Opinion: Roleplaying in MMOs is kind of boring. That's why I love it. | MMORPG.com

System · October 2023

Opinion: Roleplaying in MMOs is kind of boring. That's why I love it. | MMORPG.com

Role-playing games are an excellent vessel for escapism, and for many of us it's because we can shed our real-life identities to take the role of someone else. Sometimes that can be...boring, though. However, Philip explores precisely why he loves it that way.

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Slapshot1188 · October 2023

The tools just arent really there for actual role playing in an MMO. They move too fast and our feedback/interactions with each other are too limited.

Wordsworth · October 2023

Loved RP in my kin in LoTRO and hated it in every other game.

Part of it was the people and part was LoTRO has the best RP tools and world for RPing in a virtual world

Nanfoodle · October 2023

I still join RP servers when I can. RP in a MMO is all about the people and you dont need tools. I have been in MMOs that had no emotes and we just role played with text chat. Some of the most fun moments MMOing have been RP. I get its not for everyone but I started RP with PnP when I was a kid. I will be doing it when I am 80 =-)

gameplayingmonkey · October 2023

I don't think I've actually RP'd in an MMORPG in probably 10+ years but I still always play on RP servers when given the option because the general player ambiance and extra flavor makes the experience so much better.

cameltosis · October 2023

I feel like the authors definition of roleplaying is a bit too narrow. What is being desribed is what I think of as "personality roleplaying", and yeh, it's usually pretty boring in terms of mechanics, and hard to find when you want to reform roleplay with other people.

But there are lots of other types of roleplaying, and some MMORPGs do that really well.

For me personally, I love combat roles. I love it when a game has lots of different roles that are clearly distinguished. I feel like the combat role feeds in really well to overall personality roleplaying.

For that reason, I do most of my roleplaying in PvP!

I'm currently back in WAR, playing my black orc. I'm a tank, and the physically biggest character. This very much encourages me to push the frontline, to be the first to charge the enemy, to engage in the WAAAAGGGHHH! It's definitely a sub-optimal way to play, I'd probably do better being a bit more conservative......but im a huge orc! It's so much fun to charge the enemy and see them scatter!

Likewise, when I play stealth characters, I tend to play solo and go looking for fun 1v1s. Again, somewhat sub-optimal, I'd be better off either joining a small squad of stealthers, or hanging out on the outskirts of the big battles picking off injured enemies. But being a sneaky bastard feels like it should be a solo thing, that's the role, so thats how i play.

eoloe · October 2023

The best RP IMO is in a sandbox environment.

Eve Online comes to mind.

SenbonFan · October 2023

The closest thing to RP I ever got in an MMO was Kingdom Heroes, and it was really because it was pushed hard by the game to sorta do that. Was the leader of one of the largest guilds on the Wu factions, and we had five really good guilds in total that everyone sort of looked to as the leaders. This led to us sort of being the "War Council" whenever city capturing was required, and determining what we would do/who should go where. It was all really hard to coordinate since this was pre-discord era, but it worked.

On account of being one of the few people playing the Tactician Class, and one of the few people legitimately good at the subclass that specifically utilized a full array of NPC soldiers, I ended up coming up with a lot of the positioning and stuff before the wars started, and my guild also contributed a lot of resources for ship building, siege weapons, etc despite a lot of us having more time than money and being truly new players (There were veteran players from the non-global launch that played on the Aeria servers too).

A lot of it felt like being in character, especially during PvP, but even during PvE since most of our grinding was to help Wu as a whole rather than ourselves lol.

Lithuanian · October 2023

Never into roleplay, because it means same as...well...writing some big novel. You know, 400-600 pages big.
First part is easy: pick race, class. Whatever you like.
Second part: name. Now, google search starts. Your name must be in accordance to Lore (in-game + your own story). Which means you should have some story right now.

And then the fun begins. You are expected to know the story of your race and at least basic of your class. For example, as a Dwarf you should know BhaghashThurgazh the Second is not BhahhashTurgaz the Second and don't you dare to forget that Dhumdumbumsharz the Smoketeeth moved Dwarven minstrel HQ from Bhatazh to Oghurtuz! As an Elf - yes, it's quite easy to remember almost all rulers, to know [Lotro case] both main dialects.

