The understanding is simple. Why do actors act in movies? Why do singers sing songs about made up events and people? Why do writers write about fantastic worlds that could never exist? Why do painters paint what they see in their minds? Why do people roleplay in games?
These people have the deep desire to create something greater or different than themselves, and express that creation. Roleplaying stems from that desire. Without that part of humanity that wishes to create, you would have no art, music, games, books, movies, etc.
'RP' is fine and alive. It makes its mark in all games to some extent. I find roleplaying every time I go into my preferred game.
Roleplaying is no more 'pointless' than 'leveling up' your character to max in any game, and it in fact more useful in real life. Roleplaying promotes good writing skills, creative thinking, and develops closer social ties, emotional bonds, and friendships than 'powergaming'. Roleplayers respect one another far more than gamers. It was not a roleplayer that invented the 'corpse hump' and its fellows in all other multiplayer games. What real life skills do you take home from being the guy who got to max level and was on the number one guild for raid kills? Nothing.
Nothing wrong with wanting to play that way. However, there is nothing wrong with wanting to roleplay either.
I changed my mind. PlaneShift is not worth the time.
Sorry to rain on your parade, but it will never die. It is just more clever than it used to be at hiding from the morons who attack it for fun. Those morons can go back to their useless lives, because they will never win.
I changed my mind. PlaneShift is not worth the time.
I think those morons are just very stupid people and they know it ! If someone just does not like to role-play, well that´s o.k. That´s just a different taste. But why should anyone want to ruin a game for others? Why do they care for role-players at all instead of just playing the game?
There is only one reason, I can think of - jealousy.
Those people are stupid and they think, role-players are more intelligent and more creative. I don´t think role-players really are more intelligent, but for those people RPers represent everything, they cannot be themselfs. To role-play one has to read books or at least reading books helps a lot in developing an RP-character. Those people are not able to concentrate on a book for even half an hour. They really have some shortcomings and they know it! They hate role-players for being everything, they can not be.
I've played a lot of MMO's, and so far, there have only been 2 that I found to really lend themselves to Role Playing.
As weird as this sounds, I found that The Matrix Online was just awesome to RP in. Something about it was just so cool and good. And when everyone is on the same page... it really works there. Maybe I found it interesting because I wasn't playing in a traditional Fantasy setting. I absolutely am tired of that genre to be honest.
Anyway, the only thing bad about this game's RP is that almost everyong is a Vampire (RP). I never understood how The Matrix was reduced to everyone being a Vampire. Granted, I was a Merolvengian, but still... I did luck out though, and found this cool guy to hang with who was disinterested in the rest of the schmoes there. We had a good time together, but I stopped playing because my trial ran out, and I was broke. Not to mention, the gameplay is a bit stale.
Then there is City of Heroes. I had a blast RPing in this game. But again, it isn't your traditional Fantasy setting.
Anyway, as I've become more aware of what is going on in the MMO industry, I've come to the conclusion that people are more interested in what they will be doing, and how it will be done, than they are about things like "What will my character mean to the game world?" I think it's a sad thing really because the key to a great game is caring about your character. I see a lot of these games now a days, and why these MMO's continue to fail.... it's because the game doesn't allow them to invest emotional attachment to their characters like they used to. You don't even see a place to put in your Character Biography anymore...
My dream, is to one day put the RP back into the MMO. But not in the traditional sense. I don't want to make the game like it used to be made, where the players make their own content, and the game just facilitates the locale. I want the game to facilitate the story too, and for the game to keep track of the story.
I want people to /examine another character and be able to read their in-game history - the choices they've made, the really important things they've done that characterizes their heritage, race, profession... Most importantly, I want it to be as unique as possible to every player in the game.
I want people to experience somethign in the game through their character that they would experience in a Single Player RPG. Two people may go through the same quest, and have two very different outcomes. The point isn't that one person did it right, and the other did it wrong. The point is they made their own story.
Originally posted by WRyan My dream, is to one day put the RP back into the MMO. But not in the traditional sense. I don't want to make the game like it used to be made, where the players make their own content, and the game just facilitates the locale. I want the game to facilitate the story too, and for the game to keep track of the story.
Why should players not create their own content? That´s why the older games where better suited for RP than the newer ones. A team of developers will never be able to offer as much content than 5000 creative players can. And it´s big big fun to be creative!
