Role-play

[madnak]

I want to know where the Windermeer player base stands.

SoR really seems conducive to RP, but I don't see a lot of it. Some of these guilds are supposedly RP guilds, but the RP seems very casual. Which is perfectly okay, but not what I'm looking for. I noticed there were many opportunities for RP at the event, for instance, but it never "took." Light of Trykoth members hung around, but they didn't much respond to the Karavan goading, or seem interested in RP. None of Miy's efforts went anywhere. The role-play forum is very empty.

At the same time, I'm a bit quiet and it takes effort for me to really spark things unless I have a solid context for it. Half the people I group with could be major role-players and I wouldn't know it. So I'm asking here. What do you think of role-play in Atys? Would you like to see more of it? Would you like never to see it rear its head? Is the lack of RP discouraging for you? Are you just waiting for a bigger player base before making a commitment to a character? I appreciate any comments on this subject.

[josephm]

RP is a lot of effort, especially when there is no content and you make it on your own. Judging by how vehment people are about their anti-karavan sentiments in Zorai there will be wonderful RP for you once the content hits. People really love this game, and the RP'rs will most likely embrace the story fully.

Until the patch...make your own guild and make it a strict RP. Advertise and see what happens

[yy48n19]

Some of these guilds are supposedly RP guilds, but the RP seems very casual.

I'm not sure what you mean by "casual;" it's not clear in the context. You could mean one of two things, the way I see it:

1. People are not putting much effort into RP.
2. People aren't being "formal" in RP speak; i.e., the "thous" and "thees," "my Lord," and "My Liege" jargon.

I'll comment on both.

1. Yeah, people aren't putting much effort into RP; it's true. I've found that MMOs tend to discourage RP in a lot of ways. These games have a lot of technical gameplay mechanics to them that people need to talk about. While necessary, this definitely spoils any sense of RP.

Region chat generally isn't used for RP. It's your more casual, shoot-the-breeze, jokey type of chat. I and other members of Light of Trykoth make it a habit to RP in around. I still do this when others aren't; they usually "get it" after a minute or two and play along. One cool thing about Ryzom so far is that I have yet to get a "WTF r u talk1ing about?" type of response to RP.

Are you playing in Lakelands? If so, run into me sometime in-game. I will definitely be in RP mode.

2. As far as the "Thees" and "Thous" go, that is not my idea of RP. I play a Tryker, and it's my opinion that a Tryker isn't going to speak like that. I use a very casual, "whatcha doin'?" manner of speaking for Mellodi. She's curious, friendly, and a bit spontaneous.Honestly, the whole "Who will aid this warrior in his quest to purge the lands of the goo?" drama-type of RP is pretty repugnant to me. I don't want to play a game that is a soap opera, or a bad production of a Shakespeare play. My personal preference is to be immersed in a world with many different aspects: drama, humor, life, death, humor, tension, violence, pacifism, more humor, bartering and trade, backbiting, compassion, and on and on. I try to take a realistic approach to my RP. I don't go around in life calling everyone "thou" or even "sir," so I don't do it in RP, either. I like to bring an ordinary average gal flavor to my RP.

Light of Trykoth members hung around, but they didn't much respond to the Karavan goading, or seem interested in RP.

Hm, I think I missed this "Karavan goading." And as far as "hanging around," as far as I'm concerned there was an RP reason for us doing that. I wrote a post on it here.

Again, try to bump into me in-game. I love to RP, and I chose the "It's the reason I'm here" option.

[madnak]

I meant the first one, and it's definitely understandable. My background is more in MUDs and dice games than in MMORPGs, so I don't know what to expect from RP in a game like this.

I agree with "thee" and "thou," especially in a sci-fi setting.

At the event - it was a small group and they may not have been interested in trading IC insults. I'm just surprised because I see so much malice between Kami/Karavan factions on the forums, but during the event we met Kami allies and both sides mostly seemed to shrug their shoulders. Then again it was region, if that's an unofficial OOC channel that would explain things.

I'd like to spend more time in the Lakelands, but I crash every fifteen minutes. Which is too bad, there seems to be a lot more social stuff going on there than in Verdant Heights, despite the lower population.

