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MMORPG.COM News: Debate: Role-Playing in MMORPGs
Dana
Member Posts: 2,415
They're back! Garrett and Frank continue their weekly debate series today with the question of role-playing in MMORPGs. Garrett wants to see less discussion of taxes and more in-character discussion - they are mmoRPGs afterall. Frank doesn't agree.
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Garrett Fuller: Part of the fun of pencil and paper role-playing is acting out your characters actions. I can remember endless nights of D&D yelling and screaming as my wemic fighter. So, why is it in todays MMORPG games there is such a lack of role-playing? I am currently playing Warcraft. I play an orc which I think is great. I try to run around, be angry, kill any players I come across, the usual orc stuff. Yet, I find myself in guild chat talking about my bills, weekends, and work. Trust me its not that I want to talk about those subjects, it just seems to happen. |
Read on, then let us know where you stand!
Dana Massey
Formerly of MMORPG.com
Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
Comments
Dana Massey
Formerly of MMORPG.com
Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
Roleplaying will never be as big as people want it to be in an mmorpg until roleplaying somehow changes the game world. If the devs can figure that out, it will be quite a nice change. But until then, it's not even worth the effort.
I found one of Frank's comments interesting; namely that MMORPG's are a bad place for RP because they are so limited in rules, unlike D&D. People think that Pen-n-Paper (PNP) RPG's have fewer rules, mainly because they are more free to simply ignore the rules that are there. While there is more flexibility in roles in D&D than, say, WoW, that doesn't mean there aren't strict rules in D&D to follow; if you decide not to follow them, then you're simply not playing the same game anymore.
I do not think that games like WoW are the most shining examples of RP, because yes, the rules do not give you as much flexibility as other systems do. But that doesn't mean the idea itself is flawed, or doomed to failure.
It is my opinion that the most signifigant reason most games do not have signifigant amounts of RP is because the developers have chosen not to focus upon it. Why else would you have "Normal" servers, and then "RP" servers? I would like to see a game where the "RP" servers are the ones labelled "Normal", and the "PVP" ones are the ones set aside and made the minority.
I just want to say that roleplaying isn't about talking like Ol' English and pretending your a real orc while talking to other people. I speak french, if someone starts to talk that way I won't understand a single word. Roleplaying to me means npcs interacting with me like I'm part of a story.
I started playing Everquest 2 for the first time last month and made a Troll evil character and I LOVED the way the missions started. You had a bunch of Trolls NPC all dumbwitted giving you stuff to do, talking about food and telling you about the world in their mind. It was great, but having to do that myself? NEVER! I'd stop playing RPGs alltogether.
People talk about how there is no RP in RPGs well for me its the kind of thing like in Everquest that means RP and I love to have things like that. I never played Pen and Paper DnD and most MMORPG players haven't either (and find it dorkish, no offense). What I have played was the first Final Fantasy games, Lufia, Diablo and everything inbetween. It's always been my favorite type of games and telling me I have to talk in weird caracters and be part of the story means I can't relax, sit back and enjoy the game.
I do agree however that people shouldn't be talking about taxes in games... that's just depressing
mmorpg lets explore that
is stands for
Massive Multiplayer role playing game
role playing game
role playing
roleplaying is to put yourself in the position of something or someone else and playing there part.