This is just the background. Since you are to interact with others, you should know same about all other races. Otherwise any Human would be grumpy if you miss Denethur I with Denethor I and forget Amathong the Shiny who invented lute.

Now, that you know all lore, easiest task is before you: to create your own story and act in accordance. You did not just fell from the sky/Void.

So (in my opinion) once you got all this - feel free to become other person, interact to other 'other-persons' ir roleplay way.

That's why it was never for me and never would be.

Amaranthar · October 2023

Lithuanian said:

Never into roleplay, because it means same as...well...writing some big novel. You know, 400-600 pages big.
First part is easy: pick race, class. Whatever you like.
Second part: name. Now, google search starts. Your name must be in accordance to Lore (in-game + your own story). Which means you should have some story right now.

And then the fun begins. You are expected to know the story of your race and at least basic of your class. For example, as a Dwarf you should know BhaghashThurgazh the Second is not BhahhashTurgaz the Second and don't you dare to forget that Dhumdumbumsharz the Smoketeeth moved Dwarven minstrel HQ from Bhatazh to Oghurtuz! As an Elf - yes, it's quite easy to remember almost all rulers, to know [Lotro case] both main dialects.

This is just the background. Since you are to interact with others, you should know same about all other races. Otherwise any Human would be grumpy if you miss Denethur I with Denethor I and forget Amathong the Shiny who invented lute.

Now, that you know all lore, easiest task is before you: to create your own story and act in accordance. You did not just fell from the sky/Void.

So (in my opinion) once you got all this - feel free to become other person, interact to other 'other-persons' ir roleplay way.

That's why it was never for me and never would be.

Sounds to me like you missed your calling.

Amaranthar · October 2023

eoloe said:

The best RP IMO is in a sandbox environment.

Eve Online comes to mind.

I think Sandbox adds a lot to the RP experience.
Even simple things like making a campfire adds a lot to the atmosphere of the moment.
Imagine making a long banquet table and chairs, plates full of foods, pitchers of drinks and glasses, all for a Guild meeting in the Guildhall.

(The above was an example from UO, where players could eat that food up, fill their glasses with drink from pitchers and drink it down, and then cook up more food and put it on the plates and refill the pitchers.)

Kazola's Tavern was run by a player, and had players as servers.
Good times. Even Lord British (Richard Garriott's special character that actually had his face) went to Kazola's Tavern once. He placed a plaque on the wall to honor the first player run tavern.

cheyane · October 2023

I roleplayed in Everquest 2 as an interior decorator . I was quite successful in my opinion of course. So dedicated was I that I even used some rare gems meant for crafting spells to make some lamp or vase I forget which to better showcase my home for when people came to buy things and then commission me to decorate their homes. Players with loads of platinum and poor decorating skills. Always fun to play with other people's money. I miss that part of gaming so much.

I roleplay in almost every game as I am always imagining things in my head as to why I am killing or doing a quest and then proceed to making that interesting and fun for me. I feel roleplaying can even be done in single player games or MMORPGs where you're playing mostly on your own. It's all in your head and I sincerely enjoyed it in City of Heroes where my back story and subsequent actions we always crafted again with my imagination to fit the missions I would do.

I recall when I first landed in Teldrassil how full my heart felt and how much that place resonated with the storyteller in me. I immersed myself so thoroughly in the lore and loved it that I hardly felt the time pass, you can roleplay in WoW. I did.

It does not have to be grand and overreaching to be roleplaying nor does it have to be witnessed if you are constantly crafting a story. Some people will argue that fixed roles and story quests cannot be roleplaying but I feel they are if you immerse yourself as I often do especially so in SWTOR. I felt so much like I was that Chiss operative and I had my own moral code in spite of being in the Empire and I didn't follow the script. Well within what confines I could manouevre out of. There are always ways to imagine even in a cell as your mind is free.

There are so many rich games that can augment your imagination. I don't feel threatened by games that have fixed paths or lore that can interfere. I always find a way to work my own narrative. Of course I am pretty adaptable and not very strict in my roleplaying and will never try to assault anyone with my roleplaying unless they are similarly interested.... that sounded vaguely like an erotic roleplaying session. Ahh that's roleplayig too albeit of a very narrow scope but fun I presume.

