Roleplaying...

[Macatron]

I'm just curious as to whether or not any kind of thought is being put into how to keep people roleplaying. What I mean is, how are you going to deal with all the "doods" and "what's up dawgs?" that happens all too often in online gaming? I think that this really detracts from the fantasy feeling of the game and rips me out of the game world back into reality. Many MMORPGs have failed in trying to accomplish this feat (like EQ's "roleplaying flag"), and I would like to know your stand point on the issue.

[Uncle Dukey]

I personally believe there is nothing that can be done. Also, everyone's definition of "roleplaying" is different, causing a further problem.

[Rolfe]

Alas, Uncle is right. But we are going to try and perpetuate a role playing atmosphere in the game as best we can. We'll do this by:

-Posting storyline updates as you log into the world instead of patch messages. You could view patch messages too anytime you want probably by just clicking on a button or something. But the default will be storyline.

-GMs won't be "GMing" in the EQ sense. They'll be "DMing" in the D&D sense constantly. There will probably be a GM... You know, after EQ, I don't even want to call them GMs. Let's just call them DMs. There will probably be DMs on 24 hours a day. That means DMs will be role playing with different characters. An old man at a bar speaking of adventure in a hidden cave or a god come to the earthen plane to reward his loyal followers. DMs will be role playing.

Maybe you're thinking that no matter WHAT we do, it won't effect how players act. Well you're wrong. I'd like to be tactful, but you're just wrong. I'm sorry you had to find out this way... but you're wrong and that's all there is to it. Everquest has "Care Bear" rules and GMs, so they get "Care Bear" players. Lots of things contribute to that in EQ. The GM's are supposed to settle disputes. There's no way to settle anything yourself. The whole environment, the rules, the GMs, and the petition system all encourage you to /petition a GM. Players are encouraged to petition by all those things combined, so that's what they do.

On the PVP servers in EQ, Greater Faydark is probably the safest zone. Very Few elves PK EVEN ON THE PK SERVERS. Why is that? Partially because of the mentality of people that like to play elves I suppose. But it encourages others that WOULD PK to NOT PK when they're in Greater Faydark. Peer pressure? The atmosphere of the whole place which is set by the non-PKing elven players? I don't know. I'm guessing it's a little bit of both.

Well, we're going to encourage Role Playing and I'm betting that will increase the number of role players by quite a bit.

[Wrentia]

GM reminds us too much of EQ.....while DM is just wrong for a large world where most action takes place above ground. We need a new term for Arcanity. (not truly important I know, but a way to be creative right now) I have a couple ideas and I am sure others could add more. Who knows, maybe someone will get rewarded by comming up with the best idea....:')

ST's - Storytellers
MOG's - Master of Game or Messenger of Gods


Wrentia

[Slitherrr]

I like MOG myself, reminds me a lot of FFVI. Got an idea or two myself:

Arcane Minister (AM)
Keepers of the Realm
or
Keepers of Arcanity
or
Arcane Keeper
and so on..

[Macatron]

I'd have to say that I like the whole "God" aspect of it all, but I think it should be slimmed down to just "The Gods" (or something to that affect). If that didn't work than I'd have to go with something like "The Celestial Council", "The Divine Trinity," or maybe even "The Deities of Virtue." What do you think?

[Dyson]

Well, I don't like the idea of calling DMs gods, since it can be confused with the in-game "gods." How about instead of "Game Master" (GM) we have "Game Coordinator" (GC)? Or Campaign Manager (CM?) I like that one..it's an easy, two letter, and doesn't carry a whole lot of connotations.

While I think that at first CMs/DMs/GMs/whatever should play some characters in the game, after a while, I think the hard-core Roleplayers should be recruited for this task. On every server, you're bound to have some people who
1. Are excellent role-players
2. Strive to make the game interesting for everybody
3. Though I hate to say it, have no life and spend ludicrous amounts of time on the game.

These people (maybe 1-10 out of every 500 or so on each server) could be personally contacted by the CMs, asked for histories of their characters, and (if such histories prove satisfactory and the player has been judged to be of notable story-managing skill) incorporated into the larger (world) storyline. If they prove capable and trustworthy (ie, not giving out CM's emails, AOL IMs, or whatever, and generally providing an RP atmosphere), they may be given special projects, such as quest management and the like. These players may also recieve extra consideration when they make requests, ie, "could I run a tavern at these crossroads?" especially if such requests lead to a furthering of storylines.

I'm heartily against formally appointing "counselors" or "seers" from player ranks, as this is more likely to produce status-climbers. Rather, these players would simply be selected by CMs and treated as fellow storytellers, helping to make the game fun for everybody.

[Rolfe]

Hmmm... I guess Wrentia does have a good point though. I like some of the ideas. Some of them sound too much like guild names though and I agree with Dyson that it should be 2 letters and fairly simple. Campaign Manager is actually quite good. Reading Slitherrr's suggestions made me think of Arcane Master also and that's not too bad. I think Campaign Manager sounds best though. I say we make it Campaign Manager right here and right now. Let's figure this out right here and now for future reference on the message boards. Campaign Manager gets my vote (no pun intended). What ye all think?

[Dyson]

Um...I like it. :) It's got my vote. I guess that's kind of obvious, though.

[Rolfe]

ha ha. Ya, that doesn't count, Dyson. he he

[Dyson]

*shrug* I cannot be blamed for trying.

[Wrentia]

Works for me. Now, does the originator win anything? :)

-Wrentia

[Rolfe]

How about a 3 day, 2 night stay in Avalon? Maps for Avalon will be up within a couple of weeks here I hope. First we're getting the Mino art and maps up though.

[Paladin]

How about calling them Brick House Flunkies? :P Seriously I like Campaign Manager. Ya' got my vote.

[Macatron]

I like it. Campaign Manager it is!!

[Slitherrr]

Better watch out with the recruiting business, there's always that lawsuit that's been going around that'll probably set precedences in that area (http://www.avault.com/articles/getarticle.asp?name=smurfs for those who haven't seen it.). By the way, Campaign Manager all the way!

[Macatron]

*This is in responce to the "No more Smurfs" article*
*See above*

This is just getting down right pathedic. Here in the land of the "FREE," we can't even volunteer OUR time to do something that we actually want to do because someone else wants to make a big deal about it!! I mean come on, if people want to help the game companies for "free," then let them do it. I makes them happy. God forbid that anyone can be happy anymore. I got the opportunity to beta test EQ before the public got to play it, so I can speak for the others by saying it was a rather uplifting experience to say the least. It just kind of made you feel special for getting to do something that not too many others were yet able to do. To me, it's starting to seem like this country is just ONE BIG LAWSUIT!! What do you think?

[Slitherrr]

That's what I'm sayin! It's illegal to work for less than minimum wage even if you say that you want to? What the hell?? Who does that help, maybe a couple of illiterate illegal immigrants that won't take the time to learn how to read! Personally, the satisfaction I'd get for helping with the game would be well worth the under minimum wage salary. And you can always put the beta testing experience on resumes, and it'll probably help, so who says you're not theoretically gaining enough to work for em? Gay ass pud whacks, that's all that New York is... Who'd wanna volunteer for AOL anyways, these people need to have their lives reexamined.

[Wrentia]

some kind of lawyer MOB we can all put out of our misery. We also need a whiney b*****d MOB so we can put those out of our misery as well. It scares me to think that in the future we will need some kind of contract between a volunteer and the organization for which they volunteer.

-Wrentia

[Cynycal]

im gonna have to go with Campaign Manager, has the right feel to it..etc.. and good job guys