Roleplaying Focus

[Draklar]

i./e. /me glances round the tavern and consider purchasing an ale

is also frowned upon.

I have a feeling the problem here may be the fact this custom contains an indication of thought, which shouldn't in any way be apparent to characters lacking any sense of telepathy.
Of course, it's not much of a deal, but with Planeshifters taking huge pride in their increasingly "mad roleplaying skills", such issue doesn't really come as a surprise.

[Prolix]

I was going to say the same thing draklar, here is a suggestion as to what might have been more acceptable:

* Prolix glances round the tavern and his gaze comes to rest upon the bar.

This would effectively say the same thing. Of course I probably would not have said anything in the game, myself.
As for the labels you can turn them off in option if they confuse you.

[zorbels]

Oh and zorbels, also according to the poll results fully one in five people on this poll say "to hell with anyone who doesn't rp" that means that the average noob has roughly a one in five chance of running into someone who will act like a complete ass to them if they have not altered their description or come up asking a noob question. So technically, we could probably be a bit nicer

That makes sense. I wish it didn't and that we could claim to have a sickenly nice community. (I feel it used to be that way, but I have a feeling the volume of players might have something to do with that. There were less players a couple of years ago.)

* zorbels rants  (Sorry ahead of time!)

Players stop the maddness. Teach the newbies, don't tell them they can't RP this way or that! Why? Because you really don't have that right. Suggsting is one thing but demanding is another. Just teach them what you have learned from experience. If you don't want to teach them then don't say anything. Better yet direct them to someone you know who would  be more than happy to help the newbie. If your not willing to help someone better themselves with their RP in this game then do the rest of us a favor who do try to give this community a good rep with being helpful  and keep your negitive comments to yourself. Please?

[Lolitra, Celorrim Purrty Twins]

Well Said Zorbels - now why are you not in game? miss you.

[Mathy Stockington]

I think of Planeshift as if it stage were I can play out my character. The thing is I am only as good as the ‘actor’ next to me. We are all in this together. There are some that play a major role and some that play a minor role and some that just play ‘extras.’ It is true we need an imagination to role play and some might not think they have it. IMHO if we all work together to make this the best it can be then no one will be left out. We must remember by helping others we help ourselves. And who knows just maybe someday the ‘extra’ might turn into the star and steal the show.

If we think of it this way then I believe that the role play focus would not be costing us players because we would then be a family or if you wish to called it a team that is fine too. Each and every addition would be more then welcomed.

[Satha]

Oh dear, that took me ages to read all of this... 

At first I thought I'd read the whole thing and then vote at the end once I got a feel for the topic... about half way through I voted Snorks.
It got really intimidating at one point, scary even. I almost wanted to leave.  

I played way back when, in the crystal hunting days. I stopped playing with the update to the next version, not because I didn't want to, but because my computer was being a pain and other RL issues.
It was fun... OOC was all around, but when we got to it, RP was fun.

I tried to come back, but got scared off a few times.

And now I'm back again, but trying much harder to stay put. I read a lot of the threads but I'm scared at times to post, because I don't want to make myself look bad or get flamed for saying something stupid... because it does seem very, how should I say, intense in the forums at times.

I keep on coming back because I love what I see to be the games future, what it seems to want to be. I want to be a part of it's development. I want to see it thrive... it's sad to see the troubles it seems to be going through, but I have hope that it'll sort itself out.

I knew what RP was when I first came here, and I still do. It's causing me to be really, really, really cautious. I don't want to make a fool of myself... I've always been that way though, I hardly ever get deep into a game that has RP because I'm too cautious.   I should really learn to let loose, I think.


So.. that's how I feel, I wonder if it helps any?

I'm currently trying to badger a friend to come play with me so I don't feel so nervous all the time.

[Xillix Queen of Fools]

All I know is that we need more warm bodies.

I hope the player community can fill the cities with intelligent rpers who more than meet the needs rpers seem to have for more of their own kind.

Ultimately if PS is to remain a niche for rper it MUST attract more people of this kind.

