MMORPGs and Roleplaying?

I've always avoided MMORPGs because I know I'm addictive and I wouldn't be able to moderate myself very well. So I've never actually played one. I think having an in-game avatar is pretty irrelevant as an inspiration/enrichment point for me though, since I can draw my characters how I want or commission others to do it for me, so writing based RP isn't "lacking" in this area, as far as I'm concerned.

 

I played a ton of World of Warcraft, vanilla just a little bit into Cataclysm. I always wanted to try the RP servers, but I found them to be... difficult to get into. I did get myself into Shadowclan but it turned out they'd mostly been done with WoW by the time I got there. It was fun though in that, people on the server knew how Shadowclan were sworn to behave and were interested in interacting with me. They had a fun initiation ritual, and a conlang to use. Always interact in /say, etc.

It seemed to me that I just didn't quite get involved in the right group? I browsed RP groups who all had characters on a server and then a community forum?

In the end, I did a little solo RPing, but it wasn't the same kind of fun as NOT role-playing in WOW or just role-playing on forums. Never found the balance.

 

I actually run an RP guild on WoW. It's different from forums but, in my opinion, just as enjoyable. You get the same sort of people either way, be it the ones that are super special snowflakes that don't fit lore or the hardcore Lore Is Law types. It's nice to have a physical appearance and being able to randomly run into strangers RPing as opposed to the Everyone-Knows-Everyone feel I've always gotten from forums.

 

Yes, and no.

We play plenty of mmo's or rp games, but we dont roleplay in game. We kinda roleplay outside the game, if that makes sense. We have two characters that have played in both LotRO and GW2, and GW tbh, so we kinda have characters that have gone through a lot. Because we play side by side at the computer, we tend to chatter a lot about why they're doing what they're doing.

Like Rydan always taking a shortcut that leads to his death. Or Keiswyn targeting the wrong enemy, who up till then had not noticed us (I am quite trigger happy...). We know Rydan has had several wives. And that Keiswyn despises nobility.

But our guildies know nothing of that :) Unless they read my game blog.

 

I haven't tried it but my fiance really wants to get me into it. He just now (quite literally five minutes ago) spent half an hour explaining some of the WoW lore to me. But it seems like way too much to get into for me.

 

I've done it a few times, but it can get into those really awkward unwanted times reeaaaalllyyy quickly. I never stayed long, because I get too focused on the gameplay and just forget about the rest of it. I found it quite limiting, you don't get the freedom of location or customization but I can see the merit behind it. It'd be good for new RPers, I suppose.

I might have spend 8 hours standing around a digital campfire engaging in RP before I realized I'd spent 8 hours around a campfire and done nothing legitimate in the game.

 

The one thing I like about roleplaying that MMOs don't let you do is that writing. You get to really immerse yourself into the character, and do and write as you want. the MMOs I've played, yeah you can pick different classes and do what you want to change the storyline, but you can't really dictate how your character reacts or what they say.

 

I've never actually tried it, but I've considered it on multiple occasions.

For the most part though, I imagine that RPing online would be a lot better. More time to think up good dialogue rather than whatever comes up on the fly, more freedom in terms of movement/environment, and heck, even combat scenarios, etcetera.

 

When I played Everquest a few people tried to "role play" as they played the game. Most of these were shunned by everyone else.

 

I've never joined official roleplaying groups for any MMO. But, my friend and I have used the lore, location, and story of an MMO to roleplay both in-game and with a text document on the side. Because most MMOs do not offer an option to save chat logs (to my knowledge) most of the actual written roleplay has to be done on an external word processor. So that's... limiting, and frustrating. But, we do enjoy the chance for a story intertwined with a game and taking screenshots to showcase the different things happening is also really fun. It can be a fun thing to do from time to time, especially if we are experiencing a rut for our usual roleplays on the forums.

 

I've tried it, but mostly found it unsatisfying for a few reasons.

1. People will troll and attempt to disrupt open-world roleplay. You earn some thick skin over the years getting used to this sort of behavior, but it still can be a nuisance.
2. I'm too slow to write out paragraphical emotes, and live, online rp for me is problematic when there isn't a form of clear turn-taking. In person is easier, because there are all manner of non-verbal cues that can clue you into when it's best for your character to chime in or make an action.
3. It's hard to find rpers in most mmorpgs that I've looked in. Even in those that have dedicated communities, it can be pretty intimidating to put yourself out there as a new player. I guess it's the same when starting any forum rp for that matter, but eh...

 

I also avoid MMORPGS. They don't seem as fun.

 

My brother actually started getting into WoW rping and he was showing me how they use macros and keys for speech and actions and it was actually a pretty sophisticated system. There are also so many awesome locations, at least in WoW to use as background for storytelling and scenes, not to mention pvp combat anywhere in the world against friends. it works! But I personally prefer using language and words more than video games as my creative outlet.

 

I've done a lot of roleplaying in Guild Wars 1 when it first came out, and it was a lot of fun since our guild was a roleplaying guild, so they would run a lot of events to enrich player experience and their own growing lore.