When RP was alive and kicking

[Rigwyn]

As a newcomer to RP I see a lot of talk on the boards about "the good ole days", how RP was alive and kicking and how things were done differently back in the day.
For the sake of learning and possible reusing some older ideas and lessons:

What did you enjoy most about RP back in the day ?

How were things different ?

What would guilds and groups conflict over ?

What do you miss ?

What sucked ? What would you have changed ?

What bound guilds and groups together ?




*Rigwyn sits on one of two old whitewashed rocking chairs and takes a glass off the table. He pours himself a tall glass of lemonade which quickly begins to fog up and then sweat. Patiently he waits hoping to hear a story two about how it once was.

 

[Raekh]

Without giving it too much of a thought right now, but to reply spontaneously..

First of all, I think there were way more guilds (apart from the one I was co-leading) that had a rather specific definition, motivated by the idea to RP an institution with a very special view on things. Those guilds I am refering to were original and based on ideas different from "good or evil", subtle enough to either take them as real evil or entirely good. What I liked most was, that there were constant conflicts between these guilds, constant in terms of very long-lasting, and not just a plot set up for a single event. And due to their maybe ambiguous nature, events over time decided if once enemies turned to allies. Always there was a tension. To figure out, how to approach this one, and how to treat the next one, how to pit some against each other, this is what I really liked. Not really some bloody showdown (which of course happened and had to happen now and then), but the diplomacy in between, that you always had to be aware of how to treat this stranger, what questions does he ask, who might he be allied with or belong to, or if you can turn him into an ally or even recruit into your rows.

In this respect, what sucked were the mass recruiting guilds that caught a lot of newbies, those guilds aiming at "helping newbies". If you met a new character, since you RP, you tried to gain trust of this one, it took time - and 2 days later you saw this one guilded by one of those guilds to promise cheats and cash to the player for he was blinded and spoiled, and sort of "lost".

Dont get me wrong (I can already hear Illysia yelling..lol), that casual stuff always had to be a part of the entire game, it was important, it pertruded the play at any time, giving it a consistent character. But it was the conflicts that made for the thrill, that made for the final challenge.
And yes, apart from the continuous play of your char's role, there had to be set up events as well - but those were just the pinnacle of planning and strategies.

However, there is a chance things I said above are somewhat idealized after a while now=P

[Timmothy Perriwinkle]

When just walking around and I saw someone with the tag <The Fallen Kingdom>, I was scared. So I avoided them.

Now, when I see an "evil" character, I avoid them. Because I don't like clogging up my ignore list.

EDIT: Point of clarification - not all evil characters ingame now suck massive balls. When I'm talking about the ones whom I avoid, it's the ones who decide to create a new evil alt every other day, and superultramagick attack you in the middle of a public place, then on the odd chance you godmod them into submission they bring in another evil alt to help their initial character. Rinse and repeat until you either lose or noobflee.

[verden]

Cooperation was kind of critical in many older RPs due to the level of detail involved. Three high-profile ones are below, and they are still later RPs. But only a small portion of active RPs ever got referenced on the forums. The three below all gained a level of momentum on the system at the time, and started affecting characters not directly involved in the RP. At least thats how I remember 'em...

http://www.hydlaaplaza.com/smf/index.php?topic=24578.0
http://www.hydlaaplaza.com/smf/index.php?topic=24752.0
http://www.hydlaaplaza.com/smf/index.php?topic=25918.0

[bloodedIrishman]

I've been playing for about three years. When I began playing there was just a way of going along with the flow of roleplay. There were powerlevelers and powerleveling guilds to be sure, but it wasn't a major problem. I think the most important aspect of my experience with planeshift was that the 'older generation' of players taught me. I had amazing older players who helped me along. That's a big part of the whole experience.

[Timmothy Perriwinkle]

See, I had it a bit different. I was told horror stories about RP nazi's in the tavern and Hydlaa in general, so I was terrified of going there until mah RPz were up to snuff.