that includes there mannerisims
there speach
there alignment
the reason there are normal servers and RPG servers so people dont have to roleplay
if you play on a roleplay server people expect you to be trying to roleplay
eqlives version of rp servers were pretty good it had special rules that made the wrold run more like it would if it were real there were languages enforced there wasent any certion thing as no trade or lore
but eq2's rp servers make it impossable its hard to loose yourself in the character when you have to ask what instance the rest of the group is in
its got no rp rulesets
accualy when the game started out 90% oft he people on the RP Prefered servers tryed to roleplay but with the game set so that it was way too hard and then there were tons of people that would choose of all some odd servers that are normal they would choose the RP prefered and then not rp and get upset when people complained thet they wern't roleplaying
why go to a roleplaying prefered server instead of the normals ones if you arnt going to roleplay at all
in the end people expect roleplaying in a massive multiplayer ROLE PLAYING GAME expecialy when they chose one of the few ROLEPLAY prefered servers
but i see games moveing away from roleplay quickly. when and if there is a next generation of everquest i seriously doubt there will be any RP servers at all
3rd time in a row I agree completely with Frank. However, Garrett has accurately described many genuine issues that make many games less immersive than they could be for someone interested in RP. I don't know what the solution are but I'm thinking a posibility would be making a game where you don't really chat but uses an Elder Scrolls style talking system where you choose what to say from prewritten lines and the options of what to say is limited by context. And this talking is graded by numbers that get higher with experience (just like stregnth and stamina do) and the higher it is the more stuff you can say and the better (or worse) you are treated by npcs. Something kind of like this would be good for those who truly want to roleplay with minimal offgame topics being communicated. I don't think every mmorpg should be like that but it wouldn't hurt to make just one to see if RPers like it.
Guild Wars 2 is my religion
Roleplaying exists in all MMORPGS, whether we notice it or not. The main problem with MMORPGS today is that roleplaying is not integrated enough into the environments in order to 'force' people to see it or use it, in a fun way of course.
Here's a few of my thoughts of how devs and game companies can improve this:
1) Dynamic environment
Two important things must happen before we'll see any major change in this area. One, all content has to be user manipulatable. (quests, land, buildings, location names, economy, items, GUILDS, trainers, teachers, skills, classes, libraries, etc). Some of this content is already changeable in most mmorpgs (items, buildings) but the majority of content is static. Second, tools have to be implemented in order to allow users to add/edit content.
This could only exist if there was some way to 'randomize', or limit the user content that is created, in such a way that only other players in the game could see or manipulate it (if necessary), to prevent cheating.
2) Character progression with integrated roleplaying
Instead of a 'forced' roleplaying event at a certain level, (eg. you hit level 6 and get no more xp until you do quest xxx), integrate the roleplaying into the experience gained. Make it tougher to gain experience the less you complete user created roleplaying content. This roleplaying content should be quests, tasks, events, even written content like guild applications, guild matters, etc. This way, players can still get their fulfillment of 'grinding' when they want.
Roleplaying content should be user generated. (User generated quests, tasks, events, etc) The tools mentioned earlier should allow users to freely generate content without upsetting the overall balance of the world.
Level progression should also rely on a persons communication or interaction with guilds, trainers, or teachers of some sort. Not everything a character learns should be free or self taught.
And also, the word 'Level' can have multiple meanings of course. (class level, skill level, etc)
3) Consequences and rewards
All actions that are conducted in the environment must have consequences, rewards, or at least some impact of some sort.
4) What if.. ?
What if permadeath exists, but the more you roleplay or use roleplaying tools (instead of the optional non-stop grinding) the less chance you have of perma-dying? (Imagine the impact this would have on bots, farmers, griefers, etc)
What if everyone started in an empty world (empty meaning no cities, buildings, but lots of rocks and trees..), with absolutely no content, except for user tools to create this environment? (A bit extreme but perhaps there could be a temporary 'startup' environment that vanishes as user created content appears)
I think that in order for any game to be RP oriented it has to be developed with RP in mind. The only game that I could think of that was developed in that fashion was Ultima Online.
The game didnt just concentrate on useful skill and on classes but on everything. In my opinion skill and RP systems are the best systems that anyone came up with to date.
1) It was easier to RP beacuse people got together and did something for the sake of going to the dungeon and not leveling.
2) There were over 100 different skills in the game avalable to anyone. Some of them had common uses, other were just something that was cool for RP but not paticularary useful. (like Spiritspeak, it allowed you to talk to people who were currently in the ghost state).
3) Death system if you die you turn into a ghost and generally people dont see you until you try speaking to them. Which was always kind of funny, because if you are in the and ghost appears next to you and they say something all you see is "OOOOOOooooo OOOOO OOO oooo" and it is up to you to figure what they are trying to say.
4) NO TELL SYSTEM. I think it is a single most important thing about a game that is supposed to be RP oriented. People can't just talk in game without being within visible distance of each other. I know that a lot of you say that it is stupid and such, but that is what made taverns, banks and forges are useful places to gather. You would not just go /ooc LF Blacksmith, you would have to check forges and bank to see who is there.
5) Player Run Economy last but no least, one of the most important aspects of RP MMO. You have to empower the community to be self sufficient. Blacksmiths, tailors, scribes, alchemists all were in demand and very useful; were they able to craft best stuff in the game? no they were not, but they could definately craft 2nd best.
I am sure that a lot of you will not agree with me on some or all points, but that is just my 2 cents.
This debate missed the point of roelplaying servers. Most people do not join RP servers to RP but rather to avoid the children that populate others servers and in hope that an rp server might be slightly more mature.
I really think its time a game gives people want they want and thats not rp servers but mature servers so we can be protected from infantile behavior. I don't mind the people under 18 generally they are not as loud or obnoxious as the children in the 18-25 year old range that have often have the overwhelming need to express themselves in the loudest and most obnoxious way possible. While these people may be a small minority of the community their voices are large and their actions cause major problems for many people. Many of us simply do not want to play babysitter for some loud 25 year old no nothing obnoxious child.
While adult servers of over 30 or 35 seem appealing on its face at least IMO they will not work. There are lots of mature 25 year olds that act and behave like adults that would be excluded by an age server. Breaking up friendships, guilds and excluding good people makes little sense. Rather what is needed are behavior specific servers that have harsh penalties for immature behavior such as using profanity, leet speak, trash talk, general rudeness, kill stealing or any type of griefing, rude behavior or exploiting. An extra fee would be essential to excluding a lot of offenders.
Gamers are getting older. 20% of active gamers are over 50 years old. The average age is well over 30. We don't want to baby-sit other peoples children in real life and certainly do not want to pay to do it in a game. I am sure our company may be just as offensive if not more to them. There is a growing age gap between gamers. Mature gamers expect different behavior than younger gamers. While RP servers are nice its becoming time to give people what they want.
I certainly do not mean any offense to younger people. We have all been there before and made our share of youthful mistakes. But most of us would rather just not go back to that age again.
there was once a game in developement that would have been like this. sadly, it seems to have been canceled
and zippy, i take great offense at you comments as i am 17. i also say that that sort of thing would be incredibly difficult to implement and that pvp REQUIRES killing so that sort of thing would make pvpers very angry
Roleplay is sure important, why? simple, it let the game experience more rich. when a mean roleplay a mean not only the aspect of the players roleplaying their chars, but also the scenery, the interactionwith it, and the npcs. We might call it the atmosphere of the game wich delivers the immersion.
Here in Brasil, I play Ragnarok Online (bRO), a game that don't have a rp server, but have a fair goodand large community of roleplayers with several clans. The rp on ragnarok, wich is limited to interactions with other players, and de building of histories, fanfics... Let the game more rich and more fun.
Now if we talk about a game with rp server, then we talk about many people roleplaying, and this for a rp player is a awesome experience.
A few ruleset, for rp or servers of roleplay, helps a lot and solve any kind of problem that could arise, principality the rule of ON and OFF, where On is the character talking and Off is the player. On Ragnarok we use also the "[ ]" to split the On and Off. (talks inside the "[ ]" are considered off, so if some one ask me something and I am on the middle of a roleplay session, the I would use this toanswer him, while I continue roleplaying.
(as a side note, the off on bRO rp sessions is also used to by the rp players to make comments, ask questions about the rp, and so).