Strategies on how to do this would be welcomed.

Remember PS is not going to pay to advertise itself among rp types of players, this must be a player initiative.

[eldoth_terevan]

The only other system that I found that was as focused on RP was the NWN Nordock world, Richterm's Retreat. I talked to people about PS in there, and have done so on a few systems anytime I have a conversation with a player who is dissatisfied with the other players on the system, and who is being distracted from immersing in the game world. Eternal lands usually has a few at any given time, and is cross platorm and also free. Just to name a couple...

[Donari Tyndale]

How to attract more people: Give players more possibilities, like approved guilds or players in positions of power like vigesimi.

[Prolix]

how is catering to the elite going to help recruit more proletariat?

[Velh Krome]

Proletariat has a valid chance to raise to Elite in this case. (Not very pleased about your choice of words myself though)

[Illysia]

People on complain when they are the once receiving benefits. Some peope's complaint about approved guilds or players holding the office of Vigesimi would dry up if they received the benefits.  I like the idea of central characters (like vigesimi) being played by real people. It would justify and simplify adding them into RP. I haven't had the time for it, but I had wanted to start a Charm school that was really an RP school. It would provide basic courses in starting RPs, doing small RPs and eventually larger one. Maybe I should try writing up a plan for it and post it so someone else could try it. Easing people into RP would encourage growth far more than a scripted approach. No offense to whoever came up with the tutorial. 

[Prolix]

Aside from the negative connotations of the word I used that I did not intend to impart despite the use of the word, the vigisemis and octarchs hold generally hereditary positions so how is character born as a peasant to come into such a position? There is very much a class system in Yliakum, just look to the restriction to the Winch for evidence. It would seem to me that having players take these positions would take too much control of the game from the developers. If you become Vigesemi of Hydlaa what becomes of the Dangerous Winds quest? does Amidson become your secretary or do you have to stand around to give it out. If you become Vigisemi of the Winch can you declare an entry tax of 5 circles each time someone sets foot in the place? Can you then allow the members of your guild to not pay it? If I am Octarch of Dome could I not bar you from the level? What will stop me from using my power arbitrarily?

At least with NPCs in the places of power control is in the hands of the people with the most interest in the game itself and not their position in the game.

[Mathy Stockington]

Great idea Illysia. A charm school sounds great for a role play lesson. Go for it!!

* Mathy Stockington applauds the idea.

[StitchedChin]

Ah, you give us humans such little credit.  Wouldn't it just be a little fun to turn off the NPCs and give the players some control, at some point, someday.  This is way down the road of course because the game would have to be pretty much finished with the ability to build, uphold/enforce laws, create their own markets, etc., but it would also be fun to test it out in the current stage, just to see what would happen.  It would be chaos and things would get out of control, but after the 10th or 11th try, people may learn how to do it right.  But, I have confidence that us humans would find a balance and it could make for a pretty incredible game.

This may be for a wishlist item, but felt I should explain the above and how I envision it would allow for an incredible roleplaying experience.  Yliakum would be a disposable world.  You may still be able to come back from Death, but the world itself was destroyable and had limited resources and space.  For example, in the beginning, one Yliakum is built from the ground up.  And I mean ground up, no cities, no buildings, just like the RTS strategy games, from scratch.  As the real community builds cities, establishes governments, trade routes, economies, I can imagine total chaos, anarchy, rebellions, booms and busts, and if Yliakum doesn't make it, if it gets destroyed by the roleplayers, then so be it, the world is destroyed and another instance of Yliakum is started from scratch and off everyone goes again.  The players would have to have some serious control on the game though, hardly any restrictions except for the laws of Yliakum, gravity, environment, available resources, etc.  I'm curious to see what kind of roleplaying occurs in a place like that, alas, if I was only a programming genius, oh, and had a couple supercomputers lying around...

But giving players the control to have a "position" in the game, does not give them automatic power, they can and would be overthrown if they were not being fair to their role.  As long as the game allowed for others to uprise and have an opposite and equal effect in the game.