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Old 04-22-2002, 06:10 PM   #1
Brody
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Smile

How many of you prefer to wait for staffers on roleplaying MU*s to spark RP activities to keep you interested? And how many of you are self-starters who prefer to come up with ideas of your own to keep yourself and your friends entertained, occasionally seeking aid from staffers to help you make things happen? Why?

For staffers: Which of the above player types is preferable for your tastes, and why?
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Old 04-22-2002, 07:42 PM   #2
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Cool

I think on any MUD that encourages rp or makes it mandatory, the mud should be structured accordingly. I like the staffers who code the mud with theme in mind and offer enough to keep players busy.
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Old 04-22-2002, 07:44 PM   #3
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I have been playing my MUD since '98 and have had exactly one incidence of Staffer interaction for RP for a 25 minute period of personal attention. That is not to say the staff isn't involved in RP - the convoluted plot consuming our "world" now is mind boggling in its scope and complexity - albeit leaving no room for sub plots and elder help for other projects at the moment. The staff do a fantastic job setting up this macro-RP opportunity. Again, they have little time it seems for anything else right now.

Sooo, I am a huge proponent of generating RP for my merry circle of friends. Based on my character's story-line, and using liberally worded emotes (what we call "smile magic") I generally make my own RP happen sans help from the staff. It isn't always epic - one fantastic example cited on our boards was an elf that RP'ed tracking a bear for over an hour in game to remove a splinter ("Look at the paw print - you can tell the creature favors that foot - and see? There is the mark of a splinter or something" etc etc.) More often than not, those "little incidents" are far more compelling than "my character has a rare disease or is possessed" ones. They average RPer won't hang onto a player generated plot that long. "Smile Magic" can sustain a plot only so long before it becomes contrived and boring.

Why? I have had little luck catching the staff's attention, and am at the point now where I'd rather not wait around for them. Often by the time they get a response out, the impetus of the request has become irrelevant. I've also set up meetings with the staff only to have them not show. This in reference to requests for direct intervention.

I will say the I generally consult the staff before I do anything too out of the norm to ensure I am conforming to the staff's idea of how things aught to run. Frees them up from having to interface with my char.

In closing ::snickers:: - If ya stick within the parameters set for your race and class, making up your own RP for the benefit of friends is very satisfying, especially if the target audience a) is new (which does wonders for retention) and b) is willing to play along.

I would say that when doing this, avoid high traffic areas. Nothing stomps yer RP more than several other chars chatting away amicably about what ever while you are in the middle of becoming possesed by that pesky sword of yours. LOL.

Cheers, and happy suspention of reality to you all.

Albion
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Old 04-23-2002, 10:16 AM   #4
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Old 04-23-2002, 11:16 AM   #5
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As a player, I know that staff-sponsored or directed RP events are usually intimidating to new players, and I have usually generated what roleplay I could with those I met. I guess I don't have the mindset for the kind of roleplay required to chase a bear around and remove a splinter... I usually prefer more political rp, focused on one or several clans or guilds.

As a one-time staff member of a rp mud (who isn't?), I can say that a balance had to be struck between the two types. Staff-directed rp was too often directed at 'favorite' players. Player-generated rp sometimes created cliques in the mud, players who roleplayed with each other (and loudly, posting many, many long notes about it), but rarely interacted outside their own group. And always stuck up for each other IC, even if they should have been mortal enemies (due to race, alignment, creed, etc.).
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Old 04-23-2002, 02:24 PM   #6
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Siob and Miya,

You both danced around a good point. I see where in fact I do generate my own RP within a small group of freinds. We don't post on it, so our RP is low visibility, but in retrospect it is rather self exclusionary.

A challenge for me from reading your posts. I'm going to go after some newer folks and try and draw them into some sort of madness.

Miya, I do concur with your thoughts on favoritism by the staff toward certain players to a *point*. Is it really that, or the perception of that? Just curious.

Thanks for makin' me think!

Cheers,

Albion
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Old 04-23-2002, 02:54 PM   #7
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Old 04-23-2002, 04:14 PM   #8
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Old 04-24-2002, 08:17 AM   #9
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A balance between both is fine, and can be worthwhile for any MUD. To a large degree, I think players really enjoy getting involved in Imm-driven RP because it makes them feel like the Immstaff is staying in-touch with what's going on. It makes them feel like the Imms are active and aware of what's going on.

