I understand the concerns expressed here by some, and I hesitated to place a post like this for fear it might be misunderstood. I posted it only after encouragement from fellow players. I know that forums like these are often targeted by spammers, and RP communities have reason to fear a dilution of their RP minded player base. So, maybe I should say a little more about myself and what I am doing, trying to do, or not trying to do:

1.) I did not make a character "just to offer services". Firstly, there are no services yet, and I created Bantam months ago as part of a 2-year long search for an MMORPG in which the RPG part of the acronym is more than purely cosmetic. As Bantam, I currently have 144 quests completed, and I RP a lot (and would RP more if there were more opportunities such as via more dedicated role players in our playerbase than there currently seem to be, especially at the times I can be on). I am a long time role player from long before PlaneShift existed who has spent many years playing AD&D and MERP (i.e. the pen & paper origin of games like PS), online text-based MUDs (including one from which PS could learn how to improve the RP), and more recently some MMORPGs in which I didn't find much scope for RP at all. I consider RPGs not only entertaining and a great escape for those among us for whom RL is not enough, but - as an educator - I see them as powerful educational experiences whose potential has not yet been tapped.

2.) Two years ago, while working in a private school where parents and faculty were in an uproar over the widespread gaming of many students some of whom regularly skipped classes to play World of Warcraft (WOW) cooperatively while voice chatting (it's faster than typing and frees up your hands), I decided to join the students on Azeroth (WOW's virtual world) to see what this popular fad was all about. While RP was mostly missing (since WOW's code does little to support it) I quickly discovered that these students were training a lot of useful skills while gaming, and the idea was born (for me) to incorporate such gaming in education. I have since read about academic studies and isolated school experiments done in this direction, but there really isn't much out there, yet. I believe there exists a niche for people, young and old, for whom this would be perfect. So, I want to do my part in making more of this happen. And I posted here to ask others to help.

3.) This is my first post on this forum simply because (A) I prefer in-game activity over off-game forums, (B) I discovered PS only a few months ago, (C) the many off-game PS related sites out there take quite some time finding and exploring, and (D) in order to succeed I must hurry to start this pilot before other RL endeavors assume priority to the possible exclusion of all other projects. Weebly also being used by actual spammers would be no surprise since Weebly offers free hosting. If the website I whipped up looks commercial, it's because I made it for "advertisement" or "marketing" purposes. I completely stink at marketing and may be doing it all wrong, but I have to try my best or nothing will ever happen from my end for sure. I would really appreciate if anybody here who knows somebody for whom online voice chat (especially while gaming) would be an educational boon would let them know about this possibility. I am just asking nicely. You obviously don't have to if you don't want to.

4.) Yes, people can practice languages in games without voice chat (and I myself am perfectly happy playing without voice chat), but there are a lot of English learners out there who are taught reading and writing but no talking and who keep failing miserably at the latter even as their current or future jobs may require it. Some of them spend excessive amounts of time and money on evening classes or tutoring sessions which are less effective (and less entertaining) as my proposed idea could be.

5.) Improving the public image and understanding of RPGs, bringing the "RPG" back into the MMORPG market (which IMHO has lost its way), and realizing the educational potential of RPGs are dreams of mine. I think there is nothing ominous or nefarious about those dreams, and I value PlaneShift too much that I would do anything to endanger it. Should I ever be so lucky that my classes would outgrow PS, there are plenty of MMORPGs out there whose huge player base could easily absorb them. For now, I simply hope to start a small pilot voice chat group which tries out meeting on PlaneShift (and possibly other virtual places as well, but for now I prefer PlaneShift because this is where I myself like to play nowadays, and because its slow pace, the (mostly) friendly playerbase, and even its many bugs and rough edges would seem to make for a better virtual classroom than the frenzied and often antisocial environments of games like WOW). If this were to gain PS a handful of new role players, that would be a good thing, I think. I believe this is an experiment worth to try and worthy of support by other players on Yliakum.

I hope this clears things up a little and calms those fears that an invasion of RP-averse noobs is imminent.