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What do people want from roleplay .
drake_hound
Member Posts: 773
What do roleplayers nowadays really want in roleplay ?
This applies to none roleplayers and established roleplayers .
Disclaimer before the rants and thats not roleplay and other insults or infringement on people start to fly .
This post is based on my experience in 10-12 years or roleplay online and as well offline .
So its based on my opnion and not a guide, since roleplay has no real guides its about emotional attachement .
My experience in roleplay or gotten involved into roleplay , is that it was satisfying or witty or funny way of interaction .
A bit like a theater play , drama, opera, interaction and most of all bring fun to/with other people without having other people true feelings hurt .
But as my journey went futher and futher , I found that you do get emotional attached to the play acting .
What concludes to me the best experience is as long people around you enjoy themselfs .
What concludes to me the worst experience when there is totally no realisme , that sounds strange since roleplay is not real , But some common decency or realisme should be maintained .
The best example in the past was the meta gaming or power gaming .Words long forgotten by most , for the people who dont understand it will explain .
Example Somebody throws you a punch , you can either dodge , step aside or let the punch connect .
Meta and Powergaming , was like this , X throws you a uppercut and it sends you flying and knocks you out .
It didn´t give people the decency to reply so it was just a one way story .
Now in a roleplay community this was back then a hot issue or issue for tons of debate , it seems this issue is long forgotten or with the advent of new players totally ignored .
One of the reasons I don´t Roleplay much anymore is that , its totally blend or stale for me nowadays .
To me everything follows a certain path .
1 New to roleplay , exciting and how funny creating backgrounds story lines etc
2 The toon gets a live a life its own , and slowly the toon gets morals and value thats your own , personality get twisted .
You become the toon , the toon is seen as a extension of yourself .
3 Drama and excitement needs a bigger amount to create the same statisfaction , (this is a factor thats normal in all things we do , sport ,shooting ,gaming )
4 Detach yourself from the toon , and play the things the way the toon is , not the way you are .
5 Every toon has a end or a time to retire .
Those were are my conclusion to roleplay . The journey while satisfying and enjoyable seems meaningless in the end .
Now why this post , its more if somebody else has a beter solution to rekindle my interest in roleplay .
Comments
Roleplaying in a MMO is a hop on, hop off affair. You don't roleplay all the time, you switch from gaming to roleplaying as need be. If it starts to be boring maybe you have the balance wrong.
Roleplaying can add depth and colour to a MMO, quite easily these days as so many of them are lore lite it is simple to create more depth for a MMO. This is what I want from roleplaying in a MMO which it easily adds.
Your story is told by you, not by the game it never has been, a game cannot tell your story. Your story is also the story of your in game friends and guild. I also want this from roleplaying but it is far harder to achieve, this is where roleplaying in MMO's falls short.
Roleplaying is all about imagination and for a developer to take that into account and add some support for imagination then thats all I ask for when it comes to RP. Gameplay is important, but the players make the game what it is in the end.
Roleplay for me isnt the story but for me its close to the sandbox mmo. You want to feel emersed in the world.
I want to think that Im living there. After a long day of working in this harsh world I want to come home to a safe house and maybe have a chat with my friends in a tavern or something.
Thats Roleplay for me.
Staying in character, that is act like you think your avatar would act in that particular gameworld. No more, no less.
I roleplay mostly for my own amusement. Usually the older toons that I've played have more depth to personality... sometimes a new or reworked (race-change) toon comes in and its amazingly fun.
I get hangups on races. In WoW, I am not fond of orc females, troll males, and both night elves... just not fun. Others just scream personality. I have a Drenei hunter who is hilaroius. He thinks he's big and studly, but he's far from it. Also an old man human priest... talk about a simeball.
I think amusement sums it up well.
To me roleplay in mmorpg is when people are totally immersed in the game. They don't want to talk about RL, don't want to talk about the game external or technical issue
They are just here to enjoy their journey on another world like having another existence for a few moments. And it is not the caricature detractor of mmo made for years : my character in game is my real me. So i am Aragorn and i stab you !
Not negligible nor contemptuous but it is another subject.
Finally they call it as they like. Personnally, I think that all players are looking for that at different degrees (maybe in their unconscious ^_^ )
Let me say I am suprised and in a way satisfied People do give there valuable opnions about this subject.
And yes i recognise a lot in the replies , and happy since for a while there aren´t many troll post replies .
So keep them coming , maybe one replier will have a answer or experience that i haven´t , tought off or experienced meself .
