Roleplay vs. State of Game

[RayvenD]

Scripting roleplay seems to me the same thing as the development team saying things like "the races are at peace and have no enemies except for the wild beasts." It's complete and utter bull***t why the (beep) can't we make our own (beep)ing characters and play them together in a world working almost like our own? Why can't we be enemies? Why must we follow a predefined pattern of action which to anybody with any creativity or character immersion would find completely boring?

[Karyuu]

You are badly misunderstanding what I wrote. I apologize if I caused much confusion. What I meant was:

There are no wars between races, and no one race hates another. There can be however individual characters who have a dislike for something or someone and choose to act upon it. To say that PlaneShift does not allow evil characters is false - however you must remember that because the game is still early in its development, it is difficult to play an evil character using game mechanics. This will of course change (and be balanced) in the future. Is disallowing massive wars between races "forcing" people to play certain characters? In a way. But this is the setting of the game and we wish that our players respect and acknowledge it, and find ways to be creative.

[Keyaz]

of course those people who have that dislike of somethign can manipulate others into their beleifs, make a cult, guild, faction or just a hateful mob and tryo to rise up into power against their enemies :]

though such events really do need organisation, can't just go roaring around the plaza jumping on every unaware player that fits the description ^_^

[RayvenD]

My main issue is that the current setting allows for very little of anything to be done. You just mentioned game mechanics, well at the moment the game mechanics allow for nothing except dueling, spawncamping, obscure quests where npc's don't speak anything even remotely like english or mining gold. Crafting of course is an option but then, the only decent weapons you can craft are considered a bug exploit/cheat so that's out. And you want to discourage powerlevvelling? I'd forget about the players and focus on the game, that seems to be the area in need of work...

[Karyuu]

...What do you think we are doing, exactly?

[RayvenD]

To be honest i'm not sure...but i'm sure i'll hear about it............soon(tm)

[Keyaz]

that's not very nice...

so uhm... who's got a knife? o.o

[RayvenD]

It wasn't intended in a rude way. At the moment all I see is restrictions being placed on character development, and gm's throwing their weight around, seems pointless to me. Discouraging PL is all well and good except for the fact that it is the only thing worth doing in the game.  I rp the whole time I am there and even that gets old with the lack of decent rp events going on. Even quests would be good if the benefits didnt require PL to be of any real use (glyphs etc.) And btw I have already made 2 full games single handedly, they weren't RPG's they were adventure/comedy  games as I feel that is more where my writing talent lies. So yeah, i'm sorry I spoke an opinion, I forgot it is illegal to do so in this community unless it is in line with the one we are told to have.

[Karyuu]

I don't understand where your comments are coming from. Have any on the team ever been rude to you, or shut you down in any way? Why are you being so accusatory, and angry?

I have already said that you can have any character you want - evil or good - and the only restriction lies in inventing massive racial wars and hatreds. Does this really place such an enormous limit on your character?

[RayvenD]

I guess i'm coming across the wrong way with my posts, i'm not angry in fact far from it. This comes from a discussion my guild were having. A lot of people create character sthinking they can be 'whatever they want to be' when they are in character creation. For example one member of my guild made a character who would be a bard. But then when in game found the game mechanics made their skill choices worthless. Now I know people are going to come back at me with "roleplay it," but seriously, if this game was based entirely around roleplay we'd all be typing in a text window with no need of maps and character models and everything else (which tbh I think would be better if the idea is pure roleplay.) I know the game is still in development, and I understand that. But I dont see the point opf all the "you must be roleplaying" business at the moment, when the only things the game lets you do within it's world are mainly the things which require no roleplay, ie killing a gladiator 50 times a day. Yes roleplay is fun, it would be even more fun if the mechanics of the game could support the roleplay, at the moment I don't feel that they do.  Crafting is a good example of what I mean, at the moment you can roleplay a 'master blacksmith' because you can make a super-strong sword with 1000/50 quality. That works until the devs say "this is a bug you cant do it."  If we can't do it...why let us?  It seems to me that if things are going to be released the devs should test them properly then implement them when they work right. Yes it may mean more server downtime for the regular player, but I for one would be far happier missing a few weeks play if when i was playing everything that was useable in game actually worked right.  I've lost count of how many people have ran back and forth from every corner of the current "yliakum" trying to find full chain because they saw Xordan wearing it outside harns, it just seems very unproffessional. I'm not angry, dissallusioned is more the word i thin? Ah well I know what I mean, all I'm saying is the current state of progression I dont think it is fair to be so uptight about roleplay and powerleveling etc, it seemsstupid when the game mechanics allow for little else. Yes, it is a RPG, BUT it is also a computer game, the game features and mechanics matter aswell. It seems like this community acts as an elitist RP authority, yet almost every person I have spoken to on the issue in game says this is their first RPG. I'm finished.