Scot · October 2023

In a solo video game RPG you are not roleplaying, that is pure immersion. Would an actor who just said his lines to himself at home call that acting? But you do get tabletop solo rpg's and the fans of those would say I am way out there, so it is open for debate.

Here are some tips to making sure roleplaying works for you. Investigate the lore of the world, do not pick a name like "Scar Machete” this could be a must have in a post apocalyptic MMO (like Philip goes on to mention), but in the likes Lotro it is going to put roleplayers off.

Join a guild that does roleplaying, say you are new to this, they will give you all the advice you will need. Avoid ones which want a two page background for every avatar you have, less intense rp guilds will call themselves something like a 'casual RP' guild and mention other interests as well.

Chugging along solo and hoping to bump into players who want to RP was something you could do back in the days of Asherons Call but even by the time Lotro (the best RP server MMO ever) launched that was becoming a non-starter.

Get a feel for the lore of your race and the history of the lore in the game. That is actually very easy these days, most modern MMOs don't put out more than the equivalent of a page or two of A4 lore wise.

If you are looking for roleplaying I recommend WoW, Lotro and ESO. That will require more reading, but your guild can steer you right on some quick reads. In Lotro there were essential guides to races in the forums, I did one for Dwarves, Elves and Hobbits myself in fact.

gameplayingmonkey · October 2023

Lithuanian said:

Never into roleplay, because it means same as...well...writing some big novel. You know, 400-600 pages big.

I suppose what you've said is a sort of standard or general expectation but I don't think its really the case for A LOT of potential characters. How many characters would realistically need to know deep lore and histories off the top of their head? How many characters would really even care about these things?

When I roleplayed long ago I played several 'light' or comedy characters in juxtaposition to the wordy and serious ones. Characters such as;

- a jawless undead who was unable to speak and had to use hand signals to communicate

- a greedy goblin whose sole purpose in life was to sell nonsense items at inflated prices with riddling and confusing wordplay

- a street performer that donned various outfits to play various entertainment roles on the street, ie mime, 'cult' salesman, circus act, etc

Thinking back now I'm not sure if even most of the more extensive roles I played really required me to go out of my way to write/read a lot beforehand, like barkeeper, warband soldier, alien scientist or northern barbarian. Possibly my experiences were 'sub-par' but I can't say I felt that way about it too often.

What I mean to say is that I feel like a lot of MMO goers tend to look at roleplaying in a very black and white NO RP vs HARDCORE RP, but theres a ton of fun, flavorful and lore appropriate roles to play before you start getting into the novel writing hardcore turbo-nerd stuff.

ShinyFlygon · October 2023

If you just run around bumping into randos, hoping for the best, you are setting yourself up for failure (and boredom).

To RP properly, all you have to do is join an RP guild. Most of them are somewhat structured, and the good ones offer regular group activities and other RP opportunities.

Angrakhan · October 2023

I enjoyed RP back in the day, but sadly to do it well takes time. Currently that is a commodity I lack. Maybe after I retire from the corporate world I can afford to spend a couple of hours spinning yarns at the tavern again.

[Deleted User] · October 2023

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Sovrath · October 2023

Scot said:

In a solo video game RPG you are not roleplaying, that is pure immersion. Would an actor who just said his lines to himself at home call that acting?

If they were working on a scene then yes.

An actor just doesn’t repeat lines. They explore motivations, find ways “into the scene, match physical gestures and motions with words and subtext.

I recorded my girlfriend for an audition and while I’ve acted I had never scene a process like this before. Then again she studied for many years and made her living as an actor for many years.

when I play a single player game I sometimes “act.” It is part of immersion but it also encompasses a lot more.

Amaranthar · October 2023

Sovrath said:

Scot said:

In a solo video game RPG you are not roleplaying, that is pure immersion. Would an actor who just said his lines to himself at home call that acting?

If they were working on a scene then yes.

An actor just doesn’t repeat lines. They explore motivations, find ways “into the scene, match physical gestures and motions with words and subtext.

I recorded my girlfriend for an audition and while I’ve acted I had never scene a process like this before. Then again she studied for many years and made her living as an actor for many years.

when I play a single player game I sometimes “act.” It is part of immersion but it also encompasses a lot more.