Sure, with won't be a better experience that the "pencil and paper" rpg, but sure, the rpg on MMO stills very good thing.
Today, many games, focus only on the pvp/championships/loot/gain level, with the rpg on later position, nothing wrong with that, for those how like is sure its good.
But I don't think that all is lost, or the rpg will gone of the mmo, no even close, from what I have read of Guild Wars, per exemple, it appers have a very good storyline/main quest, that could be very good for roleplayer. Also have for what I read on the offical site of L2, a large community of rp players,and many exemples could be bringed on.
I've seen two types of roleplaying - social and game-mechanic. There is a distinct difference.
The game has to be deisgned for social roleplaying - reward for effort (XP or some intrinsic "funness"). This means also other activities - such as crafting. NWN persistent worlds does this, Horizons to a lesser degree, but Adellion may carry the torch (perhaps Hero's Journey too). I like Glorwing's motto, "create more fun for others than yourself."
Shadowbane is the near perfect game-mechanic RP game. There are lots of player conveniences for its PvP style. Social roleplaying is certainly not the goal as most players will seek to level their toon to enjoy the game-mechanic playstyle (healer, mage blaster, melee tank, etc.).
Lets look at a possible extreme of a game-mechanic roleplaying game. Don't need the frills of NPCs - could have simple objects to represent merchants and trainers. Don't need the frills of towns or such - players will be more intent on PvP. Have static spawns of monsters for toons to easily level on and other toons to PvP at. Thus more emphasis could be placed on class (or skill-set) balancing. So Shadowbane is a great game-mechanic RPing game.
The only compromise would be social RP servers and normal servers. Let the players decide with proper oversight by game masters. The downside is stretching resources over the two distinct styles of game-play. I'd figure with WoW's size there would be distinct social RP servers (even heavily enforced).
IMO MMORPGs would benefit very much from a more enriched RP system, but there are flaws in game mechanics and the amount of money the company actually cares to put into the game. The major problem is that any game company is going to put out a product thats just good enough for you to play, why spend loads of extra money to please that small group of people who want to roleplay, or the majority of the people who think it would be 'cool'.
I used to play Bioware's Neverwinter Nights online in heavy RP servers. The biggest thing these servers had going for them was the amount of GM interaction between the players. The players interact with the story, but the story isnt linear . . its dynamic. Most of the time the story is made up on the spot by the GM and he/she helps guide the player through the story. This is fundamentally missing in MMORPGs, and to actually include this would require a very heavy financial input by the producer/developers, but this could be avoided by hiring Game masters that administrate the server and get paid, then having community volunteers that help guide a storyline. .
Sure you can "Roleplay" with your friends, doing little things as such, but when the GM gets involved its about 10000000x better than doing it alone. "Hey buddy lets go out into the forest and wander around a bit" and all of a sudden in the forest a DM spawns a party of goblins ( that he could even control). Or perhaps a very powerful vampire apears in the city and does some evil acts. Then the characters have to hunt him down.
Now there are even flaws in this idea. The biggest is how do you control the hundreds of people that can be in one place at a time . . you really cant. The second problem is actually with the players, if you are a roleplayer it is your job to understand the lore behind the game. This was a common problem even in NWN, if a god apears before you . . you dont sit there and ask him the meaning of life. You are in either extreme amounts of fear or an extreme level of awe , so much so that you cant talk . . think or do anything. That is the power a god has over you.
Roleplaying has to be something that a player is willing to do and learn. If player were given motivation to learn this stuff, then perhaps it would work in game. Interactions with a positive interaction with a GM could benefit the player very much, while a negative one could hurt you. Even though players arent used to any real consequences in game, there should be some. If you piss of a GM, if you dont follow the rules . . you should be punished ( and this includes permi-death).
