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-   -   What traits characterize race-loyal players? (http://www.topmudsites.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1569)

Burr 01-23-2004 12:39 PM

Some people have a much stronger than normal tendency to play a particular racial type.  Even if they are highly concerned about stats, then rather than choose a race based on its typical stats, they will instead choose a mud based on the stats it gives their preferred race.

I think it is be possible to reasonably segment this group of mudders into several groups according to the characteristics of their preferred race and then to give each segment an archetypal description.

For example, one obvious segment would include furries.  But would this segment also include people who enjoy playing shapeshifters?  Might this segment also transcend race to include classes that make extensive use of pet mobs?  What would be the most accurate and definitive way of describing the entire segment?

How about those people who are obsessed with elves? I'm not all that knowledgeable about anime, but it seems to me to be a large influence on this segment. Can this obsession be reduced to people seeking a socially acceptable means of exploring their inner romantic/narcissist? What do the pointed ears do for these people?

What other major segments would be worth defining, IYO?

shadowfyr 01-23-2004 01:50 PM


KaVir 01-23-2004 01:53 PM

I think it's fair to say that most people have a tendancy to play a particular racial type, to varying degrees. But to be honest I don't really see that as being much different from people having a tendancy to play a particular mud type. Everyone has their own preferences, after all.

Caggles 01-23-2004 04:04 PM

I'm a human fan. I honestly don't find it to be an attraction when a MUD boasts 1001 races. I have trouble picturing all these races interacting, particularly if they all vary widely in size and physiology. I should add I'm a RPI player.

Every mud I play, I've played several races, but keep coming back to humans. I find I can play them more convincingly without having to constantly think, ahh, I'm an elf, I should be thinking this!

Does this make me a poor roleplayer? Or is this just me being lazy? Or is this an example of race-loyalty?

-Caroline

Jherlen 01-23-2004 07:31 PM

I think its race-loyalty. I don't think you're a poor roleplayer or lazy because you don't want your character to be locked in to things the game says all elves have to think or do. Humans usually don't have those kinds of restrictions, they tend to be the racial "wild card" of RPGs. I usually play a human for the same reasons until I've settled in on a new MUD. On the other hand, playing another race can be fun too; having a developed culture to fall back on when roleplaying is a great plus.

Xerihae 02-11-2004 12:55 PM

I have a tendency to play Dwarves, even on MUDs where Dwarves are not the "optimal" pick for PvP or even widely played. I like playing melee-oriented classes, particularly bog-standard warrior-types, and I've always loved to atypical Dwarf Warrior.

As for why people have these "favourites", it might simply be a case of them picking what they're comfortable with and enjoy playing.

Jazuela 02-11-2004 04:30 PM

Heh - we get some folks show up in our game picking "elf" and trying to roleplay their elf as a LoTR type, and everyone pretty much just groans at them. Especially if they are fair-skinned and silky-haired and think they're gonna ride around in the desert.

In our game, all elves are thieves. All of them, no exception. All of them belong to one or another tribe, and all of them would rather starve to death than be caught riding. They are all also extremely tall, extremely skinny, and considered "inferior" by humans. And yet every week, another one shows up thinking they can be the newest exotic beautiful flawless F-Me male or female hero.

I tend to stick with humans because I like to think I'm pretty good at RPing one. But that's only because I'm pretty sure I am one in real life (mother says I'm a mutant, but she always was a little strange) .

Even so, I can see the point, that some people are drawn to one race or another in any given mud. Why? I dunno. It sounds glib of me, but I don't really think it matters why. Maybe people who are physically challenged in real life play the strongest races available in their mud, so they can do in the game what they can't do in real life. Maybe some people who are constantly stuck in positions of authority in real life pick the "underdog" race in the game so they don't have to be in charge of things.

An interesting study on social behavior, but I have a feeling you'll end up with as many reasons as there are people who play muds.

Rytorth 02-11-2004 05:54 PM

On the MU* I usually play, I don't often play humans. I might play a humanoid, if there's something about their race that makes them obviously different from humans - but more often than not, I'm drawn to alien races.

Partly, it's that I really don't feel like I could wrap my mind around the thinking that most Humans do on OS (the majority of them, save those who went on Sanctuary or fled Earth before it got blown up [twice!], are xenophobes) although I have played Human-Origin races and still do (Ungstiri, and Sivadian once). But those races are vastly different from pure Humans, in behaviour if not appearance.

But it's also because I'm human enough in RL. I don't want to have to be just another human being on the games I play, too (although, granted, PCs are rarely 'just another' anything, really..). I want to be something that doesn't think quite the same way I do, that doesn't look anything like me - that doesn't even follow the same code of ethics I do.

Gemini 02-11-2004 10:56 PM

I know many people, myself included, that not just love to play a race 'type', but a single race.

I, personaly, am a troll fiend. Maybe because its because im short and twig-like irl, or perhaps its there awesome powers of regenration, but whatever it is, i LOVE trolls. But with such obessions there are always downsides. Like i am very touchy about how people potray trolls, like i hate it when fellow immortals tease me by calling trolls green, slimy, bubbly skinned, brainless, well, you get the idea. but even worse is when they say they are plastic dolls with bright colored hair that stick on the end of a pencil >_<

i think i got pretty of track there. oh well, i just wanna point out that i am yet to find any trait that is shared by all loves of a race or type of race.

Savitri 02-12-2004 01:50 AM

The Mud I play, has no tendencies at all to play humans. I have noticed that most ppl who have no real urge to play a certain race normally chooses the race with the nicest skills. There are quite a few that play some sort of a dragon.
I myself have played a pixie, an irda, some sort of elf, most of the time an Archon and now a Tarrasque. I think those who play humanoid forms is just comfortable with the whole roleplaying act, they don't have to think if they touch someone is there a hand or a claw or whatever that is going to touch them.

Then again the really dedicated roleplayers (on the mud i play) normally play a race that they WANT to play, not because its easy or because they will be comfortable with it or because it has some nifty skills.

For me, playing something challenging, keeps me on my toes.


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