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roleplay focus group for betatesting?
Saydien
Member Posts: 266
Hi there,
from reading some threads here and in the official forums I've got the impression that beside the main focus on PVP there also seems to be quite some potential for RP but I'm afraid that like in other games this impression could be wrong.
As an example I will just name the failed MMO Gods & Heroes. Perpetual put in quite some ressource to keep the RPers hyped with moderated RP forums, newsletters with great stories etc. but once you logged in you realized that funny emotes were the only little things that somehow support RP.
Of course people will say 'RP isn't the main focus, the main aim of the testing is to get the core game playable and get rid of bugs etc'. My question is if there might be some kind of a RP focus group for the testing. The existence of a RPPVP server at launch shows that Funcom isn't ignoring the fact that there are many RPers interested in the game and given that RPers spend most or even all their time to RP one could say that features supporting RP could be part of the 'core game'.
I'd hate to see AoC being a game that is fun but doesn't even support the basics to actually have deep RP. That's no thread stating 'let me in!' but a question if there will be a RP focus group...and if there isn't then it's at the same time a request to please consider having one.
Comments
Just curious how you 'test' Role Playing...last time I looked Role Playing is...well not a video game mechanic. I mean what is there to test? Name enforcement? Its not like they can just take a bunch of RPer's be like ok now RP so we can see how it looks. Sounds like a waste of resources. You cant' Test Role Playing it all comes down to community.
No game has mechanics that say force everything a person does to be in character since the role a person creates is their own role.
Roleplaying is a community activity driven & often patrolled by players. With everything that AoC is supposed to have such as bars, drunk brawls, keeps, player built towns there's more than enough in the world available for RPer's to immerse themselves with.
Please Refer to Doom Cat with all conspiracies & evil corporation complaints. He'll give you the simple explination of..WE"RE ALL DOOMED!
Of course you don't actually test RP itself but if the game supports at least the basic features to make RP possible. Of course you could even RP in a game only consisting of text and wouldn't need any special features at all but there is stuff that definately helps.
Just as a few examples:
- Costumizeable emotes that are easily realized due to a text color different than normal text. In many MMOs that is solved using the /emote command.
- Easy costumizeable chatsystem allowing to create private chatgroups, lock them, moderate them
- Some kind of instanced costumizeable areas e.g. playerhousing allowing to restrict entrance to a certain group of people. As far as I know there won't be playerhousing at launch but I definately hope they will add that soon. Considering the server will be RPPVP there definately have to be such safe areas also outside the huge cities.
- Possibility to express moods by either have a set of different moods you can choose from resulting in messages being displayed like '... says happily:'
- A working targeting and moving system allowing you to easily move around and turn into the direction you want to properly target your emotes at the right people
Just a few examples but there are by far more. Everyone that has ever tried RP and has played several different MMOs should also know the feeling of 'the game controls and the feel while playing just has to be right'. Especially if you have played such RP gems like SWG and other MMOs that just feel totally wrong.
I would be eased knowing that there are people that will test such stuff thoroughly.
I am an RPer and I've been playing MMO's since the days of MUDS, I've also beta tested several games over the years and im questioning your idea of a RP focus group. Dev's are already pushed for time on trying to make the game's mechanics work. An RP focus group just seems unnnecessary.
Testing emotes and housing through RP focus groups is a waste of development time when any beta tester worth his salt is going to automatically test & try out every possible feature of a game from emotes to instancing of any sort and right on down to seeing what weird places they can stand in. Any sort of weird anomolous stuff gets flagged immediately. Good Beta Testers find this stuff even if they aren't RPer's because they want emotes etc etc to work right as well.
You don't need a specific focus group for that.
Focus groups are important for KEY important features that if they'rebroken at launch could destroy the game. When you do a focus group that is the ONLY testing that takes place for X amount of days, do we really need in any game especially one like Age of Conan to burn time on testing emotes specifically???
An RP focus group to me is just silly and you've really not given any reason for an RP focus group that can't be covered by general testing.
Please Refer to Doom Cat with all conspiracies & evil corporation complaints. He'll give you the simple explination of..WE"RE ALL DOOMED!
For me having a focus group doesn't necessarily mean that it's the only thing that is tested at that time. It's just a small part of the actual testing people that should also have a look at such features. I generally disagree with the approach of inviting let's say 500 new people and simply letting them run through the levels trusting that they will test all and everything.
I'm not saying that testers that don't look at such features aren't doing a proper job it's just that reasons like 'it's not part of the core game' too often has led to ignoring the playablity when it comes to RP and while I generally don't mind hearing 'housing won't be in at launch' I'd hate to see e.g. a targeting system that simply makes targeting an emote a pain (especially worried about how targeting works due to this new combat system) because content is added rather easily but changing basic game mechanics (just like the targeting) that soon after launch would be a pain.
One could rephrase my question: Will the playability when it comes to RP be considered while betatesting?
most focus groups are a joke... hopefully AoC developers will listen to many more then 1 focus groups and combine all the ideas, issues, concerns and ratings.
I have been a RP MMOer since day one. it was never a problem for me to roleplay in EQ... even with the limited emotes and such. It should not be a focus of the game mechanics, it should be a nice addition to chat channels, in game animations and player housing, etc...
OP, I dont think you silly for liking to RP, I just feel that if you enjoy RPing... you will be able to do it without in game extras. I do understand it helps make it a bit more fun for you, but just hope that the dev team at Funcom will understand this and give us a good deal of what you are asking for.
Good luck... from what I know about AoC, it will be the whole package, so no worries.
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*This thread contains enough compressed stupidity to erase all science as far back as the middle ages.
I would hope that all aspects of the game will be considered, but I still dont really understand what you need in order to roleplay or why you feel you need a focus group. Give me a chat box and basically, thats all I need. A little imagination is what it really takes to roleplay or you are limited to what the dev's give in-game.
**Edit**
Just found this quote in a recent article:
"... the hundreds of emotes are still there (yes, you can sit of course – even on chairs – just wait and see..."
Just a little snip of it, but nice to hear...
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*This thread contains enough compressed stupidity to erase all science as far back as the middle ages.
Like stated before you of course can do everything just with text but it e.g. gets harder once somebody joins the RP later on and missed the development of the discussion, the describing of the scene and the mood of the characters etc.
It's not about enabling the Roleplay itself but about giving the means to paint the image of what you do and about the general scene into the mind of the other participants. Goodies like the possibility to set up shields in costumizeable instances (like player-housing) that open pop-ups that describe how the room is looking or if anything special just is happening that isn't obvious.
Is a focus group really needed to make sure /sit and /laugh work?
I can certainly see the OP's point. There are a large number of features or ways of doing things that will either maybe roleplay difficult or support it. To have role play work well you need to have facilities in the game to support it. I think that there are no doubt a long list of features that might not be obvious which would help support role play.
Emotes,
targetable emotes
string variables for macros
gathering places in game
social clothing
moods and facial expressions
custom notes or books
bulletins in bars anouncing events in game?
This is definitely the stuff of a focus group to get idea's out there that describe things that can be done to improve role play in the game. A focus group isn't necessarily a beta tester but rather a group of people focused on a particular aspect of game play that try to improve that aspect of the game play.
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Ethion
DDddddoh.