[Illysia]

Dont get me wrong (I can already hear Illysia yelling..lol), that casual stuff always had to be a part of the entire game, it was important, it pertruded the play at any time, giving it a consistent character. But it was the conflicts that made for the thrill, that made for the final challenge.
And yes, apart from the continuous play of your char's role, there had to be set up events as well - but those were just the pinnacle of planning and strategies.

*Plllbbbbbtt*

Now to answer Rigwyn's questions.

What I enjoyed most

What I enjoyed most was sitting around learning about the other characters around me like who was a baker, back before it was implemented , or hearing stories of past exploits, especially the RP retelling of stuff that happened mechanicswise in game.

Also the character defining stuff like my character liking some characters and hating others. Interacting with those characters made me think about different aspects of my characters that I might have overlooked previously. It forced me to flesh out the character's behavior and maybe think more deeply about the character's "past experiences" and develop unique quirks. Most of my characters were shaped by the characters they interacted with the most and often developed past what I had initially intended for them.

How things were different

Back then newbies and oldbies interacted more and for that matter, oldbies hung around. If you were a newbie you probably got to meet the local RP celebs. Also, people RPed in groups and not necessarily just the same people or just people they had been RPing with for years. It was easier to drift in and out of RPs that you didn't have a hand in creating.

What guilds and groups fought over

I have no idea about guilds as I spent most of the time trying to avoid such conflicts altogether. At the time, Illysia has a strict noninterference policy where guilds were concerned. Now for groups, it seems slavery was the hot button topic. The two big hitters in that arena being Duraza and Drahlian(sp?). That's the only time I can recall hearing of a player raising a successful army and other players managing a successful counter army. Not sure how accurate that was as I heard it as a RP retelling of the event.

What I miss

I missed the freeflow of RP. True I have never particularly cared for robbery, killing, war, etc RPs but I respect their place in the whole as much social stuff. The problem now isn't so much the RP genre, if you will, but the fact that people aren't RPing at all, don't RP enough to get good at the storytelling aspect of it, don't have any intention of improving, or stubbornly "RP" just to OOCly annoy people.

At least in the past there were things going on and things to talk about. Now, most places are silent. You can't walk past and catch snippets of conversations like you used to. It's even harder to join in other's RPs. If you don't stay within your normal RP group, you are likely to get the RP equivalent of funny looks. It gets rather awkward to keep trying after that point. It's very hard to have a cohesive RPing community that way.

What I would have changed

I would have had more skill implemented and I wouldn't have known better how to RP if I could have.  The Golden Age of RP was back when I was still using smiles in main... intentionally.  But my biggest thing then was that I needed guides on how to RP trades and that is what the implementation of skills has helped with. Mind you I was close enough when I RPed cooking before it was implemented. However, now, if someone asks me for a recipe for clacker stew, Illysia can gag and make a scene about it and Elady can slip them the recipe later.

What bound groups and guilds together

Umm... I can't tell you about guilds... But for the groups I would be in. The characters were bound by their interactions with each other. For some characters it was attraction, for some they just liked each others company, still others were bound by a tolerate/hate relationship. Actually, now that I think about it, I think the underlying tie was not the characters themselves, but that the players involved enjoyed seeing what the other players came up with. Like how other players responded when their character revealed something about their pasts. A lot of the time, I go back and read my old logs for a good laugh at some of the funny things that has happened to my characters.

[Duraza]

The only thing that ever changes is the amount of people you know in the community. People come and go and if you aren't active enough to find new people to continue playing with then Rp seems to die in your own personal world. Then, you just think about the old things you did and go on about those instead of bothering to look for new plots to join in or create.

I speak from experience. Rp will always be alive and kicking if you are always active and pursue it or create it. If Rp seems dead to you after that it's not the RP that's dead, just your interest in it. That's when you start bragging about 'your day.' Sure there were huge RPs like the ones Verden mentioned but anyone could really start something like that with patience and planning.

