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RP in MMOs
Goronian
Member Posts: 724
Hey, will you look at that! Another one of my rants! Charming.
Okay, to the topic at hand... Am I the only one, who feels, that RP in MMOs is seriously stagnating? Over the years, about 80-90% of servers, I was in were RP servers, and if not, I tried joining RP guild, at least. And each and every time it was kinda, well, "the same". Let me elaborate.
Where has random RP disappeared to? Sure, all guilds run RP events, but they're just that - events, ultimately scripted, with little deviation from the GM's idea possible. Either that, or weird and ultimately useless rituals. I can only name a handful of times, when a random stranger has randomly engaged me in conversation, for one reason, or another. And, ironically enough, those few times were actually more memorable, due to the unpredictability of them.
A lot of people join RP servers, just because there are "less kiddies" on them (which is highly debatable) and don't bother with it, at all. And don't get me started, on people not being able to do two different personalities, within each race.
Is it because I have unrealistic expectations? Was I looking at the wrong games? Or does RP in MMOs just suck?
P.S. What's with all the pretending of running one of IG establishments, taverns or otherwise?
I hate WoW because it made my plush hamster kill himself, created twin clones of Hitler, punched Superboy Prime in reality, stared my dog down, spoiled my grandmother, assimilated me into the Borg, then made me into a real boy, just to make me a woman again.
Comments
Honestly, the combination of rat race mechanics ( MUST GET LOOT, MUST GET LOOT ) and the fact that lots on RP servers don't even bother RPing ( which means, if you try and engage in RP with someone, they'll probably just tell you to piss off ) contributes to this lack of spontaneous RP, as people are either too busy to RP or not interested in it..
Also, some people are f*cking weird. That's a pregnant, eRPing night elf deathknight who is an ambassador to Quel'thalas. The player herself was dishonourably discharged from the army for attacking a CO. o.O Bitch is batshit.
There simply aren't that many people interested in RPing in MMOs. Of the few that are, they are spread out among the various MMOs. Add to that, there is little ongoing support for it both by the players and the developers in many MMOs.
A great example of an MMO developer that recognized and supported it's RP playerbase was Origin Systems. They regularly promoted the main lore and roleplay in general through major plots, server-specific roleplayed characters, and tools to allow the players to actually build/impact the world they were roleplaying in. They also reported about it on the main site. Origin encouraged the forming of the rolepaying communities and supported their efforts. They helped build the communities that exist today. The communities, both through their existing passion for roleplay and the support from the developers built sites and forums to not only expand the tools and resources for the community but to help bring others in.
The front page of UO Stratics ( http://uo.stratics.com ) is proof positive that the efforts by both players and devs in the beginning had solid and long lasting results.
In most MMOs, neither players nor devs invest the time or resources needed to foster an RP community early which usually results in one not really developing at all.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
I promised myself not to rant about Pregsues. Especially WoW Pregsues. For the love of Yarilo, women, pregnancy is kinda gross for at least 25-40% of the population! Stop it!
Same thing was with Tabula Rasa, or so I've heard. I suppose it was mainly because Garriot himself is a huge RP geek.
I hate WoW because it made my plush hamster kill himself, created twin clones of Hitler, punched Superboy Prime in reality, stared my dog down, spoiled my grandmother, assimilated me into the Borg, then made me into a real boy, just to make me a woman again.
I have to admit, this is quite true, too. LotRO has got a brilliant RP community simply via virtue of Turbine giving RPers stuff to do other than just murder mobs. ( I.E. growing pipeweed etc. )
I don't have the exact details together of how to design it, but I think the only way to design a roleplay MMORPG would be to eliminate questing and mob grinding.
There would still be character progression, but it would depend on roleplaying.
You could not just go solo grind mobs, or solo grind quests to gear up, level up, or skill up your character.
EVERYTHING in the game would be based on interaction with other players.
You might actually kill Mobs, but Mobs would never drop loot, Mobs would never give XP. The only way to get loot and XP would be from other players.
If you did that, you'd get people interested in role playing, because there would be nothing else to do.
I would ad PvP, but it would always be consensual. Guilds could declare war on one another, players could toggle on PvP and attack other players that toggled on PvP, there would be duals, there could be RvR areas, and things like that.
The combat would be role play driven, and organized by players.
