I came across this in the new "The Nature of DragonRealms" folder. It has had a profound impact on me, especially combined with Zephyria's posts. I hope I didn't waste my time putting it here.

<<Category: General Discussions -- Chatter About Everything Else
Topic: The Nature of DragonRealms
Author: DR-TREVERI
Posted: Jun 03, 1998 14:00:06


This is strictly a personal comment. I am speaking for myself, not as GM!

When I began playing online multiplayer games, there was no reward for RPing. RPing was simply something you did to make the experience more enjoyable. In my search for a less expensive online MUD (GEnie cost $9 an hour to play GS3 at the time)...I played a ton of them. All had role playing to one degree or another...but none of them rewarded you for good RPing.

Then this idea of experience awards for RPing became popular as the mass market hit these games. AOL hit GS3 like a ton of bricks...and instead of just getting more players to interact with, a completely new element (level chasers) hit the game. The fact of the matter is, level chasing was always there...but because the game was so expensive to play, the bulk consumer group were adults that made a very good living and could afford the game. These adults, even if they weren't into the RPing, were mature enough to recognize that the core base was there to RP...and they respected that...and in turn we respected thier desire to chase levels.

But with the influx of AOL, we got the 12-16 year old set that were "in your face" about level chasing, and brought with them "kewl", and "dudez", and
"bro". The adults tried to curb this by just ignoring them, then they tried black listing them, then they got offensive about it. The situation was spinning out of control. The RPers became the minority.

So the games introduced a new approach, since it was experience that the level chasers wanted, why not try to intice them to role play by offering up what they wanted most...experience. At the time, as a player, I thought it was a mistake. As a GM I still think it is a mistake.

Why did I think it was a mistake? Why do I still think it is a mistake? Because IMO it was a slap in the face to the real role players. Because it cannot, and never will be administered fairly, and because it hasn't and never will address the core problem.

It was a slap in the face because RPing should never be about getting experience...RPing is about the experience of the game, not the experience that gains you levels. Further, RP awards admitted defeat. We had lost the battle and this was a last ditch effort to try to gain ground. It failed.

Awarding someone for RPing, im my opinion, is like giving an award to the Race car driver because he enjoyed the race, or paying an actor more because they actually enjoyed the role. Role play in itself should be the reward, and we perverted that with RP awards.

Now people EXPECT awards if they RP well and they feel let down if they don't get an award after good role playing.

RP awards can never be administered fairly. A major portion of the attention of GMs who are watching the players are spent on those players having problems or causing problems. That means that the majority of the RP awards are going to go to those players who are being watched and show even the slightest glimmer of RPing. Those players who never get in trouble and never have trouble are seldomn being watched by the GMs...so they aren't the ones getting the RP awards.

If there are 1200 players online (our average right now), and we assigned six (count em, 6) GMs to work 24 hours a day watching for role players... and that's the ONLY thing they ever did 24 hours a day 7 days a week...each player would only get 1 minue of watching every 3.5 hours! Run the numbers for yourself...or believe me, because I have.

Lastly, who is anyone to judge what is good role play and what isn't. Who is anyone to judge that a player is role playing his/her character to the absolute best of their abilities. Should someone who is trying their hardest be penalized in the award because it is not as good as others?

So, in my opinion what is the real solution? I don't have that answer. Do we create an area where only good RPer's can go? A solice for the RPing crowd? Well at first glance that might sound good...but again where is the fairness in that? Who's to say who gets in and who doesn't? Who's going to decide that someone gets thrown out of an area...and who sets the standard? Who decides what is a violation and what isn't? Oh, the GMs? Look back two paragraphs. And how much time and resources do we take away from the core game to devote to such an area?

Do we create a game that requires role playing? And if someone doesn't RP to our standards we toss them out and they lose all their efforts in that character? I think not, they are paying to play just like everyone else.

Do we create traps for key words like "Sire", "M'lady", or using act alot? Well now there's an open invitation to mechanic's abuse, and on top of that, some of the best role players I've seen in the game never use ACT once and don't even believe that "Sire, M'lord, or Mlady" have their place in the game.

No what we have here, and I am just as guilty of it, is RP racism.

Because we don't like their style of RPing, we feel it's destroying the game. Says who? They are having a blast.

Because they find thier enjoyment in the game by chasing levels, they are bad? Says who? I've chased levels myself, and I consider myself a very dedicated and fairly astute RPer.

Because they are not as educated as us in how to role play, they should be excluded? Yeah right.

Because someone constantly holds auctions on the gweth...that's OOC? Who says? You think the merchants of medievil times wouldn't have used the gweth if one had been available to them? You can bet your boots they would have...just like they've used every other communications medium ever devised by man. From the first printing press to the Internet...you can't get away from it!

No. Its easy to arm-chair quarter-back what the GMs do or in some cases don't do. As a player I did it constantly myself. But when I became a GM myself, I was overwhelmed with the plethora of considerations involved in almost every aspect of this product.

When one has a strong opinion about something it is easy to see it in black and white. The fact of the matter is, RPing and its existence or lack of existence is not black an white. It is a very complicated and convuluted
(sp) problem. One the GMs keep wrestling with. In the mean time the imperfect approach we now have is what we have available to us to try to encourage people to role play. And for us that want to role play, the tools and the environments are there.

End of non-official comments :)

Trev>>