Thank you all kindly and sincerly for those nice replies .
edit= Italic part
What iI tried to do in WoW's RP servers was create RP events beyond the norm of a gathering or a manhunt in a zone for some one. I tried to create such events as proper revolutions with players in parts of cities reading out declarations of revolution. Mass postings sort of like press conferences on forums and had other players willing to be kidnapped from the how could I put it.. from the more prominent RP guilds.
I'd set them up in an environment in which people could join in by picking up a torch or pitchfork and generally starting to protest. I wanted a real atmosphere of revolution in an RP evironment. The two limiting factors were 1) Lack of support for an RP environment and 2) Players who did not understand what I was trying to acheive.
I wanted to create what I call psychological RP. For the player to sit back for a moment and think "Shit, this is actually happening. People are actually pulling off a social revolution in a game. I want in on this!"
It all comes down to the players in the end, imagination has no limits but its down to the developers to broaden the horizon of what a game can do in RP situations.
It is down to the players, a MMO will not deliver RP to you on a plate, the best it can do is make you feel part of the lore and the background of events.
This is something designers have little idea of how to get a handle on. We have had the great GM events in games like AC, player design tools in NWN, but where are they now?
So it comes down to you and your guild, using the official forums, RP is still alive and out there no matter what we want from it, which is not always going to be the same thing.
I play RP games to amuse myself and getting my personality into the game. People sometimes wants to get out of the real world and forget their problems, to do this people tend to do rp games. The good thing about rp games you can create characters that is based on your characteristics or what you desire. When you get into the game you always tend to create your own world with it or go with the game flow. You always want the best for your character and the role you play sometimes shapes the world in the game or sometimes not. Sometimes you get attached to the game and forget about the real world, this means that the rp game is effective in keeping you online. In RP you always want the best for your characters, you always want to be on top, perfection is always what you intend in such game. Sometimes its the twist of whats happening in the real world. Ending the game on your own desire and getting the upper hand in the game is sometimes a greater accomplishment in term of satisfaction.
This is what I like in role playing:
1. Lots of quest
2. Character creation that it can be look like you or what you most prefer
3. You can shape the story at your own will depending on how you answer in the game
4. The story lines of each characters
5. Different kind of emotions are there when ever you play the game
6. How you interact within the characters of the rp game
The thing is, it is like your creating your own story in a different kind of world. But sometimes some rp games are system driven and you must sometimes go with the flow and you will just go for the storyline itself.
I have a lot of fun RPing in MMOs.
Over the years, I have had a lot of RP experiences in games. There are a lot of different styles out there.
Personally, I have developed a style that I find to fit in MMOs due to its great flexibility. Flexibility is necessary in MMOs. One cannot be IC at all times, its just not feasible in these games. On occasion, I will have a STRICTLY RP character, who ignores all that doesn't fit the RP world, but this just isn't flexible enough. Other than these rare characters, this is my style. This is for a "new" (to me) game. Its a lot easier to make a RP character for a game you are already immersed in.
Pre-Game
Before getting into my character at all, I have to get into the game itself. I read pretty much all the available lore, and really try to see the world from INSIDE it (as opposed to seeing from my computer, ie the gamer's perspective). I try to think about what daily life must be like. What the average being in the world sees, hears and is subjected to on a daily basis. I try to think about what life would be like in this world for different types of individuals. I really try to wrap my head around the world itself before considering how I am going to bring a character into it.
For this, I need a game that has a GOOD WORLD. NOT visually, per say (although that never hurts). Lots of lore and some realism to the fiction. The world needs to feel like a world. Not a pop up book come to life.
Character Creation
Usually, I go into this stage at least knowing what class/skills I want for a character. Most of the time, but not quite as often, I also already know what race/gender I am going with. I rarely play female toons. This is GENERALLY as much pre-planning I do. My character, as it were, is generally born during the creation process.
With my class/skills thought out, I start to think what daily life would be like in the world, in regards to my specific character. Thus begins the formative stages of fleshing out my character. With my class/skills sorted or generally thought through, now is when the creative juices start flowing. I decide what faction I'm going to be, and the motivations behind such an alignment. As I browse through different visual customation options, I allow my imagination to wander as my character visually evolves.
What is my character "out for"? Personal financial gain? A greater good? Revenge? Reconciliation?
What is the backstory to these motivations? What made them a driving force for the character?
Hand in hand, my character comes together both visually and psychologically. By the time I am done, I have the whole character worked out. Age, background, personality quirks, etc. Everything but a name and any "life" experiences. I now have a blank canvas to which to fill with in-game experiences.
Once I choose a name, which is always character appropriate, I am ready to go!
To get the most out of this stage, a DEEP character creation system is necessary. I LOVED SWG & CoH's character creation systems. Really amazing!
