Originally posted by MoutonDocile

The thing with the MMORPGs we have right now is that you can't really roleplay in most of them. 

 

You can pretend that you're some great blacksmith or whatever, but there is no way to make that actually happen in the game. The games are just too restrictive. They want you to go through the content and that's about it.

Yeah, nicely summed up.  There's no facility, point or incentive to roleplay in MMORPGs, and if you're the only person in 1,000 to even try, it's not even fun.

Originally posted by Thane

Originally posted by Silok

Originally posted by nariusseldon

Another rant of "end of this", "end of that" ...

Yeah ... so? I was playing AD&D with college friends before ... it was fun .. but so are modern day video games. Just different.

You can still play PnP D&D, you know. Personally, i don't want to play a blacksmith, or a carpenter. If i want to carve wood for a job, i do it for real.

 

If you dont like this kind of thread why do you answer them? This is a forum you know and this topics is good as any.

To the op, most modern mmo are exactly that mmo and not mmorpg. Now you got fast action mmo, with mindless gameplay. That what people want so that what the devs give. You want to play real rpg games well play single player game and the old ones like i do.

let's turn this around.

If you dont like this kind of answer why do you answer? ^^

I answer the op at least.. unlike you who just trying to be smart.

Originally posted by MoutonDocile

The thing with the MMORPGs we have right now is that you can't really roleplay in most of them. 

You can pretend that you're some great blacksmith or whatever, but there is no way to make that actually happen in the game. The games are just too restrictive. They want you to go through the content and that's about it.

For me, roleplay has been reduced to interactions with friends who welcome (and understand) the activity.  Even something as simple as chatting "in character" is foreign to most players.  It's a shame because it adds a whole other dimension to gameplay.

City of Heroes was the last, great roleplaying MMORPG I played, and I played it until it got snatched out from under me.

I suspect the reason CoH was a great place for roleplayers can be summed up in a few things it did well:

1)  Costumes and props

Roleplayers need these things to make their characters unique.  CoH had two things going for it that helped roleplay: unrestricted avatar costume parts, and a wide variety of costume options.  If you wanted armor, you could have armor, regardless of class.  If you wanted to be orange, you could be orange.  The costume creator allowed players to make the characters fit the backstory and theme they have in mind for them.  It also allowed them to create uniforms, disguises, alterations and so on to reflect the charater's journey.

2)  Emotes

This game had a very robust emote system, second only to SWG.  It allowed you to walk, run, use jet packs, spraypaint, dig a ditch, dance, and so many other things.  Roleplayers appreciate systems that can make their characters move the way they need them to move, and do the things they need them to do.

3)  Settings

The base editor allowed roleplayers to create as many settings or playsets as they needed to in order to get their stories told.  I've seen the base editor create spaceships, naval vessels, apartment complexes, clubs, dungeons, libraries, arenas, crypts and so much more!  This, plus the variety of settings that were available in the world (gardens, clubs, universities, factories, etc.), provided the roleplaying community with great settings in which to act.

4)  Mission Architect

This is last on my list, because the above three were so much more important.  But the AE system allowed players to create immersive storylines when text-based tools couldn't suffice.  I've seen players recreate their characters in AE to tell stories inside the missions when they were not "available" in an IC way to explain.

All of these reasons made CoH the best roleplaying game I've had for the last several years.  Sadly, it's no longer with us, and I don't see anything that does the above four as well as CoH did.  Which, to me, is a shame.  It really doesn't take much to foster roleplay in the games.

All in all, roleplayers are some of the easiest players to satisfy, from a design standpoint.  They don't need fast action combat, endgame content, cutscenes, loot, balance, or anything else like that.  All they need are the abilities to create the costumes they want, the props they want, to express what they want to do with emotes, and the ability to use and design sets.  Give them those things, and they'll entertain themselves.

Originally posted by XAPGames

Originally posted by MoutonDocile

The thing with the MMORPGs we have right now is that you can't really roleplay in most of them. 

You can pretend that you're some great blacksmith or whatever, but there is no way to make that actually happen in the game. The games are just too restrictive. They want you to go through the content and that's about it.

