and that always happens.
There are a lot of folks out there who love roleplaying in a game, but it's like going to a party in a humorous costume and finding out it's not a costume party...
Thus far, the only way to encourage "in character" play is live-GM interaction. Having to actually "speak" with the game, instead of making a menu choice, allows and encourages roleplay, which would end up spilling over into non-event situations for many players.
Also, this is where we get different types of people who play MMO's. The people that have been here a long time and know what MMO's were meant to be like, and then theres the people who have just recently started and think that how MMO's are now is how they were meant to be. And the more the "old timers" leave and the "new comers" come the harder it'll be for companies to make money if they try to make their game like they were before.
------------------------------ atsdf.com Among The Shadows Darkfall Clan
It seems in most discussions on this topic, people tend to focus on the fact that the majority of players aren't into RP, or are even against it. This is just confusing the real issue, which is the fundamental flaw of having actor's without a plot or believable stage. Congratulations to the devotees that make due, but without a living, breathing world with consequences, there's just no incentive for most of us.
Comments
I think you've really hit the nail on the head here.
And I think these words:
"make a world, not a game, we dont want another game"
should be branded onto the forehead of every MMORPG developer until one company finally gets it right. Then they can go back to making new WoW clones /spits in disgust
I agree with both of you. Heres the thing though: For this to happen the way mmorpgs are made needs to change dramatically. They need to stop basing the whole game around leveling. It should be an afterthought, a perk if you will.. not the main focus..
if you go back up to what brenth first said... priests should be taking care of the church... thieves should be at the thieves guild... etc... and i agree (not all the time, but you get what i mean...)... the game developers need to make props for the players to RP.... that is the key. What they are doing nowaways are making things too linear... ok... you want to make a big boss for people to fight? OK THATS FINE... let me repeat myself.. FINE... but dont lead us to it... make that big boss send things to our player cities and provoke us to kill him or go to his lair... THAT is true rp conent...
im not asking for a hardcore game here.. im asking for a total change in dev thinking and design... give us the props and make levels or skill bars a perk.... otherwise... people will keep doing the same thing... and race each other to the max level.
Remember... its not the end of the story that counts... its the adventure to that end... and beyond...
"Do not fret! Your captain is about to enter Valhalla!" - General Beatrix of Alexandria
"The acquisition of knowledge is of use to the intellect, for nothing can be loved or hated without first being known." - Leo da Vinci
Same for me. RPing was a must as I had a hardcore DM. (He would roll spot checks if you whispered questions across the table saying that local encounters might hear.)
Since I joined MMOs, long ago I've RP'd some and avoided Rp in others. Depended on the group I was with and the mood I was in. In some cases I would RP in general and whisper in 'normal' conversation.
One thing which was mentioned in the article was the idea of killing mobs which respawned taking away from the 'end' result because there was no real impact on the game 'world'. That's just silly. If that is the type of world you need to play in, go get a copy of NWN or NWN2 and roleplay with the NPCs. MMOs have to be dynamic and refresh themselves to be a persistent world 'for the next guy'.
I'm not fond of 'forced' questing driving a game but if it isn't overdone then so be it. Allow temporary insanity or a spell to overcome you to kill those gobbos and move on. The end result is enjoyment on the part of the player in RL and not the saving of a world. If you allow some forced directionality in a game and look at as a 'small investment on a larger return' then your RL end result is much greater.
When folks go out to do a quest, what do they expect? Gold, XP and maybe a bauble from the 'quest giver' to say nothing of the random junk dropped in the process of killing/exploring. If you really want to get 'real' with RP, you shouldn't ever collect XP from a quest end reward. Why? If you were a novice swordsperson or spellcaster, you gain XP by doing the right thing to kill critters. You learn by making mistakes, figuring what does work and doing all of that while not getting 'dead'. That is your experience. A quest giver shouldn't be ale to make you more experienced just from returning. Once you get to the quest giver, you are DONE. Get some gold and a shiny trinket or two and head to the tavern (or milk barns for the underaged). I am sure 'hardcore' roleplayers don't bemoan end quest XP which shouldn't be possible to gain. If you can't justify killing a 'mob' because you don't feel it fits your RP persona, don't ever collect end XP rewards (and ESPECIALLY don't be happy about it!)
(Okay. Giving the benefit of the doubt might suggest that the quest giver could theoretically offer 'pointers' or give some stirring speech which lifts the hearts of the wanna-be adventurers thereby enriching their lives forever more but you have to MAKE that RP happen in your head.)
You'll be able to find problems with EVERYTHING (I know because I have). Instead, try having fun folks. If you can't, move on and find a new hobby.
