Hello!  So, I've patiently and scrutinizingly searched the crooks and nannies of various Discussions of others like me with no true answers.  Therefore, I feel the need to start yet another thread to ask for your wisdom.  Sue me.

A bit about me (WARNING: may contain information that will waste your valuable time):

I'm a poor college student craving, no, dying for a new addiction and it can only be satisfied though some sort of role-play.  I've played many MMORPG's, both F2P and P2P.  The P2P ones are good, but not great enough for a monthly subscription in my absolute opinion.  The F2P ones are, well, ranging from horrible to decent; while F2P games aren't disappointing for my pocketbook, they are in many other aspects.

I've tried a few MUD's and I just couldn't get into them.  (I'm not a reader, I'm an audiobook kinda guy <- you might be thinking ewww, but I only have time for reading college textbooks.  When I'm not reading, I prefer to be endulged in a new character and world)

Ok, that's enough, I apologize.  Perhaps, I'm just being unrealistic and asking for perfection, but I still have a wittle hope that someone out there will answer my distress call.

What I'm looking for (the essentials):

- a graphical game with emphasis on role-play (strictly RP or just encouraged is fine)

- a graphical MUD would be fine

- has a good story/lore, good community

- I'm poor, so free to play would be wonderful

I've payed for / played a trial for the majority of the popular P2P games, so I discourage any of those recommendations. 

Try SWG, on the 'Starsider' server, has a good roleplaying community, along with a forum dedicated to the server and community.

SWG = Star wars galaxies, in the GCW times.

/FlameshieldUp

I'd reccomend either Star Wars Galaxies on the Starsider server, or World of WarCraft on the Moon Guard server.

Both of them have major flaws with their RP. SWG's is mainly the lore-hole that consists of thousands of jedi when very few were supposed to be living, and WoW's is primarily vigilante-god modders and (now) death knights. But, they do contain pretty good RP as long as you go out and find it.

I also need to put my flameshield up, for two big reasons.

Free Games: Sword of the new world and Rappelz Epic 5

Dear weird college student,

No game is strictly "Role-Playing" every one plays with his own leisure if you wish to role-play maybe join Gta San andreas online or maybe a Role-playing wow server easy as that just understand a strict role playing game is a 1-Player game and a free community is a Multi-player Game hope i put a stop to your search and oh asda story aint half bad ;) try it

Laurelin server, LotR is still decent. You really need a good RP guild though, get that and any game will look a lot better.

P2P= Final Fantasy XI, years worth of play...seriously. Rich story line lots of RP and 15 dollars a month. Skip that Mc'Ds boy.

I haven't found a good F2F worth playing more then a couple of months. IMO they all suck.

Originally posted by Schufti

Dear weird college student,

No game is strictly "Role-Playing" every one plays with his own leisure if you wish to role-play maybe join Gta San andreas online or maybe a Role-playing wow server easy as that just understand a strict role playing game is a 1-Player game and a free community is a Multi-player Game hope i put a stop to your search and oh asda story aint half bad ;) try it

Sorry, your wrong.

There may be a set that contains single player games that include traditional role-play elements, but the OP is referring to finding a game in which he "becomes" his avatar,and, by my reading feels immersed in that other place.  

RPG=Roleplaying game.   Doesnt need to be electronic, and doesnt refer to baldurs gate clones exclusively.  

What is generally meant by RP is illustrated below:

NON-RP version:

Player A: lets go gank some noob in a frigate

Player B: awesome, i just used EFT to max my dps

RP Version:

Player A:Fancy some easy killing?

Player B:Roger that, just fitted new toys to this bird and she needs a shakedown.

So you see, in the non-rp version you may be playing at being a pirate, in the RP version you suspend your own disbelief and actually mentally "become" that pirate.

So a "Strict" roleplaying game would be one that enforces keeping kayfabe, or keeping in character, an obvious impossibility in a single player game, and a reality only very rarley achieved in modern MMO's.  A whole two generations of gamers who never cracked the spine on a good sourcebook means RP is getting pretty bloody rare, and pretty bloody diluted.

Wont be long before "RP" goes the way of "hacker", and the polar opposite meaning becomes the popular usage.

(although to be fair, that kind of change can be good too...reference "gay", most kids think "gay" = "lame" and not "gay"="homosexual")

Thanks everyone who contributed!  I realize now after weeks of endless searching, that it all comes down to how you play the game and not how the "game plays you" (if that makes any sense).

Star Wars Galaxies (Scylla) was my first MMORPG; therefore, I have compared every mmo that I've played to it.  Of course, they all lacked that first-time experience.  SWG had such a wonderful community, a lot of the people I played with everyday were older than me (adults) and I was heart-broken when I had to quit, for the same reasons many others have quit.  So, returning to SWG would open that old scar up and I don't want to have to deal with it again.

Sorry for that worthless nostalgic and sentimental piece, at least for me.  Anyways, I've realized that the F2P category will never come anywhere near my expectations, especially in the RP aspect.  So, I need to focus on the P2P mmo's out there.  No WoW though, for personal reasons.  Also, could someone recommend a good RP gaming guild?  Thanks again!