Just a couple ideas, sorry if the thoughts seem scattered about
Ok, nothing more annoying then running around trying to get ready for a raid and needing that one item.... and who would have but someone whos shouting, "If thou would like to buy my [Gnome Poop] thee can cometh to the bank.!" I mean hell, good for them and their little community but leave me out of it. Back in UO I would visit the renown RP town of skara just to piss these people off. Running around shouting I'm a fairy who can grant wishes and leading the little pricks outside town to their quick death. I suppose RPers at least add a little flavor to some games, at least the ones you can lead them outside of a town and kill them at. Its great once they die, it seems that they suddenly learn how to speak regular ole english as a fountain of obscene words pour out of their mouth. I just don't get whats so great about RPing, sure in D&D pen and paper its a must, you have to imagine this world your in, however, in a game like WoW or any other the world is there for you. It saves you the trouble of actually having to think too hard about something. I've had many friends go to RP guilds and say how great it is, URK in UO for instance, telling me how great the game is again. I tried it.... sat in the woods shouting at the rare passerby to give me there gold....... and if they didn't give it to me I'd kill them... but I got to thinkin, it was a lot more fun when I was killing the people RPing and laughing at there ghost then I was actually being one. To those of you out there who RP, I tip my hat to you, KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK! And may the words out of your mouth always be OOoOOoOOoOOOOoOO oOoOOoO.
LegacyHax
Personally, I and all my friends are all about the RP'ing in the MMOs we play. Started in SWG, then EVE-Online, then City of Heroes, City of Villains, and soon DDO. Sure, we don't always RP...we aren't always in the mood for it. When things just go horribly, horribly wrong, and you're all just lying there on the floor, role-playing doesn't even enter my mind; at that point, it's more along the lines of "Well...s**t. Hospital?"
I am very much in favor of the creation of "official" RP servers. It's my understanding that DAoC has these; if I understand correctly, they actually monitor what people are saying & doing on these servers, and if someone reports you for whining about how their at-work tech support team crashed their football pool, well...you're gonna get nailed. I fully support this. I recognize that the creation of dedicated RP servers implies a certain responsibility to the devs to "police" it...so I'm also in favor of, in lieu of creating dedicated servers, creating a "flag" that players can put up over their virtual heads whenever they feel like RP'ing. IIRC, SWG used to have something like this. (I haven't played since Pre-CU...that's another forum altogether.
) That way, you can look around a room and see "aha, that guy over there wouldn't mind a conversation...but I probably shouldn't try that chick in the corner, no matter how many flirty emotes s/he fires off."
And even though we're dedicated, die-hard RP'ers, we never ever exclude those who aren't. Doing that is every bit as rude as...well, as refusing to RP when one has knowingly logged into an official RP server. (*ahem*) When I play CoH, I regularly field questions and issues from people who are not RP'ing in the least, and that's just fine with me. I make it a point to try to stay in-character myself, insofar as I can while still being able to help the other guy.
And really, folks...RP can be worked into virtually any possible circumstance. All it takes is a little imagination. The game doesn't have to provide it for you; hell, the game doesn't even have to reward you for it. To quote the (Nike) bard, "Just do it." My friends & I roleplay because we enjoy it. Can our characters do everything we imagine them as being capable of? No, of course not; they're subject to the rules of the game in which they've been created. To reference an item from the article, creating a character a'la Gandalf (who can wield wizardry as well as a mighty longsword) is a grand leap indeed; I heartily recommend you check out the Silmarillion. Gandalf is the LotR equivalent of an angel.
That said, if you set your mind on one particular character or character type, and simply refuse to ever consider playing something else...log out of the MMO, uninstall it from your hard drive, and see if you can't sell your account on eBay or something. Go play something else. The point of the game is not to be Gandalf; the point of the game is to create YOUR OWN legend. Be YOUR OWN character. "Gandalf? Yeah, he's cool & all, but he's way over yonder, doesn't interact with us over on this continent. But have you heard about Melegaunt? Now THERE'S a mage...!" It's the same disease that seems to be infecting City of Heroes (and to be honest, has since it launched). Everytime you turn around--even now, this far out from launch--you WILL see at least one Wolverine clone. For god's sake, people...grow an imagination. Create something. Even if you don't want to RP (as I realize this rant has gone far afield, apologies), at least be original. Don't expect to be able to recreate someone else's published work, and even if you can, don't expect it to work the same way it did in the book/movie/TV show/porno.
