General Discussion

Let's face it few people who play MMORPG's role play. I remember EQ, AC, DAoC I had a fun role playing in those and even if a lot of people didn't RP in the "old school" games they at least understood what you were doing and played a long.

I'm not saying everyone should RP but what I am saying is that if most people din't want to RP why make games with a backstory? Most MMO's are fantasy themed and have this elaborate backstory and I say why bother? Everyone is so worried about fast leveling, FFA pvping, getting uber loot. They skip the quest dialogues try to reach max level as quick as possable so why should devs spend time and effort into making a theme for theiregame? Does anyone even care anymore?

Just make a game with every genre thrown into one pot - ninja, cyborg, dinosaur pirate world

No quest dialogue except for kill 20 boars. No one gives a fig about the NPC's sob story of how he needs bacon to feed his family. No need to hire a writer now. Heck why even get an artist to draw little loot icons like boar heads, just make a generic loot icon....no one cares anyway right?

Everyone wants to solo o why even worry about networking, just make the thing a single player game with a online chat feature built in. Think of all the money you would save there.

Heck why even have quests everyone wants to hit max level on day 3 anyway...just put everyone at max level and make the game a FFA pvp fest. Oh wait then pvp'ers can't gank lowbies so they wouldn't like it.

A backstory or story isn't necissarily lost on non roleplayers. I don't roleplay but I still enjoy a good story in an MMO, I certainly much prefer a nice bit of a story in a quest instead of just "kill 20 boars".

Actually from what i remember, there is no RP in UO or EQ.

EQ is as much about leveling & loot as WOW ...  except the camping part is horrible.

And nowadays, it is about hack-n-slash, not RP. RP just gets int the way. For example, it is much easier to coordinate dungeon raids by just tell people what time zone you are in, as opposed to making some RP excuses.

I think Galad's comments are meant to be 'tongue-in-cheek', and I agree with what he is saying.

I myself was attracted to the genre due to my love of rp-games, and it was with some dismay that I began to realise that when I was playing these games, I was in the minority of people who actually played the rp-aspect.

I've never understood the mind-set of those who want to just grind mobs, with no story or quests, or anything like that.  To me, that is not what these games were meant to be.  However, I do not mind how other people play their game, they pay their fees, so if that is what they like to do, then so be it.  I do mind though when other people try to mock my style of play.  Especially when I choose to play on rp-specific servers.  Even then, you will get players who ridicule you, if you are role-playing.  Why did they roll a character on a rp-server then?

Originally posted by Majestico

I think Galad's comments are meant to be 'tongue-in-cheek', and I agree with what he is saying.

Originally posted by Majestico

 Why did they roll a character on a rp-server then?

I know some non-roleplayers will make characters on roleplay servers to try avoiding excessive amounts of other players with silly names or too much text speak, although I wouldn't expect any of those people to then hassle roleplayers, so most likely the people that are hassleing roleplayers on roleplay servers are purposefully starting on those servers because they get some sort of kick out of it, so basicaly they're griefers.

I like to believe that so long as there is the ability to have significant amounts of Roleplay  in a game, they can use the term MMORPG. It may not be prevolant, but there are significant clusters of roleplayers on all these games (WoW, AoC, lotro, etc)

I don't know about you, but I can't cast a fireball. I can't be resurrected when I'm decapitated. I can't fly or teleport or mount a griffon. Bolts of energy don't fly from my fingertips. I can't raise skeletons and zombies to do my bidding.

In these games, I play a character that can. Thus, I am role playing.

If you also choose to act the part of a persona with a history, then so be it. But it's not required.

Because roleplaying has changed. Roleplaying today = stats, levels and grinding.

war_dancer got it!

Yea the post was most definitely tongue in cheek. I am just getting a bit cynical with the way the whole evolution of the genre is paning out I suppose.

A couple of points...

when I refer to EQ I meant back in the day when it was first released. I know the attitude of gamers has changed dramatically over the years which is kinda my point.

I am not trying to say everyone should RP...I am by no means a RP freak. I am not trying to push RP onto anyone that does't enjoy it. I am just in my own cynical way trying to say people should slow down and enjoy whatever game they are playing

your thinking about this the wrong way. mmorpg's are called such because they are massively multiplayer online rpgs. rpg's being its own genre. should rpgs be called such? thats a different question. but until rpg's get a name change mmorpgs will always have the rpg part. the same way mmofps will always be called such until fps name changes.

so the question you should be asking is whether rpgs should be called something else because they are no longer roleplaying games. I think they should but it will never happen. should new york be called new york when its not new anymore?