Role-players the furries of World of Warcraft?

The Game Room
#1

I like to do a bit of light role-playing in world of warcaft, I play on a RP-PvE server, but most of the people I meet who play WoW, seem to think that role-playing in a MMRPG is taking things a bit to far, (even most players on my RP server for some reason!?!) they sometimes seem to go out of their way to ridicule and heap scorn on us poor Role-players, in a fashion not unlike the disdain expressed for the furries in the geek hierarchy
For me light role-playing mostly means speaking in character and respecting (and not disturbing) the RP events of other players

I can understand that a lot players only enjoy the dungenhack aspect of WoW, a bit like the storydriven pen and paper role-playing games versus old school “we don’t talk to NPC’s” hard core D&D, but for me role-playing adds a extra layer of enjoyment to my WoW experience

So what I’m interested in:
Do any of you Role-play in an mmrpg?
What do you think of others who Role-play?
Do some players take it too far? (Wedding ceremonies in SW cathedral)
Any experiences from other games? City of heroes, Conan, etc….
maybe this is only a issue on the euro servers…
(I have nothing against furries )

#2

I’d run into this as well while trying out a rp server.

The worst, of course, being when other servers are down.

What servers are low population and likely to be up? Rp servers. And the influx of badly spelled insults in general chat begins!

Imho, there may be two causes:

  1. Rping is not cool because in Wow the cool players are the hard core raiders – who would have no time to rp.

But that could just be my take. It seems to spill over into group dynamics as well – many times a pug, in general – the dps don’t talk – even if it’s important information to be shared like ‘hey, this way’ or ‘I’m pulling while you’re at no mana ha ha ha!’

  1. Quite a few teens play the game, many a time I’m the only one in a group over the age of 14. Ah, good times…

I would think, as a general rule, a teenager playing Wow would be more focused on objectives and leet dps than the social aspect.

#3

While I don’t often role-play myself, I’m RP-friendly. I try to give my characters names appropriate for the game’s lore. I’ll occasionally speak or emote in the local channel with other players in an in-character manner. Basically, simple emergent social interactions that are compatible with the game’s lore. I don’t do pre-planned plots or complicated story lines.

I think a lot of the perceived hostility towards role-players comes in two parts. First, many players’ goals are very focused (gain experience, kill monsters, complete dungeon) and they simply don’t understand those who have different goals. Second, some role-players, because of past harassment, react very aggressively to perceived slights. This does not endear them to non-RPers, encourages reactive hostility. I think most role-players are happy just to be left alone, though.

#4

Oddly, in my experience, it’s been the fantasy MMO’s that seem to have the biggest problem with RP. I’ve played (and play) WoW, where RP tends to be non-existant. I’ve played City of Heroes / Villains, where the RP was quite good (on any given night I could get a group of RP-ers to do missions with). Then there was Anarchy Online. RP is certainly not the rule there, but I got involved with a guild that was based around the RP of a corporation full of mad scientists and their igors. Definately not the norm for the game, but a heck of a lot of fun while we were there (Especially my several-month-long EPIC quest to build… A coffee maker!)
I agree with what’s been said above, mainly that WoW is a game about achievement and the more powerful people are hard-core raiders, not RP-ers. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that, other than my gnomes, I myself don’t even try for a lot of RP (My gnomes are obsessed with freeing Gnomergon, and one trully believes she’s in a television show, even though television hasn’t been invented yet. She does traffic and weather reports from her helicopter, much to the amusement of my guildies.), but that’s mainly because there just aren’t people to RP with.

#5

City of Heroes is surprisingly RP friendly. Part of it is that I play on Virtue, the unofficial RP server, but the game lends itself readily to roleplaying. Superheroes are all about origin stories, so it’s only natural for players to come up with backgrounds, even if it’s only to explain how the character got their powers in the first place. You can check a player’s info to see their powers and in-game achievements, but bios, if written, appear first rather than being hidden away, so folks tend to be exposed to the RP aspect more often.

Also, in January or February, the Mission Architect will be released, which will allow players to design their own in-game missions. Missions with engaging plots and interesting characters will almost certainly be spotlighted by staff and players alike.

Beyond that, I’m in a coalition of RPers, and it’s not uncommon for entire stories to progress without any actual in-game fighting, though one Supergroup leader will often take his teammates on missions, rewriting the plot as he goes in order to create something new and interesting. A lot of idle chat is done in-character, which can make for fun discussions (one of my characters, a somewhat…quirky guy, took it upon himself to play Crocodile Hunter over the Supergroup channel while chasing down vampires. That was entertainment).

There is the occasional anti-RPer, although I imagine there’s far fewer of them on Virtue than other games, and they’re generally harmless.

I do think some RPers take it too far; although it is an RP server, there’s plenty of Out-Of-Character stuff that goes on, and sometimes people team up without wanting to deal with RP. I’ve been on more than one OOC team where the team is clearly not RPing, but a newcomer insists on staying In-Character no matter what. IMO, a significant aspect of social skills is knowing your audience and tailoring what you say and how you say it to them.

#6

You need to find a (better) guild. I started playing at 19, and was the youngest member who was regularly online then. Now I’m 23, and still on the younger end of the spectrum in my guild.

I’m not an RPer, but I do enjoy the social aspect a lot, and frankly that requires a good guild–PUGers rarely talk much, and being a PUGer in a guild group can royally blow–I still remember a group with four guildies where it was obvious they were using vent, since they didn’t say a word in party chat the entire time.

#7

Yes, I do. I don’t play WoW right now, but I do RP with my characters in LOTRO. My main is a minstrel with a written backstory and I attempt to stay in character with him most of the time. Oddly, I don’t RP much in COH. I should work on that.