 

For me, roleplay has been reduced to interactions with friends who welcome (and understand) the activity.  Even something as simple as chatting "in character" is foreign to most players.  It's a shame because it adds a whole other dimension to gameplay.

Originally posted by Quirhid
Computer RPGs have never really been about role play - atleast not the multiplayer ones (you can imagine what you are all by your lonesome). To get that fix, I suggest going back to PnP.

Even with PnP roleplay you had a great range of roleplaying.  Some groups tended toward LARPing while others focused more on character development through gameplay.  My regular group was focused more on making decisions in-character and mostly skipped the talk in-character part. 

In MMORPGs roleplayers who talk in-character always remind me of LARPers and that is not a roleplaying style I enjoy.  All my characters acquire unique personalities and quirks but I do not see a reason to act them out in the game. 

This brings up an interesting topic that for some reason most people avoid.

Currently i am playing Planetside 2. I loved Planetside 1. I was there from Beta in PS1, and the same for PS2. 

One of the things that almost everyone is complaining about is the lack of a "Meta-Game". Some kind of over-reaching thing to tie it all together. Something akin to a main storyline or epic quest type of thing.

I recently came to the revelation that PS1 never had a "designed in" Meta-Game. The players created it. They took what was a fun conquest type game and turned it into a global spanning epic that took it to the next level Groups of people looked at the game and started developing tactics that eventally turned into a way to "Win the Game" that no one thought was even possible. 

And here we are 10 years later and people forget that these things were never even considered by the designers of the game. I think the problem isn't the games, it is the people playing it. They want everything spoonfed to them. 

Star Wars:The Old Republic is a perfect example of this. They could have made that game into the most amazing game in the history of the franchise but they decided to pander to the WoW type crowd. Everything is too easy, Leveling to max requires no effort, the epic rivalry between factions is never truly fleshed out and the only real use of it is in arena battlegrounds.

People need to stop with the whole mentality that games have to be easy. 

Originally posted by Rydeson

 

     GIVE US OUR OWN  SERVER.. DAMMMIT..  Yes, I know that companies like Blizzard label select servers are RPG, but they are no different then any other server.. What I want with a special RPG server is:

• Must have limited chat ability - no more global channels
• Mob strength must be redefined for open world encounters.. This means having select areas of the zone that are home to elite (group demanding) mob..
• No more instancing..  Dungeons like WoW's "Deadmines" will be open world zone in.. ALL mobs will be elite and boss mobs will be super elite demanding groups of 10 and more to kill.. ALL mobs in these zone in dungeons will respawn just like the normal open world zones..
• Raid zones like Molten Core will be open world zone ins.. NO LIMIT on how many can enter and fight the mobs..
• There must be a harsher dealth penalty..
• PvP is completely disabled..  This means that opposing factions can group with each other once again to defete the common enemy..   However, Human's will still be KOS in Ogrrimmar.. But give opposing factions the ability to earn faction to reverse that KOS status..

What you described above is EQ1 13 years ago. The mmos have moved away from this old model as more have embraced the very casual friendly style as seen in GW2.

I played EQ1 when it launched and I still play it today, IMO its still the best game on the market.

Originally posted by Silok

Originally posted by nariusseldon

Another rant of "end of this", "end of that" ...

Yeah ... so? I was playing AD&D with college friends before ... it was fun .. but so are modern day video games. Just different.

You can still play PnP D&D, you know. Personally, i don't want to play a blacksmith, or a carpenter. If i want to carve wood for a job, i do it for real.

 

If you dont like this kind of thread why do you answer them? This is a forum you know and this topics is good as any.