I roleplayed my first few weeks in a MMO (Anarchy Online) before coming to the same realization; that everyone in my guild and around me spent their hours hunting stats. Now I do the same.
So based on a personal frame of reference I'd say there might be more widespread roleplaying in roleplaying games if there weren't for the fact that new people get disillusioned by veteran players' xp-craze.
I was never a roleplayer, never played PnP games or single player RPGs like Baldur's Gate or even Final Fantasy. I came from consoles and action adventure games, started playing MMORPGs because I liked the idea of playing online with a bunch of people in a persistant world.
Even though I am not much of the actor type for roleplay, I do like more emersive worlds. LOLspeak and rediculess names do tend to break that emersion. I also do not not like having to chase after gear and XP, I would prefer more freedom to create my own character the way I want it, not being forced to wear particular gear or stay within a class, character creation and customization is one of my favorite parts.
If there were name restrictions and maybe a programm that translates internet lingo into real words, ur --> your, that would help a bit. More character customization, visual and skill wise would too.
But you can't really make a RPG though, it is a style of play not a genre, levels, classes, XP, and character developement does not a RPG make, you could potentially roleplay in any genre of game, I did a couple times in Gary's Mod. You just need a world that is enticing and has enough tools. Guess what people call RPGs would really be some kind of adventure simluation game, ASG :P
Don't you worry little buddy. You're dealing with a man of honor. However, honor requires a higher percentage of profit
Whenever you get a group of pen and paper guys together, you will have a sentence begin with "this one time..."
Like, this one time, I played a time bending mutant who was powered by alcohol. When the super hero group I was with failed to prevent World War III, I went on a bender that turned back time a week, giving us a second chance.
Or, this one time my party was captured and thrown down into this maze as a sacrifice to some monster. We had nothing on us but loincloths. The ranger made an improvised blackjack by taking off his loin cloth and filling it with sand. The halfling rogue took it a step further and made a sling from his, although it could only throw very small rocks.
The point is, no matter your definition of RP, we all do it for the same reason, to be a part of a unique and interesting story. We lose several hours to geekily crafting our character concept, back stories, mannerisms, etc. because these things will have an affect on the game. They advance the plot and make our gaming experiences uniquely ours.
What's the point of being a drunken super hero if every other time bending freak's powers work the same way? What's the point of being a surly dwarf with poor hygiene if it doesn't affect how you interact with NPCs? Why try to make ourselves unique when we're all going to be herded through the same dungeons, for the same loot, and get the same conclusion when we finish a quest?
Unfortunately, I don't think there's a way around this in MMOs. The problem with creating a user based or unique story is that it will exclude some players. Let's face it, if we really are going to play mighty wizards or cool spaceship pilots, some people will have to be not so mighty and significantly less cool. If, all of a sudden, everyone in the world is special, guess what? Being special stops being special.
If your gaming experience is uniquely yours, it also means that it's not anyone else's.
No game company is going to develop a game that will lead to the exclusion of its customer base as time goes on. Everyone wants the chance to save the day and everyone wants a piece of the big boss. That's what I'm paying to get, isn't it? And ultimately, that destroys the ability to RP. The story's the same, only the names have changed.
No point in sitting in the tavern and sharing my dungeon crawling experiences, because the guy next to me has already been there, done that, and got the chest armor.
I would not count on it, open world or not.
Most people do not play MMORPG to RP, they play it for the hack-n-slash. Diablo is a great example of distilling out what is important to gamers ... kill monster in fun ways and get cool loot to power up.
At the end of the day, MMORPGs are just games. Playing another persona takes too much work. It is much easier just to be yourself, make some friends and go kill some ogres.
Hun? Did you even read this thread at all?
This thread is about RP in MMORPG. I stated that Darkfall might be good for people that want an open world to RP in which is what the people on this thread want. They want to make the choices vs the game making the choices. Maybe I am wrong.
I read the thread. The thread is *about* RP and you are talking about Darkfall may be good for RP. I am saying don't count on it. There will be plenty of players on Darkfall (if it ever got released) that have no interests to RP.
A game that is conducive to RP does not automatically result in a large amount of it. You need the players to actually act out .. and i am saying most won't.
Roleplaying is about choices and consequences. Any choice where you have to pretend there is a consequence is not roleplaying.
Leveling / Classes, at least the current standard, is not roleplaying. There's no choice. You level and get the same exact stats and same exact spells as everyone else. There's no consequence. You don't like the fact your dwarf trained as a fighter / mage for years upon years? No problem, we'll just wipe his memory and give him a new one!