In the older games you had to be creative, but you also had the chance to be creative instead of just consuming what others did. I miss this aspect a lot nowadays. I´d like to have such a game, just with newer grafics.
My college roomate introduced me to UO in 1998. He was in a guild that was warred with several other guilds. They had strict rules regarding where and when one could engage in combat (ie no fighting in the Keg & Anchor which was a tavern in Trinsic). Also, it was not allowed to use ICQ during encounters with other guilds. UO had no world chat and they referred to ICQ messages as "pidgeons." They had many other such rules, and they used RP language exclusively. Although it was not my style, and I even teased him a bit admittedly, in hindsight I respect it. Also, it was obvious that the UO team did as well, which is something all games must do if they want that particular aspect of the community to survive. For instance, on Lake Superior, the server admins, or gms, allowed a player village to be established named Rivendell which had some housing violations and was given some unique content, in the form of fountains, stables, npcs, etc, by the gms. Also, one of the coolest RP guilds was an orc clan which was allowed to populate a totally unique orc fort that previously had monster spawn. They roleplayed murderers and outsiders, and you never saw one with a blue name, in a town, or speaking English. The orcs had their own language that members were required to learn. There was also a drow elf guild with its own language. I miss these types, even if I pk'ed them a bit.
Trammies need to stop polluting the MMORPG landscape. They already have enough games in which to emote hugs and sell garbage by the banks.
In my mind, role play isn't dying so much as the gaming community is expanding and diversifying. World of Warcraft helped to bring online gaming to the forefront of big-money in the entertainment industry, and with it our modest community has gained a surge of new players. While, certainly a majority of these players may not be sympathetic towards role playing, I would argue that the role play community has benefited and blossomed as much as the rest of the gaming industry as a result.
The MMO industry as a whole is in a major transitioning stage, evolving from a niche market to a full-fledged genre with budding niches of its own - one of which is role playing. As more people buy into the market, it is more likely that a game will be developed to target our particular audience.
As far as RP guilds go, there seems to be no shortage of fish in the pond, and these days they seem to come in all sorts of different colors and sizes. Try to find a home (mmorpg offers a guild search engine, or you can always consult the wisdom of google) that feels comfy enough to rest your rump in for a while, and I say, enjoy the role play that that community has to offer until a game happens by that you all can join in on together.
Comments
The understanding is simple. Why do actors act in movies? Why do singers sing songs about made up events and people? Why do writers write about fantastic worlds that could never exist? Why do painters paint what they see in their minds? Why do people roleplay in games?
These people have the deep desire to create something greater or different than themselves, and express that creation. Roleplaying stems from that desire. Without that part of humanity that wishes to create, you would have no art, music, games, books, movies, etc.
'RP' is fine and alive. It makes its mark in all games to some extent. I find roleplaying every time I go into my preferred game.
Roleplaying is no more 'pointless' than 'leveling up' your character to max in any game, and it in fact more useful in real life. Roleplaying promotes good writing skills, creative thinking, and develops closer social ties, emotional bonds, and friendships than 'powergaming'. Roleplayers respect one another far more than gamers. It was not a roleplayer that invented the 'corpse hump' and its fellows in all other multiplayer games. What real life skills do you take home from being the guy who got to max level and was on the number one guild for raid kills? Nothing.
Nothing wrong with wanting to play that way. However, there is nothing wrong with wanting to roleplay either.
I changed my mind. PlaneShift is not worth the time.
RP isn't dying in MMOs. Its dead and already rotted to dust.
Sorry to rain on your parade, but it will never die. It is just more clever than it used to be at hiding from the morons who attack it for fun. Those morons can go back to their useless lives, because they will never win.
I changed my mind. PlaneShift is not worth the time.
I think those morons are just very stupid people and they know it ! If someone just does not like to role-play, well that´s o.k. That´s just a different taste. But why should anyone want to ruin a game for others? Why do they care for role-players at all instead of just playing the game?
There is only one reason, I can think of - jealousy.
Those people are stupid and they think, role-players are more intelligent and more creative. I don´t think role-players really are more intelligent, but for those people RPers represent everything, they cannot be themselfs. To role-play one has to read books or at least reading books helps a lot in developing an RP-character. Those people are not able to concentrate on a book for even half an hour. They really have some shortcomings and they know it! They hate role-players for being everything, they can not be.
It´s a very sad situation!
I've played a lot of MMO's, and so far, there have only been 2 that I found to really lend themselves to Role Playing.
As weird as this sounds, I found that The Matrix Online was just awesome to RP in. Something about it was just so cool and good. And when everyone is on the same page... it really works there. Maybe I found it interesting because I wasn't playing in a traditional Fantasy setting. I absolutely am tired of that genre to be honest.
Anyway, the only thing bad about this game's RP is that almost everyong is a Vampire (RP). I never understood how The Matrix was reduced to everyone being a Vampire. Granted, I was a Merolvengian, but still... I did luck out though, and found this cool guy to hang with who was disinterested in the rest of the schmoes there. We had a good time together, but I stopped playing because my trial ran out, and I was broke. Not to mention, the gameplay is a bit stale.
Then there is City of Heroes. I had a blast RPing in this game. But again, it isn't your traditional Fantasy setting.
Anyway, as I've become more aware of what is going on in the MMO industry, I've come to the conclusion that people are more interested in what they will be doing, and how it will be done, than they are about things like "What will my character mean to the game world?" I think it's a sad thing really because the key to a great game is caring about your character. I see a lot of these games now a days, and why these MMO's continue to fail.... it's because the game doesn't allow them to invest emotional attachment to their characters like they used to. You don't even see a place to put in your Character Biography anymore...
My dream, is to one day put the RP back into the MMO. But not in the traditional sense. I don't want to make the game like it used to be made, where the players make their own content, and the game just facilitates the locale. I want the game to facilitate the story too, and for the game to keep track of the story.
I want people to /examine another character and be able to read their in-game history - the choices they've made, the really important things they've done that characterizes their heritage, race, profession... Most importantly, I want it to be as unique as possible to every player in the game.
I want people to experience somethign in the game through their character that they would experience in a Single Player RPG. Two people may go through the same quest, and have two very different outcomes. The point isn't that one person did it right, and the other did it wrong. The point is they made their own story.
Why should players not create their own content? That´s why the older games where better suited for RP than the newer ones. A team of developers will never be able to offer as much content than 5000 creative players can. And it´s big big fun to be creative!
In the older games you had to be creative, but you also had the chance to be creative instead of just consuming what others did. I miss this aspect a lot nowadays. I´d like to have such a game, just with newer grafics.
My college roomate introduced me to UO in 1998. He was in a guild that was warred with several other guilds. They had strict rules regarding where and when one could engage in combat (ie no fighting in the Keg & Anchor which was a tavern in Trinsic). Also, it was not allowed to use ICQ during encounters with other guilds. UO had no world chat and they referred to ICQ messages as "pidgeons." They had many other such rules, and they used RP language exclusively. Although it was not my style, and I even teased him a bit admittedly, in hindsight I respect it. Also, it was obvious that the UO team did as well, which is something all games must do if they want that particular aspect of the community to survive. For instance, on Lake Superior, the server admins, or gms, allowed a player village to be established named Rivendell which had some housing violations and was given some unique content, in the form of fountains, stables, npcs, etc, by the gms. Also, one of the coolest RP guilds was an orc clan which was allowed to populate a totally unique orc fort that previously had monster spawn. They roleplayed murderers and outsiders, and you never saw one with a blue name, in a town, or speaking English. The orcs had their own language that members were required to learn. There was also a drow elf guild with its own language. I miss these types, even if I pk'ed them a bit.
Trammies need to stop polluting the MMORPG landscape. They already have enough games in which to emote hugs and sell garbage by the banks.
In my mind, role play isn't dying so much as the gaming community is expanding and diversifying. World of Warcraft helped to bring online gaming to the forefront of big-money in the entertainment industry, and with it our modest community has gained a surge of new players. While, certainly a majority of these players may not be sympathetic towards role playing, I would argue that the role play community has benefited and blossomed as much as the rest of the gaming industry as a result.
The MMO industry as a whole is in a major transitioning stage, evolving from a niche market to a full-fledged genre with budding niches of its own - one of which is role playing. As more people buy into the market, it is more likely that a game will be developed to target our particular audience.
As far as RP guilds go, there seems to be no shortage of fish in the pond, and these days they seem to come in all sorts of different colors and sizes. Try to find a home (mmorpg offers a guild search engine, or you can always consult the wisdom of google) that feels comfy enough to rest your rump in for a while, and I say, enjoy the role play that that community has to offer until a game happens by that you all can join in on together.
Good luck and safe travels!