try Dark & Light, they have it about all covered.

Seriously though, I think MMORPGs need to have roleplaying. Read all you can on how to get player to actually roleplay. If you can make a game where roleplaying happens well, assuming it is of a decent quality, I would pay to play.

Quote:Original post by methulah
try Dark & Light, they have it about all covered.

Seriously though, I think MMORPGs need to have roleplaying. Read all you can on how to get player to actually roleplay. If you can make a game where roleplaying happens well, assuming it is of a decent quality, I would pay to play.

My thoughts, also. People just dont realize that while Grinding may be fun, it will turn the player away from the game eventually because there will be nothing else to look forward to, instead, Players should concentrate on a non-linear story WITH an ending, while some may say that "I would rather shape the world myself and create the storyline myself", I would say "Go ahead, can you do that? Ok, You can't so how about you first do what works?"

Why people play RPGs is exactly because they are Role Playing Games, There should be a storyline, and people should play roles in these storylines.

I can't even say MMORPGs are MMORPGs because they mostly force you to Grind.

Now a good suggestion - Create a storyline within the MMORPG, it does not have to be linear, but create a storyline, with an ending, so that players can play in your world that you created, so that players would actually know what they are doing instead of Grinding over and over and over and over.

And as far as Ideas go, I think I've mentioned this before somewhere, and this is a definite truth, Ideas are indeed going to end (If not ended yet).

Perhaps the MMORPGs will rise again when real Virtual Reality devices are created such as 3d monitors or some helmets/gloves which allow you to play the role of the character.

And Yet again, People never tried Storylines in MMORPGs, because they are afraid it would not work, they have a correct definition of MMORPGs and why it would be an MMORPG, I can't really call these games MMORPGs, I would call them MMOGRIND or MMOH&S or what not...

It's BORING!

Finally, someone else who thinks that role-playing should come back in MMORPGs. Heck, If I wanted to sit and camp a monster's spawn point all day in an RPG I would play a single player game. I am currently in the process of making a non-grind RPG that is online.

I was so disappointed with Turbine when not once, but twice they killed a great franchise. Making D&D Online a hack ‘n’ slash instanced game set in Errebon just about made me swallow my tongue. And then taking away the Middle Earth Online that looked like it would be a blueprint for role-playing and turning it into Lord of the Rings Online, another Hack ‘n’ Slash.

I think that developers need to learn that if everyone who liked multiplayer online games wanted to hack ‘n’ slash and camp monster spawns, they we would all be playing WoW or Guild Wars or whatever else. They need to open their eyes and see that there are a bunch of great player who want to play computer games, and want to be able to interact with other players – and want to darn well roleplay.

So if you are looking to make an online game, make it an RPG, and when I say “RPG” I don’t mean a third person action game with a character advancement system. I mean an RPG.

Sorry for the rant.

Well how do you encourage role playing in your game? I mean if there's a leveling system and skills you'll have people who grind...

I'm all up for role playing seeing how I was part of a role playing community for the past 7 years but I don't see how it can be pulled off in an MMORPG since everyone just happens to be a hero.

You'd need to have everyone start off as regular people with no real destiny attached to the world. That's what I loved so much about UO... no quests. Might sound boring but you didn't have any of that "Oh, Kikiolakiatharakyk I'm glad you're here, I need YOUR help" BS.

One thing that has to be maintained during the debate over roleplay in MMORPGs is that we must stay positive. If you cannot find a suitable solution, it is not helping by saying there is nothing that can be done. No-one has done this yet, but it has deviated many previous threads into festivals of negativity. As "The Streets" say, "keep positive".

Quote:Is there a lack or role-playing in MMORPGs? Why?

Because it is faster to gain statistic advancements in MMORPGs by grinding/power levelling. This needs to be addressed. The reason some single player RPGs that may have indentical advancement systems do not have this same spawn camping problem is that there is no-one to show off to. MMORPGs constantly have you showing off your über character to your guild, and the quickest way to keep up (read: surpass) your friends is through the bad old level grind.

Quote:Should there be more role-playing in MMORPGs? Why?

