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MMO's dont lend themselves to RP
Swiftblade13
Member Posts: 638
I've found that the MMO environment really doesnt lend itself to RP... I'd like to RP but it just doesnt really work.
The best MMO for RP I think was SWG pre-CU.. but even there it was somewhat limited and really not taken advantage of at all. Most players houses were used as storage sheds instead of beautifully decorated like mine... and I never once saw another player in the cantina in our player city. Populated Cantina's were generally full of AFK entertainers and AFK players getting rested up... when this was such a great opportunity for a social hub and roleplay.
What I would like to see is a system for playing PnP D&D online. The computer could handle all the combat roll's etc, but everything else would be done the old fashioned PnP way.
Grymm
MMO addict in recovery!
EQ,SWG preCU,L2,EQ2,GW,CoH/CoV,V:SOH,
Aion,AoC,TR,WAR,EVE,BP,RIFT,WoW and others... no more!
Comments
RP died with MUDS, unless you enforce the RP, people dont adhere to the rules. Shame really.
RP died with MUDS, unless you enforce the RP, people dont adhere to the rules. Shame really.
WoW RP isn't dead. I can think of a few servers that are still going well...and Blizzard doesn't really enforce RP rules.
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Meow
It is true, no one in the market cares about role-play. They have rules but don't enforce them to try and keep as many players as possible. Its all about the money.
Sad really. Why do they call them role-playing games then?
If you aren't actively part of the solution, you have no right to complain about anything.
They call them that because essentially they think you are playing a character... you know, by slashing things up and questing and such. They just don't take it to the extreme as expect everyone to create a persona for their character and "act" differently. I do agree though - it'd be lovely to have a game where everyone role played. In order for something like that to occur though, you'd have to take away elements that attract non-RPers attention - such as PvP, questing, raiding, etc...
As for WoW Rp, I'm an avid Rper there and I agree that it slowly is waning. A lot of people go to RP servers because it is easier to dominate PvP or because generally its an "easier" atmosphere overall -or that is what is led to believe. There are some good servers- for example, Moonguard. Unfortunately every RPer who has heard about the wonderful role play has gone there, and because of that the server is full. My own server is dying RP-wise... too many crazy folks there! Hah!
Currently Playing: FF6
Next to Play: WoW (12.21) [Hiatus due to being abroad]
WoW: Lavielle/Gyvien on Sisters of Elune
And I haven't played CoH for quite some time now but when I left, Virtue server had a thriving RP community. As a note, Virtue is the unofficial RP server since CoH doesn't have RP designated servers.
It is odd that they even call some of these games role playing games when there's no role playing.
I am a game developer. I come from a background of lots of tabletop role playing games, both playing them and designing them. When I got into designing MMORPGs, I just assumed they should have a major role playing component. Since I'm doing my own project instead of working for a large company, I just went ahead and did it that way.
We had several months where we were letting people play the game for free and there was lots of role playing. There was more role playing than anything else. That might be due to many features of the game not being operational yet.
I think it has a lot to do with how the game is set up. The normal MMORPG environment isn't conducive to role playing, but that's not the only way to do an MMORPG.
I think the most important step would be to remove the leveling system. Instead your level (or skills in a skill system) go up with time played. So lets say there are 50 levels, you have to subscribe for one year and you will reach level 50. When the level cap is raised to 70, those last 20 levels will take another year of subscription. Same with your craft and so on.
You would need a larger playing area than most MMO’s to maintain interest at each level and you would need CoH buddy level up and down system to ensure people could always find a group.
This would then free people to do what they want to do in a MMO. Killing mobs gives you decent gear but no xp of course. Doing quests gives you points in the Tree style feats system. Give people more things to do like in Second Life. Build your own home, design your own artwork. Become a shop keeper.
The possibility is there but money rarely gets invested in a template that does not have proven success.
Try Face of Mankind....
Face of Mankind has a lot of roleplay potential, just need more people actively doing it and it will be perfect.
Hello. I am a new forums member here, but I think I know a game you all might be intrested in. Its a game focused entirely on roleplaying and has just recently been brought online in an open beta. The game, Underlight: Shades of Truth, has gone through several versions before this most recent release. It started out a pay to play game, and after the community took over management of the game, it became a free open-source game. Now, its graphics aren't top of the line like WoW or SWG, but its not like runescape.