Quests, at least the current standard, is not roleplaying. There's no choice. Well, that's not completely fair, you do have the choice to attempt the quest at a later time. What is fair is that you have very little choice in how to complete quests. Most of the time you simply wade through hundreds of enemies. Very few times can you sneak through. There's no consequence. This one is obvious.
Raids. Certainly not roleplaying from when I raided in WoW. Inevitably the encounters came down to one or two strategies that worked, hence no choices, or very minor ones at best. Consequences? We did the same raid every week, there was no consequence, the world never changed.
I know many (MANY!!!) will disagree, but I think MMOs should revolve around player interaction over NPC interaction. Instead of designing a world to respond to players, just give the players the necessary tools to respond to each other. Say someone wants to make his own castle, he can! And someone else wants to siege a castle, guess who just built one?! Amazing how that worked out.
After reading all these, two things jumped out at me ...
1) There are technological barriers to RPing in MMOs. These ranges from lack of enforcement, to the need to give all the content to everyone.
2) This is the most important point. Most players want hack-n-slash games with leveling & cool loot. Very few people want real RPing.
Combining (1) & (2), the market will not support a big effort to get RPing into MMOs. Your best bets are small games or even just MUDs. I really don't see RPing to take hold in any major MMOs. At the most, you may be able to get one server with a lot of RPers and have them self-police. However, unless the company would give power to exclude players to the community, you cannot prevent all the non-RPers from the world. And the problem of RPing is that you need everyone to do it. Otherwise, you may as well forget about it.
Heh, I see a few SWG vets, interesting.
You need to look at the extremes. Too much World Simulator without Game can be bad (second job). Too much Game and little World Building is preditctable and makes your world the same as everyone elses MMO(non-unique).
SWG was incomplete at launch. It carried its IP with all that was expected to be seen but not experianced. I know players that quit in Pre-CU because it was too much of a second job and had little content in the form of Instance quests and other Directed game play.
The community grew from its dedicated players that were happy with existing content and always hopeing the next publish would bring a (positive) more. They liked that experiance but the game never grew beyond the select group of dedicated. Thats the point someone(SOE/LA) decided SWG needed more Game. This is the point of the CU and the NGE. WOW had 5 million subs with its semi-popular IP and SWG only got up to maybe 275k subs with its very popular IP.
Whatever the format of the MMO, World Sim roleplay heaven or Game Slagger paradise, make it complete, make it high quality and make it fun within its decided form. Don't rush it to publish because you want to cross promote your product with the coming of another big IP event (movie premiere). MMO's are self contained organisims that should be allowed to grow and develop at thier own pace to be a stable Cash Cow. They are not the new "box on the shelf" that is quickly forgotten a few weeks after launch.
What does this have to do with Role Play? First and formost, these are products for profit and thats how the companies see them. Is RP in a game a boon or hinderance to maximum customer coverage and what is the easiest way to cover its use?
RP is a personal experiance that you can't really price and put in a box. You can only provide a stage.
When MMORPG focus on being a world instead of a game, we will see much better systems being made for RP'ers and with the combination of the elements existing now and these better systems the MMORPG would truly fit its namesake - Role-Playing Games.
Current MMO: FFXIV:ARR
Past MMO: Way too many (P2P and F2P)
One aspect of anti-RolePlay which I don't see addressed is the the age factor. The younger gamers who form a large swath of the population in any current game are not going to roleplay if it has the slightest hint of being not "cool." The first person to openly mock RP will turn nearly everyone under the age of 20 off of it... and that always happens.
There are a lot of folks out there who love roleplaying in a game, but it's like going to a party in a humorous costume and finding out it's not a costume party...
Thus far, the only way to encourage "in character" play is live-GM interaction. Having to actually "speak" with the game, instead of making a menu choice, allows and encourages roleplay, which would end up spilling over into non-event situations for many players.
Doesn't everone just like those communites where its like a small town. Everyone knows eachother. MMO's just aren't like this anymore.
------------------------------
atsdf.com
Among The Shadows
Darkfall Clan
Also, this is where we get different types of people who play MMO's. The people that have been here a long time and know what MMO's were meant to be like, and then theres the people who have just recently started and think that how MMO's are now is how they were meant to be. And the more the "old timers" leave and the "new comers" come the harder it'll be for companies to make money if they try to make their game like they were before.
------------------------------
atsdf.com
Among The Shadows
Darkfall Clan
It seems in most discussions on this topic, people tend to focus on the fact that the majority of players aren't into RP, or are even against it. This is just confusing the real issue, which is the fundamental flaw of having actor's without a plot or believable stage. Congratulations to the devotees that make due, but without a living, breathing world with consequences, there's just no incentive for most of us.