Don't heavy storylines generally take away from roleplaying?  Like limiting you in many ways? 

Hear me out on this, but you may want to check out Neverwinter Nights.  (Maybe 2 never tried it.)  Not the single player aspect but the player made persistant worlds with multiple DM's.  I have found them to be the best, and maybe the only great source of roleplaying these days period.  There is no roleplaying that touches what goes on in these.  Maybe some nights you have 10 dm's on with 40-50 players in an area and the dm's make custom dungeons for you if you roleplay a evil character, and give you experience for things like going stealth and spying on enemies or other groups of players.  They control npc's and do all kinds of cool stuff.

You can get Neverwinter Nights Diamond edition for like 10-20$ now with everything, and then check out nwn.bioware.com/players/pw_guide.html which has a link to a database of persistent worlds.  However, many of them might be dead due to migrating to Neverwinter Nights 2.

Research some on NWN2 here is the persistent world forum: nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/viewforum.html

They might be dying off, but I hope not for your sake.  No MMORPG can even come close to the RP that can go on in these.  My sessions before were even better than any table top session i've ever had.  Actually no RP in the history of my life touches it.

P.S. Persistent World means it is like an MMO.  Servers are always up and your character info is saved on them.  They just lack the playerbase, but are also smaller in scale.  Some of the best ones have one main town and then focus on what goes on around it until eventually something happens say to kill everyone in the town and survivors move and rebuild.  The Worlds usually constantly change.

Originally posted by katriell

My opinion is that "storyline" quests and roleplaying don't mix. Storyline quests usually only make sense if just one person ever does them. But the reality is that thousands of people save the same town over and over again. They get the same speeches, the same experiences, and the same gratitude. Storyline quests are for single-player games, not MMORPGs...at least, not MMORPGs that actually care about roleplay-conducive consistency and logic.

This opinion might not be understandable unless one places it on the foundation of a particular definition of roleplaying: in a massively multiplayer online environment, playing a role is not sufficient - instead, in-character interaction between players, the game world, and each other is the primary factor.

In replacement of "storyline" quests, I suggest live storyline events that have persistent effects on lore that evolves over the course of the game's existence. This isn't a new idea, it's been done in Horizons/Istaria and Ryzom, just to name two (there have been others no doubt, but I'm less familiar with them).
In Istaria, for example, two playable races and a racial capital city were unlocked in events.
The lore on Ryzom's website depicts the playable races' perspectives on what they think they know about their world, not necessarily the truth of the backstory. From there, that lore would've been updated to reflect the state of the races' knowledge as they uncovered fragments of their past, understanding of their present, and inklings of their future. Furthermore, the lore progress would differ between servers.

With live storyline events, your character has unique experiences that they can tell stories about to their metaphorical (or literal) grandchildren. Epicness is justified and genuine, requiring no exorbitant suspension of disbelief. Though not everyone gets to participate in every event, there are always more to look forward to (unless, as in the cases of Ryzom and Istaria, bad companies take over and neglect the game; note however that Istaria is now under the care of a fine company who are already getting their feet wet in running events, releasing more lore, and providing lore-grounded explanations for mechanics changes).

Ultimately, what I want, as a roleplayer and a sandbox enjoyer, is a storyline implementation that fits in the persistent massively-multiplayer environment instead of being an ill-conceived port from the single-player realm.

I totally agree with you, a main story line does take away from roleplay, however since developers seem to lazy to do live action storyies anymore (which is my favorite, i did play games that have what your talking about, and i actually mentioned it in a later post. I can't wait for another game to pick up on stories like that. or have enough resources to allow players to create stories for other characters to live, but alas, what i am finding in all the mmos now is grinding to an x lvl. Most good roleplay i see is normally happing around there, but perhaps im just playing the wrong games. Its quite sad that i have not found a game to do live story lines even the grinding games of the past used to do them. Developers just lost intrest in story it seems and have been putting all into graphics and pvp.

To all the ppl telling me to play conan, i have and around lvl 50 it dropped all story line and turned into a grinding game. pah. One thing i can not stand in an mmo is when it sticks you in 1 zone and makes you kill the same type of creatures for hours. I need more of a reason to play other than just lvling. Its quite sad but since FoM which is a game that failed, yet was so amazing for roleplay. i have not been able to stand standard mmos. The way wow started was, there was no lvls, every pieace of gear you used was player made, there were 7 factions, and pvp was not encouraged but rather politics was highly important. PvP normally did start when 2 factions got at each others throats, but it was all roleplay. And i loved it, untill they got a fucking publisher who wanted to turn teh game into quick money and made them change everything that made the game sandbox and amazing. (then the game got full of fucking pvp retards and in the end the game fell through and all the old players left and the game ran out of money).

But want a game where lvling doesn't feel like lvling, where i am enjoying live stories, i would even settle for a game with a good story line. yes i do prefer live story and roleplay, but i just can't find a game that really allows it to get to its full potential.

