Planeshift is a Massive Multiplayer Roleplay Game, right?
I know you've nodded your head, or said "right", "yes." or some other affirmative expression. However, I really doubt some of you fully understand what it means. And that's why I'm here!
Now let's start with the first part: "Massive Multiplayer." That means there's a lot of people around here. But they're not just around, each by itself. They're interacting! And what's the most important thing in these situations? Social behaviour! Most of us know about this, we're used to living in a community. It's about being polite, respecting the community's rules and enjoying the company of others.
Now off to the "Roleplay Game" part! Well. There's not much humble Sangwa can tell you guys about this. You have guides and you can even look it up in the dictionary! And wikipedia. Oh, how I love good technologies. But anyway, it's all about playing a role, using your imagination and sometimes external help, like rulesets and stuff.
Say. I haven't helped you with anything yet, now have I? I should get to the point.
And the point is: we know what these seperate concepts mean. But do we know what happens when they merge!?
Taddaa!!! A place where you must be social and polite while your imagination runs like a river! Or a nose bleed if you're not doing things right.
But that's it! When these two fantastic things get together you enter a game with some requirements (you need a moderatly good computer, internet connection, to be social and you need to follow the game rules) and all its advantages (endless fun, meeting nice people)!
Hmm... I'm not sure if you've grasped the depth of it. So I'll use the following two sentences to illustrate what I mean. These tell what you shouldn't do when playing with people. This way you'll know how these kind of things work.
You don't play a First Person Shooter when you feel like walking around in a park. Well, you might. But if there are people around, they'll be annoyed that you're not taking the game as seriously as they are, because you're just walking around the scenario when they're trying to get some fighting.
You don't play football when you want to play basketball. It's possible, but you'll annoy everyone else. They'll get mad at you because you're spoiling their game, always picking up the ball when you should be kicking it.
In a Massive Multiplayer Roleplaying Game you always have people around. And you are supposed to roleplay. So it's quite normal that your guild is a roleplaying guild, that you are roleplayer, that you have roleplayed and engaged in several roleplays, that you have started roleplay plots on your own, that you participate in everyone's roleplaying and not just events and quests.
What is not normal is playing a MMORPG thinking you're allowed not to roleplay. What would be the sense of a roleplay if you didn't have to roleplay? What is not normal is that you think roleplaying is a sort of responsibility, or something you need to do or people will shout at you and think less of you, it's also not normal to think that you have these things called "roleplays" that you have to ask and join instead of a single roleplay game where everyone is requested to take part in from the second they choose to log in.
A roleplaying game is meant for you to have fun roleplaying. And the better you get at it, the more fun it becomes.
So have fun!