Griefing and being an evil Bandit, is not roleplaying, it's just ganking which has nothing really to do with role play.
But you could still have Bandits. It's just that the players would agree on who would be a Bandit, and who could be attacked by Bandits, to further role play. You could not just decide to be a Bandit and gank other players.
I would ad a TON of digital rewards. Everything from trophies, badges, houses, palaces, unique pets, clothes, etc., that looked cool but had no real stats.
MMORPG's came from muds and other text based role playing games as well as PnP games. Unfortunately, they evolved from combat filled adventures into GRINDS for gear/loot and with such bragging rights came the creature known as the online douchebag.
I'm not saying all players who don't RP are douchebags, but I'm also not saying that many aren't.
Basically, the focus in MMORPG's needs to shift back to adventure and community instead of as the above poster said, a giant 'rat race'.
Hopefully, BioWare will revive the ROLE PLAYING part of MMORPG - if anyone can, it's them. There are a lot of role players eager to get into the Old Republic... but it's as much up to US as it is up to the developers to make a great role playing experience.
Immersive stores and world interaction will hopefully play a big role in TOR.
My 2 cents. What it's worth in your economy is up to you.
BOYCOTTING EA / ORIGIN going forward.
There's two kinds of "roleplay".
Computer roleplay games, which basically means building a character with stats, or gear, and abilities, whether it's skills or classes.
Then there's playing a role. Pretending to be a theif, knight, Jedi, or Indiana Jones type, etc.
I don't think TOR does anything to encourage the second kind. It's just adding better stories (hopefully) to questing, which builds your character.
But in the end it's just a quest grind to build your character, not encouraging you to chat with other players like you are a Jedi or Sith, instead of like you are Joe from Pennsylvania that likes girls with big butts and Mountain Dew.
There's two kinds of "roleplay".
Computer roleplay games, which basically means building a character with stats, or gear, and abilities, whether it's skills or classes.
Then there's playing a role. Pretending to be a theif, knight, Jedi, or Indiana Jones type, etc.
I don't think TOR does anything to encourage the second kind. It's just adding better stories (hopefully) to questing, which builds your character.
But in the end it's just a quest grind to build your character, not encouraging you to chat with other players like you are a Jedi or Sith, instead of like you are Joe from Pennsylvania that likes girls with big butts and Mountain Dew.
Very true. Personally, I truly hope you're wrong about what BioWare will do with TOR.
We'll just have to wait and see...
BOYCOTTING EA / ORIGIN going forward.
There's two kinds of "roleplay".
Computer roleplay games, which basically means building a character with stats, or gear, and abilities, whether it's skills or classes.
Then there's playing a role. Pretending to be a theif, knight, Jedi, or Indiana Jones type, etc.
I don't think TOR does anything to encourage the second kind. It's just adding better stories (hopefully) to questing, which builds your character.
But in the end it's just a quest grind to build your character, not encouraging you to chat with other players like you are a Jedi or Sith, instead of like you are Joe from Pennsylvania that likes girls with big butts and Mountain Dew.
Very true. Personally, I truly hope you're wrong about what BioWare will do with TOR.
We'll just have to wait and see...
hi, my name is Joe. I'm from Pennsylvania. I like girls with bigg butts, and Mountain Dew. Wanna do the Smuggler Ship quest?
Remember don't target the Droid till we kill the Bounty Hunter, then we will get the holocron drop.
Let's go, I need 87000 more xp to raise my Blaster pistol to 11.
There's two kinds of "roleplay".
Computer roleplay games, which basically means building a character with stats, or gear, and abilities, whether it's skills or classes.
Then there's playing a role. Pretending to be a theif, knight, Jedi, or Indiana Jones type, etc.
I don't think TOR does anything to encourage the second kind. It's just adding better stories (hopefully) to questing, which builds your character.
But in the end it's just a quest grind to build your character, not encouraging you to chat with other players like you are a Jedi or Sith, instead of like you are Joe from Pennsylvania that likes girls with big butts and Mountain Dew.
Very true. Personally, I truly hope you're wrong about what BioWare will do with TOR.
We'll just have to wait and see...
Sadly it'll most likely be like that as it is what has been attracting the most players to MMO's.
