WoW: the last bastion of "RP" in MMORPG

Community General Discussion
24

Sadly from what I have seen the Latter is more common than the former.

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25

Is that like saying Venezuela isn’t real socialism?

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26

it isn’t? true socialism will never exist. There will always be someone in the system that has more than the others.

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27

You mean like the entire alliance raid of Stormblood is strongly related to FF12 and FF Tactics, the first 9 bosses for the standard raids are from FF1, 5 and 6, and the first 3 patches of 2.0 exist solely to plug Shiva, Ramuh and Leviathan because they were missing in the main scenario?

You clearly haven’t played the game and are just posting random negative things you googled about it. I don’t know what your actual beef with the game is. I agree it’s very irritating to see XIV fans use the Blizzard forums to bash WoW and I wish Blizzard was quicker to close/move these treads, but bashing something you obviously haven’t played doesn’t make you look very good.

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28

I do not know that I admit but I ask you this 
is there an LORE reason for those bosses to be there or were they just thrown in for nostalgia.

29

Everything is tied into the lore in that game, the story is the main focus and always has been. Folks who play it as their very first Final Fantasy have no idea that any of those bosses or raids are throwbacks to other games unless they’re told.

30

What about ERP?

31

I think you would like guild wars 2. It has a beautiful world to explore, a non-competitive gathering system, a easy to use auction house, and really good cosmetics and options for dyeing your clothes. Plus the races are really interesting, and it has a wonderful story (with dragons in it).

Have you tried it?

32

I like the phasing in ESO (though maybe it has changed since you played it) because then the world actually changes around you when you progress. That’s much better than some fort being permanently under attack or a permanent rebellion happening even after clearing the quests for both. Looking at you Warport Rastari and Zanchuli traitor area.

33

Same.

I don’t think of RP as the same thing as the OP does. RP is not putting on “skits.”

RP is me only be a Blood DK, in game. I already do this anyway. I don’t make real life references, I’m just that character while playing.

I also don’t have a “backstory”, since if you talked to me at the Big Box Hardware store I work at, I’d also not tell you a backstory; It is just my job.

In fact, many of the things so called “RP” players talk about actually seem counter roleplaying to me.

For example, I’d just RP that the factions can’t communicate. There is no need to coordinate RPPVP events, since the RP part of it would be you are PVPin’g the opposing faction that you CAN’T communicate with.

I think of what I do as “real RP.” I think of what the people labelling themselves as RPers do as “High School Drama Club, Requiring Lots of Hand Holding From Administrators.”

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34

FWIW, there are a few different forms of “RP” that are all equally valid (even if I have my obvious biases that I’m about to display).

Your type is probably the most common. Simply playing the game as your character. You’re not taking the time to actively pretend as if the game is real life, but you’re still a Blood Death Knight in a fantasy world while you play. That’s basically the basics of the “RP” in “RPG”. Some folks might have some headcanon to expand that role, but it’s certainly not needed.

Then there’s the skits you mentioned. I think you might have the wrong idea of what most people calling themselves roleplayers actually do. Are you talking about the “Gilneas RP” and other things you find in the Premade Group Finder? Because those are what I would feel fine calling skits. People organize them, have people pick from various established roles, and commence. There is no continuity between sessions. These kind of popped up as an evolution of the impromptu RP groups that existed in Moon Guard’s Elwynn Forest (via General Chat) once Blizzard put in the Premade Group Finder. It’s typically very low quality and often filled with a good amount of people just looking for a reason to ERP outside of Goldshire. Unfortunately this tends to be the public face of RP since people don’t tend to make publicly listed groups for the third sort.

“Fully Fledged RP” or however you want to refer to it is a bit different and what I’d wager MOST roleplayers engage in. Your character[s] are consistent. You may or may not list your background in your profile, but nevertheless you have one in mind to help guide the way your character acts and to call back to it if it becomes relevant. There is continuity between your “sessions”. Characters and their stories develop over time through interaction with other roleplayers. Some folks will be more focused on specifically the character and relationships with other characters, while others may opt to focus on something “bigger”, especially if they’re in an established RP guild with an active storyline. It wouldn’t be fair to call this form of RP “skits”, although the quality is still going to vary greatly depending on who’s involved. It can range from crappy fanfiction-like stuff to proper novel-style storytelling, just done interactively. Or it could take a more mechanical approach and treat it like DnD.

