Role playing is best to describe as “Interacting with a fictional world from your character’s own unique perspective”. This definition is very broad and could be applied to role playing in general, it suits computer games, live action role playing games (LARP) or the various “tabletop” variants just as easy. When you apply this definition towards online role playing games (MMORPG) it needs a few additions, to really make it work.
- A community and development team that not only encourages RP, but also enforces it.
- The game design should be open enough to support advance character customization.
- The ability for players to change the in-game world.
Many of the current MMORPG’s incorporate these aspects to a certain degree. Logical, they share more or less the same origin ( Dungeons & Dragons and the fantasy books of J.R.R. Tolkien ), besides the fact that they continuously evolve and learn from each other. But none of the current (popular) tittles seems capable of maintaining and supporting a role playing community. A community thats more then just a few “diehards” that just won’t give up, I wonder why.
I don’t think there’s such a thing as a “best role playing game” or the “best role playing server” in any of the games out there. Secondly, none of the games I played during the last years incorporates all the things role players would love have in a game. Some have housing, others have a better character customization, etc… you can’t have it all in one game. But the good thing is, RP is also very much about imagination, so you don’t need it all. The game is a starting point, a social environment where it begins, and it only ends when people stop expanding it in their own minds.
In an ideal world role play would be possible in most of the popular MMORPG’s. The game itself can be more or less RP friendly, but thats not the reason it dies in most of those games. It’s mainly the community itself that kills it, and the developers don’t seem to care it does. With the genre’s popularity it started to attract large crowds of people, most of them are not role players. That’s perfectly fine, everyone should be able to play games the way they want. It’s also the reason most games have different servers, all with a different ruleset & flavor. This way people can choose the server that suits them best, right? Maybe this works in the first few months. But after a while the RP servers are used as an “escape server” from the screaming & jumping crowd. Or for kids that think it’s cool to make fun of those nerds who think they are something, they are not. And this is where developers should take action, they should enforce the RP rules. Take reports/complains from the role playing community seriously, but they don’t. And the role playing just fades away, or becomes invisible inside niche guilds or within small groups of friends. When this has happened there is no turning back, new players can’t find RP anymore, old players leave end the screaming and jumping crowd remains.
I hope the new MMORPG’s, Age of Conan, Chronicles of Spellborn and Warhammer Online : Age of Reckoning, learn from the mistakes of the current titles and will provide us role players new opportunities. For those who would like to play one of the released MMORPG’s, I made a short list of games you could try, good luck on your journey!
Ultima Online
Ultima Online, an excellent role playing platform, great features & Lore. But the game is old, which means it lost most of it’s community, although there’s still a dedicated group of people playing it. If you don’t mind the isometric view and the rough graphics in general, give it a try.
Everquest 1 & 2
In the early days there was great RP on the dedicated servers. Currently it’s hard to find. Most people limit their RP within guilds. It’s still worth a shot, but you need to make an effort yourself. The character customization is excellent, and the emote system is just wonderful. If you start with a group of players, it can be a wonderful role playing experience, the game supports it rather well.
World of Warcraft
I had some great RP moments in this game, maybe it’s still out there somewhere, but I can’t find it anymore. Secondly, the community on most RP servers is not only not roleplaying. They even make fun of role players, try to disrupt RP events or IC conversations. If you want to give it a try, armor yourself, it won’t be easy.
Vanguard : Saga of Heroes
The game isn’t build on enormous amounts of Lore, but it is quite RP friendly, in both game-mechanics and (the remaining) community. The problems at launch are mostly fixed, content has been added and it’s a decent game in it’s current state. If you are lucky and find yourself a group of people to play with, you can have a wonderful time in this game.
Tags: Everquest,
MMO,
Online Games,
rpg
Search GeezGamer