In closing, I ask those who actively deride us RP'ers...why the hate? Is it jealousy? Did your mother not love you enough? Did you flunk out of creative writing? Seriously...live & let live. I answer your queries about why so-and-so won't spawn when you keep doing the thing that won't make him spawn, and in return, you stop shouting on broadcast "NI**A NOOB!!!" Please?
IHO my concept of role playing is immersing your character into the game world. Things that I see in a myraid of MMOGs I have played that decimate role playing experiences are:
1. Names - You wanna play a swashbuckler lad or mysterious sorceror and in your travels you come across a fellow adventurer aptly named "Leg0laz" or "L33t". From a role playing sense, I do not know of any lore that a mom would name their kid that. Perhaps a scifi setting in a robotic character of some sort, but in a fantasy setting? A true role playing game should allow players either to choose from a long selective list, or submit your name for GM approval prior to activitating your character.
2. Camping for static spawns / rare drops - or Camping a spot in a dungeon/zone - a role playing game world should have quests of a dynamic nature. Farming is for farmers. Anyone see Indiana Jones sit in one spot for hours swatting cobras with his whip to "improve his skill/level" or receive a badge for Cobra killing? DDO has the best model so far - experience awarded for completion of the mission. How the mission is acomplished is up to you. (Just kinda wished the instances were randomized, but that is another topic.)
3. Chat system - while chat is the crux of community in MMOGs, in RPGs there has to be limitations. Previous members of MMORPG.COM talked about removing tells. I say keep the tells (for "whispers" but only to nearby players). Modify global chats. A shout only goes so far (perhaps the same range as a /yell for help?). Perhaps a guild discovers a means to craft communication devices (to enable guild chat). A player discovers an item which bestows psychic abilities (global tells enabled). Trade chats are gone. A bazaar or Horizon Consignement NPC is adequate to meet this need.
4. Bring back real racial traits - The Chronicle seems to be aiming for this goal. An Ogre is healthier, stronger, dumber and slower. A Halfling is faster, nimble, weaker and squishy. For those yearning game balance, it should calculated as such. For every time the big oaf swings for 10 - 20 damage, the halfing swings 5 times for 2-4 damage.yadda yadda yadda. While this is more mechanical than role playing per se, it helps me immerse myself into my character knowing my halfling just simply can't do what an ogre can do and he cant do what I can do - even though we are both fighters.
5. Alignments - actions mean conquences. How many games have you played and they ask you for an alignment only to see nothing come of it? EQ Wood Elf Druids camping dwarven guards for experience? These are supposed to be stewards of nature? Alignments should flag a players activities. You relish in backstabbing others into oblivion? You become evil at least and NPC reactions are adjusted accordingly. Again, if The Chronicle lives up to their promise of alignments, role players might rejoice.
I would love to go on, but I thnk I have bored you all enuf.
There's a lot of MMOs that just aren't suited for RP. I don't feel the need to RP if all there is to do is grind. But the main reason I don't go to RP servers is because the people RPing just sound like idiots. They just ramble on and on in old english. Just shut up. I don't need to be constantly reminded that your RPing. It shouldn't feel so fake. Then they yell at you for saying things like "Where are we going?" or "What the hell are you talking about" because it's not full of references to your father, Thangon the VII, the King of the Seventh Forest of the Orange Shrub of Tom the III, son of Thom, the King of.....