Have you looked at Runes of Magic? It's F2P and although It doesn't have a official RP server there are RP guilds.

forum.us.runesofmagic.com

Apparently most roleplayers are on Govinda (pve) and the pvp realm (Grimdall) has rp as well.  I play on Artemis so I have no first hand knowledge of the realms or any of the guilds, I've only read a little on the forums as I was thinking of playing an alt on Govinda.

Good luck with your search :)

I tried RoM when it was in beta, and I noticed a load a lag that made the game unenjoyable.  I give it another shot, because I've been reading the Roleplaying forums on the site and it's getting my blood boiling for some RPing!

Thanks a lot!  I will post the verdict after a reasonable amount of play-testing.

Originally posted by Zyphriss

I tried RoM when it was in beta, and I noticed a load a lag that made the game unenjoyable.  I give it another shot, because I've been reading the Roleplaying forums on the site and it's getting my blood boiling for some RPing!

Thanks a lot!  I will post the verdict after a reasonable amount of play-testing.

The lags gone :)

Game is actually pretty good, something do whilst being station camped.

I recently started playing Vanguard on the Seridon server and people Roleplay on there.  It seems a lot of RP's sought out refuge there because they are tired of all the crap in other games. I don't blame them.  I 've been trying to feed my role playing fix as well and  WoW aint cuttin it.  At least the server I was on.

 Try perfect world online

Or everquest 2 has a high populated rp server

got to pay to play though but im sure you will love it.

Howdy.  If you're looking to do some roleplaying I've two suggestions for ya, Mabinogi or Guild Wars.

Mabinogi is free to play (although you can get all sorts of extra goodies by paying real money if you so choose), which is good for a poor college student, yes?  I thought the game was great, it's certainly different from most MMORPG's out there, and (if you join the server Ruari) keep yours eyes open for Solidarity or any of the other roleplaying guilds out there (there were at least a couple more forming last time I played the game).

Guild Wars isn't completely free, you have to buy the game first, but there aren't any monthly fees, which is nice.  The graphics are pretty impressive, the character classes are all pretty fun, and there is a fairly large roleplaying community.  All of the explorable areas are instances, which is limiting to some degree, but there is still plenty of opportunity for roleplaying and having fun with friends!

If you're looking for full-on heavy RP in a D&D background look no further than here http://www.nwvisuals.com/tum/

You will have to buy the game to have a legit online serial. Ebay will set you back about a tenner. After that it's free. There are loads of RP servers for NWN but this one really rocks. EVERYBODY and EVERYTHING is full on in character RPing.

It's easy to play but hard to survive. Everyone is friendly and welcoming. It's a mature and fun place. Can't say a bad word about it really...

Most GMT evenings you'll be able to link up to a party and get stuck in to the fun.

Jay

I've gone through the same thing that you are going through now. It goes something like this:

1. I get the urge to find a new game, one where roleplayers have settled in.

2. I buy XYZ game or tie my PC up downloading ABC free game, then go through the patches.

3. I get into the game, try to create a character that is at least inspiring to me to play.

4. I get into the world and either find a) no roleplayers or b) roleplayers that are too self-absorbed to welcome a newcomer or c) groups of folk who are excellent roleplayers but have all advanced their characters to a point where teaming is virtually out of the question, turning the GAME part of the game back into a solo experience.

5. I solo for a while hoping to at least make a friend or two that can adventure with me in character, adding folks to me friend list and informing them I have done so, only to find that it was a one-shot deal, that they do not bother to reciprocate or they join a guild that occupies their time.

6. I get fed up and quit the game and go back to playing single-player games.

Rinse, repeat...

I know exactly what you mean about SWG. I tried to go back once and it felt like going somewhere you used to live and finding none of your friends still live there and everyone else has moved on. I still like Guild Wars. The instances mean that only those who leave town with you are part of your game, but going back into town is like stepping into D00dz 'n Botz Paradise. I am also considering trying CoH/V again when the new Rogue expansion comes out. Aion looks cool.

Iin the meantime, Oblivion and Fallout 3 serve, but it would be nice to encounter someone who does not repeat the same dozen phrases.

If you do look to WoW, I found a pretty good group of folk on Thorium Brotherhood, if they are still there.

Originally posted by Zyphriss

 

Star Wars Galaxies (Scylla) was my first MMORPG; therefore, I have compared every mmo that I've played to it.  Of course, they all lacked that first-time experience. 

I hear ya big time. With me it was Everquest, SWG was my second MMO and the one I RPed the most in. I have also been trying to get that first game experience back.  I have come to realize that it was the people I was involved with, that made it what it is. Having a blast with THEM is what made the experience so powerful, not the game. Best of luck in your Journey to recapture that fun!

There's very well "set up" roleplaying communities on many Ultima Online servers, I've personally played on Europa and it was very good indeed. If you don't mind playing with outdated graphics (though the new client graphics are pretty damn nice), I highly recommend it.

IIRC, on the Europa server there's about 10-15 guilds collaborating together and creating the fantastic roleplaying environment, there's always people online and many events being organised. One of the most notable is the Guardsmen Militia; to give an example of how established the guilds there are.

LOL, your right.  Unless someone is really good at sock pupets, there is not such thing as truely emersive RP..