I think question almost speaks for itself. It is (in my, and several other, opinions) more fun to immerse yourself into a character and a game world than to hit the "auto attack" button and wait for all day. Roleplaying lets us be smeone who we can't be, who we (in many cases) secretly want to be.

Quote:What would compel players to roleplay more in MMORPGS? Why?

That is the question at hand here and a very hard one to answer. I will keep my answer brief as a convulated and contradictory one will not help.

Game immersion. Into the game world. There needs to be choice and consiquence for every action. a dynamic system for economy, politics and everything else. A player shouldn't be able to get away with killing another player (or indeed a non-playing character) without consiquences, unless it is in a time of war, and even when the war ends, major war crimes should be tried. I think that is the first thing that leads to roleplaying. Plain and simple immersion. If a player can belive that (s)he is in a game world that is truly dynamic and respons to his/her actions - they will be compelled to roleplay out in that world.

Quote:What has more role-playing than MMORPGs? Why?

Many games. Any game where the player truly takes on the role that they are thrust into. Roleplaying is rife in games like Baldurs Gate, Neverwinter Nights and others. Dungeon and Dragons is a prime example of a roleplaying game that actually features roleplaying. My reason for why there is less roleplaying on online games over offline games has been detailed above.

Now, about that respone...

Quote:

Quote:What has more role-playing than MMORPGs? Why?

Almost anything that is single player. Because they're single player, the world revolves around that individual. Unless MMORPG players start taking turns to be the hero, the same type of experience is not going to be there.

No, that isn't the reason. Importance is perspective and that strian of though it detrimental to roleplaying iteself. In a single player game, there still is someone more powerful than the player - and you can be sure that from their perspective the world doesn't revolve around the player character. In MMO games the player thinks that their character is the most important to them. The system doesn't really change.

Quote:It will take the biggest company twenty years to create what we want. Tens or hundreds of individual roles that all take part in the same world, where heroes may pass each other, conflict with each other, or help each other along the way.

I dont see why it should take the insane time listed here. Surely all that is needed is a good development team (take Neverax for instance) and great design concepts, nothing this board couldn't come up with.

Quote:The roles will never amount to much more than your role in real life. Traditional role playing is about taking part in an epic story. How many people can you fit into an epic story? Record of Lodoss War had around six people, and that was a hefty gang considering the story. Some of the characters were not as involved as others. Six is hardly massive.

Many Dungeons and Dragons campaigns have no real ongoing storylines, merely Freelancing quests that they do to advance levels. And as they do this the characters develop, and the players roleplay. Epic stories help, by dynamic stories are more important in my opinion. Where the player can actually interact and influence the story. That is the way to have stories in a persistant world.

Quote:Add to that the fact that MMO is about connecting and playing when you want. What happens when a hero character unplugs himself from the matrix and everyone is left standing with their thumbs in warm places? Does that character switch personalities and become taken over by a machine?

The Matrix is a perfect example of what happens. A character unplugs. He has told his friends he is going back to the real world and will jack back in again soon. His friends who might depend on him if they are going to fight the machines will go back to their HQ and prepare battleplans and equipment, train, or even jack out themselves.

The question or roleplay in MMORPGs could go on a lot longer, but my eyes hurt, and if you are up to this, I bet yours do too!

Thanks.

I think the point that is being missed that at the end of the day RPG, MMO’s and so on are only games. While they may be fun and quite addictive, I doubt many game developers are willing to gamble the ongoing existence of the game. I’ll explain with an example.

Why not have a world, full of “players”. Then one day say 100 days after the game is launched (or when enough players have joined), word gets around that aliens are on the way, and will wipe out this world and all it’s players. So every one joins forces to try and defeat this “evil”.. Ok the scene is set..

The developers decide that say 19:00EST is when the assault will begin, of course they keep that a little hush hush, to maintain the element of surprise. Boom, crash.. and so on.

Oh wait, player JEM43 is waving at JOM21, some other players have offline lives, The player that was to army general is asleep because S/HE lives in a different time zone.

The population of the world gets wiped out, of course the game was designed to be so realistic that this cant be undone. No more players = no more game = the end. Unless the aliens die when they come into contact with water or some other BS.

Basically there are lots of good ideas, but only the practical ones have been included in the current crop of online games.