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Does Anybody truly Role Plays in a MMORPG?
tro44_1
Member Posts: 1,819
Does Anybody truly Role Plays in a MMORPG?
Well I heard a interesting argument from a WoW-hater, referring to the idea that WoW isn’t a RPG because nobody Role Plays.
I understand that, by using the word NOBODY, the person was really meaning “Not Most”. And I would agree with that. But only WoW? How many other MMORPGs out there have a community made up of mostly Role Players?
The way I look at this term, (Role Playing Game), doesn’t deal with Role Playing a character, but developing a character.
As I read in another topic dealing with the meaning of a MMORPG, my dear friend LynxJSA brought up a interesting meaning of an RPG.
=====================================
(LynxJSA): You misunderstand what RPG means. It sounds like you want it to means people roleplay in the game. The reality is that it simply means it is a system with progressive character advancement.
Your character in Pac Man has no stats, skills, gear or attributes. Pac Man is not an RPG.
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/263852/page/6
==========================
And this is what I would have to agree on. Many people that believe that people in a MMORPG should mostly Role Play, are confusing the term of Role Playing, for what a Role Playing Game is.
Comments
"roleplaying" in matters of computer games has nothing to do with playing the role of some fictional character anymore. It simply means that you have more options when creating the character, and that the characters stats increase over time. That's a computer rpg. It's something completly seperate from a game where someone actually plays a role, and such games like WoW where hardly anyone roleplays are as such still rpg's.
That a tiny minority actually roleplays is pretty irrelevant. I can also try to roleplay the tower in a chess game and shout "is that a peasant at the horizont I see? I will smash it I will! Oh damn I broke one of my merlons!".
Let's play Fallen Earth (blind, 300 episodes)
Let's play Guild Wars 2 (blind, 45 episodes)
I want to play chess with you!
I am afraid your friend misquoted what was obsiously a sarcasm.
No. Pacman isn't an RPG. Halo isn't. Farm Town isn't.
And yes. Sometimes people do roleplay. That's why many games have designated roleplay servers.
However, I don't roleplay all the time. For games like WoW there is no point to roleplay because other people don't. They only care about getting to the end game raids.
I am afraid your friend misquoted what was obsiously a sarcasm.
No. Pacman isn't an RPG. Halo isn't. Farm Town isn't.
Well my dear friend Maji also explained it well
This feels like a very oddly phrased question, but might just be because my perspective on the issue.
My knee jerk response would be to probably just say 'no'. My thought out response would be as follows.
Most games are not really designed with role players in mind to begin with. It's not and never will be the focus because it's not and never will be the target market. Not even tabletop games really caters to role playing at this point. I'd even argue role playing was never supported in the design of D&D, which is the penultimate example of role playing nerd-dom.
Role playing was a mechanic developed by players that were more interested in the personalities and story of the characters and the world than on the number crunching and slug fests. It's something that people initially took as a way to let out their literature and art and really get involved in the game in a way that they felt was psychologically engaging.
As far as computer gaming goes, it remains the same aspect. It remains a stunted and generally unobserved activity by the majority of players that only really serves a subsets desire in a game world by letting them 'create' and actively participate in the game world from a storytelling and artistic perspective.
I personally love role playing in the sense that I love getting involved in the lore and mechanics of a game world and shaping a character that both matches my personality, allows me to play out a 'story' of that characters life, and become involved in the overall story of that game world in a way that I feel engages me on a deeper level than the standards of RPG game play offers.
What I tend to get out of RPGs, both computer/console, etc and on tabletop, is a slough of gamers that have either a very shallow scale of understanding and ability to RP, or simply don't grasp the concept. You then have the rp'ers that think they know what they're doing, and instead are just crafting a sideways and bottlenecked extreme of what role playing is, and they tend to be the most well known type o rp'er that gives us overall a reputation of being elitist hack jobs that waddle around town at a snails pace and regale you about how badass we are by typing out combat sequences that feel like anime comedy sequences more so than something, y'know, good.
And then you get a very small sub-sect of people that actually research the lore of a game world, build up a concept of how they want their character to actually grow and progress from both a technical, psychological, and narrative standpoint, and actually fit in within a greater community of players. Overall, I'd say there's not many real role players or good role players, regardless of what game platform or type you look at.
"The knowledge of the theory of logic has no tendency whatever to make men good reasoners." - Thomas B. Macaulay
"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge." - Daniel J. Boorstin
Different people have different meanings of RPG.
In the past, stats gain and player progression weren't exactly as what they are today. For instance, in the Ultima Series, particulary Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, stats gain and progression of your avatar didn't affect your role (of becoming an Avatar).
Nowadays, when one talks about RPG they always almost look for leveling, stat gains, etc. In the future we may have very different standard for an RPG too. But in general you can't say you are roleplaying a tree which is nothing but part of the scenary.
Massive RPing in LOTRO as well.
I might even go so far as to say nearly 1/3 of the playerbase or more RP's on a regular basis.
Einherjar_LC says: WTB the true successor to UO or Asheron's Call pst!
