The main MMORPG i'm playing right now is RIFT (While i wait for SWTORO), there is a fairily strong RP community here, not as strong as i would like, but it is there, the biggest dissapointment is the lack of supported RP-Friendily features, worse yet, even the basic features are not present.. I.E. you can't sit in chairs/benchs, no RP vanity items (All the vanity items are more for comical purposes rather then RP.).

So what games current, past or future have the best RP Support? best Features?

Everquest 2 had some great platforms for RP.

Sadly, the RP tools of most MMOs consist soley of a chat interface, a few animated emotes, a few more canned text only emotes, and a freeform text emote ( you know: /em does something completely inappropriate for a RP setting, thus destroying everyone's RP experience).  Things like being able to sit in a chair or lay on a bed or climb a rope or light a campfire aren't in enough games.    I can't crawl on my hands and knees to look down off a cliff at the orc encampment below.  I can't hide in the bushes or blend into the shadows.

And on a broader scale, P&P RPing had a GM always there to reward you with creative RPing.  While that's impossible, why not let the players judge how well other players RPed, to build various reputations within the game.  If you want your character to be know as Generous, he'd better act generous.  If you want to be Brave, you should be the first to stand against an opponent and the very last to flee.  Simply let each account (not player) vote up to N times per day (not for other characters on that account).  Player A was Brave.  Submit.   System tallies the votes, and there is a progression scale.  To make it even more interesting, the scales could be dual-ended.  Brave vs Cowardly.  Greedy vs Sharing.  Honest vs. Deceitful.  Whatever personality traits they want to include.    Let there be some benefit for these -- titles, NPC reactions, minor bonuses on some game activities -- to encourage RP and voting.

What about systems to evaluate items?  And not only for cash value, but asethetic value.  This could create new avenues for crafting.  Judges of PCs could each evaluate and vote for items at a craft show.  Even performances of music or dance could be judged and awards could mean something other than a personality contest.

And content.  Give us some actual content that encourages RP.  A seasonal fair.   The autumn dance.  The Mayor's Birthday party.  A heated council meeting.  Worship services to pray for deliverance from the hoards of wolves attacking.  All by invitation only, with appropriate attire required.   It shouldn't occur too frequently, but these events should be promoted within the game environment itself.

I'd say UO is one of the best.

- inscribable books and paper for creating literature, records, flyers, etc

- ability to customize one's appearance or give a group a uniform appearance without it being at the expense of functionality

- flexible player structure system to build houses and towns for looks, functionality ro to suit an RP purpose

- message boards and other ingame systems for exchanging information

- customizable NPCs

- skill system that allows bakers, healers and fisherman (and dozens of other professions) to progress by baking, healing and fishing rather than having to go on murdering sprees now and then just to be able to bake, heal or fish better

- overhead and distance-based chat. This makes spatial awareness and the use of terrain for allowing or blocking discussion part of standard gameplay. It reinforces presence and proximity of others

- character collision. see above

- Server-based plots and major story arcs allowing players to get involved in the story. Server-based plots were different for each server and the objective was to base them on the existing story and gameplay of the players on that server

- "blessed" locations. Oh, how I despise that term, however... when players would adopt an area and show regular use and activity there that benefits the server as a whole the GMs would decorate or alter that area to help enhance the setting or facilitate that goal. Some notable examples were the mage Towers, YMCA on Sonoma, Kazola's Tavern on Great Lakes, Serpent's Cross on Atlantic and Shadowclan Fort on Catskills.

- game feature additions and updates to support roleplay. One example would be that people liked roleplaying orcs at the Orc Fort, but the NPC orcs would attack them. Masks of Orcish Kin were put in game that allowed the wearer to go unnoticed by the NPC orcs. Violating the masquerade is similar to violating certain other masquerades - disastrous results follow. :)

I get the feeling that no matter how many things I list, there will be a reply that none of it really supports roleplay, so I'll just stop there. :)

Another great one is SWG, but I shall let the SWG fans field that one.

Face of Mankind.

Originally posted by Loktofeit

I'd say UO is one of the best.

- inscribable books and paper for creating literature, records, flyers, etc

- ability to customize one's appearance or give a group a uniform appearance without it being at the expense of functionality

- flexible player structure system to build houses and towns for looks, functionality ro to suit an RP purpose

- message boards and other ingame systems for exchanging information

- customizable NPCs

- skill system that allows bakers, healers and fisherman (and dozens of other professions) to progress by baking, healing and fishing rather than having to go on murdering sprees now and then just to be able to bake, heal or fish better

- overhead and distance-based chat. This makes spatial awareness and the use of terrain for allowing or blocking discussion part of standard gameplay. It reinforces presence and proximity of others

- character collision. see above

- Server-based plots and major story arcs allowing players to get involved in the story. Server-based plots were different for each server and the objective was to base them on the existing story and gameplay of the players on that server

- "blessed" locations. Oh, how I despise that term, however... when players would adopt an area and show regular use and activity there that benefits the server as a whole the GMs would decorate or alter that area to help enhance the setting or facilitate that goal. Some notable examples were the mage Towers, YMCA on Sonoma, Kazola's Tavern on Great Lakes, Serpent's Cross on Atlantic and Shadowclan Fort on Catskills.

- game feature additions and updates to support roleplay. One example would be that people liked roleplaying orcs at the Orc Fort, but the NPC orcs would attack them. Masks of Orcish Kin were put in game that allowed the wearer to go unnoticed by the NPC orcs. Violating the masquerade is similar to violating certain other masquerades - disastrous results follow. :)

I get the feeling that no matter how many things I list, there will be a reply that none of it really supports roleplay, so I'll just stop there. :)

 

 

 

Another great one is SWG, but I shall let the SWG fans field that one.

Oh how I hate EA for ruining a perfect MMORPG game by trying to cater to the WoW crowd. Even Trammel did little to tarnish the shine of Europa roleplay. If anything, it flourished for quite a while...

...until Age of Shadows hit and the game turned into the hunt of glowing equipment and neon hair.

Ultima Online, as of today, still houses easily the biggest in-game support for roleplaying purposes. What would I give to get back the large roleplaying community that once was there... :(

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Originally posted by Loktofeit
I'd say UO is one of the best.
- inscribable books and paper for creating literature, records, flyers, etc
- ability to customize one's appearance or give a group a uniform appearance without it being at the expense of functionality
- flexible player structure system to build houses and towns for looks, functionality ro to suit an RP purpose
- message boards and other ingame systems for exchanging information
- customizable NPCs
- skill system that allows bakers, healers and fisherman (and dozens of other professions) to progress by baking, healing and fishing rather than having to go on murdering sprees now and then just to be able to bake, heal or fish better
- overhead and distance-based chat. This makes spatial awareness and the use of terrain for allowing or blocking discussion part of standard gameplay. It reinforces presence and proximity of others
- character collision. see above
- Server-based plots and major story arcs allowing players to get involved in the story. Server-based plots were different for each server and the objective was to base them on the existing story and gameplay of the players on that server
- "blessed" locations. Oh, how I despise that term, however... when players would adopt an area and show regular use and activity there that benefits the server as a whole the GMs would decorate or alter that area to help enhance the setting or facilitate that goal. Some notable examples were the mage Towers, YMCA on Sonoma, Kazola's Tavern on Great Lakes, Serpent's Cross on Atlantic and Shadowclan Fort on Catskills.
- game feature additions and updates to support roleplay. One example would be that people liked roleplaying orcs at the Orc Fort, but the NPC orcs would attack them. Masks of Orcish Kin were put in game that allowed the wearer to go unnoticed by the NPC orcs. Violating the masquerade is similar to violating certain other masquerades - disastrous results follow. :)
I get the feeling that no matter how many things I list, there will be a reply that none of it really supports roleplay, so I'll just stop there. :)
 
 
 
Another great one is SWG, but I shall let the SWG fans field that one.

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I haven't played it n a long time, but LOTRO was probably the best out of the current, visible MMOs to support roleplaying. UO was THE best, no question, but, sadly, RP has never been a priority for most developers.

Originally posted by Talthanys

I haven't played it n a long time, but LOTRO was probably the best out of the current, visible MMOs to support roleplaying. UO was THE best, no question, but, sadly, RP has never been a priority for most developers.

 LOTRO always seemed to be hit and miss. Sometimes they did something that was really a benefit to roleplayers, other times not.

Also, they never had an RP server, so it was hard to not have idiots ruin it for you.

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Originally posted by thepoptart
Face of Mankind.

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Yeah, I gotta agree with you there, though that was mainly due to a dedicated community willing to roleplay rather than any particularly innovative game features. You could sit on stuff though.

Seems like most serious RPers still hang out on message boards and MUDs though. You can't exactly write epic adventures with a few emotes and a chatbar.

Thank you for making this post.

I agree with the people above saying that too little effort is made by the developers these days to encourage roleplay in MMORPGs. It is like WoW defined how an MMORPG should look and then (almost) every other developer followed in its tail to catch customers.

For roleplay to happen, we need tools in the games to make it happen. The rest of course is up to the players. I believe that a lot more players than developers currently expect, would be interested in roleplay if the games supported the features and maybe had GMs running roleplay events on a regular basis.

Though I havent found any MMORPG yet that truly tries to create a roleplay environment, some games are worth mentioning:

LotRO: As mentioned above, this game has a decent amount of users roleplaying. There are a few "roleplay" servers, but some players join them because they believe the crowd here is more mature, and not because of the roleplay. In any case, visiting the Pranching Pony in Bree is a qutie easy way to get in contact with roleplayers. Some events made by roleplayers for roleplayers are also happening around the gameworld, for instance in the Shire and in Thorins halls.

Age of Conan: A bit more difficult than in LotRO, but it is possible to find roleplayers and roleplaying guiilds who have set up their own towns where roleplayers are active. A minor detail in AoC that I noticed and liked right away is the fact that you "bump" into other players instead of "running through them". Details like this can make the world feel more real and inviting for a roleplayer.

EVE Online: Though it is difficult at the moment to find hardcore roleplayers in EVE - there are a few corporations - it is the set up of the game itself that offers a kind of roleplay experience. Being in a fleet for instance is captivating because even though people are not roleplaying, the jargon between players is a roleplayers paradise at times.

Originally posted by lizardbones

 

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Originally posted by Loktofeit
I'd say UO is one of the best.
- inscribable books and paper for creating literature, records, flyers, etc
- ability to customize one's appearance or give a group a uniform appearance without it being at the expense of functionality
- flexible player structure system to build houses and towns for looks, functionality ro to suit an RP purpose
- message boards and other ingame systems for exchanging information
- customizable NPCs
- skill system that allows bakers, healers and fisherman (and dozens of other professions) to progress by baking, healing and fishing rather than having to go on murdering sprees now and then just to be able to bake, heal or fish better
- overhead and distance-based chat. This makes spatial awareness and the use of terrain for allowing or blocking discussion part of standard gameplay. It reinforces presence and proximity of others
- character collision. see above
- Server-based plots and major story arcs allowing players to get involved in the story. Server-based plots were different for each server and the objective was to base them on the existing story and gameplay of the players on that server
- "blessed" locations. Oh, how I despise that term, however... when players would adopt an area and show regular use and activity there that benefits the server as a whole the GMs would decorate or alter that area to help enhance the setting or facilitate that goal. Some notable examples were the mage Towers, YMCA on Sonoma, Kazola's Tavern on Great Lakes, Serpent's Cross on Atlantic and Shadowclan Fort on Catskills.
- game feature additions and updates to support roleplay. One example would be that people liked roleplaying orcs at the Orc Fort, but the NPC orcs would attack them. Masks of Orcish Kin were put in game that allowed the wearer to go unnoticed by the NPC orcs. Violating the masquerade is similar to violating certain other masquerades - disastrous results follow. :)
I get the feeling that no matter how many things I list, there will be a reply that none of it really supports roleplay, so I'll just stop there. :)
 
 
 
Another great one is SWG, but I shall let the SWG fans field that one.

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A lot of that could be summed up as 'material involvement by the development team and GMs in the game'. Sounds like a lot of work. :-)

 

For the teams that usually do this kind of work, it's fun work. Both the EVE and UO teams that i was on for creating RP and live in-game content there wasn't a single person that didn't seem excited about what they were doing. Those who went to PAX got to see a Live Event in action as CCP Dropbear ran the event from right there at the booth, broadcasting it on the big screen there.

The more servers and time zones that you need to support, the bigger the teams get, so I have a feeling that the next big push we'll see in IC content in an MMO will probably come from a niche game or indie title.

Originally posted by bobfish

...

 LOTRO always seemed to be hit and miss. Sometimes they did something that was really a benefit to roleplayers, other times not.

Also, they never had an RP server, so it was hard to not have idiots ruin it for you.

That was only true for the Turbine-run US servers. The Codemaster-run European servers had Laurelin, where some sense was enforced by GMs. For example you could report people with inappropriate names or people talking real life in /say channels to GMs and the GMs would enforce basic RP behavior (or otherwise rename characters or move them to other servers).

I don't know how the server is treated now that it is run by Turbine.

Honorable mention for good RP-value should also go to Ryzom and the GOA-run European DAoC server (darn, I forgot the name of the server I was on).

In both games GMs would run and/or support RP-events. I remember GM run kitin invasions in Ryzom, I remember a player-run event in DAoC where GMs even moved mobs and modified lightning and atmospheric sounds at the location of the event.