As a roleplayer, how much effort do I have to take to let the other players I’m playing the game with know that when I speak to them (or anyone) in /says and /emotes that I am roleplaying, and (more to the point) that if my character says or does something that might be considered objectionable (insults, criticisms, etc.) that it’s my CHARACTER doing this and not, ME, the PLAYER?
(The question is NOT whether or not I or anyone should be roleplaying in a dungeon group in the first place; please presume for this discussion that it’s perfectly okay to do so.)
I ask this question because last night I had a disagreement with some of the members of the VC group I was in. Their behavior was pretty weird, and (as a roleplayer) I reacted realistically to their weird behavior in a /say statement (in quotation marks). Essentially two of the group members were frivolously and madly jumping up and down while we traveled (a behavior I call “peepee dancing”) so I had my character react realistically to their weirdness and say (quotes included) . . .
“Two of my team members ‘peepee dancing.’ Ewww.”
To my surprise the group (players) took offense to this, as if I, the PLAYER had made this statement. They said nothing about it at the time, but they later complained about it to my guildmaster. He advised me that I should have made it clear that I was roleplaying when I had my character make this statement, or perhaps early in our group cooperation. I disagreed, stating that it’s already REALLY obvious that I was roleplaying . . .
- WoW is a Massive Multiplayer Online ROLEPLAYING game
- Everyone is playing a ROLEPLAYING character (whether or not the players are roleplayers themselves)
- We’re on an RP SERVER
- I made the offending statement in /say dialog and not in group chat
- I put that statement in quotation marks, making the RP a little more obvious
So this leads to the question, given the above conditions, how many more hoops does a roleplayer have to jump through to make it reasonably clear (especially to non-roleplayers) that they’re roleplaying? Will a single message in group chat, e.g.: “I will be roleplaying”, be good enough? Are stronger and more blatantly obvious measures necessary? Or is it not necessary at all to give any kind of warning?
As much as you feel is necessary.
I put zero effort into it personally. I enjoy other player’s reactions to it and love it even more when others just jump in and join in the fun impulsively.
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Probably the safest thing to do is not to roleplay characters that say objectionable things. It’s also probably not safe to assume that others will recognize terms that you use but aren’t standard.
In this case, if I felt the need to remark, I would have said something like, “you realize jumping up and down like that doesn’t actually help you run any faster, right?”
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Roleplaying sounds like it could be fun, but it is just to complicated with the WoW world we live in now. People don’t know how to RP, most people don’t even read books or anything anymore. It is sad, but it is a dyeing art that just doesn’t fit into the world anymore. I am sorry for you and what you have to go through just to try to enjoy what you enjoy.
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Not accusing you of this, but in my experience the death of RP is when players try and justify bad behavior towards other players as “just roleplaying”.
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In the absence of roleplaying an appropriate response toward weirdness or obnoxiousness the only thing left to do is leave the group, perhaps with a “Sorry it didn’t work out, folks, have fun. \o”, which just confuses and angers the other players. I believe it’s better to play out the disagreement; I’ve had some very good RP from these encounters.
All of this because of saying “pee pee dancing”?
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Yes that can be a problem, when players use roleplaying as an excuse to bully other players. One of the goals of my question is to make it reasonably clear to non-roleplayers that it’s not me, the player, attacking (or counter-attacking) them, but that it’s purely a character vs. character disagreement.
The only place I have ever seen somebody role playing is a pug in a raid. I just let them do their thing. Everyone plays the game the way they want to play {or should}
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In my case, roleplaying out a disagreement with a character saying sufficiently offensive things would involve leaving the group, too. Liana believes in actions, not words.
“(OOC) Hey, my character will be role playing as _____, is that cool?”
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/i stay in character, please.
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It’s still rp when the other person isnt rping? Weird.
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Clarification: Occasionally one or more of the group members is a roleplayer, AND they didn’t take what my character said real-life personally, and we end up getting some entertaining roleplaying out of it . . . especially rewarding when ALL of the group are roleplayers.
Plenty of roleplayers roleplay without knowing if another roleplayer will react to their character. “RP walking” is just one example – I usually run outside like anyone else but walk inside.
I can’t say for this specific case but if you’re using the random dungeon finder, it is worth noting that it will group up RP server players with non-RP server players.
and somebody from a non-RP server probably hasn’t even had the idea that other players roleplay cross their mind.
Other than that, people playing on RP servers should be aware of people acting in character. No real warning should be needed.
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This is why roleplay in MMO’s is pointless. Your efforts would be much better served in a community of people who are all there to play by the same rules, and even more importantly, roleplay with you. This is unenforceable in an MMO, so you sort of have to take what you can get.
Id like to say you are on an RP realm and that be the end of the discussion, but RP is not very black and white and there are varying degrees of RP depending on who you ask.
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This doesnt sound like RP. Sounds to me like you’re wearing your characters face for OOC chatter, which comes off as odd and yes, still rude when you abuse that as a scapegoat.
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Fortunately for all concerned I was not doing so, and never would. As a veteran and “method” roleplayer (41 years so far) I would never use the game to attack other players. And IF I were a bully I would certainly and could easily find other ways to cause grief that don’t damage the hobby that I enjoy so much.