Although it might have been brought up in the 200+ posts before this one, I think a point needs to be emphasized, namely people want RP servers for various reasons and not just to act like they are at a Renaissance Faire. The few times that I have tried RP-servers, I wanted an environment where the players would contribute to a developing story, a world history in essence. Unfortunately I first tried it in AoC, which was virtually unmoderated, even though they had clear statements such as "playing a homicidal maniac will not be tolerated" and strict naming conventions; nonetheless my demonologist would get repeatedly ganked by rez point camper guilds in whatever the endgame city was with players named “Leetassmonkey” and so forth. A RP-server that isn’t strictly moderated will fail, and cause people to leave the game in frustration; they had promised a prison-type system for months, but it didn’t make prime time prior to my loss of interest in the game; perhaps that could have imposed a less gank-based game-play experience for those players who like to ask why would my character do this (other than to get an upgrade on their gear). I am principally a PvP-server guy, but I sympathize with the RP’ers out there, as I think they aspire to a more immersive gaming environment, as opposed to the majority of habituated token economy driven mindless shooter players; I don’t think of frustrated RP'ers as whining, but rather blame the company’s inability to follow through in implementing promised game content. Another reason why people join such servers also include the perception of a more mature population who are interested in a larger more “real society” interactive environment, which is cool. There are plenty of old school pencil and paper gamers who have no desire to talk in Old English, who would welcome a more substantial story driven gaming experience; I will probably give it a try in SWTOR if available because of the potential for actually shaping a storyline, but time will tell just how player-on-player interactive it will turn out to be.

Well, imo, AoC is kind of a bad example.

The game was/is purely combat based, all it's innovations were poured into that system.

There whole RP server idea was tantamount to placing one more chocolate chip on top of a sundae in which you've already poured 100 prior to this last one. It held no weight, and was out of "Well, every other game company does it, so we should to" mentality.

That being said, in any game, even AoC, it's not hard to form enclaves waaaay away from traveled places, which totally negates the effect of anyone who joins the server for less-than-wholesome reasons, shall we say.

But yeah...back on topic, Dana and the folks at MMORPG.com really need to at least a little bit of research before writing "opinion" articles.

Let's say you, as a person, had never tasted cheese before. Someone walks up to you, at a cheese convention no less, and hands you what is quite possibly the most foul piece of shitty, processed cheddar and says, "Here, it's CHEESE, you'll like it." So you eat it, hate it, find it disgusting, and then proceed to run around said cheese convention, screaming your head off that "Cheese sucks, it's absolutely worthless, and it also doesn't even exist."

^ Replace the words CHEESE with Roleplaying, you have basically what you did here Dana.

Ahem, here I'll translate for you: l2p "My Pretend Writer" you nub, kthxbai.

Untrue that no video games have fostered RP. NWN has had some excellent RP on their servers but then that CAN be enforced because the people running the server are players and real people acting as the GMs. It's not like WoW where there is no way to enforce RP except for names and even then the GMs in WoW are lazy about it.

I find it funny as hell though that without PnP games like D&D, you know "Roleplaying Games" you wouldn't have most MMOs. Without people like Gary Gygax you wouldnt really have games like WoW because that's where the idea came from. Before computers people sat around playing games with pencil and paper and then eventually someone thought "hey what if I could put this into computer format and have thousands of people playing at the same time." That's the real kicker here.

Soon, we will get an mmorpg where we can RP. This game is mortal online. Like the writer said, RPing in EVE was like real. So it will be in MO too.

In MO, there is no global chat. When you wishper, if someone is near you and you wishper to someone far aways, the guys near you will hear what you just said. Even for guild chat or party chat. This may add a lot of immersion for rpers.

The whole game is fpv so it does add immersion. No minimap. You have to buy a map and you can note stuff on it with a pen in game.

So MO is the nest game where you will be able to rp well. If a none rper want to ruin your day, you can even kill him and go on or you can see him as a crazy guy.

Alright....one more post.

I also posted this in the AoC forums, where this trash was brough up in a post.

Massey's "article"....if one can even call it that....is nothing more than a rant intended to piss off a bunch of people....for who knows what reason.

It's quite apparent that he somehow got his feelings hurt while on a RP preferred server, so he used his position as a writer to "stir" it up.

All he accomplished by writing that trash is lose credibility as a "writer', and piss people off. A somewhat "official" rant like that also widens the gap between RPers and those that grief the RPers by feeding the griefers dislike with fictional crap presented as fact.

It's kinda like somewhat writing a racist piece and generalizing, in a negative way, members of that race. Those that agree with the writers bogus opinion take all that information as fact and it feeds and replenishes their racist views, while those that were needlessly and inappropriately attacked can only sit by and say "wtf?"

My poll is still running about 85% yes (YES! or depends on studio/game) that people would spend twice as much for a game and three times as much for a monthly subscription to get a game that focuses more on story (and presumably would be more RP friendly).  If there are any industry folks reading this thread, maybe you should consider this as a leaping-off point for some more general market research?

Shava

Just to chime in, I have not read the 20 or so pages comprising this thread, but Dana's idea of what roleplaying, and roleplayers are is just plain wrong. Perhaps he should not write about things that he clearly has either one sided experience or no experience with.

An RP server that actually enforced policy can, and would probably have to, charge a lot more money each month.  Enough people are obviously willing to make it worth someone's time!  

Separating players based on their particular play styles may sound elitist, but a lot of the issues developers have policing RP servers in the first place are coming from conflicting play styles, and a simple lack of man power.   Actually, conflicting play styles is a gross understatement, because Rpers and non Rpers might as well be on different planets.  Not regulating RP servers because it's too much work... is the very reason they don't work.  Charge more $$$...   

Thoust haveth nay idea on what thou is speaking of.

/ooc  worst article evah!

Originally posted by Kamandi777

I started playing WoW in 2004 on an RP server.  I had fun and made a lot of money playing the AH!  Loved it.  Then our GM told me about pvp servers because I spent all my time in the battle grounds.  I went to a pvp server and stayed there for a few years. 
 
My boss tells me he is playing on an rp server and so I roll a toon on it. 
Rp servers are the minor league of WoW.  People don't care about spec or gear, they care about how they look, when the next wedding is going to be and what was on Scrubs last night.  Trying to make friends in the LAMER guild I was in,  I offered runs through classic instances for gear and fun.  No repsonse.  I'm like don't you guys want a Corpsemaker or Smite's Hammer and they are like, "Ummm were like working on the newest cooking acheivments and stuff."  I am serious. 
<Mod edit>
Because on my server they would be served with garlic toast and a good beer.
 
 

That sounds amazing. That is the type of experience I try to find in MMOs these days, but it is hard.

Dana must be menstrating right now because that article was just screaming "I am really pissed off because some RPer pissed me off ingame."

Dana could not be more wrong in his article. I have seen MANY roleplayers that contradict everything in his article.

Dane, if someone miffed you off in the game, settle it with that person. Don't write up an article about it because when people who are angry write articles, more times than not, the article will appear to be down right retarded. Like this article.

Sorry, man. Worse article I have seen on mmorpg.com.

Originally posted by Dana
I definitely got a reaction out of you all. Mind you while I obviously am not a fan of rp servers I may have been a bit over the top. The goal of this is to incite debate not riots. :)

Gee, you think?

You're entitled to your opinion but using your staff "powers" to make an article bashing a legit group of people deserves to be locked.  Your thread was created to formally debate the topic. It was created because you got pissed off by a RPer and you excerised your title here to make the biggest damn thread about it.

Dana, remember when you rode my ass because you thought I did not spot check my star wars review as there was a couple grammar errors? Well, Karma sucks doesn't it? lol.

This "editorial opinion" should be locked for trolling.

Absolutely great article. Hits the nail on the head.

