Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Your Avatar
PNM_Jennings
Member UncommonPosts: 1,093
So despite the RPG part of MMORPG, there really isn't that much RPing that goes on in these games. But that doesn't necessarily stop a character from developing. I mean personally, I can't justify saying "all griefers are nasty people IRL" or "all WoW players are addicts." I just don't feel like generalizations can be made about everything. But I will generalize briefly and say that some people behave differently in game than in real life. So the questions I want to pose are does this happen to you, and to what degree? Whether you RP or not, to what degree does your character become someone else? How does the way you interact socially (whether that is through PvP, ganking, helping the newbs, etc.) differ from the way you interact with real people? For many people, virtual worlds are a second life or a alternate personality. Literally. One could have different friends, status, wealth, you name it. So please. Tell me about how you change in game. Or how you don't.
Comments
In virutal worlds, I generally find myself to be much less judgemental of people. I am not as fast to decide I dont like the the person.
Other than that though, my personality doesnt change too much between real life and the game, aside from the fact that I tip more in virtual worlds.
I used to make an effort to make my charactor a part of the game, because in older games that was part of it. The one thing I do less on games than I do in real life is call someone out for insulting me. If they do it in real life I can discuss why they said or did what they did, and if that fails beat their ass, and they either won't do it again, or if they do at least they will know what's coming. If you argue in a game you aren't going to be able to get your point across because half the people say inflamatory things JUST to get a rise out of you.
My experience has been that roleplaying is not something that MMORPGs invite players to do. That's because there aren't any roles to fill other than Leveling Monster Killer. Perhaps Crafter. EVE Online is much better about presenting roles to fill, but that game is pretty heavily focused on the min/max experience. Folks are quite serious about achieving their goals, being efficient and so on. Gotta get that next achievement.
Ultimately, I just play me. The bulk of my time in MMORPGs has been spent with people who are playing a game. It's like sitting in a room playing XBox with friends; you play the game, joke about things that happen, educate each other about how best to play the game and so on.
To see me naturally roleplaying would require a very high fidelity environment that is not focused on achievements but rather just experiencing that environment. I may experience it as a blacksmith or as a woodsman, giving a particular angle to my roleplaying, but without the environment in which I can take the time to enjoy a role, I won't roleplay. I'm too busy achieving.
My experiences with trying to roleplay have met exactly the opposite problem. Ever since way back in EQ1, I've liked RP-lite. I like to play the game but make conversation in character as I do so. I want to roleplay a character who is in the game world doing what my avatar does: kill, quest, and craft. It wasn't uncommon back then, but now I can't find people who play like that anymore. I never find somebody roleplaying as a leveling monster killer or a crafter. They seem deadset on plonking down in a tavern and having endless discussions about their own backstory and plots, to the exclusion of ever questing or grinding in character.
I couldn't care less about my avatar in a game. I must have played hundreds of characters in many, many MMORPGs and I have so little attachment to them that I always click "Random" on the character creation screen. They are just a way to interact with the game and I don't make up 'individual personalities' for them.
But do you perform actions that, either for moral or logical reasons, you wouldn't do in real life? That was more what I was trying to ask.
I don't at all, I don't even pretend to RP in an MMO, it's pointless. It's like pretending to RP while playing Halo. What's the point? If I want to RP, I'll get some friends together, we'll sit down around a table and play an actual roleplaying game. MMOs aren't that.
About the only things I do in games that I won't do in RL are kill things. Otherwise, I'm not playing a character, I'm playing a game.
Played: UO, EQ, WoW, DDO, SWG, AO, CoH, EvE, TR, AoC, GW, GA, Aion, Allods, lots more
Relatively Recently (Re)Played: HL2 (all), Halo (PC, all), Batman:AA; AC, ME, BS, DA, FO3, DS, Doom (all), LFD1&2, KOTOR, Portal 1&2, Blink, Elder Scrolls (all), lots more
Now Playing: None
Hope: None
I apply my morals in-game when the environment is sufficiently realistic. For example, I don't play Crysis because it involves killing people that look and act far too realistic. Similarly, I won't play games that involve crimes against people that are demonstrably innocent citizens. But give me a big ol' monster that wants to kill me on sight or a sufficiently cartoonish human and I'm good to go. Especially if the cartoonish human is demonstrably a bad guy.
I don't believe that I have any deep-seated violent or anarchistic tendencies that are waiting to be unleashed in my gaming.