The factions CAN communicate though. We quite literally have races that share languages on opposite factions, as well as mages in general. We now have potions to allow the same for everyone. Blizzard’s own stories commonly have faction leaders on opposite sides talking to each other. I think perhaps the AMOUNT that certain RPPvPers cared about xfaction communication could get ridiculous, given it only really makes sense for a few leaders to be talking most of the time anyway, but it does make sense to have the ability to communicate within the world Blizzard has given us.

I’m not going to deny that there’s a lot of roleplayers who fit the description of “particularly dramatic and socially maladjusted teenager”, because that’s definitely accurate. If nothing else, there’s a lot of “tumblr culture” within RP cliques, and that’s unfortunate.

However, I don’t think it’s fair to apply such labels to the activity itself. It can be cringy or it can be fantastic, it just depends on who’s involved.

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35

Just play D&D or some other tabletop game. I dont mind that the FF community neglects RP, it would be horrifying in that game.

36

RPG in FF14 to include an immersive and interesting story line is much better then what Wow offers.

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37

Sounds like the real problem in that game is that GM’s have been given too much discretionary power. Something wow does not do.

38

I’ve felt the same way OP, a lot of other MMOs have come and gone, but WoW seems like the last one that really encourages that kind of random RP where you get to meet and interact with total strangers out of the blue.

I don’t RP that much anymore, but I’d still be really sad if that were to go away, there’s something kind of fun about being taken by surprise by an RPer.

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39

Ok I admit I have never heard much from Balmug except videos involving MG Goldshire ish antics and those are dated. However there is also a big issue with that.

You see MG is a Full server HOWEVER this does NOT mean you cant make toons there all it means is you will have to wait or a queue times. However Balmung is locked off except for the few times they allow in new players.

Now this in my opinion really hurts the RP quality of Mateus because as Zindei said everytime the Balmug allows more people in there is a MAD dash of transfers. This can mean a RP storyline can be ruined because one player got on Balmug and the other did not. BECAUSE of this LIKELY RP storylines in Mateus are not taken seriously as RPers bascialy goof off until Balmug opens its door again.

Also likely because of this Balmug players have air of arrogance about them and this can make it hard for new rpers to fit in.

So bascially instead of Two decent RP servers (MG and WRA) you have one Elitist server (Balmug) and one troll server (Mateus)

So this is the truth the Devs can do all they can to help increase RP but if the RP community status Quo has been set it is all for naught.

40

They obviously put them to cultivate nostalgia but unless it’s officially non-canon (like the MHW and YKW collabs) they come up with lore reasons for those things to be there. They also make it so that you don’t need to have played the referenced games to know what’s going on.

For example, the Ivalice raid story starts with an historian who discovered the Church’s lies about Delita and the Zodiak Brave Story and that the true heroes are actually Ramza and Alma Beoulve. So it establishes Ivalice as a region of the world and the game tells you from the beginning what you’re supposed to know if you haven’t played FF Tactics. It connects naturally with the lore.

The normal raid’s bosses (the FF1, 5, 6 bosses) are just synthesized monsters and the game purposely makes it unclear whether they are re-creations of beings that have once existed or pure creations designed to test your character.

41

So basically it is just one big simulation. That is poor excuse to create content in movies and it does not work much better in game form.

42

Caverns of Time.

OP is a hack. Play FF14, you’ll find RP no different than WoW. Or don’t play it, because no one is telling you what to do. Nothing the OP is whinging about is either correct about the game, or not also an issue in WoW.

WoW is not a bastion of anything. It’s a game with a community, a community so interspersed and diverse it overlaps with dozens of other communities. It’s ages behind the market in terms of raw innovation. Play WoW, enjoy WoW, RP in WoW. But don’t delude yourself, or bother with this drivel.

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43

  1. Caverns of time is not a simulation it is bascialy a group of beings trying to alter history and we have to stop them.

  2. I admit I never played FFXIV but that is simply because I don’t have the money to pay for 2 subscriptions.

  3. I admit that agurmnet may be a bit weak so I will go back to this one.