I agree with a lot of the points given in this thread, and it starts to sounds like the only way to actually bring player RP back into the MMO is by eliminating the classes and adding skill based again (UO, EQ, SB), where you pretty much had to roleplay what you were building, which ends in creating that community that ends up immersing deeper into the game.
Current games make you pick 3-4 races (same ones btw) and a class, so if you want to RP a drow, the closest you can get is a dark shade elf but you still have to be a fighter, ranger, mage or healer. In games like UO you still created the darker shade human (no race choice way back then) but you had the ability to work on the skills that mostly resembled a drow, they come from deep in the caves, so you could work on their mining, or maybe their ability to bond with nature so you worked on tracking and camping, maybe hiding as well, add to that their long lined connection to the elves, then you worked on your magic skill, etc.
When you have to literally build what you're going to play, you tend to connect more with it and RP slowly follows, even if you've never done it or annoyed you before.
roleplayers are a nomadic bunch. Often moving to a game where they feel roleplay is most nurtured leaving other MMOs barren. These days (honestly for at least a year) LOTRO is the main hotspot for roleplay. It still remains to be seen if STO will draw out the inner 'spock' in all of us
Torrential: DAOC (Pendragon)
Awned: World of Warcraft (Lothar)
Torren: Warhammer Online (Praag)
AH the irony of that statement.
Shall we examine this -
MMORPG
All MMORPG's are role playing games and thus all servers are Role playing servers by default. The minute someone decided that they needed to add special Role playing servers in a role playing game...something went seriously wrong.
If a player doesn't like "role playing" then perhaps an MMORPG isn't a good choice....
It's sorta like playing role playing in Call of Duty. It just not a good choice.
But alas, writing this is like trying to teach a pig to sing, it's frustrating for the teacher and it annoys the pig.
There's two kinds of "roleplay".
Computer roleplay games, which basically means building a character with stats, or gear, and abilities, whether it's skills or classes.
Then there's playing a role. Pretending to be a theif, knight, Jedi, or Indiana Jones type, etc.
I don't think TOR does anything to encourage the second kind. It's just adding better stories (hopefully) to questing, which builds your character.
But in the end it's just a quest grind to build your character, not encouraging you to chat with other players like you are a Jedi or Sith, instead of like you are Joe from Pennsylvania that likes girls with big butts and Mountain Dew.
Very true. Personally, I truly hope you're wrong about what BioWare will do with TOR.
We'll just have to wait and see...
hi, my name is Joe. I'm from Pennsylvania. I like girls with bigg butts, and Mountain Dew. Wanna do the Smuggler Ship quest?
Remember don't target the Droid till we kill the Bounty Hunter, then we will get the holocron drop.
Let's go, I need 87000 more xp to raise my Blaster pistol to 11.
Hi Joe. Nice to meet you. You might have more fun playing with BobaFatt69, he's more your play style. Good luck and have fun.
Hehehe... I have to agree that LOTRO's Landroval server has a pretty good population of rpers. Many times I stumbled onto someone and we just got into random RP.
Star Wars Galaxies is pretty much being kept afloat almost exclusively by role players who have built attachments/communities, cities and don't want to let go. THAT is something I think MMO developers should notice. Your casual grindhead mmo player will blast through content, maybe repeat the endgame content for a while but then leave your game and maybe return when there's an update. Role players will have built relationships and stick around.
BOYCOTTING EA / ORIGIN going forward.
There's two kinds of "roleplay".
Computer roleplay games, which basically means building a character with stats, or gear, and abilities, whether it's skills or classes.
Then there's playing a role. Pretending to be a theif, knight, Jedi, or Indiana Jones type, etc.
I don't think TOR does anything to encourage the second kind. It's just adding better stories (hopefully) to questing, which builds your character.
But in the end it's just a quest grind to build your character, not encouraging you to chat with other players like you are a Jedi or Sith, instead of like you are Joe from Pennsylvania that likes girls with big butts and Mountain Dew.
Very true. Personally, I truly hope you're wrong about what BioWare will do with TOR.
We'll just have to wait and see...
hi, my name is Joe. I'm from Pennsylvania. I like girls with bigg butts, and Mountain Dew. Wanna do the Smuggler Ship quest?
Remember don't target the Droid till we kill the Bounty Hunter, then we will get the holocron drop.
Let's go, I need 87000 more xp to raise my Blaster pistol to 11.