Hello,

     I have been postin here off and on. My current MMO is Runes of Magic. I play on a PVE server Oshe (i think i spelt it right) Some of you may know me as the annoying guy who always role play. "Thorion " is my character's name. He does speak in the King James style english but it is quite fun for me. It helps me enjoy the game and when I role play the character has certain attributes about himself, such as his fear for horses and a couple other things. He also rambles on when he is killing monsters about smiting them etc, even if not in a party I role play this. Most people I find enjoy his company and enjoy him being in their parties. Other's a few are real big jerks about it etc and call me obscene names etc and tells me to stop. Most of the names my character doesn't understand so I say something that usually gets the zone laughing, which is part of the fun of me roleyplaying the character. Anyways role playing should be in MMORPG's since they are RPG"s RP as in role playing.. thus I try to remind people of that by playing "Thorion" it is fun for me and if people don't want to they don't have too but if there is a game with dedicated role playing servers, one would think those servers would be for those who are like my self and seek to role play, thus those who don't have other options.  Just my thoughts..

God Bless,

Dustin

Just like to say there are some good people out there who enjoy roleplaying. Also, I've never, in the decade I've been playing MMORPGs, run into people who only roleplay because they want to be victims, so I don't know where that idea came from. Anyway, I've read a few of your articles Dana and some make sense, but to me this article was just extremely hurtful. Kind of like if you said to a woman who was raped, that most women who get raped enjoy it.

Overall this article was extremely offensive to me.

You know, considering most of you are casual and can't tell the difference between an asshat and a well played RP dick, it might be possible that most of you aren't empathic enough to realize Dana is right...to a degree. Maybe a lot of people got to RP servers to seek a more "mature" community and maybe when they run into "sirpwnsalot" they turn into the victimizing person Dana speaks about. It's not something you would even see, it would be a player ticket or feedback submitted by anyone any where without your knowledge.

For example, let's say Player A gets mad at Player B for metagaming. Player A might bring it to the attention of Player B and Player B might report them for harassment behind the scenes. Nobody would even know. This is the bullshit I imagine Dana is talking about. So many "Role players" try to exploit the system when they screw up by metagaming, and then they get angry. Is it so hard to imagine that they falesly report other players for breaking rules because of this? In a pen and paper game, this would almost never happen because it's pretty obvious when someone is just being a metagaming dickwad. In an MMORPG though, it might be less obvious.

This entire article was biased;

Role players are simply rolling on rp servers to be victims?  Rp griefers are more intelectually honest? What happened to Dana Massey on a rp server for him to be so bitter? 

Role play servers use phrases such as whilst and thou?  Not likely, and since you are citing WoW as your primary source for your "article" next time look into the lore, not even the characters in the game use ""whilst and thou."

All in all your article was an uninformed rant that did little more than belittle people who play on and frequent rp servers.  I would expect better from someone who works for a website that promotes the rpg aspect of MMORPG.

Originally posted by Enigma

Originally posted by Dana
I definitely got a reaction out of you all. Mind you while I obviously am not a fan of rp servers I may have been a bit over the top. The goal of this is to incite debate not riots. :)

 

Gee, you think?

You're entitled to your opinion but using your staff "powers" to make an article bashing a legit group of people deserves to be locked.  Your thread was created to formally debate the topic. It was created because you got pissed off by a RPer and you excerised your title here to make the biggest damn thread about it.

Dana, remember when you rode my ass because you thought I did not spot check my star wars review as there was a couple grammar errors? Well, Karma sucks doesn't it? lol.

This "editorial opinion" should be locked for trolling.

I actually agree.  This article is little more than a troll of rp server players.  Dana Massey should know better considering he is the former editor of MMORPG.

So you had a bad experience on an rp server Dana, we get it.  It is just a shame that you used that experience to create a bully pulpit.

It is endemic of anyone in the media that they want to be as shocking and controversial as possible to get attention. Sometimes this backfires, like with the OP’s post.

Using my RP tools I have created a stake, built on kindling wood and fagots. We can tie him to it and light the match if you like. Just say the word. :D

Originally posted by Scot

It is endemic of anyone in the media that they want to be as shocking and controversial as possible to get attention. Sometimes this backfires, like with the OP’s post.

Using my RP tools I have created a stake, built on kindling wood and fagots. We can tie him to it and light the match if you like. Just say the word. :D

Thank you Scot, I choked on my coffee...