Roleplaying in MMORPG's?

Kurush · February 2007

When most of us think of online roleplayers, we think of the exception to the rule. We imagine a handful of renfairgoers gathering in a RP server, swapping cliche stories about how they've vowed revenge on the dark forces who killed their family. What about the rest of us, though? What about those who never talk about what we imagine our character to be? Is roleplay not a part of the equation?

I think it's more of an issue any of us would ever admit, but it's something so personal that we ignore it in discussion. Think about it. When the average MMORPG player groups, roleplay disappears. The only discussion is shorthand talk of what mobs to kill and quests to complete, interspersed with discussion of the real world. When we're alone, though, we get a chance to be a kid and let our imagination fill in the blanks in the fantasy world around us. The more I think about it, the more I believe that imagination is the only thing that holds the average MMORPG player's interest.

What else is there as a primary motivator? Is it the social experience? That's important, but that alone doesn't do it: most of us don't need MMORPG's for that. It's not the gameplay, either. Repetitive combat and mechanically identical quests, the hallmark of all MMORPG's to date, aren't going to captivate anybody's interest by themselves.

Quests do play an important role, though. That's why World of Warcraft doesn't feel like a grind to most people. To the hardcore player, the quests are there as window dressing to endless mob killing. To the non-hardcore, though, the relationship is inverse. The mob killing is there to put meat on what's important: the story in the quest. As long as you feel like you're doing something in the game world, as long as you feel like you're involved in the story, it's not a grind.

To be honest, I think that ability to put yourself in the world is the only thing that seperates hardcore from casual. It's not because the hardcore player lacks imagination. It's because he's heard all the cliches and been around the block ten times over. To all the hardcore players out there, ask yourself this:

Long ago, when you were playing your first few MMORPG's, one of them stood out to you. Your experience in that game was head and shoulders above the rest in terms of enjoyment. Looking back, the game probably had serious mechanical flaws, but you overlooked them. What was it which made that game so different? Was it because the underlying game was better, or was it because the world felt alive to you? If the latter was the case, why?

InsomniACK · February 2007

Hmm,

I find that with single-player RPG's I can't really get into the role of the character...

Maybe this is because I have to choose an answer and cannot come up with my own.

Good rp is often hard to find, but MxO was very good about it... To bad the game isn't any good...

Ligner · February 2007

Originally posted by Kurush

When most of us think of online roleplayers, we think of the exception to the rule. We imagine a handful of renfairgoers gathering in a RP server, swapping cliche stories about how they've vowed revenge on the dark forces who killed their family. What about the rest of us, though? What about those who never talk about what we imagine our character to be? Is roleplay not a part of the equation?
I think it's more of an issue any of us would ever admit, but it's something so personal that we ignore it in discussion. Think about it. When the average MMORPG player groups, roleplay disappears. The only discussion is shorthand talk of what mobs to kill and quests to complete, interspersed with discussion of the real world. When we're alone, though, we get a chance to be a kid and let our imagination fill in the blanks in the fantasy world around us. The more I think about it, the more I believe that imagination is the only thing that holds the average MMORPG player's interest.
What else is there as a primary motivator? Is it the social experience? That's important, but that alone doesn't do it: most of us don't need MMORPG's for that. It's not the gameplay, either. Repetitive combat and mechanically identical quests, the hallmark of all MMORPG's to date, aren't going to captivate anybody's interest by themselves.
Quests do play an important role, though. That's why World of Warcraft doesn't feel like a grind to most people. To the hardcore player, the quests are there as window dressing to endless mob killing. To the non-hardcore, though, the relationship is inverse. The mob killing is there to put meat on what's important: the story in the quest. As long as you feel like you're doing something in the game world, as long as you feel like you're involved in the story, it's not a grind.
To be honest, I think that ability to put yourself in the world is the only thing that seperates hardcore from casual. It's not because the hardcore player lacks imagination. It's because he's heard all the cliches and been around the block ten times over. To all the hardcore players out there, ask yourself this:
Long ago, when you were playing your first few MMORPG's, one of them stood out to you. Your experience in that game was head and shoulders above the rest in terms of enjoyment. Looking back, the game probably had serious mechanical flaws, but you overlooked them. What was it which made that game so different? Was it because the underlying game was better, or was it because the world felt alive to you? If the latter was the case, why?

Thank you for the beautiful post Kurush! In my opinion the difference between those who roleplay and those who doesnt is this: first ones feel them selves being in another world and they look at that through their character's eyes like through the prism. Roleplaying doesnt mean that you must act and talk "funny". It simply starts when players feel them selves transported into fantasy world, but being who they are still and acting the same. Those players who doesnt roleplay (doesnt bother to imagine being in the fantasy world) simply playing the "game" and looking at it as the "game" only, while roleplayers taking it as fantasy reality.

Trouble is that you cant say that one is right and the other wrong. In the way it IS fantasy reality and it IS a game at the same time. Thats why there is always people on both sides. Makes me wonder why devs arent value RP as a whole part of the genre. As you said it was that first MMORPG which made you and me and that other guy so addicted to MMOs simply because it was unbelievably real to us. I still remember my first days in Asheron's Call after being few years in MUDs. I was sitting on the top of the hill listening to the birds, wind, watching clouds and almost believed being somewhere. Early games didnt even have background music. Environment noises where the background and it made it feel so home like every time you were logging back.

RP servers are ridicules. Every time devs announce that they're going to have RP servers it tells me that I might not bother hoping for roleplaying. The only way roleplaying can be achieved is through creation of game with world so real that even hardcore gamers would feel being else where, but around their computer playing the game. Its time for them to start employing people who have imagination, desire to build such world and... long missed feeling...

Ligner

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