After reading through this thread, I have to say this is starting to sound a bit like a graphical MUD...although, a bit more intricate due to quests and whatnot. And as a newcomer I probably shouldn\'t jump into this can of worms...but....
I agree that roleplay, for the most part, falls to the players themselves. Sure, GMs can interact, perhaps stir things up a bit, and I\'m sure a fair number of us have played tabletops. But GMs as far as being involved in player RP, should be nothing more than a guiding hand. A HAND TO CRUSH THE INFIDELS! *smirk* Nah, truthfully, GMs could contribute a lot to various stories, or perhaps occasionally help player-RP out when they\'re not on-call and constantly moderating.
The mud I currently play on (well, i\'ve been kinda inactive *cough*) has always had RP problems. Too many people go about leveling, and trying to get to be the highest title/shineyletter/rank/whatnot in front of their names heh. But a few of the guilds are pretty RP intensive, but that\'s one of the problems, only a few of the guilds do a lot of RP. And there\'s not much action taking place -between- the guilds. Except for a few different series that seem to occur between the same people. For the record, I play on a Wheel of Time based mud.
Again, in my opinion, the real RP should fall to the players interacting with each other. God knows the lengths i\'ve gone to getting people/subguilds interacting with each other in the guild. We always had a bad ratio of our military interacting with Aes Sedai, but finally after much deliberation, we started getting some interaction going. Things have been soooo much better since.
But that\'s kinda off topic, and on that score, i\'ll digress.
As I said before, it\'s always been my opinion that the majority of RP in a given system, be it tabletop, mud, or whatever, should fall to the players. The GMs should merely direct the background and story based on character actions. (I always lead my sessions off the cuff, so to speak) and not try to influence the player so much unless it is directly related to the story itself. And sure, some smaller-scale RP doesn\'t even require the presence of a GM.
From what I\'ve seen and read so far, it seems to me that dev is really working their butts off trying to get this game to evolve, and become more user-friendly. I\'m sure more stuff will come in later that will aid in RP, but I can\'t think that dev has in any way (or would in any way) hinder roleplay.
I mean, maybe I have this wrong, but the way I see it, devs are basically the equivalent of Immortal/Implementor on a mud. They\'re the dudes who work behind the scenes, constantly updating game mechanics, and adding/subtracting stuff. They try to create a world that is a help in generating roleplay. The GMs are basically the moderators, keeping order OOC-ly, and occasionally helping out in events or maybe even in helping with a player-driven plot. The players are the core of the roleplay community. The guilds, and the players are the people who make things happen. Like in muds, i\'m sure there\'s intra-guild roleplay, and inter-guild roleplay, be it conflict, or completing certain tasks, or just having a good banter at the pub.
Maybe i\'ve gone and gotten myself confused reading through this thread, and the overall purpose, and i\'m sure game mechanics might help, but I know plenty of RP that has taken place with nothing but text and emotes *grin*
For the record I tended to roleplay more on the forums than in-game on that mud. But occasionally I would partake in live-RP if it was requested or needed. Most of it was RP to gain rank or train newcomers in the guild though.
Rule 1 for roleplay: Get in-character *cackle*
For the sake of fan-fiction, mebbe i\'ll write a backstory of how Vaylos came to exist in the world of Planeshift. Er...the world\'s actual name escapes me at the moment *scuffle* I\'ve created this character on a number of different games, mostly because his backstory is easily adapted to suit the different environments. Expect to see his name around -alot- since he will probably be my main character hehe.
Anydangway, I tend to be a bit concerned with roleplay, which is why I dove headfirst into this thread. Sometimes it\'s hard to find good roleplayers these days.
And a lot of the people here seem to have their heads on straight, which is what attracted me to this community.
I\'ve been yammering on long enough I think. Again, I may not have gotten the entire jist of the thread, but my opinions have been stated. I sincerely hope I cause no offence in my post. And on a side note, when I refer to GM I don\'t necessarily mean to indicate the title in reference to this particular game, but in general as per the tabletop reference.
