Topic: Roleplaying in MMORPG's?

I allways write wrong stuff and wrong time, but I'm gonna open this discussion anyway.

After playing a few MMORPG's I have found that all games have roleplayers, but MMORPG's are very different about supporting roleplaying. I don't mean just the emotes or items in the game, but playing styles it self. Example if game is very active fighting and leveling, it seem to be bad for roleplaying. Mostly because You can't really roleplay when You need to stay a live in very heavy actions. People seem to roleplay better when game is slow in action part, but has a lot of different stuff to do.

So, I was wondering what MMORPG's people here have played and what's peoples opinion about how good some MMORPG's would be for roleplaying community?

Re: Roleplaying in MMORPG's?

No, it's a perfectly good question and as we are looking for new pastures, quite timely.

Personally I have played Entropia, Wow and Eve. Entropia has some RPers, but not many, but it would be possible to RP if you can get past the financial side of the game. WoW I found was impossible to RP, even on a RP dedicated server. I tried two or three times, met one RPer and gave up. Eve...I never saw RP, although I had one person I communicated with in character only. In fairness I used WoW to stay in touch with my Guildmates who moved to WoW from Entropia, and Eve because I like the graphics and sometimes just liked shooting things down with my beautiful ships. So RP was not really my main focus, although I would have jumped at the chance if it happened!

Esme

Re: Roleplaying in MMORPG's?

The only game I played before Seed was EVE. I found it the best game in terms of pure gameplay, and also liked the fact that the skill system (essentially identical to Seeds) meant that there were no power levellers. I quite happily proclaimed it the greatest MMORPG ever to anyone who would listen, and spent hours blowing up ships for the glory of the Caldari State.

Then I found Seed, and actual Roleplaying, and began to spend less and less time playing EVE. EVE is wonderful as a space-based combat and trading game, but has no roleplaying aspect. It's a very good game, but no what the former Seedlings are looking for.

Re: Roleplaying in MMORPG's?

Well, I have played Jumpgate, a space ship sim that's quite some time around now. To the time I played on the european server there was quite some roleplaying around especially in the Quantar faction (Yes, my forum and often game name has its origins there). Though that server doesn't exist anymore. How it's today on the world server I can't say. As I took a look a good year ago there was some basic RP going on.
Another game I played was Neocron. The game has flair and would be a good base for RP and I heard on the now nonexistent french server, as 'external' server run by AD, was some RP going on, but quite a number of the current playerbase lsound like RP haters. The game is only slowly developed and has quite some problems.
In Face of Mankind Beta there was some basic RP going on even its fast paced 1st person combat, maybe because of the 'order and wait' production part not unlike seed and a 'we are the faction'-feel. Though I never managed to play gold version and big parts of the game got redesigned. During Beta the small Dev team, mainly the boss and maincoder duplex, was nice to talk with and really looked like he 'nows his code'.
The time before Seed I spent in Dark & Light. Well, a nice dragon ride simulator with a impressive landscape and view, if a game has technical problems it's this one. The good side are the events by AD. Players are the usual MMORPG mixup, only there this group here would clearly have the advantage of numbers because the playerbase seems to be smaller than Arash's ignore list in SoR. It has some potential but quite some work has to be done. Given the current development speed it's worth a look in a year or so, though maybe it's a typical 'asia grind' by then because biggest supporter and taking over more and more design work is a chinese company.

The games I decided not to play are for one WoW. Tested it but and well, disliked the look and feel, and basicly only looking forward to a lot of grind, even this time behind some quest cover, doesn't helped either. Testing Eve I had mixed feelings. I liked the setting, I really enjoyed playing games from Elite over Wing Commander and X-Wing series to Jumpgate after all, but I never got used to that 'being the ship' feeling. Because of that there always was that feel of distance and I never managed to 'get into the game'. It's just me, can't even really enjoy a driving game without cockpit view.

Re: Roleplaying in MMORPG's?

I've played a few MMORPG's before Seed, like EverQuest, Entropia and EVE Online. The latter two I betatested.

EVE is indeed a great, atmospheric game, especially when you loved good old Elite and all games in that vein. I was into roleplaying in Eve, as much as I could, and there are pure roleplaying guilds there. Good guilds too. However, the game is massive, and most of the time you will be flying around alone, in a very big universe. Also, there is not that much to roleplay about, it feels more like a tacked on element, not an integral part of the game. Still, the best online game I've played before I found Seed, and I might return to it someday. It's not a game I recommend we focus on as a group though. Also, EVE and Seed are the only games I know of, with a skill system that eliminates level/skill grind. This is good, that means more time for roleplaying.

Entropia is, or was fresh. It gets updated quite often, has a somewhat changing world, a reasonable (grind) skill system and several interesting features. I did not meet many roleplayers during the years I kept checking in on it. However, the biggest problem is the mentality that is created by this game's economics I think. It is not all that healthy. It does have some good points though. I'd not be opposed to playing in this universe, although I know if I played it seriously, I'd spend money, possibly a lot, on this.

There are a great many MMORPG's around. We spent 1 day looking for what we thought was a good starting MMORPG to gather the community. Eventually, Saga of Ryzom was selected. We'll see where that takes us. However, we're not bound to that game unless we want to be of course. Ideally, we're looking for a game close to Seed. Where roleplaying is built into the game from the start, not something players must try to get in themselves. Where roleplaying and an older audience is catered to, and where GM's are actual GM's, playing NPC's and moving stories along, while players are the driving force. Other games like this, not just Seed, must exist somewhere, or will get to exist. We should keep our eyes open.

Last edited by Darkhawk (2006-10-02 07:45:10)

Re: Roleplaying in MMORPG's?

I used to play Neverwinter Night's Narfell, a little fanmade persistent world. For some reason almost everyone there was a devout roleplayer or at least IC speaker.

They used an interesting way to encourage roleplaying: There was a level cap that you couldn't bypass through killing, unless you had an RP token. These tokens were given through recommendation from other players (and maybe something else too).

The GMs were also relatively active, running events for the people, and tossing around RP XP to people whose RP they liked (got it at least once).

It's still going on, I suppose, but I quit when it started requiring the addons.

Re: Roleplaying in MMORPG's?

I also played EVE Online for a few months, but wound up being utterly inactive as I waited for month-long training times to finish. Great atmosphere though. Guild Wars was my other big-time MMORPG before Seed, but there's no way in hell you could RP in that.

Now that someone mentions it, I played on and off on the Siflige Stream social server in NWN. That was a great place to RP, even though I could never stick with a single character. When NWN2 is released, it might be another place to continue the Seed legacy, especially since there aren't any fees besides costs of running a PW server.

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q125/coarsesand/graffisigtransparent.png

Re: Roleplaying in MMORPG's?

I quest, I would also say what I have played as I started this all.

Ultima Online.
- I think this is still one of the best MMORPG's. Graphics is little old, but game play is great. It also have pretty good roleplaying possibilities and roleplaying communties. I was part of one roleplaying community about year.
- I did quit because wanted see other games and did not anymore finded it fun after 3 years of playing.

EverQuest
- I playd this game very short time, about month.  It did have roleplaying communities and so on.. but..
- Did quit because did not like it. It was too much leveling to my taste.

EverQuest II
- Played this short time too, about 3 month. Very modern game with good graphics and atmosphere. Only place where npc's really have voice too.
- Quit this because the character development was in rails. Very linear and no real choises.

Horizons
- Played this about year and it was nice game, but game is laggy and not so good quality. It does have good support for communities and roleplaing. I was in roleplaying community there.
- Quit, because got bored.

City of Heroes & City of Villains
- I play this game still sometimes, have played it about 2 years. It has support for roleplaying, but it's hard to roleplay there, because game is very action based.

EVE
- Can't say much , I was in beta testing and did not like the game. So never tryed it more..

Saga of Ryzom
- Have played this game about half year. It's very nice game. Very action based fighting, so hard to roleplay. It does have a lot of emotes. Very few roleplaying commuties, but there is some.
- Did quit it because many events where PvP related and I'm not PvP player.

Dungeons & Dragons online
- Played this game about 2 month. It's very nice game, but it have very little to do with D&D. Did like traps in dungeons. Has very little roleplaying support, but there are a lot of roleplayers.
- Did quit it because it's too much for powerplayers than roleplayers. (uber item collecting game)

Seed
- Played this game about 2 month. It's very nice game, but a lot of bug and lag. Very good GM support and a lot of roleplayers.
- Quit it because, game quality below what I wanted and notting to do. (Game ended it self week later).

ROSE online
- Played this the trial, 7 day. It's very nice game for kids. I mean young kids. Basicly just leveling game, but funny looking and very cute. Did not see any roleplayers.

Anarchy Online
- Played this very short time, about 5 days. Graphics was too old to my tase, so I did quit. Of cause it was free at the time and still is.

