Originally posted by grayFalcon
Yes, I agree with you that the only \"real\" RP is when it\'s done in person, I also only use /tells ooc or for whispering. But you can\'t say that other people doing it differently are damaging your gaming experience. As you mentioned yourself, this is something that you\'ll rather not notice. Further, your argument that this is a loss to you because you won\'t be able to engage in RP with these people. Well, here\'s the point: It\'s not a real loss to you.
Obviously I failed to express myself clearly. Yes, I do not notice the people are RPing. However, that is the exact point: They
are RPing, but because they don\'t do it in the proper way, I am effectively excluded from partaking in their RP. This is
not realistic, because IRL, when people are talking and you are near them, then you
will hear them. Have you never been standing near some people talking and volunteered advice when they had a problem you knew the answer to and they did not?
If they were /tell ing, that would not be possible. Now add to that the way gossip works: People standing somewhere and talking, others pass by and overhear something they are interested in and stay, and so the goup grows. Mostly found in taverns or near the wells in towns, or the marketplace. Again, if you /tell, you obviously take away from all others to enjoy or even participate in your RP.
Originally posted by grayFalcon
Imagine people who only see this game as a bit of monster-slashing fun after a hard day at work.
Then they misunderstood the point of PS, and are in the wrong game. There are
plenty of other MMO\"RP\"Gs out there that don\'t mind this sort of people. Why should PS betray itself to accommodate people who don\'t give anything back?
Originally posted by grayFalcon
Imagine people who just log in for half an hour, because they don\'t have more time (you can\'t RP in that case).
I agree that you will not be able to RP a lot, but PLing won\'t really work as well, as it wastes a lot more time.
Originally posted by grayFalcon
Imagine people who, for whatever reason, don\'t want to RP at all or with you specifically. These people exist, and there\'s lots of them.
I don\'t mind the people who just don\'t want to RP with
me. But I
do mind those who don\'t want to RP at all, because they are not the target audience of PS, and not wanted here, and thus better be gotten rid of now than later.
Originally posted by grayFalcon
And there always will be, realistically: look at any other MMORPG with an average of more than 15 players online.
Yes, it is unfortunate that this tends to happen. However, Ps has a big advantage over these other MMO\"RP\"Gs: it is not commercial in any way. Therefore, noone i PS is pressured by marketroids or CEOs to have as many players (=customers=$$$) as possible. Therefore, PS can crack down on those that are not meant to be here.
Originally posted by grayFalcon
Now, my point is: these players can hardly be said to be damaging your RP. If you have had any experience with MMORPGs at all, you must have learned to ignore them.
Oh, I
do ignore them. From an RP POV. But I do
not ignore them from an OOC POV. Ignoring them would be accepting them, and this would be catering to them, betraying PS and myself.
Originally posted by grayFalcon
They can\'t be more damaging to your RP than people who aren\'t there at all (or is everybody else damaging your RP by plainly not being logged on and thus deprieving you of the possibility to RP with them?). And for you, seeing it from the outside, the difference between these people and people who \"/tell-RP\" is... well, NIL.
There is a definite difference, actually. People who aren\'t in PS obviously deprive me of their RP, yes. However, they then don\'t make use of PS. But once one enters PS, then they can be expected to be available for RP, because that is the entire point of PS. If you require an assessment of damage, then the most tangible and obvious one is that they are then draining bandwidth and computing power off the server and the clients (that need to render their \"chars\") while not using PS the way it is intended to be used. Therefore my RP gets hindered by performance loss and thus less smooth gameplay. People who don\'t log in don\'t. But this is not really the point: the point is: when you enter an RPG, then you agree to RP, because you do enter because you want to RP. When you don\'t want to RP, then you are not supposed to enter at all. You don\'t enter a tennis court to then sit there and read the newsaper. See how long you will be tolerated there.
Originally posted by grayFalcon
By the way, imagine a \"real\" fantasy world with lots of people going after their business. And now imagine how much attention you\'d get from the average person living there. A grunt maybe, if you\'re especially annoying, but most likely none at all. The people interacting with you (\"RPing\") would be a few chosen friends, seen against a background of lots of people you don\'t know and who ignore you - and who you ignore.
Yes, and ehter are lots of these. However, this same thing happens when you RP: when your chars have no reason to interact, then they won\'t.
However, the big difference is that there is
always the possibility that a reason to interact will pop up. And only when both are RPers, this can be made into RP, however brief.
Originally posted by grayFalcon
So, I even dare say that lots of people who don\'t RP with you just increase the quality your RP can reach by simulating that indifferent background population that, technically, you could talk to and interact (RP) with, but who you will realistically never have any more contact with than the occasional \"Pardon, you happen to know where xxx is? No? Well, thanks anyway\".
Same as above. There are a lot of RPers with whom my char has no or almost no contact. But contrary to the mindless PL, they are people in a world, not a set of numbers inside a database. I.e., you can meaningfully interact with them if there is reason to. RP reason, that is, not \"How do I get my toolbar to show up?\".
Originally posted by grayFalcon
And, last thing, my experience is that RPing in an empty world with just the people I know and play with regularily is just as bad as RPing in a world where you can\'t have a second of peace to RP with your friend because everybody tries to interact with you. The background hustle of people you don\'t know going about their business (whatever that business is - may it be their own RP, /tell-RP or powerlevelling - you don\'t know) is... well, very nice.
Yes, a world populated by RPers will, superficially, look similar to what you describe. However, the finer points are 1) the way communication takes place (i.e., RP aware vs. uncaring) and 2) the options to meaningfully interact are many vs. none.
Originally posted by grayFalcon
And for those who didn\'t want to read all of this: I think that having a lot of people online who don\'t RP with you and a group of people you do RP with is the best solution - and there it doesn\'t matter if these other people /tell-RP or do something else while they\'re not interacting with you.
The major difference is not the superficial looks, but the option and possibility to RP when there is an opportunity / reason to, from your chars POV. With RPers who RP the right way, these are there. With non RPers or those who refuse to do it the right way, these possibilities are lacking, and you might just as well put NPCs without any scripting ingame to replace these drones.
Originally posted by grayFalcon
I think that you can\'t get rid of PLs, so you have to accept them. And you can if you see them as that workoholic, not socially involved part of the population that you also have in real life
No. Apart from what I wrote above, IRL there are by far less \"workaholics\" than there are PLs ingame. Also, a workaholic will still act meaningfully, if only by saying \"Sorry, but I have to work\". They won\'t ignore you or speak OOC.
Accepting PLs is what makes other communities fall prey to them, because accepting is condoning. Silent majority, slowly turning into the silent minority. The community must, as a whole, discourage non RP and must never accept those who don\'t fit in and aren\'t willing to change / learn.
I am always perfectly willing to aid others in learning how to RP, but I am unwilling to put up with \"I don\'t care for RP, I just want to play my way so leave me alone!\" type of people.