To the op, most modern mmo are exactly that mmo and not mmorpg. Now you got fast action mmo, with mindless gameplay. That what people want so that what the devs give. You want to play real rpg games well play single player game and the old ones like i do.

and on this topic his opinion is as good as any.  IMO it isnt much of a discussion if everyone just agrees with eeach other

One of the challenges that role-play faces is that many MMOs on the market favor highly goal-oriented, grind-focused players cultivating a play style which is to a certain extent antithetical to roleplay.  That's no judgement on those players, it's just a consequence of design choices by the developers, and I don't think it was a conscious decision on the developers parts either.  Certainly roleplay can emerge in the course of leveling your characters and PvP combat, but when everyone's racing to reach certain stat/item plateaus it doesn't leave a lot of time for the inbetween, the salt and pepper of a virutal world.  It's all bread and butter, and anything else seems like a waste of time.

The other reality is that the MMO playerbase has expanded dramatically and has now reached many players who don't know or care about roleplay, and that's their right.  It's harder to engage in it and not feel like a fool when you got players running around blatently ignoring it.  Can a server that focuses on RP reasonably be enforced in this day and age?

This all brings up an interesting question: can you create a roleplaying game?  Or is roleplay something that is fostered by the features you choose to include?

Because I think, for the most part, the roleplay detractors here have a point: games can't be designed as "roleplaying games."  Then again, you really don't need much to foster roleplay, or give roleplayers a good environment in which to exist.

I believe roleplay in MMORPGs is fostered by the ancilliary features, those things like the character creator, emotes, structure customization, etc.  If you have the ability to design the character you want, dress the character in the way that you want, have the character animate in the way you want, and design the "sets" or the playspace like you want, roleplayers can amuse themselves.

The funny thing about roleplaying tools is this: everyone, even the non-RPers, like the roleplay tools.  Powergamers and immerson breakers like cool bases, cool costumes and cool emotes.  They don't need them, like the roleplayers do, but they appreciate them when they are there.

The problem is that, as far as roleplaying tools are concerned, developers just aren't interested.  They don't want free ranging, flexible costume options.  They'd rather give you twelve faces, three body types, six races and hardwire your look to your gear.  They aren't interested in giving your avatars a ton of neat emotes and animations.  They'd rather you run all the time and have nothing to do but stand or fight.  They aren't interested in giving you building tools to design sets and spaces.  They'd rather you just run around in a non-descript guild hall with predesigned furniture and accessories.

Which, to me, is a shame.  Because I don't see these things as features that cater only to roleplayers.  The powergamers and immersion breakers like them too.  But the difference is that, while the powergamers and immersion breakers like these features, they are absolutely essential to roleplayers.  In fact, if you give roleplayers these features and no others, they'll happily amuse themselves.  They'll just use text, weave their IC plots, while xXDEATHDEALERXx and Ub0rz4U gank their noobs, talk smack and get über.  The two can coexist, like they coexisted in CoH.

Originally posted by PsiKahn

One of the challenges that role-play faces is that many MMOs on the market favor highly goal-oriented, grind-focused players cultivating a play style which is to a certain extent antithetical to roleplay.  That's no judgement on those players, it's just a consequence of design choices by the developers, and I don't think it was a conscious decision on the developers parts either.  Certainly roleplay can emerge in the course of leveling your characters and PvP combat, but when everyone's racing to reach certain stat/item plateaus it doesn't leave a lot of time for the inbetween, the salt and pepper of a virutal world.  It's all bread and butter, and anything else seems like a waste of time.

The other reality is that the MMO playerbase has expanded dramatically and has now reached many players who don't know or care about roleplay, and that's their right.  It's harder to engage in it and not feel like a fool when you got players running around blatently ignoring it.  Can a server that focuses on RP reasonably be enforced in this day and age?

I think it is the consequence of developers responding to players' desire.

To some extent, many modern gamers are not interested in "role-playing" as defined in the old pnp rpgs. They are not interested in playing a role. They are interested to acquire power in a fantasy setting. And this power involves leveling, optimizing skill builds, and getting gear.

Think about it .. when players are discussing skill builds .. their focus is on DPS, and other power relevant, but totally role-playing breaking informatino and ideas. When discussing gear, i have never heard a players saying anything relevant to lore .. but often how perfect the stat is, and how much dps it will help increase. The lore is more or less irrelevant.

It is about the illusion of achievement, and not becoming another person in another world.