And please no one say guildwars again, guildwars was already discussed on first page, and its more less a shortlived game for me, as all i enjoy is the storyline. no endgame roleplay possibiliies.

Originally posted by obii

I think Asherons Call has a monthly storyline update.

 

I am also looking for one with a very active storyline. Means every few days some new events to advance the story. If possible with human gms advancing the storyline and giving it a human touch instead of the automated feel.

If you ever find one, please let me in on it :P ive been waiting a long time for a good game like that.

or perhaps you know a website or guild dedicated to mmos with livestoryline content? So i can atleast i can find a community of people who are waiting for the same thing as me?

To the OP;

I smiled reading your post, as it was virtually identical to me, and what I want from a game.

I grew up playing pen and paper rpg's, and in my adulthood, I sought the same thing in my computer games, and got it through classics such as Baldur's Gate I and II, and the brilliant Planescape:Torment (still arguably the best plot and storyline in any game).  This progressed to NWN, whilst at the same time, I began to dabble with MUD's.

Then I discovered the MMORPG genre, and I thought I had discovered the holy grail of my gaming needs through EQ2.  I still think it is a brilliant game, and one you should definitely check out if you haven't done so already.

However, EQ2, and then WoW, just did not cater for my rpg needs, or my wish to play a game with strong story-lines and plot.  I went from one MMO to another, to find at least one that would attempt to recreate a single player rpg's depth of narrative.  None satisfied that wish, and I grew despondent, thinking that the genre had stagnated into a simple formula of seek and detroy quests, or find object 'a' and bring to point 'b' missions.  The lack of ambition and imigination made me think that I was going to give up on the genre.

Then I came across LoTR.  Now, I had tried it when it was in beta, and I had not been too impressed.  At the time, I thought it to be too much like WoW - but dressed in Tolkien's garb.  This was an unfair judgement though, as I was later to discover.

LotR has a fantastic appreciation for details, that never fail to leave me amazed when I am exploring the world.  It is also one of the most ambitious MMO's that I have come across, and cannot wait to see the first Expansion Pack, MInes of Moria.  Imagine an entire expansion, devoted mainly to an underground environment.

It is a game that is casual friendly, meaning that you do not have to sacrafice your RL to play it.  The quests are very story driven, especially the main epic quest-line, which reveals more about the story (in the way of cut-scenes - another aspect I love) as you progress.

The community is very friendly, and mature - at least in my experiences of the EU-RP server Laurelin.

Also, there is always some role-playing hotspots where you can get involved with your character, and play alongside like-minded individuals.  The Prancing Pony in Bree is usually a fun place to go and chill out with an ale, and role-play with others of the same ilk.  From which, you soon make allies, and maybe enemies, and story-lines are created almost on the spot.

They are daying a 14 day free trial at the moment, and I strongly urge you to give it a try.  It's also the only MMO I have come upon that has very little in the way of gold-farmers or bots.

If you ever decide to give it a try, and you are able to play on the EU RP server Laurelin, I would be happy to show you around.   My character is a Hunter - sort of like a ranger type, and a guide, so he could take you to some of the more amazing places to show the wonders of the world.

On an other matter: I know several people have suggested FFXI.  I played it a few years back, and it is a great game in its own right.  However, from what you have said in earlier posts, I really do not think that this is the game you are looking for.  It is more for hardcore players, and has a monstrous grind, and time-sink.  Something I'm sure that is not on your preferred list of 'wants'.

I hope that this information is off use to you.  You may want to check out DnD online also, but I was quite disappointed with it.

Let me know how you get on.  Maybe I shall see you in Laurelin one of these days.

BTW - Although LotRo has all these qualities, it is still not my 'holy grail' game.  Too me - it is the closest to date. 

Alas imma give Lotr a try again, i tried it back in beta as well. But perhaps i gota  bad impression or the game was to new. You are correct, i am not looking for a time sink, i am not able to compete in time sinks. I am enlisted in the USAF, and because of that i have to go to training and other such TDYs. Even though alot of them are not that long, 1 week in a time sink mmo puts you forever behind all yoru friends. And at some point i will deploy which will only put me further behind. Time sinks are not for me :P nor do i find grinding fun.

wait for GuildWars2

Originally posted by endermorgan

Alas imma give Lotr a try again, i tried it back in beta as well. But perhaps i gota  bad impression or the game was to new. You are correct, i am not looking for a time sink, i am not able to compete in time sinks. I am enlisted in the USAF, and because of that i have to go to training and other such TDYs. Even though alot of them are not that long, 1 week in a time sink mmo puts you forever behind all yoru friends. And at some point i will deploy which will only put me further behind. Time sinks are not for me :P nor do i find grinding fun.

If you do, and are still states side roll on Landroval and you will find plenty of RP.