MMORPG SotA Column: Concerns Worthy of Note

The core mechanics of this game should be focused on gameplay that makes sense in order to tell the story in a way that is not overly complicated or confusing.

Mechanics that support roleplay are great, but leave them out until the game is ready for them. Do we really need a mechanic for Peasant Baldric to empty Lord British's chamber pot at the cost of developing a decent quest system?

 

I'll take this a step further.

Both passive and active roleplaying would have nothing to do with "seeing the damage numbers". There's nothing immersive about seeing damage numbers. So why have them? Because they make people that are not concerned with roleplaying or perhaps less concerned...happy.

To me, this is a no brainer. If you want to use it for testing...great. If you want to use it in a roleplaying game...I don't think that makes sense.

I do realize that some hardcore roleplayers out there probably LOVE seeing damage counters. But for me, it's the kind of thing seems very intrusive to roleplaying. So I think this is a good example of a development "compromise" that doesn't need to happen. People are not going to buy and play SOTA because it has or doesn't have damage counters. But the game is going to be less of a roleplaying game if it has damage counters.

 

And for people to make and tell their own stories.

 

Agreed. I'm simply saying that we should not put the cart before the horse.

 

So you say peoples actions have nothing to do with role playing, it is just talking and "emotes"? Shouldn't a real role playing game allow for a large possibility in fleshing out your character through both words and actions? What does one need a game at all if a simple chat window would suffice? Sorry this is not my type of role playing. Just like in the real world actions speak much louder than words.
Also, it is sort of funny you say you can not talk to people while in combat. If you are limited to eighties technology that may be true but something tells me that tons of role players talk with each other while playing in our day and age ;-)

 

Roleplaying games are not simulations. So that's a perfect example of something doesn't need to be in the game.

As much as I like seeing NPC's turn the lights off, it's not required for roleplaying. But it does nothing but support roleplaying and the same could be said for the changing of a chamber pot.

But a good quest system in the eyes of a power gamer or a casual gamer is going to be very different from that of a roleplayer. If we define "good" being something that roleplayers like, then yes that should take priority.

 

They have no interest to make a game less boring?

Are you trying to say that we should go back to the MUDs of the 1990s, where there weren't even any graphics, because after all, you could get the description of the town/area you were in, in text, and type things in text to get to the next area (move forward, move back, move left, move right, etc)?

What degree is writing in text considered roleplaying? I contend that typing has nothing to do with roleplaying, except perhaps what you type to other real, live players.

Maybe your attire is from a different time period, but that alone is also not roleplaying.

Roleplaying is in one's head. It's not in a word you type to an NPC, a computer chat that doesn't even know you're alive or not.

 

I agree with this wholeheartedly

 

Shouldn't you have the ability to talk and fight at the same time?

I should be able to talk to strangers and not just guildmates and people that are on the other side of the world - or for that matter not even playing the game.

 

You consider the card combat system "power gaming?" When it's an ancient technology?

Isn't PvP alone, in and of itself, roleplaying? Who goes around in real life having sword or magic fights?

 

No, that's called imagination. True roleplaying requires multiple people.

 

The damage counter is simple visual feedback for something happening in the game world. How does this make for less of a role playing game? These things are not even related.
It seems you have an almost religious view of what makes a role playing game full of rigid rules. Keep that dogma for yourself, the game does not need it.

 

Chess is a lower form of PVP, technology has nothing to do with it.

 

Yes definitely. Part of the fun of taking on another role is to break free of boundaries. Maybe that freedom scares some people.

 

There's a difference between roleplaying and what you're talking about. I'm saying the developers should focus and make the roleplaying game about roleplaying. You're free to disagree.

 

So is there room for taming in the RP world and what would it look like?

 

Of course. But I'm not an authority on the RP world so I don't know what it would look like. I'm sure people that love RP would be able to come up with something great though.

 

I do. You will rarely find me without a headset on. Radical would be to include exactly that in the game itself. Although some have attempted =)

 

Hey guys, let's make a weird and confusing game just because it *might* facilitate roleplay somehow. Why? Why not!

 

"world" is another word for game system - what would taming look like in a gaming world that adhered to strong RP roots?