Never Winter Nights
- Played this about 6 months. I liked the game, but now it seem too old. Still very nice different kind of game, as players can create they own game modules. Had my own NWN server.


Basicly I have tested many games, but also only very short times. Now I'm waiting the NWN2. It could be very nice game for roleplayers.

Last edited by Victoria (2006-10-06 05:46:11)

Re: Roleplaying in MMORPG's?

" Quit it because, game quality below what I wanted and notting to do." --- shock!!!!

NWN2: might have a chance of some decent RP if we either make our own perma world or join one with other roleplayers. I have asked over at mmorpg.com for other suggestions for a characther driving game but got no response (best suggestion was EVE...No hard feelings, but it is not char driving!)

DDO: I played that that for some time as well and was quite entertained. But mostly becuase I often played it with a RL friend and we were part of the same guild (which was very relaxed, didnt powerlevel...at least not a lot wink ). As long as you dont rush to much it can actually be a good game...however it requires that you got a good group at all times. No RP (RP guilds, but no "random" RP by people in general, and has been pointed out its hard to RP when the game is very fast paced)

I would like to hear some feedback from people who might have played ATITD. If you are too compared it to Seed (I know, its hard wink ) what would you say is the differences and what is the same?

Re: Roleplaying in MMORPG's?

My search for something special and different was what made me join Seed in the first place and ATITD is the only MMO I've played that is still running. (No, I haven't played a lot of them)

In my opinion ATITD is THE crafting game and there is certainly no less grinding in this game when compared to others. It's just of a different kind. There are some tests (quests) which seemed to be quite varying in nature, but most of them requiring a lot of effort to complete.

I didn't see a lot of real roleplaying when I played, but the game is refreshingly free of all those l337 kids. It certainly caters to a more mature customer base.
Additionally there are a few (rp) events being held, but they were either few and far between, or I didn't play enough to notice them. I do, however, recall a 'trader from a distant land. A trader selling items not obtainable in the game world, but would only trade with male characters. It caused quite a stir.

Re: Roleplaying in MMORPG's?

I didn't play a lot of MMOG's and what I did, had very limited RP potential. Most of them were the aforementioned "Asia grind" like RO, LA2 or less-known FlyFF or Xiah. I can point out what traits the game must have to encourage RP, and what it must not have, but I'm afraid we can't find a 100% RP-oriented game right now.

However, Seed was a very successful experiment. It proved that a roleplay- and plot-driven MMOG is possible, can attract a player base and keep it. Hopefully, we shall see some projects rise soon enough, with the worst of the downsides of Seed (99% technical) addressed, with best parts of it made even better.

I should add, that in most games, there is a small roleplaying community, and every gaming session has a chance to attract newbies, if there are enough players (Both roleplaying in the session and casuals) around. We can expect new members to join our fine community in Ryzom. At least the community's mature enough. Mature enough to not spawn lolboiz.

But please, please, RID ME OF PRINA! T_T

RP in MMOG's looks like this when trying to base it on in-game activities:
"Let's go <activity>!"
"Yay, <activity>!"
"<motivation>!"

Re: Roleplaying in MMORPG's?

It's interesting to follow this thread and see if someone mentions a really promising game that would be well-suited for us. And it's also interesting reading about all your experiences with MMOGS.

It seems to me that there is no game that has been mentioned, that would be suitable for us as a group at present, and that our choice of SoR in general wasn't so bad, considering that there are no alternatives.

Of those mentioned, I myself believe that the right, ambitious NWN2 persistent online world might be the best roleplaying environment. That is still half a year or so away (it takes a while for players to create such a world, and the game needs to get out first too), but I'll be buying and testing NWN2 at least.

Looking at other games that are up and coming, Age of Conan might be interesting, as well as several others. What we need though, is a new game where the developers place some emphasis on RP, where the players are a bit older/more mature, or/and where there is a good environment for RP'ing. Let's keep our eyes open and continue to post our impressions here.  smile

Re: Roleplaying in MMORPG's?

Ah yes Age of Conan. I have been visiting their site quite a lot recently. Looks quite interresting (more interresting then warhammer online imo).

I also plan to get my hands on NWN2. Joinning (or making) a perma world might be the way to go... There is quite a fuss at the NWN2 forums about what can be done however...it seems that perma worlds in NWN2 might harder to make then it was in number 1.
I fear I have officialy giving up on SoR... I gave that game way more time then I normally would in the hope that i might like it...but it just isnt :\