In addition, it has a completely unique combat system that mirrors Oblivion in that it integrates both leveling up certain "attributes" while doing the actual fighting in a real time twitch based combat model, allowing even new players to effectively fight against vetrans if they practice.
The leveling system is also completely unique to any game in the RPG Genere. In this new leveling system, the players seek out "Teacher's" (whom are both Game Moderators and actual players) and who give out certain tasks to complete in order to gain "Power" (experiance), "Orbits" (levels), "Spheres" (basically the allowance to progress from a certain set of orbits to another. If you reach say, orbit 10, you need to complete a sphere task in order to move on from orbit 10. These generally tend to be very involved and difficult, but also very fun), "Arts" (which are basically special abilites. I'll go more in depth on them later), and many other things.
Arts are unique as well in comparision to most other games, more because of the abilites themselves. Most games involve spells such as "Flameball" or "Lightening" or "Heal", but in Underlight, there are also a number of very unique abilites, some of which you start with, which make the game easier and more fun. Some examples of starting abilites (I don't want to take all the suprise out of the game) include:
1) Locate Dreamer - This is a buddy list and a tracker rolled into one. By searching for the name of a person on here, you're able to tell if they're online and where they are. As you train this ability further, your able to search for individual players and find out "very speciffically" where they are.
2) GateSmasher/SoulReaper/etc. - This ability allows you to summon the primary weapon of your class (see this link for the classes: http://underlight.ixios.net/focus.asp)
3) Sense Dreamers - This ability allows you to see the three most populated areas of the Dream (as the world is reffered to).
And many more.
And now, for roleplaying itself in the game. Roleplaying in the game is enforced in-character, therefore you are expected to always be "In character" or acting as your character would. This and the fact that the game has only been brought online very recently has lead to a rather small gamer population, but it is a very close knit community whom is very open to newcomer's regardless of their rp experiance. The Game Masters, or GM's, are very involved in the game by providing both random events and furthering the main storyline of the game. The game isn't just for hardcore rper's though. The game is equelly suited to both casual and hardcore roleplayers.
Even with everything I've said here though, I've only barely begun to scratch the surface of the game. So please, come check it out, you might like it
.
Here is the forums for the game (feel free to post here if you have any questions or comments or just feel like talking to any of the players): http://underlight.ixios.net/forums/default.asp
Here is some other general links you may find intresting or necessary to play:
Game Guides: http://underlight.ixios.net/guides.asp
Character Creation Page (requires a forums account): http://underlight.ixios.net/account/login.aspx
Full Client Download Page: http://files.filefront.com/Underlight+Client+16412exe/;9857856;/fileinfo.html
The RP debate will amost always find opinions divided between two groups of players:
Group A has extensive "old school" RP experience through either tabletop gaming or text based MU* gaming.
Group B only knows the new reality of MMO RP servers.
Group A, which is in the extreme minority, will always feel that group B trashes their gaming experience. Group B, who really don't know any better, think group A are a bunch of RP geeks.
It comes down to personal history, and perspective, and I don't think the two groups will ever find common ground. Individuals from group B might migrate to group A, but the two sub-cultures will always be miles apart.
As for graphical MMO's not lending themselves well to RP, I agree. The medium is somewhat hostile to anything more than superficial RP. It can be done, but as has been mentioned in earlier posts, it takes a seriously enforcement policy and a whole lot of TLC to keep RP alive and kicking on an MMO.
Text based gaming is perfect for RP, but we all know how likely that is to make a big comeback. So really... rock and a hard place for RP these days.
MMOs are out to make money, and the most that they can. Earlier MMOs tried to direct people into a roleplaying type of character, and some even had dedicated roleplaying only servers. But the truth is that isn't where the money is. What the largest majority of players want is a place they can create a chracter and compete at being the best character around. They don't care about getting into the character and creating a whole back story etc. It's also why all the latest releases are designed around pvp (AoC, War, and Darkfall) because that is what the majority wants.
Really what a group who is interested in roleplaying should do is get an indie game engine for a few hundred bucks and make some halfway decent art and run their own game. This game would be extremely niche, and wouldn't have to be huge or support a large number of players, but it could be designed specifically for rp. That's probably your only option going forward