You’ll read all the time about how I feel developers need to do a better job at creating worlds which facilitate our ability to roleplay and live in them such that we can think about them as ‘virtual worlds’. This is still true.  There is a flip side though. Players need to be willing to come back down to earth and help to grow that sense of playing something other than a hollow shell that swings a sword and racks up points.
We really need to consider once again the idea that we are inserting our consciousness into a virtual character so that the character becomes who we are or who we want to portray. This isn’t an ancient concept. I experienced this feeling of true roleplay and immersion within a game world in EverQuest 2 just a few years ago. Graev and I decided that we wanted to return to the game (well, he wanted to return and I wanted to give it a shot for the first time — this is before the other 2 returns we made to the game before this blog existed). We created two Halflings and roleplayed them as two brothers who were trying to make their way in the world as traveling performers. We created a dance routine that we performed at server events. We really were a hit.
Not all acts of roleplaying have to be overt. It can simply be a mindset that you go into when playing where you don’t think about rofflestomping the next lawlerskater you see with your sword because you’re better at spinning your character around with your leet counterstrike skills. Think about the game you’re in. Think about the setting. Think about the respect you should have for what is going on around you.
Here’s where developers come in. If the game’s setting isn’t respectable then players look stupid trying to roleplay. This is why roleplay servers did not work in WoW — it’s not conducive. Just the opposite, this is why it worked on EQ2. You could enter buildings, enter rooms, explore nooks and crannies, have a house, see NPC’s wandering the trees doing things, read a story about the lore, and feel a sense of atmosphere. Walking around Freeport as a Ratonga it was clear that I should feel like I am this tiny speck of insignificance just trying to survive an oppressive tyranny and that to do so meant forsaking any good that I had left inside me; I had to give in to my surroundings. That’s quite an impression to be gathered just from how a city looks, is it not?
This is also the foundation of the highly romanticized idea of “Realm Pride”. Why on earth would you feel pride in your faction? Well, it’s because the setting was respectable and the players chose to respect it. As a member of the Midgard realm, I felt like it was my duty to battle for Odin. I often hear the song playing in my head about gladly going to war with the songs of Bragi and the strength of Thor. My realm had lands that we coveted containing relics that granted us powers bestowed upon us by our gods. When the enemy stepped inside them it was an affront to our ways and a challenge to our honor. We had rivalries with our enemy realms because they were full of other players who thought the same way: “This is our land. We’re going to defend it. Since you’ve disgraced us, we want yours.” A group of 50-100 Albion would enter our forests and you would hear shouts throughout every zone “To arms! They’re preparing to attack!” and we would drop everything we were doing, at the expense of leveling or crafting or farming for tokens, and move out to the frontiers to show our colors and protect our land. Every guild came, big and small, powerful and weak, because it was a united effort — it was Realm Pride.
For those of you who have experienced this before, isn’t it the best thing ever? To the developers I would say: Create us a setting we can respect. For the players who may have forgotten, as I have, the importance of respecting the setting then I would say: Keep it in mind. For those who have never tried or who scoff at the idea, I promise you that that it will make the games you play better if you embrace it.
I would write something with more substance, but I think “I completely agree.” suffices.
Ditto.
I agree as well. To add I would say that Ive always felt that the player base has as much to do with creating this kind of atmosphere in game as the developers do. You can lead a horse to water but you cant make him drink so to speak.
Now, my next point tends to make some people angry.
I dont know if its possible to get a game experience like what was mentioned above with todays much broader player base, and I blame WoW. WoW increased the overall mmo player base by a ton. It brought in many many players who had never played an mmo before and had backgrounds in mostly either single player console games or FPS games. The game mechanics and risk vs reward in those types of games is vastly different than in an mmo. So those players naturally have different expectations and goals than old school mmo players. The last thing I would say is what the players want and clamor for from the developers isnt always whats best for the game. I believe in some cases developers need to take on a more parental role with the players, it may not be exactly what the players are asking for, but its better for them and the game in the long run. A small child would eat chocolate cake for breakfast every day if you let him, and he would sing your praises for doing so, but come back and see if he thinks your a good parent 10 or 15 years later.
I think in DAOC, the game was centered around the struggle in the frontiers. I mean, heck, they even had their webpage where i would sit and hit F5 during work to see how the realm war progressed. track my ranger’s progress on the leaderboards etc. who killed what and so on. When it was time to go home, i would (when it came around) check who owned DF, that way i knew whether i’d be trying to open it, or go hunting for seals.
The world was linked together and everything mattered, in Wow, you just show up to the next instance or battleground and everything is on square zero. Yeah i hated spawn camping, but i dunno..
For me, to keep it simple, the most important thing is to have a well defined RP-ruleset and have systems to monitor player behavior and enforce of these rules, because Sentry is dead on target…
In AoC I joined a RP server figuring that players would be more mature. The initial ruleset was well-defined and ranged from defining proper naming conventions, and went so far as to specifically state that claiming to be RP’ing a homocidal maniac was unacceptable. Well at the time of my disillusioned departure there were death squad gankers camping quest givers as well as respawn points with names such as Sir Spoogealot.
Define it and then enforce it; depending on the player base for proper RP conduct will not work…
If you build it they will come.
I don’t think I agree with you on your point about WoW RP servers. RP is still -very- plentiful on both RP and PvPRP servers these days. You just have to be online at the right time and know the right people. Roleplayers are frowned upon in many games because the way they talk, act, or otherwise perform “disrupt” how the game normally plays. The ultimate example I can think of is causing a story of drama to play out as a Priest because you were “too slow” to heal someone. If you are roleplaying an old man or an acolyte Priest, you may end up grieving, trying to find an alternate way of reviving the person (like Goblin Cables), or finding someone more “experienced or powerful” to help revive them.
If I was a Priest in a PUG party on an RP server, this would more than likely be completely unacceptable and I’d be kicked from the party for wasting their time. My point here is that RPers typically gather and befriend other people like them. People willing to go the extra mile for a good laugh, some excellent drama, or solid character development. There are plenty of empty buildings in WoW to “call” a home. The RP guild I lead for years met in the completely unused Argent Dawn building next to the Cathedral for each RP meeting. During certain times of the day, and depending which server you’re on, certain Taverns will spark with activity. Once again, there are a few empty bar-like buildings in Stormwind which my server’s RP crowd had designated as RP bars. Owned and operated by volunteers willing to stand around as bartenders and servers, contributing to people’s storylines, gathering rumours, and keeping RP folks informed about the latest gatherings. Heck, whole -festivals- like Feathermoon’s Rose Ball are annual events attended by hundreds of people who just love to RP!
@Cyprus: Respectfully, you do prove my point by saying: “You just have to be online at the right time and know the right people.”
I’m talking about the vast majority of the entire server respecting the setting, participating in the all encompassing feeling that what you’re doing is naturally roleplay. This is facilitated by the devs making the game’s setting promote this in both atmosphere and gameplay.
I’ll have to stand by what I said: WoW is not conducive to this type of RP and as a result, roleplayers have become like a little club that meets in the back room instead of being the majority.
When it’s done right, by both the players and devs, it should come naturally for everyone to be immersed in the experience.
Roleplayers are so few because we don’t have to roleplay anymore to enjoy ourselves. It’s nice to be able to from time to time, but it’s an archaic form of entertainment. I really hate to say it that way, but it’s the truth. Most of us don’t play games anymore to make them another life. We do it to get away from the ones we already have. Which is why you will continue to see fewer sets of roleplayers in games. It becomes too much like real life. Riddled with drama.
“Dem Hibbies… dey be WRONG!!” Thanks for the link. 🙂
Roleplaying doesn’t need to be extravagant, arduous, or even overt. For me, most of it is internal. I have to be able to put myself in the character’s place and believe that my actions are important. And that DOES depend a lot on the setting. DAOC, while not the deepest virtual setting, had a sense of “gravitas” that made even sitting on the porch in Galplen grinding armoring feel important to the realm.
But the game systems ALSO gotta have enough “weight” to them. The more “game-y” the systems are the less seriously I can take the setting. WAR was a lot of fun, but in that eternal game of Counterstrike: Warhammer, I found it hard to believe that anything I was doing mattered. That really put a crimp in my feel for the character.
Except for the orks. Their internals fit setting and systems perfectly… as long as there’re other players ta bash, anyway.
@Keen: Yeah… I suppose it’s not the strongest argument, but when the majority of people take part in the Roleplay of a game, it sounds like it would have to be quite a niche game. To get RPers out from under their rock, they’d have to feel -very- secure. This would pretty much mean that some kind of dev control would have to be set up to ban people that are trolling Roleplayers or decidedly not participating in Roleplaying. And past that, rules (and once again, dev control) would have to be set up deciding what constitutes as “correct” RP. As an example, I can’t count how many times I’ve been an unfortunate bystander or somehow stumbled upon more… mature scenes of RP in /say. Most of these people would argue that their RP is just as good as the next, but I disagree. Some consensus would have to be made, and thus furthering the niche, which lessens the playerbase, which decreases profits, and so on.
As much as I would love to see it, I just don’t think a game like that could stand on its own.
You don’t even need to go as far as to actually role-play. Not everyone likes RPing (I’d say most people either dislikes it or doesn’t give a damn about it). It also takes up time and effort. It can be fun at times, and rewarding, but most of the times I believe it gets in the way of your progress. Specially in competitive MMOs (WAR player here… sure, go RP in the middle of battle). I still think it has its moments, and it can be good fun to randomly RP for a bit when you’re in the mood.
What I do believe, though, is that there should be at least a minimum decency and respect that has in my opinion been devoured by “ze internetz”. RPers are often frowned upon, and most players don’t want to take the lore seriously. They just want to have instant fun without much effort. And fun, for most of them, just means having an easy laugh.
The most noticeable hint to this, and most annoying and disrespectful thing you’ll see is naming. What percentage of the population of any given MMO takes time to think about a good name? I’m not talking about a biography, a background, a story for that scar your character has in his cheek… Just a name… Well, just go and see. BBQLOL. XLegolasX. Pwnerer. BestDudeEvar. iGank. Healbot. AmazingMike. Or the amazingly imaginative Tecliis, Tecklis, Teklys… (because Teclis was already taken goddamit and I want to be cool too!). You get the point.
If people can’t even take 2 minutes of their lives to come up with a serious name, don’t expect them to appreciate RPing. Sadly. This ruins the total atmosphere of a game for the rest of the playerbase. And, of course, someone that uses that sort of names isn’t really going to be supporting RP.
Pretty much nobody RPed on my DAOC server(was a non-RP) yet there were 2 full guild alliances with hundreds of people that would come to defend more often the not. There was a guild patrol, rule claim rules setup to optimize defense. But also loved the setting of Midgard, it just felt somewhat real. And oh did we hate the Hibs.. My first relic defense was when my first char was level 17 haha, I was told to show up to create more lag 🙂 it was Yggdra relic
The one game where RP really seemed fun was Shadowbane, ganking people with my Elf Mage assasin I had a preset message about their racial inferiorirty etc. reactions were always awesome 🙂 It was also one game where RP guilds actually had some power on the server. But in the end the optimum groups ran them out. But who can forget Mithril Warhammers(Hammers High!) or House Lok-Ri or those crazy Irekei guys that created their own language.
I’m in the middle somewhere not sure what I’d prefer tbh.
On one side I’d really want to immerse myself in a MMORPG like you have. I’ve recently started reading WoW Lore and it has significantly increased my immersion and how much I enjoy the game.
Previously I didn’t know a diddly about what bosses I was fighting and who, cos I didn’t give a shit. Now I wanna go back into some of the older dungeons just to experience the content I’ve read lots about (Karazhan and The Last Guardian being a prime example).
But on the other hand my time in front of the game is limited and I do enjoy logging on and just queuing up for BG/Arena/Random Dungeon and having a go at it, so I dunno if I’d enjoy a game that didn’t spoonfeed me action the way WoW does.
I will say that, when I first started playing WoW, I felt this internalized character more powerfully than I did the rest of the time I played. I wasn’t on an RP server so I didn’t go out of my way to RP, but I did use the run/walk toggle when I was indoors, and used emotes more.
But after a while the experience changed fundamentally. DAOC was my first real MMO, and it was a lot of fun and I enjoyed that style of play immensely. But WoW was where I dumped the largest chunk of my time. And yeah, after those first 12 levels (once you started doing Instances, I’d wager) was when that magic of being a persistent character in a world or society popped and began to fizzle away. Now WoW doesn’t have that experience at all, anymore. It’s more a game of numbers and gear, maximizing DPS and HPS, being uncrushable, etc.
I would agree that the developers have something to do with this change in attitudes, to an extent. But the onus is on the players to foster the kind of environment you’re talking about lest the opposite take over naturally.
I clicked on your youtube link and then i watched over an hour worth of good old frontier pvp fights.
Oh Daoc how i miss thee.
<- Luri enchanter PBAE ftw. I died a lot, but it was sooo worth it for the occasional perfect landed pbae bomb.
Almost tempted to install it and go play around Thid on the new merged server. Just to taste it once again.
Realm Pride needs to come back in a future game.
I don’t think realm pride had anything to do with setting or rp. I think it was because you either PvPed or got facerolled, and had to rely on others or quit. I don’t see you Keen talking about how awesome it was to be a whatever-the-hell “race” DAOC had-you always talk about how RvRvR kicked ass. That was the mechanics.
Heck, PvP games make it almost impossible to roleplay in. By the time you talk, the min-maxer has already sent you to home point. Look at EVE: compared to WoW RP is non-existent. Look at Darkfall.
I mean, honestly. Did the setting of DAOC even matter to you compared to the mechanics?
I think setting of DAOC mattered quite a bit at least in the first 2-3 years. Design of the zones, forts, even lighting in the zones was quite unique in each realm. The biggest thing was that each of the realms was easily identifiable with a different area and period of real history. For me Midgard just really connected, Thor, Odin.. seeing those Lag Hammers 🙂 Even names of Realm Ranks.. who does not want to be known to his enemies as Einherjar??? Relics were taken from myth and were easily recognizable, even names of places and such.
RP wise, to me it was more about action not about talking. If you connect to your character and he is true Northmen then you better be killing those dirty albs and silly hibbies by a butload and be glad to die in service of Odin 🙂 This one of the games where I did not feel too bad dieing at all, even so it took a while to get back, as long as some hibbies bit the dust? Death and glory in battle haha
I’m currently playing LOTRO at the moment and I must say, the server I’m on (Landroval) does a decent job respecting ‘the setting’. For example, people that don’t even have their RP tags on still say non-RP things in OOC chat and not in say chat so long as there are RPers around. They do a rather decent job at not ruining the mood for the people that do enjoy it.
What I think it really comes down to is if the design team gives the player base enough ‘tools’ to communicate other than just chat channels and emotes. Housing, cosmetic clothing, player music, extensive crafting, etc. They all help make the virtual world believable.
I’m not a roleplayer, but I agree with you on this:
“Not all acts of roleplaying have to be overt. It can simply be a mindset… Think about the game you’re in… the setting.. the respect you should have for what is going on around you.”
So while I don’t consider myself an RP’er, I don’t have my shoes set to “view” on my hobbit… she runs around barefoot. I keep the hair on my melee toons short… keeps the hair from your eyes and blood out of your hair. I don’t make my characters look happy and obvlivious, I might design them so they appear to have an attitude problem! I guess I do look at myself to some degree, I see I’m not perfect and so why should my characters always appear so?
As for WoW, I’ve seen little if any RP on the RP server I’m on. Most of it involves some kind of romance plot and could likely be done in any RPG, online or not. I don’t see this as RP for some reason. They haven’t immersed themselves in their surroundings.
I don’t have any “realm pride”, especially in WoW. I also never played doac or any other realm v realm game. I’m not ashamed of the realm I’m playing on, but I don’t think it’s the “best”. Especially when I’m running around doing the new Echo Isles quests only to see 3 lvl 1’s running together, one named “ejaculation” and another named “masturbation”.