There's a reason most people don't RP. Shit like is just boring. I couldn't put up with that for a hour, let alone a year. I had to go to the RP server in MxO to go to this meeting on their server. Ugh, it was hard to listen to. The chat box was flooded with bullshit. They take 10 sentences to explain that their guy is looking at a painting or smoking. Just talk like a normal f**king person.
I think it should be exactly like how everyone else is talking, just without the references to real life. I think a lot of people would rather do that.
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I think that roleplaying should never be enforced, only encouraged. I love roleplaying, absolutely love it. But I don't want it forced on anyone else, nor do I want game mechanics to reward players for it. I just want the game to give me lots of tools to use for roleplaying.
I want for me and other players to have tools to use to act things out. I mean, if I went to a play and saw the actor just stand there and say "pulls out a pipe and sticks it in mouth", I'd be more than a little disappointed. Roleplaying would be much enhanced by having lots of things to interact with in the game world. UO is always the great example of this, with all the things you could do in the game.
Any game I play I expect to be built for RP. If others don't want to, that's fine with me, but I want RP to be a major part of how the game is made. It's my money, and I'm not spending it on any games right now because they aren't roleplaying games. They're a mixed bag of baseball card collections and sporting events, but not roleplaying games. They (developers) say that it's what you make of it. But it's not, it's what they make of it.
Once upon a time....
I agree 100% with what you are saying that you have to have a reason to do things. Like, if you want to be a hero, you should be recognized for it. Assassin, have fun.
Thats why, as an added character creation and interaction tool I have been working on a character motivation ideal. Along with your class(es) or other important character aspects, you get to pick your motivation.
Sure, I want to be a "Mage" or a "Warrior" but do I actually WANT to be that great hero? or do I want to be a vegabond, killing people who are walking through my turf in the forest. Do I want to be that great hero that sets out to right those wrongs that the vegabonds put forth? or maybe I only studied in the arcane arts to help with my herbalism; I found it hard to be a peasant in the wild, so I studied the arcane arts, much like people in real life study martial arts, to defend myself.
Either way, people should have more than a class, name, and statistics. People should have a feeling that their character has a reason for their actions, and a reward or consequence for those actions.
There are many of us (indie mostly) developers who are looking for new aspects of what a character should consist of, and I find it great that you are getting the players to think about it as well.
Bravo
I dont know what you guys are talking about with the Old English RPing. The only game thats even really appropriate in would be UO. Even there, nobody I RPed with ever spoke in Old English. You guys making things up again?
There needs to be roleplaying in games. Seriously they could just start calling all these MMORPGs MMOGs instead because the Role-playing aspect has been non-existant. Also,if games had more role-playing then you wouldn't seem to point at them and say freak,you'd hopefully acknowledge them in another way.
"The one who begins with nothing, gains everything slowly."
What is up with non-RPers always thinking that RP involves shakespearian english? Ive been RPing since the 70s and can say that I have not once spoken in such a language. RP isn't so much about assuming a voice in that way, but more about taking part in a story that happens paralell to the adventure. If you've ever read any of R. Howard's origional Conan books, you will find a distinct lack of shakespear and flowery language, and you will find the drama, action, revenge, and sadistic plots that can make role playing fun.
The best game for RP ive found was Neverwinter Nights. Though not exactly a MMOG, many servers try to get as close as they can to one. Some ofe them are poorly handled, with DMs trying to force certain kinds of RP, but there are a few gems out there.
Roleplay in a MMOG can take on several forms. In games like NWN, you have drama on the level of daytime soap operas, where boy meets girl, fall in love, then get wrapped up in a love triangle, or someones mysterious past threatens the relationship-- all the while the city needs to be defended from the orcs outside and the badit lair needs to be cleared out. It makes what would otherwise be monotonous grinding considerably more interesting. You can get wrapped up in this kind of drama, it can move you emotionaly, and you can get up and get away from it any time you need to, unlike RL drama. It's great.