Well, in an MMORPG there's the Lore and happenings among players and such to draw on. So yes, I see that point.
But you can also simply RP the moment with other players.
I knew one player who roleplayed a terrible flirt with the female characters, and was entertaining at it. At one point, he was roleplaying a relationship with a female who was running for the RP city council. One day in the bank I started teasing him about
> HIM, settling down? I don't believe it, and all the fanciful flirting he was going to miss. I didn't believe my eyes, etc., etc. etc. ... <

So he takes this rare leather that was from a GM event, cuts it up! Then makes me a cloak (which carried over the rare leather name with it as well as the unique color) and gave it to me, going "Shhhh."

That was some fun roleplay, and he tossed in something of actual value on EBay (maybe $30).

Scot · October 2023

Amaranthar said:

Sovrath said:

Scot said:

In a solo video game RPG you are not roleplaying, that is pure immersion. Would an actor who just said his lines to himself at home call that acting?

If they were working on a scene then yes.

An actor just doesn’t repeat lines. They explore motivations, find ways “into the scene, match physical gestures and motions with words and subtext.

I recorded my girlfriend for an audition and while I’ve acted I had never scene a process like this before. Then again she studied for many years and made her living as an actor for many years.

when I play a single player game I sometimes “act.” It is part of immersion but it also encompasses a lot more.

Well, in an MMORPG there's the Lore and happenings among players and such to draw on. So yes, I see that point.
But you can also simply RP the moment with other players.
I knew one player who roleplayed a terrible flirt with the female characters, and was entertaining at it. At one point, he was roleplaying a relationship with a female who was running for the RP city council. One day in the bank I started teasing him about
> HIM, settling down? I don't believe it, and all the fanciful flirting he was going to miss. I didn't believe my eyes, etc., etc. etc. ... <

So he takes this rare leather that was from a GM event, cuts it up! Then makes me a cloak (which carried over the rare leather name with it as well as the unique color) and gave it to me, going "Shhhh."

That was some fun roleplay, and he tossed in something of actual value on EBay (maybe $30).

That's why I said it is open to debate, if you have solo TT RPG's how is that not roleplaying? I just associate roleplaying with human interaction so for me it is not in the same category.

In some ways you are preparing for the role by reading the lore. And I have to say some table top role-players are bad at this, especially as you don't need to (for example) read all the works of Tolkien to play in a Lotr game. You find some players think all they need to bring to the table is themselves and their wonderful personality, indeed you can see this in Live Streams of table top.

Amaranthar · October 2023

Scot said:

Amaranthar said:

Sovrath said:

Scot said:

In a solo video game RPG you are not roleplaying, that is pure immersion. Would an actor who just said his lines to himself at home call that acting?

If they were working on a scene then yes.

An actor just doesn’t repeat lines. They explore motivations, find ways “into the scene, match physical gestures and motions with words and subtext.

I recorded my girlfriend for an audition and while I’ve acted I had never scene a process like this before. Then again she studied for many years and made her living as an actor for many years.

when I play a single player game I sometimes “act.” It is part of immersion but it also encompasses a lot more.

Well, in an MMORPG there's the Lore and happenings among players and such to draw on. So yes, I see that point.
But you can also simply RP the moment with other players.
I knew one player who roleplayed a terrible flirt with the female characters, and was entertaining at it. At one point, he was roleplaying a relationship with a female who was running for the RP city council. One day in the bank I started teasing him about
> HIM, settling down? I don't believe it, and all the fanciful flirting he was going to miss. I didn't believe my eyes, etc., etc. etc. ... <

So he takes this rare leather that was from a GM event, cuts it up! Then makes me a cloak (which carried over the rare leather name with it as well as the unique color) and gave it to me, going "Shhhh."

That was some fun roleplay, and he tossed in something of actual value on EBay (maybe $30).

That's why I said it is open to debate, if you have solo TT RPG's how is that not roleplaying? I just associate roleplaying with human interaction so for me it is not in the same category.

In some ways you are preparing for the role by reading the lore. And I have to say some table top role-players are bad at this, especially as you don't need to (for example) read all the works of Tolkien to play in a Lotr game. You find some players think all they need to bring to the table is themselves and their wonderful personality, indeed you can see this in Live Streams of table top.

This brings up the question:
Is it alright to be wrong about the Lore when RPing?
I mean, it happens all the time in RL.

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