I think that others that RP rock. What’s the point if you’re just going to be yourself?

Some players do take it too far, though I don’t consider IG weddings to be an example of that. Taking it too far to me means that they REFUSE to say or do anything that is out of character, even if it’s important.

#8

I’m in a good guild - the sdmb guild :slight_smile: The guild has many people above the age of 18.

But as I’m leveling up I pretty much have to pug instances. It will probably change at 70.

(Though really, for humor value alone I’m not discounting pugging. Where else will I get funny stories to share at dinner parties with my Wow playing friends?) :wink:

#9

Huh. I’m neither an online gamer nor a role player, but I would have thought that in-character gaming would be pretty standard in games like World of Warcraft and the like – I mean, you’re already pretending to be a magic dwarf that chases down orc hordes with lightning and fireballs (or some equivalent thereof), so it doesn’t seem like a bit of play-acting ought to be out of line…

#10

Less than you’d think. For most people, the character is just considered to be an avatar, an extension of themself into the game world. There is no ‘wall’ between you and your character; it would be entirely reasonable to chat with your buddies about the recent Heroes episode or how the developers nerfed a spell so it costs more mana while going through a quest. Roleplaying requires putting down that wall, even a thin one, and acknowledging the game world as a world unto itself.

#11

Which is why there’s designated RP servers. Unfortunately, complaints like the OP has aren’t uncommon, as even on those servers RPers seem to get grief. There isn’t really anything to be done about it though :frowning:

#12

See, I’d just assumed that having a sort of ‘other’ world to immerse in was sort of the charm, and kind of a logical extension to the escapism that’s always a part to gaming in general, but I guess playing it more like a regular game (though generally you’ll get your backstory served there, and I’d argue that most of the time there is at least some form of identifying with your character going on) is just as valid.

None seems a reason to get scorned, though.

#13

I personally don’t understand role-playing in WoW, and I like role-playing games like D&D and have played them extensively. It’s just that WoW’s game mechanics don’t stop for RP, and RP actively holds you back - the game really is about accumulating wealth and levels and loot. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy the lore of the game, and that I was just there for the fastest gains, it’s just that it seems the wrong theatre for role playing. It seemed to me like trying to role play Parcheesi. It just doesn’t work.

That said, I played a goofy-looking gnome and I did occasionally act the part to ham it up during breaks and delays when raiding or partying. A close friend of mine was in the same guild, and we used to keep the raid in stitches through making fun of each other and awful puns. Much of it was in-theme, and terrible.

While waiting for people to get back to keyboard in Karazhan, looking out at the floor of ghostly dancers. We’d generally do this in guild chat rather than Vent, so it’s ‘background chatter’ rather than annoying everyone.

Me: I daresay this party is dead.
Him: Are you kidding? Everyone tells me this place is the dead center of town!
Me: Maybe you’re right. People are dying to come here.
Him: I didn’t have much luck chatting with the other guests. They’re so shallow, you can see right through them!
Me: It’s a good thing that there’s no shortage of spirits.
<groans begin>

I know, it’s truly awful. Amazingly, we were very popular in the guild. People used to whine if we weren’t in a raid because it got so ‘boring’. But once things were going, we were generally too busy doing things accurately. Between kills and whatnot, we’d keep it up on the guildline, but raids are difficult enough without concentrating more on typing or talking than on killing things in the correct order.

#14

Yes, because there aren’t jokes just as bad in the game itself.

“Can you imagine, he asked if the imp could join in! Actually it wasn’t half bad…”

#15

Not at all. Personally I can get along with RPers and non-RPers alike; most RPers don’t have an issue with non-RPers, really. Non-RPers sometimes take offense, seeing it as just playacting or pretending, childish, stupid, escapist, whatever their reasons are. A not-insignificant number of people get their kicks from ruining other people’s fun, too, no matter what it is, so they’re obnoxious for obnoxiousness’s sake.

There’s also the problem that, like with furries, RPers have their subset of pervs and goofy emo idiots. Pocket D in City of Heroes is notorious for this; it’s a non-combat social club where the weirdest people can be found. Want to meet a lesbian vampire catgirl ghost with an enormous rack? Stand in the middle of Pocket D and wait 5 minutes. As with furries, outsiders tend to latch onto the extreme and portray it as the mainstream of the community.

#16

What Bosstone said. The problem is that there is nothing-no impetus, no rule, no rationale-which would compel or force people to role-play in a MMORPG. Me, being a die-hard pen and paper RPGer (or I was, rather), I find very little which is appealing to me in these games, because without the role-playing what is the point?

Calling these games “role-playing games” is perhaps the problem. They’re more along the lines of “tactical-based character development” games, but nobody actually calls them that.

#17

Just because the hamster wheel is there, that doesn’t mean you have to run in it.

Personally I find the grind to get more stuff boring. It’s not like you’re accomplishing anything. You’re just moving on to more of the same.

Some of the best times I’ve had in WoW are little RP moments while adventuring. Like the time I rescued a group of three low-level gnomes from wiping in a cave in Loch Moden and they all thanked me in character.

#18

A friend of mine is more addicted to City of Heroes than I am, and she’s been far slowing running the hamster wheel because she prefers to RP. She spends hours upon hours in front of the computer, whereas I can only stand to be logged in for a couple hours at a stretch, but most of her time is spent talking to others rather than killing stuff. Heck, some of her RP is even carried out over instant messaging rather than in the game itself.

#19

I make it a point use the say and the emote channels ( /s and /em ) strictly for my in character banter and use the other channels for all out of character communications(/p /g etc…) and I find RP advertisements in the trade channel tend to get a lot more reactions, but when you start dealing with a buyer/seller in whisper it’s a good idea to keep it businesslike and only RP if your dealing with a fellow Roleplayer