Age of Conan

Its been my experience recently that very little Roleplaying happens much these days. The younger crowd really isnt familiar with it frankly. This is clearly reflected in recent MMO launches where there might be only one official RP server. Usually though there are no official rp servers and maybe one unofficial one that the players agree on.

My recent experiences...

LOTR - I choose Brandwine server because it had a lot of roleplaying there in beta. Anyway, after launch and well into my avatar's development I was told RP was dead on my server and to go try another. Turbine's position was that all servers were Roleplay friendly and therefore they didnt need to designate one. If any MMO would have some decent roleplaying happening, I assumed it would be this game. Unfortunately very little RP happens in LOTR.

WoW - I choose a RP server for my time zone and went to work at launch playing the game. At first there was some RPing but then the servers were so full (except my rp server) that many of the other servers' players joined ours. RP quickly died one month after launch. A yr + later and RPers were taunted and made fun of. It totally ruined the game for me.

Now I see Funcom has given us only one RP server and its also a PVP server. Im not too crazy about that but I would live with it for some RP goodness. Anyway, because its the only RP server available, there could be some real issues with time zone / player availability. Raiding, sieges, and other group activites might be tough if everyone is in different time zones.

I see the players (at least some) are nominating Wiccana as the unofficial RP - PVE server. The problem with that is again it might also be a server recommended for east coasters so us mountain or pacific time zone players cant attend events. And of course the main problem is since its "unofficial" there will be many that join the server unaware that its RP friendly.

Personally Im leaning towards Cimmeria server because it is in fact designated as RP. I just hope Im not able to participate in events because Im in the minority time zone.

I think Funcom should consider adding or at least designating more RP servers

Like anyone on a PvP server is gonna give u time to type out the RP before running u through...right!  Very dumb not to have an RP-PvE server then...cause its not gonna happen on a PvP server!

I haven't seen any indication yet that Funcom plans to designate a preferred time zone for the servers. Physically, all the US servers are located in New Jersey at this point (I guess this could change if they need to add another server farm in the future). I doubt they have the marketing data needed to properly apportion servers by time zone, to be honest with you. (They seem to be flying by the seat of their pants on a number of issues).

As far as RP on the RP-PvP server, I just don't know. I do know there are a lot of griefers rolling specifically on that server type to have fun "pwning" the silly roleplayers. It will take some strong RP guilds to turn the tide in favor of "player enforced" respect for role play.

Originally posted by Katashi-kun

Like anyone on a PvP server is gonna give u time to type out the RP before running u through...right!  Very dumb not to have an RP-PvE server then...cause its not gonna happen on a PvP server!

Good point.

Originally posted by Katashi-kun

Like anyone on a PvP server is gonna give u time to type out the RP before running u through...right!  Very dumb not to have an RP-PvE server then...cause its not gonna happen on a PvP server!

somewhat true.

However there is room for RP on pvp servers. I'll give you an example...

In Star Wars Galaxies, I was frequently a target of Bounty Hunter players as my jedi was well known. I was never beaten in my game career but I showed respect to the occasional clever player that gave me a good fight. I'd tip them the bounty they would have received had they defeated me and say something to the effect "your attempt was honorable but you have chosen the wrong path my friend. I leave you with a gift, your life. May your journey lead you to the road of light"

I had that statement in a macro so it was easy to pull up after a fight. It won me a lot of friends and respect.

I also had a macro statement for those that didnt fight honorably. Towards the end of SWG when RP along with the game was dying, I used the latter statement quite a lot.

If someone jumps me in AoC I hope they at least dont "omg i pwned you!!!!!" type garbage. I can live with getting my tail whupped if the player is a RPer.

Originally posted by admriker4

 

I had that statement in a macro so it was easy to pull up after a fight.

I also had a macro statement for those that didnt fight honorably.

If someone jumps me in AoC I hope they at least dont "omg i pwned you!!!!!" type garbage. I can live with getting my tail whupped if the player is a RPer.

I don't really accept that running a pre-made macro of text is considered RP though!  What if say the same person came and killed u again and u used the same line of text...that would be very boring and I'd prolly have to kill ya again just for doing that.

...and expect a heavy amount of l33t talk from kids thinking thats how u RP!  Just the nature of the game screams its gonna be full of l33t garbage especially on a PvP server and since everyone can stealth and gang like crazy thats all ur gonna see!

RP server will be RP enforced by the players.  If someone doesn't roleplay just kill them

I think most people will roleplay a kill on sight psychopathic murderer, who roleplays to you when your decapitated, hope I'm wrong :)

Originally posted by devacore

RP server will be RP enforced by the players.  If someone doesn't roleplay just kill them

any official statements from RP guilds stating that ?

Just curious because in the past the players did in fact enforce roleplaying. Today's gen, not so sure if this will happen.

Like I said, if Cimmeria is truly going to be a RP server then I'll live with the gankings. Open pvp kinda intrigues me, the risk sounds exciting.

I wonder if Funcom will back the players up who attempt to enforce roleplaying ? After all, it is a designated RP server

Originally posted by Katashi-kun

Like anyone on a PvP server is gonna give u time to type out the RP before running u through...right!  Very dumb not to have an RP-PvE server then...cause its not gonna happen on a PvP server!

The only MMORPG i've played that have a high ammount of RPing is City of Heros/Villians and maybe FFXI ... right mr/miss mithra :P