Other forms of roleplay can center around political negotiations, or buisiness relations. Eve Online is perfect for this type of play. No one gives you any cheezy "Thees" or "Thous". You're negotiating for controll over territories, getting larger corporations to back you up in those tight spots, avoiding or initiating all out warfare, or just trying to get the best margins on some products by connecting buyers and sellers. Its almost a PvP roleplay situation, where everyone's trying to come out of it with the better deal.
RP is not about the cheese, it's about the story, about taking your mind off the grind. And be careful where you spray that geek repellant, since you're playing MMOGs, you yourself are highly vulnerable to its effects
http://erickveil.com/
Some points I thought about after a nice long night of sleep
The reason I (and most people) play those games is to not have to Think. To have a story unravel before them with the possibility to make some small choices that affect it. It's called passive entertainment. There is plenty of RP in most RPGs. The problem is that most games aren't immersive enough.
What needs to be done is simple, you can't control people to RP themselves, that's just dumb because it would make the majority that wants to have the story read to them leave the game. No company in their right mind is going to do that. What needs to be done is make the story more involved with the NPCs words being affected by who you are and what you have done.
What I always wished to see in a MMORPG is making a character and having the possibility to make him turn Good, Evil or Neutral by my choices and actions in the game. Having NPCs react to me a certain way because of it and having some parts of the game denied to me and others opened for making certain choices.
I'm going to make it a bit more concrete as an idea for the next generation of games. Make a system with a -10 to +10 of Moral, everyone starting at 0.
You get your first quest and you have 2 way to finish it instead of 1. You could, as an example, save a kidnapped child from a band of orc or when reaching the cave you could decide to join up with them and do a mission for them instead of that one.
Then, because of that decision your rating as dropped to -1 and the way you talk is affected by it. You don't sound as neutral as before, you get more 'evil' choices as you drop in your Moral. NPCs start to fear you, some lower their price, some don't want to deal with you anymore, some start to love the way you act etc...
RP doesn't have to be about people talking weirdly when you want to trade, not many people want to spend that kind of energy into a game. All they need to do is make the game more immersive. Games would become so... wow, i can't even imagine how great and addictive they would become. I'd love my own -10 Evil character that can kill damsel in distress and burn down houses
I enjoy roleplaying, but I seldom do it.
Writing and roleplaying doesn't go along together, roleplaying have to be intuitive. If someone write and I read their stuff...well, it take away a lot.
Roleplaying was never the first reason for me to play a game, I enjoy it, but I doesn't need it.
In voice over stuff, well...understanding folks from Texas in a group is a nightmare!
I like to try however. If you want to absolutely enforce roleplaying, I doesn't think it is going to help. Eh, figure me, a Texan, a Japanese, a British and a Turk grouping with a Bresilian...now that is going to be weird, especially that why does the Elf have a texan accent while the last time it was an orc who have such an accent (or why is the elf the only guy without an accent and the whole world have differents accents)? 
Roleplaying is nice, an extra, something I enjoy. But it is not something I have to get or that I need. Especially if Voice Over bring lag.
To be immersive, roleplaying would need some restrictive options. Example, on server A, everyone talking with such accent are automatically halflings, on server B they are Elfs and so on. Now, that would prolly be hard to get into place, how can you actually make sure that everyone with a precise accent play the right races on the right server? Voluntary won't work, as friends will want to be differents races on the same server even assuming they all got the info fast and without troubles. You would need a questionaire as to what is their primary language and than set them firm on which server allow them to play which races, that way it would be immersive. Even if a Japanese talk a perfect english with no accent, culturally it would be immersive that he is the race who usually have the Japanese accent, even if overcome it...which seldome happen. I know I still bring my frenglish everywhere!
Not to mention that in the name of roleplaying, you would now face more racists issues, as folks will know who belong to which minority groups more easily...some customers would say it is racists to limit them on a server to ANY race no matter what you say...it can be done, but it needs folks who are ready for it.
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren