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Roleplaying in an rp-hostile graphical fps/PvP environment
jimhabegger
Member Posts: 5
Some of my friends and I are trying to roleplay stories in a graphical fps, mandatory PvP game, in which our stories are continually undermined by the fps/PvP, the requirements for advancement, and stories that contradict ours. Some of us get frustrated and discouraged sometimes, but we just can't stay away!
I'm trying to learn to:
- Help other players when they're hurting or feeling wronged.
- Learn how to incorporate everything that happens into my rp, and have fun with it, and help other players do the same.
To help other players when they're hurting or feeling wronged, I just try to give them some friendly attention. Sometimes I can guess ahead of time when it's going to happen, so I start the friendly attention even before it happens. Also I try to find ways to weave their rp into mine, and mine into theirs.
Mostly what undermines the rp for me is that often the only place I find other players is gathered together chatting and whispering, or playing fps against each other or against mobs, or level grinding, or racing to a chat/whisper/fps/leveling party, without even trying to act out a story. I'm trying to learn to make up reasons for all that, that fit into my story.
Some of my friends have had their stories completely demolished, and/or had their characters repeatedly hunted down and killed. I'm thinking about ways to weave all that into our stories too.
Does anyone else here have any experience roleplaying in an rp-hostile environment like that, or any ideas about how to have fun with it?
(later)
The game I'm talking about is not WoW, but now that I think about it, the challenges we're facing might be very similar to trying to roleplay our own stories in a WoW PvP realm. Has anyone tried to do that? If so, do you have any tips?
Comments
Is the game rp-hostile or simply just a collection of diverse playstyles? For example, UO wasn't RP-hostile, however it would be niave if not completely arrogant to expect the everyone else to tiptoe around their personal stories. UOers usually incorporated what was actually happening in the game world into their character's stories.
basically, it depends on whether you are looking to play out your personal story in front of others or if your character's story is one that evolves within the game world. If the former, you're playing the wrong game. If the latter, you have a rich history for your character waiting to be written.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Definitely playing the wrong game! At least in my case. I won't speak for my friends. Some of us have quit several times, but we just can't stay away. In my case I keep going back because my friends are playing. Again, I won't speak for them. I do have some wonderful rp moments, as rare as they are.
I shouldn't have said "rp-hostile" in the title. Some of the challenges we're facing are rp-hostile and some, like stories that contradict ours, are not. Maybe I should have started a different thread for that. Maybe I still will.
"Rp-hostile" might be a bad choice of words. What I mean is that most of the players, most of the time, are not trying to act out any consistent stories of their own, and have no respect for ours. As I said, mostly what I see is people chatting, whispering, leveling and playing fps/PvP, or racing to some place to do so. Even the ones who rp will often drop the rp instantly, to race off to some place where people are chatting or playing fps.
To answer another question, I set my stories fully in the context of the lore and current events of the game.
I've never tried to act out a story of my own in WoW, but I imagine that what I'm up against in this game is very similar to what it would be like if I tried to act out a story of my own in a non-rp PvP realm in WoW. Acting out a consistent story is optional, but the PvP is not.
My friends and I try to weave our stories together, and to weave them together with the stories of others as much as possible. The rare times when our stories our characters see each other in the game are lots of fun. I'm just looking for ways to make it more fun the rest of the time, when we're immersed in out-of-character surroundings. I'm thinking about how to weave all that into my story somehow, and I have confidence I can do so, but I'm just getting started, and I could use some tips, if anyone has any from their own experience.
Another part of this was how to help players when they're hurting or feeling wronged. That's really a different issue, and maybe should be in a separate thread also. I'm afraid to start too many threads, because I've gotten into a lot of trouble for that sometimes. Anyway, I see at least three different issues in the challenges my friends and I are facing:
1. An environment filled with out-of-character activity. That's what I would like to focus on in this thread: how to make up IC reasons for all that, and weave it into our stories.
2. Most players ignoring our stories, or worse, participating in them for a while and then abruptly treating them as if they never existed. That hasn't been a problem for me, but sometimes I've seen a player put a lot of work into a story involving many players, then suddenly most of the other players completely abandon it, at the bidding of more influential players, and treat it as if it never happened. That might need to be discussed in another thread, but I'm not sure, because the question for me is the same: how to weave that into our own stories.
3. Players hurting or feeling wronged. I want to help players when they're hurting or feeling wronged, for whatever reason, and I have some good ideas about how to do that, but I could always use more. I think that would definitely need to be a separate thread.
If you existed a few hundred years ago, you'd probably be a Jesuit.
I think your tenacity and passion are awesome. You sound like you are having a great time, and view the opposition as a healthy challenge that is fuelling your RP endeavors.
I don't think you need other threads to discuss your ideas, as I think they are part all part of what you are generally talking about: how to deal with people that don't want to RP in a shared environment.
Maybe view the ones who are utterly against it, the ones who actively work against you, as separate entities entirely. Give them a name. The players that join you in RP for short periods of time but then drift away or get coerced by the Goons, give them another name. Its like a 3 faction system. You, the evil guys, and the neutral guys who can go either way and are easily swayed.
Anway, just some quick ideas I thought I'd toss your way.