Of course. LOTR is a famous novel. It is not surprising to see a lot of Gandalf or Frobo wannabes in the game.
Likewise I am not surprise to see a lot of Spocks in Star Trek Online.
Roleplaying in WoW is a different story - a story which almost nobody cares because 99% of the players don't even pay attention to what the quest givers say. There is no story and no immersion whatsoever.
I have only roleplayed in WoW, and it was very fun to do so. There is an entirely different dimension to the game if you attempt to roleplay. Would you feel ashamed of yourself for doing so? Isn't it just acting? If you are telling me that Ms Greta Garbo should be ashamed of being the best actress ever to grace the silver-screen because she is "role-playing", then you've got another thing comin!
Roleplaying is fun... what makes it very comfortable is that you can be 100% sure that the people you are doing it with aren't immature, vulgar little kids or console players.
"Listen, you fuckers, you screwheads. Here is a man who would not take it anymore. A man who stood up against the scum, the cunts, the dogs, the filth, the shit. Here is a man who stood up." - Robert DeNiro
I've spent a fair amount of time in LOTRO. I rarely see anyone RP. I would say 1/3 is probably a very high number. Heck, you can be in a group and not one person will actually talk. I don't think emotes or parties with your kin or any other tight knight small group idea means 33% of the people do the same thing.
parrotpholk-Because we all know the miracle patch fairy shows up the night before release and sprinkles magic dust on the server to make it allllll better.
Of course. LOTR is a famous novel. It is not surprising to see a lot of Gandalf or Frobo wannabes in the game.
Likewise I am not surprise to see a lot of Spocks in Star Trek Online.
Roleplaying in WoW is a different story - a story which almost nobody cares because 99% of the players don't even pay attention to what the quest givers say. There is no story and no immersion whatsoever.
I aggree 100%. No story.
As for the Role Playing Game title, all that means is you play a role, that is it. My definition of Role Play would be : Create a character and play him how "I" want him to be played. The whole Role Playing Guilds in every game want you to add things like (Quotations, Emotes) when in reality, you are role playing. Is it not you playing something else. Everyone has their own opinion on the term Role Play, but it all comes down to "Your Character, Your Decision on what he says and does".
MMOs are never going to be a role-playing game in the traditional sense. They will never approach the complexity, completeness and depth that a pencil and paper RPG can have. MMORPGs are just MMOS - nothing more than a first-person shooter, with lots of people online, with a fantasy front end glued on.
Of course. LOTR is a famous novel. It is not surprising to see a lot of Gandalf or Frobo wannabes in the game.
Likewise I am not surprise to see a lot of Spocks in Star Trek Online.
Roleplaying in WoW is a different story - a story which almost nobody cares because 99% of the players don't even pay attention to what the quest givers say. There is no story and no immersion whatsoever.
The question was does anybody role play in MMORPG's, not does anyone roleply in WoW.
WoW did have players RPing when it first launched and it was very active on the RP servers.
Einherjar_LC says: WTB the true successor to UO or Asheron's Call pst!
I've spent a fair amount of time in LOTRO. I rarely see anyone RP. I would say 1/3 is probably a very high number. Heck, you can be in a group and not one person will actually talk. I don't think emotes or parties with your kin or any other tight knight small group idea means 33% of the people do the same thing.
Not sure what server you played on in LOTRO but I play on Landroval, which is considered the RP server and it is everywhere there. I know for a fact that it is also somewhat prevalent on the Brandywine server as well. Those are two of the heaviest populated servers for LOTRO.
With even a smattering of RP on the others I could easily see it at one third of the population, although I will admit that would be at the high end of estimates.
Einherjar_LC says: WTB the true successor to UO or Asheron's Call pst!
It seems each game has an official or unofficial RP server and, with LOTRO being the exception, the older MMOs retain a sizable RP playerbase longer than the newer ones. I was surprised to see the amount of RP on Landroval a year or so after release, yet rather dismayed to see Landroval.org had shut down.
- RPG Quiz - can you get all 25 right?
- FPS Quiz - how well do you know your shooters?
The best role play going today is found on WoW's Moon Guard and Wyrmrest Accord servers.
Well shave my back and call me an elf! -- Oghren
Only games I role played in was UO for a tiny tiny bit when I was really young and didn't understand it, and NWN 1.
Of course. LOTR is a famous novel. It is not surprising to see a lot of Gandalf or Frobo wannabes in the game.
Likewise I am not surprise to see a lot of Spocks in Star Trek Online.
Roleplaying in WoW is a different story - a story which almost nobody cares because 99% of the players don't even pay attention to what the quest givers say. There is no story and no immersion whatsoever.
I aggree 100%. No story.
As for the Role Playing Game title, all that means is you play a role, that is it. My definition of Role Play would be : Create a character and play him how "I" want him to be played. The whole Role Playing Guilds in every game want you to add things like (Quotations, Emotes) when in reality, you are role playing. Is it not you playing something else. Everyone has their own opinion on the term Role Play, but it all comes down to "Your Character, Your Decision on what he says and does".
