just some additional thoughts on stuff like word filters an the like...
im not sure if they fulfil their goal, since the very existence of a word filter makes you wann find out, how intelligent it is. it makes you try out lots of words, just to see, which ones get blocked, and which don\'t....
i would rather work in the other direction, and offer the player stuff which is fun, and which does softly push you towards roleplaying.
an example:
someday i tried some completely stupid browser game, where you could level up some char while chatting with others. the game itself was completely dumb. roleplaying wasnt encouraged at all... it was just for fun, not serious at all.
but there was gimmick which made the people roleplay, even if they didnt notice it themselves.
you could buy alkohol, and did cost ingame currency, and it really wasnt cheap. drinkin it didnt change anything on the game mechanics... all the fighting worked the same way as always.
there was just one thing happening: all the text you typed was changed a little bit. some sort of script randomly added *hicks* to your sentences, and doubled characters. it looked something like this:
\"i\'m so ddru*hicks*nk. i doon\'t knnow if i *hicks*can wwalk.\"
nothing more, nothing less. people started drinkin a lot there, and they startet playing drunk, behaving like drunk, although only their character was drunk, not themselves.
it was some basic form of roleplaying. totally uninentionally. it was really funny to watch, and not because of the transformed language.
so several things i would suggest to encourage roleplaying:
.) whenever a new character is created, there should be some intro played, in which the player gets some compressed background information about the world his new character is gonna live in.
.) ad lots of extra stuff in the game, which is not neccessary for playing the game. like the example with the alcohol above, ore there could be some sort of shooting range, where you can compare your bow skills, some sort of game to play for the characters.
maybe
http://www.tradgames.org.uk/games/Battledore-Shuttlecock.htmbattledore-shuttlecock... which is a 2000 year old game, that later developed into badminton...
the /greet command for is already a step into this direction.
heres the site i got the link from:
http://jducoeur.org/game-hist/game-rules.htmla collection of mediveal game rules.
.) let the players have houses or some place they can live at. this does a lot to intensivy the \"realworld\" feeling of a game.
.) lots of possibilities to change the looks of an character, by different hairstyles + colors, mabe different faces and especially by clothes. it\'s hard to play an character as an unique person, if she/he exactly looks like everybody else.
it should also be possible to make smaller/taller people, and thinner/fatter ones...
.) some sort of (player made) news paper, or anything thelike. in a living world, theres always something happening. give the people information on what is happening, so that they can gossip about ingame events, instead of something out of the gameworld.
.) provide extra methods (channels/forums) for rules questions and stuff thelikes. if there areas clearly marked as intended for meta-game talk, and you have a good chance of success there, than people will less likely use the ingame channels for such activities.
.) the roleplayer should always keep in mind, that many non-roleplayers dont want to destroy their roleplaying expierince (which they may effectively do) intentionally. its just, that they have no expierience with roleplaying. so always be an good example and show others how its done. most important: always stay helpful and calm. maybe use the /tell command to explain why you cant talk about player knowledge in the game.
never try to turn somebody into a roleplayer by force. the game should be fun for everyone... and for everyone in the whay she or he likes it.
etc...
Show Posts