Or maybe it's not so bad, I'm not sure a meeting with Mellodi would go over well

I'm glad to see a positive response so far to the poll. That's very encouraging. Sounds like I should just be more proactive. I may take your advice and start a guild, josephm. Birthright didn't do too well, but Matis supremacy is a narrow platform.

[yy48n19]

At the event - it was a small group and they may not have been interested in trading IC insults. I'm just surprised because I see so much malice between Kami/Karavan factions on the forums, but during the event we met Kami allies and both sides mostly seemed to shrug their shoulders. Then again it was region, if that's an unofficial OOC channel that would explain things.

Okay, I did hear about this from guildmates. Yeah, the perception was that it was not IC, and that people were just being mean. I don't know, because my system had crashed during that time; but, like I said, the convention in LoT, at least--and I know it's not shared by everyone; I ran into a problem with it last night--is that "around" is for RP and "region," "guild," and "team," are all more informal.

At any rate, glad to hear that you are not giving up!

[angus858]

When you make a pole like this keep two things in mind. (1) Most people don't frequent the boards and (2) people who aren't role players will likely pass over this thread without reading it. Your data will be rather biased toward role players.

I love RP but I haven't found a Zorai RP guild yet. Most social players tend to keep their focus on guild chat and I've had very few conversations of any sort in this game once I left newb island. We need a lot more players on our server in general before there will be enough RP'ers to establish the type of community I'm hoping for. A global or regional RP chat channel would also help a lot.

Madnak, I'm glad you started this discussion and if you do start a new RP guild I wish you success. This game does have great potential for RP.

[eschiava]

I voted "it's why I'm here", even though I am no longer here.

I am sure there are those who believe me to be anti-SoR, and I most definitely am not that. I would love nothing more than for Ryzom to be a serious contender, at least on the order of AO or DAoC, or even to compete with the big names. I generally find it gratifying when the "little guy" can spit in the eye of the bully and make a serious stand.

That said, I find that I am a person without a lot of patience, and when I get disappointed it sometimes runs away with my feelings and that is what happened here, why I am not playing Ryzom at this time.

But even though I am not here I want to encourage those who remain, people like Madnek (Saiwin) and yy...um Mellodi, and others of course. Hang in there if you can, with luck you will find what you came here for even though others have not. And to those who are holding backon RPing, waiting for the "right time" to get started, you are only hurting yourselves, because if those who currently are trying to RP get discouraged the RP player base will diminish further still and you will find (imo) that there are so few RPers online that it just can't be maed to work.

Good luck and best RP wishes to you all!

Miy's player (retired)

[lyrah68]

To me, RP is the icing on the cake. This game has LOTS of matterial to work with. The whole Kami/Karavan thing is good for a nice LONG debate...in character of course. Thing there is the whole, "I want to see whats up on those branches up in the sky" that is good for at least an hour of rumination...in character of course.

BUT...it is hard to role play if you don't have enough levels to explore, to me, RP and exploration seem to go hand in hand. And in this game, if you can't take a few hits...you die before you get there (and sometimes you die no matter what).

I have been in RP only guilds, and found the guild chatter VERY quiet. It is hard to think, act and play ONLY in character. Sometimes you just HAVE to talk out of character.

I think RP is just like the rest of any game, it all comes down to the player type. SOME...will never RP, they think it is stupid or whatever, they HATE it. Some...love it and go too far with it, they start dressing like their character, eat things they think their character would, and on and on. Others are more into ballance. And the good thing is...as long as you aren't hurting anyone, no one is wrong.

[hitchinr]

Has anyone suggested a separate channel for role-play? One of the reasons for not RPing is that if people around you aren't doing it you tend to fit in with what's happening at the time (at least I do). If there was a specific channel maybe people wouldn't be so shy about starting a RP chat.

[angus858]

Has anyone suggested a separate channel for role-play? .

I put this suggestion in the post-patch 1 wish list. What I'm still unsure of is how far such a channel should reach. Global? Continental? Zone? Race or alignment specific? The regular chat channel is same-zone-only. If the RP channel were any broader people would use it for long distance OOC chat which would ruin the concept. But if it were limited to same-zone-only there might not be enough RP'ers in any zone to have much in-character dialog. I'm not sure what the right answer is but any RP channel would be better than nothing.