Back in my Pen and Paper days, I would try to create interesting characters with their own motivations and reasoning. Then my roleplaying group discovered LARPing and suddenly the way I role played seemed trivial. Was I not really a role player because I found the idea of dressing like my character to be silly?
While I do not 'RP' in WoW I still consider myself roleplaying. Each of my characters develops a distinct personality due to how I play them and what direction I take them into. I do not externalize that aspect of my gameplay because I find it silly. All I really need to roleplay is my imagination. My characters might not be real but what they represent in my mind is quite real.
So what defines a 'true role player'? Similarly are 'true Star Trek' fans only those who go to conventions dressed as their favourite character/race?
How do you roleplay in a game with no immersion, where you constantly have arrows on your minimap telling you where to go, and where the game consists of lobby zones + instances? Good luck with that one
RPGs need to have immersion, to make you feel like you are the character in the world. You just won't feel it with dumbed down games like WoW which really aren't MMOS or RPGs..
To me immersion is a must. I can't see how a begger clan, Obi-wan, Macbeth and X-men fit into the RP servers of WoW but I found a lot of them.
Add some character progression to immersion, if you need to satisfy the needs of some mmorpg players in today's standards.
My thought is that most adults have lost that line into their imagination that most children seem to have.
When I was young and my Micronaut space explorer lab was exploring my grandmother's house, the entire house was, to me, an alien planet just waiting to be discovered.
My dresser was the Acroyer battle-star and the micronauts were sort of like the rebel alliance (a la star wars).
Though everything was real and I could touch everything, the worlds were made up of nothing more than stairs, a piano, hallway, furniture, finished basement, etc.
But yet I could be engrossed in it for hours on end. it was very real to me.
If one can forget that they are playing a game and become engrossed with what is happening on the screen then that is a very powerful experience. I've gotten that in Lineage 2 as well as Vanguard. A little bit with lotro and though I love the game, Aion's world feels too much like a premediated "game world" to me.
I don't role play per se, but I do allow my character/avatar to do things based upon what is happening and his personality. Same with a game like morrowind or oblivion.
In oblvion, if I'm in the middle of an important quest and I just want to go exploring, I have to make up a good reason why I'm not rushing to finish the quest. Otherwise it all seems a bit cheap to me. That in and of itself would take me out of the game if I knew I had to find the emperor's son but was frittering my time away in the eastern portion of the country.
So I make up backtstory as well as reasons so that whatever I'm doing at the time can be completely justified. I do this when I'm soloing mmo's.
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You, sir, are a genius. I am sig'ing this.
I can also roleplay the tower in a chess game and shout "is that a peasant at the horizon I see? I will smash it I will! Oh damn I broke one of my merlons!". -- maji
Arkenstone. EQ had RP servers too but one RP server and one PVP server didn't represent most of the EQ playerbase by any stretch of the imagination. You could have said somehting like I see a lot of people RP inLOTRO, but you didn't, you said 1/3, a precise number that was not even server specific, I doubt you actually pulled that number from anywhere but from inside your head.
parrotpholk-Because we all know the miracle patch fairy shows up the night before release and sprinkles magic dust on the server to make it allllll better.
I, respectfully, disagree; at least when is comes to MMO's. With an RPG like Oblivion, there is no interaction with other players. Essentially, you just level your character with skills and the like through the games design. MMORPG's have a social element; very much like a technical version of a pen and paper RPG (i.e. Dungeons and Dragons). The opportunity for actually role-playing is very much there. Since the opportunity is there and you choose not to excercise it, then you are playing a role-playing game but , NOT actually role-playing.
People have varying ideas of what RPing really is, but if you look at the literal term it can, easily, be defined:
To roleplay is to "play the role of another". To act the part, pretend to be that person. Essentially, you become an actor and pretend to be that person e.g. To NOT be yourself. Create a character concept and act as he/she would act. Say what he or she would say; NOT what YOU would say or do.
Consider this example:
In EQ2, I gave one of my fighter characters a fear of the undead. So my character would be a brave fighter though everytime he came upon an undead lair in the game , my character would act accordingly (cower and display my fear).
"Do we...really have to go in there?"
/emote gulps
"Let's leave this to someone else".
"Alright , I'm coming but I don't like this one bit"
/emote turns a pale hue at the sight of the ghoul down the corridor
Another interesting character trait I had was for a berserker character I had in EQ2. He had the utmost respect for bears because, as a child, he was pulled from a fire by one. So playing this character, I refused to fight a bear, regardless of the situation. It was such a strong conviction that he would sit and let his comrades get beaten up by a bear and he would do nothing to help (except yell 'Just drop some rations run away."). If he was attacked by a bear, he would just run away, refusing to fight back. It was laughable for my friends to see a high level berserker running from a bear half of his level. This also made for great in character conversations at the tavern or guildhall.
To answer the OP; yes I truly role-play in all of the MMORPG's I play. There are many others, like me, who do so as well. We are out there though are numbers are few. It would be nice to see more people try to invent a personality for there avatars and actually act them out. It's quite fun and refreshing to step away from yourself and pretend to be someone else. That's probably why a lot of actors do what they do. Anyway, to each, his own.