Anybody there? Hmmm...

[Zan]

Roleplay went down because a few big 'players' (I don't mean individuals with this) are going more underground ... and a lot of casual roleplayers are now entertained by new things. The latter will wear off and the former ... I expect them to pop back up sooner or later. Probably combined with big fireworks.

[Luzino]

As for Harnquist's, even with a huge plaza tailor-made for congregating and roleplaying, people just couldn't move the twelve steps away from the smithy. It's a bit distressing.

Yeah, mostly because I can hardly move in the plaza area at all with my PC. Way too laggy on my machine to even consider spending more time than absolutely neccessary there. Especially if the number of players there is high. :-/

But my character finds all sorts of mining and metallurgy and such absolutely boring anyway so a smithy is only good for trading weapons or armor. I think Luzino dug out 4 or 5 platinum ores cause he wanted to see what the stuff looked like when he heared of it, then he got too bored to bother. He's a fighter, he loves nature, so he's either at the arena or out in the wilderness anyway. I admit, he's never been much of a drinker, so he's hardly ever at a tavern either. Mostly only to find a warm place to get some sleep.

Luzino's an offspring from a huge family that he left to seek his independance, so he's quite happy on his own. Of course he doesn't mind a chat when he stumbles in somewhere after a long day of fighting, but it's just not happening that often. And also wasn't before SB.

What absolutely drove him away from huge flocks of people was that no matter how "busy" with something he was, everyone kept introducing, expecting him to introduce himself, too. I mean, if I'm obviously trying to handle a rockpick in the middle of a huge crowd without hurting anyone, is it really a good idea to constantly ask for someone to shake hands? Maybe introductions should interrupt whatever you're doing. It might cause some folks to actually consider about an appropriate moment for introductions if they themselves got disturbed in their "work" often enough. Luzino just stumped off annoyed at the constant interruptions. No way to get anything done that way - and it's not as if anyone wants to chat. The just want to shake hands. And then complained about him being "the totally anonymous guy, not telling anyone his name" when he complained about the interruptions to his task. Now that was the most roleplay happening at the mine when he was there.

And I still think you can have a conversation with people if you don't know their names. Seems some people never bother to chat with someone when queing up somewhere in rl... I don't formally introduce myself to those either. So why should Luzino know everyone by name? Or why should everyone know his name? I can still see the names of people over their heads when I move my mouse over them, so why shouldn't I take this as Luzino recognizing a certain face in the crowd that he's seen before but just doesn't know the name of? Someone he knows he met at the arena or when he sat in the wilderness enjoying the sight and a tired traveller took a seat beside him to catch his breath and they chatted a moment before parting again?

I think people focus way too much on the introduction system. You don't need to know everyones name. If you had a nice chat with "someone" for a while (it's not happening at the overcrowded mine anyway as far as I know), you can still introduce yourself. But you don't go around in rl and shake hands with everyone you meet on the streets either.

[Ichaas]

You seem to be heading in one direction. You are on a linear path. I have seen people in the taverns, but no they generally arn't hanging around. Tey are probably exploring the new caves, finding the new monster thigny, killing somthing etc.
EG: They are playing the game

What you seem to be looking for is a 3D chatroom. Well maybe that is a little harsh, but what you are not doing is looking at what people are doing whilst they are playing. I have stopped by and gotten into random roleplay in the plazaa, roleplayed whilst getting some ore from another player to complete a quest, and other people around the forges joined in! There were random comments flying around just based on a little transaction which started off as an OOC "how do I get stock if I can't make it" From that I learn't Where to get the stock book and the necissary stock to complete the little quest. All in roleplayed fashion.

I agree that RP in Brado's or Kada's etc are fun. But if there is somthing better to do than sit around in a tavern all day, then, by all that's hot in hell, people will do it. And they incoporate RP into that!

[LigH]

Of course everyone is playing the game. Even those who use 90% of their playing time to mine ores or craft. But that is not what I meant with my first reply - there is a difference between a roleplaying miner / crafter / anyjob, and one without much interaction, without much personality, without much "life" IC. Why do we play a game: To copy our real life, or to have a better alternative (during some free time)? Everyone shall answer this question as he likes, but my answer is rather the second than the first.

[Socius Rockus]

Maybe timezone issue? Kada's and Brado's (though lesser then Kada, but that's always been that way) are still filled when i walk in

And in the case I'm just lucky to hit full taverns,I have a solution:

Instead of focusing on the '20' "RP'ers" (your example) focus on the "others".
It's not that someone who doesn't know role play suddenly gets stomach pain and a RP'er jumps out of his thorn open chest...

Also 'normal' days occur much more then exciting days, a bit like in RL and the solution to that is to spice it up yourself

* Socius Rockus hands the pepper "C'mon C'mon, C'mon C'mon"

[Waylander]

My prophecy for this thread:

1. Gets locked
2. Entire dev department comments here on how wrong you are, along with the suck-ups that don't go in-game but just sit around to agree with whatever the "winning team" says
3. It gets moved to the complaint department and faces the effects of 1 and 2

I agree with what you've said, but I've raised the same discussions before, and I know they won't get anywhere.

This post is completely useless, Suno.  You could easily have shortened it to

Hey!  Look at how much of a sour-puss I can be!  Rawr rawr Devs are evil.

With that aside

I do agree with Noriin, but I can already see it getting better.  I remember a time when there was never anybody in the tavern, I think that was right after combat was added actually.  But keep in mind the Devs give us the game, the Players are responsible for the Roleplay

Having said that.  There are quite a few large plans going on which are taking up a lot of the 'big players' ' time.  In the days to come you may be pleasantly surprised.

I'm more worried about who is filling Kada's and not how many people.  Those who have been there lately will surely understand what I mean