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SnowTroll · 01-10-2012, 10:39 AM

Some people would say that if you artifically plan some kind of RP, then have multiple characters inexplicably show up in the same place with some kind of contrived excuse to be there, that alone ruins the RP. It's like building a house on an astroturf foundation. The only "real" RP is exactly what you described: pure immersion. If everybody logged into a game gets deeply into their characters and walks around doing what their characters would do, then when people bump into each other, the conversations and actions that flow from that are natural and fluid because the characters have things they were doing and things to talk about. That beats the hell out of showing up in a public area at a predetermined time to act out a preplanned "scene."

If a game wants to drum up RP, the people in charge of it can always run (unscripted) events, giving the charaters something outside of the normal daily game experience to talk about and interact with. Some of the better games I've played give players themselves flexible abilities to manipulate/create their environment and manipulate/create objects to facilitate player-created RP.

Non-RP muds do well because they can appeal to the general gamer. You know the type: those kids and stay at home moms who play MMOs all day but the few times they've seen in character gaming, declare that roleplaying is nerdy and stupid. Not just something time consuming with no payout, but something dorky and unattractive. You can attract people like this to play a really robust mud (like Aardwolf, which totally rocks if you're into non-RP muds), with the idea that while text-based, the game is huge, populated, and free to play. People who reject RP muds don't reject RP because it's hard or takes too long. They reject RP because they think RP is stupid and they'd rather just play a game. For people who exclusively play RP muds, RP is the game for the most part, though you can have a 50 page debate on exactly where people fall on the spectrum of in character chat room mush games versus RPI/RPE muds that "less pure" roleplayers prefer due to the desire for a hard coded game to play, versus non-RP games.

01-10-2012, 10:39 AM	#3
SnowTroll Member Join Date: Jan 2011 Posts: 183	Re: "Planned" RP or Pure Immersion? Some people would say that if you artifically plan some kind of RP, then have multiple characters inexplicably show up in the same place with some kind of contrived excuse to be there, that alone ruins the RP. It's like building a house on an astroturf foundation. The only "real" RP is exactly what you described: pure immersion. If everybody logged into a game gets deeply into their characters and walks around doing what their characters would do, then when people bump into each other, the conversations and actions that flow from that are natural and fluid because the characters have things they were doing and things to talk about. That beats the hell out of showing up in a public area at a predetermined time to act out a preplanned "scene." If a game wants to drum up RP, the people in charge of it can always run (unscripted) events, giving the charaters something outside of the normal daily game experience to talk about and interact with. Some of the better games I've played give players themselves flexible abilities to manipulate/create their environment and manipulate/create objects to facilitate player-created RP. Non-RP muds do well because they can appeal to the general gamer. You know the type: those kids and stay at home moms who play MMOs all day but the few times they've seen in character gaming, declare that roleplaying is nerdy and stupid. Not just something time consuming with no payout, but something dorky and unattractive. You can attract people like this to play a really robust mud (like Aardwolf, which totally rocks if you're into non-RP muds), with the idea that while text-based, the game is huge, populated, and free to play. People who reject RP muds don't reject RP because it's hard or takes too long. They reject RP because they think RP is stupid and they'd rather just play a game. For people who exclusively play RP muds, RP is the game for the most part, though you can have a 50 page debate on exactly where people fall on the spectrum of in character chat room mush games versus RPI/RPE muds that "less pure" roleplayers prefer due to the desire for a hard coded game to play, versus non-RP games.