[Karyuu]

This wiill be my last post here on the subject - anyone, please PM me if you wish to take it further.

I know the game is still in development, and I understand that. But I dont see the point opf all the "you must be roleplaying" business at the moment, when the only things the game lets you do within it's world are mainly the things which require no roleplay [...]

We are trying to build the community as well as the game, and the type of people we are trying to attract for the most part are roleplayers, not people who are coming in to kill sprites on a screen whenever the urge strikes. If you don't roleplay, you're not going to be kicked out however. You just have to be careful and not interfere with anyone's RP through your OOC conversations or actions. So even though this game doesn't allow you to have the working skills or items or similar that your RP may require, we hope people RP as best as they can in the meantime - because at the end of it all, we would not want to turn completely around and "suddenly" enforce RP when the game is "finished."

Yes roleplay is fun, it would be even more fun if the mechanics of the game could support the roleplay, at the moment I don't feel that they do.

Perhaps not to the extent you and we all would like. But many people have fun regardless - they build amazing stories, have great adventures, mature, grow, evolve. You don't need game mechanics to RP - we just prefer to have them - but until more of the game is finished we would like our players to use their imaginations and merge "text-based" RP with what is currently available in the game, a little more with every update until all actions can be carried out in the game without pretending.

It seems to me that if things are going to be released the devs should test them properly then implement them when they work right. Yes it may mean more server downtime for the regular player, but I for one would be far happier missing a few weeks play if when i was playing everything that was useable in game actually worked right.

Please don't forget that you are a tester here first, and a player second. We are not "releasing" a game. We're making one, and your aid in hunting down bugs, reporting them, and possibly even helping make fixes is vital. You are playing on a test server, and you are here to help us pinpoint problems. This is a very important point.

I've lost count of how many people have ran back and forth from every corner of the current "yliakum" trying to find full chain because they saw Xordan wearing it outside harns, it just seems very unproffessional.

We are not professionals, RayvenD. The great majority of us are still learning. If you believe that you can manage an MMORPG better, give it a try and report back. Even though we always want to aim for professionalism, we do not always have the luxury of succeeding in a volunteer-based, hobby project such as this. Cut us some slack every now and then, because we're not being paid to do this and are simply contributing because we love doing it.

[Akaye]

At the moment all I see is restrictions being placed on character development, and gm's throwing their weight around, seems pointless to me.

Whoa, I can't for one minute believe Gm's discourage roleplay. Maybe being told no to a certain idea or character trait that doesn't work within the rules might be taken as "throwing their weight around" but that doesn't make it so. Saying no to something that goes against rules is within our right and is in no means power tripping. GM's have nothing to do with the roleplay. They are there to help police the game and make sure that rules are being followed that Talad and the dev's have laid down or hepling players with either the mechanics of the game, questions about the world, and/or throwing events for players.

If in fact you do feel there is a GM who is "trowing their weight around" then you need to report it and perhaps even record the log. /report should do the trick. As far as I know Gm's are not immune to the /report command. If I am wrong someone will surely correct me. No Gm should have an attitude that what they say goes unless we are following the rules.

  Seriously though, in this whole time I have played in PS I have never seen a Gm purposely try to stop roleplay. Sure Gm's have made stupid mistakes but as I have read all over the forums and what the community really needs to start understanding, is we Gm's are human to and are not immune to mistakes. This game is here to encourage roleplay and as far as I know it is one of the most important things to Talad when it comes to planeshift. Roleplaying was one of the reasons this game was created, I read some where that this game was intended to take roleplay to a higher level, because there is no other game out there with this amount of roleplay going on within the community. People from all over the world and who have played many roleplaying games have said this game is very unique for the roleplaying the community provides. That is pretty amazing for a game that is just alpha, with very little for team members. imagine what it will be like when it is a finished project.

Discouraging PL is all well and good except for the fact that it is the only thing worth doing in the game.

Discouraging roleplay is not good at all. If that was the case, I would not have stuck around for as long as I have. I came to this game green and never roleplayed before in my life. I stay with this game because I adore roleplaying and enjoy that this is different from any other game I have ever played.

....... and karyuu beat me to most of my post so I will gladly bow out now with hopes that people will truly see that the GM's are not the bad guys.

[Nerule]

.... Is it really nessessary to put these aruements on my thread? Not to be rude. And you really shouldn't complain just cause this game is an RPG. You like to PL in games and play them only to PL? Go play Runescape if thats the case and come back when the game's done. Leave us people who apprisiate what the devs have made for us already to kep apressiating. (I cannot spell that word) I'm not nessessarly directing this at anyone. It's just my oppinion.

[Karyuu]

Apologies, Nerule. The posts have been split into their own topic :}

[Enipeus]

Discouraging PL is all well and good except for the fact that it is the only thing worth doing in the game.

Sorry, I just had to say one thing. Try to roleplay, meet new people. I think you'll find PLing gets boring.