Roleplayer hate origins ?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by StrangerDiamond, Mar 18, 2018.

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  1. StrangerDiamond

    StrangerDiamond Avatar

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    In the last 2 months of playing almost every night I have been looking for friends and a guild to adventure with.

    For two months I have faced a major problem :

    Almost everyone, including very prominent community members whom I know well from the boards and kind of thought they would be at least interested in minimal roleplaying, told me that my major problem in finding friends was that I sounded like a roleplayer.

    I have been told :

    - This community does not like roleplayers.
    - Try not to roleplay, less people will ignore you.
    - This isn't a RPG, its a sims, so don't be surprised if people ignore you if you roleplay.

    And much more very hurtful (to me) expressions...

    My major problem is that I am NOT roleplaying...

    I am going around, sure I say Hail, why not... and I am asking if people want to join me in my quests or adventure.

    That is apparently too much roleplaying for most people...

    DON'T SAY HAIL in a lord British game, is basically what I'm told by 99% people.

    After two months of joining guilds (I switched 3 times) I've found that players start to ignore me everytime I ask a question about the story of this game that isn't in the script... as if there were on the edge of their seat just ready to react once they hear someone might be trying to roleplay.

    Then they don't tell me I should find a roleplaying guild, they start to ignore me and talk in my back ! And then I learn later through the only honest person in the guild that they've been telling each other to ignore me because I ask too much questions.

    After crying in a corner for a few hours (sorry if that offends you, but I am DEEPLY hurt by this community) and swearing to myself that I'm cursed for spending two months only figuring out I was getting ignored on purpose for extremely shallow reasons.

    Then I meet some guy with a black shroud, young guild leader that cares not a bit about roleplaying regularly, he actually felt my pain, and started to roleplay with me.

    None of the questions I asked about the oracle and titans bothered them, they even opened the book and wiki to make sure they could give me their opinions.

    This is a guild of new players, all around 20 years old... the last people I expected to respect that I was trying to roleplay in a roleplay game.

    Everytime I log in since then, they jump in roleplay mode, even to the point it feels a bit too much sometimes :D

    I'm not going to complain about that part...its the most fun I had in shroud since the beginning, but my questions still stands :

    Why the roleplaying hate is so widespread ?

    That night where I went from tears of sadness to tears of joy, and we ended up playing until 7 am in the morning just in a tier 1 area finding a nice campfire and played music like we really existed within that space... my eyes opened.

    is it possible that the mechanics of this game somehow influences this behavior ?
     
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  2. Helvig Ingvildsdottir

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    I cannot share your feelings, and I am grateful for that. I'm a 100% super hardcore RPer, and I have never had to deal with negative comments or an anti-RP attitude. There are several players I occasionally hang out with that do not usually roleplay but that try to jump as much into a roleplaying mode as possible when they interact with me. Others don't bother, but are still nice and respectful, as can be expecte from a mature community. If there are really RP-haters out there, I am glad to say I haven't crossed paths with them (yet).

    Actually the only time I got a -slightly- negative comment was from Lord British himself, who told me that "this is not a roleplaying game".
     
  3. rpgmaniac82

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    Thats interesting,did he clarify why perhaps?
     
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  4. Stryker Sparhawk

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    A great find for you!

    There are many hidden gems and yes, the RP branches of the community sometimes wait to be discovered. And when I speak of branches, there are those who crave the RP-PVP experience, those who like the slice of life of different cultures (example: the Viking culturalists, the goblins, the kolbolds), and to some degree, ones who are bringing with them a character they developed in another game...

    It can be hard to find an element that is pure (without RL influence popping into conversation and activity) but so a person has to be adaptive and either try to create the moment to get others to follow along or find that group who has a same mindset.

    I spent about two years in UO to find a group I could call home. I think here I call a number of communities home even though I wear my own town as a guild structure.

    Good hunting and good RP adventuring to you. Keep the faith!
     
  5. StrangerDiamond

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    That is so strange ! Lord British actually roleplayed with me, I was agreably surprised by his maturity and respect for my past roles in UO and Tabula Rasa.

    But yeah, I guess maybe its because you're a girl... my friend made a female character because of this, he says everyone is nice to him and gives him free stuff all the time.

    He adventured about 10 times less than me, yet he's 10 times richer, maybe even more, because he sells stuff of his vendor people gifts him.

    As I've said, in two months of not even attempting to roleplay, I've had comments like I listed up there non stop.

    Even from bored players who seemed to be standing there not knowing what to do.

    What surprised me the most was meeting very prominent members of this community and telling myself, oh great those must be community players... well these people were the most rude of all.
     
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  6. that_shawn_guy

    that_shawn_guy Bug Hunter

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    i suggest not getting stuck on this being "a community". as you have found, there are many communities here. i think this has always been the nature of mmos.

    as for lord british saying "this is not a roleplaying game", beyond a certain point, this is not his game. this is our game. all the communities here (now and in the future) can form themselves how they want and round whatever aspects of the game they want. besides, judging by past interview, i'm sure lord british still gets a kick out of what we manage to do with the playgrounds he has given us.

    find your people, and have fun!
     
  7. StrangerDiamond

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    Still am curious as to what creates this generalized phenomena...

    Sure get what you mean tho... but all we hear is the contrary !
     
  8. that_shawn_guy

    that_shawn_guy Bug Hunter

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    it's how humans work. new york city as a community. but, the bronx is also it's own community. the people you run into in your daily life is just a part on your community. the office you may work in, etc, etc, etc.
     
  9. Helvig Ingvildsdottir

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    It was his reply to my comment that having the chance to get an alt that is -not- related to your main (through same surname) is important from a roleplaying point of view. I think he wanted to bring the point across that the idea of the game is that we are not roleplaying some fantasy character but are supposed to be ourselves, modern day people sucked into a computer game, according to lore. But even that can be roleplayed... I am not going to be a 40 y/o IT professional and mother of two in this game. If I have to be from modern time, then at least something a bit more exciting. ;)
     
  10. StrangerDiamond

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    True that, its a dynamic concept... but how often I've seen those community members tell total strangers to add them on their friend list if they needed help...

    Those same people who offer help to strangers become totally rude when they're approached by a kickstarter backer ?

    The root cause is what I'm trying to uncover... should I use a disguise kit ? :p
     
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  11. rpgmaniac82

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    Haha! sounds fair.
     
  12. that_shawn_guy

    that_shawn_guy Bug Hunter

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    :) to quote depeche mode, "people are people". there are good people here. there are also asshats. such is any community. :)
     
  13. LiquidBlaze

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    I used to love to play DnD but somehow the literal ability for me to do this anymore was lost a long the way. But! I sure know some good people to introduce you to. If your are interested.
     
  14. StrangerDiamond

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    lol !

    I guess its hard for some people to say Hail, I don't roleplay but I'll help you in your adventure :p
     
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  15. rpgmaniac82

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    One of them being me.;)
     
  16. StrangerDiamond

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    Always !

    It's just unreal to me that in WoW I just posted a message LFG and it took 2 minutes to find people to adventure around your level, while on here I have been walking around for 2 months making gifts and trying to make friends only to be ignored and talked to behind my back because I play the game like it was intended.

    And being "accepted" by those kids, was the last thing I expected. Especially seeing them make an active effort in accommodating my roleplay efforts, even if I'm not insisting on it.

    Story ends well for sure, its just so hard to rationalize !

    That is what I'm looking for, get it out of my head by understanding why.
     
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  17. Alley Oop

    Alley Oop Bug Hunter Bug Moderator

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    this is the problem. what was intended was to make a space where different playstyles could share the world, but you're not sharing. you're insisting everyone use yours. the people that are not roleplaying are not doing anything wrong. the people that ARE roleplaying are not doing anything wrong. the problem comes when you try to control others' gameplay, whether that means insisting they roleplay or pvp or be healed by healers who don't ask first. roleplayers are a minority here. telling you you'll get a better reaction talking to strangers not doing that is akin to telling you most people are right-handed: it's not a judgment, just a statement of fact. did you want someone to roleplay with or did you want someone to adventure with? you may have to make a choice, because insisting on both may get you neither.

    i've had several nice interactions with @Helvig Ingvildsdottir, thought she's heavily into roleplaying and i'm not. she doesn't roleplay AT people, she does it WITH those that are interested. she hasn't told me i'm not playing the game "as intended".

    you may also consider that something specific you say drives people away. if you're the player i recently interacted with outside kingsport, i had been willing to help you but i walked away when you laughed at me.
     
