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Playing a Role | Started by: Denam on Jan 29, '15 15:21 |
(I know, I know. Denam seems to harp on this every time he plays the game. But I think this is important, and so should you.) It has come to my attention that the definition of "playing a role" may be misrepresented. Playing roles is about immersion; it's about saying and doing things that pertain to your character and environment, rather than saying and doing things that pertain to the player. In a lot of games, the rules of playing a role are defined by admins. In MafiaReturns, the admins have allowed us to define our own rules of playing roles. I've provided a very complete definition of playing a role and some brief pros and cons pertaining to its implementation. I urge you to read the whole thing and provide at least a brief comment in favor or in rejection of this type of role playing. Some definitions:
Role Playing has two protocols:
Most people who claim to RP participate in the latter while utterly ignoring the former. This is the MR-crafted definition of role-playing; to type in italics and write up stories for your character. There's absolutely nothing wrong with it (as it helps immensely in developing a character), but if you aren't playing the game like a member of the mafia, why write a story as if you were? Why bother? This is the most-asked question I get when talking about RPing. There are some beneficial consequences of RPing:
Why not bother? It's also pretty tempting to simply ignore all of these benefits and focus on why no one really plays roles. These are completely reasonable, but they must be challenged if we want to return to playing roles.
It is my intention to craft a guide to slowly move us from where we are now (casual gameplay) to playing roles. Before I do so, however, I would like to see what the people want. I want one to hear of the following from everyone who reads this:
If people don't want to play roles as I've described, then I will cease to push for it and no guide will be constructed. If people want the guide and want to transition into playing roles, then I will put in every effort to make that a reality. I do want to include that the effort required to transition into this type of RP will be much easier once I've made the guide. So please respond based entirely on what you want; even if it seems difficult or unfeasible. |
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I just want to highlight something here. Acting a role in a text based environment is actually writing. It's all in written form, as the acting can only be carried out in that way. I think what you may be getting at more is when people just write/act in character part of the time, and another part/majority of the time they are out of character. I can log in and be the player behind the screen, yet when I write/act by posting in the appropriate areas I am in character. In the out of character areas I am out of character. I don't exactly sit at my computer and pretend I am a Mafioso in the 1930's, but I do base my in game decisions based on the character I have created to role-play. When I log into my account I don't start pretending to be a Mafioso in the 1930's, because the game itself is largely an OOC click and rank game besides the actual specifically dedicated RP areas. Besides these areas, it would be hard to act/write as my character when I am mostly clicking to do petties, felonies, jail breaks, wack etc. over and over and over again. So just to re-iterate, most of the game is played from a players perspective and when it's role-played/acted it's done in written form in either the streets forum or the business district. Besides that there aren't any other in character areas unless a crew designates the chat to RP. MM and IRC can be a mixture of both depending on the individuals. In this sense and to answer your question based on your interpretation I would choose: I prefer casual gameplay but I like writing story RPs Yet I don't prefer casual gameplay, it's just that the way MR is, it's a casual game with role-played portions. If it were entirely a forum based environment without the click and rank mechanics, as in a message board like ProBoards, phpBB, vbulletin etc. then I would choose: I endorse playing roles and I want a guide to help me get there. |
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Reply by: Scarfo at Jan 29, '15 15:52 | |
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I'll respond to you in a bit Scarfo, but I want to include this as an easier way of accessing public opinion: http://strawpoll.me/3514136 Circulate this poll around as much as you can. I'd like to see where people stand on this. It's as easy as a few clicks! |
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Reply by: Denam at Jan 29, '15 17:23 | |
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http://strawpoll.me/3514136/r | |
Reply by: Planet-G at Jan 29, '15 17:48 | |
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Reply by: Kratoz at Jan 29, '15 17:55 | |
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Is this not a guide? |
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Reply by: Muriel at Jan 29, '15 18:35 | |
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I enjoy roleplaying, I like creating a character and then posting on the streets and inside of the business districts with that character, almost all of these characters are portrayed as some form of joke, the bumbling idiot, or man who thinks highly of himself but is in actuality not very important; these types of characters are amusing to me, and I do not like the idea of being made to treat my character in a more serious manner just because it wants to become more like the mafia. If this game became more this is the mafia and we will act as such in all facets of the game then I believe it would become a much more niche place and lose a lot of the casual players. This would be good for some of the more hardcore players, but ultimately bad for business. It seems like there are quite a few crews which have cropped up lately that have taken this roleplay-first attitude and are passing it onto their members; even as someone posted here, Scriba worked pretty hard putting together a role-playing guide and there are plenty who agree with you that completely immersing yourself into the game is more fun; but those people are still few and far between. Just like everything else in this game, I think it should be up to the users and up to the choices that they want to make, if player "X" wants to roleplay everything from his mob mails to his crew chat, then I am sure he can easily find a crew which is into that sort of thing and will allow him to do so, and maybe one day he'll get his own crew and carry it onto them; I am almost certain no one would complain about any of this and he would most likely be commended for it. However, if player "X" decides that he doesn't want to do any of that and instead just play as if he normally would, then he of course is free to do that too. I don't see why you would want to restrict this in either direction. If I had to choose out of any of your answers, it would definitely be 'I prefer casual gameplay, but I like writing story RPs.' |
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Reply by: Ted at Jan 29, '15 20:07 | |
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Right there with you Ted... having played Some of the characters in my long career, very few of them were stereotypical mafia types |
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Reply by: Chris_Vaughn at Jan 29, '15 20:25 | |
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"I just want to highlight something here. Acting a role in a text based environment is actually writing. It's all in written form, as the acting can only be carried out in that way." As I alluded to in your own thread Scarfo, this is something I strongly disagree with. This is a text based game, but there there are several actions which I can take that have nothing to do with writing. The way I respond to being wronged, insulted, shot at, pickpocketed and so on and so on may vary from character to character; I've been playing this game on and off for nearly a decade and let me tell you, things can get unbearably stale if the way react to external stimulus remains static; even if the descriptive writing does change. To Denam, I think the userbase size produces a bit of a catch-22 at times. When people have been playing for a long time, you can also add to that the fact that they've generally been playing for a long time with the same people. Switching things up and playing a new character, not just from a writing point of view, but from the way you really play the game, keeps things interested. The catch 22 is that the very same userbase and its size constrains you. For a lot of people, their character is simply a tool to play the game with and their actions remain constant so, in that regard, everything is OOC. It's naturally that they'd then expect others to play the same way so if you BG wack on one account, than that's that - you're not to be trusted. That, in fairness, is an argument with some legitimacy. Where do you draw the line? Could you really trust someone who says 'Oh no, I hate rogues, but I went rogue because that's the sort of character 'JohnMcLane' was. Next time will be different!' The only way that kind of game playing environment would work is if everybody was permanently incog! |
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Reply by: Guevara at Jan 30, '15 14:20 | |
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As Scarfo said, the role playing is happening when people are writing in the areas that require roleplay. A lack of talents isn't the issue. The problem is that there is no need to do any of that. You can click through petties and jails and +1's and progress through the game. The only possible solution is for the current upper structure to come together and make it happen. Set a requirement for rank, (although this could also be done by admins through game mechanics as well, but that seems less likely to happen.) hold your made men and up to a higher standard. It will make for a better role playing experience and all around make the game less stale. |
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Reply by: RefreshingMonkey at Jan 31, '15 04:22 | |
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