In my last post another very good point was brought up by Forum_account, which made me want to discuss with BYOND their preferences when it comes to games that employ a roleplaying element to them.
In a lot of my previous posts I've been focusing a lot on roleplaying in it's purest form, and not really addressing the existence of other game play mechanics that live alongside it.
While it is necessary for people to refrain from their OOC motivations when trying to play their IC persona, there is also the prevalent existance of ulterior motives brought forth from the game play aspects of the game.
These kinds of games are not specifically roleplaying games at their core, because their definitive purpose is not to allow people to roleplay, but to play a game and have roleplay as a supplementary feature of that game, but nevertheless, they are very common in BYOND and as such I feel it's a very good topic to explore and discuss.
Roleplaying in these cases is kind of like a fancy dress code that people have to adorn in order to play, instead of everyone just wearing their muscle shirt and jeans. A fine example of this is SS13, wherein some servers enforce strict roleplaying rules, but the point of the game is not to roleplay at all, it is to (usually) find the traitor, and this provides another motive that will give players a reason to metagame and "cheat", as it were, in terms of what roleplaying is meant to imply. Whereas other servers do not force you to roleplay, but the gameplay rules themselves are essentially the same. In both cases the end result is the same: Either the traitor succeeds, or he is stopped by the other crew members, but the difference between them is that in one you have to be wearing your fancy roleplaying suit and adhere to the rules that it carries.
So BYOND, what do you roleplay for? Do you enjoy roleplaying for creating a story, or do you enjoy it as a feature of a game whilst also having some other goals to aim for?
Well, there is a big difference here on BYOND. A lot of developers like to say that the core feature of their game is the "role-playing", but in veracity a lot of them (developers) don't value the meaning of the word. As you known, role-playing is all about assuming a role and creating a story.
But what a lot of these BYOND games do is throw in set-objectives and ask the player to accomplish said objectives through role-playing. That to some extent raze the meaning of role-play, but it can be argued that it simply gives the player directions. Another thing these games do is they heave in "verbs", such as: attack, train, defend. One of the main rules of role-playing is "emoting", players shouldn't be running around with scripted verbs - that is not role-play. Emoting is used to articulate action, emotion and everything else that will make the player who they are, by giving them verbs you are fundamentally stripping them of their role-playing ability. Lastly, these so-called RP games on BYOND are trash. They are moderated by idiots who can't even construct the simplest of sentences, and are played by idiots who think its "cool" to run around killing random individuals for no random. On the other hand, there are real role-playing games out there that follow the proper rules. | |
Yut Put wrote:
The Drunken Monkey wrote: Lastly, these so-called RP games on BYOND are trash. They are moderated by idiots who can't even construct the simplest of sentences,...They aren't trash because they are games with "role-play". They are trash because they are trash. I am an active and able role-player and I enjoy a tight environment where I can RP outside of a text box. Putting the RP into a game provides a more physical setting... it's like movies vs. books. The books are always better, but movies are easier to become interested in. That's exactly why I said these "so-called" RP games. There are a number of decent RP games on BYOND, Hidden Wind Clan being a good example. Cow RP being a bad one. But yes, I understand all your points. | |
I personally enjoy roleplaying for the stories that go along with it. I'm apart of a small group of friends that usually RPs on a text-based RP game, so it's fun looking back on characters that we made, and whatnot.
On the topic of the whole SS13 thing; it's just how people are. People would rather try to be sneaky, and attempt to get away with metagaming over trying to roleplay everything out. Despite the latter usually being a lot more fun, it's not that rewarding in the end, and that's usually why people go for the former when it comes to it (Or, atleast I think so). Sorry for the long post, but a very interesting blog to read. Great work.