And I think Imms enjoy getting involved in the RP as well because it keeps them active, helps spark things for players, etc.

Ultimately however, the responsibility for a MUD's success RP-wise comes down to the players. Even if an Imm starts a storyline going, or just switches into a mob to start chatting, it's the players that have to respond and keep the action moving. I don't mind as an RP Imm starting something off, kickstarting a storyline, or steering people into some roleplaying activity with each other, but since I (nor anyone else) can be around 24/7 and we can't sit there and hold players' hands to "motivate them" to RP, it's up to the players.

I do think in some cases as well, players will start RP storylines and eventually require the assistance of the Imms. In my case, that often means taking over a mob of some kind and roleplaying that mob, or setting up a scene for the player's storyline.

One thing that really bugs me is when you have a group of people sitting in a common area and they're not doing anything. This drives me crazy. I see that and I want to do *something* to get people going - and I understand, sometimes it's not easy to kickstart conversations, kickstart RP sessions, but again, it comes down to the players' willingness to get themselves involved.

I think things would tend to fall apart if players started to *rely* on the Immstaff to generate RP, motivate RP, keep RP moving along, etc. That's just lazy and means that when an Imm isn't around or able to help, nothing is getting done.

Pleos.
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Old 04-24-2002, 05:29 PM   #10
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I think the staff is really in a no-win situation when it comes to this type of thing.  There are some players who won't get involved in anything unless they know it's `a real scenario', and others who feel that any attempt to get them involved in some small way is a 'scripting check.'

I usually tend to stay away from official RP events; I guess I'm better at soap operas than feature films. When I played ERCs in the past, it always bothered me that so many people would whisper to ask me if I was a `real character' before they decided how they wanted to respond.  My response was often that I had been told I was quite a character before, or I would basically just ignore the question.

I don't think that favorite players are chosen for RP events because they are `favorites,' I think it's more that the staff wants to get someone involved that they know will carry through. Often a less known person starts out with the ball, but rather than running with it, passes it to the star. The only time I really have a problem with that is if the stars in most events are alternate characters of staff members because they want to make sure things go as planned.
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Old 04-24-2002, 09:17 PM   #11
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After reading Maggie's post I remembered something...

Sometimes when I see an area in the MUD or a government or something that's lacking I will try and concoct even a small storyline to get that "thing" involved. I think up something that I think would be fun, interesting and worthwhile and then I go looking for people that might want to be involved.

For example, the MUD I'm an Imm on has a large Bazaar area in the Eastern Lands. Lots of shops, shopkeepers, etc. The government has been a bit lax in policing the area so I talked to a couple rogues about shaking down the shopkeepers to see if any were interested, if it fit their concepts, etc. I asked them to prepare some documentation on why it fit their concept and we discussed it.

Then I got a couple on the job, helped out in the RP, controlling shopkeepers, etc. and let it roll from there. It's moving (a bit slow for my tastes) but moving nonetheless.

So in this case, I dreamed up an idea that I thought people would enjoy, but it wasn't a major/global event. I then went looking for rogues that I thought would be suited for the job, good RPers that could use something interesting to do. Not to say that people can't come up with their own ideas, but since I have a larger perspective on the MUD and activity on a whole (as an Imm) I can see where things may need a little boost once in awhile.

And with this particular storyline, it stemmed from someone requesting a quest for something else - and it should tie in nicely.

Anyway, I am going to try this out a bit more in the future - come up with ideas and basically recruit players that I think would be suited to the task(s).

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Old 04-25-2002, 05:38 PM   #12
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Old 04-27-2002, 12:49 AM   #13
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Angry

I am most definately a schitzofrenic (sp?). I have constant RP sessions with myself if there is no one around, and what is scary is that I answer myself back if needed. Eventually someone will join in with me, if not today then tomorrow.

Wishful thinking aye?

I've done entire scenes where I bought drinks for an entire room of NPCs, had some of them doing their own thing while I did my own thing. Crazy.

...
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