You are completely wrong in what you define as role playing vs pretending. It is just your opinion, as you state. Role playing is playing a role. It is becoming a character, whether that character is a fuddlebum farmboy, or a twenty year veteran of the Hydlaa Guard. It is not up to you to decide for everyone what role they will play.
Role playing is NOT leveling. Leveling can BE roleplaying, but not the other way around.
Let me define pretending. It is the practice of making up something that is not really there. In an RPG, that equates to pretending you have stats that you do not, or pretending you have a job you do not. Pretending is standing face to face with someone and typing out a battle, or a slap. Pretending IS burning down the tavern. None of that is seen, so it is in fact not real.
Roleplaying is acting upon things that actually do affect your character, such as attributes, stats, attacks, sickness, and even weather. Yes, leveling is grouped in here as well, but it is not the ONLY thing. In fact, it should be one of the most minor things focused on in a true RPG. If the game would support creating a fully developed character with stats and attributes, then yes, by god, that would be roleplaying. Is there leveling? Could be, could not be. That depends on the character you are playing. But it is NOT needed.
Right now, most people are pretending. More and more, roleplayers are IGNORING game features because they see them as NOT supporting true roleplaying. How many players actually RP by their stats? I am telling you for a fact that it is very few. What does that say about the game? In my opinion, is blatantly states that it is failing in its main purpose. If people have to pretend their way around things that their character would not normally do, SUCH as intensive training, there is something very wrong.
Your first example bleeds into the second. People are doing ALL of those things now. You are alos forcing a role on everyone with your 'starting at the bottom level of society'. You are forcing us to start as youths. You are forcing us to take the path of the leveler. Frankly, that path is considered as flawed.
Strip away the efforts of the community. Strip away the rules of the GMs. Strip away all the lives we have created that did not start as you say. Strip PS down, and just view it for its features, and projected features. It is nothing more than an empty game for leveling. There is nothing that makes the game more roleplaying than a first person shooter.
Some people have mistaken me for being against stats and leveling. I am not. I am, however, against being forced to go OUT of character to play the role I wish. Roleplaying should be fun, and based entirely on the stats and attributes of your character, not pretending. But how can that be if you are either: A. bored out of your mind doing something you do not thing your character would be doing. B. You role is not supported by your stats, and you have to spend endless hours getting there.
And it is a myth that every man is created equal. Forcing that into a game detracts for the realism, not adds to it. Everyone keeps whining that everything has to be fair and balanced. For what purpose? So that no one 'wins'? Think about that.
You 'roleplaying' is not the only way. It is not even the most chosen way. That is why people are pretending, and will continue to do so, no matter how many shiny new features you add. People are not roleplaying because of these features, they are roleplaying -despite- them.
You are confusing the purpose of this wish. It is not to pretend. You seem to thing if everyone can make a character with exactly the stats they want at 'spawn' then they will 'pretend' to suddenly be able to take over the world. How is that even relevant? Do you think just because a new player comes in with higher stats, they will be allowed to proclaim themselves on high as king, or impose his will on everyone? What the hell do you think we are? Stupid?
"Omgozorz! that N00b has way better stats than mine! I shud fall down and do what he says as my new king!"
"He has high stats on creation, therefore we must let him burn down the tavern"
Your entire point is based on things that would not happen. Someone trying to make themselves higher than the game allows would be laughed out of the plaza, just as they are now. Parallel RP would still happen, but would not become any more 'real' just because someone started with higher stats. That is completely ungrounded.
What you are implying is a form of elitism which I am against. You are basically saying that people's roles do not count until they do get to higher levels...then we should let them burn down the tavern.
Your examples are going to happen, and have, whether you can create higher stats or not. Then they will be ignored and forgotten. That is besides the point.
The last point you make is more than wrong, it is the opposite of how it truly feels. I question what continuity you are even talking about. People came and go all the time. Persistent means it is always on, and the greater story is always going, nothing more. It has nothing to do with what the individual players do. Unless you intend to start to punish evildoers for what they do one day, then forget on the next, your point is invalid.
Your argument that a new and fully developed character will start ruining everyone's world by suddenly appearing is completely false. The reason is, that ALL characters appear that way. Where did any of them come from? They did not just spawn at that point, did they? No, they came from somewhere, as would the developed characters. Many players say they were born and raised in Hydlaa. Does that ruin the continuity as well? No. It is up to other players to adapt, and take that in. OUR histories are not set in stone, and many people change them as they go. It is a requirement to be able to adapt in a game like this. the populations is -always- changing. That will never stop. There is a simple solution to your argument. As you log on as your new character, you see in large letters in the center of the screen “You dust off you cloths as you look upon <place> for the first time.” But that is not he only choice, just an example.
"Can everyone do it?"
Bluntly, why not? It is for the Devs to build the world. It is for us to fill it as we see fit. Don't like it? Then shut the server down and fill the game with NPCs that will do exactly as you program them, because real people never will.
As for my wish, it is valid, doable, and used by many other RPGs that are far deeper than PS is. The 'skill ladder' is the low man on the totem when it comes to roleplaying. In short, PS is very limited in its view of roleplaying.
As an example, I give you Krook. He came into PS as an old man. He was wise, very intelligent (ignoring the useless CC stats), and quite rude. He made many friends, despite being an old grump. He had a long history that no one else was part of. Did I break the continuity of the world with him by not leveling? No. People cried when he passed on in his sleep. He added to other character’s laves in ways that no leveling character could. He became as a grandfather figure to some of them. Your way of “RPing” would never have let Krook exist in the first place. So, I flat out state this: You are wrong, and PS’s limited view is wrong. Leveling is not the only way, it is just one way. Let there be others. Otherwise, people are just going to ‘pretend’ to have these higher levels to support their roleplaying anyways, just as most of us do now.
