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-   -   Roleplaying in MMORPGs (http://www.topmudsites.com/forums/showthread.php?t=674)

Geras 04-25-2004 11:22 PM

So, what's everyone's opinions about roleplaying in MMORPGs like EQ and WoW?

Kenjar 04-25-2004 11:52 PM

Never heard of such a thing. MMORPG's are way too mainstream for RPing to work, except maybe for certain groups of players that only do it amongst themselves. Example of why it would not work-

Wizangor- Tally ho! How goest thine day, Sir Kimble!
Sir Kimble- Uneventful as usual, milord Wizangor. And you?
C00L_gUy873- OMG, wtf iz ur guyz promblom? R u, liek, GAY? LMAO!
BinINI-Elf_Chix- Liek, letz go cyber! lol lol lol! Liek! w00t!
Wizangor- I hate this game.

Molly 04-26-2004 03:42 AM


Raith 04-26-2004 09:58 AM

I have, honestly.


It was my first MMORPG, Asheron's Call. I hadn't been MUDing for too long, so I wasn't a real hardcore roleplayer, but I still tried. However, Roleplayers were often mocked by the less mature and open minded player, in an almost indentical fashion as Kenjar described. I come to realize (atleast in my experiences) that the average MUDer that I come across is often more mature than the average MMORPGer that I come across, which is why it doesn't happen in MUDs (as often..)

John 04-26-2004 10:16 AM


Geras 04-26-2004 12:14 PM

I mentioned WoW mainly because it will have RP-dedicated servers, and that I know personally that people are RPing there now.

the_logos 04-26-2004 12:37 PM

Check out , probably the best known of the roleplaying graphical muds/MMORPGs/whatever other synonymous acronym you want to use.

--matt

prof1515 04-26-2004 06:28 PM

Personally, I believe text-based games will long be superior to graphical games because of the limitations of the graphicals' interface.  With a MUD, I can type the following:

emote runs his hands through his hair before wiping the sweat off of his forehead with the back of his hand.

In a graphical, unless it has a wipe array of available action commands, this wouldn't be possible.  Even it it were, there are always actions a graphical probably couldn't enact:

emote stands perfectly still at the sound of the scream, not even breathing as the hairs on the back of his neck rise and a single bead of sweat runs down his forehead, over his nose and disappears into his slightly parted lips.

Even if this could somehow be coded into a graphical without making the command structure hopelessly complex, it might not even be detectable (with any degree of subtlety) in a graphical.

No, I suspect that text-based games will be the superior system for RP, even if not the most popular.

Take care,

Jason

Realedazed 04-27-2004 12:07 AM

I think there are/were quite a few MMORPGs with RP servers. Horizons was the one that I thought had the most potential. I even bought it. Too bad after the release they upped the minium requirements and I had to return it. If I get a better computer some day, I may try it again.

Blorp 04-27-2004 12:27 AM

I typically don't play MMORPGs to role-play. But Im also not blatently OOC. Like I play FFXI, and while there are tons of players that make doing things in groups fun, there is also a story that I've seen very little of (as its sorta slow) and a big world to explore.

I play MUDS for roleplay, as to me part of that is envisioning and treating the world as a real world, and more characters are there for the same.

Like I don't role-play in a shooter or so, just try to play it for the game, and thats what mmorpg's are to me.

Slanted 04-27-2004 08:54 AM

I have played pretty much every MMORG available to date and I can honestly say that RP has not worked in any of them despite the creator's best intents.

There are a few problems. First off, even a single server on most MMORGs has thousands of people playing. This is a lot more than almost any MUD, especially those that enforce RP. This makes it nigh impossible to enforce RP in any way, even on RP required servers (And I joined the RP required servers in EQ, DAoC, and Horizons to no avail).

Second, as mentioned earlier, a lot of RP is taken away when you can see what is going on. A lot of RP in text based muds is achieved when people emote things outside of the normal mechanics of the game. Since you can't see their avatar, you can assume they have done whatever it is they described. with a MMORG, however, it is harder to imagine. Sure, most have emote systems that allow you to similiarly describe events outside of game mechanics, but you can actually see their avatar just sitting there looking around. It takes away from suspension of beleif.

Third, the demographic of these games includes a LOT more people than an RP intensive mud. In order to be successful as a MMORG with so much development time, they need to be as inclusive as possible to as many different groups of people as you can suck in. Since dedicated RPers are so few when compared to the general population of game players, you will invariably have a low percentage of people willing to RP. And there is nothing more discouraging as an RPer than trying to RP with someone who is not willing to do so.

In conclusion, No, MMORGs are not condusive to good roleplay experiences. They do shine in other areas though, such as tactical combat and in some, sheer graphical aesthetic pleasure. I doubt you will ever see a MMORG that gets RP right... the labor involved in policing it would run them out of business quicker than the thousands upon thousands of subscriptions they would lose as a result of doing so.

Kenjar 04-27-2004 01:55 PM

Yeah, I played the Dark Age of Camelot roleplaying servers for a bit some time back, and the only differance that I could see was that people had names without numbers or nouns in them.

Threshold 04-28-2004 04:34 AM

No such thing.

There is 1 reason why: They don't enforce role playing.

On any game of sufficient size, if you don't enforce RP, it won't happen.

They don't want to get into that because it takes an enormous amount of time and effort.

WarHound 04-28-2004 08:41 PM

I played EQ for about a month. There were five or so of us that joined up and RP'd a bit. Nothing big or spectacular, but enough to have fun. Sadly, it didn't last. As we all got ICly fired up to go nail a monster we'd all been eyeing awhile {New players, the lot of us} a big group of 'l33t a$$ MuFFu(K@Z' ran past, killed our monster, and laughed about it when we protested, ICly.

That's not my idea of good fun.

Their cheesy ass 'graphics' can't even begin to compare to the wonderfully naughty depths of my imagination, besides that, I fancy myself as a writer, even though most of my stuff is incoherent babbling of the worst kind. In a Mud, or any text based game for that matter, my writing skills only improve. I see other people emote, and it encourages me to do my best to match them. I learn new terms, words, ways of description and a thousand other things that a few half-ass graphics thrown together could NEVER teach, and I have ten times more fun imagining the swell of an ocean tide, or the parched feeling of my feet inside my sand filled boots... MMMMM....

But, I'm an ass so you can probably ignore me.


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