How can be possible roleplaying in a modern MMO? : Othor Games

» Thu Jan 16, 2014 6:27 pm

It's a fact: every MMO software house has killed the variability, the costumization and the free of action of players on the altar of "good-looking graphics".

What is the focus point in a game? The contents of course, when you run out of contents you simply stop playing, no matter how good-looking is the graphics and how many different pvp scenario you can fight, everything become repetitive sooner or later.

This forced the MMO developpers to an incredible effort to constantly create new contents. But what is roleplay? Unlimited contents.

Prevent the players to create their own contents by roleplaying is the choise that killed every single modern MMO. I'm sure that Matt Firor is well aware about this dinamic, he gifted us with some of most great games like Ultima Online.

For example in that enviroment I'm used (as a player) to set up for my friends a lot of "quests" like a "murder scene" in a house with a body to be examined and clues around the room like written notes, books and objects that help to figure out who is the killer and why.. other players could play witnesses of something ready to be questioned and so on...

THIS mean be able to roleplay, nothing less than this can be described as a roleplay interaction...

But I'm also a programmer and so I'm perfectly aware that this kind of stuff are absolutly impossible to develop in a modern MMO graphics...

So... This is not a pointless critic of an antediluvian MMO player, but a genuine dilemma: How can players be able to roleplay in a such restrictive enviroment as a modern MMO? What means roleplay nowdays? Spamming emote and write encyclopedias of pointless "text interactions"?

Please some one help me to find a way to roleplay in ESO ^^

» Thu Jan 16, 2014 5:13 pm

Just need to use your imagination; no hard and fast rules. It's ironic that I have met people in the past who couldn't understand how I and a few other people could recreate and inhabit a virtual fantasy world playing AD&D using little more than pieces of paper, pencils and dice. Now that the world is made for us, people complain that they are now restricted by this. Of course it is restrictive in some ways, but you just need to work within the confines of that. I'd say your only major barrier is other players randomly wandering in. You may need to make use of the instanced areas (once you've cleared them).

» Fri Jan 17, 2014 1:33 am

so many hate topics from people with 1 post recently.

» Fri Jan 17, 2014 6:51 am

I can storytell in a forum, in a chat, on skype why should I be in ESO to do it? It's so crazy to think that an MMORPG should let me able to do RPG? ^^

It's so unthinkable to implement some simple things like "writables notes" or be able to leave objects in the game world? It's a problem to render so many items? Let that be visible only to the party and destroy it after an hour 4 exemple...

» Thu Jan 16, 2014 4:49 pm

What you describe reminds me of a webcomic I once read, Elf Only Inn (http://www.elfonlyinn.net/).

It dealt with a group of RPers on an IRC chatroom. The comic underwent a 2 year hiatus around the end of 2004, which was later discovered to have been largely influenced by the writer getting into WoW (amazing how that game svcks up your free time - my offline RP group went through a similar innactive phase because of WoW).

When the comic relaunched, the setting had changed to a generic fantasy MMORPG, though the previous cast and continuity remained the same... one of the ongoing themes was the adaptions made by players from a formerly free-form text-only setting to one with a restrictive game ruleset and lessened emphasis on 'roleplaying'.

Maybe you could read it and take some inspiration?

Other than that, generally I can say that RPing in a MMORPG is possible, but it helps if you are willing to move away from the traditional 'storyteller guides a group through an adventure' dynamic, and approach it from the perspective of a player; be your character, develop a backstory and a motivation that make sense within the context of the game, interact with other players exclusively in-character, hang around with players who do the same, and generally enjoy spontaneous free-form RP as you play the game, rather than relying on props and contrived stories to guide your roleplaying.

» Fri Jan 17, 2014 3:34 am

I'll follow your advice and try to get ispired by that comic but...

I can always be perfectly in-character, I can have an extensive and detailed background and then?... So basically you mean... Spamming emote and write encyclopedias of pointless text interactions right? ^^

Is not one major point of ESO to be something different from other MMO?

I'd like if someone try to be positive and propositive on the subject and not only focus on "why you CAN'T" but more on "how you could" make enjoyable RP on ESO ^^

Dedicated instanced rooms? Or my previous exemples? I think this should be definitly achievable...

One of the best thing in Elder Scrolls is the huge and hi-quality amount of lore... Why waste of all this?

» Thu Jan 16, 2014 5:12 pm

Role playing is all about using your imagination, so why not use it?

» Fri Jan 17, 2014 2:54 am

leaving items in the game world would be a horrible idea.

» Thu Jan 16, 2014 7:05 pm

As over: why use ONLY immagination?

We MUST be restricted on an hi-graphic/low-freedom platform? It's the only right way to do?

Is not possible just try to think ways to harmonize the two aspects?

... I BELIEVE! :bunny: