So... roleplaying. o.O

[The Pointless]

Well, the subject of roleplaying in online RPGs has cropped up again (over in the CDF), so I'm a bit curious as to the opinions of other peeps here concerning RP.

I myself, RP a lot on City of Heroes/Villains, and I personally find it quite fun to RP my Magic Scrapper as a former street-fighter with maniacal tendencies and several spells up his sleeve, or his musician sister. Or even his mum.

However, some people either don't seem to 'get' RP and/or just plain have some unexplained vendetta against RPers, namely the nutjobs that hurl abuse and brand all RPers over-30s with no lives.

Sooo... what's your opinion on roleplaying? Be nice now.

[Fantasialiu Memmeav]

I don't see no problem with it, I myself used to do it a few years ago in Guild Wars and WoW and though some may find it hard to find people to RP with on their level of RP or at least an understanding of it in general I never found it hard to find people, thus making friends and getting together for more of it.

The downside is yes, you have the idiots out there who spoil others fun, or flame you for such activities as you said "nutjobs that hurl abuse and brand all RPers over-30s with no lives." Theres a thread somewhere about someone asking for RP Districts, however I doubt that would happen, but would be nice.

Whatever the game at the end of the day, you'll have idiots who spoil the fun for the RP people.

[Djinn Effer]

I don't hold too high of an opinion of it. But I certainly don't frown upon it, when done in private. Same as when done in real life, it's fine and I even do that sometimes... Just... in private.

I certainly don't do it in games though. Just looks and seems extremely silly.

I tend to look down on it on RPG games hell of a lot though... To me it just seems like someone needs a social life and yeah, I'm guilty of auto-tagging the people as "losers."

Not going to lie about it, that's just how my mind functions... *my opinion*

[The Harlequin]

Well, the subject of roleplaying in online RPGs has cropped up again (over in the CDF), so I'm a bit curious as to the opinions of other peeps here concerning RP.

I myself, RP a lot on City of Heroes/Villains, and I personally find it quite fun to RP...

CoX without the RP would be just another flashy grind game. The genre lends itself perfectly to the RPer--any character is plausible and the environment is familiar enough to use without second-guessing. The community (at least on the unofficial RP server) is mature enough that non-RPers don't interfere.

Are there any other MMOs that currently measure-up?

[Fantasialiu Memmeav]

I'm not sure how this one would go down but Perfect World, has some good features, such as being able to carry people around, flying people around and riding a horse together as such, thats a good base for RP also, and from my Beta testing of it on the asian servers RP was definately going on.

[ValdaRhian]

Well I don't roleplay in GW, but I do play Vampire: The Dark Ages the old fashioned way (y'know, with dice and paper). There some RPing in that.

I think it's quite nice when you see a group of RPers online. It's certainly better than some of the other 'conversation' you see in local!

[shadowhand]

Well, I used to RP a lot. Not in computer games though.

Just your ordinary pen and paper style RPGs. And that was quite fun.

And no, it wasn't a substitute for a "social life". It was however another way to have some fun with my friends.

It certainly showed me sides of my friends that I would never have expected from them.

The funny thing - at least to me - is that one of the "best" roleplayers that I used to play with later became a professional actor. Ok, so he's not world famous but he makes a living from being in theatre productions and training young actors.

I just can't imagine roleplaying a pc game character. I can see how some people can do it, but pc games are just way too limited for... Anything. Even games like NWN and NWN2 with it's live DMs are too limited since you'd have to have made all the surroundings beforehand and - the story must be linear.

That is - of course there can be more than one ending and several ways to deal with encounters and - yes, if you have it prepared, you can stage flashbacks. But, that would take an inhuman effort on behalf of the DM.

And... It still limits the player only to what they can see and read and hear.

Also, there's no way to bend the rules for comic relief or to enhance the story.

Or - to ignore the rules for the sake of making sense of a story element.

Or to steal an annoying player's dice. Uh. I mean. Not that I ever did that. And that pink D20 came with.. Uh. Another set of dice that I bought. Unless Henrik asks for it. In that case, I've no idea how it appeared in my dice jar...

[jmervyn]

However, some people either don't seem to 'get' RP and/or just plain have some unexplained vendetta against RPers, namely the nutjobs that hurl abuse and brand all RPers over-30s with no lives.

As an over-40's gamer with quite a life, I've got a ready answer. The concept of "play" is that of a pleasurable rehearsal; you 'play house' or 'play at soldier' but those are potentially real factors in your life. Nobody will be going out to slaughter trolls (hopefully) but the 'play' at teamwork and cooperation is just as sound. CRPG don't have as much dimension as traditional paper RPG's, but they still satisfy the escapist urge that is the foundation for role-play.

If you're not an actor, and your life isn't one big partay, there's not really any hard-nosed rationale for indulging in what amounts to "let's pretend". However, role-play still helps people escape from a daily grind and is a lot healthier than drugs or alcohol.

Somehow I just <knew> I'd wind up in stark, near-hostile opposition to DF on this one. But as for the 'live' RP folks, yeah, they're more than a little silly. The closest I've come to that (aside from the obvious military scenarios) is thinking it would be fun to participate in battle reenactments or the SCA, but there's too much cost (and too many loons) to make it really fun. I'd rather go camping.

[evillorderic]

I used to roleplay quite frequently in GW, but have since stopped altogether. I quite enjoyed my time as a roleplayer though, and I made some good friends to boot.

I really don't view it as any different than most leisure activities. Playing a video game in general could be considered useless and hint at a lack of a social life, so I'm not sure I understand that line of thinking in regards to roleplaying, especially from people that have/do play video games.

Some people just REALLY hate roleplayers though, I've seen it quite often. I can't imagine what they must think of actors.

[Gaendaal]

One of the major factors that finally stopped me playing Guild Wars was that we had this brilliant environment but people were running around like it was a mall. Killed it dead for me, eventually.