Hi Joe. Nice to meet you. You might have more fun playing with BobaFatt69, he's more your play style. Good luck and have fun.
Hehehe... I have to agree that LOTRO's Landroval server has a pretty good population of rpers. Many times I stumbled onto someone and we just got into random RP.
Star Wars Galaxies is pretty much being kept afloat almost exclusively by role players who have built attachments/communities, cities and don't want to let go. THAT is something I think MMO developers should notice. Your casual grindhead mmo player will blast through content, maybe repeat the endgame content for a while but then leave your game and maybe return when there's an update. Role players will have built relationships and stick around.
The more sandboxy elements a game has, the more tools you have for role playing, IMO.
A quest grind like TOR doesn't seem to have much to offer the roleplayer.
I'm not saying the game wont' be fun, and hopefully they will design some GREAT quests, but in the end it's still a quest grind.
However, City of Heroes players did a fair amount of role playing, nad that game is very static and nothing more than a quest grind, so it is possible.
But without interactive tools there's only so far you can go talking about rebel scum, or defeating the evil Sith, following the ways of the Force, etc., etc.
There's two kinds of "roleplay".
Computer roleplay games, which basically means building a character with stats, or gear, and abilities, whether it's skills or classes.
Then there's playing a role. Pretending to be a theif, knight, Jedi, or Indiana Jones type, etc.
I don't think TOR does anything to encourage the second kind. It's just adding better stories (hopefully) to questing, which builds your character.
But in the end it's just a quest grind to build your character, not encouraging you to chat with other players like you are a Jedi or Sith, instead of like you are Joe from Pennsylvania that likes girls with big butts and Mountain Dew.
Very true. Personally, I truly hope you're wrong about what BioWare will do with TOR.
We'll just have to wait and see...
hi, my name is Joe. I'm from Pennsylvania. I like girls with bigg butts, and Mountain Dew. Wanna do the Smuggler Ship quest?
Remember don't target the Droid till we kill the Bounty Hunter, then we will get the holocron drop.
Let's go, I need 87000 more xp to raise my Blaster pistol to 11.
Hi Joe. Nice to meet you. You might have more fun playing with BobaFatt69, he's more your play style. Good luck and have fun.
Hehehe... I have to agree that LOTRO's Landroval server has a pretty good population of rpers. Many times I stumbled onto someone and we just got into random RP.
Star Wars Galaxies is pretty much being kept afloat almost exclusively by role players who have built attachments/communities, cities and don't want to let go. THAT is something I think MMO developers should notice. Your casual grindhead mmo player will blast through content, maybe repeat the endgame content for a while but then leave your game and maybe return when there's an update. Role players will have built relationships and stick around.
The more sandboxy elements a game has, the more tools you have for role playing, IMO.
A quest grind like TOR doesn't seem to have much to offer the roleplayer.
I'm not saying the game wont' be fun, and hopefully they will design some GREAT quests, but in the end it's still a quest grind.
However, City of Heroes players did a fair amount of role playing, nad that game is very static and nothing more than a quest grind, so it is possible.
But without interactive tools there's only so far you can go talking about rebel scum, or defeating the evil Sith, following the ways of the Force, etc., etc.
I agree. You can have good RP in themepark MMO, but with TOR's heavy focus on the story, which will be largely identical to most players, I fear the "feeling" will be lost.
I hate WoW because it made my plush hamster kill himself, created twin clones of Hitler, punched Superboy Prime in reality, stared my dog down, spoiled my grandmother, assimilated me into the Borg, then made me into a real boy, just to make me a woman again.
It's stagnating, and I think the shift in game mechanic focus, coupled with the influx of gamers new to the MMO genre.
Without getting into too much of a rant myself... most MMOs today are not about creating immersive virtual worlds. They are about creating set content to be consumed by players. This, obviously, is not conducive to RP. In other words, the more "theme park" an MMO is, the less RP friendly it is.
It's definitely difficult to keep RPing in what is becoming a growing anti-RP climate. Even on "RP" servers, many RPers tend to keep to their own little groups, because they're simply outnumbered by players who have little to no interest in RP -- yet for some reason play on an RP server.
Another ADer?
But, yes, the problem is that the games are complete and utter rat races. The only real way to play the game is to get from Point A to Point B, and you're rewarded for doing it as quickly as possible.
Advancement via combat does not have to change, it just needs to be stretched out, with time breaks in order to allow players to ( sort of ) advance without having to be doing combat. Imagine going to a cantina in SWG, where you got your fatigue cured. That's a good way to do it.
Rewards for good roleplay ( although you'd need a semi-active GM team for this ) would also be useful. Things like opening up more and more "difficult to RP" races and giving free "rebirths" to turn into those races might be the best idea. Maybe allow them to take public positions of power? Although, you'd need a VERY good roleplayer to allow them to do something like that/
Of course, the most important thing is to create a roleplaying atmosphere. Help players get immersed in the game world, change names like Lolkingxxx to something more fitting and give players the freedom to what they want with a variety of rewards and penalties. If you want to be a bandit, sure, just don't expect to be allowed to walk around towns ever again, unless you raid far in the wilderness, where no one will ever find the corpses.
I was on a RP server in WoW, they used to dress up in some cloth gear and call it roleplaying.
Oh, and they looked down on everyone who couldn't type fast and use fancy words.
It was more like some highschool clique for adults getting together and call it roleplaying.
I haven't been interested in doing any roleplaying since.
All those memories will be lost in time, like tears in the rain.
It's that funny thing about WoW roleplaying - they can't RP worth a darn, yet act all high and mighty, setting ridiculous rules and looking down on any character, tha deviates from their Racesue roles. Fun.
I hate WoW because it made my plush hamster kill himself, created twin clones of Hitler, punched Superboy Prime in reality, stared my dog down, spoiled my grandmother, assimilated me into the Borg, then made me into a real boy, just to make me a woman again.
"WTF YOU KANT BE AN ORK PALADIN FFS"
I always liked how they flipped out when they suggested that class / race restrictions should be removed, because they make no sense.
"WTF YOU KANT BE AN ORK PALADIN FFS"
I always liked how they flipped out when they suggested that class / race restrictions should be removed, because they make no sense.
Yes, it's not like there's actually, you know, LORE in the game, that explains all, nooo, we can't have that...
And again, don't get me started on the Horde side being populated almost exclusively by pregnant Blood Elf Death Knights of both sexes. Yes, you've read that right.
I hate WoW because it made my plush hamster kill himself, created twin clones of Hitler, punched Superboy Prime in reality, stared my dog down, spoiled my grandmother, assimilated me into the Borg, then made me into a real boy, just to make me a woman again.
"WTF YOU KANT BE AN ORK PALADIN FFS"
I always liked how they flipped out when they suggested that class / race restrictions should be removed, because they make no sense.
Yes, it's not like there's actually, you know, LORE in the game, that explains all, nooo, we can't have that...
And again, don't get me started on the Horde side being populated almost exclusively by pregnant Blood Elf Death Knights of both sexes. Yes, you've read that right.
Whoa whoa whoa... hold on, wait a second here...
Blood Elves have more than one gender?
Of course they do, silly. Female and hermaphrodite.
I agree with many of the poster here on several points. Many servers that are Role playing dont enfore the Rp including names, what is typed etc. Sad. AOC has an Rp server but unf people arent adhereing to it.
(BBBBBBBBBBWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH GM's on AOC server attempt to delete the plunger because its too OP and no one else can have one!)
All my opinions are just that..opinions. If you like my opinions..coolness.If you dont like my opinion....I really dont care.
Playing: ESO, WOT, Smite, and Marvel Heroes
AH the irony of that statement.
Shall we examine this -
MMORPG
All MMORPG's are role playing games and thus all servers are Role playing servers by default. The minute someone decided that they needed to add special Role playing servers in a role playing game...something went seriously wrong.
If a player doesn't like "role playing" then perhaps an MMORPG isn't a good choice....
It's sorta like playing role playing in Call of Duty. It just not a good choice.
But alas, writing this is like trying to teach a pig to sing, it's frustrating for the teacher and it annoys the pig.
The issue there is that RPG in the video game industry doesn't mean what you think it means. In this case, RPG simply means you are controlling a fictional character and that the game has an advancement system for the stats of that character. The storytelling and narrative aspect of CRPGs is present in some, but it isn't really a defining feature.
I also don't feel the pig comment was necessary, but... meh.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre