In response to the OP: Good role players. Immersion. Storytelling.

That's it. A good, rooted, friendly group of immersive role players will keep me content in a game where I dislike the gameplay, backstory, or anything else. Played WoW for so many years, and when my group of role playin' buds disappeared, I just figured out then how disgusted I was at it mechanic wise, quit. No feature keeps me from it, in fact I think good role play keeps me from noticing features I'd normally scoff at. Good outweighs the bad, so to speak.

If only a game was focused for in character interactions. Responsive NPC's - not every time someone does something, mind you - a lively, well filled out city (no three houses for every 1,000 citizens, please) and general 'realism' to a fantasy or sci-fi setting. It doesn't need to be real, it just needs to feel immersive. That's what I'd like to see, and I know it'll probably never happen, c'est la vie.

For me, in the end, all I can hope for is a good community of solid role players who know how to weave a story worthy of novelization. Something that's juicy, but not a soap opera. Something worthy of actors portraying on the large screen. Maybe I'm just a bleeding heart and I should wrap a scarf around my turtleneck and begin doing off Broadway productions of my own plays, but it's really how I feel.

No amount of fancy or glittery features will dissuade or persuade me to go someplace unless an RP community is going to be rooted, or is rooted. I know for a fact that asking any developer to support role players won't really cut the mustard, so to say, but it's a dream that one day a team will go 'Those role players are dedicated. Let us pleeeease them.'

TL;DR: People make the RP. Circular support from player to player will help a community thrive in spite of unfriendly RP mechanics. Not 100% of the time, however.

Pretty simple. I can relate to people who enjoy spending their free time taking part in the game's lore and setting.

What kills me is when people have to meta-game something CRAZY! "I'm half blood-elf half night-elf and half half-elf and I was born to the King of Europe who was a vampire that liked my mother some."

Kudos for trying, but you just ruined my night. Guess I'll go beg for a raid.

Originally posted by Velexia

It has been my experience... that most MMOs are not suitable environments for role playing.

 

What inspires you to role play in a multiplayer game?

What types of features keep you from role playing in a multiplayer  game?

 

What kinds of features would you like to see in a game that's main focus is 'in character' interactions?

 

Just curious =)

-Vex

 

The only time I ever act the way I would if I was the character is in single player games, and thats just because the immersion in single player RPG's storywise, to me, is so much greater than that of an MMORPG.  Plus I am embarassed to RP something to people online instead of actually doing something outside.

Originally posted by Velexia

It has been my experience... that most MMOs are not suitable environments for role playing.

 

What inspires you to role play in a multiplayer game?

What types of features keep you from role playing in a multiplayer  game?

 

What kinds of features would you like to see in a game that's main focus is 'in character' interactions?

 

Just curious =)

-Vex

 

 First I need enough character customisation (char itself and appearance of the stuff he/she wears) to enjoy being part of his/her adventure (RoM would be a great example; have to check how far EQ2 have improved in that area).

The other first would be a roleplay realm. Or at least a server with expanded naming rules. Nothing drops me harder out of RP than the Warrior "Donutkilla" passing me with "olol n00bs!11" and the knowledge thats ok & allowed on the server I'm playing on (Sadly, RoM is far away from a great example in that area :( ).

I don't usually roleplay in mmo-s because most of them don't let me to be unique. As in WoW, i will have the same height and weight , and bodytype, as everyone. And my race sharing the same 6 hair or skin color tones, we only have 10 haircuts, etc. You know what i trying to tell?

I started roleplaying in Champions Online, because my character is always unique. It's hard to copy anyone's custome, because there is so many options, and so many custome slots to fell yourself unique. Imade a custome concept, made a backstory, and talked like my character's personality.

So my motivation is the uniqueness. If i'm not playing an exact clone of my chosen race, i will roleplay. My next roleplaying  stop is in FE right now. :)

lack of friends

Originally posted by norri

In response to the OP: Good role players. Immersion. Storytelling.

 

That's it. A good, rooted, friendly group of immersive role players will keep me content in a game where I dislike the gameplay, backstory, or anything else. Played WoW for so many years, and when my group of role playin' buds disappeared, I just figured out then how disgusted I was at it mechanic wise, quit. No feature keeps me from it, in fact I think good role play keeps me from noticing features I'd normally scoff at. Good outweighs the bad, so to speak.

 

If only a game was focused for in character interactions. Responsive NPC's - not every time someone does something, mind you - a lively, well filled out city (no three houses for every 1,000 citizens, please) and general 'realism' to a fantasy or sci-fi setting. It doesn't need to be real, it just needs to feel immersive. That's what I'd like to see, and I know it'll probably never happen, c'est la vie.

 

For me, in the end, all I can hope for is a good community of solid role players who know how to weave a story worthy of novelization. Something that's juicy, but not a soap opera. Something worthy of actors portraying on the large screen. Maybe I'm just a bleeding heart and I should wrap a scarf around my turtleneck and begin doing off Broadway productions of my own plays, but it's really how I feel.

 

No amount of fancy or glittery features will dissuade or persuade me to go someplace unless an RP community is going to be rooted, or is rooted. I know for a fact that asking any developer to support role players won't really cut the mustard, so to say, but it's a dream that one day a team will go 'Those role players are dedicated. Let us pleeeease them.'

 

TL;DR: People make the RP. Circular support from player to player will help a community thrive in spite of unfriendly RP mechanics. Not 100% of the time, however.

Wow first time I see someone who thinks like me, I thought I was alone on this one ;p.

Agreed, current MMO mechancis do not encourage roleplay at all. It coould be feasible if it were redesgined from scratch to give RP tools and opportunities for players to RP.

Role playing shouldn't need tools really.

It's about being creative, if you need 1s and 0s to help you be creative then you're doing it wrong.

Originally posted by eburn

Role playing shouldn't need tools really.

It's about being creative, if you need 1s and 0s to help you be creative then you're doing it wrong.

But it can benefit and be made easier, not to mention appeal to the ignorant players (Just because you see the apple red doesn't mean he sees it red as well, he might see it black because of a screen that is in his way), therefore uniting the entire community.

I believe a community could benefit from social and roleplaying tools so they can makie decisions and change the game world, instead of living in a static playground playing by the developer's rules.

Wouldn't it be more fun if the game were to respond to your actions?, wouldn't it build on RP?, I mean tools that help you input your ideas on the game not help you come up with a story.

I have noticed RPers are usually an isolated crowd, they don't openly share their hobby to others who don't know how fun it can be.

Originally posted by wisesquirrel

Originally posted by eburn

Role playing shouldn't need tools really.

It's about being creative, if you need 1s and 0s to help you be creative then you're doing it wrong.

But it can benefit and be made easier, not to mention appeal to the ignorant players (Just because you see the apple red doesn't mean he sees it red as well, he might see it black because of a screen that is in his way), therefore uniting the entire community.

I believe a community could benefit from social and roleplaying tools so they can makie decisions and change the game world, instead of living in a static playground playing by the developer's rules.

Wouldn't it be more fun if the game were to respond to your actions?, wouldn't it build on RP?, I mean tools that help you input your ideas on the game not help you come up with a story.

 

I have noticed RPers are usually an isolated crowd, they don't openly share their hobby to others who don't know how fun it can be.

Eh, interaction helps but I don't think a lack of it should hinder role-playing.

Sitting in chairs in WoW, cool feature to RP. Didn't help RP.

Originally posted by eburn

 

Eh, interaction helps but I don't think a lack of it should hinder role-playing.

Sitting in chairs in WoW, cool feature to RP. Didn't help RP.

It will not help RP in a marketplace RP, but it will help a tavern RP really big time.

I'm aware that creativity is needed even for CRPGs to handle several situations, but the more is needed the more it is pointless to hold on that CRPG for the occasional RP fix.

I think RP should be rewarded in some way instead of just having chairs you can sit on while everyone else is become more powerful than you by the second...

The end game quest grind race discourages RP between those players that don't want to be left behind. If gameplay and progression can be fused with the RP experience then it would become much more popular among the player population even if they jsut do it to progress (They will eventually see the rewards of the experience).

As a role player I think gaining any sort of reward other than interaction with like minded individuals via RP, wouldn't be a good idea.

I always thought a badge system would be encouraging.

A rough example would be you can right click on someone and have a list of (ONLY POSITIVE) things to click and therefore reward a player for being. A list like..

Storyteller / PvPer / Tank / DPS / Funny / Resourceful / so on and so forth.

Make it so players can reward one another for filling in a role that should exist in a MMORPG.

Of course an issue of.. 'plz check me as good RPz i chex you back k' would LIKELY happen. By keeping the reward as nothing more than a certain number that the player can see it'd make such an action minimal, but rewarding enough to condition the player to try and fulfill these roles.

I think for me, coming from a Chat and Forum RP experience in the first place, the nice thing was having visuals, and actual movement to my character, that could be Seen by others, so this descriptive element kind of made up for my laziness. X3 I think Character Creation and Editing is something I always look for in an MMO, it has to be customizable to the point that it feels 'unique' to me. :]

What puts me off again would only be the lack of RP effective componants to most MMO's. Crafting, Player housing, Cities, towns, stalls, all of this is lovely. But needs to be managed well. Also being able to affect the world on a whole, by taking out a huge monster threatening a town or something like this, those player events like in WAR. (Only not on a constant loop, just something that happened once in a while would be nice) I'd like to be able to set up a camp in the wilderness for people to come across, like a tent, campfire and other elements. It's a dream MMO really on my behalf.

I could go on, but won't. Good question though. :]

watching others in lotro, also reading up on middle earth lore

Originally posted by eburn

As a role player I think gaining any sort of reward other than interaction with like minded individuals via RP, wouldn't be a good idea.

I always thought a badge system would be encouraging.

A rough example would be you can right click on someone and have a list of (ONLY POSITIVE) things to click and therefore reward a player for being. A list like..

Storyteller / PvPer / Tank / DPS / Funny / Resourceful / so on and so forth.

Make it so players can reward one another for filling in a role that should exist in a MMORPG.

Of course an issue of.. 'plz check me as good RPz i chex you back k' would LIKELY happen. By keeping the reward as nothing more than a certain number that the player can see it'd make such an action minimal, but rewarding enough to condition the player to try and fulfill these roles.

Just because the system you came up with is faulty and can be exploited does not mean there are no others that might succeed.

Leaving the rating up to the players would indeed cause that problem. Making the game feel like an experience can also help with RP instead of those "OMGZ Lets raid X". The mechanical side looks too obvious in current MMOs.

What inspires my roleplaying is the fact I like creating my own stories and universes and writing a lot about them. Each one I try doing something very heavy that most people would look as weird. I don't need to play an MMO to look at roleplaying. I just need a character (which I can make up out of thin air) and think of a situation and story for them...

If a person has to play a game for 1000s of hours to get anywhere, that is a sign that the game itself is the problem and not the player. Try playing the Special Op missions in Modern Warfare II. I know, I know, its a first person shooter game. You will find that more roleplaying is actually involved in beating those missions....than what you encounter..

My example :) "Homeland Security" is an op which you have to go through a small american market area in a town and protect yourself from an entire army that is incoming. You go after five wave of attackers and fortify the place. You can find yourself displacing throughout the map and there are many ways to get through it and win. The roleplaying element is not in you going in and blowing everything up...That is an action. The element is:

"I am a soldier...I can die as easy as the rest of them...what do I do?"

How about "oh crap...they took out my turret...this place is going to fall in the next 10 seconds..I gotta move"

Many times have I seen 20 Soldiers surrounding a place, throwing in Flash Grenades at me...and having to exit out the back way and run away trying not to bet blown up by predator missles.

This is what I mean by shooters having mortality and more thought into what a player actually does. You see, I don't have tons of health and even if I get all the weapons I want, I can find myself getting killed really really fast. In MMORPGs you wont deal with unexpected elements much. You will spread out 10 feet away from a monster, and spam your skills in a certain order in a party over a certain length of time to win.

Nothing is like a rude awakening when I have defenses set up when dealing in multiplayer....and from out of nowhere, my defenses are vaporized and I find myself retreating from point to point in order to survive. 30 seconds of survival can sometimes be a much better experience in roleplaying than 100 hours of playing a game...Its all about what you do when you are up against the wall and the smoke clears and you can't believe you are still alive. ^^ Those are the moments I love in gaming.

Originally posted by Velexia

It has been my experience... that most MMOs are not suitable environments for role playing.

What inspires you to role play in a multiplayer game?

What types of features keep you from role playing in a multiplayer  game?

What kinds of features would you like to see in a game that's main focus is 'in character' interactions?

Just curious =)

-Vex

I despise roleplaying, I'm not entirely sure why, but I do.  But to answer your questions I will roleplay if the game requires it and the game is fun enough to play regardless of that.  That's the case for a MUD I used to play with some of the most entertaining class and combat mechanics I've encounter.  It was worth staying in character to be able to enjoy that.

I think the thing that most keeps me from roleplaying has nothing to do with the game itself.  Any lore or background can be roleplayed, and frankly anyone who says otherwise is contributing to the main reason I won't do it... that is the people who roleplay.  My point here is that roleplaying doesn't necessarily mean acting as your character does, at the least it means simply not breaking character, a world of difference that more people like me can stomach.

Features that promote roleplaying directly include restricting how many characters per account, 1 character obviously is the strongest.  Others include strict naming conventions, customized appearance abilities that's more convenient like appearance tabs that overwrite worn gear, forced grouping and interaction from leveling to crafting, etc.  Inconvenient gear swapping is a barrier to people like me who are too lazy or too driven to waste space carrying extra gear just for the look.  You can also do extreme things like restricting the ability to global chat or whisper players across the world.  The more players are required to interact the more you are encouraging roleplaying. 

Being able to solo, auction houses, scattered quest hubs etc all contribute to people not having to interact. 

Look at it this way, every game has it perameters and think of this as a box everything the game was meant to is in the box, when you bring Role-Play into the equation you are forced to think outside the box, which is why role-playing mmorpgs is very possible because role play is up  to your imagination, every game is just a box, a sand box ready for the player's imagination.

Inspires me?  The hope that one day I'll run into a group of people that can RP as well as the pen and pencil gaming group I used to have.  It was more like acting, and we really got into it.  And that was with our imaginations, some books, dice and a coffee table.  Well, and Jolt cola (not I'm dating myself...).  I miss that, and I'm ever hopeful I'll see it in my mmo games, but so far only glimpses, like sun through the clouds.

Disinclined? Jackassery that breaks immersion.  Leetspeak.  God mode RPers.  CTDs.