I'll also agree with this:

Back then newbies and oldbies interacted more and for that matter, oldbies hung around. If you were a newbie you probably got to meet the local RP celebs. Also, people RPed in groups and not necessarily just the same people or just people they had been RPing with for years. It was easier to drift in and out of RPs that you didn't have a hand in creating.

If you are the person creating plots and story-lines make sure you go the extra mile to find those outside of your own circle to include. Personally search for them, don't just invite them if they happen to be around. It makes a big difference in the playing experience for you and for characters new and old that you meet.

[Phinehas]

What did you enjoy most about RP back in the day ?

I think for me it was the intricacy and the epicness of it. By epicness I mean simply that big stuff went on. Empires rose and fell, you could be known by the entire community for something, and it was all due to RP. As for the intricacy, well... back then, things were complicated. You'd make alliances with guilds and then find out that they had alliances with your enemies, and then find out that those enemies of yours were actually a front being set up by an evil coalition who, in turn, was being hunted by an apparently small group of extremely powerful individuals, etc., etc. And none of it felt forced, people were just that dedicated to their RP that they would spend time delving into it. That was true for individuals, as well. It was great that everything wasn't transparent and obvious.

How were things different ?

Well, as I mentioned above, things were more epic. Now the community is bigger and there's a lot more stuff going on, even if it's mostly lower quality. So it's hard for a really great idea or guild or whatever to stand out from the masses. Also with the game actually having mechanics now, it becomes hard for people to RP a powerful character without having the muscle to back it up. That's easiest for melee - oriented characters, but even for them it's not that easy. It's rare you'll find someone who roleplays well and also has a high-level character. Back then it was a little different, power was almost entirely political, or to put it another way, the community gave you power. You then wielded that power within your RP, possibly as direct skill in combat, but other people respected and fell in line with your RPed power because of your power within the community.

What would guilds and groups conflict over ?

Just about everything. There was a LOT of good vs. evil going on, thanks to the Cabal and the Black Order and what-not. On the other hand, some conflicts were more personal. One guild I was in was very small, purposefully, and therefore if a guild had a problem with one of our members, it had a problem with all of us. Another thing that I think was more of an issue back then was overlapping of spheres of influence. Since, as I said above, the community granted power, it was important to not have that power spread too thin. If there had been 20 evil guilds, for instance, nobody might have cared much about any of them, so the evil guilds made sure to kill off the weaker ones so that they were the only ones of their kind. In a similar vein, I, personally, had a feud with the Arcane Order over who was going to be the acknowledged arcane juggernaut in the community.

What do you miss ?

Honestly? The people. I mean, it was great times and lots of great stuff happened, but that stuff could all come again. The community still has the potential for awesome RP and to adapt or regain most of the stuff that was great from before. On the other hand, Kada will probably never be back, nor will Tybalt, nor will any other of a myriad of people who were both great RPers and my friends.

What sucked ? What would you have changed ?

Well, there was a lot of godmodding. Seperot was really bad with that. I think the core issue is that back then people were tied to their characters a lot more. Most people just had one main character that they put all their effort into. That was really great, because it means that characters were more fleshed-out and meaningful than a lot of them are these days. On the other hand, nobody wanted to die. As a matter of fact that's one of the things I kind of like about the current environment. People make characters that aren't necessarily epic in and of themselves, and so aren't as cut up about them possibly getting killed. Even back then I tried to bring that in by doing a lot of simpler, more mundane RPing than was the norm, but it didn't always catch on.

What bound guilds and groups together ?

A number of things. Back then, guilds felt like they had purpose. There were fewer guilds and they were more unique. Nowadays there are a lot of clones. With more purpose the members were tied into their guild more. Also, guilds provided the aforementioned community respect associated with them and their leaders. For instance, you didn't want to get on the wrong side of even a weak member of the Cabal unless you were very confident in your power.
In the end though, it's the relationships. Since RP was all that there was back then, that was all that people did. If all you do is essentially stand around and socially interact with people in a very direct way, relationships build quickly.

Hope this wasn't too boring. It was kinda fun to write out some of the stuff I remember.

[Xillix Queen of Fools]

Phinehas, excellent post.