Initial In-Game Experience
This is where the RPing starts. I am not one to walk around a world and try to strike up conversations about insignificant in game things just for the point of RP. I like my character to go about his business as anyone would. With purpose, but open to distraction/sidetracking/interaction. Setting out to seek active RP is almost always a letdown. I enjoy living out my character's life in his shoes and through his eyes. If I bump into other RPers, its easy to flow right into it. Even if I don't see a single other RPer for a month, my character is still himself. He reacts how he reacts.
It is these initial month or so of in game exerpiences that really start to shape who the character is. The blank canvas starts getting filled with not only experiences, but opinions based on those experiences. Player interactions can lead to friendships or vendettas. Grinding something in particular can lead to a specialization or personailty quirk (ie, I had a character in SWG who was driven a little mad from too much time in the Squill caves). This process is a constant evolution, but the first months of experiences really form the basis for who the character becomes in the world. I like the natural progression of this method, as opposed to a rigid idea for a character that rarely changes.
The Rest
After my character gets "set" by his initial experiences, it is the whole rest of the game that determines who he becomes. Most things go by, day by day, as life happens. When something MAJOR happens, it gets the appropriate consideraton to how it would affect/change/grow my character. Little things only really add up with repetition. When I do something most days for a prolonged period of time, it generally gets incorporated into my character somehow (see squill cave example above). Other players can become part of my character's "canon."
At this point, my character is only limited by my own boundaries, what experiences the game offers and what players the community consists of.
The things a game really needs in order to pull it all off?
-A deep /emote system. I have yet to find a better place for RPing than good old SWG. I used to run around pickpocketing people and giving out wet willies using the /emote function. Giving players the power to go beyond what the developers came up with really brings out the fun in RP.
-Non-combat professions. That are NEEDED. Again, see SWG. Entertainers, Docs, Smiths, IDs, Slicers, etc. It created a web of interdependancy that made the world feel ALIVE.
-Social hubs. And I don't mean people standing around a certain town outside of Stormwind spamming chat. I am talking game mechanics that make them NECESSARY. Again, see SWG's cantinas.
-Mature players. Nope, I don't need other roleplayers. I just need a decent amount of people who aren't named CokPwnr who run around talking about how awesome last nights TV lineup was. Without serious gamers, there is no serious game.
I really hope that *insert game name here* will be the first game to ever live up to all of its pre-release promises, maintain a manageable hype level and have a clean release. Just don't expect me to hold my breath.
Roleplaying is fun.
Best moment of roleplaying for me what with my Rodian Master Tailor called "Tickle". I had my own store, and I played a bit of music and socialised with other entertainers in the cantina, those we good times, and everyone was friendly.
Also spend over an hour making various clothing for a Jedi Master who tipped me 50,000 creds for my time, not only fun roleplaying, but profitable too :-P
The shame about roleplaying servers though, is that they dont enforce strict enough ruleset. People should be transfer for having l33t names, for generally being annoying asshats, cause there are PVE and PVP servers for them.
Roleplaying servers should be for just that, roleplaying individuals. A small but nice society that kick out the trash, muhahhaa.
Well, personally, I want to experience the virtual reality. But MMORPG these days aren't really virtual reality. All they do is fight.
That's the whole point they want to create the character according to who they are. And they can shape up the ending that they want.
What I want in the RP games are the storyline and the character creation. More often the nonstop questing with good graphics. Its always that for me when ever I search for an rpg game.
some ppl may just wanna forget about their real life, and do what they cant do in real life through roleplay
I do it for the cybering.
maybe just want a little fun.
lol NEVER VENTURE OUT ALONE
IMHO, 1)a third person view (diablo,torchlight)
2)a cartoonish look
3)not that hard to understand
4) medium system requirments
5) noob friendly
Firstly i like faily hard RPG., and a great coop or party system so me and my brother will play. lastly optimized code to make the system requirments faily general not crysis general , medium requirments
personally, i want good items! hahaha, thats one reason why i kept playing long
I like to emerse myself in the game.
Like people have said befor. I play games to relax now to forget about about RL for a little...
but its just a shame that people who dont RP tend to disrupt whats going on, Ive found this to be the case over the past 5-6 years since ive been RP'in
im yet to find a game that i think fits RP to a tea. maybe not looked hard enough but still
be sum1 u cant be,
do sumthing u cant do,
be sumwhere u cant be,
and all that wrapped in a epic story.
isnt that what RPG has always stood 4?
Moments like this maybe: http://bitnexus.net/RP/viewtopic.php.htm
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