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  18. StrangerDiamond

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    Do you remember why I laughed ? :p It was a silly roleplaying laugh meant to laugh AT roleplaying extremism.

    I asked first very simply Hail ! I am looking for people to help me go into harder zones and make some XP(far, very far from roleplaying).

    You said instantly... are you a roleplayer, cause most people aren't roleplayers and it won't help you find friends... then the proper response is either : Well I'm in a roleplaying game... which is rude... or... *laughs* what does roleplaying mean ? Which is a humorous roleplayer answer that is very ironic, and very well known.

    Honestly, you were the person who made me cry that night, because I have a very, VERY high opinion of your contribution to this game.

    To be fair to you, my roleplaying is 90% jokes and making fun of the game incoherence, turning it into humor and having a good time.

    So that someone stops short at my introduction and suggest that I change it to make more friends, that was like a punch in the guts, it cut my breath.

    But you're far from the only one who reacted to me like this... as I've said, its been two months that I decided to play less solo and more in the MMO... the only people who were actually nice to me and brought me in a harder zone were the roleplayer anti-thesis... they're kids who wear the black shroud because it looks cool.
     
  19. redfish

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    Well no disrespect to either you or LB, but I hate the definition of role-playing that would confine it to creating your own role and consciously play acting it.

    I mean, I always considered the Ultima games roleplaying even though we were, as the case is with Shroud, playing ourselves -- in that case, transported to Brtiannia through the Orb of the Moons. It was roleplaying because you were still confined to the role of your in game representation, dealing within the limits off your environment, dealing within the limits of your person in game -- his gear, health condition, skills, etc. You dealt with in game choices like you would deal with them in a real world, and your choices had consequences. That confined, and defined, your role.

    Back when I played D&D, I role-played the same way. I never took my character to be me, as if he were transported from Earth, but for the most part, I played him just as if I would play an Ultima game. I didn't create a backatory or play act my character while doing a D&D session.

    There was an expression back in the D&D days, "role-playing, not roll-playing." While some may have taken that as an admonition to get into the backstory elements of their characters, I saw it as a more general warning against focus either by the players or the DM soley on things like stats, loot, etc. That DMs should try to do more than hack-and-slash campaigns and think about lore and storytelling and players should try to consider the game as more than we would describe in today's gaming parlance as min/maxing.

    This is what made Ultima games role-playing, and not roll-playing.

    Unfortunately, MMOs have set in a more specific definition, which is a focus on the play acting part, and unfortunately sometimes this ends up crowding out the actual gameplay aspects which were always the center of role-playing games -- after all, they're role-playing games, not just role-playing. After a while, you MMO players who refer to dressing up in costumes and going to social events as role-playing, because this is done "in character."

    But then to me this misses the point in an entirely different way. Cosplaying is not exactly role-playing, either.

    Its unfortunate to me in the degree this has influenced how MMO developers and players think of role-playing. You almost have to update the old expression to "role-playing, not cos-playing."

    Of course, I'm not saying I have anything against creating backstories or play acting or anything like that (I work on writing character lore myself), just that I don't think this is or ever was the central point of roleplaying and also that you can RP without doing that.
     
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  20. StrangerDiamond

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    That was my intuition, exactly !

    I think its the systems that make it feel like its a hindrance, or that you're losing time by "taking a player as he is". He could slowly drag you down to his often extremist limited RPer view.

    How often I've been told by busy people when trying to learn even the simple location of a scene : "Are you going to buy something, if not mind your own business".

    Makes me sad, nothing forces them to reply in role... they can simply reply.
     
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