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Old 01-07-2013, 03:26 PM   #7
SnowTroll
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Join Date: Jan 2011
Posts: 183
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Re: Encouraging Roleplaying

"Roleplay-encouraged" muds are a bit of a myth. What most mud admins mean by this vague descriptor is that they want a mud where players are allegedly expected to roleplay, but not where they have to roleplay if they don't want to, i.e., "We want our players to rp, but we're not going to police the mud to make sure they do or ban people who don't. And if people don't feel like it today, we still want them to log in, kill stuff, and chat."

The end result, unsurprisingly, depends on the players the game attracts. If a game attracts mostly non-roleplayers, they just chat and bash all day, and more serious RPers don't hang around because they don't like the atmosphere. If it attracts mostly roleplayers, they have a way of making non-RPers feel alienated and less welcome.

The first post in this thread makes it sound like the OP wants people to roleplay, but doesn't want to have to police it or force it. He wants a system where people will just do it naturally because the system favors it. How do you do that? 1: Make the game interesting. If I don't have anything to talk about with anybody, and nothing to do roleplay-wise except chat about the weather or group with someone to bash big mobs and hunt gear, I'm not very encouraged to roleplay. That means lots of content, events, and special attention. 2: Reward roleplaying substantially. If I get experience points or some kind of award for using say and emote commands in front of other players, or actually stand to grow in power and influence if I interact with other players, I'm encouraged. If I go up a priest rank and learn five new spells for converting another player to my fire religion, I'm going to spend my time online preaching the word of the fire god instead of killing kobolds. If I get some vague collection of "roleplay points" that don't really benefit me, or am just expected to RP for fun, it's a waste of time I could be getting gear and going up levels.
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