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When LotRO kicked off, they decided to create a RP server for each language. They created an extra set of rules for the RP servers governing names and behaviour on the RP servers. LotR has, perhaps, one of the best known environments for roleplaying in the fantasy genre.|
Originally Posted by Zortel
Not very, from seeing WoW. It's pretty much like Union is now. Majority of non-roleplayers, minority of roleplayers. Perhaps on say, Argent Dawn EU you'll find it a bit more like this, but then you get the greater amount of Goldshire Vampire Demon Princess of Storwmind types.
Chaff Ratio > Wheat Ratio. I have always wondered what starting again afresh would be like though, other than scary. |
Pardon me while I wander off and laugh my lungs up.
The rules were actually enforced for about a week. The GMs clearly had absolutely no understanding of Tolkien lore, in fact, about the only people who had less understanding than the GMs were the majority of players. I was actually contacted by a GM and more or less told off for reporting a dwarf's name which was, frankly, mindlessly stupid. I wouldn't have minded being told the name was okay by them, it was more the fact that the GM just about reprimanded me for doing what their own rules told us to do. As is normal, anyone who did report anyone for even the most outrageous behaviour was called names on the forums and accused of being antisocial on the level of a serial murderer. Inside of a week, more or less all the female elves were nymphomaniacs (Tolkien's elves are paragons of virtue, yes, all of them).
Now, I went to LotRO after CoH, and I came to the conclusion that, for all the faults, an RP server which is voluntarily so (like Union) is actually better than an official one.
Meanwhile... I freely admit to ignoring plots that I don't like, but isn't that better than becoming involved and being a pain? I've never ignored canon stuff though, that's just crazy.
Heroes for People: I remember that. Now, I had some objections to it on OOC grounds, but fundamentaly I reacted to it IC. IC, the letters and such which were sent to various businesses and the like did read like heroes were useless glory hounds, not worth the recognition they got. That may not have been the intention, but that was the way it read. As I recall, the majority of the responses stating what the intention was were done OOC in forum threads and my characters don't read the forums.
That was a 'plot' which required the entire RP community to accept some invisible change to the in-game world, which was kind of asking a lot. On the other hand, it resorted to OOC mechanisms to try to persuade people to behave IC the way the plot's owner wanted them to. Intersting basic idea, but the execution was flawed. When people did not react, IC, in the way expected, things kind of went to pot.
Large scale plots, to be honest, take a great deal of careful running and even then are unlikely to work well. This is why I much prefer plots run among small groups. Easier to control, primarily because the GM can actually take into account all the abilities of the characters. Even then, it just takes one grandstander to ruin things for everyone.
I'll go away and be depressed now.
Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.
Long-time GM, long-time plot-runner in CoH.
I've got something like 20 years of GMing experience (tabletop), and since I started RPing in CoH (Union forever!) I've tried to be involved in plotlines and run plotlines when the mood strikes.
Birdy has a point about large-scale plots - they're a nightmare to get right. It requires the active agreement of a phenomenal number of people, and the amount of stress it generates for the plot-master is rarely worth the effort.
The Heroes for The People thing on Union was strenuously objected to by my hero characters for pretty much the reasons Birdy notes above - they received pamphlets and letters that appeared to read "the people lauded as superheroes by this city do not deserve the recognition they get". For a couple of people who have saved the world any number of times, that's rather insulting. I understand the OOC reasoning behind the idea (which I liked), but the way it was presented in the game world was, frankly, execrable.
The biggest plot I've taken part in was the Requiem War (and THAT was one almighty argument just waiting to happen - and it did, apparently), which was a lot of fun, didn't fundamentally change the game world in any way (it scored big points with me for that bit of plotting), and allowed heroes to feel like they made a difference. The forums were fundamental to ensuring the smooth running of the plot. Without using them for communication and character development, the plot would have been a mere shadow of what it truly was.
I tend to use the forum as a place to expand upon events for my characters that would otherwise happen "off screen", since I can't play my characters 24/7. It allows for some very nice progression of plotlines (check the last few pages of the IC story thread for recent examples) that would otherwise be stagnant until the right characters can get together in-game.
The one thing that I've always strived for in CoH RP is a coherent history - whatever happens to my characters has always happened to them. So, if something happens in Forum-RP, then I need to know when it is set, so that my in-game RP can be adjusted to suit new information and actions. I absolutely love the shared storytelling that comes out of this game (again, see IC Story thread, recent posts by me, Zortel, Ravenswing and Fea for some beautiful examples of this). Even when a plot is 'mine', I will always make a point of allowing things to be guided by the actions of the players involved (case in point: A while ago one of Birdy's characters, Nitoichi, completely stuffed up a plot of mine. I mean utterly. Ripped it to bits and threw it out of the window. I was ecstatic! The players who were involved made a difference, and changed the course of events for my ongoing plotlines for ages. That's a perfect example of player actions affecting the 'world', even if only for the characters involved).
I don't think I could detatch one of my characters from their 'history' enough to take part in one of the big ongoing RPs here on the forums, because I have to draw a line on "what has really happened" somewhere. I might take one of my lesser known characters into one, at some point, but I don't really think I have the time to do it justice.
Ultimately, though, no one method of RPing is "right" and no one method is "wrong" - just go with what suits you as an individual.
The wisdom of Shadowe: Ghostraptor: The Shadowe is wise ...; FFM: Shadowe is no longer wise.
; Techbot_Alpha: Also, what Shadowe said. It seems he is still somewhat wise 
; Bull Throttle: Shadowe was unwise in this instance...; Rock_Powerfist: in this instance Shadowe is wise.; Techbot_Alpha: Shadowe is very wise *nods*; Zortel: *Quotable line about Shadowe being wise goes here.*
Quote:
In in the current situation, where I'm doing an abysmal job of actually getting in-game, even when I plan to, the forums let me keep in touch with what's going on, and drop hints about what my characters are up to and how they may be interacting with those they know in scenes which would be off-camera anyway.|
Originally Posted by Shadowe
I tend to use the forum as a place to expand upon events for my characters that would otherwise happen "off screen", since I can't play my characters 24/7. It allows for some very nice progression of plotlines (check the last few pages of the IC story thread for recent examples) that would otherwise be stagnant until the right characters can get together in-game.
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I've never been a fan of forum RP, because of the disconnected nature and because I simply can't be attached to a computer 24/7 which seems to be what's required. However, using the forums for illustration and coordination seems like an excellent use of resources. What I have done regarding in-game plots is to use the forums for handling 'offline' work: I like investigative scenarios, so having forensic results and investigative findings reported through the forums works very well.
Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.
It boggles my mind that there are so many RP SGs out there that claim to be Golden and Silver Age style heroes, yet they want to respond to -any- villainous activity with a tactical nuke. And that's not even getting into the "modern" groups.
Villains sometimes win, Heroes sometimes win. If it wasn't the case, MMOs would never work, due to the status quo being what people are fighting over. Sometimes Villains wins, chaos happens. Or sometimes Heroes win, law becomes prevailant. Then the other side wins, and things are pushed back. And forth.