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Is Theft From Players RP?
IronRealms
Member Posts: 4
Just wanted everyones opinion on whether or not stealing is roleplay, if your character is a stealth/rogue class. In Achaea, members of the Serpent class can hypnotise others into giving away their possessions, but having the "selfish" defense will prevent it. Some accuse players who choose to play thieves as bullies, or just doing it for the thrill and not because they're contributing to the roleplaying environment. What's your opinion?
Comments
I don't know the game so I can't judge how much it actually hurts to be hypnotized into that. Personally I do consider RP to be consensual meaning that nothing severe is forced on the other (general consent rules). I don't like to annoy or anger people so personally I'd avoid doing that. Additionally it is a game mechanic that forces on your IC character that he/she can't resist (without that skill/attribute) so it in my eyes forces the trait of being weakminded on the victim which is a design flaw in my eyes from the perspective of a RP.
To sum it up: Grey area indeed. Condemning it totally would probably go too far but just like the RPing of mass murders to justify endless ganking it definitely isn't the RP that I would cherish.
It kinda depends on your character.
The real problem with stealing in MMOs is the same as with full loot: 90% of the advancement in MMOs is gear today, so losing your gear is worse than losing levels.
Stealing a percentage of a players carried cash works fine, as long as he gets PvP flagged if the other player detects it, and it for that matter should attract guards, because money isn't really that important and you can have most of it in the bank anyways.
Items on the other hand only works in a game that is focused on character development where all gear is more or less the same and easy to get, and I still don't see how you could steal heavy stuff.
It takes me 2 minutes of pretty hard work to get out of my chainmal and the only person in the world that could distract me that much is Shirley Manson (and she can just ask me, I would give it to her with a smile).
So: Stealing money is fine on PvP servers (since it really is PvP), but only10-50% of carried money prefarably.
There is a real place for theives in RPGs, but the systems in place are generally ripe for abuse. Since MMORPGs carry respawning, what you'll often find is people going out with minimal to no gear pickpocketing players and if they succeed, they succeed, but if they fail they really don't lose anything. This turned into a nuisance during the Mortal Online beta as players would try to pickpocket you while you vendor'd goods, you'd get them killed by guards, and they'd respawn and just keep coming back. What MMOs with theiving commonly fail to implement is a proper risk/reward system for thieving, such as requiring expensive tools to steal more expensive items, thus giving more to lose upon failure.
A thief is a seedy role, so yes it attracts bullies as much as it attracts role players. Richard Garriot spoke about thieves in Ultima Online and he said they were an integral part of building a game world that felt real.
Thieving is like non-consensual PvP. It attracts role players, hardcore gamers, and it attracts the level 80 gnome hunter on a WoW PvP server who leveled to max and spends half his time on the opposing faction's level 20-30 lands where he can one-shot and corpse camp everyone. MMOs attract all sorts.
Good point, getting caught for thieving should also include a fine, that will be taken from carried cash or the bank account. One large enough so getting caught will hurt.
In Achaea, the thief character may rob a player completely naked. There are several methods of detecting and preventing thieves, and the thief is flagged open PvP to everyone in the server for a total of 7 days. They can hide out in their city or guild hall for a real life week if they want, but they're not entirely safe- cities and guildhalls can be raided by groups of enemy players.
It's generally accepted in RP circles that any actions that might damage a character either gameplay wise or storywise, should be discussed out of character and agreed upon prior.
If a player is going around stealing or killing other players without consent, they're playing the game, not RPing.
edit-- Just to add, if someone is truly RPing a criminal, they also need to accept the possibility that their own character has a reasonable chance to be caught and punished for their crimes, and that the player won't shirk RPing being caught or the penalty if it comes down to that.
This and again this
always loved roleplayin thieves/rogues/sneaky shady dudes in RPG games, not in MMO(rpg)s thou.
in real life if a thief gets caught he ends in jail and/or heavily fined,or in some cases shot by his "victims", in tabeltop RPGs (when handled correct) your character can actually die, and gettin caught while stealing is a way to reach that end (i lost a character of mine to "friendly" sword..suits me for tryin and steal that juicy tiny family heirloom).
in mmorpgs for (not so) obvious reasons there's no nemesis for a stealing toon, he robs you and the worst it can happen is usually gettin slain and respawn somewhere else.
this is what we should have: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXRuoSHI6eQ&feature=related