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Hardcore roleplayers only 5% of player population ...
nariusseldon
Member EpicPosts: 27,775
Now it is official ... with real research
http://www.raphkoster.com/2010/02/15/what-roleplayers-look-like/
And I quote:
"There aren’t that many hardcore RP’ers: 5% or so"
"As was previously reported and the subject of some controversy, roleplayers seem to have a notably worse incidence of reports of physical and mental issues"
Now we know why developers don't pay much attention to RPing. You don't cater to only the 5% of your player base.
Comments
wow imagine that,so can we now start calling these wannabe MMOrpgs to MMOtoys.
Generation P
5% seems a bit high to me.
Maybe 5% play on RP servers or something, I could believe that. But, even there, most people don't RP.
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There just ain't enough tools and freedom (and technology) to enjoy REAL roleplaying in current MMORPG's or RPG's for that matter.
Just saying "ye olde dog, har har" isn't roleplaying really.
Unless you're Blizzard, then you pour all of your development into making 3 years of raid content for them 'til someone realises that the other 95% of the population is looking a bit glum. Then you see the light, start rectifying it, and get caned by the spoiled 5% who have come to realise that they're not Daddy's favourite anymore.
Not surpised that RPers are a low number; it's incompatible with most modern game mechanics and was never mainstream to begin with.
Playing: EVE, Final Fantasy 13, Uncharted 2, Need for Speed: Shift
The study followed one game and after reading the pre-release it doesn't seem to fit with the people I know that would consider themselves 'hardcore roleplayers.' The percentage seems about right to me although I can imagine that if other games were studied the results would vary. As mentioned in the blog's comments pre-NGE SWG I know personally would've had different results.
I just see this as a sign game designers are still trying to cater to the simpler players with hand holding and not as overt RP elements in favor of raiding and pvp, but putting enough in to please what has been pushed into a niche market (mmo-wise) by the influx of newer gamers who seemingly view MMOs in the same light as they might Counterstrike mods. I'm not lumping everyone in that category, but I wonder why the study didn't mention the casual RPers either.
___________~____________
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth. - Oscar Wilde
Quoted for Relevance
Do people not know what RPG stands for? Role Playing Game.
It means you are playing a game, correct? Yes and you are assuming the role of a character that is not you, correct? Well, MMORPG is valid as long as you are playing the role of another character. If you choose to play into that role and act that role is your choice, but it doesn't change the fact that it's still an RPG.
Using EQII as your test base is dubious at best. I agree with the above poster that Pre-NGE SWG would yield a far different result. Role-playing content creation takes talent and imagination, which is in woefully short supply with game designers anymore. It's easier to simply create content where players run the same instances over and over again or bang heads with each other to gain some ingame trinket. Current developers are simply too lazy to create virtual worlds.
"Soloists and those who prefer small groups should never have to feel like they''re the ones getting the proverbial table scraps, as it were." - Scott Hartsman, Senior Producer, Everquest II
"People love groups. Its a fallacy that people want to play solo all the time." - Scott Hartsman, Executive Producer, Rift
"Notably, the distribution of role playing was even across the different server types as labeled by the game company, i.e. there were no more or fewer role players on “Role Playing” servers than on those labeled for other playing types."
The study is about "Role Playing" and does not define "Hard-Core" as having any other meaning outside the context of "Role Playing" a character, literally.
Therefore, I would agree that "Role Playing" lightly in an RPG is common and "Role Playing" is an exuberant manner or Hard-Core fashion is less common.
Huh? Never got that impression. I felt people were complaining because they're oversimplifying the game in general.
And rpgs haven't been seriously mainstream as far as MMOs are concered. The Elder Scrolls, Mass Effect, etc... single player games do well, but for a long time you could only truly RP with others through forums or tabletop. Once the technology gets to the point where true roleplaying becomes viable or looks more than emotes or speaking certain ways the number of RPers will rise on many games.
Then again maybe if roleplayers, either in MMOs or IRL, weren't castigated or viewed in such negative lights games would be more than just playgrounds ruled by the majority where they feel bullied for their choice of hobby.
___________~____________
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth. - Oscar Wilde
The Great Giana Sisters ....loading
run
taking role of Giana character
crash boom bang,maan Roleplaying is fun.
Generation P
if we consider ALL the MMOs out there, 5% sounds like an overly inflated number
Online RPers are endangered species...thanks god for it....
If we only took WoW's subscription number of 12 million subscribers, that's 600k RPers. If we included every current MMORPG subscriber into that total, the number would be higher. Even if 5% is high balling the ratio of hardcore roleplayers out there, I'm still willing to bet there's still far greater than 500k hardcore roleplayers in the world.
There's most definitely an untapped market for a true roleplaying heavy MMORPG. Anyone that says otherwise can't see the forest through the trees.
Huh? Never got that impression. I felt people were complaining because they're oversimplifying the game in general.
Nah, most people are complaining how complicated and hard the raids are. Most PUG/guilds cannot clear ICCs.
wow imagine that,so can we now start calling these wannabe MMOrpgs to MMOtoys.
You have that backwards.
If anything, Themeparks are MMORPGs and Sandboxes are MMOToys. Themeparks are strong Games, whereas a true Sandbox is a Toy.
Products frequently called "sandbox" like EVE/DF actually have a considerable amount of Game to them. Although they're more Toy-like than Themeparks, there's still a lot of Game there.
Haven't played it but Second Life seems to be one of the few true Sandboxes, where it really is just a Toy of freeform interaction. Maybe players are free to create their own games within that Toy, but that's like creating a Game with a Toy Ball.
More on topic, I'm actually a little surprised RPers make up such a large (5%!) portion of the playerbase. I wish the report formatted properly (my copy of Word garbles it,) so I could see what they define as a role-player.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver