Originally posted by Kim
Talad and Laanx are fallible, but I have no real problem with that. Many gods have human qualities and make mistakes, just look at the Greek or Roman dieties to start. I just feel if they are such a big part of PS\'s history, they should have more prominance in the current sphere of the Yliakum society. Worshippers follow for many different reasons, be it to live a good life, out of fear, or the promise of special benefits for believers.
Exactly. These gods were very much like humans, except they were comparatively powerful. And it was this power that gave thereason to worship them, nothing else. The worshipper hoped to be rewarded by the god for the worshipping being done. Also, the gods used to represent a certain set of priorities or desires, to which humans would relate in their choice of which god to give most worshipping.
Therefore, the main problem I see is that, as has been said on another thread already, noone really knows what each god actually represents. Laanx could be viewed as god of chaos and rigidness. Talad would be more flexible and more inclined towards order. However, this alone doesn\'t suffice to build a working religion from.
Originally posted by Kim
Originally posted by zanzibar
There\'s this idea that nothing should happen that \"interferes with the role playing experience of other players\", but interference, hinderence, obstacles, surprises, and challenges are what good roleplaying experiences are based on.
Imagination and creativity was the most important part, and yes - bad things happen. You get raided, mugged, knocked out, trapped, even killed. But it wasn\'t invasive, it was fun. It was a part of the game, it was a part of the role-playing experience.
I have to agree with this point. There\'s an expectation that nothing bad should happen in this world, which makes absolutely no sense to me. Sure it\'s a game, but some semblance to life gives it a sense of realism and challenge.
We\'re RPing a medieval sword and sorcery world. There\'s going to be thieves, con artists, monsters and blood thirsty toughs. Stuff to fear, yet struggle against. We\'ve got twelve different races, three competing religions, plus guilds and I\'m supposed to believe everyone\'s all going to get along?
Absolutely there will be evil. However, the major difference is that in any game it usually is controlled so that it never gets out of hand. Challenge / realism or not, there is reason why the term \"griefing\" came into existance. I never said everyone gets along with everyone else. The difference is to what extent troublemakers can be allowed to roam freely. This is why a mutual agreement of some sort must be reached, since otherwise there would be no way to differentiate between RP and OOC jerk-ness. And no, the latter must never be allowed. Duelling newbies surely is the latter, and it\'s
by far out-occuring RP.
Whiule uncontrolled jerkness would surely be realistic, games can only be realistic to a certain extent until they cease being games.
RP involves being responsible in whatever you do to others, and there is no way of assuring this except mutual agreement. Zanzibar, you say that \"interference, hinderence, obstacles, surprises, and challenges are what good roleplaying experiences are based on.\" and make it seem as if this would conflict with \"this idea that nothing should happen that \"interferes with the role playing experience of other players\"\". However, actually it is an intrinsic part of it! Indeed without hinderances, etc. there would be very few RP opportunity. The major difference is what is acceptable and what is not. You want a \"free for all\" environment, where whatever you do can be claimed to be RP and thus acceptable. This concept cannot work, however. If it did, there would be no rules in any MMORPG. It is fun for those who powerlevel and then deal the \"hinderances\" to other, less experienced players.
The only way to do it right is to, in all respects, never go above what the other player can deal with while still enjoying the game. And the only way to do so is mutual agreement. It is absolutely possible to RP being surprised while you have agreed upon the ambush OOC-ly. It is one of the most important abilities of any RPer to be able to clearly differentiate IC and OOC. However, for this to work, it is necessary that one can trust the other player in that it is really is RP only and not OOC greed, carelessness or similar despisable things.
This self-moderation is in PnP RPGs done by the GM, and the players know they can trust / rely on the GM. In an MMORPG, this GM role must be assumed by each player, and thus they need to be trustworthy as well. And if I am not completely sure that I can trust another player to be responsible and moderated, I am not going to interact with that player. This is where open PvP, thieving, etc. systems fail completely, and why they are causeing so much grief: becuase untrustworthy players can force themselves upon others, thereby disrupting the RP not by the doing of evil or good, but by being irresponsible.
